Dear Family,
“And now as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God, I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the son of the living God, who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. And I shall not know any better then, than I know now, that he is God’s almighty son. He is our savior and redeemer and salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light, as God our father is in the light, so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his son will cleanse us from all sin.”
-Bruce R McConkie
Thanksgiving 2009 is in the books and now the Christmas season is underway. Thanksgiving Day was a good day. We started by playing in the annual Roswell Turkey Bowl. 30 to 40 people from both wards here in Roswell got together and we split into four teams, playing 3 different games, every team playing each other. My team, with very little help from yours truly, compiled the best record, 2-0-1 (2 wins, 0 losses, and 1 tie). The tie was the very last game we played and it was very tense. We tied it on the very last play of the game. As to why we didn’t do a little overtime fiasco, I don’t know, I just followed what everyone else wanted. Had we lost that game, there would’ve been a 3 way tie at 2-1, so I feel good. Then the rest of the day was very filling. We had a Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner appointment and were just plain stuffed. In between all that, we stayed in the apartment and us and the Spanish Elders in town hashed out 5 games of Settlers. It was fun. Now it is Christmas season and I felt it was fitting to start out my email with one of the great quotes about our savior, Elder McConkie’s final testimony in a general conference, because that is what this season is all about. The way many people react and celebrate it seems like the other way around and the true meaning of Christmas gets lost, especially down here in this mission. People here go beserk about lights, decorations, presents, etc. It’s really cool, yet at the same time it’s a little ridiculous. We’ve already done 3 service projects helping people out with their trees, lights, and what not, one of which was for an atheist couple who don’t even believe in Christ, but love the missionaries. I thought that was a little ironic. They, the Kermodes, actually called the Droge home in Bountiful and left a message on the phone, FYI. To top of the season, on December 1st, two days ago, I witnessed my first snowfall on my mission. Even though I about froze to death, I was very intrigued that I was actually seeing snow on the ground. I never thought I’d ever take pictures of snow, but I did. It was gone by lunch time, but hey. And last, but not least, the mission leadership has impeccable timing sometimes because just when it starts to get cold, they take away our car. So I am back on a bike to finish my mission. They had good reason. Roswell has three sets of missionaries and three cars and they decided that that wasn’t necessary, so they took one away. Lucky us. So I am going to freeze this month, but oh well. I’ll survive. Have a great December everyone and I’ll report again in a week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Letter 11-25-09
Dear Family,
Well, the verdict has come and it has been decided that we will take P-day on Wednesday this week, so thus I am writing today. It’ll actually be kinda weird because we don’t go out on Thanksgiving anyway so they are pretty much giving us two P-days this week. I’d say it’s sad to have to miss out on the work, but yet no one has wanted to talk to us much at all this week, so it’s ok. For some odd reason people want to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving week instead of the Mormon missionaries. Strange. So we will relax for the next two days. Or, more or less, get our faces stuffed with food, gain 50 pounds, and not have a desire to touch food again for a week. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two recent converts, Dominique Williams and Shameka Hill and we have three more meals planned for tomorrow: Breakfast at 9 am, Lunch at 3 pm, and Dinner at 7 pm. It will be lots of fun. It’s also a great time to reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. Sometimes I am saddened when Thanksgiving gets jumped over due to the big shadow of Christmas looming behind it. Right after Halloween, the stores are stuffed full with Christmas stuff and people get so excited that they forget this tiny little holiday called Thanksgiving and forget to express thanks to others. I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 this week and was reminded of a great Thanksgiving lesson. The most important person that we need to give thanks to this holiday season is, as Benjamin puts it, our Heavenly King. The specific passage I pondered over is right after the famous passage where it is stated that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. Benjamin states that if we should spend our whole lives in service of our God and thanking him we would still be unprofitable servants. He states beautifully that we are always indebted to God. I hope we all would remember that and seek constantly to pour out our whole souls to God for the many great things he has done for us and given to us. That is my Thanksgiving message. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Till next Thursday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well, the verdict has come and it has been decided that we will take P-day on Wednesday this week, so thus I am writing today. It’ll actually be kinda weird because we don’t go out on Thanksgiving anyway so they are pretty much giving us two P-days this week. I’d say it’s sad to have to miss out on the work, but yet no one has wanted to talk to us much at all this week, so it’s ok. For some odd reason people want to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving week instead of the Mormon missionaries. Strange. So we will relax for the next two days. Or, more or less, get our faces stuffed with food, gain 50 pounds, and not have a desire to touch food again for a week. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two recent converts, Dominique Williams and Shameka Hill and we have three more meals planned for tomorrow: Breakfast at 9 am, Lunch at 3 pm, and Dinner at 7 pm. It will be lots of fun. It’s also a great time to reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. Sometimes I am saddened when Thanksgiving gets jumped over due to the big shadow of Christmas looming behind it. Right after Halloween, the stores are stuffed full with Christmas stuff and people get so excited that they forget this tiny little holiday called Thanksgiving and forget to express thanks to others. I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 this week and was reminded of a great Thanksgiving lesson. The most important person that we need to give thanks to this holiday season is, as Benjamin puts it, our Heavenly King. The specific passage I pondered over is right after the famous passage where it is stated that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. Benjamin states that if we should spend our whole lives in service of our God and thanking him we would still be unprofitable servants. He states beautifully that we are always indebted to God. I hope we all would remember that and seek constantly to pour out our whole souls to God for the many great things he has done for us and given to us. That is my Thanksgiving message. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Till next Thursday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 11-19-09
Dear Family,
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Letter 11-12-09
Dear Family,
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 11-5-09
Dear Family,
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Letter 10-29-09
Dear Family,
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 10-22-09
Dear Family,
This week has felt like a weird week. I have been so used to having P-day on Monday that now that it is on Thursday, I feel like this is my 2nd P-day this week. This is also going to make the week go by fast because now that I am emailing it feels that it is only Monday, but yet it’s already Thursday and my brain is all confused. This week was also the infamous trading deadline as I like to call it. Transfer week. No I am not leaving Roswell. But I bring that I because I now have a new companion. Elder Pitts, the old companion, is gone. I wish the best for him. I did my best to help him out and put my full effort into helping us be united, but nothing worked. No matter what I did, the guy yelled at me and treated me like dirt. I couldn’t please him. Oh well. Life goes on. I just hope that his mission will change him like it has many thousands of other missionaries. I am way excited for this new companion, though. His name is Elder Trason Thode from Blanding, Utah. He has only been out 6 weeks, but is way humble and spiritual. He has a great knowledge of the gospel. After only one day I can already tell that this will be a great transfer. We will get along great. The spirit is here in much greater abundance and I can feel the striking contrast from last transfer where the spirit seemed absent much of the time.
One thing of note, yesterday while I was waiting for my new companion to get here, we got a call from the Ruidoso Elders. There was a young couple named Freddie and Elizabeth that Elder Wheeler and I were teaching that moved to Ruidoso. We passed them over to the Ruidoso Elders and they picked up the teaching. Yesterday the call to us was that Freddie and Elizabeth were back down in Roswell and the great news is that they now have a baptismal date for November 1st that the Ruidoso Elders set with them. We talked with them last night and they are way excited for that date. I’ll let you know how that goes. Also, there is another young couple named Mike and Kristy that we’ve been working with. Mike is a less active member and Kristy is his nonmember girlfriend (hopefully wife in the very near future). Mike has showed a sincere desire to come back to church and has followed through with that desire. He has come to church the last 2 weeks and is doing everything that he can. The great thing is that since this, Kristy has started to follow in his footsteps and has actually come to church with him the last 2 weeks. We plan on following up with her to see how she feels about the church and about baptism. Hopefully all will go well.
I am now about to sign off, but I will do so by making a small request. If you remember we were working with a Strangite Mormon lady. We had a chat with her this last week and she has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, but yet is confused. She doesn’t believe in lots of the doctrines of our church. One particular one being the statement, “As man is, God once was, as God is man may become.” She thinks Brigham Young came up with that doctrine, but I was wanting to show her that Joseph Smith taught that as well, because she seems like she is really humble and open, just a little misdirected in my mind. If someone could get a hold of the King Follet Sermon by Joseph Smith and send me a copy as soon as possible, that would be appreciated. Thanks and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
This week has felt like a weird week. I have been so used to having P-day on Monday that now that it is on Thursday, I feel like this is my 2nd P-day this week. This is also going to make the week go by fast because now that I am emailing it feels that it is only Monday, but yet it’s already Thursday and my brain is all confused. This week was also the infamous trading deadline as I like to call it. Transfer week. No I am not leaving Roswell. But I bring that I because I now have a new companion. Elder Pitts, the old companion, is gone. I wish the best for him. I did my best to help him out and put my full effort into helping us be united, but nothing worked. No matter what I did, the guy yelled at me and treated me like dirt. I couldn’t please him. Oh well. Life goes on. I just hope that his mission will change him like it has many thousands of other missionaries. I am way excited for this new companion, though. His name is Elder Trason Thode from Blanding, Utah. He has only been out 6 weeks, but is way humble and spiritual. He has a great knowledge of the gospel. After only one day I can already tell that this will be a great transfer. We will get along great. The spirit is here in much greater abundance and I can feel the striking contrast from last transfer where the spirit seemed absent much of the time.
One thing of note, yesterday while I was waiting for my new companion to get here, we got a call from the Ruidoso Elders. There was a young couple named Freddie and Elizabeth that Elder Wheeler and I were teaching that moved to Ruidoso. We passed them over to the Ruidoso Elders and they picked up the teaching. Yesterday the call to us was that Freddie and Elizabeth were back down in Roswell and the great news is that they now have a baptismal date for November 1st that the Ruidoso Elders set with them. We talked with them last night and they are way excited for that date. I’ll let you know how that goes. Also, there is another young couple named Mike and Kristy that we’ve been working with. Mike is a less active member and Kristy is his nonmember girlfriend (hopefully wife in the very near future). Mike has showed a sincere desire to come back to church and has followed through with that desire. He has come to church the last 2 weeks and is doing everything that he can. The great thing is that since this, Kristy has started to follow in his footsteps and has actually come to church with him the last 2 weeks. We plan on following up with her to see how she feels about the church and about baptism. Hopefully all will go well.
I am now about to sign off, but I will do so by making a small request. If you remember we were working with a Strangite Mormon lady. We had a chat with her this last week and she has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, but yet is confused. She doesn’t believe in lots of the doctrines of our church. One particular one being the statement, “As man is, God once was, as God is man may become.” She thinks Brigham Young came up with that doctrine, but I was wanting to show her that Joseph Smith taught that as well, because she seems like she is really humble and open, just a little misdirected in my mind. If someone could get a hold of the King Follet Sermon by Joseph Smith and send me a copy as soon as possible, that would be appreciated. Thanks and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 10-12-09
Dear Family,
So the good thing about being a missionary is that when something bad happens, there is a way good support system. I think I mentioned briefly in last weeks email that I had a mysterious rash that was bothering me. Well, it got real bad this last week and so I got it checked out. Monday we were over at the stake president's house, President Wiser, on P-day (the Zone Leaders in town live with them, so we relax there instead of in our small cramped apartment) and he was concerned when I showed him it. One of the counselors in the stake presidency is a doctor, so President Wiser took a picture of the rash and sent it to him to look at. That night we were visiting one of the recent converts here, Dominique, and her Dad was over. When we showed her Dad, he thought it looked like shingles, so Dominique jumped on to Web MD and we looked at pictures and read information about Shingles and it matched perfectly with what I had. We then went over to a member's house and she gave me a bunch of advice and a few things that would help. Next morning comes around and the doctor in the stake presidency, Doctor Torres calls me and I basically have a free doctor's appointment over the phone and he confirmed that I had Shingles and prescribed some medication that would help. I got the medication and it has worked like a charm. I've felt almost no pain since taking it and now the shingles are almost gone. Sister Robison, the mission president's wife, was also involved in this. I had called her Monday. So all is well and now I just get to look back and remember the added drama this past week that has continued to make my mission a very dramatic mission.
So last week I made some comments about conference and gave my feelings on what we were taught. This week I wanted to hand out some awards for conference, or better said, make mention of the specific talks that stood out to me. First, I think the best talk this conference once again came from Elder Holland. His talk on the Book of Mormon was way hardcore. It made me scared to ever deny the Book Mormon. Not that I ever would, but hey. Elder Brent H Neilson told me that I was fulfilling prophesy right now and said that the field has never been whiter and more ready to harvest. I thought that was cool. Last transfer I took the advice of my companion and decided to write down the personal revelations that I receive. I found it has helped. Elder Scott referenced to doing that same thing and made me feel happy that I am already taking the advice of an apostle. Meanwhile I think President Uchtdorf snuck in to my apartment here in Roswell and read my revelation journal before he gave his talk on love. On my mission, the passage where Jesus tells the pharisees that the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor has really hit me hard, especially in correlating the love of God with obedience, because 'if ye love me, keep my commandments.' That was President Uchtdorf's whole talk on Saturday morning. That was awesome. Elder Oaks taught us some way cool doctrine on law. God's love and God's law correlate perfectly because we are judged based on the law we can handle. Elder Hales gave the loving assurance to all of us that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. That helps anyone who has questioned those two facts. Last but not least, the general authority that I felt was speaking directly to me was Elder Ballard in priesthood session when he gave the loving advice to returned missionaries. No I am not one yet, but I will be before the next conference session and I have accepted that. No I am not trunky and not excited to go home. Rather it has given me the extra drive to work even harder and made me kind of sad. I do not want to leave this great work, but my time is soon up and I need to move on with my life. Elder Ballard told me personally what I need to do next. All in all, there were many great talks and all of them should be studied and if I'm not mistaken, we made history Sunday afternoon - the first African American to speak in a general conference. These are just talks that stood the highest to me personally.
So it is time for me to end, but I have 2 matters of business real quick that I need to bring up.
