Exchanges, Worldwide missionary brodcast and more

Dear Family and Friends,

         This has been a good week and we have had lots of adventures and some good progress. We were down in Crete. Tuesday and I got the opportunity to see a few of the people who I used to visit down there. We had a good time walking around in the snow. There wasn't to much excitement but we did have a some good lessons and we also cooked some good tacos for dinner.

         Wednesday we did our usual service at crystal's Bakery and then came back and went to the World wide missionary broadcast. It was really good the focus was on Teaching repentance and baptizing converts, we learned a lot Elder Bednar gently corrected an Elder for saying we have to carry the message into the heart of the people and Bednar corrected him saying No, we have to carry the message unto the heart but even then that is the Spirit's job not ours and can go no further. So that was good, we learned what we need to do to better work with members and less actives so we are getting things down to earth and I hope we get the chance to put what we have learned into effect more this week. We had a team up with Joseph Carlson that night and we were able to see a lady named Grace (her husband is Jose) that was a huge miracle and we applied our message to her and then we went to our appointment with Wilfredo our one progressing investigator, he was stubborn but at the end of the lesson the spirit touched him enough and he said he would read and pray about the book of Mormon we plan to teach him the plan of Salvation tonight, but more on that later

         Thursday nothing really happened other than we set up appointments and went to lunch at Honest Abe's (a burger place). We also got one referral but we spent most of our day driving around Lincoln. until the evening when Brother Stoki came out with us to try Marvin and that fell through so we went and saw one of his home teaching families.

         Friday was alright we got a member present lesson at 11:30 with Efrain as our team up it was sweet It was a lady named Araceli and she had visited with missionaries before in Mexico and Efrain made the lesson awesome by bearing a super strong and spirit filled testimony of the restoration so we hope that the next time we meet with her it is with her and her husband. We later saw Abel Melendez and we had a good restoration lesson with him as well the spirit was super strong and he said he was going to come to church.

           Saturday we saw the brother who is trying to quit smoking, it is coming down to the wire he wants to quit by the 6th of February so we are pushing him and he is going so that will be super awesome! We then saw Maria Nenniger she talked forever and mentioned everything from Mermaids to the "other Eve" ya long story but it was crazy and we are watching meet the Mormons with her so hopefully that goes alright. 

          Sunday man it was crazy we had our Early morning ward counsel meeting FUN😋 but no it was a good meeting and we are working on team ups and getting good member involvement. we had five less actives show up to church and one is now active so that is cool. We reminded the brothers to do their home teaching and to give us a call if they need a companion we would go with them, and we asked if anyone could go with us to our Monday appointment with Wilfredo and well afterwards a Visitor from Utah came up and said hey I am in town for a while and we don't have plans tomorrow would you like me to come with you so  that is awesome! and he will be meeting up with us tonight. but after church Elder sharp didn't feel well so he rested for a while and I studied some scriptures and ya it was good and we got to see Marvin, he has been working a lot and he is struggling spiritually so we are starting C.P.R. with him Church Prayer Reading

and that was my week the overview version we had a lot more disappointments than I can mention i.e. appointments that fell through but it turned out to be an awesome week

--
Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

The Quirino Baptism

Changes and Winter weather

Dear Family and Friends,

        I am doing well and I hope you are all safe. I have had an interesting time here in Nebraska and I would like to share with you some cool and crazy events that have happened recently. So first off last Monday we had a lesson with a family and they are going through some family struggles. We are not there to be counselors but we testified that we were there to bless and help them if they would try to apply the principles of the gospel. We taught and they were like, we are done trying. So we are giving them some space and going to see if they want to talk to our bishop and hand the wife over the Elders where they live since she speaks better English than Spanish. 

       Tuesday, well almost nothing went according to plan. We went and contacted a referral and got a return appointment, and then went to The Center for People in Need and did some service there. It is funny because we finish a project and we are like okay what is next while some of the workers are standing around gossiping. So they like us being their slaves, but it is all good that is why we go. We decided to get things done faster after service to got get a cheap dinner at Runza for Temperature Tuesday and everybody and their dog showed up. So it was packed but we got our "Nebraskan Tradition" tried it was alright for fast food. We then went and tried to see an investigator and before we could we got sidetracked into trying to help this old lady get a ride home. She was a member who got stranded not to far from home, but a ride from a member in her new ward never came. We then went and set up an appointment with our investigator Wilfredo. 

       Wednesday we had a good evening, we got to do splits with members and that was a first for me. So we taught a less active member who we got into contact with and I was with President Mellor of the Elders Quorum. Then we went and saw a family that was on his list to see from the bishopric. So that was good. We got a referral the day before from the sisters of a "Hispanic" family and so Elder Sharp went to try it and ya no.... they were Sudanese Christians who spoke Arabic. So I was jealous, as I have found the Arabs at The People City Mission and The Center for People in need to be Awesome and I like their language. We also earlier in the day got to visit with our member who we are helping to quit smoking and he is slowly making progress. 

         Thursday it was a crazy day. We had a lesson with Maria and that was good. She has so many questions I mention something and she has a related question and to answer that she takes us off topic and I kept our conversation on topic but she was all over the place and we are going to have a lesson on real intent and the Holy Ghost and hopefully she will accept the commitment to come to church. She just has trust issues as being "Catholic" and all. It is good, she is a very nice lady with lots of challenges in her life. We then had dinner with the Sibbets and it was good. We had hamburgers and one of the boys was being super boy-ish and I said, "Hey I'll make you a deal: If I eat everything on my plate, you eat everything on your plate and the winner gets the first chip." He started eating and behaving and the Brother and Sister Sibbett looked flabbergasted, "We have been  trying for X time and the missionary gets him to eat first go!?....." It was super funny we then rushed to North Lincoln to the Quirinos to have a lesson with them and make sure they were prepared for the Baptism of their daughter Emily on Saturday! 

           Friday was long and boring we had no success, but we did do weekly planning.

            Saturday we had a lesson with Wilfredo and he did not let me speak to teach him. He is trying to teach us and I am like Wilfredo I have read the Bible and I actually know probably as much as you do about the history of the Bible as you do so lets come to the realization that there is more to the Gospel than the Bible, that the Priesthood is necessary if, I could have spoken but it was still good. We had the Baptism of Emily and an investigator of the Sisters', so that was good. We did a presentation of the Restoration while people changed. We didn't have a lot of luck seeing people after that but we did get in with Valdo, a less active who is coming back around. He has had some health problems recently and has had to work out of town but ya he is doing well.

          Sunday the snow put a damper on our attendance, but our investigator Wilfredo came. He loved sacrament and he had to leave after that, and if he comes next week I think he will plan to stay for the full three hours.

         So that is my week and craziness, It was so cool to witness the Baptism of Emily and Kevin (that was the sisters investigator). The Spirit was very strong there and I know this is the path to eternal life.

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Winter decided to show up for real oh wait

Dear Family and Friends

       This week has been an exciting uproar of crazy!

Monday we started out the week with two pretty good lessons I was pretty happy the first one of note was with an investigator named Noe and we have been working with him for a while but he hasn't really wanted to progress and do more than learn and read and we decided since his wife hasn't been involved in the lessons since Elder Sharp and I have been here we would try to involve her by watching Together and Forever seeing if we couldn't spark interest. Well that went I think maybe a little to well The spirit was very strong and we could see that felt it and also that they loved the Cheesiness but deepness of the message. Well after the movie Noe sat quietly and we asked him and his wife what they thought and she said I got most of it but I still didn't catch all since it was in Spanish (she is a Hispanic American) Noe got up and said "I'm tired I'm going to bed see you next week" they had just started having relationship problems and after a talk the day before where they weren't sure what they needed to do We came in with and answer Stick it out It is Worth it

  Next is Wilfredo he is a stubborn man but that is a good thing it makes him seriously investigate we had a good lesson discussing the prophet Joseph Smith and what happened with him. He just kind of brushed off sadly because of The Book Of Mormon and he was like you Focus to much on this book of Mormon use the Bible more! and I looked at him and said why do I have to teach you things you already know, but we are teaching you of things that God has revealed. so ya it was funny trying to teach a stubborn Hispanic man when we don't speak perfect Spanish.

       Tuesday we got two lessons again which rocked they were less actives and we went over CPR with one lady CPR is Church Prayer Reading. We will die spiritually if we stop doing one of these things and those are the basics to stay alive or bring back one who is mostly dead (princess bride reference) We also did service at the center for people in Need which is fun we sorted Big Boxes of Apples I mean BIG we found some really bad apples and some pretty good ones it was fun but awful I also got the chance to talk with some of the people and I learned how to say

"hello" Peace on you which is said like Salam AlAkum

and reply is                                        Walakum Alsalam

and "good bye" With Safety                 mA sAlAma

       Wednesday we had zone Training which was good we had some training one from a guest speaker from the Yankee Hill Ward he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army and is a big business guy at UNL teaching Business leadership and we learned that in order to be an effective leader it is for the most part having the Christlike attributes and doing what missionaries do leading and helping others so it was super good we are focusing on becoming preach my gospel missionaries not just missionaries doing everything by the book  we also got our Elder's Quorum president to come with us to see a less active and he gave us a list of excuses and then we went to McDonald's to discuss how we could work more effectively with the Elder's quorum and that was a good meeting

    Thursday we got a text Hey Friday we are going to the Temple! so we brought stuff and went on exchanges with the Zone leaders which was nice and we had a good time going around teaching we got some success they are finding some good investigators and I felt like I learned quite a bit

        Friday we went to the temple so that was amazing we didn't get to go last transfer because of Christmas so we were blessed I learned a lot in the endowment session. I learned stuff that I needed and it wasn't even the answers or information I was looking for so that was cool. I was super impressed by the beauty and simplicity of the Temple but also its Magnificence so we came home and did weekly planning and that took up our day

         Saturday we had a good lessons again our days plans got changed but we still saw miracles because our Elder's Quorum activity got canceled we decided to go knock this apartment building the Zone leaders said had Hispanics and we were like okay sure it is super south in a very not Hispanic area but we decided to go for it and in doing so we knocked into a less active who we had met once but had moved to this apartment two weeks earlier and had no way to contact us and wants to come back to church once she changes jobs so that was a miracle little did our zone leaders know what an impact that would have. we had some other good lessons that day but that was our miracle

            Sunday we had slim attendance but we still had a small group but we are going to hopefully get back up we are just praying for the bosses of our Hispanics to soften their hearts and that they will find some way to not have to make our Hispanics work on Sundays

and that is my week Miracles are abounding and the Holy Ghost is being poured out on all those who are seeking for some thing better 

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends,

        This is a New year:

                     New Faith, New Hope, New Determination, and New Purpose.

  My week has been relatively uneventful but I will share a few things I deem highlights. Highlight

#1: Sunday at Church we had a whopping total of Five returning members!A total of nine Hispanic members! We think we might be able to officially start our own repartee group IF we get a consistent group of Ten or more. We are hoping to make our group a solid ten before we go on but it was amazing to see the miracle of the change of heart and the determination the members are showing to take ownership to build their own group.

#2 We got to do exchanges so I got to go down to Crete and see some of the people that I haven't seen for a while. So I got to teach Mary and Dylan and Donna. It was a good exchange and all the lessons went well and are making progress in building their faith and diligence in the gospel.

#3 We made Papusas for a little get together with our Hispanics and it was good, because they are delicious and I know how to make them now. We had a good lesson with them to give them the courage to build the group and it got them to church!

        Well I don't know what else to share this week has been good and we had a few lesson. So I hope that we keep going up from here but the thing that has stuck out to me this week, especially from our district meeting, many of us have faith that miracles can happen but we don't have the faith to say that Miracles will happen.

          I am determined to teach our members and Investigators That miracles and the power of God is manifest in his Church. If we have the faith that miracles do happen. Have Faith! Pray to see miracles and if you doubt pray for the faith to see miracles!

          Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives so doubt not but be believing and next week I will report on more of our miracles as Miracles do abound in the work of the Lord

--

Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper