Underwear man

Hello everyone! God jul!

 

It was a great week, I got to talk with my family, stuff my stomach and then keep stuffing it and then somehow finding more room in it to fit mroe food and then eat one more plate and then... well let's just say I ate a lot. The members here in Silkeborg, although few (we had four old ladies that made up the whole congregation when church started this week) love us to death and in my opinion really are trying to kill us by over feeding us. Somehow I still have yet to put on a single pound, putting on weight is impossible. My life is so hard right? Anyway Danish Christmas is a bit different, they eat and open up gifts on the 24th of December in the evening.

 

 

We spent the 24th here and did the whole shebang with julemad (christmas food) and singing while dancing around the Christmas tree and a bunch of other stuff that Danes do... twas fun :) Also they decorate their trees with candles that have real fire! It kind of scares me and I almost set my clothes on fire while I had my back to the tree... I just wonder how many trees and or houses have been lost because of this tradition. But on the bright side I felt cool while lighting the candles

 

But yeah, that was Christmas. Loved talking to the family, got to pretend I speak Danish for them :)

 

So I haven't told you guys about any of the people we've been teaching here. We have a baptisimal date with some guy named Kim but I haven't met him cause he's never home... we'll see how that one works out. Also we're teaching this lady who is very interested and has had us over to help with service and even fed us a Christmas dinner! It's interesting because her girlfriend was over to. We aren't sure exactly how to precede because well... she has a girlfriend. But she has a lot of questions about how the church handles homosexuality and it's going to take a bit but we hope we can help her gain a testimony and from there wor to see what she feels like she feels comfortable in doing.

 

We also taught a great first lesson the other day to a guy named Michael. It was a fun one as well because his apartment is two rooms so his bedroom is his living room. His girlfriend was in the bed ''asleep'' the whole time we were talking to him and she may or may not have but definitely wasn't wearing very many items of clothing. We just kind of let her pretend she was asleep under the blanket the whole time but it was still odd. Regardless Michael told us he was very skeptical of prayer and religion in general but he agreed to read a chapter in the book of mormon and to try praying about it. It was cool to finally just have a normal lesson with someone we knocked into. Normally the let in lessons are with people who are lonely or are very odd socially. Michael was nice enough to just listen for ten minutes and to tell us his honest thoughts about it. Literally that's all we ask but Danes seem to have discovered this neat little trick they really like where they just say ''Jeg er ikke intereseret'' (I'm not interested) whenever a religious person talks to them and it magically makes them go away. It's impressive how many times those exact words are used when we knock. I was tired of it and wanted to have a real conversation but these people just have this preconception that we're useless and just want to annoy them. I finally got around it but asking them why they didn't have any interest before they closed the doors. It led to people describing their own faith with gave me an opportunity to give a comparison to our and at the very least get them a card with our number on it. No big miracles came from that small inspiration but it certainly turned a lot of bad door slams into decent conversations so it's a step forward in the right direction!

 

Funny story of the week has got to be from Saturday. We walked out of the apartment and at the first intersection we got to this old guy on a bike rode by us goign super slow and starign at us. Would have been totally normal but he was only wearing a huge winter coat and whitie tightie underwear. It was super cold too. Elder Ludlow thought it was too good to pass up trying to sneak a picture so we turned our backs for like five seconds and when we turned around he had literally vanished. We looked down the street each way and he was nowhere. We're still arguing over whether he was even a real person or not. 

 

But everything is going good here. Me and Elder Ludlow decided to keep a count in the apartment of ''Oh Wells'' vs ''What Ifs'' because it's better to live a life of oh wells than what ifs right? Basically whenver we come to something we aren't sure we have the nerve to do or if we get a small prompting that seems weird and we aren't sure we really want to do it we have committed ourselves to just doing it on faith because the worst outcome is us saying Oh Well. It's lead to some pretty fun adventures so far. I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks for the Christmas packages family! They were perfect! I'm looking forward to having hidden valley ranch again haha :)

Love you all! Congrats to Cole Murdock on his call to Houston! That's awesome! Hope you guys all have a great new year, I know I have a pretty good one planned :D

Vi ses venner :)

I left Odense :(

I LEFT ODENSE :(

It was sad. 

My last lesson in Odense was super funny though. We were teaching this older man named Peter who can't hold his neck upright because of some accident he had before. Anyway, I'd taught him twice already on splits, and he wasn't too familiar with Elder Mogensen or Elder Merril... He had let me play one of his many guitars before and sing a little bit just for fun. He really liked it I guess because after the lesson was done I asked him if he would say the prayer. After explaining the wording for the start and end he took off. Translated to English he said ''Please bless Durrant with his great talent, and the... boy in the middle and the... boy on the left.'' It was kind of awkward. It was cool he remembered my name though. You'd be surprised how many people we teach never remember who we are other than the ''missionærer''.  

