March 13, 2017 Funny Story!

Thanks for the shirt Jenny (Hermana Duvall).
I just realized I never sent a picture wearing it.
P-day racquetball has been pretty fun recently!

It's been a good week! So I'll start out with some news,then a funny story from the week, then some other cool stuff.

First, the news: We had our interviews with President Huntsman this last week, which are always awesome! In my interview he hinted that I am probably going to be getting transferred to another area. Transfers are next Tuesday, the 21st. We'll find out for sure this Saturday if I'm getting transferred and where I will be headed to.

This picture was taken while I was over at the sink.
They were telling me to hurry
so I could make it back before the 10 second timer.

This was a re-enactment of the moment.
I'll just say that rice and ice cream coming
out my nose was an interesting feeling.
I felt perfectly fine after it all came out.
In fact, we had a lesson
with the Depuys about 15 minutes after this.

Try number two worked out.
We love their son Nicholas, he brings so much joy!

Now, the funny/embarrassing story. So we were having dinner with the Evans family, one of our favorite members in the ward. They ordered Chinese takeout for dinner. I love Chinese food, so I ate and ate and ate, until I got pretty full, but it was delicious. Then, they had this delicious ice cream called "Moo-Thru" ice cream made from local cows in the area. We have it every time we go to their home. It is so thick and creamy and amazing. Anyways, despite being full from the Chinese food, I decided to tackle this big bowl of ice cream. About halfway through the bowl, my stomach started feeling pretty uneasy and I thought about stopping, but I thought to myself "I

haven't thrown up in years, I'll  just power through and finish the bowl, so I did. Then Elder a Jones starts sharing our thought on eternal families that we've been sharing with different families, and I can tell that my stomach is really not feeling good. After the message, we all stood up to go take a picture with them, but I awkwardly made my way towards the sink not saying anything and they all wondered what I was doing. And sure enough, right as I made it to the sink I started to throw up the Chinese food and ice cream into their sink. We were all laughing, myself included. I was smiling as I was throwing up. It was embarrassing, but memorable all at the same time! Their family was good sports about it. I'm glad it was at their house that it happened. But I'll be careful not to eat so much next time! I'll attach a few pictures.

We love the Goss family!

On the left, Sister Goss is holding a picture of

her "little missionary" serving on the other side.

Their daughter passed away from cancer at a young age, 

but they've never doubted

the truth of eternal family's and have been strong!

The past couple weeks we have been sharing brief lessons on eternal families with the members of the ward. It's such a simple truth, but it is so vital to everything that we do in the church. Every ordinance we participate in essentially prepares us for the crowning ordinance of being sealed together forever with our own families. This knowledge that I can be with my family forever is one of the major factors that motivated me to serve a mission, so that I can help other families have this same blessing in their lives. With this message we've been inviting members to take a picture with us, along with a poster we made (we're not sister missionaries, so it's nothing super amazing) and then post it on Facebook or other forms of social media with a brief caption with their testimony of eternal families explaining why family is important to them. Social media provides such a simple way to share the gospel! You never know who will see what you post and be impacted by it!

We did an FHE this week at the Goss' home. And Lawrence Stiles, along with his two sisters, Mom, and Dad were all there to join us! We had a brief lesson and then spent some time playing games with their family. I loved the quote that the lesson was centered on. It comes from Elder Uchtdorf, who said "In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time." I love that! I am grateful for the gift of love and time that each member of my family has given me.

 Busby family. 6 fun kids!

We had a cool experience this week where a man living in Provo, Utah called our number and asked us to go and give a blessing to his friend who lives just a few minutes away from us. His friends name is Paul, and his wife was recently diagnosed with a terminal disease. They are both devout Catholics, but they were both comforted by the blessings we were able to give them. I find it so cool how worldwide our church is, and how connected we are to one another. It's so easy for a random person from across the country to find the number of missionaries in a far place to ask for help for a friend in need. I'm glad we were able to help out!

This past week we also had an exchange with the Assistants again, out in the Fort Belvoir Ward in Alexandria. It felt so nice to be back in that area. We were able to teach a few solid lessons and find some great people. It was fun teaching a few people from Africa again! They aren't out in Warrenton much at all, it's much more diverse the closer you get to D.C.

We had a pretty neat lesson with the DePuy's this week. At this point, Art is pretty much looking for a sign, expecting some miraculous answer to join the church. So we decided to show him the video "Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation" (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-012-patterns-of-light-spirit-of-revelation?lang=eng) by Elder Bednar.  He basically describes how most of the time we don't receive answers at the flip of a light switch, but more often than not our answers come gradually, like the sun rises little by little. He also explained how sometimes we receive personal revelation like a foggy day, where we know it's light outside, but we can only see enough to take a few steps forward, requiring more faith on our part. They seemed to really like the video!

A couple days ago I re-read Elder Bednars talk from last years conference in April titled "Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins." This talk is all about baptism, the Holy Ghost, and staying pure through partaking of the sacrament. There was one paragraph that really stood out to me. Elder Bednar said "The ordinance of the sacrament is a holy and repeated invitation to repent sincerely and to be renewed spiritually. The act of partaking of the sacrament, in and of itself, does not remit sins. But as we prepare conscientiously and participate in this holy ordinance with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then the promise is that we may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us. And by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we can always retain a remission of our sins.
We truly are blessed each week by the opportunity to evaluate our lives through the ordinance of the sacrament, to renew our covenants, and to receive this covenant promise."
I love how he says that the act of taking the sacrament isn't what cleanses us of our sins, but rather it is the way we prepare for it, and our mindset as we participate in that ordinance, that allows us to be cleansed of sin and retain the companionship of the Holy Ghost. If we have a broken (repentant) heart and a contrite (obedient) spirit, then we can truly allow the Saviors atonement to take effect in our lives as we partake of the sacrament every week.

I love you all! Hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Free pancakes on national pancake day last week!