Nebraska Plain

Elder Draper &

Sister Kelsey

Elder Draper is Outstanding in his Field!  Yes The Mission Field!

Advertising English

Dear Family and Friends, and other people who may be reading this IE my Cats and Dog and

         other furry friends

    As the title states advertising English was a big activity and I will get to that later but for now I will start out with a brief description of the week.

      Monday was a good day we emailed and then went outside and mingled with the Sister missionaries in the Library parking lot. Sister Hall was being funny and goofy and Elder Davey made it better when out of the blue he said looking at his reflection in the car window, "I look so cool!" ya it was great. Sister Kelsey and I talked about the Spanish missionaries who have been ZLs in Sioux City while she was serving there, so it was a good time to reminisce on old times and enjoy the present. We got some things taken care of at the house then we went with the other Elders and played basketball at the church and ate pizza it was a good time, I am crazy compared to most because I am athletic and fit so I just zoom around the court like The Flash or Captain America. Most of our plans fell through like normal but we did get one cool lesson with an investigator and it was cool because we got his younger brothers to join in!

       Tuesday our initial morning plans fell through but we were able to go help out at the Stuhr Museum and that was sweet! We had fun and I got to run behind the Gator (a six wheeled Golf Cart for use on farms and stuff) and I was keeping up with it at one point and I felt like Captain America it was fun. Then we had our left over pizza with the English Elders and then we headed out and tried some people and we got a good visit with a less active member, she is as sweet lady and she remembers all the other missionaries from before and a few even from before me so that is amazing and cool she just got out of the habit of coming to church, she cares for her Mom with Alzheimer's and that is rough but the Gospel is helping her to understand what is going on. So we are going to be getting a team up to get her re-fellow-shipped. we were supposed to go to Sutton but that canceled which was a good thing because we got to sit down and eat dinner and it was nice. Our evening plans got crazy as usual with all the last minute cancellations we got.  It was sad but we did get a good lesson with the Arviso Family we re focusing in on Jesus with the nine year old son who is getting baptized on the 30th! So that is sweet! and hopefully he will be ready.

          Wednesday we went to the library and got flyers printed, we are starting an English class!!!! It is going to be sweet we spent a couple hours putting up Flyers on 4th street where there are a lot of Hispanic stores and Restaurants. We did find a new investigator.  He was a former investigator of the other Elders, he has depression and it is severe and so he was dropped due to the fact he became sick and couldn't meet with the missionaries, but the the teaching record says if he is doing well start teaching him. And we found him again and he is doing very well.  He has gone back to work and has a cute dog super friendly and big, (a black lab about as big as Daisy). We had a long conversation and he said that he has read the Book of Mormon four times and that he has also read through the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price once and he knew that the Book of Mormon was true.  He wasn't sure what to think of D&C but that it was good and had many truths he agreed with. So that was awesome and a miracle to find a new investigator.

                Thursday we had district meeting and that was good, the sisters in my district are fantastic for at least the hour and a half I see of them so ya it was good. We then went and had a lesson with Eugenia and she is being her awesome crazy Cuban self as ever and ya it was funny she is very mothering to everyone which will make Saturday great. But we go and have lunch and then we got tape to post more of our signs, so we went and got the rest of 4th street done and some other random Hispanic stores and Laundry mats so that was fun we got to talk to lots of people and most people seemed excited and happy that someone wanted to help them for free. Because everything else costs money and ya. We aren't even going to preach to these people. so ya. We did talk to one lady named Sandra who spoke English she is probably a stateside born Hispanic but she was super sweet and we talked with her about what we do as missionaries and she was very impressed by that and she was like ya I wish I could do what you do and we were like well in our church we believe that the best way to give back to God is by serving others so in our church we focus on serving and teaching others and we don't have a paid ministry and she was like okay that is cool.