But Silkeborg is really cool! I'm in a trio with Elder Ludlow and Elder Nelson, they went to Lone Peak and Alta... don't know if anyone is familiar with them. Silkeborg is in the main land of Denmark in the middle. It's definitely not as big as Odense. I went from a city with around two hundred active members filling two wards to a little branch with like three priesthood holders :) Challenge accepted. The people here are so nice and super happy to have a 3rd missionary because like half the branch is older single women that we can't visit unless we have a third man present so the trio clears that up nicely. It's perfect because it's at Christmas time so they all want to feed us as much as they can while they still can... We have eating appointments every single day this week... one with an investigator! Also, Elder Ludlow is way into missionary photography, so expect some epic pictures. This is our trio, Ludlow on the left, Nelson on the right, yours trully in the middle.

We've had a blast so far. We do a lot more talking to people on the street and knocking on doors than I've done so far, and we have a lot more people that we work with to a lesser extent. What I mean is in Odense I worked with the same five or six people most of the time because they were very invested. We have a lot larger spread of people here who are just interested in maybe a stop by once in a while or a random lesson. We do have one man with a baptisimal date, but we've got a lot of work to do. The branch loves us though, and they're super funny. I had my first ''Danish Christmas Meal'' yesterday. I ate a ton. Then I ate more. Then we sang our chirstmas message because Elder Ludlow is a stud at guitar and had a ton of fun. The family gave us Christmas ties, They were kind of short but still sweet.

Both my comps have spent their whole missions up to now in Silkeborg. Crazy. I expect to be here for a very long time. Most likely Elder Ludlow will leave next transfer, Elder Nelson the one after that, and I'd be set up perfectly to train a greenie in three months which would keep me here for three more. I could hit my year mark in this area which is an odd thought.

Love you all! So excited to Skype in two days! :D Keep on being awesome, and congrats to Walker getting his visa, I'm pumped for him!

Vi ses på jul!

I inspired art!

Hellige Ko! It's been a really crazy week!

 

So basically,

 

-Went to Copenhagen to get Elder Merrils new greenie

-In a tripanionship right now with a fluent native Dane that Elder Merrill is gonna train

-Leaving Odense on Wednesday :(

-Going to a town called Silkaborg in a different Tripanionship

 

So we have to go to the doctor here soon so I may or may not be cutting this letter a tad short. My comp has been feeling sick all week and the senior couple here has finally asked, or rather commanded him to go to a doctor.

 

 

Story time.

 

On Monday last week I had to go see the Dentist, that's fine and everything but I was on splits with Elder DeMordaunt who is newer than me in the mission, then after arriving to the office I discovered none of the receptionists or Dentists there spoke English. Scary to have to navigate through giving information and discussing my dental Health completely in Danish but I did it, and I even understood everything. I hope. The best part was the way they spelled my name. The receptionist was from somewhere in the middle East and Danish was her second language... somewhere in the conversation Ridge Durrant changed to Waage Duaant... Close enough I guess.

 

 

We've been working with our three investigators who have baptisimal dates, and they're doing pretty good. I'm sad to leave them. Thomas Bøgelund, the one in a wheelchair is still on track to get baptized, Christina the painter who thought she was already a member is set to get baptized if she gave give up smoking other than the fact that she told us she believes in Reincarnation... We're working on explaining the plan of salvation to her. And Andreas is still eager... but he is so distracted he always misses our appointments and its hard to Work with him.

 

Anyway.

 

I

Inspired

Art

 

Crazy right? So we visit this man who is listed as inactive about once a week named Jens. He's my favorite. The only reason he doesn't come to church regularly is that whenever it rains (it rains a lot in Denmark) he gets crippling back pain cause hes missing some discs in his back. He takes morphine for it and it knocks him out... kind of sketchy. Especially because he always offers us some, I think as a joke... hopefully. Anyway he is super smart and super cool and best of all he's an ARTIST! He does some super weird but super cool paintings and has had several art exhibitions around denmark. His website is jup.dk if you wanna look at some interesting Pictures. So we were at his house a few days ago and I give a spiritual thought about a scripture I'd read in Helaman which tells us that we are less than the very dust of the earth because at least the dust will obey the will of god. Jens really really liked that image and he wrote Down the reference in his artist sketchbook. I had high hopes, and they were realized last time we visited him. He's gonna paint a huge Picture based on the thought I gave him! Haha it's going to be sweet! Jens always says that the hårdest part of his job is coming up with stories that he has a Desire to tell through art. He showed me the sketch of the painting and it's going to be a tiny older woman standing alone in a vast desert with sand and stones. The huge sky above her is going to start  orange but slowly get darker until its Black. I can't wait to see it when it's done! I might save up Money and buy it and hang it in my house when I'm old and stuff. Yup. I plan on coming back to Odense for Thomas's baptism, and I'll try and get a Picture of the finished product when that happens sometime around the begginning of March.

