WEEK 4 !!

Hola!!

 

Hi everyone!! Love and miss you all but i am having such an amazing time here in the DR. This week was amazing!! We have been doing great with our investigators! Last Friday we got to go to the University again! It was even better than last time! This time we found a man, well he found us! We were walking around and then this man caught us from behind and wondered if we were from the temple in Santo Domingo, so we obviously said yes.

He said he wanted to hear our message but he needed 5 min to go into a building, so we waited. When he came back out, we began teaching him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. His eyes lit up and then he began to tell us that his girlfriend was a member and he had always wanted to find out why she believed what she did! He was so excited that he could now read it for himself. 

I know the Lord works through me, and through all missionaries. He wants us to find his gospel and return to him. I say it over and over but I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

Like I say every week, the time is going by so fast! It really is! Most days I feel like I don't have enough time to Study!! These last couple days it has been raining. And when I say raining, I mean RAINING. But then within 20 of it stopping, everything is dry again!  

Because my weeks go so fast, I cant believe it is Thursday again!  Mom, I miss you guys so much but being a servant of the lord is a miraculous thing. This week we watched a devotional at the MTC in Provo by Elder Bednar. His talks are always amazing but this one was one of the best I've ever heard. I just want to share the jist of it. 

"Why are trials and bad things givin to good people?" Because the lord KNOWS, and TRUSTS those he gives those trials to. He knows they can handle what is being given to them. These trials teach us something no matter how big or small.

Just like Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. Two of the greatest leaders of all time. They suffered more than any of us. I want you guys to read Chapter 122: 5-9. I love you guys more than anything and the lord is always with each of us. 

I received Jen Beaches email. I don't have time to write her back but tell her thank for her amazing email she sent to me from last week. I Love you so much and I'll talk to you next week!! Also I'm not sure yet if we will be able to skype but call for sure!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

 

Elder Durrant

Our Chapel

 

Computer room

 

CCM

 

One of our amazing teachers here. Hermano Martinez

 

I'm awful at pin pong, but I'm getting the hang of it

Week 3 pictures

Elder Durrant and Elder Doyle



CCM District



P-day at the Beach




At the Park

Week 3!!

WOW. That’s pretty much all I can say. I LOVE it here. This week we have started to just talk in Spanish so it’s really hard for me to write this letter in English! Because if we speak in English we have to do 25 pushup haha. I love it. This week has been great!! Last week I felt like my Spanish had plateaued, this last week it has been getting a ton better!

Last Friday we got to go contacting at the University near the CCM. It’s huge!! I guess it’s like one of the oldest Universities in the western hemisphere so that’s pretty cool haha. At first I was nervous and my companions were also. We just walked around for a little bit but then I just got this prompting to go for it and I did. I stopped this kid and gave him a little lesson about the restoration and then handed him the pamphlet and he said thank you and then as he was walking away he began to read it! Wow. After that happened, something inside me just went off. It was the same feeling as scoring a touchdown in a tight game. I was JACKED. I was on the "high" of missionary work and it was amazing.
My companion’s kind of struggle with the language sometimes and so I just went off and within the next hour I had placed 7 more pamphlets. It was so extremely fun and who knows what seed we could have planted! Then the rest of the week has been pretty much the same!

We got to the park across the street from the Temple! haha it is quite the park! I will attach some pictures! Yesterday we went to the PLAYA (beach) it was fun! It was a big fancy beach but we went to do service and pick up garbage. (There is garbage everywhere here in the DR) Untilllll, the lady came over to us and told us that we couldn't pick up garbage without permission from the Government.... Haha. Oh well, so we stopped, took some more pictures and then went back to the CCM and played some more basketball with the new Dominican Elders! I’m pretty sure ALL Dominicans love basketball.

Oh the Greenies!!! (New missionaries) they are awesome!! There are now like 42 of us here in the CCM and last week there were 19. So it has doubled! There are a lot of them from Haiti and they are some great people! Only about 3 speak some English and only 1 speaks really well. So he's going to have to help us translate!! I love you all so much. Thank you all for blessing my life in one way or another! I love and miss you but I know with all my heart that this is where I am supposed to be. I know that Christ lives. I know that through him we can all live with our families again.


Sorry if my pictures are blurry! The humidity is so high that if fogs up my camera lens!

 

Your Friend,

Elder Durrant 

Elders in front of the Domincan Republic LDS Temple




Elder Durrant and his District in front of the Dominican Republic Temple

End of Week 2 !

Hello everyone!! I just want to thank each and every one of you for praying and believing in me. I love being a missionary more than anything. I pray each day for all of you! In Spanish haha. We pray like 20 times a day so it happens a lot!  Each day here keeps going by faster and I can’t believe its been 2 weeks already. The language is amazing and I know that with the Lord and the Spirit's help, I have been able to teach over 10 lessons strictly in Spanish. I continue to dream in Spanish and think in Spanish and it’s so amazing.

 

This week we got to go to the grocery store! We were all so pumped cuz we finally got to go outside the gates and see the real Dominican Republic! We walked to the store and it was like a knock-off brand of Walmart! We had a bunch of fun just checking out all the funny stuff in there. 

 

The Dominican people are amazing and so loving and humble! Especially our teachers. They are local missionaries that served about 3 years ago. They know English pretty well but it helps us so much to be taught by natives!

 

On Tuesday we got to attend a devotional by the area president here in the Dominican Republic! What an amazing talk! The spirit was so strong during the entire meeting. The food here at the CCM is really good. It’s usually rice, beans, and some type of meat and then always salad! I love eating the salad and everyone looks at me so weird when I get a heaping plate of it covered in ranch.

 

Mostly everyone here at the CCM is leaving next Tuesday! All the other Sisters and Elders are awesome! I am so blessed to be around such amazing people. There will only be my district (5 Elders) left. Then on Wednesday 30 new missionaries are coming in from Haiti, DR, USA and Jamaica. So this place is going to be packed and we will be the veterans haha. 

 

Today we went to the temple and once again, without fail, it was AMAZING. I am so blessed to be here in the Dominican Republic! I am one of the assistants to the MTC president so I have quite a few jobs to do so that keeps me busy! I love this gospel and the Lord with all my heart. Jesus died for each and every one of us. If ever you are struggling, just think of him. He knows every pain we could ever think of.

 

I just found out that Sam Chadwick will be serving in the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East mission with me. How awesome is that? Maybe we will be companions during our missions. I know I'm not in the field yet, but the people here love and look up to the missionaries so much!

Thanks dad for always being such an amazing example to me. I absolutely love being a missionary, just like you did! I love you very much!! Have a dang good week and I will try and tell you about the new people coming in next week.

 

Finally, even though it’s only been two weeks, I have grown as a man so much.  Please everyone look up this scripture. It has helped my testimony so much this last week! I love all of you so much! I hope you have such a great week and don't ever forget to thank Our Father in Heaven for your blessings.  PLEASE READ: Mosiah 4:9

 

Peace out!!!

 

Love 

Elder Durrant

 

Ps- Sorry I didn’t get to take any pictures this week! next week I will have a bunch I promise!

 

Dominican Republic CCR (MTC)

MTC Pictures 4-7-2016

Elder Fuimaono and Elder Durrant

Elder Durrant and Elder Wolf

Elder Bastian and Elder Durrant

Dominican Elders and Elder Durrant

Elder Durrant and Dominican Elders

Dominican Republic Temple

First P-day in the Dominican Republic

Hola!!

This week has been so amazing!! The first full day we were here, we had to teach an investigator in spanish and it was soooo hard! But day after day my spanish is getting immensely better with the help of the spirit! Now I can understand almost everything that the teachers are saying. Sitting in class is long, but the teachers are amazing and make it so fun to learn! The people here at the CCM (MTC) are amazing. There are only 20 total missionaries here and the building can only hold 40. We have about 27 Elders here from Santo Domingo, Jamaica, and the United States!

 
The elders from here at the dominican republic are so awesome and most of them LOVE basketball and the nba. That is how they learn all their english is from watching nba games. So during gym time each day we play a mean game of basketball. They were kinda surprised the first day when they big fat white kid (me) could actually shoot. haha. I play ball with Elder Doyle and Elder Cornilles during gym and we are starting to be dang good friends, they are awesome! Elder Bastian from Idaho likes to life weights so we go lift together, he is really cool!

 
I am in a trio companionship and I know the Lord is blessing me with patience. Elder Fuimano, is from Redlands California and he is an amazing guy. He's a poly and me and him are so much alike. Elder Wolf, my other campion is from South Carolina. We watched EVERY SESSION of conference this last weekend and it was amazing. I loved each and every talk that was given. Conference was in english cuz it was doctrine! It was amazing!!!

 
We have continued to teach our investigator and I LOVE the language. By far the biggest challenge of my life but the power of the spirit when you are a missonary makes everything easier. The food here is good. As expected, there are a lot of beans and rice. But usually there are always foods similiar to home but they just have a dominican twist. I am getting fat from all the rice haha but they said eat all you can now cuz once you get in the field you will lose 20 lbs the first week.

 
I cannot tell you how much I love everyone here. I know the Lord wants me to be here in the Dominican Republic. This morning we went through the temple and WOW. It was amazing.

 
My district is amazing. We are all like brothers. and it makes it so much easier to learn cuz we are all like in the same boat trying to learn Spanish. I have definitely learned a heck of a lot more this week than my whole high school career, and that is all thanks to the spirit! I even dream in Spanish

 
I love and miss you guys so much but i know I'm supposed to be here and its really so fun!

Well I love you all very much!! I will talk to you again very soon because the days here just continue to go by faster. Missionary work is amazing!!!!

Got to go!

LOVE

Elder Durrant

 

 

 

 

Colton with MTC President and Sister Romney

 

Elder Durrant with MTC President and Sister Romney

 



Elder Durrant and the Elders who arrived with him March 30, 2016

 

Day 1 in the Dominican Republic MTC

 

I made it!! My p-day will be Thursdays but not tomorrow! Well mom we kinda put some toothpaste in my carry on and they at security didn't like it very much so I definitely got the full body pat down and questioning by the little bald dude. After they found nothing I was good to go! The plane ride was so long but I met some Elders at the SLC airport! One is from So. Cal. (Poly kid) the other is the kid from Portland! They are great guys.  I am running on 1 hr of sleep in the last 36 hrs haha so I hope this all makes sense. At JFK our layover was like 20 min so I'm sorry I didn't call. The flights were so long and my butt was asleep all night/day. We met 3 more Elders when we got to Santo Domingo airport! It is soooo humid here and I am soaking haha. The drive from the airport was about 30 min and the people are nuts. There is not a lot of honking but they just drive like dad. (Like they own the road). There are also tons of motorcycles and they drive everywhere! They were even going the wrong way sometimes!  I have met so many elders so far and they say the language is hard but it all works out if we will work diligently! There are 6 of us that just got here today and we have all sat down and talked and we are great friends already!! I will talk to you all next week. I know the church is true and this is exactly where I need to be!

Colton's Mission Email  colton.durrant@myldsmail.net