              Friday we decided to take lunch after studies and before weekly planning and we decided to go to our new friend Sandra's taco truck and it was sweet she made amazing tacos and then she also had amazing green salsa with a hint of pineapple it was so GOOD!!! Then we did our weekly planning, basically suffice to say we are stuck in our basement room for three hours except for bathroom breaks but it is still long! we did some good attempts to find people but we didn't have luck, because most everyone scheduled for next week. However we did have dinner with the Lagunas Family in a Restaurant called La Flor it was pretty good it is actually the same place where they didn't have bread or rice so they redeemed themselves. Then we put up some more advertisements since we were in the neighborhood.

             Saturday was sweet! we did service out at one of the English bishops house Bishop Piper or Pyper quien sabe but it was good we helped him clean up his back yard and it was crazy. It used to be a farm and there was old metal tractor parts hidden around the lawn that we raked and we filled two pick up truck beds with stuff, sticks weeds grass etc.. so now he actually has one clear lawn. We again saw Eugenia and Pepe which was good Elder Davey got side tracked during a conversation and started thinking about food then when he came back to us he was super confused and Eugenia was like oh what is bothering you and he said nothing because he was fine but she was like no, what was it and he was like well I got side tracked when you said Pizzeria and she was you are hungry lets go get you food so she ran upstairs and heated up spaghetti and burritos and it was delicious and we ate well I finished but Elder Davey was like I am full and she was like you need to finish you can't be full you are a man and so she was like here I just had burritos I'll take part of your spaghetti and we will have a race to see who can finish first and well Eugenia whooped him and it was funny.  I lost it and we had a good time. Then we tried people and when that fell through we drove to Sutton and we had a good lesson with a couple who is part of the Alarcon clan (different Alarcon clan than the one in Crete) but still members at heart though less active so hopefully we can help them come back. Well we came back after that driving through the beautiful Nebraska plains the highest point was a bridge over some train tracks it was funny. We got back to GI and found a new investigator a woman with a disabled daughter named Luz or light she was so cute and funny, the Mom Sandra is going to be a good investigator. 

              Sunday we had some good things we saw Luis again the guy who had read the BoM four times he had questions for us mainly about Polygamy so Elder Davey answered those, Polygamy is a common practice in the Bible and is justified in the Law of Moses if God commands it to happen so it was funny to read in the Law where Moses justifies polygamy or at least God does since Moses only said what God told him too, so ya then we later saw and had dinner with the Lagunas family again but this time at their house since her boyfriend was there and we taught them the plan of salvation and we are going to review the restoration again so it was a sweet week!

The Cannon or Cannon of Sutton

 As You can see Logan is not triple parking his cannons

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Driving Glorious Driving

April 18, 2016

 

Dear Family and Friends

           This has been a fun week, not necessarily 100% productive but it was still good and I am excited to share some of the highlights with you. so to start out with last Monday we saw the Mahan family, from one of the English wards and they had us and the sisters and the other Elders over for dinner. Then we went over to our relief society president's house and visited with her for a FHE and then ended up teaching her son, He is your average teenager wanting immediate gratification but he is a good kid.

           Tuesday we tried to see some people but that didn't work out so at about 1:00 we headed to Sutton a small town in the middle of no where it was about an Hour drive to that town. we then tried to see some people and after a while we wandered into the library to see if they had a town address book, they have that in Lincoln but not there apparently but we talked to the Librarian a super sweet lady she said she was Christian but she didn't believe the bible stories to be true or that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and she had had LDS friends while she lived in South Dakota so ya we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it and hopefully she did and we will catch her when we go back to the town. Later we had a lesson with a part member family in the town and it was good.  We then hopped back onto the Highway and drove back to Grand Island or GI once in GI we had dinner and then saw our awesome part member family we generally see every Tuesday and we reviewed the restoration and recommitted them to read as a family Everyday from the book of Mormon so that the Jesus can get a testimony for himself.