1 - It has been advised by the mission that we get a flu shot and a swine flu shot, but the catch is that we will have to pay for them. President Robison asked us to talk to our families about the matter and see what they think. So that is what I am doing right now. Hint, hint…
2 - President Robison has also decided to switch up or P-days from Monday to Thursday. Don't expect an email next Monday, the 19th. My next email will come on Thursday the 22nd, 10 days from now. Talk to you then. :)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So the good thing about being a missionary is that when something bad happens, there is a way good support system. I think I mentioned briefly in last weeks email that I had a mysterious rash that was bothering me. Well, it got real bad this last week and so I got it checked out. Monday we were over at the stake president's house, President Wiser, on P-day (the Zone Leaders in town live with them, so we relax there instead of in our small cramped apartment) and he was concerned when I showed him it. One of the counselors in the stake presidency is a doctor, so President Wiser took a picture of the rash and sent it to him to look at. That night we were visiting one of the recent converts here, Dominique, and her Dad was over. When we showed her Dad, he thought it looked like shingles, so Dominique jumped on to Web MD and we looked at pictures and read information about Shingles and it matched perfectly with what I had. We then went over to a member's house and she gave me a bunch of advice and a few things that would help. Next morning comes around and the doctor in the stake presidency, Doctor Torres calls me and I basically have a free doctor's appointment over the phone and he confirmed that I had Shingles and prescribed some medication that would help. I got the medication and it has worked like a charm. I've felt almost no pain since taking it and now the shingles are almost gone. Sister Robison, the mission president's wife, was also involved in this. I had called her Monday. So all is well and now I just get to look back and remember the added drama this past week that has continued to make my mission a very dramatic mission.
So last week I made some comments about conference and gave my feelings on what we were taught. This week I wanted to hand out some awards for conference, or better said, make mention of the specific talks that stood out to me. First, I think the best talk this conference once again came from Elder Holland. His talk on the Book of Mormon was way hardcore. It made me scared to ever deny the Book Mormon. Not that I ever would, but hey. Elder Brent H Neilson told me that I was fulfilling prophesy right now and said that the field has never been whiter and more ready to harvest. I thought that was cool. Last transfer I took the advice of my companion and decided to write down the personal revelations that I receive. I found it has helped. Elder Scott referenced to doing that same thing and made me feel happy that I am already taking the advice of an apostle. Meanwhile I think President Uchtdorf snuck in to my apartment here in Roswell and read my revelation journal before he gave his talk on love. On my mission, the passage where Jesus tells the pharisees that the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor has really hit me hard, especially in correlating the love of God with obedience, because 'if ye love me, keep my commandments.' That was President Uchtdorf's whole talk on Saturday morning. That was awesome. Elder Oaks taught us some way cool doctrine on law. God's love and God's law correlate perfectly because we are judged based on the law we can handle. Elder Hales gave the loving assurance to all of us that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. That helps anyone who has questioned those two facts. Last but not least, the general authority that I felt was speaking directly to me was Elder Ballard in priesthood session when he gave the loving advice to returned missionaries. No I am not one yet, but I will be before the next conference session and I have accepted that. No I am not trunky and not excited to go home. Rather it has given me the extra drive to work even harder and made me kind of sad. I do not want to leave this great work, but my time is soon up and I need to move on with my life. Elder Ballard told me personally what I need to do next. All in all, there were many great talks and all of them should be studied and if I'm not mistaken, we made history Sunday afternoon - the first African American to speak in a general conference. These are just talks that stood the highest to me personally.
So it is time for me to end, but I have 2 matters of business real quick that I need to bring up.
1 - It has been advised by the mission that we get a flu shot and a swine flu shot, but the catch is that we will have to pay for them. President Robison asked us to talk to our families about the matter and see what they think. So that is what I am doing right now. Hint, hint…
2 - President Robison has also decided to switch up or P-days from Monday to Thursday. Don't expect an email next Monday, the 19th. My next email will come on Thursday the 22nd, 10 days from now. Talk to you then. :)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
10-5-09
Dear Family,
So last week was a great experience. We in the Roswell district did something that I never dreamed I’d do in this mission. This mission is flat. No mountains anywhere. I never dreamed of hiking a mountain in the TLM, but that’s what we did. An hour west of here is a pretty town called Ruidoso and Ruidoso is real hilly and even has a few mountains nearby. We hiked up the mountain named Sierra Blanca, the highest point in the Texas Lubbock Mission. Honestly, it was really hard and I was not physically ready for it. I did ok, but it wore me out a ton. However, when we made it to the peak and then when we made it back to the vehicles, I felt a sense of accomplishment. My legs felt like jello, about ready to collapse. It seemed as if my lungs were about to give out on me. I experienced altitude sickness and almost lost it on the drive home (um yes, never thought I’d say that, but Roswell is 3000 and jumping suddenly up to 10,000 in one day drains you). Now I have a big rash that is really hurting me right now that may or may not have come from this hike. But do you know what, I did it. I climbed to the peak. I made it to the top, conquering the mountain and the physical ailments that came with it. I applied this experience to life and found that it perfectly aligns. In life we are going along an uphill battle. Lots of obstacles come our way and many of them we are not ready for. Opposition comes your way, totally catching you off guard. But what do we need to do. Press forward and put one foot in front of the other. It’s not a race. We need not compare ourselves with the progress of others. All that matters is that we make it. We make it through life, being as valiant and faithful as we can and we can conquer life. We can make it to the top and look down and say ‘I did it.’ Then comes to us a great feeling of love and joy that will never go away.
So also to report on last week was the baptism of Charlie Harper on September the 27th. It’s not very often that you see an 85 year old entering into the waters of baptism. Its truly an inspiration to me to know that anyone, no matter where they are in their life and what has happened can come unto Christ and repent. It’s not to late, never to late. Charlie had a lot of opposition. Satan didn’t want him to go through with this. His family was against this decision. They were confused and angered as to why he was being baptized into the Mormon church when he’d already been baptized a Baptist when he was young. It made Charlie question himself and his decision. We talked about it and then got him committed. He was interviewed and all ready when what happened? 3 days before he gets baptized a 500 pound horse falls right on his leg and puts him in the hospital for the weekend and immobilized him for nearly a month. He healed very quickly, especially for a man his age. I know some people that it would’ve taken them a year to recover when Charlie recovered in a month. However, in that month he also had time to think. A thought arose that maybe God was punishing him for deciding to be baptized into this church. We quickly dismissed that, telling him it was merely a test. Through all that, he made it and I am happy for him.
Now on to this week. Conference was this last weekend if you didn’t get the memo. We were given a wonderful spiritual feast. It gave me the added motivation to press forward through these last few months and knowing that, even though I am already sad about leaving the mission, everything will be alright. God has a plan for me. Serving Christ doesn’t end when I’m released as a missionary. I’ll just be moved to a different part of the vineyard. I felt that in conference, we were given the great instruction of knowing that God’s arms are opened for us. He lives and loves us and wants us to repent. He doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to others, but wants us to do our own personal best. That comparison can hurt us. If we compare ourselves to others, many times we will feel unworthy, unwanted, underappreciated, and will ultimately give up and go through an identity crisis. We were instructed of the love that God has for us as an individual and told to follow the basics of the gospel, to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, and to attend our church meetings. Ultimately, we need to show God our love towards him and everything will fall into place. We need to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and seek the personal revelation for us in our own lives. We were instructed on how we are to go about receiving that revelation. Ultimately were comforted in knowing that God lives, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. My testimony is the same as the testimony our leaders gave. I know for myself, independent of any other person that God does live. He is my Heavenly Father and loves me. He sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for my sins and to support me in my weaknesses. Joseph Smith was called of him to restore his gospel. This is the true and living church, the only true and living church, and believe me, there are many. I am grateful to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom and am truly grateful to have had this opportunity to serve Him as a full time missionary and look forward to the months that I still have. I am signing off now, but I will talk to you all soon, next week even. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So last week was a great experience. We in the Roswell district did something that I never dreamed I’d do in this mission. This mission is flat. No mountains anywhere. I never dreamed of hiking a mountain in the TLM, but that’s what we did. An hour west of here is a pretty town called Ruidoso and Ruidoso is real hilly and even has a few mountains nearby. We hiked up the mountain named Sierra Blanca, the highest point in the Texas Lubbock Mission. Honestly, it was really hard and I was not physically ready for it. I did ok, but it wore me out a ton. However, when we made it to the peak and then when we made it back to the vehicles, I felt a sense of accomplishment. My legs felt like jello, about ready to collapse. It seemed as if my lungs were about to give out on me. I experienced altitude sickness and almost lost it on the drive home (um yes, never thought I’d say that, but Roswell is 3000 and jumping suddenly up to 10,000 in one day drains you). Now I have a big rash that is really hurting me right now that may or may not have come from this hike. But do you know what, I did it. I climbed to the peak. I made it to the top, conquering the mountain and the physical ailments that came with it. I applied this experience to life and found that it perfectly aligns. In life we are going along an uphill battle. Lots of obstacles come our way and many of them we are not ready for. Opposition comes your way, totally catching you off guard. But what do we need to do. Press forward and put one foot in front of the other. It’s not a race. We need not compare ourselves with the progress of others. All that matters is that we make it. We make it through life, being as valiant and faithful as we can and we can conquer life. We can make it to the top and look down and say ‘I did it.’ Then comes to us a great feeling of love and joy that will never go away.
So also to report on last week was the baptism of Charlie Harper on September the 27th. It’s not very often that you see an 85 year old entering into the waters of baptism. Its truly an inspiration to me to know that anyone, no matter where they are in their life and what has happened can come unto Christ and repent. It’s not to late, never to late. Charlie had a lot of opposition. Satan didn’t want him to go through with this. His family was against this decision. They were confused and angered as to why he was being baptized into the Mormon church when he’d already been baptized a Baptist when he was young. It made Charlie question himself and his decision. We talked about it and then got him committed. He was interviewed and all ready when what happened? 3 days before he gets baptized a 500 pound horse falls right on his leg and puts him in the hospital for the weekend and immobilized him for nearly a month. He healed very quickly, especially for a man his age. I know some people that it would’ve taken them a year to recover when Charlie recovered in a month. However, in that month he also had time to think. A thought arose that maybe God was punishing him for deciding to be baptized into this church. We quickly dismissed that, telling him it was merely a test. Through all that, he made it and I am happy for him.
Now on to this week. Conference was this last weekend if you didn’t get the memo. We were given a wonderful spiritual feast. It gave me the added motivation to press forward through these last few months and knowing that, even though I am already sad about leaving the mission, everything will be alright. God has a plan for me. Serving Christ doesn’t end when I’m released as a missionary. I’ll just be moved to a different part of the vineyard. I felt that in conference, we were given the great instruction of knowing that God’s arms are opened for us. He lives and loves us and wants us to repent. He doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to others, but wants us to do our own personal best. That comparison can hurt us. If we compare ourselves to others, many times we will feel unworthy, unwanted, underappreciated, and will ultimately give up and go through an identity crisis. We were instructed of the love that God has for us as an individual and told to follow the basics of the gospel, to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, and to attend our church meetings. Ultimately, we need to show God our love towards him and everything will fall into place. We need to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and seek the personal revelation for us in our own lives. We were instructed on how we are to go about receiving that revelation. Ultimately were comforted in knowing that God lives, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. My testimony is the same as the testimony our leaders gave. I know for myself, independent of any other person that God does live. He is my Heavenly Father and loves me. He sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for my sins and to support me in my weaknesses. Joseph Smith was called of him to restore his gospel. This is the true and living church, the only true and living church, and believe me, there are many. I am grateful to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom and am truly grateful to have had this opportunity to serve Him as a full time missionary and look forward to the months that I still have. I am signing off now, but I will talk to you all soon, next week even. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 9-28-09
Dear Family,
So it is 6:00 PM on Monday evening. We had quite the eventful day and because of it have no time to email. Sorry about the inconvenience. The baptism of Charlie Harper also went through. I’ll leave you hanging on that as well. Sorry, but it should be a great email next week so stay tuned.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So it is 6:00 PM on Monday evening. We had quite the eventful day and because of it have no time to email. Sorry about the inconvenience. The baptism of Charlie Harper also went through. I’ll leave you hanging on that as well. Sorry, but it should be a great email next week so stay tuned.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, September 21, 2009
Letter 9-21-09
Dear Family,
Another week has gone by here in the Texas Lubbock Mission and time continues to rush on. September is on the verge of ending and October is looming around the corner. The great news of the week comes in with Charlie Harper, the 85 year old investigator who broke his leg 3 days before his baptism. If you remember the story, a horse slipped and landed right on his leg. 500 pounds right on your leg wouldn´t feel that great if you know what I mean. Well, we visited Charlie this week and what I saw shocked me. Only a month afterwards, it´s almost fully healed. He´s already walking around it! So we discussed it and set the baptism back up for the 27th of this month, which is this upcoming Sunday. That is way exciting.
That is really about it. We did better this week, but still not up to par as to where I would like us to be. That is alright though, I´ll live. I´ve ran into another obstacle as well. Elder Droge´s companion isn´t a big fan of Elder Droge. His personality and how he grew up is completely opposite of me and thus he doesn´t really like to listen to anything I say and gets upset at me for the smallest things. It has actually caused me to grow a lot in the past few weeks. I have been praying alot as well as studying patience and humility and it has taught me alot and given me plenty of opportunities to excersize it. It seems like the story of my mission. I have been given trial after trial after trial. As soon as I overcome one thing, another gets thrown at me. It´s caused me to have a very hard mission, but I have learned alot because of it. Just like Joseph Smith said, if I had not gone through what I have, I would not be the same person I am now. Just have to move forward and endure well and all will be good. I hope all of you have a great week and I will do the same.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Another week has gone by here in the Texas Lubbock Mission and time continues to rush on. September is on the verge of ending and October is looming around the corner. The great news of the week comes in with Charlie Harper, the 85 year old investigator who broke his leg 3 days before his baptism. If you remember the story, a horse slipped and landed right on his leg. 500 pounds right on your leg wouldn´t feel that great if you know what I mean. Well, we visited Charlie this week and what I saw shocked me. Only a month afterwards, it´s almost fully healed. He´s already walking around it! So we discussed it and set the baptism back up for the 27th of this month, which is this upcoming Sunday. That is way exciting.
That is really about it. We did better this week, but still not up to par as to where I would like us to be. That is alright though, I´ll live. I´ve ran into another obstacle as well. Elder Droge´s companion isn´t a big fan of Elder Droge. His personality and how he grew up is completely opposite of me and thus he doesn´t really like to listen to anything I say and gets upset at me for the smallest things. It has actually caused me to grow a lot in the past few weeks. I have been praying alot as well as studying patience and humility and it has taught me alot and given me plenty of opportunities to excersize it. It seems like the story of my mission. I have been given trial after trial after trial. As soon as I overcome one thing, another gets thrown at me. It´s caused me to have a very hard mission, but I have learned alot because of it. Just like Joseph Smith said, if I had not gone through what I have, I would not be the same person I am now. Just have to move forward and endure well and all will be good. I hope all of you have a great week and I will do the same.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 9-14-09
Dear Family,
Well, my new companion is here. Like I said, his name is Elder Gordon Pitts. He is from a town called Spring Creek, Nevada, which is right next to Elko, Nevada. He has been out almost 5 months now, which is quite comical, because he hits 5 months right near when I hit 19 months. Do the math and me and him added together equals 24 months or one full mission. Mwa ha ha! Elder Pitts is an older missionary. He is already 22 years old. After he graduated high school in 2005, he worked as a fire fighter for almost 4 years until he made the decision to come out on a mission. So that is fun. He is a good guy. I'll enjoy this time serving with him.
So this first week of the transfer wasn't all that spectacular. We hit a horrible streak of bad luck with getting in and teaching lessons. That's ok, though. Just part of missionary life. You just gotta keep moving forward and strive to work harder than you did the last week. We did do a lot of service, which was good. 3 different projects came up in which we spent 2 to 3 hours each in the morning hours. We dug a ditch, we helped with a roofing project, and we helped move. Service pays off in the long run. This week it also rained real hard. It almost feels like Roswell is built in a bowl type thing because the streets flood bad every time it rains hard. There was like 3 to 4 inches of water in the streets in some parts. I also got attacked by some ants and got bit a couple times, which hurt for a few hours, but luckily went away. We were talking to a guy and I was unknowingly stepping right on their little lair and apparently they didn't like it, so they started running up my leg. The ants down here are like 5 times the size as they are back home and most of them pack a powerful bite, so they can get creepy, but I think it's way cool… as long as they keep their distance.
So that is all for this week. We hope to be picking things up this week, but we'll see what happens. Yes, being in a slump is part of missionary life, but it still doesn't feel that great, so we hope to end it, with the Lord's help of course. Keep us in your prayers and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well, my new companion is here. Like I said, his name is Elder Gordon Pitts. He is from a town called Spring Creek, Nevada, which is right next to Elko, Nevada. He has been out almost 5 months now, which is quite comical, because he hits 5 months right near when I hit 19 months. Do the math and me and him added together equals 24 months or one full mission. Mwa ha ha! Elder Pitts is an older missionary. He is already 22 years old. After he graduated high school in 2005, he worked as a fire fighter for almost 4 years until he made the decision to come out on a mission. So that is fun. He is a good guy. I'll enjoy this time serving with him.
So this first week of the transfer wasn't all that spectacular. We hit a horrible streak of bad luck with getting in and teaching lessons. That's ok, though. Just part of missionary life. You just gotta keep moving forward and strive to work harder than you did the last week. We did do a lot of service, which was good. 3 different projects came up in which we spent 2 to 3 hours each in the morning hours. We dug a ditch, we helped with a roofing project, and we helped move. Service pays off in the long run. This week it also rained real hard. It almost feels like Roswell is built in a bowl type thing because the streets flood bad every time it rains hard. There was like 3 to 4 inches of water in the streets in some parts. I also got attacked by some ants and got bit a couple times, which hurt for a few hours, but luckily went away. We were talking to a guy and I was unknowingly stepping right on their little lair and apparently they didn't like it, so they started running up my leg. The ants down here are like 5 times the size as they are back home and most of them pack a powerful bite, so they can get creepy, but I think it's way cool… as long as they keep their distance.
So that is all for this week. We hope to be picking things up this week, but we'll see what happens. Yes, being in a slump is part of missionary life, but it still doesn't feel that great, so we hope to end it, with the Lord's help of course. Keep us in your prayers and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 9-8-09
Dear Family,
So, it is Tuesday morning. Like always, no emails on holidays for missionaries because the libraries decide to close at every chance they get. For today I am hanging out with the Zone Leaders. A new transfer is upon us and like aforementioned, my companion, Elder Wheeler is going home. He is now on his way to catch the transfer bus up to Lubbock where he will fly home tomorrow morning. My Spanish companion, Elder Frederick, also got transferred and left with Elder Wheeler an hour ago. So I am companionless until tomorrow afternoon, which is why I am with the Zone Leaders right now. All that I know about my new companion is that his name is Elder Pitts, he has been out for 4 1/2 months, and he is a bigger guy.
So reflecting back, 6 weeks ago, when I first got to Roswell, we (the member that gave us the ride from Hobbs to Roswell) pulled up to my new apartment and waited for 10 minutes or so for my new companion, Elder Wheeler, to show up. When Elder Wheeler arrived, the first thing he told me is to get my scriptures and come with him to an appointment that we had right then. I was surprised at the sudden notion of being put right to work the very moment I got to my new area, but wasn't about to argue. The appointment was with a single mother named Marina Cobb where we taught her the first lesson, the message of the restoration. Great story. As to why I bring that up is that on Sunday, the last day of Elder Droge's 13th transfer, Marina and her kids were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after being baptized the day before. Interesting coincidence. Meet her the first real day of the transfer, confirm her the very last. It's not very often that I get to say that. It was quite a glorious weekend seeing the Cobb family enter their new life as members of Christ's kingdom here on earth. Elder Wheeler and I stood as the 2 witnesses to the baptisms, so I got to see it happen up close. That was fun. I was invited to confirm Marina, that's the third time I've done that on my mission. Lastly, Marina's oldest son Eli, 12 years old, received the Aaronic Priesthood right after church. It's great to end a transfer with 4 baptisms. Momentum is on our side here in Roswell and now I will be assuming the role of senior companion after spending the last 6 weeks as a co-senior with Elder Wheeler. I'm hoping and praying that I will be able to continue what Elder Wheeler and I started. I could use your prayers as well as I set out on this newly opened chapter of my mission. That's all I have for this week. Peace Out!
Oh, and yes, for those people who are statistically minded and are intrigued by numbers, I am now in the double digits with baptisms. 11 is the official number. The last six years the average has been 2 per year per missionary and now look what is happening. That average is increasing dramatically as I am but one of the many to have numbers like these. The Lord has worked wonders here in the TLM. I give all the credit to him.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So, it is Tuesday morning. Like always, no emails on holidays for missionaries because the libraries decide to close at every chance they get. For today I am hanging out with the Zone Leaders. A new transfer is upon us and like aforementioned, my companion, Elder Wheeler is going home. He is now on his way to catch the transfer bus up to Lubbock where he will fly home tomorrow morning. My Spanish companion, Elder Frederick, also got transferred and left with Elder Wheeler an hour ago. So I am companionless until tomorrow afternoon, which is why I am with the Zone Leaders right now. All that I know about my new companion is that his name is Elder Pitts, he has been out for 4 1/2 months, and he is a bigger guy.
So reflecting back, 6 weeks ago, when I first got to Roswell, we (the member that gave us the ride from Hobbs to Roswell) pulled up to my new apartment and waited for 10 minutes or so for my new companion, Elder Wheeler, to show up. When Elder Wheeler arrived, the first thing he told me is to get my scriptures and come with him to an appointment that we had right then. I was surprised at the sudden notion of being put right to work the very moment I got to my new area, but wasn't about to argue. The appointment was with a single mother named Marina Cobb where we taught her the first lesson, the message of the restoration. Great story. As to why I bring that up is that on Sunday, the last day of Elder Droge's 13th transfer, Marina and her kids were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after being baptized the day before. Interesting coincidence. Meet her the first real day of the transfer, confirm her the very last. It's not very often that I get to say that. It was quite a glorious weekend seeing the Cobb family enter their new life as members of Christ's kingdom here on earth. Elder Wheeler and I stood as the 2 witnesses to the baptisms, so I got to see it happen up close. That was fun. I was invited to confirm Marina, that's the third time I've done that on my mission. Lastly, Marina's oldest son Eli, 12 years old, received the Aaronic Priesthood right after church. It's great to end a transfer with 4 baptisms. Momentum is on our side here in Roswell and now I will be assuming the role of senior companion after spending the last 6 weeks as a co-senior with Elder Wheeler. I'm hoping and praying that I will be able to continue what Elder Wheeler and I started. I could use your prayers as well as I set out on this newly opened chapter of my mission. That's all I have for this week. Peace Out!
Oh, and yes, for those people who are statistically minded and are intrigued by numbers, I am now in the double digits with baptisms. 11 is the official number. The last six years the average has been 2 per year per missionary and now look what is happening. That average is increasing dramatically as I am but one of the many to have numbers like these. The Lord has worked wonders here in the TLM. I give all the credit to him.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, August 31, 2009
Letter 8-31-09
Dear Family,
Not a whole lot of drama this week. It has been interesting being with our new Spanish companion. We get to go to Spanish church in addition to regular church. They have a one hour sacrament meeting in the chapel right after the regular block. I was hoping that I would be given the gift of tongues to help me understand what they were saying. Didn't happen. I had to force myself to stay awake for an hour. I don't think my attention span is that long, but it's all good. We've also taught a few Spanish lessons as well. I say we, but really it's all Elder Frederick. Elder Wheeler and I sit around looking pretty while Elder Frederick teaches. No gift of tongues there either. Same thing happened when I had a sign language companion in Big Spring. I always felt a little useless, but that's ok. There must be a reason I was called to speak English.
So on my mission I have talked to a lot of people from a lot of different religions and it has taught me a lot. But after all this time being out and talking to people, there is one variety of religions that I had not yet met until this past week when I was able to check it off the list. Visiting a breakoff from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Joseph Smith died, there was a big dispute as to who would be the next prophet. When it was determined that Brigham Young was to be the next prophet, there were several people that didn't like that and went off and created their own religion. One of those peoples was James Strang. He claimed that he was to be the next prophet and when he wasn't, he went off and formed the Strangites. I had not heard of them until I met a couple here in Roswell this past week that are members. They claim that James Strang had a divine revelation/vision just like Joseph Smith and was also able to translate new scripture known as the Book of the Law. This lady we talked with offered us to look at it next time we visit, which would be very interesting. A few of the things she did mention was that they do not believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary. They do not believe that being sealed is a necessary thing for entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. They believe in the Book of Mormon, but not the Doctrine and Covenants. They claim they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but I noticed that they have strayed greatly from the things that Joseph Smith has taught. They do not have a prophet anymore. He died a while ago, so for now they go by the authority of the presiding High Priest. They believe that every prophet will be called the same exact way that Joseph Smith was called, so I don't know how soon they will get a new one. The one thing that stood out to me was that she mentioned that there is only 400 Strangites left in the world and that number is declining. Joseph Smith prophesied that this church would fill North and South America and eventually the whole world. The church that Brigham Young was prophet over is now 13.5 million strong and increasing. You'd think that would be a sign to her, wouldn't you? Oh well. We haven't started teaching yet, so I don't know where this will go, but it will be interesting.
So that is the big news for this week. This coming Saturday, the 5th of September, Marina Cobb and her 3 kids, Eli, Lucas, and Amber, will be baptized. They are all set and ready. I am way excited to see a family come in to the church. It will be a first for me on my mission. I'll let you know how it goes. But until then, have a great week as we are fixin' to jump into Septmeber this week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Not a whole lot of drama this week. It has been interesting being with our new Spanish companion. We get to go to Spanish church in addition to regular church. They have a one hour sacrament meeting in the chapel right after the regular block. I was hoping that I would be given the gift of tongues to help me understand what they were saying. Didn't happen. I had to force myself to stay awake for an hour. I don't think my attention span is that long, but it's all good. We've also taught a few Spanish lessons as well. I say we, but really it's all Elder Frederick. Elder Wheeler and I sit around looking pretty while Elder Frederick teaches. No gift of tongues there either. Same thing happened when I had a sign language companion in Big Spring. I always felt a little useless, but that's ok. There must be a reason I was called to speak English.
So on my mission I have talked to a lot of people from a lot of different religions and it has taught me a lot. But after all this time being out and talking to people, there is one variety of religions that I had not yet met until this past week when I was able to check it off the list. Visiting a breakoff from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Joseph Smith died, there was a big dispute as to who would be the next prophet. When it was determined that Brigham Young was to be the next prophet, there were several people that didn't like that and went off and created their own religion. One of those peoples was James Strang. He claimed that he was to be the next prophet and when he wasn't, he went off and formed the Strangites. I had not heard of them until I met a couple here in Roswell this past week that are members. They claim that James Strang had a divine revelation/vision just like Joseph Smith and was also able to translate new scripture known as the Book of the Law. This lady we talked with offered us to look at it next time we visit, which would be very interesting. A few of the things she did mention was that they do not believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary. They do not believe that being sealed is a necessary thing for entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. They believe in the Book of Mormon, but not the Doctrine and Covenants. They claim they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but I noticed that they have strayed greatly from the things that Joseph Smith has taught. They do not have a prophet anymore. He died a while ago, so for now they go by the authority of the presiding High Priest. They believe that every prophet will be called the same exact way that Joseph Smith was called, so I don't know how soon they will get a new one. The one thing that stood out to me was that she mentioned that there is only 400 Strangites left in the world and that number is declining. Joseph Smith prophesied that this church would fill North and South America and eventually the whole world. The church that Brigham Young was prophet over is now 13.5 million strong and increasing. You'd think that would be a sign to her, wouldn't you? Oh well. We haven't started teaching yet, so I don't know where this will go, but it will be interesting.
So that is the big news for this week. This coming Saturday, the 5th of September, Marina Cobb and her 3 kids, Eli, Lucas, and Amber, will be baptized. They are all set and ready. I am way excited to see a family come in to the church. It will be a first for me on my mission. I'll let you know how it goes. But until then, have a great week as we are fixin' to jump into Septmeber this week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, August 24, 2009
Letter 8-24-09
Dear Family,
Good news for this week. First off, Friday was a very good day. It was the day we celebrated Doubling Baptisms. The whole mission got together in Lubbock. Because of the large area that we cover in this mission, that was the first time the TLM got together like that. We took a professional picture in front of the Lubbock Temple. All of us will get a copy. That will be a great memoir. It was really good to see all the missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. One of the highlights is when our MTC district, the 4 of us that came to Texas anyway, was reunited for the first time since the first day out in the field. It was also the last time because Sister Moyes, our MTC-TLM sister finishes up her mission in two weeks, having just hit 18 months last week. I still refuse to accept the fact that I've been out a year and a half now, so we just won't talk about it. Almost all of my companions have gone home now, so I wasn't able to talk with them in Lubbock, but that's ok. I visited with the ones that are still alive.
So, moving on to the next day, no freak accidents happened to Shameka Hill this week. She was baptized into the church on Saturday. It is always a great feeling to witness one of your investigators coming closer to Christ through baptism. The pinnacle of missionary work. For those interested in knowing how many that is now, I know Joe was curious about that in his letter. Shameka was number 7 for me. Before this transfer is up, I will also be getting numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11. Marina Cobb and her three kids, Eli (12), Lucas (11), and Amberly (8) have now been taught everything and were interviewed for baptism yesterday and passed. We were going to do it this week, but some of her family requested to do it next Saturday, September 5th, so they could have some time to prepare and get everyone there, so that is what we will do. I could also get number 12 sometime soon. Charlie Harper, the guy who broke his leg, could potentially get baptized soon. We've heard stories here recently of people getting baptized with a broken leg. One guy a few months ago got baptized with no legs, so it is possible.
