New Comp Arrives!

How's it going fam? This past Tuesday I pulled up to the mission office to pick up my newest companion Elder Isaac Stohl. He is from Bountiful, Utah and he is a beast! He is a natural born athlete like me and spent a lot of his time at home playing lacrosse and hitting the slopes with his skis. We went throughout our week with a lot of service from the "service ad" I put up on Facebook marketplace! The members here have been really awesome on their part of getting that service ad into the community Facebook groups and I am starting to see the fruits from social media for once! We went to a lady's house to chop down a tree with an axe and trim her bushes. Afterwards, she said that she would be very interested in having a bible study with her this next Thursday and I'm so pumped!! She is neighbors with some members and she has actually gone through the temple open house before. Let's hope that everything works out with her. We were also able to have a lesson with Lisa!!!!! aka, smoker lady lol. The "lesson" was mostly just us sharing our beliefs with each other and her asking us really weird questions like why we have to sleep in the same room or about how we have to go by elder all the time. Overall, it was a good time. Elder Stohl and I have been having fun with his new camera that he just got, so we've been taking a lot of photos and he is getting pretty good. We actually were asked to take a picture for the zone Facebook page because we had access to a good camera. Maybe we will make some dope videos in the near future?? I also got a bike, so this Pday we went trail riding and I got destroyed with mud haha. It was really fun and I hope we can do that again sometime soon. Anyways, it's been a pretty great week and I can't wait for what this next week has in store!

Christmas Tree Fun

This week was cool, literally and figuratively lol. Of course I talked about how I got a turkey in bowling last Monday. But even better is that on Tuesday, we took over one hundred Christmas trees off of a trailer, drilled a hole in the bottom of them, then set some of them up for display on a tree lot that sold trees for a charitable cause. It was really fun and we went back later in the week to load them up on people's cars and it was quite the experience! Transfers came in and I will be staying here in Fuquay-Varina through new years. I don't know who my new companion is yet. Throughout this last week, I've been reading through the come follow me and it's been awesome. I'm trying to get into the habit of doing it so that I can be used to doing it when I get home. I also have been listening to a lot of talks lately and my testimony of living prophets and apostles grow each day! I have been teaching a lot of members this past week about the light the world challenge for this year, it'll really complement the challenge president Nelson gave us last week and it'll bless us more than we think it will. I invite you all to do it with me and be sure to post on social media how it goes! Also, I posted an ad on Facebook for free service and people have been HITTING ME UP. This whole next week is going to be jam packed with service and I'll be sure to do some contacts with these peeps and invite them to learn of Jesus Christ. I'm sooo excited to see what this next transfer has in store and that I can have a clean slate with a new comp that'll go off on all of these potential members out here. I hope that he will be like Elder Lima, that would be my perfect match as we do the Lord's work. Just know that y'all are in my prayers and if you need anything, whether it's prayers or help understanding a gospel subject of any kind, let me know! Love you guys! See ya!

Amazing Messages

Hey all! We got together with a lot of the surrounding missionaries and played some games at Womble Park. Elder Hill brought some gloves and I played catch with him for the first time in like 2 years. I was surprised to learn that my knuckle ball has become exceedingly nasty to where it moves like somebody under the influence without spinning at all. I guess it just needed a little rest lol.

We were tasked with the special assignment this week to get anybody and everybody to watch the message from President Nelson. I took that to heart and doubled my efforts in speaking to anybody who would listen to my voice. I started going off and even made some pass along cards for the event. I caught the attention of my neighbor and started to talk with her. Her name is Lisa and she is a beast. Before I knew her name, she was known as "smoker lady" hahaha. But anyways, she starts saying that she would be interested in watching the message and then began to ask all of the weird questions about our church (multiple wives, if coke is banned, etc). Then she tells us that she was the 8th grade sex ed teacher for none other than DUSTIN JOHNSON as well as a few other athletes that play in college sports. We sadly haven't seen her yet, but I know that we're gonna have a lit conversation when we do! Another cool contact that I had was when I called an atheist that I found named Amin. He doesn't really care to learn much about God, but he seemed really excited to talk with us and asked us to send him the link about President Nelson's message and the church website! I wish that every contact was as spiritually uplifting as that was.

When the message came on Facebook, I was sooooo pumped. After watching, I felt weird because I was underwhelmed, yet my mind was still blown if that makes sense. I guess I was expecting things for the second coming, but then I was blown away because he was like, "It's not like I'm a doctor... oh wait, yes I am, and y'all need gratitude!" or when he was like," Don't be bummed about losing loved ones, because I have lost plenty, yet I move on in life". It was awesome and our whole zone had a zoom chat where we talked about what we liked and felt about the message.

