S3 - Season Finale - Series Finale - The One Where I Say Goodbye

WOW! It has been a little while since I have sent out a weekly letter but well I guess it's as good as time as ever to send one out because well, quite frankly it's the last one. Yup, it's been 2 whole years and it's time to come home. It is definitely a very bitter sweet moment, but it's something that we all saw coming. So I'm going to give you all a little bit of an update so when I get home you don't have to ask 😉 (jk feel free to ask!)

 The last couple of months have been crazy, just like the rest of my mission. After serving as a secretary of references and technology for a couple of months I was sent out to live right under the snow capped volcano in a pueblito called Tecalco. It's rich in history and has some really great people here. The church, it has a huge history that I won't go into in depth, but it was the first part of Mexico that the Lord chose to start His work. Many different prophets and apostles have visited here in my small town because God has chosen this place to be a special place. If you would like to read more about why you can look up the third convencion of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.

Popocatepetl - Volcano in the background

 Right now I am serving with Elder Vargas from Tijuana and I am training Elder Butcher from Eagle mountain Utah. We have a lot of fun and get along really well. Where I am right now, we don't have a lot of work. When I first got here we didn't have anyone to teach at all, so we had to start from scratch. In the last couple of weeks we have been able to find a couple of great families to teach.

 Well this is the end. I don't even know how to state in words how grateful I am to have the opportunity to serve a full time mission. I have grown so much and changed more than I can imagine. I have had such a crazy and amazing story from serving in Mexico to the Covid outbreak and then having to come home, work for the hospital for months, serve in Washington DC, then back to Mexico city to finish the last 6 months of my mission. Along all of this crazy and unstable journey, there has been one thing that has continually grown, My testimony and trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I might be some 20 year old kid that doesn't know much, but I do know that He lives. I know that with all of my heart and soul and no matter where I was in the world, I could see that simple fact change lives forever.

 I am sad to say goodbye, but I am happy to see all of you in just a few days. I will fly in on Tuesday July 13, just a few days, and if you would like to come by and say hi, you can message me through social media, email me, or reach out to my family. My homecoming will be the 18th at 9 AM so check instagram and facebook for an address!

For the last time,

Elder Draper

S1 : E31 Mid-Season Finale - The One Back at Home

Hey guys! 

So many things happened in this last week. The week kind of started off weird. We started up our partial lock-down where we could only visit the people who we had an appointment with. Then it slowly escalated to we had to prepare for a full lock-down and buy food for one week, then two weeks, and finally one month. We got a call this last Saturday to get food for a month and that starting that next monday we wouldn't leave the house for a straight month.

So that was the plan. One month to study, work out in the house to get shredded, practice my spanish, play some guitar, and kill my companion. All good things. Unfortunately on Sunday, those plans all fell through. At 3:00 we got a call saying that tomorrow morning (Monday) We would be leaving to go back home. So we spent the next 8 hours talking to all of my converts in the mission and all of the investigators that we were currently teaching. It was really hard to say goodbye to people. I had encountered many great families and great people in my time so far and we had really learned to come close. We all teared up a little that day.

We had kind of a crazy day Monday. We woke up at 4 in the morning and took a small bus for about 4 hours to the airport. Took another 5 hour flight back to the cold mountain lands of Utah. It was a little bit different than most homecomings because there were close to a hundred missionaries coming home that day but it was still very fun and special.

Now I'm home and in my house with my family. I'm still a missionary and still serving but for the next two weeks I am on quarantine. I also have yet to receive another call to tell me where I will go or what will happen at the end of these two weeks. For now I am just holding on and using technology to serve to my best ability.

Love you guys and maybe see you sooner than expected. If you want to say hi you can call my parents, brother, or on facebook/instagram.

Elder Draper

S1 : E30 The One Where We Prepare for Impact

Hey guys whats up! 


First off I want to give a shout out to all of my friends with the coronavirus. Here in Mexico it is still very calm and there hasn't been any problems yet. We are all preparing and stocking up for worst case scenario. I have a ton of clean water and a ton of food storage. If anyone wants me to send you some toilet paper, send me an email and you address and I will get it to you.

But honestly here is just normal life. We still work the exact same. We have 6 people with a baptism date and they are progressing and looking great. We have sacrament meeting in the houses of other members and we invite our investigators to come. I really feel like the people that are in the Book of Mormon teaching the people of your little town.


I love and miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon. Cuidense con la coronavirus. Hasta el proximo semana! 


Elder Draper

S1: E29 The One Where We Walked a Lot of Hills

Hey guys! 


How is America? Winter still? Do you have the coronavirus yet? 

Here in Mexico it's still hot. Don't know if you knew that. We did get a 2 or 3 day break from the heat which was really nice. The pollution really traps in the slightly colder air so we do get some days where we sweat less! Right now for the missionaries in our mission we have a small brick for a phone, and every day we get two or three texts from our phone provider that gives us news about the world. Half of the texts we get are reliable and the other half are totally fake. This week we got a lot of texts about the coronavirus and how it has taken over Mexico. Luckily when I talked to my family, I learned that actually there are only five cases in Mexico right now. I also got a text about four weeks ago saying Kobe Bryant died. I was really hoping that one was fake...
Elder Draper



 Today is Grandpa Ron's birthday and just want everyone to know how much better my Grandparents are than yours. Also this week Happy birthday to my Aunt Kellee. Thanks for always being such a great aunt. Love and miss you both and I'm thinking about both of you lots this week!

The work here is really coming along. We have found some really great people to teach and they are progressing really fast. We have six people right now getting ready for baptism. It's so exciting to be a part of the missionary program at this time in a place so prepared.


That's about it for this week! See you guys in a short 16 months.  

https://eldertaitdraper.blogspot.com check this website out if you wanna see pictures and old emails.

Elder Draper

S1:E28 The One With a Whole Lot of Success

Good afternoon! 

What a great week. This week I worked harder than any other week in the mission. We contacted and talked to more people on the street than ever, had more members in lessons than ever, started to teach more new people in one week than ever, and had more people attend sacrament meeting then ever in my mission. 

It was AWESOME. It is really exciting to put in the work and see the results. 

I'm still training... It's been good but I think whenever you spend 24 hours with someone for weeks, they start to get on your nerves. Also he is still learning Spanish and that is a slow and long process. This also means that I do about 90% of the talking and teaching. I don't think that I have ever talked so much in my life before. Also I have learned I don't like the sound of my own voice and unfortunately it's worse in Spanish. 

Right now we are teaching a family of 7 that just absolutely love us and the gospel. The familia is grandma and grandpa, one of her kids and their 2 kids. They read, pray, go to church, go to English class, and want to go to every activity in the church. It's really exciting to find people ready for the gospel. We had a really great lesson this week with them. We had it with a really strong member family and we had the member family share their baptism experience. It was awesome! Right now they all have baptism dates for the end of this month.

That's about it tho! Love and miss you guys.

Go check out my website for pics and past  https://eldertaitdraper.blogspot.com

Out Front Porch Spider

Teaching

Anenecuilco and Tenextepango Elders

Mickey D's

S1:E27 The One With Seven New People in the Church

Hey guys, 

What a week. We had some real miracles this week. We had some hard past couple of weeks but I knew we just needed to keep working and be worthy. 

Finally after these hard weeks we received some blessings. This week we got 7 people in the church on Sunday this week and that is 5 more people than I have ever had. Then after that last night we got a baptism date for one of our investigators. It has really been amazing to see people progress and change their hearts.

 We have also been watching The District (a video training for missionaries) In these videos we have been learning from other missionaries and they have been using more members in their lessons. So we have been trying to learn from other missionaries and we have included more members in our lessons. The difference has been night and day in these lessons. 

 We have been having a lot of fun and we are learning a lot together. I miss and love you all and can't wait to see your cute faces again. Until next week!

Elder Draper

Pictures from Last Week (Sorry for the Blurry Pictures)

 

S1:E26 The One Where I Keep Training

Hey guys! 

Been doing good! I am still training Elder Sunburg. We have really seen some progress in our investigators and in our less active families we have been working with. We had 2 investigators in the church on Sunday and 2 inactive families in the church on Sunday! It is really fun to see people progressing and seeing them change their lives.

 We had some hard lessons and some good lessons. The hard lessons just mean we have to take more time to explain because they don't understand or they don't want to understand The easy ones just mean that they are better

prepared and are ready to accept it.

 We ended up visiting a lot of members and we found a lot of people to help. We gave a lot of blessings this week. That really brings the spirit. I definitely didn't appreciate blessings before the mission like I do now.

 So on Wednesday we were on our way to our lunch appointment and there were some really bad directions to this house. It said 2 streets up from the hill across from the blue house and we ended up at the wrong house. The house we ended up in were inactive members and it took about 20 minutes to figure out what is going on. Then we got a call from the member who was going to feed us and we were talking to who I thought was that member and for about 3 minutes, I thought I was going to die and get kidnapped by this old lady.

 That's about it! Love and miss you all go check out my website if you missed a letter or want to see pictures https://eldertaitdraper.blogspot.com

Elder Draper