Calgary Chinatown

There are a few Mandarin Chinese speaking elders in his mission. Calgary has 4th largest Chinatown district in Canada so there must be a lot of members mingled throughout this part.

Who wouldn't want to eat here?!

Talking a little walking tour of this part of the city...

This week is transfers so Ryan will email us on Tuesday to let us know where whether he'll be staying or moving on to a new area.

Two months and a day until our Christmas call!

Here's a few older pictures that were on his SD card...

Elder Draper and the Spanish Zone
Elder Draper with Elder Rios, Juan and Elder Rudd
Random shots of Calgary
We don't see trees this color in California
Beautiful double rainbow
Visiting the church book store in Cardston on their September trip to the temple
Looks like life is good!

Good Morning!

Another amazing week in the books. The time is going by so fast! Yes hopefully you can tell by the SD card that I am still Ryan haha. Life is going great and I cannot complain. Today is shopping day - grocery shopping first then off to the Chinook Mall to hang out. We always finish off pday with some hoops so should be good. Sounds like you all had a great week as well. Tell Rachel congrats about getting her braces off. We are excited for the holidays too and already have the Christmas CD's playing in our car. I can't believe our phone call is already two months away, it seems like it will be the last one because the Mother's Day call will be two weeks before I get home...I don't know what I will have to say!

Good job dad! Glad to hear your talk went well in the Spanish ward Sunday. We should totally be speaking companions when I get back! That would be so much fun to do that in a different language together. Yeah Spanish wards are so much more relaxed and laid back I think. Especially here in the branch because the attendance is pretty low. I want to go to a Spanish ward like 1 every month or so just to keep up my Spanish. I really have no idea what is going to happen at transfers next week. I could see myself going to the Foothills Stake with Elder Brandon, with him becoming the 2nd zone leader. We will see I guess.

Yesterday was great, both of our investigators who are getting baptized next Sunday showed up to church so that was huge! This past week was pretty solid too. Rosi and Amalia are progressing well and are all still set to be baptized! They came to all 3 hours really enjoyed it. Rosi has stopped drinking coffee after having 2 or 3 daily, pretty sweet miracle. The Spanish North elders taught a man named Alex this past week, and he is working towards baptism for the 6th of November. The best part is that he is moving downtown this week...our area! On Monday we challenged Sis. Amaya to find us somebody to teach within 7 days, and she found somebody after 3 days! It is a Colombian lady and her husband with 2 small children. We are teaching them tonight for the first time! I have never seen a more successful member missionary than Sis. Amaya. She knows how to do work. This week we met a bunch of Spanish families that have agreed to hear our message, so we really excited to just bust open this area this week. Luisa is seeing some opposition from her husband, but she is still very close to accepting a date for baptism.

Not much else to report on. The weather is really nice for this time of year, but of course it is already too cold for me. This time last year was freezing and snowing so at least it is better second time around. Hopefully this means that we have a short winter. I just sent some more pictures but I think they'll take a while to get to your box. Well I gotta log off mom but I love you and thanks for all that you do! You are amazing and I can't wait to talk to you!

I love you all and pray for you every day! Take care!!

Con amor E. Draper

Greenie prank

Welcome to Calgary Elder Rios!

Pretty picture of what the storm unleashed - looks like Cafe Rio ice cubes :)
Crazy Calgary weather! Not the kind of picture I really like seeing but happy they avoided crashing into the car that skidded out in front of them.
The story behind this picture is shown in the video below...

NBA or Church Ball?

I choose this!

Monday October 17, 2011

Hello hello!

To answer your first question, this week was definitely a 10!! The quick news is that we have 2 baptisms scheduled so far for the 30th of October!! Amalia is the first one...we went by on Tuesday and showed her the movie On The Way Home. It is about a little girl that dies and the family takes the missionary lessons and is baptized. At the end of the movie she said she really liked it. We asked her what she felt like God wanted her to do based on the movie, and she started going off about praying and reading the scriptures, etc., which is true, but not quite the answer we were looking for. I told her that He wants her to come back to Him, and the only way you can do that is...then she cuts me off and says "baptism, yes I know and I will do that very soon". She started talking about work and how she can't get Sundays off, etc. Right then I ask her if she believes that God answers her prayers. She said yes, and we committed her to kneel down right there and pray and ask specifically if God wants her baptized on the 30th. She was all for it so we all knelt down. She didn't say anything for like a minute, and we all look up and it is obvious that she saying a silent prayer. Her son and daughter and law wanted to tell her something, but we motioned to them to let her continue to pray. After 8 minutes on our knees (I was counting), she looks up and says "ok". We sit down and ask her "Well what did He say?" She says that the answer was yes! Then we made sure by inviting her for the 30th, and she accepted! It was one of the most powerful experiences of my mission.

Then the next day we taught a lady named Rosi from Mexico. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her and it was amazing to see the power of the Spirit and the Book of Mormon working on her. We talked about what it says in the chapter, the authority to baptize, the way to perform it, and the doctrine of Christ. All we did was asked her what she thought she needed to do, and she said "I need to get baptized I guess". So we invite her and she accepts for the 30th of October! I'd be thankful with those but no, yet another miracle: It was about 8 PM on Wednesday and I did not like the plans we had made to finish off the night. We felt like going by this one potential investigator instead, Luisa. So we go by at about 8:30 pm. She has never let us in her home, but we have talked to her on the doorstep a few times. She opens the door crying and lets us in. After about 3 minutes of siting in silence, she says that she is sick and has problems with her health and the doctors have no idea what it is. She was scared that it is cancer, and between the fear and the pain she was having one of the worst days of her life. Well, it is apparent that the Lord wanted us here at this time, and she said she normally would not have opened the door, and her husband actually told her not too, but she felt like she needed to do it. We talked about the priesthood and offered her a blessing. We explained how blessing have two parts, and we asked her who she would like to do each part. She looks over at her husband and asks him to give it. Of course he said he has no idea how because he does not hold the priesthood, so we did it. The blessing said according to your faith you will be completely healed, so we are still trying to help her show more faith (by accepting baptism). They have a 9 year old boy too so we are really pushing to get them baptized on the 30th as well.

On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Brandon to the Foothills stake. They had an appt with a 9 year old investigator down in High River, about 45 minutes south of Calgary. The appt was not confirmed, so he did not really want to head down there, but I felt like it needed to be done. So we get down there and he is by himself so we can't go inside the house. We get back to the car and decide to go by a Spanish speaking member there, just so we don't waste this long trip. We are driving over and I spot a Latino man walking down the street, and I felt this strong urge to talk to him, but we continue on. We pull up to the house of the member and right then this member happens to call us asking about this 9 year old boy and how he is progressing. Well during the conversation we find out that he does not live at the house we are parked out front of anymore. Just as he explains that, we see this same Latino man that was walking down the street enter into this house where the member used to live!! We recognize that as a sign and go knock the door. This man answers the door and lets us in right on the spot. His name is Marvin and he is from Guatemala, been here four years without his family. We teach him lesson 1 and he recognizes the Spirit and how good he feels, and he accepts to be baptized on the 30th of October! The Lord guided us 45 minutes out of the city to rescue one of his children. My testimony of following through on my inspiration has been strengthened so much, because that is usually the Spirit. The whole zone is doing great and seeing lots of miracles!

Yes I got your letter and the SC cards, thank you!!! Today we are making tortillas! Did I send you that recipe from Sis. Salazar? We tried it yesterday and they turned out amazing, so we are going to make a ton today. Then we'll just play basketball as usual. I sent my sd card a few days ago, so it should arrive this week, you will have plenty o pictures off that so I don't have any today. Thanks for your love and support, it really pumps me up and gets me excited to get back to work!

We usually hold English classes twice a week, and we kind of rotate teaching it. ISO 7X is working very good actually, I love it. I am still right at 160 lbs, I feel very lucky haha. Once I am home I will put on a little more weight, but I don't want to do that here ha.

I better head off mom but I love you! Life is great! The gospel is true! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

I miss you and love you!!

Elder Draper

Tuesday October 11, 2011

Hats off to the chef!

Thanksgiving Day breakfast - Huevos Rancheros with members

Helloooo!

Yesterday was the Great Day of Thanks and pday so today we only have time off to email then back to work. I'm late because this morning I had DDMS and after emailing I have to stay here for another hour and type up the district comment sheets and send them in to the AP's. Then I have to go give a training to Elder Brandon, then we have to go back home and finish our 2 hour comp study. Then dinner, then we have to teach English class at the chapel. We teach everyone and anyone. There's just a sign out front so anyone can come and hopefully we get some new investigators from it. Busy day. Yes I have sent pictures today already and we will get a new zone picture taken soon.

Let's see, Canadian Thanksgiving...it is not the same as the US Thanksgiving but we had a great day. In the morning we went over to the Pavon family and they made us Huevos Rancheros! Tortilla with fried egg and salsa. I love it! Then we just played basketball all day, and for dinner we went to the Jaco family and they gave us turkey el salvadoranian style with rice...pretty good. Yeah the order of the holidays really throws me off, Thanksgiving before Halloween haha.

So Grandpa B? Oh yes I have a couple stories of Grandpa B back from my first transfer, you will hear about them later don't worry. Congratulations Blake!!! Welcome to Provo! I am so happy that we will be there together, it'll be great. Maybe dad will buy us some real estate there haha. That will be fun for you to move south for the winter. Yeah I got your package before last Monday, because I go to the office on Fridays to pick up the mail, so sorry I didn't know I was supposed to take pics. The blanket is amazing and the socks too! Thanks so much! Everything was perfect! Alexa helped me recognize that it is a blessing for me that the NBA is on lockout because I am not missing any more basketball so I am pulling for it to continue...sorry!!

So this week was pretty crazy of course. We are having the hardest time getting in with our investigators! But it is not affecting our faith. We still expect to baptize 10 people this month, and we don't have anybody on date. The coolest miracle happened though! I don't know how much of this story you know, but we have an investigator, Amalia, who we have been teaching, but she has had a hard time focusing because she is so worried about her husband, who is in very bad health conditions. Well the last few weeks we have actually been praying that he would pass away (I know that sounds bad) because 1 he has been suffering so much and 2 Amalia would be more accepting of the gospel. Well last Saturday her husband passed away, and we sang in the funeral. We did not talk to her for a few days after. Then 2 days ago we felt inspired to go to church a little early. A woman walks up to us and says "Are you the elders from our ward?" We said no we are the Spanish missionaries. She says "Oh even better, there is a Spanish investigator here". All of a sudden Amalia with her member son and daughter in law walk out of the chapel!!! She showed up to church for the first time ever!!! They had visited the English sacrament meeting before, and we ended up teaching her right there for gospel principles class. We have an appointment tomorrow with her and she is totally going to be baptized! In the lesson on Sunday we told her that she has to be baptized to be able to live with her husband forever, and we know her heart is now ready :) We met a lot of new Spanish people this week and have lessons set up, so the stage is set. We are going to go out with the Spirit and help them get back to Christ.

Another amazing talk I have been studying is Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by Elder Gene R. Cook. It is incredible. I thought I understood the principle of faith before, but no way Jose. I recommend reading this talk! Life is going great and I am so happy. The Lord is blessing us so much and there is no way I could return the favor to Him. It's scary I only have 5 transfers after this one! This last chunk of the mission is going to be the most rewarding part, I can feel it.

Thanks so much for your love and prayers!! I miss you all and hope you have a great week!! Love Elder Draper

Monday October 10 - Canada celebrates Thanksgiving

We have to wait one more day for an email....stay tuned!

Missionaries are a treasure of the Church - Elder Yamashita

Elder Yamashita shared a message with the missionaries currently serving around the world. "Your attitudes and the love that you show toward others are very significant messages. ... Your message is a message of love, a message of hope, and a message of faith. Your attitude and your actions invite the Spirit, and the Spirit enables us to understand the things that are important. What I want to convey to you is that through your love, you are imparting the love of God."

