GREETINGS FROM ZILLAH

26 October 2010

Well hello everyone.

It is always amazing when you sit back and look at what has happened this transfer and has happened over your mission. This week was again another humbling week but this time is was good. I have taken a lot of time to reflect since I have been in Zillah. Just thinking about how I can help the area and how I can be an effective missionary.

After dinner the other day, we were driving to our next appointment. We were on this country road and the sun was just setting. It was beautiful and it made me think a lot about the good things that our Heavenly Father gives us. It made me think about what I have given back to my Heavenly Father and if it has been enough. I have already gone through a year of my mission and it seems like yesterday I was opening my call. Luckily I still have a year left. In that year so much has happened to me and I have grown in every way. (Yes, including my belly!!). I wouldn't trade this last year for anything. It made me also think about the people I have taught. I have met and taught so many wonderful people. I found out this last week that some of those people that I taught are progressing. I know I talked about Brother Clifford from the Orchards Ward and he finally came to church this last week. Will Green also went to church for the first time and is still scheduled to be baptized in November. But I think the thing that hit me the hardest was when I found out that two boys that I had taught were finally able to get baptized. I found out that Adam and Aaron Rickard were finally able to get baptized this last week. I realized how much I truly do love all these people and I will remember them for the rest of my life. I may not remember every name but I will remember the impact they had on my life. Every experience we have on the mission and in life is for a reason. We need to look for what we learn from each situation. We may not understand right away what we are supposed to learn but the Lord teaches and builds us in mysterious ways. My mission has lead me to believe that there are very few if any coincidences. This week was just a great time for me to learn and humble myself. I was also looking at the work that is going on in Zillah. We aren't quite getting twenty lessons a week or having the greatest success tracting but as I looked at the lessons we are teaching and the people we are seeing there are so many great things happening all around us. I was focusing too much why can't we find more people instead of what the Lord has already blessed this area with. The Zillah Ward has some amazing people and it brought me to that scripture that every soul is important in the eyes of God. Just because we don't have like twenty investigators and teaching a ton, doesn't mean that the work here isn't going good. We were able to put a twelve year old boy on date the other day for November 13th. His name is Brandon Yanez. He is just a great kid. His older brother and sister are members but the rest of his family isn't. We had a great lesson with him last night. As missionaries we usually go in have a little small talk and then teach. But before the lesson last night we took about thirty minutes and shot hoops with him and got to know him better. The atmosphere was totally different from the first lesson we had with him. He was open and participated and as we showed we cared he was more open and willing. It truly hit me that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. We also had a great lesson with the Place family. We challenged her to be baptized on the November 6th. She had just plain out said no the past times we asked her but she said she would consider it this time and actually pray. We had just finished teaching her about the Atonement. She had brought up a concern that she didn't want to disappoint her Father in Heaven if she made mistakes after she was baptized. It was just a Spirit filled lesson as we bore testimony that we are all human but because of the Atonement we can be forgiven. Then a cool thing happened after we challenged her to be baptized. The less active husband asked us what he would have to do if he were the one who was going to baptize her. It was totally out of the random but it was just cool to see that Gospel coming into the Place family. I have only known them for a few weeks but I have grown to love them. In our training last week we watched a video that said as you think of your investigators throughout the week it is inevitable that you will start to love them. I have tried to apply that with the people we are teaching and it works. I want them to come to the knowledge of the truth not just so they can be someone I say I baptized but so they can see the same joy that I feel from the gospel. That feeling has also been a motivating factor in trying to get the work picked up. I think we tracted for like at least twelve hours this last week. We found like twelve people that said we could come back. We have appointments scheduled everyday this week and it is amazing to see what the Lord blesses you with. I know that it is only when we realize where the blessing come from that more will come. As we follow the spirit we will be lead to those who are prepared. In our District meetings we have been focusing on the role of the Spirit in conversion. I think this topic was given for me to learn more than it was for me to teach. In just these two district meetings I have learned so much. The Spirit is key in each of our lives. We must have that spirit to bear witness to us of the truth of the Gospel. When that happens we will gain a testimony. A testimony is knowing and feeling which will then lead to us being converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Conversion is doing and becoming. But it all starts out with the Holy Ghost giving us that witness. The Spirit is so important not only in missionary work but in our lives as well. We all need to live worthy of the Spirit. If we are not, change. We cannot afford to live without it and if we are living worthy of the Spirit, we are living worthy of the blessing that our Heavenly Father is waiting to give us.

This week really boosted my spirits and I know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers. They are not always how we expect it but he does answer. We taught seminary this last week as well and we were teaching about missionary work. We talked with them about how if you will pray for those experiences, they will come. You won't need to worry about what to say because the Spirit will direct, but you will be surprised about the opportunities that come up.

I love you all and hope you are having a great week. We walked out of church on Sunday and all I could think in my mind was I love this Church. I don't know if I could have said that before my mission, but now I know it. Nothing can change that and I will always love it. The things I have seen on my mission have molded me and shaped me into a better person. Be safe this week, live worthy of the Spirit and replace fear with faith. When we do this we can overcome anything.

Love,

Elder Draper