11-28-2016 Tarnue's baptism and lots of change

Hey everyone!

 I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had a big Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of families in the ward that got together at the church building and put together a big feast. That was kind of our "goodbye" to a lot of the members of the ward that got put into other wards due to the boundary changes. After the dinner we took a bunch of the leftovers into our car, then we drove around and found homeless people to give food to. That was super fun!! We met some pretty kind people doing that. It's sad to see people all alone, with no family to be with during the holiday season, but it felt great to be able to serve them even if it's in such small ways.

So the Alexandria 2nd Ward that we were in no longer exists and the new ward is the Lincolnia Ward. They took portions of 4 different wards to create this new ward. So this week we had a bunch of pass-off lessons with other missionaries. We passed some of our investigators, but we also received a lot of investigators from the three other wards that are now in our ward. It was a busy week! Sad saying bye to some members and investigators that we've worked with a lot, but we look forward to getting to know everyone in this new ward.

One person that is now in our ward is a man named Michael. He's about 50 years old, originally from New Jersey, and is going to be getting baptized this Saturday! He's coming from the portion of the Annandale Ward that's now in our ward. In our gospel principles class on Sunday he bore a strong testimony of his conversion and how much happier he feels having the gospel in his life. We look forward to working with him!

We also got a recent convert family, the Penedo's from the Alexandria 1st Ward. They're from Guatemala and we're just baptized a couple of weeks ago! We had a really good lesson with them, along with the missionaries that taught them last week.

The Tarnue kids were baptized last week! Their parents were converts that joined the church years ago, but have been less active for a while until recently they started coming back to church. The father was able to baptize his 3 kids and Elder Judkins and I were the witnesses at the baptism. It was so cool watching their Dad baptize them! He looked so happy and proud of his children making this decision. It was a miracle for us to be able to teach Addu everything in such a short period of time. The covenant of baptism is so special and every time I attend a baptism, I reflect on how grateful I am to be a member of this church! I'm so grateful that I have been baptized and that I have the opportunity each week to renew those covenants through partaking of the sacrament. Because of the boundary changes, the Addu, Francis, and Jeanni were baptized into the Franconia Ward. We decided last minute to swing over to that ward quickly after leaving the Lincolnia Ward to be there for their confirmations, and the bishop asked if we would do their confirmations. So Elder Judkins and I, and a member of that ward, each did a confirmation of the three children. I'm glad we decided to go so that we could participate in that! I'm grateful for this Liberian family and their great examples!

Addu Tarnue before his baptism! 

Here's us with the Tarnue Family. Francis, Jeannie, and Addu
were baptized by their father Moses.

The Tarnues, along with us, our bishop, and 4 sister missionaries. We taught Addu, two of the sister missionaries taught the two girls, and the other two sister missionaries will be working with them from now moving forward in the other ward.

I am so excited for this years Christmas initiative, #LIGHTtheWORLD. If you go to mormon.org, there are a series of sweet videos with ideas on how we can "light the world" with service during this holiday season. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of love and service and I know that as we strive to emulate his example throughout not only this next month, but throughout our lives, that we will be blessed. More importantly, we will be able to bless the lives of others. I have definitely grown much closer to my savior since being here in Virginia on my mission. It is certainly true that we can come to "find ourselves" as we "lose ourselves" in the service of others. If you are going through your own trials and are stressed out with anything, I believe that serving other people is one way that we can have greater access to the atonement of Jesus Christ, to give us the strength we need to endure our own struggles.

I can't believe it's almost December!! I hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!


Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Julio and Roberto Penedo. Roberto was baptized a couple weeks ago
 along with his daughter and they had us over for dinner this week. 

This is Bennie, an investigator from another ward that's now in our ward.

These are relatives of the Sovula family, who's brother passed away a couple weeks ago.
None of the people in this picture are members of the church,
but they all came to church yesterday for the first time and enjoyed it!
I don't think we've ever had this many nonmembers attend our sacrament meeting, it was awesome!

