Slow and Steady.

Things continue to get better with Elder Reese, and we're both excited to keep things pickin up.

 

I think I forgot to mention last week that we had Zone Conference which Stanley G. Ellis attended. It was an excellent conference. One thing that our Misison President said really struck me. He said, "I get e-mails all the time from missoinaries who say that they're not good enough; that they feel inadequate and aren't measuring up to what they should be... Who do you think you are?! Of course you're not good enough! If we were good enough, we wouldn't need the atonement. Stop worrying about how you're not good enough, and start relying on the Savior. Do what you can, and He will make up the rest."

I really liked that. It wasn't something that you hear very often, but it's so true! We're promised that if we are trying out best the Lord will help us out, and even if we're struggling with some things, as long as we turn to him he will help our weaknesses become strengths.

 

This week, we had the opportunity to teach an Indian woman named Amrutha. She had requested a Bible from mormon.org, but we don't usually have those stocked, so it took a while to get some. At first she wasn't interested, and couldn't even remember orderingthe Bible, but as we were leaving, she stopped us and asked us what our beliefs are. We took the opportunity to explain the Restoration of the Gospel and the role of the Book of Mormon. She had a few questions and we answered them like champs. She wouldn't take a Book of Mormon, but she said she would pray about Joseph Smith and ask God if he was a prophet. I don't know if that will go anywhere, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. She goes to some big ol' Christian church downtown and didn't seem too amped up about learning new things. It's difficult to teach people who become fixated on one or two scriptures and refuse to learn anything new. I'm blessed to have been taught to increase my learning and, like Paul taught, to seek after anything that is virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy. What a testimony builder it is to me that we are taught to question and to seek answers for ourselves instead of being told what to believe without pondering.

 

On a lighter note, the weather has been pretty dang hot. I've had a few days now where I've had to change my shirt halfway through the day. Suit coat season is coming up, and I'm really hoping that the weather cools down or I might burst into flames.

 

The Church put on a huuuge Emergency Preparedness fair this weekend, and we were asked to "help set up" which turned into "help set up and then help with everything else you can" We were hoping to get to talk to a few people but we ended up stuffing hot dogs in bags instead. We also missed the "National Championship Squirrel Cook-off" becasue we were occupied with the hot dogs. I was hoping to get a nice exotic experience down here in the South, but it looks like it'll have to wait. Elder Reese has had roadkill racoon, so maybe I'll get lucky too.

 

Love you guys, and hope you're doing well!

Labor Daybor.

This week has been a good one. We've been working pretty hard at trying to find people because our current investigators seem to be dropping (us) like flies, which is a bummer. We have one investigator that seems to have a lot of potential. Brian really wants to be baptized, but seems to get caught up in the Romaticism of the bible. For example, he thinks he needs to be baptized by somebody who wanders in the desert, wears camel skin and eats locusts and honey. He also has a hard time sustaining President Monson as a prophet because he doesn't have some crazy story about being persecuted and martyred or something. He gets caught up on these things and doesn't seem to really grasp the concept that the priesthood authority of God was restored to the earth. He likes to believe what he likes to believe instead of really trying to find out what is actually true. We've been focusing on getting him to really read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. He's had some really neat spiritual experiences, and just needs to focus on getting that desire that he's had before.

 

Yesterday, as you all know, was Labor Day! Our ward had a breakfast and it was a ton of fun. They set up a giant slip and slide down a hill and then pressured the missionaries and the bishop to go down it, so we did. It was a ton of fun, and we had quite a few non members show up which was awesome! We've got a lot of potential for teaching coming up, we just have to wait for the right timing.

 

On Friday, I went on exchanges with the Zone leaders, which was a lot of fun! Their area is doing really well right now and we stayed busy all day.

 

We had to pick up another missionary from the zone because some missionary in Oklahoma went home and this elder in our area and his companion were emergency transferred out and their area is now closed until next transfer. We got to have lunch with the Assistants to the Misison President, which was a lot of fun. They're very relatable and goofy, which is very unlike some past Assistants we've had.

 

We mowed a less active's lawn, and it was very hot. Her son, who is four and has a mental disability got really excited and wanted to help me mow, so I let him hold onto the bar that braces the handle and we slowly walked around. I think I remember getting to do that with my Dad, but I was a little older...His mom thought it was awesome though and took a picture, I wish that I had asked her to e-mail it to me. We had dinner at a member's home, and they had a dog that was half Bisenge, and half Italian Greyhoud. His name was Baxter and he reminded me of our old dog Roxy. Baxter became my best friend.

 

It's been crazy, but a lot of fun! I hope that you all are staying busy and all that jazz! I miss you a ton,

 

Love,

Elder Christopher Drake

Give and Take.

Einstein really had something when he was talking about that whole time relativity stuff. This week seems like it just went on forever and ever. By Thursday I had already told myself a few times, "Oh yeah, church isn't tomorrow."

 

Getting used to a new area and a new companion is tough, but good at the same time. It's a bummer getting used to somebody else's habits and how things are done after spending six months getting used to other people, but I guess that's just a part of being a missionary! Keeps you from getting too comfortable.

 

We had some crazy experiences this week, good and bad. I think I'll start with the bad so I can end on a high note.

 

On Saturday, we spent a lot of time on the phone. About 4 referrals came through and a few of them we referred off to other missionaries. We had a media referral from some missionary in Washington or something that we had been trying to contact, but couldn't get ahold of, and thought that we would try again. So Elder Reese calls the number, and the conversation went something like this,

 

"Hi, this is the misisonaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we-"

"Take my !@$%?#^ number off of there right !@$%?#^ now, you piece of $#@& missionaries, *&^% you!"

"Aaall right, sorry about that, you have a good day"

 

I got a good laugh out of it. It seemed like this week all the good referrals we had were forwarded to other missionaries and we got all the crummy ones!

 

Earlier that week we got a referral from some other missionaries and went to contact him. He wasn't home, but his father was. We talked to him a bit and at first he wasn't receptive at all. He said something to the effect of, "Joseph Smith's story is something you couldn't even find at Disneyland." but we kept on talking anyway. Well, after a while, this guy just starts dumping his whole life onto us. All of the hard stuff he's been through in the past few years and how he's been praying asking for help and just on and on. This guy started crying, and mind you, he didn't seem like the type to cry very easily. So by the time we left he agreed to talk to missionaries again and to read the Book of Mormon...in Spanish.

 

We also contacted another referral that Elder Reese and his previous companion have been trying to get in contcat with all last transfer. We finally meet her, and she's super receptive, even excited to get a Book of Mormon and read it. The only problem is she's a young single woman whose family pretty much only speaks Spanish, and we have a set of sisters in the area serving in the Young Single Adult branch aaaand one of them speaks Spanish.

 

It's been really nice seeing some real potential success here. The people here in Bentonville are great and it seems like every day somebody is honking and waving at us while we're riding our bikes. The selfish part of me wants to keep all of these great teaching opportuinities so I can stay busy and see some success, but I know that it's more important to offer these people all the resources we have available.

 

Things are slow, but starting to pick up. I'm really excited to be here and am looking forward to all the different opportunities I will have to serve here in this area.

 

I love you guys! I hope you're all doing well. It's great to hear from you, keep the e-mails and letters coming.

 

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Always Low Prices. Always.

Hello family!

So, Bentonville is basically like a little Provo. It's really absurd. Apparently Wal-Mart recruits very heavily from BYU. The ward I am serving in now was just split a few weeks ago, and when I went on Sunday, we still had more people than we ever did in Harrison! It's crazy! I went from the geographically largest area in the mission with minuscule attendance, to one of the geographically smallest areas in the mission with incredible attendance. It brings to mind that talk given by President Uchtdorf in October 2012, "The Joy of the Priesthood" where he compares flying a Piper Cub to flying an F-18 fighter jet. I am going to miss a lot of the people and a whole bunch of other stuff about Harrison, but I am very grateful to be here. 

