Just hangin out with President Wada like it's NBD.

Hello there! Happy birthday!!! (On the 27th)

I'm doing good! This week was the fastest week of my life literally!  I've just been in the office almost all day everyday and so the days feel like seconds and the weeks feel like minutes. Everything is just blurring together! The new missionaries come in about three weeks. There are 15 and the next batch will be 23! The triple companionship is going well! I love to speak Japanese with Elder Hattanda. It's a nice break from English.  President Warnick comes this next Tuesday! Crazy! It's sad to see president and sister Wada leave but I'm excited to see how things will be different.  President Wada took me shopping! He told me he was going to get me anything I needed for being tech staff. I called Elder Dunn, a previous tech elder, and asked what I should get. He talked to me for an hour on which computer I should buy. Then president took me and it turned out to not be that kind of thing at all haha. I helped him buy the right case for his phone and then I got a cord I needed. Then he took me out to eat at a really nice Indo curry shop! It was so fun just the two of us! He also put me in his office and had me transfer all of his files on his computer. It was fun!

That's so cool that you got to go to San Francisco! Especially that you went to China and Japan town! So those temples are everywhere like in your picture. Not so much in kichijoji but there is still at least three I know of within about a ten minute walk. But ya Japan is very clean! There are no public trash cans besides combinis (convient stores).  China town is always fun. It's funny because the china town in Yokohama is just filled with Japanese people so it's like I'm in China but I can still communicate with people! I'm not so sure about the difference between Japanese and Chinese people haha. I can tell them apart of course but I'm not sure. It's funny Koreans and Japanese and Chinese are really easy to tell apart now. When president Wada does his hair a certain way and then puts these glasses on he totally looks Korean haha it's pretty funny. There's actually not too many homeless people here. Except for in Fussa under the bridge. There is a village of hobos in the trees. They actually have descent ply sized houses made of cardboard! Oh ya Tokyo I think is rated the safest city in the world or something like that. I've never felt threatened or in danger of any kind. I could walk around a night and feel safe. Of course I would run into
drunk people but even the drunk people here are nice! The scariest people here are the foreigners like Americans. There's been like a rape and murder and something just happened recently from Americans that come off the base and messed things up. Down in Okinawa, I think Okinawa at least, the Americans aren't allowed to leave the base anymore. They are really hurting relations with Japan and America. How is America holding on? Is it about to fall apart any second? It sounds crazy over there.

I'm so excited for everybody to leave for missions at home! I still can't believe I've been out long enough for other people to be leaving from Mountain Home though. They will love it! I can't wait for them to really feel what it's like to be a missionary. I love Japan so much. I love them a little bit more every day. I'm excited for the future and to be able to help the missionaries at home when it comes to that! Please try to get to know the missionaies and invite them over and things like that. Do everything you can to help them with the work. I promise you will find an unknown joy in the gospel. 

So like I said this week I've been in the office almost nonstop when I'm not doing something else. We got to go to the temple on Wednesday! I'm not sure when they are closing the temple. 

So we were in the office a lot but we also had a lot of activities. First we had president Wada's last fireside. There were tons of people! The on Sunday we of course went to church and then we stayed a bit longer for an 8 year old girl’s baptism. It was amazing! There were so many people there and the spirit was so strong. After church we had some extra time we planned to go visit a less active, the one we randomly found in the city. It took us about an hour to walk there because we were talking with as many people as we could. We found two guys and one had a guitar. So we stopped them and talked to them I told them I used to play guitar. (It would have been so cool if Audrey was there! She would have blown their minds!) I asked them if they would play us a song. One was the singer. The guitar player was really good. The the guy sang. It was a very interesting voice. It was a Bob Dillan song but his voice was just really choppy and staccato. But it was way fun! Then he gave me his guitar to play and I literally remember 0% of the things I used to know about guitar haha. He taught me a couple chords. The singer had met missionaries before. We invited them to come to sports night. 

We had zone meeting on Thursday and I played the Joseph smith medley again! I had like no time to practice. I messed up pretty bad a couple times but I didn't care. I just wanted everybody to think about how wonderful the restoration is and how God has blessed us so much. 

I got another letter from Aunt Carilee about our ancestors. I love those! The latest one, at least I think I was reading the latest one, talked about when he was serving his mission in the northwest states mission. He had never given a public talk. He took a box and stood on it on the corner of the street and he said that he talked and talked as loud as he could until he felt comfortable doing it. And people filled the streets to hear his words. I loved that even though he felt inadequate about speaking in public he realized he had been called of God and that no matter what he was going to fulfill what was expected of him even if he felt awkward at it at first. 

I love you all so much! 

Elder Draper