Haydon, 19 he is! :)

(This was an interesting letter to edit. His words are becoming confused and some sentences didn't even make sense!  I think I've got most of it translated from his Yoda sounding sentences, he calls is Japanish)

Hello! 

The shirts were great! Thank you so much for the package! I loved everything in it! I forgot to tell you. From the last package you put in jolly ranchers, I put them in the candy bowl in the office for everybody to eat, because we have one of those bowls, and because of the difference in humidity here they were like super chewy and soggy and sticky haha. It was interesting. I loved everything you sent!

I'll pass on the computer repair man. I think one thing that I've learned from being in the office is that when it comes to finding a career, I don't want to have an office job. I will if I have to because I'll do anything for my family, but I don't want to have an office job! That being said I have had some fantastic experiences in the office that I wouldn't have gotten outside! Just like small things that will really help me in the future I feel like. 

Man it sounds like you had an awesome week! (we had a baby calf born!)

That made me laugh so much about the cow and everything. I hope momma starts taking care of the calf!

That so exciting that Audrey Ling is going to be able to get baptized!

My week has been way fast! This whole year has been way fast! This week a couple things I feel are noteworthy happened. After last district meeting I was asked to at the zone meeting be a interpreter with Elder Belnap! I said yes and I was so excited! Prepared really hard and practiced on general conference talks and then it came time to do it. I got to use the cool little microphones that go to the little earpieces that the Japanese wear. It was so much fun and it went really smoothly. Of course I still made mistakes but I was excited to be given that opportunity.  

We had two earthquakes this week.  I'm just afraid of the big ones! I've been getting more afraid as theycome! But I'll be fine. Nothing has fallen of anything yet, but there's always just like a
loud low rumble before one. Kind of Erie!

Next was our lesson with Hideki San on Wednesday before eikaiwa. We had planned to teach him about reading scriptures, church, and prayer and then invited him to be baptized again. It went really well and the spirit was 長 strong. We invited him to be baptized on the 17th of September and he said yes! It's so far away because he will be gone for three weeks in August and we need a little extra time with him. He reads the Book of Mormon a lot and seems to be understanding everything we teach. It was a miracle through eikaiwa that we found him! 

Next was that Pokemon Go game came out yesterday and EVERYBODY is playing it! Last night Elder Freschknecht and Elder Rose came like running into the apartment out of breath to tell us that literally everybody they saw out there was playing it. You would see like people walk and then stop on the side of the road if they found one. Apparently there was a really rare one over in Sun road and there were tons of people trying to get it. So crazy! I feel like an old person saying this but, I don't trust these new game things! I don't know why. I just feel like its way crazy! 

Oh ya it was my birthday on Thursday in the US! The day before everybody in the kichijoji district besides President and Sister Warnick and the Assistants, because they were in a meeting in Yokohama, we went and got Indo curry at the top of yodobashi camera. It was so good. Then I got your package and Audrey's package and three letters and a bunch of emails. Then on my actual birthday I opened my packages and stuff and then we went to maruken tonkatsu shop. A couple people called me that night to wish me a happy birthday. Sister Wada sent me an email saying happy birthday. I talked to Elder Hawkins (his MTC companion) for a little while he called me to say happy birthday. It was so nice to talk to him! But ya it was a really good day! It made me marvel at really how awesome people are and how loving they are. Seriously people from all around the world contacted me in some way. It made me kind of ask myself what am I doing for others? と自分に質問しました。

Audrey gave me this やばい Idaho shirt with a beard attached to the shape of Idaho. It's way cool. This week was way good really. 

Lately I've been reminded and my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of God's eternal work strengthened. I know the Book of Mormon is true and because it's true I know that God lives and is our Heavenly Father and he loves us. And he gave us principles upon which if we love our life we can receive peace in this life and eternal life after we die. He gave us the Book of Mormon through the power of God to Joseph Smith as evidence of this great cause. I promise if you read it and truly ponder it's meaning and its content and pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ and ask if the book is true you will receive a testimony of its truthfulness. God has directly helped and guided my life through this book than any other thing. 

I love you guys so so much! Please pray for Hidek to be able to receive an answer to his prayers! 

Love, 

Elder I'm now 19 years old

ドレーパー長老

Week 44!

Hello mother,

You didn't have a second born son and not tell me did you??? I hate when that happens to me. 

(I addressed his letter to my First Born Son:)

Yep the missionaries left yesterday. It was really sad. Elder Laird and Elder Allred were some of my best friends. They taught me so so much. Elder Allred taught me to have fun in dendo and to love Japanese language and the people. He also taught me a lot of piano theory. I can't wait for you to meet them both someday! Also there is an Elder Christensen who went home last transfer who lives in Boise who said he wants to visit my family. I gave him your address. If a really blond haired guy shows up to your house, don't be alarmed. His first name is Adam.   Our convert, Okabe, always called Elder Laird Kami Chan. I never heard him call him Reado Chourou. 

So our investigators right now are Hideki San who is progressing nicely. He is 19 and likes English. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot. Then we have Kousuke who we aren't focusing on but still working with him. This week we watched meet the Mormons with him.

I got pretty close to throwing iPads this week! But I didn't. I had to set up 15 new iPads for the new missionaries. I actually finished last week and just had to work out small problems here and there once the missionaries actually got here. 

(I asked how they go about transfer and deciding who goes where ) So the president and the assistants go into President Warnick's office and pray and talk about every single person in the mission. They have a big board in there with everybody's face. They talk about the strengths and needs of every missionary and pray to know where they should be placed. They started at like noon and finished at around 10:00 pm. 

Holy cow the Pokémon thing is seriously that big? I've not heard anything about it in Japan. Which is weird because even the adults here play Pokemon I think haha. Audrey told me about it too!

Yes I got your package! I'm actually going to wait until my birthday though. I opened up the Session's package too early so I thought I could wait to open this one. You really could have gotten me nothing and it would have been fine so I am grateful for whatever you sent me! :)

This week I have been studying a lot in Alma 1 and Alma 2. I want to talk about Alma 1 though. In Alma chapter 1 it talks about a guy who comes up out of nowhere named Nehor. He's a real bad dude. He tries to be king and stuff but eventually just gets killed. But right after that the people go crazy. People are breaking out in open rebellion against the church and many many people actually pull their names from the church records. It says that it was a hard trial for the Saints of God. But it also tells of their obedience and patience through it all. Even though the world is going downhill (and quite fast is what I have heard) we can find peace and safety in the church and living it's teachings. This is Christ's church and I know that if you hold tightly to its teachings you will be protected from all the craziness of the world. 

This week I really have just been in the office a lot. But as we learn in Corinthians 12, all parts of the body are needed. Even the tech staff. I may not have the crazy experiences or a lot of time to teach like the other missionaries but I know that all parts of the mission are necessary. The lord chose me to be here in the office and I love it. I have learned seriously SO many things I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. I have got to see how the President receives revelation for the mission and how the preparations go for new missionaries and missionaries who have served their full time already. I have seen the sincere love towards this work of hundreds of missionaries. This mission is like a family. A really really really big family. I love it here and I know I am where I am for a reason and I know that this gospel is true. I can't explain how much I have already changed in this short year, well almost year.  The time to come home will be here before we know it and I don't want to waste a single second of that. Please remember your responsibility as members of this church, live what you teach and share it with the world. The world needs it now more than ever. 

I love you so so so so so so much!

Love your son

Elder Draper

Haydon’s birthday is THIS THURSDAY JULY 21^ST so if anyone would like to email him that would be awesome!

Typhoon season has arrived!

I really don't see President Warnick very often. Maybe once a day. Definitely more than other missionaries! I saw the picture of the boys! They are so stinkin cute. I don't think they've grown at all since I left haha they still just look so small and adorable! Do you think they will let me teach them Japanese? You should ask them for me. It was weird though being in Japan for the Fourth of July! Nothing happened! I think I saw one person with an old navy shirt on. 

It's pretty hot here! I'm finally getting a taste of what Tanner feels everyday! When it's not raining it is really humid and really hot. But I'm in the office most of the day anyway so it doesn't have too much of an effect of me. Speaking of rain, we had a HUGE rain storm the other day! I don't think it was taifuu( I have no idea why we changed it to typhoon, it's completely wrong it is actually 台風 which is read taifuu. Anyways haha) but taifuu season is coming up I think! I'm pretty excited for that.

Goodness mom! I can't keep you satisfied with my pictures I see! Haha ok I will try to take better and more pictures. I actually have like none this week. I just have a video of the rain. I'll try to take pictures of the way I take to go to this really good ramen shop. This Monday we are eating out as a district so I will take some pictures there. It's in a way cool underground restaurant! Literally it's underground. All the best and cheapest places to eat here are the ghetto, underground, hole in the wall, needs a password to enter kind of ones you probably wouldn't eat at as just a tourist haha. Just kidding their not that bad, but comparing to the city life of Tokyo it seems like it! 

Last Sunday our friend Johnathan come to church! He only stayed for sacrament meeting. Our gospel principles class is so bimyou! Like its a class for investigators who don't know much about the gospel. Every week here is an intense deep doctrine class about God having parents and so forth. It would be a great class for members but it just leaves our investigators with and head ache when they leave! 

On Monday it was America's birthday! I barely noticed haha. I finally got Elder Yang and

Elder Mizuguchi and Elder Ota's iPads working! They haven't been working for about 4 weeks since they came and I've been "in contact" with the global service center to help me fix the problem. They did nothing whatsoever and had it not been a random blessing from God it would have never been fixed through them! At night we had a meal with the Yamashita couple and Jonathan. He is fluent in Chinese, Japanese, English and is learning Korean. The Yamashita's only speak English so we spoke English. It was so fun though! We had Costco pizza and salad. It's crazy because we have become such great friends with him but we have really only met like 4 times I think. At the end we all talked about our personal testimonies about the Book of Mormon. 

On Tuesday morning we ran to the bus stop about ten minutes away to see Jonathan off to Taiwan. That was pretty sad. I hope he visits America when I get home. Or I will go to Taiwan. While we were talking to him this random guy who worked for the bus kept like snooping and walking around our little 4 man circle. It was way weird. I don't know what that was about. Other than that, literally ALL day we were moving the Fussa elders! It was fun because I got to go back to my first apartment. It's all empty now. We had to move the stuff to the Yokota apartment because the Fussa church is finally finished! It was under construction when I was there so I never got to use it and that's why we lived in kunitachi. We STUFFED the van full of garbage. Every little hole was filled with garbage. There was only room for two people so me and Elder Hattanda drove about an our north to a dump. Only to find out we were 45 minutes late and they were closed. We walked in a sign told us too. It was a huge recycle shop warehouse with all the lights off and no one there. There was cool stuff everywhere though! We waded through the mountains of stuff and found an elevator. We went to the third floor and found an office full of people. They just told us we were too late. So we drove an hour back to the apartment. Then I took apart some tables and stuff so they could fit in the van. That was fun. When all was said and done we got home around 9:00 pm and we left around 12:00. So it was a fun experience! 

Wednesday I finished all the iPads for the new missionaries! I went with Elder Freschknecht and Hattanda to teach a man named Nishimura San about faith. Instead he talked the whole time and fed us roasted nuts and grape juice. We also had a really good lesson about the plan of salvation with Hideki that night before eikaiwa. 

Thursday was a famous day here. The legend goes that there was once a princess and a prince. They could only see each other on the 7th of July. That's it. 

Yesterday was Friday. We went out to eat with an eternal investigator or 永遠の求道者. He took us to a nice ramen shop and paid for us. 

Time is just flying by as usual! In a week July will be like almost over already! This week I have learned a lot about how real the atonement of Christ is. It doesn't matter how down you may feel about something you may have done, Christ can fix it. It doesn't matter who the world says you are or what you are, to God you are a precious child learning to overcome the world. He wants to help us more than we can fathom. The omnipotent supreme being who created the universe and this world on which we live is calling out to us this very instant. We only need to open our ears to hear and open our eyes to see and we will realize that we have a infinitely larger purpose to life than to be born, work, have great experiences and then die and have all those precious memories lost for ever. God lives and He loves us and He has created this plan for us to come here, to learn and grow and to overcome the circumstances that try to pull us downward, so that we can return to him and partake of eternal life with Him. 

I love you all so much! Say hi to everybody for me! Say hi to Edgar for me!

Elder Draper

New Mission President! Oh ya, and Elder Draper ate raw horse.

Hey mom!

President Warnick is amazing! He is absolutely completely different from president Wada but he is very nice. I can tell he is supposed to be here. It was interesting becaus 5 of us in the office all took one last picture with both presidents and their wives. I'll send it to you soon. But it was pretty sad to say goodbye to him. But he drove away and then he was gone! Just like that we got a new mission president! President Warnick is very good at Japanese, obviously, and is really humble. We had a little meeting as the office and we all just talked about ourselves to get to know each other better. After that we had all the missionaries in the Musashino stake come to Kichijoji(the stake center) to meet him. He shared pictures of his family and we studied the scriptures together. It was so fun! It was weird though because usually people are talking before big meetings when all the missionaries gather but this time it was dead quiet. But they love the missionaries so much and are so excited to be here. They will bring something very good to the mission I can tell. But he's still getting used to everything,there is still a lot of stuff for him to learn though! (That should be fun for Haydon to train a new President!)

But! Anyways HAPPY BIRTHDAY! or has the Japanese say "hoppy basuday!" Or "誕生日おめでとうございます。" I feel really bad because I really wanted to send you something before like two weeks ago but I just didn't have any time to go buy something. I wrote you a letter and wanted to send it but I don't have an envelope that it will fit in and all the post offices are closed on Saturdays, which happen to now be my pday. So you will get a letter eventually! But I'm so grateful for everything you have done for me in raising me up to be who I am and teaching me to choose the right. I know that God gave us mothers for a divine purpose! I love you so much! 

