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
Sunday, November 29, 2009
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
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