My new companion is Elder Reese, and he is great. He's from New Jersey, so we've got the whole East and West Coast thing going. The area has been going a little slow, and we're both looking forward to trying to find ways to pick it back up again. We don't have a ton of investigators, but there are a few people here that we are teaching that seem to have a lot of potential, which is exciting. 

Hm, stories. Let's see what's happened so far. We've spent a good amount of time cleaning the apartment and trying to de-clutter it. Apparently it's been a missionary apartment for 20 or so years, so there is a lot of clutter. We have stacks and stacks of old pamphlets that we don't even use anymore, but at the same time we don't want to get rid of them because they're church stuff! What if we need them one day?! Plus, I feel bad throwing stuff with Jesus on it away. Part of me just wants to box it up and send it to the mission home and let them decide what to do with it. 

On...Saturday, I think, we went to the Wal-Mart museum real quick on our way back from an appointment. There's supposedly somebody there that we are trying to teach, but she ended up not being there so we just walked through real quick. They've got some neat stuff in there, I'll have to tell you guys about it when we go through for realsies. 

Bentonville is also a bike area, which presents a few challenges. Most of those challenges are that my butt and my legs are sore, but that goes away with time. Oh and the helmet makes my hair look all dumb and gross. Such is the life of a bike missionary though. It's a shame I have to keep a part in my hair, or I would just shave it. All well. 

We haven't had a ton of opportunity to teach, as people have been a little flaky and it's harder to get a ton of stuff done when you're on a bike. We did get a solid lesson in with a lady last night though, and I was pretty pleased with how she accepted it. It's tough getting used to the teaching style of your companion and trying to adapt, but we'll get there. 

That's about all I have for this week, I love you guys! 

Oh, yeah, this is my new address so you can send me lots of letters:

900 NW A St. Apt. A

Bentonville, AR 72712

It looks weird, but it reads, "900 northwest a street" I was confused at all the letters at first but hey, whatever works. I'm not a city planner. 

Love you!

Elder Christopher Drake

Off to Wally World!

Hey Everybody!

I am being transferred to Bentonville, Arkansas. Apparently it is home to Wal-Mart headquarters, and it is a big town, unlike Harrison. All week I was half excited to possibly be transferred until Friday night.

A few times a week, Elder Aubry and I go to the McDonald's by Wal-Mart to get ice cream. We usually do this at the end of the day on our way home. As it turns out, if you go to McDonald's at the same time frequently enough, and order the same thing all the time, you sort of get to know the people working the drive thru. Well, after about 6 weeks of seeing this same girl three or so times a week, I finally decided we might as well invite her to church since we're all basically best friends now. I wrote out a pass along card with our names, phone number, and church address and starting time and all that stuff. When we got to the window we paid, and before I could really say anything, she asked what we do (it is a little strange to see two twenty-somethings in white shirts and ties getting ice cream here in Harrison) we told her that we're missionaries and when we told her what church we went to she said, "Oh! I'm a member of that church. I think my name is still on the roles even." Then a car pulled up and she couldn't talk anymore so we gave her the card, she gave us her phone number and we got our ice cream.

In short, I no longer believe in coincidences.

So along with McDonald's girl, we have something like 3 other people here in Harrison that have a really good teaching potential, not to mention Shelly Renner who we've been teaching as well. When Saturday night came around I was really hoping for one more transfer, but I'm going where the Lord wants me to! Plus, I just learned today that Bentonville has a Panda Express. I'll drown my sorrows in Orange Chicken.

This week has been really busy, and very enjoyable. It's hard to believe that I've been here for six months now. I can't believe how quickly time goes. Einstein was right on with that time relativity stuff.

Wow, I actually have a little bit of time today, so I can tell another story or something!

Let's see.

Oh yes. So Brother Pedersen, an eccentric, but extremely nice man in our ward took us out to dinner on Tuesday. He is the family history missionary for our ward and does a spectacular job. When we got to the restaurant, he was sure that the waitress had been one of his former students, and so spent a good five minutes or so trying to figure out where he knew her from. Then he ordered "dihydrogen monoxide." and the poor waitress tried to go get him club soda, probably thinking "carbon dioxide" So she gets back and Brother Pedersen jokes with her some more, so she started calling him Grandpa! I have never been in a restaurant where it was okay to call an old man grandpa. That's definitely something I love about the south, people are much more....well, I don't know if friendly is necessarily the right word, but warm? I dunno. It's funny. Then when she brought the to go order for his wife she said, "Okay gramps, here's grandma's food."  I laughed. People are funny.

I love yo guys and I'll get you the Bentonville address next week! In the meantime, don't send anything to Harrison because we have a post card for a guy in our zone that we still haven't given him because missionaries are terrible at forwarding mail.

Love you!

Elder Christopher Drake

Think of a Wonderful Thought

Hey everybody!

What a week. I don't think I've had a week this slow in forever.  It seemed like every person we usually visit had something going on, or wasn't home whenever we would stop by. We tried following up on some people we contacted last week, but still nothing. Finding new people to teach here is definitely tough. As a result, I don't have much to report on the missionary work front, unfortunately.

On Saturday, Elder Aubry and I went and saw the local production of Peter Pan! We have a less active member in the orchestra, and Shellie Renner, one of the people we are teaching was in the play. I don't think I've had so much fun in a long time. Their were a ton of kids in the play because it's summer time, and they just made it so much more fun. It really surprised me how much talent some of these actors and actresses have coming from a city of 12,000! Even the young kids were very good. Shellie's oldest son was in a car accident, so we weren't able to go over and teach them this week, but I think it meant a lot to her that we went to the play. We are trying to get some members of the ward out to it this weekend for some more support, but we'll see.

Sorry for the sparseness, it's been a looong P-day, and I don't have any cool stories or anything. I love you all and hope you're doing well!

Elder Christopher Drake

Golfin' in the Rain

Today it was raining, and Elder Aubry and I were very sad about not golfing. Then we decided to go anyway, because P-days are for golf. Luckily it only drizzled off and on. We both had a pretty good game, and I even got a legitimate par. I was very proud of myself.

Godo week otherwise. The Renner family is doing awesome, we just need them to stay for all of church. Shelly stumped me with a question about the Holy ghost though. She is super smart, and determined to get the whole truth, and to make sure it all makes sense, but if she gets that confirmation, then she is 100% for joining. Anyway, the question that stumped me was, "what really is the difference between the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism and just feeling his influence before baptism? They're both conditional upon whether or not we're worthy, right?" And she was right. I had to humble myself and tell her that I would find the answer. Lucky for me, I was asked to give a talk this week about the very subject so got to do a bunch of research, and wouldn't you know, the answer was right in Preach My Gospel, our handbook for being a missionary. Turns out the biggest difference (to me at least) is the cleansing power of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Yeah, we are promised the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost when we receive the gift, but like Shelly pointed out, it's still conditional upon our righteousness. So that was a good learning moment, and she was there for the talk. She appreciated the honesty, which won the missionaries some bonus points. Woo!

Elder Aubry and I also forced ourselves to do some tracting this week. It's one of those things that is horrible until you're actually doing it. Both times were pretty successful, we taught some good lessons, and picked up some potential investigators! It's amazing what the Lord will do for you if you're willing to do some hard things, haha.

Sorry for the brevity this week, I've spent a little more time responding to individual e-mails.

I love you all and miss you like nothing else. Keep me posted on everything that's going on, I love to hear about it!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Of Trailer Parks and Waterfalls

Another good week here in Arkansas. I don't really feel like I can say I ever have a bad week though. Yeah some days stink, but overall I don't think the weeks are bad. They are fast though. I'm going to be six months out at the end of this transfer, that's crazy. Today I was talking to Elder Aubry trying to figure out Spanish and we couldn't figure it out, so I just said, "We'll ask Elder Lee next time we see him (the Spanish speaking Elder in our district), oh wait, he's training a greenie isn't he?"

