October 24, 2016 Proud to be a Duvall!

Hey everyone!

Here's a couple pictures of me and Grandpa! One when I'm a little chubster in November 1997

To start, I just want to say that I am extremely grateful to be a Duvall! My grandfather Demar Duvall passed away this past week and he was one of the best examples to me selfless love and service. I will never forget the way he loved those around him. I'm amazed how he took individual time to love and support his 10 children, and his many many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Grandpa and Grandma Duvall have raised an amazing family that I am so proud to be a part of! I am grateful for eternal families and I know he'll be watching over us!

Here is another picture of my Grandpa Duvall and I. This was during my senior year of high school. It was so fun going to a Lakers game with grandpa and Dad!

Just about one hour after President Huntsman called me and told me the news that my grandpa had passed, we went to visit a man named Henok. Our bishop wanted us to go and invite this man and his 2 kids to the ward Halloween activity this week. We knew nothing about him other than where he lived, that he was in his young 30's, and that we needed to invite him to the activity. So we went up to the 11th floor of his apartment building, knocked on his door, and he let us in right away. Shortly after being invited in he began to tell us his story. Henok and his family are from Ethiopia, have lived here for a number of years, and have family members that are members of the church and live in Utah. He's had close contact with the church, specifically with our bishop the last couple of years during these challenging times he's going through. He opened up to us quickly and explained how his wife passed away within the last 2 years, and that it has been extremely rough raising his two little children on his own. He has felt confused, angry, and sad and has had a really hard time overcoming this trial. After explaining his story and all of his thoughts and emotions, he said to us, hoping that we could empathize with him, "It's just really hard to explain how I feel... have either of you ever lost someone close to you?" I couldn't believe the timing of this situation. I was able to explain to him that just about an hour prior I had received news that my grandfather passed away. I told him how I loved him very much, and that I'm sad that he's no longer physically with us. But I emphasized how I know that he will always be watching over us, and that I know I will be able to see him again! We then talked about temples and the blessing of eternal families. Henok was really comforted by us visiting him and he felt much better after our visit. He did come to the ward activity and had a great time there with his kids. I am so grateful for the eternal perspective that the gospel brings to us in our lives!

We had a really cool experience last Tuesday! We got this referral for a man that visited Mormon.org and requested some material a few weeks ago. We've tried a number of times to call his number and have knocked on his door at least five times over the last two weeks and we haven't got any response. So we decided to try him one more time, but this time, if he didn't answer we decided we would spend more time in that neighborhood. We knew there had to be a reason why we kept going there. So after the anticipated unanswered door, we began to walk around and we saw a lady unsuccessfully trying to parallel park her car. So of course, as the professional missionary car backers that we are, we helped guide her into the spot. We then walked and talked with her for about 10 minutes to the very end of the street where her apartment was. (Yes, it was a 10 minute walk, parking in Alexandria is ridiculous. We actually got towed last week, but that's a story that doesn't need to be discussed haha).

This is Hawa! (And Brother Holm, an awesome member that helps us quite a bit!) We will be seeing her again tonight or tomorrow.

Her name was Hawa! She is from Sierra Leone, and moved to Alexandria a few years ago from Maryland. She had met with missionaries years ago but lost contact after she moved. We were able to go back and teach her with a member a couple hours later, and had a great visit! She's glad to be back in contact with us and hopefully we can help her progress in the gospel! I'm grateful that we decided to stick around that neighborhood and find out why we were there!

We went with one of Quintin's new home teachers to his house and had a great lesson. talking about the priesthood and home teaching and how he's going to be able to serve others. Afterwards, we asked him if he wanted to come along with us to a lesson just down the road from his place and he agreed. We went and taught the Afework family, Hailu and Aklile and their two kids, Ruth and Abenezar, all from Ethiopia. We asked Quintin if he'd bear his testimony of the church to them. It was amazing! He went on for about 5 minutes talking about how the church is really a "family church." He talked about how he has no immediate family in the U.S., but since he's been coming to church he knows he has a family there. He promised them that if they came they would feel the spirit of God and know that it is where God wants them to be. And he was direct with them explaining that there's no way for them to find out if the church is true if they don't "come and see" for themselves. He talked about how he had his questions and doubts but once he came he felt at peace. It was a special experience sitting next to our recent convert, listening to him bear testimony of the gospel and how it has blessed him in his life, and seeing this family react to his sincere testimony! They won't be able to come to church for a while because they both work and go to school, but once the new year starts they will be able to finally attend.

Those were just a couple of the highlights from the week, but we took a ton of pictures throughout the week, hope you enjoy them!

To close I'd just like to quote The Family: A Proclamation to the World, which states that "In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."
 I'm so grateful for this knowledge! I'm grateful for temples that unite our families together forever! I'm grateful for my grandparents and parents that have been great examples to me in my life! I look forward to going to the DC temple again this week!! I'm also so excited to have another sister-in-law become part of the Duvall family! Congrats Danny and Sarah! I'm glad to be here to share the happiness of the gospel with everyone we meet!

I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Here's some pictures from our zone activity today!

Elder Evans and I, EFY buds!

 I decided to carve Angel Moroni!

Zone Activity-Pumpkin Carving 10-24-2016

We came across all these kids playing football and we threw the ball around with them for a bit. They thought we were super cool! 

This was the morning where we went early to go pick up our car from the tow yard that got towed the previous night. It was a beautiful morning, aside from the money spent to get the car back. 

We started teaching a less active member named Lester, from Honduras, this week. His apartment building has a really cool view of Alexandria at night! 

Had an exchange with Elders Willicome and Stamminger this week. I was able to spend the day with Elder Stamminger. He's from Frankfort, Germany! It was fun being with him, having him lead out his area for the first time. We were able to teach a couple of their investigators and they have a baptism this Saturday. Elder Stamminger is only a couple weeks into his mission, but he's a stellar missionary! It was fun talking with him, learning what it was like for him to grow up in Germany, where my Dad and brother both served their missions.

A couple pictures of us with our African shirts. This was our costume to the ward activity, and the members loved it, especially the African members!  

It was fun passing out candy to the kids while playing this little drum.

This is Abdul Salam, the man who custom fitted us for these shirts and then made them for us.

After the activity we went to go check on Hannah to see how she was doing, and we wanted to show her our shirts. Right as she opened the door, her eyes widened and she was so impressed! She absolutely loved the shirts!

This is Thomas, he's a Ghanaian that rents a room in the same apartment as Hannah. He wants us to teach him how to make these ties. 

This is Abdul Kargbo, a less active member who we've been teaching, such a chill kid.

 A picture after our lesson with the Afework family and Quintin Such a neat experience with such a kind family! 

We teach these two boys every now and then, their names are Hawny and Aiman and they're from Egypt!
 

10-19-2016

Hey Dad and Mom, 

I just got off the phone with President Huntsman a little over an hour ago. Based off of the email you sent last night Dad, I knew what the call was going to be about when we saw his name show up on the phone. I didn't see that email till this morning, but It pretty much sunk in that he had probably passed over the night. So it wasn't a surprise when President Huntsman shared the news with me. I'm glad that you did send that email yesterday so that his call didn't completely catch me off guard. 

I talked for about 10 minutes on the phone with President Huntsman when he called, and he shared all of the information that you relayed to him, and explained the experience in the hospital. I'm glad that it was a peaceful and spiritual departing, and that he was able to receive a blessing. Thank you for talking with him, it was comforting to hear from him. President Huntsman is a great man and I am so grateful for his love and care. He told me how grateful he is for both of you, for raising me to be who I am. He can tell how amazing you both are and he could sense your love for me and for our family! 

Throughout the last few hours, as we've been going throughout our schedule, I have been thinking about Grandpa and what an amazing example he was! I was able to share different stories and talk about him with Elder Judkins, which was really comforting to do. 

I am so sad that Grandpa is no longer physically with us, but I know that he will constantly be around us, protecting us and watching over us! I love him so much!!! It makes me happy to know he is now embracing Grandma Duvall and Dee! I will never forget the amazing example he was of selfless love and service, always thinking about the needs of others before himself. I'm going to take some time over the next few days at night to write down memories in my journal that I have with him! I wish I could be there at the funeral on Monday, but I'm so happy to be here. 

I am excited to go teach people about the Plan of Salvation and to go testify of eternal families! I am so grateful for you, Dad and Mom, for everything that you do for me and for our family! I love you so so much!!! 

Don't feel the need to write a lengthy email this following P-day. This is going to be a busy few days! It won't bother me if I don't hear much about the funeral and the wedding until after Monday. I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by feeling the need like to send a detailed letter on Monday. 

I have permission to communicate over the next few days, as I feel appropriate. 

I hope everything goes well with the wedding!! I am so excited for Danny and Sarah! Tell them I love them! (I'd like to send a card to them too, what is their address where they will be living?) I will be able to go to the temple sometime in the next couple weeks and I look forward to the spirit which is always felt there! I know that will be a special experience being in the temple for their sealing. 

