Andrew Durrant <andrew.durrant@myldsmail.net>
To Todd Durrant Mom Oct 12 at 12:18 PM
Hey Everybody! How's it going? 

Well this past week was alright. It kind of just felt like a normal week. Nothing super incredibly amazing happened but it wasn't a bad week either. We were able to find two new investigators this past week. They are both fairly strong and like the missionaries. I think one just listens to us because she likes the missionaries but the other investigator really wants to learn. She's this sweet old obachan and really enjoys learning and reading so the Book of Mormon was perfect for her haha she said she will read it and we will follow up on it this week so we'll see how it goes! Other then those two we really have nobody in our teaching pool... Opening this area has been fairly difficulty but we are slowly starting to see the results of our work come forth.

Quick question. Do you guys know a Nakamura family in Obibiro that are members and went to the ward in Obibiro? Just wondering because one of the sisters that is in my area is from Obibiro and lives by the Obibiro airport. She also got 40 pounds of potatoes from her family since they are farmers. I got a package from grandma...I think it was grandma Sachie. But it had a bunch of treats in it for Halloween! Tell her thanks while she's there and Happy Birthday from me! 80 years old! Japanese people are blessed with eternal life already. she's in such good shape for being 80 though. I hope she had a good birthday. What did you guys to there then? There's not that much to do right? The inaka life. 
I guess sticking noddles through my nose and into my mouth was pretty fun hahah Elder McCarthy taught me how to do it and so I was finally able to figure it out. It felt so weird though! It felt like i was chocking but breathing at the same time haha 

Ponderize! Haha I think that became my new favorite word. The way you use ponderized. He ponderized this morning, are you ponderizing? Devin G Durrant, everybody told me that somebody in my family spoke in conference and I was so confused but then I saw it and reaIized he was probably your cousin or something. That's really cool though! He gave a pretty good talk too. General conference was pretty good! It was cool to see the new apostle and hear their testimonies! We are going to have zone conference this Wednesday too so we will be able to recieve some powerful training from Welch Kaicho! We also had ZTM last week so this transfer has been a transfer of learning. Especially with being senior companion and trainer for the first time. It has been a big learning experience for me and I think I've learned the most from elder Hancock this transfer. 

How long are grandma and grandpa going to be staying there for? I bet it was really good to see them. You got the funcargo? The golden grandma pimp wagon? Hahaha I guess you could drive that to work. How far is Ayumi and Ashton's school from the house though? Is it like NIS, an hour drive! 

I hope everybody's doing good and having a good week! 
Love you all and miss you tons! 

- Elder Durrant

Andrew Durrant <andrew.durrant@myldsmail.net>

To Dad Mom Oct 5 at 6:38 PM

Hey everybody! How's it going???

Well this week was so tiring! Hashimoto is one of the hilliest areas

in the mission field. Everyday we have to climb several mountains to

get to the town next to us. It's a hard area for a new missionary to

start in because it just drains all your energy. Elder Hancock is

doing his best though. We got him a new bike last week and now he's

doing a little better catching up with me. He still doesn't have those

dendo legs though! He'll get them soon, probably after this transfer.

Nothing too special happened this past week. We had tons of finding

time and only got a couple P.I.'s. It's a hard area to proselyte in

because everybody wakes up early and goes to work in Osaka, then they

get home late at night. Most people aren't home so even housing seems

ineffective right now. We're hoping that a couple of our potential

investigators will become investigators this week though once we meet

with them again. I kind of feel bad because all me and Elder Hancock

are able to do right now is housing, and just housing for hours gets

pretty つらい.  He's taking it like a champ though right now.

Yesterday we met a guy called Papa. He told us to call him Papa. He's

66 years old and is probably the most prideful 66 year old on the

planet. As if he learned nothing from his drug induced youth. He's

such a cool guy though, I swear he's in the Yakuza.

But, he loves the missionaries and loves to feed them. During our

dinner with them Elder Hancock told Papa that he was tired so Papa

went on this huge one hour rant about how men shouldn't complain and

that if you complain you aren't a man and just beat him down. It was

pretty funny. After that Hancock and I  havent complained all day today about

being hungry or tired haha

Today I found a purpose to the tennis racket I brought with me... We

got to play tennis today! The other missionary in the yonin apartment

also played tennis. His name is Elder McCarthy and is from Salem.

Apparently he helped coach the woman's team. Elder Hancock got pretty

frustrated with tennis but Elder Yamamoto went from 0 to hero in 2

hours. He got pretty darn good by the time we finished playing. I

showed him how to do the forehand and backhand and after an hour of

practice, he got it down. It was so nice to get out on the courts and

play tennis.

So last Monday we were biking around in the mountains and checking out

rivers. It on the way home I tried to go down this jump and I got some

good air but I landed and popped my back tire. I guess I haven't

learned my lesson yet but I was able to patch the two holes in my tire

and it's back to normal. I'm done going off jumps and stuff for now...

My bikes taking a little bit of a beating with all the hills we climb.

It's doing better then Hancocks bike and he bought a new bike last

Thursday.

What's happening back home? I guess it was Beebees 4th birthday today.

Grandma told me that you went up to Teresa's and saw Momo and she

remembers you still. I hope she doesn't turn into a shy cat while

she's there though. Did she still know her name? Haha well we were

watching a talk that President Monson gave this morning and he doesn't

look too good. Towards the end of the talk he was barely standing on

the stand and leaning over. He looks kind of bad. I found out thought

that Elder Stevenson is now an apostle! I've actually met an apostle

now haha. That's so cool he's an apostle and was back in our ward

years ago.

Well so far this has been a good transfer. I just want to keep having

fun and find some more investigators. We have a goal to teach 20

lessons a week and this past week we taught 10. Hopefully we can get

some investigators this week and teach more lessons. The members here

are great though and help out tons!

Love you guys lots and hope you have a good week!

- Elder Durrant