              Wednesday we taught this kid named Santiago, basically we just keep knocking this door to catch someone and then someone new answers every time last time it was Herminda this time it was Santiago. So that was funny. Then we tried teaching people and it was one of those days where nothing really works out. Well we taught a lady named Mariana a less active who has had a lot of struggles and we testified of Gods love and how she needs to forgive herself to fully repent then right after that the sister missionaries texted one of them would like a blessing and they would be willing to meet us wherever they had to so we met them at the church and we gave the sister a blessing and it was one of those things that she didn't want the ward to know and the other Elders were out of town on exchanges so it fell on us. It was a super cool and spiritual experience to participate in that. That was the end of our day basically every thing else fell through

             Thursday we had a sweet district meeting and I trained first on being ourselves and developing our own talents and not competing with others. Then find when you teach and teach when you find or however it is said in PMG. So ya it was great the sisters loved my training and then we did some good role plays district meeting went a little over but it was all worth it! We felt the spirit and what more could you ask for. So we took lunch then tried to contact some referrals we had in our planners and we met a guy walking on the street said missionaries could contact him again and so we were like sweet send that to the sisters and that will be of note later. Then we taught a less active member who is just not coming to church and stuff but she is super sweet and we then had a dinner with an English member in the other ward, they used to live in Utah and so they have been here for about the same amount of time as I have so that is cool. 

Then we saw our part member family again they are starting to progress and we taught the law of chastity and it went over alright.

                Friday all of our plans got changed but it worked out we had interviews a little later than planned but it was all good we got to see the sisters and how the referral went and well they went back and one of the guys either our referral or his friend called the sisters Hookers so I was not happy when I heard that but God will deal with him in his own way in his own time. Leaving all Justice to God is the best way to go.  Well we then had lunch and that was good because it held me over the rest of the day. We had weekly planning then we went out and tried to teach people

            Saturday we tried so hard to find people but nothing literally nothing worked out and we ended up with no lessons but we did do some good contacting and got some new potential investigators and that was awesome! One guy was like thanks for the Jesus time boys and it was funny because his so called "atheist" friend actually asked for a Book of Mormon so that is exciting and no I didn't give him the sisters number (despite it being their area) I learned my lesson. Sunday we got two lessons in which was sweet. Possibly new investigator and the Lagunas Family the Lagunas family is awesome Hermana Lagunas has a sweet testimony she has just had to work a lot since she got divorced from her husband who already had a wife in Mexico and didn't tell her till after the fact but she is doing well and they are a cool family the kids are mostly active. We also had stake conference and I had to translate one of the talks and that was difficult for me because she was talking so fast and using a lot of story telling and idioms of English not to much but I was like slow it down. but that is my week in a nut shell/

The New Room/ Apartment

Crazy! Zone Training, More Crazy! Then Crazy Me!

April 11, 2016

 

Dear Family and Friends this has been a fantastic week!

          I am going crazy things are just being awesome! And ya what more can I say than to you I will have say since I have not really yet said anything other than crazy, Nuf said. So starting with the Monday we bumped into a less active from another ward in Walmart and she was like I miss seeing missionaries and I prayed that I would be able to find missionaries today to talk to and we were like whoa and she was like ya I guess God was listening and we were like ya he is so, if you pray to find us you must understand the importance of who we represent and therefore will you permit the sister missionaries to come and teach you once again and she was like um no but I'll take their card so she took the Hallelujah card but she did watch general Conference 😕 go figure. Well after that we had fantastic lessons with Luis and then Eugenia Y Pepe. Well it was good Luis was seemingly (in my opinion) not to interested, he was working on a friends car when we showed up but it was a very good bold and loving restoration. the difference between bold and rude is BOLD is Being Open Lovingly Diligent while rude is just RUDE. Then we saw Eugenia Y Pepe and we first Helped them put up the picture of Jesus and the Angels and the Family proclamation I will send you all a picture of that once I get there with my camera. We had a good lesson about priesthood and the need for living prophets and apostles and it went super well it was awesome they accepted the challenge to be baptized.

