FINAL Letter MTC

Hellooooooo family!! This week has been the best week at the MTC BY FAR! I have so many stories to tell so hopefully I will be able to share a few...First let's handle all the business.

So Tuesday I meet at the travel office here at 6AM and I am guessing we will leave for the airport around 6:30. MY GUESS for when I will call you is around 8 AM or 7 AM your time. What number do you want me to call? I have a phone card so we are good to go. If you could just connect Alexa to the call too that would be great. Maybe she could even go over to the house I don't know. So we should have around an hour to talk, I am stoked!!!! OK here is my new address:

Elder Ryan Tyler Draper

Canada Calgary Mission

7044 Farrell Rd SE

Calgary, AB T2H 0T2

Canada

That will send letters to the mission home, then it will get to me at my first area. Once I get that address you will be able to send stuff directly to my apartment. 2 US stamps should actually get normal letters to me, rather than the international stamps. 2 US stamps are cheaper than 1 international stamp. I heard from the Calgarian here that mail takes about 1.5 weeks from Provo to Calgary, so from home mail will take about two weeks. It gets held up at the border I guess. SO we will figure it out. And if you send packages I have to pay like tariffs on them so just let me know before you send packages and we can decide if its worth paying more money for.

You have a package full of stuff on the way. I will actually send it to Alexa's house because there are a few things for her. Then she will give you the rest. I have only 1 SD card right now!!! So unless you can get me another one by Monday, unfortunately I will not send it home. I want it for the airport and my first week in Calgary. No SD cards at the bookstore here sorry. And tomorrow is Pioneer Day in Utah, a st. holiday, so we don't get mail tomorrow at all.

Yes you can send family pics haha it doesn't make me sad. I actually want to get them so I can gradually see everyone grow, rather than not recognize my own siblings when I get back! Funny Story about Vince Vaughn, I will be on the look out for him next year for sure! Tell Elder Zant thank you for that advice! He seriously is a stud missionary and I hope I can come close to him in that department. That is exactly the type of missionary I want to be.

Priesthood on Sunday was awesome. Yes our branch and another branch were combined, so there were easily 80 elders there. We taught a 45 min lesson, luckily in English, and of course the Lord got me through like He always do. I have no problem speaking and teaching now it's insane. I could speak for an hour if I had the chance. It is pretty amazing how different teaching and speaking is when you get to wear the name badge on your chest.

So quick story!! This week for the TRC we actually taught a really investigator!! My first one!! You will see a video of me explaining it in detail but I will briefly describe it. SO her name is Nicki and she is 16 years old. Her older sister is at BYU and just got baptized 3 months ago. Nicki lives in Alabama with her other sister, who is totally anti-Mormon and all that. So the past couple weeks Nicki has been here visiting her sister at BYU. (This sister is in the ward of our teacher, so that is why we got to teach Nicki). Elder Davies and I were the first experience Nicki has had with the missionaries, so we felt a tremendous amount of pressure. But of course the Spirit taught through us!! She had a ton of questions about the Atonement, and of course I barely understand the Atonement, so just did the best we could in following the Spirit and answering the questions. We taught her lesson 1 The Restoration. Towards the end she asked, "How can I know this is all true?" That is a GOLDEN QUESTION for missionaries! It was a perfect lead in to the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise. We committed her to read 3 Nephi 11 and to pray if it is true and if this is Christ's church on the earth. My teacher will email me and keep me updated on the progress of Nicki, I hope she receives an answer the first time because she really needs the gospel right now. Anyways it was an awesome experience and you will hear more about it!!!

Ok so as I prepare to hit the field, I wanted to kind of pick a mission theme for me. I found the perfect one. Deuteronomy 8:2-3. If you replace "40 years" with "2 years" and "wilderness" with "Calgary", that is my theme. It is perfect I think. I will be tested and tried and the Lord will discover what is truly in my heart, and I hope I can prove to him that I am not here to mess around, I am here to work my butt off because he has blessed me way too much in my life. I owe Him everything I got!!

Well I think that is about it for today. Send me a dear elder with answers to my questions and stuff. I will leave 5 min again just in case you need to hear from me again after I get your dear elder. Thank you for everything guys!!! Your support is the only thing that keeps me going sometimes!! Missionary work is hard, but it is the most fun I have ever had!!!! Next time I email will be in Canada!!!! I love you all!!!

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Elder Draper