12-19-10

Dear Mom,

I have not received any instruction for a specific time to call on Christmas. I will call you in the morning and then set up a time to talk.

I sent you a picture of our "Christmas Bush" we were using before the tree came. I have enjoyed opening a package each day. It has been fun. Elder Frazier opened all of his packages from home already. He spoiled Christmas but I am waiting. I have enclosed other pictures. It has started to get cold but it looks like we will be having a brown Christmas this year. no snow. Just like home.

We worked hard this week. Drove everywhere. Matthew did not come to church this last Sunday. We will have to move his baptism date. We have been very blessed with people to teach. We are working hard in the day to find people and then the nights are filled with teaching. We are off. Have a Merry Christmas and I will talk to you Saturday.

Love Elder Durfee

PS the package is great. Elder Frazier received three thermals. He is very happy and warm. Thanks for passing the message on to his parents.

It has been a eventful week. I am quiet tired and will probably take a nap today. It has been hot lately. 60 degrees with hardly any snow these last few weeks.

We have been making tons of calls and visiting everyone. We have been blessed with lots of lessons and people to teach.

A visiting teacher made contact with the Gonzolus family and found out that the mother was going in for surgery the next day. She wanted a blessing and gave us a call to go by and give her the blessing. The surgery went well and the mom is doing much better after the surgery. The family wants to be active in the church and get their ten year old son baptized. We taught them the first lesson, set the son for baptism on the 31 of December and made arrangements for church. The boys (age 10, 13, 17) came to church for sacrament meeting and the ward party the day before. Heavenly Father did everything to make this happen. We are just hear to teach. Their hearts are already prepared.

We contacted a referral we had received from Church Head Quarters. She lives 19 miles from town. When we called she was interested in meeting with us. She already has a book of Mormon from a friend and has lots of questions. We drove to teach her with our ward mission leader and had a wonderful first lesson. She is excited to read and pray and she even said the closing prayer. Heavenly father has prepared her too.

We have a family in the ward who’s mom moved in to live with them. The mother recently had a stroke and is learning to walk and be self sufficient again. Most of her life she has been anti towards the Mormons but since the incident she has had a change of heart. She has been coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon and watching BYU TV and following along in the scriptures. We were invited to come and teach her. Once again Heavenly Father has prepared the person for the gospel long before we ever arrived.

Many home of the less-active members have been opening up. Some great people have been prepared and are ready to come back to the church. We are seeing the Lords hand change peoples hearts. I love you mom, family you too.

Elder Durfee

12-5-10

Dear mom,

I also watched the Christmas devotional. It was wonderful. We had hot chocolate with pumpkin pie after for dessert. It was delicious.

So I have compiled a Christmas package for the family. Will Celeste and Casey be joining you for Christmas Eve? I want to send them something too.

Lets see… the baptism was wonderful Jackie, Derek and Tori are so special. We had a great turn out from the ward. I heard that we had a hundred people show up in support for the baptism. It was wonderful. The Rydzeski’s dad came for the baptism and even showed up for the confirmation at church. He is such a nice man, fits right in with High Priests. At the baptism Elder Frazier and I taught the Restoration.

We had zone conference this last week. Lots of fun I saw many missionaries that I have not seen in weeks/months. Sister Ely was there she too a lot of pictures. She took a lot of pictures which I am sending.

Thank you for the wonderful package again. I have some pictures. It was a wonderful last week. At zone conference I received a phone call from a member who had someone for us to teach. His name is Jody. All we were given is a name and a number. We contacted Jody by phone. He is needing God in his life, he has gone threw a lot of trials. We told him the church address and he said he would come to church. Sunday afternoon we gave him a call. We haven’t heard form him since. Hope he is ok.

Mom I love you, have a great Christmas. Love Elder Durfee

11-7-10

Dear Family
It has been another eventful week of missionary work. We had an appointment with a potential family Michel and Charlie. We were going to eat dinner with them but when we arrived at their house Charlie told us that Michel was sick in bed. Rats… the adversary is working hard.
We visited the recent convert, Mary. Her husband just came back from working in Brazil. We are hoping that they will now let us come by. We have spoken with the ward mission leader about the lessons. We are going to try and involve the Home teachers in the teaching process.
We visited Sister Lindsay. She called us asking that we come over and say a prayer for her dog that is dying. Afterwards we visited Sister Lindsay’s visiting teacher and let her know what happened.
I have been studying from the missionary handbook and looking up the scriptures. I have been learning cool things about unity, leadership, and teaching two by two. Also I am reading one chapter in the Book of Mormon each night. Marking references to the Holy Ghost this time.
Family thanks for your praises and love, Elder Durfee

11-1-10

Dear Family,
Hello and greetings, I hope all is well. This last week was a good one. We kicked off the week with teaching the Mom of the Ainsworth family in our ward. She had many question, an example would be word of wisdom, what church is like, what’s it like to be a member, and so forth. She said that she is looking for a church. She does not live in our ward but we invited her to come to church. Unfortunately she did not come.
Elder Edwards came to our ward on Tuesday. It was great several doors opened and we even tracted into a man that let us teach him a lesson. He was not interested in learning more but he let us talk to him.
We also taught Sister Hansen (a less-active sister) the “Gospel of Jesus Christ” and she came to church on Sunday.
We had a follow up appointment for the first lesson with Josh. We talked to him on the front porch but he told us that he felt the Book of Mormon was not true. He read bits and parts of the book and was confused about what he was reading. I think he flipped threw the book reading paragraphs here and there and did not really understand what he was reading. I invited him to read it and understand it. We brought a member in the neighborhood to the appointment. Josh might be interested in coming to some ward parties.
Our Ward Trunk or Treat was packed. We had to set up extra chairs in the relief society room because we had so many people. Several less-active actually were early to the activity. We gave out some glow sticks to the kids and made each one ask us something they did good that day. We quickly ran out of glow sticks thought. There were several hundred kids. Our ward mission leader was able to get us the glow sticks for us.
Well I think that this was most of the work. We visited lots of potentials even contacted a referral. It has been great being a part the work this week.
Elder Durfee
Ps what do you mean dad is starting his big Job?
PSS go Lynette that great news!
Psss we have trainings again with president this week. 2 days of it.