          Tuesday was Crazy! We started out with service at the Stuhr Museum and we hauled a cut down tree away to where we are going to chop it into fire wood for the exhibits it is a cool place but we can't go this week. We then took lunch with the other Elders and  then tried to see people and we didn't get much done during the day but we did get some cancellations and that all worked out because we got one member present in the evening with Rosa Y Xavier and we also had dinner with them which was nice and we had a sweet lesson and committed them to live the word of wisdom.

             Wednesday was crazy we had zone training in Kearney and Zone Olympics. I conducted Zone training and that was good  we talked about the need to be Bold and to have Hope and faith that we can do what we have been called to do, our zone has sadly not seen any baptisms for quite some time and we are hoping to change that. The STLs (Sister training Leaders) Gave the training on staying motivated and working hard and it was good and I felt like that was going to come and it did just as I felt it would, I sensed the need for that in this area and I might mention it to my district again in our district meeting on Thursday. We then did the Zone Olympics and I didn't "qualify in anything" though I did all of the events but it was okay I am the smallest Elder in the zone like I am literally the bottom of the stack it is kind of funny and I am just barely in the Middle of the sisters so it is kind of funny too to see me in that group. We got back from Kearney late because of the Olympics thing which was annoying but it was fun we taught a good lesson to two new investigators Rogelio y Anna they are technically catholic but they don't go to church so that is sad. However they had good questions for us about what we believe we are hoping to teach them tonight actually. and after that we took dinner since we didn't take it when we got back from Kearney

            Thursday was awesome, one thing they told us to do was to invite people to be baptized in the first contact so that we can weed out the wheat from the tares and focus on those who will receive us and it was funny because a rejection is a "Flo-Jo" don't ask where it came from we didn't come up with the idea so ya we didn't get one and we gave out like three or so Copies of the Book of Mormon. we later met a less active girl who had crashed her car just before we found her so that was funny because we had a good lesson with her outside by her car and we have a return appointment! Then while knocking a door we got the quote of the week so here is the scene, we knock the door, dogs start barking and a kid maybe 10 looks through the blinds and then turns and Yells, "Dad some people are here GET YOUR PANTS ON." If I wasn't a missionary I would have lost it but I kept myself mostly composed. So that was a crazy thing, you don't hear that every day.

               Friday we did weekly planning and it was awesome and we got it done in three hours and then we got to teach this random lady named Herminda we had a return appointment with a guy named George and when we go to the house Herminda answers and says No sorry there is NO GEORGE that lives here and either her husband lied or she did so we were confused but she let us teach her and we will have to try back. We then went and helped out at silent auction for a member who needs a small intestine transplant. 

              Saturday we played basketball and then set up for a wedding of a part member family and it was good I have decorating skills and it was fun the relief society was impressed #MOM&SISTERS ya so that was great and that basically consumed everything but we got food out of it so that was good oh actually the pants thing might take second place because we went to go get tortas after setting up for the wedding and the waiter took our order and went into the Kitchen then he came back and was like sorry there is no bread, so no Tortas, and the member was like okay get these elders two plates of carne asada, and he went back and he came back and was like okay sorry there is no rice and at this point we started laughing and she was like fine get them some tacos and he came out and she was like, don't tell me there are no tortillas but there were so we actually ate there instead of taking our business else where but it was sad for them.

             Sunday was AWESOME, okay church is sweet I love the sacrament but what was cool was a part member family invited us over for dinner after church so we went and had dinner with them and started teaching/having a gospel conversation with the boyfriend and he set up for us to go back Friday and have an FHE so that is going to be awesome! We then taught Abel an investigator and invited him to pray with his wife (who wasn't able to join us for the lesson) to see if they should be baptized  so ya it was awesome!

