It snowed!

Hello there mother!

I'm glad that Mountain Home got a good snow season! Tokyo has also had a really good snow season! It snowed yesterday!!!! We woke up at 6:20 to go running but we looked outside and there was about 4 inches of snow!!! We got dressed and then when outside to play haha. Elder Ishikawa likes snowballs. He threw one right at my face and it almost hit my camera. It hurt. But honestly I don’t think that he sees snow that often so I figured he just didn't know how much it actually hurt. And then we built a snowman!!! In Japanese snowman is ( yuki damura). Then we went inside and eventually it started raining. Now everything is just slush. Then after lunch we went up to Ome. I love Ome! The trains were way way backed up but we eventually got there. I talked to a guy named Kizaki. He was really happy and just an awesome guy. He had recently traveled to Thailand. He showed me pictures of tons of really cool cars he saw in Thailand. He gave me a bottle of water and some roasted peanuts that he got on his way home from Thailand. He was way nice!!! 

In Ome, everybody was out shoveling snow. Like everybody! Ome reminds me a lot of McCall. Except I think it is even smaller. Or at least it feels like it. I wish I could live in Ome. We got to talk to a ton of people just but talking about the snow so that was really fun. 

Me and Elder Ishikawa have been doing a lot better. The last couple days I haven't gotten mad at him really at all. This week we found a new potential investigator in Akishima. He liked tennis, there is a huge, still not as big as the racket club, tennis club, and I talked to him a while about that. We asked if he would meet with us again and he was like "Yes!"  And then I had splits with Elder Allred. We found another guy in Akishima. He asked why our church was different than other Christian churches. We were like "Great question! Do you have a little time now?"  So we taught him all about the restoration. We also found a guy from Osaka in Haijima. Man Osaka people are SO NICE. Like they all have a super contagious laugh and a huge smile and love to make jokes. Instead of saying Wakaranai (I don’t know) they say Wakarahen (I don’t know). 

Elder Allred loves SpongeBob as much as me! We got lost like 4 times just because we were way enveloped in talking about SpongeBob. We finally realized we were on the side of a freeway where there was NOBODY  we were like " How they heck did we get here?" it was really fun.

 I forgot to tell you all that my p day was on Tuesday not Monday. So I disguised a message in my  post and you got it! In the Japanese post  I wasn’t so specific about when I was going to the temple, but in the English I wanted to make sure you all knew. 

I watched Allies video on face book!  The answering questions about Nate one. It was way funny. I’m so excited for them!

I'm so excited for Allie and Aunt Tammy on going to the temple. I am writing while on the train coming back from the temple. This morning was crazy on the train! There were probably like 200+ people on each car.  I took a video. I also found out it's illegal to take videos of people. Oh well haha. 

This week was so great! I have been getting along so much better with Ishikawa Choro! I can't believe how fast time is just absolutely flying by. I know it's still only my 2nd transfer, but I have been waiting for ever to leave for my mission several months before that, and before that I waited years to put my papers in! And at the time I remember looking forward and thinking to myself that it would never come, and now I am in it and the time is going by even faster!

We had dinner with the Igari family. They were the first family I ever had a meal with. They have two little boys and they are so stinkin cute. The cutest Japanese kids you will ever see. They love to shake the missionaries’ hands at church. The one is about 3 and the other is 1. The 3 year old is learning English and is pretty good already. They each have an old missionary tag that has their names on it they are adorable. Missionaries aren't really supposed to play with kids because of legal difficulties. So I really miss Tripp and Krue right about now. I have talked to a lot of people this week! We have gotten about 4 or 5 new
potential investigators. Once we meet them again they will turn into investigators. As of right now we have Hiroshi San and Okamura san, and Ito san, and we have been visiting a less active family in Fussa
every Sunday. That family is the Uchiyama family. Their son is really having a hard time. He thinks church is boring. He told us that he doesn’t really have any friends there. I told him how I was like the
only one at church for a while, when Tanner went to singles ward, and how yes friends are important, but not having Tanner there really made me focus more. Through that I learned a lot more and church became that much more important to me. The next week we looked back and he and his dad were sitting in the back!!! Unfortunately I think he was forced and left right after sacrament. But little by little it will get
better!

 I am getting to know the area very well! The members are awesome.  I have some people I really like! Our bishop is about 30 and is just awesome and cares about everybody and loves to have fun
with the gospel. He understands that the gospel makes us happy, not just serious. Also in the Tachikawa bike parking lot, there is this old guy who always re organizes the bikes as a volunteer, he is always
way nice. I look forward to talking to him.

We had free Ramen again at Sister Kyo's ramen shop. Her 5 or 6 year old daughter, Mai-chan, liked my picture of the yuki damura I made. She usually only likes Sister Devey so I was surprised when she liked me! Haha. 

I have been re learning Kanji lately. When Elder Allred was on splits with me he helped me rekindle my love for Japanese and Kanji. Kanji are so so so awesome. For example... 船 means boat. ハmeans 8 and 口means mouth. There were 8 mouths on Noah's arc. The first radical just means boat or ship. And then 禁means forbidden. 木means tree and 示means to show. In the garden of Eden there were two trees shown, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they were shown both of them and forbidden to eat from the one and then the other. Then 魔 refers to evil. Again 木means tree. 鬼means ghost or demon. The outside thing that looks like and upside down L, I can't write it, means like some type of enclosure. There were two trees and a demon inside of the garden of Eden, an enclosed place. So basically I found out haw awesome kanji really is. 

I recently was reminded about the purpose of life. We all came here to be tried and tested to be found worth to become like God when we return home to His presence. Everything we do on this earth is supposed to lead us back to God. That should be our purpose for everything we do. Often when we meet people here they don't understand why believing in God or Jesus Christ will help them. Not even often, never is a better word. But I was thinking about how the gospel isn’t just some really cool thing placed in the world, the world is just a cool thing inside the gospel! The gospel is everything!!! God’s purpose is to bring to pass our eternal life and immortality. We can taste a little bit of that joy when we help ourselves and others progress towards that goal. We are on this Earth for a WHOLE different and infinitely bigger plan. But coming here was vital to achieving the entirety of that plan. Everything we do, church, the Book of Mormon, Prophets etc., is to help us along that path and to point us in the direction of Eternal life. In 1 Collations chapter 3 it says something along the lines of how we need to raise our standards and stand with Christ. We are called to live a higher standard, a higher way of living, a Celestial law. If we can abide a Celestial law, we will receive Celestial Glory in the world to come. I love you all so much!!!!

Elder Draper