Hey everyone!

Well this week is the end of November and the beginning of December! Its crazy, time has gone by so fast! 4 months left... Its starting to get cold here too but not cold enough to the point where it snows. Ive heard from people that it snows here in the winter but ive also heard that it doesnt snow here. Maybe is snows rarely. Im not sure but it has been getting pretty cold recently. We went housing up to this really ghetto neighborhood on the edge of a mountain yesterday and they told us it would snow a little bit during the winter. They also told us not to house this area because there are bears and wild boars that come down pretty often so its kind of dangerous at night.... but i guess it might snow this year.

It sounds like it snowed a lot in Tsukuba. There was a member that came up to me last week and told me it was snowing a lot up by Tokyo. So i guess it was pretty big national news. Along with that Fukushima had another earthquake and tsunami! Here the earthquake wasnt that big. I guess. We had a really small earthquake here last week too so it might of been that earthquake that we felt. Like you could only feel it if you were sitting on the floor like I was. Its a crazy world out there now.

Well this week was pretty alright. Man missionary work in the rice fields is some hard stuff. Eveyday we jus bike around ricefields. Nothing super special happened this week. We werent able to meet with a lot of our investigators. 1 out fo 5 investigators we met with... Everybody else was too busy this week to meet. Man we really need new investigators out here. I just went from my last area where i had 20 investigators to here where i have 5. So its been an interesting adjustment going from city to country, but its nice being back out in the rice fields all day. The members here are amazing too!  A member drove me all the way into the Kobe zone on Saturday so that i could pick up my bike that i left there last week and then we went to a Korean restaurant the same day with another member. We had dinner at a members house last night. It was sashimi and it was way good! Also on Wednesday we went and visited members. One of them is a guy named Inoi kyoudai and shimai. They are both like in their late seventies - eighties but they are super strong members. We went and visited them and they made us dinner! haha they are so nice to the missionaries and really take care of them. The branch here is about 60 people and its a pretty big branch just because we are in a district here not a stake. Its the biggest branch in the district/zone and definitely one of the strongest in the mission. This ward is on fire and always willing to help the missionaries. The struggle here really is just finding investigators. The branch is totally ready and willing to help investigators and missionaries, we just need to do our part now and find people.

Because nothing too special happend this week, i guess i can tell you guys some random facts about my area and mission haha

1. Nishiwaki is the exact center of Japan. Thats the only thing it is famous for haha. There is a park here called Nihon Heso Koen. The belly button of Japan Park. The park is where the exact center point is. Kinda cool.

2. Nishiwaki does have a Uniqlo. Not so inaka afterall.

3. The mountains around us are all turning orange now. None of the mountains are green anymore. Just this bright orange color. Way nice to look at when all thats around you is rice fields.

4. The farmers are all burning their fields right now so thers always smoke in the air and the smell of a campfire.

5. The greatest rugby player of japan is a member in the Kobe ward (The mission home ward).

6. I guess half of the city of Osaka is man made. As, half the land is man made. They dumped a ton of dirt in the ocean and used a ton of cement to create more land to build Osaka on. So if a huge  earthquake hits, its gonna be bad.

7. According to scientific studies, Japanese is the hardest language to learn for Native English Speakers.

8. I really dont know anything that you guys dont know since we have lived in Japan for 10+ years haha

The area here is great and the members hare are amazing! This are is really blessed to have these super cool members. I just hope we can find a new investigator soon and see a baptism. I`m excited to spend December here and Christmas here too! Also, i guess i am the first almost Japanese person to come to Nishiwaki for a while haha. They have only had American, Spanish, and Korean missionaries come to Nishiwaki so i guess i am the first "Second Generation" or half or somewhat Japanese to serve here in like 3-4 years. Maybe they will remember me for that when i transfer out. I think this trait has really helped build a good relationship with the members here though.

This week we have Zone conference on Friday and i have been asked to translate for that as well. My third one! I`im nervous for President Welch`s bit but the second half should be alot easier when the AP`s give their training. They dont use as much hard language or go into as deep of things. The members here are making lunch for Zone Conference but im sure they wont even tough what mom and the relief society in Tsukuba were able to do for lunch in their Zone Conference.

We have Christmas conferences coming up this month as well so that is exciting! Man I love December!! Our ward Christmas party is on the 23rd of December too.

our goal right now as a companionship is to find a Christmas tree to decorate our apartment with! Maybe daiso sells them.

Well i hope you guys have a great week! I love you all tons and hope you are doing well.

Christmas skype is less then a month away! See you guys soon haha

- Elder Durrant

Hey everyone!

