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
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