1/11/11
Well, it was another wee.
First off I want to say I made a mistake in last week’s email. It is Mosiah 5:15 not 6:15. Okay now I can get to the rest of the email…. I just wanted to clear that up! I had a concerned person asking me if I had a special copy that contained fifteen verses in chapter six, but it doesn't.
Well this week was a good one even though nothing out of the ordinary happened. Elder Lemperle and I are doing great and we are still working towards that goal of getting five baptisms before he goes home in February. The area that we are in is a hard one because a lot of the people have lived in the same house for years and don't really want to hear us. Even though we aren't having success at every door, we are still having success. We found this guy named Shane Miller. He is preparing to go into the Armed Forces in March. He is really open. This week we had exchanges with the Assistants to the President and they went over there. They challenged him to be baptized and he said if he gets his answer he will be. We have an appointment on Wednesday and I am excited to go see if he got an answer or not.
Our other investigators are doing good as well. A lady named Wanda Steel has been investigating for a little bit and she knows that the Church is true. She even says it. There are just a few little things that she has a tough time committing to. She went in for surgery this week and it was amazing how the Relief Society jumped in and took her some meals and started to fellowship her some more.
We have another investigator named Levi Jones. He is a great guy that has just hit a patch of bad luck. He is one that is ready to be baptized but because of some false accusation he has to wait for a little bit while he gets them all sorted out. Two of his four kids just got baptized and we are just waiting for the oldest one to come around.
We also have a few young single adults that we are teaching. I guess Shane would be one of them but another is a girl named Alicia. Her roommate is a member and got her interested in the Church. We are working with her and just keep teaching her the lessons. So even though there is not a ton of work, we are still staying busy. You have to look at the bright side or else it would tear you apart. Life and missions have too many good things to get caught up on the bad things.
One thing that we definitely had to look at the bright side was a service project that we did. It was a case of drugs destroying someone’s life and then it causing problems for other. So Brother McMullen (he is not a member but his wife is) has this rental property and the person he rented to turned out to be not so good. He ended up evicting them and they just left garbage, cloths and a mess behind. You could tell they were doing drugs in there, it smelled like smoke and the pipes froze so they did not have water to flush the toilet’s but they still used them. It was disgusting. So we are helping him clean all this up and we found a book of memories. It was sad to see how this mom got her kids taken away and just went completely downhill because of drugs and alcohol. The bright spot is how blessed we are to have the Word of Wisdom in our lives and the blessings it brings. I bet that lady didn't plan to get to this point but Satan worked at her little by little. He works at us all little by little but we need to make sure that we have a firm foundation. We need to remember that Christ is that foundation and no matter what mistakes we make He always wants us to come back. It may be tough, but it is worth it. The blessings that come from living a Christ centered life are amazing and we should be doing everything we can to obtain that. While we were at the service project I had a cool experience. I went out to go check on the pipes and heard a river running under the trailer because the pipes had burst. So I am looking for the shut off all over. I go to the neighbor to see how theirs works and I just can't find it. I was about to give up when I said a little prayer. I got this prompting to go around the house one more time. As I walked past this spot that I had walked past five times already my foot got caught on something in the ground. As I uncovered it, I realized that it was the opening to the valve and it had just been buried in the mud. It is awesome how our prayers are answered and that the Holy Ghost can guide us. It is funny that I had that experience because on Sunday I had to give a talk in Church on that very subject, the Holy Ghost. But it wasn't just a youth speaker talk. I was the closing speaker. I ended up talking for like twenty minutes on how the Holy Ghost can bless our lives and what we need to do to qualify for that blessing.
Well this week has been going great. I love this work and am so happy to be doing it. Getting a new assignment and going to a new area bring up new fears but I have had faith that all would work out and it has. I see how we are blessed each day. This week we had Zone Leader Council and the lessons I learned there were exactly what I had been praying for. I knew that I would receive my answer. We learned about not being sheep and just following what the world is doing. We need to be Sheppard’s. We need to set the example for those around us because we love them. We can't be sheep herders and force people into it. We need to love those around us and help them make those choices and choose the paths that will bring the blessings of God. Just as the Savior is our good Sheppard. We need to help all those around us. It may be scary at times to set that example and to not just be a one of the sheep, but as we replace fear with faith we will see the blessings and we can be a more effective instrument in the hands of the Lord.
I love you and hope you have a great week,
Elder M. Scottie Draper
Hey fam,
Just wanted to say I love you. So this week a couple of the none spiritual things was that we built a water rocket launcher for zone p-day next week. I will send pictures. It is so cool. Oh and we have been reading "To the Rescue" as we drive around in our cars. It is cool.
We had more snow and more ice come this week. On the drive out to Pilot Rock there is a herd of like 200 elk now that is just living there. It is so cool.
Have a great week and I love you. Best of luck with anything that is coming up this week. Keep it up and replacing fear with faith. We are doing great as a companionship. Elder Lemperle and I get along really well. Oh and go cougs!! I hear they are doing awesome. Oh and a Zone Leader just means more paper work, nothing special. I hope it all goes good.
Love you,
Scottie
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