Zone Conference

Dear Family and Friends 

        This has been another good but not super eventful week here in Nebraska in Lincoln (the Capitol) This past Monday was mostly uneventful we did our own things avoiding basketball trying to make it less of a have to and more of a if we want to. We explored a little bit of down town and I got my big maps laminated because I didn't want them to wear out (they had a couple of tears on the fold lines. we had two good lessons one with Marvin a super cool kid (though he is like 26) we started teaching him the plan of salvation since that is where most of his concerns are ( and we had taught him the restoration like 10 times and he hadn't fully let it click) so it went well and then we saw Wilfredo and that was a long lesson as usual but it was good he still wants to learn/take the lessons but he isn't willing to commit right now to baptism at all.

        Tuesday we tried seeing people in the morning and that was disappointing as usual almost no one is home in the morning we went to the Center for People in Need and helped out there they had us standing around for a while with nothing to do but we found stuff to keep us busy we had a good time keeping the tables stocked with stuff but we left early to go to our dinner with the Becks we tried to see people the rest of the evening and no one was home so that was a bummer for us but we had a decent evening anyways.

        Wednesday we had our Zone conference which was good we learned a lot about the Atonement and how it applies in our lives and how to teach others about it. lots of our discussion centered around the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Sacrament and how everything we do in the church from home teaching to missionary work to temple work is all based on the Atonement of Jesus Christ which is the center point of his Gospel. We won after that the cleanest car award it was judged by the mission office car people for having a 2012 car and having it in good condition and clean we got 50 extra miles the Pioneer sisters got second and the Columbus elders and some sisters tied for third so ya it was fun! We went to the People City Mission and Volunteered there and that was fun and crazy the people just went after the food we were told not to limit it to much so ya there was no limit on bread and man people can be uncivilized when they are in need but you can still feel of their desire for good. They just need the Gospel. We didn't get any lessons but we did have a good time driving around Lincoln with our Team up Joseph Carlson

           Thursday we actually got three lessons! we were able to see our member who is quitting smoking and he said I have 6 cigarettes left once they are gone I am done smoking and he slowly got rid of them so that it wouldn't be as cold Turkey we are seeing him today and hopefully he is still going strong. We saw the Quirino Family with the Sibbetts they are doing well we are supporting them in their callings in the Church something exciting is that they decided to move, but they are moving into the ward boundaries because the rent is Cheaper! So that is sweet for us because it will give them better integration into the ward and it will be so much easier for us to see them! We also saw Wilfredo again and that was good he is stubborn and he seems halfhearted sometimes but he is still reading and praying from his own account so he does want to know.

             Friday we did weekly planning which pushed our day back all of our appointments fell through again so that was frustrating but it was still a good day since we got our weekly planning done and out of the way. 

             Saturday we got two lessons but almost three. we were called early in the morning like 9 and we were told that the only people planning to clean the church was the Quirino Family and they asked us for our help so the Four of us cleaned the church, so it took forever though I don't think we did everything according ot our required lists. but we did what we could President Gardner and Sister Gardner said hi to me (they were there for a Baptism so ya we got caught cleaning the church. The Sister missionaries also gave us sympathy but they didn't help so psh. We got Wilfredo to the baptism and that was good he was fascinated by it and he is slowly, slowly progressing we basically taught him the Restoration and a couple other things after the Baptism we also saw Maria Ninninger which was good she has lots of questions but she is not really willing to act so that is sad then we saw Valdo one of our now active members and he is doing well we just help him answer a few Gospel questions.

             Sunday we taught a referral named Jose which was good he is another stubborn man married to a less active in another ward he isn't catholic but he believes in the Virgin Guadilupe so ya that was fun he is super church agnostic but he doesn't realize what is right before him and he isn't really willing to investigate and he Told us when we grow up we will find the truth and how we are too young to know for ourselves and I called him out and let him have it in a nice way using scriptures such as let no man despise thy youth from Paul etc. to say eternal truths are not know by age requirements etc.. and he took it well and it made an impression on him.  but all in all ite was a good week   

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Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Snowed In and then splat

Dear Family and Friends

       It is amazing to see the differences in the past two weeks which we had we had ups and downs in both weeks one weeks lessons rocked the other Splat! but none the less it is all good.

         So Tuesday we got grounded because of the snow, Elder Sharp decided it would be stupid to attempt to walk down town to see the few people we have down there and it would take anywhere from 1 and 1/2 hours or 45 minutes minimum to walk down there and then we would have to come back so we stayed in and cleaned the apartment and re organized it to be more accommodating to us we didn't ever like it the way it was organized before. we late at night ran and bought Pizza from pizza hut because Elder sharp didn't want to cook and he didn't' trust me in the kitchen to make him food, but it was a lazy day but we got lots of good important stuff done

          Wednesday we gave last minute encouragement to our member who is trying to quit smoking to give him some last minute encouragement then we taught a less active who brought up concerns about the Sabbath day, he used to be a seventh day Adventist and he knows the book of Mormon is true he just doesn't know how to explain to his family about the Sabbath on Sunday so we are going to teach him more about that this week. We got to do splits for like the second time in my mission and I taught Wilfredo with Bro Stockton and he mostly accepted the kingdoms of glory but we will need to go back over it.

