Christmas, Snow, and getting grounded

Dear Family and Friends

        Wow what a week it has been! Christmas is gone and I am officially a dead Sister missionary (Missionary Slang for I have gone home sort of thing ya Not really and Sister missionaries don't really die at the end of their mission). So that is Exciting I have less than six months left to be serving here in The Nebraska Omaha Mission.

         As for the run down of my week Monday was a little crazy we were only able to see one man, his Name is Wilfredo he wouldn't let us talk he wanted to more try to teach us and dominate the conversation so I tried to teach and tactfully take control I got in a record of Ten Sentences and Elder Sharp despite trying Got only ONE sentence so we are giving him one last shot before we drop him, it makes no sense to go and listen to someone Else Ramble when I can actually go help someone grow their Faith in Jesus Christ 

        Tuesday We got one lesson in in the Evening but the Exciting thing was we found a new place to do service through a less active it is Called the Center for People in Need it is awesome we Helped out for a while there a lot of Arabs work there to build a resume and qualify them for other jobs in the future so I am Hoping to learn a little bit of Arabic from them so they feel like I am truly interested in them. a peoples Language is the key to who they are and How they think. Oh and our lesson was amazing we all learned. The Family is a part member Family and the mom has been reactivated and the kids are recent converts and the dad is still working some things out but we taught them about spiritual gifts and it was amazing, all people have a spiritual gift that we can use if we have the spirit with us and we seek the will of Heavenly Father.

          Wednesday We saw another Less active and it was good we had a good lesson with him about the Why of Church the Why of Reading and the Why of Prayer and we did in such a way where he was teaching us but he did really well on explaining his reasons for reading and praying and church he doesn't understand it really so we know we can help him with that so we now know what to teach him next time later on we saw the Member who we are Helping to quit smoke and it was amazing He gave us Christmas gifts despite the fact he doesn't have much himself so that was cool and they were heartfelt gifts and it was a very sacred moment. 

      Thursday we Saw Three People! in one day it was awesome! well back track the less active member who didn't know or understand the importance of Church his wife who has avoided us out of I think embarrassment (she has been a member her whole life and she kind of rebelled and knows better so ya) she invited us over to dinner and it was a sweet dinner she cooked some delicious food we left full and we were able to share a good Christmas message WE also Stopped by an Investigator and we helped her shovel her driveway and talked with her a little bit and retaught her the Restoration focusing on the apostasy and Restoration and we hit it I think three times we review the apostasy and restoration in that lesson alone to show it from different perspectives and angles. so ya then we found Valdo. Valdo is a member who has been working out of town for the past month or so so it was  awesome we caught him home we hope to be able to catch him again and have him over for dinner at another members house the first of January but it was a good lesson

           Friday We delivered Gifts to our less active members a copy of the book Our Heritage and then depending on if they had kids or not the Movie The Testaments or Joy to the World so that was good it was a fun thing to do and I also Video Called HOME!!

           Saturday we had one lesson and we invited him to church and he didn't come

Sunday we saw another less active we hadn't seen in a bit He is doing good he went down to Crete for church with his Mom and Cousins so ya that was disappointing but he should be coming back next week We Hope so those are my crazy adventures

We got our cars grounded because of the massive storm but we only got skiffs of snow and we got total over the course of the day maybe an inch to two inches so ya it was sad

      

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Picture

Mary Flowers' baptism

Crazy, Birthday, more Crazy and God has a plan

Dear Family and Friends,
This week was CRAZY like really CRAZY we got nothing done like literally nothing! but we are still exhausted Ya Crazy!

Monday we met with Noe, one of our investigators, and it was a good visit. We read Alma 5 and he really liked it, so we challenged him to read the rest of the Book of Mormon to start and to find out more which is going to be awesome but he doesn't want to do much else, so that is sad.

Tuesday we  met with the member, who wants to quit smoking, and he really is progressing and starting to get things in his life set in order. He hasn't been reading his scriptures but he has been praying which has been fantastic. So we committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon again. He was super stubborn about that which was weird. So I testified of why I like to reread the scriptures and it seemed to click for him and to help him realize why, so that is cool. The power of testimony with the Holy Ghost is what changes hearts. We also got to see Marvin, one of our less actives. It is not entirely his fault he isn't back to active right now, the place he works has him on overtime for the Christmas season. So that is frustrating working seven days a week in December so we are hoping that will change soon.

Wednesday we had just one lesson with the Quirino family about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Brother Smith and it was good. We taught it simply so that they didn't have too many questions.

Thursday was my Birthday! We had district meeting, which was good. It was on weekly planning and how are priority is on investigators, which was super good but that was also annoying because our district leader is now a Zone leader and he was like ya you need to do this be focused on investigators and Elder Sharp and I were like yes..... but when you have 50 less actives why make more of a problem by adding to that pool. So we are going to have to balance out the work with the two groups. We then went to Poncho Villa, a Hispanic restaurant, and had really good authentic food and it was delicious. So we then went and did service with the Scott Family and it was crazy. We were just continually packing. Sister Scott and her mom were just packing box after box after box and we were just placing things where they went. So it was sweet we got mostly done at 9:00 and we planned to come back the next day at 10 for two ish hours to finish the job... ha ha

Friday two ish hours turned to more like six ish hours, but we got the truck packed and the family off on their way. We then rushed to our appointment, it was great we had a good lesson with them and they expressed concerns about something they wanted to learn more about so that was awesome. We found where their interests lie. We then went and met up with William, a member, and talked with him for a little bit about his sacrament meeting talk. So that is going to be sweet next Sunday is Spanish sacrament meeting.

Saturday we had weekly planning and we did that and we got a dilemma. I got invited to go to Seward to see Mary Flowers, one of my investigators from Crete, get baptized. Well last minute when we thought we weren't going to be able to go we got a cancellation in our schedule and that was awesome! I called the Crete Elders and they said, "Ya we'll see you there bring clothes Mary wants you to baptize her."

     So I had the privileged of getting in the water with Mary Flowers and Elder Barton and Baptize her. She said, "I knew you would come, you couldn't fool me." So it was awesome. I thought I couldn't go and had almost given up hope of going but God prepared a way. He had heard the prayers of His Children and He answered. I am humbled by my opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

Sunday we had a long day and we tried to convince the sister Missionaries to Join us in singing songs for the next sacrament meeting in Spanish. We succeed with one song in Spanish so that is good, and we were able to see a less active member who told us, Elders I'm coming back to church next Sunday so that was Awesome

 God Lives and he hears the prayers of his Children and all we need to do is learn to listen to the voice of the spirit to come to know our fathers voice in the name of Jesus Christ amen

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Christmas is Coming the squirrels are getting fat and people are getting grumpy

Dear Family and Friends,

      I am reporting on my super eventful and uneventful week so here is my letter as elongated as I will or can make it.

       So Monday we finished emails the computers went on the fritz before that though so ya it was annoying and frustrating but it was all worked out they thought it was this complicated problem but one of the Library people just rebooted the system and it went back to normal. We were planning for three super sweet lessons and we were hoping and pretty sure they would go through but sadly that was not the case we got only one and it was good but our investigator doesn't want to progress he is reading and praying he doesn't really fully understand why he needs to come to church or even why baptism is important so we are going to have to teach him some basic things again, He knows The Book of Mormon is true so that is a good start.

       Tuesday we shared the A savior is Born video with a member who is active our only really active Hispanic member so it was good to see him and the sad thing is he has to go back to Mexico soon to finish his citizenship process so that is going to be hard on us. We also saw a member who is struggling with smoking and he is progressing he told the Bishop a friend and his Home teacher of his Goal to quit smoking so that is super awesome I know he can and will quit he just has to keep going forward. We had dinner with the Cambell or Campbell family I forgot how to spell it but the cool thing is growing up he was Neighbors to Todd Summerhays my Physics Teacher in High school, and he has a quilt of all the High schools in Utah he has been in (He did cleaning out of schools to sell their old stuff to charter schools) and in the center he has the Olympus O so I will have to get a picture with this quilt. We also got to go out to eat ice cream with a less active and her non-member husband and it was a good time visiting with them we hope we might be able to reactivate them coming up soon, but to make the day better we went around downtown during our down time and tried to pass out a Savior is born cards ya people tried to avoid us so that was sad but it was still funny to see what lengths people went to to ignore us.

          Wednesday we had a good time we helped out at the people city mission they love us because we work hard and do what we're told when we're told we then ran to a members for dinner more like drove but the same idea we had a good quick dinner of Enchiladas we then hurried back to meet up the Elders in the Mahoney area to hand over an investigator family we had received as a referral we split up and I went to teach/find some  Hispanics that Elder Vagas knew of so we had fun driving around for a bit we then met back up and rushed off to meet up with the Elders quorum President to go meet with the Quirino Family that we found and teach them the missionary lessons.

          Thursday we were at the Christmas Conference practically all day so we left when it was dark and drove there in the dark and we drove home in the dark so it was kind of weird. we Had Navajo or Indian tacos with the Sibbetts then met up with a potential investigator named Wilfredo a very impatient man the first time we met him but he was nice and we shared with him most of the restoration and he had some misconceptions about who Mormons were so we cleared that up and it was good we hope to see him again soon we might have a hard time getting him baptized due to some barriers like most Hispanics but I have high hopes for him.

          Friday all we did was weekly plan and set up for the ward Christmas party, none of the people who are technically in charge showed up so it was lame we became the wards slaves but they gave us a ton of meat at the end.

       Saturday we did service had the shortest craziest exchange ever and went ot the adult session of stake conference

       Sunday pretty much the same had breakfast with brother beck and correlation meeting and then we had a sweet team up with Chelem to see a family he knows and it was super good we are going to have to set up a time to go back w then finished some weekly planning we didn't get to do because of Christmas party  and that was our week not super eventful but very meaningful

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Christmas is coming, A Savior is Born

Dear Family and Friends and furry creatures,

         This week has been another eventful week in Nebraska. Monday we had two amazing lessons. The first with Grace and Jose, a couple. They are awesome, they have such great questions and are so humble and rely on God for their daily bread and they want to find the truth. We read Alma 34 with them and it touched their hearts, call upon God. Then we found a boy named Vladimir. He is 18 and has been in the United States for a very short time and he has visited with missionaries before, when he lived in Guatemala. He had questions about what we teach and we took him back to the basics and asked him about God and what it would mean to him, if he had a loving Heavenly Father and our conversation went deeper than but suffice to say he almost cried and he wants to change his life around Awesome!

           Tuesday we had some good visits, first with a member who is struggling with smoking and he was well I am not sure I want to start quitting today but maybe by my birthday I will be done smoking. So we were like well start today and he was like well if God sends me a sign and Elder Sharp and I looked at each other and said well we're a sign and shared some scriptures with him about asking for signs when we are already 100% sure of what the answer is and we are trying to excuse our behavior. So he realized what he was doing and is more determined to quit so we are excited for him. We also saw a part member family they are super awesome, they are just working out some legal things so the dad can get baptized They are super cool and super sweet. They are working super hard on being good examples to their kids it is awesome!
      Well Wednesday we had three awesome lesson, first a less active and he was super cool. He is setting a New Year's resolution with is wife, if all goes well for them to start coming back to church. We then did service at the People City Mission helping organize and unload stuff, so that was fun. I got to move lots of boxes and stack tons of bread and pastries, so ya so much food. We then had dinner with the Olivers who gave us some ribs type thing, it was super good and yummy. So then we went rushing to meet up with a member to go on team ups and we had a  good time we saw an investigator, Carlos. Carlos is awesome, he has already started to change his life around, "It just felt like the right thing to do" to some of the changes he made. He is super cool, we are hopefully are going to set and start preparing for baptism this week. So he will probably be baptized in January.  Then we caught a less active family, who had been at a family reunion in Arizona and it was good to see them. We committed them to daily scripture reading and prayer.

          Thursday we had Zone training and we learned more about prayer and making our studies more effective, and making sure we are actually planning the way we are asked to. Then we went and saw an investigator, she has so many questions and stuff. So we had trouble keeping it on track.

We all saw the new family with Brother Beck.

Friday, we did lots of weekly planing and talked to some drunk guy who wanted to interrogate us.