Then we saw Pepe and Eugenia again they are so funny and they were trying to justify saints like they mediate with us and God and I was like well the scriptures say only Christ is our mediator with the father so... ya but we resolved some concerns and it was all around good and parents have been taking the pamphlets that we left in the Daycare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so I'm happy and sad it has been super sweet

Love Elder Draper

Week one done Week two bring it on

 

 

April 4, 2016

 

Dear Family and Friends

         Missionary work is crazy! if you have read my letters, served a mission yourself or have talked with one about what they do lately you will discover we are crazy and I am no exception, so why do I do what I do, well you could conclude by my own statements that I am crazy or you could be more logical than me and realize I am not crazy (clinically) but none the less here is the awesome rundown of this past week.

          Monday was awesome! We started a new Book of Mormon challenge as a mission. this is almost identical to the one we started when I first came our we are focusing on Jesus Christ his names titles and attributes, then the Doctrine of Christ  and what The Lord says, IE thus saith the Lord "......' so that is going to be awesome so far it is. Well that night we taught the Arviso Family and it was awesome we taught the plan of Salvation and they felt the power of their need as a family to follow God and the husband Xavier isn't a member so he is now praying about baptism, and we should be setting him for a day soon

           Tuesday was a blast we did service at the Stuhr Pioneer museum stacking wood for their wood piles and that was fun we got to use a golf cart thingy with a trailer and they let us do that because we stack the wood better than their employees so ya we are neat and organized even in simple wood piles. So we tried hard all day to find people but we did get one short and brief lesson in with person about god being their loving Heavenly Father and we got a return appointment!

           Wednesday we had a good day we got a new investigator family they actually live in Kearney but they are staying here in GI since they are working here in GI and their friend who owns the trailer is going to be on a trip for a while so this is a cool miracle for us. We tried super hard all day do contact people but most everything fell through

           Thursday we had District meeting and it went all right I could have been more simple in my training but I got nervous so I complicated things more than necessary and I will do much better next time luckily I have a week off with district meeting. Our trainings were on how the Gospel blesses families and simplify the Restoration and also apply it to teach different principles. So that was  awesome. We did splits with the Zone leaders in our area before they had to go to Omaha for MLC (mission leadership council) #NotDLProblem so that was fun but we still didn't teach any lesson even with covering twice the ground. That evening however was awesome! So first we saw an investigator Family Eugenia and Pepe they are Cubans and they are super kind and loving people Elder Davey thought we needed to drop them and the Branch counsel wasn't opposed but I didn't think it was the best idea but we planned that out as our lesson, and so we were establishing our purpose and teaching the restoration and as we got to the great apostasy their was a disconnect in their minds and I said somethings simple super simple but super key, "their must be twelve living apostles in Christ's church" and they were like Huh?!? and I repeated it and they were slowly grasping it and then we opened their scriptures and showed them in their own bible where they called Matthias to be the thirteenth apostle and who Christ's church was built on the foundation of living apostles and prophets and evangelists and so forth and they got it and they realized what we have that they don't have yet and so we set up to go back on Friday. Then we saw the Arviso Family again and they are progressing they read their assigned chapter and Xavier knows he wants to and needs to be baptized and we doesn't know what day but we are going to set him again and then we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they are starting to grasp how they will be blessed as a family and it was awesome two fantastic lessons back to back.
           Friday we went back and had a sweet follow up lesson with Eugenia and Pepe Gonzales and we showed them how to find GC so they could watch the Saturday morning session in their home and that was sweet then we set up a brief return appointment for Saturday after the session.

          Saturday was awesome the session was tailored to them and Eugenia watched it and loved it and then that night she found the Women's session and watched it!

         Sunday they came to the morning session and they again loved it and asked if we could put a copy of the family proclamation up on the wall in her daycare and yes we can just like elder Nelson said just ask the missionaries so they love this Gospel they aren't even baptized but they see how these teachings of modern living apostles and prophets will bless the lives of those they are about
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Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper