Six Months in the Mission!

I do have some good news. I sent a letter today!!!! I hope that you guys will get it. We are doing pretty well here. We have a baptism this week. His name is Kevin Holgin. He is a youth that is 14 yrs old, I almost said a youth that has 14 yrs, This week I had a pretty cool experience with a family named the Espinoza Family. I told you about it in the letter but basically what happened is We got a reference from President Torres to go visit a family Espinoza. When we went we found that family waiting for us and the dad was in basically his last moments. They wanted us to heal him. I gave the blessing and I felt super strongly that Heavenly Father wanted him home and that his suffering in this world is almost done. We then taught the family the Plan of Salvation which was pretty awesome. These past 6 months have really flown by. Much has happened and we will see what more will come in the months to come. It is crazy that Spencer is over the hill. It won´t be long now. Today we made pancakes that were pretty good. Yesterday we tried to make brownies in a family night but the oven did not really work very well. It was good though! We watched some Mormon messages which were pretty awesome. We are still looking for more success here. Hopefully we will be able to find a family that we can teach this week. That would be super awesome. Anyways I am so grateful for you guys and all that you do for me. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve a mission. I am grateful for the blessing that the lord has given me especially my family. I know that the lord will lead us in the right direction if we are obedient and listen to him. I thank you guys for listening. I love you and miss you all greatly. Have a wonderful, wonderful week! Love, Elder Duzett Leer, 1 Nefi 3

Elder Mario

Hola mi Familia,

Como estan todos? I am doing pretty great here. We did not have very much success this week. There used to be 4 elders here in this sector but they closed the other one so we got their program. The investigators they had were not really interested at all so we are kind of just starting over from scratch her. Pero va a ser chevere! We have a goal to put 24 baptismal dates this week. It is a number that is very unlikely but we are going to do it!! We do have one investigator that is progressing. She is from Italy and is here visiting her dad for two months. I am pretty sure she will get Baptized in a couple of weeks. That will be sweet I will have a convert from Italy!!! We have not been able to contact Cecibel but a member said she said something awesome on facebook about how Heavenly Father is there for us through all of our challenges or something awesome like that! We are still trying everything to help her out. We will see!! Today was a pretty interesting day. We went to get haircuts and it took forever to find a place that was open. We went to talk to a member who has a haircut place next to her house. She was like ya my son cuts hair so we were like ya and well He or she cut our hair. It was a little awkward if you know what I mean. Then they gave us lunch and my lunch had the best of the chicken in it if you know what I mean. It was a very interesting morning! Anyways everything is going good here. We are working to build a program here! I hope that everything goes well with Ali’s birthday!! I am excited for Maren. She will be great! I do have some great news!! This tie that I am wearing right now is pretty sweet!! And the dulces and the beef jerky and the cherry heads and the pirate booty and the cards were all pretty sweet!! And a mountain of dearelder letters!!! Anyways I hope all is well with you guys. I am glad the funeral went well. Hopefully next week I will have more to report on but I think this is all for now!! I miss you all and love you all greatly!!! Some scriptures that I really liked this week are Alma 17:11 and Alma 27:26 or 26:27 I am pretty sure it is the first but they are pretty awesome!! Anyways love you all greatly!

Love, Elder Duzett

A New Companion

Hola, Mi Familia!

I am so sorry to hear that Uncle Bud passed away. Give Aunt Marjorie a big hug from me. I know that death is a hard thing to go through. I know that the family is forever. I know Uncle Bud will be missed. The big news for me today is that Elder O’Neil was transferred. I have a new companion. His name is Elder Christensen. Who knows maybe I will always be with gringos!! He is super cool though. He is from Provo! But he actually is a Utah fan which is pretty awesome. I am super excited. The sad news this week is that Cecibel could not get baptized. She is 24 yrs old but when her Mom found out that she was getting baptized she locked her in the house and she has not been allowed to leave this whole week. Nobody has seen her. It is a horrible situation. We have not gone there more because we can’t. But we continue to pray and fast for her. I am excited to find more people to teach. It will be great with Elder Christensen. His first sector was actually Santa Monica too. That is pretty much everything that has gone on this week. To answer your question Mom about the temple, President Torres said that if we have converts that are getting sealed in the Temple we are allowed to go. So if Dalila and Deivi get sealed while I am here I will go!! I hope Will has a great time at scout camp. Dad, give him a hug from me when you go up there.  Anways I love you all so much. Thank you all so much for your great emails. I hope you all have a great week. A scripture to check out is Alma 26 verse 27. Have a great week, love you all. 

Love, Elder Benjamin Berg Duzett

Where in the World is Elder Duzett?

Pretty Good Week

Hola mi familia,

como están todos?

