Monday, June 18, 2012

E-mail 06/18/2012

Hello awesome family!
This week has been intense. It has been warm. I almost got eaten by a dog. And we are teaching lot's of people.
The temperature got up to one hundred for a couple days. Our thermometer read ninety nine and we didn't think it would make it that last degree, but it did. It was kinda humid too. I love the warmer weather. While I am thriving most others are dieing. I have in my district the missionary I trained, the one from Alaska/Montana. He is one that is dieing in the heat. We did have the car this last week  so that made it nicer.
 We taught Bro Jim this last week. He has been taught for about two years. So for our investigators we make "teaching records" that we keep in the "area book" and on the back of these we describe each visit we have with that person. If we meet with people a lot there is not enough room on the teaching record, so we cut out a new one and tape it to the back of the old one and continue writing on the new one. When I got here I saw the longest teaching record I have ever seen. He had seven pages. Although, the good thing about that is now we know exactly what his concerns are and instead of guessing and beating around the bush we know what his concerns are and can help him overcome them. He is very open with us. In our visit we taught him about the atonement, justice and mercy, and faith. After which we invited him to be baptized. He said "Well, I've already been baptized. but are you going to ask me something else?" "will you be baptized?" came the reply. He said "I've been thinking about it a lot. I can give you a definite maybe. I agree with the doctrine, I just have a lot of challenges." I was amazed by his answer because I expected a no. His answer was in the direction of baptism. He eventually will be baptized.
We taught Julianne this week as well. She is getting baptized in July. She is a single mom and is working three jobs. It is hard to meet with her, but she wants to be baptized. If she has to work on Sunday she will go to another ward that starts at nine, ours is at one, then go straight to work. She is a great lady.
Saturday we had a priest go on exchanges with us all day. It was a "day with the missionaries." We had a great time. We tracted and talked with a guy who told us boats weren't invented until the eighteen hundreds and the Jews hid the Book of Mormon during world war two. We had a fun day. We taught a few people. I cooked him lunch. For some reason most people won't eat my cooking. It's weird. But Kenny, the priest, loved what I made him. I cooked up mac and cheese, stirred in tuna and green beans. It was really good.
So, the dog that almost ate me. Sunday morning, before going to church, we went by this less-actives house. They had a chain link fence around their big yard. We whistled and heard nothing so we started walking to the door. We got half way when two barking dogs ran around the corner. I thought, oh, here come the dogs. They were chihuahuas, yapping at us. One came up and tried to bite my shoe. I shewed it away with my foot. As we were about to walk onto the porch I hear this deep bark. I thought "oh crumb!" Around the corner comes this big Rottweiler with the kind of speed and bark that you know they are not coming to say hi. We jump onto the porch, Elder Judkins is behind me, I turn to face the dog with my scriptures in my hand ready for it. (one reason I carry my scriptures instead of using a back back:self defense.) It came up and was about to bite me, I swing my scriptures and missed it's head by an inch. The dog retreated because the owner ran out and yelled at it to go in the back. As you can imagine I am shaken. It's a good thing God watches over His missionaries.
That was my week. Pretty exciting. I love it here and I love serving the Lord!
May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant

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