Dear Family,
Well, the time has once again come to email on P-day. I honestly feel like I will be here again on next P-day, but I will not and it seems unreal. Not that I’m in denial, but it just doesn’t seem real. I’ve just got so used to this missionary life that it has become a part of me, but everything happens for a reason and I am just getting called to labor in a different part of the Lord’s vineyard with a different assignment. That’s all.
Following up real quick on last week’s email, two points of concern. First, I would like to point out Murphy’s Law. When you are really looking for something or you really want something, you are never going to get it or find it. The only time you will find what you’re looking for or get what you want is when you don’t need it. Like in Settlers, the only time a 7 is rolled is when you have too many cards in your hand AND you are really hoping it doesn’t get rolled. Why do I bring this up? Well, if you remember, last week I talked about photo CD’s and how I’ve been trying constantly for the last 3 or 4 months to get one made and finally I gave up and apologized to everyone through email that I never got one sent like I wanted to. Well, right after a sent that, we went to Wal-Mart and guess what? It worked. Like it was waiting for me to give up before it would let me make one. So I made two and sent them on Tuesday. They should be here today, yesterday, or tomorrow and everyone will have some pictures to look at for the first few days before I get home. The only photo CD I have left to make is the one for this last transfer with Elder Wakefield and Elder Thode and I will wait till I get home to create it because I am not done taking pictures.
Second follow up is with Sara Fink. I gave a big long story about her last week and have a story to finish. Well, I hadn’t told her that I was leaving and that the 21st is my last Sunday, but we were going to try to push her a little to get baptized on the 21st because she is ready and I would have it in the back of my mind that it would be a great finale to my mission, but that that wouldn’t be the focus. Well, turns out that I didn’t even have to bring that up. Before I even thought of telling her I was leaving, she already knew and had a goal in her mind to get baptized before I left. Wow. First she already knew about the temple without us telling her and now this? She is a very bright young lady. I love it when our job is made easy. On Saturday we went over to teach the commandments. In Preach My Gospel there are 12 commandments that we have to teach. We decided to start with the biggest four, the four that they specifically ask about in the baptismal interview: The Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, The Law of Tithing, and the Sabbath Day. Nope. Didn’t teach her anything she didn’t already know. She was already familiarized with those and had committed herself to living them. Why was I not surprised? Now about the baptism this Sunday, it ain’t happen’. She wanted to get baptized on that day, and we wanted to see her baptized on that day, but her parents will be out of town and both Sara and I agreed that her parents coming to her baptism is better than Elder Droge coming to her baptism. I’m not at all hurt, though. I know she is getting baptized and Sara knows she is getting baptized, it’s just a matter of time and hopefully sooner rather than later, but either way, everything will work out. In my mind she still goes in the records of Elder Droge’s mission as baptism number 14. That’s the official count. 8 of those 14 were right here in Roswell, so I’m not complaining. It’s been a good 7 month tenure here in the UFO capital of the United States. Good city (if you stay away from certain areas at certain times, that is). Good ward. Good People. I will miss Roswell.
I forgot to wish everyone a great Valentine’s Day last week, but I will now wish everyone a belated Valentine’s Day. It was a good day for me; I hope it was for you. The church meeting was very good here. The subject was on love and the concluding speaker got up and gave a fantastic talk about Celestial Marriage. It was as if we were listening to a general authority speak. He was a very talented public speaker and knew a lot about the gospel. I enjoyed it. It was also my last church meeting at the Roswell 1st ward, being that this next Sunday is Stake Conference. I thought that was planned very well. I had done a great job of not advertising my departure and it was planned quite nicely that I would slip under the radar, because even those who knew I was going home this month weren’t going to realize that this was my last Sunday. I was going to be able to sneak home. Well, ten minutes before church started, President Wiser, the Stake President, walked in. He visited with Bishop Malcom in the back of the chapel. Well, I was nearby and noticed that they were talking and saw Bishop Malcom chuckle a little. I thought nothing of it, but I hadn’t thought of the fact that the Zone Leaders live with the Wisers and probably informed President Wiser that this was my last Sunday in Roswell 1st ward. Well, Bishop Malcom then walks over to me asks me if I could give a farewell testimony, since this is my last Sunday in the ward. Dang it! Plan foiled. President Wiser had probably just told Bishop Malcom that I was leaving. Now the whole ward knows I am leaving. Oh well, it’s all good. Even though I’m not one who needs recognition, I guess it’s nice to know that the ward cares and was pleased with the service I performed for their ward and will be missing me when I’m gone.
Now it is time to close for the final time. What a privilege it has been to serve a mission. I am truly honored. I can look back on mission as I am finishing and declare with Paul that I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. I don’t know if I am ready to be offered up yet, but yet I am ready as I ever will be. Looking back, I have seen a change come over me. I am a different person that has learned a whole lot about a whole lot of different things. And as is apparent in everyone’s letters, not only have I changed, but the outside world has changed a lot, too. I am a different person going back to a different world. My whole future is up in the air right now. I don’t know what’s going to happen and that makes me a little nervous, but yet I read my patriarchal blessing and find comfort in reading that when all is said and done, everything will work out. I remember a scene in Star Wars episode II, a guy walks up to Obi-One and asks if he wants to buy some death sticks. Obi-One replies that, ‘you don’t want to sell me death sticks.’ The guy answers, ‘I don’t want to sell you death sticks.’ Obi-One replies again, ‘you want to go home and re-think your life.’ As the guy walks away, he says, ‘I want to go home and re-think my life.’ That has been the inside joke these last couple of weeks between me and my companions because it’s time for me to go home and re-think my life, because it will definitely be different than what I originally planned. We’ll see what happens. Remember, Salt Lake City Airport, 2:15 PM MST this upcoming Wednesday. They sent me the final flight itinerary a week or so ago and mentioned that they sent a copy of this one home as well, so I don’t think you’ll forget, but we will see you then. Peace out and TLM for life!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Letter 2-11-10
Dear Family,
So, I have one item of business and then one missionary story. The item of businesss is that for the last 3 or 4 months, I have tried my hardest to get a photo CD sent home, but the CD creater things at WalMart have been possesed. Everytime I try them they decide to not work. They will print photos, but for some reason or another, they won't make CDs. The plan has been in my mind to create 3 CDs. I had 2 to create, Roswell Part 2 and Roswell Part 3, out here and then Roswell Part 4 for after I get home since that is the one from my last transfer, but by the looks of things, I may just have to do all 3 when I get home, so sorry for the technical difficulties. If time permits today, I may try one last time to create the other 2 CDs, but we'll see.
The missionary story comes with Sara Fink. She is my last hope to get one more baptism before I leave. Reviewing her story, she is the girlfriend of Travis Lueveno, an active priest in Roswell 2nd Ward and son of Bishop Lueveno of 2nd Ward (2nd ward is the other ward. I go to 1st ward). Both Travis and Sara are 17 year old high school seniors. Back on October 11th, all 5 stakes in the mission sponsered an idea given by President Robison. Invitation Sunday. A special sunday set aside for the members to invite their friends to church. All 3 hours were to be dedicated to the message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to show to the outside world who it is that we worship and follow and to also help them feel the spirit of this church, the restored church of Jesus Christ. Well, Travis Lueveno decided that he would invite his girlfriend, Sara Fink, to come to church. He did and she accepted. Without Travis even making the slightest hint to us 1st ward elders, we knocked on the Fink home the day before Invitation Sunday while we were out finding (tracting). We hadn't the slightest idea of who they were, but the mom answered. Mom wanted nothing to do with us, but quickly turned us over to Sara because of the fact that Sara's boyfriend was a member and Sara was going to church anyway. Sara easily accepted our offer for us to teach her about the restoration and told us the story of Travis inviting her to church. I think that was meant to happen. God doesn't work in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. The 1st lesson went good and she enjoyed church. From then through December, things went slow and Sara was hard to catch. We saw her about once or twice a month because she had a lot of things on her plate at the time. When January rolled around, we caught her again and invited her to church and set up a lesson at the Lueveno home. She came to church, with Travis still, and we taught a great 3rd lesson, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think everything was downhill from there. She has now been to church almost every single week since, 3 or 4 times in a row now, still at 2nd ward. 2 weeks ago, she asked us where she is in the process and told us that she really wanted to get baptized. All the other churches she went to have all fizzled out, but this one hasn't for her and everything makes sense. We have been wanting her to come over to first ward beacuse in the long run its a better option because there are very few young women in the other ward and none her age, so all the support she has is from Travis and if they were to break up, things wouldn't be good with no support, but here in 1st ward, there are several young women her age that would be a big help. Plus, if she comes to 1st ward, it will prove to many people that she's in it for herself and not just for her boyfriend. She has realized that and has wanted to come to 1st ward, but is slightly nervous about going to a new ward. Well, the young women in first ward this past week or so have done an amazing job with fellowship and have made her feel comfortable. She has come to 1st ward mutual and would've come to church this past week, but the day before she had to take a trip to the hospital, her equilibrium was off. She is fine now, but took some advise from her dad to get some rest. So everything is going very well. Another plus is that she has been attending early morning seminary with the youth and has mentioned to us that she wants to get married in the temple as well. Funny thing with that is that we haven't talked to her at all about the temple, so our job is being made easier with all the teaching going on behind the scenes. The only obstacle right now is that in order to get baptized, since she is only 17 is that she has to get permission from her Dad (her Mom left since we started teaching). He isn't really religious and doesn't mind her going to church, but she doesn't know what he will think about her joining and so she is nervous about that. Not about the baptism part, she doesn't think he will have a problem with that, but the temple issue. He won't be able to go inside the temple to see his daughter get married. Our advise was to take it one step at a time here and she did get some advise from 2nd ward bishop, Bishop Lueveno, so hopefully everything will work out. We are going to push for her to get baptized on February 21st, the Sunday before I go home. It will be a little bit of a push, but I think she is ready and I want to see her get baptized before I leave. That will be cool. A great way to end a grand and glorious two years. If it doesn't happen, I won't be too hurt because she is definitely converted to the gospel and will get baptized eventually, so I'm not worried.
Anyways, I will sign off now. I will update you on Sara next week. That was a long story as I look back on it, but I hope you enjoyed it since I only have one last email session left and it was probably the last big missionary story I will have on my mission. I will let you know how things turn out. And lets do this email thing one last time. Until next week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So, I have one item of business and then one missionary story. The item of businesss is that for the last 3 or 4 months, I have tried my hardest to get a photo CD sent home, but the CD creater things at WalMart have been possesed. Everytime I try them they decide to not work. They will print photos, but for some reason or another, they won't make CDs. The plan has been in my mind to create 3 CDs. I had 2 to create, Roswell Part 2 and Roswell Part 3, out here and then Roswell Part 4 for after I get home since that is the one from my last transfer, but by the looks of things, I may just have to do all 3 when I get home, so sorry for the technical difficulties. If time permits today, I may try one last time to create the other 2 CDs, but we'll see.
The missionary story comes with Sara Fink. She is my last hope to get one more baptism before I leave. Reviewing her story, she is the girlfriend of Travis Lueveno, an active priest in Roswell 2nd Ward and son of Bishop Lueveno of 2nd Ward (2nd ward is the other ward. I go to 1st ward). Both Travis and Sara are 17 year old high school seniors. Back on October 11th, all 5 stakes in the mission sponsered an idea given by President Robison. Invitation Sunday. A special sunday set aside for the members to invite their friends to church. All 3 hours were to be dedicated to the message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to show to the outside world who it is that we worship and follow and to also help them feel the spirit of this church, the restored church of Jesus Christ. Well, Travis Lueveno decided that he would invite his girlfriend, Sara Fink, to come to church. He did and she accepted. Without Travis even making the slightest hint to us 1st ward elders, we knocked on the Fink home the day before Invitation Sunday while we were out finding (tracting). We hadn't the slightest idea of who they were, but the mom answered. Mom wanted nothing to do with us, but quickly turned us over to Sara because of the fact that Sara's boyfriend was a member and Sara was going to church anyway. Sara easily accepted our offer for us to teach her about the restoration and told us the story of Travis inviting her to church. I think that was meant to happen. God doesn't work in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. The 1st lesson went good and she enjoyed church. From then through December, things went slow and Sara was hard to catch. We saw her about once or twice a month because she had a lot of things on her plate at the time. When January rolled around, we caught her again and invited her to church and set up a lesson at the Lueveno home. She came to church, with Travis still, and we taught a great 3rd lesson, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think everything was downhill from there. She has now been to church almost every single week since, 3 or 4 times in a row now, still at 2nd ward. 2 weeks ago, she asked us where she is in the process and told us that she really wanted to get baptized. All the other churches she went to have all fizzled out, but this one hasn't for her and everything makes sense. We have been wanting her to come over to first ward beacuse in the long run its a better option because there are very few young women in the other ward and none her age, so all the support she has is from Travis and if they were to break up, things wouldn't be good with no support, but here in 1st ward, there are several young women her age that would be a big help. Plus, if she comes to 1st ward, it will prove to many people that she's in it for herself and not just for her boyfriend. She has realized that and has wanted to come to 1st ward, but is slightly nervous about going to a new ward. Well, the young women in first ward this past week or so have done an amazing job with fellowship and have made her feel comfortable. She has come to 1st ward mutual and would've come to church this past week, but the day before she had to take a trip to the hospital, her equilibrium was off. She is fine now, but took some advise from her dad to get some rest. So everything is going very well. Another plus is that she has been attending early morning seminary with the youth and has mentioned to us that she wants to get married in the temple as well. Funny thing with that is that we haven't talked to her at all about the temple, so our job is being made easier with all the teaching going on behind the scenes. The only obstacle right now is that in order to get baptized, since she is only 17 is that she has to get permission from her Dad (her Mom left since we started teaching). He isn't really religious and doesn't mind her going to church, but she doesn't know what he will think about her joining and so she is nervous about that. Not about the baptism part, she doesn't think he will have a problem with that, but the temple issue. He won't be able to go inside the temple to see his daughter get married. Our advise was to take it one step at a time here and she did get some advise from 2nd ward bishop, Bishop Lueveno, so hopefully everything will work out. We are going to push for her to get baptized on February 21st, the Sunday before I go home. It will be a little bit of a push, but I think she is ready and I want to see her get baptized before I leave. That will be cool. A great way to end a grand and glorious two years. If it doesn't happen, I won't be too hurt because she is definitely converted to the gospel and will get baptized eventually, so I'm not worried.
Anyways, I will sign off now. I will update you on Sara next week. That was a long story as I look back on it, but I hope you enjoyed it since I only have one last email session left and it was probably the last big missionary story I will have on my mission. I will let you know how things turn out. And lets do this email thing one last time. Until next week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Letter 2-3-10
Dear Family,
Surprise, surprise! Interviews with President Robison are tomorrow, so p-day is today. Yet another month has gone away. January of 2010 ended in an interesting way, so let’s get down to business.
I believe I left everyone hanging with the story of Joe Sanchez. Last week we ran into a sticky situation with the baptism that was unresolved when I emailed last week, but the story is now completed. All that was heard from Joe about his wife was negative things, so when Joe called Thursday morning saying that his wife had some issues with him getting baptized I was kinda nervous because if you don’t have permission from the spouse, they can’t get baptized. Not having a clue of what we were getting ourselves into, we ventured to the Sanchez home a couple hours after emailing to visit with Joe and Velina Sanchez. Turns out Velina wasn’t such a bad lady after all; in fact, she was actually a great lady who knows her husband a little more than we do. We learned that Joe isn’t a very good communicator. All that Velina knew was that missionaries were visiting with Joe and that he was coming to church. Well, suddenly Joe tells her that he has to get baptized and has to pay his tithing, keep in mind that she heard this a few days before he said he was getting baptized. Red flag flies up in her mind. She remembers that Joe has gone to several churches before and been baptized 3 or 4 times in the past, yet has never been able to be fully committed to a church and when he says he has to pay his tithing another red flag goes up because his finances aren’t in the right position for him to pay tithing. Turns out we find that Joe is horrible with money and is in a lot of debt. So what does Velina do? She wants to talk with the missionaries about it because, even though she’s not a huge fan of the church, she is a very good Christian lady that has a lot of truth in her. She is under the impression that if you’re going to join a church, you have to be fully committed. Either go 100% or not at all and she didn’t know if Joe should be baptized because she doesn’t feel he can keep all the commitments, especially tithing. Wow. I am so glad that she talked with us. One, we told her that this isn’t our decision like Joe made it sound. This is Joe’s. Joe does feel very good about this church. He says he feels better about this church that he has about any other church and that was evident because he has come to church every week and started living the Word of Wisdom and continued to visit with us and stay strong even though he received lots of opposition. Now as far as finances go, that was way over my head. First off, I’m not a marriage counselor, which is the position I was put in for that hour while they both bickered back and forth. Second, I’m only a 21 year old kid. I’ve never really had to deal with finances enough to resolve that concern. So what did we do? Reinforcements. We took Bishop Malcom over on Friday and shabang! Right decision. I learned a whole ton. Bishop sat down with Joe and Velina and talked with them both for an hour while we sat and watched. Bishop pretty much sided with Velina and made Joe make some commitments as far as his finances go and also some commitments to communicate with his wife and then passed for baptism. Even though Velina didn’t attend the baptism and isn’t real interested in the church, she felt comfortable with Joe getting baptized and I believe that she will soon follow if Joe stays true to the commitments he has made. Joe was baptized on Sunday, January 31st, as planned and it went real good. I was happy. He will get confirmed this upcoming Sunday in Sacrament Meeting.
As far as our other investigators go, I want to get at least one more baptism before I leave and it looks like we will make that. The person will be Sara Fink, the 17 year old high school senior who is the girlfriend of 2nd ward bishop’s son. She told us this week she wants to get baptized, but I don’t have time to tell that story, so I will tell it next week. Jake Gonzales is doing great but has been out of town for the last two weeks on a work assignment, so getting baptized this month is questionable. We set another baptismal date with Peter Hardin, the nine year old who’s family is less active, for this month, but they still aren’t committed to church, so that is questionable as well. Chuck and Sharon Nelson are doing good, but we are working slower. So that is it for this week. Everyone have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Surprise, surprise! Interviews with President Robison are tomorrow, so p-day is today. Yet another month has gone away. January of 2010 ended in an interesting way, so let’s get down to business.
I believe I left everyone hanging with the story of Joe Sanchez. Last week we ran into a sticky situation with the baptism that was unresolved when I emailed last week, but the story is now completed. All that was heard from Joe about his wife was negative things, so when Joe called Thursday morning saying that his wife had some issues with him getting baptized I was kinda nervous because if you don’t have permission from the spouse, they can’t get baptized. Not having a clue of what we were getting ourselves into, we ventured to the Sanchez home a couple hours after emailing to visit with Joe and Velina Sanchez. Turns out Velina wasn’t such a bad lady after all; in fact, she was actually a great lady who knows her husband a little more than we do. We learned that Joe isn’t a very good communicator. All that Velina knew was that missionaries were visiting with Joe and that he was coming to church. Well, suddenly Joe tells her that he has to get baptized and has to pay his tithing, keep in mind that she heard this a few days before he said he was getting baptized. Red flag flies up in her mind. She remembers that Joe has gone to several churches before and been baptized 3 or 4 times in the past, yet has never been able to be fully committed to a church and when he says he has to pay his tithing another red flag goes up because his finances aren’t in the right position for him to pay tithing. Turns out we find that Joe is horrible with money and is in a lot of debt. So what does Velina do? She wants to talk with the missionaries about it because, even though she’s not a huge fan of the church, she is a very good Christian lady that has a lot of truth in her. She is under the impression that if you’re going to join a church, you have to be fully committed. Either go 100% or not at all and she didn’t know if Joe should be baptized because she doesn’t feel he can keep all the commitments, especially tithing. Wow. I am so glad that she talked with us. One, we told her that this isn’t our decision like Joe made it sound. This is Joe’s. Joe does feel very good about this church. He says he feels better about this church that he has about any other church and that was evident because he has come to church every week and started living the Word of Wisdom and continued to visit with us and stay strong even though he received lots of opposition. Now as far as finances go, that was way over my head. First off, I’m not a marriage counselor, which is the position I was put in for that hour while they both bickered back and forth. Second, I’m only a 21 year old kid. I’ve never really had to deal with finances enough to resolve that concern. So what did we do? Reinforcements. We took Bishop Malcom over on Friday and shabang! Right decision. I learned a whole ton. Bishop sat down with Joe and Velina and talked with them both for an hour while we sat and watched. Bishop pretty much sided with Velina and made Joe make some commitments as far as his finances go and also some commitments to communicate with his wife and then passed for baptism. Even though Velina didn’t attend the baptism and isn’t real interested in the church, she felt comfortable with Joe getting baptized and I believe that she will soon follow if Joe stays true to the commitments he has made. Joe was baptized on Sunday, January 31st, as planned and it went real good. I was happy. He will get confirmed this upcoming Sunday in Sacrament Meeting.
As far as our other investigators go, I want to get at least one more baptism before I leave and it looks like we will make that. The person will be Sara Fink, the 17 year old high school senior who is the girlfriend of 2nd ward bishop’s son. She told us this week she wants to get baptized, but I don’t have time to tell that story, so I will tell it next week. Jake Gonzales is doing great but has been out of town for the last two weeks on a work assignment, so getting baptized this month is questionable. We set another baptismal date with Peter Hardin, the nine year old who’s family is less active, for this month, but they still aren’t committed to church, so that is questionable as well. Chuck and Sharon Nelson are doing good, but we are working slower. So that is it for this week. Everyone have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
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