The House on the Banana Estate

Todd's translation of Spanish in parentheses.

Hola Familia, Como estan. Espero que tuvieron una semana con muchas experiencias buenas. (Hello Family, How are you. I hope you had a week with many good experiences) Espero que escuela, colegio, todo fue excelente. Esta semana tuvimos una buena semana. (I hope that school, high school, all was excellent. This week we had a good week.) Fuimos lejos contactando un dia. Fuimos caminando casa a un finca de banana. (We were far away contacting one day. We were walking by a house on a banana estate) Allì encontramos una investigadora muy buena. Ella tiene 22 anos. Se llama Anna Gabriella. (There we found an awesome female investigator. She is 22 years old. Her name is Anna Gabriella.) Lo siento allì es un poco de mi espanol. Todovia estoy aprendiendo! (I’m sorry there is a little of my Spanish. I am still learning!) But we found this girl with her mom. We helped them carry a big jug of water to their house. We then taught her the Restoration. Afterwards, she started talking about how she was looking for more peace in her life. She started to cry about her past experiences. She then said she was for sure coming to church with us yesterday. On the second visit she told us that she believes the Book of Mormon is true. Then on Sunday she was sitting waiting for us to take her to church. She said she had read a chapter of the Book of Mormon every day. It was awesome. She is preparing for her Baptism on the 14th of September. I hope and pray that everything will go well for that. I am not sure if I will be here for it though. Tonight is when they are calling for the transfers. Most likely I will get transferred but we will see. I will go wherever Heavenly Father needs me. I have met some great people in this ward. The mission is definitely awesome. I did get my music this week. Thank you guys so much. And thanks for the Hectors sticker. It made me laugh. Health wise I am perfectly fine. My anxiety is not really too bad at all anymore. A couple weeks ago I did get sick. I woke up in the middle of the night and threw up 10 times. It was kind of horrible but really it was a blessing because now I am not really scared of throwing up!! It had to happen eventually and now hopefully I have got it behind me!! But now I am totally better, no pasa nada! (nothing is wrong) Well I love you all very much. I miss you all very much but I know that you are all in the Lord’s hands. Mom safe travels this week. Saludos a todos en Denver! (Hello to everyone in Denver) I hope you all have a wonderful week.

 Love, Elder Benjamin Duzett


Baptism pictures from last week

Another Week in Machala!!

Hola Familia!!

The pictures of the first day of school look great!! I hope that they all had a great day at school!!! Just wait till the first day of the mission! Now that is much more of an experience!! Give them all a hug from me!! They look so old in their pictures!! When I show people pictures of earlier in my mission people always tell me that I look so much younger! Apparently I look pretty old! I guess that is what stress does to you, it makes you look old! And sometimes I feel like it but it is all worth it when we see the changes in the people that we teach. We were so blessed to have our 4 baptisms this last Saturday! It was super awesome to see. It was awesome to see how excited they were before their baptisms and it was super super awesome to see Adilen finally take that step that people have been telling her to take for a long time. We were talking to her family and they live in the house with the grandma. They said that the grandma normally doesn't like the missionaries very much and neither did Adilen or her mom. But they were saying that they and especially the grandma are going to cry when we leave. The grandma really is the coolest lady!! I am so happy to have met the family. Dad we will be visiting them when we come back!!! Other than the baptisms this week was pretty fine! We hope that we can have a better week this week and that we can find more people to teach! I am hoping that we can find a sweet family to teach. I hope to find a family like ours that is just searching to find this happiness. I hope that all is going well with you guys. You guys will have to send me pictures of the house when it is all done!! I pray for you guys everyday and I can feel your prayers everyday!!! I still don't have my music but I am sure it will come soon. Thank you all so much for your love and support always!! Love you all so very much!!

Love, Elder Benjamin Duzett

The computer is not letting me send pictures so I will try to send them next week, Sorry!!

Another Awesome Week!!

