4 months more!

Service with a smile at the local food bank

Yum - Venezuelan Arepas

Ahora amados hermanos mios,

Sorry just been reading the Book of Mormon so much that the phrases from it are running through my mind. We had a stellar week this week and this next week is going to be even more fruitful. It's all about the faith!! That is the biggest thing I have learned about in this particular area...I would have loved to learn it in my first area, but it is starting to finally click for me. I read those lectures on faith by Gene R. Cook and that is what really helped and inspired me.

Glad you and dad had fun in Vegas, haha that made me laugh about the older LDS couple hitting up Sin City before their mission. Seeing the Donny and Marie Show is pretty safe I'd say! That's nice they have that new clean smoke and casino free hotel. Sorry I will take a picture of out apartment this week, I forgot. No, it isn't newly renovated, we just keep it lookin fresh ya know? Elders have lived in it for a few years at least. I love it because I feel like I am in a 5 star hotel seriously. The bathroom smells like a really nice hotel bathroom haha ok maybe that's weird to say. It's a little paradise in Canada :) Yeah ZL for 7 months, we'll see if I die as one or not (missionary term for ending the mission as a ZL). I have really enjoyed it because it is just an opportunity to serve and think less about yourself. I love helping other people become better, it just makes me super happy.

Anyways, yeah the meeting Friday was called leadership training meeting. All of the district leaders and zone leaders got together and got trained on Preach My Gospel, it was pretty good. Oh I totally have thought about what you said about being able to see how everyone has progressed and changed. I won't be judging though so no worries ha, I am far from perfect too. Hopefully you can see some good changes with me too :)

So on to the week: It was filled with little tender mercies and miracles, and I have learned to not believe in coincidences. It is Heavenly Father, no question about it. We had dinner with this less active family (we ate venezuelan arepas) and then shared the first missionary lesson about the restoration. We gave them a 7 day challenge right after, we challenge then to have to have a nonmember in their home within a week to meet with us. Literally right after finishing the sentence "Who do you know that needs to hear this message?", their door bell rings. A man with a familiar face walks in. Turns out, it was a man that we had met a few days earlier. His son is an inactive member but he and his wife are not members. He just happens to know this family and just happened to walk in when we asked who do you know that needs this message. Uhh you can assume what our plan is there haha. Super sweet! Hopefully we will be teaching him this week. We picked up a new investigator named Aaron from Chihuahua. He is here with his wife and 2 teenage sons. They were a referral from members and we finally got to teach him. He is super tied to his catholic traditions, but that's ok because we are going to help him anyways. He knows about the church pretty well and doesn't like that we have a lot of "rules". He thinks it's ok to drink once in a while because he is not doing it with the intention of getting drunk. Ugh we are trying to help him understand the principle in Romans 3:3, it does not matter what we think, that does not change the truth or what God thinks! So we'll keep working with him. Tonight we are going to be teaching a lady who owns a Mexican restaurant right by our house! We have eaten there a bunch and it is wayy good food, like real Mexican food. So hopefully we can get her baptized so when she signs up on the dinner calendar, it will mean a trip to the restaurant for free now haha. The fellow shipper of that Mexican family we are trying to work with down in High River finally got in touch with them after almost a month and they have been reading in the Book of Mormon and loving it! They are superrr interested and have a ton of questions, but just don't have a lot of time to meet with us. That situation seems super promising. There is a ton of other things like that happening, which tells me that the Lord is truly preparing the people around us to hear the gospel. He expects us to exercise faith by doing everything we can to persuade them to accept the gospel. Only until we put forth that effort does He bless us with more faith and greater miracles, like baptisms. Elder Brandon is from Fresno.

Well the time is going way to fast to keep up. I really want to finish this strong and give it all I can. Just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, down by 10. That's the attitude I have. Let's do it!

Thanks for your prayers and support I love you all!

Elder Draper

2 more transfers to go!

Showing off his mad tortilla making skills for ward dinner
Too many cooks in the kitchen
In Okotoks, Alberta to find investigators
Unreal sunset
Deer crossing

Good morning everybody!

First off I want to wish Dad a happy birthday!!! I am not sure what you will be doing, but I hope it is a great day for you!! I will be sitting in a 9 hour meeting Friday and hoping you are having a lot of fun! Yesterday we visited a couple of members and did a training for our district leaders. Today is pday and we are going to go to Beehive Book, which is like Desert Book here, then Unimarket, which is a Latin grocery store, then just to the chapel to ball it up as usual.

That's sweet that you are doing the D&C challenge along with me! I am learning new things everyday. So far what has stuck out to me is how amazing Joseph Smith was. He is so inspired and full of faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing every gets him down, which is incredible. He's a stud. Yeah I got all the emails about Alpine Village, I am stoked! I have no idea what my plan is for after the winter semester...I imagine I would like to come back to Cali for the summer but yeah do whatever you think, the 8 month or 12 month lease works.

We won't get any Spanish elders until Elder Davies and I leave. The zone is doing amazing. We have had 5 baptisms this month, which is the most we have had as a zone since I hit the field. Good to see. All of our faith is so high right now. It is us that put the limits on our capabilities. God has limitless power and He gives it to us, so in reality we should be able to to anything. Fear, doubt, disobedience among other things lower our faith, therefore limiting the available power to use. I have been studying faith lately and I realize how little I actually know about it. I think it could be the most intricate principle of the gospel, although most of us think we understand it perfectly. Another slow week as far as teaching investigators, but that does not change the fact that God is preparing people for us. We have been doing a lot of planting, but there are people here that have already received that step and are ready for the harvest. Every single one of us should have the mindset of a harvester, because the field is white already to harvest. But, along the way, we will be doing lots of planting. But our purpose as members is to harvest the ones already white and ready. We have a sister who is working on Maricela. Hopefully something good happens there. We have a ton of people with high potential, but just having a hard time meeting with them and even just contacting them. The tough part about our situation is that we are teaching Spanish people in Canada...they are immigrants and have to work long hours and multiple jobs, so just super busy schedules that make it difficult. In their own countries they don't have to work as much, therefore more available. Not making an excuse, but just sayin. We have an appt. with a new gator tomorrow, Santiago. He seems super friendly, so let's get him baptized! That is about it for this week. Elder Brandon and I are staying in the area as the ZL's again, so we are excited. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I miss you and pray for you every day. Echale ganas!

Love Elder Draper

Care package:

Chipotle Burrito

In-n-Out burger

Protein bars...big 100

Good and plenty/hot tamales/any other candy I like...also, there is no Wells Fargo here in Canada so I can't cash the check from Lianne!! :(

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Welcome Winter

Yikes well below zero this week in Calgary

The morning they lifted the Angel Moroni to the top of the new Calgary Temple

Up, up and away...

Beautiful!

Oh happy MLK day!!

I did not even realize that today was a holiday back in the US. Today I think winter officially started, although I have said that several times this year haha. I took this picture on the way to email this morning, just a bit nippy! This week is supposed to be freezing, with the high for the week about -25, which is a good amount below 0 in fahrenheit. Not fun!! Yeah we take turns driving everyday, yes Elder Brandon drives just fine, he is from Cali. The lesson out in High River fell through. We drove all the way out there and they weren't there...bust! But they called the member fellowshipper that night apologizing, so at least we know they aren't avoiding us. High River is in the stake that we cover, so we are not leaving our area when we go out there. We only teach people in our proselyting area.

It was an exciting week to know the Angel Moroni is already up on the Calgary Temple! That really got me excited and made me want to work even harder so we can get more people going throught that temple! It is such an exciting time to be here! We had stake conference yesterday, and it was all focused on temple work. The temple president from Cardston came up and spoke. In the program it said that we have a special stake conference on March 11, and that Elder Cook will be here. Shout out to Dad! I imagine he will be reorganizing the stake, and hopefully will speak to the mission too. Yes, my last temple trip is the first Saturday in March. I talked to Rocky last night at the baptism of Luis and Itzel and he is super excited to go through! Luis and Itzel are a mexican couple who we were able to interview as well. Solid family. This week we taught a new investigator (finally!) Her name is Maricela and we did everything we could. We brought the Spirit so strongly and really used the scriptures well I think, and she even said she believes our message of the restoration is true. But, she obviously does not truly understand it because she is not willing to change from her catholic traditions yet. She reminded me of Nely in a little bit of a different way. We will work a little bit more with her, but unfortunately I don't think she is ready for the gospel right now.

Hmmm ward mission plan ideas well...here is the quickest idea that we are doing here. Our main branch goal is that every single member of the branch bring in ONE person into the church during this year. We are seeing some great success. The missionaries and WML have to keep all the members accountible constantly, making sure that the members are talking to everybody about the gospel and inviting them to learn more. That is not really a plan I guess, but our plan is based around that goal :)

Well next week is transfers, and I am pretty sure I will be staying put with Elder Brandon. But you never know what the Lord has in store! We are working super hard and staying obedient, and we know that the Lord will bless us for that in His own time. We are going to try to seek more revelation and follow the promptings of the Spirit.

Mom about your countdown, I am doing this fun thing that a lot of missionaries do...the D and C challenge. The last 138 days of your mission you read one section of D and C each day. It's great because you just read one section, and you can really study it and receive more revelation. You should try it!

Well I love you all! Thanks for all that you do for me. I can feel your prayers :) Have a great week and go Kobe!!

Elder Draper

Blake, KOBE KOBE KOBE!!!! That is amazing! He is a beast! I really hope that I get to watch him this year...#7 yeah whatev, thanks for the update. Book of Mormon is amazing at BYU! That was my favorite class...do you have Johnson? He was the one everybody wanted to take. Can't believe you are in Provo! That is really a great college town. Hope everything is going great with your mission prep...I am excited!! I was listening to called to serve the other day, and it hit me that my mission is coming to an end...I would do anything to start over again in the MTC...yes seriously, I am not crazy. This has been the best thing in my life, and I am jealous that you are preparing to go. Do work son!! Love you Blake!!

Monday January 9, 2012

New convert Fanor baptized his son Felipe
Luisa on her baptism day with Briam Amaya, a newly returned missionary from Vancouver, who performed the ordinance
Everyone get happy - A Sunday Baptism!
Beautiful views on the highway to Okotoks and High River last week
Santa must have left one of his reindeer behind
Cold Calgary winter but actually not as cold as last year
Moving into his new area and new apartment
He's turned into quite the decorator - Go Diego go!

Here's a couple of panoramic views

Como estamos hoy!!

I am so happy and had an amazing day yesterday! So much to share with you all. I guess the big news is that Luisa Flores was baptized and confirmed a member of the church!! Oh my gosh it was the coolest miracle! On Wednesday the missionaries in her area went over and showed her the Restoration video and the Spirit just blew her out of the water, and she decided to be baptized this weekend! Her son Brandon was totally pumped too. We were driving to Brandon's interview Sunday morning and Luisa called us and said he would not be getting baptized...the husband did not consent and said he needs to be much older to make a decision like that...bust!! So he did not give permission and didn't even let Brandon come to the baptism...so sad.
We will see what happens with that situation. Luisa was baptized with Felipe, who is the son of Fanor and Adeleida and it was such a great experience for her. Remember back in May when I was with Elder Galloway we were walking to a member appointment and we spotted a Spanish looking man getting out of his car? We approached and met Fanor. He was willing to meet with us, but said he lived in the South East area, so we referred him to the South elders. They taught him and his wife and they got baptized this past July or August. And it wasn't until yesterday that their 18 year old son accepted baptism. It was just amazing because Fanor was able to baptize his son! Really neat to see kind of my first chain reaction baptism during my mission. Hopefully he will get out on a mission and keep the chain going!

Another cool miracle...Amalia came to church today for the first time in forever! She came up to me and was like Hey I got a story to tell you. She said that she was praying on Wednesday and she asked God to help her be a better, more faithful member of the church. The next day, she shows up to work and gets laid off. They told her they were going through her records and she does not have the correct paperwork to work, so she can't work at that hotel anymore. Well, that means that her Sundays are free so she can come to church!! She totally recognized that as an answer to her prayer, because now she can attend church every Sunday. Although she was like "That isn't the answer I wanted!! I need to work!! hah but she is really happy and trusts that God will provide for her so her faith is growing.

On Saturday we drove out to two little towns, Okotoks and High River, because we have been hearing that there are a lot of latinos down there. It was a pretty successful trip and this Saturday we are going to be teaching a Mexican family in High River. They have been to church and are pretty interested in the church, so hopefully that goes well. That was about our week! We have a ton of potential here in this area and are praying for opportunities to just teach these people and
give them a chance to hear the gospel. Bring on another week!

I love all of you and miss you! I hope you have a wonderful week and have missionary opportunities! And BTW go Rachel!!! Dang that's what I'm talking about! Tell mom to keep taking pictures at your games. That is sweet that you have joined the "baller" status. We are going to play one on one this summer! Take care!

Love, Elder Draper

Happy New Year!!!

Playing indoor soccer yesterday
Ryan used to play club soccer back in the day
Christmas dinner with Elder Rios...
and with his companion Elder Brandon

Ready to chow down on Christmas morning
Have yourself a merry, little Christmas
Dear Santa, Ryan's been good all year!
Half of the Spanish Zone - Elders Rodriquez, Brandon, Draper, Nate, Rios and Stout

The Elbow River Branch Christmas dinner

Elder Brandon, Draper and Soliz look merry and bright!

The Menjivar Family treat the missionaries to a Christmas luncheon every year at their restaurant

Spanish Zone Elders: Seelinger, Holderness, Davies, Nielsen, Rios, Brandon, Nate, Draper, Solis, Stout, Dutson, Rodriguez

Saludos a todos!

Happy Tuesday! I didn't even know that yesterday the libraries were closed...so sorry this is coming to you late but better late than never. It has been a great year so far for me! I just got back from an amazing lunch at Olive Garden, it's the only one in the whole city. I haven't eaten there for a longgg time! They are still the best bread sticks ever. I am on exchanges right now with Elder Nielsen. We had an appointment with a new investigator at 5:30, but she called and cancelled it just now. We have dinner at 6:30 with the branch president's family and another member lesson at 8:00. We are trying to find people to meet with in between so wish us luck.

You're right mom, pday was yesterday...it was so much fun we played indoor soccer at the chapel. I'm sending you a couple pictures from it. I guess it was a holiday for most people, so basically the whole branch came and played. We had some Legit Spanish people who played professional soccer there. It was fun to play with a little competition again. I want to say it again, Christmas was so great thank you all so much! That card with the digital pictures of us all keeps me entertained and reminded of you all the time...so thank you! Tell Rocann I got her Christmas card and letter and that I say hi and thanks for that. Trent and Brandon look so much older!

Thank you for all the pictures (usually you say that to me) it looks like you had a super fun trip to Utah! Everyone looks happy and still the goof around family that I love! I miss you all! Hopefully I don't throw everybody off and out of their groove when I get back haha. Funny you got to see Chris play against BYU...he looks exactly the same as high school. Yes the weather here has been amazing here too! Seriously I am in heaven with 50 degree weather in January!! It's amazing, so amazing. This week was really really good. I still have not taught any investigators here, but it will happen. We got a few member families super pumped up to invite their non member friends and have a ton of faith that it will work. Hopefully we can teach these people this next week.

New Year's eve we got a great gift from President Archibald. He gave us permission to watch the movie 17 Miracles, and it was so good! I know that I am not just saying that because I am a missionary too haha, it really was a great movie. I recommend it. A cool little story is that we stopped by a member family that is from Brazil, so they speak portugues. It was the coolest thing ever because they spoke to us in portugues, and we taught a lesson in Spanish, and it was as if we were speaking the same language! Now I know that the two languages are similar, but it wasn't that I was picking out words here and there, like I knew exactly what they were saying. That is what I call the gift of tongues :) Luisa is still showing a ton of fear. I talked to her at church this week and the first thing she says to me is "I know I have to get baptized brother, but I just want to make sure I am ready." Ugh man! I told her that she is ready and Heavenly Father is just waiting for her to make this covenant with Him. Fanor's son is getting baptized this Sunday, and she promised to go to it and after the baptism pick a date for herself. We will see what happens. I forget if I shared this miracle was last week but I will share it again. We were walking up to a member appointment, and walking down the street I saw a TV in somebody's window, and on the screen it said "jugadores". Spanish! So we went by the next day and met Maricela from DF. She said she is willing to meet with us! We have an appointment with her tomorrow! Oh yeah another miracle. We went by this potential that we have in our area book, and the lady answered and bashed us hardcore about how we follow Joseph Smith and not Jesus Christ...she really got my blood boiling (I tried not to show it ha), but Elder Brandon did the talking because he handles situations like that better. It just annoys me when people tell me what I believe and who I worship. Anyways we were walking away and I just tried to put it behind me. I felt like we should knock this door nearby, so we knock it and a man answers it. We introduce ourselves and ask how he is doing, and he says not good. He said that his mother passed away the night before and he had know idea what to think or say. Turns out he is Spanish too, his name is Carlos. We immediately testified of the plan of salvation and he told us to come by this week when his traumatic situation died down. Wow did the Lord guide us to that house or what!? I felt the spirit confirm that so strongly as we walked away from the door, well we were actually running and jumping because we were so excited! I know the Lord is preparing the people around us to hear His gospel! Keep opening your mouth and following the Spirit!

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

Elder Draper

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

Ryan's mission does not allow video skyping for their phone calls but these two videos helped make up for that...nothing better than watching him open his presents from us all :)

Merry Christmas, we love you Ry!

Memories with Elder Dutson

Halloween humor....

and pranks...still the same old Ryan!