Let me know if there's anything I can say or do to help out the family in any way. I love you both so much!! I have felt overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude today, I'm so blessed to be a part of this incredible family that has been influenced greatly by all of my amazing grandparents! 

I look forward to hearing from you. Love you Tons and TONS!! 

Elder Jeremy Duvall Washington DC South Mission

October 17, 2016 D&C 123:17

Hey everyone! This week was great! The weather is finally much cooler and all the green is starting to change colors. The Fall is extremely beautiful here! 

Here is the picture of the picture we gave to each missionary in our zone.

Last Friday, we went on an exchange with the assistants. Elder Shelley is one of the AP's now and I was able to be with him for the day! It was super fun to teach a few people with him and reminisce on all the fun times we had in Centreville together! 
We had a really great lesson with Hannah this week! We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation, with an emphasis on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and eternal families. During a zone conference that we had last week, Sister Huntsman encouraged us to use pictures of our families as a teaching tool when we testify to people how the gospel has blessed our family. It was cool to be able to use some of the pictures I have of my family while teaching the lesson. Hannah loved seeing a couple pictures and she really felt the spirit as we explained how important the family is in God's plan! She lives here with her 7 year old daughter Halima, and the rest of her family is back in Africa. 

Fatu came to church yesterday! She brought her daughter Dora and her fiancées son along with her. They all had a great time for their first time at church! They are super excited to come to the ward Trunk-or-Treat activity this week! We found out in our lesson with Fatu this week that her daughter Dora has actually been going to the Activity Days activities with a couple of her friends that are members of the ward. Fatu didn't know what church her daughter was going off to for these activities, but finally made the connection when they came and saw a few familiar faces. The members in the ward are doing such a great job at fellowshipping  the people that we're working with. 

As for an update on Rahel, the Ethiopian lady we taught last week and passed off to the elders in Annandale, she's going to be getting baptized in just a couple weeks! She's actually going to be moving back to Ethiopia sooner than we thought, so they moved her date to the soonest possible day before she'll move to Ethiopia. It's amazing how people like her have been able to find us recently. We have been working hard trying to find people to teach by our own efforts, but we are constantly amazed by the people that seem to just find us! I'm glad the elders in the Annandale ward are doing a great job teaching her! We talked to them today and they said that she's going to be helping teach a portion of their gospel principles class next week and that she's getting baptized on the 28th! We're excited for her! 

This is us with Quintin and his friend Mohammed at our Bishops house for the dessert night. They had a great time! We made some more ties out of the fabric we got and both wore them last night. 

Quintin is doing fantastic! He's being a great member-missionary, fulfilling his dreams to "be an evangelist" and share the gospel with others. To our surprise, he brought a good friend of his to church yesterday who really enjoyed it. While at church, Quintin had his interview with the bishop to receive the Aaronic priesthood! He's pretty excited to be able to help out blessing and passing the sacrament. Then both Quintin and his friend Mohammed were both able to come over to our bishops house for a monthly dessert night. Each month our bishop opens his home for the missionaries to bring any investigators, as well as to have new members of the ward in his home. There's so much turnover in this transient ward each year, people are constantly moving in and out, but our bishop does a great job at making everyone feel welcome! 

We put this picture together and printed out a copy for each missionary in the zone. It's a picture of Jesus and John the Baptist laughing with each other. We really like this picture because it's so important to be happy! We can be grateful no matter what our circumstances are, and gratitude allows us to feel joy! D&C 123:17 states "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." This is Joseph Smith talking to the saints while he was imprisoned, suffering in Liberty Jail. Despite the terrible circumstances he was in, he was still able to find joy and have trust in God that everything will work out. There are so many things that we can "cheerfully do" no matter what our circumstances are, and as long as we focus on those things we that we are in control of, everything else will work out for our good.

Love you all! Congrats Danny and Sarah on your wedding this week! I look forward to hearing all about it! Hope you all have a great week! 


Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Went on an exchange with Elder Beatty and Elder Evans this week. I got to spend the day with Elder Evans in Crystal City, and we did a lot of street contacting at the metro station underneath the city. It was pretty fun! Elder Evans and I were actually in the same EFY group like 4 years ago or so. 

We met these two ladies walking through a complex that we call mini-Africa, because about 90% of the people that live in it are from Africa. They have some pretty stylish dresses on! We have a couple African shirts on the way. A cousin of a member of our ward is making them this week for us so stay tuned next week to see them. 

