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

Prospero Año Nueva,!

Hey everyone! 

I hope you all had a great christmas, and that you all remembered the real meaning of christmas :) This was probs the weirdest christmas of my life but super funny! On christmas eve we were in the city and were going to eat with this family the familia pita, after my comp talked to his family. So we left the church around 7:30 to go there but when we got there, all the lights were off, and nobody answered the door! We called, but no answer, they stood us up on christmas eve those grinches! It was funny though, after that around 8:30 we went and got pizza from this place called econo-pizza or as my comp has rightly renamed it, econo-gas. typical mexico. We bought two large pizzas, a big grape fanta, and some cookies and played uno and ate until 12:30, it ended up being really fun we just told stories about family, stuff in the mission, cool scriptures, all that jazz. Good christmas eve.

          

Christmas Day I talked with my family and that was awesome! Shout out to mom and dad and tait, you guys are my main people. Hahaha during the skype with them this stray dog runs into the church, and into the secretaries office where I was talking and just starts eating my bag I was like "hold on, I´m in mexico gimme a sec" typical mexican stuff. After we were supposed to go eat with the same fam that stood us up on christmas eve but guess who wasnt home? the same scrooge family as the night before!! hahaha mexicans man, I love em. We ended up eating with the sister down the street and all was good, then we went to the stake center and played games with our zone, we taught them how to play rugby and that was a mess so we ended up getting back into soccer, typical mexico. then president got there with a cake, and ephraims rescue and we watched that and ate then went back to sleep at our district leaders house. Like I said, it was a weird christmas man! but way fun, and memorable none the less.

                      

    

                   

                          

Sunday miguel and gina were confirmed and miguel got the aaronic priesthood. I cant believe seeing the change, miguel was coming to church in shorts and a t shirt and a base ball cap the first week, and yesterday he was in dress pants, dress shoes, a sweater, he was wearing the tie we gave him, he looked awesome!! Gina cried the whole meeting, we were feeling the spirit, it was all good in the hood.

Today we had to pack up our house and clean the whole sucker because we are moving tonight! we are going to the big city about an hour away so that should be interesting, this guy in the ward has a big van that he thinks we can fit all of our stuff in but if not we can just tie it on top of the roof. Typical mexico. 

Thats pretty much it for this week, I hope you guys all had a great christmas and have the hap hap happiest new year.

I know that this church is true, and I know that through diligence and obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, we can live happily and feel the love of our Heavenly Father as his eternal children.

I love you guys and please,

Always remember to spay and neuter your pets.

-Elder Draper

Marriage, Baptisms, and Mexican Haircuts

WOW!

Hello family and friends, can ya believe i have almost been out for 3 months and christmas is this week??? This week was the best week for a few reasons, one I got  NEW COMPANION Elder Garcia, from bogata columbia. he is seriously the best, we are working really well together which is so nice. we worked in perote this week and we will be here until the first of january,

We are trying to find a new house in altotonga so we can move next weekend and work there and here, we are the only missionaries in the mission working in two areas, which is way cool! we are working in altotonga because there isnt enough priesthood leaders to split the ward and open a house of prayer here in perote so we devided the area yesterday with the bishop and ward mission leader so that was good. We will work and live in altotonga but come to perote twice a week to work with joseline and alejandro for the next few weeks and then only once a week for references or stuff like that. Kinda crazy, we will have to take a bus when we come to perote it is about an hour in the bus that is so packed with mexicans its crazy, like there is probs 40 seats, and there are well more than 70 people on this bus, I will take a pic for next week.

Any way, this week was really good because we were planning on marrying gina and miguel! We went over to their house wednesday to pick them up to do their blood tests (you have to do that here idk why) anyway we got there and gina was crying and we were like shoot whats up? so we talk for like five minutes and then gina said something, miguel said something and crap hit the fannnnnn. they started fighting and it was crazy because we were just sitting there like um....scriptures...love one another...we were there for AN HOUR just trying to calm their sweet spirits. it was nuts man. I was trying not to laugh so hard, I only understood like every three words and it was honestly way funny me and my comp just looked at eachother like what do we do?? anyway, after an hour, they made up, kissed, and we got the heck out of there. What did we learn kids? Satan is real and doesnt want them to be baptized. Even crazier part, we went to drop their papers off at the civil registry and the judge is like you have to wait eight days and you dont have the right birth certificates. if you can get it to me in less than 20 minutes your fine for friday. so we hauled it over to miguel and ginas the mexicans were probably like why is the CIA running through the streets of perote? oh thats a funny part of being white and being here. people ask me if I am in the cia in america. jajaja anyway, so we made it anddddd they got married friday! but once again can you tell satan did not want them to get baptized?  oh fun fact and another satan thing we had to freaking pay the judge off to let them get married because she sucks, we both payed 300 pesos, which in reality is less than 30 bucks but it is a lot for us considering we live on 200 a week. all good though bc president reimbursed it.

Ok so if you havent understood me yet, GINA AND MIGUEL GOT BAPTIZED it was so cool, they were both so excited and funny, and after we asked them how they felt and miguel was just like ahh...super bien. clean. very different. all smiles and gina was just cry/laughing like wow this is a cool thing. The church is true!

Today I got a haircut and I was so fetching scared because it was this 600 year old viejito lady and her hands were all shaky the whole time but she didnt cut my ear off and Iron giant was on their huge television. we were there forever because well she moved like a 600 year old. we watched like the whole movie and it was a testament that my spanish is way better because I understood like the whole movie.

anyways, that was about it for this week! love you guys, and I hope you all have a great christmas, I know I will because I get to talk to my fam! send me emails, pics of your lives, I want to see what america looks like. mexico is kinda boring after a while ;)

Don´t spike the eggnog.

Elder Draper

Lastly a little trick we have here for getting references, we pick a name like jose luiz or alejandro or maria, because everyone in mexico is named one of those three names. we go to a tienda and ask hey we are looking for a guy named jose luiz on this street do you know where he lives and almost every time they are like oh well there is one in the blue house, the yellow one, and house number 6 oh and my name is maria, we ask them about their family and we end up leaving with like 18 references. it rocks.