I was happy because I got to call somebody else a greenie. It felt like the second week in the MTC when I got to say "Welcome to the MTC!" to all the missionaries with the orange dot on their tags. Or sort of like when I was an eighth grader instead of a seventh grader. It's like I'm so much more mature, but really I'm not. It's still a good feeling though.

I need to keep better track of who I tell you guys about. I think I talked about the Renners already, but I'm not sure. If I haven't, they're a part member family, Matt the husband is not active in the Church, and his wife is not a member (but she almost was at one point I guess). They came to church last week, but didn't this last Sunday. I was sad. Oh and none of our other investigators came to church either, and we were saddened. Next week though. There's always next week.

We had the stupidest Independence Day (Elder Aubry insists it be called by it's proper name instead of "The 4th of July" because he's too conservative)  of my entire life. Holidays are bogus as a missionary. At 9 we had to be at our apartment, and we couldn't see the fireworks from our home, but we could hear them. We practiced our golf swings with wiffle balls in hopes that we'd get to see some, but went to bed disappointed. The highlight of the day was teaching an inactive man who wants to get back into the church. We will call him Robert. Robert was drunk or otherwise inebriated when we arrived but seemed very appreciative of our visit, and he did come to church on Sunday. Sometimes it's hard not to judge people (especially when they smell like alcohol and have a girl in a bikini tattooed on their forearm) but the most important thing to keep in mind is that he is a Son of God and deserves just as many second chances as we all do. Our job isn't to judge, it's to bring people closer to Christ. He stayed for all three hours, and people were very friendly to him, which was a relief!

We went on a hike today with a less active, and boy he had been talking it up like none other. It was about 3 1/2 miles long, and a little steep at parts, but I would much rather hike this trail than the Y in Provo. There was a waterfall at the end, and even though it was barely trickling, it was still really cool. I have attached a picture of me and mostly the waterfall. It was huge! I can't imagine how cool it is during the heavy rain season.

I'll attach the picture later, I never take my camera with me because I'm a bum, but I made Elder Aubry take a picture for me.

I miss you all a lot, and can't wait to see you guys!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Pokin Along Here in Harrison

Hey everybody! I'll be here in Harrison for at least six more weeks.

Things are going well as usual, nothing too interesting or new to report.

Yesterday Elder Aubry gave a talk, and we invited just about everybody we saw to come to it. Only one family came, but I'll talk about them later. Some Scout Troop from Houston showed up and pretty much doubled our ward. It was awesome getting to see a bunch of deacons who weren't even members of our ward help pass the sacrament. Typically Elder Aubry and I have to help pass or bless plus one other member from the congregation sometimes, but neither of us had to this week. I kept smiling because it was so fun to see our tiny little chapel so full.

A lot of people are mad at The Food Network for dropping Paula Deen. One older lady told us how she just used the "n-word" the other day. It's just a different way of life down here. The South is crazy. Whoever told me it's about as foreign as you can get inside the States was 100% right.

Elder Aubry and I are continuing to try and find new people, but it's super difficult out here. It's quite a challenge, but on occasion we manage to find somebody. This week, Matt Renner called us and asked for a blessing. Not a sick blessing but a counsel blessing. I don't what it is about people down here, but for some reason they have faith in the priesthood but not in church attendance. It confuses the heck out of me. But anyway, we went over and gave him a blessing. Elder Aubry gave the blessing and it was very bold and powerful. In the blessing, he was prompted to say basically, "you need to come back to church, you can figure this out on your own, but there is an easier way and you already know it." It was pretty sweet. I was skeptical, but sure enough they showed up on Sunday! They only stayed for Sacrament, but I was very happy to see them there and the ward was very friendly. His wife (or at least I think it's her wife) is not a member, but is super duper nice. Hopefully we can get them coming out to church and really help them find the gospel. I've already seen it change so many people, it makes me happy just thinking about it. Sometimes it's incredibly easy to get caught up in the "numbers" of lessons or people we're teaching, but the thing of it all, is if I leave here with only getting to be a part of the Powers's conversion, I will leave the mission a happy man because I can see how much happier they are.

Talk to you guys next week! 

Elder Christopher Drake

Another Transfer Almost Over

It's been four weeks already and transfer calls are this weekend.

Weird.

Not a whole ton to report on this week, unfortunately. The broadcast last night was ery informative and enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the new modes of missionary work. It's going to be weird phasing back to technology. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, and I'm pretty sure all of the people in this area are old so I'm not sure how much facebook is going to help. Maybe it will help us find the young people that are never around or something. Anyway, it's going to be interesting and I'm excited.

Elder Aubry and I have been having a pretty good time, but we have been having a hard time filling up our days. Since our miles are so strict and our area is so large and rural, it makes it very hard to get out past a mile or two radius. It's also very hilly, and there are rarely shoulders or sidewalks so biking is always an adventure for suresies. Especially when we bike up a particularly steep hill and then an old person gets behind us and drives reeeealllly sloooow. I'm pretty sure our existence startles the old folks here. They may not remember the days when bikes existed. My guess is they think we're witches or something. After a few minutes of them slowly driving behind us, we stop (on the hill) and hop over to the tall weeds on the side of the road so they can pass. At this point, I think that they assume we are planning to cast evil spells on them so they zoom away. Heaven forbid we drive AROUND somebody on a bike.

The weather here has been really hot. Well, not as much hot as humid. Poor Elder Aubry sweats more than pretty much anybody I've seen so he gets pretty miserable. One day we did service at the thrift store and when we got there he bought a new shirt because he thought bringing basically only black polos and heavy jeans on a mission to the south would be a good idea. I also picked up a sweet shirt because I couldn't resist and the nice ladies said I could have it.

This week we had a super awesome lesson with Johnathan. We saw him somewhere around three times, and each time he was more and more excited about the Gospel and church and all that jazz. On Thursday, we went over with a member who was baptized about a year ago and is going to the temple with his wife soon. He did an awesome job, and we taught "The Doctrine of Christ" which in short is: Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Basically what Christ taught during his earthly ministry. After the lesson he was really excited to go to church with us, and even wanted to go early. It was awesome.

Then he didn't answer his phone and wasn't home on Sunday.

Such is the life of a missionary.

Elder Aubry was a grumpy gus for a good hour and a half or so. I felt kind of bad for him, but it was also kind of funny.

Welp, I love you all! Please don't send anything to the Harrison address after Friday or Saturday in case I am transferred, which seems unlikely.

Yours, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Pokin Right Along!

Hey you'uns!

They say you'uns down here. It's pretty funny.

It's been a pretty busy preparation day, and I want to respond to all of your individual e-mails better than I have been so this one is going to be short. 

This past week was pretty good. I found myself wanting to be lazy though, which is super frustrating. It's really easy to get distracted and really hard to snap back to work once you get distracted. This coming week is going to be a "re-focusing" week for Elder Aubry and I. I think part of it is that we get along well together and have both had really crummy companions so we're enjoying the time we have together a little too much. Or at least I am. Funny how you can find a way to complain about any situation!

Okay okay. So I've got a good but extremely horrible story to tell you. So, there's a family that lives about 20 miles away that has a less-active son. Last time we were over there we were talking about wanting to take a walk around the property, they own something like 100 acres or something. So while we were e-mailing, we got a call asking if we wanted to come up for dinner and a nature hike. We hadn't been planning on it, but we went anyway because we're hoping to be able to get Marshall back to church. So we get up there and start hiking. At first it was fine, no big deal, sort of on a trail. Then we walked by the drying cow heads and I almost threw up. It smelled HORRIBLE and I'm pretty sure I would have cried if I was a little kid. Then as we kept hiking, we stopped following a trail. We were just hiking through brush and trees and bushes and it was awful. I lost my sunglasses cause they were on my shirt, and I'm lucky I didn't die, I'm pretty sure. To make it even better, we were constantly swatting ticks off. Constantly. I was so worried about ticks that I hardly even looked around and enjoyed nature. Despite my vigilant swatting of ticks, long jeans and a long sleeved shirt, I pulled somewhere between FIFTEEN AND TWENTY ticks off of me that night. One was in my hair. It was disgusting. I hate ticks. I almost cried.