 

Also on Thursday we picked up Elder Mogensen. He's from an Island in Denmark called Bornholm. He speaks perfect English and Danish so I've been trying to talk to him as much in Danish as I can to help me. It's awesome, and really helpful. I feel bad because we've had to stay inside a Little more than usual cause Elder Merrill is sick. But I leave on Wednesday and Things should go back to normal.

 

Theres a festival going on in Odense for Christmas, they're giving horse rides and there are tons of international stands right outside our Apartment selling food. I got a German Bratwurst for lunch with some Italian chocolate that was absolutely divine. They're all run by actuall people from the countries. I plan on exploring more of them soon.

 

 

Also someone named Kim turned thirty and failed to get married Again... Kim got a cow statue this time. I think these things are funny

 

 

So about Silkerborg, it's a town of about 40,000 I believe in the middle of the main part of Denmark called Jylland. I will leave my beloved Island of Fyn and go to the part connected to Germany. They have a baptisimal date with some guy named Kim and around 20 people come every week to the branch there. I'm switching from probably the biggest or close to the biggest Ward in Denmark to one of the smallest branches in the country. Should be fun. You can keep sending letters to the same address which is the mission home, they'll get them to me quickly and safely.

 

Thanks for everything! Keep talking to me cause I like when that happens, and thanks to the Bradshaw Family for the Christmas package, that was really nice! Tell Jonathan Glædelig Jul for me!

 

Vi ses, og have en god jul!

 

Ældste Durrant

Hurricane Number 2!

So there was another hurricane this week. Both this storm and the last one where classified as category one hurricanes. The fun part about this one was that it struck during our December combined zone training. We were clear up in Århus, which means off my Island of Fyn and clear up the main part of Jylland. We had to leave early which meant we didn't get to Watch a movie and try and beat the hurricane home. Bad idea. A semi-truck was thrown over by the Wind and blocked the bridge. Our train couldn't continue to the Island of Fyn and so all ten of us had to spend the night with the Elders in Fredericia. No sleep was had. At least they had Settlers of Catan though so the night wasn't a complete waste. After we got back to the appartment the next day the assistants called us and told us they were going to come on splits with us because they couldn't drive back to Copenhagen in the storm. Their splits entailed using our shower, eating our food, and then leaving. Lame.

 

Odense has been gearing up for the Christmas season this week though. They are building a Little Christmas village by the Christmas tree outside of our apartment. I hope they finish it soon so I can grab a Picture. 

 

Also apparently they decorate fields here in Denmark with fire. See below.

 

 

The fire torches just chill outside on the field. I like them.

 

So we went back to Christina's house this week to teach her about this whole Baptism thing that she needs to go through and we brought a member. She lives super far away but we had a good lesson and set January 18th as a goal for her to get baptized! She is ready to commit, and all that is left is to help her break her smoking addiction. Unfortunately I won't be here for that... I just learned I'm getting transfered from my perfect home in Odense. It's sad cause I have seen so much progress here with Elder Merrill... We have three people with baptisimal dates that need help, but I guess I'll just have to trust that that can happen without me. I don't know where I'm going yet, just that Elder Merrill will be training an Elder from Bornholm (another Island in Denmark) Who is fluent in Danish. Basically my dream. I hope I am close enough that I can come back for their Baptisms when they happen. Elder Merrill knows where I'm getting transfered but he won't tell me. Lame. I've had it super nice here in Odense so I'll probably go to the Northern most tip of Denmark to endure the long winter with a companion who eats his own toenail clippings. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Me and Elder Merrill were both sick yesterday, church was hard but I am realizing just how much my Danish has improved. I can understand almost everything said in Sacrament and Elders Quorum and can read the Danish Mormons Bog without the English Book of Mormon at the side now as well. That was exciting. To celebrate living through being sick we bought a kanelstang (Cinnamon Stick) that was about the size of my face.

 

 

If you can imagine the best thing you've ever had for dessert, that is how good dirt would taste if you rubbed Kanelstang on it.

 

After church we took a member named Zacharias to drop by a lady from Iraq we knocked into. She told us that she was raelly busy with Work and her kids, so we would need to give her 3 or 4 weeks before she could finish the Book of Mormon. What?!?! Yeah so we were excited to go see how much she had read but she totally wasn't home. Lame.

 

This hasn't been the most ridiculous week, with zone training and being sick we haven't been able to do a whole lot. But while we were waiting for the bus after the Iraqi lady burned us we saw this funny poster. It's funnier if you speak Danish as well... basically the Word for Sunday is Søndag and so if you take that part out it looks like they're advertising feces for Sunday. It really translates to Sundays Hit though, unfortunate coincidence haha :)

 

 

Wish me luck with Transfers, keep letting me know everything that's happening!