Thursday we had district meeting and that was good we went to lunch at Honest Abe's Again it is good but kind of being over hyped and done so we are going to veto it and go someplace cheaper next week for lunch ya we need to diversify. we had a lesson with the Quirino's we watched the Restoration video (the hour one about Joseph smith) with them and that was good we had a good lesson and helped them learn more about the church/church history.

            Friday we did weekly planning and then we had no success teaching and then went to the ward party we had tons of sisters there we were out numbered by sister missionaries and they were being super bossy and competitive and that was kind of annoying (we did a lip sync battle) they sang the EFY song Embark and we did Bound for the promised land from MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) so ya we had fun though we got some good chili too.

             Saturday we went back over some weekly planning and then had a bit of a comp Inventory Elder sharp expressing some personal concerns and we didn't get any luck with lessons

            Sunday was good we had Wilfredo at church he enjoyed it he did try "contending" about the lesson with us and we had our members teach him how it was and it was super funny to have three sisters (two who "are less active") teaching this so called bible sturdier about things so ya it was good we had a good lesson with Maria Ninninger she is a sweet lady but she has a lot of concerns and problems with organized religion she likes the Jehovah's witness teaching style and doctrine but not them so ya that is our week hope to talk to you next week

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Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Text Message from Nebraska

I received a texted from the Oliver's.  They sent this lovely picture and said thanks for sharing your son.  He is a great missionary.  It made my day!

Snow and no snow, and MONSTER STORM?

Dear Family and Friends,

        This past week has been Fantastic! We had crazy awesome success and all went mostly according to our plans, we didn't reach all of our goals but we had some pretty good success and got super close to some (which hasn't really happened for a while).

          Monday it started snowing after we got here so we went and did some shopping then went to T.O. Haas for and oil change and basically we waited out the storm there, so we had no problems with the snow we went and met up with the member I told you about last week who came out with us he is super cool and we had a good lesson with our investigator Wilfredo. Wilfredo kind of likes interrupting us and then after the lesson going I didn't really let you guys talk I won't do that next time so that is kind of how it was. Brian shared a really powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, he has only been a member since September but he spoke with great conviction that despite Wilfredo's stubbornness he touched him a little bit he then took us out to dinner at El Chapparo which was good and he actually used to live in Lincoln before he moved out to Provo to work at Duncan Aviation there and that was Monday.

         Tuesday we saw are member who is trying to quit smoking and it was a good visit. We watched a video called He Knows My Name and it had a great impact on him to give him strength and courage to keep trying to quit then we saw Eduardo one of our Hispanic members who we haven't really been able to see (he came to church last week and this week!). We briefly reviewed the Restoration and he came to church and talked with the Bishop because he hasn't had work and the Bishop told him you pray and renew your covenant to the Lord and you will have work tomorrow and the Bishop said some other things he needed to do/work on and the next day he got three job offers out of the blue and he is doing two of them some how (snow removal/construction) so ya his testimony is strong and he is determined to change things around

         Wednesday we saw Luis Escribano who we haven't seen for a while and that was good we had a good lesson with him reading out of the scriptures and he liked talking with us we are slowly trying to work on him again to get him back to church we had dinner with our bishop with how long it went if forced us to cancel an appointment but it was worth it because then we saw Rosalina Barrios and we had Joseph Carlson (our only priest) and we taught the Restorations and asked for a referral and got one from her and that was good  and so we set up to come back and teach her and her friend. Sister Barrios is awesome she has a strong testimony

          Thursday was another crazy day we got three lessons despite getting behind schedule we were able to see Maria Nenniger and watch  meet the Mormons and that I think helped her a lot then we saw the Quirino and it was an all over the place lesson but we are going to go back and focus on what brother Quirino needs to do to get the Melchizedek priesthood. we then taught Luis Genis about the Restoration again which was good he gave us a referral (sort of) he is going to get us more details coming up and he is slowly progressing.

          Friday was crazy we taught Rosalina's Friend Elsa, at her house and that was good Rosalina and Efrain shared good and powerful testimonies and we practically could not have done anything but they let us guide the lesson and it was good We did our weekly planning and then tried some people we were able to get in with the Uncle of Luis Escribano which was awesome (he met the missionaries a while back but was too busy for us in the summer) but we had a sweet restoration lesson and we will be going back!

            Saturday we got three lessons and it was sweet we saw Wilfredo again and and did the middle section of the plan of salvation and he tried explaining the atonement to us and he was just trying to prove what he knew and that was annoying because it was all of an academic perspective and not with his heart but we turned it around and made it a good lesson

            We then saw our member who is quitting smoking again and that was sweet he is progressing very well then we had a lesson at 7:00 that night with a referral family and we taught them the plan of salvation and it rocked and we got three new investigators the dad the mom and the daughter and the dad knows Brother Pearson the member we live with!!! 

          Sunday we had a visit with Brother Stoki he hasn't been feeling well so we have missed him at church then we saw Maria Nenniger and we have been considering dropping her but she read from the chapter we left and she is changed she is now starting to progress and we might be able to set her for Baptism soon

That was our week super exciting and awesome and we are supposed to have a big storm soon

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Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper