Letter 6-16-08

Dearest Kinship in the Uttermost State of Utah,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANNIE AND HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like life is going great up there. I hope to hear about the Birthday party / Father's day party that happened this week... Summer is up and rolling and you guys are probably about 10 to 20 degrees cooler up there. We’ve been between 105 and 110 all month long. I’ve got used to it though. Riding a bike everywhere from 3 months kinda forces me to. The wind has died down a little bit, so that is good.So I heard from Joe that you guys had a fun trip to Zion’s canyon. It’s a beautiful place down there. I would be jealous, but I’m having a lot more fun roasting in the barren desert of West Texas. Basketball camp sounds fun. It would be fun if you made the team, Joe. These past few weeks have been interestingly boring. I’ve been put in charge of this area and it has collapsed on me. We have 3 good investigators. Cheyenne Cook, Jonathan Alcantara, and Veronica Allred. Cheyenne is the 9 year old girl who is pretty much a member but hasn’t been baptized due to legal issues of adoption. Jonathan is the guy who grew up catholic, but went atheist because catholisism never made sense to him. Veronica is the lady who is married to the less active guy whose whole family is members. Outside those 3, we pretty much have no investigators. Cody Chambers, the guy who almost got baptized is dropped and everyone else is has two strikes and is about to be dropped. We have been getting no new investigators. We went on a 14 or 15 day streak of not getting a new investigator before we broke that on Saturday. All the potentials Elder Hill and I picked up last transfer have been dropped except for 3 or 4. We are in a rebuilding stage and got 78 people taught while finding (people we talked to on the streets or at doorsteps). My companion has some obedience issues and is not really too keen on listening to what I have to say, so that gets frustrating sometimes, but we get along great as long as I don’t say anything and let him continue in his apostate ways. We do go out on time and get in on time and work hard, so its nothing too serious, but he drives me up the wall on occasion. I think about the scripture in Mosiah where it says the Lord seeth fit to try the patience and faith of his people. My patience is being tried right now, so its hard, but I’m surviving. Life is still good and I am still blessed with this great opportunity to go out and bear testimony, even if no one listens. One word comes to mind, “Hakunamatata,” put your past behind you. Life is rough and times can be frustrating and sad, but we need to cry about it and move on. If we mope about all the hard times we are having then we will have a rough time in life. We need to always be moving onward with a perfect brightness of hope, knowing that good things will come from whatever happens to us. Elder Bird, the missionary I was on an exchange with while we were both on waiting for our new companaroses, taught me something profound. Why are we put in Texas, one of the hardest places to serve? Because the Lord trusts us. Us missionaries in Texas are the Lord’s most trustworthy and faithful missionaries. Why? Because he knows we can make it through 2 years of being amongst a people that hate and reject our message. This is a terrestrial place. 99 percent of the people are non-members and it seems like another 99 percent of that proportion has been taught that mormon missionaries are of the devil and are going to hell. The lord trusts us. He knows we can make it through. I always think of the sons of Mosiah who went amongst the Lamanites. We always hear how much success that they had, but what we forget is that they spent 14 years there and I can guarantee that they had a trial or two at the beginning of their missions. I’ll survive. Life is great. We are blessed to be members of the lord’s true church.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the week. I am out of time. I heard a rumor that dad found my previous scripture challenge, but I have not received evidence of that yet…

Quote of the day,“God isn’t just going to throw us down to Hell because he doesn’t want us, rather he would have us there, but he loves us so much that he would sacrifice have us live there with him so that we would be happier.” --Greg DrogeThink about that over this week. I’ll talk to you all later. Peace Out!

Droge
The
Elder
The
Adam
The
Richard
The
Missionary
The
was a deacon 6 years ago
The
was a teacher 3 years ago
The
was a priest 1 year ago
The
will be home a day before Dave's 29th birhday
The
will be married in 3 or 4 years
The
Just beat Bruce long closing chain
(PS - Bruce, TAKE THAT!!!!)

Elder Adam R Droge Alienator345