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