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!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.
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
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