E-mail 06/30/2014

Well this week we didn´t have very many people at church, but it has something to do with the fact that Mexico played in the Copa Mundial (World Cup) right before church started.

Oh well their lose, and they got to see Mexico loose, well I`m sad to see them go, but at the same time I`m glad, because every time they play we can`t find anyone and there are a lot of drunks out on the street. 

As for the work, we are trying to find some Less actives so we can have more member support. The area Pres. wants us to have three members close by to visit each of our investigators, but it get`s tough when three is over half the members in your area, so we want to change that.  It might not help us a lot right now, but it`ll help those that come later on.  We are also trying to get some youth to go on a mission.  One has decided to go, but the other is still unsure.  Anyone after them still  has a while to think about it, but we are still trying to get them excited to serve.

They always ask if we have ever regretted serving a mission, we tell them no, but of course there are those moments that are hard, but I have learned the harder it gets the better I become.  So if it wasn`t hard it wouldn`t be worth it.  There is a video very popular amongst the missionaries, it`s call "Mission and the Atonement."  I`m pretty sure you can find it on youtube.

This week I also found some old coins.  Each one cost 5 pesos, for now I just got six but I think I will buy more this next Saturday.  I don`t remember if I told you guys, in my last area a Hna gave me a 5 peso coin, but this coin has some silver in it.  It`s now worth more then the legal value.  I will see if I can send some pics.

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant



I think this is the video David was talking about.....

Missionary Work and the Atonement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y

E-mail 06/23/2014

pues grande fue esta semana  (therefore great was this week)

Well we were hoping to have a baptism this week, but her ex-husband called up while we were at her house and told us that he didn`t want us to visit that house or her anymore.  Well seeing as the house is his mother`s, that has caused some problems, so she is working on moving, so that he can`t be coming over whenever he wants.

We have been trying to find more people to visit, so just last night we helped some ladies push their car down the road, so we chatted afterwards and they seem very promising.  I just hope that I can stay here after these next two weeks, the time just flies right on by.   We are getting close to reactivating a family in our area too.  We have been working with them ever since I got here, I have seen so much progress in them, I just hope they can keep going.  Well, we haven´t really solved the water problem in our house, we think it`s clogged in the tank bellow.   It`s a little over 6 feet deep, so we are trying to empty some of the water out, so then I get to go down and try to unclog it.  In the mean time we have used a bucket and a rope to get the water in the upper tank, so we can have some water.

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant

 

Elder Stephenson is just as tall as me.

Twinky!

Our ward mission leader has a hammock.

E-mail 06/16/2014

Wow, like every week it has been exiting. First off we had stake conference this week and a seventy came to speak Elder Reyes.  He said he was call in April of last year (I think) It was really good, especially the Saturday night session.  He showed some letters from the First Presidency about the Saturday night session, and who was invited, and he chastised the members for not working in the work of salvation but he did it with so much love, It was awesome.

Sadly a member said they would bring Yesenia but when we saw her and not Yesenia we asked what happened and she said that she went to pickup other people and didn`t pass by, so we had to move her Baptismal date to the 28 :(

We did have a noche de hogar (family home evening) with her last Monday it was awesome.  And well, we are suppose to work more with the members and seeing as we only have 5 family's on our side of the ward, we are trying to activate more members by getting them to read and pray every day to gain their testimonies.

Oh and our water pump isn`t working, so we have had to take fast showers to get the water up top to last until we get the pump fixed.  We have this huge tank of water under the drive way, it`s so big that you could swim in it.  We emptied it last week and it took forever to get it filled up again and that`s when the pump stopped working.

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant

 

 

The bananas and rice wasn`t even my idea.

That`s a big bunny!

 

E-mail 06/09/2014

Well as usual this week has been interesting.  We had our Zone meeting this week and we found out that we can`t have activities as missionaries, just with our comps. this rule has been set for all of Mexico, we don`t know exactly why,  just something to do with security.  And I was just planning an activity for today :( but oh well theirs nothing we can do about it.  We are getting more lessons, we are going to try and get even more this week, all we need now is people to go to church.  Everyone is accustomed to either go when they want to, or at least various services during the week, so when we say it`s at 12 every Sunday they ask are their any other times?

Especially yesterday, there was a tun of parties going on, who knows why, but everyone told us they couldn't go this week for some party.  Except for Yesenia, she is so faithful, we just need to find more people like her.  We will be having a noche de hogar (family home evening) with her and a member family that lives close by.

Oh, something funny happened yesterday during sacrament meeting.  So there were two people giving a talk and the first finished in 5-7 min and then one of the hermanas talked for about 10 min, so that left bout 20 min until the hour mark.  So while the hermana was talking the bishop sent someone to ask my comp. to share his "testimony" for the rest of the time.  Well I didn`t think that he could take 20 min without preparation, so I started to prepare something. But to my shock he just kept on going for the whole 20 min, it shocked everyone else too.

The Young Women`s leader asked us to teach the Young Women on the priesthood.  It was really good, they were asking some good questions, like what is the responsibility of the priesthood in the home and what can we do to help those that hold the priesthood.  There were some other questions but I don`t remember what they all were.  The last one was "Being as young as we are, how do we feel about this great responsibility."  (the teacher asked that one)

Well that`s all folks!

Elder Durrant

http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/by-speaker/sister-bonnie-l-oscarson/-1232288-print.jpg

E-mail 06/02/2014

Wow time just flies by, I thought I just wrote you guys yesterday.  Well this week we had Elder De Ollos come and visit us, so we had the three zones here in SLP together and he taught us some things he wanted us to change in the mission.  Well it really wasn`t anything new just something we hadn`t been doing, so we had to repent.  But I was amazed when he started talking about the atonement with contacting, because I had my district study the atonement this week in hopes to teach something similar, but of course he said it a lot better then I could ever say it.

But then he talked about how we should ask the members to invite their friends to listen to us, by putting an appointment with them and then have them invite their friends to come to their house to listen to us.  We have already set a few appointments for this week so we shall see how it goes.

I forgot to mention last week that my comp. Elder Stephenson is just as tall as me, so we got the two tallest missionaries here.  He actually looks taller because he has a longer torso but I have longer legs. I`m pretty sure I mentioned that he is from Las Vegas and he likes to play volleyball.  I still need to get a pic with him for you guys.

This week we also found this secret passage through the river bed, it`s so cool because it`s like you are in a forest.  I took a pic of that too. 

Oh and yesterday one of the members brought someone new to church, and to my surprise when I talked to him he said he already knew me and then he said that we are neighbors, and he really is, he lives right next to our house. Well that makes it easy, now dosen`t it, and the new Elders Quorum Pres. wants to visit him with us ;)

¡Les Amo!

Elder Durrant