Hey everyone! 

Sounds like everyone had a good week. Ashtons still making cray videos and Ayumi is drawing on her tablet. Nothings changed... haha Whats mom been up to lately??? 

Well another week has past. This week was a lot faster than last week. Its strange how that works but it was. Way faster, so it was somewhat of a good week. We didnt see a lot of success this week, we met a few nice people and have a few new investigators but no crazy miracles or change with the investigators we have right now. Its a little frustrating that we havent been able to find anyone with too much potential but im sure there are prepared people in the area. We have been receiving a ton of referrals lately from other missionaries. None of them are super solid but its more people to work with and meet. We got a pretty good referral from the Church headquarters last week though so we are excited to check it out this week. The district here is looking really well though. We are planning on having two baptisms here next month. One is the sisters investigators here in Nishiwaki, which im way excited for because she was my investigator for a little while but then we referred her to he sisters, and the next baptism is with the Elders in Fukuchiyama. They are in my district and are planning on having it in Nishiwaki because we have a font and they usually baptize in the river in Fukuchiyama but its February so that might not be the best time for a river baptism... haha so the district here is definelty doing well! My companion and I need to keep up with the other areas in the district now haha

Things have been going well here and its been an interesting week. Nothing super interesting has happened which makes it not interesting but for some reason its interesting. Theres a sister in the branch who had surgery recently and we went and visited her at the hospital. She is one of my favorite members I have met on my mission, shes just been like this Japanese grandma to me, mainly because i already have my mission mom. So shes my mission grandma. She always takes us out to each and buys us bread all the time haha. But shes super nice so we wanted to see how she was doing. As we left we asked her if there was anything we could help her with and she said she wanted a blessing. So my companion anointed the oil and i gave my first blessing in Japanese. When she first said she wanted the blessing i got really nervous actually. Just my first time giving it in Japanese. But when i got up to give the blessing all the fear just went away. It was actually a really cool experience. I think just when i got up i decided that i had to put my trust in the Lord that he would direct me in what to say and how i need to say it. It was cool how just putting confidence in the Lord and not in yourself gives you power. This experience really taught me that. Ever since ive been in Nishiwaki ive been asked to give sacrament meeting talks, very sudden talks also, lessons during sunday school and what not, but I have realized is that everytime i initially do have a sense of nervousness but when I am able to get the attitude of "Forget it lets do it." then it kind of just works out. I really believe in it. When the time for decision has come, the time for preparation is over. And thats when you need to get that attitude going and just put your trust and confidence in the Lord that he will work through you. It wont be perfect, there will still be mistakes made, but the people will feel what they needed to feel. And if you have tried, put in preparation, studied, and taken time, then you can feel confident that the Lord will work through you. It only works if you`re prepared. Im gonna try never to write another talk again, Probably write  an outline but i wont write another talk again. 

So that was definelty a good experience for me. Nothing too special other than that has happened this week though. Lately my companion has been trying to like natto. I told him that if he eats it every day for a transfer, by the end of the transfer he will like it. Right now hes on day 8 and hes somewhat not hating it as much as he did before haha. But he documents his journey and is planning on making a documentary about enjoying natto. 

Lately ive been a little sick. I think on saturday i woke up and was just dizzy and had a head ache and a sore throat but i went out and worked. My companion had this oil that you spray on the back of your throat called thieves so i tried that and it worked wonders. Its amazing hahaha im a huge thieves fan now! It kind of numbs the pain and burns your throat but the soreness definetly wasnt as bad and in one day my sore throat went away. Anyway, huge fan of thieves now. Im better now, just coughing a lot and runny nose so i just have a cold. 

Today we are heading over to Osaka, back to my old area, kinda. We are going back to Northern Osaka for exchanges tomorrow with the zone leaders. Its kind of a pain that we have to ride a three hour train for an exchange and bring our bikes but we`ll survive. I think we will be heading back to our area here on Wednesday morning. Kind of excited but its still a big pain.  haha. The cool thing is the place we are going to has the worlds first mr.donuts so i will definetly make it a priority to buy a donut from the worlds first mr.donuts. 

We have exchanges with the Fukuchiyama Elders this friday as well and im looking forward to it. I think ill make myself be with Elder Bailey. Hes a new Elder from Morgan Utah. Kind of cool to talk about Utah with him since literally everyone in Nishiwaki has been from Spain, Seattle, or california. Nishiwaki needs more Utah people. Actually there really isnt that many people from utah in this misison anymore. Kind of weird. But all roads lead to Provo, except my road because ill never be going down to BYU. But for every other cliche missionary, all roads lead to provo haha

Times ticking away and we are not into march this week! Crazy, just two full months left now. Miles gets back this thursday i think. Thats weird. But the rest of us are still out. Man i feel like Rocky from the movie Creed when hes telling Creed he doesnt want to undergo treatment for his Cancer. He tells him that everybody hes loved has moved on and hes still here. Well, literally everybody i came here with in Japan is gone and im still here haha

I hope you all have a good week. Love you all! Thanks for everything! 

- Elder Durrant