 Taught this man Evan this week. He's originally from Haiti, and lived in New York for a long time. He's got a ton of questions and has been going through a rough time. After listening to him explain his background, struggles, and questions, we were able to clear up a lot for him and help him start to find some answers. I'm grateful for the clarity and blessings this gospel brings! I hope he can embrace what we've taught and act upon what we've invited him to do. I like his shirt too! Haha

 In the evening on Thanksgiving we went to the Holm's and learned how to make beanies with a looming set and yarn. It was cool to make some beanies and they're going to donate them to people in need. We're going to miss the Holm's!

11-28-2016 Tarnue's baptism and lots of change

Hey everyone!

 I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had a big Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of families in the ward that got together at the church building and put together a big feast. That was kind of our "goodbye" to a lot of the members of the ward that got put into other wards due to the boundary changes. After the dinner we took a bunch of the leftovers into our car, then we drove around and found homeless people to give food to. That was super fun!! We met some pretty kind people doing that. It's sad to see people all alone, with no family to be with during the holiday season, but it felt great to be able to serve them even if it's in such small ways.

So the Alexandria 2nd Ward that we were in no longer exists and the new ward is the Lincolnia Ward. They took portions of 4 different wards to create this new ward. So this week we had a bunch of pass-off lessons with other missionaries. We passed some of our investigators, but we also received a lot of investigators from the three other wards that are now in our ward. It was a busy week! Sad saying bye to some members and investigators that we've worked with a lot, but we look forward to getting to know everyone in this new ward.

One person that is now in our ward is a man named Michael. He's about 50 years old, originally from New Jersey, and is going to be getting baptized this Saturday! He's coming from the portion of the Annandale Ward that's now in our ward. In our gospel principles class on Sunday he bore a strong testimony of his conversion and how much happier he feels having the gospel in his life. We look forward to working with him!

We also got a recent convert family, the Penedo's from the Alexandria 1st Ward. They're from Guatemala and we're just baptized a couple of weeks ago! We had a really good lesson with them, along with the missionaries that taught them last week.

The Tarnue kids were baptized last week! Their parents were converts that joined the church years ago, but have been less active for a while until recently they started coming back to church. The father was able to baptize his 3 kids and Elder Judkins and I were the witnesses at the baptism. It was so cool watching their Dad baptize them! He looked so happy and proud of his children making this decision. It was a miracle for us to be able to teach Addu everything in such a short period of time. The covenant of baptism is so special and every time I attend a baptism, I reflect on how grateful I am to be a member of this church! I'm so grateful that I have been baptized and that I have the opportunity each week to renew those covenants through partaking of the sacrament. Because of the boundary changes, the Addu, Francis, and Jeanni were baptized into the Franconia Ward. We decided last minute to swing over to that ward quickly after leaving the Lincolnia Ward to be there for their confirmations, and the bishop asked if we would do their confirmations. So Elder Judkins and I, and a member of that ward, each did a confirmation of the three children. I'm glad we decided to go so that we could participate in that! I'm grateful for this Liberian family and their great examples!

Addu Tarnue before his baptism! 

Here's us with the Tarnue Family. Francis, Jeannie, and Addu
were baptized by their father Moses.

The Tarnues, along with us, our bishop, and 4 sister missionaries. We taught Addu, two of the sister missionaries taught the two girls, and the other two sister missionaries will be working with them from now moving forward in the other ward.

I am so excited for this years Christmas initiative, #LIGHTtheWORLD. If you go to mormon.org, there are a series of sweet videos with ideas on how we can "light the world" with service during this holiday season. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of love and service and I know that as we strive to emulate his example throughout not only this next month, but throughout our lives, that we will be blessed. More importantly, we will be able to bless the lives of others. I have definitely grown much closer to my savior since being here in Virginia on my mission. It is certainly true that we can come to "find ourselves" as we "lose ourselves" in the service of others. If you are going through your own trials and are stressed out with anything, I believe that serving other people is one way that we can have greater access to the atonement of Jesus Christ, to give us the strength we need to endure our own struggles.

