Jaysen was asked to speak a couple of weeks ago and to include how the gospel has changed his brothers life who is serving a mission. This was Kyle's response when asked.
"Hmmmm how the gospel has changed my life. I think since my short time here in France, I think the biggest thing is what it really means to have the restored gospel. Now that I am somewhere where lots of people haven't really heard about us, I get to see people's reactions to when we tell them things like there is a living prophet today, just like Moses, or how we have another book of scripture, that contains the fullness of the gospel of Christ. Its awesome to feel the spirit that is felt as I testify of the first vision, and how a humble 14 year old boy saw God and Jésus-Christ. I get to see the hope in people's eyes when we tell them that they can live with their families forever. The claims we make are bold, but they are true. I have grown immensly grateful for the knowledge of the restored gospel, and the peace it brings to my soul. And with this knowledge, comes a burning desire to share it with anyone who will listen. At times it is hard, but it is sooo worth it :)"
Monday, March 3, 2014
Missionary March Message
Missionary life is really awesome. We follow the normal schedule, so lots of studies in the morning. Then we get to fill the rest of the day however we want. We try to teach as much as possible. Whether that is through people we have found through our contacting efforts, less active members, or active families, Everybody needs to hear the beautiful message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we dont have people to teach, we are looking for people to teach. We try to talk to everybody we come in contact with on the street, as well as we do the whole door to door thing. It can be hard at times, and it's definately not easy to talk to strangers. I am by nature a kind of shy person, and fear rejection from others. But I can tell you that I love being a missionary, and that includes doing door to door and street contacting! And that is thanks to the spirit. I feel the spirit the strongest as I am out giving all of my effort to try and bring others closer to Christ. We also get to do service a lot, which I love. It is one of the best ways to introduce people to the church. When people see us living what we teach, they become interested in what we have to say. We teach English class every thursday at the church, and we also volunteer at the French Equivelant of DI every week. There is never a dull moment. I cant even begin to tell you how much I laugh every day. This gospel is a gospel of happiness. I seriously love being a missionary, and even though it gets hard at times, I would not trade it for anything in the whole world... not even a Jetpack.
Now as for what you could do to prepare for a mission, there are a zillion different things that I could tell you, but you will probably forget everything, so I narrowed it down a bit. The first thing is to read Preach my Gospel. I know that it's not very original, and youve heard it a thousand times, but its true. It was written by inspired men of God, and it is basically the guidebook to be a perfect missionary. The other thing that I feel is important, is to just strengthen your testimony as much as possible. Your testimony is the most powerfull thing a missionary can use. I have talked to people who think that they have everything figured out, and that they don't need God in their lives. And they use modern day "facts" to try and disprove what I know to be true. But as I bear testimony, the spirit comes, and there is no arguing with that. So I guess I just invite you to continue what you're doing. Stay active in the church, go to seminary, participate in youth activities, you know the list. It sounds simple, but if you arrive at your mission already having a firm testimony, there is seriously nothing that can stop you.
Now as for what you could do to prepare for a mission, there are a zillion different things that I could tell you, but you will probably forget everything, so I narrowed it down a bit. The first thing is to read Preach my Gospel. I know that it's not very original, and youve heard it a thousand times, but its true. It was written by inspired men of God, and it is basically the guidebook to be a perfect missionary. The other thing that I feel is important, is to just strengthen your testimony as much as possible. Your testimony is the most powerfull thing a missionary can use. I have talked to people who think that they have everything figured out, and that they don't need God in their lives. And they use modern day "facts" to try and disprove what I know to be true. But as I bear testimony, the spirit comes, and there is no arguing with that. So I guess I just invite you to continue what you're doing. Stay active in the church, go to seminary, participate in youth activities, you know the list. It sounds simple, but if you arrive at your mission already having a firm testimony, there is seriously nothing that can stop you.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
I have the best job in the world!
Sent 2/24/2014
Bonjour à tous!!!!