And Mom, I have yet to get chiggers. 

Love you all! 

Elder Christopher Drake

Oscar De La Gato

Hola everybody!
 

Another good week last week. I've almost hit my four month mark! Weird. Six months is going to blow my mind.

First off, thanks to everybody for the mail! I can't say enough how much I like hearing from everybody.

Pretty standard week, expect Elder Aubry and I have been spending a lot of time finding and a lot of time biking. We have to really be careful with how many miles we use so the bikes have really come in handy. The weather has been absolutely beautiful,but apparently it's supposed to get really hot this week. Woooo.One day while we were biking up a horrible hill through a nice little wooded area, I saw a kitten! Now, I'm not really a huge cat person, but come on. It's a kitten. In the forest by itself with no family or anything. That sort of stuff isn't even fair! Missionaries are not allowed to keep pets of any kind (even though Elder Beddes brought home two turtles and a fish over the time we were together) but I felt bad for the poor guy. After a few minutes of him being super friendly and climbing up my shirt and hanging out on my shoulders and licking my ears (which was unpleasant but adorable) I decided to name him Oscar and to put him in my backpack to give to the Powers or something. They have like a million animals and always take more. Oscar didn't like the whole backpack idea. Every time I would try to put him in, he'd poke his head out and crawl back up on my shoulders.

So on my shoulders he stayed. Oscar was a champ. Oscar was my bud. I could tell we were going to be best friends forever and I was going to mail him home and he would live to the ripe old age of 97 and we would go on adventures just like Calvin and Hobbes. Then about half a mile down the road he decided to spoil all of my wonderful plans and jump off my shoulder as we were going about 15 miles an hour. Oscar was truly a trooper. I considered changing his name to Steve McQueen. As I sat there in the road I seriously considered going back and picking up Oscar. He was meowing at me! I can see it in my mind right now, as he stood across the street in somebody's yard...

"Meoooww"

"I know Oscar, but I'm not supposed to have a pet."

"Meeewwwwooww"

"You jumped off my bike! If you wanted to come you should've stayed on my shoulder!"

"Meewwwooowwowowww."

"I'm sorry Oscar, you're in a neighborhood now, maybe someone will adopt you or feed you like Bobba feeds that cat that Nana hates."

"Meow"

"I'm sorry Oscar, but it looks like this is goodbye" As I rode off down the street, a lone tear trickled down my cheek, falling to the hot pavement, evaporating as fast as my time with Oscar.

It was heartbreaking but I think it was for the best.

Now for the spiritual stuff!

We picked up a new investigator! Her name is Kim, and she believes in prophets and that families should be together forever. We have a return appointment for tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to get her to accept the gospel! She works on Sundays, otherwise we probably would have had her out at church. That's a tough thing, but the Lord provides a way!

Do you guys remember the Powers? They're sweet. You should meet them. They're pretty much my favorite family out here that we teach. Last week we were over at there house teaching them the "new member lessons" which are the same regular lessons, plus one more. So we were teaching them the restoration, and earlier, Kim had shown me a picture in this months' ensign about Joseph Smith's death mask, and how she thought it was cool that they did that back then. As Elder Aubry was teaching, the thought came to my mind to open up the Ensign and flip to the painting of the Prophet. As I waited for Elder Aubry to finish, I looked at the picture and out of nowhere I could just feel the Holy Ghost. It was so sweet. At that moment, I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I had been praying for that manifestation for a very long time, and I got my answer. I had to fight back tears to finish the lesson because I could feel the Spirit so strongly. It was such a sweet moment, and I'll never forget it. I got a copy of the Ensign, cut out the picture, and it's hanging up on my wall now. The Lord answers our prayers if we ask with real intent. He will often answer them in ways you don't expect, and it will sometimes come out of nowhere, but when they're answered, you'll know that they've been answered. I am so grateful for that testimony building experience and hope that all of you can experience the same thing.

I love you all, and wish you the best! I've attached a picture of Oscar and the painting that was in the Ensign. Keep me in your prayers! I need them!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Fore!

Best.

Preparation.

Day.

Ever. 

Usually they can almost be a burden, but today was different and super relaxing. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the missionaries here live on a golf course. It's pretty...po-dunk and only 9 holes, but hey, it's a golf course and it only costs us 6 bucks for a round. Some previous elders must have bought a set of old clubs, so this morning we hit the green like champs.

About 46 strokes and four holes later, Elder Aubry and I had to head back up to the pro shop to buy some more balls. Luckily they have 50 cent balls that they dig up from the water. We decided that 9 balls was a good idea, and headed back out, still feeling like champs.

We were both really terrible, and there were a few times we were worried that we were going to break windows, but it was so much fun. I don't think I've ever enjoyed playing a sport more in my life. Both Elder Aubry and I had some amazing strokes too. I hit one over the pond, which landed juuuuust on the other side, bounced on the rocks about twice, and then popped back up just by the fence. Elder Aubry hit one that went waaay far, but also over the fence, and then into a tree for about two seconds, and then bounced out again into the course. That's what happens when Missionaries play golf.

The past week has been really good as well. Things are starting to click with Elder Aubry, and we should be up to par by the end of this week! Adjusting to a new companion is weird, I find myself not trusting what he says and wanting to take over the whole lesson. Then I realize he probably thinks the same thing, and Elder Beddes probably thought the same thing too, so I've been working on really trying to make sure he's involved in the lessons. Planning is important in that, and we've found that it helps a lot.

We're trying really hard to find new people to teach, which is difficult around here. People are really friendly, but they're terrible listeners. I think they just kind of tune you out, and then talk about what they want to. I mean, yeah, we're missionaries, but come on, at least try and listen to what we're saying. My favorite thing though is,

"Mhm, yeah that's a good scripture about Christ! I like that!"

"Well we'd love to give you a copy of the Book of Mormon! It's another testament of Jesus Christ, and just like you were talking about, our Heavenly Father will answer our prayers and I promise that if you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, you'll receive and answer that it is true!"

"No no no! Don't give me anything to read! I don't want anything from you!"

It just doesn't make sense, and it's kind of sad really. I'm firm enough in my faith to pick up a Jehova's Witness tract and read it. It's from another faith, but it's about God, it's uplifting, and it has a good message to it centered on Christ. Why wouldn't you read something that is Christ-centered if you were really firm in your faith? The way I see it is if the Book of Mormon isn't true, whether or not you believe that God answers prayers, if you read it you'll just be ground firmer in your faith. If the Book of Mormon is true, then God does answer prayers, there's a prophet here on the earth today, Christ's church has been established, and you just rejected the word of God. People are just silly. There is nothing wrong with saying no to a missionary, but if you haven't checked it out, it's like a little kid that's never had ice cream saying no to a bowl of ice cream.

"No thank you, I can see that that food is not something I have had before. I am just fine with my steamed okra, thank you. I was raised on it and I'll never eat anything but steamed okra because I know that it is my favorite and I don't want to try anything else because steamed okra is the way to go and if you like anything more than steamed okra then you are just wrong."

All in all, I'm grateful that my church teaches me to love and respect all people and their tastes. I'm glad that we're not taught to be xenophobic! I love how the prophets always emphasize the importance of learning new things! "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praise-worthy, we seek after these things!" To me, that means anything that lifts us up, and if nothing lifts me up than a testimony of Christ, whether it's from a Baptist, a Jehova's Witness, a Catholic, or a Mormon. If you've got a testimony of Christ, (or really anything Christ-like) I am all ears and I would love to learn more about your religion when I am not so devoted to preaching mine.

I love you all, and I hope that you have a good week!

Elder Christopher Drake

How to Cope With Not Being a Rockstar

Elder Beddes is gone!

Happy/sad day. It's really weird being here in Harrison without him. On one hand, my new companion, Elder Aubry, likes to plan and pray in the morning, get up on time, and actually discuss the things that we have planned for the day; on the other, he's not a rock star that I can just kind of hide behind and let do all the work under the pretense of "he's my trainer, he should train me how to do these things, not just do them." So it's a good change all around, but I don't like being out of my comfort zone. It's weird.

Most of the week was spent saying goodbye to people, which meant I spent a lot of time as the official photographer. It was kind of funny when everybody would say "The ward is really going to miss you here, Elder Beddes, you were truly an asset." and then they would remember that I was standing right there and say something like "And we'll be saying the same thing to you when you leave here, Elder Drake." I got a kick out of it. to be honest, it was  hard for a couple days. I was scared about taking over the area, having a new companion, and felt super unprepared and inadequate. After a while I decided that I was going to try and be a better missionary than Elder Beddes was here.

Then I realized that was stupid. Pride will getcha. After thinking about that for a little while, I decided that I was just going to try and be the best missionary that I could be the best way I know how. If the people here chase me out of the ward with pitchforks and torches, that's just fine as long as I can look back and say, "I tried as hard as I could to be the best missionary I could be in that ward."

We had a lot of fun at the Fredlunds (our ward misison leader) on Wednesday. Their second youngest, Aiden, (he's the one who loved Elder Beddes and calls him 'Bebbes') must be convinced that when it is somebody's birthday you say, "Happy Dodo!" Instead of "Happy Birthday!". If you go up to him and say, "Aiden, happy birthday!" he whispers back, "Happy dodo." as if he was trying to correct you politely. If you keep it up for long enough, he'll yell it at you and it's the best thing ever. Man, I love that kid. For a while I thought he had named me "Gonkin" because that's what he calls me, but then he called Elder Aubry "gonkin" today. I almost cried.

Thursday was transfer day. It was really good, but weird too. Brother Foster gave us a ride up there and back. He got to see Elder Gulbranson who was Elder Beddes's companion when he was baptized. It was a great experience for him I think. I got to see a few people I knew from the MTC which was reeeaally nice. It's weird and hard being new because it seems like everybody knows everybody and I know nobody, but I got a chance to feel like I knew somebody and it rocked. One of the Sisters was there and I got to tell her all about Elder iPad and my adventures and hear about all her adventures. It was a lot of fun. Our trip back home was even better though.

On our way back home, Brother Foster was talking to us and trying to get to know Elder Aubry a little better. He then told us his conversion story and it was probably one of the sweetest most spiritual testimonies that I've ever heard. It almost made me cry. He talked about how he had gone to church for years and years with his wife, but every time the missionaries came over to teach it just felt like he was listening to them because his wife or his daughter wanted them to. Then one day in Sunday school he had a really strong impression that he needed to go talk to the missionaries. He kind of just stopped mid-sentence and stared straight at the road. Then I realized he was all choked up and really close to tears. It was really powerful for me. Here's a guy that's been a park ranger outdoorsy Alaskan boat captain/fisherman for over 60 years, brought to tears by an impression given to him through the Holy Ghost. It really struck me that this gospel changes people. I'm not out here to baptize people and get 20 lessons a week with around 60% of those having a member with us, I'm out here to help bring people closer to Christ so that they can feel the same thing that Brother Foster felt that day in Sunday school.

The following days have been pretty good, and Elder Aubry is basically everything that Elder Beddes wasn't, in some good ways and some bad ways. I think I'm really going to enjoy being his companion and once we get in the groove of things, I think that we'll be a really good companionship.

I love you all and hope you're doing awesome! I love hearing about all the little things that you guys do, even if it's just mowing the lawn. I wish you guys the best and can't wait to see you all again when my work is finished.

Love,  

Elder Christopher Drake

Staying in Harrison!

Hey everybody,

Transfer calls were this Saturday and I will be here another six weeks! Elder Beddes is going somewhere in Oklahoma, and my new companion is Elder Aubry, if I'm not mistaken. More word on that next week!

This weeks was slow, but good. Everybody is sad that Elder Beddes is leaving, it's funny but sad. He's been here 9 months, which is a super long time to be in one area. It will be hard for a while with him gone, but hopefully my new companion and I will be able to pick up the pace and get the ward to like us as much as they love Elder Beddes.

There's a huge tornado going on in Oklahoma City right now, I'm glad I'm not there. It's been stormy but nothing bad. Hopefullt those people can get to a safe place, it looks nasty. Not near me though, or even in my mission so don't worry!

Still haven't been able to meet up with Johnathan, as he has been out of town, but we're hoping that things are going okay. He's a good guy and I look forward to helping him progress more. 

Getting around to do missionary work is going to be a challenge in this upcoming month. Our Mission President had to cut our monthly mileage allotment from 1400 to 1100. Our area is the largest area in the mission and incredibly rural. It'll be a real struggle, but I'm sure that good will come from having to rely on members and maybe even the trolley/bus thing that drives around town.

The most interesting thing that happened this week was probably the Crawdad Days festival. We helped a recent convert set up a booth for "shoeboxes for soldiers" or something and then spent about half of Friday and Saturday walking around and trying to talk to people. On Saturday there was a car show, which was a lot of fun to walk around. I think Elder Beddes was getting bored after a while, but I played catch with him a couple Mondays ago so he owed me.

Elder Ostler, our District Leader is going home this transfer so we had a district outing this morning! We went fishing on the White River here, which is apparently supposed to have the best trout fishing  ever or something. I caught two trout! I was so proud. Elder Beddes caught six of course, and everyone else got at least one. It was a lot of fun. It will be weird when Elder Beddes and Elder Ostler are gone, but change is good.

I think about you guys a lot, and miss you a bunch. It's starting to be weird not being able to know what's going on all the time. It's weird, but definitely nice not to have a phone glued to me. I look forward to hearing from you guys!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Early E-mail Day!

Hey Everybody!

Elder Beddes wanted to use the little business center we have at our apartment complex instead of the library today, so that's why the e-mail is early. Kind of a bummer since I won't get to read all of the procrastinator e-mails ;)

We did a ton of service this week. It was nice because we got to get out of a shirt and tie. It feels like when I graduated from St. Joe's. Getting out of this "uniform" is like the best feeling ever. I'll probably not want to wear a tie for a few years after my mission. Sweats are okay to wear to church, right?

Anyway, the service. I learned how to put up a barbed wire fence! Sort of. I learned how to tie the barbed wire on the posts. I got gouged pretty good twice, and then scratched up as well. It made me feel manly. I was paranoid about ticks though, which is never fun. I hate those things. I almost cried when I had to pull one off my kneecap a few weeks ago. I dumped like a tablespoon of Vaseline on it and let it sit for like 10 minutes. It was pretty dead after that, but it still took just about all of my fortitude to pull it off. I'm so brave.

Oh, on Wednesday, we went down to the "Horseshoe Canyon Ranch" in Jasper, which is owned by a member of the ward up here. Mom, I'm pretty sure you would love to go on vacation there. I assume it's pretty expensive, but it's really neat and you used to talk about wanting to stay at a dude ranch. There were a lot of horses just kinda wandering around though and I didn't like it. Creepy.

We helped put posts up for a sign, and then helped put a big playground set thing up. I didn't feel super useful, but I enjoyed helping where I could! We also met a Jehova's Witness up there who works at the ranch. He's a super nice and super devout guy. It was a nice change meeting somebody who has a specific religion that's devout and not a meanie about it.

On Friday, we got to split wood at the Fosters. Brother Foster was just baptized back in December, but his wife is a member. Super nice people. He is a retired Forest Ranger, and she works for the National Parks Service and is retiring this year I think. We had some HUGE rounds, so they wouldn't fit in his hydraulic wood splitter thingy. I got to pound wedges in with a sledgehammer and that really made me feel manly. I think I got a little too into it though, because my hands still hurt a little bit and I got a nice fat blister on my thumb. It was fun though. I can't remember if I told you all about playing Hearts with them or not, and I can't find last week's e-mail in my sent folder, so I'll tell you anyway.

The Fosters like to play card games, but the problem is that Elder Beddes always wins. Anything. If he plays, he wins. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean he's annoying and stubborn and a sore loser so we always let him win, I just mean he wins. Everything. To the point where it's super annoying and I have to repress the urge to try and make him lose just because I don't want him to win. So, instead of Catch Phrase, which we've typically played in the past, we decided to play hearts, which Elder Beddes had never played before.

Guess who won?

Elder Beddes, that's who. Sister Foster wasn't very happy about it (she get's competitive). She even shot the moon and he still won. I think Brother Foster was the only one that didn't want to stab Elder Beddes.

Teaching has been slow this week, which is a bummer. I think most, if not all, of the people we saw this week were either less actives or recent converts. There are so many less active or inactive people here in this ward, it's ridiculous. Like....100 active members and 400 less or inactive members. We could have another set of missionaries just for reactivating people here.

'Twas a busy week. Sorry I don't have any funny stories or awesome spiritual experiences this week, it's kind of hard to have a touching moment with a strand of barbed wire or an axe. I hope that you are all doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake!

Sick Week!

Being sick on the mission is no bueno. I got a gross head cold on Tuesday that was no fun to deal with for the next few days. Luckily, my wonderful mother stocked me up with a whole bunch of medicine that helped a ton. I found out that the best combination I had was Mucinex syrup (has more acetaminophen than NyQuil) and ZzQuil (which has no acetaminasdfnasdfnphen, but good sleepy stuff) if you have a stuffy nose. I slept like a champ on Wednesday night. Also, I made my own recipe for delicious yummy sore throat remedy. I'll give it to you guys because it's so great.

Elder Drake's Yummy Honey Lemony Goodness Cough Remedy:

1 Slice of Fresh lemon

1 mug

Enough water to fill the mug

Some honey

Squeeze the lemon into the mug, and drop the lemon in to the bottom. Fill the mug with water. Microwave the lemon water for a 45 seconds to a minute. Take the mug out of the microwave and put some honey in it. Stir it all up and let it cool for a few minutes, but don't let it get too cold. If you let it get cold, it won't help your throat. 

I should be a cook or something. It was actually yummy enough to make me want to enjoy the goodness even when I'm not sick! Luckily I got better pretty quick, and am enjoying being much healthier now.

Now about missionary work!

This week was good. Long but good. As far as missionary work goes, it was a little slower than I would like, but enjoyable nonetheless. We taught Johnathan, who was just as receptive and open minded as always. We taught the Plan of Happiness that God has for us. He didn't have very many questions, and he seemed to think it made sense. Which is good, because it does. How can you not agree with the fact that God loves families and wants us all to have the opportunity to be with them forever?

We taught a few other lessons, but we did a ton of service this week. We helped a member move back into the ward from Memphis, and helped another woman move some furniture. We're doing some more moving this week and it will be a lot of work, but I look forward to it!

We're trying to get a few new investigators, which is hard around here, but we had a positive experience with one man. He was a referral from somebody that talked to Elder Beddes recently. We show up at his door and there's a nice big "Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial" sticker on his door. Harrison has a monument to the event in the town square. We knocked and he came out and talked to us for a bit. He was surprisingly kind and open, and went back inside to grab a book he'd picked up for a friend who is in our ward. The book was, "Jesus Christ Message to all Nations" by Warren Jeffs. Wonderful. He was having dinner so we couldn't talk for very long, but we'll have some interesting things to talk about when we go back, and a lot to set straight.

The weather here is getting much nicer though. Last night we walked to a part-member's house to teach a lesson. It was beautiful. I'll never get tired of walking out the door to a warm evening as the sun is setting. It reaffirmed to me how much of a night person I am, and made me sad that I couldn't stay out longer.

Oh! Funny story to tell. This Sunday at church, we sat in front of the Dickeys. Brother dickey is from southern Texas and has a super heavy accent. Like straight out of a movie. Nice thick lazy drawl that just makes you happy. After Elder Beddes and I helped pass the sacrament, we returned to our seats and after the first speaker there was an intermediate hymn, "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" I think that song is now one of my favorites thanks to the wonderful southern twist Brother Dickey put on it.

"There is suuunshaan in ma souul todaaayyyee,

Mooore glooreeeuhhs and braaaaght."

It was better than that guy who sits in the back pew and sings as loud as he possibly can. You know the guy. He makes you laugh because he wants everybody to know how good he is. But Brother Dickey was better because he wasn't loud, but just super southerny. It made my day. Elder Beddes and I had a really hard time not giggling. Then Elder Beddes decided to try and sing like him too. I almost had to leave the chapel because I couldn't stop giggling.

People here are gerat. I love it. I hope that I get to stay here at the end of this transfer. I wish you all well and look forward to hearing from you!

Love,

Elder Christopher Drake

Baptisms = Awesomeness

This week was super duper, as I try to make every week out here in Arkansas.

I went on exchanges again this week over in Mountain Home. They have a new elder over there, Elder Luing who is a nice guy, just a little quiet. We had quite a few people to visit and I enjoyed my time over there. Mostly because for some reason he can't drive so I got to drive for like a day and a half. Holy balone I miss driving so much. PLUS on Monday, since it was our preparation day, we went to this music store and bought a Gospel CD by Johnny Cash and the Hobbit soundtrack. I'm not positive if the Hobbit is 100% Kosher, but I think I'm okay. Elders out here seem to think that soundtracks are okay if they are classical-ish, which the Hobbit totally is. My moral jury is still out on that one though. The Johnny Cash one is awesome though. The album is "God" and it's a compilation of some of his gospel music. Some of it is really good, like "The Kneeling Drunkard's Prayer" others are a little weird, but still awesome like "Belshazaar" (It's Elder Beddes's favorite and he says it's our song. How cute) but other others are just odd, like "The Greatest Cowboy of them All" (You guessed it, it's Jesus.) It's good though. It's nice to get some variety because we drive so much around here.

The Powers's baptism was this week! And it was awesome! Oh man. So Lily didn't change her mind and I baptized her. Well I take that back. On Monday when Elder Ostler interviewed her she changed her mind and wanted him to baptize her. I thought it was pretty funny, but also offensive, Then I remembered that Lily is a nine year old girl and Elder Ostler is buff and I have a gut. Moral of the story: If you want to baptize a lot of people, be attractive.

Moving on!

So Lily went first. Which meant I also went first. Which made my nerves even worse. So the prayer has to be exactly like the one in D&C. Do I have it memorized? Heck yeah, it's like two lines long. DId I still mess it up? Of course I did. I said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the HolySpirit" instead of "...Holy Ghost." I blamed my Catholic schooling for that, and did it right the second time. People kept making jokes about it though, like saying "You should've sprinkled her, or just splashed her the first time." It was amusing. Everybody else's baptism was perfect and super and the Spirit was super strong. Kim was super happy, and she cried. It was awesome. I love those guys.

Later that day, we also picked up a new investigator! His name is Johnathan and is really open to the Gospel, which is weird out here. He can't read very well apparently, so we're trying to get the Book of Mormon on CD for him. It was a good Thursday.

On Saturday we did service! Oh man, I love service. And it's totally not just because I don't have to wear a white shirt and tie. Our ward mission leader, Fred Fredlund, wanted to surprise his wife by painting one of the rooms for their new baby.  When I asked where she was, Fred responded, "She's at some women's thing, I dunno. There's brownies." I got a kick out of that. He gave me permission to put it in a book or something, saying "Yeah you can even use my real name too. 'Fred Fredlund.' Nobody would believe someone would actually name their kid that." Fred is a funny guy. While we waited between coats, Elder Beddes helped cut weeds and I helped wrangle the kids. Then it turned into Elder Beddes and Fred painting and me reading to the kids and playing with them. It was pretty great. They have a playhouse with a ship's wheel at the top. We sailed to McDonald's like three times. It was pretty great. Aiden, the youngest kept giving me imaginary cookies and making me eat them. Then for dinner we had hotdogs and then s'mores around their campfire pit. It was an awesome day. 

On Sunday we had a broadcast from Tulsa! Sister and President Shuway spoke, and then Bishop Davies, who is in the Presiding Bishopric spoke. Sister and President Shumway did an awesome job. They made me want to be a better missionary. Bishop Davies...well I was kind of expecting more from him to be honest. He talk a little bit about stuff, but nothing important, it was like story time. He talked for an hour, and I think he said "Don't feel like you have to take notes on this stuff, unless the Spirit impresses you to" like three or four times. There was also a question and answer session, which was meh. I was disappointed, but Sister and President Shumway's talks were incredibly spiritual and I'm super grateful for them. I was also really hungry, so that probably didn't help either.

I love you all and think you're awesome. Keep the mail and e-mails coming! I really appreciate every bit of news I get to read, and I love hearing from you all!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Powers Baptism This Week

The Powers are going to be baptized this week! Thursday at 10 AM to be specific. There's going to be hardly anybody there, but Kim works evenings and it's just what will work for them. It's going to be awesome and I'm excited. Shaun was ordained a priest this week, so he's going to be doing most of the baptisms. One of the little girls, Lily, wants me to baptize her and Kim wants Elder Beddes to baptize her. I hope that Lily changes her mind because I think it would be cool for her dad to do it, but hey, I'm not going to complain about getting to baptize somebody. Especially when they're not as giant as my dad.

To any pre-mission boy that happens to read my e-mails: Don't get a real girlfriend until you're home from your mission. I promise the Prophet knows what he is talking about. Girlfriends are dumb before your mission. Here's why:
1. They cost a lot of money. If I had spent as much money and time on my car or on cooler things as I did on a girlfriend, I would have a really sweet 1970 Nova. Instead I had to sell it and now I drive a station wagon.
2. They aren't as nice as they smell.
3. Having boys as friends is better anyway. You can watch Arnold Schwarzenegger movies instead of Twilight and do fun (parents read: stupid) things in the car you spent all your time and money on. 

4. They are distracting. If you have a girlfriend back home, she will keep popping in your head randomly. Even when you're studying about how Teancum should have been a Navy Seal.  

5. It is way better to write like 50 girls and feel good about it rather than only one because you feel guilty or something. Mail is like Christmas, but it comes six days a week. As far as worldly things go, nothing is more awesome than getting a letter, and nothing is more crummy than getting nothing in the mail when you're on your mission.
6. You will get Dear Johned and it's super distracting for like two weeks. That's two weeks wasted when you have to struggle to feel the Spirit because all you can think about is how sad you are and how you wish you'd written 50 girls instead of one.
So you know how a couple priesthood sessions ago a few of the Apostles railed on the returned missionaries for "hanging out" instead of dating? Do that before your mission. It's way better in every way ever. My pinky promises.

I think that the coolest thing about General Conference is that everybody takes away something different from it, but everybody still feels like at least one talk is written just for them. Everybody keeps saying how one of the biggest things that they took away from Conference is the importance of the Eternal family. I didn't get anything about families from it, but I sure felt like I got a lot about faith and starting to build your faith where you are instead of giving up. How cool is that? I love it. I read Elder Holland's talk again last night and wanted to hug him. He's the man. We also watched President Monson's talk with the Powers on Saturday and that was also awesome. It was so much fun to see the kids and Kim get excited about seeing the Prophet and really being able to feel how much he loves us.

Before conference, I had been trying really hard to develop a closer relationship with Christ and His Atonement. Two talks really helped me out in that area. The first was President Eyring's. He said, "I am a witness of the Resurrection of the Lord as surely as if I had been there in the evening with the two disciples in the house on Emmaus road. I know that He lives as surely as did Joseph Smith when he saw the Father and the Son in the light of a brilliant morning in a grove of trees in Palmyra. This is the true Church of Jesus Christ. Only in the priesthood keys held by President Thomas S. Monson is the power for us to be sealed in families to live forever with our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
How cool!! President Eyring knows that the Savior lives and I don't even have the faith of a mustard seed. So frustrating, but so inspiring.

Then Elder Holland said, "What was once a tiny seed of belief for me has grown into the tree of life, so if your faith is a little tested in this or any season, I invite you to lean on mine. I know this work is God’s very truth, and I know that only at our peril would we allow doubt or devils to sway us from its path. Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe"

How truly uplifting and inspiring. I am so grateful to have prophets on the earth today that can say such wonderful and uplifting things. Conference is a super missionary tool as well.

As far as other interesting goings-on, I don't have much to report on. Things are going really well, but I will be happy when the weather decides to be warm for real. I can't wait to tell you all about how awesome the baptism is going to be.

Oh wait, wait!! I have an awesome story. Fast and testimony meeting was yesterday. A little boy got up with his grandpa and started to proclaim to the entire congregation what he believed. This is what he said, "I'd like to bear my testimony...I know that Jesus lives...Not everybody may believe it, but dinosaurs once walked the earth!..T-Rex's love meat, it is their favorite food. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

BEST. TESTIMONY. EVER.

I seriously love you all and wish you the best. To everyone who isn't sending me letters, please send me mail so that I can have Christmas every day of the week. I promise you'll get some sweet letters back.

Keep on Keepin' on, 

Elder Christopher Drake

"T-Rex's love meat." 

Six More Weeks of Arkansas!

I was going to try and make some Groundhog Day joke, but then I decided that I didn't want to make a really corny joke at the beginning of a letter. So I'll just say that I get to stay in Harrison for at least one more transfer. Woo!

I was going to try and make some Groundhog Day joke, but then I decided that I didn't want to make a really corny joke at the beginning of a letter. So I'll just say that I get to stay in Harrison for at least one more transfer. Woo!

I had a pretty typical week this week. I did go on transfers up in Branson with one of the Zone Leaders though, which was interesting. His name is Elder Maqueary but because he is a Spanish speaking Elder, his tag just says Elder Mac. I think I would prefer Elder Mac too. We taught a bunch of lessons and even went tracting for like five minutes while we waited for a member to show up for an appointment in the apartment complex where we had an appointment. Elder Mac is like the most pro tracter I have ever seen. It's kind of like a joke in our zone because he's so good. The first door we knocked on was lame. Elder Mac was all pro-like and awesome but the old lady who answered the door shut it as soon as she learned we were Mormons. I thought it was kind of funny but also sad. Then we knocked on the next door and it was my turn. It was awful. I knocked on the door, and was ready to talk to someone and try to share a quick spiritual message if they'd let me. Then the door opened and it was seriously one of the most pretty girls I have ever seen. It so wasn't fair. 

"Hi, I'm Elder Drake, and this is Elder Mac," I said. "What was I going to say next? Where did my brain go? Why is she so pretty? Why does she have so many cute freckles and how are her eyes seriously that blue?" I thought to myself in about half a second. My brain went all mushy and it was bad. "Well, could we share a scripture with you?" Then I felt like an idiot. Haha, it was so bad. Even Elder Mac was all shaken. He stepped in after me, and said some more stuff that I don't remember because I'm pretty sure my brain is trying to block it out. The kicker was that instead of trying really hard to get a scripture in or something, Elder Mac said, "It's fair to say you're not interested." I almost died. Mostly because he's the king of tracting. It was horrible. Then we went to our appointment. That was very interesting.

