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

Call Me Scabby Goat

Dearest Family, 

So to start off this e-mail, let me backtrack to last Saturday, the 23rd. Elder Hegsted and I visited Sister Coble, a less-active sister. She has 5 kids and they'll all under the age of . She's also a single mother. Her two older daughters, ages 5 and 7 I think, decided it would be fun to put grass in my hair. That's fine and all, it was fun, they'd put it on and I'd be silly and shake it all off, wash, rinse, repeat. Then that turned into put grass in Elder Drake's glasses and stuff it behind his ears. All good fun. We got to the lesson, I cleaned off the grass and we left. 

Then Tuesday came. I woke up and noticed that my nose was a little red and itchy. I didn't think much of it and let it go. Well now I have poison sumac on my nose and behind my ears and on my neck. It's rather itchy. Elder Harding and I went back over to the Coble's on Friday and sure enough the little girls had it all over their faces too. Luckily, it's not too visible so people don't think I'm some diseased zombie missionary or something. Oh the price you pay for being nice to children. 

Also another story. 

On Saturday, our transfer calls went something like this:

Zone Leader: "Elder Hegsted is going to Fayetteville 1st...and Elder Drake is staying anditsacararea."

Me: "Car area? Okay well sounds good, thanks Elders." 

That's pretty much what I heard. Then I got a call from the Assistants on Tuesday:

Assistant: "Hey Elder Drake, how are you feeling about transfers?"

Me: "Good, Elder Hegsted is sad to leave, but we're excited for new things."

Assistant: "How are you feeling about the car?"

Me: "...What do you mean?"

Assistant: "Hm...tell me what your Zone Leader told you on Saturday."

Me: "They said, 'Elder Hegsted is going to Fayetteville 1st...and Elder Drake is staying'"

Assistant: "That's exactly what they said?"

Me: "Well they also said something about it being a car area, I assumed they meant Fayetteville was."

Assistant: "Oh...well, I hate to break it to you, but Rolla is no longer a car area. We're taking it. We got a bunch of sisters in this transfer and we're going to put it in a car share in Oklahoma with three different companionships. But don't worry, it's going to be great for Rolla, I can really see the members stepping up and getting more motivated to be involved."

If you could punch people through the phone I think I would have.

So that was a bummer. We are now a bike area. Rolla has a lot of hills. And also it's been raining. 

Sometimes being a missionary is fun. Other times your car gets taken away and it's raining and you have poison sumac. 

But it's not as bad as I make it sound. Sometimes it's just funnier to be pitiful. It's like that Pixar Short with the cute little sheep who gets sheared. And then the Jackalope. Right now we're making the transition to the "Boundin'" stage. 

The good news is that we hit the standard of excellence this week. All of them, for the first time on my mission, so that was cool. Getting the number of lessons is easy, but it's hard to get member present lessons, new investigators, and people out to church. Many low fist bumps were had. 

Otherwise it was a great week. We're still trying to figure out how we're gonna get up to some of the outlying areas, but so far it's looking good. I'm looking forward to the day when my butt is no longer sore and the members are giving us lots of exchanges. 

Oh, here are some pictures. I have them this week because other people took them. That's how lame I am. 

Okay, this is Zone Conference. I'm in the back there, because I'm always in the back. Elder Reese is right there in front of me, he's home now. Sad day. Elder Hegsted is not in this picture because we were on exchanges and he was being Elder Hegsted and was about 30 minutes late. 

This is the Shaos, Yuan, and Elder Hegsted. We had dinner at their house this Tuesday and it was very yummy as usual. They also had serving utensils this time, so that was cool. 

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Yuan is the one in the orange shirt. We are helping her pick out a car. She's bad at it. She keeps picking these terrible American cars to look at. Well, to be fair, her budget is 4000 and under. But still. She wanted to go look at a 2004 Ford Taurus that apparently had some odometer problems. We had to talk to her for like half an hour to convince her it was a bad idea. On Tuesday we're going to look at a couple more. Fingers crossed. 

Okay peeps, love y'alls and all that jazz!

Elder Christopher Drake

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