E-mail 07/27/2015

Hey Y'all! This has been a pretty exciting week!

Last Monday after e-mailing and shopping, we went back fishing, and when I say we, I mean Elders Koenig and Caskey went fishing and me and Elder Allen watched (Elder Allen and Elder Caskey are my zone leaders), and they caught a couple more fish.  Then that night me and Elder Koenig went and taught the first lesson to a couple that was referred to us. He was ready to bash right away, but the Spirit took control and blew their minds, it was awesome.

Tuesday, the 4 of us went down to Buffalo, Kentucky, and helped some members move some of their things from there to Hodgenville, Kentucky. Then later we taught a girl, who the Lord has prepared immensely, and she just absorbed everything we said, and she's come to know this is true!  We have set up a return appointment for Thursday at a member's home that just earlier that day she (the member) texted us and asked if there was anything we needed, and as soon as I saw that text, I knew we would have something for her to do, and then we were able to set up this lesson in her home, the Lord is amazing!

Wednesday evening we had a lesson with a couple, and helped them see why they like us coming over, why the Lord kept leading missionaries to them, and why they need to read the Book of Mormon.

Thursday we went out with Chris, a YM who is preparing on going on a mission, we helped some people, then went to the Brimhalls, members that take really good care of us.  Then later we went to a lesson at a  member's home, had dinner, then the lesson.  She had her three kids there, her husband was working, and one of her kids is a recent RM, and we had an amazing lesson!  The girl we taught went from "why should I" to "how can I."  We then told her she needed to be baptized by someone with the priesthood, and the rest of the night she kept going "I thought I did it right, I can't believe I've gotten it wrong this whole time."  We then took her on a tour of the church building, and she loved it, the Lord has prepared her!

Friday there was a Pioneer Day activity that we got the investigators that we taught Wednesday to go to it.  They took their 6 year old son and it was a lot of fun, I ended up playing kick ball with the little kids, I never heard so much smack talk, even from teenagers, but we had a lot of fun and their boy had a great time!

Saturday there was this big car show in town, but we weren't able to go, we helped people move, and then there were people to see and things to do.

Guess what we did this morning? That's right, we went fishing... yippee... we actually caught something worth catching.

Love y'all

Elder Durrant

Snake slayers!

The Great fisher men!  

Now that's a fish!

First catch of the day!  

Hmm... too small  

Hmm...dinner!  

E-mail 07/20/2015

What a wet, hot, dry, windy, stormy, long week!

We have gotten each one of those, and the worst part about it was last Monday we kept getting warnings for sever weather, and it kept getting later and later into the day when it would happen, and it didn't even hit until late into the night, and it wasn't that bad, so I was disappointed.

This week was full of work, nothing out of the ordinary happened, Just a lot of work.

Thursday we had dinner with the Harper Family again, They are awesome! And then we went out teaching with Bro Harper, that man is amazing! Then to top it all off, he took us to get blizzards.

Saturday we had lunch with people that knew Elder Koenig from a different area, and we all were stuffed, then we had dinner with some members, and we were stuffed again, this Ward is awesome!

Then this morning I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30, we went over to the Zone Leaders who are only 1/10 of a mile away, and all this just to go fishing.  It was about 5:30 by the time we got to the lake in town, because we had to stop by Wal-Mart to get some bate.  In those three hours we where out there it happened exactly how I thought it would be, we caught 1 fish, and it wasn't even that big (I know, I know I'm not very good at telling fish stories, but that thing was not "THIS BIG.")   The whole situation was very fishy to me, especially since we where out there before the fish even woke up, if it was up to me, we would have used some kind of explosive and gone out and picked them up, but that's my first fishing trip for you.

Love you all!

Elder Durrant

Fishing so much fun

E-mail 07/13/2015

Wow! What a week! (that sentence now has a lot more meaning.)

Well Tuesday, was transfers and Elder Chandler left for Vincennes, Indiana, and I got Elder Koenig, and he is the man!  This past week, we have gotten so much done.

Wednesday we had District meeting, which was awesome.

Thursday not much happened, Friday we... OK Thursday was pretty cool we got weekly planning, we went out with Quinton, a priest getting ready to go on his mission, and then got a pizza and cooked it while we finished planning.

Now for Friday, we where able to teach several people, and then we had dinner at the Bimhalls, a family that takes really good care of us.

Saturday, we didn't get a whole lot done, because a member drove us all the way to English, Indiana, where Elder Koenig had just came from, for a Baptism, that he was involved in, and spent the night, and then got back in time for our sacrament meeting.

Exciting things to came!

Elder Durrant.

E-mail from family in Kentucky 07/06/2015

On 7/5/2015 2:33 PM, Heather wrote:

http://youtu.be/hlWH5IAOeD0

Hi family of the Elders! We wanted to share this video with you of your sons at our son's baptism. It was fun to include them since they were a big part in teaching Ashton and being around our family the last 6 weeks. We'll miss Elder Chandler when he's transferred this week. 

To our family, enjoy! Wish you could've been here...love you!!! 

On Jul 6, 2015, at 12:23 AM, Maralyn wrote:

Heather,
Thank you so much, we showed the video to the family when some of them came for family dinner and everyone really enjoyed it. 

Congratulations Ashton on your baptism! 

I was wondering if I could put a link to the video on his blog and e-mail it to the friends and family that I send his letter to?

Also, I was wondering if I could put it on the Louisville Missionary Moms Facebook page?  It would be a fun way to wish Elder Durrant a happy birthday on Thursday.

Thanks again for sharing, it's great to see him in action. 

Thanks

         Maralyn

On 7/9/2015 12:43 PM, Heather wrote:

I’m so glad you could share it with your family and you’re more than welcome to share it any other way. 

We’ll be sure to wish him a happy birthday, TODAY!, I didn’t realize it was Thursday until now. haha. He’s a great missionary and has talked highly of his family. What a great example he is to our boys and you are to us in raising him. Our 3 boys will be on missions before we know it! 

Have a great day!!

~Heather 

E-mail 07/06/2015 Whip cream game video

Whip cream game

(they play in slow motion)

E-mail 07/06/2015

Hallelujah! My first 12 weeks are over!

The sad part about it is that Elder Chandler is leaving, and is becoming a District Leader up in Indiana, and I'm staying here for another 6 weeks.

Well Thursday we had gone on exchange and I went up to Radcliffe with the DL's companion, and he came down with Elder Chandler, and even though I was up there, we went on four 30 min bike rides to and from Vine Grove, AND WE HAD A CAR!  But I guess I deserved it for taking him on a 5 mile round about way the first time I was with him. I even kept up with him on Elder Nailers (the DL) broken bike, so that was a fun day.

On Friday We had Zone meeting and we got 2 flash flood warnings, that was fun.  By the time we finished, the rain had stopped, so me and Elder Chandler biked over to an investigates house and had a BBQ, that was a lot of fun.  THEN after that we had to bike over to another investigates house because he was going to help us move some people out of there house, and the rain had started up again so we were soaked by the time we got to his house, and it didn't let up until later that night.  There is way too much water over here and we are only getting the bottom part of the storms.

Saturday was a good day.  When we got up, we headed right to the church, we did some of our studies, and then we got the baptismal font ready for an 8 year old boy, that is always cool to see someone get baptized.  Then what was even cooler was we where invited to be in the circle for the laying on of hand for the Gift of the Holy Ghost, it was awesome!!!  Then for a few hours, we just tried to see people, with little success. At 7:00 we went over to the Harper's (the ones that Baptized their 8 year old) and spent the rest of the night with them, which was a lot of fun, and Elder Chandler showed us all a new game that I will be sending video.

It is so weird to hear that another Spiritual giant has gone home, Elder Packer was amazing!

Well I'll let you know who my new companion is next week when I get him tomorrow.

Love Y'all

Elder Durrant

(He sent video of them playing the game, but they didn't work, so I'll have him send them again and upload them later.)

Elder Chandler's victory smile

The boy that was baptized really likes this game  

This little boy tried to get me with his magic powers

Some of their fire works