This was a great week here in Beautiful Annecy France. The sun is shining, the gospel is true, and I have the best job in the world! Life is good :)
This week was just a really solid week of missionary work. We got to see a lot of our area (our area is stinkin huge, in two transfers I have still yet to see all of it.). We visited this sweet Romanian family that the Sisters are teaching. The Mom was baptized about a month ago, and one of the daughters is working on quitting smoking so she can be baptized. They are the nicest people ever. They have been going through some really hard stuff, and satan has been working really hard to discourage them. The mom was going to have to be deported back to Romania, but through a lot of faith, prayer, and help from the ward, she found a job (which is super hard to do here) and is now able to live here for the time being. She is very new to the gospel, but her faith in Jesus Christ is inspiring. Apparently she got in an argument with a Jehova's Witness who came to their house, and she defended the Book of Mormon to him. :) really cool family and if I stay in Annecy next transfer, you'll hear a lot more from them.
We also found a couple of people to teach. We have appointments for this week, and we will keep our fingers crossed. So hopefully next week i'll have some good stories.
On sunday, we brought this little boy named N___ to church. He is 10, but hasnt been baptized. His mom is inactive and doesnt come to church. The Sisters meet with her a lot, and apparently one time, the boy kinda got mad at his mom because he wanted to go to church. We live really close to them, so we worked something out so we are going to walk with him to church every week :) He has such stong faith, and it was funny we were walking home, and he saw one of his friends who basically asked what the heck he was doing, and he just said "it's necissary, I go to church every sunday" sorry for the bad translation, but basically he just said it very matter of fact-ly. It was very profound, and it really stuck with me. It made me really appreciative for the fact that I get to go to church.
Last story, Yesterday, me and my companion had a tombez vous, so we had an extra hour of work to do that we hadn't planned on. So normally this means we go out street contacting or door to door. But admittedly, we were kinda tired of that, and had done a lot during the week with no success, so we decided to switch it up a bit. I took my ukulule out with us, and my companion is a great singer. We just walked up to people and said, "can we sing for you?" The very first try was a beautiful, young family of four. They said yes (I was kinda surprised how easy it was) So we performed "somewhere over the rainbow" and they loved it! and after that they were very sparked, and asked us loads of questions. Long story short, we are going to go do a family home evening at their house soon!!!!! It made me and my companinon very happy to say the least.
I love you all, and my little thought for you this week is that God loves us, and wants us to be happy. I firmly believe that we choose to be happy. Its not always easy, and life is going to be full of ups and downs. But I can promise from experience that we just need to look at the bright side of things. God has to teach me this lesson over and over again because I'm so stinkin stubborn, but everytime I'm happy after a hard time here on the mission, its not because circumstances have changed, but more rather that I changed.
You guys are great, Have a fantastic week!
Bonjour à tous!!!!
This was a great week here in Beautiful Annecy France. The sun is shining, the gospel is true, and I have the best job in the world! Life is good :)
This week was just a really solid week of missionary work. We got to see a lot of our area (our area is stinkin huge, in two transfers I have still yet to see all of it.). We visited this sweet Romanian family that the Sisters are teaching. The Mom was baptized about a month ago, and one of the daughters is working on quitting smoking so she can be baptized. They are the nicest people ever. They have been going through some really hard stuff, and satan has been working really hard to discourage them. The mom was going to have to be deported back to Romania, but through a lot of faith, prayer, and help from the ward, she found a job (which is super hard to do here) and is now able to live here for the time being. She is very new to the gospel, but her faith in Jesus Christ is inspiring. Apparently she got in an argument with a Jehova's Witness who came to their house, and she defended the Book of Mormon to him. :) really cool family and if I stay in Annecy next transfer, you'll hear a lot more from them.
We also found a couple of people to teach. We have appointments for this week, and we will keep our fingers crossed. So hopefully next week i'll have some good stories.
On sunday, we brought this little boy named N___ to church. He is 10, but hasnt been baptized. His mom is inactive and doesnt come to church. The Sisters meet with her a lot, and apparently one time, the boy kinda got mad at his mom because he wanted to go to church. We live really close to them, so we worked something out so we are going to walk with him to church every week :) He has such stong faith, and it was funny we were walking home, and he saw one of his friends who basically asked what the heck he was doing, and he just said "it's necissary, I go to church every sunday" sorry for the bad translation, but basically he just said it very matter of fact-ly. It was very profound, and it really stuck with me. It made me really appreciative for the fact that I get to go to church.
