E-mail 3/28/2016

My first week serving in Indiana has been extremely painful, but I'll explain more later.

Monday, I did a lot of packing and I still managed to fit all my worldly belongings in three suitcases. That night we went and watched the Joseph Smith movie with the Adams. Sister Adams was upset about something, we tried to answer her questions, but we finally said we would watch the movie and see if that would answers her questions. They loved the movie, and afterwards we asked them if they really thought that the church was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. They said yes to everything with conviction, they believe everything, they know the church is true, and they're going to be getting baptized on April 9 and I am so excited.

Tuesday, which was transfer day was really busy at the church. People trying to find their rides and getting out of there as fast as possible. President kept popping in and out of the building and saying, If your ride was here, to get out of there, because we needed to talk with 2000 people that day as a mission. He's so funny how he says things. I finally found my ride and everyone who was getting in the car finally got there, then we started our two hour drive to Newburgh Indiana. When I got there, I finally was able to meet up with Elder Crystal and then we helped two Elders get to their apartment that is in an area that they're reopening. We went shopping with the zone leaders, my third District has the zone leaders in it again. That's pretty funny! That evening a member picked us up and we had dinner with them.

Wednesday, we had district meeting and there are more Sisters than there are Elders here. This is the first time I'm serving around sisters, so that will be interesting. That day we weren't able to teach anyone, but we were asked to go to the church that evening, to the family history room, because there was a member trying to introduce one of her friends to us, so we ended up spending the end of the evening there.

Thursday, ): So that morning was pretty good, it was raining on and off, but it wasn't too bad. Well we went and saw a member who came to church last week, and she wanted us to come by, so we talked with her a bit, got to know her, and shared a spiritual message. Well we were heading back to our apartment and Elder Crystal let me lead, because our area is mostly in a grid, so that makes it really easy:) and on the way back we saw the zone leaders car, so we left them a funny note. Then as we were going back again, there was a spot where the curb dropped down then back up and I tried to jump back up, but my tire hit the curb wrong and I crashed my bike. I scraped up my hands and knees and tore a hole in my slacks, but I was able to roll onto some grass. I laid there for a few seconds, then got back up, and once Elder Crystal knew I was ok, he started laughing. Well we needed to get back home because a member was taking us out to eat, so we got home and the member was already at our place. I quickly cleaned myself off and bandaged it up, then went out with duct tape around my hands ;) Well lunch was good and the member was nice. The best part was while we were eating, it was raining really hard outside, then by the time we got home it was almost all gone. I cleaned myself up some more, and that evening we saw a recent convert teenager that we treat him like a little brother, because that's what he needs.

Friday, we tried someone who wasn't there and so we were heading to the library, and on the way there I got hit by a car.  Best area in the mission my foot! She only slightly hit me on the back tire. I almost caught my balance, but I did manage to land on some grass. I think in the end it scared her more than me and I got out of there safely. She wouldn't leave until she knew I was OK which was great. The worst part about it was that I had just spent seven months in one of the most dangerous areas in the mission without being hurt in it or crashing, then I came here and I crashed my bike and get hit by a car within one week, yeah I was happy.  But then later we saw a member that was at a hospital, then we had a lesson with a guy we had talked with a few days before. We went home and had weekly planning.

Saturday, we had a lesson with the investigator that they had before I got here. We dashed home to put our suits on and went over to the church for a baptism. On our way back, we stopped at a few members' homes that Elder Crystal didn't know, but when both of them answered the door, he recognized them, which was funny. After getting out of our suits, we went to the hospital that we had been to the day before, and we saw somebody else that was there.

Sunday was good. We had church at 9 o'clock and it's weird being back in a ward. Afterwards we went and saw one of the people at the hospital, took the sacrament to her and shared a scripture. We then went out to talk with people and ended up spending most of our time talking with two guys that had a ton of questions about life. Then we went back to the hospital to give the sacrament to the other member at the hospital because we couldn't do it at the same time with both of them. We then had another lesson with the young man. Then went home and did some studying.

Still alive and love you all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

Me and Elder Crystal

Elder Crystal

Elder Crystal

E-mail 3/21/2016

Good day, Y'all!

