feliz cumpleanos a la hermana tanner!!!

Happy Birthday Hermana Tanner! With Hermana Manueltia Flores, our mission grandma!

10/28/13

Buenos dias Familia!!

No puedo creer que ya esta lunes!! But what an awesome week it has been. I feel that every single week is faster and faster! But it has been another week full of miracles.

First off, last Monday we had scheduled an appointment to meet with one of our newer investigators, but when we got there, they weren't home. Their mom said that they left a while ago and hadn't returned. We were sad because we were super excited for that lesson, but God always has backup miracles! We had to make a quick pit stop at the gas station, and as we were leaving, guess who we saw? The investigators we had gone to visit! They said they were running late and hoped they hadn't missed us, we said we had already stopped by, but they asked if we could still go right then. Well of course. And the lesson went super awesome (sometimes God just makes us wait a little bit :)) We asked them if they had a chance to pray about the Restoration and she began to explain how she had a dream about the life of Jose Smith. I kid you not when I say that Hispanics have the most incredible dreams. She said that she received her answer that he really was called to be a prophet. Then he explained that he had been praying a lot, but still hadn't received an answer, but that he would keep trying because he really wants to know too. They are amazing!! Ages 17 and 18 and they just want to know the truth. I know that there are so many prepared people out here.

Later in the week we had the chance to go on exchanges. I got to go over to Bearcreek and work in that area with Hermana Rife, our sister training leader, for a day. I love going on exchanges because there are so many opportunities to learn new things! For example, that God gives revelation when we ask for it. Being in an area other than your own, for less than twenty four hours is a bit stressful because you don't know anyone! But when we ask for revelation and guidance, the Lord will give it to us in the moment that we need it. We had a really cool experience how during studies I had read a scripture in Alma 44 (the war chapters are my favorite…) I felt that we needed to share that with one of the members we were going to visit. It is about the armies of Moroni vs. Amalikiah and how in the end the Lamanites were delivered into the hands of the Nephites because of their faith and pure intentions. In verse four it says "ye see that God will support and keep and preserve us so long as we are faithful unto him and unto our faith and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should… deny our faith" The Hermana that we visited just broke down into tears and opened right up about a really personal trial that she had been going through. She said that this was exactly what she needed to be reminded of. That no matter how hard the war is that we are fighting, in the end we will always win if we hold fast to our faith and trust in the Lord. Also, we have been working with this amazing new family. I don't know if I mentioned them last week, but we received them as a referral from the English elders that cover our area. We went over the first time and just stated our purpose and a brief restoration message and they seemed super interested. Then a few days later we taught the full restoration and both parents and their twelve year old committed to baptism on the seventeenth! Then yesterday, unfortunately, due to excess of rain, daylight savings that wasn't daylight savings, and work, they couldn't make it to church but we had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon and both of them had started reading it. We read 3 Nephi 11 and they both were really amazed and touched. It was pure evidence that you truly get closer to Christ through reading the Book of Mormon, than by any other book. The pure love that you can feel as you imagine being one of those going up to him "one by one" to feel the scars of the nails. They are an incredible family and I can't wait to see them continue progressing! I love being a missionary so much! Life is so beautiful and the gospel is so true. God loves us more than we can even imagine and wants to help us; we just have to be humble enough to gratefully accept his help. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Look for the little miracles, and you will be amazed all that God has done for you! Share the gospel, because how could we keep this joy to ourselves! Replace fear with faith!

les quiero demasiado,

Hermana Draper

milagros en milagros en milagros

Hermana Tanner and Draper at the Houston Temple

10/21/13

Hola Familia! Como han ido?

What a week it has been! Temple being one of the obvious highlights, but also awesome new investigators, investigators at church (which is huuge), reactivations of members, and more! God is truly hastening his work and I am so grateful for all the miracles that He is working in our area!

Well to start off, having investigators at church really is a huuge step in their conversion, and also the commitment that seems to be the hardest to keep. We have been working a lot with one of our investigators and she is so solid. She loves to read, she loves to learn, she is very humble and prayerful, the only problem is that she watches over an elderly man, 24/7, so she basically can never leave unless she has someone to watch over him. Well for this she hasn't been able to come to church, except for the one session of General Conference that she went to. When we had a lesson with her this past week we felt that we needed to talk to her about fasting, and how powerful it can be in helping us receive guidance, because she is at a point where she has to make a lot of big decisions for her life. We invited her to pick a day and said that we would love to join her, if it was okay with her. She said Sunday, and how perfect is that? We explained how fasting makes you more in tune with the spirit and one of the best places to receive revelation through the spirit is at church. We invited her to commit, and she said she would try to find someone to cover for her... well... when we called on Saturday to see she giddily said to us that she could come!! So we arranged for one of our members to pick her up, and the whole day went wonderfully; the talks in sacrament meeting, the sacrament, Sunday school, and especially relief society. Everyone was there welcoming her and I think she was a bit overwhelmed with all the love that she felt there! The lesson was on how this is the Kingdom of God and how it has been prophesied of from the beginning, and that was perfect for her to hear with her biblical background. All in all, it was incredible and when we asked her how she liked it she said "me encanto"… (literally=it enchanted me... basically=I loved it). Also at church there were two less active members that we have been working with, and two other past investigators that just showed up because they felt they needed to! There are so many amazing miracles that just leave us wondering how God does it??

Also, this past week we received a referral from the English elders. We stopped by, and they were super busy, but set up a return appointment for yesterday. When we went by it really just felt so right. The family is incredible, and after getting to know them a bit, the mom just opened up to us about all the trials that they are going through right now, and how they have been trying to confide in God, but what an answer to prayers it was for us to find them at this time... wow. Well we shared a brief restoration lesson, but really just focused on what a blessing the gospel is for families, and how these trials are blessings to help us grow. They have truly been prepared by God and I am so excited for our appointment with them later this week!

Oh also, a few days ago we were knocking doors during power hour (our mission finding hour from 6-7 every night) and literally the house that we said… "last door"... she opened and welcomed us right in. She is eighteen and was there with her family and her boyfriend, and they were so awesome. We only talked with the two of them, because her family was busy, but it was amazing! She had just spent the last year in Mexico for her senior year at a private school raised by nuns... but when we explained the restoration she was so open. Both of them said it only makes sense that God would have a prophet today! Also, her boyfriend said that him and his mom used to always go to this one church and they loved it, but recently his mom said that she just didn't feel the spirit there anymore, and so they have been looking for another church... he said that he likes to read in James because it explains that God will guide us.. (yes, I kid you not he said that…) and so when we explained Joseph Smith he related really well. They are just so awesome and open!

I apologize if none of my emails make sense, I just type what goes through my head, and I never have time to read back through it to make sure it is logical, but I just hope you get something out of this, especially that God is hastening His work and it is all because He loves us. He desires for every single one of His children to return to Him, so He is giving us as many possible resources to do it! Clearly we all have our agency, and we respect the decisions that others make, but we also invite absolutely everyone to know that there is a more excellent way that God has provided!

I love this gospel. It is so true. I am grateful that I have the privilege to watch it transform the lives of people, including my own. I know that it is through the Atonement that we can reach our full potential. We can literally become like our loving Heavenly Father, because that is our goal after all. I know that nobody is perfect, but that's the point; our perfect brother is there to help us through it all.

I love you all so much! Have an awesome week! Replace fear with faith, because God speaks!

les queiro demasiado,

Hermana Draper

la mano de dios esta en TODO

At the Water Wall in Houston

Hermanas Tanner, Draper, Townsend and Koerner

10/14/2013

Buena Buena Mi Familia!

Well this really has been quite the week to see how amazing the hand of the Lord is in our lives! He always presents us with opportunities so that we can learn what we wouldn't be able to learn in other situations! For example, like I said earlier, my first Sunday here in Westgreen I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting, and that same day the bishopric asked me if I would be willing to give a talk one of the following weeks. My assigned topic was "sentir el deseo de servir una mision"... to feel the desire to serve a mission. Well, that topic is rather open, and I knew it could go in so many directions so I had really been praying for inspiration so that I could share something with the members that would get them excited about sharing the gospel. I had been brainstorming a ton, but I just felt stressed, and came up with nada. After a few weeks of the talk getting pushed back and back, last Sunday they told me that yesterday I would finally give the talk. Well, last Sunday night after planning I just sat down and decided to go for it. Write everything that came to my mind, then I went to bed. I woke up and needless to say, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Well, then we came to email, and I read through the email from president and it was easily the most clear answer to a pray, ever. He just talked about how testifying of the Atonement is central to everything that we do in missionary work. Without that, nothing else would even matter. Well then. It was so interesting because before in my brainstorm all of the reasons were so, light. For example, I felt the desire to serve because I felt like I always would… or because I was blessed to have received it so freely (I did share in my talk that I was a seventh generation Mormon and everyone gasped... one hermano came up to me after and said "septima, primero, mucho gusto" (seventh, first, nice to meet you)). But I realized that the topic was so much deeper, it doesn't really matter what gave me the desire to serve a mission, what mattered is why I had a desire to share the gospel! Why is it so important to share?? In presidents email he talked about three ways that we can base our testimony more in the Atonement, and that was 1: study it 2: use it 3: share it. I shared the example of Alma the younger, how he was a rebellious young man, but after the angel called him to repentance, he had remembered what his father had taught about Jesus Christ and the Atonement, so he decided to use it. After he received endless joy, he worked diligently so that every one of his brethren could feel the same joy! Because that's how it works, first we have to know what the Atonement is, so that we can use it, then how could we keep the joy that we receive to ourselves?? Also, later in the week in district meeting we talked a lot about the Atonement and we were studying an incredible talk by Elder Bednar called "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" (and I challenge all of you to read it because it will completely change your perspective), but just how the Atonement has two parts, we always focus on the cleansing power, which is incredibly important, but so is the second part, the enabling power. That through the Atonement we receive the power to pray not for a change of our circumstances, but rather that God will give you the power and strength the change your circumstances, so that you can learn what He wants you too. Read the talk, it explains it better, but I know that is so true. The enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things we could never do on our own.

Okay, sorry, not much time, but one quick miracle. So last Monday we had a super awesome night planned full of lessons and noche de hogares. Well at 6:00 I kid you not, ever single appointment called us and cancelled... aye. Well of course God always has something in store for us for the cancellations, so we started trying out our back-up appointments. Well, none of those were really working out either. We said another prayer asking for God to let us know where we needed to go, and I kid you not, one minute after the Elders that are serving in our ward called us. *flashback: the week before we had visited a member and she gave us a referral of another members friend, so we called the other member and set up a noche de hogar, but they live in the Elders area so we handed over the appointment to them. *flashforward. The Elders said they had just called to confirm with the members family and the member said that actually her friends husband is super against her friend being taught by elders and all sort of things, so hermanas had to go, or they wouldn't be able to have the appointment! Well, look at that. God is just so good. We hurried over as fast as we could to their area and we got to the appointment just in time. We had a super fun family home evening, and it went just great! I know that God listens to our prayers. He not only listens, but he answers them too! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and share this great gospel! I invite you all to take the challenge of President Pingree, and study the Atonement, use it in your life (cleansing or enabling powers), and then share, because how can you keep it to yourself??

I love you all so much! I hope you have an awesome week, and always remember that God is there, you just have to put your confidence in him! Reemplace miedo con fe!

Les quiero,

Hermana Draper