Drunks in church, and answered prayers

Hey everyone! hope you all had a great week we sure did! Also shout out to SADIE because you're engaged! way to work it.

this week was a good one for sure. I did divisions in teziutla n with our zone leader this week who has the best looking sister I have ever seen so that was super funny.

This week all of our prayers and fasts were answered! we have been finding on average like 3 new investigators a week and none are coming to church but this week we found 13 new investigators and 6 came to church!! we were giddy as can be.One sister in the Ward  brought her five aunts and uncles and then this guy renato came. we also are teaching an awesome girl named rebecca, she has three kids and lives in a one room apartment, and is way interested! she had a ton of questions about us as missionaries, Joseph Smith and all that jazz it was awesome.

we also had two different drunks come to church a happy guy and super sad guy, the happy guy happened to pass by when we were outside and was like hey you are the ones with a hundered wives, and you dont share! that is pretty rude! we talked with him for a while but he had to go drink some more so he peaced out. the sad one was one of the other missionaries old investigators who was coming off of being drunk and was crying, and just super bummed. dont drink kids it ruins lives.

On another note we had a bunch of people breastfeed mid lesson this week and that always makes it mad akward.

I read a talk by Elder oaks this week and it is way powerful.

He says that the world is going to hell and we cannot let ourselves fall with it but rise above it. it is a way long talk and really good. my favorite part is where he says the following. " The world these days is pushing more and more for practices and values in oposition to that of members of the church. there is a strong tide for gay marriage and the legalization of harmful drugs. many dont believe in marriage at all or in having children. others push for less restrictions on pornography. even more push the small things,, tattoos, piercings, vulgar media including movies music and televisión. we are to teach our families the simple truths of the góspel revealed throught he plan of salvation and live them. We are to love our neighbors and avoid contention when making stands on such topics."

The world is rapidly falling away frmo the truths of the góspel, as missionaries we see it every single day but I can promise you all with the surety of my heart that there is no other means by which we can live our lives in a happy manner other than through the guidance of the Gospel of Jesús Christ. I testify to you all that God lives, He loves us, and through our savior Jesús Christ, we may all find the strength to live an increasingly wicked world.

I love you all, hope you have a great week and can put the principles of the góspel IN PRACTICE in your individual lives. that is when you are able to see the blessings.

Haz lo Justo!

Elder Draper

           some ass in the Street

Caught a pigeon at a members house

     Playing jenga while wating for our hamburgers

Week 14

WOW the time is really going by fast! It was a great week and a super poor weekend here in altotonga, we found a ton of people this week that are great investigators buttttttt none of them came to church! we have to bring them to church five times before baptism so church is our biggest focus here. 

Me and my companion are doing well together, and we are loving this area. Altotonga rains a lot but the sunny days are so cool because from our part of the city we can see the mountains of Teziutlan peaking through the clouds like an island, super cool!
This week we will be focusing a lot on finding more families, we are teaching one part family right now but we either have to find single moms with kids, or fams that are married so we can help them. it is really hard with fams that aren't married and we dont just want to baptize kids because they de-activate. so this week we hope to find this family, we know there is one family we can baptize here in Altotonga we just need to find those suckers!!
This week I want to share a talk by president Uchtdorf called "Receiving a testimony of light and truth" 

He talks about how a century ago, scientists thought that the milky way galaxy was the only one in the universe and that outside of the milky way, was just endless darkness. Soon after telescopes advanced and it became apparent that there are an uncomprehensible amount of galaxies, planets and stars, or as the scriptures revealed many years before, "worlds without number". This is a very good symbol of how we act! we often think we are correct when we are the opposite! He says something I really like " Are we destined to drift aimlessly on an ocean of conflicting information stranded on a raft we have poorly pieced together from our own biases?" He says there are four things we must do to gain a lasting testimony.
1. SEARCH the word of god, study the scriptures w/sincere desire
2.Consider and ponder in your heart FEARLESSLY try to believe
3. ASK w/a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ
4.LIVE IT. "if any man will do Gods will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God, or of myself" (John 7:17)

If we do these things, we as members of this true church in the last days will gain lasting, firm testimonies that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth.

Love you guys lots, miss you all, and I hope that you are enjoying the new year!

Your favorite mexiCAN

Elder Draper

Making tortillas

Elder Garcia and a big needle

Zach and Eric

What do YOU know about the Gospel

Altatonga

Rain, Mud, and stuff that looks like mud...

Hola todos!

I hope you are all having a great new year, and that you havent fallen off the waggon with new years resolutions yet.

This was a good week, we worked hard and found some good new investigators, but we sadly had to drop the family of 7, they said "oh we are catholic so..." so we wont visit them anymore. 

It rained a whole boat load this last week, six of the 7 days was straight up mist of darkness 1st nephi 8 stuff. I had to use my big boots and my comp fell big time in the mud one one of these hills, sadly no pics bc my camera was dead! The worst part about the rain is that the mud and the poo poo all mix together to make almost mud. our pants and boots smelled way way bad but thats mexico. 

