Friday, September 12, 2008
Letter 8-11-08
Dearest Family,
Byron – I have the answers to your trivia scriptures, which I enjoyed. 1 – Proverbs 28:25; 2 – Acts 20:7-9; 3 – Jacob 6:12; 4 – D&C 88:126. Fun scriptures. Everyone should look them up. That last one gave me a headache. It was hard to find.
I’ve received no response on the current scripture challenge, so they stand again.
One thing real quick, before I move on to me. There is a confused missionary who tells me that no one has ever said that R-Rated movies are bad. I know someone has, but I haven’t bothered remembering who did because I haven’t ever talked to a member who had a problem like that, so someone help me out.
Anyway, quite an eventful week this week. We started the week of on a bang by teaching a new family that really loved the message and accepted the soft baptismal commitment. The kids were key in the lesson. They are the perfect, teachable age, 10, 8, and 6. I think that really helped the parents a lot. The dad had a really horrible accident a few months ago. He was working in the oil field and got nailed with a big pipe and flew 40 feet across and 30 feet down. He broke several ribs, his lung collapsed, his face was shattered, and his hand was bent all the way back. Basically, he almost died on the way to the hospital, but lived and is now almost fully recovered. Now his sister-in-law’s sister died in a car crash this week after we taught them. That is sad, but I’m glad we’re here to help them. They loved the message and I have high hopes for them. They are Eric and Heather Miller. Kids are Damien, Haylee, and Kyle
Next thing I will bring up isn’t so happy. We were in a nice neighborhood, visiting an active member who is going through a hard time. After talking with him for about a half an hour, we came out to get on our bikes and leave, when we found that our bikes were gone. Stolen. They left our helmets though, that was weird. We reported it to the police and have told all the members that we talk with to keep their eyes open, but they haven’t showed up. That bike was expensive and has made me feel a little like Buzz in Toy Story when he figured out that instead of being a spaceman, he was only a toy. Defeated. But all is good. We have borrowed some bikes right now because the people here are nice. After transfers, I’ll figure out what to do if they haven’t showed up yet. I’m hoping they put me in a car area. That would be nice. I’ll probably end up buying a new bike, anyway. It’s all cool. We can do nothing but move forward when bad things happen. Hakunah Mattatah.
Anyway, last of all, yet a new chapter in the Cody Chambers saga has begun. To refresh your memory, Cody Chambers was our investigator that almost was baptized back in May, but fell off the map. When that happened, we decided we needed to teach his mom, so we did. We dropped in on her one night and have been slowly teaching her since, because she is hard to talk to sometimes. So last night, we dropped in on her again with the ward mission leader and guess who was there? Cody Chambers. He sat in on the lesson and was listening intently. We started out by reading Alma 32 with them and that turned into a really good discussion and she started throwing out questions at us, which is really good. If people never ask questions, that usually means that they aren’t fully serious about it. Anyway, a few questions in, guess who starts answering? Cody. He started to basically teach his mom with us, talking about the Spirit World, Baptism, Authority, etc. Pretty soon, she caught on that Cody knew a lot and believed everything, so she called him out and asked him what his problem was and why he didn’t get baptized and stopped coming to church, reading, and praying. She told him that she liked it when he was doing the right thing because he had a spirit about him that she now misses. Then he opened up and said he believes most of it, probably 97% of it, but not all and was also cheating with his smoking. We were then able to commit him to start reading, praying, and letting us teach him again. He accepted on terms that we go slowly this time, which we will. Cody has to work most Sundays now, but will come when he can and Ginger will come to church with Melissa, Cody’s ex-ed wife who was very hesitant, and Cody’s kids who are 5, 3, 2, and 1 and had been asking their parents if they could go to church. Very awesome. It couldn’t have gone any better.
On that note though, I will leave because I am now out of time. Peace out everyone and remember who you are.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
Byron – I have the answers to your trivia scriptures, which I enjoyed. 1 – Proverbs 28:25; 2 – Acts 20:7-9; 3 – Jacob 6:12; 4 – D&C 88:126. Fun scriptures. Everyone should look them up. That last one gave me a headache. It was hard to find.
I’ve received no response on the current scripture challenge, so they stand again.
One thing real quick, before I move on to me. There is a confused missionary who tells me that no one has ever said that R-Rated movies are bad. I know someone has, but I haven’t bothered remembering who did because I haven’t ever talked to a member who had a problem like that, so someone help me out.
Anyway, quite an eventful week this week. We started the week of on a bang by teaching a new family that really loved the message and accepted the soft baptismal commitment. The kids were key in the lesson. They are the perfect, teachable age, 10, 8, and 6. I think that really helped the parents a lot. The dad had a really horrible accident a few months ago. He was working in the oil field and got nailed with a big pipe and flew 40 feet across and 30 feet down. He broke several ribs, his lung collapsed, his face was shattered, and his hand was bent all the way back. Basically, he almost died on the way to the hospital, but lived and is now almost fully recovered. Now his sister-in-law’s sister died in a car crash this week after we taught them. That is sad, but I’m glad we’re here to help them. They loved the message and I have high hopes for them. They are Eric and Heather Miller. Kids are Damien, Haylee, and Kyle
Next thing I will bring up isn’t so happy. We were in a nice neighborhood, visiting an active member who is going through a hard time. After talking with him for about a half an hour, we came out to get on our bikes and leave, when we found that our bikes were gone. Stolen. They left our helmets though, that was weird. We reported it to the police and have told all the members that we talk with to keep their eyes open, but they haven’t showed up. That bike was expensive and has made me feel a little like Buzz in Toy Story when he figured out that instead of being a spaceman, he was only a toy. Defeated. But all is good. We have borrowed some bikes right now because the people here are nice. After transfers, I’ll figure out what to do if they haven’t showed up yet. I’m hoping they put me in a car area. That would be nice. I’ll probably end up buying a new bike, anyway. It’s all cool. We can do nothing but move forward when bad things happen. Hakunah Mattatah.
