Letter 1-14-10

Dear Family,

So this past week was transfer week and I can officially say what I have thought and hoped would happen has happened. No Surprises. I am staying in Roswell for the next six weeks, which means I will be staying in Roswell until I go home. At the end of this transfer it will be a total of seven months in Roswell, my second longest area total and longest consecutive area. I have also continued a tradition. Roswell is the burial place of my forefathers. My trainer died in Roswell and my trainer’s trainer died in Roswell. My companion, Elder Thode is staying, too, but we got a third missionary with us, Elder Paul Wakefield of River Heights, Utah (a suburb of Logan). I was in a trio once before and I enjoy it. Elder Wakefield has been out six months and this is already his fourth area. I will finish my mission with a grand total of thirteen companions and six areas (five different, being that I was in Eastland twice). No, I never got the opportunity to serve in the Lubbock or Amarillo areas, but that is alright, I’ve enjoyed the places I’ve been.

So, I believe I left people hanging at the end of last letter, so I will fix that. I mentioned six different people that have the potential to get baptized here in Roswell before I go home. If we got all six, that would be way cool. If I got five, I would hit seventeen on my mission which would average out to one per transfer and that would be a fun statistic. The ward’s goal for the year is twenty-four, which is two per month, so with that we would need to get four. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

Joe Sanchez is our most progressing. He is sixty year old Hispanic guy who is a Vietnam veteran. He had a son get killed in Iraq a few years back, which is tough. He has had a couple of different baptismal dates, but struggled with coffee, which kept pushing it back. He also took a two week trip to California, which turned out to be real stressful, causing him to have a relapse on the Word of Wisdom. Everything is under control now and he has been clear from the Word of Wisdom for a week now and is pretty much good to go for January 24th.

Peter Hardin is one of the nine year olds I’ve mentioned. The other one doesn’t seem to be ready at this time, but Peter is. His parents are both members who have testimonies, but have struggled with church attendance. We haven’t been able to get them to church, but once we do, things will speed up. A wrench got thrown into this story last week when Peter’s dad had a stroke and seizure at the same time which was pretty serious. We went to the hospital to give him a blessing and he is now home, so hopefully everything will be alright.

Jake Gonzales is the non-member husband in an active family. They have 3 daughters who are 17, 20, and 22. Jake has been taught a few times in the past and was close to baptism but wasn’t fully committed. We have recently started to re-teach him and it seems as if he is trying to get his life in order with religion and his a newer resolve to put it as a top priority by coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. We chatted about the Restoration and he believes that it’s true, so I don’t see why he’s not baptized. His second oldest daughter is in the Military and will be visiting for a few weeks in February, so we will see if he’ll accept to get baptized then, because I think that would be perfect timing.

Sara Fink is a seventeen year old high school senior and cheerleader. Her boyfriend is the second ward bishop’s son and he invited her to church a few months back. The day before services, we randomly knocked into her and taught her a first lesson. I don’t think that that was a coincidence. We have been teaching her for a few months now and even though she says that she’s never really been a religious person, this has really caught her attention. She accepted a soft baptismal commitment last week, so hopefully we can set a solid date here soon.

Last, but not least, Chuck and Sharon Nelson are a non-member couple in their fifties. They were a member referral. Chuck is a very educated man, but is also a genius when it comes to religion. He is what some people would call a dry Mormon. Everything he believes is what our church believes, he just hasn’t realized it yet. He loves our visits and loves the Book of Mormon, too. Sharon is scared of people, so kind of avoided us for a while, but randomly opened up and started asking us questions. She had questions about the Plan of Salvation, specifically where do we go when we die, because she had family pass away a year or so ago. The funny thing is that when we started going over the plan of salvation briefly, Chuck was pretty much teaching with us, so that was cool. Their obstacle is that they are very, very busy, so we have a hard time sitting down with them, but once we do, they will progress rather quickly I believe.

So there we go. That is the lowdown here in Roswell. The baptisms we get this transfer will most likely come from that pool, so be praying with me that we can find success. Life is good. I’ll write again next week since I have run out of time. Peace!

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester