10 more emails to go

In front of Ranchman's Restaurant the bar where they filmed the movie Cool Runnings - also known as the party headquarters for the Calgary Stampede

Happy St. Patty's Day back to y'all!!

Just when you think the good stuff is going to happen, the opposition sets in....big time!! But it's alright, I have gotten used to it ha. I emailed this to President so I just attached it here:

We taught Estefania yesterday and had maybe the most spiritually edifying lesson I have been a part of it. Basically, we asked her to pray at the end of the lesson, and she prayed to Jesus and was not specific about baptism, so we had her do it again. She prayed correctly and asked so specifically, and I felt the Spirit very strongly. Normally, when we do a Spirit recognition with her, she says she feels "normal", probably avoiding her true feelings, but this time she actually expressed a spiritual experience she had during the prayer. She felt like the Spirit filled her and actually moved her to a different location in the room, but when she opened her eyes, she was still in the same place. We asked her what that meant and she said she did not know. Well, she knew what that meant, and we testified boldly that that was an answer from God. She denied it as an answer for baptism, even though she specifically asked about that. She said she has felt that way before asking about other things. Well there is not much more we can do there, she got her answer and openly denied it. Very, very sad, but Elder Brandon and I walked out knowing we accomplished our purpose, and the Spirit bore witness of it. The Lord taught me a great deal through teaching her, and my testimony was strengthened. We will see what happens.

So we dropped her :( But, there is nothing else we can do with her. Opposition with Heidi as well. Her mother still feels like she is not ready to be baptized. Luz still wants to get to know the church before she gives permission. But, we are again doing everything in our control to speed that up. We asked the Relief Society president to visit them Tuesday, branch missionary couple to visit them Wednesday, and elder's quorum president Friday. Huge blessing, so hopefully Luz will give us that permission this week! Miguel got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday so he is pumped and supportive of Heidi getting baptized. They are just the coolest family though, I gotta come back next year whenever they get sealed. Victor is progressing very well. He is so innocent for a 19 year old, sometimes I feel like I am teaching somebody much younger. We are meeting with him tomorrow and are going to help him see that he already has a testimony of the gospel and needs to take that step of faith in being baptized. But other than that, we found a couple of new FAMILIES to teach. Super sweet finding miracles. The Spirit is essential in this work, actually the only thing you need to see the miracles. Hopefully new solid investigators on the way this week. I interviewed a 14 year old for baptism on Saturday (I interviewed his mom 3 weeks earlier), and he was totally ready, but yesterday woke up feeling bad apparently and not ready, so it got cancelled. Probably just scared or nervous, but hopefully it happens soon...

Rachel you looked great at Mormal!!! (I want to use a better adjective than "great", but that might sound weird coming from your brother haha). Looks like you had a great time dancing and being with your group of friends.

Thanks for sharing that experience mom. I too have gained a testimony of inspirations like that and other profound types of revelations from God. The gift of the Holy Ghost is probably the greatest blessing we have on Earth...somebody to comfort, guide, protect, teach. Pretty incredible, and taken advantage of many times by us.

Well that is all the time I have this week, kinda crazy I will only be sending 10 more emails! I love you all and hope you have a great week. Man, so excited for the next mission call in our family. Good luck Blake! :)

Love,

Elder Draper

A visit from an Apostle yesterday

Love this picture with Elder Quentin L. Cook! Such an amazing man!
Smiling in short sleeves - happy the Canadian winter has been so warm this year :)
Good ol' Elder Soliz getting ready to hoop it up with Ryan on Pday
On the way to the temple last week

Good morning!

Sheesh what a great week. Maybe one of the happiest most fulfilling weeks of my mission. We just got after it and worked our tails off...it feels so great. Yesterday was pretty cool because we had a special stake conference with Elder Quentin L. Cook. We got some great 2nd row seats and were right there in the action. He spoke about past prophetic counsel we have received, and how they came right before big problems struck, like Hinckley warning us to get out of debt, then a few years later the economic crisis hit. Very uplifting talk, and of course he bore a powerful testimony of Christ and his Atonement. Through "special spiritual experiences", he knows that Christ fulfilled the Atonement. After the conference, he walked off the stage and everybody ran up to him. It took him 20 min. to get to the foyer, shaking every one's hands. It wasn't until he got out to the foyer that I got my chance to shake his hand! I went up to him and he asked me how I was doing up here in Canada and if I was getting fed well haha. Then a member in our ward quickly snapped a photo of us with him! Pretty neat!! It was funny, we walked out with him and the stake president, and both of them got into the stake president's huge Toyota Tundra (super weird seeing an apostle of Jesus Christ sitting shot gun in a huge, raised truck haha), and while they were backing up to leave, the stake president backed right into a pole!!! Haha the look on Elder Cook's face was priceless. GOOD TIMES!

