Morgan's 38 / 2013 letter with photos - Sept 23, 2013

Dear Family,

 Well what a crazy awesome week, and I'm not just saying that. This has been a memorable week for sure! On Saturday we had a missionary fireside. So all the Missionaries on Oahu got to go to the stake center on Saturday. We would have some guest speakers to talk to us Sister Soares and Elder Soares of the 70, and then Elder and Sister Holland too! So we were all sitting down waiting for the meeting to start. Then Elder Holland and the rest walked into the room, and we all stood until he took his place on the stand. Then he said he wanted to Shake every missionaries hand before we started the meeting. So Row at a time we went and shook his hand, and also his wife's hand and the Soares too. It was amazing to shake the hand of an Apostle of the Lord. Then the meeting started, and there was a musical number performed by a missionary choir. Then Sister and Elder Soares gave their talks. And then Sister Holland gave a short 5-10 minute talk, my favorite thing she said is "You don't have to be perfect to be a mouth piece of God, You Just have to be full of love and Faith." And that Satan tells us we are not worthy to do the work of the Lord. She brought the Spirit so strongly to the meeting, it just overwhelmed me.

Then Elder Holland's turn came. He spoke for almost an hour, the most amazing hour of my life haha! He said our mission is not the easiest time of our life, but it should be the happiest time of our life, if we are giving everything to the work, and giving our whole heart. Then another thing that stood out to me was he said "We as the Quorum of the 12 can expect 1 thing out of each and every one of you. The 1 thing we can expect from you is at least 1 convert on your mission, no matter where you go. That 1 convert that we can expect from you, is YOURSELF!" he said our mission should change us forever. And then he taught us about teaching through the Spirit with Power and Authority. He got super intense on some parts of the talk, where he was almost yelling at us full of love and conviction. I felt the spirit confirm to me that Elder Holland is an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the wonderful experience i had to be able to be in the same room as him, and listen to him speak.

It was also fun to see all the missionaries from Laie, Especially my Son Elder Talatau. He brought some things that i had forgotten in Laie at our Pad. And it was fun just to see him and talk to him for a little while.

So on Tuesday we had zone conference. Waipahu and Makakilo zones met together. ME and Elder Jensen had to give an hour long training to the zone. It went very well, we had a power point that we made, and just went through it. We taught them about Resolving Concerns, Listening, and Committing. Everyone said we did great. Bad news is that i lost my camera case at zone conference. My camera case had all my 3 old SD cards with all the pictures from my mission on them. My camera case still hasn't shown up anywhere. But here's the good news. Like 3 weeks ago i felt like i should make a back up of all my pictures. So i had some money and so i bought a cheap External Hard Drive. Then like 3 weeks ago, i put all my pictures from those 3 SD cards onto my Hard Drive. So all the pictures from my mission are safe on my Hard Drive, as long as i don't end up losing my Hard Drive too. But I'm still looking for my camera case, cuz it would still be nice to have. But thank Goodness that i felt impressed to make a back up of all my pictures, Heavenly Father knew i was going to lose my camera case, so he gave me the thought/ impression to back up all my pictures.

On Thursday we set up Zone Exchanges for Thursday Night, through Friday, and then switch back to your normal companion Friday night. So every missionary had a new companion. I went on Exchange with Elder Law. Elder Law is a Blind Missionary who is in our Zone. I have never been around a Blind person before, so i learned a lot from him about guiding him while we walk, and helping him with some of the simple things that can easily be done if you can see, but are hard for a blind person. So feel so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with good vision, and especially our whole family with good eyes. We are just so used to things the way they are that we begin to take them for Granted. Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many wonderful things, and so many wonderful gifts, that we don't appreciate sometimes. Elder Law is an awesome Elder and I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with him for the day.

I love you All! Love Elder Morgan Durocher

The Zone after a hike

 

 

Ethan's second letter in Argentina - Sept. 23, 2013

  Dear Family,

  I cant believe that it is already Monday. The time goes by so fast I cant even keep track anymore. The days have blended and I don't feel like I even am asleep for more then 10 Minutes and then its time for the next day to start even though i just got 6 to 8 hours of sleep. I am so glad to be here serving a mission here in Argentina. I had a last week and had a really hard time shifting one reality hit that, That I wasn't in Kansas anymore... Not that I wanted to leave but that I missed my family and friends so much. Then I talked to the zone leaders which is my companion and the other elder training Elder Paskett from the MTC and things are good and have been for that past couple days. I have been really studying the life of Christ and want to become closer to him because I know it will help with my Confidence, Confidence with the language, my abilities, and teaching. Just in general and its a good thing to do anyway.

   We found 21 new investigators in the past week, but people here are laid back and none are progressing because they haven't attended church. Its hard knowing how they feel and what they think due to me not knowing the language. I know that the Gift of Tongues is real and has blessed me so much. I just pray that the language keeps coming and i can understand more. I love this work and the things that i am able to do here. I am being molded by Jesus Christ For 2 YEARS and am going to come home as a polished diamond, still never perfect but a great diamond. I am excited to see the growth that will happen for me. I am so glad to serve the people here and be apart of this amazing work that happens here. The people are so humble and the poor give all they have to help feed us and help us out. I am so excited to be able to fully communicate with them.

   I love you all and pray that you will be blessed.

Elder Paynter gave me a Dog tag that has the Pray of Salvation and Joshua 1 verse 9

it says

US MARINE

I will be strong and courageous

I will not be terrified or discouraged

for the Lord my God is with me

wherever I go

I love this dog tag and i have had in on ever since he gave it to me. but instead of us marine, I'm a LDS MISSIONARY.

Know the lord is always there for us and blesses our lives. I Love You

Elder Durocher^2

 Mom here....    Sept 24, 2013

Hello,    See attachment.

When I talked with Ethan on Sept.9th while he waited at the airport to leave for Argentina, he asked if I’d received his last handwritten letter.  I said I’d gotten one when he first arrived at the MTC, but not recently.  He said he mailed another one, so I waited and waited and it never arrived!  I’ve been pretty sad about that because I love getting the boy’s letters!  Two weeks have passed and I figured it was lost somewhere from Provo to Cedar Hills.  Last night a neighbor knocked at the door and he said he got some mail of mine in his mail box!  I had to keep myself from snatching right out of his hands!  He had to explain the whole story and how his mail landed in someone else’s and….I’m thinking, GIVE IT TO ME!  He did and then he wanted to chat.  Well I had to be polite, but I wanted to shut the door and open my letter!  I was so stinkin` excited!  ….. made me wonder why the guy held it for 2 WEEKS….but I’ll suppress that! Haaa

I don’t send it to you to read to make it all about me, but to make it all about him and his testimony and growth as a person.  I am so proud of him and glad he is working on his own conversion and testimony and with that help other people to come unto Christ.  Morgan has a year ahead of this growth curve and I’m so very happy and proud of him too!  These boys have blessed this family and the family can bless them by writing them and supporting their efforts.

Thanks Ethan!  Thanks Morgan!

Love you,

Mom

Morgan's 37/2013 letter - Sept 16, 2013

Dear Family,

Well I want to start off with the something exciting that happened this morning. So this morning i was reading through the September 2013 Ensign, and i was just reading through a few talks, And GUESS WHAT??? The next talk i turned to was "The Healing Balm of Hope," By Vaughn E. Worthen. And i was like Wait! I know that guy, that's Caleb Worthens Dad, and then had a little burst of excitement to my companion. Then i read his wonderful talk that he wrote, and was amazing that i was actually reading a Ensign Article from one of My Best Friends Dad!! Crazyness!! My Favorite part is " We should focus on effort and progress rather than complete success. Confidence is not the certainty of success but rather the conclusion that failure does not determine our worth- we lose nothing by trying."

So this has been a crazy awesome week! Last week we set a goal to tract every single day, no matter how busy or crazy our schedule is, and we have been successful. Heavenly Father has Blessed me and Elder Jenson with Many Many Miracles. We have met so many nice people, who have invited us back into their home to hear the Gospel. I could go on and on about all the people we met this week, but that would take forever. But it sufficeth me to say Heavenly Father has Blessed us! I have been having fun tracting with Elder Jensen, we are getting really good at a door approach. I used to hate tracting, and knocking doors, but now i kind of enjoy it, and enjoy meeting all the people. We Introduce ourselves, and ask if we can say a prayer for them to bless their family, ( i mean come on who doesn't want an extra prayer for them) and then we say the prayer, and then ask them how they felt. Then we start teaching on the Doorstep about prayer, and lead that into the Book of Mormon, or about Jesus Christ's Plan for us or whatever the Spirit tells us to teach them about. Then we teach a little 5 minute Short and Powerful lesson on their doorstep, and then ask if we can come back and share more. That approach has been super successful for us, and we've been getting better and better at it.

So Sunday was Super Spiritually Awesome!! Before church started we went to our 16 year old female Investigator Memory's house to see if she was coming to church. And YAY!! she was already dressed and ready for church, and hour early. So we arranged a ride for her with a member Sister Williams, a nice old Hawaiian Filipino Lady. Then we loaded her wheel chair into the car for her, and drove off to church. We got to church, had sacrament meeting, and it was a missionary farewell so there was awesome speakers, focused on missionary work. Then after Sacrament a bunch of the Young Women came over and introduced themselves and talked to her, then they invited Memory to come to class with them. And so they took her, and pushed her in her wheel chair off to class. All the Young Women were super nice to Memory, and loved her. After Church Memory had the biggest smile on her face i have ever seen, and was super happy, and glowing! Then we asked her how she liked church and she said " It was so much fun!" Then Sister Williams drove Memory back home. Some of the young women are going to come to the next lesson. I have never seen a person Welcomed into a Ward like on Sunday, and i have never seen someone love church so much there first time coming! What a miracle!

