Picking up the pace

Dear Family and Friends

       This week marks another week gone and by in the mission and life of ME, the not so center center of the universe. The Lord is hastening his work and we need to keep up or have to catch up. I vote keep up it is so much easier.

          Monday we visited with a couple named Mary and Gary. They really got lucky on the name matching game! It was a good lesson we shared with them The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was good, we had some really good conversation. They aren't too interested but they have a son who is LDS, and their grandson will obviously do this. So they thought they might as well listen to us.

             Tuesday was rather crazy, as it should be. We had fun setting up a Xbox to watch The Restoration movie and then trying to teach The Plan of Salvation to a less active with crazy animals, but they were both good visits. The Restoration lesson went as could be expected the man did not like our "emphasis" in The Book of Mormon. I kind of threw it gently back in his face when he asked which was more important The Bible or The Book of Mormon. I asked him well which is more important the Old or New Testament? Answer your own question. He also does not believe in one true church...... we will leave it at that. We had a good lesson with the Alarcon boy, Miguel, and that was good. It was super fast, then we went and met up with our member for a team up. We went out with President Thompson and then went to a Hispanic family and taught them about the first point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith with the Family: A Proclamation to the World. It went super well especially when President Thompson bore his testimony. We then went and had pizza with another investigator, then taught him about The Plan of Salvation, which went super well. Lenard, or Leonard, (don't judge my spelling) had lots of questions but we were able to answer them by bearing testimony of The Book of Mormon and how we received answers through the Holy Ghost. Then we taught him how he could receive an answer through reading and prayer, and how to recognize the Spirit.

          Wednesday we had a good day. We had exchanges and blitzed Crete. We had lots of fun. I had the opportunity to find Mary again and teach her about The Restoration and The Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a super powerful but simple lesson and it was only miscommunication which kept us from meeting with her, so it was a good lesson. We did lots of walking and that was good. We had some good times. I was with a new Elder, Elder Kimzey, so it was fun. 

          Thursday was crazy, we had district meeting and things took longer than planned for getting back to Crete. We saw people a little out of order, but it was good. We saw Leonard again and read 1 Corinthians 15 to help him understand the degrees of glory better, and because of that we were able to get the Alcarcon parents involved in the lesson with the boys. We talked and read about the sacrament and we hope they will come to church sometime. We were then able to see Vidal, which was good. It had been a while and he isn't really seeming to progress, so we are going to give him the our purpose lesson next time and get him motivated to progress or we might have to drop him.

            Friday we did service for Brother Wardle and then went to the Chinese Buffet for lunch and that was good. We did weekly planning and then had dinner. Then went to a meeting with Brother Pister , Brother Nottingham, and President Kearl about how to move the work forward in the Seward Branch and that took up our evening. So that was good day. 

             Saturday we helped out at Foodnet. People were a little surprised to see me still there after having me gone through two companions. We played basketball with Dylan. I am getting better. I almost won one of the games of 21, then we were able to see Jesus and Estmirana and teach them The Restoration.
 Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Conference week and the transfers Oh Pues WOW!!!

Dear Family and Friends and adorable fuzzy creatures,

        This has been an exciting week for us in Crete, Nebraska with some unexpected events and some wows.

          Monday was the usual. Our Family Home Evening appointment had to cancel, and change to Tuesday. That was fine and so we came home from our day of basketball and correlation meetings. We then went to try some investigators, who weren't available, but we set up some appointments and that was good. We went home a little bit early and started calling people on the potential sheets we have. The first person said we could come over! So when I called all we had was a name and number. So we called and I introduced myself and asked if they might have any interest in letting us come share a message with them. She asked, "Who gave you our number?" I said, "I don't know." She said, "Oh come on, was it my son? He is a member of your church." So we had a good phone visit, so we are going to meet this family, and hopefully it all goes well, today.

            Tuesday we had a busy day planned. We swung by the post office and dropped off letters and then we bumped into our investigator, who was getting at us because he said to come by12:00 and it was 11:55. He was like you are late and I said but you aren't even home so therefore we are right on time, God just slowed us down so we could find you now. He said "Give me half an hour and then I will see you at my place." So we went to the library to print off a paper we needed and then we went to his house and he wasn't there, and that waiting took a while so we called and texted then left. We then went and had a good lesson with a less active lady and her non-member husband. He was not in the lesson but it was still good. We then went up to Doane College to meet with our investigator, Eric, and his phone isn't working and so we didn't get to see him. So we are praying for a miracle in regards to all of this stuff. We then had a good lesson with the Alarcon Boys and we talked about General Conference, and that was super good. We then had a random member stop us on the street and take us to Dairy Queen for shakes, and then he went  back on his way home to Lincoln. We then went to a lesson with a family, Mateo and Veronica. We had an amazing short and simple lesson about The Plan of Salvation and next time we will be teaching about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bless their family and how they can progress to an eternal family. We then went and had a great lesson with the Behrens for FHE, which was super good. We taught about adversity and how we all have to struggle but we can overcome and realize our dreams. For Cheri, the daughter, it is go to one of the great huge schools back east. We suggested first going to BYU and so ya "AWESOMENESS" as she said.

              Wednesday we had district meeting and service and that was all good. We then came back and had a few good appointments. We were thinking I would go, that was our  transfer prediction and so that was about it for Wednesday.

             Thursday we awaited the news, and Elder Phillips was assigned to go up to Worthington Minnesota! Ya the farthest north Spanish/zebra area in the mission! So he was angry/frustrated because he had to pack and he didn't want to go. He didn't think that it would be him, but he bucked up and realized opening Spanish in the middle of nowhere is a huge responsibility. Then we got a call at 10:25 saying, "Ya be prepared at 7:15 in the morning from the transfer point..... " Ya so we were up late packing his stuff.

              Friday I dropped him off at the transfer point and picked up my temporary comp. We went the to the zone leaders' apartment and then went to the People's City Mission in Lincoln to do service. I was put on "Security" to watch the perimeter of their outside "shopping Center" to make sure all the people went in the entrance and out the exit. We then had to step in and take control of a fight, which really just consisted in stepping in and they all stopped and started playing nice. They just made some problems tipping boxes and stuff. I then got my new companion at 5 that afternoon and we went back to Crete, unloaded our stuff and then went to Dairy Queen for dinner. Then we went out on a team-up with Brother Pister.

            Saturday we watched General Conference with President Kearl.

          Sunday we watched General Conference with Brother Beck at the church.
Sincerely,
Elder Logan Joseph Draper

Crazy Week

This week has been absolutely nuts, and I have no pictures to document what I mean.

              Monday we had our correlation meeting, and that was good. We had some good pizza afterwards, that Sister Pister had made. We then went and saw the Beherens and talked about how to apply the scriptures to our lives.

              Tuesday, wow, what a day! We went to New Begginings and did some stuff for them there, arranging and hauling boxes upstairs. I then went and got a hair cut at the Diaz Brothers. They did a nice job, and we got Jullian's (the guy who cut my hair) new address. So we are going to go visit him sometime this week and start teaching him hopefully. Our morning plans went crazy. We ended up teaching the Alarcon Boys at 5:00 and that was good started covering The Ten Commandments more in detail. Then we went and visited with Eric, and that was good. We asked him what he wanted to learn about. He said, "Marriage and family and courtship." Our religious teachings about those things, so that will be fun to teach to him. We had a good lesson referencing The Family: A Proclamation to the World, though I happened to not have one in English, only Spanish :( , but next time. We then ended up seeing our new investigator, Lenard, and we were able to get through all of The Restoration! Ya, he had so many questions it is good and difficult. 

               Wednesday, it was a good day, we did service then our studies then we went to our late district meeting. That was good. It was Elder Paddock's last meeting before he goes home Wednesday! crazy! We went to a restaurant called Honest Abe's it was good, they had delicious hamburgers and fries. Then we finally went home and it was raining pretty hard. So our car got clean :) We went and saw Brother Wardle and visited with him, and talked about coming with us to a lesson we had scheduled on Friday.

                 Thursday we were preparing to go out and teach for the day when we got a pounding on our door. I jumped up thinking it was a package, and it was our neighbor Sandi. She asked if we could come down to her friend Eve's store, because she had a fire in the basement and needed help cleaning up some of the mess. So we quickly changed into our service clothes and we rushed "downtown" to her store, Jean's Sewing.We entered and it smelled awful. It was an electrical fire caused by a fan the owner had put in his private store room in the basement. So we cleaned up the glass from the broken door and got some fans from New Beginnings. So that was all fine. There was lots of glass and it took us about two hours to get it all cleaned up. Sandi bought us some lunch, which was nice of her considering she didn't have to. Well we went home and discovered we smelled like smoke so we cleaned up and tried to catch back up on the day, and that was all good. We were able to see a part member family and we watched The Restoration movie, which was amazing. He speaks Karen and very little English, but he felt the power of the movie. So hopefully we will be able to get him to come to church one of these days with his wife and kids.  We saw Miguel and Luis Alarcon and finished talking about The Ten Commandments, and we are leaving adultery to the parents and ya.... We  then rushed over to an investigator who said, "Come back at five, if you can." We said, "Probably 5:30." Which was fine, so we get there his wife opens the door, like really. She just gets her husband and he is like, this is not a good time. We reminded him that he asked us to come back later and we did, but we could reschedule and he was like tomorrow 10:00. Well we said we have an appointment at 10:00 to do service and he said aw you boys are so lazy fine sleep in if you want I get up at 4:30! and I countered we get up at 6:30  and we really get the same amount of sleep considering you are in bed before 8:00 so....... ya he made me frustrated by his arrogance, but whatever. We went and saw another family and had a good lesson with Vidal. We were able to teach him the first half of The Plan of Salvation. 

                   Friday, not much to report other than lots of service with the Catholic Sisters out at the Schoenstat shrine outside of Crete. So we helped out there and that was fun. They also fed us and that was nice of them. We then did weekly planning and tried to see people, but that didn't work out as we had planned but we did a lot.

                    Saturday we did Foodnet and taught Dylan The Plan of Salvation in story form, then we went back home and did our deep clean for the transfer wow! Lots of stuff  got done and we didn't see anyone :(

                    Sunday was a similar story. We went to church and came home had dinner and then finished weekly planning, and then worked on cleaning the area book.

             The crazy week of Elder Draper

Dirt Roads and Hot spicy peppers!

Dear Family and Friends

        This has been a good week for us here in good ol' Nebraska! We are enjoying the changing of the seasons, at least those of us who like good fall weather others of much hotter climates can remain silent and learn why God called them here, (because they wimped out on winter camps) Ha ha ha, but it is quite beautiful weather I love it.

           Monday after the P-day craziness we had a fun drive home along a dirt road, which was great. I drove and Elder Paddock and McBride told me drive really fast over this next hill, and I drove a little fast and the car had the nice zero gravity effect then we started to swerve because of the sand but it only lasted a second. It was fun, though they thought they were going to die. I wasn't scared because I was driving and knew what I was doing, so we had fun. We then went full on into our exchanges, and that was great. We split, I went and did some knocking with Elder McBride without too much luck and Elder Paddock and Elder Phillips went and visited some appointments.

              Tuesday we made pancakes and that was good and fun. We then all went and did service at New Beginnings, doing double duty. We made lots of headway with the books but we still have a lot to do. I am not excited for working with the novels. We came back and went and tried to visit some people while doing knocking and that was good. We had some success with that. We found some potentials then we knocked into a guy we found while talking on the street right before the last Nebraska game. We stumbled into his trailer and we were invited in and we taught about the coming forth of The Book of Mormon, and, man, he had a lot of questions, boom boom boom one right after the other. He was super happy when we gave him his very own copy. We then went and walked over to the Alarcon's and we reviewed with Miguel and Luis the Plan of Salvation. We came home and had some tacos I had made. I slow-potted some pork with these green chilies and it was super good super tender and everyone was happy, lots of meat and lots of rice! We then went and tried some potential investigators and nothing came of it, other than one former who dropped off the map saying "Don't come back at all." So, yep, moving on.

                Wednesday we went to the bakery and did service, then we went off to district meeting and had some very good trainings on improving nightly and weekly planning sessions. I was super excited because it was stuff I know I can work on and it was super helpful. We tried some people when we got back to Crete. We went to Lenard's house, he is the guy we talked to the day before. He went online and looked up about the Mormon Trail and he was appalled at the cruelty of the mobs who forced the saints out of their homes and he led us back around into The Restoration, which we gladly taught. We gave him the pamphlet to read and he was so nice about all of it, and I think he will read. That was the excitement of our day, other than going to the Hollist's family home for dinner out in the middle of nowhere. They have a cool house lots of animals( i.e. horses, dogs, chickens etc.... )

                   Thursday we taught quite a few lessons, though not as many as planned. It was an amazingly successful day. We taught a man named Jessi The Restoration which, despite how often I saw him with Elder Kummerman, it seems as if he had never been taught it. So that was good to teach because he had no idea about the Apostasy and he will never progress if he doesn't understand there is or was a Restoration. We also found a less active who just moved into Crete Manor. So that was good to add another person to our to visit list there. She actually is less active, so we will be working with her to build her testimony and faith so that when she can leave Crete Manor she can return to church. We were able to teach the Alarcon Boys The Ten Commandments with their dad,  which was good. He was able to participate, which was very needed. We then were able to teach Abel the Plan of Salvation, which was super good because he had lots of questions about that though we will need to teach The Restoration next time, since that is what he really needs to come to understand but it was a good lesson anyways.

                   Friday we had absolutely nothing except our temple trip and a ward party in Lincoln. So we went to the temple in Omaha, which is very beautiful and then we rushed back to Lincoln and we got there in time to go straight to our ward party. That was good. We had a pepper eating contest, since it was themed Hispanic for our Spanish Sunday. So Elder Phillips, Elder McBride and myself were roped into it and the contest was eat a Serrano pepper, a Jalapeno pepper. and a habanero pepper in the shortest amount of time possible. I got all of them down in about a minute forty seconds which was pretty good. Elder Phillips got it down in a minute fifteen seconds and Elder McBride got it down in two minutes. The winner got them down in fifty eight seconds, though Elder Phillips was bragging to Elder McBride and I that our faces were a little red. Well not two minutes latter his stomach cramped, mine was completely fine so ya.

                 Saturday I felt great, Phillips not so great but he got better. We did service at Foodnet and we had a very small group that day, which was weird. We then went to Hog Roast at President Kearl's house and we visited with the members and played touch football with the kids, which was great. Missionary guarded missionary, so it was fair. I was a great receiver but we went home and did some weekly planning.

                 Sunday went to church had a linger longer, came home and did weekly planning. So that was great and that is my week. I hope you are all doing well.

 Love your son brother and friend,

                Elder Logan J. Draper

Exchanges!

Dear Family and Friends,

        This week was an exciting week. As mentioned last week, we slipped back down to Crete on Monday which was fantastic to see Eric, Sister Coulter, and Dustin.

            Tuesday Elder Paddock and I did lots of walking and it was great. I feel that I am in pretty good walking shape, because I still had plenty of energy at the end of the night. I learned that I need to be better about talking to people about the gospel. It is part of me that got sick after my last companion, but I am excited to try knocking. It won't always work and it isn't the most effective but it allows us to get our name out there and give the world the truth of who we are.

              Wednesday we had a great zone training about how to first more effectively introduce The Book of Mormon in seven minutes and the other training was about stress and making sure you are having a good time in the mission, staying physically and emotionally healthy. President Weston told Elder Loveland, one of our zone leaders, before he left when Elder Loveland mentioned that he was stressed, "Elder Stress is Pride" which was funny since he said that in President Weston's voice but I had to reevaluate my thought process for a moment and realize I should relax a little. We had three awesome lessons. First we saw Jasmine and her husband, which speaks Karen and that was good we were able to teach him using his NT which is in Karen and English. So we would have him read verses in Karen. So that was great, we are having to become inventive. We saw two other investigators and we had good quick lessons with them and that was awesome! So we got a lot done that day.

        Well so we went to confirm our appointment with our neighbor, Sandi, and guess what SHE DROPPED US!!!! She said she was to busy and she was uncomfortable with The Book of Mormon, so that is that for now. So hopefully it works out in the future. I am still going to go by and see her and her dog, Bella!
            So Thursday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders and that was good. I was with Elder Wright in Lincoln and we did lots of walking. It was great, we also found them a couple of potential investigators while walking, just as we were getting back to the car to drive home for dinner he decided to pass out one more card and the guy invited us in right away. He started asking questions and we had to go after answering a few questions, so we set up a return appointment.
           Friday we did service for the nuns laying some more bricks and then they fed us, or at least gave us food to go since they had to go to a meeting as well. So we went home and did studies and worked on weekly planning and cleaning up the area book.
             Saturday we had Foodnet, which was good. We helped out with quite a few things, we helped get stuff. They wanted us to drive the van, can't do that. They wanted us to ride with one of the ladies, can't do that either! So it was great but we still have plenty of stuff to do. One of the ladies wants us to help her husband with some stuff after he gets his knees replaced. So that will be good, and maybe we can start teaching them as well! :) We then bumped into one of our investigators walking and that was walking. They invited us to go to their house and visit with them and we did some knocking and taught a very brief version of the Restoration.
           Sunday we got a dinner appointment and that rocked, and then we got back to Crete and did some knocking. So that was good. We got someone who was busy to call us back, so we are going to go and teach them. They are from Thailand I think so that will be fun, I don't speak Thai but maybe I can get the gift of tongues for that.

 I love this gospel and I know The Book of Mormon is true!

Love Elder L. J. Draper

Nebraska VS. BYU

Dear Family and Friends

        This has been a  crazy week for us here in Nebraska, so I will try to do a brief recap of what all happened. So we had some fun times trying to find people and do service, but on Tuesday on our way back from service in New Beginnings we were stopped on the street by a lady named Shirely. She is a nice lady who I have talked to before. She is a very good Catholic woman. Well she stopped us and asked what are service guidelines were, and we told her that most anything was appropriate with the few exceptions in the white handbook. She forgot why she asked so we talked with her for about ten minutes till she remembered and she asked if we could go and help do some yard work for the Catholic nuns just outside of Crete. There is no rule to prevent that, so we said, "Yes we can do that." So she gave us their number so we could arrange that. So we called the nuns and arranged to go help lay some pavers Friday afternoon.

          Wednesday we had district meeting all in Spanish which was great, finally happened! we then had to do our studies to catch up, since we did service in the morning. So it all worked out. We went to try to see people and we met up with our bishop, since he had had a business meeting here in Crete. We went and tried to see an investigator and we found three of our investigators that we have been trying to meet up with all in one spot. The bishop was awesome. He was able to talk to them in a way  they understood and help them realize the need for missionaries, the need for a church, the need for priesthood organization. It was an amazing, water that started out with talking about the new water treatment plant in Crete.

           Thursday was great we had fun. We taught Sandi with Brother Pister, which was amazing. She is quitting smoking and all that, so that will be good. That is one less principle of the Word of Wisdom to worry about! Then we went and saw Makaela, a Doane student who is a member, who is working with us with an investigator which is sweet. She is a super tall softball player which is funny considering both the Elders are shorter than her, even though Elder Phillips is decently tall. We then went and saw Manuel again. We saw him with the bishop Wednesday. So we first car sat his car while he took the not so working one home, then we went and read from The Book of Mormon with him, which was great.

            Friday we did all of our weekly planning shindig stuff and then we went out to The Catholic Shrine/Nunnery and we met with Sister Jennifer and helped her lay rocks and sand, then the pavers which took some time to get it set right but it was practically perfect. Then with our extra time we started on another project of laying some bricks. All the while having a great religious discussion, her asking us questions about what we believe and us asking her questions about what she believes. We are going to give her a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World, since she was interested in the Colloquium on the family in the Vatican. We were able to also set the Alarcon boys for baptism for the 24th of October, which was awesome! Our first to very probable baptismal sets since I have been here in Crete. So that will be exciting.

              Saturday, we had Foodnet and studies, and that was fun. They had us come early to help with some set up details,  then we just studied and that was good. We then, after Foodnet, rushed to the members house for the game. You all should know about the game. We were freaking out and the different things that happened during the game but we had some great football to watch. I was cheering for the Huskers because I don't want to deal with sad depressed Nebraskans, but I was glad BYU won because an investigator the son of a member in Seward said flat out Nebraska was going to win. I challenged him saying BYU is a pretty good team or they have been in the past, but well he wanted to make a bet and being a smart Elder I challenged him to read The Book of Mormon, five minutes a day for a week. He challenged me to where Husker gear. Well BYU won, so... :)

              Sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting. We had President Kearl from our branch/mission presidency there, which was unusual and cool. We had a cool rainstorm that afternoon which made things super exciting, and that is our week.

         Monday we saw Eric, an investigator, and we think we will be able to set him for baptism soon and he will be coming to church on Sunday WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
           
Love Logan Joseph Draper

Zone Conference and Walking!

Dear Family and Friends

        This has been a crazy week. We had some crazy announcements in zone conference. So here is our week in review letter, if you didn't already guess.

         Zone Conference we drove all the way out to Grand Island, NE, then had a meeting and that was super good. We learned a lot. The big topics of discussion was rules and study habits. We were directly instructed, by President Gardner, to get more out of our scripture study by not simply reading words but relating it to what we are teaching. President Gardner lifted all added rules to return us to the white handbook standard. The one thing I was saddened about by that was the fact that all music will spread like wildfire. Christian rap will now once again be a thing until he realizes what he has done ,though I think he sees it as unapproved.The Elders and Sisters don't so ya.

           The other big announcement was, we get to watch the Nebraska Huskers and the BYU cougars clash on Saturday, if we have memorized all twelve of the scriptures he has asked us to memorize and if we are with a member. So that will be exciting.

           Wednesday we went to see a less active and as we were walking, no more miles! We had an investigator, Eric, pull over and hop out of the car to talk with us. So that was sweet and then we set up an appointment and he was our backup to that less active. Then we were able to go and see the less active and that was good. The JWs knocked on the door while we were visiting the less active. So that they could visit with the husband, so that was great :<

            Thursday we did lots of service. We moved this big wood thing in Crystal's Bakery then we tried to organize books in New Beginnings, that didn't work so well. So that was nice but it was fun. We might have to re-plan things since we have District meeting on Wednesday's now. We got in contact with a college student named Makaela, who is LDS. She goes to the singles ward but she knows our investigator Eric. So she wants to join the lessons, so that is AWESOME! funny thing is we have never met her so that will be amusing. We also saw our neighbor, Sandi, and she has read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy she is progressing and her spirituality is increasing, which is awesome! I love this work. I love the gospel. It has the power to change people's lives by changing their natures. I know it is true, it may take time to see a change but it does happen. Try watching a tree grow.

Friday we visited with Eric and that  was super sweet! a good lesson and we had campus security called on us. So that was exciting. I was a little confused because they said they had reports of us soliciting and we had only asked for directions and technically the correct term would be proselyting not soliciting, similar I guess but starkly different. But they left us alone once we assured them we had not been doing such things of which we were accused.

Saturday it was just a mess. Foodnet people asked us to come in earlier to help out. So next week we will go in early set up and study. Yah and we got a sort of potential investigator, so that will make things interesting talking to one of the ladies there. She is rather open in her thinking and I think maybe she and her husband might actually take us seriously. We just walked all day trying to find people. Oh and according to Sandi's friend, Eve, I have red highlights in my hair.

    Sunday it was about the same. We got a ride to church from a member who lives in the half way point in Milford. So that was a little miracle. I was super glad for that but we still had to walk all of Sunday trying to find people and that was unsuccessful but faith building.

Have a good week. 

Love,
 Logan Joseph Draper the Elder