10-18-10

Mom,
I am doing wonderful. I keep to a pretty good budget and my needs are take care of. I can spend about 30 dollars a week for food or other personal items. I have found ways to save money. Example, we are to have the car washed once a week. Instead of paying 7 dollars for the cheapest wash, I bought car soap and now wash the car 28 times on 7 dollars! We Wash the car Monday mornings for exercise. So we save roughly 28 dollars a month by washing the car ourselves. :)
Lets see, was the kick off for the 40 day fast. We found someone new to teach. Before Sunday we had five less-active families tell us that they should be at church. We were very excited. None of them came to church but we are going to try and help them come by going and seeing them before church and or calling them before hand. I talked with another missionary, he said that they had 10 less-active at church! That was exciting to hear.
Hmm… we have done a lot of tracting and looking for the Elect. Several doors have opened. With the increase of faith from the members (fasting) we are seeing an increase in people to teach, appointments set up, people answering the phone, and families telling us that they will come to church. The Savior healed and blessed people according to their faith. If they had enough faith, they were healed. There even was a man that had to ask the Savior to “Help though my unbelief” when his faith was lacking. The Members have increased their faith, the Lord has increased the blessings and the work is rolling forward.
Love Elder Durfee

10-11-10

Dear Family,
Hello and greetings, I am doing well. We had transfers today. Elder Regnier and I will both be staying here. We lost a good number of elders in the district. It is hard to see them go. The Lord needs them elsewere.
For fun and entertainment, I cleaned the Kitchen and mop/swept the floors today. It was a dirty job. The sink was piled high with them. I was glad to have it done.
We made contact with Lorence and sister Lindsay. They are rather dificult to contact but sometimes you get lucky. In the middle of the messege we were leaving they picked up the phone and set up an appointment with us. We had no idea what to share with them but the the spirit helped us talk about scripture study and where we want to be in a year. Lorence said he wants to be baptized and sister Lindsy even said that she wants to be a visiting teacher. Now we need to help the Visiting teachers make contact.
Lets see, we road our bikes this last week and got stuck in a rain storm. We rode a good mile before we found refuge in our ward mission leaders home. His wife was great and made us hot chocolate. My left shoe was completely soaked. It was a drenching experience.
This week we started the 40 day fast in our ward. We should eat good. We will be eating dinner with the familes breaking their fast. Family it was a great week. Thankyou for your prayers. That was cool about Elder Phelps and Grandma. We have a member in our ward going to the MTC next week. Brant might see him. His name is Jeff Stien. Could you tell Brant congrats for me? Thanks.
Elder Durfee
PS no we don't grow winter gardens :)

10-04-10

Dear Family,
Another week has come and gone. The days seem to fly by. This last week we made contact with our former stake president’s none-member son. Our bishop asked us to go by and invite them to look into the church. We invited and they said no.
We had a cool experience where the teachers of the 10-11 year old girls had a Missionary week. We were invited to come and answer questions about what the MTC and how great it is to be a missionary. The teachers arranged a room as if they were on an air plane. Elder Regnier and I pushed a cart with drinks and pretzels to give to the girls. The girls then “got off the plane” and entered the MTC. We spoke for a minute about how being a missionary means representing the savior. It was a fun experience to see how happy and excited they were to be missionaries.
We also had the second three day training form the mission president. It was exciting. This is about all I have. I love you,
Elder Durfee

Sept. 27, 2010

Dear Family,
We worked hard this last week. We have tracting the outreaches of our area. We took our bicycles and went down dirt roads talking with people. We had two people set up an appointment. One of them told us that she wanted God more in her life. We told her we could help. However, when we went back to these homes for the appointments they were not there. We will keep working till we find the Elect.
We helped a less-active sister move this last week. We did not break anything. Bishop she is able to move because the church is helping fund her. Bishop is going to ask her to take the missionary lessons and start coming to church.
Our ward is going to be starting a 40 day fast for missionary work starting at the end of this transfer. It will be tied with our dinner calendar as families break their fast we will eat with them. We are planning what we want to say already. We have also been invited to speak in sacrament meeting the day before the fast starts.
In my studies I learned that developing any single Christ like attributes increase all the other Christ like attributes. I don’t have more time but family I love you,
Elder Durfee
PS have a great week.

Sept. 7, 2010

Dear Family
I hope you had a great week this last week. So far so good for me. We visited an elderly sister and we were able to teach one of her friends, Bill. The non-member has had the lessons before and at one point had a baptism date but somehow stopped progressing. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and did some ice chipping on his concerns. The hard part is that Bill lives in the Denver Colorado South Mission. When he comes to visit is the only time we can teach him. I think Bill is only interested in appeasing his member friend. He does not really keep commitments.
We had dinner with a less-active family, Cade still does not want to give up chewing. So we are going to try and help his mom quit smoking instead.
We made contact with Sister L. again. She was happy and glad to see us. Her new visiting teachers have been amazing. They sent her nice cards in the mail and even dropped by with a stuffed animal, a plant and another card. I think that was all that Sister L. needed was to feel loved. She was very grateful and even set up an appointment with us later this week. We have invited the visiting teacher to come to that appointment. We are trying to contact the high priests to find out who her Home teachers are so we can help them make contact.
We invited the Home teacher to come with us to an appointment with one of his families. The less-active member told us that he had never had home teachers come visit him before. We called the member before hand and invited him to be ready to share a story on how "studying the scriptures has blessed his family." It was a cool experience. I’m glad it worked out.
We talked with our bishop this last week about what he would like us to do. We came up with an invitation for all the less-actives to invite them to take the lessons. It went something like “Will you take three hours to make an educated decision about the LDS church. If after those three hours you decide that the church is not for you then we will show you how you can remove your records and we won’t come back. But if you decide that you want to learn more we will teach you all we can. If you decide to send us away now without hearing our message you are affect not only your salvation, but you children and your children’s children salvation.” It’s way bold but I am excited to see how it works out. The key is doing this with the spirit, in a loving manner just like the savior would.
That’s all I have time for, family I love you
Elder Durfee

PS it was great to hear about camping!

