How are y'all doing? I hope you had a great week!
It's been quite the adventure, this week! It started by saying bye to Elder Poulsen 
Really gonna miss him.... But well see each other at zone conference, so it's fine!
Elder Pauley and I had quite the adventure on transfer day, getting a new car, getting keys for a new apartment, and getting a phone. We had to chill at the mission office while they found a phone, so that was fun. The senior couples are the best!
We got to the new apartment, which was brand new for the mission, and then we're told we'd only be there for the night. :( We had to switch with the Chinese Elders who were in the old ZL's apartment for a transfer. So we went out and tried to contact some members that night. We met the Elder Quorum President for the branch, Brother Spanbauer. He is awesome!! He's gets so into it when he talks about teaching the gospel! He showed us a really cool example of how to teach the Restoration with visuals. He had a slideshow with pictures and everything! It was pretty neat!
Wednesday, we tried contacting some more members to try and get to know them and introduce ourselves. Awesome story from that day. We went to Panera Bread for dinner cause I had a gift card and we sit down to eat and 3 deaf people walk in. We kinda watched them while we ate, until Elder Pauley had to use the bathroom. So we walk to the bathroom right behind them. I'm just chillin outside the bathroom next to the soda fountain. When Elder Pauley gets out, we start signing and chatting, and one of the deaf ladies see us while she's getting a drink and asks if we're deaf. Elder Pauley said yes, so she invited us to come meet her husband and his brother. So we sat down and started chatting with them.... err Elder Pauley did.... I just kinda watched while my mind was going a million miles a minute trying to figure out what they were saying! But like 10 minutes later, a whole group of their family and friends show up with a birthday cake for the ladies husband!! We were like, "What is going on?!" Now there's like 12 deaf people sitting around chatting at Panera! My mind was about to explode! The brother of the birthday guy turned to me and asked a simple question. "Where did you learn to sign?" ..................nothing!! My mind was just so overwhelmed that I freaked out when he turned to me and asked a question. I didn't understand what he said at all!! They all were staring at me waiting for an answer and my mind was blank! Finally Elder Pauley was like, "Did you understand the question?" "No..." Then he repeated the question and I gave an answer. I was, "Sorry, sorry!! My mind is just so dead right now!" They were all like, "Oh no, no worries! We understand!" I've never been so stressed out in my life!!!
But anyway.... Thursday we had district meeting. We woke up that morning to go pick up the DL and his companion and head to district meeting, but when we went outside, our car was gone! It had been towed! See, Wednesday we
we're suppose to switch apartments, but the Chinese Elders asked if we could do Thursday instead. Wednesday, we had already packed everything up and put the parking sticker and keys and such back on the counter where we found them. But when we ended up not switching apartments, we didn't out the parking sticker on the dash of the car for the night. So it got towed that night... But we got it back after walking a mile and a half to the towing place.
Friday was a pretty normal day. Nothing too crazy happened. But Saturday was good. We went south into a city called Woodbridge (or as Sister Minaker from my MTC district calls it, Hoodbridge) to contact some members. It was a pretty interesting place! That night, we went to a nearby outdoor mall to street contact. We had no luck, and it was super loud cause everyone was partying! So we left to go knock some doors before heading back to the apartment. While we were knocking doors, a guy got pretty mad at us for knocking his door when he had a no soliciting sign. We moved on, and right before we got back in the car, a police officer showed up. He said that someone had complained about us... He was chill though. He said some people are just way too uptight. So we go to drive off, and as we pass his car, he steps out and stops us. He asked if we had time to answer some of his question. He said, "I've seen you guys around a lot, and wonder what it is about you guys." So happily, we obliged! We talked to him for like 30 minutes, and it was the most stressful 30 minutes ever! He asked about why we believe in the Book of Mormon, if it doesn't say anything about it in the Bible. And he asked about Salvation, and who gets it. The whole time, I'm trying to interpret his questions for Elder Pauley, and and answer them. My brain was so frazzled!! I couldn't get a coherent sentence out! It was ROUGH! But he gave us his number and asked if we could meet again and answer his questions. We got back to the apartment and Elder Pauley was like, "I'm ready to baptize a cop!" 
Sunday was awesome! We went to DC and drove right behind the Capitol and stuff! The church building is so weird!! It has a small parking garage underneath, and 2 floors! It's super nice though!
Church itself was good! We had the primary program, and watching little kids sign is so adorable! The branch is pretty small. Like 50-60 people. But they are some of the nicest people ever!! Can't wait to get to know them better! Especially if I stay in the branch the rest of my mission.
Overall it was a hard week! But I saw lots of blessings! The gift of tongues.....or hands....is real!! At church I was understanding most of what people said, which was way more than I thought I would! It's awesome to experience the Spirit helping me learn ASL!
I love you all and hope you have a great week! Keep being the best!
Love, Elder Duke
Pics
-Saying bye to Elder Poulsen at transfers
-The last dinner in Great Falls with Sister Knight and Cece!