That being said there will be one more birthday I will miss very soon... America's! It's weird that it's America’s birthday but I'm in Japan... But that's ok! I know I'm supposed to be here! 

You should make like a bunch of little flat Elder Draper cut outs and hand them out,  then people could take pictures with me wherever they go and we could see how many places I can go before I come home! Haha (I was telling him how people comment on flat Haydon all of the time)

So the wooden shoes are from Takahashi San, the same lady who gave me the yukata (the kimono like thing). They are called geita. They are way awkward to walk around in haha. Don't wear them in the hard wood floor! The picture of Christ is a bit creepy. Elder Molen didn't like to see it because it freaked him out haha. But I love it! On the back bottom right its labeled 困っているイエス which means "the troubled Jesus". I'm so glad everything got there safely! (the packages finially arrived from their very long boat ride! Everything was safe and sound)

I'm so glad you saw Shaun and Eric! They look way good in the picture! They both so ikenmen! (Good looking me . It's not as weird in Japan for men to call other men ikenmen. You can also call them pretty...) but anyways! They look so good! 

So this week we have done so much.  If you had an investigator you could take them to the BYU Hawaii concert in shinjuku! It was in the opera city hall and it was AMAZINGu! They did songs from all over the world. We took our friend Jonathan and he loved it! There were hula dancers and President Wada sat right behind me, when they first started dancing president Wada reach forward and covered my eyes hahaha. At one point they had a pioneer like song and four cloggers came to the front and clogged! It was the best. I remembered every week going to Boise with you and Allie, and watching her practicing in the garage and going to Lagoon and everything. I started to tear up! I realized how much I missed Allie when I saw someone clog after like 11 months! I love you Allie! The conductor served in Japan as a missionary 40 years ago and he spoke Japanese to everybody as he talked about the songs. They had three other returned missionaries from Japan missions each talk. It was great. The 40 year return missionary's mission president was there! 

That night Elder Laird spent the night (his trainer when he got to Japan) at our apartment because his companion had an interview with president Wada the next morning at 8:30 am. That was fun to be with him again. 

Just yesterday we took the Yamashita's to a really cool restaurant by sunroad. Elder Yamashita ordered horse sashimi, which is raw horse meat! We all tried a slice. I have a video for you. It was pretty good! 

Other than that I've been in the office most of the time preparing for president and sister Warnick's arrival and the new missionaries coming in in two weeks. I swear I never want to see another iPad again! I just work with them all the time and get calls when stuff goes wrong with them. I usually don't know the answers so it's just frustrating haha. I take that back. I love iPads haha. But still it's frustrating. 

This week a sister got her skirt caught in the chain of her bike and she wrecked way hard. She broke her right arm and has a concussion. But the assistants and president went to see her that night and didn't come back until 1:30 am! 

So we went to a place called koenji today, that's why we were late coming back. We went to find a legendary recycle shop that sold 100¥ ties. We walked up and down this road like 5 times and couldn't find it. We finally found it after searching for like an hour. I was less than impressed. Then we came back. But last week I went and took some pictures for you of me in front of the temple in inokashira park!  So I'll send those. 

I love it here so much. Everyday I'm learning and growing. Just this morning I was pondering about feeling the spirit and how it always seems that I'm not feeling it until after I come back from messing up and I notice how much I actually was feeling it. An analogy came to mind while I was thinking about it. You're underwater and you can't breathe. Then you come out of the water and you take a deep breath. You realize how much better it is to breathe! But then you go on with life and get used to breathing air. You may not always feel as refreshed as you did when you took that first deep breath of air, but that doesn't make the air any less real. You may go back underwater here and there and you are kind of awakened to the reality of how good the air was. Even though you aren't always conscious of the actual existence of the air it is there, you still receive benefits of air. The same is with the spirit. When we repent and come closer to Christ it's like that deep breath of fresh air after being underwater. Then as we live righteous lives and we may get used to feeling the spirit. We may not always recognize that we actually are receiving the spirit. But that doesn't make it any less real. You may sin again sometimes and you realize you did actually have the spirit with you. When we are righteous we may not always be completely conscious every second of everyday of the spirit influencing our lives, but you are still receiving the benefits of it. If we are honoring our covenants and obeying God 's commandments and being the best we can be, then we can have the confidence that the spirit is guiding every good thought that we have. They lord should not have to make it some grand display every time he wants to communicate with us. He should not have to shake us to lead us in the right direction. If we are living righteously then the lord trusts us to follow the good thoughts that we have. 

I know that every good thing comes from Christ and if we follow the good things, the truly good things then we will be led to Christ. I pray that we all can pray to be more awakened to the reality of how blessed we are everyday. 

I love you all so so so much! 

Elder Draper

ドレーパー長老

Office staff, President and Sister Wada, and the new Mission President!