Ok as far as investigators: Heidi, the daughter of Luz and Miguel Baca, should be getting baptized this Sunday. We are going over to eat tacos al pastor with them tomorrow and teach Miguel how to perform the baptism (he receives the priesthood this Sunday). Last night we taught Victor Morante again (he was officially adopted this week by his aunt and uncle!) It was an amazing lesson! Last week we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and he read the whole thing and answered all of the questions that it has, also read all of the scripture references. He basically taught us the whole thing! We read with him out of 2 Nephi 31 where God himself says to repent and be baptized in the name of Christ, but Vitor said he doesn't feel he needs to be baptized to show God he wants to follow Christ. He just does not understand the doctrine of baptism well enough, so that is our focus for Wednesday. But, he is very humble and said a great closing prayer asking to know if that if God's will for him. We are super confident that he will be ready to be baptized on the 25th of March, as long as he makes the decision. Estefania, we weren't able to teach her this week, but will be visiting her tonight. I felt like we were kind of attacking the Catholic Church too much last lesson, even though we just pulled out scriptures to show her. We are going to focus on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, because if she can strengthen her testimony of those things, she will be more willing to change. We want to try to build her faith in Christ rather than destroy it. We are doing absolutely everything we can for these 3 people to get them into the waters of baptism this month. We'll see what happens.

It is super warm here, so I am having a blast being outside walking around and talking to people. The last few months have been spent in the car, and it is hard to feel like a missionary doing that. So this week has been super refreshing for me. There was one baptismal date set in the zone this week, for next Sunday. So we just need 4 more from our zone in order to complete our share of the 100 in the mission. Let's do it!!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Draper

P.S. Travel plans are here!!! I got an end of the mission packet with that included. We gotta figure out what we wanna do the day I get back, because I land at 12:15 pm!!!!

2nd best email I got this week!

12 weeks to go and technically 1 transfer left!

Saturday Rocky went through the Cardston Temple to receive his endowment. Ryan baptized him just over a year ago - WONDERFUL PAY DAY for a missionary!

Making time to to help with a food drive

Que onda!?

Transfer news: Elder Brandon and I are staying put and continuing on as ZL's. This is our 4th transfer together plus one more when we served together in June last year. The Lord has his plans for us. It'll be great and I'm excited for some baptisms this month!

Best experience of my mission happened this week, as you can imagine. Juan Carlos is now an endowed member of the church! It was the coolest experience ever. He picked us up about 8 am and we drove down to Cardston. It was very windy and just a little chilly, but not terrible as you can see in the picture. We got there and he asked me to be his escort. It was a really neat experience. A lady took us into a room and she checked over his recommend. Then, we met with the 1st counselor of the temple presidency, and he welcomed Rocky to the temple. We went and got our temple clothing, and he went straight in through initiatories while I waited for him. Then we changed into our whites and met up with the 1st counselor again, and he spoke to us for about 15 min about the temple ordinances (that was just a joy to translate haha). Then, we headed to the chapel to wait for the session to start. When the session started, it was in English and everybody was super confused, so after a brief delay they got the Spanish going. I guess that's what happens in the Spanish session. He had no problems during the session. I went into the celestial room first anxiously waiting for him to pass through. I saw him walk in and the Spirit just overpowered me! I gave him a big hug and welcomed him in. What an experience! All I could think about was D&C 19, about the joy we will have when we see those we bring into the church in the kingdom of God. I really feel like I experienced that that day in the temple. Something I will never forget. We grabbed an amazing temple cafeteria lunch and headed home. Can't describe how I felt seeing him go through that. I imagine that is how it is for your children when they first go through. Love it!

Well there was so much that happened this week that I don't know where to start. I am glad that we are staying busy at the end of the mission, or else it would be super difficult I think. On Sunday night we taught for the first time Victor. He is the nephew of a Spanish couple here. They are actually adopting him this week, so he will be their son! He is 19 and has such a good honest heart. He knows a good amount of the LDS doctrine, and he is like 100% committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He is preparing to be baptized on the 25th. I love him, such a good friend. Estefania...sheesh I have never been more spiritually drained than after appointments with her! I love her too, but just soooo tied and getting impatient with her Catholic beliefs. We got her to contradict herself several times last night about infant baptisms and the apostasy. She is standing at the edge of the baptismal font, leaning over the edge looking in, so we are just about to push her in! Haha we have done our best job using the scriptures to show her the truth, so we are just praying that she makes her decision now, whether to get baptized or discontinue meeting with us. We taught 4 other new investigators this week, all ladies. They were all referrals from members (yay members!). 2 of them seem very interested, while the other 2 seem to be mas o menos interested. We also taught Diego and Sara again, a Colombian couple. I love this family and hope they will make a little more time for us so we can help them. Super humble and would be solid members of the church. So yeah we are insanely busy now teaching people. It has been really neat to see how the teaching pool has grown drastically in my 2 transfers here. I think it comes down to us seeking way more revelation and diligently following it. I'd say there has been times in my mission where I was doing the work and making the decisions, but lately it has been the Lord making the decisions and us doing what He inspires us to do. Revelation is absolutely key to our salvation and success, and I'm grateful I have been able to learn how the Spirit works with me.

Well that is about it for this week. Maddie I feel bad for that girl that she would say those things to you. I don't know how to say this in English, but no le hagas caso. Like, just don't even pay attention to her. She doesn't know a thing about what Mormons believe. But thank you for sticking up for the truth and what you believe, we need to do that better, like President Monson says.

I love you! And I love the rest of you! Only about 12 more weeks left, let's make it count!

Take care! Love Elder Draper

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

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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