IT'S RAINING FISH....

 With the Pinhrees at their last Zone Conference. I love them!

 Dear Arturo before he left for Seattle. With Hemana Sandoval.

My sweet, sweet Maria Nunez. This woman is so incredible and so converted. She just can't be baptized because her husband will not give permission. One day he will.

5/27/14

Hola familia!

Well whaaat a week it has been. I am just so grateful to know that we have a Heavenly Father that loves us so, so much and has a perfect plan for each of us... we just have to find the courage to give up our will and follow His!

Well to update you on our golden investigator from last week... he moved back to Seattle... I know right?? Ah. But it is okay. Because the church is in Seattle too! This last week we had the chance to have three awesome lessons with him. After teaching him about the plan he was actually a little mad... "how did I reach 50 years without anyone ever telling me this??". But he was so grateful and humble. And in the last prayer of our last lesson he said one of the sweetest things that really changed my perspective. He thanked God for having put people in his life to pull him out of the darkness. He had felt that his whole life he had been lost, and finally for the first time he saw that there was a light. How bright and happy is the gospel?? How can we not share it??

We also saw a huge miracle with one of our potential investigators. We had met her over a month ago, outside sweeping her porch, and she really seemed super interested! But every time we had an appointment she never had time or was never home. So this last week we said a prayer and said that it was the last time we were going to try for a while, so if she is prepared, let us have a lesson. Well, we get there and she let's us right it! We dove right in to teaching the restoration and she ended up teaching us what a prophet was! And then after she asked that if they were so important back then, why don't we still have prophets?? Well… we are getting there! When we talked about Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson she said that it only makes sense! She agreed to be baptized and is so excited to read in the Book of Mormon!

Well we have to get going, but just in reference to the subject of the email... it is literally raining buckets here... but also we met the most amazing man on the side of the road and he shared the most incredible latter-day manna story. He started by asking us if we believed in the story where the fishermen hadn't made a single catch, and then the Lord commanded them to cast their nets on the other side and they had too many to bring in. We agreed, and then he shared his story. So he grew up in a little pueblecito in Mexico, and his family was at the point where they literally had only a few beans left to eat. After praying and praying a rain came in... but what fell from the sky..? Well water obviously... and fish. He said they gathered nearly 2 baskets of fish. What? Whoever says that miracles have ceased is wrong. I know that God is a God of miracles, and that He can do anything according to our faith. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so much! Keep reading in the Book of Mormon. Keep praying. Keep replacing fear with faith. Life is just so good.

los quiero demasiado,

Hermana Draper

TRUE CHARITY IS TO LOVE INFINITELY--- NO MATTER WHAT

 With dear Hermana Sandoval!

Celebrating 14 months! How amazing is that?

5/19/14

Hola Familia!

Wow.. another week has already flown on by. Well this week has been so full of miracles; the Lord really helping us find those who are prepared!! So Hermana Sandoval (see the picture) is the most amazing member missionary ever. She is inviting everyone and their dog to learn about the restored gospel, and she always goes with us to visit them! Well we were visiting one of her neighbors and we were walking back to her house where our car was parked and out walked the new man who is renting one of the rooms in Hermana Sandoval's side house. Well she introduces us and he said that he would be super interested! Unfortunately we were already running late for another appointment (shocker) but we set up a time on Saturday to come back. Well, Saturday rolled around and again... we are running twenty minutes late this time. But there he is sitting out front waiting for us! He said he didn't know why he waited, but he just felt like he couldn't leave. Wow, tender mercies. So we ended up having an awesome first lesson with him and he really seemed to understand why it is so essential to have a prophet with the authority, and how great it is that we have one today! We explained a bit of the structure of the church too, how it is the same as when Christ was on the earth with 12 apostles and the 70, and that the next day he could hear one of the 70 speak!! (conveniently, it was stake conference...) He was so excited and he committed to come! Well he loooved it. I can honestly say it was one of the best stake conferences I had ever been too. There were so many loud children... but the spirit was still so strong. They obviously focused a lot on the importance of the family, which was a bit difficult for him to listen too since he is here in Houston while his wife and kids are in Washington (long story... work... money... etc). But they did mention something interesting how the biggest blessing of living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise of eternal life, which includes the blessings of eternal families! So those blessings that aren't granted in this life, will be in the next life. So for the single parent, or the unmarried woman etc, if they continue to faithfully live the gospel in this life, those blessings will be fulfilled in the Lord's time! Then the Stake President gave an incredible talk about the power of repentance and accessing the infinite power of the Atonement. He said something interesting that "weakness enables us to use our agency to become sanctified". It really is all our choice. Discipline leads to discipleship, but no one is perfect. That's why we have the Atonement to help us out on that path. But it was really Elder Rhein's talk that hit. It was all about loving thy neighbor... all of thy neighbors. It's easy to love those that are kind, thoughtful, friendly, lovely, etc... but it's something else to love those who are obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, etc... but the thing is that the Savior suffered for us all equally. He loves us all equally. So as it says in the title of the email, TRUE CHARITY is to love infinitely, no matter what. Well, our investigator loved the conference and we have another appointment with him tonight!

Also, the other day we were walking down the street on our way to visit another friend when we started talking with this nice man working in his garden, we not so smoothly transitioned our five minute flower conversation into comparing a seed to faith! But he really was interested in learning more! So we set up a time for yesterday. We have some members who live on the same street, and the hermano came with us! Unfortunately Hermana had to watch the grandkids, so we couldn't go into his house... but we had a lovely lesson out front in his garden. Hermana Zabriskie and I were on lawn chairs, the investigator was on a five gallon bucket, then poor little hermano Herrera was sitting on one of those little "fisher price" plastic yellow chairs with the back legs buckling under him... It was quite the sight. But it went to well! The member really helped him seem to understand how all of this related to him and his life. I love this gospel!! It is perfect for everyone!!

I am so grateful for the privilege to be a full-time representative of the Lord. This is truly the Lord's work, and I know that He is hastening it! I invite you all to really pray about those you know that could be ready to receive the infinite blessings of the gospel! How can we keep it to ourselves??

I love you all so so much! Have a wonderful day! Replace fear with faith and remember that a grateful heart is a happy heart!!

Los quiero demasiado,

Hermana Draper