May 29, 2017 Super Busy Week!

Hey everyone!

It's been a crazy week! Due to other things that go on throughout the transfer, this week was our week where we needed to do 4 exchanges with different sets of zone leaders in the mission (Gainesville, McLean, Oakton, and Mt Vernon), all back to back. So for four days I was hardly with my companion, Elder Yang. It was really interesting being with a different missionary each of those four days, but we had a great week in our area! I was able to learn a lot from each of the sets of zone leaders, and I hope they were each able to at least learn one thing from me.

While on one exchange, with Elder Harding, we taught a man named David. David Galindo is from El Salvador, but has lived here most his life, and has a couple little kids. We found him my found first day here (a month ago!). We've been teaching him about once or twice a week since I've been here. He hasn't had much religious foundation in his life, so we've taught him really simply and focused a lot on the fundamental basics of the gospel. He is slowly progressing, but has been making some good changes in his life. He's never really prayed much in his life, but is now starting to pray regularly and he can feel the difference it makes. Im grateful to know that no matter how rapid or how slow our progress is, the Lord is pleased with our effort as long as we are headed in the right direction. Whenever we meet people from El Salvador, I jokingly say "Me gusta papusas!" David speaks perfect English, but his mother only speaks Spanish. I said this phrase to her a couple weeks ago, and in one of our lessons with him this week, all of the sudden she walks out of the kitchen with a plate full of fresh, homemade papusas! They were delicious. She's such a kind lady!

This kid Presley drew a sweet picture of a me! 

On another exchange I was with Elder Benard. While walking through a parking lot in an apartment complex we saw this kid walking and drawing. He had a book full of sketches. Elder Benard told him he should draw a picture of me, and so he went right ahead and did it! While he was drawing, we met a lady walking through the neighborhood who joined our church many years ago, but moved here and hasn't really been much. We were definitely out in the right place at the right time to meet her and invite her to start coming back.

This only took him about 5 minutes to draw.
He's a talented kid.

Another person we are teaching is someone named Tenisha Davall. Not Duvall, but Davall. So close to the same last name! She's pretty cool, she got a cousin who's a member of the church and is interested in learning more. We've only taught her twice so far, but she seems pretty solid.

We also teach a man named Rob. He's about 50 and suffered a stroke and other health struggles years ago causing the right half of his body to become partially paralyzed. Over the past years he has regained much of his strength and mobility, which is cool to see. He is still confined to a wheelchair but is able to move most of his body. We've taught him a few times as well, and it's so humbling to see how strong his faith is in God. He's got such a great outlook on everything we taught and really enjoys learning, and is excited to come see what church is like.

We have a long list of investigators and people we are teaching, and we keep finding a lot of new people every week. We want to focus on helping them all attend church so that they can begin to progress further and enjoy the blessings of worshipping with us. I always tell people they can sit and talk to us all they want, but they will never truly be able to experience it all in action unless they "come and see" what it's like! (John 1:39).

I gave a talk at church yesterday about the importance daily scripture study and about remembering our baptismal covenants, and how those two things give us spiritual power. I was asked the day before to replace the youth speaker and prepare a brief 5-minute talk, but then on Sunday morning they told me one of the other speakers had to cancel, so I had to quickly put together a longer 15 minute talk. I think it turned out well though! I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to speak.

One thing I shared about scripture study was what Preach My Gospel states about it. It says that "We show our faith by studying, believing, and obeying God’s revealed word. We diligently search the scriptures to understand the truth. We feast upon them because they open the door to revelation and show us what we need to do and become. We search the scriptures to learn about Jesus Christ and His gospel. Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from God and comes through studying and living His word and His gospel."
I talked about how studying the scriptures on a consistent basis shows our humility- the fact that we set apart time to search the scriptures sends God a sign that we love and appreciate him, and that we want to learn. As we humbly search the scriptures we will be in a better position to receive revelation from God. That revelation may come directly through the words we read, or it will come through the thoughts, impressions, and feelings we get as we read.

This morning we had a Memorial Day breakfast in the ward. Our chapel is located just a mile or two down the street from George Washington’s Mt Vernon estate, right along the Potomac River. It was a beautiful morning to celebrate Memorial Day!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week and great Memorial Day!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

This is "Grandma."
She's a member who joined the church about 4 years ago, and is from Liberia.
She loves the missionaries, and calls us her sons.
We went and home taught her with Brother Kibby.

May 22, 2017- Romans 5:19

Hey everyone!

We had two more Zone Conferences this week- one for the Annandale and Woodbridge zones, and another for the Centreville and Gainesville zones. They seemed to get better each time, even though we taught the same things at each conference. I love seeing all of the missionaries throughout the mission, hearing their experiences and learning from them.

Aside from the Zone Conferences, we've been busy teaching many, many people. We've taught so many lessons in the past three weeks, it's awesome! We are going to try and focus on helping our investigators attend church, because we've been able to find and teach a ton of people. But we'd like to have more of them attend church and enjoy the blessings of worshipping with us on the sabbath day. I wish I could have time to talk about everyone were teaching, because we have some pretty great people! I still write in my journal every day, so I don't feel that bad not writing home about everyone.

Lasts week I mentioned one of our investigators named Isha. So it turns out her name is actually Isatu, but she sometimes goes by Isha because she says it's easier to say. We went to a lesson at her house this week and when we got there she was packing up tons of clothes in huge boxes to ship to Africa. The people we meet from Sierra Leone and Ghana here all work so hard to provide for themselves. They don't have much, yet they're willing to collect so much and send a lot of what they do have back home to their extended families and friends who are in need. She told us they need all this much more than we do. Isatu is a great example of pure charity. So we helped her box up some clothes to clear some space in the tiny apartment so we could all sit down and have another lesson. She understands the gospel so well, it's great! She'll be leaving in a week to go back to Africa for a month, so we will miss her while she's gone, but she's excited to come back and start coming to church.

We had two, back-to-back exchanges this week with two different sets of Zone Leaders. That means I wasn't really with my companion for two days in a row. This week we have exchanges with four sets of zone leaders, all back-to-back, which means I'll pretty much have a different companion four days in a row, but we will still be in our ward each day and have them come to our area. With our schedule throughout the transfer, it's necessary to do a lot this week, or we wouldn't be able to do them all. It'll be pretty crazy and busy, but I'm excited!

This is Logan, Elder Valdez, and I
with the Boachewaa family. Amma, and 5 out of her 6 kids

I love all of the zone leaders. Many of them I've gotten to know quite a bit since I've been here. It's fun to learn from each other as we spend a day together. For one of the exchanges we did his week, I was with Elder Valdez and we had a really cool experience! We had a priest (Logan) come out with us to visit and teach a few different people. He was supposed to meet us in this certain apartment complex, but we got there a few minutes before him, so I decided to stop by a potential investigator we met last week, named Amma. She's from Ghana, and other than that, I didn't know anything about her. But we knocked on the door and she invited us right in. She then began to gather all SIX of her kids together to sit come sit down and listen to our message. It was one of the best first lessons I've ever taught. We had the undivided attention of 7 people! (Her husband was around the corner, pretending not to listen, but we know he was.) Her kids are Isaac (25), Derek (20), Grace (19), Jesse (12), Derek Jr. (11) and another little one that wasn't really engaged in the lesson. I was impressed how on a Friday night, all of her kids (a few of which are young adults) were all willing to sit down and meet with us for about 45 minutes! They all asked great questions and were curious to learn more! I hope that we can continue teaching them!

I got an email this week with the coolest news!! Amy Koroma, who we taught and was baptized last year in February, a little over a month into my mission, is going to the temple in a couple weeks for her endowment! I sent a message to her a while back, around her year mark, encouraging her to start taking temple-preparation classes. And she reached out this week telling me the news, inviting me to attend! I love her family so much! I am so glad that she has stayed strong in the gospel over the past year and a half! Her son Omar (I miss that kid!) will also be getting baptized in October when he turns 8. I'm so glad I've been able to see the process of this family learning about, accepting, and embracing the gospel! I know that generations will be affected from this family.

President Huntsman shared a scripture about obedience with us last week that I really liked. It is Romans 5:19 which says "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
This shows that our decisions today have eternal consequences. If we choose to be obedient, and strive to faithfully live the gospel, our future families and generations after will be affected by our influence and example. "Many will be made righteous" and enjoy the tremendous blessings that the gospel brings. On the flip side, if we choose to be disobedient and not follow Christ's teachings, generations after us will lack the blessings that they could have had, if we were obedient and faithful. Sure, they might still have decent lives, but they will miss out on so many blessings. This scripture gives me more motivation to make sure I strive to live a righteous life. There are generations of people, so many that we can't even comprehend, of which our obedience can impact.
I'm grateful for my Moms decision to join the church, 34 years ago today! Her obedience and that decision has impacted many.

I love you all so much! I pray for you, and I also feel the influence of your prayers on my behalf!  I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

All of this trash (including the shopping carts)
was pulled out of a small river in this neighborhood
that we go to all the time. We thought it was ridiculous
how much trash was in there every time we walked by.
This is Jason, he just turned 19 and comes out with us
every week teaching people!
He'll be getting his mission call within the next few weeks!

A picture of some yolaf rice,
a popular dish in West Africa,
especially Sierra Leone and Ghana.

I see these pretty much every day, a few different kinds of them.
It's a constant reminder of Temecula! My dad is the CFO for Channell Commercial, the company that makes these.

May 15, 2017 Happy Mother's Day!

Hey everyone!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day (yesterday) to the best Mom ever! I will proudly always be your baby boy! I'll echo the same quote that I think I sent last year on Mother's Day because it is so true. Elder Holland said "No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child." Thanks Mom for giving me your selfless love, helping me to better understand the love Jesus Christ has for each of us. You're the best!

It was great to be able to Skype with you yesterday! I'm grateful for my family! I'm glad we were able to say a prayer together as a family at the end of the call!

I'm also grateful for all the mothers who have taken such good care of me here in Virginia. There's so many amazing members that take such good care of us. And Sister Huntsman is the best "mission mom" ever.

It's been a busy week! We had 2 zone Conferences for the Ashburn and Oakton zones, and the McLean and Mt. Vernon zones. It's cool seeing half of the missionaries in the mission in just two days!

We found a sweet new investigator named Chaz last week. He's from Ghana. A few days before meeting him we actually met someone else named Deborah from Burkina Faso, a country just north of Ghana. We met her out on the street and had a good conversation with her and she gave us her address and said we can come by whenever. So we came back and met Chaz. They love in a house where there's at least 5 different people living, and none of them are related, which is kind of weird but common in the area. Most of the Ghanaians we meet have really strong faith in Christ, so they'll either be really open to hearing more about him, or they'll be really closed, just depends on the person. But Chaz was pretty open minded and we had a really good lesson with him and hope to keep teaching him.

We have a couple investigators from Ethiopia- Selma and Taz. They are still learning English, so when we teach them we have to teach really simply. We also brought them some pamphlets and a Book of Mormon in Amharic. They enjoy teaching us how to speak a few phrases in Amharic, and they always feed us some sort of ethnic food when we go there. Last week they gave us some homemade bread made from some different grains and seeds from Ethiopia and they also really like injura. Injura is a sour, spongy, pancake-like thing. I think it looks super weird. They are the kindest people! And they work so hard! They actually live with Eshetu and Nestanet, another couple from Ethiopia who got baptized a couple of months ago.

Another investigator we have is named Rich. He's about 60 years old and has been meeting with missionaries for a few months. Currently, he's the only white person we are teaching, which is kind of funny, but he's awesome! He's come to church multiple times and has had all the lessons. He wants to be baptized, just not right now. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and enjoys coming to church. The only thing holding him back are his parents, who are devout Roman Catholics. He's a grown man, he should be able to make his own decisions, but he feels like his parents are going to discipline him. We joked with him saying "you're not a teenager anymore! They can't boss you around!" We think he will come around eventually. There's probably some other concern we just haven't found out about yet that we'll need to help him through.

One of our investigators is another person named Isha, from Sierra Leone. It's such a popular name there. She is good friends with a few of the recent converts in the ward (Ramatu and Fatima) that live nearby her. They call each other cousins, even though they aren't actually related. They used to be neighbors in Sierra Leone in Freetown, so I guess that makes them "cousins." We've taught Isha twice so far and she has a super strong desire to join the church and be baptized. She's super receptive to the gospel! I've realized that people from Sierra Leone are generally more receptive than people from Ghana. However she's going to be going back to Freetown for about a month soon, so she has set a goal to be baptized in July after she gets back. I'll still be here, so we'll be able to finish the lessons with her and help her prepare for that. We hope to stay in touch with her somehow while she's gone so that she still has that desire when she returns.

So those are just a few of the many different people we have that we are teaching right now.

I wanted to share a brief portion of President Monson's conference talk about the Book of Mormon. He said
 "...once obtained, a testimony needs to be kept vital and alive through continued obedience to the commandments of God and through daily prayer and scripture study.
My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives."

I love those four promised blessings at the end- As we strive to study the Book of Mormon daily 1) we'll be more in tune with the spirit, 2) we will be more capable of resisting temptation, 3) we can overcome doubts and fears that we have, 4) and we'll receive help from on high. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the opportunity I have to study it each day. I know it is true!

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

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Last night we were invited to celebrate Mother's Day with some members of the ward from Sierra Leone. This is Fatima and Ramatu, and their mother Kadiatu (sitting down), along with their kids. Fatima and Ramatu both joined the church in the past 6 months. They had a good African feast prepared for us! Yolaf rice (super spicy) , rice aka-ra (fried banana bread balls) and fried plantains, and kasava leaf potato salad (also really spicy).

Ramatu and her Mom, Kadiatu, enjoying the food! I'm grateful for these Mothers that make sure we are well fed. They enjoyed teaching us a few more phrases in Krio.

More Pictures from our Mother's Day Skype Call:

LAST ONE TO BE BORN
AND
LAST ONE TO SAY GOODBYE TO HIS MOMMA
ON THE MOTHER'S DAY CALL!

May 8, 2017 Week 1 in Fort Belvoir

Hey everyone!