So, before I sign off, two small items of news. Last week I sent another photo CD - Eastland part 4. If it isn't there already, it should get there today or tomorrow, so keep your eyes open and contact the Droge household in Bountiful to see the pictures. Last item of news, Elder Wheeler and I were given a new companion. Elder Andrew Frederick of Los Angeles, California has joined us for the remainder of the transfer, which is two more weeks. He is a spanish missionary that was serving in the other side of Roswell, and ran into a rough situation with his own companion, so is now with us until he gets a new one at the beginning of the transfer. It'll be fun. He is very analytical like myself and very detailed and eloquent in the way he does things. Both Elder Wheeler and I get along with him very well. Elder Wheeler even served with him for a transfer a few months back. So that is all for now. Peace Out All!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Good news for this week. First off, Friday was a very good day. It was the day we celebrated Doubling Baptisms. The whole mission got together in Lubbock. Because of the large area that we cover in this mission, that was the first time the TLM got together like that. We took a professional picture in front of the Lubbock Temple. All of us will get a copy. That will be a great memoir. It was really good to see all the missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. One of the highlights is when our MTC district, the 4 of us that came to Texas anyway, was reunited for the first time since the first day out in the field. It was also the last time because Sister Moyes, our MTC-TLM sister finishes up her mission in two weeks, having just hit 18 months last week. I still refuse to accept the fact that I've been out a year and a half now, so we just won't talk about it. Almost all of my companions have gone home now, so I wasn't able to talk with them in Lubbock, but that's ok. I visited with the ones that are still alive.
So, moving on to the next day, no freak accidents happened to Shameka Hill this week. She was baptized into the church on Saturday. It is always a great feeling to witness one of your investigators coming closer to Christ through baptism. The pinnacle of missionary work. For those interested in knowing how many that is now, I know Joe was curious about that in his letter. Shameka was number 7 for me. Before this transfer is up, I will also be getting numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11. Marina Cobb and her three kids, Eli (12), Lucas (11), and Amberly (8) have now been taught everything and were interviewed for baptism yesterday and passed. We were going to do it this week, but some of her family requested to do it next Saturday, September 5th, so they could have some time to prepare and get everyone there, so that is what we will do. I could also get number 12 sometime soon. Charlie Harper, the guy who broke his leg, could potentially get baptized soon. We've heard stories here recently of people getting baptized with a broken leg. One guy a few months ago got baptized with no legs, so it is possible.
So, before I sign off, two small items of news. Last week I sent another photo CD - Eastland part 4. If it isn't there already, it should get there today or tomorrow, so keep your eyes open and contact the Droge household in Bountiful to see the pictures. Last item of news, Elder Wheeler and I were given a new companion. Elder Andrew Frederick of Los Angeles, California has joined us for the remainder of the transfer, which is two more weeks. He is a spanish missionary that was serving in the other side of Roswell, and ran into a rough situation with his own companion, so is now with us until he gets a new one at the beginning of the transfer. It'll be fun. He is very analytical like myself and very detailed and eloquent in the way he does things. Both Elder Wheeler and I get along with him very well. Elder Wheeler even served with him for a transfer a few months back. So that is all for now. Peace Out All!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 8-17-09
Dear Family,
So I have to start out by warning everyone. Satan is loose. Last week, he came in the form of a horse. If you remember, last week I talked about several people that are doing well and progressing towards baptism. The first up was Charlie Harper. Charlie had his interview on Sunday and was all set and fired up to get baptized on Saturday. Well, Charlie is 85 years old and is a horse trainer. Thursday rolled around and Charlie was working with his horses and he let one out of the gate. As he was working with it, the horse slipped in some mud and fell right on Charlie's leg. It gave him a compound fracture between his ankle and knee. He went in for surgery that day and we went in and visited him Friday in the hospital. I was quite amazed at his attitude. Even though he had a huge cast on that was very bloody and couldn't walk, he still wanted to get baptized the next day. We told him it would probably be best to wait because we don't want to submerge that cast in the water and we would like to have him be able to stand a little bit. There was a guy in Hobbs, New Mexico who had no legs, but was baptized. If that is possible, we can baptize a guy with a broken leg, but it would be best to wait a few weeks. Charlie said that he thinks the Lord will understand and he will tell him in his prayers, but yet he doesn't want to wait too long because as he says, he may not have a whole lot of time left. So all is well, just a slight setback.
This week though, we do have a baptism. I mentioned Shameka Hill. Since I wrote last we talked about baptism and she committed to be baptized on the 22nd. She had her interview Sunday after church and passed and is very excited and ready. That is a great lesson. It only took her 3 weeks. That is what happens when you take us seriously. She dove into the Book of Mormon. Not just reading it, but studying and pondering about it. She says her prayers everyday and has loved going to church these last 2 days.
All is going well. Marina Cobb and family are doing well. We have taught them almost everything. They are scheduled for sometime early in september or late august. We just have to get a time planned out with her brother-in-law, who is a member that she wants to baptism them. He is always working, but has the first weekend in September off, which works well because that is the weekend before my companion Elder Wheeler goes home. Good way to end a mission for him. Anyways, I am signing off. Take it easy all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So I have to start out by warning everyone. Satan is loose. Last week, he came in the form of a horse. If you remember, last week I talked about several people that are doing well and progressing towards baptism. The first up was Charlie Harper. Charlie had his interview on Sunday and was all set and fired up to get baptized on Saturday. Well, Charlie is 85 years old and is a horse trainer. Thursday rolled around and Charlie was working with his horses and he let one out of the gate. As he was working with it, the horse slipped in some mud and fell right on Charlie's leg. It gave him a compound fracture between his ankle and knee. He went in for surgery that day and we went in and visited him Friday in the hospital. I was quite amazed at his attitude. Even though he had a huge cast on that was very bloody and couldn't walk, he still wanted to get baptized the next day. We told him it would probably be best to wait because we don't want to submerge that cast in the water and we would like to have him be able to stand a little bit. There was a guy in Hobbs, New Mexico who had no legs, but was baptized. If that is possible, we can baptize a guy with a broken leg, but it would be best to wait a few weeks. Charlie said that he thinks the Lord will understand and he will tell him in his prayers, but yet he doesn't want to wait too long because as he says, he may not have a whole lot of time left. So all is well, just a slight setback.
This week though, we do have a baptism. I mentioned Shameka Hill. Since I wrote last we talked about baptism and she committed to be baptized on the 22nd. She had her interview Sunday after church and passed and is very excited and ready. That is a great lesson. It only took her 3 weeks. That is what happens when you take us seriously. She dove into the Book of Mormon. Not just reading it, but studying and pondering about it. She says her prayers everyday and has loved going to church these last 2 days.
All is going well. Marina Cobb and family are doing well. We have taught them almost everything. They are scheduled for sometime early in september or late august. We just have to get a time planned out with her brother-in-law, who is a member that she wants to baptism them. He is always working, but has the first weekend in September off, which works well because that is the weekend before my companion Elder Wheeler goes home. Good way to end a mission for him. Anyways, I am signing off. Take it easy all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 8-10-09
Dear Family,
First things first – I responded to Joe in a personal email, but I am not sure if he got it. Joe wondered if I knew his friend’s older brother, Braden Child. The answer is yes. I didn’t know him very well on a personal level, but I definitely know who he is. Small world, eh? Someone pass that on.
So the Roswell saga starts with some very good news. I am surprised at the production that we have going. I talked about the mission doubling baptisms. Well, Elder Droge has seen 5 baptisms on his mission. He credits himself with 6 because one of his investigators got baptized a week after him being transferred. Well, 2 weeks into Roswell and Elder Droge has 5 people getting baptized in the month of August, with a possibility of 6 happening. Elder Droge is going to double his own baptisms. How fun.
The first one is an inspiring story. The previous Elders were in an area and had a prompting to go to a certain house. When they walked up and to their surprise they ran into a older member who is a recent convert of 2 years out working in the barn with his nonmember, 85 year old brother, Charlie Harper. Normally older people are very hard headed and resistant to change, but not this time. They Elders started teaching him and then I came in with to continue. Charlie is very excited about getting baptized and has a strong testimony. He passed his interview yesterday and is excited for his baptism this Saturday.
Next story comes with Marina Cobb. Marina is in her early 30s. She was previously married to a less active member and had the missionary lessons several times in the past. Well, she is now divorced, but a week or so before I got there she attended the baptism of a person in her family and was inspired. The missionaries talked to her and got a return appointment. That return appointment was literally 10 minutes after I got to Roswell. I got out, the Zone Leaders grabbed my stuff, I got my scriptures, and my companion said get in the car, we have an appointment. With no arguing, I went and we taught Marina the first lesson. I don’t quite know what the difference was this time around, but she’s fully commited to baptism. Not only her, though, but her 3 kids are as well. Eli - 12, Lucas – 11, and Amberley – 8. It will be great to see a whole family come into the gospel.
Last story is a young lady named Shameka Hill. Shameka doesn’t have a baptismal date, but she is reading the Book of Mormon and came to church yesterday. From what I have seen, people who do both of those things progress quite quickly. Shameka is a friend of a recent convert of one month. Shameka moved in with that friend right after I got here and was immediately open to hearing our message. We have finished the first two lessons.
So that is the story of this week, way fun stuff. We did have another guy who was going to get baptized, but I told him that Satan believes in Jesus (true doctrine, read James 2 – Satan doesn’t have faith, but he knows that Jesus is the Son of God) and apparently he took it the wrong way and instead of bringing it up, he decided to hold it in and got angry about it when we were gone and now doesn’t want to talk with us. How sad. Oh, well, those things happen. You just gotta move on. Just like me with this letter. Peace out all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
First things first – I responded to Joe in a personal email, but I am not sure if he got it. Joe wondered if I knew his friend’s older brother, Braden Child. The answer is yes. I didn’t know him very well on a personal level, but I definitely know who he is. Small world, eh? Someone pass that on.
So the Roswell saga starts with some very good news. I am surprised at the production that we have going. I talked about the mission doubling baptisms. Well, Elder Droge has seen 5 baptisms on his mission. He credits himself with 6 because one of his investigators got baptized a week after him being transferred. Well, 2 weeks into Roswell and Elder Droge has 5 people getting baptized in the month of August, with a possibility of 6 happening. Elder Droge is going to double his own baptisms. How fun.
The first one is an inspiring story. The previous Elders were in an area and had a prompting to go to a certain house. When they walked up and to their surprise they ran into a older member who is a recent convert of 2 years out working in the barn with his nonmember, 85 year old brother, Charlie Harper. Normally older people are very hard headed and resistant to change, but not this time. They Elders started teaching him and then I came in with to continue. Charlie is very excited about getting baptized and has a strong testimony. He passed his interview yesterday and is excited for his baptism this Saturday.
Next story comes with Marina Cobb. Marina is in her early 30s. She was previously married to a less active member and had the missionary lessons several times in the past. Well, she is now divorced, but a week or so before I got there she attended the baptism of a person in her family and was inspired. The missionaries talked to her and got a return appointment. That return appointment was literally 10 minutes after I got to Roswell. I got out, the Zone Leaders grabbed my stuff, I got my scriptures, and my companion said get in the car, we have an appointment. With no arguing, I went and we taught Marina the first lesson. I don’t quite know what the difference was this time around, but she’s fully commited to baptism. Not only her, though, but her 3 kids are as well. Eli - 12, Lucas – 11, and Amberley – 8. It will be great to see a whole family come into the gospel.
Last story is a young lady named Shameka Hill. Shameka doesn’t have a baptismal date, but she is reading the Book of Mormon and came to church yesterday. From what I have seen, people who do both of those things progress quite quickly. Shameka is a friend of a recent convert of one month. Shameka moved in with that friend right after I got here and was immediately open to hearing our message. We have finished the first two lessons.
So that is the story of this week, way fun stuff. We did have another guy who was going to get baptized, but I told him that Satan believes in Jesus (true doctrine, read James 2 – Satan doesn’t have faith, but he knows that Jesus is the Son of God) and apparently he took it the wrong way and instead of bringing it up, he decided to hold it in and got angry about it when we were gone and now doesn’t want to talk with us. How sad. Oh, well, those things happen. You just gotta move on. Just like me with this letter. Peace out all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, August 3, 2009
Letter 8-3-09
Dear family,
So I told you that some interesting things were going to happen this week. I want to start off by giving a scripture:
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he that upon the children of men? For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens. And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." -Moroni 7:27-29
In 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley issued the commission to double the baptisms in the mission. From the conception of the Texas Lubbock Mission in 2002 through 2008, the TLM dwindled at a mere 20 baptisms a month. In November of last year, Elder Kevin W Pearson of the first quorum of the seventy paid a visited and chastised us, reissuing the commission given by President Hinckley. Many missionaries, including myself, with President Robison being the most important, were inspired and the TLM has been shooting to double baptisms ever since. We set a goal for 35 baptisms as a stepping stone for 40. If you remember, in June we topped that, hitting 38 baptisms for the month. We celebrated that and set the goal for 40. Well, last Monday, President sent an email telling us that the mission had baptized 38 people so far in July. There were 5 days left and 2 to 5 were scheduled for baptism before the months end. The goal was in sight. On Thursday, July 30th, we hit number 39. One day left. The next day, on Friday the 31st of July at 6:30 PM in Canyon, Texas, the 40th person of the month was baptized. We did it. Just as Mormon says, miracles have not ceased. Who would've thought that a mission in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, full of a heard-hearted and stiff-necked people could ever accomplish such a great task. I am grateful to have witnessed this miracle. We have done. We have double baptized. Now the goal is to continue upward and onward.
