HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!

Elder Garrick and Elder Draper with ELDER BEAR-
the apartment mascot.

4 July 2011

Well happy Independence Day!

I hope you are all enjoying your festivities and that you are enjoying the company of family and friends.

This week was a good week. We were able to accomplish a lot of stuff and get prepared for this upcoming week. This week we have Zone conferences every day, so needless to say it will incredibly busy. One of the greatest things as an Assistant is being able to go back to your old areas and to be able to see and teach the people you have taught before. We got to go back down to Pendleton this last week. It was so much fun going around the same places that I spent almost six months and being able to teach a lot of the same people. There has been a lot of progress made with some of those people. We got so see Elizabeth LaFond, Eileen Purcell, and Irene Siler, who we put on date while we were there. I think my favorite was seeing Tiah Peterson and Dylan Clemens. They are doing really well. Elder Liu and his new comp, Elder Hatch, are doing really well down there and getting a lot of work done. Dylan still amazes me how strong he is and how much he wants to be baptized. While we were there Tiah's mom called and said that she had fallen. She is an older lady who as of late has had a lot of medical problems. She lives next door to Tiah so Elder Hatch and I ran over there with Tiah to help her up and make sure all is well. While we were in there Elder Liu and Elder Garrick were talking with Dylan and got on the subject of Baptism. When we came back out Dylan went up to his mom and said "Elder Liu gave me some scriptures about baptism. I am going to read and pray about them and if I get an answer, is it okay if I get baptized into the Mormon Church?" I just love that kid. Another cool part about it was that he wants me to confirm him if he ends up getting baptized. He is just a very bright kid and I see great things for both him and his mom.

We only had one meeting this last week and it was the best meeting of all. We had a Zone Leader Council. We went over a lot of very good things to help the mission. We talked mainly about the roles of a Zone Leader and their role in helping the mission move forward. We are still working towards our goal of “711 Baptisms in 2011”. This month is looking great for that goal. We are projecting about a hundred people being baptized this month.

Our area is also doing great. We are still trying to find new people and it has been hard with how busy we have been but we were able to have a few tender mercies placed in our laps this week. We have had a few members give us referrals and by talking to everyone we were able to find some new potentials. There was one potential named Natalie who seemed really interested. The funny part about it was that during our whole approach Elder Garrick kept calling her Rebecca. We are just hoping she didn't catch it and will still be interested next time we go by.

Another cool experience was a lady named Denty. She is from Africa and only speaks a little bit of English. We started talking to her about faith and asking very simple questions. She started going off about how she has had a lot of trials and how she lost a son. He was living in England at the time and how she had to go and get the body and all this stuff. We both had the prompting to simply asked her, "would you like to know where your son is and how you can see him again?" She said she would love too and told us we could come back. As we testified of how this can truly bless our lives she just kept saying thank you. It was a way cool experience to be able to help a mother who has lost her son know that there is hope and that she can see him again.

One last miracle that we saw this week had to do with a part-member family we have been working with, the Mollotes. The dad is a member but was disfellow-shipped a long time ago. He and his family have been taking the discussions for a long time now. He has been waiting for his papers to come in from Salt Lake so he can get his membership all figured out. Well it was taking a long time and we think he kind of lost hope. We have been praying for a miracle to happen and it did. The papers came and all he has to do is meet with the Bishop. Plus, the whole thing was blown out of proportion on what needs to happen for him to be able to baptize his family. Now we are just praying for another miracle that we can get the family ready for baptism and they can be baptized by their father.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember this wonderful country that we live in. We are so blessed for the freedoms we have and the blessings that God gives to us each day. Always strive to live worthy of those blessings. Remember that this holiday is about more than just fireworks and BBQs. It is the day we celebrate our independence.

Remember to replace fear with faith and all will work out. Be smart and be safe.

Love

Elder M Scottie Draper