Monday September 20, 2010

In the heart of the city - downtown Calgary - Stampede City

Pictures of the Bow River looking across to Downtown Calgary

I wonder if it freezes over in the winter

I had one of the coolest weeks on my mission!!!

MOM! What a day you had!! I am glad to hear everything turned back up, even though it trashed your day haha. What a miracle. Rachel!!!! Congratulations!!!! That is so legit!! I never thought you would be a baller, but it looks like your brothers influenced you a bit :) I can't wait to hear how all of your games go and how you play! Nice work Blake, I say you are in for sure now. Much better GPA than me and a solid act. Start those application papers!!

Ok to answer your questions first:

We haven't heard back from Nellie yet. We will stop by probably tomorrow to see how she if they are back yet. Hopefully they have been doing their reading! Teaching pool is about to explode. We have about 8 names that have invited us to come back to teach them, some of them formers, some of them brand new investigators. Hopefully there is 2-4 of them that are prepared for the gospel. We should have a lot of investigators this week.

The conference was really sweet! How cool was that!!!! Man I was just like what!!! Sister Williams said she wanted to call you right there and then but she was like oh mission president is here haha. That was so neat!! Do you like my new blue suit? Haha 15 bucks at a thrift store. The seventy is named Claudio Zivic. He serves in the South America south area presidency. He is from Argentina, so when we all went up to shake his hand and meet him I got to do it in Spanish!!! So neat!! This conference was actually the first time he had ever done one in English!!! It was pretty choppy and scattered but of course I was able to learn so much from the spirit. It was funny because he would ask a question to us, people would answer back, and he would just be like "good" or "anything else?" It was obvious that he didn't really understand the responses haha. But based on what he taught us, I created 2 goals for the rest of my mission, 1 spiritual experience every hour and to learn something I can apply to my life in every situation of every day. I think that will be a neat goal for me!

Now for the coolest story ever!! So on Friday we had dinner with a family named the Jimenez. (They are the same family that I called the wrong name twice during a prayer haha). It is just a couple from Columbia. All 9 of their kids are still in Columbia, waiting to get Visas to come here. Their ages are like 24-9. Yes 9 kids. So anyway we were just having a normal, yummy (kind of) dinner. Towards the end of dinner, Sis. Jimenez started bawling out of no where. She then told us that yesterday her 20 year old son was robbed in the street by 4 men, and beaten half to death with a baseball bat and stabbed in the side. They continued to beat him down on the ground with the bat until he became unconscious. The room got dead quiet, besides Sis. Jimenez. I felt awful, and had no idea what to say to that, let alone in Spanish. She felt awful because she says she feels trapped in Canada, and can't be there helping take care of her son. So Elder Christensen suggested we give them both a blessing. Sis. Jimenez is becoming physically sick from the stress and stuff so we annointed her with oil. Now, I was expecting Elder Christensen to do that, because he knows much more Spanish. But he is new to the area, and they know me better, so she asked me to the annointing, “uncion” in Spanish, and her husband blessed her. That part was easy because I have that memorized and have done it once before. But then it was Bro. Jimenez's turn to get a blessing. He wanted just a blessing of comfort, so we said ok. I again assumed Elder Christensen would do it, because I have never done it and wouldn't know what to say. But, Bro. Jimenez asked me to do it, and I tried to back out of it, but he said he feels like I should do it. I wanted to decline, but for some reason the words "Como se llama usted" came out of my mouth. Apparently the Lord wanted me to give this blessing, and I went for it. Never doing this in Spanish before, my mind experienced something I will never forget. It just opened up, like I had the whole Spanish dictionary memorized in my head. It was incredible. I promised him things that sounded way too unheard of, but I said what came to mind. The Lord through me told him that his son was going to recover completely, and that his son's personal plan of salvation required him to still be on the earth. What an amazing thing to be able to say to him. After the prayer I was literally on fire, I have never felt the spirit in that manifestation before. It was the coolest thing ever. SO we left, and saw them again yesterday. They said their son is totally fine. Not one bone in his body is fractured, and the knife he was stabbed with did not even penetrate passed the skin. What a miracle. My testimony just grew about a zillion times in one week, especially the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful I have it and that I can comfort and bless the lives of others with it. I love you all so much, and can't wait to write next week. Have an awesome week!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Draper