Then Saturday we finished weekly planning  got a good lesson in with the family we saw earlier. Sunday we got to see a referral and it was cool. They are sweet, Jarvis and Ali. So ya we are handing them over to the English Elders.

That is my week.

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Thanksgiving week

Wow! Thanksgiving is already past and gone, and on to the Christmas Season.

        This week we had not as much teaching success as we had hoped or planned for, but it was still a good week. Monday night we had exchanges and it was super cool. I was with Elder Kimzey who is being trained in Columbus and that was good. We had a fantastic night. The Highlights was this woman named Grace, she hadn't had the opportunity to read what we had left with her. So we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with her and explained to her our purpose of inviting her to come unto Christ and to build her faith in Him and His Atonement and The Spirit filled the room. She felt it and she said yes that is what I want I want to grow my faith in Christ and we shared with her that the Book of Mormon with the Bible helps us to do that. So she accepted the invitation to investigate for herself.

           We then saw a man named Noe and it was a cool lesson with Noe because as he invited us in. He was listening to what we had asked him to read #awesometechnology so ya and we reread with him and pointed out some things that we thought were important. I have found that many of the Hispanics which I have taught don't understand why God gives commandments and why He punishes and etc... and they fear Him and don't really understand His love. So our lesson shifted and I asked him, "In what way does God love you?" He replied he didn't really know or understand and I asked him, "Why did you just tell your kids to stop fighting or they couldn't watch TV?" and he responded because I love them boom! How does God love you Noe? Like a father? Yes, that is why he is Padre Celestial (Heavenly Father!). So ya it clicked for him!  He is awesome. He makes super good sushi!

            Tuesday Literally all our plans went down the drain. So we went and did some extra planning seeing how we can't be more effective with our time!

            Wednesday we had two sweet lessons. One with a less active, who is going out to school at UNK. So that was sweet. I think he might be coming back to church out in Kearny, if the YSA (Young Single Adult Ward) sisters get some guy friends for him. Then we saw an investigator named Carlos, and it was a sweet lesson. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and helped him understand that Jesus Christ is the center of it all, and that he can heal us of all scars and pains both mental, emotional, and physical through His Atonement and redemption. Nothing is final until it is final #finaljudgement

          Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was awesome. We had so much food I was practically my own turkey. After that we also had freezing rain, so that made things fun but again appointments down the drain so . But we did get to see some members of the ward, which was good! The cool thing was we bumped into a less active member, who we didn't know, in Walmart. We were grabbing some stuff and I heard a woman say Elder with a spanish accent and I responded Si and she said I am a member and I said, "Mucho gusto hermana" She was like, wait you speak Spanish and I was like yep, so she got super excited and started speaking with us in Spanish and she was going back to Mexico the next day but her son and daughter in law were staying.

                 Friday we saw two families and it was good. We had fun slipping on ice. My butt got a good wallop, but it is good now.

             Saturday we had a second Thanksgiving dinner and it was crazy one of the daughters invited her friend and they were just crazy. I felt like I was in high school again, so ya it was weird but fun I guess. Then we saw the family we found on Thanksgiving and we were like, wow this isn't a coincidence and we invited them to church.

               Sunday They Came! Their three kids and brand new baby girl, an awesome family! They had only been living in Lincoln for 10ish months. So they didn't know if there was anything for them in Spanish. So we luckily found them and that was my week, and today we have snow!

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Pictures!!

Bethren Family

Lincoln Elders (Thanks to Facebook)

Manuel with Me

Mary and Me

Barbara and Dylan Coulter

Zone Conference

Dear Family and Friends and Fuzzy Creatures,

        This week was an exciting week we had lots of fun with being crazy missionaries and doing our job, which also includes sitting in meetings.

        Monday I don't have much to say for that day as usual, other than we played basketball and I made some pretty sweet/crazy shots. I shot over some pretty tall Elders draining it, so they were shocked and so was I. (Good can come from passing the ball to me. )

          We also had a sweet lesson with this man who has been meeting with the Elders and we talked with him. I asked him basically, "Do you know what blessings come from obeying the commandments of God?" He was like, "No........ "(for some reason culturally Hispanics especially Mexicans with a Catholic background Fear God and his Judgement and don't really believe to strongly in blessings. At least for some of the people we are teaching right now) and so we helped him start to understand that God wants to bless him. So we are going to see him today and just teach him about how God wants to bless us.

           Tuesday we got up early to get ready to go to Zone conference out in Grand Island, and we had a sweet meeting with Elder Martino. He addressed us on several things he felt inspired to cover. One of the big ones being FAITH in Jesus Christ and CHARITY. So it was really good to learn more about those. We got to see lots of missionaries and I got to see the only other missionary from Olympus there, Sister Reynolds (she is friends with Logan Mathie and the same age as cousin Em).

            Wednesday we had some sweet visits with some members and that was good. One lady who has avoided us whenever we have gone to see her husband came out to join us for the prayer before we left. So it was awesome, so miracles happen everyday. We also went and did service at the People City Mission and had some great adventures. One man was attacked and got his throat slit (sort of we aren't quite sure) and so we had eleven police cars and an ambulance. So it was crazy luckily it happened outside where very few people were, but he is okay. So that was our adventure.

          Thursday we got up and went to meet up with our zone leaders to do an exchange, so that was fun. The highlight would have to be teaching a guy in Burger King. We got a call from missionaries in Grand Island saying, "Do you remember so and so? Ya well he has moved to Lincoln and he wants you to meet him there, in well now!" So that was super exciting.

            Friday we did lots of weekly planning and such. We only got to see one person, so the week was slow.

             Saturday we went and saw a few members of the ward council trying to compile a list of names of people they would like us to see, and then after that we just had horrible luck all day trying to see people even those with whom we had appointments, but at least our Dinner Appointment went through Papa Murphy's pizza!

              Sunday the longest day of the week just sitting at  church from 11/10 till four it makes ADOS Elders like myself go crazy, even if we are missionaries. It was good though we had a good day with trying to see people, we had a member come with us and he was our GPS after our appointment to get us to his house (he knew Lincoln very well).

