Headed to Houston!

Hey, today I got my reassignment! I'm going to Houston Texas!

My flight leaves early on Tuesday morning.  Two others from my district got reassigned to Houston as well, so I'll be flying with them. 

I'm excited to go to Houston; mostly because I didn't pack for cold weather and it definitely isn't cold down on the Gulf of Mexico, lol. I am dreading the humidity though. Elder McCleve is the other Elder in my district who got reassigned there; which means that we've been called to each other's same mission twice now (Florianopolis and now Houston), and we're both from Seattle area. Weird.

So I got my hair cut  today and went to the Provo Temple for the last time.

Today, I met two people who are connected to our family. The doctor who looked at my foot today turned out to be Uncle Steve's old mission companion, Bill Jackson.  There was also a temple worker in the Provo Temple named Ted Duffin, who turned out to be one of Dad's cousins.  So I thought that was interesting!

This was one of my Portuguese teachers, Brother Durfee. I would ALWAYS draw bunny ears on the whiteboard and try to get a photo of him wearing them at the right angle, but he would always catch me before I could get it, and he'd erase them.
 I FINALLY got him in this one! haha

Also, tell Sarah Duffin that I ran into an Elder Victory here at the MTC. He says she's friends with his sister.

Oh, and tell Mimi and Ron that I got their Cinnabons and that I say thanks! They were tasty :)

I took a few elders on a tour of our neighborhood last night using Google maps; our house got compliments ;)

Glad to hear that your garden is holding up against the weather, Mom! I'm starting to see signs of Fall here in Provo. It was chilly this morning, and the leaves are starting to change colors. I don't ever want to live in Utah; the weather's too bipolar. Of course, I'm sure Utah's freak rainstorms are better than Texas's humidity :P  Oh well, lol.

Thanks for all the letters and pictures and packages and stuff!

This made me laugh so hard. This was one of the cards from one of the 6 yr olds I taught in Sunday school class. The translation below made it a lot clearer---hahaha

 

 

 

 

The shower heads here look like Daleks, lol

I'm looking forward to talking to you on Tuesday from the airport! And if you could send me another jar of pickled beans to celebrate, that would be much appreciated!

Love, Elder Duffin

First Post!

Welcome to Ben-Daniel's Mission Blog.  This is where his mom posts portions of his letters and emails home and lots of pictures of his travels.

He left August 14, 2013 for the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  He has received a call to Florianopolis, Brazil.  (After some weeks of studying Portuguese, he now spells it "Brasil."  I'm still kind of attached to the z, so I'll spell it the American way for now.)  His Brazilian visa has not yet arrived, so he will receive a temporary reassignment stateside until it does.  We should hear about that soon.


Now I'll get out of the way and let Ben-Daniel tell you what's been happening with him.

Me with a bust of Joseph Smith, founder of the church.

My schedule differs slightly day to day, but I always get up at 6:15 every morning to shower. At 7:15 I eat breakfast in a large cafeteria, and then my district and I go to Portuguese class.  At 12 we go to lunch, then more Portuguese class. We sometimes have a devotional after dinner. Then at 9:30 we head back to our dorms and I write in my journal until 11:30, at which point I fall asleep instantly.

My dorm

My district is small; only three companionships (including my own) and one sister companionship, consisting of three sisters.

I'm trying to stuff myself with as much food as possible at every meal to gain some more weight.  The food at the MTC is really good.  Lots of variety. 

Studying Portuguese

We spend more time in Portuguese class than anywhere else during the day. It is taught by a Brazilian who we call Irmao Pinho, "Brother Pinho." He's only two years older than all of us in my district, and we all have a pretty good time in class.

There are gorgeous sunsets here nearly every night.

Me and Jake Theriault in the MTC.

The story behind this picture:

It was a Tuesday, and we had our Tuesday evening Devotional in the Marriott Center, which is across the street from the MTC. The Marriott Center is a basketball stadium. We heard the apostle Elder Anderson speak there, and during that time a freak storm blew in that poured Olympic-sized swimming pools outside. We all had to run back through the massive parking lot and swim across the rivers that had formed therein, then wade up the street and back to the MTC. We were soaked within one minute of stepping into the rain. lol.

Elder McCleve is from Bellingham and is also going to the Florianopolis mission.

More sunsets.

Me and Elder McCleve, goofing off.

This is a statue of Samuel Smith, Joseph Smith's younger brother. He was the first missionary of the Church.

This is the guardian of the Provo Temple. He sits on one of the lights that illuminates the big sign on the back of the temple and keeps watch. He's got three or four little female quails that scurry around in the bushes beneath him.

Outside the MTC gates are some so-called "mountains."  They are hills by Washington standards.

I didn't think it was possible to unintentionally photobomb my own photo, but I did in this one lol.

My illustration of Lehi's dream.

Utah weather is bipolar. 

The stairwells look like the sets in the Portal games; I thought that was cool. 

This is what my desk looks like.

I like taking pictures of Moroni.

I have trouble staying awake during talks, so I draw things like this to keep me awake.