E-mail 11/21/2016

"Weather Announcement: You enjoyed that warm weather? Well, it's gone now. Time to pull out your sweaters, coats, wool socks, and everything else. Unless you're one of "those" people who like the cold, well, good for you, I'm going to stay warm.

Tuesday, we had dinner with an active family who's four boys make up half the primary. Well needless to say, they were hyper, and as always I felt right at home.

Wednesday, us and the Reeds went to the Sunday School President's home because him and his wife, and all of us are in charge of the Branch Christmas Party, and it will be interesting with the ideas that were thrown around.

Thursday, I cant remember what happened that day.

Friday, was a very interesting day. First, never let your companion talk you into procrastinating washing the car when you're supposed to, because you wake up the morning of a meeting with a dirty car. So we drove to Evansville for Zone Conference, and I accidentally missed our turn and ended up driving down a 10 mile gravel road, so our already dirty car got a lot more durty. So we tried to go by a car wash before we went to the church, well every car wash we tried was closed so we just went to the church with a really dirty car. Yeah that's never happening again. Zone Conference was awesome. President Brough first shared this year's Christmas initiative, and we got the pass along cards to go with it started this Friday. Then He talked about the "Doctrine of Expectation", that was very informative. After that, the Stake President talked to us about "A partnership with the Lord" and shared scriptures from Exodus and Moses. For lunch, they fed us rice and meatballs, it was interesting. Back to the meeting. President then gave us another training on making sure someone is truly converted, and how the baptismal interview questions are based off of D&C 20:37. Last, the zone leaders gave a training on how to introduce the Book of Mormon. After the meeting, we started an exchange and headed back to Tell City. On the way there a member texted us asking if we had dinner plans, of course we said no, so he told us that he would pick us up. He took us to a buffet for the sole purpose that I could try frog legs, another check off of my bucket list, they're pretty good, like fishy chicken.

Saturday, I was excited because I would finally be able to ride my bike for the first time I've been in Tell City, but I couldn't find my helmet. After not touching it for months, it just disappeared. So we just walked around, and I even put a sweater on because it was chilly. Then we ended the exchange, a member brought us some groceries, and we saw a few more people.

Sunday, we had the primary program, and it was so sweet seeing the 7 or 8 children doing their parts. After church Elder Reed, Elder Long and I went to a sisters home to give her a blessing. We then had our studies and lunch, and I wasn't feeling too good, so I laid my head on my desk and just rested. Elder Long was convinced that I was asleep, so he tried to scare me with an alarm clock and video me jumping, but what he doesn't know is that I could hear him walking around, and that alarm clocks don't make me jump. So as he was laughing at me for "falling asleep" on my desk, I was inwardly laughing at him because the joke was on him.

Love y'all

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

Wanted to wish everyone a 

Happy Thanksgiving from Tell City Indiana!

E-mail 11/14/2016

"News announcement! After the heated election, as of November 9th, the residents of Tell City Indiana are moving on with there life's, satisfied that it's finally over."

Well, speaking of Tuesday, we had interviews with President, but before he gave the training for district meeting and when he stood up, he told us that he hadn't prepared anything, just that he was praying really hard that the Lord would guide him, and so every district got a different training. For us he talked about how we need to make sure people are living the commitments we gave them BEFORE we move on to the next lesson, and he shared a quote from one of the area seventy, "The surest way to prevent an investigator from progressing is to teach a follow-up lesson when they haven't kept one or more commitment." The Reeds provided an amazing lunch for everyone, then we started an exchange and Elder Permann, our DL, came to Tell City with me. We spent most of the day walking around talking with people, and we both decided that we have spent too long just driving around because we were really tired by the end of the day.

Wednesday, we ended the exchange and we had our BML's son drive us to the rendezvous and picked up Elder Long, and he took us out to lunch afterwards. Then that evening we went to one of the family's that live twenty minutes away, and it was awesome. Beforehand we had messaged them over Facebook asking if we could come by and they said sure, we'll even feed you. So that was sweet! It's fun being over there because they have some younger kids, so naturally they are a little rowdy when we come over. When the parents apologized, I told them that this was my natural environment. Now I don't know how well my companion was handling it, I just know he was encouraging them to target me.

Thursday, I don't fully remember what happened Thursday.

Friday, we texted our BML to see if we were going to be cutting this week, and he told us, no cutting, we are fixing our water pump (their water comes from a well under their property). They had had no water for a week, so we helped them get their water back on.

Saturday, I don't remember what happened Saturday.

Sunday, we had a member from the stake high council come and speak, he lives in the Newburgh Ward so I had been to his house a couple of times. Well after church a member had invited us to his home, and when we got there we shared a video about the Plan of Salvation and shared some points about it, then asked him for his thoughts and two hours and twenty minutes later we walked out the door. He is a talker, and he doesn't really have people to talk to, so when he gets a chance he doesn't let it slip by. He did share his conversion story with us and talked about how years ago the missionaries knocked on his door and shared a Book of Mormon with him. Then thirty years later he picked it up and read it in three days, two months later he was baptized. So he told us, with conviction, when ever we give someone a Book of Mormon and they don't get rid of it, we are saving their souls, it my take thirty years, but it will be worth it.

Well that was my week.

Love y'all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

E-mail 11/07/2016

Good morning/afternoon/evening/why are you still up? I thought I'd cover whatever time you are reading this? :)

Tuesday, we had received a referral the previous week, but we couldn't find the address on any map, so we tried the area that we thought it might be, but still couldn't find it, oh well. That evening, we decided to visit some less actives that live in the far reaches of our area, and got there shortly after they had gotten home and they welcomed us in. The mom had started working on making dinner, so we just sat there listening to the kids tell us stories, and we ended up help them with some of their homework, it was a lot of fun.

Nothing much happened Wednesday or Thursday.

Friday, we had Zone Meeting, and the last thing that was talked about was the mission culture, and the three things people want us to focus on is Be accountable to God, Be Christlike, Being Spirit Driven. Afterwards, we went to our BML's house to help him cut down more trees. We didn't use any fire this time, but we did have an adventure. The person with the chainsaw (it wasn't me) was cutting the two largest trees in our path, and he got the first one down easily enough. Then when he was cutting the second one, he didn't notice that the tree was leaning the opposite way that he had cut it and the saw got stuck with less then a quarter of an inch of wood connecting the base to the rest of the tree. We tried to push it to get the saw out, we tried cutting with other tools, but nothing was working well/safe enough, so after about 45min of this we finally just tied a rope to the tree and their car and pulled it over just fine. After all of that, we were all tied and it was getting dark, so we went in, they fed us, then we had coordination.

Saturday, we tried to find a less active in the farthest part of our area, but weren't able to find it (I found it later on the map), but the drive was fun.

Sunday, Church was good, people bore powerful testimony on the plan of salvation, temple work, and missionary work, then in Sunday School we talked about the gathering of Israel.

That's it for me this week.

Love y'all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

This is a screen shot of the video my old comp. sent me of Seth.

Best part of Halloween is November 1st! Super cheap candy!

E-mail 10/31/2016

Another week down, and another on it's way.

Monday, we swung by the church, the church was right next door to the court house  and the jail, and there were cop cars all over with their lights on, so we did what we needed to then quickly left. Afterwards, we went to a members shop to wash our car and he told us what he heard had happened, there was a scare, but it was all over by the time we went by.

I can't remember what happened Tuesday or Wednesday.

Thursday, we helped our Branch Missionary Leader cut down some more trees and stuff, and I have decided that if I ever plant anything extremely thorny, that it will be in a spot I never plan to change. Well afterwards we had coordination and we finished planning for the Fireside on Sunday.

Friday, we had district meeting, and I didn't have to drive because the Reeds had their car back and they always give us rides to meetings, which I am extremely grateful for.

Saturday, we were stopping by some less actives, when an active member called and asked if we could meet them at Walmart, so we did and they gave us a baked chicken and some other food. This is the second time they have done this for us, they are amazing! Well as we were putting the food in the car Elder Long said "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Bro. Zellers (our BML) texted us, and asked if we could go to his fathers farm to help his son, (his son is the one that owns the shop) and we have to be there in 25 minutes." So we dashed home to put the food in the fridge, and put service clothes on, we got back in the car and we just barely made it on time. When we got there all we ended up doing was riding in the back of his friend's little Mazda truck as he showed us around the farm and woods. They have some really nice land and I really wish I had my camera, but alas no pictures, next time I will.