I had a great first full week in the Fort Belvoir Ward with Elder Yang. The members in the ward are great! Probably about 50% of the members move every 2-3 years because a lot of them are stationed on the Fort Belvoir military base, in the Army. We have passes to go on base, so we've been on base a few times last week to visit different members for dinner, but obviously there's no proselyting on base. There's a decent number of members that live off base as well, in other parts of the ward, and most of them either are involved with the military in some way, or they work for the government.
Where we spend most of our time proselyting are in some apartment complexes that are Section-A housing for low-income families. There's a TON of apartment complexes in our ward, with so many people out and about to talk to, it's awesome! We try our best to talk to everyone. I need to start learning some more Twi and Amharic, because we've met a tone of Ghanaians and Ethiopians last week.

I got transferred into this ward a few days prior to transfers, which were on Tuesday. Transfers are super, super busy now. It's a few day process. It starts with picking up new missionaries on Monday and taking them to the mission home for their first night. Then on Tuesday doing training meetings for them and their trainers right before the transfers actually happen at noon.

It's tradition for us and the office elders to go out
Denny's early in the morning after we drop off the
departing missionaries at the airport, before we
go back and catch up on a couple hours of sleep.

That is then followed by gathering all of the departing missionaries and taking them to the temple. We then have a departing dinner and testimony meeting at the mission home, and then take them to the airport early the next morning. And by early, I mean3am! It was fun though, waking up in the middle of the night to drive a group of Elders and sisters to the airport with President and Sister Huntsman. We were able to catch up on a little bit of sleep, but still managed to get out the door that morning at10am!

It's a treat to be able to go with the departing missionaries to the temple (especially since the expectation coming on the mission was that I'd only go once every 6 months). It was sweet to be there at the mission home as well as they bore their testimonies of major lessons they learned on the mission, how they grew,

At the mission home with a few of the departing
missionaries on their last night in Virginia.

and what their plans are moving forward. My testimony grew listening to them testify of what their missions meant to them. It enhanced my appreciation for this experience. While dropping them off at the airport and watching them say goodbye to the Huntsman's, I felt extremely grateful to still have 7 or 8 months left on my mission! I don't want that moment to come too soon. It was a relatively small group of missionaries that came in from the MTC and left this transfer, but the next couple transfers the groups are going to be much larger.

We had a busy week with an MLC meeting on Thursday, discussing the upcoming Zone conferences. Elder Yang and I will travel around the mission to all of the zone conferences over the next two weeks. I'm excited to be able to see every one of the missionaries throughout the mission! We also conducted the Return and Report meeting last week, which is a meeting for missionaries that just finished their first transfer. That's one of my favorite meetings! It's fun hearing about experiences new missionaries and their trainers are having, and hearing from what they learned from each other in their first 6 weeks.

This is Eshetu from Ethiopia,
who got baptized a couple of months ago,
and came out with us teaching.

Eshetu, a recent convert in the ward from Ethiopia, came out with us to teach people this week. He joined the church just a couple of months ago, but has such a strong testimony that this is the true church. There's nothing better than having a recent convert join us in teaching lessons to other investigators (especially when they're both African, they connect super well.)
We also had another convert named Maxwell, from Ghana, join us in teaching a couple Ghanaian people. In one lesson, with an investigator named Kwasi, Maxwell said the closing prayer in Twi. It was pretty cool feeling the spirit, even though I had no idea what he was saying in the prayer!

There's also a few young men in the ward that like coming out with us on a regular basis, getting ready to go on their missions. It's great having so much support in helping us teach! We've been able to teach quite a few people this week! I'll send more details about some of the people we've been able to teach in my email next week.

This is Esther, a little Ghanaian girl in the ward.
When we biked on the car fast day,
she insisted on trying on our helmets

One quick thought that stuck out to me this week comes from Elder Gary B. Sabin' conference talk last month titled "Stand Up Inside and Be All In." He said "Brothers and sisters, no one has sinned tomorrow. May we recalculate our route if need be and look forward with great hope and faith. May we “stand up inside” by being valiant and “all in.” May we be pure and courageous in defending our Heavenly Father’s plan and the mission of His Son, our Savior."
I love that statement that "no one has sinned tomorrow." Each of us can make the decision now to decide who we want be tomorrow. We may have sinned yesterday, but we haven't sinned tomorrow, and we can each resolve to be valiant and try our best to be obedient, relying upon the Savior.

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

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

At the mission home with a few of the departing missionaries on their last night in Virginia.

May 1, 2017 Surprise Transfer & New Assignment

Hey everyone! 
I had a pretty big change happen this week! 

Elder Yang and Burleson and I
. It was fun being with them in a trio with them
 for the past few days. Tomorrow Elder Burleson
 will be transferred out to a new area.

