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.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, August 30, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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
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
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
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
Monday, June 28, 2010
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