 We went with a member of the ward to go teach Quintin one day last week, but he wasn't home. Two of his friends were there though and we had a great discussion with them!

10-10-2016 New transfer, new people!

Elders Holdaway, Larsen, Evans, myself, Judkins, Goodson, Willicome, Ma, King, Chu. Sisters Goodwin, Blackham, Morin, Morris, Stammerjohn, Adair, West, Corey, Alldredge, Young. 

Last picture with our zone before transfers. 7 out of the 10 companionships are changing up with different missionaries coming into the zone. We're excited to continue to serve them all this upcoming transfer!

Zone activity last week at the mission home in Burke. It's always fun to be there with the Huntsmans! 

New transfer! Elder Judkins and I are super excited to be able to spend a 3rd transfer together here in Alexandria! We've got a lot of great work happening and we're pumped for the next 6 weeks! Our zone changed up quite a bit. Out of the 10 companionships, 7 of them are new to the zone. We have a diverse zone! One missionary from Frankfort, Germany, two from Canada, one from England, and one from China. It's going to be a great transfer! 

Elder Ma is now back home in China!! I'm going to miss this legendary missionary. He didn't speak one bit of English before his mission but now speaks it really well, and plans on going to BYU. I'm going to miss him, but I'll see him again one day! It was fun serving with him in this zone. He's got an amazing conversion story and got to baptize his Dad right when he returned home to China a couple days ago! 

We taught a lot of great lessons this week! 

Hannah, the lady we met a couple days before General Conference that came and watched with us, is doing great! We had a couple brief lessons with her this week. She kept telling us how tough her life has been, especially being here in America away from all of her family. But she said since she's met us she's felt much happier and feels blessed. We talked about how the ward can become a ward family to her. She works every other Sunday which is tough for church, but she's excited to come next Sunday! 

We've been getting a lot of media referrals lately which have been great! This week we got a referral for a lady named Rahel, from Ethiopia, that visited mormon.org and requested a Book of Mormon. Most of the Ethiopians we meet are usually pretty set in their ways and want nothing to do with us (Ethiopian Orthodox). But Rahel is way different! She was so interested in everything we have to teach. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and even accepted a baptismal date in November! She was super happy to find out that the church has a couple branches in Ethiopia really close to her home where she will eventually be moving back to. Her permanent address is in Alexandria, but she's actually currently living in Annandale and will be living there for the next few months, so we passed her off to the Elders in Annandale. They were excited to hear about her, and she came to their ward yesterday! They're all set to start teaching her this week! I'm excited to hear about her progress in the coming weeks. 

Let's see...whose else...Fatu! We were standing along the side of a road, making a couple phone calls, and this lady driving by stopped right next to us and said "Hey brothers, I've been waiting to see you. You keep coming by but I'm never home. Wait here, I'm going to go park and you can come on in." This lady is named Fatu and she's from Sierra Leone. Her son is Mohammed and her daughter is Dora. We met her a couple months ago and have tried to stop by about once a week, but she was never home. We just happened to be standing right by her apartment when she drove by! We went in and taught her along with two of her kids. We had a great discussion with them! She actually saw pictures from Isha's baptism on Facebook and thought that was pretty exciting so she was curious to know more about it. 

With our investigator Sheila, somehow we ended up teaching her a little bit about temples in our lesson with her. As we were visiting with her she began to tell us about a couple of incredible experiences she's had in the past. She has nearly died a number of times in her life, and a few years ago while in the hospital, she had a dream. In her dream she remembers seeing herself going to the DC Temple! It was really special as she described it. She testified to us that she knows that God has a plan for her and that He has sent us to her for a reason. We're trying to help her realize the reason! I know there's a lot of happiness waiting ahead for her! She's committed to coming to church each of the last few weeks, but she wakes up in the morning and never feels good. She's been going through a lot of adversity lately in her life with battling cancer, so hearing about her dream about the temple makes us know that she has been prepared! 

We've taught some other lessons this week, but these ones were probably the highlights! I've really enjoyed reading through the conference talks this week!