Elder Ostendorf and I were discussing the upcoming transfers. We were guessing that I'd probably serve in the Tysons Ward for 3 or 4 transfers, up to six months. Just a couple hours after this conversation, we got a call at the end of the night from President Huntsman. He totally caught me off guard. We thought Elder Ostendorf would be getting transferred, and that I would take his spot as the district leader, or maybe train a new missionary in the Tysons ward.  Instead, President Huntsman asked me if I would be willing to be transferred to the Fort Belvoir Ward and serve as one of his assistants! Didn't expect that! So I was transferred on Friday night to the new area! I spent the past few days with Elders Burleson and Yang, as they "showed me the ropes" and taught me about different things I'll be responsible for in this new assignment. 

With Elder Yang and Elder Burleson at
 the Ronald Reagan Airport.

We help out a lot with transfers, and will be presenting training at all of the Zone Conferences throughout the mission and at the Mission Leadership Council meeting, and do an exchange with each set of zone leaders during the transfer, and do a bunch of other stuff. But at the end of the day, we're still assigned to serve in the Fort Belvoir Ward and will be spending a lot of time proselyting in our area. 
I am super excited for the opportunity I will have to serve more closely with President Huntsman, and continue to serve the other missionaries in this mission. Thankfully, President Huntsman strongly believes that even though we are his assistants, we should still prioritize proselyting in our area as much as possible. So we will occasionally go into the office to fulfill certain responsibilities and accomplish different tasks with training other missionaries, but we still proselyte a lot!

This lady is a member of the Fort Belvoir Ward
 from Africa. This is a common sight
walking around talking to people!
 It's so cool how they do it so easily

I'm super happy to serve in this ward, I was able to go on exchanges there multiple times when I was a zone leader and it's a great area to serve in. I loved serving in Alexandria for 6 months before, and now I'll be covering a different part of Alexandria. The ward has a lot of military families that live on base at Fort Belvoir, and then the demographics of the communities nearby the Fort are tons of Africans- Ghanaians, Ethiopians, Sierra Leoneans, etc. We have a lot of different people we're teaching right now and I'm excited to help them all!

I'm replacing Elder Burleson, and Elder Yang is my new companion. He's awesome! I'm super excited to serve with him as an assistant. He's a couple years older than me and is a convert to the church from China, joined when he was 18. He spent a couple years at school at UC San Diego. 

Before getting taken out of Tysons. Elder Ostendorf and I got to go to the temple with Michael last week to do baptisms for the dead with him. Elder Ostendorf and I both taught him prior to his baptism. He stood proxy for 15 of his ancestors and I was able to perform the baptisms. It was such a great experience! He has been super into family history. That's actually one of the things that initially perked his interest in the church. I'm grateful for the relationships I've made on my mission with people like Michael, who I know I will stay connected with through the years. Michael is looking forward to going to the temple in December at the year mark of his baptism, so I'm super excited that I will be there for that, right before the end of my mission. 

At Kristina's baptism! Elders Smith, Ostendorf, and Harding
 and I with Kristina. She has a twin sister who has been
skeptical of Kristina learning about the church,
 but she came and supported her at the baptism!

Also, Kristina had her baptism on Saturday! I was transferred the night before, but was still able to go back and attend it. She asked me to give a talk about the Holy Ghost at the baptism and Elder Ostendorf performed the baptism. Kristina's been on a long journey to get to this point! There's was a lot of members and missionary's there to support her. Kristina's a great example and I'm excited to see what lies ahead for her in the future. It was a good experience being able to teach her and help her prepare for baptism! 

Today we are spending the day picking up the new missionaries from the airport and taking them to the mission home for a dinner, interviews, and some brief orientation stuff. We are currently at the airport waiting for them to arrive! I'm excited to welcome them to the mission! It feels like just yesterday that I was getting off that plane! I'm excited to have a new perspective as we pick them up! Then tomorrow right after transfers we will be taking the departing missionaries to the temple which will be super fun as well! There's a lot of missionaries I love a ton going home the next couple of transfers, so I'll be able to go to the temple with them on their last day. 

I'm going to be pretty busy the next few transfers! It's going to be fun. I hope that I can do a good job of loving and serving the missionaries throughout the mission, and be a good support to President Huntsman. 

I love you all! Hope you have a great first week of May!  

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

With Brother Williams, my ward mission leader
 in the Tysons Ward. It was sad saying bye to him,
 he's great!

At the airport waiting for the new missionaries!
 You can see the Capital building in the distance.

April 24, 2017 He Will Pay the Rest

At  our ward mission leaders house,
with his son Sterling.  Brother Williams
is the best.  He's from England and is
one of my favorite ward mission leaders.

Hey everyone! We had some exciting things happen this past week. We only have one more week left in the transfer, so we'll find out on Saturday if Elder Ostendorf and I will be doing another transfer together. Also happening this Saturday- our investigator Kristina is getting baptized! At our Ward Mission leaders house, with his son Sterling. Brother Williams is the best, he's from England and is one of my favorite ward mission leaders.
She is Vietnamese, but was raised in the US. She has been coming to church since September, and finally decided to make the choice to be baptized. She lives next to a few different member families and comes with them to church. She hadn't been progressing in her testimony, or towards being baptized, so she stopped meeting with missionaries in January. But the ward members continued to fellowship her and she kept coming to church. Without any push by us, she approached us while we were walking through her neighborhood and told us she's ready, and that she knows she needs to do it. We couldn't believe it in that moment, but it's happening! This past week we had a couple lessons with her, reviewing everything she's learned over the past 8 months, and taught a couple new things. She also had her baptismal interview last week and is all set to be baptized this Saturday! Certain things were said that changed her perspective, and she felt the spirit confirm to her that she needs to just do it! We set a goal at the beginning of the transfer to have at least one baptism this transfer, with no idea who that one would be. We had no idea Kristina would all of the sudden make this decision, but we are so proud of her! She's been on the fence for a while, so we and the members in the Tysons ward are super excited for her! There's been a big change in just the past couple of weeks with her, it's incredible! We had interviews with President Huntsman this week. It's always nice to sit down and talk with him for a few minutes. I'm so grateful for President and Sister Huntsman and all that they do for us. We had an exciting lesson with Swati last night. We just read through some verses in Alma 32 and talked a lot about faith and things we can do to "nourish the seed" to help our faith grow. She finally committed to coming to church and said she'll be able to start coming in May, so hopefully she keeps her word. It's been fun teaching someone from India, I've met a lot of people from India throughout my mission, but haven't been able to teach many consistently until meeting Swati. She's super open minded and curious to learn. She reads anything we assign her to read, and her next step is church. She knows she needs to do it, but just hasn't made the effort yet, but it'll happen! Towards the end of the lesson we heard a few sirens from outside from fire trucks that drove by her house on the highway, but didn't think much of it, we hear them all the time.
 

The house on fire outside of Swati's house.

After we said the closing prayer and walked out the front door of her house, we immediately saw her neighboring house, directly across the street was on fire! Tons of smoke coming out of the windows. There were multiple fire trucks, fire engines, and fire fighters there with hoses putting out the fire. Nobody was harmed, the house was vacant and nobody currently lived there, and it's a mystery how the fire started. We watched the action for a few minutes with her and the member that came with us to the lesson. I just thought it was funny how we were in the lesson with Swati, completely oblivious to her neighbors house up in flames. It was pretty exciting! (I probably wouldn't have said that if people actually lived there or if someone was harmed of course..) At church yesterday there was a man named Dennis, from Moscow Russia, that came with some members! He is their neighbor and his son is friends with their kids, and his son wanted to come to church, so they came! They immigrated about 5 years ago to the U.S. and his wife is from Ukraine. He was baptized as a Russian Orthodox many years ago, but told us he fell away from God for a while, and he then told us that he is "now starting to come back." He chose a good place to start that's for sure! He came to our gospel principles class and asked a lot of really good questions and is curious to learn more! We're excited about him and we're working with the members to schedule a time to meet with him. I want to share a few thoughts again from when Elder and Sister Rasband visited our mission Easter weekend. Sister Rasband gave an incredible talk about the Savior's atonement. She used a beautiful symbolic story to help us understand His sacrifice for us. I'll try and describe it, but there's no way I could deliver this message as powerfully as she did. The story was about an Elder in their mission, the New York, New York North Mission. This particular Elder dreamt his entire mission of getting his shoes shined from one of those nice stands in Manhattan, where you get to sit up on a nice comfy seat and someone shines your shoes for you. He thought it would be so cool to have his shoes shined. However, this missionary was never assigned to serve in Manhattan. When he was coming down towards the end of his mission, he was assigned to serve in the Bronx, another suburb in NYC. He was sad because he felt like there wasn't any nice shoe shining stands in the Bronx like there are in Manhattan. One day, however, while he and his companion were walking down the street, he heard from around the corner a voice shouting "shoe shine, shoe shine, anybody want a shoe shine?!" He was excited hearing these words, thinking this might be his chance, his opportunity to have his shoes shined like he always wanted! He approached the man and asked him "how much does it cost?" This humble man then responded, to the elders' surprise "as much as you are willing to pay." The man then knelt down, on his hands and knees on the dirty sidewalk and began the process of shining the missionaries shoes. He dipped his stained fingers into his small container of black polish and applied it to the shoes. He then looked down at the sleeve of his shirt, looking for a spot on the sleeve that was slightly cleaner than the rest, and used that spot to polish the shoes. Then to finish it off, he lifted up his sleeve and the elder saw his filthy arms, and the man looked for a spot on his forearm that was less stained up than the rest of his arm, and used that spot of his bare skin to finish off the shoes and make them look nice. As this man was doing all of this, the missionary's perspective changed. He now started to envision the Savior. He was reminded of the Savior, taking the stains--the sins, the hurt, the anguish, all of the mourning of all mankind, upon himself. He let it all dig deep into his pores so that we wouldn't have to. Jesus Christ atoned for each one of God's children, individually, giving us all the opportunity to 'walk away with our shoes shined.' The missionary then reached into his pocket and gave every cent he had to the poor old man, and then his companion did the same, and he walked away with his shoes now shined, and his appreciation and relationship for the Savior enhanced.The Lord calls out to us the same thing as this man did "Sole shine, sole shine, anybody want a sole shine?" We may ask the Lord, "how much does it cost?"To which he will respond "however much you want, I will pay the rest." All he asks of us is to try our best- to use the knowledge we have been given and act accordingly. He suffered for us all. 1st Nephi 19:9 says "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men."   Because of His loving kindness, he will make up the rest. We should try all we can to faithfully follow Him, but we'll always fall short, but He's promised to "pay the rest!" His love and mercy is always there, we just have to invite Him into our lives. When we apply atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives, our appreciation for Him and what he did for us him will increase, and we will come to know Him better. I've seen that to be true. I thought this little story was a beautiful representation of the Saviors atonement!Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! Love you all! 
Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

