E-mail 10/17/2011

Hello wonderfulistic family!!

I love being a missionary! It is so awesome! My companion is so awesome!

This week it got a little chilly, so while I'm bundling up tight, Elder Brezenski is just going around in his suit coat saying I'm crazy and that it's not that cold. He is from Montana. Before that he moved from Alaska. I, on the other hand am from Utah. Before that I moved from Califonia. The conclusion than can be drawn that I am cold, and he is warm.

We are doing a lot of good over in this neck of the woods, literally. We are still teaching Joann, who has a baptism date, all that she needs to do is come to church. She read the book of mormon stories(It is not however called a comic book as I was so told when I called them that. It is a nice comic book though,) She came up with really well thought out questions. For example:What is the deal with the Liahona? Why did the three Nephites need to stay if there were lots of people to share the gospel? What is the deal with Nephi killing Laben? Elder Brezenski answered most of the questions. It made me really happy.

We found a lady, named Sis Sally, whom we are teaching. We are going to take a less-active member over to the appointment with us so that they can share their conversion story and hopefully they will become friends with the person and become active. Both are really nice and we think they will make good friends. Sis Sally goes to church and was baptized, but she doesn't feel connected with the church and she feels her baptism isn't valid becuase she wasn't immersed. Plus she gave us brownies :)

I love this Branch! I am learning so much from the members, the scriptures and my companion.

Thank you all for being so awesome!! May the Spirit be with you!

Elder Durrant

I read this today Duet 4:29 

E-mail 10/11/2011

Hello Glorious family!!
This week has been so awesome! We have been working hard and seeing lots of people.
We are teaching a sister, whose name is Joann, whom we have set a baptismal date with. She has been investigating off and on for two years. She prayed to know if she should be baptized, that very night she had a dream and she took that for her answer. Likewise, later, she was reading the Book of Mormon and the TV was on. She looked up at it and a Mormon.org ad was on. She took that as another answer. Whenever we are over there she is always asking if or when we are having a lesson. She is so awesome.
We are also teaching her brother separately. He has come a long way, before he didn't really want to talk to us, now he is always asking us when we are coming over next, or telling us to stop by anytime. We are trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon right now.
We are teaching another lady who at first only wanted to learn more, now she is sincerely thinking about being baptized. We have an awesome member who insists on going with us whenever we go over there. He is a good fellowshipper for her.
We had two lessons this week where Elder Brezenski led them out, he taught most of the lesson and at the end of each one he committed them to baptism. I was so happy! He did good. One of the people said probably the other said maybe.
This Mormon.org campaign is so cool! They have twenty or so billboards in the major cities. They have ads on all the local networks. Our investigators are seeing them and when they do they are like "I know them!" We also have people on the streets we talk to, they have seen the advertisements. It is really exciting.
Yesterday the Zone got together and we played football and ultimate Frisbee, which was fun. I didn't break anything, not even myself ;)
I love being a missionary! May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant

E-mail 10/03/2011

Hello wonderful family!!

I love being a missionary!

This week has been really good! We had a meeting where we were trained on how to use mormon.org, for the upcoming campaign. They are going to have about twenty billboards throughout Indiana. Commercials about I'm a Mormon. It is going to be sweet!

Conference was so awesome! I planned to share some of my thoughts, but I forgot my notes so I won't. Just kidding, I did forget my notes, but I can share what I remember. I loved Pres. Monson! He was so happy and positive! "Hello!" The priesthood session was so awesome! It was just full of rebukement! I thought it was funny when Elder Holland said that "there is a level of maturity that senior missionaries bring that a nineteen year old Elder cannot." Someone sitting next to me said "ooh burn" in my direction. It was a good talk. I enjoyed all of the talks. This was a very good conference. Either they are getting better and better or I am just paying closer attention.

There was a person who had gotten a cold. The same day they received a blessing. The very next day they were better and back to normal functioning. That is called a miracle.

My new companion is so awesome! He is learning all he can. We are having a good time.

The members here are so awesome. They do many things at great personal sacrifice. For example, we needed an exchange and no one was available so he accepted to go even though he was up at one o clock and would only get four hours of sleep tonight. Hometeaching is a different story as well. Instead of your five or six people being on three or four different streets, you have seven or eight people in three or four different cities. Can you imagine driving half an hour to get to your first home? They really appreciate all the work we do.

We had an investigator come to a movie night on Friday where we watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration. Then she came to both sessions on Sunday. She enjoyed both. She said it caused her to think, and Conference answered many of her questions.

Thank you all for all that you do! I love you! May the Spirit be with you!

Elder Durrant

E-mail 09/26/2011

Hello Wonderful family!
It's just little ol me here in big awesome Plymouth! I love it here!
I have a new companion. He is from Montana, Missoula (mizooluh), he is the oldest of seven, his name is Elder Brezenski. This is his first area. He is an awesome missionary. He is not afraid to talk to people. In fact, we were tracting some apartments and decided to use a different approach at each door. It was so much fun. We came up with some really good ones. We planned on spending only an hour on it, but we were having so much fun we spent two. We found a few people, too.
Saturday, the Branch was putting a new roof on a member's home. We went for a couple hours and since we can't go on ladders or roofs, we cleaned up the shingles from off the ground. We loaded them into a wheel barrel and rolled them up into a truck. We had a good time and worked hard.
We had a Church tour, which was good, with Bro Bruce. We had a member with us and we watched the Restoration afterwards. This guy is really smart, knows the Bible.
We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. She had been investigating off and on for two years, so we committed her to a date, she said she would pray about it, that night that she prayed she had a dream and she took that for her answer. She also said that parts of the Book of Mormon started making sense to her. So she accepted the date.
We are really excited for conference this next week. We plan on having a lot of investigators show up to parts of it. I love conference!
We had the Jacksons come to church on Sunday. That is there third time since I've been here that they have come. I am really excited about it.
How is the family?
I love you all! May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant

E-mail 09/19/2011

Hello Wonderful Family!!
We got transfer calls this morning. This week has been so wonderful! If I came out here to get numbers, which I did, just kidding, This week would have been the best. We had a lot of lessons. We had a few member presents. And a church tour.
The church tour was sweet! It was with a guy who said he would never come to church. Over the last months he has progressed from not really wanting to talk to us to wanting to have us over every other day. He has a three year old who if he had horns would be a little devil. He has the coolest evil laugh and is so fun. He chases us around and when he wants our attention he'll come up to us and shout as loud as he can "Hey." I love that family!
We are also having dinner with Sis Robin. We told her one of us might be leaving so she offered to feed us. She didn't come to church but she is still willing to meet with us. She is a nice lady.
We are also teaching a guy who will write reports for us on the chapters, from the Book of Mormon, that he reads. He loves that book, he is just nervous to come to church. We have brought a couple people over there with us. We are going to try and have a church tour so he can see that it is a normal little building.
We are going to have a few more church tours in the coming weeks. It is going to be sweet.
Sunday was Branch Conference, so all the Stake people were there. It was really awesome. Pres. Hinsdale, When he spoke, said that there may be better missionaries elsewhere, but there were no better Elders than us. Now I do not repeat that to be prideful, I would like to make a point by it. Especially to you FPH's. When you are obedient to the commandments and rules the Lord will take you, mold you, form you, into the kind of person that people will say, you are a great missionary. People know if you are keeping rules or not. It shines through your countenance, your words, your actions, in everything that you do. People will have greater respect for you and your calling. You can still have your own personality, your own characteristics, being obedient enables you to be yourself, your best self. Ok, I'm done.
In regards to who is getting transfered, Elder Pachner is leaving, I am staying. My new companion will be a greeny.
I love you all and your example to me. I love it here and love being a missionary!! Plymouth Rocks!
May the Spirit be with you!
Love Elder Durrant

E-mail 09/12/2011

Hello my family!!
You are so very awesome! This week has been so awesome! We are teaching lots of people and working miracles!
For Sunday we didn't have any investigators at church, but two non-members were there. The reason why they are not investigators is that we are not teaching them. One of them was our landlord, "Uncle Bob," he is really funny. He likes the Mormons and sticks up for us, and will say good things about us, but he won't be baptized. Missionaries have rented from him for probably twenty years and they've all tried. He is what's known as a Jack Mormon, or a Mormon sympathizer. He bends over backwards to take care of us.
The Jacksons came to church again! I was so excited to see them, they brought a friend as well. Pres. Hinsdale has a jar full of chocolate in his office for the little kids and Elder Pachner is always asking for chocolate; well, he asked for some right after sacrament meeting and he loaded both of us with chocolate because he was so astounded and happy. It made Elder Pachner happy, he likes chocolate.
We are still teaching Sis Robin. She didn't come to church, but last Tuesday Elder Pachner and another Elder taught her and committed her to baptism. I wasn't there so I don't know exactly how it went, but they taught her in a members home after dinner.
We are teaching lots of people. All are at there own level of progression, but that is the key word there "progress" In all that we do we do not want to move people backwards, we want them to move forward even if it's only half an inch, it is better than bashing with them and moving them backwards a foot.
Missionary work is the best thing ever!! I love being out here, I love the people here, and I love area!
May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant

E-mail 09/06/2011

Hello Wonderful Family!!
I love it here!! I love being a missionary! Things are going great, We are teaching lots of people, doing lots of finding, the branch loves us, and still get our daily dose of trials, life is good.
We had an investigator come to church. Her name is Sis Robin, she loved church. The members super fellow-shipped her. After church she spent two hours talking with members. She believes that God is leading her to learn more about us. We are having our third lesson with her tonight and are going to commit her to a baptismal date. She has been keeping all of her commitments. She is very smart, has a job, dresses nice for church, and is spiritual minded.
The family we are teaching, we are still trying to get another lesson with them. They didn't come to church, because of baseball games, but the dad still seems interested. We haven't given up on them, the kids are really awesome.
The Blueberry festival happened over this last weekend, the largest festival in Indiana. We went to a members home and watched the parade. It was good, they had a hot air balloon spewing fire, it was sweet. We saw a few people we knew, that's always fun. They were selling Krispy Kreme donuts, and I ate a few, but I'm not fat. :)
We are teaching lots of people, our pool has grown from three not too solid people to six or so solid people, we are helping these people progress toward baptism. Some of course take longer than others but they all need the gospel and are all children of God.
This Branch is so very awesome! They are missionary minded, they do all they can to support us and they feed us a lot. I love the people here. This is an awesome area. My companion and I are really working hard. I love my companion, he is very funny. He makes short, funny comments, and is not afraid to speak his mind.
Thank you for being so awesome! I love you! May the Spirit be with you!
Elder Durrant