So Wednesday evening, we were getting ready for the lesson with the Adams when President Brough showed up. He came in, shook our hands, then immediately started an apartment inspection, ohhhhh! Well he walked from room to room, pointing little things out here and there. Then he walked into the bedroom and shouted out "Who's packing!?" So I explained that I was using my small suitcase to take my clothes from the drier to my bed and I ran out of time to fold them. So what President saw was a suitcase covered with clothes. I told him this and he was ok with that. Well he then sat down and talked about what we would teach the Adams, then we headed off. We had an amazing lesson, in the time we hadn't seen them, they had learned all the things we were going to go over and they told us how they were put into a situation where they could have easily done something wrong and no one would know, but because they were trying to live the commandments (which from my perspective, was not directly related to their situation) they did the right thing! Well after a good talk, we challenged them again to be baptized and April 9th is the goal. Bro. Adams was good with that but Sis. Adams said she couldn't do it if it was only a goal. So I whipped out my calendar and said "Ok, I'm putting it in my calendar right now, this is a reality, you are getting baptized on April 9th." Laughing they said they can do that! I loved teaching with President Brough.

Thursday, we had district meeting, then had district lunch. We went to a place called Waffle House, it was ok, but it was fun to be around the other missionaries. Later that night we went out with a member and taught some lessons.

Friday, we headed over to the church for Elder Memmott's district leader skype call, then we had a lesson with someone who lived close to the church. After the lesson we were trying to figure out how we were going to get from the upper left corner of our area to the lower right hand corner, with no bikes. But then the investigator called and said we had to reschedule for another time. Well that solved our problem in an unfortunate way. So we made our way back home. We had lunch, did our weekly planning, then after dinner we went out to teach.

Saturday, we finally went by the last few people on our list of members that live in our area, and we actually caught one as she was coming out of the door. So we talked with her as we walked. Then that evening we went out with another member (this was a great week, because we got several members out teaching with us), but none of our investigators were there for their appointments. So we tried someone else we had just started to teach.  We caught them home and had an amazing lesson.

Oh! I almost forgot, we got transfer news, Elder Memmott is training and I am being transferred to Newburgh, Indiana, so I will be packing for most of the day.

Sunday, we had a meeting in the morning, then had church and the Adams came! They love coming to church. Unfortunately, none of the other people that said they would come, came. Sister Adams was furious when the Branch President announced over the pulpit that I was leaving, because I hadn't had a chance to talk to them myself, so she had me promise to come back for the baptism and I told her I would be there. Well later we had stopped by one members home and I got some pictures with them, we had dinner at another members home and then we were given the amazing opportunity to be apart of a blessing for them to help them have children. I never thought I would be apart of a blessing like that, it was an amazing privilege. So when I email next week, I will be an hour closer, so be expecting it at a different time.

Love y'all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

E-mail 3/16/2016

This has been a long week, a good week, but a long one.

Tuesday, we did a lot of furniture moving. Then we had a lesson with this guy who was big into conspiracy theories, so he was fun to teach.

Wednesday, we helped with the bishops food truck, which is always fun. The rain was on and off all day, so that made the day interesting. We were inside for the worst part of it doing our weekly planning. Later that night we taught this guy we had contacted the Sunday before, and his step son was interested so he joined us. As we were teaching, he was nervous about reading the Book of Mormon, because he didn't want to get confused. Well as we were teaching about the restoration, and using scriptures to show it, he was blown away and he kept saying "No, no way. Can't be." Not in rejection, but trying to comprehend it. Then we called him up a few days later to set up another appointment, and he had told us that he had already read 11 chapters, so that is amazing. The only problem is, we are having trouble sitting down with him. All part of missionary work.

Thursday, we had district meeting, and Elder Memmott asked me to do a mini training. I personally think it went well. We then went on an exchange, I went to the other elders area,  We got soaked, it was raining all day. But at least it was warm.

Friday we ended the exchange, then were able to teach a ton of people, so that made my day.

Saturday, we were helping with picking up furniture all morning. Then that evening we taught a part member family we ran into, and that went really well.

Sunday morning was ok, we had 8 people committed to coming to church and not one of them came. Half of them got sick, 2 forgot to set there clocks forward, (another reason why I hate daylight savings) and the other we couldn't get in contact with. But church was still good. They had a potluck afterwards, so that lifted my spirits. Well later we went and taught this couple we ran into, and at one point the wife was saying how she didn't think she needed to be baptized at all because she was a good person, then we shared John 3:5 with her and her attitude changed. She was telling us how much she wanted to be baptized and wanted to know why she wasn't baptized yet. We loved it. Later we went out teaching with brother Roy, and I say teaching loosely because we didn't teach anyone, but it was still good. Oh and that morning I went to put on my shoes that got soaked on Thursday.  I had put them where they could dry, but there were patches of fuzzy white mold in them. Needless to say, I was quite put out. But I'm drying them out and will get them clean again.

Monday was a good day, like most days we had a ton of appointments, but we only had one happen. That evening, we were biking to catch a bus and as we got there we realized that Elder Memmott forgot his helmet, but we didn't have time to go get it. We went ahead and got on the bus and tried to see some people, but that didn't work. We then walked home, and that took awhile, biking is so much faster.

Tuesday, we had another lesson with the people we taught on Sunday, and they really like it. We then spent most of the day on the bus going here and there, and that made for an interesting day.

Wednesday, we went to the temple and had an amazing time. This evening we will be teaching the Adams with President Brough.  I'm so excited for that!

Love y'all

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

E-mail 03/07/2016

Well, nothing really happened until Wednesday evening.

On Tuesday we had our service, that's always fun. Then that evening we went through part of the branch roster with an older member of the branch to find out how we can clean it out.

Wednesday couldn't go by fast enough. We had a lesson with the Adams, but before that, things fell through, we were mostly talking with people and trying potentials. But then we had our lesson with the Adams and we had the Branch President come with us. We had a good talk about what happened, why they dropped us. We had found out that sister Adams really wasn't baptized, and she was afraid she couldn't live up to it. But in that week they realized how much they need the gospel in their lives, so we are teaching them again and they really could get baptized very soon. They love the gospel and the church, and they really want callings! They're so awesome.

Thursday we had our weekly planning, and purged our investigator pool. Most of them weren't going anywhere, so we dropped them. The whole time we were doing this, it was snowing outside, come on! I thought it was getting warmer. Thankfully by the time we went out, it had warmed up and turned into a light drizzle. We got a prank call from the other elders, they had made their number private so we couldn't tell and they were pretending to be someone we had talked with and wanted to learn more. To be honest I fell for it, but Elder Memmott knew it was them. So after we hung up, we called them and they acted as if nothing had happened, but he called them out and as they were laughing we hung up on them because we had better things to do.

Friday we had zone meeting, and it was all about using our time more efficiently, which is something I've been working on. Then we started an exchange and I was in the east end of Louisville, so I went from the poor part of the city to the richest part of the city. We had a good time; talked with tons of people.

Saturday was interesting, we were planning on ending the exchange in the afternoon, but things happened and so we ended it in the morning. As we were waiting to cross the street to get to the bus stop, a guy walks up to us and he told us they had talked with him a few days before.  He also told us he was a sinner and was drunk and needed Jesus. We really wanted to help him, but we had to catch the bus and they don't really learn well when they are drunk, so we got his address and he will be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. Later, when I was back with Elder Memmott, we had a lesson with the Adams.  They only need a few more to go then they will have been taught all of the lessons. That evening we finished going through the roster, and we will be giving it to the secretary soon.

Sunday was great, the Adams came to church, and sister Adams bore her testimony, it was amazing. Later we went to see some people we had scheduled with.  We were able to find some very good potential investigators, and two of them are families, that's always the best.

That was my week, hope everything is going well with you all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

I leave my bike for two minutes, 

and this is what happens.

This is what happens when you walk past a 

Krispy Kreme that a member works at.

This is what happens when you wait in the ping pong room.

This is what happens when you wait in the ping pong room.