Monday May 2, 2011

Juan Carlos made me a cake too!

Me and my boy Rocky!

Hugo watching me cut the cake...after giving me a face plant in it!

Too full to have my cake and eat it too!

Ok here are some pictures today as promised! We ate tacos al pastor, which is my favorite mexican dish. They made me do "la mordida" which is smashing your face into the cake (the after effects are here, but there is a video of it too!) It was a great party and I really felt loved, which made me happy :)

I don't feel any different about being 20! I feel mature enough to have my own life and everything, but at the same time I feel like a kid still. Yeah the party was awesome! Great food mostly, tacos al pastor. Please look that up and learn how to make them :) The rest of the day was pretty usual, just studied in the morning then we had a specialized training from 1-4. It was about focusing on baptism and authority while teaching the first lesson, because in this mission we have a rule that we have to invite them to be baptized in every lesson, or it isn't a lesson. President sees that people are freaking out about the baptismal invitation because we aren't talking about it enough during the lesson, makes perfect sense. He made Elder Galloway and I get up in front of 3 zones and teach lesson 1, yes in English so that was tough for me believe it or not. I forget a lot of the of gospel words in English. Then we had dinner at the Fraires, then Rocky had made food and cake for us, so I gained about 10 pounds that night. It was a great birthday and your package made it that much better so thank you!!!

Alright so we will be doing the calls at night. Elder Galloway's family is calling at 7:00 PM mountain so you will call me at 8:00 PM mountain, which would be 7 PM in Cali. Same thing, 40 minutes, etc. Should be great! I am really looking forward to it! Thanks for going to my favorite place on my birthday, without me! Haha I was with you in spirit. Thank you all for your prayers I feel 100% back to normal, I am healthy (but out of shape...ouch). I am so excited for this summer and getting out in the sun while talking to people about Jesus Christ of course :)

Teaching, not so good this week. Didn't have any investigator lessons, so that is why we won't have anybody ready for baptism on Mother's Day. We did have one sweet miracle: On Saturday we went by Rocky's neighbor, the Cisnero's in our ward, to drop off some plates from dinner a couple nights before. I had the strongest prompting that we need to knock on the house that Rocky lives in (he lives in the basement, above him is a family from Sri Lanka who I have met once). But I didn't say anything, and we continued working. Well, it haunted me all day long so finally on the way home for the night I told Elder Galloway we had to knock this door or I will be condemned haha. So we knocked on it, and the Sri Lanka woman answers, and accepts a return appointment for the next day to hear our message! We went back the next day before church and teach them the restoration. It was great practice for me because their English is really poor, so we taught as if we were teaching a 10 year old. They didn't accept a baptismal date, but we got another appt and will pass them off to the sisters who cover that area, since this family isn't Spanish. But it was just the miracle I had been praying for my whole mission. You hear the stories and people feeling prompted to knock a certain door, well I had my first experience like that this week. With 2 tough weeks behind us, something amazing is due to happen, and we are gonna just do work and make things happen!

I love you all so much! Have a great week! Call me Sunday at 7 your time!

Love Elder Draper