Monday January 31, 2011

BEST. WEEK. EVER. That is all I have to say about this week.

Yes the temp has dipped way back down this weekend...like way way down. It is kind of scary that I am pretty much accustomed to it. Alright Bishop Conover! That sounds like the right decision to me. Great, great guy, that will be fun to come home and see that. Wow thanks for sharing that story mom. Satan does try to deceive us in that way.

Well I don't have much time so I will just cut to the chase and share the news: Baptism this Sunday!!! Our newest investigator Juan Carlos that came to church last week? Yeah, he is totallyyyy prepared and is getting baptized 12 days after first teaching him starting last Monday. He is from Mexico and has just had a crazy life: started smoking at age 14 (he's 32 and just stopped last week the day before we taught him!!), got into drinking and even harder illegal drugs. Now he wants to change all of that and become clean again. We have taught him 5 times this week and have so many stories to share about him but don't have any time! Basically we have not had to do anything. The Lord simply placed a perfectly ready soul in our path and we are just teaching him the missionary lessons real quick so he can be baptized. Seriously we have taught him all of the main big stuff like chastity, Word of Wisdom, tithing, and he has no problems with any of them. Last night he was like "Well I threw so much money in the trash buying cigarettes and booze, I might as well give that money to a good cause!" Also yesterday was fast Sunday, because next week is stake conference, and without even teaching him about fasting and why we do it he shows up to church and says he is fasting too! So cool!!! We taught him Monday night and on Tuesday night he calls us and tells us to come over right away. We got there and his left arm is bandaged up from his elbow to his hand! He cut himself really bad at work with a saw, all the way to the bone and cut tendons. We were scared he was going to drop us because this bad thing happened to him right when he started meeting with us (because that has happened to me before with investigators) but instead he says "Wow it looks like Satan does not want me to be baptized" haha how cool is that? So he will be baptized with a cast thing on, I imagine we will have to tie a bag over it so it does not get wet. I call him Rocky Balboa because I am telling you, he is the closest looking Rocky I have ever seen.

I have grown so much during the last 3 weeks. My Spanish mostly because we are both new and I have kind of taken the lead in the lessons. But also just with my reliance on the Lord. I cannot do all of these things without Him. I am an ordinary kid from Orange County California, but I have an extraordinary calling, so He will always make up the difference. I can't wait to send pics next week and tell you about how the baptism goes. I know that this is the true church. Things like this do not happen with the Baptists or the JW's or the Catholics. The Spirit combined with personal revelation is operative in this church only I am confident of that.

Let me know if you have any questions about Juan Carlos or anything! He is divorced and his 3 kids live in Mexico, and he is working on getting them up here. This baptism is special to me because I get to see it from start to finish, in only 12 days. I am grateful to be here and to have the opportunity to see people change and join the kingdom of God! I love you all so much!!! Have an awesome week!!!!! Go Cougs!

Love,

Elder Draper

Officially 1/3 through!

Typical winter day here, lots of snow!

The missionary mobile

The elders feeling peace at Nely's baptism :)

Scripture study in a Laker Snuggie Christmas morning

Christmas brunch at Mr. Sub

Que onda mis compas!? Yes I would like stuff from NYC in honor of the 1/3 mark! Laker stuff for sure. I absolutely love NBA socks so maybe a few pairs of those. Most comfy socks of all time! So you are going to Carlo's Bakery on your trip to NYC? Yes I love that show Cake boss! I watched it a lot with Alexa and Rachel before I left I think. Oh wait maybe that was Ace of Cakes I don't remember.

This week was really awesome! Oscar is slowlyyyy progressing. He did not make it to church, but that was because his wife and daughter were able to return here on Saturday! That was a really sweet miracle! Last night we went by and met them and will begin teaching them as a family. But we had a sweet miracle at church yesterday. We have been trying to get in contact with this Mexican named Juan Carlos Montial. He is a friend of someone in the ward, and I met him about a month ago at a party. We have been calling him relentlessly the last month and so has his friend from our ward, but to no avail. Out of nowhere he shows up to church yesterday with the Book of Mormon we gave him in his hand! How cool! He then asks us if we can come by and teach him this week, and we set up an appointment with him tonight! We have been praying our guts out for him the last 24 hours and we feel he will accept baptism for the 6 of February. He is so interested so we are excited for that! We have 5 other investigator appointments SET for this week, so I will have to explain all of their stories next week. So many miracles in store for us and we have seen so many.

I can't wait to hear where Trevor gets called to on his mission! Canada would be so so cool!!!! I can't believe he is heading out and I am approaching the middle of this. I don't feel like I am turning 20 in a couple months at all. I feel like I am 17 and still a senior in high school. I don't know when it will all set in. I have not seen that new Mormon message, I will have to check it out. Sorry this is so short! I promise next week will be really good. All the action is goin down this week. I love you all! Have an amazing week!!!