Anyway, last of all, yet a new chapter in the Cody Chambers saga has begun. To refresh your memory, Cody Chambers was our investigator that almost was baptized back in May, but fell off the map. When that happened, we decided we needed to teach his mom, so we did. We dropped in on her one night and have been slowly teaching her since, because she is hard to talk to sometimes. So last night, we dropped in on her again with the ward mission leader and guess who was there? Cody Chambers. He sat in on the lesson and was listening intently. We started out by reading Alma 32 with them and that turned into a really good discussion and she started throwing out questions at us, which is really good. If people never ask questions, that usually means that they aren’t fully serious about it. Anyway, a few questions in, guess who starts answering? Cody. He started to basically teach his mom with us, talking about the Spirit World, Baptism, Authority, etc. Pretty soon, she caught on that Cody knew a lot and believed everything, so she called him out and asked him what his problem was and why he didn’t get baptized and stopped coming to church, reading, and praying. She told him that she liked it when he was doing the right thing because he had a spirit about him that she now misses. Then he opened up and said he believes most of it, probably 97% of it, but not all and was also cheating with his smoking. We were then able to commit him to start reading, praying, and letting us teach him again. He accepted on terms that we go slowly this time, which we will. Cody has to work most Sundays now, but will come when he can and Ginger will come to church with Melissa, Cody’s ex-ed wife who was very hesitant, and Cody’s kids who are 5, 3, 2, and 1 and had been asking their parents if they could go to church. Very awesome. It couldn’t have gone any better.
On that note though, I will leave because I am now out of time. Peace out everyone and remember who you are.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
Letter 8-4-08
Dear Family,
First off – we’ve had a few birthdays, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHAWN AND SARAH!!! Let me know how everything went. I hope it was good.
Joe - I got a letter this week that said that I was lucky because I got two letters from you in one week. Well, that was the only letter that I got. I was very confused. Either the other letter got lost in the mail somehow or it was sent late. Just thought I’d let you know that I never got that second letter yet… but thanks for those pictures. They were great. I especially liked the one with Henry in the Easter basket. That was fun.
Dad – That scripture you sent is Alma 26:22. To make you feel good, I didn’t use the Bible dictionary and here in Texas as a missionary, I don’t go to the normal Sunday School class. I just found it off the top of my head. But it was very good. I like that chapter. It has a good message.
Shawn – If you somehow get this letter, I found some cool information. There is a member down here named Jeff Tew that served in the Oklahoma Tulsa mission from 1999 to 2001. I don’t know if you know him, but I believe he was there when you were there so let me know.
This week was a good week for me. Wednesday was zone conference. First zone conference with President Robison. It was really good. He is a great mission president. He lectured on obedience and laid down many of his rules so we know where he stands. He is a lot more chill then President Rose was. I see it as a comparison between Nephi and Captain Moroni. Moroni was a very bold, blunt, powerful man who probably spoke with power in his voice, but could also be very kind and loving at the same time. That was President Rose. Nephi was softer and more chill in his personality and the way he talked and acted, but was also very loving, obedient, and really amazing and powerful in a different sort of way. That is President Robison. I may have mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again because I can’t remember for sure, but President Robison was actually an NFL referee from 1988 to 1997. He told some stories from his refereeing days at zone conference. He also worked in the Davis County School District for 30 years at several different positions, including a basketball coach, so that is way cool.
This Sunday, Milan Eoff, the first baptism we got in July, got up and bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting. That was really awesome. He is very smart and knows what he needs to do. It has all made sense to him and he has a great testimony of the gospel. That is way cool.
Anyway, no one got any of the scriptures from last week so they still stand as the trivia for this week as well. Mom is stumped. Dad is searching hard, but has yet to find it. So keep looking. If I feel nice enough, I may give a clue if this has stumped people. But it shouldn’t, so press forward and I will work on the ones that Byron gave me just barely.
Remember, I love pictures, but I don’t have very much storage space in myldsmail.net – 50 MB to be exact. Send how you want, just keep in mind that if I have hard copies then I can keep them forever without having to send them to my old email to view in 19 months.
Peace out all and have a great week!
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
First off – we’ve had a few birthdays, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHAWN AND SARAH!!! Let me know how everything went. I hope it was good.
Joe - I got a letter this week that said that I was lucky because I got two letters from you in one week. Well, that was the only letter that I got. I was very confused. Either the other letter got lost in the mail somehow or it was sent late. Just thought I’d let you know that I never got that second letter yet… but thanks for those pictures. They were great. I especially liked the one with Henry in the Easter basket. That was fun.
Dad – That scripture you sent is Alma 26:22. To make you feel good, I didn’t use the Bible dictionary and here in Texas as a missionary, I don’t go to the normal Sunday School class. I just found it off the top of my head. But it was very good. I like that chapter. It has a good message.
Shawn – If you somehow get this letter, I found some cool information. There is a member down here named Jeff Tew that served in the Oklahoma Tulsa mission from 1999 to 2001. I don’t know if you know him, but I believe he was there when you were there so let me know.
