Dear Family,
I’d like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes through cards, emails, packages, etc. In turn I’d like to wish a happy birthday to Michelle… and Bryce… and President Hellewell… and Holly Miller. Wow. Did I miss anyone else? That was a popular week for birthdays.
Anyway, following up with what happened on my birthday, for the most part it was just a normal day of missionary work. However, we got in and taught an 18 year old kid named Martin. He was really nice and receptive and accepted a baptismal commitment. I thought that was really neat. I said I’d bring a soul to Christ on my mission and that’s exactly what I did. However, we have yet to follow-up on him, so we aren’t yet fully sure of his true commitment. Usually the second or third visit will be where you truly get to know their interest level. There is a lot of one hit wonders in this mission. People will be nice enough to let us in the first time and they’ll act interested, but they really weren’t and we never see them again because they just avoid us. It’s a shame, but it happens a lot. Thats why I don't talk about investigators too much. I'll tell you about them once and then you'll never hear about them again because we don't either, so I save you the pain of keeping track. I’m hoping that isn’t the case, but we’ll see.
However, the baptismal date that we set last Sunday definitely wasn’t a fluke. His name is Paul Schlipf. He is 67 years old and he has been coming to church for at least a month now, but the member who invited him told us to give him a few weeks before we jump on him and ask if we can teach him. So we listened, gave it a few weeks and last week we visited with him and he was really accepting. As I said, he accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of February. Well, we’ve found that he really likes our company and enjoys the message. He doesn’t want to wait till the 14th, so that means we don’t either. It’ll most likely happen the 7th, so that is cool.
Anyway, I am signing off for this week. Remember to always keep me in your prayers because many times our blessings aren’t because of our prayers, but because of others praying for us, as shown in the poem/story “Shipwrecked Prayers.” Ask Dad to send to you. Anyways peace out. ...Oh, I did hear a rumor that the Super Bowl was this next Sunday... ... .... Just thought I'd let everyone know...
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Letter 1-20-09
Dearest Familia,
Life in the TLM, specifically Big Spring, is great. It is an opportune time to be serving in West Texas. Speaking of Big Spring, however, a question arises? Is there a big spring in the city of Big Spring? Well, the answer is yes and no. Or better yet, there was a big spring here. It’s like Lake Bonneville. As legend puts it, Utah was covered by a huge lake, but at the present time a much smaller one is there. Same with Big Spring. I have not seen it yet, but the spring where Big Spring gets its name is somewhere in Big Spring but as I’ve heard from the ward and Elder Winterton, it is more like a little puddle that only dreams of being a Big Spring like it once was. So there is no big spring here right now, but the city made the decision to keep the name of the city Big Spring because the name Little Puddle sounds quite ridiculous if you ask me.
So there is a rumor out there that my birthday is this week and that I will be turning 20 and will officially be out of the teenage years of my life. In one perspective it is really weird and makes me feel old; the other perspective, however, is different. Most people like to ask us missionaries how old we are and all of my companions up to this point have all had the privilege of responding that they are either 20 or 21 while I almost feel young because all that I can answer is 19 and now I don’t know if mature is the right word, but starting tomorrow I get to tell people that I am 20 years old. Mwa ha ha! About what to do on my birthday, Shawn hit the hammer on the nail. I am attempting to keep my birthday a little more discreet. I don’t want everyone in the world to that it’s my birthday because that will be way distracting and we won’t get much done. I want to fly under the radar, work my hardest, and get someone to let us in and teach them. That is my goal.
But like I said, it is a good time to be serving in the TLM (Texas Lubbock Mission). Zone Conference was last week. As you know we have been changing our mindset and having a baptizing attitude and in zone conferences and district meetings we have good back to the basics about what we need to do, things like goal setting, getting people to church, new investigators, setting baptismal dates, leaving commitments, etc. Guess what? It’s been working. President Robison showed us a graph of the progress from 2 transfers ago to last transfer and all of the numbers have increased dramatically. Like say, baptisms. Baptisms went from 20 two transfers ago to 32 last transfer. Now, I know Greg is laughing because his mission got 1000 baptisms in one month, but let us not forget to never compare missions. Each one is different. What is going to be done in the TLM is what was done with Ammon and the sons of Mosiah. Their people laughed at them and said that they are wasting their time with the hard-hearted stubborn Lamanites and they go in and the rest is history. I couldn’t care less that this is Bible Belt. If Ammon and his brothers can convert Lamanites why can’t I bring the Texans to the truth? I can and will. I will rephrase that. We the TLMites will. I just play a small part. I need to be content with what I am allotted. But we as the Texas Lubbock Mission will perform miracles here as we become united in the cause and work our best. As a witness to that, here’s the proof, Sunday, Elder Winterton and I set a baptismal date with an older guy named Paul that has been coming to church. The date is February 14th. We can hope to eventually move it up to February 7th, because that is the last Saturday of the transfer. I asked you to pray that I would get a baptism this transfer and here is our opportunity. I don’t need any presents or any letters for my birthday, I need your prayers and your faith that this will happen. Once we get one baptism then it will create a domino effect and several more will follow. Big Spring alone got 5 baptisms all of last year. We are in line to shatter that in the first few months of this year. We have some great investigators and for me to tell you all about them would take up to much time, because as you know I get kicked off the computer after one hour. Not by a person. The computer logs itself off and the person at the desk says not to log back on. There is a timer on the computer and once it hits 0 minutes left, I am done, whether I want to be or not. Just know that the people here are doing great and there is lots of potential with investigators. Thanks for all of your support and everyone better keep on keeping on. Life is an occasion. Rise to it.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Life in the TLM, specifically Big Spring, is great. It is an opportune time to be serving in West Texas. Speaking of Big Spring, however, a question arises? Is there a big spring in the city of Big Spring? Well, the answer is yes and no. Or better yet, there was a big spring here. It’s like Lake Bonneville. As legend puts it, Utah was covered by a huge lake, but at the present time a much smaller one is there. Same with Big Spring. I have not seen it yet, but the spring where Big Spring gets its name is somewhere in Big Spring but as I’ve heard from the ward and Elder Winterton, it is more like a little puddle that only dreams of being a Big Spring like it once was. So there is no big spring here right now, but the city made the decision to keep the name of the city Big Spring because the name Little Puddle sounds quite ridiculous if you ask me.
So there is a rumor out there that my birthday is this week and that I will be turning 20 and will officially be out of the teenage years of my life. In one perspective it is really weird and makes me feel old; the other perspective, however, is different. Most people like to ask us missionaries how old we are and all of my companions up to this point have all had the privilege of responding that they are either 20 or 21 while I almost feel young because all that I can answer is 19 and now I don’t know if mature is the right word, but starting tomorrow I get to tell people that I am 20 years old. Mwa ha ha! About what to do on my birthday, Shawn hit the hammer on the nail. I am attempting to keep my birthday a little more discreet. I don’t want everyone in the world to that it’s my birthday because that will be way distracting and we won’t get much done. I want to fly under the radar, work my hardest, and get someone to let us in and teach them. That is my goal.
But like I said, it is a good time to be serving in the TLM (Texas Lubbock Mission). Zone Conference was last week. As you know we have been changing our mindset and having a baptizing attitude and in zone conferences and district meetings we have good back to the basics about what we need to do, things like goal setting, getting people to church, new investigators, setting baptismal dates, leaving commitments, etc. Guess what? It’s been working. President Robison showed us a graph of the progress from 2 transfers ago to last transfer and all of the numbers have increased dramatically. Like say, baptisms. Baptisms went from 20 two transfers ago to 32 last transfer. Now, I know Greg is laughing because his mission got 1000 baptisms in one month, but let us not forget to never compare missions. Each one is different. What is going to be done in the TLM is what was done with Ammon and the sons of Mosiah. Their people laughed at them and said that they are wasting their time with the hard-hearted stubborn Lamanites and they go in and the rest is history. I couldn’t care less that this is Bible Belt. If Ammon and his brothers can convert Lamanites why can’t I bring the Texans to the truth? I can and will. I will rephrase that. We the TLMites will. I just play a small part. I need to be content with what I am allotted. But we as the Texas Lubbock Mission will perform miracles here as we become united in the cause and work our best. As a witness to that, here’s the proof, Sunday, Elder Winterton and I set a baptismal date with an older guy named Paul that has been coming to church. The date is February 14th. We can hope to eventually move it up to February 7th, because that is the last Saturday of the transfer. I asked you to pray that I would get a baptism this transfer and here is our opportunity. I don’t need any presents or any letters for my birthday, I need your prayers and your faith that this will happen. Once we get one baptism then it will create a domino effect and several more will follow. Big Spring alone got 5 baptisms all of last year. We are in line to shatter that in the first few months of this year. We have some great investigators and for me to tell you all about them would take up to much time, because as you know I get kicked off the computer after one hour. Not by a person. The computer logs itself off and the person at the desk says not to log back on. There is a timer on the computer and once it hits 0 minutes left, I am done, whether I want to be or not. Just know that the people here are doing great and there is lots of potential with investigators. Thanks for all of your support and everyone better keep on keeping on. Life is an occasion. Rise to it.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Letter 1-12-09
Dear Family,
We are now entering week 3 here in Big Spring. In case you didn’t get the memo, I sent a photo CD last week of the 2nd transfer in Eastland with Elder Romney. Check it out.
