He's living by the ocean and loving it!

Hello! 

  

Shonan is fantastic! The people are super nice and it's right on the beach! We walked along a walking path by the beach a couple days ago. We talked to a bunch of people. It was so nice to be able to see the ocean again! It literally just feels like Hawaii. Especially because one of our kind of investigators is like a hula god here. He has hula studios all over the country! He had a big event in a park next to the beach. So we went and supported him for a little bit. But the palm trees and hula and the smell of the ocean and it being right there felt so much like Hawaii. And while we were sitting there and big Hawaiian guy came up and gave us some free pork on rice! 

  

I'm still not sure if I can go to his baptism or not. (in his old area, the man he was teaching)  It depends if we can take an investigator with us. But there is also like a billion other meetings on that day that is just making it harder and harder to go. I have a meeting in Kichijoji that I don't have to go to if I can go to the baptism. In the morning I have zone meeting. Around 3:00 there is a baptism for a family here in Shonan. Lots of good things.  

  

That's so relieving about the chemo! Man they are good at detecting it early and getting it out quick! I guess not always but I'm sure glad they did for you.  

  

Hahaha that is so cute! Man I wish my teachers would have done that. (we gave Allie a baby shower in her class) Mrs. Devore just left and gave us a sub the whole time! Haha. Just kidding. I remember doing something like a moving party for Ms. Leeper I think. Do you have any contact with her? I wonder if she is on Facebook. That would be so fun to get in contact with my old teachers! 

  

I'm so excited for Mother's Day! Yes I will try to call on Monday at 9:00. I have 40 minutes! If there is a loss of connection or something don't worry, I'll make sure I get my 40 minutes. But can we do the same thing we did last time? Maybe have like the first 10 minutes with everybody and they can all ask me questions and what not and then I can talk to you and dad? I want to make sure I talk to you guys enough so if you want more time we can just take some time out of the first ten with everyone. I love everyone so much. I just want to make sure I have enough time to talk to you and dad, Audrey and the immediate family.   

  

I had a nice easy transfer to Shonan from Kamiooka. I'm hoping and thinking that this was my last transfer! I hope I'll just be able to end my mission here. One because I like the area and two just because it's so nice to not have to pack and unpack. But I have gotten my packing system down to a science. I can get packed in about 2 hours and unpacked in about 30 minutes or less. I just keep all the stuff I probably don't use in one suit case and all the stuff I think I would use in the other.  

  

The Apartments not so bad. It kind of is if you compare it to the apartment in Kamiooka haha but it really isn't too bad. For some reason I've been sleeping so so well here! It's great!  

  

I had an interesting insight this week pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. Our existence was not made to end on the earth. There will be a time when we will look back on our life on earth and it will be just that, in the past! When I had that realization I thought of some other things as well. One being trials. They are just pieces in our life. They were never meant to be the end result. We go through them and then they are in the past and we learned from them and we move on! It's hard sometimes to see past the present. I know I'll be home in 3 months but it's hard to imagine it being a reality, yet I know it will be my reality once I get there. It's hard to see the other side of a trial we are going through. Yet once we get there we will understand. It's hard to see past this stage in life, that being our existence on earth. But the reality of it all is that his is not the end, there will be a next stage  and even though we may not be able to fully realize that now as a reality, we will one day. I know that's true and I'm so thankful to know that there is a purpose to us being here and going through all the things that we go through everyday.  

  

I love you all so much! 

 ドレーパー長老 

  

elderhaydondraper.blogspot.com 

He's moving to the beach and will be brushing up on his Spanish!

Hello! 

That's so cool that she went to wagons-ho when she was that age and now she is going here as a teacher! Does Mrs. Hanke still work at west? (Referring to Allie teaching 4^th grade)

Tsunoda Kyoudai has been doing fantastic! We will finish all the lessons next Tuesday and then after that we will do a practice interview and prepare a little more for his baptismal service! He is repenting and he has such a strong desire to be baptized and for those around him to believe in God. He's awesome. So his baptism will be on May 13.

We got transfer calls this last Saturday! I will transfer to Shonan in the Fujisawa zone as a district leader! And Elder Lind will be my companion! I'm so excited! I'm excited specifically for a couple things. Namely, to be Elder Lind's companion; I'm pretty sure there aren't many hills; there is a huge beach there! I get to see the Pacific again! I can see water from here sometimes too but it's Tokyo Bay. I love the ocean! So I am going to Shonan. There are a lot of South Americans there who only speak Spanish! President Warnick called me and we were talking about my new assignment. He asked if I spoke any Spanish. So I told him my back ground and he said, "oh I didn't know that! Well that's probably a big reason why I felt that you should go there." And he told me I may need to study some more Spanish at least to be able to teach! So that's pretty cool! I'm very excited! (he spoke Spanish pretty good before leaving, however, Japanese has taken over is brain so I hope his Spanish comes back!)

I'm super sad that I'll have to transfer before Tsunoda Kyoudai's baptism but I hope I can still go!

This week we did some more finding (people to teach) with whiteboards! We just go to an Eki (station) and write a simple question like "what is your dream?" In English. It's amazing how many people talk to us. Granted we do have to usually go up to them, but it works so well! In about two hours we talked to maybe 50 people. Like actually talked to them. Not just gave them fliers, we actually talked to them! The cool thing is that it draws people interested in English and the gospel. Once they start talking to you, you can just take it whichever way it goes. I talked to a lot of really good people who had some really good dreams. I talked to two kids for 45 minutes straight. 

Awe, I love that Krue loves birds! I like birds too. There are some cool sagi (cranes) everywhere in Japan. They are super long and really pretty and they always walk through the rivers fishing. There is a bird called "U" that they use to fish. Fishermen tie strings around their necks and they swim next to the boat. The U (pronounced oo as in "boo") catch fish and store them in their throats. Then he fisher men tug on the string and it kind if chokes the u and then they take the fish out. The word to make an animal a pet is "kau". The word to "gargle" is "ugai" which literally means to make an u a pet. Haha when you gargle next remember that the Japanese word for gargle derives from a bird that fisher man use to catch fish! 

Haha I will try to find a zoo next transfer! (I told him he needs to go to the zoo before he comes home!)

I have been studying Mosiah 17-29 in the Book of Mormon lately. I just finished it and I went back through and write little summaries of what I could remember in each chapter. I read each chapter twice and often spent several days soaking in all the things in it. It was amazing how much I learned by really taking time to understand the chapter, to ask questions and to apply it to my life. The Book of Mormon is so awesome! It's the word of God to us, his children. When we treat is as such, pondering, praying, and applying we can really see God's work in our lives. God is not dead, he is actively involved in our lives and he wants to make us better people to bring us back home to him so that we can be happy forever. I love him and all the things he does for us. 

I love you!

ドレーパー長老