Tuesday February 22, 2011

Cochrane is the second largest town in Alberta and about 20 minutes from Calgary

This was my Valentine Day dinner, looks like the shrimp is staring right at me

Hello family!! Wow I was hoping Trevor would come up to Canada to our mission but that is exciting to hear! Yeah I remember driving through that area around Mount Rushmore for sure. Blake told me about the season, that's too bad but now he can focus on college!

Well today is transfers but I am staying here in the west! Elder Nielsen is leaving and another Elder Walker is coming over. He is from St. George and is a super fun missionary, great guy. I should get your package today when we see our zone leaders.

Yeah this week has been super super rough on me, in all aspects. To start I just want to thank all of you that joined in the fast for Oscar. The sad thing is, the next day on Thursday, he dropped us completely. He talked to his wife, and turns out she is not as prepared as we thought and she talked him out of baptism. He even told us that he felt good about it, had lots of good feelings, but continued to say he is not ready and that we "pressured him". We were very bold and told him he is denying revelation from God and he might not have this opportunity again. He told us to only visit once a month now. I feel bad I could not come back and report some success for the fast though. I can promise that the blessing for the fast will come some day. That's one important thing I have learned is that blessings can come later. I absolutely don't like that because I can't see into the future, but I know the blessing will always come. And also this week I have just been super super sick and not feeling well. It has made me really sad and stuff, but it's a new week and I am ready to do work!

We had a really special opportunity along with another 20 English Elders to visit with Elder Brimhall a member of the Seventy! He came to the west stake conference, and after met with all the missionaries in the west! It was so cool to have an upclose encounter with a general authority! He talked to us about our call letter and how when we sent back our acceptance, we entered into a covenant with the Prophet of the living God to do everything that the letter says. Woah that made me feel pretty bad haha, I can definitely improve on that.

Juan Carlos is doing so great! He had his first interview with the Bishop on Sunday. He is receiving the Aaronic priesthood this Sunday and he is going to the temple on March 5!! How exciting! I think we will be going as well, so I am so stoked about that! I love you all!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Draper

Baby Steps

This is too cute not to post!

Monday February 14, 2011

Coca Cola + tamales = run, and not be weary, walk and not faint

Here is a little update on the Calgary Temple! They have the basement built along the other side, I imagine that is the baptismal font. They just started building up this week. Looking good!

Well, I woke up this morning still thinking it was January, but it is already half way through Febrero. CRAZY! So anyways we had a really fun week. Juan Carlos is doing so awesome! Such a solid member. He is preparing to receive the Aaronic priesthood and off to a good start. Yesterday at church we helped him pay his first tithing. He was so excited to do that and it was a really neat thing to see. He wants the missionaries to visit his 3 kids in Mexico, so we got their address and sent that referral in. With every baptism comes lots and lots of referrals!

Tuesday we had Zone conference, the theme was the atonement and obedience. It was really good. We got to listen to this talk by Elder Holland that is not published...which means he says whatever he wants haha. It was super intense and super spiritual. The quote that stuck out to me was when he said "The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane." He applied that to us as missionaries and even to our normal non-missionary life. Salvation was never cheap...it wasn't for the Savior, and it isn't for us. It is not going to be a walk in the park to help people be baptized, something I didn't realize. I figured it is the Lord's work so it will be pretty chill. But, as Elder Holland said, we have to go through our own "atonement" so to speak, obviously not to the degree as Christ did. And then for us personally, it is not easy to make the celestial kingdom. There is so much to do, and it is going to be tough, but it is something we can do. So that was a pretty cool conference for me.

But the big exciting news is that we set a baptismal date with Oscar! We had an appointment with him and his wife last night, but she was sick so she did not sit in on the lesson. We planned on teaching the restoration, but he had other needs that we ended up focusing on. He again talked about how scared he is losing his job, and we told him that if we put God first and do His will, He will provide for us in all aspects of our life. He then started saying how he wants to "make a contract with God". He said he wants to do something for Him and in return wants blessings. Uhhh isn't that what baptism is? The answer is yes, and so we talked about the baptismal covenant, and extending him the 27th of February, and he agreed to set that goal! But we have a LOT of work to do the next 2 weeks to get him ready for that. First off we want his wife to be baptized that day too and we think she will...she is way more interested than him. He has a lot of doubts still and is always worried about work, so Elder Nielsen and I are going to be fasting for him and his wife this Wednesday the 16th. Anyone who would like to participate is welcome to and I really thank you. I know it might be weird fasting for someone you don't know but I feel like all of you are my missionary companions and I know you can make a difference for the Gonzalez family, not to mention you will be blessed for it. If you can't no worries, but I just wanted to invite you all because you are the best! He really is a special guy and we know through revelation that the Lord wants him and his wife baptized the 27th, so now it is up to us to do everything we can to prepare him and his wife for this date.

The email system is really bad and slow! All of the missionaries use it and most missionaries in the world have pday on Mondays, so that is why it takes forever! We have plans to run back to the library tomorrow to make a paper so I will jump on and see if your email is there. Dad's email just came in so everything is just really slow. It will be transfer week so my pday will be Tuesday I think...I love you mom! Thank you for everything!

I love you ALL so much, and hope you have a fun Valentine's Day and a good week :)

Elder Draper

Monday February 7, 2011

These pictures arrived in my inbox at 5:00 pm today nearly 6 hours after his email arrived. Funny how long it takes these large files to cross the cold Canadian border and make their way to sunny southern California. A little late but worth the wait!

Two big thumbs up for a baptism today!

Juan Carlos and Elder D!

Ryan's companion Elder Nielson performed the confirmation

The District - not sure all the missionaries names but I'll ask him to name them all next Monday

The group with Brother Lopez the ward mission leader

First picture is their best Rocky Balboa impression...then a Kodak moment smile

YEAH BLAKE!!! Congrats on Idaho man! Yeah I saw that Tyler Haws Mormon Message last week, that was super cool. He is a workaholic and luckily I am starting to develop that same fire here. Send anything that fits in the package! Kobe 6's are looking so fly! Just sayin. I don't have any requests in particular though but thanks!

SO yeah Juan Carlos Montiel Sanchez is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!! Can you believe that we first taught him 13 days ago and he is already a member and is going to be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood soon? What a miracle I have witnessed the last 2 weeks. I am just so grateful for all of these amazing experiences I am having, moments I will never forget. When I was at BYU last year I took this Living Prophets class and everyone was returned missionaries basically except me. They would raise their hand and be like "Well I remember I had this sweet experience in the jungle of Brazil on my mission..." Now I have stories like that. So exciting! Juan Carlos asked me to perform the ordinance of baptism, which was a sweet experience. You remember his finger almost was chopped off in a work accident? So I bought a white trash bag and white duct tape and put it over his arm so it would not get wet. We get in the freezing cold water (the font heater is awful in our stake center I guess) and I do everything right for once haha. Name and prayer just fine, but when I dunk him, he sticks the bad arm up in the air so we had to do it over again. Second time went perfect, and I had to push him down all the way to the floor so his arm would get under, because he could not bend it very well he tells me after. Then Elder Nielsen gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. Such a neat day for me, and President and Sister Archibald were there to see it!

Juan Carlos (Rocky Balboa) is the man! He is such a great example to me of trying to become better, being honest and straight up real, and trying to follow Jesus Christ. Seriously, all 4 people I have helped be baptized are better people than me. Better Christians and better everything. Yes I am teaching them the gospel and the logistics about the church, but all these people are teaching ME how to live the gospel. I have it all in my head just fine, even in another language, but what I need to work on is actually living what I teach. These people are such great examples to me, they have gone through so much in their lives and are still hanging in there. My life has been pretty basic and without problems, and I still have my doubts and complaints etc. I am so grateful for this mission and everything I have learned. They say that the first year of the mission you are just a sponge and absorb everything, then in year 2 you go out and apply everything and baptize the heck out of the people in your area haha. I have learned my weaknesses the last casi 9 months, and now it's time to make them strengths, with the help of the Atonement :)

Well how is that for an epiphany? Haha just to make it clear I am not a vile sinner. Just trying to be humble and honest I guess. I love you all so much and I really pray for you individually. I saw the movie The Best Two Years before my mission and laughed at the fact the he prays for like 30 minutes, but now I am here and almost doing that! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Draper