Sønderbog ------> Aalborg - Dec. 29, 2014

Well not a lot to report this week besides getting transferred! I moved up to the North part of the mission to a big city called Aalborg. It's always kind of been on my places I want to serve list so I'm way excited to get a shot here with another big Ward. My companions name is Trent Reimschussel. He's from Pleasant Grove if any of you know him? Should be a fun transfer. There's actually a possibility that this is my last area. Crazy thought right? We'll see, you can never really predict transfers.

It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone in Sønderborg, all the Pictures will come next week hopefully. My camera has been having some issues so I've had to use other missionaries Pictures. Problem is I have to wait for them to send them to me.

Also talking to my Family was great! The time never flies faster than while you're on Skype. After we were done Skyping we headed home from Tønder, which is on the West coast. It's like an hour drive from where we live so it was unfamiliar territory. We got turned around and all of a sudden we saw a sign that said

''National Border''

And we realized we'd driven into germany. Oops! We stopped and turned around but it was kind of a fun Little mistake over the Christmas Holidays, which, by the way, were awesome. We got to spend Christmas with a Danish Family in the Ward and we opened presents with them (I got a book of Danish fairy tales) and had a nerf gun war with their son and daughter after. Oh and the food was great, I love Danish Christmas food. They make cooked red cabbage (Sounds gross but it's incredible!) and duck and these things called Brown Potatoes and some other kind of meat called Flæskesteg which is delicious!

Anywho, gotta run, transfers took up a lot of time and I missed my stop which made it even longer. It was a two day journey because of travel complications and not being alone while traveling so I'm beat. See you all next week!

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​

Transfers - Dec. 22, 2014

Ridge Durrant

Herluf Trolles Gade 34 3.tv

9000 Aalborg

 

Hey I will be transferring on the 28th or 29th I think... and I'm going up North to a place called Aalborg!

 

Love you all! 

Nu er det jul igen! - Dec. 22, 2014

Hey everyone, this week is going to be short because I'll be skyping in a few days. But I'm still alive! We've been doing a lot of caroling this last week so we've had some fun reactions. Caroling is not a normal thing to do in Denmark and everytime we're singing when the door opens we get the most surprised looks ever! We've caroled to the members, investigators, old investigators, less actives, and just about everyone you can imagine. We went kind of out of our way to a less active guy in a far out town during a storm... he's usually not home but we decided to just wing it. Well he opened the door and peeked out to see four of us with a guitar in the rain singing. I didn't think much of it until a member in the ward told us that he'd posted on Facebook a big status about how thankful he was for those of us who donate our time towards serving others and was happy we'd carolled to him. That was way nice to see!

 

We'll be spending Christmas with a lovely Family in the ward and should be having a great time. I can't believe it's been a year since last time this all happened. One year ago I was in Silkeborg with Elder Ludlow at Benta's house. That's so nuts!

 

We also found a way awesome guy named Oliver who got a Book of Mormon a year ago around this same time who we found knocking. He's interested to know what the book is all about and we had a way good lesson with him. Nice to finally get into a normal lesson situation with someone that doesn't have a screw loose :)

 

Anywho, stay warm! See you all soon!

 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​

Apartment of Suits:

It's been one of those weeks =)

​

This week was Chirstmas week in the Sønderborg branch. We had a party after church with a ton of food and it was great! We all sang Danish Christmas songs and the kids danced around the Christmas tree with Santa Claus. There were quite a few peope that showed up including the stake president. The kids put on a manger scene for us.

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We've been doing our best to take advantage of the Christmas spirit. We've finally found something that the Danish people enjoy us doing after we knock on their door - Singing! We've been caroling all week with pretty good results. A guitar verse of Silent Night has helped us give out quite a lot of material to people and gotten us in contact with a few people that are normally hard to find. It's also way easier than a normal door approach again and again. Christmas is great :)

The Christmas initiative the church is putting on though is really great. We have ''He Is The Gift'' cards we're handing out (if you haven't seen the video go change that) and they work way well! We've come across a couple people knocking doors that became interested in the cards when I don't think they would have been interested if we offered our normal stuff.