I can't believe it's almost December!! I hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!


Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Julio and Roberto Penedo. Roberto was baptized a couple weeks ago
 along with his daughter and they had us over for dinner this week. 

This is Bennie, an investigator from another ward that's now in our ward.

These are relatives of the Sovula family, who's brother passed away a couple weeks ago.
None of the people in this picture are members of the church,
but they all came to church yesterday for the first time and enjoyed it!
I don't think we've ever had this many nonmembers attend our sacrament meeting, it was awesome!

 Taught this man Evan this week. He's originally from Haiti, and lived in New York for a long time. He's got a ton of questions and has been going through a rough time. After listening to him explain his background, struggles, and questions, we were able to clear up a lot for him and help him start to find some answers. I'm grateful for the clarity and blessings this gospel brings! I hope he can embrace what we've taught and act upon what we've invited him to do. I like his shirt too! Haha

 In the evening on Thanksgiving we went to the Holm's and learned how to make beanies with a looming set and yarn. It was cool to make some beanies and they're going to donate them to people in need. We're going to miss the Holm's!

11-21-2016 “4-peat!! But new ward?”

Hey everyone!

Exciting week here in Alexandria! It's the start of a new transfer and Elder Judkins will be staying together for another 6 weeks! 4 transfers, pretty much a quarter of my mission with Elder Judkins. We are super excited for the rest of this year! It's extremely rare that a companionship stays together for 4 transfers, and all the other missionaries were surprised, but we look forward to finishing the year together. We get an email the Tuesday before transfers (which were Thursday) that is a PDF version of the transfer board that is in the mission office. When I first saw our pictures  and names still next to each other, my first thought was "Yes! I get to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family" referring to Elder Judkins. After being together the last 4 and a half months we've become brothers.

So our companionship didn't change with the new transfer, but there were some other pretty big changes that took place this week. The stake re-drew a lot of the ward boundaries, and our ward was affected quite a bit. I'm going to miss seeing many of the faces we've grown to love seeing on a regular basis. The new boundaries caused Isha and Quintin, as well as a number of other investigators and members to be added into another Ward. It's going to be sad saying bye to all of them this week as the transition into the new ward takes place. But we do look forward to exploring the new parts of our ward that got added into ours and meeting new people!

The Alexandria 2nd Ward is now called the Lincolnia Ward, and we got moved from the Mt. Vernon Stake into the Annandale stake, AND we will be attending a different church building, the Annandale Stake center. Amidst all of this change this, I think it was wise that President Huntsman kept Elder Judkins and I together for another transfer.

Picture before Chris's baptism! Sister Alldredge, Sister Bray, and Sister Young taught him and we've been here to support him throughout the process of preparing him for baptism. Chris is going to start coming out with us every now and then to teach people!

Chris Ricks was baptized this week! He's been coming to the ward for a couple months and the sisters have been teaching him. They originally found him on a Sunday morning, at about 8:30am, while trying to help another one of their investigators get up and come to church. They saw Chris outside cleaning and waxing his car so they walked up to him, talked briefly and invited him to church, and then an hour later he showed up in the middle of sacrament meeting! Since then he has felt like family with members of the ward and loves the spirit he feels at church. He asked Elder Judkins to baptize him and then I had the privilege of confirming him a member of the church on Sunday. It strengthens my testimony of the gospel to see people like Chris embrace the truths he's been taught. He's still going to be in our new ward boundaries, so we're excited for that! His smile and enthusiasm brightens our day every time we talk to him!

Addu and his two sisters will all be getting baptized on Wednesday! This last week was busy with Addu! In order for him to be able to be baptized with his sisters this week, we taught him the remainder of the lessons in this past week. We had 3 packed lessons with him this week and helped him prepare for his baptismal interview. He is extremely receptive and knowledgeable with the gospel. He pretty much completed our sentences as we taught. When we asked him to describe what the word "faith" means to him he responded "faith to me is the substance of things hoped for, that are not seen, but are true" nearly quoting Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. He immediately accepted invitations to keep all of the commandments, without hesitation or doubt. I personally have no doubt that the Lord made it possible for Addu to finally make it to the United States at this specific time. He had been separated from his family for over 10 years, more than half of his life, and the day after he arrives to Alexandria from Liberia he was able to meet the bishop and learn that his two sisters have been preparing the last couple of months for baptism. It's no coincidence that he came here at this time, so that he will now be able to enjoy the same blessings of baptism in his own life. I'm grateful that we were able to be a part of his conversion to teach him the gospel the last couple of weeks, but in reality we didn't have to do much. We prayed for him and his family, taught and testified of the doctrines and principles of the gospel, and the spirit did the rest. Addu was prepared, and the Lord placed him in our path at this time! I love him! He's a great example! Sadly for us he and his sisters live in a portion of our ward that will be getting moved into another ward, so we won't get to see him much after this week. But change isn't a bad thing! We are grateful for the work and the blessings that we have enjoyed and we look forward to the new opportunities that lie ahead.

We had a great week! Found some new investigators and and are going to be meeting many more new people in the coming weeks!

I hope you all have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!! I am so grateful to be a member of this church. I am grateful for this gospel and the blessings it has brought into my life and the life of my family. I am extremely grateful to be a missionary here in Alexandria, Virginia. Odds are I will be here in Alexandria until February, which I am excited about. I am blessed that I will be able to spend the first year of my mission in only two areas, where I've been able to make many wonderful relationships with some amazing people. I am grateful for my family! I am grateful for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and I know that he knows each of us individually. Have a great week, Eat a lot of food, and stay grateful.

Love you all!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Picture of our zone before transfers last week.

Picture of our zone before transfers last week.

.

We took a picture with our district from back in Centreville at transfers.
Me, Elders, Strawn, Bigley, Bradley, Meldrum, Krambule, and Shelley.
Bradley and Elder Strawn both went home last week.
They have both been great examples to me on my mission.

Last week on Pday we went to the Arlington Cemetery for a couple hours again
because it's so close by. It was cool to see John F. Kennedy's grave.

On Saturday we attended a funeral for a man named James Sovula that was a member of our ward from Sierra Leone. It was cool to see the community of Africans come to support the Sovula family. There were probably 150 to 175 Sierra Leoneans packed into the church that day, most of which were not members of the church. It was a great opportunity for us to interact with them during the luncheon afterwards! Also tried some more kinds of African food, which were interesting dishes that I didn't enjoy too much.

2016-11-14 Addu Tarnue & Temple with Isha

I can't believe how colorful the fall is here!
  We found this path cutting through a couple different neighborhoods in our area.

Hello family and friends!

We  have transfers this upcoming week!
Elder Judkins and I have been together for 3 transfers now and have loved every moment of it. Alexandria is awesome! Missionaries rarely do 4 transfers (about 6 months) together, but it has happened one other time under President Huntsman, and he hinted to us a few days ago that it was actually possibility for us. So we're not really sure what to expect at this point. If we get to spend another 6 weeks together, we'll be super excited! But if a change happens, we will embrace the new opportunities that lie ahead. We find out tomorrow night what will happen, and transfers are on Thursday. This past week was another great one, always is. Had some awesome experiences!

After checking up on a less active member we were leaving this building and we met this lady Fatmata. She met missionaries years ago but hasn't talked with us in a long time. She was sad that we walked past her without talking to her on our way in the building, but we stopped and talked on our way out. She's been going through a rough time, and was sitting in her apartment all day and decided to come sit on the steps at the entryway to her building, just to get a change of scenery from her apartment. She told us that she had never done this before, but randomly just felt like coming to sit down here. She called it a miracle and an answer to her prayers that we were able to meet her! We taught her a brief lesson and brightened her day!