August 22, 2010

Dear Mom,

Thank you for the email. It’s going great over here. The truck that I ran into was parked yet. I looked at it yesterday; it still has the tire marks of the bumper. Tasha is doing good, she was sick this last Sunday so she did not come to church. Her parents came and told us she was sick so we felt ok about it.
I have been working very hard. This last week we had the trainings by our mission presidents and the Assistance. It was a four day course. From 9 am to 3 -4 pm. Long six to seven hours of trainings. I loved it. We were trained on
1. The Doctrine of Christ
2. The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion
3. The Process of Revelation
a. Revelation through Prayer
b. Revelation through the Book of Mormon
c. Revelation through Church Attendance
4. Teach People, Not Lessons
5. We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up
6. How to Begin Teaching
I have been looking forward to improving how I teach. I learned so much in those four day it was incredible. It felt like EFY for a missionary. We did lots of role-playing. The mission president would have us break into groups and practice teaching someone else. President Ely and the Assistance would listen to role-plays and then show us how to do something clearer. It was difficult for me to teach with the mission president listening over my ear but with practice and his help I learned lots and felt the spirit enter and help me teach. Now I am in charge of actually teaching it and helping other elders apply the principles.
We had the wrens at church. I went and sat by their 8 year old son, Josiah. He was starting to get bored in sacrament meeting. Half way through I asked him if he liked to sing. He said he liked to sing. “Would you like to sing with me in the ward choir?” he ended up coming up and singing in the choir with me. It was fun.
We have been working with the fifteen focus families Home teachers and Visiting teachers. We are asking for one month of extra emphasis on the family they home teach or visit teach. We have been asking them to daily pray for their families and each week do something with them, EX FHE, dinner, plate of cookies, visit them, something fun to make contact, even service. The two less-active families we were working really with ended up coming to a carnival we had Saturday night and even came to church. I think it was the extra faith of the members that has made all the difference. Together our acts of faith combined with our prayers was enough to soften the hearts of a few families. It was a miracle. We had been trying to make this happen for ten weeks now. When we asked the members to help, that’s when we started seeing the success.
I love you mom, have a great week.
Elder Durfee
PS Congrats to Gentry, when is he getting married? What’s the fiancé’s name? Yeah for the young Michaud family, congrats for the baby girl!

August 2, 2010

Dear Family,
Hello I’m glad to hear you had a great time camping in Horse Shoe Lake. Elder Regnier and I had a great last week. We have been praying for people to teach. We worked very hard tracting and trying to follow the spirit. It was interesting because on the days that I felt we were where the lord needed us we had great success with members, non-members and the time just flew by. We did more biking and did around 17 miles in one afternoon. It was very hot but we sweated throw it.
This last week sister wren told us that she still wants to get baptized it’s just that she is still struggling with when she wants to start keeping the commandments. I think she is nervous to make the commitment of baptism because she does not think she can live a life of the “Mormon”. We are going to work on building her faith in Christ and help her see the blessings for being obedient.
The bishop in our ward has 6 children, all of them boys. We were eating dinner at his home when “Mom” threw all the boys and the missionaries outside so she could finish making dessert. We started a great game of wooffle ball in the back yard. It was lots of fun. We finished just in time for chocolate chip waffles. Yummy, being in their home reminded me of our home. It was crazy; bishops’ oldest son is 12.
Well we also scrimped on miles; some other missionaries in the zone drove over 100 miles past their limit. We were under by only 13 miles and had to bike the last day.
This last week we also had zone conference. It was great to see the mission president and his wife. They are wonderful. We heard that lots more things are changing in the mission. Apparently when the new year comes all the missionaries are going to be trained in 8 places where missionaries are lacking right now. From what I remember, following the spirit was one of the 8. Since all the new missionaries are going to be trained on them, all the missionaries who are already out in the field need to be trained on them before January. They are going to be having a 4 day conference to train the Zone-leaders, District-leaders, and Trainers. I think it is going to be great to learn what the First Presidency wants us to know. They will be having the four day conference in the next several weeks. So pretty soon.
Hmm… o we painted a less-active member home this last week. Before we started painting we went and killed 10 really hairy spiders outside. We killed one that had the body the size of a quarter. It was grouse. It spattered when I stepped on it. So after we killed all the spiders, we removed branches and trimmed the trees just a bit so we could paint the house. We discovered several wasp nests and hundreds of crickets but luckily no one got stung in the process. It was a fun day for us. We were very sweaty but we felt the spirit as we worked and left feeling even more excited to serve the children of God.
Well family I am doing good. Hope all is well I love you, have a terrific week!!!!
Love,Elder Durfee

July 26, 2010

Dear Family,
Hello, I hope you are all doing great and are having a blast in the mountains. Did you guys go see Ladybug Meadow? How about the stream by the Bear Cave? The Offspring’s Nest? Did anyone catch any fish? Were there any lightning storms when you went to Wild Horse Meadow? I bet you will all be dirty and tired when you get home. I will pray that you will have a safe drive. O, did the Adams come and visit? I hope so I think they are great.
Speaking of the Adams, Elder Regnier actually looks kind of like Jesse. I am starting to see Jesse out of the corner of my every time I turn around. It keeps throwing me off. How is he doing down in Mexico by the way?
We had some great adventures down dirt roads, streams, train tracks, a couple of days of biking and even built a gazebo. Mom I just want you to know that I have been trying to use that sunscreen you gave me right before I went into the MTC. You made me promise to use it and so I still have the container. We used it except for two days that we forgot. We both got burned pretty good. Elder Regnier more than me though. He has a good blister on his nose. Ok we did not use the sunscreen. For some odd reason every time we want to put some on the sunscreen is back at the house. Other then that family my week has been great. I love you all, have a good one.
Elder Durfee

