E-mail 10/17/2016

Wow! What a week!

Wednesday evening, we started an exchange and I stayed in my area, so I got to practice my driving.
(Reply - As of tomorrow, I will be the designated driver, so I will get a ton of practice the next six weeks, that's when my complain will be going home, and he is counting down the days.)

Thursday, we ended up spending most of the day working with our Branch mission leader clearing out trees and bushes again, and I found out that vines grow much bigger out here. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to do all that physical labor, and by the time we were done, we had about a quarter of it done, but the next part doesn't look like it will be to bad.
(Reply - So to give you a visual, there's his house, then the road, then the land we are clearing out, then the Ohio river. They are just clearing the view, and they used to keep it under control, but then they moved for a couple of years, and have some catching up to do.)

Friday we had district meeting, and the Zone Leaders came. Afterwards we went to district lunch to a pizza buffet. They didn't have a large variety, but what they did have was good.

Saturday, was a very eventful, first we got up at 4 in the morning and was out the door by 4:45, and we drove an hour to English Indiana. The first part of the trip wasn't too bad, mainly highways, but then we got into the backwoods of Indiana and it was foggy, so it was dark, foggy, and we were tired. We were able to find the Elders trailer without anything going wrong, thank goodness. They were finishing getting ready (they are in a different time zone, so their 6:30 is our 5:30), then we had a member drive all four of us to Crestwood Kentucky, where we had a Mission Conference with the entire mission. The guests were Elder Gillenwater of the Seventy, Elder Uceda of the Seventy (he spoke in General conference), and Elder Stevenson of the Twelve!!! It was awesome! We all got to shake their hands, and we told them our name, where we are from, and how long we have been out.  It took about 45min to get through everyone. Well, President & Sister Brough spoke for a few minutes. President spoke on exercising faith and Sister Brough spoke on obedience. Elder Uceda gave his testimony on the divine calling of the First Presidency and The Twelve, then taught us about our calling. We are not out here to baptize people, We are out here to baptize converts. He had us read Matthew 28:19 and the Greek translation of the word "teach" means to "make disciples" or in other words, "make Christians". 

Last, Elder Stevenson spoke, first he talked on how great our calling is, then how President Brough holds the key of this work for this area, next about obedience and how it brings freedom. He then talked to everyone, but mainly those going home in the next couple of days, about how we should look to President and Sister Brough as examples of what we should look for in an eternal companion, and how we should be.

He continued on talking about inspiration, and finding our "Cornelius" (Acts 10). Last he talked about how we always need to leave a blessing when we extend a commitment. He gave the example of D&C 4, imagine if all the Lord said was "7: Ask, and knock, Amen." That is not very inspiring, but instead he said "7: Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen."

Last, he spoke on teaching with the spirit, He knows everything, don't cut him out. He said, quote "That would be like having Elder Holland with you and not letting him speak in the lesson, you just don't do that! It would be more of, opening prayer, then Ok Elder Holland take it way." 

Well at the very end, when they were leaving the room, Elder Stevenson said "Good luck y'all." And I'm thinking to myself "Yes! An Apostle said y'all!"

It was an amazing time. Afterwards the member took us back to the Elders' trailer and we had lunch there. Anyway I thought the day couldn't get anymore interesting, on are way back to Tell City, we missed a turn so we were fallowing the GPS to take us back around, and as we came around a curve, this car was coming towards us, down the center of the road, and we almost went into the ditch avoiding him.  He had the audacity to honk at us, anyway, we finally got turned around and as we were heading back, that car from before came barreling down the road and stopped us, and he started yelling at us " Were you the ones who were speeding back there?!" We weren't speeding, so we told him No, then he ask where we had JUST came from, so we point behind, and he drove that way really fast. We then slowly drove away, then as soon as he was out of sight, we got out of there. We both felt like it was best not to get in an argument about it with him.

And the last thing I did to top the day off with is that I picked up a toad that could fit in the palm of my hand.

Sunday, church was good, one of the speakers didn't come, so I volunteered to give the other talk.  I used a different talk that I had given a year ago, so it worked out, and there were even a few people that said it helped them out. God is good, God is great!

Well that's my week for you!

Love y'all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

The is the KFC/taco bell from google maps. 

This was it last Tuesday. 

This was it last Tuesday.