Guitars, Temples, and the Hill of Macuitepetl

Hello family and friends! I hope you all had a really good valentines day filled with love and fun and happiest of presidents day! The time is really flying by here I feel like yesterday was christmas and now its february?? Time is nuts in the mission the days go by so quick and the weeks even faster. I feel like before I know it I will be in my last area thinking wow how did it go by this fast!

This week was pretty good we found some really good new investigators and have some baptisms lined up for the next few weeks. I am liking my new companion he only has six weeks left in the mission he is just starting to get trunky but we are working well together. I am really tired lately, we are running every morning on this hill in our area and we are working hard to try to revive the area it is nice to have work to do.

The view from our kitchen to the Cerro (Hill of Macuitepetl nature preserve)

The highlight of the week was last night! I called my converts in perote Gina and Miguel that got baptized back in december and they told me some awesome news, THEY WENT TO THE TEMPLE! Miguel was like we baptized my grandparents and my dad and my wife baptized her older sister that died a few years ago and it was so beautiful the temple is amazing this gospel is such a blessing in our lives! And then I talked with my ex companion and he was like "on sunday miguel got up and bore his testimony on the book of mormon and joseph smith and the temple it was so good" i was just sitting at my desk crying and my comp was like what is wrong with you but it was the coolest thing I have heard in the 4 and a half months I have been here. The church is true and it really changes lives.

Today for our pday we went to the center of the city and I finally bought a guitar this mexican guy tried to con me out of like 500 pesos because he thought I didnt speak spanish so I started speaking spanish and he was like ok I will speak in english and then his english was level 1 cholo so I was like no buddy its ok we can speak spanish and you can sell me the guitar for this much money and he did so that was a cool morning.

Me and Elder Gontes at Lunch today; the hermana made some killlleerrrrrrrr hot dogs!

Spiritual thought of the week is the importance of companionship study. we learn so much better as missionaries how to help our investigators according to their needs when we spend time together studying and practicing and putting goals for our week. I would recomend that as married couples you spend an hour once a week to study scriptures together, search for how you can strengthen your families and set goals as a couple for the week and month and then follow up with them every week, and set daily goals to accomplish weekly and monthly goals as a family. I know that this will be a source of peace in your life as you work together with the lord!

I hope you guys have a great week and remember to say your prayers! Good luck to you niños that are working on your mission papers hit me up when you get your calls!!

Do your homework and dont get senioritis!

Elder Draper

A big thanks to the ward for the letter/poster!!!

The sign says "It is prohibited to put trash here" but nobody cares......

            

Our church building is just a super big fresa house                 How we heat up our water to shower                   

Burger king, Walmart, and Month 4 in the mission!

Hello all, I hope you all had a fantastic week filled with many many great things!

This week was way good, we have set up some baptisms here in the last week for the next 5 weeks and that rocks my socks! we are teaching some really good investigators named Paty and victor that both are progressing really well and starting to gain testimonies for themselves. cool as can be to see changes in peoples lives, we invited them both to live the word of wisdom this week and it is going well! The blessings are real when we live the commandments.

Some cool parts about my new area are that we are in the middle of XALAPA the biggest city in the mission and it is so different. we take taxis everywhere which is kinda fun because my comp makes me tell em where we are going and he just sits in the back seat playing solitarie on our cell phone haha it is cool to talk to people who are from all over. Another cool thing is that this week on Wednesday the members that we eat with called and were like hey we cant feed you today but we left 300 pesos on our door step so grab it and have lunch on us. so we took a taxi to the center of the city to the mall and ate burger king. DEUTERONOMY after eating chicken feet and pig testicles for the last 3 months a mediocre hamburger was like prime rib. so dang good. there is also a  Costco and a Walmart here in Xalapa so food is a ton cheaper and we have a lot more variety.

This week I read a cool quote by Joseph Fielding Smith on the importance of the book of Mormon. "' it appears to me that no member of the church can feel satisfied until they have read the Book of Mormon one time or another and have contemplated it so as to be able to give testimony that it truly is an inspired record of the almighty and that it contains the truth; god cannot accept any member of this church into his presence if they have not carefully and seriously read the Book of Mormon." it is really an important part of our life long conversion as it contains the "fullness of the everlasting gospel"

Anyway, I hope you guys can start now if you haven't to read the Book of Mormon, ponder it in your heart and pray to God to know if it is true. I know that you guys can all receive a strong testimony because I have experienced it first hand.

Love you all, sorry no pics this week we literally have a lesson in 5 minutes and I gotta go catch a cab!!

OH ALSO BIG THANKS TO THE WARD I GOT MY CHRISTMAS LETTER THIS WEEK so that was awesome, thank you guys! and also thanks to the lewis fam for the christmas card you guys rock :)

read your scriptures,

-Elder Draper

Changes, and embracing trials like Mickey Mouse.

HOLA ALL!

This has been a good week, but last night I found out some crazy news, I am getting changed! to Xalapa, the biggest city in the mission, it should be a good experience but I am bummed to leave my companion Elder Garcia! We have had some great work together the last two months. My new area is called Macuitepetl say that five times fast I dare ya ;)

Map of Veracruz State

Cerro de Macuitepetl - Xalapa

This week was kinda rough as far as work, a few of our investigators fell off the grid and then Sunday nobody came to church which was bummer but I was doing a lot of thinking yesterday and came to the realization of a few things.

The first is that the power of satan is real. just as real as the power for good, satan has power for bad and he is really good at pulling people away from the truth. sometimes I forget an interesting fact. satan knows us really well, he knows Jesus Christ, he knows the plan of god and he knows he lost already. just like a poor sport that knows he is going to lose is the first one to make the foul in basketball, satan knows he has lost and he is wiling to do anything to pull us down with him. BUT we cant let him because we too know the plan of God, and we know what we have to do to stay on the winning team.

The second is that the smallest good deed is better than the greatest good intention. Jesus was the best example of that truth.

The third is the difference between discouragement and disappointment. It is normal do be disappointed but we cant let ourselves be discouraged! As missionaries we often are a lot like mickey mouse who we all know and love. we are the full technicolor, whistling as we walk, happy go lucky elder mickey mouses until the trials of our faith come and then we often change to the old black and white mopey mickey mouse. we cant do that! we have to like mickey, stand up brush ourselves off and with our heads held high continue forward!

I love you guys, and would challenge you to all try to continue forward with heads held high through what ever trial you are now facing hand in hand with the savior.

Keep up the good work and go 49ers!

Elder draper

Elder Draper and Tenoch at the Ward Party

Last Breakfast in Altotonga

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