Miracle March

Hellooooo!!!

Another week and birthday in the books here in the mission field. Yes, I am sorry I am not taking as many pictures I will try my best though...transfers next week so I think that might solve the problem haha. President Archibald is probably the exact opposite of that mission president. He is the most bold, straightforward person I have met. Definitely not soft spoken. He wouldn't just tell members to have nonmembers in their home often, but to invite them over to your home to meet with the missionaries and hear the gospel, within 7 days. Or else you are depriving them of the chance to accept our reject the gospel. He doesn't mess around which is good because that is what motivates all of us!

Ok random coming home question: My buddy here Elder Madsen from San Diego (he actually just got made the new AP!) got a letter from BYU basically re-accepting him to school this fall, have I gotten that yet? It has got me a little worried. Maybe someone can check with admissions or something. But anyways...Well everybody sounds happy and healthy, which is great to hear! I am still stumbling over the fact that Rachel and Nick are going out to dances together and stuff, insane! I'm glad my siblings are much more social than I was at that age so they can pick up my slack but that's not an issue anymore obviously. Good job with your talk Nick and dad! Way to represent!

We are going to the temple this Saturday! Rocky had his interview last night and is now an official temple recommend holder! I am freaking out I'm so happy for him. He has zero time to run to the distribution center and pick up his garments, so I am going to do that when we go to the office to pick up mail. Apparently he gave a talk in church yesterday sharing his conversion story. He said that Elder Draper was very nice and outgoing, but Elder Nielsen was very serious and shy. Then he's like "but don't let that fool you, it's just that Elder Nielsen didn't understand what I was saying" haha I thought that was funny. He asked me to be his "escort" so I am totally stoked for the trip this Saturday! I probably should take advantage of my missionary discount and buy all new garments this week too. It's time to get all new pairs to take home, so a good amount of money on my card would be the best birthday present ever :)

Yesterday a lady named Nidia from Nicaragua got baptized in the ward up north and I was privileged to do the interview. Those are some of my favorite moments as a missionary, such a strong spirit present. Estefania is slowly breaking down and letting go of her fears. The only thing she is not willing to do is set a baptismal date, nothing else is an issue for her. There is still some family opposition happening, and now the family she is living with is getting a little frustrated with her, so that is not good. We have developed a super solid teaching relationship though and she now trusts us a lot, so that is a good step. We will see what happens. There was a Mexican family that got baptized a couple weeks ago here in the branch, Miguel and Luz Baca, and they just moved to our area this morning. That's why I was a little late emailing because we helped them with the move. Their 11 year old daughter Heidi did not get baptized with her parents, probably just a little scared. She is now our highest potential investigator, and really should be baptised either this weekend or the next. Her dad will be receiving the priesthood and he really wants to baptize her.

Hmmm something new to share...well as a mission we have set a goal to bring salvation to 100 people this month through the ordinance of baptism! Miracle March starts this week! The Spanish zone needs to baptize just 5 people to do our share. It is going to be a miracle filled month! I am grateful for these last few months of trial after trial after trial. It has been hard not seeing any outward results. Baptizing is absolutely central to our purpose; that is the only reason we have missionaries. But when that becomes your motivation, that is where the problem is. The Lord has taught me to fulfill my propose of trying to bring salvation to His children because I love them and desire it for them, not just to get a baptism. I have really internalized my purpose these past few months, and it has helped me find joy without seeing "fruits". So yes, I am grateful for the opposition and bitter I have experienced, because now I am in a state to be able to enjoy the sweet. That's about it for this week! Transfers next week, we'll see what happens! I love you all and miss you!!! Have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Draper

P.S. Would you be able to send me my 4 generation pedigree chart? The mission needs it. You can also email it to me if that's easier. Thanks for everything mom!

Happy Family Day

• 

They are hard at work to get the temple completed by summer
Pday goofing off with Elder Davies doing a Elder Draper impression...doing a Kobe impression ;)
So great to see these two boys from way back to their MTC days and now to their final 98 days!

