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. 

Saying Goodbye to President Montalti

Hola Familia,

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! Thank you for being such good parents and for being so strong in the gospel. Out here on the mission we see a bunch of people that have problems because they aren´t married. It also is a problem because they can´t get baptized. We have an investigator that her husband, boyfriend whatever he is, he is a member, but a member that isn´t doing very great things with his life. He doesn´t actually want to marry her which causes a whole lot of problems for us. So thank you so much for being such great examples for me. I got Olivia’s dearelder online article. Thanks Olivia. Olivia, Te amo mucho tambien!!!! Sorry for not writing very much. Last week I didn´t have very much time. We don´t have much time sometimes. This past week was alright. We had the closing conference with President Montalti. It was kind of weird to be saying goodbye to your mission president because he is leaving. We didn´t find too many investigators this week. We need to find more. I need to find more people to help. I guess Heavenly Father is just testing my patience. The other Elders in our sector had a baptism this week. I actually put the Baptismal date with him his first week in church but it was the investigator of the Hermanas but then they got changed and they brought in Elders so it was their baptism. It was still awesome to see him get baptized. His name is Luis Alvorado. He is pretty cool. This week we will have to find more people though. We will see how things happen next week because we will have a new mission president next week. This past week nothing much really happened. I still haven´t gotten my package. I am actually still waiting for a bunch of dearelder letters. I guess that is how things go out here in Machala. But could you guys send me a flash drive with church music on it? The music that was on the music player I had. My flashdrive with the music from elder hoskins broke, I don´t know how but it did, so I am once again without music but if you guys could send me the church music that would be super super awesome. Thanks!!!! Anyways, thank you guys so much for all the love and support. I hope that you have a great week. Will don´t worry about your haircut. I got one today too, except another Elder cut it, Elder Madrid from Argentina. He is one of the other Elders in our sector. Well I love you all and miss you all greatly.

Love, Elder Benjamin Berg Duzett

Working in the Lilian Maria Ward

Hola Familia!!!

Happy Fathers Day Dad!! I am glad to hear that everything is well with you guys. Machala is pretty awesome. We are still trying to create a program here in the ward Lilian Maria but we will have more success this week I know it. The airport next to the chapel, well l don´t know the last time it has ever been used. It is just super long stretch of dirt. I guess you could say it is abandoned. Machala is part of the South Mission so I think I will be staying here in the south. The south mission didn´t really loose too many sectors. The North mission lost more. But we should be getting the new mission president here in the next couple of weeks. We will have to see what happens with that. Our sector is pretty big and there are some cool places in it. Dad I am glad that that bench finally got done. That's cool that Ali gets to be part of Special Needs. That should be super fun. They are are always so awesome to be around. Well this week not really much happened. President came to do closing interviews but I had already had mine so just said hi to President but every time he tells me to send his best regards to Dad, I guess that's how I would say what he says in  Spanish in English. Anways I miss you all so much but I am so glad to be here the mission is awesome. I am having a great time. WE cooked some pretty good burgers today. Anways, love you all so much!

Love, Elder Duzett