This weekend, our stake had the first stake conference in over a year and the Maurers pulled up without any of us missionaries knowing on Saturday. Luckily, I didn't have anything I was scared of them seeing, or so I thought... They both spoke and Sister Maurer gave a talk that I think the whole family needs to listen to about if others know that we are Christian. After the meeting, they came up and Sister Maurer CLAPS me with a roast about how ugly my hair is. It's alright though. They are a hoot and I love them. Then on Sunday, President Runyan came up and spoke passionately about how the parents need to prepare their children to serve missions and build the Lord's kingdom here on earth. He also gave a shout out to the missionaries saying that we are the best ones he has ever had in this stake, then when I gave a little fist pump to him, he said "I see even one of the missionaries present is giving me a fist pump of excitement" lololo. He called for everybody to be better about making their home a Christ centered home. I felt the spirit so much as he spoke and I was so glad to know that my family has been good about helping me be able to choose to follow the teachings of the church because I wanted to instead of forcing it upon me/them giving me my testimony instead of me getting it for myself. 

The APs cracked down on us (the entire mission) the other day about us not wearing masks AT ALL TIMES, leaders and companionships alike. So yeah.... I'll try to be better this next week lol. That's all folks, I'll see ya next week. Falouuuuu

Service, Rain, Star Wars and President Nelson

What's poppin? This week was pretty dope. I did a lot of service throughout the week and it was a blast. One of the things I did was move a giant pile of gravel around to the other side of a lady's house and make a path with it. It was going pretty good until the wheelbarrow tipped and the two handles snapped when I was pushing it. The work didn't stop and my forearms got destroyed haha. Another form of service I did this week was at a golf tournament for the MMIA. While there, I held more liquor in my hands than I have ever held in my life hahahaha. I also saw Ms. North Carolina and decided to take a picture with her. She saw me and eagerly put her arm around me as I asked to take a picture with her and I didn't have the strength to tell her not to put her arm around me. ;)

Thanks to some of the season's last hurricanes; I had to stay inside for a full day because the heavy rainfall caused the streets to flood. Instead of trying to bash in the bible groups like usual, I decided to take a different approach and join a star wars interest group and make posts related to the gospel. I had so much success on just one post that it makes me wonder why I hadn't given this a try 4 months ago haha. Besides that, not much really happened this week. One thing is for sure, Y'ALL NEED TO WATCH THE VIDEO PRES NELSON MADE FOR THIS FRIDAY! All the missionaries are in charge of literally telling everybody to watch so I expect nothing less from y'all as well. Tchau!

The Living Christ

Howdy y'all! I'm sad to say that things didn’t quite work out for Gabby this past week. Due to the recent elections, we had to be inside our houses at an earlier time for fear of riots. But ya know, since Biden was in the lead, the rioters had no reason to go looting, I guess. I had interviews with President and Sister Maurer and that went well. I love every chance I get to meet with them and chat. 

On top of having interviews, we had a mission wide zoom call where we discussed about a talk given by Elder Bednar in a mission leadership conference in 2018. It was on what revelation is, how we can get it, and what we need to do when we receive it. It was really awesome. One thing that struck me was when he said, "Repetition is a vehicle through which the Holy Ghost can enlighten our minds, influence our hearts, and enlarge our understanding." He continued to say that if we ever are listening to others in sacrament meeting or conference and we think "wait, I already know this", we should not turn off our minds and not pay attention. If we ever do this, Elder Bednar has called these people to repentance hahaha. 

Idk If I told y’all yet, but it is a new goal of mine to memorize the entire document of The Living Christ. President Maurer asked our zone to specifically memorize the first two paragraphs, but I want to know all of it, so that's what I'm working on. 

Even though we didn’t teach many people this week, we got to do a lot of service. I went multiple times to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, and even had the chance to get things prepped for a Veterans Day golf tournament through the MMIA. It was really fun and I am satisfied with my efforts. There isn't much left to say besides that I am grateful for this opportunity the Lord and my family has blessed me with to come out and serve a mission. I am sure to make every second count and lose myself in the work. God's the GOAT!

Halloween Horror - Missionary Style

Yoyoyo Fam Jam,

This week was quite one to remember. We were super busy and I went to the chiropractor not once, but two times! My back has never felt better and it is yet another motive for me to get rich when I'm older so I can go get my back fixed often in the future. Our schedule has been hectic as well as the schedule of the people we've been teaching, but we try to make use of all of the time we are given.

Last Friday, we had our zone conference with President Maurer, and sadly Sister Maurer wasn't able to make it because she was feeling under the weather. We spoke about many things. One thing they really focused on, was getting back into the "normal" missionary schedule by trying to drop out our "outside time" permanently. I can see why they decided to implement that because a lot of missionaries have taken it waaaay out of proportion by just playing games all day instead of doing the Lord's work. Another thing we spoke a lot about in our conference were who the stripling warriors are. For those of you who didn't know, like me, "stripling" means young. We split into three groups to write down the attributes described in 3 chapters of Alma (Alma 53, 56, 57) on 3 separate white boards. I kind of took charge of one of the white boards and wrote down the attributes the people in my group were shooting my way. Then, President had us pick the top 5 attributes we wrote down. The 5 we chose were: courageous, power of the word of God, exceedingly valiant, men of truth and soberness, walk uprightly always. These were great and President Maurer "volunteered" me to present the 5 things to the whole zone and why we chose them. He went on to explain that we as missionaries must be like the stripling warriors, courageous, walking upright at all times and being strong with the word of God which we are commissioned to proclaim to the entire world. Because we literally are called to go to war against the adversary to bring souls unto God, there isn't much of a difference between us and the young men under Helaman's command.

