FELIZ NAVIDAD mis queridos!

 This is Ja'nas. She is nine years old and  have been teaching her for a while. she doesn't speak a lick of Spanish but she has been coming to church for months with one of the families. She is awesome and did great singing noche de luz at the Christmas party!

This is the Lerdo's again. We had dinner with them last night and they surprised us with Christmas gifts. They gave us tights, no-show socks and white shades! Man, they must know we are missionaries or something! 

I love being a missionary. Life is beautiful!

12/24/13

Puees mis queridos.. FELIZ NAVIDAD!

I can't believe it is already here! This has been such a fun Christmas season, with lots and lots of Christmas messages leading up to the big day!

Well... we will be talking tomorrow... but I guess I can give you a little run down of this past week, because it's been great! We have seen so many great miracles, especially with our less active members. We have been really struggling finding new investigators, and we think that it might be a way of the Lord saying that we really need to work on the rescue effort! (obviously, we are still searching to find new people, but it has been great!). So Saturday we had the ward Christmas party, and we really wanted to make sure we could have as many less active members there as possible! So flashback to a few weeks ago, we were trying to contact some of the members in our new area, and the elders told us they had been working with one family in specific. Well. We stopped by... she opened the door... told us she didn't want anything to do with the Church... and slammed the door. Ay! Well we reported it to the Relief Society president, who also happens to be her visiting teacher, and she was startled! She said to give her some space, and she would figure out what happened. Well, a few weeks passed and on Friday we felt that we should pass by and invite her to the activity. Replace fear with faith. We knocked and she answered and said something to the extent of "you want to come in or something..."... um... yes? Well she let us in and we invited her to the activity. We felt it might not be the most appropriate to ask to share a message, so we just asked to sing a hymn and say a prayer. She hesitantly agreed. We sang the hymn and by the end of the prayer you could see how the Spirit had softened her heart. She opened up to us about how she loves the Church and she knows without a doubt that the Gospel is true, but she had had a bad encounter with some members (perfect church, imperfect people). Well we kind of just left it at that. Well mis queridos... guess who came to the Christmas party? And to church the next day?! You betcha. She said she kind of just put it all into perspective, as to what really mattered. Miracle! Then on Sunday our 8:00 appointment fell through, and we decided to go caroling to some other members! There is a new family that moved from Mexico a few months ago but hasn’t come to our ward yet so we have really wanted to work with them. Well we had passed by just a few days earlier to invite them to the party, and a little before that to share a message, and so we were a little worried that we would be bugging them. So we decided we would just sing a hymn at the door and go! Well, they invited us in and we got to talk to them for a while. Then they asked if we had anywhere to spend "la noche buena"... well... we didn't. And they said we could come have dinner with them! We are so excited to go over tonight and spend some time with them!

One of the many, many amazing things about serving in Texas is that we get a sample of so many cultures. Not just one specific country, but we have heard of or celebrated in some form Christmas' of all the Hispanic countries. One thing is that they don't really do anything on Christmas day. Everything is celebrated tonight! They have a late big dinner, and then they wait until midnight for "nino dios", and then open all their presents! So… as missionaries we won't quite get to have the full experience, but we are going to two noche buena dinners tonight... (pray for us. :) Then tomorrow we are actually going to be spending most of the day at the assisted living center! We are helping out with the activities they are having and visiting with the residents who won't have any family visiting them. We are super excited! 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day. It really is such a beautiful time of season. We had the Christmas conference yesterday, and it really put it all into perspective. The majority of the time we talked about the Atonement and really how much it means for us. One statement by a missionary in specific really hit deep when he said, "what did Christ have to gain from the Atonement?" In John 6 it explains how he came to do the will of the Father, but really what is the will of the Father? In verse 39 it says that everything that He has given Him (all of us, his brothers and sisters) not be lost (physical death). And if they believe in Him, they receive eternal life! So what does Christ gain from the Atonement? He gains His brothers and sisters. We say that we want to return to live with Them, but imagine how much They desire us to return to live with Them! So this Christmas, I invite you to take a step back, and think about the truly infinite love our Heavenly Father and our Brother Jesus Christ have for us, and what They desire for us! So we just have to do our part, because They have made it all possible. 

I love you all so much! Have a very Merry Christmas!! Replace fear with faith! Talk to you tomorrow :)

les quiero demasiado!

Hermana Draper

CHRISTMAS DECOR IN THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS!

 Most people put reindeer in their yard for Christmas. In Texas, they put the Longhorn!

 This is our tree! My parents saved Minions from happy meals and sent them to us along with the tree to decorate our apartment for the holidays.

 We call this our "Secret Agent" tree!!

We just had to take a picture here. We knocked on the door and asked permission and we had quite a nice discussion with the woman living there on how she developed such a great relationship with Jesus.

OVER THE HILL... AYE!!!

 NINE MONTH CELEBRATION LUNCH at PANERA

 Hermana Cano with her husband and daughter who are both members

Hermano Lerdo with his cute wife

12/16/13

Pues mis queridos...

…lets just say it has been a pretty fantastic week!! So many miracles I can't even count (it makes it difficult when we try and count our blessings...) No obstante.

It all started with last Monday. We had a super awesome combined noche de hogar with the two part member families we have been working with (who, after this past week, both are no longer part member families!). We watched the Restoration video and after had a bit of a testimony meeting. The Spirit was just so strong as it confirmed to us all the real truth of this message. Both families have been waiting for this step for a long time, and were both very ready to take it. Then as we get out of the noche de hogar, we see we have a missed call. The number was from out of state (not utah), but we figured we should return it just in case. Well we ended up talking with an hermana who lives in Kansas and told us how she has an elder in her ward who has a sister that lives in our boundaries and wants the missionaries to come. WELL. Tender mercies of the Lord. We have been trying so hard to find new friends to teach, and they just call us! Well we went the next day and met her, unfortunately she was super busy, but we set up a return appointment for the next day. When we went back, we ended up having a super powerful first lesson. She had explained that they all grew up catholic, but no one in her family really practiced. Then her twenty six year-old brother moved to Utah about four years ago and met the missionaries. He was baptized and now is serving a mission! She is so willing to learn and said that she really would love to have more of that foundation for her family. We went back on Saturday and had another lesson and got to meet her adorable eight year-old daughter (coincidence...? I think not!) We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and they committed to read it every day together and pray about it to know the truth! They both seem very intent and really do want to know. I am so excited to work with them. It feels like a huge responsibility, but as a family member of a missionary... she is definitely receiving a lot of help from the Lord! They couldn't come to church yesterday because she had to pick her mom up from the bus station at the same time and now they are on their way to Austin for Christmas break... BUT. I am so excited because she is going to talk to her brother on Christmas!! And it is going to be awesome. 

We have also had some awesome opportunities to work with some less active and new members this week. There is a new family that moved into our ward this last month and we got to visit her and just share a brief message. She opened right up to us about how she was primary president in mexico, but after she moved to California she was inactive for a while, but now she is so ready to have a fresh new start with this ward and be really involved. Especially since her husband isn't a member (yet) and she wants to go to the temple, clearly. But he hasn't really shown any interest in it. Well, guess who came to church this Sunday? Her husband!! He decided maybe he will learn more about it, so we are hoping to start really working with him! 

Well, the climax was last night, with the baptism of Hermana Cano. It was really a beautiful service. Since she has been investigating for nearly twenty six years… almost the entire ward as well as many from other wards were there to support her. The speakers did a great job. I especially loved Suzie Tzorin. She is the most darling returned missionary. He talked about baptism, but she also really focused on how this is just the first step. She said with her investigators they always talked about how the goal isn’t just this one time in white, it is “tres veses en blanco”. Three times in white. First baptism. Then in the Temple. Then in the Celestial kingdom of our Father in Heaven. That is really where it is all pointing anyway!

This time of year has been so fun to be in the mission field! We have been sharing a lot of messages focusing on Christmas, and it is so fun to talk about the real reason for the season. In Luke 2:10-11, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tiding of gat joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord”. Well what are the good tidings? That a Savior has been born. A Savior. What does that really mean? Well, John 3:16… “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but shall have everlasting life.” So then, why do we really celebrate Christmas? We celebrate not just the birth of a child… but that this child grew up to do what no other could do, and those who believe in his name, will receive the ultimate gift of eternal life! What isn’t to celebrate??

So Merry Merry Christmas! I love you all so much. Have a great day and remember to serve others. Replace fear with faith. God is so good.

les quiero demasiado.

Hermana Draper