Oh, and while caroling we saw a big windmill in the distance. This just had to happen.

And in case you were wondering this isn't even that late at night. It just is constantly dark here.

I got a little letter in the mail this week from my Mission President. I don't know if it's a big deal in other missions but here we call it the ''Death Letter''. Every missionary gets it when they have six months left and it has our exact release date on it. I have six months left starting tomorrow... I'll be released June 16th! Very odd. I've finished my sister mission haha =) It's gone by so fast! Only six months left to enjoy this wonderful country. I've seen a ton of changes in myself, and hope to polish it off by helping as many others as I can in this next little bit.

I'm making a list of things to accomplish these last six months and setting some goals as to what I want to do with the last bit of my mission. Any suggestions? I think I can say one of the biggest differences I've seen in myself is that I truly believe now that we are more happy when we are doing what we're supposed to. I used to think the rules in the mission were petty and that a lot of the time they were just there to control the idiots that had broken the normal rules in the past. Well I've been changing my mind about that a lot, in particular the mission rule about music. I've obeyed it my whole mission for the most part, but recently the songs I've listened to have been getting slightly more and more oriented towards the world and not on the work. Nothing extreme mind you :) But what I've noticed now is that those songs draw my mind more towards home. Now that might now be the worst thing in the world, but after a while it starts to get me down and makes me sad about everything I'm missing. The last week or so I've actually desired to listen to the most uplifting music I could and actually didn't like songs that even though they were approved just didn't set my mind the right way. It's definitely a stark change to my normal self =) But I know I'm supposed to be here for the next six months so why drag my mood down by listening to stuff that makes me want to be somewhere else doing something different? Conclusion: Humans are short-minded, God is not. Once again though, those dang desires are hard to change! Makes me wonder what other little changes I could make in myself that would make my life a lot better.

Anywho wish me luck as I start the fourth lap in my mission mile, it's usually the fastest and most important one of them all! Love you all and I'm looking forward to Skype here in a bit!

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​

Det som jeg er, er jeg ikke tvunget at være =) - Dec. 15, 2014

It's been one of those weeks =)

 

​

This week was Chirstmas week in the Sønderborg branch. We had a party after church with a ton of food and it was great! We all sang Danish Christmas songs and the kids danced around the Christmas tree with Santa Claus. There were quite a few peope that showed up including the stake president. The kids put on a manger scene for us.

 

​

 

We've been doing our best to take advantage of the Christmas spirit. We've finally found something that the Danish people enjoy us doing after we knock on their door - Singing! We've been caroling all week with pretty good results. A guitar verse of Silent Night has helped us give out quite a lot of material to people and gotten us in contact with a few people that are normally hard to find. It's also way easier than a normal door approach again and again. Christmas is great :)

 

The Christmas initiative the church is putting on though is really great. We have ''He Is The Gift'' cards we're handing out (if you haven't seen the video go change that) and they work way well! We've come across a couple people knocking doors that became interested in the cards when I don't think they would have been interested if we offered our normal stuff.

 

Oh, and while caroling we saw a big windmill in the distance. This just had to happen.

 

 

And in case you were wondering this isn't even that late at night. It just is constantly dark here.

 

I got a little letter in the mail this week from my Mission President. I don't know if it's a big deal in other missions but here we call it the ''Death Letter''. Every missionary gets it when they have six months left and it has our exact release date on it. I have six months left starting tomorrow... I'll be released June 16th! Very odd. I've finished my sister mission haha =) It's gone by so fast! Only six months left to enjoy this wonderful country. I've seen a ton of changes in myself, and hope to polish it off by helping as many others as I can in this next little bit.