"Grandma is that a real missionary?" I loved that talk by Brother Matthew O. Richardson, "Teaching after the manner of the Spirit"

A picture of the Bow River and Downtown Calgary with the leaves changing. Fall has arrived in Canada!

Me and Grandpa B - the most interesting man in the world!

Hello!

Well thanks Mom for your kind words that you shared with me. I felt the Spirit strong and I am grateful that we have both been able to grow closer and strengthen our testimonies. It is a pretty strange concept to understand, but I feel like my relationship with my loved ones has grown so much stronger as I have been away from you all! I feel so close to all of you and can't wait to be able spend time again together! The mission is so inspired and I loved what somebody said in conference that the blessings of missionary service continue into the eternities...wow I love that promise! 

Everything is great here, just getting cold. Today we are going to the Chinook Mall which is one of the nicer malls here like South Coast Plaza to buy a few winter things. Then we'll head to the chapel to hoop it up. I have a few pictures for you but the lighting is not that great.

Conference was incredible! My questions were answered just like all of you! I was telling President the two things I got most out of conference was to center my teachings on Christ more, and to let the investigators feel of my love for them. I have this untrue preconceived notion that the Latin people, because they have such a firm belief in Christ, do not need to hear as much about Him as others. The Spirit told me pretty clearly that that is false haha. That should actually give me a bigger reason to focus on Christ as I teach them, because that is what they already relate to so well. They all say that they want to follow Christ and have "found Him", so if I show them that this message is about Christ, it will really show if they actually have a desire to follow Him, if that makes sense. I tried it out yesterday on this man from Venezuela. He said Christ is in his heart and he was actually headed off to Mass with his family, and as we testified that this gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, he still shot it down. Tells me he is not really a true follower, if he won't agree to grow closer to Christ. Also I feel like I love my investigators, but I am going to focus on showing that more, really get to know them, befriend them, and show an interest in their personal lives too. Hopefully that will help me be able to help others more effectively. 

Elder Dutson and I are doing great and working hard. The weather definitely toook a turn for the worst this week, so it looks like the cold is coming! I was looking through my journal and it looks like the first snow was October 18th last year. So a continuation to that miracle from last week! (About that door we knocked). So we went by a member family last night, the Jaco family, and we shared this miracle with them too. Sis. Jaco started crying and everybody else's jaws dropped and we were confused...it turns out that the Jaco family is very good friends with this family we met and have been thinking about inviting them all week long!!! Sis. Jaco recognized that the Lord is moving the pieces in this situation, so she called up Judith right there in front of us and set up a dinner and lesson with us for this Saturday! That is member missionary work right there. Then Bro. Jaco got on the phone and invited a different family over next Monday to listen to our message! Then, for dinner right before we were with the Pavons, and they are inviting another family over to meet us on Sunday! So yesterday alone we were able to help set up lessons for 3 different familes! There is a total of 8 possible baptisms between these 3 families! We are super excited and feel so blessed that the Lord has made this possible and slowly but surely prepared these people. It should be a fun week! We also got a call from the North elders who taught a mexican lady, Rosi, who actually lives in our area! We have soooo many investigators right now, so hopefully we can do our part and help them into the waters of baptism. They are solid so we are praying there should be lots of harvesting this month.

Basically, life is really great right now haha. We are seeing a ton of opposition, but that is what happens when you are doing the right thing. Thanks for all of you love and support, and I look foward to hearing from you next week!! Have fun and be safe!!!

Blake, sounds like you had a fun time chillin with your Provo friends! I'm glad you were able to go down there. Yes conference was amazing! Seriously I think that is the biggest thing about conference for me, it just motivates me to be better and reminds me of my covenants that I have made to be obedient, serve, etc. I was totally thinking about you during all of those talks that were focused on the future missionaries...you are getting pretty close to the best 2 years of your life! Just think, Heavenly Father already knows where you are going to serve, so He is preparing your future companions and investigators right now to so they are ready to cross paths with you within the next year. You are going to be a stud missionary Blake. I will keep prayin for you and I hope you have a sweet week!! Love ya!