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!