Last pictures from the Spanish Zone

Today I didn't wait all morning by my computer, checking for my usual email...but I was happy to go shopping in local Mexican markets for the most authentic Mexican foods and spices with Ryan! It's so great to have him home but I do miss reading his emails and seeing pictures like these: 

 Ryan being silly teaching his "son" Elder Dutson by the waters edge in Banff...

 Teaching his first son Elder Rios too ;)

 Hike in Banff

 First companions, last days in the mission

 With Elder Dutson from Utah, together 2 transfers and his son (Ryan trained him)

 With Elder Rios from Arizona, together 2 transfers and his son (Ryan trained him)

 With Elder Brandon from California, together 3 transfers 

 With Elder Davies from Utah, his MTC companion

 With Elder Rodriguez from Spain - together one transfer

 Ryan's last drive past the view of downtown Calgary

 He loved this city....

and he loved his mission!

Last video from Canada

The morning of May 31, 2012 before leaving for the airport to come home!

These have been the best two years!

A quick note from this proud & extremely blessed Missionary Mom: 

I don't think Ryan sent any pictures today (I found this one posted on his Facebook yesterday) but I'll post all the pictures of his homecoming at the airport after he returns. We have so many mixed emotions but the strongest feeling I have is an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the safe return of our son and the opportunity to soon meet the new and improved Ryan. We know that the Lord has tried, shaped and molded his character, testimony and spirit in ways it never could have grown had he not served this mission. It's impossible for our hearts to be more full of thanks for the blessings his mission have brought to each member of our family. Undeniably we are all better from this 2 year adventure and eternally grateful to have been a small part of this greatly inspired and miraculous thing called "a mission". 

“And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” D&C 42:6

Thanks for taking the time to check in and read his emails but mostly for writing and your loving support to Ryan. Next up Blake! 

With loving thanks, 
Teri
Missionary Mom to Elder Ryan Draper, Canada Calgary Mission 5/2010-5/2012
Missionary mom to Elder Blake Draper, El Savador/Belize Mission 8/2012-8/2014

Dear Family,

Has it seriously been 2 years? I honestly feel like it has been a dream to me, all of the experiences seem to be in random spots in my brain. Experiences I had long forgotten about have been flooding into my mind the last week. It has made me so grateful for my Father in Heaven and His infinite love and mercy and patience with me. The most cliche line in the Church is 100% true: These have been the best 2 years! The Lord has stretched me beyond what I thought I could do, and has taught me how to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that will be the big question in the next few weeks, "So what did you learn on your mission?" Obviously it is a ton of things, from how to receive revelation, how to love others, the importance of service, etc. I have been thinking about it, and it all goes back to the one and only true doctrine, the doctrine of Christ. I have learned how to apply those basic principles and ordinances of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That has become the foundation of my life. When the trials and trouble come, I will have my foundation built on this doctrine, and I can feel confident that everything will be ok. I could never stop thanking Heavenly Father for this honor of representing His Son for 2 years. I wish I could continue in this calling forever. President sent me a very nice email that made me feel so warm inside. He said "You have served with distinction in the program and the Lord is smiling at your service just as I am." I have never felt more inadequate or unable to do something than I have felt while serving the Lord. It is a big responsibility. Yet, the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes all things possible. I know He is the Savior of us all.

Well the rest of the day should be lots of fun! I am going to get my haircut, then we are all going to Rocky's house to eat and get in our last few hours of fun! I want stop by a few other members as well so they can sign your quilt. Tomorrow is it! In the morning we will go to the transfer station, then the whole day I will be in the mission home. Not too sure what happens there but I think they give you a nice dinner, then the fireside at 7:00. All the members have been so loving to me and have committed to come to it, so I am excited. Then we wake up bright and early for the airport, yes 3:00 am! Oh don't worry I will let you know if there are changes or delays to my flight. 