The other interesting news of the week is that this last week was transfer week. Last Sunday in Eastland, my companion Elder Reed received his senior companion call. I pretty much knew that my time in Eastland was up and that was affirmed Monday morning. After a total of 9 great months in Eastland, I have left. I will miss that place. A lot of great memories with a lot of great people. Tuesday morning, I got on the bus and took a 5 to 6 hour bus ride where I was dropped off in New Mexico. From the transfer site I drove with a member for 2 hours to my new area. Roswell, New Mexico. The UFO capital of the United States, full of a bunch of crazy people. My new companion refers to this place as the Babylon of the mission. Drugs, crime, rape, and murder are through the roof. 8 months ago someone was killed outside our apartment complex. A few weeks ago there were 6 deaths in one weekend. Last week, we walked up to a young girl, asked her how she was. Her response, 'Not very good. I was raped last night and my homeboy doesn't even care.' Oh dear, where have they sent me? On top of that, the town is 50,000 people big with 2 wards. I'm back in a big city with a big ward. I feel lost right now. I got quite comfortable serving in small towns and in small branches for this past year. My new companion is named Elder Dave Wheeler. He is 6'7 and 300 pounds. That is big, but he started out at 420 pounds when he came out, so he is doing good. He goes home at the end of this transfer and is very trunky. He reminds me several times a day that he is going home in a month. It is quite bothersome, but I'll make it through. We are in a co-senior companionship. That I don't mind. It's nice having 2 experienced missionaries teaching. Anyways, I have to go, but I'll leave with my new address.
Elder Adam R Droge
112 E 23rd St #11
Roswell, NM 88201
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So I told you that some interesting things were going to happen this week. I want to start off by giving a scripture:
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he that upon the children of men? For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens. And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." -Moroni 7:27-29
In 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley issued the commission to double the baptisms in the mission. From the conception of the Texas Lubbock Mission in 2002 through 2008, the TLM dwindled at a mere 20 baptisms a month. In November of last year, Elder Kevin W Pearson of the first quorum of the seventy paid a visited and chastised us, reissuing the commission given by President Hinckley. Many missionaries, including myself, with President Robison being the most important, were inspired and the TLM has been shooting to double baptisms ever since. We set a goal for 35 baptisms as a stepping stone for 40. If you remember, in June we topped that, hitting 38 baptisms for the month. We celebrated that and set the goal for 40. Well, last Monday, President sent an email telling us that the mission had baptized 38 people so far in July. There were 5 days left and 2 to 5 were scheduled for baptism before the months end. The goal was in sight. On Thursday, July 30th, we hit number 39. One day left. The next day, on Friday the 31st of July at 6:30 PM in Canyon, Texas, the 40th person of the month was baptized. We did it. Just as Mormon says, miracles have not ceased. Who would've thought that a mission in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, full of a heard-hearted and stiff-necked people could ever accomplish such a great task. I am grateful to have witnessed this miracle. We have done. We have double baptized. Now the goal is to continue upward and onward.
The other interesting news of the week is that this last week was transfer week. Last Sunday in Eastland, my companion Elder Reed received his senior companion call. I pretty much knew that my time in Eastland was up and that was affirmed Monday morning. After a total of 9 great months in Eastland, I have left. I will miss that place. A lot of great memories with a lot of great people. Tuesday morning, I got on the bus and took a 5 to 6 hour bus ride where I was dropped off in New Mexico. From the transfer site I drove with a member for 2 hours to my new area. Roswell, New Mexico. The UFO capital of the United States, full of a bunch of crazy people. My new companion refers to this place as the Babylon of the mission. Drugs, crime, rape, and murder are through the roof. 8 months ago someone was killed outside our apartment complex. A few weeks ago there were 6 deaths in one weekend. Last week, we walked up to a young girl, asked her how she was. Her response, 'Not very good. I was raped last night and my homeboy doesn't even care.' Oh dear, where have they sent me? On top of that, the town is 50,000 people big with 2 wards. I'm back in a big city with a big ward. I feel lost right now. I got quite comfortable serving in small towns and in small branches for this past year. My new companion is named Elder Dave Wheeler. He is 6'7 and 300 pounds. That is big, but he started out at 420 pounds when he came out, so he is doing good. He goes home at the end of this transfer and is very trunky. He reminds me several times a day that he is going home in a month. It is quite bothersome, but I'll make it through. We are in a co-senior companionship. That I don't mind. It's nice having 2 experienced missionaries teaching. Anyways, I have to go, but I'll leave with my new address.
Elder Adam R Droge
112 E 23rd St #11
Roswell, NM 88201
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Letter 7-27-09
Dear Family,
Well this last week there were no hang-ups with the baptism. Michael Blakeley was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We confirmed him yesterday. He will be a great addition to the Eastland Branch, which has been starving for priesthood holders. The cool thing was that his wife Melody was there to support him both on Sunday and on Saturday. I don’t think she was ever against the church, we just always went over and because Michael loves talking, I believe that she got the impression that we were there for him and not for her and always managed to dodge us. I believe that now that the spotlight in a sense is off Michael that she will follow his example and want to talk with the missionaries. Good things lie in store for this area.
So I had a weird question that was on my mind that almost disturbed me. Maybe scared is a better word, but you get the point. I remembered that everyone who enters into a degree of glory will have their sins forgiven. God is a loving God and will save as many of his creations as possible. Even those who enter into the Telestial Kingdom will have their sins forgiven eventually, after they suffer the penalty of their sins in spirit prison and later accept Jesus as their savior. With that said, I was reading through the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood in D&C 84 and I came across the scripture that said that those who break this oath shall not have forgiveness of their sins in this life or in the next. Whoa. If it says in one revelation that upon entering into a degree of glory your sins are forgiven and in this one that if you break the oath and covenant you will not receive forgiveness in this life, does that mean that those who break the oath and covenant will become sons of perdition? I didn’t find a definite answer, so I planned on asking it in email, but on Saturday we had to go fill up the font and that took a while, so we had a lot of extra time alone at the church. Well, I decided to dive into the church library to find an answer and I got it from a guy who I have decided is the smartest man in the history of the church. Joseph Fielding Smith. Doctrines of Salvation. If you haven’t read those three volumes, I’d highly suggest it. I plan on it when I get home. He talks about every point of doctrine, whether deep or shallow and simplifies it, making it very easy to understand. He talked a lot about the oath and the covenant and spent a considerable amount of time on my specific question. I felt like he was talking right to me. He said very clearly, with emphasis marked, that that scripture that stumped me does NOT mean we will become sons of perdition. It means that if we break the oath and covenant and don’t repent in this life, then we will not be able to regain that priesthood and gain a fullness of exaltation, but for everything else, we will be forgiven. That made perfect sense to me, so I thought I’d share.
But anyways, I am signing off for this week. Interesting things will happen this week in a few different matters, so make sure you stay tuned next week. Peace out All!!!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well this last week there were no hang-ups with the baptism. Michael Blakeley was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We confirmed him yesterday. He will be a great addition to the Eastland Branch, which has been starving for priesthood holders. The cool thing was that his wife Melody was there to support him both on Sunday and on Saturday. I don’t think she was ever against the church, we just always went over and because Michael loves talking, I believe that she got the impression that we were there for him and not for her and always managed to dodge us. I believe that now that the spotlight in a sense is off Michael that she will follow his example and want to talk with the missionaries. Good things lie in store for this area.
So I had a weird question that was on my mind that almost disturbed me. Maybe scared is a better word, but you get the point. I remembered that everyone who enters into a degree of glory will have their sins forgiven. God is a loving God and will save as many of his creations as possible. Even those who enter into the Telestial Kingdom will have their sins forgiven eventually, after they suffer the penalty of their sins in spirit prison and later accept Jesus as their savior. With that said, I was reading through the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood in D&C 84 and I came across the scripture that said that those who break this oath shall not have forgiveness of their sins in this life or in the next. Whoa. If it says in one revelation that upon entering into a degree of glory your sins are forgiven and in this one that if you break the oath and covenant you will not receive forgiveness in this life, does that mean that those who break the oath and covenant will become sons of perdition? I didn’t find a definite answer, so I planned on asking it in email, but on Saturday we had to go fill up the font and that took a while, so we had a lot of extra time alone at the church. Well, I decided to dive into the church library to find an answer and I got it from a guy who I have decided is the smartest man in the history of the church. Joseph Fielding Smith. Doctrines of Salvation. If you haven’t read those three volumes, I’d highly suggest it. I plan on it when I get home. He talks about every point of doctrine, whether deep or shallow and simplifies it, making it very easy to understand. He talked a lot about the oath and the covenant and spent a considerable amount of time on my specific question. I felt like he was talking right to me. He said very clearly, with emphasis marked, that that scripture that stumped me does NOT mean we will become sons of perdition. It means that if we break the oath and covenant and don’t repent in this life, then we will not be able to regain that priesthood and gain a fullness of exaltation, but for everything else, we will be forgiven. That made perfect sense to me, so I thought I’d share.
But anyways, I am signing off for this week. Interesting things will happen this week in a few different matters, so make sure you stay tuned next week. Peace out All!!!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Letter 7-20-09
Dear Family,
In follow up from last week, Michael Blakeley is all set to get baptized. We finished teaching him everything and had his interview, which he passed, so this Saturday we’ll be having another baptism here in Eastland. Really his only holdup was the idea of modern-day prophets. We showed him the scripture in Ephesians 2:19-20 and Ephesians 4:11-14 and that showed him that Christ’s church is led by prophets, so it got him over that one stumbling block, which made me happy. From the first time we met him back in February, I felt that he could be Eastland’s next branch president. Now that he will be a member, that first impression could very well be possible in the future, given the lack of priesthood here, but hey, lets take it one step at a time. Thanks for all your prayers on the matter. I know that that helped quite a bit.
Honestly, there is not much else to discuss, just another week that has come and gone. Spiritual thought of the day. The high councilmen came and spoke in church in Sunday. One thing that he taught stuck out. He said he’s been on many disciplinary councils and out of all of them there has been no one that he has talked to that said that they read their scriptures everyday. I think that Elder Bednar once said that if you read your scriptures everyday, you will never go inactive. There is a reason for that. Gospel study is vital to our everyday lives. Like Alma says, we need to nourish the tree or it will wither away and die. That can happen to anyone if we slack off on the basics of reading, praying, and attending our meetings. Something to stew on. Have a great week everyone!
Oh, and by the way, Happy Half Birthday to me tomorrow! Yay!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 7-13-09
Dear family,
So I opened the mailbox this last Thursday and what do I find? A letter from Joe. As I read, something felt a little wrong. Then I got it. It was dated July 27, 2008. That was last year. How in the world did that happen? Oh, well. I hope that’s a first time and last time thing. I would hate it if there were several letters written that took a whole year to make it to me.
So this is a historic time in the Texas Lubbock Mission. If you remember, last November, a stud seventy named Elder Pearson came to our mission and reissued President Hinckley’s commission to double baptize. That was quite the challenge, being that since the conception of this mission, back in 2002, we have averaged 20 baptisms a month. Hitting an average of 40 would be quite the task, but we took it on. A couple of Zone Conferences ago, after having hit 30 baptisms as an average since Elder Pearson left, we set a goal to hit 35, a stepping stone to 40. Well, in June, as a mission, we got 38 people baptized and that pushed our average just above our goal of 35. President Robison being the great fun person he is, decided that we needed to celebrate this occasion and so last week we had a combined zone party over in my former area of Midland, Texas. Great times. Now the quest is on. The goal is 40 and it is just around the corner. I am excited.
In concordance with this, Eastland plans on contributing to this quest to meet President Hinckley’s call. There is a 41 year old guy named Michael Blakeley that we have been working with for a while now. We knocked on his door back in February and have been teaching him on and off since then. He is a great guy. Some would call him a dry mormon because everything that he believes is pretty much what we believe, we have been just trying to help him connect the dots. He loves talking and has a crazy gift that most people wouldn’t understand. They would call it psychic powers, probably like what Lamoni was thinking when Ammon read his mind. I rightfully call it the gift of discernment. Our first visit was crazy. At the end of our lesson Michael gave me some great advice. He pretty much told me that I had a hard time with rejection and often get flustered when things don’t happen the way I expect. He told me not to worry about because I am doing the Lord’s work. I was rather shocked. I hadn’t said anything about that. I felt like I was getting interviewed by my mission president, not an investigator that I had met for the first time. He was right on, though. I do have a problem with that. I hate it when I go through days, weeks, or months when nothing works out. I feel like Alma when he says he wishes that he was an angel and could shout repentance from the rooftops, yet I sin in that wish because I should be content with what I have been allotted. Anyways, Michael has been reading the Book of Mormon and has just started to come to church. I truly feel that he is beginning to see the light and we have set a baptismal date for the 25th of July. He is thinking about that hard. I feel it can happen and I would ask for your prayers for Michael to make it to that date. It would be nice to perform a little swan song dealy and get a 3rd baptism in Eastland before they finally boot me out, if that ever happens. Anyways, have a great week everyone!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Letter 7-6-09
Dear Family,
It is officially July and today Dad is 56 years old. I hope that everyone had a very good 4th of July. I’ll be honest and say that for me this past 4th of July will go down in history as one of the most boring ever. Holidays as missionaries aren’t that exciting. At least last year on the 4th they let us stay at a member’s home. This year we had to be in our apartment by 6 PM. We were allowed to go to other missionaries’ apartments until 8:30, but the closest one from Eastland is close to an hour away, so that would be a waste of miles. Out working was rough. There was no one that was home. They were all out celebrating and/ or felt more inclined to spend time with family on the 4th rather than mormon missionaries. How rude… I guess it wasn’t totally eventless. We spent lunch at a barbeque put on by a part-member family. But hey, even if nothing happens, it’s nice to have a day set aside to honor our country. I always remember reading from 1 Nephi where Nephi sees this land and how God fought on our side during the Revolutionary War and how Columbus was led by the spirit in his adventures towards finding this land. So, yes, Go USA! We sang the National Anthem in church on Sunday; that was fun. I heard that our little death spree continues with former NFL quarterback Steve McNair getting shot and killed. That was weird to hear. He had just barely retired when I left. Only in his late 30’s I’d imagine. Not much else happened this last week. We did get into an intense discussion with a Jehovah Witness guy. He was the one who tracted us out really. We were walking along in Breckenridge and he pulled over and asked if we wanted to do a Bible study with him. We didn’t want to feel hypocritical, so we accepted and wow. Talk about a religion that is in the dark. He was very knowledgeable about his religion and very nice, yet very cunning. He actually lived in Utah for 20 years, so he knew how to deal with mormons. We in our religion talk about not being pushy and teaching line upon line, that way people can find out for themselves. Nope, not for him. He was very pushy and threw it all at us at once when we asked some innocent questions about his beliefs. He spent the whole hour cunningly telling us how right he was and how wrong we were and compared us to the Pharisees, calling us vipers, just as he said Jesus did. He told us that we know absolutely nothing about the Bible and that we preach a different gospel because we don’t agree with him and we’ll be cursed for it. I wasn’t contentious and didn’t try to Bible bash, that doesn’t go anywhere, yet I didn’t remain perfectly silent. I had to defend my beliefs and try my best to help him see the light, but it didn’t really work. Oh well. What can you do? Just pray for the guy, I guess. Just be grateful that we are not Jehovah Witness at this time of year. They don’t celebrate the 4th. They believe that it is worshipping your country more than your God. To each his own, I guess. As for me and my house, we will honor our country because I know that without this country, we would not have freedom of religion and this church may not exist. God gave us this country and we should be grateful that we have it. That’s my Independence Day thoughts. Have a nice week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
It is officially July and today Dad is 56 years old. I hope that everyone had a very good 4th of July. I’ll be honest and say that for me this past 4th of July will go down in history as one of the most boring ever. Holidays as missionaries aren’t that exciting. At least last year on the 4th they let us stay at a member’s home. This year we had to be in our apartment by 6 PM. We were allowed to go to other missionaries’ apartments until 8:30, but the closest one from Eastland is close to an hour away, so that would be a waste of miles. Out working was rough. There was no one that was home. They were all out celebrating and/ or felt more inclined to spend time with family on the 4th rather than mormon missionaries. How rude… I guess it wasn’t totally eventless. We spent lunch at a barbeque put on by a part-member family. But hey, even if nothing happens, it’s nice to have a day set aside to honor our country. I always remember reading from 1 Nephi where Nephi sees this land and how God fought on our side during the Revolutionary War and how Columbus was led by the spirit in his adventures towards finding this land. So, yes, Go USA! We sang the National Anthem in church on Sunday; that was fun. I heard that our little death spree continues with former NFL quarterback Steve McNair getting shot and killed. That was weird to hear. He had just barely retired when I left. Only in his late 30’s I’d imagine. Not much else happened this last week. We did get into an intense discussion with a Jehovah Witness guy. He was the one who tracted us out really. We were walking along in Breckenridge and he pulled over and asked if we wanted to do a Bible study with him. We didn’t want to feel hypocritical, so we accepted and wow. Talk about a religion that is in the dark. He was very knowledgeable about his religion and very nice, yet very cunning. He actually lived in Utah for 20 years, so he knew how to deal with mormons. We in our religion talk about not being pushy and teaching line upon line, that way people can find out for themselves. Nope, not for him. He was very pushy and threw it all at us at once when we asked some innocent questions about his beliefs. He spent the whole hour cunningly telling us how right he was and how wrong we were and compared us to the Pharisees, calling us vipers, just as he said Jesus did. He told us that we know absolutely nothing about the Bible and that we preach a different gospel because we don’t agree with him and we’ll be cursed for it. I wasn’t contentious and didn’t try to Bible bash, that doesn’t go anywhere, yet I didn’t remain perfectly silent. I had to defend my beliefs and try my best to help him see the light, but it didn’t really work. Oh well. What can you do? Just pray for the guy, I guess. Just be grateful that we are not Jehovah Witness at this time of year. They don’t celebrate the 4th. They believe that it is worshipping your country more than your God. To each his own, I guess. As for me and my house, we will honor our country because I know that without this country, we would not have freedom of religion and this church may not exist. God gave us this country and we should be grateful that we have it. That’s my Independence Day thoughts. Have a nice week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, June 29, 2009
Letter 6-29-09
So apparently this last week is a popular week to die. We were in the parking lot at our branch president’s apartment in Breckenridge, putting our bikes on the bike rack, about to drive home, when our branch president, President May, walks out and tells us that Michael Jackson is dead. Elder Reed and I were both dumbstruck. That was shocking news. Then, later, Saturday night, we were informed by an investigator that Fara Fawcett (sp?) and Ed McMahon died. Wow, thought I. No, we weren’t done though. Apparently Billy Mays, the oxi-clean dude / inventor guy, got nailed in the head with something when his plane landed and died 2 days later. Interesting week. Surprisingly, the Billy Mays death surprises me more then the Michael Jackson death. Well, silver lining is that those four will soon be informed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be taught in the spirit world. How fun for them.
So we parked the other day and went out finding (tracting) in the ghetto when something funny happened. Apparently, some girl saw us park and decided to have a little fun with our car. We got back an hour or so later and discovered that the phrase ‘Jesus Loves You’ was written all over our windows. I got a kick out that. We washed our car last P-Day, like we always do, and it didn’t quite come out, so we have been stuck with it all week. This week is car inspections at Zone Conference, so hopefully we can get it out today, but if not, so be it. At least the vehicle coordinator will get a laugh before he marks us down.
So I have a very random, very unimportant question that jumped into my mind last week. It came when I was gazing at the first vision picture I have on my wall by my study desk. Every picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we see is depicted of them having a beard. I know that Christ probably did during his mortal ministry, just because that was the trend back then; it was kinda difficult to shave in my mind. Do you think they will have beards when we see them? Do you think that we will be allowed to have beards? If you look at any other picture of a heavenly messenger, none are ever drawn with beards. Puzzling thing. Only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Maybe that is why Jesus was selected as the savior. Out of all our father’s spirit children, Jesus was the only one who had a beard like our father. Hehe. On that note, I’ll sign off. Everyone have a nice week and a wonderful 4th of July on Saturday.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So we parked the other day and went out finding (tracting) in the ghetto when something funny happened. Apparently, some girl saw us park and decided to have a little fun with our car. We got back an hour or so later and discovered that the phrase ‘Jesus Loves You’ was written all over our windows. I got a kick out that. We washed our car last P-Day, like we always do, and it didn’t quite come out, so we have been stuck with it all week. This week is car inspections at Zone Conference, so hopefully we can get it out today, but if not, so be it. At least the vehicle coordinator will get a laugh before he marks us down.
So I have a very random, very unimportant question that jumped into my mind last week. It came when I was gazing at the first vision picture I have on my wall by my study desk. Every picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we see is depicted of them having a beard. I know that Christ probably did during his mortal ministry, just because that was the trend back then; it was kinda difficult to shave in my mind. Do you think they will have beards when we see them? Do you think that we will be allowed to have beards? If you look at any other picture of a heavenly messenger, none are ever drawn with beards. Puzzling thing. Only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Maybe that is why Jesus was selected as the savior. Out of all our father’s spirit children, Jesus was the only one who had a beard like our father. Hehe. On that note, I’ll sign off. Everyone have a nice week and a wonderful 4th of July on Saturday.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Letter 6-22-09
Dear Family,
Well another week has come and gone. This last Sunday, as I’m sure all of you know, was Father’s Day. Typically, holidays aren’t too big for missionaries, but it’s nice to have a special day where we can think of our fathers, even though we don’t get to call home on like we get to on Mother’s Day. Nothing too exciting happened, outside the fact that Elder Reed and I spoke in sacrament meeting here in Eastland. That’s happened several times here in Eastland. I think I have spoken 4 or 5 times since coming here last October. Joys of being missionaries in a small branch. This time I talked about a very good story that pertains well to fathers. Alma the younger went about destroying the church and was a very wicked and idolatrous man. What happened? He had a lovely visit from a friendly angel that kinda chastised him a little. Turns out that Alma decided not to argue and was born of God and spent the rest of his life as an amazing servant. Well, it’s not very often that something like that happens. There are a lot of wicked people on the earth and not too many get the opportunity of being chastised by angel from the other side of the veil. So why Alma? Well, in Mosiah 27, verse 12 I think, the angel clearly states that he came to convince Alma of the power of God because his father prayed with much faith that he would. That is a good lesson taught right there. Every one of us should learn from this great father. We have people we know that have strayed from the path or that have never got on the path and we are obligated to pray for them and help them out. We can’t just pray any old prayer. We have to pray with faith. Dad must’ve had a revelation of what story to send this past week because the one he sent went along perfectly and I actually used it in my talk. It’s about a story of a town that is about to die because of no rain. They all gather in to pray and rain comes. As they are celebrating they see a seven year old girl who had an umbrella. What’s the significance to that? Well, she had so much faith that she expected the rain to come, despite the circumstances, and thus brought an umbrella with her. That’s the type of faith we need to have. That is the type of faith that Alma Sr. had towards his son and because of it, a miracle happened. Praying with that type of faith does indeed produce miracles and that is the type of faith we need to have. As I think about that, I have a long way to go; I’ll get there one of these days. But anyway, have a nice week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well another week has come and gone. This last Sunday, as I’m sure all of you know, was Father’s Day. Typically, holidays aren’t too big for missionaries, but it’s nice to have a special day where we can think of our fathers, even though we don’t get to call home on like we get to on Mother’s Day. Nothing too exciting happened, outside the fact that Elder Reed and I spoke in sacrament meeting here in Eastland. That’s happened several times here in Eastland. I think I have spoken 4 or 5 times since coming here last October. Joys of being missionaries in a small branch. This time I talked about a very good story that pertains well to fathers. Alma the younger went about destroying the church and was a very wicked and idolatrous man. What happened? He had a lovely visit from a friendly angel that kinda chastised him a little. Turns out that Alma decided not to argue and was born of God and spent the rest of his life as an amazing servant. Well, it’s not very often that something like that happens. There are a lot of wicked people on the earth and not too many get the opportunity of being chastised by angel from the other side of the veil. So why Alma? Well, in Mosiah 27, verse 12 I think, the angel clearly states that he came to convince Alma of the power of God because his father prayed with much faith that he would. That is a good lesson taught right there. Every one of us should learn from this great father. We have people we know that have strayed from the path or that have never got on the path and we are obligated to pray for them and help them out. We can’t just pray any old prayer. We have to pray with faith. Dad must’ve had a revelation of what story to send this past week because the one he sent went along perfectly and I actually used it in my talk. It’s about a story of a town that is about to die because of no rain. They all gather in to pray and rain comes. As they are celebrating they see a seven year old girl who had an umbrella. What’s the significance to that? Well, she had so much faith that she expected the rain to come, despite the circumstances, and thus brought an umbrella with her. That’s the type of faith we need to have. That is the type of faith that Alma Sr. had towards his son and because of it, a miracle happened. Praying with that type of faith does indeed produce miracles and that is the type of faith we need to have. As I think about that, I have a long way to go; I’ll get there one of these days. But anyway, have a nice week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, June 15, 2009
Letter 6-15-09
Dear family,
So I made mention a few weeks back when I was talking about the cookbook that I may not be in Eastland very much longer. Umm, well, I was wrong. I didn’t think I’d ever pull off a 4 transfer (6 month) companion and a 6 transfer (9 month) area, but I have. I’ll be staying here in Eastland till at least the End of July now. I was thinking, after this transfer I have 5 transfers (7 months) left. If I were to stay in Eastland with Elder Reed for the rest of my mission I will have tied Dad’s record that he always talks about. 15 months in one area and 10 months with the same companion. Think I can make it? Well I certainly hope not. That might drive me crazy. As much as I love Eastland, I would love to go to at least one more area, hopefully two. I have this weird goal of being able to see the whole mission, serving in all 5 zones. Most missionaries get close, but I have a weird record of only hitting 2 zones, those being the two southern zones. I’ve served the Texas Lubbock South mission. I have yet to meet a missionary to pull off the same feat as me. It would be nice to break that streak make it north some time and get to Lubbock, Amarillo, or New Mexico, but we’ll see what happens. In concordance with that (me being in Eastland for a while, I've made the decision to split up the photo CD's for my second stay in Eastland. Eastland part 3 will be coming to you shortly. And no, it will not include pictures of the wolf spider I took. Those will be on Eastland part 4, which will not come till at least August. But I did get some good pictures on part 3, so it'll be ok.
So outside that, the only other news is that I laugh at Texans once again. Every time they see a dark cloud they say that a tornado is coming. It is quite comical. Yes, it is tornado season here in June, but I doubt that I’ll ever see a tornado. I think in the last week Eastland County was under 2 or 3 tornado watches, with surrounding counties getting a tornado warning. We did get some good storms and good pictures for me, but in my opinion, none were even close to what we experienced in Utah that one year. I looked at the clouds and said to myself, ‘we ain’t gonna get no tornado today.’ (I don’t know if I actually said it that way, but that is how any Texan would say it). However, if a tornado does come our way, don’t you worry, I’ll be ready. …ready to take a picture! Mwa ha ha! That would complete my mission. A picture of a hurricane would be fun, too, but those don’t touch our mission. We’re too far west, dangit. All we get when a hurricane hits is a little bit of rain. Anyway, on that note, I’m signing off. Peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So I made mention a few weeks back when I was talking about the cookbook that I may not be in Eastland very much longer. Umm, well, I was wrong. I didn’t think I’d ever pull off a 4 transfer (6 month) companion and a 6 transfer (9 month) area, but I have. I’ll be staying here in Eastland till at least the End of July now. I was thinking, after this transfer I have 5 transfers (7 months) left. If I were to stay in Eastland with Elder Reed for the rest of my mission I will have tied Dad’s record that he always talks about. 15 months in one area and 10 months with the same companion. Think I can make it? Well I certainly hope not. That might drive me crazy. As much as I love Eastland, I would love to go to at least one more area, hopefully two. I have this weird goal of being able to see the whole mission, serving in all 5 zones. Most missionaries get close, but I have a weird record of only hitting 2 zones, those being the two southern zones. I’ve served the Texas Lubbock South mission. I have yet to meet a missionary to pull off the same feat as me. It would be nice to break that streak make it north some time and get to Lubbock, Amarillo, or New Mexico, but we’ll see what happens. In concordance with that (me being in Eastland for a while, I've made the decision to split up the photo CD's for my second stay in Eastland. Eastland part 3 will be coming to you shortly. And no, it will not include pictures of the wolf spider I took. Those will be on Eastland part 4, which will not come till at least August. But I did get some good pictures on part 3, so it'll be ok.
So outside that, the only other news is that I laugh at Texans once again. Every time they see a dark cloud they say that a tornado is coming. It is quite comical. Yes, it is tornado season here in June, but I doubt that I’ll ever see a tornado. I think in the last week Eastland County was under 2 or 3 tornado watches, with surrounding counties getting a tornado warning. We did get some good storms and good pictures for me, but in my opinion, none were even close to what we experienced in Utah that one year. I looked at the clouds and said to myself, ‘we ain’t gonna get no tornado today.’ (I don’t know if I actually said it that way, but that is how any Texan would say it). However, if a tornado does come our way, don’t you worry, I’ll be ready. …ready to take a picture! Mwa ha ha! That would complete my mission. A picture of a hurricane would be fun, too, but those don’t touch our mission. We’re too far west, dangit. All we get when a hurricane hits is a little bit of rain. Anyway, on that note, I’m signing off. Peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Letter 6-8-09
Dear Family,
Well I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for all the recipes that were sent. If you still desire to send some to contribute to the Eastland Branch cookbook, you still have some time. I’d say tomorrow is the deadline to get them sent. So that’s that. I’m still plugging away here in Eastland. Only God knows how long I will remain. Not a whole lot to report on this week. After our two baptisms of Josh and McKayla, we’ve had a minor dry spell. I try not to let that happen, but sometimes it just does. I feel kinda bad. President Robison instructed on the idea of an escalator effect and not an elevator effect. He said that some missionaries will work hard, then get a ton of baptisms at once and then start from scratch and a while later get a ton more baptisms. That’s the elevator effect. What is much better is to have the escalator. Once you get someone baptized you should have someone right behind them ready to get baptized then continue down having someone on each level of progression. Then you don’t skip a beat in your work. I tried to do that here in Eastland, but people just decided jump off my escalator, so once we got our baptisms, there was quite the jump in going to the next step where there was someone present. Oh well. What can you do? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We must press forward with a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and all men, feasting upon the words of Christ. Good things will come. They just don’t always come in the way and time I expect them to. That’s quite alright. I can find comfort in knowing that God hasn’t forgotten about his children in Eastland, Texas. He will prepare a way for them to come to the light. But if not, I will still trust in the Lord. Have a dandy week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Letter 6-1-09
Dear Family,
First item of business in this week's letter is a request from everyone. The Eastland branch is putting together a branch cookbook and one of the members that is heading the project asked Elder Reed and me if we had anything that we could contribute. Well, of course I did. There are many unique and great recipes that I have grown up with that have been family favorites. I would love to contribute. The only problem is that I am not currently in possession of any of them. They are back in Utah. That is the request. Send some recipes to me that could be included in the Eastland Branch recipe book. That would be greatly appreciated. Anything goes, really. The ideal recipes would be those that are unique and/or are family favorites. The two examples that I thought of right off the bat are No-Bake cookies and Peanut Butter Bars. Yet keep in mind that my mind isn't the most creative mind right now. It's been quite some time since I last sat down and browsed through a recipe book. One last thing for this. It's kinda urgent. Yes, it isn't officially due till the latter part of June, but being that I've been in Eastland for a combined total of 7 months now, I may be shipped away before that due date, in fact might I say 2 weeks, so if you could git 'r done this week that would greatly appreciated. Absolute deadline to send recipes would be Monday or Tuesday of next week so I can turn them in either this coming Sunday or the 14th. Thank you. If I don't get any recipes from anyone, I won't be too offended, Eastland Branch just will just not got a contribution from Elder Droge. That would sad. Don't wait for everyone else to send them in, send in some of your favorite. If I get 50 recipes, so much the better. If half of them are duplicates, well then, it doesn't hurt anything, does it? I'll just not turn in the same recipe twice.
So I mentioned that Breckenridge, Texas is the highest city in the nation per capita to get away with murder. I almost added to that number this week. No need to panic. I didn't almost kill people. I almost smashed two animals with our car. Both in the same day. First was as we were about to enter. A turtle, yes, you heard that right, a wild turtle decided that he wanted to cross the very busy highway. Almost the stupidest and last mistake that fellow ever made. Turtles aren't the fastest of creatures. Luckily, because of my exceeding expertise with driving, I saw him just in time and drove right over him, without touching him with the wheels of the car. I say it almost gave me a heart attack, but the turtle probably felt a lot worse. I looked back and he was rightfully all hidden in his shell. There was a big yellow Penske truck right behind me, so I can't say for sure if the turtle ever finished his journey across the road, but I don't recall seeing a smashed turtle so I think he was okay. The second story came later that day as we were driving down the busiest road in Breckenridge. The stupidest squirrel I have ever met. He apparently had no patience in crossing the road, no animals seem to, so he decided to play a live game of Frogger, if you know what I mean. He darted right past me into the next lane where there was a car five feet in front of me. I could've sworn he got smashed, but he darted backwards, right in front of me. It was too late for me to do anything, and I thought I smashed the little bugger, but he escaped again somehow. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him hanging out in the middle lane ready to cross again. Stupid animals. No wonder Texas is the roadkill capital of the United States. I made up that statistic after being here for 15 months, so I don't know if it actually is, but it sure wouldn't surprise me. Roadkill everywhere here.
So last thought. We talked to an old guy a week or so ago and he told us with a straight face that the second coming would be May 31st of this year. I was quite amused. Well, its June 1st now. Did I miss something? Did Jesus come yesterday and is secretly hanging out somewhere in Missouri or Utah or some other place like that? Let me know if you've talked to him. Hehe... Peace out all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
First item of business in this week's letter is a request from everyone. The Eastland branch is putting together a branch cookbook and one of the members that is heading the project asked Elder Reed and me if we had anything that we could contribute. Well, of course I did. There are many unique and great recipes that I have grown up with that have been family favorites. I would love to contribute. The only problem is that I am not currently in possession of any of them. They are back in Utah. That is the request. Send some recipes to me that could be included in the Eastland Branch recipe book. That would be greatly appreciated. Anything goes, really. The ideal recipes would be those that are unique and/or are family favorites. The two examples that I thought of right off the bat are No-Bake cookies and Peanut Butter Bars. Yet keep in mind that my mind isn't the most creative mind right now. It's been quite some time since I last sat down and browsed through a recipe book. One last thing for this. It's kinda urgent. Yes, it isn't officially due till the latter part of June, but being that I've been in Eastland for a combined total of 7 months now, I may be shipped away before that due date, in fact might I say 2 weeks, so if you could git 'r done this week that would greatly appreciated. Absolute deadline to send recipes would be Monday or Tuesday of next week so I can turn them in either this coming Sunday or the 14th. Thank you. If I don't get any recipes from anyone, I won't be too offended, Eastland Branch just will just not got a contribution from Elder Droge. That would sad. Don't wait for everyone else to send them in, send in some of your favorite. If I get 50 recipes, so much the better. If half of them are duplicates, well then, it doesn't hurt anything, does it? I'll just not turn in the same recipe twice.
So I mentioned that Breckenridge, Texas is the highest city in the nation per capita to get away with murder. I almost added to that number this week. No need to panic. I didn't almost kill people. I almost smashed two animals with our car. Both in the same day. First was as we were about to enter. A turtle, yes, you heard that right, a wild turtle decided that he wanted to cross the very busy highway. Almost the stupidest and last mistake that fellow ever made. Turtles aren't the fastest of creatures. Luckily, because of my exceeding expertise with driving, I saw him just in time and drove right over him, without touching him with the wheels of the car. I say it almost gave me a heart attack, but the turtle probably felt a lot worse. I looked back and he was rightfully all hidden in his shell. There was a big yellow Penske truck right behind me, so I can't say for sure if the turtle ever finished his journey across the road, but I don't recall seeing a smashed turtle so I think he was okay. The second story came later that day as we were driving down the busiest road in Breckenridge. The stupidest squirrel I have ever met. He apparently had no patience in crossing the road, no animals seem to, so he decided to play a live game of Frogger, if you know what I mean. He darted right past me into the next lane where there was a car five feet in front of me. I could've sworn he got smashed, but he darted backwards, right in front of me. It was too late for me to do anything, and I thought I smashed the little bugger, but he escaped again somehow. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him hanging out in the middle lane ready to cross again. Stupid animals. No wonder Texas is the roadkill capital of the United States. I made up that statistic after being here for 15 months, so I don't know if it actually is, but it sure wouldn't surprise me. Roadkill everywhere here.
So last thought. We talked to an old guy a week or so ago and he told us with a straight face that the second coming would be May 31st of this year. I was quite amused. Well, its June 1st now. Did I miss something? Did Jesus come yesterday and is secretly hanging out somewhere in Missouri or Utah or some other place like that? Let me know if you've talked to him. Hehe... Peace out all!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Letter 5-26-09
Dear Family,
Happy Memorial Day everyone! The only thing that happened with us yesterday is that we were reminded that Libraries everywhere are holiday natzis. They close down on every single holiday, big or small. Many of those holidays come on Mondays so it makes it lots of fun when you want to email on P-day. Then you go out in the evening and no one wants to talk to you; they want to spend time with their family and not with missionaries. It makes life fun.
So this last Saturday we had another baptism here in Eastland. It was an eight year old girl named McKayla Williamson. No one in her family are members. She was able to get in contact with a few of the members in the branch. I don't really no the full story, I wasn't here when it started, but somehow she got to the point where she wanted to be baptized, the only problem was that she was only seven years old. So she started to come to church when she could. There is a member that always picked her up. She was going to church for about a year when she turned eight last month. We then got to work, taught her the lessons really briefly and got her baptized Saturday. Because of the fact that her parents aren't members, it counts as a convert baptism. The great thing about it was that her whole family showed up to the baptism to support her. I didn't think they would, but they did. It was great. The idea that I got is that some time down the road, how short or long I do not know, McKayla will make an impact on her family through her example and create a domino effect in which they will want to be baptized.
So that is all I have. I hope all of you have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, May 18, 2009
Letter 5-18-09
Dear Family,
Well, once again I am sitting at the computer and writing a letter back home. Weeks keep flying by. So last week I had a story to tell and ran out of time to tell it, so I will do so now. Elder Reed and I were up in Breckenridge, the city with the highest percentage of unsolved murders in the United States, and we were out finding. Well, we knocked on this door and there was a house that was empty. We didn’t know it was empty, or else we would’ve skipped it, but that’s beside the point. A guy drove by that lived a few doors down and was really angry that we knocked on this door. I’m not sure why, but he just was. He yelled at us, told us to get away from that house, and if we didn’t he would file a report against us and call the police. I found his threat quite amusing actually. Knowing how the police are in this town, they wouldn’t have done anything anyway. However, just like dad always told me growing up, there is a space between action and reaction and although my natural, prideful human tendencies wanted to shout back and not let him get the best of me, I chose to react in a nice, polite christlike way. Instead of shouting back at him, telling him that he was overreacting and that we didn’t know any better as well as the police wouldn’t do anything, we chose to just apologize, leave the door, and walk on. As a missionary, you rarely see the fruits of your efforts and your christlike attitude, which is hard sometimes, but this time was different and taught me a great lesson. A few hours later, we were walking back on the same street, when a car pulled over beside us. It was the same guy that yelled at us before. This time he was different. He was very nice and sorrowfully he apologized for his actions earlier in the day. You know me. Just like Nephi did frankly forgive Laman and Lemuel for trying to kill him, I did frankly forgive the guy for yelling at me and we departed on great terms. Now imagine to yourself what would’ve happened if I had chosen to react poorly. Would he have pulled over and apologized? Would he have felt bad about what he did? How do you think he would’ve acted the next time missionaries knocked on his door? How long do you think it would’ve taken for him to accept the fullness of the gospel as opposed to how long it will take him now? I testify that acting in a christlike manner to whatever situation we are placed in will pay off. People will see our humble example and know that there is hope for them in this life.
News-wise this week I have wonderful news. Josh Hasell, the investigator I have talked about, was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this past weekend. Elder Reed performed that baptism and I confirmed him the following day in sacrament meeting. Not that I have ever cared about numbers too much on my mission, but baptism number four is in the books. This baptism was a unique one. The other three came in a manner where we would work our hardest with our investigators and nothing would work out, then we would be blessed with the gift of finding a person that was just plain ready to listen and would get baptized with minimal effort on our part. This time we worked our very hardest with Josh. After nine months and five different missionaries, Josh finally came to realize that the church was true and that he needed to be baptized. I was fortunate enough to be there when he figured that out, even though I was almost positive that I was going to be transferred before I got baptized. We have another baptism of the 8 year old girl whose parents are non-members and are not interested in religion that I mentioned in our phone call planned for this Saturday. I will let you know how that goes.
One last piece of news and I will sign off. On Mother’s Day I told a story of us running into a big wolf spider. Someone asked if I got a picture. I answered no. Well, this last week, we ran into another one sitting there on the side of the house and guess what we did. We took pictures. He was about the size of a quarter or 50 cent piece. He was fat, black, and hairy with white spots on his back. He also had huge fangs and big scary eyes. The pictures I took were wicked awesome. Best spider pictures that I have ever taken and very close up. You’ll enjoy them when you get the photo CD of Eastland part 3, unless of course I get enough pictures to split up Eastland to part 3 and part 4. In that case it’ll be on part 4, but either way, I’m making you wait. It’ll be worth it. :) But anyways, I’ve talked for too long, so I am signing off. Adios Amigos!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well, once again I am sitting at the computer and writing a letter back home. Weeks keep flying by. So last week I had a story to tell and ran out of time to tell it, so I will do so now. Elder Reed and I were up in Breckenridge, the city with the highest percentage of unsolved murders in the United States, and we were out finding. Well, we knocked on this door and there was a house that was empty. We didn’t know it was empty, or else we would’ve skipped it, but that’s beside the point. A guy drove by that lived a few doors down and was really angry that we knocked on this door. I’m not sure why, but he just was. He yelled at us, told us to get away from that house, and if we didn’t he would file a report against us and call the police. I found his threat quite amusing actually. Knowing how the police are in this town, they wouldn’t have done anything anyway. However, just like dad always told me growing up, there is a space between action and reaction and although my natural, prideful human tendencies wanted to shout back and not let him get the best of me, I chose to react in a nice, polite christlike way. Instead of shouting back at him, telling him that he was overreacting and that we didn’t know any better as well as the police wouldn’t do anything, we chose to just apologize, leave the door, and walk on. As a missionary, you rarely see the fruits of your efforts and your christlike attitude, which is hard sometimes, but this time was different and taught me a great lesson. A few hours later, we were walking back on the same street, when a car pulled over beside us. It was the same guy that yelled at us before. This time he was different. He was very nice and sorrowfully he apologized for his actions earlier in the day. You know me. Just like Nephi did frankly forgive Laman and Lemuel for trying to kill him, I did frankly forgive the guy for yelling at me and we departed on great terms. Now imagine to yourself what would’ve happened if I had chosen to react poorly. Would he have pulled over and apologized? Would he have felt bad about what he did? How do you think he would’ve acted the next time missionaries knocked on his door? How long do you think it would’ve taken for him to accept the fullness of the gospel as opposed to how long it will take him now? I testify that acting in a christlike manner to whatever situation we are placed in will pay off. People will see our humble example and know that there is hope for them in this life.
