If you pound rice it turns to Mochi.

Hello there mother!

My week was great!!! A LOT happened. A lot. Me and Elder Lunt get along great. It's awesome. I don't know anything about the schools having gardens, but the whole sack lunch thing is an art here! Literally it is. They have stores that make packed lunches, they are called Bento. But the only thing I know about school here is that they are all huge and look like prisons. Every single one of them haha. 

How does Taylor like singles branch? I loved it!

 Tripp sounds like I did. (it was a beautiful day and I “forced” Tripp to stay outside with me) But good keep him outside! I wish I wouldn't have spent so much time inside. But at least I got out of the video game phase! I am so glad. Seriously when I stopped playing video games everything got better.

Wait so is the office is going in Allie's room now?

Last pday after I emailed we went with the Adamson couple in the Yokota airbase ward. We took them to Shabu Shabu. IT is where you have a bowl of boiling sauce and water, and you take raw meat and let it sit in there and then you eat it! IT's great! I love it but it is way expensive. IT was there first time and they had no idea what to do.

On Tuesday I had splits with Elder Freschknecht! IT was fantastic. I learned a lot of helpful things. We all have a part and we are all important. "'Where e're thou art, act well thy part." That was found on a stone with a tic tac toe grid filled with numbers. No matter which way you counted on the grid, the numbers would add up to a certain number. It didn't matter if you were a 2 or a 4, every number is important.  If any number was a number that wasn't it, it would mess it all up. We all have value and we all need to make the best of whatever situation we are in!!

Then on Wednesday after district meeting around 2, a random man named Miyata came in to the church. He was there for Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa starts at 7. He was 5 HOURS EALY!!! So we showed him around the church and then Elder Lunt and I Sat and talked with him and intone end the gospel and God and Jesus Christ. Every time we would "talk of holy things" (I hope that made someone out there laugh. Or at least chuckle.) he would zone out. He likes to talk about English and in English and about American culture and so forth. We talked for 2 hours! So we decided we should go get some dinner. We told him that we would see him around 7 at Eikaiwa. We walked home and he followed us. So I turned around and just asked him if he had any dinner plans. He said no. So I said "How does ramen sound?" So we walked very slowly over to the ramen shop but it was closed. Then we decided to go to Indo curry. It was his first time! After that we prepared English class and then we taught. But I basically spent my entire day with Miyata San. IT was very interesting!

On Friday we went to Ome and just walked around trying to talk with everybody! We found out that Ome is FILLED with high school students! As we pass them, we always say "Hero!" "Hello!" Haha there is no difference in Japanese. They say hello back. Then they will almost. Inevitably yell back " I love you!" Or "I'm fine how are you!" OR "I'm sleepy! haha it's always a gold mine if you can stop a group of them. On the bridge in Ome we unexpectedly were STOPPED by a group of them! We had said hello but then one kid stuck out his hand to shake mine. Then we talked a lot and in the end we invited them all to church and Eikaiwa. Then we all gave eachother bro hugs and then I asked to take a picture haha. I love when I get a group of high school guys stopped. That is my sweet spot haha.

On Saturday we had the Mochitsuki in the morning around 10 am. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt, and I worried every Japanese person there to sick haha. They thought I was going to die because of how cold it was, but for me it just felt perfect.  That was way fun. Then that night we had President Wada come and do Questions of the Soul event. He takes a part of a movie and teaches the gospel through it. We watched The Mission. It was about repentance. One of the biggest parts of repentance is forgiving ourselves! We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves and how can we do that if we can't love ourselves? 

On Sunday it was a huge combined meeting with Kunitachi and Fussa. There was like 180 people in this one tiny building that holds about 50 people comfortably.  Guess who came??? Miyata! He just randomly showed up! He slept through sacrament meeting. He left after gospel principles. As we talked to him right before he left he seemed a bit disappointed that it wasn't Eikaiwa. He thought he come to Eikaiwa! So that was interesting. We had told him all the details but he didn't catch them I guess. But we'll try to set up another meeting with him to answer questions about church.

Today is PDAY and we went to Fussa to meet Nakamura Kyoudai to get lunch on base with Adamson couple. We went to America today! The base feels just like America! We ate at chili's and the servers were Americans and it was all you can drink soda, they don't have that in Japan, and it was just way fun. We got a big tour of the base and that is why I got on email late!!! But it was way fun!!!

This week I am ponderizing DC 123:17. The rest of the chapter is great too. But as we do everything in our power well and if we do it cheerfully, then we can have peace and stand still knowing that God will be pleased with our work. I love you all and thank you for all of your prayers!

I think that is it for this week!!!

Love you!

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

Week 23

Hey there haha! 母!

How is it going there?

I can't believe they finally done got hitched! I'm so excited. I got all of the pictures in church yesterday. I also saw all of the pictures and videos of "me" and other people dancing or whatever hahaha. I loved it. I just let all the pictures of me and people go on my timeline if anyone has a problem with it they can talk to me. I thought it was funny so I kept them. 

 That's hilarious that Tripp like's  ____?__.  (her name has been edited) But man we gotta watch that kid, he's gonna be a smooth talkin' heart breaker before we know it!

Monday I had splits after P-Day. I was with Elder Allred and we went hard. I would consider Elder Allred my best friend in Japan. He loves SpongeBob and we can connect the gospel to SpongeBob whenever we talk about it haha and it's fun. Whenever we are together, we just click and we just talk to SO many people and we invite everybody and we have fun and we both love Japanese and we both love Kanji and just everything! We talked and invited 13 people to either come to church or meet with us again. Every single one was a really good and meaningful conversations. The day before we had District meeting I was taking notes and I had the title of my notes as "How can I feel successful?" Elder Fischnecht leaned over and whispered that he had some good scriptures to share with me that night. He talked to me that night, we were at the Kunitachi Elder's house, and he just asked me what was going on. I simply told him that I just haven't felt successful in pretty much anything I've done so far. He showed me in John 4 where it says that the sower and the reaper rejoice together. "You don't have to wait until you harvest to find joy and success in your work." He said. I started crying a little bit. He gave me a quote and a poem that helped a lot. I can't get over how some people here are just so loving in every aspect of the word. Elder Frishnecht is one of those people. He saw and felt that I was struggling and he just shared what he has gone through and how he got out of it and how he has found happiness. I love him and I love everybody here. I want to be like Christ and the way to do that is to lose yourself in the service of others, which is the same as serving God. This morning I read Jacob 2:17-19 and Luke 11:39-41 and I learned that we shouldn't hide our sins. Don't make your outsides look all clean when you are filled with filth on the inside. We have control over what is on the outside as well as what is on the inside. The way we do that is by serving others and keeping God's commandments. As we treat others like ourselves and strive to know and love them, we will know what they need. When we know what they need we should give that unto them. Put the kingdom of God first and all else will be added unto you. If we do that then we will be blessed even more but what's more is that we will have a desire to use what we have been blessed with to the intention of blessing others. 

We had a meal with The Igari family on Saturday. Hiroshi was with us. We had curry and I taught them about experiencing a change of heart. It was really good and we had a lot of fun. Our ward mission leader, Brother Nakamura, was telling us jokes in English to see if they really worked.

This Sunday we testified in Primary. The primary here is wild! And like 1 kid knew my name!  Then we went up to Fussa which is about 6 dollars round Trip for about a 30 minute train ride and then a collective 20 minute walk with about a 10 minute wait time for trains. So we got home late. In Fussa we literally went straight to a members house, by foot, and then went to go visit with an investigator and then we dropped off the member and we went straight home and we were late. The member is awesome! His is American and he served in Russia 8 years ago. He was really really nice.

This week in my studies I have been drawn to the scripture found in Helaman 10:4-5

"4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I have always loved this scripture but it struck me this time in a different view. Before Nephi was given the promise that he would be blessed forever and before he received the promise that he would be mighty in word, it says that he with unwearyingness declared the word. He didn't fear the people, he kept the commandments, he sought God's will, and THEN he received the blessings. We are no different. We must work with everything we have faithfully before God will give us his promised blessings. 

This week was good! Thank you for the emails by the way. Also thank you for getting me gloves and everything.

This week was in the 70 range! It rocked! But today it is raining and quite cold. But I sewed all of my ripped pants, ties and I cleaned the apartment a bit and we aired out our futons. You have to do that or they get moldy. Elder Lunt's futon actually had quite a bit of mold on the bottom of his futon. We aired it out and killed that mold and ya now our apartment is pretty dang clean!

I love you all!!! By the way are they having a honeymoon? 

Love Elder Draper

Volcanic Eruption and Earthquakes!!!

This week was so so so busy!!! We have done so much in so little time. This was one of those weeks that feel like it has been going on for at least a month but now that it is over I look back and it feels like I just barely emailed you!

Last P-day after I emailed, we went to Kichijoji and Elder Lunt backed up his iPad on the computers in the family history center over there. Then we walked around Sun Road to shop. We didn't buy anything, Sun Road is way expensive. Japan is way expensive. We found this place that sold crepe ice cream cones for 500 yen(which is actually quite expensive considering I can make crepes myself) and then we headed home. It's about a 25 minute train ride or so.

Tuesday we had a district meeting. My batteries died on my bike light (which are required by law here). I couldn't find any double A batteries anywhere. Sister Devey bought me some randomly. That was really nice. Then we went over to Yokota for a blitz with the elders up there. I went with Elder Peck. He graduated school at 15 and went to college at 16! Then we got some Melon Pan (melon shaped bread with ice cream in it. Japanese steals words from other languages like no one's business. Pan means bread in Japanese. It is originally Spanish.) Then we all went and got sushi. Elder Lunt ate 30 plates of sushi. So did elder peck. They kept pressuring me to buy more and more sushi. I stuck with my 12 plates, which is just 12 pieces. We stayed there WAY too long. But then after they were finally done we visited a less active and that was good!

Wednesday we had President Whiting come to our mission for a mission tour. The trains were PACKED that morning. It was way good. I learned a lot about change. Repentance is change. When we sin we move away from God and when we repent it is that turning back to God. It is our life long challenge to put off the natural man and become a saint thought the atonement of Jesus Christ. When God's laws have ceased to be a burden and we have purged the natural man, then we are converted. But conversion in itself is an eternally rewarding, life long process and journey. Also another big thing that I learned about was our communication. Communication reflects the thoughts in our mind which makes up who we are. Language is one of the most powerful tools we have in this raging battle against the enemy of all righteousness. Even in Joseph Smith's experience, the devil couldn't kill him, but he tried with all his effort to keep him from uttering those words in his first voiced prayer because he knew that Joseph would prove to be a disturber in the devil's kingdom.

On Thursday we trained up to Fussa and tried to visit a couple of investigators that elder Lunt carried over when he transferred. They weren't home though. Actually to go back just a little bit, while we were waiting for the train up to Fussa, the train was quite late, I saw a younger guy behind me. I said "konnichiwa" to him but then I didn't say anything after that so it kind of created an awkward gap between us. I really felt like I should talk to him though. So I just asked him something random. From there we talked until the train came and then on the train all the way up to Fussa. We were able to bear testimony of God and how He loves us and looks after us and wants us to be happy so he gave us a plan to follow. I told him that we, as missionaries, teach people about that plan because it has helped us so much in our own personal lives. I asked him if we could teach him about that plan and he said yes! We met him the next Saturday but you will hear about that a bit later.

