Transfer week

Dear Family and Friends and silly animals

        This has been a good week. It also, sadly, was fairly unproductive as it seems to have been the case here for the past couple of weeks.  We had a good time, we stayed in Crete and we played basketball and played with my sling which was super fun and cool. I used a tennis ball for the big one which I made.

        Tuesday we did service and saw some investigators, and that was all good. We taught two investigators, one whose concern was the mission rules of not being able to give rides and to separate from your companion. Ya stupid concerns, because it was unjustified and ungrounded. Yes it would be so easy to give rides to everyone, then where would be be? A free taxi service! But we resolved his concern by telling him, "If you are baptized you won't have to follow mission rules." We explained the difference and it was a simple misunderstanding. Then we met with another investigator and tried to read with him, but he was very distracted and asking questions which is good but he was frustrating my companion and being a little ridiculous to me but I tried my best to answer his questions. 

            Wednesday we met with Brother Wardle and gave him a blessing, because he stepped on something and his foot got infected super sad. :( Then we taught another investigator who had the same concerns as the one mentioned earlier, and we got it resolved. Then we went and did exchanges with the Lincoln Spanish Elders. We had fun doing service at the Lincoln City Mission moving crates of stuff and talking to people as they picked stuff up.

              Thursday we had district meeting and when we showed up we got the news from the Zone leaders that Kummerman was going to be getting transferred. His companion was/is Elder Maradiaga in Fremont. I think they are going to/are having fun together. So we came back and tried to see people, doing splits with Brother Pister and Brother Seifert. We had very limited success with them sadly, but it was still cool to have that opportunity to blitz our area with members because it doesn't happen often.

             So that night and into Friday he packed, and we got to the transfer point at 3:10 and the van got there at 4:10. So that was forever waiting then I was informed that Elder Phillips, my new companion, would not be here until 9:00 that night and I was like what with the mission getting Sioux Falls the transfer schedule shifted. So ya it was different and I was caught off guard. So I went with Lincoln Spanish for a while to work and do whatever, and that was fun riding in the back seat. It was a good learning opportunity and then I got Elder Phillips. Then things were good. We stayed the night in Lincoln.

              We didn't have much to do teaching wise, due to having to catch up on weekly planing and unpacking and service. So there isn't much else to report for the week other than we are going to be boss and have fun! and teach until we drop.

Love the super enthusiastic

                      Fantabulous

                      steaming hot

Elder Draper, (it is crazy humid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Random Pictures

Got Through with Interviews, thanks to Sister Gardner for posting these.

Elders of the South Lincoln District

Thanks to Facebook NOM Moms for this one

The fast week

This was a rather fast week, so I will share only a couple of highlights:

      On Tuesday we had a good lesson with two boys, who are the children of less actives, and it was pretty good minus the fact that their younger sister was trying to get all the attention. So that kind of made things a little more difficult, but we got them started. The next thing was we had a member come out and the people we would normally see with him weren't home, and things fell through but we were able to get in to teach another potential family which had been taught by the missionaries in the past and we were able to get their interest back. So now they will be our new investigators. So that will be good. We had some other lessons this week with the big theme on the Atonement and how it can help us to overcome all challenges and trials. Those were very powerful lesson and very spiritual.

        One of the crazy stories of the week was, we were passing by an investigator's house and a dog had just attacked the investigator's cat. We helped look for the cat for a bit and things were crazy. We stopped by later to see if the cat was okay. He was and the police were now involved, and that is good and bad. The cool thing was even though we did not see our investigator, just his brother and the brother's girlfriend. He knew we had stopped by and that we were still thinking about him and he said in effect, because I don't remember the exact words, "Whenever I have prayed for guidance the past couple years you guys have showed up at my door, and when I have been questioning if God has been hearing my prayers you contact me, and when everything seems to go wrong you show up and help out the best you can. I don't know if The Book of Mormon is true but from what has been happening, you guys being there for me and my family, says a lot."

