E-mail 12/30/2013

WOW what a week!  Well first of all, it was pretty fantastically awesome to see you guys this week, well I thought about some of your questions this week.  One of them was what nicknames do I have for being tall, well like I said I don´t really have any, but I´m always used to line up the camera when we have a group photo and they people here always think I am really old because I´m tall.  One sister in Aguascalientes thought I was 33 years old, and there was one sister that was flirting with me that was 28 years, until she asked me how old I was. :D

As for the temperature this week, well it was hot until the day after Christmas, so it felt more like Christmas the next day then the actual day.  It still hasn´t snowed, but one sister here thinks it will snow this year.  Here they get snow every once in awhile, I hope it´s this year.  The cold just makes live more exciting, something different, always hot is just so boring.

Well the next time I will try practicing my English so you can actually understand me.  You know, just the thought that I have to practice my English is funny. :)

Well as for work, our ward mission leader (LM=líder misional) came home on Christmas break, so we have taken this chance to work hard with him.  At one point we visited every one we could think of that was close by, but no one was home or was busy, so we asked our LM if there was a less active close by that he knew of.  Well after a little while we went and visited a family, the father is a member, but the Mother and two boys aren´t.  They were very interested in why we visited them, so when we told them what happened, they said God must have sent us, because they are going through a hard time right now.  Something happened at church so they stopped going, but they don´t go anywhere on Sundays, and she wants to start going again, so we have high hopes for them.

We hope to have two baptisms this week.  One of them, she just needs to be married, which we are working on doing this week, it´ll be a very simple wedding, but then she can be baptized.  The other one is ready she just has a few of those little worries, she is ready she just dosen´t think so herself.

Oh and I forgot to tell you when I called that President Villarreal says hi.

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant

Email 12/23/2013

Well this week has been fantastic.  We had the mission Christmas party this last week, and Pres. gave us all new scripture cases with our names on them and chocolate.  We each bought something for another missionary, I got socks and more chocolate, :) and we did some skits about the nativity, and I was Joseph.  We also sang a song in English "What Child is This". When we finished and headed for Fresnillo, because we meet together with the zone in Zacatacas, we got on a bus that was already full, so we crammed in and sang carols, it was awesome.  I have also seen miracles this week, one of them was that we managed to have 7 with a baptism day and they all came to church this week.  I don`t know why but we have been having a hard time getting our investigators in the CdeO (Casa de Oración or House of Prayer) lately, but this is the most we have had at one time here.  The other miracle is that I lost my bag with my scriptures in a bus in Fresnillo, we had already bought the tickets for Rio Grande when we realized so we called the DL, because it passes by his house. I didn`t hear anything from the zone leaders until about five,  because that's when they had time to go by where the bus stops for a time (they live close to it.) Well they told me it was in the first bus they asked.  I learned a valuable lesson about faith, I have a quote that says "faith and doubt cannot exist in the same person at the same time" I believe it`s from Pres. Monson. I had to take out all my doubts before I got a confirmation.  And it helped to help others, a new investigator had an experience a lot worse then a lost bag, so just remember that our trials aren`t just for us but to help others to.

Love you Lots and I will be talking to you a las tres en la tarde de navidad! (at three o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas!)
Elder Durrant

E-mail 12/16/2013

WOW!! Thanks everyone for your emails, oh and don´t forget to do the same for Daniel.

Well this week has been busy, we have none stop working, we have so many people to visit that we just don´t have time to visit everyone, then to top it off we had another meeting with Elder Ortiz (first or second counselor in the area Presidency) with new commitments for us, the way we work is changing, we are focusing more on working with the members and focusing more on the less actives.  We will now be treating the less actives like investigators, and the members have put together a list of less actives and friends of the church.  Rio Grande has put together a list of 207 names, the branch pres. has them and will work out a time to visit them with the person that gave the name, so we are just overflowing with work.  Elder Ortiz also told the Hermanas (sisters) to feed us more because we will be needing the energy.  But it hasn't been a problem, the Hermanas (sisters) here feed us a lot.  I think I am getting fat here, not really, I'm still skinny.  Well as for my comp. you maybe wondering what his name means, well it means smiley or smiling.  So it's not Elder Risueño but Elder Smiley.  Oh and we didn´t get those other two missionaries here this cambio (changes-transfers)  but Pres. told us this week we could start looking for a house, so we will be getting them this next cambio (changes-transfers). 

Oh and if anyone is wondering there isn´t any snow down here, I heard it snowed it Zacatacas but just a little, I miss the stuff.

Y mi español está mejorando, todavía tengo mucho para aprender, pero sí puedo hablar suficiente para comunicar con personas, como en esta semana hablé con un conductor de taxi, hablé con él sin problemas y esfuerza.

(My Spanish is getting better, I still have a lot to learn, but yes I can talk enough to communicate with people.  Like this week I talked with a taxi driver,  I talked with him without any problems and without strain.)

When I call home Christmas I will be able to show you. If you want to talk to my comp I will need to translate, because he doesn"t know English.

Pues hasta la proxima semana (Well until next week)

Les amo! (Love you all)

Elder Durrant

E-mail 12/09/2013

Well, this week we have worked really hard.  Francisco drank this week after a month and four days, so we are going to try for another month, but his wife is just about ready to be baptized.  She has had some doubts, but Francisco has helped her though them,  Now she is going to bring their daughters to church.  They have already brought one, but they are going to try to bring the ones that are married.  We are also working with the husbands of some of the hermanas (sisters) in the branch.  We hope to help them have the opportunity to go through the temple as a family.  We had all of our converts (o sea, las almas que les pueden ayudar a tener gozo[ie, souls who can help them find joy]) in La Iglesia (church) this week.  And all, but one has been active in the church.  She still has her testimony, but she just has some things that she needs to work through.

Oh, and cambios (changes-transfers) came this week.  Elder Pazcka left for Aguascalientes and I am here with my new comp, Elder Risueño.  This is his last cambio (changes-transfers) in the mission, so that means I will be here for at least one more cambio (changes-transfers) after this one.  But that's all good, I like it here in Rio Grande.  But I have to tell you that there's one missionary in Fresnillo with the same time as me in the mission, but he has now been in three different areas in Fresnillo.  He started here and is still here.  He said his call really said "...you are called to the Fresnillo mission".  I'm happy to be in this area. 

Sorry I don't have much this week.  We've been doing a lot of hard work and we hope to start seeing the "fruits of our labors" start to ripen. 

Oh, and I hope you all know that I love you!!!
Elder Durrant

E-mail 12/02/2013

Familia

This week has been fantastic

Well I´m sure you´re wondering if I celebrated Thanksgiving, well I didn´t, but Christmas has already been in motion.  They decorate their houses too, the only think that we are missing is snow.  It got close this week, we had a cold wave come thorough, in fact the District Leader told us that their water tank froze (all the houses here has a big water tank on top of the house so if the water shuts off you won´t notice) well they couldn´t shower till about nine.  Well it wasn´t so bad for us, Fresnillo is colder then Río Grande. But unfortunately it didn´t snow, and it´s already hot again.

As for the work, well it has been slow this week because of the cold, but that doesn´t mean we didn´t do any.  We continue to work with Francisco, Saturday makes one month free of alcohol :) it has been amazing to see the difference in him, before he hardly paid attention to the lessons and was depressed, but now he is attentive and understands the lessons, he has even started to work again.  Well because of work we haven´t been able to visit him as much, so he asked to postpone the baptism, so we won´t be having it this week, but we are getting him ready. His wife Nieves is fantastic, I think she might just be baptized before him.  She even came to church without him, because he needed to work this Sunday to start off work.  She told us that he never wants to work on Sunday again, what happened is the place is in a rancho (ranch) close to Rio Grande but there wasn´t a bus going that way for some time so he had to walk and when he got home he was trembling, he told her that Heavenly Father was chastising him for working on Sunday.  We also talked to someone in one of those little stores because we were looking for something, he told us to come back and he would have it, when we came back we chatted with him and found out that the missionaries had visited him before, but he lost contact with them, so we are going to visit with him this week, his story is very interesting, so I will try to fill you in next week.

Love you all!!

Elder Durrant

P. S. FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS JUAN!!   (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!)