Happy New Year!

Well hello everybody,

Happy New Year! How is everyone doing? I hope everyone had a great a new year and partied it up at midnight. And now for.... (drum roll)... my week in review!

Tuesday-12/29/09
Tuesday is our p day and it was a really fun one. We started off by going to the temple in Portland. We went so early that when we got there, it was dark. Then after the session it was light. It was a weird feeling. Then we took care of our email and shopping. After that we had time to play games. We went to a stake center and played all kinds of games. My new favorite one is firey darts. You have like 8 tennis balls. You have three people on one end trying to protect a garbage can from getting knocked over. The rest of the people set up barriers on the other side of the gym and try to knock the can over. If the protecting team hits a person on the other team, that person is out. It is a great game. That night we went and visited a few people but not much else.
Wednesday-12/30/09
we did a little bit of service on this day. We helped a couple move into separate homes. It was kind of a weird feeling but it was good to show a good example. Hopefully we can get into teaching them pretty soon. Only one of them in is our area so we will see. They took us for some great Chinese food though. Then bro. butler came on exchange with us again. He is so amazing and his whole family just treats us like we are part of their family. It is great.
Thursday-12/31/09
New Years Eve!! This really isn't a great holiday for missionaries. We had to be in early that night and we weren't supposed to go contacting because it was a holiday. We still made the most of it. It was raining really hard that day. We walked to the far side of our mission and our appointment canceled on us. We were soaked and we decided to go get lunch. We went to this really great 50's style diner. I bought a few presents there. I like it. That night we had another great lesson with Judith Hodges. She is just the sweetest lady ever. Then we went to our bishop’s house and played some games and that about all we did. It was funny as we were lying in bed, we could tell when it was the New Year. We could hear fireworks going off all around us. I went outside and the sky was just lit up. It was pretty cool. Then I went right to bed after that.
Friday 1/1/10
this was a really hard day for the missionaries. Nobody wanted to talk to us and our appointments were canceling left and right. There are just those days. It is always funny hearing people yell to us on the street. My favorite one so far is this guy yells. Yea god!!! Just screams it as loud as he can, it was really funny. Even though it was slow we had a great dinner with the strait family. He is going to teach us how to cook in our next appointments. The husband is not a member but he is a professional chef. That’s it for my new year’s day.
Saturday 1/2/10
it is hard getting used to writing 10. What do we call that, the year of 10, O10, 10? I am just curious. Saturday was a good day. We started by playing football with some nonmembers. We had a chance to teach a few of them but also got to play football. We were careful and didn't get hurt. Then we went to our standing appointment at the Rios'. There are so great. We got started talking about foreign cooking and next week they are going to make us chicken feet. I can't wait to try it. Then we had dinner at the woods house. They are funny people. They had their grandkids over visiting. It was funny to talk to one of the little girls. I asked her if she was excited for church and she nearly fell out of her chair because she was so excited to go to sunbeams. I wish I had been that excited about sunbeams. It just made me laugh. Then we did our usual Mendez visit and it was just a great overall day.
Sunday 1/3/10
I usually don't like fast Sunday but this one was good. I wasn't really all that hungry and just went through the day. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and then did all the other church stuff. After church we had a nice meal with the Schmit's. They are just a way nice young couple and it was nice just to be around people closer to our age. I mean I love all the more mature people but it was nice for a change. We got a little screwed up on time that night and ended up coming in an hour early. We felt really stupid because we had one person left to go visit but since we came back, we wouldn't have had time to get there and back on time. We will see them this week.
Monday 1/4/10
this was a really fun day. We did district exchanges today. That is where we switch up the companionships for the day. I went with Elder Johnson. He is a cool kid that is from Provo, Utah. We met a ton of people and talked with a lot. I wish my area seemed to be going like that. I just need to remember that it will come with hard work. The best visit was with the bible family. Yes their last name is bible. Elder Johnson let me do most of the talking. I explained the book of Mormon, missions and how we get our calls and what we do in the mission field. It was really good to have that chance to just talk and say what the spirit was telling me. They have a return appointment to go back and teach them the discussions. I hope all goes well.

I hope all is going well for everyone back home. I still haven't heard anything on the visas but we will just have to wait and see. Thank you for all your prayers. Thanks for everything this season and I hope everyone had a wonderful new year. I love you all and am praying for your everyday.

Love your Mongol missionary,
Elder M Scottie Draper