           The work of a missionary is hard. We are despised and rejected of men. We walk somewhat of the path that Christ walked. Christ warns us the path is difficult, but He also tells us it is well worth it. This week has been both difficult and worth it. I am learning to overcome and lean on his ample arm and I hope you can all do the same.

Love,

Logan Joseph Draper

Temple Trip Picture!

New week new adventures

Dear Family and friends and random readers or the RRs

        This has been a good week. Monday night we went and saw two families, one for family home evening; the other was for a lesson. The cool thing, with the lesson, was the family we taught said they talk about us everyday and I thought it was cool. They haven't been reading, last we heard, but I hope they have gotten something out of their conversations.

       Tuesday we saw Jesus (chewy) and it was good. We talked with him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how the Atonement can help us to change from bad to good, from good to better, from better to best, and from best to saint. It was a good lesson and we encouraged him to read and to keep the commitments we leave him, so hopefully he does.

        Wednesday we had our zone training and it was good. We had really good trainings from different people. I gave a spiritual thought/mini training, and everyone said they thought my thought was amazing. I hope they're telling the truth, otherwise it wouldn't be good for either of us. ;) 

Well after that we went to lunch at this restaurant that had six dollar burgers and fries. They were specialty burgers, as well. So that was good. We were there for forever, so we missed out on dinner basically. So we worked the rest of the night and had three lessons, one with a less active from the Seward side, who we have been doing service for and it was an awesome lesson. Before that we had been visiting with Vidal and it was good. Vidal is an investigator and he has been taught out the wazoo. So we are going to continue with him and help him to read from The Book of Mormon, so he can gain a testimony of it. Then our last lesson was with the Alarcons. They are a cool family in Crete. They went less active because of their work and now they are taking an interest in coming back to church. We talked with her about prayer, reminding the mom to pray and she said, "I just remembered I was going to ask you today when you were helping me in the bakery, if you could teach my boys so that when we go back to church they won't be lost and feel out of place." So that was cool because we were going to ask her about that, but she asked us so we will have two new investigators and less actives returning to church! all from one family! Then they can be sealed for eternity just from one little step of asking the missionaries.

           Thursday we did some more service at New Beginnings, since they needed help. We did service for Brother Wardle and then he took us out to lunch at the Chinese Buffet, and that is always really nice of him. After that we went and saw Dyllan, the son of a recent convert and that was good. He is such a good kid and we were able to talk with him for a bit. He said he would take the time to read the Book of Mormon and so that was good. That night Brother Beck came out from the Pioneer Ward, and we went and taught  Mateo and Veronica, a super cute couple. We watched the Restoration video with them, and it went over very well.

             Friday we had weekly planning, and that was all good. We had quite a bit of fun seeing people and having a relaxed but productive morning. That night we saw Sandi, a lady who lives in our apartment complex, and we had a really good lesson with her, going through the Plan of Salvation. We still have some things to cover and to talk about, but it was a good lesson and again all she needs to do is start to read The Book of Mormon.

              Saturday we had Foodnet, and with helping out they draw numbers. If you signed in and the line you signed was the number you get a prize or you get to pick a cake, or something like that. Both Elder Phillips and I were drawn as some of the prize winners, so we both ended up with a cake. So we are going to be sugared up.

              We then cleaned some stuff up around the apartment, and that was good. Then we went and tried seeing people, and that did not pan out. So that was okay, though we tried and we got lots of exercise.

              Sunday we had really good meetings and talks and the focus was: Are we looking unto Christ in all things? I think that is the big focus of all other things. The keeping the sabbath day holy initiative will help us look unto Christ and that will in turn help us in other areas. Well after church Elder Phillips and I saw one investigator, and it was a good lesson. We talked about eternal marriage, how it blesses our lives and prepares us to receive all that our Father has for us.

                I know that this is the work of God and that we are in the season of harvest, but that does not mean we get to simply harvest. We have to prepare the fruits so they can be vine ripened and harvested in the Lord's time.

                I know that God loves us and that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

 I love you all.