A few highlights of the week, firstly we had interviews with president and they were way good. We have the best President and Hermana Greer helped us with our area book to be a little better. Secondly, we had a good old planch the other day. We contacted this reference the other day and she was like why would I change my religion there is one god, we are all going to the same place whats different, so we read a scripture that said one god one faith and were like if that is true why are there so many different religions? because you are in the wrong one. we are here to help you recieve blessings. She was like what blessings could I possibly missing out on? we had to go because she had to sweep her dirt floor barefoot before going to work for her 15 hour shift that she works every day because she lives alone with 7 kids that are under 17 and 3 grandkids. We were sad that she was so hard hearted that she didnt see that her life could get a lot better. we left her with the scripture, repent ye repent ye all ends of the earth and be baptized in the name of Christ for a remission of your sins. I think she´ll call this week ;)

I want to leave you guys with a little spiritual note from the week from our studies. President Monson often teaches that decisions determine destiny. In that spirit, my counsel would be today to rise above any rationalizations that prevent you from making decisions, especially ones with respect to serving Jesus Christ. We are taught in Isaiah to "refuse the evil and choose the good" its simple really, just choose the right! 

Hope you all have a great week 

Here is some pics of our area on the sunny day!

Love you all, and happy birthday aunt liz!

Elder Draper

Buddy the Elf shower

Creepy new pet

Borachos Pulgas and Dead investigators.

Hello everyone! 


I hope you all had a great week, AND FIRST THINGS FIRST HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY STUD BROTHER!! 14!! I was thinking about it and I was 14 when my family moved to Lehi and that feels like yesterday so enjoy the next 4 years dude they go by too fast!

This was a pretty slow week as far as work goes, we had pretty much every investigator we had fall through and we contacted all thirty of our contacts for the week to no avail, all had the same response "I am catholic!" my comp is always like, I am sorry, I feel bad for you in his funny columbian accent and it makes it pretty funny. We have some contact right now with this fam that could be so awesome! It is a family of 7 so cross your fingers we can baptize the heck out of em.

Apart from a slow week, we moved and in the move somehow we got pulgas. PULGAS ARE FLEAS YOU GUYS. they were in my bed super bad and I got some crazy bad bites. its like mosquito bites but bigger and more crappy. we raid bombed our whole house and now we are in good shape, the only thing that sucked is we had to spend like 200 pesos to wash all of our clothes, blankets and everything. but hey, no more fleas in my bed so that is bomb.
SUNDAY was probably the funniest/strangest sacrament meeting of my life. we were sitting in sunday school and this guy said some answers to questions that were hard hard hard to understand, even for the mexicans I was like huh this guys weird, lets talk to him I dont i know him! So we go up after and ya¨ll. this guy was HAMMERED. so so drunk as a skunk and it was so flippin funny. we were like whats up dude? and he is like oh I want to change and be happier so we were like you are in the right place my friend but you gotta stop drinking like right now. SO we go sit in sacrament and the obispo is like ok its testimony meeting go for it and everyone starts going up and bearing their testimonies. THE BORACHO wanted to bear his testimony! after everyone he crossed himself and then tried to get up and me and garcia were like nope nope cant do that! "Why not" he says? oh you are drinking buddy its better if ya listen, then the best part HE PULLS A BOTTLE OUT AND TRIES TO DRINK IN THE CHAPEL we were like ok apostasy! so I was like ok we need your help out front lets go sound good? of course he is like sure no matta. so we go out front, and he tells us all about his life, how he lives with his mom and his wife moved to guadalajara, it was pretty sad actually this guy was in a sad place but we tried to help him! we tried to convince him to dump the bottle or at least give it to us and he was like no youll drink it! hahahahahaha it was funny man.

Apart from that our week was pretty normal. >I do want to share something I read this week in the confrence ensign, it is jorg klebingats talk called Aproachiong the throne of God with confidence. He says there are six things to get rid of the negative influence of satan in our lives as follows

1. take responsibility for your own spiritual well being
2.take responsibility for your own physical well being.
3.embrace voluntary whole hearted obedience as part of your life
4. Become really really good at repenting really really fast
5. become really good at forgiving
6. accept trials, set backs and surprises as part of your mortal experience

Selective obedience brings selective blessings and choosing to do something bad over something worse is still choosing wrongly. faithful observance of some commandments doesn't justify neglecting others. When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad.
Some trials come through your own disobedience, or negligence, other trials come because of the negligence of others and some simply because this is a fallen world. When trials come the adversaries minions begin to broadcast "you did something wrong, this is a punishment, a sign that heavenly father doesn't love you" IGNORE THAT. Instead try to force a smile, gaze heavenward, saying "I understand Lord, >I know what this is, a time to prove myself isn't it?" then partner with him and endure well to the end. Spiritual confidence increases when you accept that often trials and tribulations are ALLOWED to come into our lives because of the things we are doing RIGHT.

I hope you guys can all learn to apply the atonement into your personal lives and come to know the savior on a level you haven't before. I love ya all and here's to a great week!

*Dont drink in church*

-Elder Draper