Don is a super sweet guy. He is very kind, and very intelligent. He's some denomination of Christian and very knowledgeable. He's also an anti-Mormon. As soon as I walked in I could tell that we were in for an interesting experience. He had a stack of papers literally about six or so inches high of anti-Mormon articles (all very scholarly-ish but stiil) to share with us. During the discussion he would occasionally hand us an article. For the better part of the lesson I felt that I should just sit quietly and so I did. I didn't open my scriptures, and when he handed me an article I took it and folded it in half without looking at it, and continued to listen to the discussion. This continued for about 30 minutes. I felt prompted to ask a question so I did.

"Don, like Elder Mac has said, we just have different ways of understanding the Gospel. Mormons put a very heavy emphasis on the personal confirmations of the Spirit to discern truth, and you hold physical evidence and proof to be of utmost importance. How have you felt the Spirit in your life?"

He said something about not relying on emotions and that we should rely on the scriptures and the word that God has given us to confirm truth. I rephrased the question

"I can totally understand where you're coming from, but the feeling I'm talking about is very distinct and very different from an emotion. I can't really describe it, but I can tell you that I've felt it. Other people describe it as 'a burning in the bosom', a 'still small voice' or 'it's like a fire'. Have you ever felt the Spirit Don?

Again, he said that he had, but didn't describe it, and the Brother that was with us thought it was his turn again which distracted Don from the question anyway. The discussion continued as it had for about a half an hour more, and Elder Mac was getting antsy, so we prepared to close. They gave his stuff to read, and he told us some of the stuff he wanted to discuss next week. I again felt like I should say something to him, so I did.

"Don, that stuff that Brother Green and Elder Mac have asked you to read is great, and I urge you to do it, but before we leave, well, first, I assume that you have studied the Pentecost before, correct?" 

"Yes, of course." He responded

"Awesome. Well, Don, like we've been saying, we are just on different ground here. We figure out the truth very differently. We believe that being educated and learning is very important, but we also believe that above all, the Spirit confirms truth for each and every one of us. Oftentimes, it fills us up with this...just amazing feeling, that's very different from any emotion or anything. It's the same feeling that the apostles experienced on the day of Pentecost. I would ask you to pray and ask our Heavenly Father to bless you to be able to feel a little bit of that as well, and I promise that if you do, He will bless you."

I said some more stuff, but I don't remember a ton else and that's all that's really important anyway. I felt inadequate and discouraged, but I was proud of myself for acting on how I felt rather than focusing on some of the holes in his arguments. I hope that I made a little bit of a difference, but I doubt that I did, and I may never see him again anyway. As we left, Elder Mac was talking about how frustrating it was and how mad he got when once, Don talked about how he instilled such doubt in a missionary that the poor kid actually went home.

"It just makes me so mad," he said, "that someone would be so proud of that."

"Well you have to look at it from his perspective," I replied, "In his mind, he's just like us. In fact, he's more noble than us. He believes that we are going about converting people to a church of lies, and so if he can bring one of us to the 'truth' he is not only helping to save one soul, but to save the souls of those that we might 'damn.'" Elder Mac pondered that for a minute so I continued, "It's sad really. You can see that he's never felt the Spirit. He's a very very smart and kind man, but he's never felt it. He can't feel that God really knows him and loves him because Don has never in his life felt the Holy Ghost, and his heart is so hardened and closed, and he focuses so much on the words of men that he will probably never be able to feel it."

It was so sad. I felt so bad for Don. It's one thing to be devoted to your religion and to slam the door in my face. If you're happy with your life, then cool beans. You can worship Christ in any way you want and I think that's awesome. But to never feel the Spirit and to believe that God doesn't have a personal vested interest in each and every one of His children and so doesn't care enough to intervene in the simplest way in our lives is so sad to me.

This letter is getting long, so I better wrap it up haha.

That was probably the most eventful thing that happened this week. It's been a little slow and pretty typical. Sorry if this one wasn't as entertaining as the previous ones have been. I hope that you are all doing well, and I wish you the best. I pray for each and every one of you in the fam by name. It makes for a long Sunday prayer, but I like it anyway :) I wish you all the best, and keep the letters coming! They're the best!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Drake

Adventures in Mountain Home!

Hello there family! How was your Easter? Mine was fantastic. It was filled with food, but mostly candy. A lot of candy. It's like being in the MTC again. Good thing I have two years to get skinny.

So. This week. What a week. 'Twas a good week. So two Wednesdays ago, we had exchanges set up so that I would be in Mountain Home on Wednesday (the 27th). On Monday, Bobba (my Grandpa, for those of you who don't know.) sent me an e-mail saying,

"Your district probably doesn't go as far East as Mt. Home, does it? My sister and her husband, Lola & Ralph Bailes, live there. If you ever get over there, which I doubt, be sure to look them up."

I was instantly super excited. He gave me their address and so I printed it out that night. On Wednesday we had district meeting till about noonish or so. I played the piano and was awful but awful piano is better than a cappella, right? After district meeting, Elder Ostler (the Mountain Home elder) and I hopped in the car and headed off.

As soon as we got there, I wanted to go see Ralph and Lola. The e-mail was burning a hole in my suit pocket. We had a couple other things set up, so we didn't get there until around four or so. We knocked on the door and nobody answered. We knocked again and rang the door but still nobody home. I was sad. So we decided to tract the neighborhood.

It was my first time tracting! I know right? Almost two months out and I'd never been tracting! I thought it was funny. I did okay. It was nervousing though. People are very nice here, but not many are interested. We did pick up a potential investigator up the street. His name is Pat, and he is a very nice man. He fought in the Vietnam war and is Catholic. We talked a little, gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment. I'm excited to see what happens with him.

So Elder Ostler and I putzed around to a few other appointments and then our dinner cancelled on us. I was happy because it meant that I had a few more hours to get over and hopefully meet the Bailes. Finally around six o'clock we got over there again. I knocked on the door and Lola answered. I wasn't exactly sure what to say, because I'm used to being Mr. Elder Missionary man.

"Hi!," I said. "Um, I'm Melvin Drake's grandson!" then we were best friends.

So we talked with Lola  and Ralph for a while and it was basically super awesome getting to know a Great Aunt and Uncle whom I'd never met before. Then Ralph offered to take us out to dinner! We were both super happy because our dinner cancelled on us. They took us to this super delicious place that kind of reminded me of The Jetty back home. It was kind of weird but awesome sitting and eating Catfish and Chips with my Great Aunt and Uncle in a restaurant much like the same place I eat with my Nana and Bobba back home.

So basically coolest week ever. I hope that I get to serve in Mountain Home again so I can stop by some more. Oh! Wait. One more thing. I took a picture next to a painting done by Uncle Walter in their house, because I thought it was also pretty trippy. Plus I didn't know Uncle Walter painted. But then when I got back to the apartment I realized I didn't take a picture with my Aunt and Uncle.

-_-

I felt like an idiot. So, Ralph and Lola, I'm sorry if that came across as rude. Sometimes I'm a dummy. Next time I'm out there I'll make sure to get a picture with you guys because you are awesome.

SO! Onward to missionary-like things.

The Powers are poking along pretty well. I'm very excited for their baptism which will be sometime in mid-April. They really seem to love coming to church and enjoy our lessons. I can always feel the Spirit really strongly, and the difference it's made in their lives already is apparent. They say that other people outside of Church notice it too, which is also awesome.

There's a very old Sister in our ward that is a bit senile, which makes me sad. We visit her three or four times a week and she's always talking about moving out of her assisted living home, but she really can't. She actually called this morning and asked us to bring her some packing tape and that she talked to the main office and told them she is leaving. It will be interesting when we go over there. She's a very talented painter, and her artwork is beautiful, she's just a little loopy.

Keep us all in your prayers, and keep the mail coming! An empty mailbox means a sad missionary.

Love y'all,

Elder Christopher Drake