Last story, Yesterday, me and my companion had a tombez vous, so we had an extra hour of work to do that we hadn't planned on. So normally this means we go out street contacting or door to door. But admittedly, we were kinda tired of that, and had done a lot during the week with no success, so we decided to switch it up a bit. I took my ukulule out with us, and my companion is a great singer. We just walked up to people and said, "can we sing for you?" The very first try was a beautiful, young family of four. They said yes (I was kinda surprised how easy it was) So we performed "somewhere over the rainbow" and they loved it! and after that they were very sparked, and asked us loads of questions. Long story short, we are going to go do a family home evening at their house soon!!!!! It made me and my companinon very happy to say the least.
I love you all, and my little thought for you this week is that God loves us, and wants us to be happy. I firmly believe that we choose to be happy. Its not always easy, and life is going to be full of ups and downs. But I can promise from experience that we just need to look at the bright side of things. God has to teach me this lesson over and over again because I'm so stinkin stubborn, but everytime I'm happy after a hard time here on the mission, its not because circumstances have changed, but more rather that I changed.
You guys are great, Have a fantastic week!
Salut!
Sent 2/17/2014
Salut!
Oh what a crazy week it has been!
It started of Monday with us getting on a train for our lesson with the less active family we have been working with. They are such amazing people, and it is really them who teach me. We taught them about the story of David and Goliath, and then worked it into how the Lord doesnt give us things that we cant handle (1 Néphi 3:7) And we got the family to recommence reading the book of mormon together! :)
After that we had to hurry and catch a train to take us to Geneva for exchanges (theres a theme starting here). Tuesday I worked with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Elvidge. We taught a dominican Lady The plan of salvation, and it was awesome. There were 2 members present, and they made the lesson just amazing. I have such a huge testimony of having members present while teaching! They are a lot less weird than us 20 year old americans in shirts and ties. Geneva is a really cool city, and I met a lot of people from all over the world. I heard 6 different languages used in an hour!
The next day we had a zone conference, and it was all themed on love. Kinda Gushy, i know, but the theme was that "Love is the Key". We talked about how love makes everything happen. And we were challenged to study this and come up with the answer as to how love makes it all happen. I am far from a scriptorian, but the cool little thought that I had was when I read John 3:16, which goes something like "For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son." This is one of the most well known scriptures in the world, but for some reason it struck me a bit different this time around. It made me think about how much God LOVES us, and thats why we have the Atonement, which Christ did out LOVE for us. And the Atonement makes it so that we can live forever with our Families, people that we LOVE the most, etc...
So from what I have tried to take from this little epiphany, is to try and love others unconditionaly. If love makes everything happen, I need to love others to make stuff happen.
After zone conference we had to run and catch another train to take us to a city called Annemasse for another exhchange. We got to teach these two kids who were baptized this last saturday, and it was awesome. They were only 10 and 14 years old, but I was very impressed by their testimonies, and desire to follow the savior.
After that we took a train back to good ol Annecy, and we got home to find out that the power was out! HAha apparently the office had a mix up with the bills. Its all taken care of dont worry, but for the next little bit we get to live like the pioneers i guess :) oh the fun times that we have as missionaries :)
Anyways I Love you all. Like for reals. And even if that doesn't really mean a lot to you, Our Heavenly Father also loves you, and that means alot.
Have a good week!
Love Elder Duckworth
There is a place in geneva called Holy Cow, and this is me eating the King Kong Carnivore. There are like 5 different meats on this bad boy. They all said I couldnt do it, but I did.
Salut!
Oh what a crazy week it has been!
It started of Monday with us getting on a train for our lesson with the less active family we have been working with. They are such amazing people, and it is really them who teach me. We taught them about the story of David and Goliath, and then worked it into how the Lord doesnt give us things that we cant handle (1 Néphi 3:7) And we got the family to recommence reading the book of mormon together! :)
After that we had to hurry and catch a train to take us to Geneva for exchanges (theres a theme starting here). Tuesday I worked with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Elvidge. We taught a dominican Lady The plan of salvation, and it was awesome. There were 2 members present, and they made the lesson just amazing. I have such a huge testimony of having members present while teaching! They are a lot less weird than us 20 year old americans in shirts and ties. Geneva is a really cool city, and I met a lot of people from all over the world. I heard 6 different languages used in an hour!
The next day we had a zone conference, and it was all themed on love. Kinda Gushy, i know, but the theme was that "Love is the Key". We talked about how love makes everything happen. And we were challenged to study this and come up with the answer as to how love makes it all happen. I am far from a scriptorian, but the cool little thought that I had was when I read John 3:16, which goes something like "For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son." This is one of the most well known scriptures in the world, but for some reason it struck me a bit different this time around. It made me think about how much God LOVES us, and thats why we have the Atonement, which Christ did out LOVE for us. And the Atonement makes it so that we can live forever with our Families, people that we LOVE the most, etc...
So from what I have tried to take from this little epiphany, is to try and love others unconditionaly. If love makes everything happen, I need to love others to make stuff happen.
After zone conference we had to run and catch another train to take us to a city called Annemasse for another exhchange. We got to teach these two kids who were baptized this last saturday, and it was awesome. They were only 10 and 14 years old, but I was very impressed by their testimonies, and desire to follow the savior.
After that we took a train back to good ol Annecy, and we got home to find out that the power was out! HAha apparently the office had a mix up with the bills. Its all taken care of dont worry, but for the next little bit we get to live like the pioneers i guess :) oh the fun times that we have as missionaries :)
Anyways I Love you all. Like for reals. And even if that doesn't really mean a lot to you, Our Heavenly Father also loves you, and that means alot.
Have a good week!
Love Elder Duckworth
There is a place in geneva called Holy Cow, and this is me eating the King Kong Carnivore. There are like 5 different meats on this bad boy. They all said I couldnt do it, but I did.
David and Goliath
Sent 2/10/2014
Bonjour Everybody!
Sorry i missed last week.
This last little bit has just been crazy! We are contacting like mad trying to find people to teach! This last week we contacted 721 people to show the Lord that we really want people to teach. And we actually taught a guy a legit official lesson! he kinda fell off of the face of the earth, but its progress! Also, we had 2 other lesson appointments, but they kinda bailed. But progress is progress, And things are really picking up!
It rained here all week, but that actually made contacting better, because people seem either really offended, or really impressed that you are crazy enough to brave the weather to share the message of the gospel with them.
My quick little thought this week is on David and Goliath. There was this gigantic man who everybody was scared to fight, except for little david, who was just there to bring people food. But he had faith in God, and was able to over come the giant. I would like to invite all of you to pick a Goliath in your life. No matter how big or small. But pick one, and go to the Lord for help. If you have faith, I promise you that you will be able to overcome your Goliath. And thats a missionary promise. They hold extra weight :)
Love you all, have a great week. Here are some pictures of some of the little towns that are in our area :)
Bonjour Everybody!
Sorry i missed last week.
This last little bit has just been crazy! We are contacting like mad trying to find people to teach! This last week we contacted 721 people to show the Lord that we really want people to teach. And we actually taught a guy a legit official lesson! he kinda fell off of the face of the earth, but its progress! Also, we had 2 other lesson appointments, but they kinda bailed. But progress is progress, And things are really picking up!
It rained here all week, but that actually made contacting better, because people seem either really offended, or really impressed that you are crazy enough to brave the weather to share the message of the gospel with them.
My quick little thought this week is on David and Goliath. There was this gigantic man who everybody was scared to fight, except for little david, who was just there to bring people food. But he had faith in God, and was able to over come the giant. I would like to invite all of you to pick a Goliath in your life. No matter how big or small. But pick one, and go to the Lord for help. If you have faith, I promise you that you will be able to overcome your Goliath. And thats a missionary promise. They hold extra weight :)
Love you all, have a great week. Here are some pictures of some of the little towns that are in our area :)
Live your life for others
Sent 1/27/2014
Bonjour!
This week was really great!
Not a whole lot of "action" but I just love doing this work, and although it does get really rough at times, i would honestly not have it any other way. I'm learning so much about myself, and about our savior and his love for us. Just in case any of you don't know it, God loves you :)
We had our lesson with our less active family and it went so well. Branch President Demure came with us, and it just went well. Their little boy had out his book of mormon picture book and asked if he could sit by me :) so adorable. But he already has is mind made up and wants to be baptised :) The family is basically just waiting on the dad. He has a killer testimony, and does so much for his familly. He just wants to make sure that he comes back to church for the right reasons. We will be meeting with them soon and they have commited to read the Book of Mormon together :)
If i were to give you all a summary of what i learned this week, it would be to try and live your life for others. I was going through a rough patch (as missionaries do) and things were just not going anywhere. But I thought of how Christ lived his life. He was always serving, and something i hadnt quite though of before is that he IMMEDIATELY forgave. As I have tried to apply these principles in my daily life our work has gone a zillion times better. Im far from perfect, but all the Lord asks from us is our effort and his grace is sufficient for the rest :)
I love you all, and i have felt your prayers. It sounds weird, but its true. I pray for you too and hope all goes well :)
Bonjour!
This week was really great!
Not a whole lot of "action" but I just love doing this work, and although it does get really rough at times, i would honestly not have it any other way. I'm learning so much about myself, and about our savior and his love for us. Just in case any of you don't know it, God loves you :)
We had our lesson with our less active family and it went so well. Branch President Demure came with us, and it just went well. Their little boy had out his book of mormon picture book and asked if he could sit by me :) so adorable. But he already has is mind made up and wants to be baptised :) The family is basically just waiting on the dad. He has a killer testimony, and does so much for his familly. He just wants to make sure that he comes back to church for the right reasons. We will be meeting with them soon and they have commited to read the Book of Mormon together :)
If i were to give you all a summary of what i learned this week, it would be to try and live your life for others. I was going through a rough patch (as missionaries do) and things were just not going anywhere. But I thought of how Christ lived his life. He was always serving, and something i hadnt quite though of before is that he IMMEDIATELY forgave. As I have tried to apply these principles in my daily life our work has gone a zillion times better. Im far from perfect, but all the Lord asks from us is our effort and his grace is sufficient for the rest :)
I love you all, and i have felt your prayers. It sounds weird, but its true. I pray for you too and hope all goes well :)
Prayers are answered
Sent 1/20/2013
Bonjour mes amis!
This week was great! we had an appointment everyday! We met with a lot
of less actives and it was a good experience to meet all these new
people. We got transfer calls and i am staying here in annecy for
another transfer
We had a really cool story this week,
A few days ago we got back to the apartment after a long days work. We
had a lot of dissapointments that day and we were really tired. I
offered to make dinner while my comp Elder Heck made some calls.(im
getting good at cooking.) The calls were going nowhere and on the
last number we had we got an answering machine. But the story doesnt
stop there!
The last number we called which was a less active family called us
back 5 min later and said ok we need to tell you guys somethig. It
turns out that they were praying that night as a family before dinner.
In the prayer, the dad asked heavenly father for help with some trials
that they are going through. Right after he finished the prayer is
when we called. They didnt recognize the number, so they didnt answer
but as soon as they heard the message they called us back.
As it turns out, the family wants to start coming back to church, and
they have a 8 year old son that they want to be baptized!!! they are
going to have us over soon to teach the missionary lessons!!! It was
such a miracle, and it was very humbling to be the means by which the
Lord did a miracle.
Such a cool story
I love you guys and My little thought for this week is that prayers
are answered. Not always immediately, but they are.
Have a good week!
Bonjour mes amis!
This week was great! we had an appointment everyday! We met with a lot
of less actives and it was a good experience to meet all these new
people. We got transfer calls and i am staying here in annecy for
another transfer
We had a really cool story this week,
A few days ago we got back to the apartment after a long days work. We
had a lot of dissapointments that day and we were really tired. I
offered to make dinner while my comp Elder Heck made some calls.(im
getting good at cooking.) The calls were going nowhere and on the
last number we had we got an answering machine. But the story doesnt
stop there!
The last number we called which was a less active family called us
back 5 min later and said ok we need to tell you guys somethig. It
turns out that they were praying that night as a family before dinner.
In the prayer, the dad asked heavenly father for help with some trials
that they are going through. Right after he finished the prayer is
when we called. They didnt recognize the number, so they didnt answer
but as soon as they heard the message they called us back.
As it turns out, the family wants to start coming back to church, and
they have a 8 year old son that they want to be baptized!!! they are
going to have us over soon to teach the missionary lessons!!! It was
such a miracle, and it was very humbling to be the means by which the
Lord did a miracle.
Such a cool story
I love you guys and My little thought for this week is that prayers
are answered. Not always immediately, but they are.
Have a good week!
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