E-mail 05/26/2014

Well a lot has happened this week, for one thing they canceled the meeting with the zone leaders, not just for this week but always.  They didn`t say why but that we are going to have something else, but I still don`t know what.  Oh well, more time to work.  The hermanas (sisters) had another baptism this week, we just need to get a baptism now, we are getting close.  Oh, and like I said last week we had transfers this week.  Well Elder Quispe left for Aguascaliente, and my new comp is Elder Stephenson, my second American comp. he's from Las Vegas.  I am his fourth comp, this is his fourth area and this is his fourth change in the mission. :( I am so glad that I don`t get moved around so much. 

While Elder Quispe was getting ready to leave he showed me some of his ties that he had in his luggage.  There was a Chick-fil-a tie and a Tasmanian Loony Tunes tie, I took a pic but left the camera in the house :( maybe next week I`ll send it.

I saw the pics of Red, and I have to admit that I was amazed, was not what I was expecting so I showed it to Elder Stephenson and he said that it`s legit.  (A picture of Rebecca with her dad holding a shot gun.)

Well this week we will be meeting with a seventy and I have to fill out the my family pamphlet before Wednesday so I need to go do that while I still have time.

Les amo!

Elder Durrant

E-mail 05/20/2014

Wow this week has just been packed with stuff.  Along with the usual stuff I had two intercambios (I don`t remember what it`s called) this week, one with the zone leaders and then with the Elders in Retornos. and I went to the other area for both of them. On top of that, I got a cold :( but it wasn`t enough to keep me down, just Saturday I got a sore throat so no one could understand me.  I still haven`t been so sick that I have lost a day of work, which makes me happy!  I just hope I can keep it that way for the rest of this year.

Well I have survived one year in Mexico, and to celebrate I finally got around to burning a shirt.  I found this really bad looking shirt in the house so instead of throwing it away I burned it.  We took a video of it and some pics.  It`s so funny because here people will just light a lot full of weeds on fire even if it`s next to other houses.  It`s because all the houses here are made out of brick and nobody cares.

Well today we had a zone activity where we did dodge ball with buckets of water with sponges, it was a blast, and if your team lost, they would pick three from that team to line up against a wall and everyone would throw water balloons at them.  I got lined up there once.  Then we had a Mexican BBQ.  If you were wondering, no it`s nothing like an American BBQ, except that it has meat involved.  It`s usually strips of meat with tortillas and salsa, it was a lot of fun. 

Coming up next is transfers so tune in next week!

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant

E-mail 05/12/2014

WOW! what a week, I can`t believe how the time just flies by.  On the 15th, I will have one year in Mexico.  It felt like just last month I called for Christmas. It was awesome to see you guys even though I couldn`t hear you very well.  Next time I`ll be sure to have the laptop, because a tablet just can`t handle you guys (well I`m not sure what can.)  Well as for this week, we have hit hard on contacting, my comp. is so funny, because he doesn`t like contacting (well I don`t either) but he insisted that he could do it better.  After trying all day to get him to contact, he said that the one he would contact would accept.  So he went up to a lady and chatted with her, she said she would like to hear our message, but not right now because she is passing through a hard time, after a while of trying to convince her that this was the best time, her bus came and so we did get her address.  Elder Quispe still tried to convince me that she really did accept, but I wasn`t convinced.  He says that he can tell who will accept and who won`t, the only problem is, he won`t do it.  So we came to an agreement, he says who and I contact them.  It has actually worked out nicely, so we have a high rate of people who accept.  That`s when we found Yesenia, she has six children and is going through a divorce.  We stopped by her house during the week, the lesson was fantastic, she already prays like we do and everything.  When we got there, she said she read the pamphlet we gave her of the Restoration but she said she couldn`t do the questions in the back because she doesn`t  have a book of Mormon.  So we took care of that.  She even went to church this week, we are so happy!

Then today I went to Aguascalientes for the first time since I left my first area, it was so weird to see the place again, I even saw a member from my ward.  I heard that the membership is about two hundred something, when I was there, it was about 120 active members so it has grown a lot since I was there.  We got up about six in the morning to get to Aguascalientes by eleven.  Then we didn`t get back to our area until 8 so, that`s why I`m writing this letter so late.  It was a long time in buses, one hour to get to the bus station and three to get to Aguascalientes. In the long distance buses they actually play movies.  I tried to read or sleep (it was a lot easier to ignore them when I didn`t understand Spanish) but today Satan really tried to tempt me with Star Trek 2.  Thankfully there where four of us going to Aguascalientes, so we just turned around and chatted with the two seated behind us.  It was funny because sometimes the buses give us snacks for the ride, but this time they even gave us this really nifty little pillows.

Well that was some of the adventures for this week tune in next week for more!

¡Les amo!

Elder Durrant

E-mail 05/05/2014

WOW!  Well, life never seems to slow down here.  My area (Sauzalito (little willow tree) is a ward with four missionaries, us and the hermanas (Sisters).  The hermanas had a baptism, so on Saturday we were helping them out.  They asked me to play the piano for them.  I did it with just the right hand because they didn´t give me much notice.  Everything turned out good, even after all the problems, like trying to fill the font (there always seems to be problems with the font.)  The lady that was getting baptized was the mother of the ward mission leader, it was really cool.  The other thing to happen this week is that I had to go to the bus station to meet up with Elder Jasso so I could signs some papers for my visa.  I finally got to see Elder Heer (from my districts in the MTC) again he has been here in SLP his whole mission, just in different areas. and this is my first area in SLP so I had not seen him in almost a year.  But with the paper work, I had to sign my name like 20 time, and he forgot one of the papers so he sent it to my email so I could sign it and send it with the zone leaders.  In about two weeks I will need to go to Aguascaliente, I haven´t seen that place since I left my first area.  Well as for the work in my area, we have two people that we are working with trying to set up baptism dates, and trying to keep in contact with them.  Their is another investigator that we taught the other day, about dispensations and about Christ´s ministry, he had a few simple questions for us about prophets and apostles, and when we answered them he was happy.  When we finished, his face looked like he wanted more, but it was getting dark so we had to leave.  Unfortunately we can only visit him on Sundays.

¡Les amo! ¡Y nos vemos domingo!
(I love you! And see you Sunday!)

Elder Durrant


Maralyn  wrote:
I'm glad to know that all the piano practicing has done some good.  he he he


David Durrant wrote:
Yea, and it got my secret out, now the ward mission leader wants me to play every Sunday before class because their is a piano in there.

E-mail 04/28/2014

This week on the mission, zone conference, contacts, raid and more.

Well this week has been busy with meetings all week again.  This week we only got one full day to work with all the other days meetings like from last week (except for the one with the bishop.) We had a zone conference on Friday, that started at 9 and ended at 2, it was way awesome even though it was super long.  We watched the talk by Elder Oaks and the dedication of the MTC in Mexico.  It`s interesting to see the way things are changing in the work and how fast it`s changing.  We are getting a bunch of hermanas (sisters) in my district, there are two companionship of hermanas and two of Elders. 

As a goal for the zone we have been doing contacts on the streets (because we can`t knock on doors.)  The goal is 35 every week.  To be totally honest I don`t like to do contacts, I prefer to wait for a good opportunity, and it just so happens I found one this week.  I was waiting in line to check my card, and there was a young mother waiting in line just in front of me with her toddler running about (just like John at this age.)  So I started to talk to him to keep him distracted, he even asked me at one point "what do you do?" so I answered him with a smile on my face;)  Then the mother started to ask me some questions and so I talked shortly about prophets and she asked me if we visit homes we said yes and then she asked "can you visit me on Monday?" me and my comp looked at each other and then said yes, then she gave us her address, so we will be visiting her today.  If only all contacts were so easy, but then we wouldn`t learn anything. I still do a bunch of contacts but they usually don`t turn out so good.

Well the other thing that I did this week, is I bought a can of raid, to kill all the cucarachas (cockroaches) in my house, the stuff really works, I love it.  It kills them fast and it doesn`t leave a stain on the floor.  My comp thinks I`m a bit crazy, and everyone always tries to tell me that I shouldn`t kill them because they are creations of God, but that hasn`t convinced me yet.  Luckily they are small still but they are getting bigger, but luckily I will have my can of raid next to me.  It was so worth the forty pesos.

I haven`t really talked much about my comp. he is Elder Quispe (keys-pay) he is from Peru, and he comes up to my shoulders, so about Shari`s height, pobre Élder porque camino muy rapido (poor Elder because I walk very fast) well he keeps up at my normal pace but when we have to get somewhere fast he has to run.

Well I hope you guys liked my news line at the beginning and have a fantastic week.

Les amo

Elder Durrant

E-mail 04/21/2014

WOW! what a week!

It has been so busy this week, in a new area during holy week and a ton of meetings. Well first we started with the district meeting on Tuesday, there are a lot more in this district then my last one. Then we had a meeting with the zone leaders on Wednesday, and they arrived an hour late. Later that day we had a meeting with the bishop to see how the work was coming along, and that took two hours.  Then he assigned me to give a talk, so I got to give another talk on Easter, like last year.  Then on Thursday we had a weekly planning meeting and a missionary that came home from his mission.  The funny thing is that he came home from Costa Rica, where the sisters in the MTC went from my district, so I asked if he knew them.  Apparently in Costa Rica, they don`t eat spicy food so when he got home he was having a hard time eating the food.  Then we had our meeting with the ward mission leader which took another two hours (ya me canse de reuniones [and I get tired of meetings]) but the Lider misional (LM) [missionary leader] is great, he does visits and tries to get the members involved in the work.  When Friday finally came I was so exited to have a day complete of just work, and to top it all off it rained (YES!)  It gets so hot here and life is just boring when it´s sunny all the time.  It actually iced a bit at the beginning, and they even stung a little. 
The work is moving along here, there are four missionaries in this ward, the Hermanas [Sisters] have the part of the ward with all the members, so that means we just have to work a little harder.  We have two investigators right now, one ready to be baptized, so we get to look for new people.  The ward has given us 6 references and hopefully we can get some more. 

Well I have seen a few new things here in SLP like street drains, and the most advanced garbage pickup I have ever seen. I will send a pic.  Oh ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! [Happy Birthday!] (to Elizabeth)  One of the tradition here is on your birthday when they bring in the cake you have to bite it, and then as you are biting it they push your head into it. I have a few pics of a few birthdays here.

Les quiero [I love them]

Elder Durrant

E-mail 04/14/2014

Well transfers came and well I´m not in Fresnillo anymore, I got moved to San Luis Potasi, it´s so weird to be in a big city again, it has a different feel to it.  There are three zones in the city and mine is in the centro, (center) so we have all the big stores and places to go. Elder Madsen got transferred too, to one of the other zones, so we came here on the same bus.  I´ve heard a lot of good about San Luis, so now I get to find out if they are all true.  It was weird to leave Zacatacas, because I have not left Zacatacas in nine months, so this is an interesting change of pace.
I was kind of sad to go, we just managed to invite someone to baptism.

Well let´s see here what else.  Um, Sunday we had a surprise. we saw pres. right after church, so we went and said hi to him, then he invited us to the meeting with him.  It was for the bishops in the stake and he talked about members and missionaries, then he passed out M&Ms. 

What else, I fell and cut the palm of my right hand, so then I couldn't shake anyone's hand for a week and I had to explain it to everyone, but it´s healing up.  Don´t worry I took pics.

Les quiero

Elder Durrant

Info on San Luis Potasi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Potos%C3%AD,_San_Luis_Potos%C3%AD