Elder Draper goes to the doctor.

Hello! 

  

My week was pretty crazy actually!  

The blue and gold banquet  sounds way sweet!  

Of course the songs Allie did got 1st place! She's amazing! (He means dances, Allie had a clogging competition) 

The weather here has been pretty weird. It has seriously been so warm! And then it gets way cold at night haha.  

So they were talking about sending all of us home two weeks early for school by making that a 4 week transfer and then the next one be an 8 week transfer but they got word that they couldn't do that. So they will probably just send us home individually for however early we need. I should get my letter telling me when I will go home and it should have my plane tickets and everything on it. I get it when I am 6 months out and that mark is in just a couple weeks! (So it sounds like his return date is a couple of weeks early! We will know around the first of March his true return date. I did encourage him to stay focused and not worry about what’s coming up. Of course his response was, mom, I am focused, I’m not stressed. ) 

 So this week my neck and back have been hurting pretty bad. Just aching a ton. My body is kind of falling apart. But I talked with the Area Doctor (as in Asia north dr) and he gave me some back exercises to do. I also talked about how my neck does that weird grinding thing so President Warnick told me to go get an x-ray. So I did. I am losing all faith in Japanese hospitals. We go to one and they take me into the x-ray room and they put me up to the machine. The whole time they don't think that I can understand Japanese. I heard them say stuff like  

"Is he supposed to stand or lay down?"  

"Is it his neck?"  

"Ya."  

"I think he can stand up." 

"Oh wait, he is wearing a button shirt, is that ok?" 

"Maybe have him take it off. " 

So I take it off. The lady still doesn't think I can speak Japanese so she like man handles me to get me to turn the way she wanted me too. Then she grabs my arms and puts them on this bar in front of me. She looks at it for a minute and says "no no no. " and then moves them again. She did this a couple of times. They took one picture and then I could hear them say stuff like: 

"Did it work?" 

"It seems to be doing something weird." 

They had this conversation for about 10 minutes. Then they finally finished the other ones and then sent me to talk to the doctor. He didn't even try to understand what I was actually talking about. He just looked at the x ray and said "You're fine!" And that was basically it.  

 So that story is still not done yet haha. Maybe next week! 

This week we walked at least a million miles. We didn't find anybody to teach but we did meet some awesome people! While we were talking to one man a lady came up behind us and asked if we were Mormon. Turns out she met missionaries 15 years ago and got their pictures and their business cards. She wanted to return them to the missionaries. We thought that was strange but we took them and told her we would try. A little bit after that we talked to a guy named Fukushima. We talked to him a while about sushi and how to make really really good sushi. I invited him to church and he said he would like to come! Like 3 days later we were walking down the shoutengai (the street with shops on it, like sun road) and the lady was there again! So we talked to her a while again and apparently she lives close to us. Along the way we were crossing the cross walk and somebody grabbed my arm. I looked back and it was Fukushima san again! Lately we have just been running into a ton of people we have met before. It's pretty cool! 

Elder Holland came to Japan. He didn't do a mission conference with our mission but he did a stake conference with all of Japan. It was so awesome! He talked so much about 3 Nephi 17 and about how even those people, who heard the Savior himself teach and pray, they needed to pray for themselves to god in the name of Christ for understanding. If they needed to do it then surely we as members and missionaries and investigators need to do it. Even if we were to meet the savior, we would still need to pray to receive that spiritual witness. I thought that was amazing.

  

 I know this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know all things, but I have faith that what I do know will always trump what I do not know. I know that God is our father and that he loves us. And even though I can't fully comprehend that love yet, I can feel it when I obey Him. He has always been there for me and I will trust in him forever.  

  

I love you all! 

  

Elder Draper 

 ドレーパー長老

I know the Book or Mormon is true!

Hey Woman Mother!

We have tried to meet with those 5 investigators and visit them and call them but we weren't able to. 

Right now the elders in my apartment are Elder Yoshikawa and Myself and then Elder Riggs and Elder Abe (ah-bay not abe as in abe lincoln haha) He is Japanese. 

(I was telling him that Elder Eteru’s mom and I have connected on face book) I love Elder Eteru! We went on splits with him last week so he came over to our apartment for the night. He is so bold and loving! He is a super hard worker and he's never been afraid to talk to anybody. He has an amazing voice! He like traveled the world when he was young to sing. Pretty cool! Last p day we went to yokosuka by the ocean and played soccer and frisbe. Elder Eteru messed up his knee a couple days before though so he couldn't do anything. Then a storm off the coast hit so I just hung out with him and his companion. I love that zone picture! It's seriously like the best zone picture ever! You got all of us in p day clothes and then the two in the middle in suits and then there is the ocean and an island in the back and on the back right there is a big ship and in the bottom left there are like navy ships haha i love it! (The picture was posted on the blog last week, look it up.)

A couple zone conferences ago we talked about why we came out on missions. There were a variety of reasons but one thing I learned was that it doesn't matter so much as why you came out, but why you stay. I was reading my journal this week and I realized one of the big reasons I went on a mission was to learn a language. That wasn't the only reason but it was one. But I can honestly say that I did not stay on a mission to learn Japanese. There is no way I would leave all my loved ones and go through this much just to learn a language. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that God is our father and he has a plan of happiness for us. I want to share that and that is why I am here. 