Here's Carlos and his daughter!

That same morning, we were able to teach a man named Carlos from Guatemala, who we met a while ago. He speaks decent English, but not a ton. We had a good discussion with him and when we told him there is a huge Spanish Ward here, he got really excited! So we passed him off to the Spanish elders. I was able to bear a really brief testimony in Spanish (a few memorized sentences, but it was still sincere haha). His daughter doesn't speak any English but she was super nice to us!

There is a couple that lives in the ward that is from Liberia, the Tarnue family. They have four kids, but haven't been coming to church until recently. None of their kids have been baptized (3 out of 4 are above 8 years old), but the sister missionaries in the ward have been teaching their two daughters for a while and they'll be getting baptized in on the 23rd! In this past week, their oldest son Addu finally moved here from Liberia.

This is Addu! It's been so fun talking with him learning about his life the past few days.
He's a great example to us! I can't believe that he was separate
from his family for over 10 years and he's finally with them again. 

He's 20 years old, and hasn't seen his family for 11 years, but has finally been reunited with them!  When the sisters met him, they figured it would better for us to teach him because we can connect with him better. His two sisters are getting baptized in a week and a half, and after teaching him, he decided that he wants to join them! So in less than two weeks time, we are going to teach him all the lessons! Addu is sweet! He's 20, but looks like he could be younger. He loves soccer and has the coolest accent. He is so humble, and understands and accepts everything we've taught him so far. It's such a blessing to be able to teach him and see him embrace the gospel!

This upcoming week, on Friday, will be Chris's baptism! So we're super excited for him as well!

On Saturday we had the incredible opportunity to go up the the Washington DC Temple for Isha to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. She had a great experience and the spirit is always so strong at the temple! What made it even more special was that a lot of members from the Centreville 1st Ward, my previous area, were up at the temple at the same time for a man that is going through the temple for his first time who Elder Shelley and I worked with a little bit. It was fun to talk with those members briefly! We also spent a good amount of time with Isha at the Visitors Center where the sisters there taught her more about the temple. It was such a great day!

This week a scripture that has really stuck out to me was 1st Peter 1:7-9:
7. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8. Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

We all go through different trials of faith in our lives. But this scripture teaches us that our trials are precious, and that they are what prepare us for the unspeakable joy that lies ahead. We need to have patience, combined with an eternal perspective to realize that our trials we go through in this life are so small when compared to the eternal glory that shall one day be revealed.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

1) With Elder Larsen and Elder Holdaway. Elder Holdaway goes home this week! I'm going to miss him! We've been able to serve around each other most of my mission so far and he's been a great example to me.

This is Fatmata, such a kind old lady!

This lady is Aminata.
A kind lady from Sierra Leone who we were able to meet and teach this week! 

 Abenezar and Ruth and their family are going to me moving to Arlington in a couple weeks. We're going to miss them! They are the nicest Ethiopian family! Their mother always loves when we come and pray with them and teach them a little bit about Jesus. They were never able to come to church due to work, but we have loved teaching them a little bit over the last few months. 

November 7, 2016 "Preach By the Way"

11-7-2016
Hey all you people!

I hope you all had a great first week of November! With the time change this last week, it now gets really dark outside pretty early, which isn't the best for proselyting purposes. However, the work still goes forward!

In D&C 58:46-47 the Lord gives some counsel through the prophet Joseph Smith to the elders of the church. He said:
46. Wherefore, assemble yourselves together; and they who are not appointed to stay in this land, let them preach the gospel in the regions round about; and after that let them return to their homes.
47. Let them preach by the way, and bear testimony of the truth in all places, and call upon the rich, the high and the low, and the poor to repent.

I love the phrase "preach by the way." As missionaries, we are encouraged to "talk to everyone" and preach the gospel wherever we are. Over the last 4 months of being here in Alexandria, Elder Judkins and I have been amazed by how the Lord places people in our path. As we go to and fro from different teaching appointments, trying to get in contact with different investigators that we have, we haven't spent too much having to resort to finding people through tracting, the least effective way to find. As we prayerfully plan our days, deciding which people we will try to contact the following day, we always strive to talk to those we meet along the way. In fact, a majority of the people we teach have been found "preaching by the way" while nearby another investigators household. This past week, after having a really solid lesson with Fatu, we were on our way to the car and we crossed paths with a man named David. We only  talked for about 5 minutes, but got his address and number and he said we could come back. So a couple days later we were able to go to his house and teach him the first lesson. He's been to a number of churches throughout his life, but has distanced himself from God the last few years. He has felt discouraged recently, feeling like God hasn't heard or answered his prayers, so he decided to stop praying or go to any church. But following our lesson we invited him to church and he agreed to come, and he did! And church yesterday happened to be our Stake Conference! A member of the 70 came and gave a really good talk, and the stake president, the DC temple president, and our mission president and his wife all spoke. David seemed to really enjoy everything! Isha sat right behind us and introduced herself to David afterwards. David is also from Sierra Leone, so obviously they started speaking Krio to each other. We're excited to keep teaching him.

This is David!! Such a humble man! We were able to meet him, teach him, and
then have him come to Stake conference all within a couple of days! He's a miracle!

The sister missionaries in our ward have an investigator named Chris, who is from Alabama. They've been teaching him the last couple of months and he is getting baptized next weekend! We've been able to interact with him a bit, and yesterday he asked if Elder Judkins and I would perform his baptism and confirmation. We are honored to perform those ordinances for him! He's been in the military his whole life and currently does I.T. work at the Arlington National Cemetery. He's a sweet guy! Every week he walks up to, us and between the three of us he decides who has the coolest tie. Last week it was all paisley so we all took a picture together. I'm excited for his baptism next week!

 This is Chris! The sisters investigator that has been
coming to church for a couple of months.
We are excited for his baptism on the 18th!

This was pretty much what Dora's 

face was like during our entire lesson.

In our lesson with Fatu, prior to meeting David, her daughter Dora was super engaged in the lesson. She was asking all kinds of really good questions and smiling the entire time. Fatu was impressed to see her daughter suddenly become really interested in learning everything about the gospel. She's only 7 years old, but is super smart. She also said the opening and closing prayer for our lesson! I'll send a couple pictures from the lesson.

Fatu and Dora after our lesson

We haven't been able to have a lesson with Hannah in a couple weeks, because she's been super busy with work, but she had a cool experience this week in Arlington. She was at a bus stop waiting for the bus to take her back home and two other missionaries walk up to her and start talking to her. She got so excited when she was talking to them that she called us and said "I'm here with your brothers!" Then she handed the phone to one of the missionaries, who then told us "Hannah has been telling us how excited she is for the 19th!" It was a tender mercy having her run into them. The 19th of November was the original date for baptism that we extended to her about a month ago, but she's only been to church once and needs to be taught a lot more to prepare for baptism. We're glad she's excited for it though! And we hope she's not disappointed when we tell her we'll have to push it back.

We recently have learned a lot about the importance of gratitude. In D&C 78:17-19 it states
"17. Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18. And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
19. And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more."

There are so many promised blessings we can have in our lives for doing something as simple as receiving "all things with thankfulness." We've gained a testimony of this! We've been so grateful for the circumstances we've been put in and the people we've been blessed to teach, and the blessings just seem to keep on coming. I know that expressing our gratitude to the Lord is important. It shows our humility when we can recognize where our blessings truly come from. It's also important to express gratitude to those around us! I'm grateful for this gospel which has blessed my life and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here! I'm grateful for my family that I love so much.

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Bacon wrapped in croissant rolls, probably my favorite snack that I've made myself.

 I voted this week!

We taught a lesson to Linda this week, she's from Ghana. She's super kind and always lets us come over and teach her. We're trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets, but she hasn't been reading. So we decided to get her all of the material in Twi, so hopefully she starts reading now. Brother Gelder came with us to the lesson, his family is awesome!

Brother David Orme and his wife Cynthia. Such a sweet couple!!
They're not even in our ward but they wanted to take us out to dinner
after the Saturday session of our Stake conference!
They are one hilarious couple.
One of his sons, Kelly lives in Temecula.

Today on the metro we met this couple. They are members of the church that live out in Warrenton which is on the opposite side of our mission. Every time we go into DC we meet a lot of members of the church on the way.

Empty metro station after rush hour is over in the morning.

 I got to go to the Library of Congress again today.
The last time I came here was way back in March.
This picture is of the main reading room from the public viewing entrance.
We got to go down in and study.
I read out of a Library of Congress official copy of the Book of Mormon.

My library card :) If you look closely at the reflections 

you can sort of see up into the rotunda of the building.

10-31-2016 Steady, Ever-increasing Effort

Hey fam and friends! This week was great! We've had some great experiences and have been able to teach a lot of people! 

On October 7th, Elder Judkins and I had the privilege of teaching Rahel Yohanes, from Ethiopia, the first lesson. In that lesson, she accepted the invitation to be baptized and even accepted a baptismal date. Rahel had met missionaries about 10 years ago here, but returned home to Ethiopia and hadn't had contact with the church since. After being back in the states for a while recently, she remembered the how good she felt about the message the missionaries shared with her years ago, but didn't quite remember what that message was. So she came seeking the truth once again. She requested our visit and a copy of the Book of Mormon via Mormon.org and then we showed up later that day! She actually lived just outside of our area in the Annandale ward boundaries, so we taught her the first lesson and then passed her off to the missionaries there the following day. 22 days later, on October 29th, Rahel was baptized!

Elder Ostendorf, Elder Hall, Rahel Yohannes, Elder Burleson, myself, and Elder Judkins prior to Rahel's baptism. 

All of us, along with a family in the Annandale ward, prior to Rahel's baptism. 

 I can't help but think about the missionaries that taught her 10 years ago. They definitely planted some seeds in Rahel that didn't grow for a while, but that seed of faith grew tremendously with Rahel over the last three weeks! I'm so glad we were able to attend her baptism this week and be a part of that special day! It makes me wonder how many seeds we plant in people's minds and hearts every day. It's amazing that we will never truly see the ripple effect our service has over the years. 

We had a great lesson with Fatu this week! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she seemed to really enjoy the perspective that it gives us, knowing that this life isn't it. She especially liked the fact that our family relationships can continue after this life.

     This is from after our lesson with Fatu. Brother Jones came with us and added some great insight on the lesson! 

 On Sunday, Fatu and her daughter Dora both came to church! I was sitting right next to them during sacrament meeting, and the topics of the talks were all about family. Two of the hymns we sung were "Love at Home" and "Families can be Together Forever". Dora loved singing these songs and Fatu loved the lyrics! I felt the spirit strong sitting next to them hearing them sings those words. Those two songs are easily two of my favorite hymns! I'm so grateful for my family and the opportunity we have to be together forever, and for the love I have always felt at home! 

Fatu and Dora loved church on Sunday! They wore these matching dresses. All of the African members and investigators wear pretty interesting outfits to church, but I love them all! It's always colorful in the chapel! 

We've had many other wonderful experiences this past week! I have a ton of pictures I'll send in separate emails with some of the other people we have taught throughout the week.

