E-mail 06/24/2013

Wow this week has been busy! I started to write out the airport story, but didn't finish. so maybe next week. as for this week, first thing was Tuesday. I was blessed with the interpretation of tongues, I was able to understand what was going on, I didn´t understand completely, just enough to understand what was going on. I was able to teach and ask questions and understand what they were saying, so I could respond to them, but then the next day I had a harder time understanding people.  Friday we spent the afternoon with the mission pres. and his family.  They gave talks and if I understood right, one of their daughters got her call.  Then we got some pics with them and they gave us a temple recommend holder with a message from them and the pic of the temple assigned to this area and they gave us a pic of them with their contact info.  Then me and my companion went with the mission pres. to work out the paper work for our new house.  We didn't get home till 11, but I guess it was alright since we were with the pres. then for Saturday morning we went to go see the new house.  It's about twice the size of the old house and it has one of the biggest backyards I've seen here!  It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs and a main room, kitchen, office room and a half bath downstairs.  The thing is, two other sets of missionaries are moving in with us.  We also found out our area is being split into thirds.  Well we spent most of the day packing and moving the stuff to the new house.  We moved only about two miles away,  the mission per-authorized us to borrow one of the members trucks.  It was in the zone leaders area, so they brought it over and helped us move.  We took turns driving, but I didn't dare to, but when my companion drove, well lets just say I appreciate the taxi drivers more.  I was glad when we were done, I never want to get in that truck again.  Then we helped some other missionaries with an activity of the tree of life, where we blindfolded a bunch of people and lead them out side where we tied a string to chairs and they had to make their way to the right side, and we divided into two groups.  One set tried to lead them away and the other tried to lead them to it.  It was very difficult.  I lead this one girl to the rope 5 times and she left it every time.  Then  Sunday we helped with a baptism and then waited for the call for changes.  Every companionship changed except for mine.  Even the hermana (sister)  who was training a hermana that came the day before me, was changed to the sister training leader.  Two hermanas are coming in, that is training another Hermana, so now she has to train two Hermanas. And I found out that one of the sets of missionaries that are moving in with us are the assistants to the pres., so I get to live with the assistants.  But me and my companion get Jesus Maria 1 and they get Jesus Maria 2, we don´t know who is going to Jesus Maria 3 yet.  And then we watched the broadcast for mission presidents, I was able to watch it in English.  It was awesome!!  And then we took pictures with the zone.  As for today we have been cleaning up the house.  It´s amazing how much junk missionaries collect over the years!  And while I´m writing this to you a storm hit and it´s raining really hard. I actually heard a docent boom from the thunder.

love Elder Durrant

      Que Dios le acompañe  (God be with you)

E-mail 06/17/2013

He took pictures of his letter and sent them to us to translate; unfortunately, like the Bible, pages were missing, so it is an incomplete translation.

Familia

Well the past two weeks have been an adventure; so I will go over that this week. Because multiple people have asked about part 2 of the airplane, I will try to go over that one next week and because there really wasn't that much more to it, I will put more detail into it.

Well as for two weeks ago, the reason I didn't e-mail was because I was skyping my family (for those of you who didn't know) and for those who were there, some of this might be a repeat. But after that I found out that I would be going on splits with the other district leaders companion, because the zone leaders and the district leaders were going to Leon for a meeting. Oh and my companion is the other district leader. We made the exchange on Tuesday night. I went over to their place and stayed the night and spent the day working in their area. It was a tough day, the first reason, … (page not sent)

then I would say, roller coaster, because the buses, they bounce up and down, side to side sometimes you feel like you going to die, and they even do loops.......around the city. Most of the time I have to sit sideways and if I'm not careful while standing, when the bus bounces I could hit my head. I've actually hit my head against the hand bars a few times. You also have to be careful when getting on and off. Because they are very anxious to get going. Once I got off about five feet from where my companion got off. As for the taxis, they're actually not as crazy of drivers then all the rest of the people on the road. But what makes a good taxi is when my head doesn't touch the ceiling and my knees aren't slammed against the dashboard.