         Well that is my week,

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Brother Pearnson's Church mouse

Crazy Week, I got Transfered Hello Lincoln

Dear Family and Friends,

       I am grateful to be writing you from Lincoln, and I am glad that you all can still write me with relative ease. As I said this has been a crazy week, we had some good success and I have no particular order as I left my old planner in my apartment so sadly you get this info from memory.

        We had a Book of Mormon class, like a bible study class, and we are just going through and we got through all the pages of the Introduction so today they can start on the actual book.

We visited with Mary an investigator and she accepted the commitment to be baptized and offered one of the sincerest most heartfelt spiritually powerful prayers I have ever heard an investigator say. She has a pure and honest heart and she has committed to be baptized on December 5, so we are very excited for her.

         In another fantastic lesson Miguel Alarcon, a boy we have been teaching, committed to come to church and be baptized and his mom was the best she said, "So you're telling me you won't complain about getting up and getting ready for church?" BOOM she laid it down and he said yes!

       Overall the week went well. Thursday morning we were up with much anticipation as to what was going to happen during district meeting the Zone leaders gave us the news: Elder McBride was going to Fremont with Elder Kummerman and I was going up to Lincoln to replace Elder McBride. We don't know for sure but I may just finish my mission here. So Thursday we visited people but I did lots of packing and it was all good to get my stuff organized and to dejunk a little bit.

      Oh and I had an exciting find at the thrift store in Crete. I found an old briefcase so I got to use that for some stuff I wanted to haul around for meetings. The pioneer ward thought it was funny to see me again and to have me here full time. I was pretty excited to be still in the same ward. I obviously still have something to learn from them or I have someone I can help.

         So that has been my week I hope you are all doing well and that you keep reading your scriptures, praying daily and keep church as the center of your lives.

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Spanish Conference and more!

Dear family and Friends,

       This week has been a good time for us in NOM (Nebraska Omaha Mission).

        Monday we had a good lesson with a less active woman we shared with her the Articles of Faith and tried to set a solid foundation with her of what we as members of the church believe.

         Tuesday was an exciting day we had Spanish Conference in Omaha. We did studies then went up their in the afternoon had lunch then had the conference from 2 to about 5 so that was a long meeting then we still had to drive back to Crete so that was good they had kindly given us sack dinners to take with us. we were driving with Columbus Spanish since were going to be doing an exchange in Crete the next day when we got a call that said oh by the way we are having zone training Thursday and they canceled district meetings on Wednesdays! So Columbus Spanish spent Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday out of their area so that was sad for them.

           Tuesday night after we got back we went and visited with Brother Wardle and had a good lesson with him we are starting a Book of Mormon Study kind of like a bible study so that will be fun. Then we went and tried a Hispanic family and they weren't available but we did get and appointment and also we knocked into a man from Foodnet so we had a door step lesson he is a very "solid Christian" and he has a decent understanding of the scriptures. It was fun we  had a nice conversation but he doesn't believe in revelations or the gifts of the spirit etc... so that is awkward but we had a good time and we then came home. 

           Wednesday we did service at the Bakery and then we studied and then did some knocking hoping to find a college kid or too, that didn't go over so well but we did find some Hispanics as potentials then we played basketball with Dylan and we retaught him the Restoration. He beat us by quite a bit we had a late dinner due to our basketball and the other Elder's appointment I cooked some really good Pork chops and it was super nice chipotle sauce is awesome. we then switched companions again and I had a lesson with a seventh day Adventist which was interesting they were asking some good but weird questions like can Joseph Smith forgive sin? I responded with a question "Could Moses forgive sin?" well no then I said Joseph Smith is just another prophet like unto Moses and well no he can't forgive sin. after that lesson which went pretty well we were walking home when this man called out to us and I turned and looked and it was a man we knew from helping out at new beginnings and we talked and his name is Dave and he is/was RLDS and we were able to visit with him for a minute or two and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said I can't call myself truly RLds because it has just changed to much to the world. so New Potential with a lot of Potential!

              Thursday we had Zone Training which our time in Lincoln was from 9:30 am to 15:30 so do the math Six hours in the meeting it was a long day. The whole training was about better planning and better preparation to do things and changing our habits so we are doing everything in planning by the manual PMG so that is a good change none of it was new but it was a in depth refresher on how to do it better.

           Friday was the weekly planning wow do we have things to do we are getting better at planning and making lesson plans and ya we had no lessons

             Saturday we had foodnet which was good we met this guy named Aaron who knows a lot about the bible but he is kind of crazy however it was super fun talking to him and maybe we will get to teach him who knows.

             Sunday we spent all day in Lincoln pretty much however were able to get a sweet refereal for a college student at Doane who became interested in us after taking a comparative religions course so it was an awesome lesson.

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Anti-Mormon Video and Pharisees

Dear Family and Friends,

       This has been a good week. We have had some good visits and some not so good visits. All and all it has been a rather run of the mill week. So, in no particular order, we had a fantastic lesson with this "Catholic" family and she (the mom) shared what she studies in her sect of Catholicism. Basically she is an apostate Catholic, but still Catholic. I don't get i,t but Elder Infante was then able to pull that around into a good lesson on The Plan of Salvation and we committed her to read the plan of salvation pamphlet, and she will. Her husband on the other hand, I don't think so he was dozing during the lesson and he can't be blamed working twelve days straight then only getting two days off.

       We visited with Leonard and he wasn't interested. He said, "I'm never going to be a Mormon, but you boys can come and visit." We decided after the lesson, which our member team up bore powerful testimony during, that we weren't going to go back.

        Our next investigator, Mary, let us in and we had an amazing lesson with her. She was the complete opposite attitude. She had a concern about being baptized again since she had already been baptized and that was resolved, as Elder Infante bore testimony of the Apostasy and Restoration of the priesthood authority.

      When people are hungering and thirsting after righteousness their concerns are resolved by the true doctrine and understanding, and when others are not their concerns are superficial to mask their lack of desire to do and they harden their hearts against the true doctrine.

       We had an investigator look up info via Google about the church and one of the things he found was an old video produced by Anti-Mormons about the church that had been reposted to youtube.com. So we were able to talk with him and tell him that video contains truths but the issue is that the truths it has are wrapped in lies, as to render it entirely false. He believed us and we will eventually cover the topics found in the video and discuss the truths with him without having to battle the video.