Love

      Elder Logan J. Draper

I got a cat

Elder Phillips and I with Oscar the cat, trying to get away

I got Oscar (do I get an award?)

Oscar the cat

I'm on the road again

and they are the same as Utah's

Meeting the New Mission President, President & Sister Gardner

Got some pictures

Yeah pictures, well we really want to eat (after all we are hungry boys)

Got to be in the front row

See if you can find me

Have you found me?

Try the right side

Okay games up, hope you found me by now

The first sling (1.1)

My second shot at this (1.2)

We got into Cornhusker Stadium!

Selfie, we are having fun

With President Kearl, before the new mission president

President and Sister Weston, the last hurrah before they left

Fun week meeting the mission President with booming fireworks

Dear Family and Friends

       This has been a great and interesting week. Monday, after emails, we went to the stake center as usual. I played around with my slings and it was amusing, and a disclaimer: I do not plan to hurt any living creature with them because it would be mean and not what Christ would want me to do, (snakes in my house may be an exception though it hasn't happened). Well we went to dinner at a members house from the Seward branch and they thought we weren't coming because the other Elders called and they missed the call, ya da ya da ya du. Well it was funny, we had some great last minute chili dogs and that was perfect. Nothing too fancy, just good old food. 

      Tuesday was great, we went out to Grand Island and met the new mission president, President Gardner. He is from Cache Valley, Utah though he grew up in the Holladay area and went to Olympus High School. His wife went to Skyline and they met at BYU, and they both graduated from the U of U! Good old mix! We then came back and visited as many of the less actives from the Seward branch in Crete as we could, and that was all good. I love teaching people, it is fun. We had good lessons with everyone, some were short and sweet, some were good decent chats/ lessons.

         Wednesday we didn't get much done on the actual teaching side. We spent lots of time walking around trying to find people but that didn't work out because walking takes time, and we sometimes walk slow. So there is not much we can do but we did go to a little picnic thing at assisted living facility with a less active lady, who was really excited to have us come be her guests since she has never had a guest at that event before. So that was super sweet, we did wish we could have stayed for the fireworks but we had to go try to see people.

         Thursday wasn't the most productive day, but we did get three lessons. We did service. so it was a good day. I mowed a lawn in the rain and got super soaked, then we went and had Chinese food at a Chinese buffet. It was good, cooked properly, no weird tasting nastiness. We then went and did service at the thrift store and picked up the leather for Sling 2.0, Goliath slayer. It will be cool. I will send you a picture next p-day. We then went and play basketball with an investigator, and then we went and tried another family and had a great lesson with them. They took us straight into the Plan of Salvation without us even trying. They had the perfect questions and we have the answers, so it was so nice. Then we hopped across town to another family for dinner, and seeing what service we could do for them.

            Friday we actually got to do weekly planing and I got a haircut (the haircut place is closed on Mondays who would have thought). We had a great lesson with Sandi. We watched the Restoration video with her and she said at the end, "I believe he [Joseph Smith] probably had a vision, I am not quite ready to read The Book of Mormon." Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

          Saturday, Independence Day, we went to Foodnet, gased our apartment for cockroaches and went to Beatrice to see a family. Teaching the family didn't work as planned, because they were having a carne asada (roast) but I talked with the dad's best friend, a really honest guy, not perfect but honest. We talked for two hours about God and the Bible and he is a solid good man, not perfect but good, I hope we can teach him again and tell him more about the restoration because he seemed to had good questions about all of that. Then we came home and watched fireworks from off our apartment balcony. That was fun, then we went in and went to bed.

          Sunday we got a ride to church from Brother Wardle. It was fantastic. We had some good lessons in Priesthood and Gospel Principles, and that was so good. We had one lesson with Dustin and he is hopefully going to read/listen to The Book of Mormon, so that is good. We shocked him, the Gospel Library doesn't use WiFi. Wow, cool but surprising. So that was our week. I hope you all have a good week and read your scriptures, and take advantage of our freedom of religion.

Love Logan Joseph Draper