Humility Is Not A Weakness

Hello all.


I am mega short on time, but thought I would just give you all a little status update.


This has been an awesome week here in Grenoble. It is beautiful, the weather has been great, and we are making great progress. This last week we found 3 new amis to teach. We will see how things go, and I will hopefully have some cool things to report next week. The ward here is great, and I have already eaten a few times at members' houses. I am really going to like it here.

Lately Ive been learning a lot about Humility. Not like I really need it or anything... ;)
But seriously, the Savior showed us such a great example of humility. Preach my Gospel says that humility is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of spiritual power. All I have to say is amen to that!
May we all strive to be a bit more humble this week :)


I love you all, have a fantastic week!
Elder Duckworth

Goodbye Toulouse, Hello Grenoble !

Bonjour from the beautiful city of Grenobles!


After 3 awesome transfers in Toulouse, I have now moved on to Grenobles. I was sad to say goodye, I was in Toulouse for 4 1/2 months, and I grew to really love the people there. It is a special city that will always have a place in my heart.


My last week in Toulouse was awesome. Our two Chinese members, D and E came back from vacation, so we talked to them a lot which was fun. We also had a lot of Chinese amis that we were working with too. My head was spinning from all of the Chinese, but it was lots of fun. I tried Jellyfish for the first time in my life...haha and Im still living so thats a good sign :D There is this chinese game called SanGuoSha that I guess is really popular, so I learned how to play that which really impressed the Chinese amis haha. I will really miss working so much with Chinese people. They are so great. I am Super Greatful for the time I was able to work with Elder Yeung and serve a mini Chinese mission :). I feel good with the work we were able to do In Toulouse, and I am excited to see what comes from it. Just last trasfer we found 19 new amis, and have 4 people that have accepted baptismal dates. Its kinda hard not being able to see all the work we did come to frution immediately, but I still feel 100 percent satisfied in the work we were able to do.


Other than that, not really a whole lot to report . I spent all day yesterday on trains which was fun. Im super excited to work here in Grenoble. My companion is named Elder Durant and he's from the exotic land of Lehi Ut. Also, Elder Lehmitz, my old companion, is in the same appartment as me!!!! (be jealous Elder Roberts;)) We have a mission wide goal/baptismal date for the 27 Septembre, which is the last week of the trasfer. I am really excited, and am ready to give it my all these next few weeks and see some miracles happen!


Love you all, Be happy :D


Elder Duckworth


here are some photos. Notice how when they set the table, they all used chopsticks but gave me a fork ... I was so touched haha :)

All American Night

Originally sent on August 11, 2014

Bonjour à tous!


This has been a week full of miracles here in Toulouse. The work is finally starting to really pick up here, and we have been blessed to see a lot of people progress. In church we had 12 amis at church. This ward is awesome, and it's been great to really spark them by bringing all of these new people to church.


My highlight of the week was actually an activity that was put on by the missionaries of the other ward. It was an "all american night" complete with hamburgers and root beer. There were over 20 investigators who came...it was incredible. The reason why it was my highlight was I was able to meet D. D is the father of a member of the other ward, but lives in our sector. He came because his son invited him, and I talked to him when I found out he lived in our sector. I got to know him and learned a lot about his life. He got kinda quiet, and then told me that he just recently lost his Wife. It has been a really hard time for him, and he feels alone. He said that this is the reason why he felt like he should approach our church. I was able to assure him that this life isn't the end, and that is wife is still there. It was very simple, but very powerful. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the reality of His Atonement really can change lives.


I love you all, and hope that things are going well for you. I am loving what I'm doing, and wouldn't trade it for anything!


Bonne semaine!
Elder Duckworth

Working hard and loving what we're doing

Originally sent August 4, 2014

Bonjour!


Sorry, this is going to be a short one, but Everything here in Toulouse has really been picking up. Yesterday we had 4 amis at church, and our ward in total had 7!!! that has not happen here in a while, and I think people are starting to be excited about missionary work again.

Quick summary of this last week. We have found two people who fixed baptismal dates!!! One is a chinese Lady named Y, who is super funny and only speaks chinese. I havent actually talked much with her but she is progressing, and has started to see God's influence in her life! The other is a guy named N whos from Nigeria. Our first lesson he basically straight up told us he wants to be baptized....so we had no problem with that :D He is really cool, and has a strong faith.