I love you all! I am so grateful that Father in heaven has kept you safe and blessed you, it has helped me so much here. Well hope you enjoy seeing DAUGHTRY without me haha, and I will see you all in 2 days!!! Goodnight, Canada.

Con amor,

Elder Draper

Nueve Dias Mas!!!

 Awesome missionaries - Elder Rodriquez, Draper, Dutson and Rios

 Rocky drove the whole Spanish Zone to Banff - he's a champ!

 The three amigos - Joey, Ryan and Josh! These three are very close and since I'm friends with both of their families I can call them by their first names now ;)

 Looks like Ryan beat everyone up the hill on their hike

He just looks so happy and so are we! 9 more days!

                          Climbing the mountain!

                                Happy hikers!

                          Hope the log can hold them all

One of the prettiest pictures of Lake Louise in the back ground

Oh my gosh!!! I finally woke up from my dream this week and realized that I am going home. On Saturday my first ward I served in here (Crescent View Ward) had an activity and we had a few potential investigators go, so we got to go to. It was a good chance to see all of the members up there for the last time, and that is when it hit me when everybody was saying, "well I'll talk to you on Facebook next week." Ugh so hard! I have mixed feelings at different times of the day. Some times I get sad and want to ask for a 2 year extension, and other times I think I'm ready to get the rest of my life going. So, to answer your question, it's a mix of everything. I would have liked to end with a couple baptisms, but looks like it won't turn out that way. Victor turned pretty cold. We finally got in with him this past week, and planned a super bold, serious lesson. He knows God's will and has received strong witnesses from the Spirit, so we read with him what the consequences are when we know God's will and don't do it. We are subject to our free will but those are eternal consequences. We gave him one last shot to be baptized this Sunday, if not we are dropping him.

Today we had my LAST district meeting, then we ate at Dennys, then I had to help a member translate at the church employment center, but now I'm finally at the library so I'm a little late today...yeah I'm glad you got my package with the goods in it. So we had a couple of cool miracles this week. There is this lady that lives with a member and has not wanted to meet with us at all. She came to the activity two weeks ago and so we went by the member to ask her what she thought about the activity. After leaving the house, we felt like we needed to walk around the neighborhood, and about 10 minutes later we run into this lady, Marta! We talked to her in the street and she accepted to meet with us. So cool! Then we got a random call from the English missionaries down in High River and they tracted into a Spanish lady and set up an appointment with her for us tomorrow!

Our Spanish Zone road trip to Banff was super fun with Rocky. We did one hike in Canmore and another in Banff. I want to come back and visit after the mission for sure. That was some of the highlights of the week. That is great that they changed my flight plans back to the original time, see you 2 hours sooner! In the prom pictures Rachel looks so much older. I think she has changed the most during my mission, so please Rachel don't be freaked out if you get a weird look from me at the airport haha. It's just that you are as tall as me and look like you are my age too ;) Yeah that would be nice to change into normal clothes after getting released, unless I don't have any clothes there, I don't remember what I left behind. Maybe Blake and I can trade?? Well my last email as a missionary will be next Tuesday because of transfers and then it's off to the mission home for me...wow, it's hard to believe. It has gone by wayy too fast. I've had so many incredible experiences that have strengthened my testimony and my resolve to follow Jesus Christ.  I have a couple scriptures that mean a lot to me because of the mission, but I will share just a fun one now. Deuteronomy 8:2-3, replacing the words "wilderness, 40 years, and manna" with "Calgary, 2 years, and Spanish food". Check it out :)


Love you all so much, and I'll see you next week!!!!!!!


Elder Draper

Day after Mother's Day call

 The Mexican tradition of everyone pushing your face in your birthday cake "Mordida!"

Balloons for the birthday boy!

 Ward Mothers Day Activity with Elder Dutson and Elder Rios

The comedian and Ryan having some laughs


That was a great phone call!! I hope my family is still crazy like that because that is the way I like it! Haha it was fun to hear you all and even more exciting to know that we can continue talking in a couple weeks! The Mother's Day dinner at the Morales home was great as usual, they had some non members there with them so we got to talk to them a bit. They made liver tacos, and it was alright ha. I think I like tacos de cabeza better. Yeah my hair is pretty long right now for a missionary, so hopefully it lasts another 2 weeks, then I will go into a salon for sure before coming home. (I asked Ryan to skip buzzing his own head for his homecoming!) Yeah anybody is welcome at the airport like I said. Yes taking a drive down the coast sounds great to me! I think that first day I am just going to want to talk to everybody and catch up, you know? That would be a good way to do that. We can eat where ever as well, whatever you want. But other than that, I think everything is ready to go! I think we should come up here after General Conference for the dedication of the temple. I'd love that, just sayin. Next Monday is Victoria Day, so I will be emailing Tuesday. We can plan more stuff if we need to. 


This week as far as teaching investigators was non existent. Victor pretty much wants to make this decision on his own. He avoids talking about the gospel and baptism with us. I don't know why he is so scared of his family and friends. He has received such a strong witness of the gospel. All we can do is fast and pray and support him. We will do everything we can to get him baptized this month. Saturday night we had the ward Mothers Day activity and that was super fun. They hired a Mexican comedian and he had some pretty funny jokes, I sent a picture of me and him. Like I said a ton of non members came so hopefully we can see some action with that. Well next week Rocky is taking us to Banff!! I am wayyy excited! I will be taking lots of pictures for sure. That is all I got to say for this week since we already talked about everything else on Sunday. Next time I email I have faith we are going to have some baptisms lined up! 


I love you all and hope you have a great week!


Elder Draper

Countdown continues...

Down to 3 weeks!

I love that the Lord gives you major trials and challenges at what we think is the end of all our worries. Victor did not get baptized this week. His family in Peru still does not know and he is scared to make this commitment and then go back and break the commandments he will promise to obey. In a way he is right, but we can't let other influence our duty to do God's will. He is going to talk to his family in Peru this Saturday, which we are trying to convince him not to do, because it could lead to him not wanting to be baptized ever. It's tough, but we fasted for him this week and are praying for him and doing everything we can to push the influences of Satan and fear out of his life. He is good kid with a good heart so I know it will be ok. So that has been tough on us this week, but we are still chugging along. We are having a hard time setting up appointments with the couple of families that we are teaching. It's ok though, because this week we found a couple new families to teach and hopefully that process starts this week. 

On Tuesday I had my last zone conference, and Elder Melchin, the area authority, presided. It was really neat. I got picked to share a short talk on sacrifice and then since it was my last conference, I got to go up and share my departing testimony. I felt more comfortable doing it in Spanish, so I did. I also got the birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa with the money, so please tell them thank you! Really that was all the highlights from this week. Every single member we visit has to give me advice about going home, even though the majority of them never even served missions haha. It is so crazy how fast it has gone by. Yes I got the package you sent, thank you! I especially liked the card...new car? Haha jk. It is very difficult to gather my thoughts and put into words what I have learned on the mission, because they are so many amazing things. Where do I even start? I will put more though to it and see what I feel inspired to come up with. 

Well this next week should be a great week, I'm excited. All I know is that this is God's work, and He is leading us right along. I just want to be affiliated with missionary work for the rest of my life!! It has strengthed my testimony so much, and I know there is so much more to learn! 

Did you ever get the pictures I sent last week? I don't know why the server is so slow lately and not sending. What time would be best for you to call 11:00 or 4:00? Elder Rodriguez is calling in the morning and is not quite sure about the time difference in Spain so if you called at 4 Calgary time that would be the safest bet. We will leave church at 3:30 and will be home and waiting at 4:00. We have dinner at the Morales later so it'll work out great!

I love you all!!! Talk to you on Sunday!!!

Elder Draper

Happy May!

Happy May!

Well as I type this out I am still trying to get tres leches cake blown out of my nose from yesterday haha! The Morales family invited us over for a big barbecue with the Pavon family and Pompa family. It was a ton of fun and yes I got to do the famous Latin "mordida", and so my face kinda smells like cake still. It was a weekend full of food and cake haha. On Saturday we went to the Bacas, to celebrate my birthday with their daughter Heidi as well, who turned 12. Oh my gosh thanks for those balloons!! Haha such a funny story. We were in the middle of comp study, and there was a knock at the door. I told Elder Rodriguez, I thought it was the Jehovah's Witnesses so don't answer it. Then they knocked again, and I was like ok maybe we should answer. So he got his camera all ready because we were expecting the Jehovah's Witnesses to start bashing with me. I open it and this Indian man with a huge bouquet of balloons and says "Are you Ryan?" I was like yeah, and he said "Well happy birthday", and he leaves the balloons right there and walks away, without any explanation. I couldn't even ask him what this was all about! Haha not until I saw the little note he wrote from you guys and then Sis. Wangsgard told me too. So thank you for that! 

Biggest news is that Victor is getting baptized this Sunday! This is one of the highlights of my mission. During one of my personal studies this week, there was 2 scriptures that randomly came to my mind and I knew that they had to be for Victor. One is the story in D&C 6. Oliver Cowdry is seeking an answer from the Lord that he had already received, and the Lord teaches him that. The other one was Mosiah 18: 8-10, about the baptismal covenant. We read those with Victor and he was like Woahhhh God was totally speaking to me in these scriptures. He said he knows that Heavenly Father is waiting for him to make this decision so He can bless me, so let's do it! It was incredible! This work is all about having the Spirit and receiving revelation, God knows what His children need. We have some high hopes with the Gonzalez family getting baptized this month too. While we were at the Baca party, the Gonzalez family walked in and at the same time we were like what are you doing here?!? Turns out, the Gonzalez's are the godparents of little Dylan Baca, and they did not even know that the Bacas had been baptized into our church! So the Gonzalez's interest got a huge boost because of that, and the Baca's are excited to help us out with them. Yes they are from DF, it stands for Distrito Federal, which is Mexico City, a city of over 20 million people. 

Well I gotta go, but thanks for everything! I am excited to talk to you all next week!

Love you!
Elder Ryan Draper

Happy birthday Elder Draper - #21

The Spanish Zone eating at Gaucho's a Brazilian barbecue restaurant
Ryan's last comp from Spain, Elder Rodriguez
The front of our apartment

Holaaaa!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! There is so much going on right now that I honestly have not even thought about it. My first week with Elder Rodriguez is up there with one of the most miracle filled weeks of my mission! It was 100% revelation that he came here to this area. He has been out for almost 11 months. It is pretty interesting to live with somebody from Europe. The way he lives the day to day life is completely different to what I am used to ha, but it is fun. He went off track during his teenage years but came back a couple years ago and decided to serve a mission, so he has a super solid testimony.

We taught Victor on Wednesday, and it was the first time I can remember that I straight up cried in a lesson. Wow. Elder Rodriguez has gone through some of the same things that Victor has gone through with his dad, so he really was able to help him out. Everybody was in tears, and it hit me when I starting telling Victor how much I loved him and how grateful I was for our friendship. This weekend he has been praying and thinking and today he is going to inform us if he is getting baptized this Sunday! We have a ton of faith and feel confident that his answer will be yes. We were blessed with the opportunity to teach a new family of 4 from DF Mexico, the Gonzalez family. Super prepared! They are praying as a family as well about being baptized on the 13th of May, Mother's day. We also picked up a couple from Colombia who is interested in coming to church and is reading the Book of Mormon. The way we found these two families are
stories in and of themselves. We found soooo many new people to teach this week. I wish I had more time to help them get into the water!! We def have our work cut out for us.

This weekend is full of good dinners with members, so I know I will be taken care of. I think that is it for this week. Today we are going to have a barbeque and play soccer...27 degrees celcius!!!!! So warm and sunny. Go Lakers!! I'll be praying they get through to the conference finals, that's sweet! Time is quickly dwindling down...it is getting crazy! Well thanks again for the birthday wishes and prayers!

Thanks for the email dad. That poem is very true! I have learned that principle as a missionary. We make plans for people, according to the knowledge that we have about them, but then you get in the moment and a curve ball comes, and you have to follow the Spirit to get you through it. It actually happened several times this very week. Everything else sounds great though! I hope I can make a smooth adjustment and keep up doing the little things of the Gospel. I am sad to leave the field, but I know Heavenly Father has prepared me for the next phase in my life. Should be great! Thanks for all that you are to me. Yeah, that'd be nice to work this summer, thank you. Well I guess we will be talking in a couple of weeks on the phone! Love you!

I love you all!!!

Elder Draper

PS today I received this email from from President Archibald:

Elder Draper,

Well, you served hard time as the zone leader. All of which the Lord was thoroughly mindful of. You were diligent and obedient. That was a laudable achievement. Thanks for your determination in all that you did through those times without a companion zone leader. You did yeoman duty and it was duly noted and recognized. You should have a most welcome and enjoyable last transfer as you seek for miracles and focus on one area. Love you.

President

Down to the last transfer - 6 weeks to go

The temple is getting close. They just installed the maple leaf stained glass windows. There's still not date set for the opening house/dedication.

Here we go! Well I'm not going, I'm staying in the same area!

My last transfer begins today! I can't believe it came this fast. I am no longer in leadership after basically a year. I am so excited to be a normal missionary again and being able to focus on our area. I am staying in the Foothills stake and my new and final comp is Elder Rodriguez from Andalucia, Spain. I was praying to have a native speaker kill me off (missionary lingo) so I can fine tune my Spanish before I go home. I have to help him with English though too, so hopefully we can find a balance. He is a really nice kid and of course connects well with the people because he is native. I am pumped! Today we are going to Gauchos the Brazilian BBQ place again (like Tucanos) for lunch. I will be sure to take pics with all the members. I don't think I will get to see Rocky this transfer. I will invite him for sure to my farewell fireside May 30.

So you want to know what happens next transfer and the going home process? Ok on Wednesday May 30 we are in the mission home all day, and they give trainings to help you get ready for the world again, like girls and school and work. Then there is a nice big dinner, and a fireside at the chapel down the street. We get to personally call and invite anybody in the area that we want during the 2 weeks leading up to that day. They show a slide show of us and then we bear our testimonies. I am only going to speak Spanish for sure. Then we probably stay up all night talking and the AP's drive us to the airport bright and early.

My talk went really well! I felt inspired to base it on the talk by Elder Perry from April 2011, "Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear". He talks about how we need to advance the understanding of the church, even though it is much more well known in the world, and how loving our friends will take away all fear in sharing the gospel. Probably my last talk in Spanish :( Brendin was baptised Sunday. He is Canadian and a friend of Oriana Amaya. The only reason we went was because Victor (our investigator) went. We weren't able to teach him this week, but now have an appointment for tomorrow. We have an amazing lesson plan for him, about the gift of the Holy Ghost, so we are confident it will go well. We had a pretty neat miracle this week. We felt prompted to visit this English member family in the stake directory, the Kirkmans. We met them and Bro. Kirkman is from Europe somewhere but grow up in Colombia, so he speaks spanish. His wife is chinese. They are actually moving to Irvine pretty soon for a new job, so we got talking a lot about that. Really nice couple. Anyways we asked them if they know any Spanish people and they said no. Then we get into the lesson and share lesson 1 with them, and invite them to find a Spanish speaking person to teach in the next 7 days. All of a sudden he is like, we just rented out the basement last week to a Colombian couple and a single man, I'll invite them. We were like what!? So tonight we have a first lesson set up with those 3 people! We met a Mexican family at ESL, a family of 4, and the wife came up to us and asked about the church and said she is looking for a Christian church. She has breast cancer and is interested in going to church again. We are teaching her, her husband, and her two kids tonight as well. They are so warm and friendly, I connected to them very quickly. I have a lot of faith that we can help them become converted to the restored gospel. That is really about it from this week.