This week was a good week for me. Wednesday was zone conference. First zone conference with President Robison. It was really good. He is a great mission president. He lectured on obedience and laid down many of his rules so we know where he stands. He is a lot more chill then President Rose was. I see it as a comparison between Nephi and Captain Moroni. Moroni was a very bold, blunt, powerful man who probably spoke with power in his voice, but could also be very kind and loving at the same time. That was President Rose. Nephi was softer and more chill in his personality and the way he talked and acted, but was also very loving, obedient, and really amazing and powerful in a different sort of way. That is President Robison. I may have mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again because I can’t remember for sure, but President Robison was actually an NFL referee from 1988 to 1997. He told some stories from his refereeing days at zone conference. He also worked in the Davis County School District for 30 years at several different positions, including a basketball coach, so that is way cool.
This Sunday, Milan Eoff, the first baptism we got in July, got up and bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting. That was really awesome. He is very smart and knows what he needs to do. It has all made sense to him and he has a great testimony of the gospel. That is way cool.
Anyway, no one got any of the scriptures from last week so they still stand as the trivia for this week as well. Mom is stumped. Dad is searching hard, but has yet to find it. So keep looking. If I feel nice enough, I may give a clue if this has stumped people. But it shouldn’t, so press forward and I will work on the ones that Byron gave me just barely.
Remember, I love pictures, but I don’t have very much storage space in myldsmail.net – 50 MB to be exact. Send how you want, just keep in mind that if I have hard copies then I can keep them forever without having to send them to my old email to view in 19 months.
Peace out all and have a great week!
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
Letter 7-28-08
Dearest Family,
First thing, thanks to Mom/Bruce/Joe for getting the shoes and the nerds to the Bushmans. The Bushmans are one of the best couples in the world. He is like an energizer bunny and has been bishop twice. It was fun for you to meet them. He likes and collects old stuff and so he told me that he enjoyed the old house and wished that mom would’ve taken him on a tour of the house.
Dave answered the trivia questions right. Which brother did Nephi raise from the dead? Timmothy. Who is Mormon’s grandson? Moroni. This week we do a scripture challenge. They are short scriptures, so we have a few them.
“Doth the wild [donkey] bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?”
Those are weird questions to ask.
“Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?”
Ha! That’s a hilarious retort to someone who is following you or won’t get off your back.
“I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.”
Heck yes!
“Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Now that’s funny imagery.
Alright, those should keep you occupied for a while. Let the search begin.
So it seems that Greg has had a fun summer. That was fun to hear about. Everyone decides to go on way fun trips when I am gone. Did you know that I live in Utah and haven’t yet been to the Arches?
Greg also tells me that Wendy is pregnant, but for some odd reason I haven’t accepted that right off the bat. I wonder why… Maybe it’s because he said that in his last letter and has a habit of pulling pranks and jokes…
So Joe, that is way awesome that you made Jazz Band. That is way fun. It would’ve been fun to be in Jazz Band, but French Horns aren’t a part of it and I didn’t ever feel like picking up the trumpet in order to join. Trombone section leader is also way fun. That means that you will probably get to do at least a solo or two during a performance. Also, you mention about presidencies and how when Travis was made president, you got left out. It’s funny how that works. I was teacher’s quorum president back in the day and I had my presidency all figured out in my head for like a week and then for some reason, the night before I was supposed to tell brother Baker about it, it didn’t feel right and so I changed it at the last minute to something that did feel right. It wasn’t until later that I figured why it was necessary to do it the way I did. So don’t feel left out. Many times people are called to a position because they need it for themselves and it will help them to be a better leader and a better person.
Anyway, story of the week on my side comes last Monday, a few hours after I emailed my letter for last week. A little bit of background. There is a man in our ward who went on a mission, graduated BYU, and got married in the Temple. Well, after all that, he fell away and is now against all religion. Sad story, but the good part is that his wife is still an active member of the church and has taken their kids to church by herself every week even though her husband won’t even let their kids get baptized. Well, their oldest son is now 18 years old and is on his way to BYU Idaho this next semester. Last Monday, they decided that he is old enough to make the decision for himself and he decided that he wanted to get baptized. So when we were relaxing on P-Day last week we got a call from the ward mission leader saying that he will get baptized the next day, so we went in and taught him all 4 lessons at once in the space of 2 hours, interviewed him right after, and he was baptized the next day. He also got confirmed the next day and was ordained a priest in the aaronic priesthood yesterday. Way cool. The look on his mom’s face when he was baptized was priceless.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. Peace out all.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
First thing, thanks to Mom/Bruce/Joe for getting the shoes and the nerds to the Bushmans. The Bushmans are one of the best couples in the world. He is like an energizer bunny and has been bishop twice. It was fun for you to meet them. He likes and collects old stuff and so he told me that he enjoyed the old house and wished that mom would’ve taken him on a tour of the house.
Dave answered the trivia questions right. Which brother did Nephi raise from the dead? Timmothy. Who is Mormon’s grandson? Moroni. This week we do a scripture challenge. They are short scriptures, so we have a few them.
“Doth the wild [donkey] bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?”
Those are weird questions to ask.
“Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?”
Ha! That’s a hilarious retort to someone who is following you or won’t get off your back.
“I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.”
Heck yes!
“Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Now that’s funny imagery.
Alright, those should keep you occupied for a while. Let the search begin.
So it seems that Greg has had a fun summer. That was fun to hear about. Everyone decides to go on way fun trips when I am gone. Did you know that I live in Utah and haven’t yet been to the Arches?
Greg also tells me that Wendy is pregnant, but for some odd reason I haven’t accepted that right off the bat. I wonder why… Maybe it’s because he said that in his last letter and has a habit of pulling pranks and jokes…
So Joe, that is way awesome that you made Jazz Band. That is way fun. It would’ve been fun to be in Jazz Band, but French Horns aren’t a part of it and I didn’t ever feel like picking up the trumpet in order to join. Trombone section leader is also way fun. That means that you will probably get to do at least a solo or two during a performance. Also, you mention about presidencies and how when Travis was made president, you got left out. It’s funny how that works. I was teacher’s quorum president back in the day and I had my presidency all figured out in my head for like a week and then for some reason, the night before I was supposed to tell brother Baker about it, it didn’t feel right and so I changed it at the last minute to something that did feel right. It wasn’t until later that I figured why it was necessary to do it the way I did. So don’t feel left out. Many times people are called to a position because they need it for themselves and it will help them to be a better leader and a better person.
Anyway, story of the week on my side comes last Monday, a few hours after I emailed my letter for last week. A little bit of background. There is a man in our ward who went on a mission, graduated BYU, and got married in the Temple. Well, after all that, he fell away and is now against all religion. Sad story, but the good part is that his wife is still an active member of the church and has taken their kids to church by herself every week even though her husband won’t even let their kids get baptized. Well, their oldest son is now 18 years old and is on his way to BYU Idaho this next semester. Last Monday, they decided that he is old enough to make the decision for himself and he decided that he wanted to get baptized. So when we were relaxing on P-Day last week we got a call from the ward mission leader saying that he will get baptized the next day, so we went in and taught him all 4 lessons at once in the space of 2 hours, interviewed him right after, and he was baptized the next day. He also got confirmed the next day and was ordained a priest in the aaronic priesthood yesterday. Way cool. The look on his mom’s face when he was baptized was priceless.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. Peace out all.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Letter 9-2-08
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOM!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!
Dear Family,
Elder Adam R Droge
2038 Menard Hwy #6
Brady, TX 76825
There you go. That is my address down here. I am in Brady, Texas. The Heart of Texas. First off though, Dave sent me the most cool thing in the world. MWC simulation article in Deseretnews. That was fun. Thanks. I noted the author was a guy by the name of Layton Shumway. That is a very familiar name. In this mission there is a missionary by the name of Elder Bryan Shumway. I believe Elder Shumway did say that his brother is a sportswriter for deseret news, so there you go. Speaking of Elder Shumway, though, I served around him for the last 3 transfers and we had an intersting occurance last P-day. We were all hanging around the Bushmans and Elder Shumway found some granola and had 3 bowls because it was really good. He felt a little sick 10 minutes later but thought it was only because he had so much granola. Well, we went to play baskerball and 30 minutes or so in, Elder Shumway got feeling really naucious and had to stop. He started swelling up and turning red so we decided we needed to do something about that. We got in the car and called Sister Robison and while we were driving, Shumway started having troubles breathing, so sister Robison directed us to go to the ER, so we did. Quickly. The Driver, Elder Bean, went 80 miles an hour in a 40 MPH zone, was weaving in and out of traffic and even ran 2 red lights. Not good at all, but way crazy and fun. We didn't get pulled over, thankfully, and we spent the day in the Emergency Room. Elder Shumway was fine. Turns out he had an allergic reaction to the Agave Nector that sister Bushman had put in the granola. Agave is a cactus and the nector is used as a sweetener like honey or sugar and is actually the main ingredient in taquilla. So that was our P-day last monday.
Tuesday morning was fun. I was walking downstairs at the Bushmans and lo and behold, what did I see in the hallway? A snake. Thats right. A snake. Sister Bushman was freaked out but I thought it was really awesome. Its not everyday you get to meet a wild snake in your house. We took it out with a broom and I played around with it and took pictures of it. If I ever get some random time available to send pictures, I might send some, otherwise you'll just have to wait till I run out of picture room on my camera and am forced to send the memory card home with all the pictures. I only have 250 pictures left to take for that to happen. I've taken 320 or so, so don't worry. Only a couple 6, 7 months... :)
But anyway, Wednesday I traveled south on the Tansfer Bus and was dropped off in San Angelo, the last stop, and was then exiled to Brady. The bus ride was from 3 PM to 7PM. Not too bad considering my companion spent from 7AM to 7PM on the bus. He rode from start to stop. From Pampa to Brady. That would be a lot of fun... After we were dropped off in San Angelo, it took us another hour to drive to Brady.
First lets get this out of the way. Brady is the most southeast the mission will go and it is not in hurricane territory. So no need to worry. This mission is too far west for hurricanes so Hurricane Gustav had no effect on us. I haven't decided if thats a good thing or a bad thing. It would be kind of fun to say that I experienced a hurricane... kinda like tornados. I have yet to see a tornado, but it would be fun if I did. As long as its far enough away that is. I'm not the only one to say that. Its every missionary's dream to see a tornado or hurricane.
But about Brady now. You noticed that I said I was exiled to Brady. I kinda feel that way. It is a small town of only 5,000 people. There are only about 30 active members in the Branch and we meet in a house that was converted to a church. Elder Pyle (pronouced Pile) and I are the only missionaries for like an hour. I have never really lived in a small town. Midland was a big city of 100,000 people and 10 missionaries with a big ward and I don't have to expain how I lived back in Utah, do I? That's why I say exiled. Don't worry, though. I'll be like Joseph of Egypt and make good out of the situation I am in. It'll be fun. The members that do go to the church are all really awesome and we have some great investigators that will be left behind for us. Left behind because in case you didn't catch it, we are whitewashing in. Whitewashing is when both the previous missionaries get transfered out and two new missionaries get sent in. It is an interesting experience. You have to spend a while getting used to the area, meeting the members, and trying to catch up and meet your investigators. It'll be great. I'll do good down here. And yes, I almost forgot to mention. Brady is a beautiful town. It is green, has plenty of trees, is very hilly, and has a lake. No mountains, but at least it is a step up from flat, yellowish green, no trees or lakes Midland which I got very used to. Brady is also known as the heart of Texas. The dead center geographically. That is cool. I got a picture of a water tower that said Brady on it and had 2 hearts.
By the way. If you didn't catch it before, Happy Birthday, Mom!! It sounds like you had a great day. It would have been a blast to have been there, but I was too busy spending P-day at a lake with some members, not being able to email due to the holiday. I didn't go swimming. I promise. Although it did look very tempting. Its been a while since I've been at a lake. And go BYU! Way to beat Northern Iowa. And thanks to Dave for the great play by play update of the game. If I got that every week I'd be a happy elder. I have no doubt that they'll go undefeated. Their biggest obstacle is Washington and UCLA. We beat UCLA last year, so that shouldn't be a problem and Washington just got ran over by Oregon, or so I heard, so that won't be bad. And no way that we will get an undefeated season spoiled by Utah.
But I got 2 go. Until next time, peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
Antialienator345
Dear Family,
Elder Adam R Droge
2038 Menard Hwy #6
Brady, TX 76825
There you go. That is my address down here. I am in Brady, Texas. The Heart of Texas. First off though, Dave sent me the most cool thing in the world. MWC simulation article in Deseretnews. That was fun. Thanks. I noted the author was a guy by the name of Layton Shumway. That is a very familiar name. In this mission there is a missionary by the name of Elder Bryan Shumway. I believe Elder Shumway did say that his brother is a sportswriter for deseret news, so there you go. Speaking of Elder Shumway, though, I served around him for the last 3 transfers and we had an intersting occurance last P-day. We were all hanging around the Bushmans and Elder Shumway found some granola and had 3 bowls because it was really good. He felt a little sick 10 minutes later but thought it was only because he had so much granola. Well, we went to play baskerball and 30 minutes or so in, Elder Shumway got feeling really naucious and had to stop. He started swelling up and turning red so we decided we needed to do something about that. We got in the car and called Sister Robison and while we were driving, Shumway started having troubles breathing, so sister Robison directed us to go to the ER, so we did. Quickly. The Driver, Elder Bean, went 80 miles an hour in a 40 MPH zone, was weaving in and out of traffic and even ran 2 red lights. Not good at all, but way crazy and fun. We didn't get pulled over, thankfully, and we spent the day in the Emergency Room. Elder Shumway was fine. Turns out he had an allergic reaction to the Agave Nector that sister Bushman had put in the granola. Agave is a cactus and the nector is used as a sweetener like honey or sugar and is actually the main ingredient in taquilla. So that was our P-day last monday.
Tuesday morning was fun. I was walking downstairs at the Bushmans and lo and behold, what did I see in the hallway? A snake. Thats right. A snake. Sister Bushman was freaked out but I thought it was really awesome. Its not everyday you get to meet a wild snake in your house. We took it out with a broom and I played around with it and took pictures of it. If I ever get some random time available to send pictures, I might send some, otherwise you'll just have to wait till I run out of picture room on my camera and am forced to send the memory card home with all the pictures. I only have 250 pictures left to take for that to happen. I've taken 320 or so, so don't worry. Only a couple 6, 7 months... :)
But anyway, Wednesday I traveled south on the Tansfer Bus and was dropped off in San Angelo, the last stop, and was then exiled to Brady. The bus ride was from 3 PM to 7PM. Not too bad considering my companion spent from 7AM to 7PM on the bus. He rode from start to stop. From Pampa to Brady. That would be a lot of fun... After we were dropped off in San Angelo, it took us another hour to drive to Brady.
First lets get this out of the way. Brady is the most southeast the mission will go and it is not in hurricane territory. So no need to worry. This mission is too far west for hurricanes so Hurricane Gustav had no effect on us. I haven't decided if thats a good thing or a bad thing. It would be kind of fun to say that I experienced a hurricane... kinda like tornados. I have yet to see a tornado, but it would be fun if I did. As long as its far enough away that is. I'm not the only one to say that. Its every missionary's dream to see a tornado or hurricane.
But about Brady now. You noticed that I said I was exiled to Brady. I kinda feel that way. It is a small town of only 5,000 people. There are only about 30 active members in the Branch and we meet in a house that was converted to a church. Elder Pyle (pronouced Pile) and I are the only missionaries for like an hour. I have never really lived in a small town. Midland was a big city of 100,000 people and 10 missionaries with a big ward and I don't have to expain how I lived back in Utah, do I? That's why I say exiled. Don't worry, though. I'll be like Joseph of Egypt and make good out of the situation I am in. It'll be fun. The members that do go to the church are all really awesome and we have some great investigators that will be left behind for us. Left behind because in case you didn't catch it, we are whitewashing in. Whitewashing is when both the previous missionaries get transfered out and two new missionaries get sent in. It is an interesting experience. You have to spend a while getting used to the area, meeting the members, and trying to catch up and meet your investigators. It'll be great. I'll do good down here. And yes, I almost forgot to mention. Brady is a beautiful town. It is green, has plenty of trees, is very hilly, and has a lake. No mountains, but at least it is a step up from flat, yellowish green, no trees or lakes Midland which I got very used to. Brady is also known as the heart of Texas. The dead center geographically. That is cool. I got a picture of a water tower that said Brady on it and had 2 hearts.
By the way. If you didn't catch it before, Happy Birthday, Mom!! It sounds like you had a great day. It would have been a blast to have been there, but I was too busy spending P-day at a lake with some members, not being able to email due to the holiday. I didn't go swimming. I promise. Although it did look very tempting. Its been a while since I've been at a lake. And go BYU! Way to beat Northern Iowa. And thanks to Dave for the great play by play update of the game. If I got that every week I'd be a happy elder. I have no doubt that they'll go undefeated. Their biggest obstacle is Washington and UCLA. We beat UCLA last year, so that shouldn't be a problem and Washington just got ran over by Oregon, or so I heard, so that won't be bad. And no way that we will get an undefeated season spoiled by Utah.
But I got 2 go. Until next time, peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
Antialienator345
Letter 8-25-08
Dear Family,
“Happy 6 month mark to me! Happy 6 month mark to me! Happy 6 month mark dear Elder Droge! Happy 6 month mark to me!” YAY!!!!!! Someone should send me some CD’s as a present, Like say Motob’s Called to Serve or Consider the Lillies or Jeff Goodrich or all of that. That would be tight!
Question - What happens when you write a letter in word and when you go to send it to the family, you forget to actually paste it in your email?
Answer – The Family doesn’t get to hear from you because all they get in the email is “Elder Adam R Droge; Befriendor345.” Mwa ha ha!!
No, I didn’t do that on purpose, but I laughed at myself when Dad told me about it in his letter. You see, the email site, myldsmail.net, is a kinda cruddy email. Very little space, slow, and easy to delete letters, so I write a letter in word, then copy and paste. Well, last week I forgot the copy and paste part. I just put in the addresses, wrote a subject and sent. It’s ok though. This last week was a very uneventful week. No real progress, so with having to recap last week, I actually have something to write about.
First though, Joe mentioned that he loved pineapple upside-down cake. What’s ironic about that is that I just had that a few weeks ago and I must agree. If you’ve never had it, that would be something to invest in.
Second, Dad – I loved the way that you started your letter. That was classic.
If you remember me talking about Ginger Keyes two weeks ago, new things have transpired that are very interesting. Two days after we went over last Sunday, we went over again with a really cool member in our ward. He was a Baptist minister that converted. Consequently, he is really smart. Ginger always has really good questions that stump us sometimes and we have to rely on the member that we took out that night (we always have to take a member to see her because she lives out in the boonies). Well, the way brother Greathouse, the ex-Baptist minister, answered her questions was just the thing that she needed to get her over the hump. Now she is a ton more interested than she was and is now progressing really good. We took our recent convert, Milan Eoff, the guy we baptized last month, over to see her Saturday and that was really good as well. It’s good to hear the story of a person that was just in your shoes a month and a half ago.
That’s all the investigator news I have right now. The sad thing is—that’s the end of it. Well, as far as you’re concerned anyway. The only other news that you’ll hear about investigators like Ginger Keyes and Cody Chambers (who I think will catch fire again once his mom gets baptized) is if they got baptized. That is if I remember to tell you if I find out. Why? I just got traded today. The trading deadline, the end of the transfers, was yesterday. I survived it 3 times in a row and thus was able to stay here in Midland for 4 transfers (a transfer is a period of 6 weeks) or 6 months (well, 5½ if you want to get technical about it). This time I wasn’t so lucky. I got the Axe here in Midland. Sad. But its time to move on with a new companion, a new area, and new people. I’ll miss this ward. They have treated me well. Hopefully the next ward will follow suit. I don’t know where that will be yet. If you remember, they don’t tell us where we’re going. They just say you are leaving. Get on the bus either Tuesday or Wednesday because you are going north or south. I don’t even know that information. Zone Leaders don’t know that until this afternoon, which is really weird. So you will find out next week where I am. I’ll get you the address so you can put it on the blog and that you know where to send letters to.
Other good news is about our bikes. If you remember, we were visiting a member and when we came out, our bikes were gone. So we told the members and filed a police report, but nothing ever happened with them. We borrowed some bikes for a while something new happened. Well, first off, we were talking to one of our investigators about it and he had just bought a new bike and hadn’t ridden his other one in a while and wasn’t ever really planning on using it ether, so he just gave me it. It’s a nice a bike. That was really cool. Then for Elder Larrabee, his friend that just returned from his mission found out that he had got his bike stolen. He was on his way to San Angelo anway, so he packed his mission bike in his car and gave it to Elder Larrabee. So now we both have bikes. No need to worry
One last thing before I sign off, Dad got the scripture challenge so we’re due for a new one. This one comes in form of a trivia question that I actually want to know the answer to because I am unsure. I have a guess, but I’m not positive. Where did Alma the Older get his authority to baptize and start a new church? Let me hear your thoughts. The answer also very well might be in that Book of Mormon packet that I got at Brother Parkers Book of Mormon class at BYU. Look at Mosiah 18 and places around it and send me a copy if it says anything.
If you noctice, the Befriendor has switched to the anti-alienator (un-hyphened). The Befriendor didn’t have a great ring to it. But anyway, farewell until we meet again!! Peace Out!
Elder Adam R Droge
Antialienator345
“Happy 6 month mark to me! Happy 6 month mark to me! Happy 6 month mark dear Elder Droge! Happy 6 month mark to me!” YAY!!!!!! Someone should send me some CD’s as a present, Like say Motob’s Called to Serve or Consider the Lillies or Jeff Goodrich or all of that. That would be tight!
Question - What happens when you write a letter in word and when you go to send it to the family, you forget to actually paste it in your email?
Answer – The Family doesn’t get to hear from you because all they get in the email is “Elder Adam R Droge; Befriendor345.” Mwa ha ha!!
No, I didn’t do that on purpose, but I laughed at myself when Dad told me about it in his letter. You see, the email site, myldsmail.net, is a kinda cruddy email. Very little space, slow, and easy to delete letters, so I write a letter in word, then copy and paste. Well, last week I forgot the copy and paste part. I just put in the addresses, wrote a subject and sent. It’s ok though. This last week was a very uneventful week. No real progress, so with having to recap last week, I actually have something to write about.
First though, Joe mentioned that he loved pineapple upside-down cake. What’s ironic about that is that I just had that a few weeks ago and I must agree. If you’ve never had it, that would be something to invest in.
Second, Dad – I loved the way that you started your letter. That was classic.
If you remember me talking about Ginger Keyes two weeks ago, new things have transpired that are very interesting. Two days after we went over last Sunday, we went over again with a really cool member in our ward. He was a Baptist minister that converted. Consequently, he is really smart. Ginger always has really good questions that stump us sometimes and we have to rely on the member that we took out that night (we always have to take a member to see her because she lives out in the boonies). Well, the way brother Greathouse, the ex-Baptist minister, answered her questions was just the thing that she needed to get her over the hump. Now she is a ton more interested than she was and is now progressing really good. We took our recent convert, Milan Eoff, the guy we baptized last month, over to see her Saturday and that was really good as well. It’s good to hear the story of a person that was just in your shoes a month and a half ago.
That’s all the investigator news I have right now. The sad thing is—that’s the end of it. Well, as far as you’re concerned anyway. The only other news that you’ll hear about investigators like Ginger Keyes and Cody Chambers (who I think will catch fire again once his mom gets baptized) is if they got baptized. That is if I remember to tell you if I find out. Why? I just got traded today. The trading deadline, the end of the transfers, was yesterday. I survived it 3 times in a row and thus was able to stay here in Midland for 4 transfers (a transfer is a period of 6 weeks) or 6 months (well, 5½ if you want to get technical about it). This time I wasn’t so lucky. I got the Axe here in Midland. Sad. But its time to move on with a new companion, a new area, and new people. I’ll miss this ward. They have treated me well. Hopefully the next ward will follow suit. I don’t know where that will be yet. If you remember, they don’t tell us where we’re going. They just say you are leaving. Get on the bus either Tuesday or Wednesday because you are going north or south. I don’t even know that information. Zone Leaders don’t know that until this afternoon, which is really weird. So you will find out next week where I am. I’ll get you the address so you can put it on the blog and that you know where to send letters to.
Other good news is about our bikes. If you remember, we were visiting a member and when we came out, our bikes were gone. So we told the members and filed a police report, but nothing ever happened with them. We borrowed some bikes for a while something new happened. Well, first off, we were talking to one of our investigators about it and he had just bought a new bike and hadn’t ridden his other one in a while and wasn’t ever really planning on using it ether, so he just gave me it. It’s a nice a bike. That was really cool. Then for Elder Larrabee, his friend that just returned from his mission found out that he had got his bike stolen. He was on his way to San Angelo anway, so he packed his mission bike in his car and gave it to Elder Larrabee. So now we both have bikes. No need to worry
One last thing before I sign off, Dad got the scripture challenge so we’re due for a new one. This one comes in form of a trivia question that I actually want to know the answer to because I am unsure. I have a guess, but I’m not positive. Where did Alma the Older get his authority to baptize and start a new church? Let me hear your thoughts. The answer also very well might be in that Book of Mormon packet that I got at Brother Parkers Book of Mormon class at BYU. Look at Mosiah 18 and places around it and send me a copy if it says anything.
If you noctice, the Befriendor has switched to the anti-alienator (un-hyphened). The Befriendor didn’t have a great ring to it. But anyway, farewell until we meet again!! Peace Out!
Elder Adam R Droge
Antialienator345
Letter 8-11-08
Dearest Family,
Byron – I have the answers to your trivia scriptures, which I enjoyed. 1 – Proverbs 28:25; 2 – Acts 20:7-9; 3 – Jacob 6:12; 4 – D&C 88:126. Fun scriptures. Everyone should look them up. That last one gave me a headache. It was hard to find.
I’ve received no response on the current scripture challenge, so they stand again.
One thing real quick, before I move on to me. There is a confused missionary who tells me that no one has ever said that R-Rated movies are bad. I know someone has, but I haven’t bothered remembering who did because I haven’t ever talked to a member who had a problem like that, so someone help me out.
Anyway, quite an eventful week this week. We started the week of on a bang by teaching a new family that really loved the message and accepted the soft baptismal commitment. The kids were key in the lesson. They are the perfect, teachable age, 10, 8, and 6. I think that really helped the parents a lot. The dad had a really horrible accident a few months ago. He was working in the oil field and got nailed with a big pipe and flew 40 feet across and 30 feet down. He broke several ribs, his lung collapsed, his face was shattered, and his hand was bent all the way back. Basically, he almost died on the way to the hospital, but lived and is now almost fully recovered. Now his sister-in-law’s sister died in a car crash this week after we taught them. That is sad, but I’m glad we’re here to help them. They loved the message and I have high hopes for them. They are Eric and Heather Miller. Kids are Damien, Haylee, and Kyle
Next thing I will bring up isn’t so happy. We were in a nice neighborhood, visiting an active member who is going through a hard time. After talking with him for about a half an hour, we came out to get on our bikes and leave, when we found that our bikes were gone. Stolen. They left our helmets though, that was weird. We reported it to the police and have told all the members that we talk with to keep their eyes open, but they haven’t showed up. That bike was expensive and has made me feel a little like Buzz in Toy Story when he figured out that instead of being a spaceman, he was only a toy. Defeated. But all is good. We have borrowed some bikes right now because the people here are nice. After transfers, I’ll figure out what to do if they haven’t showed up yet. I’m hoping they put me in a car area. That would be nice. I’ll probably end up buying a new bike, anyway. It’s all cool. We can do nothing but move forward when bad things happen. Hakunah Mattatah.
