December 8th

Howdy howdy howdy. 

MLC was Monday. We got to go to Tulsa and hang out and do cool things. Like caroling! And then we learned what we have to teach our zones! It was great fun. Caroling the night before was awesome. It was super cold. But we were awesome. Some people still don't like missionaries knocking on their door, even if it's just caroling. On the bright side though, there was one lady who didn't come to the door at first who lived in a cul-de-sac. Once we made the rounds, she came out finally so we sang to her. Turns out she had just found out she had cancer that day and hadn't told anybody so we really cheered her up. That was sweet. 

Most of us have given up all hope of iPads. Some still cling to the burning embers of previous promises, but us vets know what "you'll have them by winter" means. 

This is me at MLC. I'm me over there, and Elder Reed is the one on the very top left leaning over the banister. We're pretty cool dudes. You might recognize Smitty, he was trained in Bentonville 2nd while I was in 1st ward. He's the handsome square chinned dude in the bottom right. He's a boss dog. Elder Kindrick is the bald one in the middle on the stairs who's tag is being grabbed, he is one of the APs and he was in my MTC district! He had more hair then. Thankfully President let's him be an exception to our "part in the hair required" rule. 

What else happened this week...

We had zone training meeting the day after MLC and we really had no idea what we were doing because we had so little time to prepare. It turned out pretty good though. Our zone really wants to hammer down on the He is the Gift video. We have all these sweet pass along cards and a video to show people and it's awesome. We set a goal for all the areas in our zone hitting the standard of excellence this week with 100% lessons taught with a member present. Which is very hard to do unless you're the sisters who suggested we do it. 

Oh! When I was in Bentonville, there was a lady names Lusia who worked and Panda Express there and would give us 10 or 20 percent off our food. Lo and behold, Elder Reed and I went to Panda Express this week and there was Lusia! This time she gave me free food. Twice. Once with just Elder Reed and then when the Assistants came to do exchanges. Both times Elder Reed had already eaten, haha. Poor guy. 

Our teaching pool is unfortunately small right now, which is a bummer. We do have two investigators with a date, but we're not sure how solid they are. On Sunday they weren't responding when we were trying to see if they were ready to come to church, because they needed a ride. So we went with a member of our bishopric anyway, and about halfway there we got a text back with perhaps the best excuse I have ever heard for not coming to church:

"I re-injured myself chasing a bug."

It doesn't get much better than that folks. So we'll see how they pan out. They seem sincere, but you never quite know for suresies. 

Things are great with Elder Reed, he's a champion of modern thought. His parents are divorced and every time he introduces himself he says, "I'm from Idaho and Oregon. It's a long story." and it makes me laugh because another Elder I knew in Rolla did the same thing. It's like having an inside joke that only I know about, so it's not as funny. But the Boehme's will think it's funny. Shout out to you guys. 

Okay it's time to go. 

loveyoubyeeee

Elder Christopher Drake

Kids Say the...Rudest Things

Howdy Folks. 

Week two here in Jopling. 

Let's start off with two amusing stories. 

Elder Reed and I went to contact a investigator that sort of disappeared for a while. Her name is Barbara. So we knock on the door, and Barbara is super friendly. She couldn't meet with us right then but we talked for a minute on her porch. Then this little girl, maybe five or six years old or so comes running up to the door, opens it, sticks her head out, and with a big grin on her face says, "You guys are a**holes!" and then runs back inside the house. Barbara was super embarrassed, it wasn't her kid, gratefully. It was actually her renter's kid. Who is a stripper. Missions are funny. It wasn't the first time a kid has been rude to me on my mission though. Once in Harrison, when I was serving with Elder Aubry, we went tracting. We walked up a street and this little girl on a Big Wheel rides up to us and says "Hey you guys are weirdos!" and then followed us around the neighborhood singing, "Weirdos, weirdos!" and then when we would try to talk to her she would scream "YOU GUYS ARE WEIRDOS!" She followed us until Elder Aubry and I decided to walk up a reasonably steep hill. She gave up about halfway. Another time in Bentonville some 11 year old kid on a bike pretended to hit Elder Reese and I and as he rode away made rather rude and quite false comments about our sexual orientation that are perhaps a little too vulgar to repeat. 

Kids are rude, man.

We had an eventful week though. Oh yeah, it was Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Anyway. I went on exchanges Tuesday with Elder Day in Fort Scott, Kansas. I didn't think to ask if I was going to be in a bike area or not and sure enough, Fort Scott is a bike area. And it was cold. The good news is that I wore my good suit too. Elder Day is basically like Elder Allred. Pretty much a carbon copy, so that was awesome and fun and weird. It was like being in Stockton again,  minus polygamists. However, we did visit a really interesting family of hoarders and during the course of conversation this sweet old lady said, "You know, some of those KKK guys are nice people!" I had a hard time not laughing. 

Wednesday we attended Fort Scott's district meeting. We got a text around 9 or so saying, "Hey Elder Drake, we're gonna be a little late, can you start District Meeting?" So my first District Meeting in about a year that I'm not a District Leader, I have to pretend to be one for the first few minutes anyway. I thought doing all the getting to know you stuff and setting some district goals with them before Elder White, the District Leader got there, but I decided that would be rude. 

Cool Story: A kid prepping for his mission/working on his testimony gave us a ride back from exchanges in Ft. Scott and his truck died a block away from our apartment so we went and saw if he needed a ride or anything. Someone was coming to pick him up, so we headed back. A few minutes later we got a text from him, "Hey after you guys left, I said a prayer and my truck started right up, thanks guys!" So that was cool. 

Thanksgiving: Turkey Bowl in the morning. I was my usual all-star self. At the very beginning I intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown! Then I touched the ball at least two more times after that. I'm basically a super star. Dinner/Lunch was at this super old house that had been spruced up and was all cool. It was built in 1905 or something like that, but they had a sweet awesome kitchen and the food was super duper. I even tried Mincemeat pie. It was pretty good. I prefer Bobba's apple pie though. 

Let's see. 

The rest of the week was pretty standard. We trimmed a tree, heard people talk about the new Star Wars trailer, and all that cool stuff. 

Oh yeah, Wes and Marie from Rolla are supposed to be getting baptized this Saturday, so I'm trying to line up a ride out there. That is proving difficult. Also, trying to get information from the new Rolla elders is like pulling teeth, I swear. A lot of one-word responses, like "Ye". I just want to see my homies get baptized! This is the thanks I get for giving you two, possibly four baptisms? The cusses they are. But it's all good because I can listen to Christmas music, and I just found out that Julian Casablancas has a Christmas song, so that makes me happy. Also, The Killers' "Don't Shoot me Santa" is pretty good. The Carpenters Christmas Portrait has gone through one play already, but I think I'm the only missionary our here who enjoys it. That makes me sad. 

Keep it cool peeps. 

Elder Christopher Drake

Jop Top

Hey Fam, this is the first e-mail from Joplin. HIstorical. 

The beginning of the week consisted of Elder Harding and I having our bitter farewells with all of the people in Rolla. It was quite the bummer to leave. On Thursday we headed out and I hopped on the bus to Joplin.

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys that Elder Hansen is training this transfer, so I am officially a mission grandpa. I feel so old and frail. I got a picture, but Elder Hansen is slacking and didn't send it to me, so I'll have to gently chastise him.

Joplin is sweet, There isn't a whole ton going on right now, so Elder Reed and I are working on finding peeps that want to be baptized. So far so good. We went tracting for the first time in a while. We actually had a couple good conversations, so that was cool. It's pretty nice being in the city again. We have all of the shopping places and everything! Including a Panda Express. It's good times.  

Okay, now I remember the funny story I was going to tell you guys. It took me forever to think of it. I was complaining to Elder Reed about it just a few minutes ago. So here's what happened. On Friday night, we went to the church to pick up milk that I had left there. (It's complicated.) While we were walking down the hall we heard this mysterious synth piano music going. I thought for a moment we had stepped through a wormhole to the 1980s. When we got to the gym, we saw a large group of YSAs gathered for what appeared to be a talent show of sorts. We decided it was in our best interests to watch for a bit. Daft Punk dude finished up, and then they said the YSA sisters would be following the next act so we had to stay for that. Then there was this dude that had the grown-up version of those light up shoes and did a sweet robo dance. Then we were going to leave and someone decided that the Elders should do something. Luckily, we were prepared. I told a few jokes to get the crowd warmed up. One of them was about a parrot. Then Elder Reed and I proceeded to tell "our mission story." I don't think I told you guys about it. Maybe some of you. I'm not sure. It's about when Elder Reed and I were together in Bentonville. 

So we were on exchanges. I was in Sugar Creek with Elder Reed and he had this appointment waaay out in the boons in a scary trailer park. Not home. Right around this time, President instituted this thing called "clover tracting" where if an appointment falls through you go knock a couple doors in the neighborhood. So we did. One friendly guy, one no answer, and one reeeaallly ghetto creepy looking trailer that we both non-verbally agreed to save for last. So we walked up to the door and immediately I get that icky feeling that we shouldn't knock this door. But I'm trying to set a good example by being a hardcore fearless district leader, so we went up anyway. We knock. We knock twice... All of his dogs are barking and looking out the window. We're about to leave when we see a guy through the window coming towards the door. He answers and lets us in. Elder Reed and I walk in and sit on the couch, and the guy says something about putting his dogs out and tells us to sit down. At this point, I am starting to feel panicky, because it's just about as scary inside as it is outside, except now we're inside so it's actually scary. The guy comes back and talks to us for a minute about where we're from, and I ask to use the restroom, thinking I can say a prayer or something and feel better. He tells me where it is so I go in. After a minute of sitting and thinking I hear "YOU GUYS ARE MORMONS?!" From the front room. It was a good thing I was already in the bathroom. 

I open the door to see what's going on and Elder Reed is running for the bathroom with trailer man in hot pursuit. I let him in and lock the door. Then realize that we are stuck in this man's bathroom and he is clearly not very happy with us being there. Then salvation.

A window. 

Elder Reed is small and I am fat, so he goes first. The guy is banging on the door and trying to get in while yelling profanities and Elder Reed is wriggling out the window. He gets clear and I'm next so I go for it. I'm about halfway through the window when the guy breaks in the bathroom. At this point I'm basically crying, Elder Reed is trying to pull me out and trailer man is pulling my leg. 

Just like I'm pulling yours. 

See isn't that funny? We're so funny. We got some good laughs from the peeps. So I'm going to drop out of college and be a stand-up comedian basically. 

Well it's good times here in Joplin. I love y'allses! 

the Boehme's from Rolla

Keep it real guys. 

Bandit Hats. 

Elder Christopher Drake

Jummny Crickets, He Flew the Coop!

Well folks, the time in Rolla has come to an end. I am being transferred to Joplin, Missouri.

The good news is I'm going to be with Elder Reed! This'll be the first time I'm companions with a missionary I already know, and the best part is he's a pretty cool missionary. He was one of the Sugar Creek missionaries when I was in Bentonville. He's the bare-footed Ringo in our Abbey Road picture. Good stuff. 

Also Elder Harding is getting transferred, which is no fun for anybody. He's going to Stockton though, so that's sweet. Now we have to do a lot more work to make sure the area is ready for two new elders. He's going to Stockton, so that's pretty cool. I gave him the scoop. 

Let's see. 

Wes and Marie are slated to be baptized on the 29th of this month. Wes is doing well with the Word of Wisdom, and we're super looking forward to their baptism, even though neither of us will be here. Sad day. 

We met with a new investigator, Sheila, and she is awesome. She felt the Spirit really powerfully last time we met and we are planning on setting a baptismal date with her this week if we can meet with her before we leave. 

It's so hard to leave an area when there's so much good stuff happening, especially when you're leaving it in the hands of strangers! Sometimes it's hard to keep in mind that the Lord knows what he's doing better than we know what we're doing, haha. 

Things are good. Things are really good. And it's a bummer to leave. Weird thinking Joplin will probably be my last area. Weird. 

Welp. 

I love you guys. You rock. Keep it up. 

 

Elder Christopher Drake

November 10th

Howdy Howdy Peoples! 

Let's see. 

This week we had stuff. We were busy. Which is good when you're a missionary. There's nothing worse than having nothing to do as a missionary. 

Let's walk through the week. 

Monday was a typical p-day. Fun, adventure, the whole bit. 

Tuesday we went and saw our Jewish born Christian Convert friend who doesn't think we should celebrate pagan holidays or worship on Sunday. He's very smart but clearly has some different religious beliefs. It's interesting because he honestly feels like God has told him some of this stuff, but because of it he's been kicked out of churches for voicing his thoughts and opinions. How frustrating it would be to feel like you didn't fit in with any churches but had a strong desire to be close to God. So we're working with him. We'll keep you posted. 

Let's see, 

Marie and Wes are doing great. They are really getting tried and tested and just pounded right now, but they just don't give up, it's awesome to see. Their car broke down, they got sick, then this and that and this and that and their response was, "Well we better just have the missionaries over more often and go to the adult institute class on Wednesdays so we can feel the Spirit more." Also they should be getting baptized on the 29th of November. 

That's the attitude we like to see. I wish I was more like that. Usually I find myself saying things more along the lines of, "I don't want to save the world, I just want to take a nap."

We had a Zone Meeting on Friday, and it was great fun. A senior couple's phone went off while President Shumway was speaking and he did a little dance for us. That was basically the greatest thing ever. 

What else happened guys? 

Oh we got a new investigator from a part-member family, the French's. Brother French just won't quit smoking, but he knows the Book of Mormon is true and needs to be baptized. Maybe the family we teach will get baptized with him, that'd be cool. Anyway, that was way awesome. Go give your missionaries families to teach. 

Guys, I need your help. 

Transfer calls are Saturday. 

I've been here 4 1/2 months. 

3 of those with Elder Harding. 

I really would prefer to be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. "Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die."

Basically I'm on the chopping block, and if what I think is happening is happening....it better not be. 

So pray for me. 

Love you folks! Here's a picture of my MTC district reunited once again! 

Elder Kindrick, on the right, is a big fancy assistant now. I think President gave him special permission to not have a part in his hair....for obvious reasons. 

Elder Stearman is serving in Harrison right now, so we get to talk about all the people I love there, it's pretty sweet. 

Elder Christopher Drake

Halloween Party Time

Hey Folks! 

I hope all of you had a super duper Halloween. Ours was awesome because we had a baptism. But it was also less awesome because we had to be in my 7 o'clock and didn't have the option of going to a member's home this year. So I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling hoping that the roof would fly off and I would get sucked into space. But other than that, it was good times. Here's a picture of the baptism. 

​Obviously the missionaries. Then Erik Williams, his daughter Hailee. Front row is Carly, Betsey (who was baptized) Christian in front of her, then Zach on the right. Hailee and Zach are Erik's and Carly and Christian are Bestey's (who was baptized)

Good stuff. 

We had a Zone Conference this week. Elder Alan Packer, the one who talked about the hatchet in general conference was there. It was good and enlightening and stuff. We had to get up at 4:30 though, and that was less than fun. We were very tired and sleepy. Elder Packer was pretty funny. For some reason on my mission I keep meeting people or put in these situations that honestly feel like they belong on a TV show. While instructing, Elder Packer was writing on a whiteboard and discovered that there was a dry marker. He then made it a point to stop the lesson and announce to all of us that it was his mission to go around LDS churches and throw away dried up markers. Then the instruction continued. We learned a lot about Family History and it was cool. We have these "My Family" booklets that we're supposed to fill out and use in our missionary work but I didn't really know what to write in it or what pictures to use so it was just names, which is totally the opposite of what it's supposed to be. So I am enlisting your help to get my My Family booklet awesome! Send me awesome pictures of family members and grandparents and stories and stuff and I will love you forever. And lots of baptisms will follow. 

After the conference was over we had a short leadership training meeting with Elder Packer. When we were leaving, he was right behind me, so I let him go out the door first. On his way out he pulled a marker out of his pocket and threw it away. 

Wes and Marie are doing awesome. They're the ones who told us they wanted to be baptized in CVS. It never fails that every investigator we have goes through some crazy trial when they want to join the church. It's that Satan dude, I swear. Anyway, their furnace broke, then their car broke, then it was just one thing after another. So we went over and had a Spirit filled lesson with them and they were super appreciative, which always makes the missionaries feel good. 

That's the highlights from the week. Hope y'allses are doing super great, I love you, keep it up, and stuff. 

Elder Christopher Drake

October 27th

Howdy Fam, 

It's been a good week. It's always a good week. I don't think there are many bad weeks on a mission. And bad days only last until you can sit down and talk to someone about the gospel, so most days don't stay bad for too long. 

Betsey Williams is getting baptized this week. On Halloween. Which is Friday. Which is cool. We're excited. We tried to teach Christian, the seven year old, the Restoration on Tuesday. We even got those red and green cardboard bricks and built a great church and Christian knocked it down and built his own church. That didn't enthuse him too much though. He did have fun with the blocks, but there was a lot of "mhm"-ing going on. People that are young and shy are hard to teach the gospel to. Especially when they're not used to going to church and stuff. The good news is Mom is going to be baptized and it'll all end up great like a story book or something. Eventually. We'll be sure to send some good baptism pictures. 

It's Halloween this week. Weird. 

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder White With Gauges. He was baptized about three years ago, thus the large holes in his ears where gauges were previously present. Elder White with Gauges was a little more quiet than I had anticipated him to be in lessons, but that was probably because I had to fly by the seat of my pants a lot. People are flaky here. 

Oh that reminds me. 

On Wednesday we had district meeting. On the way there, I reached up to get my Tiwi card to log into our Big Brother driving monitoring thing. As of late I've been keeping it in the sun visor, in the little slidey mirror part, for convenience. Well it decided it wanted to stick to the little plastic piece that slides. And got stuck. Then after trying to fanangle it out, it fell into the visor. Tweezers were unable to retrieve it, and I need the card....So the sun visor is no longer. I had to make an embarrassing call to the Vehicle Coordinator and then open the sun visor. And when I say open, I mean Elder Smuin took it from me and literally broke it in half. 

That was pure wild animal craziness. 

 Luckily I found a replacement for cheap. The dealer wanted seventy bucks! No way Jose. 

The good news is they had an FR-S on the lot which I asked to sit in and I fit. 

Sort of. 

Some other highlights of the week:

Dinner at the Shaos which means really yummy Chinese food and other interesting dishes. The interesting dish of the week was "Fruit Salad Soup" which was essentially hot fruit salad from a can. It was surprisingly good. That actually was a recipe from our ward's recipe club, I think. I can't see that being a common Chinese dish. They also made me this ginkgo tea stuff because my allergies have mad e my nose stuffy. It tasted way good, but was probably around 170 degrees and I had to drink it to be polite. My tongue was burnt for a few days. 

Oh the woodcutting project! 

On Saturday some youth and Elders went to Roni's and cut wood. A lot of it. Roni had back surgery and is basically crippled and needs the help so we got the ward to help. 

The leaders here are not very organized sometimes, which is amusing. We get there, and there are a two different places he needs to work. The first station is splitting a pile of wood with his hydraulic splitter. The second station is down the road about half a mile to where there's a big fallen tree that needs to be sectioned, split, and hauled. There were....something like 6 adults there and 6 or seven adults. Four of the adults say, "We'll stay here with the splitter." Oh and those four adults were also the biggest. So Elder Harding, about 3/4 of the youth, the two tiny adults, and I all go down to cut up this big tree with chainsaws and split by hand. Then the deacons got their hands on chainsaws and nobody says anything. That was a little stressful. 

The good news is nobody got hurt. 

That was the week folks. Chainsaws, Chinese Food, and Church. Plenty of shenanigans. 

The YSA group is going well. Still not many people out, but we have a new investigator who is YSA age and we're going to try to convince him to come next week to try it out. He came to family ward this week which was super duper. 

Okay. 

That's all. 

Keep it Up.

Elder Christopher Drake

October 20th

Dear Family

Also Friends. 

And Acquaintances who happen to read this as well. 

Or strangers. You too, I guess. 

It's been a swell week. And when I say swell, I mean swell. There were all sorts of shenanigans. In a good way. Monday the Salem elders came up, as usual, because Rolla is awesome. We couldn't think of anything to do though. We drove around. I got a Big Mac. Mostly for the Monopoly pieces though. Then we went to a thrift store. I did not purchase anything. I found some neat shoes that don't fit though. Oh, and now that I think about it there were some that did but I didn't have the money nor a need for shoes at that time. Following our adventures with the Salem elders, we met up with the bishop who paid for our dinner because he and his wife were ill. 

"Here Elders," **hands us some money** "...and you don't have to stick to Wendy's" 

Then we went into Wendy's and waited for the Bishop to leave the parking lot so we could leave Wendy's without feeling awkward about not actually wanting Wendy's. I ended up getting a Frosty and then the lady gave me this little frosty tag that entitles me to a free junior frosty with every purchase at Wendy's until March. At participating locations in Missouri. 

My free frosty count is up to two. 

Then we carved pumpkins at the Boehme's. I wanted to carve a Pac-Man Ghost. Then I remembered that when you make an outline all the way around the pumpkin, the inside doesn't magically stay in. 

Luckily I remembered this just seconds after I made the final incision. 

Also luckily the Boehme's had an extra pumpkin. 

*****

Tuesday

We saw people. Namely, the Williams. They are doing fine. They don't come to church regularly though, which is very frustrating. Just come to church. Really. Carly, the daughter, also refuses to read the Book of Mormon. Not in a "I refuse to read the Book of Mormon." sort of way, but in a "I didn't have time to read those few verses that would have taken me five minutes to read." sort of way, which really is a , "I'm actually not very interested." sort of way. That is always frustrating. So this week we gave her a story to read. We'll see what happens. Fingers crossed. 

Betsy is ready for baptisms. Except she doesn't come to church when her husband doesn't, which is unfortunately rather frequently. They've come three times I think. to be fair, it would be exceedingly difficult to come back to church after an extended period of not coming to church, but still. Come on. It's good for you. 

It seems you can either become really cynical as a missionary or just constantly be hopeful and then disappointed. It's probably better to always be hopeful, and you can't help but try to be, but it is difficult to fight off the cynicism when stuff like that happens. 

*****

Wednesday

The Esslingers are that cool couple we met at CVS that wants to be Mormon. Now we just need to get them out to church too. You could say that was the most frustrating thing about being a missionary this week. Forgive me for departing from the Wendnesday story here, but really people. There is not much of an excuse for not coming to Sacrament Meeting at least. What we need is some good awesome friends here in the ward for these people. 

Anyway. 

Esslingers. 

We saw Wes this Wednesday. It went well. Marie had a Doctor's appointment or something to that effect. We taught Wes a brief restoration, and he is trying to live the word of wisdom, which is basically the bane of missionary existence. Alcohol and tobacco, man. Rough stuff. 

*****

Thursday

Thursday night we contacted a former and her parents. Yuan. I think I've mentioned her. She is Chinese and her parents don't speak English, but for some reason thought we spoke Chinese. That was crazy. But it all worked out. We left dinner, then went over to Yuans, and they gave us a million dumplings to eat, and of course, it's offensive not to eat them, so there you go. I'm banking that I'll be blessed for being polite instead of skinny. Being fat has nothing to do with free frosties. I'm sure of it. At any rate, Sister Potter, who served a mission in Taiwan, helped us out there and it was swell. I may have almost thrown up, but the good news is they want to learn more. Again. Good stuff. 

****

Friday

Friday we went to the temple! Good stuff. Kansas City is about 3 1/2 hours away. We drove up, barely made it on time, then took some pictures and left. It was a long day. I felt pretty gross and tired when we got some 12 hours after we left. 

It was very much worth it though. I got to see a few people from Bentonville, and was able to go to the temple for the first time since I got to Oklahoma. Craziness. It was a great time. Super grateful. Plus, there was a non-member driving with us and he asked a bunch of question so that was way cool. 

Double Prizes. 

*****

The Rest of the Week. 

Pretty typical. We went to Cuba and there was a festival thing going on. Contacted a few people referred to us who weren't interested. The appointment we had set fell through, which was why we went to Cuba in the first place. 

Oh, had dinner at Christine's (a recent convert) for the first time. That was fun. She has this great little house that reminds me of Rachel's in Provo except it's a little smaller and doesn't have a second floor or a finished basement. It's old and wonderful though. Complete with aquamarine oven. 

Sunday was church and more church. Joryn Boehme came out to YSA group, which was great because ever person who comes out is much appreciated. She's a little too "cool" for motley little crew, but she was a good sport about it. 

YSA is a great reminder that we're all different. But there's something kind of fantastic about that, isn't there?

It was a swell week. 

Elder Christopher Drake

October 13th

Dearest family, 

We got our car back! Hooray! It's just the cutest little Red Toyota Corolla that you ever did see. It came just in time too because it's raining. A lot. Again. 

And also in other super news, we are now assigned to the YSA group! So our job is to get this thing going. We currently have 11 people that come. So now we play the role of Young Single Adult recruiters. "No really, please come. We need you. No really. We really really need you, we're not just saying that." As usual around these parts, the biggest issue is distance. I don't really blame people for not wanting to drive an hour and a half to go to church, let alone a teeny tiny group. The great thing though is how strong the Spirit is there. I don't know if I talked about this after the first week, but holy cow! When you're in a big ward, or even a small ward, it's really easy just to kind of get lost in the crowd and distracted by everything that's going on, but when there's a total of 15 people in the Chapel, and all of those 15 people want to be there, and some of those 15 people have made sacrifices to get there, it just brings a different spirit of love and camaraderie. 

In other news, I just learned that camaraderie is a really hard word to spell. 

Besty's baptism got moved back to the 25th of this month because of work schedule. We're sttiiiilll excited about that. 

Oh! I saw Elder Allred at transfer point, where we got our car. Transfer point is always fun. Well, it really sucks kind of a lot when you're a new missionary or when there's nobody there that you know, but when there are a bunch of missionaries you know, it's about the best thing ever. It's funny, because I seem to stick around this transfer point in Mt. Vernon. It's where I got picked up in the Uncle Rico van my very first day, where Panda didn't want to reveal personal information about himself like where he was from, and where I've said bye to pretty much all my buds. Maybe one day we'll have a mission reunion at Mt. Vernon, just like old times. 