The weather has also taken a drastic turn into utter cold of fall. Luckily, I have a furnace within me (aka the spirit), so I don't get cold easily. But MAN, just wearing church pants and a light jacket doesn't do quite enough sometimes lol. I didn't do anything for Halloween besides watch a devotional at the church and go all out to make the best horror movie ever. That sucker is a true nightmare for anybody not of our faith hahaha. Besides that, there hasn't been too much that is email worthy. I am starting to get in touch with more of the members and I am about to rack in a butt load of referrals, I'm feeling it!

The spirit can teach us ALL things!

Hey hey hey! This was quite an amazing week. There were so many miracles, I couldn't keep track of them all. But to name a couple, one would be our amazing lesson with Gabby on Wednesday. In that lesson, the spirit could be felt soo strongly that she stopped us and asked what the feeling was that she was having. We explained that it was the spirit and she could feel that always if she would be baptized. And when I slid in with the question, she agreed to be baptized on November 4th!!!! Not only that, but we are planning on going to Cole’s house and teaching his whole family! 

One of the other wards had a drive-in movie on Thursday and watched “Onward”. I'm salty that I didn’t see it when I had the chance, because it looked so good! But instead of watching that, we watched our weekly devotional and boy did we get a treat. We heard from President Ballard and Elder Holland! They beasted it and started preachin to the choir! One thing President Ballard said that I loved was, "if you ever feel depressed or grumpy, get over it!.... get over it on your knees." I really needed that advice and will be better about keeping the best of attitudes through everything.

Even through all of these miracles, I have felt the spirit of contention a lot this week and especially these last couple days. I keep praying and that gives me most of the relief I need. All in all, I just think this is a trial of my patience and endurance. I know I can get through this and that even when opposition may arise and ‘the very jaws of hell shall gape open wide to swallow me’, this will all be for my good and give me experience and knowledge for later times in life. I love you all so much and feel your prayers each day. I hope y’all feel mine! Falouuuu!

 

Testify!

This week I was balling it up in the name of the Lord and went to visit a nuclear plant that's in my area. By balling it up, you know I mean literally. When we played volleyball with Gabby and Cole on Wednesday, I decided to take it a step forward with Cole and give him a Book of Mormon. We explained how it came to be and about Joseph Smith. Cole talked about what had been happening in his life and his relationship with God, and I decided to bear my testimony. In my testimony, I said that I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that he loves me. After I said that part, I was just over taken with the spirit. I had already had faith and known that He loves me, but dang, that just hit me hard at that moment. We are planning on following up with him this week on how reading 3 Nephi 11 went and to answer his questions. Over all, this last week was BEAST and passed quicker than I expected it to. I just hope I keep using my time for good and the improvement of God’s work here in Fuquay. Have a good one y'all!

Games for God

Yoyoyo everybody! This week was a dooozy. On Wednesday, we went to a grass court to play volleyball with Gabby. She took soooo long to get there so we decided to play before she came. A guy named Cole came up and asked if he could join in. While we were playing, he asked about what we do and said he would be interested to learn more about our beliefs and the next time we play volleyball. She finally showed up and we played only a little bit before we had our discussion. On Thursday, I pulled up into the church parking lot and the young men were playing one of the best games ever! It's called gaga ball. It's like free-for-all dodgeball, but you are in an arena and you are only able to slap the ball at other people's feet/legs. It was my first time ever hearing about it and it was way more fun than I expected! On top of all these fun games, we played even more games the next day by going to Womble Park and playing frisbee, soccer, and football! A bunch of people showed up and they all asked when we will do it again. Cole and his friend Dylan even showed up!!! We are going to do that every Friday and have the priests bring their friends. At the end of each time, we will give a small spiritual thought and challenge. Elder Morlaunt is going home, which means one person will be filling his spot, but besides that, the whole district will be the same for another transfer! Crazy I know! I guess it's a tradition for the Elders to go to Bass Lake and wait for our transfer results. And while I was there, I caught this ‘lil snek’. Besides that, it was a good week and I can’t wait to see how the Lord will bless me even more in this next one!! 

General Conference Slapped!