One quote from General Conference that has stuck out to me this past week comes from President Uchtdorfs talk at the Saturday morning session. He said "It seems to be human nature: as we become more familiar with something, even something miraculous and awe-inspiring, we lose our sense of awe and treat it as commonplace." When I heard this, I immediately applied it to my mission. The longer we have been out on our missions, the more familiar we become with missionary work, and for many I think we can start to treat this experience as commonplace. But when we truly think about it, this is such a marvelous work we are engaged in! We are going to be reflecting back on this time for the rest of our lives, so why not make the most of it? It is "miraculous and awe-inspiring" to be a part of this great work. I hope that I can keep this perspective throughout my mission. This also applies to the simple truths of the gospel. We all become familiar with the principles of the gospel and sometimes, like President Uchtdorf says, I think we can forget how miraculous the truths are. We have an eternal Father in Heaven that loves us. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to the earth and he died for us and was resurrected. We will all be resurrected one day as well. We have a prophet on the earth today that receives revelation for the world. The fullness of the gospel, including the priesthood authority and the Book of Mormon, have been restored back to the earth for our benefit. We can live together with our families forever, through the ordinances of the temple. All of these truths are so simple, yet so amazing! I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to share this message with the people here! 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!


Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Our investigator Desmond with 3 of his kids: Mohammed, Desmond Jr., and Desmona. This is he man we visited in the hospital a few weeks ago. He's traveling back to Sierra Leone soon and is going to check out the LDS church when he visits there. 

This is Rahel. She was super excited to find out that there's a branch of the church in Ethiopia, nearby where she will be moving to in a few months. 

Mariatu and her daughter Maisha. We've taught her a number of times, but her progression has been pretty slow. She loves having us come over to teach, and her daughter climbs all over the place.

10-3-2016 “STOP AND THINK CAREFULLY”

To buy or not to buy? That is the question. 

I didn't buy it, but we bought some more fabric! More ties coming soon.

This is our friend Wara. She was amazed by the ties we made with her fabric! She laughed at us as we we trying on some African shirts. As we left, we spoke some Krio to them and she and her friends started laughing hysterically. I guess it's not often that two white boys in ties talk to them in Krio. 

Hello Everybody!
General Conference this weekend was a spiritual feast! I'm definitely well fed. I'm excited to read through all of the talks again. When I try to think of one single thing stood out to me, I first think of Elder Ballard’s talk. There were many things said during the conference about how we can maintain a firm testimony of the gospel, but I love what Elder Ballard invited us to do. He said "before you make the spiritually perilous choice to leave... STOP AND THINK CAREFULLY... whatever it was that brought you to your testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ in the first place. Stop and think about what you have felt here and why you felt it. Think about the times when the Holy Ghost has born witness to you of eternal truth." It’s a simple principle. We have all had experiences in our lives where we have felt the Holy Ghost's influence manifest truth to us, but what matters is that we remember and act upon those feelings. Elder Ballard then promised the following, "I promise you in the name of the Lord, that He will never abandon His church and that He will never abandon any one of us." I know that is true. No matter how many times we may have turned away from Him, no matter how far we may have distanced ourselves from Him, He is still there. He still loves us. And He will always welcome us back into the fold with open and loving arms. He loves us so much, however, that He gives us the agency to choose. He won't force us to stay on the path, and he won't force us to return to it. He will lovingly encourage and motivate, often by means of other people, but He will never force us to follow Him. Living the gospel may seem to get harder as the world around us slowly drifts further and further away from Him. But no matter how hard it may seem to stay firm in our testimonies, or how hard it may seem to return to the truth we once knew, it is worth every effort and every struggle. The promised blessings are amazing! When thinking about the promised blessings of the gospel, my thoughts always turn to the temple. There is nowhere in this secular world that can provide the eternal knowledge, peace, and joy that can be received through the temple and the covenants made there. It got harder to many of Christ's disciples to follow Him, and many made the perilous choice to leave. As this was happening, Christ turned to the 12 and asked "Will ye also go away?" And Peter responded "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Christ loved all His disciples, it must have been hard for Him to see many fall away. The same applies to us. We may see people we love fall away from the eternal truths of the gospel, but we have to answer this question for ourself "Will ye also go away?" If we can do what Elder Ballard says to "stop and think carefully" about what it was that originally built up our testimony of the gospel, than I know we can answer "no" to that question! 

I know that Jesus Christ is the only means by which we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. He has blesses us with the Restored gospel, with all of the ordinances and covenants that allow us to make it back to Him. Once again, I know that while the world drifts further away from the truth, if we stay steadfast in what we know to be true, we will be able to experience the true, eternal joy of the gospel. I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen! :) 

Anyways, this last week was great and we had some more wonderful experiences! 

A couple weeks ago we had a "fourth floor, last door" experience while out tracting. (This happened before President Uchtdorf's talk from the Woman's session of conference) We were in a particular complex and were getting rejected over and over until the last door on the fourth floor.