Teachin and Preachin is just about the same old, except we're going to be totally changing things around because of the whole YSA thing. We really have no idea what we're doing, and that's kind of the fun behind it. "Here, um, do uh, what you think is good and stuff. Use your resources. Pray. Be good. Talk to the group leader. Go where you need to go and let's see if we can't get a branch." So that's what we're doing. It's going to be way fun and exciting. 

Welp. 

Love you guys! If it wasn't raining, we'd go take a funny picture by the car. Oh yeah, her name is Rochelle by the way. 

loveyoubyyeeee! 

Elder Christopher Drake

Conference Weekends are the Best Weekends

Hey Fam!

Okay good story number 1.

Elder Harding and I walked to the bike shop because my bike decided to break, as usual when I'm in a bike area. We got there on the other side of town where we never go anymore, and decided to get a drink. We had to choose between Kroger and CVS. We chose Kroger. After a few minutes of walking around, we realized that Kroger did not have a cooler for drinks that aren't beer. What grocery store doesn't have some water or soda in a cooler? So we left. We went over to CVS and I got some yummy drink and maybe candy too. When we checked out, the lady, Marie, says to us, "Are you guys Mormons?" 

"Yes, we are!" we responded

"My husband and I want to be Mormons!"

So that was cool. We taught them this Wednesday and things are looking good. Marie and Wes.

Oh also, transfer calls were this weekend and we're both staying.

Then my bike was fixed and it runs better than ever! So good news there.

General Conference was awesome, as always. I hope that all of you had a chance to watch/listen to it because it was awesome. It was a good reminder to me that I need to pray better, so I'm working on that.

It's been cold and rainy and otherwise generally depressing, but Elder Harding and I have managed to stay dry for the most part, though I had to wear my Jacket once. That was really sad.

Elder Harding was supposed to e-mail me a picture from the other week but I don't have it yet. It will probably come through later. I'll pop back in after we move somebody's tub and try to send it to you guys because I know that I'm terrible at sending pictures.

What else.

Oh. The Shoes. I have these sweet brown shoes I got at the thrift store in Bentonville about a year or so ago. I've worn them so much, they're effectively destroyed, which is awesome. My family will be able to relate them to those black and white Vans I have at home. I can wiggle my toes out the right shoe, and the soles are worn down to the socks on both of them. The left one's heel is worn at this really weird angle and I'm very much proud of how much use I've gotten out of them.

Three times this week I've had people pull me aside and ask me if I need help buying new shoes, haha. To which I have to explain to them that I actually have two other pairs at home that will be back in service come the snow. So there you go. My mother is probably horrified at the prospect of me wearing shoes that are so destroyed, but it's an Elder Drake thing. They'll be a monument to my missionary service, haha.

Love you guys, hope you had as good a we

Oh wait!

We got to see Meet the Mormons at a Zone Thingy this Friday. All you people not in Utah need to request that it come to your area, or as close as you can get it. It is such a good movie. I loved it. Super good message, funny, uplifting, and just awesome.

Okay have a good week!

Elder Christopher Drake

Okay here's the picture.

It's my district. 

So let's see, left to right, we've got Elder Harding, Elder Gordo, Elder Meyer, and Elder Hatch. 

Down in the front row is Sister Bastian and Sister Powell, Then The Colsons who are the awesomest. I imagine serving with them was like serving with Nana and Bobba in Germany. Except in America. 

Love you!

Elder Christopher Drake

Sept 29th

Hey Peeps!

Well, pretty regular week, but let's go over some of the highlights I suppose. 

Tommy has been very busy, so the only time he's been able to meet lately has been in the morning. 

On Friday, Elder Harding and I woke up at 5, and biked in the dark over to Tommy's and got there around 6. Then we had a lesson. Then we looked at the baby bunnies he saved at a job. Is there a word for Baby Rabbits? Becca, you'll have to tell me. That was cool getting up that early and teaching a lesson. A first for me. 

Ummm.... Oh, Christine, a recent convert moved into a new house last week, so we had our first lesson at her house! It was great! Sister Moore, a recently reactivated member came to help and she is probably the best fellowshipper I have ever met on my mission. She's just your friend right away and doesn't say crazy false doctrine to explain difficult things. Speaking of which, we had to do damage control in Gospel Principles when our teacher started to go way too in depth about the fall with things that aren't in the scriptures prefaced with things like, "In the scriptures it says..." Christine had the furrowed brow and everything, so we had to say, "We don't know all the answers, but this is what we do know from the scriptures," and then read the scriptures. Never ever ever say, "It says in the scriptures..." unless you have a few scriptures to go along with it. I learned that when I had a guy challenge me on Sabbath Day/Saturday worship. I felt dumb. Then I looked it up and get it now. 

On Sunday, we got to go to two sacrament meetings. Ours, and the brand new YSA group's. The Spirit was pretty cool in the YSA group. There were 15 people there, including 4 missionaries. All those kids wanted to be there and wanted to learn and help the group grow and you could feel the Spirit really strong, it was awesome. It made me feel like I was way back when early day Christian churches or something where these little teeny groups were trying to survive against all the odds. It was way awesome. Spirit was strong. 

Oh yeah, we also went bowling on Monday. That was a ton of fun. I did horrible, but that's not odd. I still love bowling. 

Pictures next week. Promise. 

Also transfer calls are this weekend. Weird. 

Love ya, 

Elder Christopher Drake

One of Those Weeks

Hey Peeps!

It was one of "those" weeks. Eeeeevvverything seemed to fall through or not work out, it was so frustrating. That's part of missionary work though, and the good thing is that you just get to try again next day. Also, it's really really hard to get fired so you don't have to worry about losing your job if people flake on you.

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Salem elders, it was a lot of fun. I was with Elder Meyer, who is from California too so we bonded about how cooler we are than the whole rest of the world. His favorite color is also orange, so we bonded over that too. Best friends forever. Or until I never see him again, which is depressing, but also part of life. 

We taught Tommy that evening and it was a cool lesson about the Plan of Salvation. He keeps texting us awesome questions before he goes to work at 5 in the morning and so we got to explain to him about the pre-mortal life and why the Gospel seems so familiar to him. That was way cool. Then he started talking about a Book of Mormon challenge and it turns out that Elder Meyer issued the challenge to some girl in his last area who then issued it to a bunch of people one of which issued it to Tommy. That made him feel really good and it was really cool. 

Thursday I got a cold and died. 

Now I'm better though, so that's good. I bought Mucinex before I called Sister Shumway for advice this week because whenever I call her she just tells me to buy Mucinex. I thought I was really clever. Then our conversation went like this:

"Hi Sister Shumway, I'm sick. This is what's wrong, and I bought Mucinex, any other suggestions?"

"What kind of Mucinex?"

"Um...DM? It's green."

"Okay that's great for night, but what I want you to do is get some Extra Strength regular Mucinex and take that in the mornings."

So despite my best efforts, Sister Shumway still told me to go buy Mucinex. That's what I get, I guess. 

I was supposed to give a talk on Sunday, and it was going to be awesome. I was actually really excited to give it. I was all thinking about how it would hopefully give some help and insight to a couple people in the congregation. I was the last person to speak, so after helping with the sacrament I went and sat on the stand next to the youth speaker. First the High Councilman got up and gave a good talk. Unfortunately he was aout 5 or 7 minutes over. "Don't worry, you got this," I thought. "You might have to do a little less, but it'll be good. Then the youth speaker got up and she talked for 15 minutes! Which is great, don't get me wrong. She gave an awesome talk, but it was 5 after before she was finished. So I spend all sacrament being nervous and then the bishop got up and closed the program because it was over haha. 

It was one of those weeks. 

Love you guys! Keep awesome. 

 

Elder Christopher Drake

There Goes the Sun

A pretty interesting week this week. Let's walk through it. 

Monday - English Class, regular Preparationy day things. Salem elders came up to look for a stove for one of their members. I got a sweet blue knit tie. I'm thinking about resolving to only wear bowties and knit ties when I get home. I'm not sure. I'll keep you posted on that. 

Tuesday - Bike-a-palooza. Well, not any more than normal. And actually, we got a ride up to Cuba, about 15-20 minute drive away. We contacted some referrals from other missionaries. Dawn and Quinton. They are pretty awesome. I just wish they didn't live so far away. They pretty much said they wanted and were ready to be baptized, so that's cool. The funny thing is that Elder Baxter gave us the referral for Dawn. So that will make two Dawns Elder Baxter has sent over to me in two different areas. Crazy coincidence? Or maybe there's a grassy knoll somewhere....

Anyway. Around 5 o'clock we're at the snow cone shack, it's kinda cold, but it was the last week for snow cones, so we got them anyway. We're talking to Brooklyn and then the Thunder starts. "No worries," we think, "Tommy just lives over that huge hill and we'll be okay, I'm sure of it." So then Brooklyn gets a call, "Hey, so Spencer just told me that it's pouring at Wal-Mart" Long story short, a few copies of the Book of Mormon, some pamphlets, and my planner are completely trashed. All well. The good news is Brother Boehme picked us up, fed us, and we got to play some games with the fam. So that worked out. It was a good day.

Wednesday - District Meeting. Rocked some role-plays. Had some good lunch. Went on exchanges with Robotic Zone Leader Elder Hughes. Well actually we tri-panionshipped it. That was good. We got a few referrals. He's just not the most personable kid. Very tunnel missionary work vision - which is awesome, I wish I was more like that, just hard to relate to. 

Thursday - Regular old Thursday. We taught some peeps, taught some more English, you know the drill. The Assistants came to town to do exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and get some dental work done by Brother Boehme. So of course we were invited over to the Boehmes for dinner and games. Again. Which was awesome. 

Friday - Friday was the Caroline fiasco. Let me tell you about that. So around...5 or 6 o'clock we get this text from an investigator that says basically, "Hey I spent all my money moving into this new place and don't have any food and haven't eaten in three days because I'm feeding my kid please help." So we talk to the Relief Society President who talks to the bishop. Ward can't help at the moment. Okay cool, that's fine. Luckily Elder Drake has a little reserve fund he's willing to part with if it means a meal for a few people that haven't eaten in three days. We have our dinner appointment drive us to Walmart so we can do some shopping. We get all the stuff that we think will be good and ask Caroline for her address. No response. We wait a bit and walk around Walmart. Try again. No answer. Give her a call. No answer. So we wait about 15 more minutes, and try again. Nothing. We say a prayer that basically goes, "Hey, so we have done basically about everything we know how to do. We're willing to help out, we know she's your daughter, and we know you're taking care of her. If you want us to help her tonight, we're willing just let us know what to do." We don't hear anything, so we put the stuff back. At this point it's about 8:30. So I bought a package of Oreos and we walked home, telling riddles on the way home. Don't worry though, we talked to some members on Sunday that know Caroline and she should be taken care of. Apparently the situation wasn't as desperate as it seemed. I don't know about you, but if I hadn't eaten in three days and someone was offering to buy me groceries I would be glued to my phone. Being a missionary is weird, man. 

Saturday - Rainy again. I may be developing trenchfoot. No, that's a joke, my feet are fine. Maybe a little stinky though. My regular biking ugly good shoes got soaked in that rainstorm so I've been rocking the thrift store totally awesome shoes that I've absolutely beaten to death. I'm so proud of them. I might put them up somewhere in my room when I get home. When I was in Stockton they had a blowout and I could wiggle my toes out the side, but some shoe-goo fixed that. I'm sure that my poor mother is horrified at the prospect of her son wearing "shoes" that are so beat up, but I love them more than anything. They're a great crowd pleaser too. Everyone likes the brown shoes with holes in them. 

We saw Ira, our black friend. He's great. He comes to church every week. We're not sure if he's comprehending everything, or if he really cares, but he comes to church every Sunday and we sit with him and he's awesome. We saw some other peeps. I got my letter from my Mommy which always makes my week better, and then we got a text from Brooklyn Boehme. "Hey, we're playing a really fun game, do you want to come over?" So we contacted a referral then played a game at the Boehmes! 

Sunday - Church of course. Peeps. Oh, cool story. We helped Christine, a recent convert with her Family History. She's way into it. And good at it. We found a bunch of her grandparents, some great-grandparents, and even got to tap into somebody else's tree a little ways back, that was way cool. She almost cried! The Spirit was strong. Go do your Family History! 

We saw Roni Ryce with a priest in the ward. I thought maybe Roni would be a little toned down with a priest there, but I was sure wrong. I think Roni is just one of those guys who is Roni no matter where he is. He's big and loud and a little foul and just Roni. He's been a member since the 80s but has been spotty in coming to church. One of them "good ol' boys" and we love him. 

Then we went to the Boehme's again for P-day eve. Boehme-palooza this week. It's like having a family away from home, so that's nice. Sister Boehme is wicked good at Boggle too. Just so you know. 

Anyway. 

It's cold. I'm officially sporting the sweater. And I've officially left it at a member's house once already. It's a good start to the winter of my discontent. 

Who's ready for summer?

Love alls yalls!

Elder Christopher Drake

September 8th

Dearest Fam, 

Elder Harding and I have had a good week. We're still getting used to the whole bike thing. I'm still not a fan, but it's got it's perks. Now we have an excuse to ask the members to come out with us and help us teach. It also didn't hurt how many people we saw this week, but it did hurt my butt. 

I'm no longer scabby goat, hallelujah. 

Elder Harding and I rode down some hills on our bikes because we're way hardcore like that. We also rode up some hills, but I'd rather not talk about that. The really good news is that since I've been walking and biking I've gained weight. So that's cool. Apparently exercise = fat? I could have sworn Coach Gabrys told me the opposite in Freshman P.E.... 

We had an awesome lesson with the Williams on Tuesday. We taught the Plan of Salvation and I got to use my most favorite visual aid that I got for my birthday from Sister Shumway, complete with the little girl that has a spirit and a physical body. They got a kick out of that. Both Betsy and Carly are pretty shy, that's mom and daughter, but they're coming to church and we're talking about a date, so I'm pretty excited about them.

We also had an awesome Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday, which was the day of Sister Vea's funearl. Apparently the guy who was driving the van was the guy who took Elder Allred and I down to Greenwood. Crazy. It was a good service. The Spirit was strong. 

Let's see. 

You know, I learned a lot last night at the Boehme's, they're this member family we see just about every Sunday. So he picks us up from our apartment, and explains to us that Bishop Burdette wasn't able to come tonight, so he invited Robert. Now, Robert is an interesting specimen. My thoughts at first were, "Are you sure you really want him around your kids?" That kind of stuff. Robert is this less-active guy who is on probation for robbing a convenience store with a BB gun and wants to be in the marines and his wife just went to jail for animal abuse, but that's a whole nother mess. Long story short, she's probably innocent, but asked her drug addicted brother-in-law to watch her dogs while they went somewhere and they ended up not being watched, believe it or not. So technically, she's guilty haha. 

Anyway,  it all turned out okay and it was good and stuff. Then I was thinking about it, and it was just a really really good example of Charity, as in the pure love of Christ. Here's Robert, a guy you see, get to know, and eventually come to the conclusion, "There is really nothing that I can do for this guy. We can try, but it's all on him. I don't know if he's even capable of getting anywhere." I sure don't like going over to visit, but that's more because he doesn't treat us with respect, but still. I don't like sitting in the scary hotel room around the smell of dog feces, you know? Gross. 

But I think we all tend to get like that sometimes, and probably need to stop it. It's easy to get all boxed up in your little world and sphere of friends, and not do little things for people who really need it. So go invite somebody a little bit scary or weird over for dinner and a game of spicy farkle, okay? 

Also, I thought I'd share this conversation I observed between Brother and Sister Boehme,

Sister Boehme: "....Do you even know what Dulce de Leche is?"

Brother Boeheme: "Uh yeah," (aside to the missionaries, mouthing the words, "I have no idea) "Two milks. Duh." 

I got a kick out of that. Good times. 

Love yallses.  

Elder Christopher Drake