Cody's third E-Mail. We love that Boy!!

Hey guys sorry I can’t reply to everybody I don’t even have time to read all the e-mails now ill have to print them off, thanks so much! The packages you guys sent were freaking awesome thank you. I really liked the Corvette ZR1!! And the yoyo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Thanks dad) but the letters were the best! You can’t get any of the candy you sent here everybody was like what the heck is this! And the other package was great too! Good idea. The candy (sweets as they say) here is really good.


I leave the MTC tomorrow! And it’s a couple of hours by bus. I can’t wait to get there and get started. We just did another finding activity last Thursday where we went tracting door to door. We ran into some really weird people one Satanist she was creepy but we managed to give out 2 Book of Mormons. One guy was riding a mini bike and he seemed pretty interested. The MTC is so great! The spirit is thick enough to cut with a knife almost. I loved Elder Holland’s talk. It was so powerful. Well IV got to get off the computer now. Talk to ya later.


ps. mom fix all my misspellings before you send this to people. Lol

Happy Birthday Elder Cody Duke

Cody's 20th birthday in England! His Mission President's wife Sister Clegg sent us this picture of him. We also sent him a candy/chocolate basket from a local bakery there in England. Hope it was a wonderful day for him!

Cody's first e-mail from England

Ello Mum,.
Just kidding this is Cody over in the UK. Sorry for not writing, this is my first chance to E-mail at all ,and I only have a few min, so excuse the misspellings.I'm doing great here though so far. my comps. name is Elder Foong, he's pretty cool he's actually from Malaysia but he speaks great English. we have been studding a lot like every little bit of free time we have. as soon as I got here they called me to be district leader over the Nephi district, so that's been kinda tuff. I'm not really used to being a leader I guess. It seems to stay pretty cold here when I landed it was like 50 and it only goes down from there, and its always cloudy but it doesn't rain very often. the Preston temple is beautiful. its all made out of granite. and it has some of the nicest grounds I've ever seen, with lots of strait hedges, bushes, lily pad ponds, and trees. we actually just got back from there. Well i've only got 5 min. left so I apologize for the sloppiness of this E-mail. How are you guys doing? What's going on in church, and school, and stuff. write me back.

Cody,Friends,family,last meal in Arkansas for 2 years.

Cody Leaves for his Mission to England !!

Our Visit to the Grand Canyon

Our family had the best Vacation ever.

We stayed at our Brother and sister's house in Mapleton Utah for our families best vacation ever. We went to the Temple and did the tour of the Conference Center and Temple Square and the Bee Hive House. We went to The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving point in Lehi Utah. It has the distinction of being the world's largest display of mounted dinosaurs.

We took a beautiful drive to Cascade Springs which is on the Alpine Loop at the summit between American Fork and Provo Canyons. The road travels to Cascade Springs in the Uinta National Forest, then north to Wasatch Mountain State Park and there is a beautiful view of the back side of Mount Timpanogos. The Springs features large springs cascading down the mountain slope in a series of limestone terraces and pools.

The kids climbed Y Mountain. went swimming with Aunt Carli,Provo Mall To Mr. Mac's, Deseret Book ect ect ect. Went to Cabelas, Brick Oven, Five Guys,Hogi Yogi's,Cold Stone and In and Out Burger.

We left Kevin and Carli's and Went to Danny and Jaci's in Las Vegas. We saw the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel, saw the Las Vegas Temple at night, went to the Hoover Dam, and to top it all off we visited the Grand Canyon

Our Salt Lake Temple trip.

We took Cody to the Salt Lake Temple last week in preparation for his departure on his mission to England. We had a truly blessed trip and are so thankful to all the love and support during our trip. There are a few things in a parents life that are truly Awesome and that will let you know that you have done a few things right and this is one of them.

The Blessing of Melissa Hester

Cody and Sean where able to help in the blessing of the newest child in the Duke clan. Sean's niece Susann had a 9lb 2oz baby girl about a month ago. We just happen to be there the sunday they blessed her.

Trip to Saint Simons Island

There was a full moon over the water that night.

Shayna is learning to swim.

Cody and Dallin entertained us.

Kaylee? Guess? She's not listening to the ocean in a shell.

Shelly was able to have fun at the beach. She didn't have to worry about little ones for a change. She loved it.

Traders hill Gator

On part of our 4th trip to Georgia we went to my Mama's home town of Folkston. Folkston is on the Georgia Florida border and the boundry line is the Saint Marys River. Theres a place on the river called Traders Hill where people fish and swim and lonch there boats. We saw these people acting kinda fishy over on the bank. They had a fishing pole but I don't think the fish where biting for some reason. What do you think?

CODY GETS HIS MISSION CALL !!!

Cody's Mission call came in the mail Saturday June 6th. He was over mowing his grand parents lawn and Shelly had the idea to surprise him on Sunday when Ron and Pat came home from there month long vacation. So Ron and Pat where going to be getting home at 6:30 and we were going to pretend to have a welcome home party. We had some snacks and invited the whole family plus Bishop McKinney and two of his kid, who are Cody's friends. Some of the idea was Ron's so he got it started. He asked Cody if he had gotten his call yet and Cody said he hoped that the Stake President had sent it off. (We had been trying to call him with no luck) Then we went around the room and everybody guessed where they thought Cody would serve. Some of the places guessed where, Brazil, Hawaii, Wash. DC, Wash. State, Jamaica, Japan, California, and David (Randy and Felicia's son) guessed England. We had Cody's call in a gift bag next to the chair he was sitting in. I stepped over pulled it out and put it in his lap and said lets just find out right now. And he said "WHHHAAAATTT ARE YOU KIDDING ME". He said he thought this was a weird coming home party but he didn't have a clue what we were doing. And I guess y'all figured it out he's going to the Birmingham England Mission.

Dallin after one week with his first bow.

Kaylee shooting my 22 pistol in our back yard.

Kaylee Graduated from Seminary tonight and from school yesterday. We are so proud of her. Now off to college to use her scholarship.

Things I learnt in Georgia

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2.. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Georgia..

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Georgia ..

4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

5. 'Onced' and 'Twiced' are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.

7. 'Jaw-P?' means, 'Did y'all go to the bathroom?

8. People actually grow and eat okra.

9. 'Fixinto' is one word.

10. There is no such thing as 'lunch.' There is only dinner and then there is supper.

11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar.

12. Backwards and forwards means, 'I know everything about you.'

13. The word 'jeet' is actually a phrase meaning, 'Did you eat?'

14.. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH EM.

16. You measure distance in minutes.

17. You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.

18. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal..

19. You know what a 'DAWG' is.

20. You carry jumper cables in your car --- for your OWN car.

21. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.

22. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and high school football.

23. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

24. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit 'a bit warm.'

25. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.

26. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past time known as
'goin' Wal-Martin' or 'off to Wally World.'

27. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees)
as good hog killin' weather.

28. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

29. We don't need no dang driver's ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit.

30. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Georgia friends and those who just wish they were from Georgia

We went shooting when Kevin was here.

I guess you can tell who is the best shooter in the family.

Moon Shine in Arkansas

I took this picture on January 1st 2009

Christmas at Grandma's

Christmas