This was quite the spiritual peak for me in the mission. General Conference was more exciting than watching the superbowl and I learned sooo much! Idk how it was for you guys back at home, but listening to conference in the field slaps differently. I wrote down a butt load of notes but I forgot them at home, so sorry I won’t be able to state a lot of the things that I liked. If I were to state one of the things which stood out most to me, it was when they kept saying to prepare and secure yourselves – especially in the women's session. Gosh, why does the prophet have to drop all the knowledge during the girl stuff instead of telling everybody. Y’all don’t know how happy I was after President Nelson's talk on preparedness because I know that the Durante, Krispin, and Hunter clans have food storages and enough guns to arm our armada of a family!  But besides conference, I still had quite a good week and am proud to say that I have the opportunity to be teaching such an awesome gal. Her name is Gabby and she is the BOMB! She played volleyball in high school, so I am going to have to show her what real volleyball looks like when she comes to play with us this Wednesday! We had a lesson with her this past Sunday after conference and she said "when are we going to do this again?!" And I was shocked because I've never had someone so excited and golden. Transfers are next week so everybody place your bets. Will I bop out of here? Stay? Train? These are interesting times and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. Like President Nelson said, "The Lord is gathering those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives. The Lord is gathering those who will CHOOSE to let God be the most important influence in their lives. For centuries, prophets have foretold this gathering, and it is happening right now! As an essential prelude to the Second Coming of the Lord, it is the most important work in the world!" Let me emphasize the part where he said the gathering of Israel is the most important work in the world. Wow! I think he said that a few years ago too, but it didn’t slap me as hard in the face as it did yesterday. The work truly is going forward and I am glad to say I am a part of it. And let me tell ya....I ain’t about to stop this grind any time soon, in or out of the field. Love yall!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello there...It’s ya boy Elder Durante. This was quite a good week. I am enjoying service with some great elders, but I'm still set on seeing all of North Carolina, especially Greenville. I am most certainly excited for General Conference this next week and church is finally starting back up. It's been way too long for me. Sadly, I haven't heard any news about Andrea, but it sounds like it won’t be progressing more for a while. We finally had a lesson with a new investigator for the first time in foreverrrrr! It was good, but it seemed like we bashed more than had a clear lesson. We did have some good discussions though and she said she is excited to make more questions for us next time sooo....lol. I finally had some one on one time with president with interviews this past Sunday and we really hit it off. I bribed them with some of our chocolate so they won’t be upset with what went down with my video haha. Sister Maurer is hilarious and President is awesome! He played rugby as well;) While talking with him, he told me that 40 missionaries will be coming in this next transfer and it seemed like I might be training, but idk. On my way out the door, the Maurers said that I will be called out in our zoom meeting that night. And low and behold, president starts out with saying, "for those who want to talk in this discussion, raise your hand. But we'll have Elder Durante show us how it’s done." they're great and I am excited to be serving under their guidance. Thanks for all the amazing gifts and birthday wishes! I can’t believe I’m 20 years old! Falou!

Meet, Eat, and Greet

Howdydiddilydooo! This week was awesomesauceum! We tried getting into contact with more members and set up some lessons throughout the week. It was a blast finally talking to people here. We are finally able to eat at their houses and at one of the places we had dinner, we roasted hot dogs and s'mores! 

Church is starting to get up and running again, and one of the wards had sacrament last Sunday. Our ward’s first sacrament meeting will be after General Conference! Speaking about conference...I want to know what some of your predictions are. I think Elder Bednar will be going to the middle east, if you know what I mean;)

For some reason, it jump started into winter this past week where one day it was 90°, then the next day it was in the 60’s. With that crazy drop in temperature, we were able to get in more service and meet new people. Sadly, we had no new investigators this past week, but MAN WILL WE HAVE A FEW THIS NEXT ONE! I'm ecstatic to finally be able to teach some people this next week and it actually gives me something good to study about. We are talking to a college gal who has been talking with some sister missionaries for a while. She has 2 jobs and goes to school, but we'll find a time to squeeze in a lesson. We have also been getting to know her more over Facebook messenger. 

We got to meet President and Sister Maurer this Monday. That's why we are doing everything today. They are really cool and Sister Maurer is hilarious! They have really given a boost to my morale and I can’t wait to reach the potential the Lord knows I have! I can’t wait to see y’all today. Tchau!

Transferred to Fuquay-Varina

Sup?! Nothing really happened besides me doing service and saying goodbye to the ward. But this week was pretty lit if you ask me. I am in an area called Harris Lake and it is located in the town Fuquay-Varina. I share one church building with 3 other companionships. There isn't much success investigator wise, but that will change soon;) but for real though because we literally aren't teaching anybody, we are going to become THE BEST video making missionaries in the world. We are working on something BIG, so be sure to see it this coming week.  During my time here, I have become addicted to the bang energy drink and I believe it has given me special spirit enhancing powers.

Every day this past week we have been tasked with reading 2 chapters from preach my gospel, then have a discussion with the zone at night. I loved it and have learned more than I usually do in times past from reading it. I encourage you guys to read it all through, especially chapters 4 and 6!!!

(Spiritual Time)

I was going through the potential investigators in my area book and found a guy who "believes his own god". So I thought he would be a perfect person for me to call! He picked up and I explained who I was and he made sure that I knew that he didn't want to learn of Jesus. That's when I started to ask him what he believed in. He said that ultimately he is just too busy with work for religion. Then he asked me why I chose to go on a mission instead of just staying home to go to college and help others when I have extra time. I shot back by saying, "because I have my whole life after my mission to do that". I began to complement him about him being willing to serve others and be a good person, even though he doesn't believe in God, and we had a really nice conversation. For some reason I had the urge to tell him that faith in God isn't just believing, but it is action, and I told him that if he ever prayed to God, don't ask Him to take away your problems (because that rarely will happen), but ask Him HOW you can solve your problems. He said that he really appreciated my call and offered for us to call him if we have any computer problems in the future (he can fix them) or if we don't have anything to eat. He even went out of the way to say my communication skills were so advanced that he would like me to keep his number and get in touch with him if I want a job with him after the mission! It was an awesome experience and I KNOW IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF I DIDN’T SACRIFICE MY NAP TO MAKE THAT CALL! Just saying... sacrifice is key – and God will reward his servants for showing Him that kind of loyalty.

Life's an Adventure!

This week was pretty lit and I was able to get in a lot of work! We went golfing on pday at "the challenge" and I was suuuper happy that Elder Stapel lost a bet to me cause he paid and that course was EXPENSIVE. Our zone conference wasn't too crazy. We all did pretty good on the Alma 7:11-13 thing, I barely got out cause I mixed up one of the “wills” with “shall”. I was suuuper bummed when president said I wasn't going to Portugal or Angola:( on top of that, our facebook admins roasted all of us for not making the content they like. Ugh some people are just getting on my nerves in this zone, but it's all good! I went on exchanges and caught a bass, a snake, and an awesome salamander! The salamander sprayed some sticky stuff on me and it turned out to be some acidic defense and it took forever to get it off my skin haha. Life’s a party. I hope that everything is going great over there and I just want to say that the work here has not stopped at all! It may seem slow because nobody wants to answer their phones, but I have had more meaningful contact in one day than I did in Brazil! I have 3 investigators progressing now with many new potentials soon to follow. I know I may seem bummed at times, but in my normal day, I do a lot. I usually get up at 6:30, say my prayers, make some breakfast, read some scripts, have a lil discussion with my comp, get in some service, teach a couple lessons w/ members or investigators over zoom, hang at the church, and end my day with 1 straight hour of gains! Life’s treating me great and I wouldn't trade it for anything else!

The Mercado

Hola! This week was pretty dang full of service! We woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning to go fishing with a family in the ward and all I caught was rain on my clothes, a tree branch, and a fl*ppin turtle that ended up busting my line and half the pole when I tried reeling it in. After that sad fishing trip we started to crack down on the jungle of a yard the Perez family had! It was really hard work and the humidity wasn't helping me at all lol. After calling a bunch of inactive members, we finally decided to put our beds back into the house haha. My back was kiiiiilling me. I decided that I should start to work out and do it while I'm studying the scriptures, so after each chapter, I did 30 sit ups. It worked pretty well, but I think I should just work out separately and just study my scriptures on my own. We got a butt load of rain and all we could do was stay inside and we not able to do any service. So we ended up cleaning the entire church (because we basically trashed the place). On Saturday, we went to the “mercado” in Mebane! We went around with some Spanish speaking missionaries and tried inviting people to watch/attend our english classes that we will be starting on facebook. We had a few good contacts with people and my Spanish wasn’t half bad haha. Something funny that happened was when I started making a contact with some Spanish speakers, and they turned out to be members. Nobody wanted to learn English apparently, but at least I got in some practice! In the end, it really put into perspective how I can go outside of the whole facebook box and talk with some people:) Adios!

Hurricane Isaias?!

Let me tell you man, I want my money back after this weak excuse for a hurricane. My phone wasn't working and I got in trouble for not having called the people in my district to make sure they didn't die. I even had President Henderson call me, so you know it was pretty serious. Ooooof. We haven't done anything too crazy this week. Let me drop some of this week's highlights. First thing would have to be when we gave a CTR ring to Andrea and she replied "this will make an awesome toe ring". Second would have to be when I tried making our district council more fun by playing some Book of Mormon hangman. Lastly, I went on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Hullenger. We had a party and I showed him some of the cool places in Mebane. I did a butt load of service this week and it felt good helping out the members. I haven't done any Spanish classes because, well, I would need some students first. I also haven't done anything with Portuguese, so sorry about that. Good thing we have had all of this service and stuff to fill our time haha. That's about it for the week so I’ll see you guys later!

One Year Down, Another One To Go!

I started celebrating my one year mark the right way by waking up with the awesome camel that Nana sent me that says (in her own voice), "happy hump day"! I also got the package from mom and dad! I LOVED IT!! Right as I opened it up and saw the Star Wars quotes on the sides, I knew it was gonna be epic - and it wasssss!! The way the story begins was such a hoot and everything was super creative. Thanks sooo much!!! I think the best thing in the package was the gobstoppers with the funny quote about "even if the jawbreakers of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee...". I also loved the towel I got, since I already have 2 towels in my bathroom, I decided to pin it up as a decoration on my wall lololol. I didn't really do much to celebrate besides burn a shirt in Tina Marie's backyard and have a zoom call with the boyz! The mission has been treating me well and I haven't been too down anymore since I am starting to be more useful with my time. I have been trying to read up on some more talks and I loved the, "See others as they may become" talk by Thomas S. Monson.

 

I was thinking of making a group chat with all the guys serving missions from my home ward this next week (when I get some time) to see what and how they are doing missionary work to see what is most effective for them. Hopefully we can exchange ideas and maybe be able to help each other out. I talked with the members in both wards, here in Mebane, about giving us some more service opportunities and they have really been calling us up more often to help them out. It's been great! I also got a ward inactive/part member family list that I need to hit up and start having lessons with them. I am also planning on starting English classes after this up and coming transfer. I'm excited for this next week and hope that these things move forward with power and guided by the Lord's hand!

Interviews

This past week was truly one to remember! On Friday I had my interview with President AND Sister Henderson. President Henderson is a doctor and is suuuper serious about our safety because he has seen the effect of Covid-19 on people and he doesn't want to tell any parents that their child has it. I first was with Sister Henderson and it was like a ‘breaking the ice and allowing her to know more about me’ type of thing. Then I met with President Henderson. He is such an awesome guy! We talked about my work experience and my plans for the future here in the mission. He used a term called "quiet obedience". He explained that phrase is like, "yeah everybody in the mission is obedient, and it's no big deal to even talk about how obedient you are or aren't". I loved that so much. We talked about some personal struggles and he was super chill about it and just told me to move forward and never look back, and so I have! I talked to him about making my area a "spanish speaking area" and he was all for me doing instructive videos or whatever to teach people English/the gospel. He did say that if these people are getting pretty serious, that I should turn them over to the hermanas because the hermanas are technically in charge of all the Spanish speakers in the zone. All in all, it was a great time getting to see and talk with the Hendersons! Right after the interviews, I went on my exchange with Elder Shafer in my area and it was awesome. He is such a good guy with good intentions. It was pretty good to get a break from our companions and we both learned so much together. At the end of our exchange, we went to an investigators house to give him a blessing and a quick lesson. It was this elder’s 2nd ever blessing and it was a great learning and spiritual experience. We ended up having another lesson with that investigator on Sunday with his brother in law, who is a member...Which means he had a "sacrament" meeting! The work may be different than before, but remember what the Prophet Joseph said that, “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progessing"! And with that in mind I hope you guys have an amazing week and I hope y’all are feelin’ my prayers and receiving the blessings for my effort!!

New Mission President!

Since President Matthew S. Holland got called as a general authority in April, we need a new mission president. The new mission president is David Henderson. He got assigned to us temporarily until our new president get here from Australia. (I guess he is having visa issues!) My brother, Will, actually had President Henderson as his mission president when serving in the Peru Huancayo Mission! Crazy stuff!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

(Happy dad's day to all you other dads too) 

Farewell Conference

This week was lit! We of course had our spiritual yet sad goodbye conference with President and Sister Holland. They talked a little about loving our next mission presidents with the same passion we have for them. But besides that, it was a big old Q&A on anything. The sisters, of course, asked about marriage and how to search for a good eternal companion. The reply the Hollands gave was, ‘find somebody who loves the Lord, is a hard worker, and they have to be crazy about you’. Besides family, President Holland said, ‘everybody should at least get a 4 year degree’. And me, being the deep doctrine guy, asked him what we should do during this time as it nears the 2nd coming. The reply was in line with an object lesson they had planned. The Iron Triangle of Spirituality was introduced with the sides signifying: Prayer, the Iron Rod, and Wear/Cherish the temple garment. He promised us that if we do these three things daily, EVERYTHING will be okay. We all then went on to covenant with him that we would do our best to do all 3 things daily! Throughout the week I tried my best to do all of the things, being a missionary, it shouldn't be too hard haha. We received a referral on Thursday who showed some real interest. We talked Friday, then Saturday, then had her come to the church on Sunday for a lesson with a member! This lady has a lot of things going on in her life and is suuuuper paranoid. But hey, she really wants her life to change for the good...and she accepted our help to be baptized! To top off my Sunday, we went to a presbetyrian church to watch the bishop's daughter play in a piano recital. It's lucky for the pastor that I was in a respectful mood or I would've converted everybody there. Things are finally turning out for me and I hope we don't just settle for her, but go on to find more people and just throw all of North Carolina in the waters of baptism!!! Transfers were today, and I’m going to be here another transfer with my same comp and district; so these sinners better look out, cause I'm comin’ for them! Also, Happy 95th Birthday to Gigi! Love you!!

God Has a Plan!

I'm sad to say that this has been the most unproductive week of my mission. Even though all the other missionaries have had zeros for everything like us, it frustrates me to not be able to interact with people, to not be able to go into public spaces for long, or have dinner at member’s houses. Heck, the lesson where I was supposed to help some hermanas talk to a Brazilian even fell through on Sunday. But I know that the Lord has big plans for me and I really need to be more diligent and show the Lord I'm ready for an elect person in my life. I have been praying so much for the will to dive into the scriptures, but haven't received the eagerness yet. I know it will come, I know I'll be blessed, and I know the Savior loves me.

Throughout the week, I have seen how angry the world is becoming. The scriptures talk about it raining fire and that cities will be destroyed. My entire life I believed that it would be Jesus sending fireballs out of His hands or something, but the more and more evil I've been seeing in the world, I believe it will be us that do all the destroying. With all of the protests going on, I see that people are torching up cars, homes, and local businesses. I can see people destroying government things to prove a point, but why attack their own people's things?? I have come to the conclusion that it is the devil himself that is stuck in the hearts of the rioters and it is this great anger in people that will cause the destruction leading up to the second coming.

As a representative of Jesus Christ, I testify that I have the authority and duty to call out to everybody in the four corners of the Earth to repent of their sins and come unto Him. I have been taking every chance I can to talk to somebody face to face instead of over a phone. I want to help everyone I can but sometimes that isn't enough. The path to our eternal salvation was never going to be a brisk afternoon stroll, but an aggravating uphill climb. Most people don't want to put in any effort, so they stop progressing. But I believe that we are on the 2nd to last summit, we can see our final end goal off in the horizon. It's not out of our reach, but it will still be a long final stretch. When we put our head down (prayer), get back up when our legs give out (repentance), and keep moving forward (progression), we will all eventually arrive at the destination that generations have spoken of since the fall of Adam. It doesn't matter on your earthly knowledge or strength but entirely on your faith and willingness to obey God's commandments.

Doing What We Can

This week was way better than that last one and I'm starting to get a hold of this whole United States mission grind. I still have 0 new investigators, but I have been able to teach about Jesus Christ and repentance a few times! The first time was the most memorable. I was studying by Lake Michael with my comp in the morning and got all of D&C 4 memorized (in English). We had the idea to go home, change into street clothes, and go on a hike to see some nature. At the beginning of our journey, I saw 3 guys on a dock fishing and I had the impression to go and talk with them. I asked if they've caught anything and they answered me with "what are y’all? Jehovah's Witnesses?". I laughed and said we were missionaries and they were actually really happy to talk to some "men of God". Two of them were of the Muslim religion and the other was of no religion. We began to tell them how we were there to preach repentance among all the children of men and the guy (we'll call him Reese) had many questions about how to improve his life. You see, Reese grew up selling drugs, doing time in jail, I believe he's even killed a man. But he's finally in an honest job. There are 2 things he's afraid to give up for God, breaking one of the 2 BIG commandments, and drinking. We talked and talked forever. His friend, Mohammad, was all on board with us trying to help him through these problems; and when he finally made a promise with us and his friend to stop drinking, it was our time to depart. Burnt and crispy from the sun, me and my companion went on a nice walk in the woods where we then decided to spread out and give thanks to God in quite an amazing little "sacred grove" we came upon.

We had many opportunities to serve our ward members this week, by helping our neighbors move out, moving mulch into the garden of an inactive sister, and administering to a sick sister in need of a blessing. Even though my "numbers" say I didn't have a successful week, I feel like I’ve been doing quite well!

Back in the Mission Field!

What up?! It’s ya boy Elder Durante back to doin the Lord's work in the BEAU-tiful state of North Carolina. I am currently in the town of Mebane as district leader #2 with my comp Elder Zohner as #1. My newest companion has about 19 months in the field and is from the party town of Idaho Falls. We came into this area together on Wednesday morning and found out the previous Elders did not put anything in the area book. We are completely whitewashing this area and having to do everything online because of the dang Coronavirus. All we've been doing is Facebook finding, going to the church, and making videos. On Sunday, our area book finally synced so now we have the member’s phone numbers and contacts of past investigators, so we are gonna ball it up this next week! The only funny story I have this week is when we were messing around on our deck and my comp broke a pole off the railing . haha. It's all good – we fixed it!

 Elder Zohner vs the pole

 President and Sister Holland (& my cool phone)

See Ya Later St.Geezy!

Well howdy folks. It's Elder Durante here on the last day at home. It has been quite some time since the last time I've written anything, so I'll try to update you all with the things I did. I would like to say that it was a very lit experience with a lot of "waiting" at home to be called again. I spent a lot of time with family. We've gone out to ride dirt bikes, shoot some guns (where I got tagged in the eye with spent brass), and celebrated many events (Mothers Day, Graduation for
Will/Rachel, etc...). Not trying to brag, but I put in some work and turned out to be quite the COD player in Warzone. I DESTROYED KIDS! Anyways, I worked a bunch at the chocolate factory and helped my family out whenever they needed some extra help. I had an awesome opportunity to teach about missionary life and a lesson to the youth and leaders in my ward. It was a great way for me to get in some practice teaching in English and was an even better refresher of how the mission life felt! I was officially reassigned to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission. I leave tomorrow (5/19/20) at 7am and I'm soooo pumped! I will be serving there for the remainder of my mission or until Brazil opens back up. I will be in a smart phone mission and a bike mission, so that's pretty lit. Sooo much has happened over this span of 7 weeks, but I've never been more ready to get out and serve the people in this last dispensation. I'll catch you all on the flipside kkkkk.

Transferred Home!

What up my dudes! It's ya boy, (Elder) Dane Durante, home and in good health. The world is goin' pretty crazy with the whole COVID-19/coronavirus thing and because of it, everything is shut down. My first two weeks back were nothin but staying home in quarantine to keep me away from everybody and everything. After the first week of being home, I received a phone call from President Astle (my stake president) telling me that I am officially released of my missionary duties. He urged me to keep up the missionary mindset and continually prepare for when I go back out! Since there are a butt-load of returned missionaries here in St.George, we are all a part of an institute class that we take via video chat every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As of today, being over 3 weeks since I've been back, I still do not have a phone and I have plenty of free time. I've worked a lot in our store (The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory), I built a raised garden bed with my dad for my Uncle Mack, and I even had the opportunity to serve dinner at Switchpoint (a local homeless shelter). The curve on the corona is declining and my willingness to get out and serve again is increasing exponentially. All I know is I'm gonna go back out into the mission field the first chance I get and nothing is gonna stop me!

Quarantined!

We have pretty much been quarantined to our homes. We can't go out and contact or get new families. We can teach current investigators and less active members. So we're doing a lot of work over the phone and any other way we can. Since we are inside so much, we are studying, reading scriptures, cleaning and all that stuff. The mission gave us 200 Reales per person to buy supplies for our quarantine and future needs. Sister Lago sent out a list of things we were to buy and so we did. We set up just fine for quite a while!

Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

Signal Flag indicating "Quarantine"

Protect the toilet paper!

Church at Home

This week was not the best because I had nobody to teach at the start of the week, so I just went to the other side of the river to start a movement to Cristo over there, but all of them are heathens that hate anything of God – they only like candles and Mary over there.

Later on in the week I went to Picos to do the baptismal interviews for the Elders living there. What went down was: the two people that I was to interview weren't in town (and they moved their date for the next week), my pants split wide open when I sat down, and I found out that there won't be any meetings at church this Sunday – so that was lit. When I came back to Floriano, nothing crazy was happening.

Hammock makers

 Wild street goats

I did learn that we can have sacrament in a member’s house and we’ll just bring our investigators there and it'll count toward them progressing. None of my people came to the member’s house this Sunday and I wasn't too happy, but at least I know they don’t want to progress, right?! I am just happy that I even have the chance to have the sacrament. My zone leaders told me that Sister Lago will send me an email about buying a food reserve, in case I have to stay in the house for a long time due to the coronavirus. It won't be too hard for me, especially because I’m finally getting over how annoying my comp is – haha. I might buy some playing cards so I’m not too bored. This week wasn't the best and I could really see Satan lashing out at me by attacking my willingness to serve, my little problem with pride, and anything else he could try and get me with. Stay safe and enjoy having church in your home this Sunday!

Farewell Carminha

This week was truly one to remember so I’m going to give y’all an email really detailed and good just like mom asked me to do. So on Tuesday, I did some splits with the zone leaders here in the beautiful city of Floriano.

I saw an iguana while doing my splits with Elder Manchego (Peru) and while we were teaching lessons, this Peruano just roasted everybody in sight. He just loves burning all the people to a pulp with his knowledge of the scriptures and desire to baptize people in the quickest amount of time or not at all. Because of this and her not keeping all of the commitments she made with us, Naiana (daughter of Carminha) lost the desire to be baptized and go to church. On Friday, I was having no success and I had the feeling to go to a recent convert ́s house to see how they are. We went inside and the wife said that we were sent by God. She then explained that they had planned to go traveling to sell some things in some nearby towns, but their car kept breaking down. They needed to leave and make some money or they won't have anything to eat or pay the bills. I shared Alma 37:16-17 and said that everything would be fine. I then had the feeling that I should go see the car. I looked at the oil and water levels and saw that they were low so I filled them up to make everything all set. We all said a prayer and the car started up just fine. They were super grateful that they wanted to go teach with us with the new found spirit we were all feeling. We went to Carminha ́s house thinking that we could help her daughters feel the spirit of our testimonies, but her dad said that she was at the hospital and that she'll be back tomorrow. We did end up going to the recent converts sisters house and taught her. We all felt the spirit amazingly strong and they began to cry. They kept saying that they feel unworthy to be in our presence and that they just want to improve in Christ. It was an amazing experience. The next morning, I received a phone call from Presidente Nascimento saying that Carminha (50) DIED early that morning! What?!! I still couldn't even believe what happened - even while I was at her funeral. What a miracle that she was baptized and followed Christ when she did instead of waiting another week to "think about things". On Sunday I went to her final resting place to pay my respects and leave flowers. RIP Carminha!

Carnaval!!

This week was really great and had a lot of little cool moments. I did splits/divisions in Picos the day after Carnaval (carne means meat, so it’s the festival of flesh) and it was litty.

That is why President Lago had all the missionaries work in the morning and go back and stay in their apartments by 4 pm. I saw a bunch of people walking around with grey crosses drawn on their foreheads (Ash Wednesday). Elder Rivero explained that the catholic priest does that cross on people’s heads the day after the festivities to show that they are "repenting" – APOSTASY! Haha.

The most spiritual moment happened while I was in Picos too. I was teaching the first lesson and I was trying my best to make the first vision the spiritual peak and when I got to that part, something came over me and I was so close to crying, but y’all know how hard it takes me to break into tears so I didn’t cry, but I was close.

Anyways, my district is doing a lot better and they were able to do all of their lessons and contacts! Now all they need to improve on is bringing people to sacrament lol. To end things off I got to tell you guys... We baptized Carminha!!

I had my comp throw Maria do Carmon Pereira Sandes in the sacred waters of baptism this past Sunday and her daughter was there to watch... So we’re going to dunk the daughter in the waters of baptism too this next Sunday! Good stuff! Below are some random pictures. Tchau!

 Member meal

 "my little pony"

Pretty bird