Elder Draper

Our wonderful weekend & Ryan's update

The Mission Viejo stake presidency was reorganized this past weekend and we were so very fortunate to have an apostle of the Lord come to beautiful south Orange County! Elder Quentin L. Cook presided over our stake conference and we were richly blessed by his sweet spirit and touched by his inspirational messages during several meetings. We all met him, shook his hand and watched as our wonderful Bishop was called into the stake presidency. Our testimonies were fed and fortified so much by Elder Cook. Each member of our family reflected on what we personally experienced and took away from stake conference in our emails to Ryan last night.

Man it sounds like I missed out on the most amazing weekend of all time! What a life long memory you all got to make with the visit of Elder Cook. I'm not gonna lie, I am wayyyyyy jealous! That is such a cool experience! Oh I have a strong testimony, backed by scriptures, that all the apostles have seen and conversed with Jesus Christ. I have no doubt about that. I bet he has even felt our Savior, and you guys got to shake his hand...just something to think about :) Yeah I know he was Hollands companion, way cool. Well tell Bishop, I mean President Gentry congratulations for me. I admire that man so much and am grateful for the amazing example he is to me, especially during the last 2 years before I left for my mission. I was planning on him being my Bishop when I got back, but it looks like he is on track to the Apostleship!!

Wow thanks for totally rubbing in 80 degrees!! What the!? I love my mission to death, but man the day I am in 80 degrees again is going to be heaven haha. Yes I will never take for granted California ever again. I am just used to walking out and not being able to breath because the air is so cold and wanting to be back inside literally after 5 seconds...but hey I figure I am having a crazy experience with it, which is awesome! I complain every single day about the cold Mom, but I won't carry that over to emails haha. Yes the Laker Snuggie is a life saver for sure. Thank you! No I have not gotten packages from Corbins or the stake. The Corbins sent me a Christmas card though. No we did not get the truck. The senior missionary in charge of the car just doesn't quite understand the program and how we need a 4 wheel drive in the west, so he gave us a 2008 Malibu ughhhhh!

Abel is doing well, at home. We did not get another chance to teach him, but we have referred him to the other elders so they will try to get in contact with him. I am going to assume the baptismal date will be moved back a week, so he has more time to stop drinking and prepare himself. This week was pretty slow, but that's ok because we are working hard and trying to get into people's homes.

We taught Oscar for the second time, and he is slowly progressing. Basically he is like everyone else in the world: When things are going good, he believes in God. When the times are tough, he forgets Him. He just feels very lost here, and has so many questions about life. He is in a tough situation right now. His wife and 5 yr old daughter, who are in Venezuela right now, were supposed to come back to Canada this week, but the Canadian mail system lost of their paperwork, so he has to do the process again and wait another month for them. Also he applied for a job in Denver, CO but got denied, so he is going to stay he for a while. I told him that I think it is not a coincidence that we happened to knock into his door just as all these problems in his life began. We just hammered him with testimony after testimony, because we know that we can gain testimonies and grow our faith as we hear other people bear their testimony. It seemed like that worked for him...we got him to say the closing prayer, something he flat out shot down the first lesson. After he prayed he said he felt like crying...I assume that is a good thing haha. When we invited him to be baptized the 30th of January he said thank you so much for inviting me, but I have to think about it a little more. He came to church last Sunday so that was cool. He will get baptized, but it will take a while, because we have to help him build his faith in Jesus Christ. He won't take as long as Nely I can promise that.

I think that is about it for this week though. We have a few investigator lessons set for this week with new people, so pray that they go through! And pray that Oscar will recognize God in his life and joining this church is what he needs to do!! Thank you so much! I love you all and wish the best for all of you! Se cuiden! les amo!

Elder Draper

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Chinook winds are very common in southern Alberta and bring a little warmth to Calgary

What up!? Everything is going awesome here in the 407. Yes it is way cold. Right now is -30 C with the wind chill!!! I am so grateful we are on the way out for winter. Summer is approaching!!! At least that is what I want to believe. Things are going great and Elder Nielsen is awesome. We have very similar personalities (we are the 2 most sarcastic elders in the Spanish zone) so we are just having a blast with that. He is a really cool and funny kid. We are just loving the missionary work here. My tiredness left so that's good. I woke up so happy and refreshed today, probably for pday haha!