I also totally forgot to tell you what we did for New Years. Absolutely Nothing! It was the first time in my life that I actually went to bed before midnight on New Years Eve. 10:30 PM, like commanded. We weren’t allowed to go out the evening of New Years Eve after 6 PM, but we didn’t really do much in the apartment. It was a normal night. It was nice going out and working on New Years, not many let us in, but a lot of people were home and so we got a lot of return appointments. It was nice. But now it is 2009. 2008 is gone and that seems really weird. Elder Droge’s Dark Year has begun. Mwa Ha Ha!!
So about the work, Elder Winterton and I have really high pans for Big Spring. There are a couple of newer contacts that we have that show a lot of potential. There are also 1 or 2 older contacts that we have big plans for. If I have it right, there are 4 different homes that we are planning on going over and setting baptisimal dates for. The idea is to get at least 1 baptism this transfer. I have the faith that it will happen and am working my hardest to make it happen. Like I said, there is a new standard for the Texas Lubbock Mission and a new mindset for the missionaries here. Membership will blossom and West Texas will flourish. What do I ask from you? I ask for your prayers for me to baptize at least one investigator/investigator family this transfer specifically. If you could do that, that would make me happy.
So this letter is a little shorter than normal. That’s how it might be here in Big Spring. Don’t cry too hard. I will end with one interesting story that happened while we were finding. We knocked on a guys door and the guy was a middle aged fellow that wasn’t too happy. Once he found out who we were do you what he did? He told us to get off his property or he was going to get his gun and shoot us. Ha! I found that funny. Needless to say, we didn’t argue. Don’t worry mom. I am perfectly safe. No one is going to shoot me on my mission. I can promise you that. Anyways, Adios Amigos
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
We are now entering week 3 here in Big Spring. In case you didn’t get the memo, I sent a photo CD last week of the 2nd transfer in Eastland with Elder Romney. Check it out.
I also totally forgot to tell you what we did for New Years. Absolutely Nothing! It was the first time in my life that I actually went to bed before midnight on New Years Eve. 10:30 PM, like commanded. We weren’t allowed to go out the evening of New Years Eve after 6 PM, but we didn’t really do much in the apartment. It was a normal night. It was nice going out and working on New Years, not many let us in, but a lot of people were home and so we got a lot of return appointments. It was nice. But now it is 2009. 2008 is gone and that seems really weird. Elder Droge’s Dark Year has begun. Mwa Ha Ha!!
So about the work, Elder Winterton and I have really high pans for Big Spring. There are a couple of newer contacts that we have that show a lot of potential. There are also 1 or 2 older contacts that we have big plans for. If I have it right, there are 4 different homes that we are planning on going over and setting baptisimal dates for. The idea is to get at least 1 baptism this transfer. I have the faith that it will happen and am working my hardest to make it happen. Like I said, there is a new standard for the Texas Lubbock Mission and a new mindset for the missionaries here. Membership will blossom and West Texas will flourish. What do I ask from you? I ask for your prayers for me to baptize at least one investigator/investigator family this transfer specifically. If you could do that, that would make me happy.