 

I'm making a list of things to accomplish these last six months and setting some goals as to what I want to do with the last bit of my mission. Any suggestions? I think I can say one of the biggest differences I've seen in myself is that I truly believe now that we are more happy when we are doing what we're supposed to. I used to think the rules in the mission were petty and that a lot of the time they were just there to control the idiots that had broken the normal rules in the past. Well I've been changing my mind about that a lot, in particular the mission rule about music. I've obeyed it my whole mission for the most part, but recently the songs I've listened to have been getting slightly more and more oriented towards the world and not on the work. Nothing extreme mind you :) But what I've noticed now is that those songs draw my mind more towards home. Now that might now be the worst thing in the world, but after a while it starts to get me down and makes me sad about everything I'm missing. The last week or so I've actually desired to listen to the most uplifting music I could and actually didn't like songs that even though they were approved just didn't set my mind the right way. It's definitely a stark change to my normal self =) But I know I'm supposed to be here for the next six months so why drag my mood down by listening to stuff that makes me want to be somewhere else doing something different? Conclusion: Humans are short-minded, God is not. Once again though, those dang desires are hard to change! Makes me wonder what other little changes I could make in myself that would make my life a lot better.

 

Anywho wish me luck as I start the fourth lap in my mission mile, it's usually the fastest and most important one of them all! Love you all and I'm looking forward to Skype here in a bit!

 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​

A Frozen December - Dec. 8, 2014

Hey hey hey! So I have to admit. I feel as though I emailed you all about an hour ago... but it's been a week. Time flies.

 

For Zone Conference this week we got our Christmas present early. We got to watch Frozen together! Woot :) It was way good! Kind of odd to see a full length video after so long, I feel like it made it a lot funnier in my mind.

 

So this week we met with a Family that has been working on improving their church attendence. They're great! We talked about the temple and they're working on getting to the temple in the future to be Sealed. They aren't sure it will happen this year, but it is something they want to Work toward. Kind of makes me realize that I take being Sealed to my own Family for granted. Still do... I think that's one thing that has made it easier being away from them. I know we're an eternal Family, and so these two years just seem like a small break in the scheme of our lives and in eternity. Friends and everything else is no guarantee, and so leaving it was a lot harder than I imagined. However, my Family still feels close and I think that's because I know my relationship with them all isn't going to change or fade away. Love you Guys!

 

Anders has also been doing really well! He's a home teacher now and is working on sharing the Things he's learned and experienced with his wife. It's been awesome to see how much he's embraced the gospel.

 

We had an investigator get back from prison! At first we thought he was doing a lot better. He was drinking milk instead of alcohol and was much more coherent and interested. However the next time we went by it was total opposite. I'll spare you the details, but we was in a condition I hope nobody ever sinks to in their life. I think it's clear the drugs and alcohol has put him past the point of realistic return. His mind just isn't functional anymore. Even when he was sober it was near impossible to get him focused and have the discussion follow a logical pattern. Hard to see something like this happen, but the choices he's made have basically thrown his life Down the toilet. We aren't sure there is even anything we can do considering that his Family is now fighting against him even visiting our church. Poor guy.

 

Visited another couple who liked us just because we are well dressed and mannered Americans they find interesting. They made me promise I'd tell you Mom and Dad that you raised me well and they are impressed by whatever it is you did with me. A tie and a shower get you pretty far in this country. We do stand out like nobodies business though.

 

One of my favorite Things this week was splits with Elder Walch! We have the same trainer and so we've talked throughout our Whole missions. But we stepped outside with no other intention than to meet somebody and become their friend. It was quite difficult. Instead of stopping people and asking about faith or church or something we just tried to start discussions and we quickly realized how hard it is. Finally I stopped a girl and asked her for directions, we kept the conversation going and ended up talking for an hour and a half and now have a friend in Sønderborg! Haha it was really interesting just trying to meet someone instead of preach to someone. It worked quite well I would say. Don't know where it will go but I'm happy about the results in any case.

 

Now, for you all back home. Here is a picture of when I got picked up by my trainer... and one about a year later when I picked up my greenie. I look quite a bit different in my eyes, anyone else notice? Or am I just crazy?

 

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On that note. Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to you all! Vi ses!

 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​

Return of the Hulk - Dec. 1, 2014