Brother Blake took us to lunch a couple weeks ago before he moved, he's awesome!

April 17, 2017 Easter with the Rasband’s & Huntsman’s

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great Easter!

The highlight of our week was on Saturday night, a special night for the D.C. South Mission! On Saturday morning, one of our mission President's daughter's was married in the Washington D.C. temple. Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife, along with President Huntsman's Mom and Dad, Jon Huntsman Sr., were all out here this weekend to be here for the wedding. Elder Rasband has been close friends with the Huntsman family for most of his adult life, and decided to do a fireside with our mission on the night before Easter. This time was different than the one in January. The one in January was missionaries from our mission and the D.C. North Mission. This fireside was just the D.C. south missionaries, but this time we were allowed to invite investigators, recent converts, and other members to attend. It was incredible! I don't think it's possible to describe in words how special this meeting was, but I'll try.

Elder Judkins and I with Michael after the fireside.The three of us all taught Michael leading up to his baptism in December. Elder Ostendorf taught him while in the Annandale Ward, then we taught him in the Lincolnia Ward.  Michael will be going to the temple in December  at the year mark from his baptism, right before I finish my mission!He's excited for it! I'll be the only missionary thattaught him who will still be here in Virginia at that time.

Michael Heaney, a recent convert I taught in Alexandria drove Elder Ostendorf and I to the fireside. Traffic was super light and we ended up getting there really early, so we had front row seats, just a few feet away from the pulpit where we were able to listen to some amazing talks. Jon Huntsman Sr. and his wife both spoke, then President and Sister Huntsman, then Sister Rasband, then Elder Rasband. They all spoke very highly of one another and it was cool to hear stories and experiences from their past they've had with one another throughout their lives. If you don't know the connection- Jon Huntsman Sr. gave Elder Rasband a job in his company when they first started many many years ago, when at the time Elder Rasband was a young Elders Quorum president. Then President Huntsman eventually worked under and alongside Elder Rasband for many years as well, up until Elder Rasband was called to serve full-time as a general authority in the church. Jon Huntsman Sr. served as Mission president over the D.C. Mission many years ago, when President Huntsman was a young teenager and now President Huntsman is serving as the mission president in the same mission, 35 or so years later, with young kids of his own. 

It was fun running into Jake and Kelli Seely from Warrenton,
 as well as Elder Judkins, at the fireside on Saturday. They got to
know Elder Judkins really well while he was serving
in a different ward that they used to live in.

What a great way to spend Easter weekend, listening to all of these servants of the Lord and great men and women of faith testify of Jesus Christ- His life and mission, His Atonement, and His resurrection. This meeting and all of the thoughts/impressions associated with it will be in my memory for a long time. Coming out of this meeting, I definitely felt an increased sense of desire, motivation, and commitment to continue working hard throughout my mission. After being here on my mission for some time now, I've caught myself in certain moments "just going through the motions" forgetting what an incredible opportunity this is to be here at this time of my life, with the sole purpose of helping people come unto Christ. Thankfully those moments haven't persisted. But the spirit leaving this meaning couldn't have been more timely! 