We have had a pretty good week this week. On Thursday we had a conference, training I guess you would call it here in Machala with the new misión President, President Torres. President Torres is awesome. He is a super loving guy. Hey has such a strong testimony. Hey is starting to institute new health rules for the misión. In the training he taught how to wash our hands. It was actually pretty awesome. His family is super humble and awesome. He has three kids that are here with him but one of his daughters has her misión call to Chicago so she will be leaving soon to the Mexico Mtc. It is funny his kids speak English and pretty much no Spanish. I got to talk to him for a second. He was super loving and he just offers words of encouragement. I am glad I have the chance to have him as my misión President. The other good news is that we are going to have a Baptism this Saturday. Her name is Cecibel Gonzalez. She is the cousin of the member I was talking about. She had to work on Sunday so we did not know if she was going to be able to go to church but she actually paid somebody to take her shift. It was awesome. She has a strong testimony. I am super excited for her. We are also starting to find more people to teach. We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday which is not great at all but better than what we had been having. President Torres put a goal for 600 baptisms ever month. But he also put another goal that I really love. He said that recent converts have to go to the Temple to do Baptisms for the dead within 30 days of their baptism if they live in Guayaquil and at a máximum 3 months if they live out of Guayaquil. I think that is awesome. It will help them stay strong and active in the church. We will see what other changes that will come. Transfers are this Sunday or they would have been with President Montalti but we will see what happens. That sports news is pretty crazy. Biedrins huh. Brad Stevens, wow!!!!! That is crazy. The jazz totally should have gone for him!! Thanks for the flash drives!!! we will see. I haven´t gotten mail for like 1 month or so. I guess it is a lot harder when we are here in Machala. We do see banana trucks all the time. And full banana things. Sorry about my spelling if it is wrong in this email. But that is all we see. No mountains no ocean nada. That is one thing I definitely miss is the mountains. Anyways I hope that all is well with you guys. Hopefully I will get that package this week or a letter will come through. We will see but we do have a Baptism this week. Anyways have a great week!!!! Love you all tons!!!!

New Mission Info - July 1, 2013

Ben has been gone 5 months now! I think they have been the slowest 5 months! We are so grateful as a family for all the love and support you give Ben! Here is his email for the week:

Sorry last week we didn`t have much time to write because my companion broke his foot getting off from the bunk bed. He can actually walk on it so all is good.  This week we actually found a girl who is the cousin of a member and she is 24 years old. We taught her early this week and in the closing prayer she asked if this was true and she started to cry. The spirit is awesome. She came to church yesterday and she really liked it. She is going to get baptized the 20th if not the 13th which we are going to push for. Sorry about photos. I really haven`t had time and I really haven`t had much to take pictures of. I will try to take more this week. I haven`t heard anything about what is going to happen this week. We will just continue like normal. Hopefully we will be able to meet President Torres, sounds like he will be awesome. Anyways a scripture to take a look at that is awesome for this week is 1 Nephi 3:17-19. It is a great scripture for this week. Tell Grandma thank you for me. I bought a super sweet Jacket from the Ecuador National Soccer team. It is super sweet. And about Kendra, that is awesome! (She has a mission call to Paraguay) She will be great. I am so glad she is going. I am so glad that she is coming here to Sur America!! She will be great. Anyways I really am doing great here. Sometimes it is super hard but I will keep working hard trying to help people out. I will keep sharing my testimony with as many that will listen. And hopefully we will be able to have success. Anyways I love you all so much and I miss you all so much. Have a great week and a great 4th of July!!!!!

Love, Elder Duzett

Here is a map showing the new mission boundaries in Ecuador as of today on lds.org

Ben's mission is the furthest south in Ecuador containing Guayaquil, Machala, Loja, and Cuenca.

Here is an article from Portales, New Mexico paper about Ben's new mission president, President Torres and his family.  We are humbled and grateful for their sacrifice to serve.

Mission of medicine, helping, drives family

June 6, 2013

Dr. Maxsimo Torres went on his first church mission to South America more than 30 years ago.

Later this month he will return to South America for another mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his wife and two of his children.

Torres, chief medical director of La Casa Family Health Center, is moving to Ecuador to fulfill a three-year mission. He said the primary goal of the mission is to invite others into the word of God.

"I will be helping whoever I can as a physician, as well as working with and supervising missionaries, visiting with church members and just sharing the word," said Dr. Torres, 53.

He will be joined by his wife Blanca, and his children, Cariel, 13, and Jarom, 11.

The Torres family has sold most of its belongings, including the family house.

A family physician since arriving in Portales in 1995, Torres will be serving as the mission president.

Torres' two youngest children were apprehensive about moving to Ecuador.

Blanca Torres said her childrens' first response to being told about the trip was, "Do we have to go?" However, the Torres said they have taught their children through Sunday school, family home evenings, and general parentship the value of giving and helping others.

"They've learned the importance of following what we believe to be the Lord's hand through our lives," says Dr. Torres.

The youngest daughter, Cariel, was the first of the family to willingly sacrifice something dear to her, when she gave away her pet cat, Splendora.

"We believe the definition of sacrifice is to give up something good for something better," Dr. Torres said.

Torres went on his first mission at the age of 19 to Colombia in June 1979, serving for two years. He says it won't differ much from the first one except for it will be three years instead of two. His wife, Blanca, also served a mission in Los Angeles at the same time.

The Torres have four other grown children, including two who have gone on missions of their own.