Friday desu ne. This week I have been ponderizing Moroni 9:6. It says "And now, my beloved son, not withstanding their hardness let us labor diligently, for if we should cease to labor we should be brought under condemnation, for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness and rest in the kingdom of God." I love this scripture so much. Even though we as baptized members of Christ's established church try to do our best, there will always be opposition. As a missionary a great deal of what you do depends on other's agency. We can teach and invite all day long but the people being taught and invited have to use their agency to act on what is taught and felt. Sometimes, even if they have felt the spirit, they just don't act. When those kind of things happen, we can't get discouraged. We must labor diligently, nothing wavering, not withstanding others hardness, to do as we know we should do. We can't choose what other people do, but we can do a whole lot with what WE can do. We can decide now to go to church, or pay tithing, or anything if we will just first desire to do so, choose to believe, and press forward with faith in Christ.

On Friday I felt my first earthquake! Or jishin 地震 as the Japanese say. It was during study I just heard this loud roar from afar and then the house started shaking really hard. It only lasted about 5 seconds or so but it was so big compared to anything I have ever felt!  Then that night we went to the Kanno's and we made sushi and taught a lesson about the Good Samaritan. We made little cut outs to represent the story. The scripture says that he put him on his own beast. It didn't say what kind so I made it a dragon. The kids really really liked it :) While we were eating brother Kanno kept saying "sakurajima san wa funka shita!" We looked up and funka 噴火means eruption. We turned on the TV and sure enough the volcano that he had stood on in his mission, he showed us a picture, had erupted! It looks pretty big too! But still we haven't had any ashes or anything like that. But still that kind of thing NEVER happens in Idaho! Haha. It was very exciting. We think that the 地震caused the 噴火. I need to talk about Brother Kanno real quick because I just love him haha. He is way funny. He learned a lot of funny English on his mission. The other day when we visited, his son was "shooting" him with a fake gun while we were talking and he would always just like slouch over like he was dead and his son would laugh. The son is about Tripp's age. And one time his son shot him he stuck out his hand and grabbed the "bullet"(It doesn't exist), crushed it, threw it on the ground, turned his head real slow to look at his son as if to say "Oh no you didn't." Hahaha and then the son laughed. When we ate sushi there was a big bowl of lettuce, because not all sushi is raw fish, sashimi is raw fish. Sushi can be sashimi on rice or like steak of fried anything on rice. And Onigir is the kind that is wrapped in the seaweed. But we had Onigir with lettuce, rice, steak, and mayo inside and it rocks! But anyways the son took a HUGE piece of lettuce and just randomly shoved the whole thing into his mouth hahaha. Kanno kyōdai was all like 'wow' in a perfect American accent hahaha. And his eyes got all wide when he said it too. Then he said "レーマン人がいるね。”hahahaha. "He's like a lamanite!"

On Saturday we taught Okabe kyōdai in the morning. We found a guy who had some interest. Not much stemmed from there though. Then we found a lady who had interest and said we could return to teach her. We referred her to the sisters. Then that night we met Hiroaki Matsubara, the guy I found the other day, in Fussa Eki and we went to a place called modern pasta and got some dinner and then we talked about what to expect when meeting with the missionaries. It rocked. He is way cool. He is an air control guy in the Japanese air force on the American air force base in Yokota. He was also very impressed by how much I can actually read Japanese! Haha kept pointing to different kanji on the menu and ask me what it meant and how to say it. I got probably 80% of the kanji on the menu! I'm learning like 10 every few days right now. I take a new kanji (either I don't know the reading of it or the meaning, kanji often have several different ways you can pronounce them depending on if it is attached to another kanji or not. (Side note. I just felt another earthquake but it was pretty small)

So ya this week rocked! Today is Sunday. Actually now it's Monday. I love the big Haydon!!! hahahahaha it cracks me up that it freaks Krue out haha. (Scott printed a large cut out of Haydon for the wedding)

By the way Elder Lunt and I are doing way better! We get a lot of work done. I did what Tanner said, literally, I polished his shoes. (Our super positive Tanner gave Haydon a good pep talk last week! Without going into too much detail, he told Haydon he should love his companions and polish his companions shoes and love him and serve him)  I realized that my mission is preparing me to be a husband and father one day and now is a good time to practice and really let those Christ-like attributes sink into me with people I don't know that we'll so that when I get back I will love everybody that much more. We haven't had any problems at all this week! Service and love is the key! 

