E-mail 06/25/2012

Hello super awesome family that is probably wiped out!

I read Mom's E-mail first today and it sounds like you all have been running around madly. Like chickens with your heads cut off.

This week has been an awesome week for us. We have seen a lot of miracles. One evening we were biking home after a hard days work. We passed a guy watering his yard and several yard after we passed him I thought to myself "we should go talk to him." As a missionary we are suppose to talk with everyone, so it would be easy to justify not going back. We already passed him and it would be weird to go back, or it's late and time to go inside, or even that's just me telling myself to go talk with him. Well, to avoid the feeling of regret, which I knew surely would come, we turned around and went to go talk with him. His name is Tom. It turns out that normally he should have been in Cincinnati, but due to other circumstances he was outside watering just as we passed. Coincidence? I think not. The Lord wanted us to talk with him. We taught him a couple days later and it turned out great. He believes strongly in the Bible. Considers himself Christian, but thinks that all religions are corrupted. He is very open minded. If he doesn't know something he goes and studies it. We don't have to worry about him not doing his reading. He said the only reason for us to discontinue meeting in the future would be if we stopped coming. He asked us if his baptism counted in our eyes. We started telling him nicely that it didn't, but he was looking for a blunt yes or no. So we told him no. He said he wants us to be that strait forward in future visits. We are going to see him Thursday. I feel a little disconnected from my area this week, but next week will be better. I went on two exchanges and we had interviews. We also spent the night in Plainfield. So Elder Judkins and I didn't work together in our own area from Sunday evening to Thursday evening. It is nice being in your own area. I love serving here. The ward is great! We are accomplishing much good. And loving it! I don't remember if I told you this, but Joseph, the one who just got baptized, has been given the Aaronic Priesthood. He is doing so well and is such a great guy. I also made a funny observation. People like to guess where missionaries are from, I think it's a game to most people. Besides the people who think all missionaries come from Utah, most people are confused with me. They guess and I tell them Utah and they are surprised. They tell me that I don't seem like I'm from Utah. Then I tell them I was born in California and they are then like, that's it, that makes scene. I'm not quite sure how to take that, but I think it's funny. Who would have guessed.

May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant