Pictures 04/30/2012 (Plymouth, IN)

E-mail 04/16/2012

Hello awesome Family!! I love the word awesome by the way.

This week has been amazing! We set a baptism date with Emily. She is getting baptized the twenty eighth of April. Sooner than we expected. We thought it would be in May. The ward has jumped onto it like a load of bricks on a wagon, or something like that. Emily is super excited to get baptized. Both Elder Walker and I get to stay another six weeks so we will be able to see the baptism. So exciting!

We have become increasingly busy. Things are picking up a lot. Almost all of our evenings are full of appointments. The members are very supportive by going with us to the lessons. I love this ward. Our Elder's quorum President is so awesome. He speaks Russian. If we need something, anything, he will help us.

With Bro Tom we watched the Restoration video. He enjoyed it. He really loves hearing sincere testimony. That is how the Spirit touches him the most, I think. During the lesson I told him I had a profile on Mormon.org so he looked it up right than. He thought it was funny how I only had my last name. "like Madana." He and the member we brought said it was good how I had a strong family that loved each other and were willing to hang out with each other. Some families dislike, hate, or loath each other. They won't speak to each other let alone help them. I do have a good family.

Lots of good things happened and are happening. Many miricles. It is awesome!

A few quotes I like before I go. "The differance between a doctor and a lawyer is that one makes you feel better."

"Scriptures should clutter your house."

"Come again when you can't stay so long."

"A happy wife makes for a happy life."

My favorite of the bunch. "Singing one verse of a hymn is like kissing with one lip."

One more, "clip clop clip clop bang, what is it?"

May the Spirit be with you! I love you!

Elder Durrant

Pictures from Plymouth, IN 04/16/12

Suspenders rule!

Elder Rees and Elder Pachner

Yeah! Ramen!

It tasted...good...

Pretty clouds.

My companion was abducted.

Light saber!

Arrrrr!

I built this. It took a p-day and a few breaks.

0rawr!!

Bro and Sis Jackson

Yea! Bow tie!

Carson, Jorge's son.

Jorge, one of our investigators.

My companion loves cats.

Bruce. One of our investigators.

Elder Banner and me

Elder Banner and me

Bite for you!

Elder Pachner and me

E-mail 04/09/2012

Hello gloriously awesome family!!

This week has been so awesome! The Easter bunny hit us hard core. Don't worry I'll take more pictures. ;)

The beginning of the week was funny because after our meal appointment they took us to our next appointment without our asking. We planned to bike out there. It was about three miles from home. Our appointment canceled so we walked home. But it was good because we were able to talk with a few people.

We had interviews this week. They were in our apartments. They inspected them. A few days prior we were talking with our Elder's quorum president and The high priest group leader about the interview. They had a lamp from "a Christmas story" I think, and they tried to convince us to put it in our apartments and see what president and sister Collins would say. We didn't do it and interviews went great.

We taught Emily this last week. We had given her the things that she needs to do in order to be baptized. When we came over she had the chairs all set up, her books ready, and her check list of things to do all ready and filled out, as well as a written report of what she learned as she read. She was super diligent and did everything asked of her. She has a strong desire to be baptized and when she prays she prays. We are working out a day for her to be baptized. It will either be the end of April or the beginning of May. When we meet Wednesday we will finalize a date. We are super excited for her.

We helped Bro Tom clear some trees out of his garden and then we took on the task of cutting down part of a tree. It had vines running all through the branches so we had to go through and cut most of them before we cut off this huge limb. The base of this fine was two inches in diameter. With the vines cut, we sawed through the limb. It fell but the little twisty vines running the through the upper most branches held so we had to carefully put weight on it and snap them lose. Once it was on the ground we quickly cut up the branch and had it all cleaned up. It was a lot of fun. Plus the lesson we had a previous day was really good. One of the home teachers and one of the visiting teachers came with us and the bore sweet testimony which touched his heart. It was really good.

Easter was really awesome. We had dinner with the Andersons. They fed us well. They had an Easter egg hunt. When he announced it he said "we have an egg hunt for Ethen, Jenny, and the Elders." It was fun looking for eggs. I felt like a little kid again, or still. ;) We had a great Easter. We were also able to watch the video the church has made for Easter which is on Mormon.org/Easter. It goes briefly through the life of the savior, it is really good. It was cool too, because I was reading in the new testament and I read the account in Matthew on the part where he is crucified then rises three days later as the Resurrected Christ.

Thank you for your love and support. May the Spirit be with you!

Elder Durrant

Pictures from Plymouth, IN 04/09/12

E-mail 04/02/2012

Hello Wonderful family of mine!

This last weekend was so amazing! Conference is like Christmas, only better.

Our Saturday was awesome! At ten, 2 eight year olds were baptized. Max the eight year old that we taught the lessons to was baptized by his dad. We were able to help confirm him. It was so awesome! It is really great when you get to see the results of your work. After the baptism we walked around the block waiting for Conference to start. We saw a moving van and we thought "there's an opportunity to serve." We walked up and asked the three sisters if they needed help. They accepted. They had two couches and a arm chair they needed moved. As we were moving the items they said "God answers prayers." It was really cool to be an answer to someones prayer.

We then watched Conference. It was so good. After which we had a picnic with the other missionaries in our district. Today was just really good. We did a lot of good things. And heard a lot of good things.

Emily, the nine year old, is picking a date to be baptized right now. We are really excited for her. She and her mom are going to work really hard to accomplish what they need to so that she can get baptized. She really wants to be baptized. When she said the closing prayer after our lesson she prayed that she would be able to be baptized.

We are working with another lady who is coming back to church. Recently she has caught the Spirit of Elijah. She has big time. After we first talked about it with her, she attended a family history class. After that and a few other events she has become super excited to find her family and do work for them which they cannot now do. She has a lot of family to find, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, she feels energized. She wants to find every single person in her family and do the work for them.

I liked Elder Scott's talk and Elder Wilson's talk. They were both very good. Priesthood was amazing! They didn't really talk a lot about missionary work, but they really hit on priesthood duty. It was really good. I loved it!

I love you all! May the Spirit be with you!

Elder Durrant 

E-mail 03/26/2012

Hello gloriously shining happy family!!

What a week it has been! It has been so crazy.

The beginning of the week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I stayed in my area. We didn't have the car this week, so we biked everywhere. This zone leader, who is awesome, hadn't ridden a bike in six months. I ran him through the ringer. We biked about ten miles, going up hills, down hills, on flats. He loved it though. We had a good exchange.

We had a tornado, too :) It picked me and my companion up and launched us twenty feet from where we were standing. It was so awesome! Too bad I am just kidding, because that would have been cool. No, we only saw the funnel cloud. It never touched down. When it started hailing we took cover under a church, not ours, but is worked. It was really cool. Then it was gone and we taught a recent convert.

We had something really cool happen. Friday we passed out a card to a guy as we were hurrying along. That evening he called us and we met the next day. We were running way behind in all of our appointments that day, but he waited for us. We set an appointment for the next day. He is really open and receptive. We have to give him to the YSA (Young single adult) missionaries though. Which is alright. It's there stewardship. We can't receive revelation for those out of our stewardship, so we would be just kicking against the pricks. It was really cool how that all played out.

One of the areas nearby had a baptism and we invited one of our investigators to see it. He walked three miles to come see it. Now that's dedication.

Sunday evening our whole district, four companionships, went and chalked the campus. Meaning we took chalk and drew pictures or funny phrases and next to it we wrote mormon.org. It was so much fun. We had some really creative ones. We did the plan of salvation, "modest is hottest," A big tree with family search, "even I can check out mormon.org from my chair(next to a handicap parking.) They were really funny. We had a good time.

You are all fantastically awesome! May the Spirit be with you!

Elder Durrant