10-24-2016

So this week has been super awesome! I am just finishing up another transfer and so I will be receiving a new comp tomorrow!  He is also from Panama, in fact, he is the cousin of my current companion. They are from the same ward, got there calls at the same time and both are here in this mission... so now they will both have been my comp haha... freakin odd!
So this week we had a TON of lessons with members! The members in this ward are truly awesome! I am super happy to be staying here in Los Mina! So we had some pretty awesome experiences this week, so first we were walking in the street, and in our area, there are a ton of thugs, and they all hang out with their motorcycles and stuff, but, we were walking and passed by them and about 50 yards later I looked down and there were two 9mm bullets, so I looked back, none of them were watching and I grabbed the bullets and we continued on... haha so now, I have my first souvenir! Then for 2 days this week we didn’t have any power so we studied and planned with candles! All the neighbors were super mad that there was no power! But I was like hey, we are just camping! haha. 

We have a new investigator that has a baptismal date for next Sunday! He is an amazing guy! He has come a long way and has changed so much!

I am so grateful for the Atonement and our Savior Jesus Christ. I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

ELDER DURRANT

Now power for 2 days = candle light!

Love that brownie mix my mom sent me! I'm getting pretty domesticated!

Dominican Slang Zone Shirt

 

Short and Sweet and to the Point!

Well time is flying and wow what an amazing week here in the DR....

This week we had an amazing baptism of Kendall.... and I had the opportunity to baptize him... we entered the water and wow... the spirit was more strong than ever and as I helped him out of the waters after his baptism, he said in English... WOW I feel so clean... What an amazing blessing we have from our savior Jesus Christ that we are able to enter into the waters of baptism, no matter what we have done, and exit, feeling like a newborn baby... Ready, to stand before God and tell him that we have done what he has asked.... I am so extremely grateful for this work and for every single day that I have here serving these wonderful people of the Dominican Republic... like a good *friend* of mine said this week also, IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER

 LOVE

 

ELDER DURRANT

10-10-2016

So I had a really great week this week! We got tons of rain from Hurricane Matthew but the wind wasn’t too bad!

 

Tuesday morning it stopped raining for a little bit so we were able to leave the house but we were told not to go down by any rivers, and  half of our area, is next to a river haha so that was a little bit of a challenge!

 

Tuesday afternoon, it was POURING so we were unable to leave the house! But for the most part, the storm didn’t take a huge toll on us here in the East side of the Island!  It rained really hard and the streets were like rivers! Glad we live on the 2nd floor! The river we live by is nasty! The rivers are full of trash, in fact this whole country is filled with trash!  When the rain stopped we began looking for something to do.  We knew we couldn’t go down by the river but we began tracting and people would let us in to get out of the rain.

 

On Thursday we attended the Bishops son’s baptism. It was a ward baptism, not a missionary baptism but it was awesome! We were glad we could attend it! We also had a district meeting that day.

 

On Friday we had to go to the office so my companion could take care of his visa. He got to go with his cousin who came into the mission field the same day he did. I don’t know how that works but it’s kind of cool. I got to go to the markets with another missionary who is going home in 2 weeks. He was buying some fancy rock for his mom to make jewelry out of. The markets were amazing! I have never seen so much stuff to buy in this country. When we got back to our apt we were able to share a message with a guy named Domingo. He is a great guy but has some word of wisdom problems. So we will help him with that.  Later we met a member who went out with us on a reference apt. We taught him about the church and when he was done he said, I know what I need to do now. I need to go to church with you guys so I can find out for myself if this church is true. That was awesome!

 

On Saturday we taught our English class on Saturday. It gets a little frustrating when we get new people each week and we have to repeat the lesson we went over the week before , but I am glad we get to teach the people. Here if you speak English, you can get a job at a call center and make a lot of money, so we are happy to help them make more money.

 

Later on Saturday we went down by the river and ran into some gansters who hang out down there.. they think they are pretty cool. We didn’t stay long because the girls were trying to pick up my companion and told him they wanted to be his girlfriend. So we got the heck out of dodge!

 

On Sunday, we had Stake Conference and we had to walk to the church so we were late. At the main meeting the whole church was packed in every room and gym. It was awesome to see so many members come to conference.

 

It know sounds weird that I am super bummed when people don’t come to church! When I first got out I thought that was dumb when people said that,  but if people don’t come to church, they aren’t progressing and if they aren’t progressing they can’t be baptized and that sucks.

 

Right now we have only a few investigators that are progressing but one does have a baptismal date for this Saturday and we are working hard to help him get ready! Lately we have been beginning to teach a ton of people, who I know, have been prepared to here this wonderful message of the Lords restored gospel! I love every single day I have here in the mission. I see the lord’s hand in his work every day! I know this is his church and that he hears and answers our prayers! I hope you all have an amazing week back home and in all other parts of the world!

 

LOVE

ELDER DURRANT

Treats for Elder Durrant's 6 month anniversary in the mission

Oct 3rd

Well it has been another great week here in the DR. Not sure if you are all aware but supposedly there is a Hurricane here in the Caribbean and at first, everyone thought it was going to hit us here in the Capitol, but now it appears that the storm went much more west and is going to be hitting Haiti and Cuba! But no worries, we were all prepared here ready for the water!

