Be thankful for our watermelons.... Japanese watermelons are $30.00.

The plan today is taking p day until 3:30 and then we have district meeting until 5 and then dinner and then we will take some more p day time. Then we will work on iPads the rest of the day. The office is still good. We had our first staff meeting this last Wednesday. We just talked about how the mission is doing and how we are doing as a mission staff and how we can improve. It was really fun! But in the middle of the meeting I dropped my pencil and I quickly threw my hand down to try to grab it, the pencil stopped on my leg and my hand kept going. The pencil stabbed me in the hand and I'm still not sure if there is led in there or not. It's black but ya I'm not sure.  I tried to get it out but it didn't work. It bled a little. But it's really not that bad.

We had a BBQ with the Wada family! It was so nice! We had big steaks and burgers and corn. Elder ya,ashigaderu, the senior couple elder that works in the office, grilled the stakes and burgers and
hotdogs. It was so fun. I actually rarely see president Wada!  But I see sister Wada much more than
president. He likes me though because I get work done. If you don't get work done then he gets mad at you. But it's been good!

Yesterday we went to Yokosuka to give a Facebook training to a pen elder who can't really ride trains because he gets really bad motion sickness. It was an hour and half train ride and we got to walk
through shinjuku station and shibuya station and slightly got lost in there. We figured it out quickly but those two ekis are SO MASSIVE. We even got to ride on a train with forward facing seats like an
airplane. That was a first! They usually are all lined up on the sides of the train and facing inward. Anyways that was fun. We met a man named Steven from Oklahoma! We took a very awkward picture with him haha. We also met a scary 外人(foreigner) haha I saw him in the train. There is an American navy base in Yokosuka so I said “hey how is it going” and I asked him if he was in the navy. He just looked at me and said in a very navy stern voice "what? How old are you!?" We had a ten second conversation and then he left. It was very weird.

 The apples here are very very expensive. A watermelon is 30 dollars for one smaller than at home! I talked to the senior couple sister who works in the office a lot about what dad and I did together. About making long boards, forging, camping, cows, driving around. It was really fun. I tried showing her pictures of the hole from google maps but I see the tree in the back has grown over it in the picture!

I miss the icecream truck!

Sounds so fun at home. Never treat lightly the blessings we have in our life. Every blessing we receive is so precious in the sight of God.

This week I have really found the power of prayer. In doctrine and covenants we find that we must pray always lets we fall into temptation. I know that without God we would fall so fast I to
temptation. God is our Heavenly Father and wants to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings on us. Prayer is the link between us and heaven. We can receive strength to withstand Sagan and his traps, we can find courage to valiantly live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be who God wants us to be, who he needs us to be, and he knows that we can be. I love my savior so much and I'm so grateful for the mercy he has had on my and my family and over everyone in the world.

We truly can become freed from all of our natural tendencies through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and the atonement of Christ. Please take advantage of the blessings God has for us.

I love you all so so very much.

Love,
Elder Draper

This picture will be in the Ensign. President Wada is in the background!

It's pretty cool being on the tech team!

Hello! So it's not decided for sure how long I will be here. But the trend has been for at least three transfers. I will definitely be here when president Warnick gets here. It also isn't decided how much dendo time (proselyting time) we get per day. We just usually do about one to two hours of dendo time and then we are in the office the rest of the time. I'm just learning everything I can before Elder Belnap leaves! We send out the transfer calls and it’s so crazy! It used to be a four hour process but Elder Belnap condensed it to a 45 minutes. Transfer emails is like next week! That's so crazy! It's crazy to think that by the time I am done with tech staff I will probably be more than half way done. No I still don't have an oven haha. But the microwaves act as ovens here! And you do have an oven, they work as microwaves! It's way weird haha. 

Yes I did feel the earthquakes! We were in the middle of daily planning sitting at the table. All in a sudden everything just started shaking and swaying back and forth. It went on for like 5 minutes I swear! Me and Elder Belnap didn't really know what to do. The phone alarm went off and just said in Japanese to "prepare for strong shaking." We felt the other ones later that night and in the morning too but they weren't as strong. No damage though! Well not here at least. 

Haha we always get stuck in the scary hotels don't we? Isn't that like a family tradition? (Referring to the girls and my trip to Utah)

So ya this week I have been learning a ton about how to make websites and how to send transfer calls and how to use excel and connect it to the mission portal and what not. We tuned up the Facebook training a little bit. We still need to figure out where we can fix iPads. We have a lot of broken iPads. When the new missionaries come in we want to hand out the broken iPads in the boxes like they are new and then drop them right in front of them like on accident and watch their reactions when we pull out shattered iPads haha. I don't know if we will really do it but it would be funny! Haha. (A different missionary came in and taught him how to code websites too. He was very excited about that!)

We have had a little dendo time this week. We went to mitaka train station and did a kubarikai (passing out flyers for eikaiwa (English class, He will still be teaching English classes). This one drunk guy came up to me and we talked for a second. Then he told me to stop being an elder and to stop what I was doing. I told him that I would not stop and he just kept laughing at me. We talked some more and he shook my hand for about 3 minutes solid and just told me how I was wrong. He left and I was so mad inside. I couldn't really concentrate so I just started down in a nearby bench and prayed. I felt better after that. 

I lost my ring a couple weeks ago. I prayed to be able to find it but never did. Just this last week I went to choose a pair of pants. I went for one but then just had the feeling to choose a different pair. My ring was in the pocket! But I literally had checked that pocket at least twice before. It was such a miracle!

In a mogi ( role play) yesterday morning I was pretending to be an old man. In Japan, and it's the only place I've ever seen this, the old people are most always bent at a perfect 90 degree angle. So I did that in the mogi to be kind of funny. But my back is still seriously sore from that! It was crazy! 

We haven't had a lot of time for finding this week but I have got to see more of kichijoji and it is way cool! We found these back alleys with like markets in them and ramen shops. They are about three feet wide and lots of people in them. We went and got ramen. It was way good! 

So ya we went to Yokohama last week which was way fun! Still didn't really get to see the ocean but we saw a lot of really cool stuff! We shopped at a mall for a while and only bought a cd from the Ghible store. You should look up Ghible, it's awesome haha. They were playing some sweet Japanese music that I could listen to so I bought cd. Elder Nicholson bought one as well but the bit more pricy one. We get home only to find out that he is just a music box sound and mine is just background music with now singing! Haha oh well it still sounds nice! When we came back president Wada chastised us about not letting him know earlier that we were changing p day to Monday. He was still ok with it. 

This week was crazy that's for sure!

(I asked what he was doing today) I am going to buy some cheap ninja shoes after this! They are about 600¥ they are way comfortable! Elder Belnap is from south Jordan Utah. An elder in my room is from Pocatello! Also, Elder Freschknecht who was from kunitachi when I was in Fussa is here as the new AP so that's cool!

I love you all so so so much! Thank you so much for all you do and how much you support me with your prayers and love and everything!

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

Not a lot of missionaries get to be on the tech team!

Hello mother! Man we live in an amazing age where I can see you from more than 5,000 miles away! It was so good to see you all!

Good for you finally getting that front thing done. It looks SO good! I'm very impressed. (my rock garden)

This is random but we are on our way to Yokohama and we stopped in shibuya which isn't in our mission but we had to transfer trains there and I got a picture of me and hachi the dog! There is a movie about hachi that we watched in zoology and they showed this statue at the end of the movie. Can you send it to Ms. Devore for me? Thanks! 

(after our phone call at Mother’s Day he emailed us and told us he had just gotten a phone call and he was moving to the Mission Office to be on the tech team. We’ve have been excited to hear all about the new adventure, definitely not something all missionaries get to do. Apparently when he filled out his questionnaire he must have mentioned he enjoys making movies, I’m not sure why he is there but it sounds very interesting!)

 I get to be one of the first people to meet president Warnick. I'm pretty excited! (his new mission president will be there in July) If he decides to change the mission portal then I will be the person to do that! I have no idea how to do that but I will be the person to do it! Crazy! Haha. So basically in tech staff I set up all the iPads for new missionaries, fix broken iPads, make training videos as requested, make power points for trainings, give trainings on Facebook and other tech safety stuff, lots of projects like anything president Wada wants me to do, and like a lot of other things that I can't really remember haha. But in 3 weeks Elder Belnap (his new companion) is leaving and then it will just be me! I will become elder Nicholson's companion while shimizu Choro trains a new commissarian and  then shimizu Choro will leave and then it will be us three in the office in a triple companionship. (I believe he will be there for 3 transfers! So for 18 weeks is my guess! He didn’t tell me that, but I guess that’s what he told Audrey, good thing she’s around to help fill in the gaps. Between the 2 of us we can figure things out)

But right before I left Tokorozawa, Hashimoto sent us a text saying he could meet us real quick because he was in Tokorozawa for a couple hours. We met him down by where we park the bikes. He finished the Book of Mormon in like a week and a half! He is starting it again.  But I invited him to be baptized right before I left and he said yes! His date is on June 11th! He also gave me and elder Masaki Japan shirts he got in ikebukuro. He is great! It's so so exciting to see people come unto Christ! I was reading in Alma 29 and found out that it is like one of my favorite chapters! He talks a lot about how joyful it is in seeing people come unto Christ even if it was you yourself who shelled them come unto Christ. Even through seeing others help others come unto Christ we ought to rejoice. You should read it! It is so great!

So our apartment is attached to the office and is right under the Wada's home. I live with the three APs, (assistants to the president )Elder’s Richardson, Frischknecht, and Rose and then with the comiserian, Elder Shimizu, and the recorder, Elder Nicholson, and then me and Elder Belnap, the tech staff. We all make our food separate so that's kind of weird to get used to. But now I can eat whatever I want! (maybe he has an oven!) The apartment is kind of messy but me and Elder Rose have been fixing it up more. 

My P day from here on out will be in Saturday's! I don't know exactly how p day goes down here but it will be on Saturdays! 

I love you all so much!!

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

A few hours after he wrote this they had a 5.6 earthquake about 60 miles from him. No damages and no tsunami warnings, that’s good! Next letter we will find out if he felt it.

He has some investigators! Woot woot!!!

Hello Mother!!!

I'm glad you had so much fun in California! haha I love meeting people
who are just nice for no reason! (I was telling him how nice everyone was!)  That's how I try to be! Although if I told someone here to have a blessed day "祝福された一日があってください！”It would sound really weird hahaha. Oh ya! I remember down town Disney very well. That was such a fun trip!

I am planning on face timing you all on my Monday at 10:00am. Should be your 7:00pm.  I'm so excited!!! Maybe think of a couple questions you want to ask me so if there is any time where we don't know what to say, you can ask me!

The suzumebachi is out! IT is the 6 inch bee thing. They are horrible! (he sent a picture of a little one)

The district leader life is just normal missionary life with more responsibilities! It’s been really great though! I have been able to really get to know everybody better and really just love them more than I would have if I was a normal missionary. I have been talking to Elder Languido every night just trying my best to help him ease into the Japanese missionary life. Actually it was really hard at first. All of the time I used to have as like journal writing time or extra Japanese study time kind of disappeared from daily calls from the zone leaders, reporting, and just really trying to get to know everybody better, and planning district meetings and still doing my normal things. At first it was hard and I was kind of down especially that I didn't have time to write in my journal at night. Elder Masaki told me that in life we have to make sacrifices for many reasons, one being in a leadership roles. From that point on I decided that I was going to not worry about the time, do what I needed to do, and that the lord would bless me with time to write! I still haven't missed a single day in Japan!

We found 3 new investigators this week! Me and elder Masaki have been just talking to everything that moves and inviting everybody. We found one kid who met missionaries 2 years ago and then he met us in front of the Seiyu. We were able to set up a church tour and then him come to game night. We showed him all the church and used the paintings in the church to teach him. We showed him the baptismal font and taught him about baptism. Then we had him meet some members that were there. He built a lot of good relationships! Then we taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one and he was so excited! We gave him the introduction to read before we met. We took a picture and HE made it his Facebook profile picture! He is holding the Book of Mormon in the picture! He reads it in his spare time at school and home! He was supposed to come to church but he got a flat tire on his bike. He is 15. That night we ran into him again and he was with his girlfriend and he was so excited to tell us that he read the introduction many times! He is awesome!

We met two kids together. One was really loud and funny the other was quite quiet. But we have a plan to meet them tonight to give them a church tour and then play ping pong and then eat some food after that!

Today we met with Evan before he leaves Japan for good. (his super tall pro basketball friend) He is so excited to leave here! haha he is so funny. He has been a professional basketball ball player for 6 years. He played college ball in Harvard with an apparently famous guy names Jerome Lynne. But we ate with him at 9 this morning at Denny's and just had a great time talking with him. I have met some incredible people so far and I can't wait to meet all of the amazing people I am supposed to meet here in this beautiful
country!

This week I have been really focusing on striving to become. That can be really anything. But for me striving to become a good leader and to really just maximize my abilities with the help of the Lord.  I'm getting to the point where I can understand most of what people say if not all so I'm really focusing on my speaking ability. I have been RPLAing the scriptures. President Wada teaches us to Read Ponder Liken and Apply. I realized that there is no requirement in the gospel to read the Book of Mormon you know like 500 times or something like that. There is no number of times you need to read it to truly understand the significance of it. I have read it about 3 or 4 times all the way through but this time I am just not worrying about the end at all. I am just really taking it slow and tasting the scriptures. I said there wasn't a requirement on how many times you need to read it but in the scriptures it does teach us to "feast on the word of Christ." Already from doing that I have began to see the scriptures in a whole new light.

Last night we had a meal with a 3 families in one house. The food was delicious. I gave the message at the end and I taught about striving. In Mosiah 4:27 it gives two qualifications that we may "win the prize." Doing everything in wisdom and order, and second to be diligent. If we just decided what we want to do, and really decide that is what we want to do, make a plan to accomplish it, and be diligent in achieving it, we will win the prize. If that's what we decide what we want to do then there is always help from above. I promise. Even if it isn't a gospel related thing, God cares about all of our individual lives and everything that goes on in them. I know that he is just waiting to bless us in every aspect of our lives. Please take advantage of it and really decide who you want to be. He will help you.


I can't wait to talk to you next week!!! I love you so so so so much !!!

Elder Draper


ドレーパー長老

The basketball team he tried out for