Other than that, not a whole lot in the way of news. Just working hard and loving what we're doing. This is God's work, and I'm so blessed that he let me be a part of it.

I love you all! have a great week!


Elder Duckworth

Do you want to go eat Kebabs with us?

Originally sent on July 28, 2014

Bonjour!


Greetings from the beautiful city of Toulouse!


So this week was pretty awesome as far as numbers go, we taught 11 lessons, 6 of which were in the presence of a member (by far the most I've ever done) with 7 new investigators. There is a couple I might have mentioned that the lady was taught by missionaries like 14 years ago, but her husband at the time said no. She is childhood friends with the Stake President's wife. She is from somewhere in the Paris mission, and just barely moved here. I think the missionaries kinda just lost track of her, but she has kept a strong testimony all these years. She said at one point she knew everything was true, and just wants to double check. They were supposed to leave on vacation but the daughter had a pretty bad accident and is now in the hospital, so they ended up not going on vacation. We were able to see them a couple times. The lesson we had this week was pretty spiritual. M, (the lady) basically taught us the lesson. And O (the guy) started out a bit unsure. The main reason he came was to support M. But by the end he really opened up. He talked about how he has made some mistakes in his life, and how he didn't really feel "worthy" to come to church. We were able to teach him a bit about the Atonement, and how it covers everything. The words just seemed to naturally come out because I know the spirit was helping us. These two are awesome, and I know they will be baptized one day.


Other than that, we were also able to start teaching our downstairs neighbor. A couple weeks ago he borrowed our vacum. When he returned it my companion was like "do you want to go eat Kebabs with us?" haha and he said yes. So a couple weeks ago we went out to eat with him and got to know him. His name is R, and he really has gone through some rough stuff in our life. He kept mentioning how he feels something "sainte" when he's around us. Saturday we went with a member to his apartment to eat. We were ready to teach, but our member just connected with him so well because they had gone through a lot of similar trials, and they just couldn't stop talking :) but thats ok we're going to give him a tour of the chapel tonight.


Things are really going great here, The sun is shining (a lot) and we are finding some really awesome people. The Lord has really blessed us by trusting us with some of his choice children.


I love you all, hope that you have a great week!


Elder Duckworth

"Bang"

Originally sent on July 21, 2014

Bonjour à tous!


Sorry, this is going to be a short one, But I just wanted to let everyone know that things are still going well here in Toulouse.


We started out this week with a "bang" by going to see fireworks (sorry, really bad joke). It was weird staying out so late. We didnt get home until midnight. It was really cool though, even though we chose a spot right behind a tree, next to a bunch of drunk students. This spot choosing ability seems to run in the family, right Dad?


Anyways, other then that, it has been super hot here. But we tried to not let that stop us. We worked hard, and were able to see a lot of results. We taught a lot last week, and are planning on teaching even more next week. Things are looking up.


We have a member here who invited a friend to come to church. She just moved here, and used to live in the North of France. When she was a lot younger she had taken all of the missionary lessons, but for certain reasons, never got baptized. Well, fast forward a few years and here we are. She has kept her testimony of the restored gospel, and we are going to go and teach her this week! Only problem is that shes leaving on vacation soon.....but we wont talk about that :D We are still very excited for that


Love you all, have a great week.


Elder Duckworth

He will heal all that come unto him

Originally sent on July 14, 2014

Bonjour!


This has been a great week! We didnt have a whole lot of excitement, but we worked hard, and hopefully will start to see our labors come to frution this next week!


I have been studying a lot lately about Healing, and just wanted to share some of my thoughts about that with you this week.

This last week, I had the honor to participate in a priesthood blessing. I thought about how when the priesthood is used, it is as if Christ himself is giving the blessing. It struck me that almost everything that Christ did in his life was centered around healing. In the New Testimant, it is full of stories of Christ healling the sick and afflicted. He even brought the dead back to life. I have reflected a lot on why our healing is so Important to Christ. Then I realized that that is why he came here to the earth. He came to heal us. Not only from physical things, but from spiritual things. In the Garden of Gesthemene, and later again on the cross, Christ suffered all. He went through unimaginable pain so that he can understand what we are going through. Through the Atonement, Christ healed us through our sins, pains, sorrows, and suffering.


I thought a lot about how we can be healed then. If Christ already has healed us, why do we still suffer. In reading my scriptures (sorry i forgot to bring them, so I cant give a citation) I learned that He will heal all that come unto him. His part is already done, all we have to do is come unto him. In the scriptures, when the sick woman touched the robe of Christ and was healed, Christ said that it was her faith that made her whole. And faith is a principle of aciton. If any of you are suffering, I invite you to have faith, and act by turning to the Savior. I know that he can heal us from what ever we are going through.


I love you all, have a great week!


Elder Duckworth

I know He will answer

Originally sent on July 7, 2014

Bonjour!


I am super short on time...sorry, but I'll give you all a quick rundown on how things are going...

First off, we have been teaching a super nice Chinese lady named Y for the past few weeks, and she accepted a baptismal date for July 19th! We will have to move the date because she missed church, but she is progressing, and the Gospel has made such a huge difference in her life! She only speaks Chinese, so my contributions to the lessons are a bit small, but they are a lot of fun, and the spirit isz there.


We got transfer calls and me and Elder Yeung are both staying. We are very excited for all of the fun adventures that await us in these next 6 weeks.


This last week was My birthday, as well as the 4th of July. They were both celebrated by eating obscene amonts of food...so I felt right at home. We were able to do a lot of good work with members this week which was really good.


Really quick story for the week. There is a family of Recent converts in the ward that we get to see a lot, and they are awesome. This last week, J (hes 15) was at a construction site, and somehow slipped and fell and was hurt really badly by some rebar sticking out of the ground. He was with his friends family (also in the ward). His friends mom heard the commotion and came over and saw the scene. She was trying to get everything in order, and she remarked that both of them were surprisingly calm. She suggested that they pray together, and they both responded that they already had. When I heard this, I was very impressed by the fact that two young men, one of them who has only been in the church for about 6 months, thought to pray in the midst of a really serious accident. Even though they had to wait an hour and a half before the ambulance could get him to the hospital, J said he felt comforted, and that it Only felt like 20 minutes. The Lord was with him, and responded to his prayer. May we all follow their example, and turn to the Lord Even in our most hard of times. I know he will answer.


Things are going well here, and I'm loving what I am doing. Thank you all for your love and support. I love you all!


Elder Duckworth

Simple, Yet Powerful

Originally sent June 30, 2014

Bonjour à tous!


This has been a fun, crazy busy week for us here in Toulouse. The sun has been out, and so were we. We had a lot of lessons with new faces this last week. We are making a lot of progress with building our teaching pool, and we are starting to find new people who are ready to progress.


Our equip here has been cursed with vacations. Everytime we find somebody really cool, and they are genuinely interested in our message, they leave. It has been hard to stay patient, but we are doing our best.


We have been able to find some really cool Chinese people as of late, and it has been a pleasure for me to get to know them and help them learn the gospel. My Chinese is still next to nothing, but the cool thing about the gift of toungues is that when we testify of the Savior, the spirit will help is out. I was able to say a very short testimony at the end of a lesson in Chinese, and even though I felt it wasn't much, our ami really appreciated the fact that I spoke her language, and she said she was really touched by what I said.


Over the past few weeks, a lot of my studies have been in the Book of Mormon, especially in scriptures that testify of Christ. I have grown in my knowledge, but more importantly spiritually as well. The things in the scriptures aren't just stories to me. Thanks to a lot of study and prayer, these things become more and more reality to me.


The Gospel is Simple, yet powerful and I have seen first hand how it can change peoples lives. Here in Toulouse we have a recent convert named R. I have been over to his house at least once a week since I got here. He has gone through some awful things in his life with drugs divorce, and illness. when the missionaries found him he was in a dark place, absouloute rock bottom. But he testifies that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what saved him. He is now a stong member of the church, and does missionary work every day. He has invited everyone he knows to come and learn about the Church. The progress I have seen in him, and the potential that I see in him is a living testimony of the Gospel in action.



I love you all lots, hope you have a great week full of Miracles!
Elder Duckworth