Before I talk about conference (the best part of the week) I'll share a little about what happened this week. Well right now we do not have a ton of progressing investigators cuz most of them, got baptized! But, this is a good thing! That means that we have to look for more that are ready to enter into the waters of baptism and take that first step towards the kingdom of god!!  AND that means we get to contact... contacting is fun but super frustrating at times, not because we get lots of doors shut in our face, cuz that actually hardly ever happens, but its hard cuz when we contact, it’s always women, and we can’t enter the house without a guy in there also, so that means we have to put another date to come back and they are hardly there the next time, butttt that is the joy of missionary work!

 Brother Munoz who is one of our progressing investigators is doing well, he is continuing in the fight to drop his addictions with coffee and smoking. And the other investigators we have are doing amazing too.

 Well conference was amazing... I had the opportunity to watch it all in Spanish, and I actually understood it! Well I don’t have much more time but i would like to share my testimony.

 I know this church is true. I know the atonement of Christ is real. That EVERYONE can use it, and it is for EVERYONE. HE is always waiting for us to change and come unto him. I love this work. These last 6 months have been the best of all my life....  I LOVE YOU ALL.

 FROM THE DR 

 ELDER DURRANT

 P.S.  sorry to those I couldn’t write back, I will try next week to do so..

Sept 26th

Well I don’t have a ton of time this week sorry!! We had an ok week this week.

Monday  I was SUPER sick and we didn’t do anything!

Tuesday  I was still sick but we left and had some great lessons with some of our investigators

Wednesday   we had a Zone Conference with our president about faith and having a good attitude in the mission! All I know is that if I’m working, I’m happy!!! If there are any of you out there that are struggling in the mission just GO TO WORK.... I know without a doubt, that this is HIS work, and sharing it with others makes it that much more powerful!  Then after the Zone Conference we went to have all of our interviews for the baptisms that we were going to have and they all passed no problem. They were already!

Thursday we had our regular district meetings

Friday I had to go do something with my visa so I got to visit with all those elders that are from my group in the mission and it was a really great time to be able to catch up with them!

Saturday we had 2 baptisms... We were going to have 3 but one didn’t show up, so after the baptism we went to see what was up and she was super bummed that she couldn’t get baptized and so we planned it for Sunday right after church!

Sunday   we had church and then had another baptism! It was a great week! 

Sorry that it was super short and not super detailed but I’m doing great! I am super excited for conference this upcoming weekend! I am hoping I’ll be able to watch it in English but we will see! Love you all so much!

 ELDER DURRANT

**Can't believe this week Colton hit's the 6th month mark!? Time is going quickly!

 

 

Sept 19th

SALUDOS

GREETINGS

So I’ve had a great week this week in Los Minas. Our ward boundaries changed last Sunday and our ward is even bigger now! This ward is truly amazing. There are so many awesome members and they love to help us out! But since the Ward boundaries changed, so did the mission area! So now there are Hermanas in our ward! Thursday we had our District meeting and then after, President Corbitt came to divide our area! It was great to have a meeting with him. He is truly an inspired man called of God to be our leader.

So we have been continuing to visit the Guy who has a girlfriend in Utah... He and his family are amazing... They always offer us food and Juice and whatever is there’s is ours... They are the prime example of a Dominican family! Well Saturday we are going to be having baptisms. At least 4 people have accepted to be baptized this Saturday, so we are going to continue to follow up with each of them to help them enter into this wonderful covenant with our heavenly father.

In our area we have some really poor parts and we have a few investigators in this part of town, so Friday we went to visit him... Well when we hit the little alley to his house, I looked up and he was sitting in front of his door, reading the book of Mormon.... WOW.... Nothing made me smile bigger this whole week, then to see him studying for himself, and then when we started to share with him, he shared his testimony about the restoration....

I know without a doubt that this church is true. I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet of god, who translated the book of Mormon. I am so grateful for my mission and for every day I have to become the person I want to be. Love you all so much

 

ELDER DURRANT

Sept 12th

Well this week I did remember my paper so here it goes!!

 This week has been great. So last week we had a miracle happen!

So one day last week we were going to visit a family of investigators that we have, and as we were waiting at the door, in broken English, I heard, hey you, come talk to my son. He is in Utah with all the Mormons, you are Mormon right and you white boy, are from Utah! So I said yeah.... and we began to follow him! It turns out his son really was in Utah, he was on skype with his family here in the DR. He was in Provo with his girlfriend, who has just graduated from BYU, and he was in Utah for about 2 weeks visiting.

 So now he is back here in the DR and we have been visiting him because he isn’t a member, But when he was in Utah, they explained EVERYTHING. He now has scriptures that NO ONE here has! He is so ready to get baptized.... But he wants to wait for November! Because his girlfriend and her family are going to visit! And when they are here, he wants the father in law to baptize him! All I can say is wow. He is amazing and that family was so amazed when we popped up on skype with his family here in the DR. I know there is no such thing as coincidences! Sorry my spelling and punctuation is awful...

 But all other things here are going great! I really have nothing to complain about! This is HIS work, we are just his tools here on earth! We have a couple of people who have baptismal dates for the 25 so we are working hard with them to reach their goal!

 

One thing I learned this week is that the lord has his plan. ALWAYS. We just have to trust in him!

LOVE YOU ALL

ELDER DURRANT

Where's Colton?  It's kind of like Where's Waldo!