      The message I have learned this week is to not try to argue the gospel and to find those who will truly receive the word of God, not those who are only listening out of politeness. We need to be humble and teachable and diligent seekers and scrutinizers of all, both for and against what we believe, and most importantly humble children of God who ask for wisdom and understanding from God.

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Miracles abound

Dear Family and friends,

       For the most part this week was like any other, lots of rejection and disappointment and not a lot of fruits. However, if we are blind we miss the greatest miracles that God has in store. The first two days of the week, Monday and Tuesday, were kind of dull and dragged on. We had exchanges and we were able to find some good potentials, but no real good lessons.

      Wednesday we had some good lessons in the day, but again not a lot of progress in the people. We went and tried a potential and his dad said he isn't here right now but he is at such and such address, I was like okay lets go find him and well guess what....... He wasn't home and that was frustrating and I was walking back to the car and I saw a house and it had a light on. I felt like we needed to knock that house, Elder Infante was like sure, "why not," a lady answered and she said we just woke her up and that she was a little sick but we could come back the next day around 3, so that was our night.

       Well after district meeting we had another preset appointment at 2:30. So we rushed there and they gave us good news, which didn't seem to be good news at the moment, We are busy maybe tomorrow. I was like REALLY?! but we went to lady's house from the night before. She welcomed us warmly and asked us to step in, a no no but we did for her sake. It was chilly. She told us everything. She is in her late forties to early fifties, and has had lymphoma for the past 17 years and this is her last couple weeks, or there abouts and she has died according to the doctors 29 times in the lasts two years and has had her liver and pancreas removed and has lived those two years without them! She was given priesthood blessings by missionaries in Washington St and she knows that is why she is alive. So we gave her a priesthood blessing, as I laid my hands on her head I felt the Spirit give me comfort and peace as I spoke the words she needed to hear. I believe that she will be able to live long enough to receive her saving ordinances, and help help her daughters ages 15 and 17 start on that path as well.

           Later that day we found this couple, Billy and Mia. We found them as we were looking for another investigator and they are super sincere and they are super cool. They are going to call us and have us come over sometime. We just have to get on them about that because they didn't give us their contact information but it was super cool talking to them. It was a great week we had so many other miracles associated with this week, things are heading in the right direction.

         Saturday night we had tried Jannie earlier in the night and it hadn't worked out and we went to another investigators and he got dropped by us because he doesn't want to progress or do anything. I got a prompting to just end our lesson and go to Jannie's. So we left and as we were on our way we bumped into our Branch President and his wife dropping off a member after the temple trip they had. So we snagged him and had them come meet her for a little bit, and it was super cool. We also had a sweet lesson Sunday with another family in the branch, and she is so sweet and kind and positive despite all that has been going on and the Lord sent us to her when she softened her heart enough to ask Him for help and ask the important questions of life.

         I testify of the truth of this work and the reality of the Restoration of the Gospel. I know the Priesthood is on the earth today and that we are guided by the Holy Ghost, and we have God's authority once again.
Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Lots of Pictures! YAY!

I've got your back

Elders sitting on a fence post chewing their bubble gum

Look beyond what you can see

So Long Farewell

t

The elders show off their true colors

Stepping up the work in Nebraska

Dear Family and friends,

 This has been a good week.

        Nebraska is really getting into the fall weather. The cornfields are coming down and the soy fields are being harvested and all is wrapping up, unless you are a missionary and you work seven days a week and you work from 8:00-21:00 or on a lucky preparation day only from 8 to 10 and from 17 to 21, so the work never stops.

        This week I am not going to attempt to give you a day by day play of what happened, as that would be boring like my usual letters.

         This week marks the mission wide Step it up campaign in Nebraska. We had a zone training about stepping it up, having more effective studies, and inviting to be baptized more often. The trainings were fantastic. President Gardner showed up to interview us and see how we are doing. It was a very motivational meeting and setting. I was super excited to take it back to Crete and see miracles and as we got to work. Well the miracles didn't rain down from heaven, the people didn't jump and say Yes we want to listen to you. They grabbed their Bibles like the Pharisees of Old and clamored Blasphemy and tossed scripture at us with senseless fury.

            Now that is a dark and dreary and drab view of how the week went, but it wasn't all like  that. I will share a few of the highlights with you. Tuesday we had fantastic lesson with Miguel and Luis about scripture study and prayer, and that was really good. We got their aunt and our ward mission leader in on the lesson and it rocked. Wednesday our highlight lesson was with Crystal and Guierrmo and that was a good-ish lesson. Crystal's sister was there and she is an Atheist. She asked us how we can justify a belief in God when you can't hear him, see him, touch him, or smell him. Well we got talking and I pulled out 2 Nephi 2 and Alma 30, and basically said if the only things that are really are what we see, hear, touch, or smell then you neither believe in science or logic but there are things unseen which are true. Oxygen, atoms, magma, tectonic plates, sharks, gases etc.... Yet here I have a book called The Book of Mormon, which you can not tell me a farm boy wrote it because no farm boy is that smart and the archeologically evidence is there. So before we finished the conversation she just got up and left the room and Elder Infante said you had her that is why she left, she saw and she was scared.

            Next Thursday we went and saw Mary and had a good lesson on The Plan of Salvation, she just needs to listen to The Book of Mormon. Then we saw Celeste, she is the daughter of an investigator, we stopped by to see her parents but they were both gone and since we had a team up we had the opportunity to teach her about The Book of Mormon, which was awesome. She accepted it right off the bat, basically and that was sweet! She said she would read it even if she had to carry it around school, like she had been doing and at the end of the lesson. She asked "Can I keep this copy you just gave me? One of my teachers asked if he could have the copy I had at school, so I actually don't have one." BOOM! Miracle! I want his address.

             Friday, a lack of faith day, we taught our investigator Leonard. Yep his name is not lenard but Leonard. We had a lesson addressing his concerns and basically he is a stick in the mud, but he is willing to read The Book of Mormon. He tried accusing us of adding to the Bible and that the Bible was all there was and we had to talk about that, and that got us nowhere.