This week was totally jam-packed with awesomeness! There were so many
cool things that happened this last week. To start it off we had that
sports festival on Monday. Our ward took second place there and we
beat our rival which is another Ward that we share the building with
so it was a successful day. They took last place so it was good to see
them loose since they are always the ones winning haha

But on Thursday we went to this Halloween party that an Eikaiwa
student held. The student is a cram school teacher and held a
Halloween party to her class that she wanted us to attend. So we went
over there and it was filled with middle schoolers and elementary
school kids who were kind of dresses up. We taught English for a
little bit and then she brought out a piñata for the kids the hit but
the thing was it wasn't a piñata. It was a brown paper bag filled with
candy haha but it was the hardest paper bag ever! These kids smacked
that bag so hard with these plastic bats but the bag wouldn't break!
It was pretty funny haha it turns out that she asked her neighbors to
be houses that kids can trick or treat at too so these kids were able
to go trick or treating in Japan. It was really funny. The lady also
took us to this super nice sushi restaurant afterwards and and we ate
some good sushi, her family is pretty cool. It's a small family
though, just her, her husband and her son. Her daughter moved out and
her son who is 34 still loves with them but he is still cool.

On Saturday we had this really cool activity called Dendo Do! The
stake kinda copied the idea of Pokemon Go and started this activity
called Dendo Go. Basically it was an activity to get the youth across
three stakes involved in Dendo. We had 60 YSA and youth show up and
about 40 missionaries come from two zones. We met up at this area
called ibaraki (It's in our Zone) and did split swift the youth for
most of the day. It was so fun! We took them out streeting and housing
to experience what we do. My companion for the day was called Elder
Kaminaru who is 18 yrs old and from the Abeno Ward. He was preparing
to serve a mission in February next year so he was awesome! Super
prepared and such a good kid. He was a little nervous at first but
after a few contacts he slowly build his confidence and was fine with
talking to people. He told me he wanted to go to Africa on his mission
because the people of Africa have been humbled by their circumstances
and he wants to be humbles like them. He's a way cool kid. With the 60
YSA and 40 missionaries, we proselyted together for 2 hours and we
taught 530 lessons and blitzed that area.

Today we went to Umeda again with a few friends. Went to a few stores
and bought some clothes. I  did get the package! It was funny, they
just left it on our doorstep like in America! Haha we were all
surprised because Japan doesn't do that.  Thank you for the cookies!
Everyone in the apartment loves them. They just taste of Murica. Oh!
Actually grandma and grandpa also sent a Halloween package that I got
on Sunday. It was just filled with Hokkaido candy and some money. I've
tried to email them before but it seems like it doesn't go through for
some reason, I'm gonna send another one but let them know I said
thanks too in case it doesn't go through.

This coming week is gonna be pretty normal. Lots of finding in store
for us. 

I think that might be all for this week. It's been a great week and I
hope to keep the miracles and blessings going. We did see the Bednard
devotional but only the Sunday one. It was way good and really geared
towards investigators too!

Well I hope you have a good week! Love you guys tons! That's funny
that Ashton became an Instagram King. How many followers does he have?
Love ya! And thank you all!

- Elder Durrant

Hey everyone! 

I heard you guys took a surprise trip to Disneyland and sea last Tuesday? Whatt! That sounds way fun. I think Ashton wrote me and email just to tell me about Disneyland. 

So this past week was pretty good. We taught 20 lessons and did half of them dressed up as Santa. Yes, we looked like the picture I sent you except only Hancock and I dressed up, Yamachan played the violin and didn't dress up.

Yamachan is also the district leader. And because we there is a district leader conference tomorrow, he has to go up to Kobe with all the other district leaders in the zone. So today we are going to the area next to us called semboku to have companion exchanges because the district leader in senboku and Yamachan are gonna go together. It should be pretty fun since I'm going to be with Elder Westbrook. YES! Durrant and Westbrook. REUNITED! He's in my doki to so I've known him since the MTC. I swear one day Kaicho is just going to make us companions just to recreate the dynamic duo of Oklahoma City Thunder. Anyways, so tonight we are heading to senboku and will get back to Hashimoto tomorrow. 

I got a package from the Tsukuba Ward today! It was really cool to get it! You have to tell the Ward thanks for me or I'll write a letter to them or something! It's way awesome! Like I don't even know any of these people and I got a care package from them full of food and tons of European chocolate. It kind of showed me how much people, members, appreciate missionaries. Which also made me want to work harder for the members. I can't wait to be able to meet them in person now though, seems like a really good ward. In the package was also a not from the Tanaka's that said よろしく for Elder Tanaka. I'll have to tell him about it. It see him every once in a while. 