Anyway, last of all, yet a new chapter in the Cody Chambers saga has begun. To refresh your memory, Cody Chambers was our investigator that almost was baptized back in May, but fell off the map. When that happened, we decided we needed to teach his mom, so we did. We dropped in on her one night and have been slowly teaching her since, because she is hard to talk to sometimes. So last night, we dropped in on her again with the ward mission leader and guess who was there? Cody Chambers. He sat in on the lesson and was listening intently. We started out by reading Alma 32 with them and that turned into a really good discussion and she started throwing out questions at us, which is really good. If people never ask questions, that usually means that they aren’t fully serious about it. Anyway, a few questions in, guess who starts answering? Cody. He started to basically teach his mom with us, talking about the Spirit World, Baptism, Authority, etc. Pretty soon, she caught on that Cody knew a lot and believed everything, so she called him out and asked him what his problem was and why he didn’t get baptized and stopped coming to church, reading, and praying. She told him that she liked it when he was doing the right thing because he had a spirit about him that she now misses. Then he opened up and said he believes most of it, probably 97% of it, but not all and was also cheating with his smoking. We were then able to commit him to start reading, praying, and letting us teach him again. He accepted on terms that we go slowly this time, which we will. Cody has to work most Sundays now, but will come when he can and Ginger will come to church with Melissa, Cody’s ex-ed wife who was very hesitant, and Cody’s kids who are 5, 3, 2, and 1 and had been asking their parents if they could go to church. Very awesome. It couldn’t have gone any better.
On that note though, I will leave because I am now out of time. Peace out everyone and remember who you are.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
Byron – I have the answers to your trivia scriptures, which I enjoyed. 1 – Proverbs 28:25; 2 – Acts 20:7-9; 3 – Jacob 6:12; 4 – D&C 88:126. Fun scriptures. Everyone should look them up. That last one gave me a headache. It was hard to find.
I’ve received no response on the current scripture challenge, so they stand again.
One thing real quick, before I move on to me. There is a confused missionary who tells me that no one has ever said that R-Rated movies are bad. I know someone has, but I haven’t bothered remembering who did because I haven’t ever talked to a member who had a problem like that, so someone help me out.
Anyway, quite an eventful week this week. We started the week of on a bang by teaching a new family that really loved the message and accepted the soft baptismal commitment. The kids were key in the lesson. They are the perfect, teachable age, 10, 8, and 6. I think that really helped the parents a lot. The dad had a really horrible accident a few months ago. He was working in the oil field and got nailed with a big pipe and flew 40 feet across and 30 feet down. He broke several ribs, his lung collapsed, his face was shattered, and his hand was bent all the way back. Basically, he almost died on the way to the hospital, but lived and is now almost fully recovered. Now his sister-in-law’s sister died in a car crash this week after we taught them. That is sad, but I’m glad we’re here to help them. They loved the message and I have high hopes for them. They are Eric and Heather Miller. Kids are Damien, Haylee, and Kyle
Next thing I will bring up isn’t so happy. We were in a nice neighborhood, visiting an active member who is going through a hard time. After talking with him for about a half an hour, we came out to get on our bikes and leave, when we found that our bikes were gone. Stolen. They left our helmets though, that was weird. We reported it to the police and have told all the members that we talk with to keep their eyes open, but they haven’t showed up. That bike was expensive and has made me feel a little like Buzz in Toy Story when he figured out that instead of being a spaceman, he was only a toy. Defeated. But all is good. We have borrowed some bikes right now because the people here are nice. After transfers, I’ll figure out what to do if they haven’t showed up yet. I’m hoping they put me in a car area. That would be nice. I’ll probably end up buying a new bike, anyway. It’s all cool. We can do nothing but move forward when bad things happen. Hakunah Mattatah.
Anyway, last of all, yet a new chapter in the Cody Chambers saga has begun. To refresh your memory, Cody Chambers was our investigator that almost was baptized back in May, but fell off the map. When that happened, we decided we needed to teach his mom, so we did. We dropped in on her one night and have been slowly teaching her since, because she is hard to talk to sometimes. So last night, we dropped in on her again with the ward mission leader and guess who was there? Cody Chambers. He sat in on the lesson and was listening intently. We started out by reading Alma 32 with them and that turned into a really good discussion and she started throwing out questions at us, which is really good. If people never ask questions, that usually means that they aren’t fully serious about it. Anyway, a few questions in, guess who starts answering? Cody. He started to basically teach his mom with us, talking about the Spirit World, Baptism, Authority, etc. Pretty soon, she caught on that Cody knew a lot and believed everything, so she called him out and asked him what his problem was and why he didn’t get baptized and stopped coming to church, reading, and praying. She told him that she liked it when he was doing the right thing because he had a spirit about him that she now misses. Then he opened up and said he believes most of it, probably 97% of it, but not all and was also cheating with his smoking. We were then able to commit him to start reading, praying, and letting us teach him again. He accepted on terms that we go slowly this time, which we will. Cody has to work most Sundays now, but will come when he can and Ginger will come to church with Melissa, Cody’s ex-ed wife who was very hesitant, and Cody’s kids who are 5, 3, 2, and 1 and had been asking their parents if they could go to church. Very awesome. It couldn’t have gone any better.
On that note though, I will leave because I am now out of time. Peace out everyone and remember who you are.
Elder Adam R Droge
Befriendor345
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