Miracles and Madness

Dear Family and Friends

         This letter is entitled Miracles and Madness!!! Because there have been some miracles and really crazy madness. First, P-day, we ended up in the end not giving the girls to the English [elders]. I do not know why, other than the girls refused to go because they wanted to stay in Spanish with their fellow shipper which is great and all but it is crazy and over all confusing, because they don't speak Spanish! Then as we went to introduce the sisters to them, some drunk man went off on how they were fine in this sector he has them all under control but how we needed to go and find all the people with all the real problems. I don't know I tried to slide so that the sisters could maybe start to shift behind me, because he was getting really close to them and luckily the Spirit was keeping him off track enough to remember why we were there. So they were good and I was safe and the neighbors felt so bad about that little incident, but it all worked out. The girls had actulally just given a home evening on The Book of Mormon stories book. So it was awesome miracle, even with the drunk man.

        The next day we had a good lesson in the dress shop. We taught the owner about the Holy Ghost and she invited herself to be baptized, it was awesome. We are just trying to help her read and come to church. She has grown tons since I first got here and I am excited to see her get baptized, but who knows how that will go. Awesomely a member came into the store, so we invited her to come back to participate in the lesson. Hopefully that happens, I was on exchanges, and the member had a nonmember cousin, so we can see where that goes.

         Wednesday we had a super long zone training thingy with the zone Olympics. It was fun but it took forever and it threw me off. We really only had one lesson because we went to our dinner and then it took forever because we had a lesson with them on faith and political ideology. The Book of Mormon came in and kicked trash. They really liked it and now the whole political thing was a random branch off faith, but we taught how real faith should work and how we have grown as a church. We expect members to do stuff and investigators to keep commitments, and actually read The Book of Mormon

         Thursday we had a sweet day planned and it was sweet. We had a two hour lesson because the woman cried out her life story for us. It was cool and sad. She struggles with Faith in Christ, so we will probably watch that next time with her so she can gain a witness of Christ. We then had the typical fall throughs and then we got our teenager out in the cold for a lesson. That was interesting teaching a lesson in 5 degrees F with windchill, probably a first. Then we went to dinner with Karla and her family and we read Alma 36, it rocked. She is so strong now and in the Young Woman's presidency. So that is cool.

         Friday we planned and had some other good lessons, and burned some of our new and precious miles. Not to bad, we just need to be careful.

         Saturday we had a cool experience to go give a blessing at the children's hospital to a girl with cancer. We got a call from someone from Idaho, who met someone from Denison, Iowa and said go there and give them Books of Mormon and a blessing. We did, they were super touched. Its crazy because Denison just got closed, as the mission is shrinking in size but God still had us find them. So that will be cool.

        Sunday we had great talks about scripture study and it was cool. I took notes to share with our less active members and help them get that habit back. I really appreciate the time I have here on my mission to study out the Gospel and get to know it for myself.

         Yesterday we got to drive a non TiWi* car because they had pulled TiWi* out of it to sell and we were trading in our car to the repair shop. It was fun because I got going a little too fast and in my mind I got a check your speed. I slowed down and I didn't have a TiWi*. It was cool. I like TiWi* sometimes, but ya it was cool. Then we got a car and they said however many miles, you need don't sweat the small stuff. So ya we can contact some referrals.

          Well Elder Barton is from Spanish Fork, Utah. He is the oldest of his family. He has four brothers and one sister. He ran track and cross country, took calculus and physics and chemistry and wants to be a mechanical engineer. He is super cool. I don't know what else you want to know.

Well LOVE

Elder L.J. Draper
*TiWi is a  GPS Driver tracking box that tells missionaries if they are driving too fast, aggressive, etc.