Happy Halloween Elder D!

Group picture from our Mission Conference last month with Elder and Sister Zivic seated with President and Sister Archibald.

We carried on our American LDS tradition and sent a "You've been Boo'd" package to Elder Draper!

Waking up Monday morning to white!

The mission life is GREAT in Calgary! Yes the weather has taken a dip...last night it did. I woke up this morning to a blanket of snow on the ground. I AM SCARED!!!! Haha it is going to get so dang cold I seriously have no idea. I am freezing today and it is only 32 Fahrenheit out. We will see what happens!

No we don't go to ward council. Because there are 6 elders serving in the ward, that would be too many people in the meeting. Plus they probably don't want us hearing all the crazy problems that go down. So we have a meeting right before called correlation with the ward mission leader, then he takes all of our info into ward council. Our church is at 1 PM. And then we are around the church for about an hour after trying to set up appts with members, etc. Then we take dinner, then go teach. So Sunday is almost like a pday for us...only 3 hours of working. That is just the way it works, kind of like the weekend for us including Monday. Music...that's a good question. Of course I am loving chill church music because that is all I get, but we will see when I get back. Nope not gaining weight thank goodness. Weighed in yesterday at about 165. Apparently you eat a lot in December so I am trying to control myself for that. My metabolism is still the same so no problem.

This week was pretty cool. Saturday night the Spanish branch, which covers the southern part of the city, had a big activity called the Vina del Mar . It is a thing they do in Chile apparently. People mimic celebrities and famous singers so it was pretty entertaining. Last night was the baptism of a lady named Ana. So I told you about those 7 day challenges we give to members? Yeah so we extended this challenge to Gerardo Reyes. He invited this Ana from his work. She had just moved here from Mexico the week before. However, we found out that she lives in the east so the other elders taught her and she accepted the baptism commitment the first lesson. So it was cool to kind of have a part in her baptism. And during the baptism I got to translate for President and Sis. Archibald! It was way cool! They were so surprised I could do it only 5 months out. And we did have a super sweet miracle!!!

So we extended this 7 day challenge to a girl in the ward named Camila, she is 19. She has a friend she has wanted to invite, but never has. Well last week she finally did, and we taught her. Her name is Kristina and she is almost 18. She doesn't speak Spanish which means eventually we are going to have to hand her over to the English elders. But she is so prepared! Last Sunday we taught her the restoration. Then this past Saturday we planned to teach her the plan of salvation, because she seems to understand lesson 1. But when we got there she told us she had a dream. She said she was in a forest and saw a bright light in the sky and saw 2 people. She said they looked like me and elder Christensen. (Girls dreaming about me? Akward! haha) No so she told that to us and we were like whoa that sounds just like Joseph Smith! So we changed the plan and showed her the restoration movie. During the first vision scene she was all "What the?! This is exactly what my dream was!!!" So basically Kristina has seen the first vision in her dream before she even saw the movie. We were like umm that is definitely a sign from God! She believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, BoM is true, and our church is true!!! She is definitely going to be baptized, but she said she wants one more lesson to learn. So we will teach that on Tuesday, she will for sure accept to be baptized, then we will transfer her to the English elders. But we will get to go to baptism for sure because we started teaching her! I am so excited!! Just a really neat experience. The lessons we have had with her have been the most spiritual ones I have had so far. I will follow up next week!!!

Thanks for everything guys, I love you!! Have a great week and Happy Halloween!!!!

Love, Elder Draper

P-day is today Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Pictures from our Multicultural Event at the church

The first one is the stand we set up for the missionaries. There was a table for all of the latin America countries around the gym walls. You will see that better when you get videos later.

This is Gerardo Reyes, a recent convert and one of my best buds! He's a stud!

Elder Davies, Elder Dunlap, Gerardo, Elder Galloway and Elder D!

So transfer week is different. Monday was a regular work day, Tuesday (today) is pday and Wednesday is when you actually transfer. I didn't get an email from President Archibald nor did Elder Christensen, so it looks like we are here for another 6 weeks! That makes me happy, I love this area. We are baptizing this transfer for sure, that's the goal!

Alright there are pictures on the way!!! I am glad you liked your package! Just a few papers and stuff from the first quarter of my mission. My Spanish in it is NOT GOOD. It is amazing how much Spanish I learn every week. If I translated the blessing again today it would be better. It'll be cool to see my progress in Spanish when I translate it again my last month of the mission.

How did my blog get there!? Haha that is way cool! (*I (mom) googled his mission and this site came up: http://mormonmission.blogspot.com/2010/09/canada-calgary-mission.html

so I click on it and noticed a link to THIS blog on it - I have no idea how that happened so I guess my reader base is growing!) Yeah Elder Dunlap is one of the Zone Leaders for our zone. I didn't go to that training, yes that was when I was with Davies and Brandon. Yeah the other zone leader, Elder Galloway, lost his father to cancer last month. He decided to stay like Zant. Don't know if I could do that.

I will be on the lookout for the package!!! I can't wait!!! I have not had candy in a while, so that will be a fun treat for me. No I do not think they do trunk or treat here. Sis Lopez, the primary president is going to have a little party for the kids Saturday the day before, because Halloween is on Sunday (that didn't stop me from going trick or treating). Don't worry about the CD. Any nice church music is legit. I can't wait to get it!!

Ok so I guess you guys want to hear about the missionary work huh? Well nothing too crazy exciting this week. Still no progress with Nely and Gilberto (I have been spelling her name wrong, it is with a Y). We have taught them 9 times now and still no baptismal date. Obviously they still need to learn something or I need to learn something, because the Lord has the power to tell anyone they need to be baptized right? Sometimes I wonder why He just doesn't do that haha. No joke.

The Multicultural event was sweet!!! About 300 people showed up. I will post a few pics. I shot a bunch of videos too that you will get when I send the sd card home. Lots of non members showed up so we will see if they have any interest in the gospel. If not, we will make them have interest, that is just how I roll. This message is the most important thing in the world!! But Sunday I was dog sick haha. I must have eaten something at the event that didn't sit well with my stomach. Luckily didn't barf, but felt like it. Well we did have one sweet miracle so I will explain it the best I can. It is a long story...

So we do something called 7 day challenges with the members (I don't remember if I have explained this). We basically teach a lesson to a member family and then tell them we want them to find someone and have them in their home within 7 days so we can teach them. So we extended this challenge to the Lopez family, probably my favorite family in the ward. He is the ward mission leader and a stud. They told us it is hard because they don't know any people outside of the church, blah blah blah. We promised them if they prayed and really had a desire to help someone, the Lord would put someone in their path. So the NEXT DAY, the miracle happened! Bro. Lopez didn't have much to do at work, so he decided to come home early around noon, which he says he never does. So he came home and decided randomly to work on his car, so he was doing that in the driveway. All of a sudden this lady walking by asked him if he was a mechanic. He said no. They started talking and it turned out she is Spanish, from Venezuela. Bro. Lopez's wife is from Venezuela, so he went into the house and brought her out to meet this lady. Turns out, this lady is married to a Mexican...that is exactly how the Lopez family is! Venezuelan wife and Mexican husband. They have 3 kids and just moved here from Montreal LAST WEEK!! Is that putting someone in your path or what!? So this family obviously is prepared, and we are going to meet them this week and start teaching them! What a neat miracle! I know that if you really have a desire to share the gospel with someone, the Lord will put someone in your path. He won't deny you that if you have faith.

So that was the highlight of the week. The seeds are being planted, now it is time to do the harvesting!! You guys are the ones helping me and giving me the support I need!! Can you believe only 2 months till you get to call!!! I am so excited and it is going to come super fast!!

Have a great week everyone! Thank you for the emails and prayers and support. I love you all!!!!

Elder Draper

Scenic Calgary Photography

I noticed this breath taking picture was shot in Calgary as I scrolled through the BlueLily Photography blog and website. It reminded me of the pictures Ryan had taken of the bright, striking yellow fields he flew over on his flight from Utah to Canada. The colors aren't as vivid from that altitude but it is just as pretty from above. In a few weeks it will probably have a blanket of white snow covering it. What a picturesque place he gets to call home until May 2012. I can't wait for the next 19 months to go by so we can go pick him up and see all the beautiful landscape in this corner of the world!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day - October 12, 2010

My Canadian Thanksgiving was AWESOME! I will tell you all about it!

Interviews went great! President Archibald is such an inspired man. I feel so lucky to have him as my President. He gave me some great advice! I love how he does things and his style of helping us be better missionaries. I look forward to these next 19 months working with him here.

Nellie and Gilberto came to church for the first time!!! It was so cool!! It seems like they enjoyed it, and the members were superrrr friendly to them and made them feel welcome. Our bishop announced them during sacrament and told them to stand up. And of course, because Gilberto isn't quite there mentally, stood up and was like "Now do you want me to stand here or come up to the front? I don't want to take away from your program" He says that to the bishop and it is dead quiet in the chapel so everyone hears it haha. He starts walking up to the stand but we grab him and tell him he can just stand in his place. We are going by their house right after emailing today to see what they thought and invite them to be baptized.

Then that night, we went by the ward mission leader's house, Victor Lopez. He is from Mexico, married a lady from Venezuela, and have 2 boys. One of my favorite families. So we cooked them some muffins and brought them over. When we got there they were trying to carve pumpkins that we gave them the day before. BUT, they had no idea how to do it because they are Spanish! It was so funny so we taught them how to carve pumpkins haha. It was their first time doing this so the mom was taking pictures and everything. Looks like they will never forget us then :) Then yesterday, they came by to thank us for helping them. The boys drew us a picture each. Issac, the youngest drew me this picture. At the bottom, instead of saying Elder Draper, it says Elder Kraper. Spanish people really have trouble with my name :)

Yesterday, Thanksgiving was awesome. It was P-day, so I went to chapel and balled it up for 4 hours. I miss basketball everyday! It felt so good to run up and down with the ball. I can still dunk, just so everyone knows haha. AND, I could still take Blake or Nick or anyone one on one. Looks like that is a skill I won't forget :) But more importantly obviously is missionary work, what we did last night after P-day.

We had thanksgiving dinner with the Salazar family, from Mexico. They got baptized 11 months ago, and are just a solid family. She just gave birth to a baby boy, Ishmael. She cooked us the best meal I have had on the mission. Pork, spaghetti, veggies, enfrijoladas (basically beans wrapped in tortilla with cheese on top). SO GOOD!! It was so much food, I felt ten pounds heavier when we left. SO then after that we decided to visit the wife of Patriarca Jaco, the Spanish patriarch for the stake. She is having major heart problems so we went to the hospital and visited her. Her spirits were up, and she said she was willing to accept God's will for her. I cannot imagine being in that situation, has to be so hard. Patriarca was a little worried and stressed so we gave him a blessing of comfort. This experience just made me realize how short this life really is, and how Heavenly Father really is in complete control. Of course we have our agency to make choices, but He is the one who gives the consequences. Everything happens for a reason. Seeing her lying there, maybe close to death, maybe not, made me think "Am I ready to stand in the presence of God?" Definitely not ready. There is so much I have to do to better myself. And I am never going to become exactly who I need to be....by myself. That is why we have the atonement. That fills the gap that we don't have the power to fill. I have a talk about the atonement by James E Faust and highly recommend it. It has helped me understand it better and what is the purpose of it.

Yeah transfers are next week so we will see. I think I will stay here for at least one more transfer...that would take us to the first week of December!! The time is going fast! The call home on Christmas is pretty cool, I actually give you guys my phone number here and you call it, so the phone bill goes to you guys! Yeah sounds like lots of change in the ward, it's weird that I am not there to see it. The weather has been so nice! I hope it continues to hold off until December! Haha no it is suppposed to snow before Halloween so it sounds like the cold is right around the corner.

Dad I found a scripture for you! I will always remember you telling me to do stuff before I am told. Check out D &C 58:29. I read that this morning and immediately thought of you. You can use it with Blake and Nick now :) Hope you have a great week with work and your calling! I love you!

Haha what up Nick!? Hmmm so you have been lifting weights huh? Keep it up then!! Taha Lebron is BAD!! Go Kobe!!! Nice work on the soccer field!! Man you ARE Christiano Ronaldo! Haha yeah I remember those little buddy things. Show him how to be a good student like you! I played basketball yesterday too. It has been awhile but I just picked up the ball and drained them all day. I bet I could still beat you one on one ;) Well Nick thank you for writing me man. I love you, you are a stud. Keep being good. You get the priesthood in 2 months!! Get ready for that!! Have a good week Nick!

Well family that was my fun week! I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!!

Elder Draper

I love Conference! October 4, 2010

So first of all mother I have to say THANK YOU!!!! You are amazing and I love you!! Hearing Elder Holland's talk prompted me that I need to thank you more. You are the best!! I got the pics from the weekend and the preview of the Christmas card! Everyone looks healthy and happy!! Blake, Rachel, and Nick all look like they have grown a lot! Rachel and Nick are almost as tall as you!! Holy cow where does the time go eh?

What a cool Conference! I have never enjoyed one as much as this...probably because I never actually watch it intently and take good notes. But I did something really cool that I recommend to all of you next time. So before the weekend came I prayerfully wrote down questions that I had. Questions about investigators, how to work with members, and just personal questions I have in my own life. Throughout the conference, EVERY question was answered! It was sooo neat!! I feel like I have the strength and answers I need to get me through the next 6 months until next conference. My favorites were Holland about gratitude, Uchtdorf on the essentials and on pride, Christofferson on time and choices, and that British guy from the 70. I learned so much! And of course every time President Monson speaks, you cannot deny that he is a prophet of God. Holy cow he is amazing. It was a bummer that none of our investigators came to attend it :( But it really enjoyed and gained so much direction about my life and what I need to do.

So this week was pretty slow with the work. Unfortunately only 10 lessons. We usually teach about 12. It is hard because there are only about 9 members in our area, so we visit the same people every single week. But I had lots of fun and we saw another mini miracle!!

Last Sunday we fasted for a lady named Isabel Picon. (Not sure if I have mentioned her to you yet). They are Mexican and the husband, Paco, is a member, but she is not. They have a 10 yr old and 4 yr old and newborn. Her dad and brother are intense priests in Mexico. She had a baptismal date about 2 years ago but dropped it because her family would disown her if she joined our church. Well last week we found out she wasn't a member, so we fasted for her and how we can begin the teaching process again. Well we met with Paco on Thursday and heard a sweet story. Sunday night, the night we fasted for her, she woke him up in the middle of the night and asked for a hug because she was scared. Paco was like ok what's wrong? She told him that she was scared to die and to be in the presence of God. She said she feels like she needs to do something more in her life to be ready to meet Him. Ummm is that a miracle fast? We heard this story and told Paco, yeah that's a sign, she is ready for the gospel. We are stoked!! We are going to get her baptized and the 10 year old daughter!!! We have fasted for her again and really believe that this is going down ASAP!!

That was basically the highlight of the week. This week on Thursday we have our interviews with the President, which I am excited about. He just asks you if you have any questions and answers them, which is pretty chill. I will be thinking of some cool things to ask him. We haven't been in touch with Nellie and Gilberto for a week, so we are a little scared. We are hoping one of her baptist friends didn't "anti" her. Hopefully we can get back in touch this week. No other people progressing at all at this point. Slow and tough, but definitely a learning time for me.

Well thank you for everything!! I love you and all and pray for you all. I want to leave my missionary witness that I know Jesus Christ lives. He leads and guides this church and He has a living prophet placed on the earth to help us stay on the straight and narrow. The Atonement is real. I am just starting to understand how it works and how it applies to my life. Such an amazing feat that I am so grateful for. Like Nephi says, the Atonement redeems our souls from hell. Sorry for the language HA! LOVE you all!!!!

Elder Draper

Little reminder...next Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving Day booo!!!!! So I will be emailing Tuesday around 2 or 2:30 PM :(

Happy 4 months Elder Draper!

Canadians love Capitaine Crounche and so does Elder Draper!

What the heck!!?? I can't believe it!!! Time is going so fast!!! Ahhhhh...

This week was really sweet too. All of the senior companions went to meetings every day from 10-3. That left the younger guys back on exchanges! So everyday this week me, Elder Davies, and a new guy Elder Brandon were together. Holy cow!! Three new guys with hardly any experience!! What I learned is that the Lord will get his work done, no matter who the missionaries are. Whenever we were in this trio this week, out of nowhere I could understand 100% what people were saying, when normally I understand probably 60%. But then at night when I went back to Elder Christensen, my Spanish ability dropped back to where I am right now! SO weird!!! But it just proved to me that the Lord is in charge of everything, including how fast I learn Spanish. If I do my part, He will bless me with the amount that I need. It was really cool.

Another sweet miracle with Nellie this week!!! So we have an appt set up with them for this coming Thursday. That is way too far away haha so Saturday we decided to go by and just say hi and see how they are doing. Before we knocked on the door, we prayed that she would let us in to teach her, and that she would receive a witness during the lesson that she needs to be baptized. So we walked up to the door and starting talking. She was taken aback that we were there and insisted that we come back Thursday. We just said that we only wanted to talk for a few minutes. So we were just talking randomly and all of a sudden she told us to come in, out of the blue. We were like wow ok. 2 minutes earlier she told us to come back Thursday, but somehow we got in that door!! Miracle!!! Prayer answered! So we ended up teaching them for an hour about prayer and the Book of Mormon. She is still reading it daily which is awesome. At the end of the lesson we asked her to pray and ask God if these things are true. She said an awesome prayer and asked specifically if the BoM is true and if Joseph Smith is a prophet. She also said that if she received an answer, she would get baptized into this church. Super sweet and spiritual prayer, and after she closed, it got silent. No one said anything for a minute, everyone just looking at the ground. We know that she received an answer!!!!! We asked her how she felt and she said "Good how about you?" Ughhhhhh I forgot to ask in our prayer that she would RECOGNIZE the answer too!!! We are pretty sure she received the answer, but just didn't realize it! We are so excited to go by on Thursday and teach her about recognizing promptings from the spirit. We EXPECT a baptismal date set for her!!! Let's pray that she will act on it and join this church!!!

Prayers are real!!! Everything we asked for we received. Because we really had the faith that it would happen. If you feel like you really need something, just ask God for it!! If it is according to His will, He is bound to grant it!!! I bet there are so many blessings waiting for us, but we just don't ask haha. That is what I learned from this experience. My prayers have grown so much. Father in Heaven is there I have no doubt. Our relationship continues to grow and I love it.

Well that is this week. I am putting a few things together and sending home an envelope asap!! SO be on the lookout for it. I love you all so much and can't wait to hear about conference!!!

Love,

Elder Draper

Monday September 20, 2010

In the heart of the city - downtown Calgary - Stampede City

Pictures of the Bow River looking across to Downtown Calgary

I wonder if it freezes over in the winter

I had one of the coolest weeks on my mission!!!

MOM! What a day you had!! I am glad to hear everything turned back up, even though it trashed your day haha. What a miracle. Rachel!!!! Congratulations!!!! That is so legit!! I never thought you would be a baller, but it looks like your brothers influenced you a bit :) I can't wait to hear how all of your games go and how you play! Nice work Blake, I say you are in for sure now. Much better GPA than me and a solid act. Start those application papers!!

Ok to answer your questions first:

We haven't heard back from Nellie yet. We will stop by probably tomorrow to see how she if they are back yet. Hopefully they have been doing their reading! Teaching pool is about to explode. We have about 8 names that have invited us to come back to teach them, some of them formers, some of them brand new investigators. Hopefully there is 2-4 of them that are prepared for the gospel. We should have a lot of investigators this week.

The conference was really sweet! How cool was that!!!! Man I was just like what!!! Sister Williams said she wanted to call you right there and then but she was like oh mission president is here haha. That was so neat!! Do you like my new blue suit? Haha 15 bucks at a thrift store. The seventy is named Claudio Zivic. He serves in the South America south area presidency. He is from Argentina, so when we all went up to shake his hand and meet him I got to do it in Spanish!!! So neat!! This conference was actually the first time he had ever done one in English!!! It was pretty choppy and scattered but of course I was able to learn so much from the spirit. It was funny because he would ask a question to us, people would answer back, and he would just be like "good" or "anything else?" It was obvious that he didn't really understand the responses haha. But based on what he taught us, I created 2 goals for the rest of my mission, 1 spiritual experience every hour and to learn something I can apply to my life in every situation of every day. I think that will be a neat goal for me!

Now for the coolest story ever!! So on Friday we had dinner with a family named the Jimenez. (They are the same family that I called the wrong name twice during a prayer haha). It is just a couple from Columbia. All 9 of their kids are still in Columbia, waiting to get Visas to come here. Their ages are like 24-9. Yes 9 kids. So anyway we were just having a normal, yummy (kind of) dinner. Towards the end of dinner, Sis. Jimenez started bawling out of no where. She then told us that yesterday her 20 year old son was robbed in the street by 4 men, and beaten half to death with a baseball bat and stabbed in the side. They continued to beat him down on the ground with the bat until he became unconscious. The room got dead quiet, besides Sis. Jimenez. I felt awful, and had no idea what to say to that, let alone in Spanish. She felt awful because she says she feels trapped in Canada, and can't be there helping take care of her son. So Elder Christensen suggested we give them both a blessing. Sis. Jimenez is becoming physically sick from the stress and stuff so we annointed her with oil. Now, I was expecting Elder Christensen to do that, because he knows much more Spanish. But he is new to the area, and they know me better, so she asked me to the annointing, “uncion” in Spanish, and her husband blessed her. That part was easy because I have that memorized and have done it once before. But then it was Bro. Jimenez's turn to get a blessing. He wanted just a blessing of comfort, so we said ok. I again assumed Elder Christensen would do it, because I have never done it and wouldn't know what to say. But, Bro. Jimenez asked me to do it, and I tried to back out of it, but he said he feels like I should do it. I wanted to decline, but for some reason the words "Como se llama usted" came out of my mouth. Apparently the Lord wanted me to give this blessing, and I went for it. Never doing this in Spanish before, my mind experienced something I will never forget. It just opened up, like I had the whole Spanish dictionary memorized in my head. It was incredible. I promised him things that sounded way too unheard of, but I said what came to mind. The Lord through me told him that his son was going to recover completely, and that his son's personal plan of salvation required him to still be on the earth. What an amazing thing to be able to say to him. After the prayer I was literally on fire, I have never felt the spirit in that manifestation before. It was the coolest thing ever. SO we left, and saw them again yesterday. They said their son is totally fine. Not one bone in his body is fractured, and the knife he was stabbed with did not even penetrate passed the skin. What a miracle. My testimony just grew about a zillion times in one week, especially the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful I have it and that I can comfort and bless the lives of others with it. I love you all so much, and can't wait to write next week. Have an awesome week!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Draper