It's kinda funny, my two children here, Elder Rios and Elder Dutson, are now serving together in the Central, where I trained them! My posterity is doin work haha. Well the mixed emotions are becoming more and more intense. Bro. Davis sent me a really nice email. Please tell that I really appreciated that and we'll talk in a few weeks. What he said really made me want to be a missionary forever. Tell him thanks for that too! This has just been the best experience of my life seriously. I always catch myself reflecting on the experiences I've had and lessons I have learned. We were talking with Victor's parents this weekend over dinner about the mission and the changes that it helps you make. What really hit me is that as missionaries, we receive so much spiritual strength. Like, it is so easy and natural for us to pray and study the scriptures and make good decisions. Apparently, when you return that "easiness" is taken away from you. I don't want that to happen to me! So that kind of scared me when Bro. Morante explained that principle. But I know I am now ready to go back into the world and keep the gospel the foundation of my life. I can't thank Heavenly Father enough for His mercy and long suffering for me. I am just so excited to continue in my progression here on Earth and become like Him.

That's my sermon for this week haha. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Thank you all for your wonderful examples to me :) Nos vemos!

Elder Draper

7 more weeks!

A family tradition of Spanish Missionaries - these are the 3 flags for the Draper boys. Mexico for dad, Canada for Ryan and El Salvador for Blake. Cool pic Ryan!

Hola!

Happy Easters to all of you too! It was a very good day at church for me, pretty normal. For Easter dinner, Nacho Libre made us some of that bean soup...yeah haha. Actually, we were supposed to have dinner with the Trevinos, but they bailed on us last minute. So we had to eat a frozen pizza at home. The life of a missionary haha, it's all good. Yeah tell Blake I served with Jeff Walker, he was a fun companion. Big into sports so we got along well.

This week was a little slower than normal. We stopped by Victor on Wednesday and found out some pretty revealing news. He told us why he has not accepted a baptismal date yet. He has some hard feelings towards his birth dad (who we thought was dead). Basically, his dad is not a very good person and the talk on Sunday morning by President Uchtdorf touched Victor and inspired him to forgive his dad and better that relationship. I'm grateful for the guidance of our living prophets! Anyways, Victor really opened up and it was an emotional lesson for all of us. Forgiving people is very difficult, but it lifts so many burdens. He is going to write his dad a letter this week and take care of business, because he told us he wants to join the church so bad, but first has to clear this up. Hopefully that process happens quickly. So, the 15th for him is looking slim, but he is now on the right path to baptism. Such a solid kid, I love him. That was really about it for this week. The Vargas family should be coming back today, so we will call them and confirm our next appointment for tomorrow. The last few days I had this same prompting to get in contact with this Mexican family that attends an English ward. They are hard to find at home, but we finally got to talk to them yesterday. The wife answered the door and it was apparent that she had some other Spanish family over for dinner. She came outside and shut the door for a more private conversation. She told us that the family they had over were good friends of theirs, and the wife is veryyyy interested in meeting with us. She has had some issues lately and is looking for that inner peace. The husband is anti-religion, but nonetheless we will be teaching the wife this week! Just a cool little prompting from the Spirit. I have learned how to recognize those better now. The key is really just being in tune with the spirit and creating an environment within yourself that will allow you to recognize it. Good stuff eh?

Just going to grab lunch and head to the chapel to ball. Last week we were outside and played soccer so that was fun. The weather was perfect. Yes tell dad that the man at Moores Clothing offered me a really nice deal on the suits. I got a lighter gray suit for 600 bucks and I got another 600 dollar dark brown suit for free!!! They are really nice, so I will have two with me when I come home. Also, do I need to bring the big snowboarding bag and hanging bag home? I'm just trying to consoladate everything I can. Tell Mason congrats on the call, I'm excited he's going Spanish speaking too.

Well that is about it for this week. On Sunday I have to give a talk in sacrament, so pray for me! Next week is transfers as well, so we'll see where I am going to die! My guess is I stay and get a new comp. Have a great week, I love you all!

Elder Draper

We have another foreign Spanish speaking Missionary!

Making home made flour tortillas with the Trevino's

Opening Blake's mission call! Ryan was with us in spirit....and spoken word!
Happy family - happy day
Blake's friends from Helaman Halls
After getting the phone call set up Blake is ready to open...
Elder Blake Riley Draper you are called to serve in the El Salvador, Santa Ana/Belize Mission!

Proudly points to his mission in Central America on the map where all the guesses were...the guy who guessed Blake's mission right received his call to the exact same mission on the same day Blake did but he opened it earlier that week.
Where else better to eat than Los Hermanos? So happy to have our 3rd Spanish speaking missionary in our home!

WOW! Congratulations Blake, uh Elder Draper I mean!

I don't even know what to say this week!! Mission calls are so much
fun!! Blake is going to have the time of his life serving in Central
America (I am only a little jealous haha jk). It has been fun for me
thinking about that and how inspired our mission calls are. I have
been reading D&C, which of course has tons of revelations through
Joseph Smith about where the Lord wants certain elders to serve. That
still happens today, and I have a strong testimony that the Lord needs
Blake in El Salvador/Belize. Amazing! Yes, 2 of my converts, Nely and Luisa, are from El Salvador, and I have taught many others from El Salvador. There are also a lot of members from there. Most of them came up here in the 80's and 90's during the civil war I think. Never have taught anybody from Belize though. Nice work Blake!! Honestly I would just rather keep talking about his mission call, but I guess I will give a little update about me too.

Conference was amazing of course! I had a weird feeling though, just
because by next conference, I won't be a missionary and Blake will be
in the MTC...kinda crazy! But yeah there were a couple talks that
really helped me and brought comfort as I prepare to make a big
transition in my life, back to the world. It is such a blessing being
in the mission field because I feel so protected, but I know that that
will go away. My favorite talk was probably the one on Sunday where he talked about how missionaries like getting letters haha. No I'm not
sure what my favorite was yet, but all I know is that when President
Monson went up to close the conference, the Spirit overcame me and I
received another sure witness that he is a prophet of God. It was a
memorable spiritual experience for me. There is no way I would never
do anything against what he teaches, he will never lead us astray.

Anyways we were able to get Victor to the Saturday afternoon session
and priesthood session. We taught him in between, and had an
incredible lesson. We helped him see that he already has a testimony,
because he believes everything is true about the church. He is just
scared of going inactive after baptism. Priesthood session enlightened
him big time and he is going to prepare for baptism on the 15th of
April! Pretty exciting stuff for sure. In between sessions on Sunday
we taught that new Venezuelan family of 4 for the first time. It was
incredible!! I continue to become better at teaching by the Spirit and
being more bold with people. The first vision was the climax of the
lesson, and Irilda was in tears. They immediately asked how they can
know if that was true, because the Bible talks about false prophets,
so that question was a great lead in to the Book of Mormon. They are
pumped to read it and ask God if it is true. They are going on
vacation to the states this week, so we won't be able to teach them
again till next Tuesday. Solid family though. We had interviews the
day Blake opened his call. This is classified information haha:
President told me that it was probably time for me to be released as a
zone leader this next transfer cycle. It has been an incredible
experience for me, I have grown so much because of it. The key to
leadership is love and service, I think that is what it means to be a
leader. Well, the reflecting back on what I have learned on my mission
is starting to happen slowly. I commit to the Lord everyday though that I will give it all I can till the end, because of what He has done for me. This Gospel is true, and is has been restored to the earth by heaven's direction. Nothing can take that knowledge away from me.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Elder Draper

A wonderful week in Calgary

Heidi was baptized by her father who was baptized only a month before
Families are forever!
Ryan making friends with the Morales family pet ;)

YO!

This week was amazing! We came, we saw, and we conquered!! Tons of incredible miracles...it was a week full of high lights basically. The first one was that Heidi was baptized yesterday!! At the start of the week there was zero signs of it happening...Luz the mom really wanted to have her wait awhile. But, on Wednesday Franky (Marisol's son), the member who brought them into the church, went over and talked to them, and said something good because that is where the permission was given. So we had just a couple days to plan the service and get her interviewed. It was easily the most spiritual baptisms I have been to. The people we assigned for the talks were super inspired and just brought the Spirit so strongly. And then of course to see a recent convert, (her father) in the water baptizing his daughter and blessing the sacrament earlier for the first time was awesome! So that was sweet, and on Wednesday we are going over to their house to eat tacos al pastor, one of my favorites. Last week we put a random English member in our plans and stopped by. The lady is pregnant and I think for that reason was a little grumpy at us haha. She did not want to set up an appt. with us, so to get us off her back she said look elders our neighbors next door just moved here from Venezuela, go for it. That was all we needed. We walked over and two teenagers answered, Marlo and Brandon. They went and got their mom Irilda. We talked to them for a few minutes and set up a return appointment for Saturday. We brought our new branch missionaries, who are from Venezuela as well. We were not able to teach anything, because the two families hit it off really well and talked for a longgg time (I am not going to say how long haha) but we found out enough about them. The husband is Jimmy and they are a super friendly and nice family. They don't believe in the Catholic church, which I always love hearing ha. But they said since they have been here in Canada, they have not attended a church. Irilda told us that the very day we knocked the door and met them, she had mentioned to her husband that they needed to join a Christian church here in Spanish...interesting huh? Then she told us that a lot of her loved ones have passed away, and she said she has a "feeling" that families are supposed to last forever, and not end when we die. We were able to talk about how we are probably the only church that teaches that doctrine, and we got them super excited about meeting with us. They wanted to come to church yesterday, but were not able to. We are pumped to start teaching them! Those were the two big highlights, among other great things too but not enough time for me to share it all.

My personal study this morning was very revelatory and the Lord was definitely teaching me this one principle. The culmination of it I guess (wow that's a big word for me) was when I read D&C 64:33-34. That hit me big time. We cannot give up on choosing the right and making righteous decisions, even when it seems like nothing is coming of it. God is eternal, and so are His blessings for us. We put a timetable on everything, but that is not how eternal life is. Just keep enduring righteously, and trust that He is aware of your sacrifices. We are already in debt to Him, but He is not keeping track. So I guess that turned into the spiritual thought of the day haha.

I already told Blake, but my guesses for him are Australia and Texas Spanish speaking. I didn't pick those because I had strong feelings like when I picked Canada, honestly they were just the first 2 that popped in my head. I don't know how I am going to focus this week! I am super excited for him. Darn you couldn't wait one more day to take me to Daughtry too! Haha that will be a fun couple of days for you, I am jealous! You never told me how his new album turned out, I assume that is what he is playing.

About a new suit, yes mom today I plan on going to Moores and getting a new suit and maybe a new white shirt, so I might need a little extra money in the account. Also, do I need to bring home the snowboarding bag and church clothes bag? I am hoping to come home with just a backpack and sending the rest of the stuff home through the mail, but if you need the luggage let me know.Thanks for the heads up on my homecoming speaking date on Fathers Day, I am glad I don't have to write a homecoming talk while I am still out here then...I have some time to think about it. I would like a BYU basketball update also if that is ok. Anyways, I better get going but good luck to Blake! I will be expecting to hear where the Lord needs him as soon as you can get the news to me!!

Love you all and have a great time at conference!!!

Elder Draper