News-wise this week I have wonderful news. Josh Hasell, the investigator I have talked about, was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this past weekend. Elder Reed performed that baptism and I confirmed him the following day in sacrament meeting. Not that I have ever cared about numbers too much on my mission, but baptism number four is in the books. This baptism was a unique one. The other three came in a manner where we would work our hardest with our investigators and nothing would work out, then we would be blessed with the gift of finding a person that was just plain ready to listen and would get baptized with minimal effort on our part. This time we worked our very hardest with Josh. After nine months and five different missionaries, Josh finally came to realize that the church was true and that he needed to be baptized. I was fortunate enough to be there when he figured that out, even though I was almost positive that I was going to be transferred before I got baptized. We have another baptism of the 8 year old girl whose parents are non-members and are not interested in religion that I mentioned in our phone call planned for this Saturday. I will let you know how that goes.
One last piece of news and I will sign off. On Mother’s Day I told a story of us running into a big wolf spider. Someone asked if I got a picture. I answered no. Well, this last week, we ran into another one sitting there on the side of the house and guess what we did. We took pictures. He was about the size of a quarter or 50 cent piece. He was fat, black, and hairy with white spots on his back. He also had huge fangs and big scary eyes. The pictures I took were wicked awesome. Best spider pictures that I have ever taken and very close up. You’ll enjoy them when you get the photo CD of Eastland part 3, unless of course I get enough pictures to split up Eastland to part 3 and part 4. In that case it’ll be on part 4, but either way, I’m making you wait. It’ll be worth it. :) But anyways, I’ve talked for too long, so I am signing off. Adios Amigos!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Letter 5-11-09
Dear Family,
So the letter to the family right after the phone call home is always a weird one because I already told you everything yesterday and we had a great conversation. That was a lot of fun having that 150 way call. It was like everyone was gathered together in one place. I will admit that I feel bad for David, Greg, and Mike dying down and not being able to talk, but only listening. That's never fun, but I guess it's better than nothing. There was one thing I wanted to talk about. I think it was Annie that asked a question and because of something happening and me getting sidetrack, the question was never answered. The question had to do with the population of the branches/wards that I'd been in and which one was biggest. Well, Midland, my first area was the biggest. It was a normal sized ward like back home. There would be 200 – 300 people at church each week. I went from there to Brady. Brady met in a house that was dedicated into a church and felt like a church inside. 40 – 50 people came each week. Eastland was my next area and there was/is now 30 – 40 people that come every week. Brady and Eastland were branches. My 4th area, Big Spring, was technically a ward, and the chapel was a normal sized chapel, but I considered it a Branch on steroids. 60 – 70 people came each week. That chapel looked fairly empty every week. It could fit 300 people easily. So thats that. I really have nothing else to say. Everyone have a great week. There is a cool story that happened to us in Breckenridge last week, but I'll save that for next week so that I can have something to write about. Mwa ha ha. And no mom, it doesn't have anything to do with Breckenridge being the highest city in the United States per capita to get away with murder (that is worded funny, but you get the idea. Lots of crime). I just hope I don't forget... anyways, peace out.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, May 4, 2009
Letter 5-4-09
Dear Family,
Once again another week has come and gone. May of 2009 has begun. I sent the Big Spring Photo CD last Monday. It should be there by now. I hope you enjoy it. Mother's day is next Sunday which means that I should be able to call home this Sunday. I have received no input as to when would be a good time. Church here in Eastland goes from 9 to 12. Those hours are out of the picture. If I'm correct B-town has church from 1 to 4, which means evening will be good. If I don't hear anything I will probably call sometime in the evening, maybe 6 o'clock central time, 5 o'clock Mountain Standard Time. So I mentioned a few weeks ago about a part member family we are teaching here in Eastland, Josh and Amber Hassell. They have now been taught for 8 months, slowly progressing. Well, this last week was a huge step, probably the biggest one. Josh committed himself to baptism. He knows that this is the true church. He stopped smoking 2 days ago and as of today he said that he has had no desire to smoke. They both fasted for that purpose yesterday and Elder Reed and I here in Eastland fasted for him as well. The date is set for Saturday May 16th. That should go through. I'm excited. Eastland will break this silly little drought once and for all. So there you have it. Following up on my homework I gave last week, I'm sure you all read the entry of sacrifice in 'True to the Faith'. Some points that stuck out to me: As members of the church, we should be willing to sacrifice anything that the Lord asks us to. We can not have true faith until we are willing to sacrifice the things of the world for the sake of the Lord. When we maintain an eternal perspective, we will realize that sacrificing things of the world really isn't a sacrifice at all. The blessings we will receive for sacrificing worldly things are far greater than any earthly blessings we will receive. I love being here on a mission. I learn so much. The church is true. There is no doubt in my mind. Talk to you soon... :)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Letter 4-27-09
Dear Family,
I don’t have much time this week. I spent most of my email time doing other things. This last week was a little rough, but with patience and diligence, we persevered and made it through with smiles on our faces. This morning I read a great story in Mosiah 24 that boosted my spirits. You all know the story. Alma and his people had been taken captive by the Lamanites and the Amulonites and went through much affliction, but the Lord did visit them in their afflictions and delivered them out. The moral of the story that came to me that can be applied in our everyday lives is that the Lord promises all of us that he will visit us in our afflictions, so we need to submit to the will of the Lord cheerfully and with much patience. Another theme of this week was consecration. President Robison asked us to study it and so I did and it so happens that the Sunday school lesson was on consecration. When I studied consecration, I did a webster’s dictionary tour. I looked up the word consecration, wrote down the definition and then looked up the words in that definition and continued on with that effect until I got a definition that I really liked. Here it is: To consecrate is “to be highly serious in binding your whole soul to a particular course or purpose.” Binding our whole soul. Very good counsel from Webster. That is what we need to do. Bind ourselves to Christ and his gospel, sacrificing what we need to in order to make that possible. True to the Faith has some very good insights when it defines sacrifice. I don’t have the time to elaborate this week, so that will be my homework for all of you this week. Study the section in True to the Faith about sacrifice and then report any insights to me. Thank you and have a nice week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
I don’t have much time this week. I spent most of my email time doing other things. This last week was a little rough, but with patience and diligence, we persevered and made it through with smiles on our faces. This morning I read a great story in Mosiah 24 that boosted my spirits. You all know the story. Alma and his people had been taken captive by the Lamanites and the Amulonites and went through much affliction, but the Lord did visit them in their afflictions and delivered them out. The moral of the story that came to me that can be applied in our everyday lives is that the Lord promises all of us that he will visit us in our afflictions, so we need to submit to the will of the Lord cheerfully and with much patience. Another theme of this week was consecration. President Robison asked us to study it and so I did and it so happens that the Sunday school lesson was on consecration. When I studied consecration, I did a webster’s dictionary tour. I looked up the word consecration, wrote down the definition and then looked up the words in that definition and continued on with that effect until I got a definition that I really liked. Here it is: To consecrate is “to be highly serious in binding your whole soul to a particular course or purpose.” Binding our whole soul. Very good counsel from Webster. That is what we need to do. Bind ourselves to Christ and his gospel, sacrificing what we need to in order to make that possible. True to the Faith has some very good insights when it defines sacrifice. I don’t have the time to elaborate this week, so that will be my homework for all of you this week. Study the section in True to the Faith about sacrifice and then report any insights to me. Thank you and have a nice week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Friday, April 24, 2009
Letter 4-20-09
Dear Family,
Wow. The 20th has rolled around again. That means it has been 14 months since I have left. Scary. So I really don’t have much to say this week, but I have an interesting thought. There was an investigator that we had that had a concern about the fall, so I decided to read the account of Adam and Eve in the book of Moses. In doing so I came across a scripture that gave an idea that I had never really known. Here is the scripture:
“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all livingãB fore thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are many” (Moses 4:26).
It was that last part that caught me, ‘for thus have I…called the first of all women, which are many.’ I didn’t quite know what that meant, so I looked at the footnotes and found a cross reference for earlieer in eMoses:
“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the son I created them, which is mine only begotten.And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:33-35).
So, if I interpreted that right, those two scriptures are saying that God created many worlds that are inhabited by people and the first two people on every earth were named Adam and Eve. That is an interesting thought that I’ve never heard before. Studying those scriptures, and looking at more cross references, also poses lots of other questions and interesting insights, some of which we may never find out in this life, but it’s interesting to think about. The Pearl of Great Price is loaded. Its name is very fitting. That is all I had for this week. Some time in the next week or two I will make and send a photo CD of me in Big Spring. I was going to combine Big Spring and Eastland Part 3, but I have racked up enough photos in Eastland this time around to separate them. I would’ve done it this week, but the machine at Wal-Mart was down, so it’ll have to wait. Anyways, that’s all folks! Peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Wow. The 20th has rolled around again. That means it has been 14 months since I have left. Scary. So I really don’t have much to say this week, but I have an interesting thought. There was an investigator that we had that had a concern about the fall, so I decided to read the account of Adam and Eve in the book of Moses. In doing so I came across a scripture that gave an idea that I had never really known. Here is the scripture:
“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all livingãB fore thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are many” (Moses 4:26).
It was that last part that caught me, ‘for thus have I…called the first of all women, which are many.’ I didn’t quite know what that meant, so I looked at the footnotes and found a cross reference for earlieer in eMoses:
“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the son I created them, which is mine only begotten.And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:33-35).
So, if I interpreted that right, those two scriptures are saying that God created many worlds that are inhabited by people and the first two people on every earth were named Adam and Eve. That is an interesting thought that I’ve never heard before. Studying those scriptures, and looking at more cross references, also poses lots of other questions and interesting insights, some of which we may never find out in this life, but it’s interesting to think about. The Pearl of Great Price is loaded. Its name is very fitting. That is all I had for this week. Some time in the next week or two I will make and send a photo CD of me in Big Spring. I was going to combine Big Spring and Eastland Part 3, but I have racked up enough photos in Eastland this time around to separate them. I would’ve done it this week, but the machine at Wal-Mart was down, so it’ll have to wait. Anyways, that’s all folks! Peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, April 13, 2009
Letter 4-13-09
Dear Family,
Happy Easter everyone! Thanks you for those who participated in sending the Easter package. That was very good. I say was, but I mean still is. It’s not gone quite yet. And, hey, thank you for finding the wedding ties that I had been wanting. That really made my day. I’m only a few ties off my goal now. The goal is to get to the point where I can wear a different tie every day of the transfer. That would mean 42 ties. I’m at 37 or 38. 5 more ties to collect. Don’t be amazed at that. That is actually quite a small number compared to some missionaries I know.
This last week was zone conference. At zone conference we were made aware of a certain number. Back in November we were given the commission by Elder Pearson to double the baptisms here. For the last 6 years in this mission, the average per month has been 20 baptisms a month for the whole mission. To double baptize, we would need to get a consistent average of 40. Well, for the first 3 months of this year, we have made an average of 30. We are almost there. Baptisms are possible. The Texas Lubbock Mission is a baptizing mission. We are shooting for a goal right now to average 35 per month. Then once we hit that, we’ll jump up to 40. Once we hit 40, then we will celebrate by having the whole mission get together at the Lubbock Temple and get a picture. It’ll be great. You can help me by praying for this to happen. I have confidence that it won’t take more than a few months to make this happen.
So yesterday on Easter, we were eating dinner with one of the senior couple missionaries that are serving in our area, Elder and Sister Romero. Sister Romero told a great story that gave me inspiration and I felt like sharing it. Sister Romero’s brother is very less active. Less active for 40 years. One day she was really stressed. She had tried her hardest to help him, but nothing was working. As she pondered, a voice came to her mind that said this, “Remember, he’s my son, too.” That is very good counsel that we should all remember. I look at the people here in Eastland, especially less active members and investigators that are struggling. I try to think about what more I can do. Sometimes I get frustrated because I work my best to get them to listen and they just don’t. Nothing I try works. Sometimes I have to step back and remember that Heavenly Father knows each one of his children and will do far more than I can ever do. When the time is right, he will lead his lost children back and we need to be patient. Truly patient. Study patience in Preach My Gospel, chapter 6. It teaches that patience is enduring without getting frustrated or anxious. If any of you have any friends that aren’t members or are less active members, do what you can to help when the spirit prompts you, but don’t get frustrated when they don’t listen. Be patient and don’t push them over the edge. Remember, they are heavenly father’s son as well and he will lead them back. Joseph Smith, when asked why his people listen to him and follow his teachings so closely, responded, “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.” Do your best and leave the rest up to the Lord. That is my counsel for this week. Have a great week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Happy Easter everyone! Thanks you for those who participated in sending the Easter package. That was very good. I say was, but I mean still is. It’s not gone quite yet. And, hey, thank you for finding the wedding ties that I had been wanting. That really made my day. I’m only a few ties off my goal now. The goal is to get to the point where I can wear a different tie every day of the transfer. That would mean 42 ties. I’m at 37 or 38. 5 more ties to collect. Don’t be amazed at that. That is actually quite a small number compared to some missionaries I know.
This last week was zone conference. At zone conference we were made aware of a certain number. Back in November we were given the commission by Elder Pearson to double the baptisms here. For the last 6 years in this mission, the average per month has been 20 baptisms a month for the whole mission. To double baptize, we would need to get a consistent average of 40. Well, for the first 3 months of this year, we have made an average of 30. We are almost there. Baptisms are possible. The Texas Lubbock Mission is a baptizing mission. We are shooting for a goal right now to average 35 per month. Then once we hit that, we’ll jump up to 40. Once we hit 40, then we will celebrate by having the whole mission get together at the Lubbock Temple and get a picture. It’ll be great. You can help me by praying for this to happen. I have confidence that it won’t take more than a few months to make this happen.
So yesterday on Easter, we were eating dinner with one of the senior couple missionaries that are serving in our area, Elder and Sister Romero. Sister Romero told a great story that gave me inspiration and I felt like sharing it. Sister Romero’s brother is very less active. Less active for 40 years. One day she was really stressed. She had tried her hardest to help him, but nothing was working. As she pondered, a voice came to her mind that said this, “Remember, he’s my son, too.” That is very good counsel that we should all remember. I look at the people here in Eastland, especially less active members and investigators that are struggling. I try to think about what more I can do. Sometimes I get frustrated because I work my best to get them to listen and they just don’t. Nothing I try works. Sometimes I have to step back and remember that Heavenly Father knows each one of his children and will do far more than I can ever do. When the time is right, he will lead his lost children back and we need to be patient. Truly patient. Study patience in Preach My Gospel, chapter 6. It teaches that patience is enduring without getting frustrated or anxious. If any of you have any friends that aren’t members or are less active members, do what you can to help when the spirit prompts you, but don’t get frustrated when they don’t listen. Be patient and don’t push them over the edge. Remember, they are heavenly father’s son as well and he will lead them back. Joseph Smith, when asked why his people listen to him and follow his teachings so closely, responded, “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.” Do your best and leave the rest up to the Lord. That is my counsel for this week. Have a great week everyone.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
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