Hey by the way can you send me a small blue, gold on the edges, leather bound Jesus the Christ from Deseret book?  Thanks! Also I got your package! I loved it! Thank you so much! The socks rock.  I also love the ties, I am wearing one right now! :) I am going to have to send some I never wear home though. They are getting a bit ooii. But thank you for all the prayers you send my way! This week I have really found power in prayer. It literally is our connection to our Heavenly Father. Through faith we can receive guidance and power to do His will, and receive constant revelation as to what we should do next through prayer and through faith that that prayer will be answered. I know prayer works so well! I love you all!

Also to answer the question about why I can't go into some stores is a couple reasons. One if we go to electronic stores it can make people spend too much time there, and two, pornography is a HUGE problem here. Like it is everywhere. A lot of the stores we can't go in have a lot of bad stuff in it. 

I love you all so much!

After this I am goingto Akishima for some all you can eat Chinese food!


ドレーパー長老

(As we emailed back and forth he felt about 3 more aftershocks.  He wanted an adventure…here we go, a volcano and earthquakes. )

Week 21!

Hey Mom! 

My new companion is Elder Lunt. He is from Duncan Arizona. He reminds me a TON of Carl Mortenson. Which makes him really quite comfortable to be around which is good! Fussa was his bean area (his first area. new people are called bean chan and bean in missionary Japanese lingo just refers to anything new or u experienced.) But he was here for like 5 or 6 transfers and then he just came from Yokota (which is just the English speaking area for the base, but it is actually IN my area) and then he came here again!

The stores here vary. They have shops and like the small bakeries and stuff. But they also have a Gyomes and a Seiyu. We shop at Gyomes. It is just a normal grocery store. They used to have a Wal-Mart here but it didn't work. So they changed the name to Seiyu (Eastern Friend) and it flourished! hahaha they are everywhere! It is literally just a Wal-Mart. But there is a store called Don Quijote, which is basically a store where you can find anything and everything you could EVER buy on the internet. We can't go in there. Then just electronic stores we can’t go in. We can go into like normal souvenir shops. Those kinds of things are all fine. 

Is that Tanner's companion right now!? That was his MTC companion! He looks like he is having a blast! I can’t tell exactly how big that spider is because he is holding it closer to the camera, but it looks like our spiders are probably half that size or maybe 3/4 of that size. I hate spiders! Japanese people think they are good luck so they don’t kill them. Whatever I’m killing them!

I had cereal for breakfast today. I usually have eggs and goma and sausage or something like that. I make hash browns a lot! The potatoes here are tiny so I have to use like 3 of them. 

I got the wedding announcement!!! They look so good! Who took pictures? They look great! I haven't gotten a package yet. Audrey said she sent one a while back but I still haven't gotten that. 

This last week we got ramen. After that I and Elder Ishikawa had to go meet the other elder's investigator because they were running late. He is a painter. He handed me a painting. By the way I can’t understand him at all. Eventually I said in English "Who's painting is this? They said "it is yours" I was so shocked!!! I've never met him and he gave me a random painting, slightly creepy, a picture of Christ! He calls it komatte iru Iesu or Troubled Christ. I’ll send a picture. It's awesome!

 If there is something I have really come to know is that just the title of Elder does not make you a missionary. It is 100% possible to come out on a mission and not become a missionary. I have seen it so much already. It depends a whole lot on personal desire and will and faith. If you don't have that drive to do what's right then you won’t do it. You will not accidentally become a hard worker, or an obedient missionary or an obedient church member or even faithful and believe any more than you will accidentally go to church or accidentally pay your tithing. The Lord requires a willing heart from his disciples. I know that as we develop that sense and desire to serve God, He will bless us and we will succeed, but we need to first choose to believe.  I love you all so much!

I love you!!!

ドレーパー長老