That's so crazy that there is that much water! (I described all of the flooding around our area) It snowed/ rained a ton this week. I haven't gotten the impression that it's warming up though haha. I haven't felt an earthquake in a long time! Like since I was in Kichijoji! I'm not sure what that's about. 

Today we will go to costco and then come home and Elder Yoshikawa will buy a new suit because he rips his pants like every other day and then new shoes becasue they are wrecked as well. 

This week was pretty hard actually. We tried to get in contact with all of our investigators and were able to set up appointments with a couple of them they didn't show up. We housed and housed and housed and streeted some more this week. Me and Elder Yoshikawa are trying many different ways to approach people but nothing has seemed to work very well. All except a couple have rejected us. We did, however,  house into a house with two old ladies that we met on the streets the other week! One was 82 and the other was 93. They were Presbyterian and super nice. They loved that we were sharing the gospel. The 93 year old lady lived in America for some years or so about 50 year as ago. She kept saying "Won't you stop by again and we can have a cup of tea or something?" Haha it was so cute! 

We also went to the temple this week and had transfers! The temple was so nice! I know that the temple is the house of the Lord. Every time I go there I learn something new or receive some direction for my life or for my investigators and I just feel peace. I did get a picture with the temple this time with the whole temple in the back! Well as much as I could, there are a lot of buildings around it. 

I know that when we read the scriptures every day, everything will end up for our benefit. Please read the scriptures every day. We can't afford to not. Read 1 Nephi 15:24. I know this scripture is true. 

That's about it for my week. 

I love you!

ドレーパー長老

New P-Day Schedule!

Hello!

Hey! So I go to the temple tomorrow. Due to some scheduling issues with packing and cleaning for transfers my p day is today! No baptisms yet. But we are finding people!

We had MLC! (Mission Leadership Council). It is the best! We go to Kichijoji in the morning. So we woke up at 4:45 am and got ready and rode the trains to Kichijoji. It starts at 9 and ends at 4pm. We had delicious breakfast that Sister Warnick prepares for us from 8:00. I was asked to give the musical number so I was there at 7:30 to practice. I planned to sing More Holiness Give Me with some other missionaries but when we got to the church we found out there was another musical number and they picked the same song! So we changed ours to Nearer My God to Thee. It went really good! I don't know if anybody recorded it or not. If I can find it I will send it later! So our mission does Eikaiwa (English class) but it is changing a lot! We will focus on two major English tests the Eiken and Toeic tests. We will also start giving moral messages at the end of the class. We did it last week and they loved it!

The schedule changed as well! So P Day starts from 8am and ends at 6pm. Pretty excited! We are always rushing like crazy to get everything done but now we should be fine! Also we will do daily planning in the morning now so that gives us an hour and a half at night to unwind and relax and write in our journal and get ready for bed. In the morning we also have another hour and a half to get ready for the day and not be so rushed. I'm excited! We used to get home and plan from 9:00-9:30 and then sometimes have conference call from 9:30-10 or call the district leaders in our zone and then write in my journal and then brush teeth and stuff and then sleep and it was always very last minute.

We were way out at a station called Kanazawa Bunko, about a 30 minute train ride from Gumyoji Station, and we decided to throw down a kubarikai. We met Kishor! He is from Nepal and very young! Just a bit younger than me. He speaks English very well. He shared with us his beliefs and we shared ours and he said he wants to learn about Christianity! He's so so nice. I called him that night to thank him and we talked for a bit. He told me his friend was there also and asked if I wanted to talk to him. I was all like "ya for sure!" So I just talked to his friend Robi for a bit. And they both want to learn!
We went to meet them this week but his dad had work or something and couldn't meet. We weren't too sure what happened but we will keep trying!

It's funny, all of the people we are working with are foreigners. We have Valentine and Vincent from Ghana, Kishor and Robi from Nepal, and Drake from Canada. Haha. We are trying to find Japanese people but we keep find gaijin. It's cool though, I am SO thankful for the people weare able to meet with.

We got transfer calls! I will stay here with Elder Yoshikawa as zone leaders! I'm so excited! Elder Wilcox is going to Yokosuka and then Elder Abe (Japanese) will come here to be Elder Riggs' companion. Sister Tanimoto will go to Yamate and then Sister Yoshida (Japanese) will come be Sister James' companion. Our district is half Japanese! So that's pretty cool.

My back has been hurting pretty bad lately and my neck still does that grinding thing. So I called Sister Warnick and the Asian north area doctor called me and told me that if I do some back exercises that he sent me It should be fixed in about 4 weeks! The grinding is probably calcium build up from me holding my neck in a weird position (even if I don't realize it) to make up for my back hurting. So I'm excited to not have my back sound like a bag of wet pop rocks every time I turn.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true. A scripture that has stood out to me this week was 1 Nephi 15:24. I have seen in my life and the lives of others that if you truly hold fast to and study the Book of Mormon and apply its teachings and pray, no matter how intense Satan's tactics and temptations may seem, we will win. I promise that if you start by reading the Book of Mormon every single day you will see a difference in your life.

I love you!

Elder Draper