Sunday, President and Sister Brough came to Tell City and spoke in sacrament meeting, and participated in the rest of church.Then we had a "linger longer" and there was a lot of really good food. Afterwards, the Reeds had different plans for the Broughs in between church and the fireside, but they all fell through. Sister Reed was apologizing to Sister Brough, but Sister Brough said "That's ok, we just wanted to drive around and take pictures of the trees." So that all worked out. At the fireside, we were planning on around 10 or so people coming to this excluding the missionaries and the Zellers, but we ended up having twenty-five people show up, it was great! And President is an amazing speaker, he shared stories of when he was in the air force and how standing firm in his standers helped him and made it so others respected him for it. He shared one story of when he was in the Philippines, on an off day, he walked up to a group of friends and asked where they were going to go that day, and one of them said "Where we're going you can't come, and even if you wanted to come I wouldn't let you, because I know what your standards are and I'm the last person that want to see you lower them." 

It was a great fireside.

Love y'all!

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

E-mail 10/24/2016

Beware! I am driving full time now, all beware!

So Thursday evening I made the pumpkin spice cookies for district meeting, and boy I forgot how sticky the dough was! And then I made the mistake of taking all of them to district meeting the next day, they were devoured.

Well, the district has stayed the same, except for our new district leader, Elder Permann has come in. Later that Friday, we were going to help our branch mission leader, Brother Zellers, some more, but it got canceled last minute, so we just went about our day doing our normal thing.

Saturday, we did go over to Bro. Zellers and got some more done, and burned some more underbrush, but everything's still damp so after a minute or two, it goes out, but it's still clearing it out. Oh and apparently there's a tradition in this mission that at 18 months, you burn a pair of slacks, well I wasn't planning on doing it, but I had a badly stained pair and we were burning stuff anyway, so I got video on my camera of us burning them, and will send it when I can. Well afterwards we had coordination, and finally settled on a plan for when President and Sister Brough come this next Sunday.

Sunday was good, one of the speakers was a member of the high council, and he finished of his talk with a Christmas story, and even though we're still in October, it was a great story. Well that evening, we had nothing else planned, and it was too late to drop in on people, but not late enough to go in, so we went to the church so I could practice my piano. Holly would be ashamed of how rusty I'll gotten, but the muscle memory is still there.

So we found out today that instead of having zone conference and interviews switching off every transfer, we will have both every transfer, so that will make life a little bit more interesting.

Love y'all!
Elder Durrant
Great Kentucky Louisville Mission

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. 

E-mail 10/10/2016

Dear reader, I have run out of clever ways to start my letters, I do apologize. ;)

Well the same old happened Monday through Wednesday, so I'll start there.

Wednesday evening, We started an exchange and I went up to Jasper, Indiana with our district leader, and since he is in his last transfer I got to drive. Quick note on that, several months ago, President Brough made a new rule, when you are on your last transfer you are not allowed to drive. This came because missionaries, right before they would go home, would do stupid things with the car, like going 100 mph, and things like that. Okay, back to my week.

Thursday, was a busy day, we taught several lessons, to investigators, active members, and less active members, it was a fun day. And I'm not as bad at driving as I thought I would be for doing very little of it for the past eighteen months, I just need to work on my parallel parking. I also learned that if the shifter is in the center console, you need to keep a close eye on it, because if you're at a stop and while you're not looking, the passenger might shift it into neutral. Let's just say I smacked him in the chest.

Friday, we had Zone Meeting, and it was good, and it was nice being able to see everyone from my old district. Well we ended the exchange, and the Reeds, who were our ride, took us out to lunch afterwards, they are so good to us.

Saturday, we spent a good chunk of the day helping our branch mission leader and his son as they were clearing out trees and shrubs, and that is a lot of fun, except that there were massive thorn bushes and thorny vines everywhere! Well we were making some good progress, but then their chainsaw dulled and they couldn't find their tool to sharpen it. So we decided to burn, yes burn, the thorn bushes, and the dead stuff underneath. No Mom, I did not start any fires, I just made sure they didn't get out of hand, and yes all you pyro's, I did get video. So we worked on that until dark, and we will be helping them again later this week.

Sunday, church was good. We saw some of our regular Sunday people, and we set up for a Relief Society Activity.

So that's my week, hope y'all have a good one

Love,

Elder Durrant

Great Kentucky Louisville Mission