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