Anyways, I'll share some thoughts from the meeting in future emails, but in this one I'll just share briefly what Elder Rasband spoke about. He focused his talk on what he called "the greatest message of all history. The power of life over death in the resurrection." He referred to Job, who asked a simple question "if a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14). Not too long later in the scriptures, Job powerfully answers his own question "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25-26) Elder Rasband mentioned different people dear to him that have had untimely deaths, or people he knew with children that passed away at young ages, and to these people he will simply say- they're not dead, but their spirits live on, and will live on forever. You will see them again. He shared 2 Nephi 25:13, a verse of scripture written nearly 600 years before the event of the resurrection "Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name." It's such a great message of hope, knowing that the Savior still lives, and he still has 'healing in His wings' that we can access in our lives. Elder Rasband talked about the resurrection in a few other contexts as well, but as he finished up his talk he shared John 11:25- "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
After sharing this scripture he bore one of the most powerful testimonies of the Savior I've ever heard. This may not be exactly word for word, but these are a few words I wrote down from his concluding testimony, he said- "This weekend, we pay tribute to, we honor, and we magnify the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, 'the resurrection and the life.' As one of His servants, I bear you my witness tonight, that Jesus Christ lives! This is His true and living church on the face of the earth! Those are not my words, those are His words. He is at the head of it. He is "well pleased" with His church and he continues to guide and direct it. I know that His voice is no stranger to the leaders of this church."
Those last words were so powerful. I believe it. 
I'm so grateful to have been able to be part of that special day in our mission. What made it even better was seeing Katie, a convert from Centreville, sitting just a couple rows from us listening to the speakers intently the entire time, feeling the spirit. After the meeting she insisted on giving an Easter basket full of goodies to 9 different missionaries that taught her over the span of 8 months leading up to her baptism, Elder Shelley and I were the first ones she met. 

Aside from the fireside, we had a great rest of the week!

We found an awesome new investigator! Her name is Margaret, and she is a single mother of FIVE kids from Nairobi, Kenya (where the Church just recently announced a temple is going to be built). They are 13, 9 (two twin girls), 5, and 2- two boys and three girls.  The first time we taught her this week we just knocked on her door and had a good 20 minute discussion about the gospel, the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon. She was super willing to listen and seemed really interested in having us come back. The first time teaching her at the door I was amazed by how well behaved her children were. They were so respectful and quiet as we were talking with their mother. We came back a few days later and had a great lesson reviewing what we taught her the first time. She speaks English pretty well, but is still learning, so we have to teach really simply. One thing I've definitely been able to learn and see on my mission is the power of simplicity. People can often get so caught up in over-complicating things unnecessarily. There's so much power in teaching the simple truths of the gospel. I'm excited to start teaching this family! So far, we've only been able to teach Margaret, but we hope to start teaching her 13 year old son, and twin girls as well! She has strong faith in God and in Christ, but doesn't attend any specific church and is excited for us to come back! 

We had a good lesson with Tim a recent convert in the ward, and his wife Adelaide. She is from Brazil and was baptized when she was 18 and Tim just married her a little over a year ago. A few months after they got married, Tim got baptized, and now he is approaching the 1-year mark since his baptism. So we taught them a lesson about temple work, with an emphasis on the temple sealing. The spirit in that lesson was super strong as we testified of eternal marriage! They will start taking temple preparation lessons in the next couple weeks and they will hopefully be getting sealed to each other within the next couple of months. 

Surprise! We also put an investigator on date for baptism for just a couple weeks from now! Her name is Kristina. I haven't mentioned her before. She actually first started learning about the church in September of last year, but hadn't been progressing for a long time. So she hadn't been meeting with missionaries for the past few months because she wasn't progressing towards baptism. She was constantly reading anti-Mormon stuff online and had tons of concerns with joining the church, however she would continue to come to church and has made good friends in the ward. She approached us as we were walking through her neighborhood and said she wanted to schedule a time to meet and talk about baptism. So we met with her and our ward mission leader and discussed the requirements for baptism, how she can prepare for it, and what we need to do for her, and she's all in! It's a pretty crazy situation apparently considering her past experiences with the church over the last 8 months or so. She said she finally felt the spirit tell her that's what she needs to do, while listening to a member bear testimony at church about his conversion story despite opposition from his family. More details to come next week. Things may change, they may not, we'll see. Stay tuned. 

We did teach Swati again yesterday as well. Our lesson was mainly focused on prayer, faith, and repentance. We brought Brother and Sister Hillstead with us, a young couple in the ward. (My brother Zach was actually her teacher years ago when she was in the MTC preparing to go on her mission to Berlin, Germany!) They did a great job assisting us in teaching that lesson and connected really well with her. 

I'll close with a quote from Elder Nelson's talk about the Savior. 
He said, "Under the Father’s great eternal plan, it is the Savior who suffered. It is the Savior who broke the bands of death. It is the Savior who paid the price for our sins and transgressions and blots them out on condition of our repentance. It is the Savior who delivers us from physical and spiritual death.
There is no amorphous entity called “the Atonement” upon which we may call for succor, healing, forgiveness, or power. Jesus Christ is the source. Sacred terms such as Atonement and Resurrection describe what the Savior did, according to the Father’s plan, so that we may live with hope in this life and gain eternal life in the world to come. The Savior’s atoning sacrifice--the central act of all human history--is best understood and appreciated when we expressly and clearly connect it to Him."

I'm grateful for my Savior and this special weekend that we could more earnestly focus on Him. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission

My second time on the mission going to Great Falls today. Last time was in August- today was a pretty nice day with Elders Leishman, Simpson, Ostendorf, Nielsen, and Chu.