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