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