July 17, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello and greetings. I hope you are doing good. Sorry to hear about Aunt Mary. How was the funeral mom? Did you pick up any donuts on your way home? You know the kind I mean, Dunford Donuts.
It has been an exciting week. Elder Garrett was transferred. Elder Regnier (I think that’s how you spell it) is my new companion. He is actually from Arizona in some Native American named city. He is pretty cool. I think we will have a great time together.
Yes mom I received the package you sent. It was yummy, thanks for sending it to me. I already ate everything, except the Granola. I ran out of milk before the end of the week so I have been eating it dry. It is very good thanks.
This last week Elder Garrett and I went and visited many people who had told us to come back later. Normally people try to be nice and say “come back later” when they really mean, “I’m not interested.” But we have been taking people up on their offer and actually taught the Restoration lesson three times and committed them to read and pray. I am almost always excited to teach the first lesson. This week we will visit them and see if they have received their own witness of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Small miracle, we drove up to where we were going tracting just as large droplets of water started to fall. My companion said a quick opening prayer asking Heavenly Father to hold back the rain, “at least so we don’t get too wet”. Our prayer was answered, because as soon as Elder Garrett said the prayer the water started to lesson. We got out of the car just as the droplets stopped coming down and we tracted the whole street without getting wet. I believe it was a miracle. I believe Heavenly Father is looking out for us and helping in the work.
Dear family, have a wonderful week. I love you and thank you for your prayers. They are making a difference thank you.
Love,
Elder Durfee

June 28, 2010

Dear Family,
It has been adventure this last week. Elder Garrett and I tried very hard to keep the work moving forward. We did lots of tracting this last week and the Lord has blessed us with several doors opening to let us teach them and several great potential investigators. A cool story from this last week, we have been practicing teaching a short 3-5 minute lesson on the Restoration so we could share it with someone if they only had a few minutes. As we tracted this last week, we had a guy actually come out and say “I only have five minutes.” We excitedly taught him our new and improved short lesson. The man was not interested in learning more but we felt the spirit and left feeling edified and excited. It was great to see the work move forward.
Hmm… both of our investigators who were set for baptism will have to be moving their baptism dates. Just scheduling and other conflicts but we have not given up hope yet. So cool story, it was Tuesday night, I dreamed that our mission president randomly showed up to our district meeting the nest day. I woke up feeling slightly nervous (I would be giving a 40 minute training at district meeting). I was kind of jittery all day until it was my turn to stand up and talk. I felt the spirit and was able to say the right things. The mission president never did show up but we would have been ready for him, if he had come.
So do you remember the lady who came to church last week? Well we met with her last Monday night to teach her the stop smoking program the church has. She really wants to quit smoking and during the lesson we asked her to hold up a pack of cigarettes. She held up a box and Elder Garrett then proceeded to tell her to crush them. It was great, her mouth literally dropped open in shock. She tried to tell us how expensive cigarettes are. We told her she could do it and that she is stronger than the cigarettes. She then mustard up her courage and crushed them. We clapped and cheered for her. It was all exciting and we left not knowing what the next day would bring. We gave her a call and left a message. We did the same thing the next day, and the day after that. We were worried for her when we had not contacted her by Thursday. We gave her a call Thursday evening. She answered the phone. Apparently she has been doing great and has not had one cigarette since we met with her. We were so happy. It was fun to see someone change their life for the better.
Well family that was my week. I hope you have a great time on you wilderness survival trip. Mom and dad and everyone else who does not go have a great time at home.
Love,
Elder Durfee

6-21-10

Dear Mom and Family,
Thanks for the nice email. I enjoyed reading it. Sorry to hear about dad. Is he getting better? Can he work? I will pray that he is healing quickly.
So this last week was super busy, we have been out talking to all the Members about their Home teaching and Visiting teaching. Bishop had asked us to go make them be accountable (we have very low reports for Home teaching and Visiting teaching). And so that is how we have been doing. We worked hard and we taught a bunch of lessons this week. We had a lady let us teach her the first lesson on the front porch. It was lots of fun, but in the end she told us thank you but she is not interested in actually reading the Book of Mormon. We gave her a pamphlet to read and hopefully she will one day look deeper into the church.
Hmm… we went to visit this less active member in the ward invited her to come to church, she excepted. We told her and her friend that we would be greeting people by the doors when they arrived. We had our meetings canceled on Sunday (Fathers Day) so we hitched a ride with a member and arrived late. Luckily the meeting also started late that day. The Less active member was there along with her non member friend. It was great, we sat by them. She told me after that she felt like she had come home and she even told bishop that she will be at church next week. It was great.
Ha ha funny story so for some odd reason I keep dreaming that I am doing things that missionaries do. Like last night I contacted a lady and was about to invite her to take the missionary lessons (not just a simple question but we had a whole conversation about the gospel in preparation for me to ask her to take the missionary lessons) regrettable I awoke just before I asked her to take the lessons. I will never know if she excepted or not. O well…
As missionaries we are allowed to watch any movie that has the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints” on it and it has to be in our free time. We decided to watch Johny Lingo right before bed. Wow I dreamed of the movie all night long. It was a very long night for a 20 minute movie.
I think that is it family, I love you and hope all is well. Love,
Elder Durfee
Ps Dad I sent you a Father’s day letter last week I hope you get it. Joycelyn Happy Birthday. I made you a card too. I’m sending it today.

6-7-10

Dear Mom and Family,
OK another great week of work, I'm actually being transfered to a town called Longmont. It is right next to Berthoud but in another stake/Zone. I will be with a missionary named Elder Garret and we will have a car. yes. Berthoud days were lots of fun. Elder Hatch and myself helped out with the youth turkey leg booth. they had ruffly 500 turkey legs that needed to be cooked on the grill. we got to help out, it was great. they had 4 grills going at once. the one i had was like 6 feet by 3 feet. we tallied up to 75 turkey legs on it at once. I wore gloves up to my elbows and had turkey flippers in both hands turning as fast as I could. we only burned a couple of them (the youth were happy because they got to eat them) and i had a great time. I came away with a distinct smell of turkey legs on my clothes and a nice sunburn on one arm. Apparently i missed a spot on my arm when i had applied sunscreen. Yes mom I am waring sunscreen... sometimes...
We also had a funeral this week. one of the members passed away and we attended the funeral. lots of the family came and a good portion of them were non members. the family said that many people had hurt feelings towards one another and they had finally been resolved after many years. it took a family member dying for them to finally get over their grudges that they have towards one another and finally be friends again. it was good to see them as a happy family but i just think of all the time wasted, all the great family gatherings lost simply because of a grudge.
Dear family that is all i have time for. have a wonderful week andtake care,
Elder Durfee
PS the home with the llamas was wonderful. i will miss the family we stayed with. they were great!

Happy Memorial Day

Dear Family,
Hello I hope all is going well for you. I'm trying hard to do my best. I'm doing good though. This last week we moved!!! 6 months of living in a home was exciting but it is great to be somewhere new. It was great because we packed up the car with all our junk, loaded up the beds (the missionaries in the ward have their own beds that have been passed down from generation to generation). I liked how I moved in months ago, and then I got the opportunity to move out also. Kinda odd but I liked it. The new members we live with have offered to buy unlimited ice cream for us. They said that we can eat as much as we desire. I'm excited. O the family also has a pool, a dog, two Llamas, and a nice home out in the country. It is quiet peaceful. We can watch the corn grow and the farmer working out side our window. It is really nice.
Lets see, we met with Jane (we moved her date to the 19th) and she has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. She read all of Moroni and Ether in two days (she is reading it backwards for some reason.) when we came to our next appointment she had read all of Mormon. It was great to see her progress. She has been very sincere and asking Heavenly Father daily if the Book of Mormon is true. We have great hopes for her and are excitedly preparing her for baptism.
We also me with Jorge. He has a date for the 19th also. Our last meeting we just did lots of talking and explaining how the church works. Like callings, what it takes to be baptized, and even addressed many concerns he has.
And exciting enough we have transfers at the end of this week. Elder Hatch goes home and I will be getting a new companion. we will see how it goes.
yesterday for preparation day we went and played tennis. i also purchased a boomerang from the local habitat and was enjoying throwing it until it got stuck in a tree.
For preparation day we attended a funeral for one of the members of our ward. it was a very nice service. we got to help out with printing the programs and handing them out to everybody. Very exciting, this Saturday is Berthoud day's. It is such a small town that we will still get together and have a carnival, 5k run, food, and lots of other forms of entertainment. We will be helping direct runners for the 5k run Saturday morning. It should be fun. I am also looking forward to the turkey legs that the YM and YW will be selling. Mmmmm yummy. Reminds me a lot of the rodeo back home.
Alright family have a great week. Love Elder Durfee

5-17-10

Dear Family,
Wow so I am doing my best right now. We had a very tiring morning. Last night I called a potential investigator and found out she was moving. She excepted our offer to help and away we went to unload her stuff into a storage unit. We offered to give here a hand even though it is our p-day the next day and she accepted. We have been moving stuff for four hours. I am hot, tired and smell like smoke... yuk. You will have to forgive me I don't have much spark in me at the moment. The Lord blessed us this last week. We had many great unexpected blessing. One was that we taught 21 lessons this week. We had a surplus of people to teach. Even had a guy let us teach him the first lesson on his front porch (which does not happen very often). Our mission president has asked us to invite each person we teach to be baptized, even if it is the first lesson. We almost committed him to baptism but he turned us down because he wanted to do some praying first. We are meeting with him not this week but next week. Thats about it take care, love
Elder Durfee

PS: Jorge and Jane both came to church. I was so happy to see them come in threw the double doors. They made their entrance right during the sacrament hymn, after I had completely given up hope that they were even coming. I was so happy I couldn't do anything but sit back in shock at the miracle before me. We were blessed more then we deserve. Thanks for your prayers.
Elder Durfee

5-9-10

Dear Family,
It was great to talk to you last night. wow made me realize how much i like you guys. yesterday was fun for me. my companion was all excited to call home. he was so excited that he called home in between some appointments we had and only called for 20 minuted. he called back later to make up the rest of his minutes.
This last week we have been trying very hard to find people to teach. we have been out tracting for several hours each day and we are finding SUCCESS!!! not baptisms at the moment but people to teach. we found this wonderful young mother and her two year old daughter. we taught her the first lesson on the front porch. we used to pictures in the Restoration pamphlet and even opened and closed with a prayer. she said she would come to church, read, and pray about the Book of Mormon. unfortunately she did not make it to church this Sunday hopefully she is OK and still wants to learn from us when we meet with her this next week.
Hmm... lets see we set an elderly lady named Jane for baptism on the 30th May. She just needs to come to church and get an answer to her prayers. We also set Jorge for baptism on the 6th of June. If you would pray for them I would be ever so grateful.
That is basically the work this last week. Thank you family i love you,
Elder Durfee

5-3-10

Dear Family,
It was a fun week for Elder Hatch and me. We enjoyed driving the car all over town and even helping the zone leaders out by giving them a ride. The work is going forth this week. We had an amazing mission conference with Elder C. Scott Grow. We had great inspirational trainings about how to find, teach and baptize. I really enjoyed it and am excited to move forward under the new direction.
With the work here in Berthoud, we have been trying hard to tract every day. We had several good contacts gave out a Book of Mormon and had several people tell us to come back by. Slowly but surely the work goes forth.
We had a scare with one of our investigators. Pop went out of town and gave us a call. He told us that he does not want to meet with us anymore. When Pop came back in town we asked him why he does not want to meet with us. He said that he feels he is wasting our time because he does not want to get baptized (he is Buddhist). He said that he wants to will continue to read, pray, and come to church but that he is not ready to be baptized. We said, Pop we are here to baptize you. We will be willing to continue to teach you if you will let us know when you are ready to be baptized. He agreed and we set up an appointment for next week.
The Macy's (less active family came to church last week for the first time) did not come to church. The husband was called out of town for work. With our mission presidents permission we called him yesterday, asked how he was doing, shared a scripture and invited him to read a verse every day. I hope he does read and pray, it will help him. We stopped by and gave sister Macy a Restoration pamphlet. We are helping the members invite the family over for dinner and to church. With the wards help we are hoping, Sister Macy will come to church even with her husband out of town.
I have loved driving. I has become one of my favorite things in the mission I am still amazed at how fast we can travel from one point to another. We even have hot and cold air to blow on us and music to listen to. Cars are amazing. I love having one. Well family I love you take care. Love,
Elder Durfee

Grandpa Bevell's passing

Dear Family,
I am doing good, mourning the loss of grandpa, except it is not really a loss. Grandpa Bevell lived a righteous life. His days were filled with service towards his family and his God. He died strong in the faith and he has been received valiantly on the other side. I loved the letters and notes you all sent me. I was touched as you described the thoughts and feelings you had towards grandpa as he faithfully endured to the end. Thank you for including me. Instead of mourning my heart wants to shout forth praises and glory to the God on High. It has been made possible through the blood of our beloved Savior Jesus Christ that Grandpa Bevell will be Resurrected. Along with each one of us, to one day stand together before the judgment bar and receive Judgment, Glory, and Exaltation for ever and ever. Grandpa will be saved from the grasp of death. It has been laid out from the very beginning. I know this is true. I sorrow in the depths of my heart in his passing. But my heart is filled to the brim in joy as I think of my beloved Grandfather.
Elder Durfee

4-26-10

Dear Family,
Even though everything is happening back home, Elder Hatch and I had a wonderful week. We taught a lesson to a PM family. The M.'s had not read or prayed but we had a wonderful lesson on the plan of salvation. We invited them to pray that night and come with us to church. Lo and behold, they did come to church along with their four children. We have an appointment with them this next week and are looking forward to teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Lesson Three).we brought with us their home teacher and our ward mission leader. There was a very good spirit in their home during the lesson and I left rejoicing.
We also taught J. to “trust in the Lord with all [his] Heart” (Proverbs 3:5-6). We are focusing on answering his concerns and help him get baptized. I started to feel that the reason he is hesitant to pray is because he will get an answer. How to answer this concern yet I am not sure but we will find a way.
We taught P. the third lesson. The lesson felt slightly odd the whole time but I was trying really hard to follow the spirit and do the right thing. I feel good about it but it was just a different lesson. We also invited him to come to a baptism this last week. He came and enjoyed the whole thing. We left him with scriptures to read and an invitation to pray about the prophet Joseph Smith. We will see how it goes.
The lessons are going good with the less-actives. The ward has been extending commitments and we beginning to teach. We are trying really hard to bring Home Teachers of Visiting Teachers to every appointment. So far so good. We have many more less-actives coming to church lately.
I have been enjoying reading from the Book of Mormon daily, write in my journal nightly, and study from Preach my Gospel daily. I have been studying the Christ like attributes lately and have been learning so much. I have set a goal to trust in the Lord. In His time the blessings will come.
Thanks family I love you all!!! And thank you for your prayers.
Elder Durfee
Ps Transfers: WE GET A CAR AND I AM THE DRIVER. YEAH!!!

more 4-19

This week we met with Pop, a Thai exchange student. We have taught him the Plan of salvation, and part of the first lesson. He told us that he believe in Jesus Christ. He was Buddhist. I was excited and rejoiced together in Pops new found faith in Christ. We asked him how he knew Christ is his savior. He said that it just felt right to him. He came to church on Sunday.

OK I love you family,
Elder Durfee

4-19-10

Family,
Congratulations on the Fair. I wish I could be there. I never did have an opportunity to go to the fair with a art or pig stuff. Congrats.
I am sorry to hear about grandpa. I will miss him. If I could be there I would but the Lord needs me here right now. Sorry about Brecky, is she OK?
OK so thank you for praying for me this last week. Yeah I needed it. So my right lung, which was the one that completely collapsed last time, only went down about 2 mm. It did not collapse very far, but enough to make me go to the doctor. The next day I got another X-ray and the doctor said that my lung was at 1.8 mm. I was getting better with out surgery. Heavenly Father Blessed me. I will be getting another X-ray today and hopefully I will be completely healed.
I am feeling great.
No I am not in a car, still on the O'faithful bicycle. Sister Ely called me and asked me how I felt about riding the bicycle. I had to promise her that I could and would ride my bike without getting short of breath or else she would emergency transfer me to a car. It will be up to President Ely if he feels I should be in a car next transfer (next Monday). It is actually easier for me to ride the bike then it is to walk.
No I do not think the altitude is tough on me. It is great up here ( I actually can not remember what another altitude is really like.)
Thank you for praying for me. With Love, Elder Durfee

Elder Durfee and Elder Hatch

Through snow, sleet, wind, and storm, the faithful brave elders spread the gospel in Colorado.

Elder Durfee joyfully opening his birthday package!

4-12-10

Dear Family,
wow it is great to hear about everything that is happening back home. Is the pig doing better? Do you know what caused the pig to get sick in the first place? Hmm... good luck at the fair Alden and Katie.
It makes me happy to hear that grandpa has an appetite for good food. I laughed out laud as I read the email. Tell grandpa thank you for making me smile.
So this is what our living quarters look like. First we live with the H.'s in the basement. We have a small living room with two desks, two lazy boys and a nice couch and a table with plastic flowers in it, compliments of sister H. If you turn left 180 degrees you will enter the bedroom where we have two beds, two dressers, one lamp several boxes of missionary books and other items. We also have one walk in closed. The left side is my companion's, Elder Hatch and on the right side is mine. We have a window well right over my companions bed which makes it a little drafty but I am all the way across the room so I don't have to worry about the cold as much. If you go back into the living room, pass the staircase and turn right. You will enter a hallway with a door on the right and left. On the left is an empty office and the right is our bathroom. It is nicely situated almost right under the stairs. We have a sink, and a foot to the left, a toilet, and a foot to the left of that our shower. It is a little tight some times but it works for us missionaries. So this is our living quarters. Been my home for the last 5 months.
A little about this last week, Elder hatch and myself went out west of town. We have about ten miles east and west of town that our ward covers. Normally we would have been fine but when we left town on Tuesday we had a mighty cold wind blowing. We got out of town and started to freeze (not literally). We went and knocked some doors and talked to a few people. We had a guy come to the door with his shirt off which was very funny because the wind blew right into his house and right on the poor shirtless man. He did not listen very long. We packed our own lunch that day and camped in a ditch to avoid the wind. We enjoyed the sunlight and little wind as we at sandwiches and tortilla wraps. It was a fun day but we were very tired after. There you go, part of a day in Elder Durfee's mission.
We also had interview with the mission president. What made it great is that there was some dance thing getting set up as several of us missionaries waited in line for our turn to talk to president. We were all very hungry and we could smell fresh popcorn, you know the kind you make in a bag, and it was making us all hungry. I walked down the hallway and asked if I could have some. The people pointed us towards a big trash bag full of popcorn. They said take as much as you want. We acquired a large bowl from the kitchen and filled it to the brim. Needless to say we had a popcorn party in the hallway as we waited for president. It was lots of fun. I had a great time at interview.
Well family I am doing good. I love you and enjoy hearing from you, Love Elder Durfee

2-16-10

Family,
Hello, I am doing good. Slightly tired and not sure exactly why. It is all good though.
Tell Brant that I am excited he is getting his papers ready.
That is sad to hear that Fawn's baby calf died. I am glad fawn is OK.
Josh has him mission call!@#? no way, wow that is wonderful. I did not realize he was so old. Good for him.
So this past week we had an interesting experience. My companion, Elder Gassaway (It is pronounced “Gass away” by the way), and I was at the house reading a letter from Elder Bennet's email, when I came across a story about the two missionaries that had died. “Elder Gassaway,” I told my companion, “do you want to hear a sad story?” “Sure go ahead,” he replied. I began reading the letter from the beginning to him. At one point during the letter I read the name “Elder MCay Burrows” (spelling wrong sorry) and my companion said, “Wait a minute, is that from you cousin in Romania?” “Yes” I replied. He then had a shocked look on his face. Apparently my companion was the zone leader in the MTC and was really good friends with Elder McCay Burrows. It hit him pretty hard to hear his friend had passed away. I guess he needed to know it. It is amazing how he received the information from a letter sent to his companion about an accident that happened thousands of miles away. Wow, We feel it was not an accident that we were companions this transfer. Wow
Besides that it has been a wonderful week. Lot of people to talk to, (my companion is am amazing teacher by the way and I enjoy just hearing him talk to people) I am learning how to talk and teach people. It is awesome. I am having a blast being on a mission.
I got to ask, when is the pig fair bonanza? Let me know how it goes, o also what is the play called that the children are doing? Good luck with Tech week and break a leg!!!
Love Elder Durfee

2-7-10

Dear Dad,
Well thank you for writing, home sounds like home to me lots of things going on. There always seems to be something happening with animals. It is hard to hear that Grandpa Bevell's time is short. Some of my first memories are with Grandpa. Most of my memories revolve around cow's, cow manure, chickens, blackberries, oranges, fruit trees, lawn mowers, trips to the dump, holidays, nut trees...etc. I remember going in the back yard, underneath all the pecan trees were hundreds of nuts. I saw opportunity for money making. I quickly went into the house and found all the zip lock bags and filled the entire wagon full of nuts. I then went down with some friend, probably Celeste or Ryan, and tried to sell individual bags to grandma or grandpa for 25 cents each. I was then shown how many pecans it would take to actually earn 25 cents (one gallon can full!). I found that it took a lot more work for me to actually fill an entire can. My rich quick scheme turned out to be not as productive as I would have hoped. Grandpa helped teach me the value of a quarter.
So this past week my companion and I found a new person to teach, his name is Jeremiah. He grew up choosing not to believe in God. As we spoke with him we invited him to live the life of a believer for three days. He said he would do it, prayers and scriptures daily. He said that he would be willing to put God to the test. It was very exciting and I was glad my companion was there with me. He is very smart, reminds me of Brant in some ways.
Do you know if Brant has turned in his mission papers yet or how he is doing? O and by the way my companion speaks sign language, what I mean by that is he knows sign language. He is to study it for an hour every morning, which actually means he is teaching me sign language for an hour every morning. Really cool to have my own personal teacher. I am learning lots and can do my ABC's, count to 30 and even speak some rout words, like how many brothers and sisters do you have? Or where did you go to college before you mission? Things like that. It is way fun and I am enjoying it. My companion started a sign language class that apparently we will be teaching here in Berthoud every Thursday night. It is going by way to fast and I am having a blast as a missionary. Life is good. Enjoy it while you can, I love you dad,
Elder Durfee

2-1-10

Family!!!,
I hope you are all doing wonderful, as for me, this last week has been fairly eventful. I had an opportunity to go tracting with one of the zone leaders last week, Elder Bowden, it was here that I was able to refine my missionary skills just a little. I have seen an outpouring of more people who want to hear a message about the Book of Mormon. We received many names and or numbers of people who would like us to stop by or give them a call. I believe it has improved my mission over all. What a blessing. We met with a less-active family. They have several children and are in their late thirties. They were once a part member family and became active when the husband was baptized. Since then they have drifted away from activity and church fellowship. We went in and taught them a lesson on Heavenly Father and how the Gospel blesses families. There was a very good spirit and we invited the children to obey their earthly father and their Heavenly Father. However, We did not invite them to church (Probably should have) but we rescheduled for three weeks away. It was a good experience. I called the Frieburge family to ask if we could come over. Now there are two Frieburge families in the ward and they both live at the same address (basement and top level). I thought I had called the top level Frieburges (we have met them before) and set up an appointment to come by, but as we finished the conversation I asked her what her address was. She told me the bottom level. I just went with it. When we arrived at the appointed time we had a wonderful lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We drew it out on a piece of paper, asked questions, and had a good experience. We even invited the mom and her two sons to come to church in two weeks. They said they would be there. The dad gave us a ride home and as we sat in the car with him, we found out that he is not a member. He had met with the missionaries before but has not felt his need to be baptized. I do not know if he thinks it is true or not. He said we should come back and eat dinner with them. I thought it was great how my mistake of a phone call turned out to be a blessing from our Father in Heaven. We also had the opportunity to meet with our investigator George. We had a great lesson on the fourth article of faith. I was not actually in attendance because I was away on exchanges but I heard it went good. Not ready to be baptized yet and he said he would come to church no show there though. He will come when he is ready. We met with a semi-active family. They have very seven very rambunctious children. We invited them to start doing family home evening. The parents said they would do it (they did not look too excited) and they invited us to come and share the message in a months time. We came back this last week to find that they had FHE three times in the last month. We had a great message with coloring for the children out of some Book of Mormon coloring book a member made for us. It was a good fast lesson and I think the youngest to the oldest had a good time and felt the spirit. It was good to see a family actually acting in faith. My studies have been going good. Been feeling the spirit and learning lots. On exchanges I had invited an Elder to do all the personal activities in section four of Preach My Gospel. I told him I had never done it and he invited me to do the activity with him. So I have been enjoying doing the activities in there. It has helped bring the spirit and help me realize the potential we have as missionaries. This is the Lords work. I love you family and hope all is well!!! O and I have a new companion, Elder Gassaway yep like it sounds we will have great times to gether he speaks English but was called as a ASL missionary Sigh language see yeah.
love Elder Durfee

01-18-10

Dear Family,

I hope all is going well for you. This week was a good week for me. To help our investigator continue to progress towards baptism we had a good member present lesson on baptism. The spirit was present as we talked and conversed about the atonement of Christ. We even used a chalk board to talk about justice and mercy. George seemed to be understanding it. We asked lots of questions to help George realize that he knows this stuff. It was a good lesson. We also made by weekly contact with him.

We also set up a time to consistently meet with bishop every week. He has given us people to contact and see threw out the week. We called him and reported back to bishop the thing that we accomplished on bishops list. We put bishops list as more of a priority and Heavenly Father blessed us with an ability to meet with most of these people.

Cool Story: What was really neat is that I actually have a distant relative who lives in the Berthoud ward. My companion and I coordinated with one of the members to setting up a time and teaching a message with them. It was wonderful experience, I even whipped out the new 2010 Durfee Calendar and showed him a picture of all the Durfee Family (which arrived the night before). He was amazed at how many Durfee's there are. At the end of the evening I told brother Durfee (my Relative) of a story of my grandmother. She died of cancer and before she passed away, she told her 12 children that she wanted there to be no empty chairs in Heaven. Telling each one of her kids that she wanted them to be active and to do their part to return one day to our Father in Heaven. I told brother Durfee that I did not want to see his chair empty in heaven. Brother Durfee sat back and said, with all those other Durfee's in heaven I want to be there with them. He said that he would come to church. I told him that I would like to see him there at church. He said that he would come in the next 8 weeks. I told him I might be transferred but to come any ways. I enjoyed getting to meet brother Durfee it was an awesome experience. I feet that meeting with brother Durfee was one of the reasons I came to the Colorado on my mission.

Dear Family I love you all and hope all is going good for you.

Love, Elder Durfee

P.S. the picture is of Lloyed Durfee

1-11-10

Dear Family,
I hope you all have had a wonderful week and things are treating you right. The work went forth for my companion and I. To help prepare our investigators be ready to be baptized we had member present at all our lessons. We even had a member present in a lesson we had with a potential investigator named Dennis. We talked with him a long time ago and last Sunday we actually met with him. He is an older man, mid 50 – 60's gray hair, and a nice smile. He was very open with us as we talked of prophets and a need to have one on the earth. He is already reading the Book of Mormon and said he would come to church this Sunday. Unfortunately when we asked him when we could meet with him again, he said he would call us... not the answer we were looking for but maybe he will call us soon. We also invited him to be baptized on the first lesson. It was great and I am very glad we did. If you could tell Elder Richardson that we invited Dennis to be baptized on the first lesson because of the training Elder Richardson gave. That would be most appreciated. Dennis said that he would like to learn more before he makes the choice to be baptized or not. I worked hard to follow the spirit and pray for my companion during the lesson. I felt blessed with the way the lesson flowed and the sweet spirit that was present. To further the work in the area I also changed my perspective. I set one of my goals to be a baptizing missionary. I have been praying that Heavenly Father will prepare people to enter the waters of baptism for us in our area. I have felt the work go much faster and greater direction from heavenly father. It wares me out and I have been sleeping much better in the nights. We talked to several less-active families and asked them if they would be willing to take the willing to take the missionary lessons, two of them excepted. We have already have already had two families say they would be willing to take the lessons. It is great. I have been working on becoming better friends with the ward members. mom mailed me thank you notes for Christmas and I have tried really hard to leave a personal thank you note around the house at each dinner appointment. Only missed one or two and I have seen a greater outpouring of love from the members. It could just be that I have grown a greater love for them but I feel some how it works for both. We have been edified and grown together. It reminds me of Sister Ely's talk. How one of us can make a difference. Just give a little love, it comes back ten fold. My studies have been improving. I feel edified and uplifted after my studies. I have taken to studying multiple things each morning. It has helped me feel the spirit and to stay awake. It was a great week , thank you for all you do. Love, Elder Durfee