Other things that have happened, is Monday when we got home and started to clean … (page not sent)

the other thing to happen this week was a storm hit. There was so much lightning that I could barely count to two when another would strike. It was kind of like a light show. The weird thing is I didn't hear any thunder. But it flooded part of the road. So that was kind of scary. But when we got home we forgot to close one of the windows so the next morning it flooded one of the rooms and it seeped into the bathroom. So you can image my surprise when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and I hear splash splash. My first thought was “crap, I hope this isn't toilet water” but then I flipped the light on and it was clean water. But we spent most of that morning cleaning it out. There was about a quarter of an inch. But luckily nothing was damaged. So that was a few interesting things this week.

Love

Elder Durrant

Que Dios le acompañe

(God be with you)

This is when Elder Christoffersen came

E-mail 06/10/2013 Pictures

David didn't write a letter this week, he just sent pictures, so here they are.  Enjoy.

 

So the one in the middle trained the two next to him and Osorio trained the one on the far right, and then he's training me.

My first baptism, well while I was in the area. It was on the first Sunday I was here.

This was my second baptism. I actually don’t know her name, couldn’t figure it out.

it was on the second Saturday here.

 

This was a primary activity they had us help with.

 

 

 

 

Here is some food I bought the other day. This is the first time I have seen a regular sized tortilla! and it tasted like I expected it to. Oh and that’s a burrito here and the sandwich is called a torta.

 

 I ate a jalapeno, yea it was easy in a torta.

 

 

Here is some of the food I bought. The juice stuff is what the people give us 

when we visit, only in different flavors.

k so the story behind this one is, I was visiting one of the Elders houses 

and I went into the bathroom, closed the door and saw this on the door.

 

You asked me for a pic of the buses, so I tried to get a pic of the inside, but it was bouncing 

around so much that it took me ten tries to get it, so I hope your happy with it, 

the second one is a pic of the button we have to push to get off.

 

 

Here’s a few of the tries, now the thing. all the buses here are different.

 

 

E-mail 06/03/2013

We had quite the surprise this week for David's e-mail. Here is what happened in Matthew's words.

It all started when the E-mail system beeped, early in the day, to notify that a message was received. Upon opening and reading the message the first line was disconcerting. It read “I can’t be on long.” Not the words that want to be read right to start with. Reading further the message became clearer. It was from our soldier of God in the battlefield. The message was brief, yet straightforward: "I'll call via Skype at 1300 hours." Anxious about what the reasoning for calling might be, other sources were called upon to decipher the strange message from this brave young soldier. Could he be injured, or sick, surely rebellion was not the reason. Puzzled and confused the allies gathered their forces together to await the soon to be delivered message that might change the course of the war, if nothing else the allies at home.

1300 hours arrived; the familiar sound of the Skype ring was heard. Shouts were made that the brave soldier was on the screen. A beautiful sight to see the fresh troop sitting in his barracks, the signs that he'd been engaged in battle filled his eyes. Joyous glances were exchanged, but wait, we could see him, but he was unable to see our image. Our technician went to work and shortly our image was relayed to his screen.

Finally the triumphant moment had come. What would he say? What important message had he to deliver? "Happy Mother's Day!" The wonderful words came from the lips of the young warrior to his dear sweet mother. "The general," he explained "saw it fit for those faithful troops who were belated in boot camp, so as to not be able to call their dear mothers on that blessed day, he ordered us to call and wish our mothers a Happy Mother's Day." He gladly followed this command with exactness. The next hour was spent in sweet reminiscence. He spoke of his adventures, his battle buddies, his success, and his trials; he spoke of the culture and the exotic food, the wonderful people, and his learning of their language.

Alas his hour had come; he must return to his post and perform his duties. Many people relied on him. The sorrow of parting was swallowed up in the joy of another reunion in six months time. What adventures will this young soldier have in that time? What new stories will he have to tell? We will find out when the snow falls on the ground and music of the Savior's birth fills the air. May the Spirit be with you!