You guys did mogi lessons with the missionaries? Haha how did it go? Mogi lessons always kind of get me nervous but I guess it's not even really a mogi lesson since you still mogi on what you think the member needs right now even though they may already know the doctrine you are going to try and teach. Since we have that goal to teach 20 lessons a week, the area presidency wants the missionaries to do tons of mogi lessons I guess because teaching 20 lessons without teaching members is way freaking hard. Like border line impossible but nothin is impossible hard. Haha what did you feed them? Last night we had a ton of oden at the Ward mission coordinators house. The families name is Kobayashi and apparently he's like this ex yakuza member or something but he's really cool. He speaks English fluently and works in English I guess. I don't know how but before my mission I did t really like oden but now I really like it. Except for the konyaku. That stuff still nasty haha

On Friday we had ZTM and it was probably the most spiritual ZTM I've had so far. We talked about the new goal Kaicho set on the mission. He wants everyone to have a baptism each week starting at the beginning of May. Then they talked about how it's not kaichos vision, or the area presidencies vision. It's gods vision and we need to do our best to carry out his work. We talked about how Heavenly Father knows each and everyone of us. Then to top it off, a dying missionary gave his last testimony and it was way powerful. Dying missionaries have some crazy strong testimonies. 

Well I think that was my week in a nutshell. This week was a little warmer then before. I bought a new sweater this past week. It's a nice grey one. It seems like everyone had a good week, except Beebee... Poor Beebee... She has to wear the cone of shame. Just one more week with Though right? Hope she starts feeling better.

I hope you guys and Beebee have a better week though. Love you all and miss you tons!

- Elder Durrant

When it rains, it pours. 

How's everybody doing? 

Well this week was a little crazy... I think Hancocks bike is officially a little せいしんびょう...  Well it began on Tuesday, Hancock bike had magically gotten both its tired flat so we decided to fix next day. That day came and it was pouring. We spent a couple hours in the rain trying to get all his holes patched. I don't know how or when or Satan but he had over 7 holes in one tube! SEVEN!? Like how does that happen? Anyways, we had to make like three trips to a store, walking, and bought like 3 patch kits, used them all, and his tire still was flat so we decided to end the day and take a trip to the area next of us to buy a new tube and fix his bike. It took all day. In rained like 4 days in a row and every day we were presented with an additional bike problem, complemented with a lovely flat tire. His bike had a flat tire everyday, sometimes two a day. It was probably one of the most annoying weeks of my mission so far. But we got through it. Everybody's been slightly flustered this week. Plus his bike had a lovely flat tire this morning too. 

Anyways, we are going to go to a batting cage today and hit our stresses away. 

Well for some good news,
On Saturday, we had an 音楽さい so we all went to Sakai. The branch has been practicing a song to sing, and we were part of the chorus, so we performed at the music festival along with a. Few other wards in this stake. Then they brought out the professionals that they payed to come. One was this super cool cello player. Like after that day, the cello rise a few bars and became slightly cool to me. 

We taught two really good lessons this past week. So we have these two investigators, Akiyoshisan and Ishisan. In Akiyoshisan's lesson, we began to talk about baptism and she told us how badly she wanted to be baptized but she can't because her husband is against the church. I don't know what we can't do to fix that except pray. We are going to try and meet with her husband this week and try to leave a good impression on him. Ishisan on the other hand is a 47 year old single male with food intentions. He really wants to return to live with Heavenly Father again so we are planning on inviting him to baptism this week! He's an awesome man and is probably a little lonely so we are also trying to get more members to meet him and doseki for our lessons. He's felt the spirit before but we just have to get him to be able to recognize the spirit. 

I did some inventory this past week and I'm down a couple shirts and pants so I'm planning on buying some this week or next week. I'll go get some Uniqlo pants and some "Cool Buiss" shirts from Aoyama or Aoki.. I think I'm ok for now though. Money's all good and I don't need anything to badly. Transfers are in three week, December 17th is transfer day and it is two days before the branch Christmas party. 

Speaking of which, to advertise the Christmas party we have been doing caroling dendo. Like Yamachan plays the violin so we go housing with his violin and when they open the door we just start singing a Christmas song while he plays. We Alpha tested this a couple days ago and visited less actives but we are planning in beta testing it and actually stopping people on the street, play a Christmas song on the violin, and explain what it means. 

Lately Yamachan has further gotten me into the 文化 of Hokkaido. We were practicing the ソーランムシ dance at district meeting and we are going to make a video of us dancing. An actual video after we all get good. Hopefully it makes it onto the Kobe, Japan mission DVD! 

So that was a summary of my week, we hope to have a much better one this week! Baha'i hope you guys have an awesome week and I'll try to get a picture of me for the postcard thing. It's been raining everyday so it's been hard. 

Love you guys tons! 

- Elder Durrant

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