 

Love you all.

 

At lege er at leve.  That's Odense's motto and I love it. I will forever be an Odenseaner.

 

-Ældste Durrant

The spirit is a party animal

Odense is exploding! Ok not really we have like five investigators... but they all wanna get baptized haha!

 

First I'll start with Thomas because that way all the people that read halfway through my long emails then give up will at least know how awesome this man is. So Thomas has died twice. Yeah, you thought your life was hard. Well his is harder. He has several physical handicaps that have confined him to a Wheel chair with the use of his neck, head, and fingers. He can kind of move his arms but not really. Thomas finally met with me and Elder Merrill a couple of weeks ago but apparently doesn't have a lot of free time in the care center he lives and Works in. He told us though this last time we met with him on Friday that he believes Christ saved him for a reason. I asked what he thought that was and what he could do as missionaries to help him and he said that he wants to get baptized so he can recieve Christ's love! I told him that if he wanted to get baptized it would require using some of the 8 hours he is allowed every month to leave the care center, but he said that wasn't important. He's has such a great Desire to do whats right! The problem is getting him to church. I suggested Skype and he thought that was perfecty. After that he asked about handicapped missionaries in the states and told us if he became a missionary more peole would listen to him because he's handicapped... Sad but true.

 

Anyway, he Skyped into fast and testimony meeting and I was worried because that meeting is always a Little unfocused but it was great! He loved it so much and was tocuhed by it and told us he had prayed all day about a date and wants to get baptized on the 28th of February which is his Dad's birthday! I doubt I'll still be in Odense... but I'll definitely come back here to be at his baptism! He is such an example to me and I love talking to him. I can really feel the spirit when he bares his testimony. He has a very strong desire to do the right and I do think he was saved for a reason.

 

 

Ok, Things are getting a little too serious up in here, let's break it up with this super weird Picture we found in Ikea. 

 

 

Also we've been teaching my good friend Andreas! He really likes to talk with us and speaking English with us, and is interested in the Book of Mormon. He's 21 and after talking to him about the characters of Christs people discussed baptism and he said ''I think I'm gonna do it'' he wants to be a good person, and he really is. He's the nicest guy ever and we've set a goal for Jan 4th for his baptism. We still have a lot of Things we need to talk about but his Desire is there and just like Alma 32:27 (best scricpture ever!) explains I can work with a Desire!

 

Also we've been teaching a woman named Christina, but we couldn't meet with her because she was out of laundry detergent.

 

Yes I know, worst excuse ever but it was the one she chose. Apparently she would be embarresed to have us over while her house smelt like clothes.  Anyway she thinks she's already a member of the church and she told a few people at church that she was a member... so we've just got to kind of explain the Whole baptism thing to her on Wednesday. Problem is that she lives just South of nowhere and is a single lady so it's hard to teach her. She's working on giving up smoking though and we're going to talk to her about the ways baptism could bless her life! She already knows that happiness doesn't come from drinking and she told us she used to have quite a bit of Money but realized thats not where happiness comes from either. She has a lot of potential and we hope she'll find the strength to give us her last vice of smoking so she can actually become a member haha, because she really enjoyed Relief Society apparently... I wouldn't know cause I wasn't there.

 

At church though we were talking about following spiritual promptings and after a recent convert from Britain used the phrase ''The Spirit is a Party Animal'' I just thought I'd share that Little tid bit of news with you all. He's a party animal.

 

 

There are weird statues all over the place... here was a freaky one we found in Ejby. My good friend Ældste DeMordaunt thought he'd strike a pose.

 

 

Also a lot of you have asked about Danish Christmas traditions... well to sum it all up pretty much it's all the good Things about Christmas in America times ten.

 

They dance around the Christmas tree, that's funny. And also the big day for them is the 24th, not the morning of the 25th. If I'm still in Odense NeXT transfer I'll spend Christmas with the stake presidents Family and the 25th with someone else to Skype, and eat all the wonderful Christmas foods for days on end :) There are a few days here where we stop working because nobody will meet during that Christmas week haha!

 

Anyway, love you all! If you're worried about Christmas presents, I would never say no to a scarf or a tie ;)

 

MKH, Ældste Durrant

Oh ok, I forgot to tell you about Kim. The guy I contacted on the bus last week.

 

Basically he's a tad on the crazy side. I know we could just confuse him into getting baptized. But that would be wrong. He said several Things that contradicted himself and somehow knows ridiculous Things about our church like the age we get priesthood and baptisms for the dead. Which he claims he has already done. We're meeting with him Again tomorrow... I'll keep you posted.

 

See ya later