This week I had one of the sweetest miracles of my mission! So we got a call from the English elders and they tell us they are at the hospital with a man named Abel. He had a stroke on Sunday and was resting in the hospital. Apparently he has been attending an English ward with a friend for the last 3 months, but he is Spanish and has not understood much. He asked the English elders to send Spanish elders to him, so Elder Nielsen and I went over to visit him! We went into this expecting to maybe give him a blessing and maybe invite him to learn more about the gospel from us. So we show up and meet him, he's Abel Arteta from Peru. Like I said he has had little contact with the church the last 3 months, but with an English ward. He told us his life story and told us how he is looking to change his life and follow Christ. He asked if we have a ward in Spanish and we said yes, of course. So right then and there I receive the craziest prompting to invite him to be baptized. I thought that was so weird because I had just met him 5 minutes earlier. So I did it, I invited him to be baptized the 23 of January and he says "Yes sign me up!" Haha I was like "Are you sure?" because I was so shocked. He said that is exactly what he wants. So, we got a baptism right!? Turns out, Abel lives right next to downtown Calgary, which is the Central area. So, I got a baptismal date for Elders Davies and Estupinan. They are stoked for it though! We are going on exchanges to teach Abel either tonight or tomorrow. Me and Elder Estupinan will go teach him, to make the transition to those elders smoother. But still such a sweet miracle! I honestly did not have to do anything with Abel's conversion besides opening my mouth and challenge him to be baptized. The Lord prepared him completely, and I just extending the invitation. That is the cool part about missionary work I have discovered. Our job is actually pretty easy. We shouldn't have to convince anybody. We find the chosen, already prepared by God, and we simply invite them to do things they already want to do...whether they know it yet or not.

You guys are my number 1 support! Thank you for all the advice I really appreciate it. I really want to hear more about your mission dad! I feel like I don't remember you telling enough about it. But again thank you, you are an awesome example to me and I don't know why but the Lord has blessed me so much the last 8 months. It really has not been bad being away from everyone. There is a time and place for everything and I would not want to be anywhere else except right here in West Calgary. Things are sweet.

This week is going to be amazing!! Expect us to have 2 baptismal dates set. We are on fire and ready to turn the west side around. Thanks for all of your love and prayers. I hope you all have a crazy week too!! I love you!!

Elder Draper

Happy 2011 - Live long and prosper

What's up!? I hope you all had a fun New Year and went hard! I definitely didn't get to do anything crazy. The whole New Year's Eve day we helped a member set up the dance for that night. I am totally coming back here for one New Years Eve because Spanish people know how to party and how to dance. We had to be in our house at 6PM and in bed at normal time, so nothing fun went down, just wrote letters and slept.

Edward and Elder Draper strike a pose

Four missionaires + 400 balloons = Happy New Year!

Elder Walker hits the roof to finish the job

Yep the time speeds up every week for me. Everything is just blended together, feels like a dream. NICOLAS!!! Felicidades hermano!! Wow man I cannot believe you are a priesthood holder now! You gotta bulk up so you look like one! Haha you are a stud and I am so so proud of you, but even cooler is that Heavenly Father is so so proud of you! Keep up the great work bro! Yeah that is nice of you to take pics and send them to the missionaries parents. Spanish people don't do that they just love stuffing your gut with food though! Yeah mom thanks for the blog pics! Man that looks sharp!! Can't wait to see it all completely.

So this week was pretty dang slow, suuuuuper slow. I have never been more tired in my life or on my mission. Like not physically tired but like I want to sleep all day long. I don't know why it has happened now, but I am trying to fight through it. Our apartment building has an underground parking garage, so I go down there and run a few miles every morning.

We had one cool experience while tracting this week. On Tuesday we knocked a door and a man named Oscar Gonzalez from Venezuela answered. We gave our little door approach and he started asking a ton of questions about life...everything that the plan of salvation answers. We taught him in the doorstep for about 10 minutes, and told us he had to go, and asked for something to read. We had a Book of Mormon but he said he wanted something short to read haha. We didn't have any pamphlets on us, so I asked him if we could come back the next day and drop them off. He said that's fine. So the next day we come back and he is outside shoveling snow, and as he does that we talk to him again for about 20 minutes (it was freeeezing and snowing Wednesday, I felt like I was literally going to freeze solid) So out of nowhere he invited us in, which was sweet and warmer of course. We spent the next 1 and a half hours talking about the Book of Mormon and some of our beliefs in the church. He had a lot of weird, random questions like "I heard Jesus had siblings" and stuff like that. Turns out he doesn't know if God is really there or if Christ really was a person. Just hit me how many people in the world fall under that category. How sad! So we committed him to read the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets. He asked us for the address to the chapel for Sunday but he didn't show up. I really feel he is prepared though, because he has so many basic questions about God and why we are here. I am excited to work with him this week.

So tranfers are here and I am staying in the West, but Elder Walker is headed out. Elder Nielsen will be my new comp. He is from Utah, and has been out 6 weeks less than me. Should be a fun time with 2 semi-new missionaries trying to speak Spanish! haha it'll be a challenge but that means I will grow even more!

I love you all and hope you have a fun safe week back to school!

Les quiero mucho!! Tu hermano Elder Draper

I received an email with these pictures today:

Hi my name is Gerardo I am a friend of Elder Draper. He asked me to send these pictures to you...Elder Draper is doing excellent in the mission and we are enjoy every moment we are together. Thanks for having a son like ELDER DRAPER.