Hola compadres!

Finally getting a chance to email this week. Family Day was pretty fun. What is it? I honestly don't know exactly what the holiday commemorates other than a day off to be with your family. In Canada, they have to have one holiday every single month, and this is the holiday for February I guess. We played soccer all afternoon with the ward and branch it was a ton of fun. Zone conference yesterday was great, very possibly my last one!! It was on faith. How are you doing today!?

I hope everyone is doing great and getting ready for a crazyyy summer! Sounds like lots of plans in the works :) You told me you were planning grandma and grandpa's 60th Anniversary, that will be a fun family reunion. I remember their 50th Anniversary on the boat! I love parties and stuff on yachts or boats just cruising in the harbor, super fun atmosphere. Blake was telling me about his paper situation and the timing...I told him to make sure you video the call opening! I guess you would fly him home to do that or has he decided where yet?

The FHE on Tuesday was alright. It was well planned and I had a fun time, but really only a couple families showed up. It wasn't announced very well and I just thought it was going to be a bigger event, like with decorations and music and stuff, but it wasn't. We are still trying so hard to get in with and teach a few new people. Appointments keep canceling, biggest pet peeve of the mission for me haha. We are consistently teaching Estefania, and wow that has been sweet! I can't describe the Spirit that is present in every one of the appointments. We are trying to help her understand that she probably won't receive a sure witness about baptism until she shows faith by accepting to do it. She is waiting for a big "answer" before making the decision. On Wednesday we went by and she said she has been praying about baptism on the 3rd of March. She said she will say a prayer asking God about it, then open up to a random Bible reference, like it is God's answer to her. She has not had any luck with that. Right at that moment her dad said "Why don't you try that with the Book of Mormon?' So she does it. The scripture that she "randomly" opened up to made my heart skip a beat, I couldn't believe it. She opened up to Alma 32:26:

Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

That is the exact principle we are trying to help her understand, that at first you can't have a perfect knowledge that something is true. We spent 10 minutes talking about it and it totally hit her. We promised her that if she accepted to be baptized on March 3rd, and honestly prepared for it, that God would give her a witness during the week leading up to it. She thought about the invitation for about 5 minutes, and finally asked that we let her pray about it. We left her with 3 Nephi 11 to read and we will be following up tomorrow. She is sooo close! We have done everything though, seriously. Fasted, prayed, followed the promptings of the Spirit, we have been super bold and loving. I have never felt like I have followed God's will teaching somebody as closely as I have felt teaching Estefania. We have faith that she can do it!

So this week I got what they call the "trunky call", but I am not trunky haha! Sister Waangsgard in the mission office called me and confirmed my travel plans! I told her to book me into John Wayne airport. So I think I will get my travel plans in couple weeks. Pretty crazy! It definitely has not set in, which is good ha. There will be random moments where my mind wanders off about leaving the mission field, especially listening to called to serve by Mo Tab, and it seriously makes me cry. I can't describe with words what this experience has been to me, serving a mission. It has completely changed my life. Well not only the mission but what it's taught me about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The mission has just helped me understand it and see the tremendous need for it. There is no way I could have come to the feelings I have about it without serving a mission. Ok I'll stop talking about it I know I still have plenty of time to enjoy it.

Hopefully we will have some new people to talk about for next week! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Draper

Happy V-Day!

Greetings everyone,

Well Happy Valentine's Day! That is a fun holiday as a missionary haha not really. We have a branch FHE tomorrow so we are hoping all of our investigators come out to it. I will try to take a few pics. Yeah I am excited for Rocky to go through the temple in a couple weeks. He is taking the temple prep classes. I don't know if we are allowed to be his escort, I guess we'll see. There are a couple families that travel down to Salt Lake once a year, so yeah I will try to meet up with them after the mission. You better learn a little Spanish if you wanna meet them mom :)

Wow looks like Rachel's party was intense!! The pictures looked like everyone had a lot of fun. The youth in our ward look sooo different. I have not seen them at all during my mission so that is probably why. Good luck with the driving test Rachel!! You will do great, you have put in the effort. Don't be nervous, if it doesn't happen this week it will still happen so no worries at all :) Yes I got your Valentine package and thank you for everything! You got me every single one of my favorite candies...you know me too well! Rocann sent me one with candy too so tell her thank you for me. That was a really nice surprise!

So as far as the area goes...little bit of a knot this week in the rope but not the end of the world. We traveled all the way down to High River to teach the Lunas, and they were not home :/ They are impossible to contact sometimes. But, right when we knocked their door, I heard a Spanish lady yelling at her kids from the neighbors house. We went over and met Rosa from El Salvador. She has 3 kids and actually works with Francisco Luna. She goes to a christian church in the city but only because it is in Spanish. There could be a little potential there. Not too much progress with Sara and Diego this week. We dropped by a couple times to follow up on their reading and they have not done it yet, but not because they don't want to. You can tell they are very genuine, but change is definitely hard. She told us how she loves the Virgin Mary, but doesn't worship her. We showed her Nephi's vision of Christ in 1 Nephi 11 where it talks about Mary and we said we love Mary too haha. I didn't think that was false doctrine. But we are pretty sure she in a way prays to Mary, but at least it boosted her desire to read the BoM because it mentions Mary haha. They are excited to come to this FHE activity tomorrow. There is not much we can do with Liliana right now. She is not willing to do anything until the end of March, so we will maintain contact with her. We picked up a former investigator named Estefania. She has a super interesting situation which would take too much time to explain now, but basically she is the only non- member in her family. She goes to church every Sunday with them in an English ward, but is not baptized. We taught her this week and she fasted with us for an answer from God. She has a family concern that is the only thing holding her back from being baptized into the Church. We are teaching her tonight and we are going to make some of the boldest promises that I have ever made to somebody on my mission. We feel like we can do so under the authority that God has given us, and we feel it is His will.

Pretty crazy stuff I love it! I will tell you about it when I'm home. Well next Monday is Family Day, so the libraries will be closed. We have zone conference the next day so I don't know exactly when I will email. Tues. or Wed. for sure. But I think that is about it for this week. We saw a couple of evidences this week that the Lord is preparing people for us to teach and He really wants the members to be the ones to take the initiative and inviting. He knows that is the best most successful way to bring His children back. I hope I have that implanted in my brain and heart for when I am a normal member again. Anyways have a great week I love you all!!

Sorry mom that this missionary who sends home pictures every week is failing you today! I really wish I had some to send. I still look the same as last week don't worry haha I love you!!! Thanks so much for everything!

Elder Draper

Maddie!!! Thanks so much for writing me! That was such a nice email. That is so good that your are getting good grades I am happy for you! I know it is hard sometimes to pay attention in class, but do your best because school is very important. Good work with the Faith in God too!! Ok I will try to answer your question now sorry I didn't have time on Christmas. Yes I want to go to Disneyland, the beach, watch lots of movies, play basketball, go to the temple, malls, you name it! How about you make a list of what you want to do with me and we will do it deal? Cool. Things you didn't know about a mission? Well did you know that you don't get to sleep on a mission? We have to work ALL the time, even at night....haha jk. Well everyday I wake up at 6:30 and workout, shower, eat breakfast. At 8:00 I study the scriptures by myself. At 9:00 I study the scriptures with my companion and we plan what we are going to teach that day. Then at 10:00 I study Spanish, at 11:00 we eat lunch. At 12:00 we leave the house and start talking to everybody and inviting them to learn about the gospel. Then we come home at 9:00 PM and plan what we are going to do the next day. At that point I am exhausted and I go to bed. And then, the same thing happens the next day! Hopefully there was something new you learned about missions. Ask me more questions next week! I love you Maddie take care! Elder Draper

Mapping out the game plan for the day...

Winter in the big city of Calgary

Cold, clear and pretty
Happy one year anniversary of Rocky's Baptism!

Can't believe one full years worth of events have happened since his baptism...feels like yesterday! Next month will be the temple trip. Yes mom, of course I am still into sports!!!! haha I remember hearing earlier in the week that the super bowl was this weekend, but I forgot about it because when we showed up to dinner yesterday it was on and was like "Yeah you better turn that off or I will get a crazy adrenaline rush" haha. It sounds like you know way more about the logistics of coming home than I do! Let me know by next week what airport you want me to choose. Rachel...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! You turning 16 has always been something I have thought about during my mission, that is a big moment!! I hope it goes well for you and that you have a great day! I heard Mormal is coming up...hmmm I would like to hear from the boy that will ask you and have a little chat if that's ok ;) That will be a fun experience for you.

Ok so on to this week...it was pretty intense and filled with spiritual experiences! I was on exchanges with Elder Seelinger, one of the DL's, in my area. We had an appointment with an investigator named Liliana, but she called 20 min before to change it to the next day. So it was about 7:30 and we went ahead with the back up plans we had set. The first thing was a former investigator family, Diego and Sara from Colombia. It appeared from their teaching record that they weren't too interested when they were taught, but I have been getting lots of promptings to visit them. So we pull up to their house and Diego pulls up at the exact same time. We meet him briefly outside and ask if we can come in, and he lets us in! We sit down and his wife Sara comes in too. They tell us about their religious background and the one lesson they had with missionaries this past summer. We decide to reteach lesson one so they can feel the spirit of the message of the Restoration. At the beginning of the lesson, they had a bunch of walls put up, like they are happy with their Catholic church and aren't looking to change, but as the lesson went on the Spirit totally worked on them and we were teaching with so much power and authority. It felt different for me, like my words weighed a lot more as they came out of my mouth. Pretty cool. So we invite them to be baptized on the 26th and they say they really want to read the Book of Mormon first and pray about it, which is exactly what needs to happen. They said they are excited about the goal to be baptized on the 26th! We will have to follow up with them a lot so they actually do the reading and praying. Super exciting! And yes we FINALLY got to teach this Mexican family down in High River! I have not met them yet, but Elder Brandon taught them once 3 months ago. They pulled up right when we did too, and they let us right in. It is Fransisco and his wife Maria and their 15 year old son Fransisco. They are one of the nicest most humble families that I have met on my mission. They have been reading from the Book of Mormon, and their initial doubt is that they believe that their ancestors believed in sun and moon Gods and stuff like that, so they don't understand how the Book of Mormon, written by their ancestors, talks all about Christ. Kind of a weird doubt, never heard that one, but we explained that they did believe in Christ a long time before, but then about 400 AD they fell into a huge apostasy and starting picking up those weird beliefs until the Spaniards came. Anyways we taught lesson one and were able to get to their true doubt. They just recently started attending a Christian church and have seen their lives change completely, so they have taken that as an answer from God basically. They don't quite understand the need for baptism by proper authority, but they are slowly understanding. They all said that they could relate to Jospeh Smith and if they feel our message is true, they will be baptized. So, it is going to come down to them reading and praying,
because they have a ton of faith and will for sure receive an answer if they do their part. I am so excited to work with them! Aaron is basically dropped for now. We are going to get members working on him. We are also going to be teaching this girl of about 20 from Peru, Estafania. She lives with her family who are all members, and she is an eternigator. We have received promptings about her too so we feel like she is ready for baptism this month. We taught this other lady Liliana, but I don't have time to explain! Sorry!

The gears are moving like crazy now, so I am very happy and grateful about that. God answers prayers! Just in His own time, when we are ready. Love you and hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love Elder Draper

Nick! Sorry to hear that the espanol is finished for now, you'll have to take it in high school. Nice work on the court! That was a cool story thanks for sharing! Oh I believe you about your shot, I bet you are a better shooter than me right now, I have gotten a little rusty haha. We'll ball it up this summer big time and I'll have to see what you got. Keep being humble and the Lord will bless you even more! Love you Nick have a great week!!