At 4pm Sunday we had lesson with a new investigator we got last week. So we were driving to that and then we got a call from some Elders in the Zone, saying that we needed to come to them ASAP. They were visiting some investigator, and then a Giant Mastive Dog broke off its chain and chased the Elder Mendoza ( a small Filipino elder) and Bit his arm. Then the Dog let go and chased a smaller Dog, and killed the smaller dog.  Someone called the Cops, to report what happen, and an ambulance came to the scene. We rescheduled our lesson, and drove straight to them to help out. When we got there, the cop was filing the report, and someone was dressing Elder Mendoza's wound. He has a few bite marks in his arm, and a few gashes, but he's gonna be okay. We gave them a ride home, since they dont have a car.

This whole last week we have been trying to work on our Training. On Tuesday tomorrow, we have Zone Conference. Combined Waipahu and Makakilo Zone. And me and Elder Jensen have to have a 45 minute long Training to give at Zone Conference. We are going to train on Resolving Concerns, Asking Inspired Questions,  and Committing. With a few more things in between those.

Our Investigators are all doing great, I am loving this Area more and more every day! and growing closer and closer and loving more and more all the people i meet.

I love you al, thanks for Reading. I know Jesus Lives, and That Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God, and that We are Sons and Daughters of the Living God. I love you all, and have a great week! Thanks David and Lindsay for the Letter and the Great News! Congratulations and Im super Excited for the Both of you!

Love Elder Morgan James Durocher

            About an hour earlier Morgan wrote:

Hi Dad since we email in the Family History Center, They were helping me look up our ancestors for our Durocher Name. have you done very much of the work on the Durocher side? I know Oma Heller has tons of generations back on the Heller side, but the Durocher side aint got nothing on LDS family search. I tried looking up to see if we are related Distantly to Leo Durocher, because i get asked if I'm related to him at least once a week, and i always say " i don't think so, i need to do my family history." Has Grandma Wanda or Grandpa Doug done very much family history, or do they know where there ancestors come from? I'm just super interested now that i was looking it up. Is Grandpa's Legal Name Douglas? or Doug? and where was he born and what year?

Love you Dad, i got some homework for you to do haha.

Love Elder Morgan Durocher

Ethan's First letter in Argentina! - Photos - September 16, 2013

Dear Family,

    I honestly don't have all that much time to write home due to only and hour of being able to write, on top of that I had to write the mission president in Spanish and then read all my lovely letters. Thank you for everyone who reads and follows my emails. Forgive me for bad grammar or spelling or whatever i just want to get the email written.

    

   Tuesday morning we got to Buenos Aires and got to the places that we needed to get to in the city, which was the mission office. You think people in Cali, or Utah or in the USA are bad drivers!!! Just come to here and you'll see bad drivers. The speed limit isn't followed, there aren't really stop signs and people come with in inches of each other when passing and stopping and flying through red lights. On top of that add hundreds of scooters, motorcycles, and bicycles to the mix. It is crazy here. Then luckily we flew to Bahia Blanca and as we were landing it looks a lot like Idaho/Montana. Open fields and roads that surround the hundreds of fields. In the city in reminded me of cities in Montana. We hung out there and the next day I found out who my companion is. Its Elder Parkes, or Kooper Parkes from Sacramento California. We get along great and everyone is the presidents office like the assistants to the pres. were saying i have the best trainer in the mission. I'm excited to do work with him. We got 13 investigators in our first 4 days, and 3 with baptism in Santa Rosa. He is also new to this area, so were learning it together.

   Things that has happened this week.

      -bite by a dog

      - walked into a knife fight

      - hundreds of dogs everywhere, and me wondering how crazy Shelly Livingston would get because she would want to help all of them

      - gave away my first Book of Mormon on the first day

      - went to a house and was talking to a guy and a couple minutes later I saw him hiding/holding a knife with a foot long blade.

    Yes i know i shouldn't say any of these scary things in my letter because i don't want mom freaking out or anyone else, but i want you to be able to know and see what its like down here. There's a lot of nice people down here who are poor and super humble, and then there's ones who are exactly that but are scared when two white guys knock on there door at 8 at night with it being dark, who wouldn't grab a knife for protection. hahaha. He was a nice guy though, he was around my age or the early 20s. no the dog didn't do any damage at all, it felt like he just mouth my calf, and let go when it flexed as I was walking. 

   Know that I'm not scared of these things because I am here serving our Father in Heaven, and through him I will be protected, I know there will be trials but I will be fine. I am so excited to be able to serve here and help out these people who have never heard of Mormons, i know thinking that is pretty hard to believe but people seriously haven't. I am so glad to bring the light to people who so need the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

  My letter may not make much sense and is terrible English, but i hope you can understand like the people here understand my broken Spanish. I am so grateful to all of you and I pray that everything is going well. I love YOU all!!

 

            Love Elder Durocher

Keys are really like this!

Elder Parkes and Elder ECD