              Saturday we had a sweet lesson with Rashell. We hadn't seen her for a while, but we were able to find her and that was good. So we are going to get her to read because she is sincere about learning and visiting with us. She started noticing our absence and watched for us around town, so that is good.

                 Sunday we met with a very nice Hispanic man named Miguel. He jumped straight at our necks with Revelations 22:18-19. He couldn't remember where the verses were so I showed him ;) and basically it was him telling us to preach the bible only, so that was that.

       Have a fantastic week. I love you all.

Love, Elder Draper

#Ponderizer

Isaiah 53:3-5

D&C 121:41-46

Moroni 7:45

Picking up the pace

Dear Family and Friends

       This week marks another week gone and by in the mission and life of ME, the not so center center of the universe. The Lord is hastening his work and we need to keep up or have to catch up. I vote keep up it is so much easier.

          Monday we visited with a couple named Mary and Gary. They really got lucky on the name matching game! It was a good lesson we shared with them The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was good, we had some really good conversation. They aren't too interested but they have a son who is LDS, and their grandson will obviously do this. So they thought they might as well listen to us.

             Tuesday was rather crazy, as it should be. We had fun setting up a Xbox to watch The Restoration movie and then trying to teach The Plan of Salvation to a less active with crazy animals, but they were both good visits. The Restoration lesson went as could be expected the man did not like our "emphasis" in The Book of Mormon. I kind of threw it gently back in his face when he asked which was more important The Bible or The Book of Mormon. I asked him well which is more important the Old or New Testament? Answer your own question. He also does not believe in one true church...... we will leave it at that. We had a good lesson with the Alarcon boy, Miguel, and that was good. It was super fast, then we went and met up with our member for a team up. We went out with President Thompson and then went to a Hispanic family and taught them about the first point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith with the Family: A Proclamation to the World. It went super well especially when President Thompson bore his testimony. We then went and had pizza with another investigator, then taught him about The Plan of Salvation, which went super well. Lenard, or Leonard, (don't judge my spelling) had lots of questions but we were able to answer them by bearing testimony of The Book of Mormon and how we received answers through the Holy Ghost. Then we taught him how he could receive an answer through reading and prayer, and how to recognize the Spirit.

          Wednesday we had a good day. We had exchanges and blitzed Crete. We had lots of fun. I had the opportunity to find Mary again and teach her about The Restoration and The Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a super powerful but simple lesson and it was only miscommunication which kept us from meeting with her, so it was a good lesson. We did lots of walking and that was good. We had some good times. I was with a new Elder, Elder Kimzey, so it was fun. 

          Thursday was crazy, we had district meeting and things took longer than planned for getting back to Crete. We saw people a little out of order, but it was good. We saw Leonard again and read 1 Corinthians 15 to help him understand the degrees of glory better, and because of that we were able to get the Alcarcon parents involved in the lesson with the boys. We talked and read about the sacrament and we hope they will come to church sometime. We were then able to see Vidal, which was good. It had been a while and he isn't really seeming to progress, so we are going to give him the our purpose lesson next time and get him motivated to progress or we might have to drop him.

            Friday we did service for Brother Wardle and then went to the Chinese Buffet for lunch and that was good. We did weekly planning and then had dinner. Then went to a meeting with Brother Pister , Brother Nottingham, and President Kearl about how to move the work forward in the Seward Branch and that took up our evening. So that was good day. 

             Saturday we helped out at Foodnet. People were a little surprised to see me still there after having me gone through two companions. We played basketball with Dylan. I am getting better. I almost won one of the games of 21, then we were able to see Jesus and Estmirana and teach them The Restoration.
 Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Conference week and the transfers Oh Pues WOW!!!

Dear Family and Friends and adorable fuzzy creatures,

        This has been an exciting week for us in Crete, Nebraska with some unexpected events and some wows.

          Monday was the usual. Our Family Home Evening appointment had to cancel, and change to Tuesday. That was fine and so we came home from our day of basketball and correlation meetings. We then went to try some investigators, who weren't available, but we set up some appointments and that was good. We went home a little bit early and started calling people on the potential sheets we have. The first person said we could come over! So when I called all we had was a name and number. So we called and I introduced myself and asked if they might have any interest in letting us come share a message with them. She asked, "Who gave you our number?" I said, "I don't know." She said, "Oh come on, was it my son? He is a member of your church." So we had a good phone visit, so we are going to meet this family, and hopefully it all goes well, today.

            Tuesday we had a busy day planned. We swung by the post office and dropped off letters and then we bumped into our investigator, who was getting at us because he said to come by12:00 and it was 11:55. He was like you are late and I said but you aren't even home so therefore we are right on time, God just slowed us down so we could find you now. He said "Give me half an hour and then I will see you at my place." So we went to the library to print off a paper we needed and then we went to his house and he wasn't there, and that waiting took a while so we called and texted then left. We then went and had a good lesson with a less active lady and her non-member husband. He was not in the lesson but it was still good. We then went up to Doane College to meet with our investigator, Eric, and his phone isn't working and so we didn't get to see him. So we are praying for a miracle in regards to all of this stuff. We then had a good lesson with the Alarcon Boys and we talked about General Conference, and that was super good. We then had a random member stop us on the street and take us to Dairy Queen for shakes, and then he went  back on his way home to Lincoln. We then went to a lesson with a family, Mateo and Veronica. We had an amazing short and simple lesson about The Plan of Salvation and next time we will be teaching about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bless their family and how they can progress to an eternal family. We then went and had a great lesson with the Behrens for FHE, which was super good. We taught about adversity and how we all have to struggle but we can overcome and realize our dreams. For Cheri, the daughter, it is go to one of the great huge schools back east. We suggested first going to BYU and so ya "AWESOMENESS" as she said.

              Wednesday we had district meeting and service and that was all good. We then came back and had a few good appointments. We were thinking I would go, that was our  transfer prediction and so that was about it for Wednesday.

             Thursday we awaited the news, and Elder Phillips was assigned to go up to Worthington Minnesota! Ya the farthest north Spanish/zebra area in the mission! So he was angry/frustrated because he had to pack and he didn't want to go. He didn't think that it would be him, but he bucked up and realized opening Spanish in the middle of nowhere is a huge responsibility. Then we got a call at 10:25 saying, "Ya be prepared at 7:15 in the morning from the transfer point..... " Ya so we were up late packing his stuff.

              Friday I dropped him off at the transfer point and picked up my temporary comp. We went the to the zone leaders' apartment and then went to the People's City Mission in Lincoln to do service. I was put on "Security" to watch the perimeter of their outside "shopping Center" to make sure all the people went in the entrance and out the exit. We then had to step in and take control of a fight, which really just consisted in stepping in and they all stopped and started playing nice. They just made some problems tipping boxes and stuff. I then got my new companion at 5 that afternoon and we went back to Crete, unloaded our stuff and then went to Dairy Queen for dinner. Then we went out on a team-up with Brother Pister.

            Saturday we watched General Conference with President Kearl.

          Sunday we watched General Conference with Brother Beck at the church.
Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Crazy Week

This week has been absolutely nuts, and I have no pictures to document what I mean.

              Monday we had our correlation meeting, and that was good. We had some good pizza afterwards, that Sister Pister had made. We then went and saw the Beherens and talked about how to apply the scriptures to our lives.

              Tuesday, wow, what a day! We went to New Begginings and did some stuff for them there, arranging and hauling boxes upstairs. I then went and got a hair cut at the Diaz Brothers. They did a nice job, and we got Jullian's (the guy who cut my hair) new address. So we are going to go visit him sometime this week and start teaching him hopefully. Our morning plans went crazy. We ended up teaching the Alarcon Boys at 5:00 and that was good started covering The Ten Commandments more in detail. Then we went and visited with Eric, and that was good. We asked him what he wanted to learn about. He said, "Marriage and family and courtship." Our religious teachings about those things, so that will be fun to teach to him. We had a good lesson referencing The Family: A Proclamation to the World, though I happened to not have one in English, only Spanish :( , but next time. We then ended up seeing our new investigator, Lenard, and we were able to get through all of The Restoration! Ya, he had so many questions it is good and difficult. 

               Wednesday, it was a good day, we did service then our studies then we went to our late district meeting. That was good. It was Elder Paddock's last meeting before he goes home Wednesday! crazy! We went to a restaurant called Honest Abe's it was good, they had delicious hamburgers and fries. Then we finally went home and it was raining pretty hard. So our car got clean :) We went and saw Brother Wardle and visited with him, and talked about coming with us to a lesson we had scheduled on Friday.

                 Thursday we were preparing to go out and teach for the day when we got a pounding on our door. I jumped up thinking it was a package, and it was our neighbor Sandi. She asked if we could come down to her friend Eve's store, because she had a fire in the basement and needed help cleaning up some of the mess. So we quickly changed into our service clothes and we rushed "downtown" to her store, Jean's Sewing.We entered and it smelled awful. It was an electrical fire caused by a fan the owner had put in his private store room in the basement. So we cleaned up the glass from the broken door and got some fans from New Beginnings. So that was all fine. There was lots of glass and it took us about two hours to get it all cleaned up. Sandi bought us some lunch, which was nice of her considering she didn't have to. Well we went home and discovered we smelled like smoke so we cleaned up and tried to catch back up on the day, and that was all good. We were able to see a part member family and we watched The Restoration movie, which was amazing. He speaks Karen and very little English, but he felt the power of the movie. So hopefully we will be able to get him to come to church one of these days with his wife and kids.  We saw Miguel and Luis Alarcon and finished talking about The Ten Commandments, and we are leaving adultery to the parents and ya.... We  then rushed over to an investigator who said, "Come back at five, if you can." We said, "Probably 5:30." Which was fine, so we get there his wife opens the door, like really. She just gets her husband and he is like, this is not a good time. We reminded him that he asked us to come back later and we did, but we could reschedule and he was like tomorrow 10:00. Well we said we have an appointment at 10:00 to do service and he said aw you boys are so lazy fine sleep in if you want I get up at 4:30! and I countered we get up at 6:30  and we really get the same amount of sleep considering you are in bed before 8:00 so....... ya he made me frustrated by his arrogance, but whatever. We went and saw another family and had a good lesson with Vidal. We were able to teach him the first half of The Plan of Salvation. 

                   Friday, not much to report other than lots of service with the Catholic Sisters out at the Schoenstat shrine outside of Crete. So we helped out there and that was fun. They also fed us and that was nice of them. We then did weekly planning and tried to see people, but that didn't work out as we had planned but we did a lot.

                    Saturday we did Foodnet and taught Dylan The Plan of Salvation in story form, then we went back home and did our deep clean for the transfer wow! Lots of stuff  got done and we didn't see anyone :(

                    Sunday was a similar story. We went to church and came home had dinner and then finished weekly planning, and then worked on cleaning the area book.

             The crazy week of Elder Draper

Dirt Roads and Hot spicy peppers!

Dear Family and Friends

        This has been a good week for us here in good ol' Nebraska! We are enjoying the changing of the seasons, at least those of us who like good fall weather others of much hotter climates can remain silent and learn why God called them here, (because they wimped out on winter camps) Ha ha ha, but it is quite beautiful weather I love it.

           Monday after the P-day craziness we had a fun drive home along a dirt road, which was great. I drove and Elder Paddock and McBride told me drive really fast over this next hill, and I drove a little fast and the car had the nice zero gravity effect then we started to swerve because of the sand but it only lasted a second. It was fun, though they thought they were going to die. I wasn't scared because I was driving and knew what I was doing, so we had fun. We then went full on into our exchanges, and that was great. We split, I went and did some knocking with Elder McBride without too much luck and Elder Paddock and Elder Phillips went and visited some appointments.

              Tuesday we made pancakes and that was good and fun. We then all went and did service at New Beginnings, doing double duty. We made lots of headway with the books but we still have a lot to do. I am not excited for working with the novels. We came back and went and tried to visit some people while doing knocking and that was good. We had some success with that. We found some potentials then we knocked into a guy we found while talking on the street right before the last Nebraska game. We stumbled into his trailer and we were invited in and we taught about the coming forth of The Book of Mormon, and, man, he had a lot of questions, boom boom boom one right after the other. He was super happy when we gave him his very own copy. We then went and walked over to the Alarcon's and we reviewed with Miguel and Luis the Plan of Salvation. We came home and had some tacos I had made. I slow-potted some pork with these green chilies and it was super good super tender and everyone was happy, lots of meat and lots of rice! We then went and tried some potential investigators and nothing came of it, other than one former who dropped off the map saying "Don't come back at all." So, yep, moving on.

                Wednesday we went to the bakery and did service, then we went off to district meeting and had some very good trainings on improving nightly and weekly planning sessions. I was super excited because it was stuff I know I can work on and it was super helpful. We tried some people when we got back to Crete. We went to Lenard's house, he is the guy we talked to the day before. He went online and looked up about the Mormon Trail and he was appalled at the cruelty of the mobs who forced the saints out of their homes and he led us back around into The Restoration, which we gladly taught. We gave him the pamphlet to read and he was so nice about all of it, and I think he will read. That was the excitement of our day, other than going to the Hollist's family home for dinner out in the middle of nowhere. They have a cool house lots of animals( i.e. horses, dogs, chickens etc.... )

                   Thursday we taught quite a few lessons, though not as many as planned. It was an amazingly successful day. We taught a man named Jessi The Restoration which, despite how often I saw him with Elder Kummerman, it seems as if he had never been taught it. So that was good to teach because he had no idea about the Apostasy and he will never progress if he doesn't understand there is or was a Restoration. We also found a less active who just moved into Crete Manor. So that was good to add another person to our to visit list there. She actually is less active, so we will be working with her to build her testimony and faith so that when she can leave Crete Manor she can return to church. We were able to teach the Alarcon Boys The Ten Commandments with their dad,  which was good. He was able to participate, which was very needed. We then were able to teach Abel the Plan of Salvation, which was super good because he had lots of questions about that though we will need to teach The Restoration next time, since that is what he really needs to come to understand but it was a good lesson anyways.

                   Friday we had absolutely nothing except our temple trip and a ward party in Lincoln. So we went to the temple in Omaha, which is very beautiful and then we rushed back to Lincoln and we got there in time to go straight to our ward party. That was good. We had a pepper eating contest, since it was themed Hispanic for our Spanish Sunday. So Elder Phillips, Elder McBride and myself were roped into it and the contest was eat a Serrano pepper, a Jalapeno pepper. and a habanero pepper in the shortest amount of time possible. I got all of them down in about a minute forty seconds which was pretty good. Elder Phillips got it down in a minute fifteen seconds and Elder McBride got it down in two minutes. The winner got them down in fifty eight seconds, though Elder Phillips was bragging to Elder McBride and I that our faces were a little red. Well not two minutes latter his stomach cramped, mine was completely fine so ya.

                 Saturday I felt great, Phillips not so great but he got better. We did service at Foodnet and we had a very small group that day, which was weird. We then went to Hog Roast at President Kearl's house and we visited with the members and played touch football with the kids, which was great. Missionary guarded missionary, so it was fair. I was a great receiver but we went home and did some weekly planning.

                 Sunday went to church had a linger longer, came home and did weekly planning. So that was great and that is my week. I hope you are all doing well.

 Love your son brother and friend,

                Elder Logan J. Draper

Exchanges!

Dear Family and Friends,

        This week was an exciting week. As mentioned last week, we slipped back down to Crete on Monday which was fantastic to see Eric, Sister Coulter, and Dustin.

            Tuesday Elder Paddock and I did lots of walking and it was great. I feel that I am in pretty good walking shape, because I still had plenty of energy at the end of the night. I learned that I need to be better about talking to people about the gospel. It is part of me that got sick after my last companion, but I am excited to try knocking. It won't always work and it isn't the most effective but it allows us to get our name out there and give the world the truth of who we are.

              Wednesday we had a great zone training about how to first more effectively introduce The Book of Mormon in seven minutes and the other training was about stress and making sure you are having a good time in the mission, staying physically and emotionally healthy. President Weston told Elder Loveland, one of our zone leaders, before he left when Elder Loveland mentioned that he was stressed, "Elder Stress is Pride" which was funny since he said that in President Weston's voice but I had to reevaluate my thought process for a moment and realize I should relax a little. We had three awesome lessons. First we saw Jasmine and her husband, which speaks Karen and that was good we were able to teach him using his NT which is in Karen and English. So we would have him read verses in Karen. So that was great, we are having to become inventive. We saw two other investigators and we had good quick lessons with them and that was awesome! So we got a lot done that day.

        Well so we went to confirm our appointment with our neighbor, Sandi, and guess what SHE DROPPED US!!!! She said she was to busy and she was uncomfortable with The Book of Mormon, so that is that for now. So hopefully it works out in the future. I am still going to go by and see her and her dog, Bella!
            So Thursday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders and that was good. I was with Elder Wright in Lincoln and we did lots of walking. It was great, we also found them a couple of potential investigators while walking, just as we were getting back to the car to drive home for dinner he decided to pass out one more card and the guy invited us in right away. He started asking questions and we had to go after answering a few questions, so we set up a return appointment.
           Friday we did service for the nuns laying some more bricks and then they fed us, or at least gave us food to go since they had to go to a meeting as well. So we went home and did studies and worked on weekly planning and cleaning up the area book.
             Saturday we had Foodnet, which was good. We helped out with quite a few things, we helped get stuff. They wanted us to drive the van, can't do that. They wanted us to ride with one of the ladies, can't do that either! So it was great but we still have plenty of stuff to do. One of the ladies wants us to help her husband with some stuff after he gets his knees replaced. So that will be good, and maybe we can start teaching them as well! :) We then bumped into one of our investigators walking and that was walking. They invited us to go to their house and visit with them and we did some knocking and taught a very brief version of the Restoration.
           Sunday we got a dinner appointment and that rocked, and then we got back to Crete and did some knocking. So that was good. We got someone who was busy to call us back, so we are going to go and teach them. They are from Thailand I think so that will be fun, I don't speak Thai but maybe I can get the gift of tongues for that.

 I love this gospel and I know The Book of Mormon is true!

Love Elder L. J. Draper