So this letter is a little shorter than normal. That’s how it might be here in Big Spring. Don’t cry too hard. I will end with one interesting story that happened while we were finding. We knocked on a guys door and the guy was a middle aged fellow that wasn’t too happy. Once he found out who we were do you what he did? He told us to get off his property or he was going to get his gun and shoot us. Ha! I found that funny. Needless to say, we didn’t argue. Don’t worry mom. I am perfectly safe. No one is going to shoot me on my mission. I can promise you that. Anyways, Adios Amigos
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Monday, January 5, 2009
Letter 1-5-09
Dear Family,
So the day after Christmas, I got 15 letters, 11 of them from Dad. I meant to mention that and thank everyone for the letters and make a few replies, but I didn’t get around to it because here at the Library in Big Spring your agency is taken away. The computer kicks you off after an hour, so I am forced to make my emailing shorter. It was funny because if you have seen ‘The Best Two Years’ there is a scene where one missionary gets the mail and finds a huge stack of letters. He hopes there is one for him, but he ends up giving the whole stack, one by one, to his companion and ends up being quite depressed. Well that is what happened. Elder Romney checked the mail, found a huge stack of letters and one by one gave them all to me. It was quite hilarious. If you are curious, the 11 of them from Dad were a bunch of Christmas stories/poems and that was quite nice. A 12th one came the next day. I forget what else I wanted to reply to out of the 4 others, but one thing of note was that Greg’s letter was from DearElder.com. That site works beautifully if you want to use. I don’t know how to use it, ask Greg about that, but all I know is that it works great and is as fast as normal mail.
Anyways, about Big Spring, Texas. The first thing of mention is that when I got off the bus at Big Spring, there was a missionary named Elder Abbott that was getting on to go to Odessa. Before he got on, he visited with for a few seconds. He asked me if I knew a Marvin Miller. I said that I did and he was my Grandpa. Well, Elder Abbott told me that Marvin Miller was his uncle. Wow. Small world. Apparently me and Elder Abbott and played pool at Marvin’s house when Elder Abbott was 9 and I was 8 or 7. I have no recollection of that, but he remembers me from that, so that is way cool. As to what Elder Abbott’s first name is or who his parents are, I never found out, but hey, I thought that was cool so I thought I’d share.
Like mentioned, for at least the next 5 weeks, I am serving in Big Spring, Texas with Elder Benjamin (pronounced Bennamin) Winterton. He is from Layton, Utah and has been out 19 months. He is a very experienced missionary and is a very hard worker, so I have a lot to learn from him this upcoming transfer. Here’s an interesting fact, his older brother served in the Michigan Lansing Mission about 10 years ago or so. That sound familiar to someone? Byron, did you know an Elder Elijah Winterton in your mission? I showed Elder Winterton my pictures that people from home that people sent me and he actually recognized the picture of Byron. He had know idea where he recognized Byron from, but he did. That is interesting.
About Big Spring now. Big Spring is 60 miles away from Midland. It feels weird to be right next to my home away from home in Midland and the fact that we go to Midland every week for district meeting makes it ever weirder. I feel like I have gone back in time and been put in another dimension. Strange. So if you have attention, I have gone in a big circle in my mission now and will have spent half of my mission down in the south part of the TLM. Another random fact is that I have been put in another small town. That is 3 out of 4 and 3 in a row. Big Spring is 25,000, bigger than Brady and Eastland, but still considered a small town and we are all alone. Just me and Elder Winterton here in Big Spring. In addition to being a small town, Big Spring is also a very ghetto town filled with tons of Hispanic people. I find them very odd. They are all way nice and polite and will also listen but, excuse my French, many of them are a bunch of liars. They are not interested at all. Now there are some that do listen, but the hard thing is that the small portion that are interested and the large portion that aren’t all act the same exact way. It’s quite frustrating. We just have to do a lot of separating the wheat and the tares. Big Spring does baptize quite frequently, they got 13 last year, but the retention rate of recent converts is horribly low so that is another obstacle to deal with. Big Spring is also a very crime-ridden town. There are 4 prisons here. I think that is ridiculous for a town this small. That’s like Bountiful have 8 prisons. It’s a great place, though. Many missionaries love Big Spring. It is a ward, but after going to church for the first time on Sunday I have decided that is more like a branch on steroids. There is about 60 – 70 members that come each week. The chapel is a normal-sized chapel, but the depressing thing is that it only gets like a ¼ of the way filled. We’ll have to change that. The other interesting thing about Big Spring is that we have a recent convert that is deaf, so we have to learn sign language. There is also a deaf college here, so that will be a fun challenge. I learned the whole alphabet in one day. I felt proud of myself.
That’s all I have for this week and I am running out of time, so peace out and have an incredible week and year!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So the day after Christmas, I got 15 letters, 11 of them from Dad. I meant to mention that and thank everyone for the letters and make a few replies, but I didn’t get around to it because here at the Library in Big Spring your agency is taken away. The computer kicks you off after an hour, so I am forced to make my emailing shorter. It was funny because if you have seen ‘The Best Two Years’ there is a scene where one missionary gets the mail and finds a huge stack of letters. He hopes there is one for him, but he ends up giving the whole stack, one by one, to his companion and ends up being quite depressed. Well that is what happened. Elder Romney checked the mail, found a huge stack of letters and one by one gave them all to me. It was quite hilarious. If you are curious, the 11 of them from Dad were a bunch of Christmas stories/poems and that was quite nice. A 12th one came the next day. I forget what else I wanted to reply to out of the 4 others, but one thing of note was that Greg’s letter was from DearElder.com. That site works beautifully if you want to use. I don’t know how to use it, ask Greg about that, but all I know is that it works great and is as fast as normal mail.
Anyways, about Big Spring, Texas. The first thing of mention is that when I got off the bus at Big Spring, there was a missionary named Elder Abbott that was getting on to go to Odessa. Before he got on, he visited with for a few seconds. He asked me if I knew a Marvin Miller. I said that I did and he was my Grandpa. Well, Elder Abbott told me that Marvin Miller was his uncle. Wow. Small world. Apparently me and Elder Abbott and played pool at Marvin’s house when Elder Abbott was 9 and I was 8 or 7. I have no recollection of that, but he remembers me from that, so that is way cool. As to what Elder Abbott’s first name is or who his parents are, I never found out, but hey, I thought that was cool so I thought I’d share.
Like mentioned, for at least the next 5 weeks, I am serving in Big Spring, Texas with Elder Benjamin (pronounced Bennamin) Winterton. He is from Layton, Utah and has been out 19 months. He is a very experienced missionary and is a very hard worker, so I have a lot to learn from him this upcoming transfer. Here’s an interesting fact, his older brother served in the Michigan Lansing Mission about 10 years ago or so. That sound familiar to someone? Byron, did you know an Elder Elijah Winterton in your mission? I showed Elder Winterton my pictures that people from home that people sent me and he actually recognized the picture of Byron. He had know idea where he recognized Byron from, but he did. That is interesting.
About Big Spring now. Big Spring is 60 miles away from Midland. It feels weird to be right next to my home away from home in Midland and the fact that we go to Midland every week for district meeting makes it ever weirder. I feel like I have gone back in time and been put in another dimension. Strange. So if you have attention, I have gone in a big circle in my mission now and will have spent half of my mission down in the south part of the TLM. Another random fact is that I have been put in another small town. That is 3 out of 4 and 3 in a row. Big Spring is 25,000, bigger than Brady and Eastland, but still considered a small town and we are all alone. Just me and Elder Winterton here in Big Spring. In addition to being a small town, Big Spring is also a very ghetto town filled with tons of Hispanic people. I find them very odd. They are all way nice and polite and will also listen but, excuse my French, many of them are a bunch of liars. They are not interested at all. Now there are some that do listen, but the hard thing is that the small portion that are interested and the large portion that aren’t all act the same exact way. It’s quite frustrating. We just have to do a lot of separating the wheat and the tares. Big Spring does baptize quite frequently, they got 13 last year, but the retention rate of recent converts is horribly low so that is another obstacle to deal with. Big Spring is also a very crime-ridden town. There are 4 prisons here. I think that is ridiculous for a town this small. That’s like Bountiful have 8 prisons. It’s a great place, though. Many missionaries love Big Spring. It is a ward, but after going to church for the first time on Sunday I have decided that is more like a branch on steroids. There is about 60 – 70 members that come each week. The chapel is a normal-sized chapel, but the depressing thing is that it only gets like a ¼ of the way filled. We’ll have to change that. The other interesting thing about Big Spring is that we have a recent convert that is deaf, so we have to learn sign language. There is also a deaf college here, so that will be a fun challenge. I learned the whole alphabet in one day. I felt proud of myself.
That’s all I have for this week and I am running out of time, so peace out and have an incredible week and year!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
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