S1:E11 The One With My First Goodbye

Buenos Tardes America! 

Hopefully you guys are holding down the fort while I am gone. 

So I heard it's getting cold, Mexico hasn't changed. It's still hot...

Elder Najera is now home with his family. He was my first companion. Now it is just me and the Brazilian Elder Barbosa. 

My Spanish is really coming along. I can now understand about 70% of normal conversation and my speaking has improved a ton too. It is crazy how far my spanish has come. 

Some fun things I have started in my ward is I teach English classes and a Book Of Mormon class. It's a real challenge for me but I love it. They are the first things that I have initiated here and it's fun to be in charge. 

Today we went up to a place called Tlayacapan. Its is up in the rainforest and mountains of Mexico about 45 minutes from my area. It's absolutely beautiful and amazing. In the middle of this rainforest and jungle there is a really nice soccer field that is open to everyone. Me and about 14 other elders went and played there this morning. 

Go check out my blog for pictures and past emails! https://eldertaitdraper.blogspot.com/ 

Go watch the Book Of Mormon videos. They are Awesome!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-6BtQzo4A/

Elder Draper

21 October, 2019 - Cuatla, MX 

S1:E10 The One Where I Finish My First Transfer

Good Afternoon America! 

I have some news. Starting tomorrow I leave the trio.I have been in the companionship trio for the last 6 weeks. It will be a little different with just the two of us but I am excited. This week hasn't been very eventful. The work was hard but its moving. We did loose some investigators this week but we also gained some!

 Right now we are teaching about 5 people. Saul is going good but is struggling with some of the commitments. Raul (yup a different person) and I have connected a lot. A little bit about Raul: He has a really strong faith in Jesus Christ and loves the bible. Everyone in his family are members and he loves attending every church activity from basketball or futbal/soccer on Friday nights to church on sunday to independence day fiesta. But he doesn't like the Book of Mormon, he doesn't belive in the Devil, and he counters all of our teachings with the ible. So you may ask why would Elder Draper think he is the chosen one to help him? First he loves music, he loves 70-80's american music, also he loves english hymns.

 If you know me, that's what about sums me up! It's a hard situation but I think that I am the one chosen to help him. He is the person in the entire mission that I probably connect with the most. Not my companions, not the district, the zone, but nope its Raul. 

 There was a ton of rain this week. I have never feared lightning untill I have lived here. The streets are different here and they don't have storm drains. Sooo the water goes right down the middle of the road. Pretty interesting... 

 Love you guys and check out my website for pictures, videos, and past emails. 

Elder Draper

Cuatla, MX

send me an email at tait.draper@missionary.org

S1:E9 The One With the Prophet

Good Afternoon ladies and gents! 

A quite good week it was. We had some great progress this week with investigators. Definitely not as eventful as last week, but a really good week in general. I had my first divisions on the mission this week and it was a blast. Divisions on the mission is when you swap companions for 24 hours.

  General conference was so good! At least for me, while I have been in the mission, the prophets mean so much more to me and all of the words of the prophet are amazing. I wanted to list a couple of my favorite quotes and lessons I have learned.

- Elder Christofferson- "its not about circumstances, its about focus"
- Elder Pace- "The Lord is using families as a weapon against Satan"
-Elder Stephenson-  "wickedness never was happiness"
-Elder Ballard- "Don't miss the opportunity to appreciate your relations and your family ... we fail to appreciate things until they are gone usually."

 I know that we have living prophets today and that they speak for the lord. I know this church is true.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Draper

Cuatla, MX

Watch General Conference -  October 2019

S1:E8 The One Where the Miracles Came

 Hola!!! 

How is it going? I had a good week! The work was good! We made some really good progress this week with my investigators and we also found a couple new that are awesome. Spanish is hard but it is coming soo fast! This week I made leaps and bounds in understanding and talking. Wahoo!!!

 I wanna talk about some of the miracles I have received this week. Saturday is where it started. Don't forget right now I am in a trio right now. Here all baptisms take place on Saturday usually at about 5. One of the other missionaries in our district called us and they said we have a baptism this week and we need one more person to give a talk in it. My senior companion said he could and me and my other companion were like elder we have 4 appointments tonight that we need to go to. So we called our district leaders and asked if we could leave Elder Najera at the church and me and my other companion could go to the appointments. We finally got it all approved and me and Barbosa were on our way.

 Captain Barbosa (that's my nickname for him) has only been out on the mission for 4 months and I have been here for 2 months and we are both learning the language still. We start teaching the lesson and its going soooo good. They are learning a ton and really interested and then we start teaching about the priesthood and blessings. The people we were teaching were like can we have a blessing. Whoa! That was an amazing experience. So strong and the gift of tongues is real.

We go to our second lesson. Literally the exact same thing happens. We give another great lesson and they ask for a blessing. AMAZING. The other lessons went really good too.

 On our way back to the chapel we decide to contact every single person we can see. We got a lot of rejections and we were getting really tired and I turn to my companion and say this sucks right now. We have no investigators going to church everyone is rejecting us and it sucks. Not 10 seconds later we walk past a guy who is trimming his trees and we asked if he needed help and he started to break down in front of us telling us that he has had a really hard year and that his son died in a motorcycle accident and he wants to believe in God but why would he take his son? Missionary me kicked in and I was like God loves you, he loves all of us, he loves your son and he has a plan for all of us. I go on to teach him the plan of salvation and a little bit about the restoration and our church and he asked us where is your church I want to come tomorrow! I looked to my companion and was like oh my gosh... It was amazing!

 Other than that we had a really bad storm this week and we lost power for 24 hours. That really sucked. No showers, no alarm clocks, no fans, no water, no fridge, and no lights. That was really hard, pretty fun experience though! Its really hot and humid here too. I am always wet...

Go watch the book of Mormon videos, they are way cool!

 Love you guys and miss you all so much! I know that this church is true and that I didn't leave my family, friends, school, and home for no reason. I am here to share the restored gospel, a gospel that is made for families and that can help everyone.

Elder Draper

Cuatla, MX

  

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Hermanos!

We aren't in Kansas Anymore...

 Doby the House Elf

Captain Barbosa