4-25-11

Dear Mom,

Ryan comes home on Friday!!! No way that’s wonderful and totally unfair... I wish I could be there to see him. I guess I’ll just be that last one off the boat. J Would you tell him hi for me and congratulations?

I hope you are well and healthy. This last week was a long haul but I made it threw. I have to say that I am thou rally exhausted. All I want to do today is sleep. The members that we live with took us to one of the old Cabalas ware houses and let us look around. It was way cool. It was three stories tall and filled with all sorts of animals. Yes they are stuffed but it was really cool. I sent some pictures

Well this last week we drove all over the place. We were planning last Saturday night and were having difficulty planning what we should be doing (this usually means we are working in the wrong area or in the wrong place). We decided to go east of town and visit everyone in each small town we visited. We were way out of a small town called Chappell and when we came across a house with no numbers but it was the only on the street. We knocked and found out the person had moved to town three years ago. We tried to find her in town with no success. The only active family in the town was able to help give us directions (it is a really small town). The members warned us that the husband was anti-Mormon but should be nice to us but to call if we get into trouble. When we found the house, they let us in and were very nice. The wife still claimed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as her religion. The husband was not anti-Mormon but really opinionated. We had a great conversation about the gospel and the apostasy, in the end they invited us to come back and see them. I am grateful that we were able to find that sister and her husband. They probably have not had the missionaries visit in several years. Just think if we had not headed the prompting of the Spirit as we planned the night before, the family would not have been found.

We met with Derek. He is very busy preparing to move his family and everything else. His Fiancé is having second thoughts about marriage and the baptism has been postponed until they get married. I don’t think I will be here for the baptism. He has been reading from the scriptures and been marking them with different colors.  He told us that he believe the Book of Mormon is true. He has not smoked nor drank coffee. I fasted for him this last Sunday.

Brother Swires was in the hospital this last week. We did not get to meet with the family but we stopped by and got a chance to “mourn with those that mourn”. We mostly just listened and let them know that we cared about them.

That's all that I have time for, thank you for your prayers Mom. I love you!

Elder Durfee