Letter 12-3-09

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