Something that has stuck out to me quite a bit this week is a quote from President Eyring that I recently received in an email. He said that "Casual prayer won’t be enough. Reading a few verses of the scripture won’t be enough. Doing the minimum of what the Lord asks of us won’t be enough. Hoping that we will have the Atonement work in our lives and that we will perhaps sometimes feel the influence of the Holy Ghost won’t be enough. And one great burst of effort won’t be enough. Only a steady, ever-increasing effort will allow the Lord to take us to higher ground.” 
I love his thoughts! We can't expect for the Lord to be satisfied with singular bursts of effort. There's nothing wrong with extra effort, but if those bursts of effort are followed by laziness and apathy for the simple truths of the gospel, then what was the point? More importantly, if we have "steady, ever-increasing effort" we will continue to have the spirit with us in our lives. After all, the Lord doesn't care too much as to where we are on the ladder of our spiritual progression, but rather he cares about the direction in which we are headed. As long as we are striving to improve, day by day, the Lord will be pleased with us and continue to bless us. I'm grateful for the individual journey we are all on back to our father in Heaven! Even though we each experience this life in our own unique ways, thank goodness we don't have to travel through it alone! 

I'm grateful to be here in Alexandria, Virginia! I'm grateful for the gospel in my life and I know without a doubt that God loves each of us individually! 

I hope you all have a great week! I can't believe it is already November! Talk to you next week! Love you all, 

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Since Jenny sent a few fall pictures home, I figured I better do the same! Haha this is a nice path that cuts through our area not too far from our apartment. 

Elder Judkins and I with Elder Hall. 

After our lesson with an investigator Solomon. 

We've taught him a couple of times and we hope to take Quintin to a lesson with him. 

We met this guy O'Neil this week, and his friend Kim.
They are from Jamaica! He's got the coolest Jamaican accent!
He was pretty receptive to our message,
and remembers talking to missionaries a few years ago back in Jamaica.

We knocked on this door for a potential investigator in our area book, and this Hispanic lady Jill answered the door and invited us in right away saying "Entre, Entre!" And started speaking Spanish super fast! She thought we were Spanish speaking missionaries at first so it was pretty funny. She then introduced us to her Pakistani friend who recently moved in and is renting a room from her. He doesn't speak any Spanish and she doesn't speak any English, but they're great friends! They communicate with each other through speaking into their phones and having google translate for them. We soon found out that Jill was actually a member of the church from Guatemala, and we were able to have a good visit with her Pakistani friend! The man we were looking for originally does live there, but was asleep while we were there. 

While on an exchange with Elder Teeples, we were able to contact Fatima and her nieces again! We found out that these two girls are actually half-sisters to our investigator Fatu's daughter Dora. It's cool how all of the Africans we meet in Alexandria are either related to or close friends with other investigators or members that we know.

Elder Teeples and Elder Chu joined us in Alexandria on an exchange.
It's always fun to spend a day with another missionary.

We had a great lesson with Linda this week. She has been to church numerous times and we've been able to teach her a bit over the last two months, but her progression towards baptism has been relatively slow. I know that as time goes on she will accept the invitation to be baptized! 

The man in the green shirt is one of the Sisters investigators named Solomon. Our ward has two sets of missionaries, and often times we get to help out the other sets investigators in some way. We helped Solomon, along with a roommate of his, move from one apartment to another one in his complex. It took the four of us a couple hours, but we had a blast helping him! He's such a sweet man! After interacting with him for a couple hours, we think he'll be more likely to act upon the message the sisters have shared with him. 

 This is a random Peruvian chicken restaurant nearby. These places are all of the area, but they're pretty good! They've got some good Yuca fries and really good chicken!

This is our investigator Mariatu's daughter, Maisha. She's the cutest! Every time we leave she says "Bye Uncles!" The Sierra Leoneans all call each other brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, etc. even if you're not related. I think it's awesome! They are great examples of making everyone feel like family! 

The Mt. Vernon mansion on the estate where
George Washington and his family lived. 

Mt Vernon Estate

This tree is estimated to be over 300 years old and
would have been on the estate when Washington himself lived there. 

George Washington had a beautiful view in his backyard! 

Beautiful view of the Potomac river, with Fort Hunt in the background. 

Christ's Church, an episcopal church in Alexandria that George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and other prominent men attended often.  
George Washington and his family had their own reserved pew in the church.

This is my first mission! Hopefully I can serve another mission in 50 years or so with a wife hahaha.