This is Caleb and Dorothy Mwanja, from Uganda.

 Such a kind family! 

Dorothy, a mother of four kids, from Uganda answered the door. She didn't give us much time, but she accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come the following week. The next week, when we decided to go back to talk with her again, I realized that I accidentally wrote down a wrong building number that didn't exist, and we couldn't remember exactly where she was in the complex. So we wandered around the complex for a few minutes until we saw a man with a huge cart of groceries, attempting to carry it up the stairs. There was no way he was getting it up the stairs by himself, so we walked over and helped him. We asked which floor he was going to, and he said 4, then I asked if he knew a Dorothy, and he said she is his wife! If I hadn't had written the address down wrong, we probably wouldn't have met her husband, Caleb. He is so kind! We weren't able to talk long, but he allowed us to come back a few days later. When we returned he let us in right away. We talked briefly about our church and mentioned General Conference, and showed a brief video about it, which included a few clips of President Monson speaking. After watching this, he told us "There's something special about that man and something [positively] different about you guys. What is it?" It was incredible to see the humility in the questions he asked and his genuine desire to learn what we believe. So we taught him about the Restoration, with an emphasis on the priesthood and modern day prophets and apostles, and he loved every bit of it! He was amazed with every principle that we testified of and loved it all, especially the fact that the church today is organized the same way Christ established the church when he was on the earth. His wife told us that he's actually a pastor for a church in Maryland, so it surprised us to see how receptive he was. But he still committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and wants to come check out our church sometime soon. We will see what happens! It was a neat experience finding and teaching them! 

 Exchange with Elder Chu, just like old times! 

Except in a car this time, not a bike. 

So Elder Chu got transferred from Centreville into this zone at the beginning of this transfer, and we were able to do and exchange with him and his companion this last week. It was fun being with Elder Chu for a day again! We had a successful day together. We were able to find and teach a new investigator named Mariama, and then we went and taught Isha. Quintin came along with us as well, and we decided to show them the video about Sierra Leone that we found last week (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-004-unto-all-the-world-how-beautiful-upon-the-mountains?lang=eng). In the video, there's a Sierra Leonean named Samuel Browne that narrates part of the history of the war in Sierra Leone as well as the growth of the church there. Right as his face popped up on the screen, Quintin immediately said "That's my boy Samuel! I know him! He's a member of the church now too?" Before coming to the states, Quintin was good friends with this man, and it was a neat experience seeing Quintin find out that Samuel is a strong member of the LDS church there in Freetown. It's such a small world in the church! Isha got quite emotional during the video because she witnessed firsthand a lot of the terrible things during the war, but she also feels blessed to have endured through those trials to be where she is today. Isha and Quintin are both excited to eventually visit Sierra Leone again soon and meet more of the Latter-Day Saints there. 

This is Hannah, we barely met her and then she joined us in watching some of General Conference two days after we met! She's an awesome lady! 

We actually felt prompted to show that same video to a lady we met named Hannah at her door, after she told us she was from Sierra Leone. As Elder Holland talked about the strong faith of the African members and the beautiful children, she asked "how can I join?" We proceeded to tell her that she would need to be taught a number of things and come to church, but most importantly come to know for herself of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith. She didn't have time to sit and have a lesson, so the visit was about 10 minutes at the door with the video and a brief discussion afterwards. But, we came the next morning with a member and had a great lesson on the Restoration. And she also joined as for the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference! After watching the session of conference, we gave her a brief tour of the church building. She loved the talks and was glad she came and is excited to come join us at church soon! I'm amazed by these amazing people that we continue to meet each week! 

Cool random facts of the week- 
*Elder Judkins and I have put together zone "certificates of appreciation" for each missionary rewarding them for something they did well at. 
*Today we're going to the mission home for pday! IOS 10 update on the iPad makes for some awesome missionary slideshows. 
*A less active made it to the Priesthood session for the first time in years, and loved it, a man we've been working to retain. 
*We got cinnamon rolls three times this week! 
*I wore a sweater for the first time in months! WOO! Finally cooling down. 
*We found three new investigators on Thursday! 
*Asif watched all five sessions of conference live in Dubai!! That's right, he pulled a couple of all-nighters (8 hours ahead in Dubai). 
*We bought six more yards of African fabric for more ties, and possibly shirts. 
*Transfers are this week! I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all! 

Elder Jeremy Duvall Washington DC South Mission

We found this cool bridge over this river, and met some cool people here. So we had to stop and take a couple pictures!