Hola Familia, Espero que todo esta bien con ustedes!! This week was pretty great here! On saturday was had 2 baptisms and on Sunday the 2 confirmations! It was pretty awesome. Cristel was so excited. She is super happy! We stoppped by her house today and she was reading the Gospel Principles Manual and she is almost read the whole thing. She will be super awesome there in Italy. Eunice is also super chevere. She is from Spain but lives with her aunt and uncle her. Her mom lives in Spain and told here that she could not get baptized. She went and told her mom that she was getting baptized because she wants to and not because anybody else wants her to and that she was getting baptized whether she likes it or not. She is eight and super awesome. The baptisms went pretty great! Yesterday we were only able to help 6 investigators to church which is not great but not horrible. We were glad that the 4 that have baptism dates came to church. We have an investigator named Adilen Mendoza. She is the niece of the Ward Mission Leader. The missionaries have been working with her to get baptized forever. We found her in the area book when I was with Elder Oneill. We invited her to go to church and she went and she has been going to church since with her mom who is inactive but she kept telling us no to baptism. For like two months she has been saying this. Yesterday we had a miracle. She came up to us and said that she is getting baptized this Saturday. I was like what!!!!!! It is so awesome. She is 19! We have been working with her family for ever. Her Grandma is the funniest lady ever. She always gives me bones whenever we are shaking hands to leave. Adilen will be a super strong member. She received an answer and is taking a step of faith. I am super excited for her. It was a super happy day!!! Also three of Kevin's siblings are also getting baptized this Saturday. The mom still does not want to have anything to do with us but she wants us to teach her kids and that her kids go to church. Kevin will have to be the dad and take to church. Their dad passed away like two years ago so hopefully we will be able to help the mom realized the plan of salvation. I am super excited for the baptisms on Saturday and the confirmations on Sunday. It will be a great week. We are doing great here. The mission is pretty awesome. The time goes by super super fast here. I got an email from Elder Burns today which was pretty awesome. He says he is going to take me to New Zealand someday. That would be sweet. Anyways, I am loving the mission. I am learning new things everyday and learning to recognize the spirit! I know we can feel the spirit always if we just look for it. I know that this church is true. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ!! I know he lives. I know that our Heavenly Father is guiding our lives! I am so thankful for this gospel. Les amo muchisismo! Nos vemos ya mis mito! I love you all so much!! I hope you all have a great week!!! 

Love, Elder Benjamin Duzett

 P.S i still dont have the music but I am sure it will be here soon.

 Oh and Machala is a lot cooler than Guayaquil. It is a lot cleaner and it is also a lot safer. Also Machala is the place in the mission with the most baptisms!! It is awesome here!!

Happy Monday!!

Hola Famlia! Como estan? I hope that all is well with you guys. It is still kind of hard to believe that you guys are getting ready to move. I hope that all is going well with everything there. I was thinking about that you guys were moving and our theme scripture from seminary in my senior year came to mind. Proverbios 3 verses 5 y 6. ´´Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths´´. That is so true. We are going to have a lot of things happen in our lives that we don’t know why they happen but really if we just put our trust in the Lord everything will turn out fine. That is something I am definitely learning more on the mission. As really I have not had as much success as I would like as far as baptisms go. But I definitely have had to trust more and more in the Lord. I know that if I trust him I will end up where I need to be. Here we were very excited to have our baptism. Kevin Holguin was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was pretty awesome. He is only 14 yrs. old but he was super happy after his baptism and his family came to his baptism which was super awesome. We are working with the family to hopefully get them all baptized. We were also very excited to have 10 investigators in church on Sunday!! It was pretty awesome. We also are very blessed to have 2 baptisms this Saturday. The young woman from Italy named Cristel Hall is getting baptized. She is 17 and is super awesome. She definitely received her answer from Heavenly Father and will be a great member there in Italy!!! We also found out that a girl who is 8 who is getting baptized this Saturday is not registered in the church. She was never blessed or recorded by her mom that lives in Spain. She is living with a family in our ward. So the Bishop told us that it has to be a baptism of the mission. We are more than happy to teach here and to help her with her baptism. I am super excited for this Saturday! I know that patience is something that I am learning on my mission. I know if we wait patiently on the lord he will give us the success we are looking for! I know this church is true and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to help others come to the knowledge of the truthfulness of this gospel. I am so grateful for the experiences that I am having here on the mission. They are definitely once in a lifetime experiences and I will never forget them. I continue to pray that all will be well with you guys and that the Lord will guide our families to where they need to be. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week. Remember Proverbs (I think that is how you spell it in English) 3 5 and 6.

Love, Elder Duzett