Letter 12-8-08

Dear Family,

First and Foremost, I have a serious question. Is Grandpa still alive? I know that he hasn’t been doing great, but in Mom’s letter last week she mentioned in passing about Grandpa’s funeral without saying that he had passed away. I don’t know if she meant that he had died and his funeral is already planned or if mom is just expecting a funeral in the next month or so. If someone could clarify that for me, I would appreciate that.

So last week I totally forgot to mention Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving this year for me was actually kinda boring. We were encouraged to go out and daily contact our investigators, but we weren’t allowed to proselyte. We were also told to keep our dinner appointment to no more than an hour long. Basically, the day ended up being like a normal P-day, except we didn’t email, shop, or do laundry. We had two great Thanksgiving feasts in the space of a week and a half before Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving we had chicken and dumplings at a member’s house and helped him wrap presents for Christmas. That was all, though. Nothing exciting at all.

Speaking of Christmas, though, Texans go mad about Christmas. It’s like they are Christmasaholics. Both in terms of worldly Christmas and heavenly Christmas. I see houses that are very heavily decorated on the outside and inside. I’ve seen several places stacked with presents. Wal-Mart had Christmas music playing and Christmas stuff up the second Halloween ended. People here aren’t huge fans of Christ’s restored gospel, but they all love Christ. I’ve seen many manger scenes up and stuff like that. There was a guy the other day that even asked for a ‘Joy to the World’ DVD. So it’ll be a great Christmas season. The only thing that I feel like is missing is the snow. It still feels like we are in September, weather-wise. The snow down here is so rare that when people here see it, they go crazy with their cameras and start taking pictures of their house and yard outside. I’ve heard stories from last year that when it snowed, even less than an inch, all the schools and everything were shut down. It’s quite amusing. People here don’t know how to deal with snow. If you know me well enough, that’s something that doesn’t make me too terribly hurt, if you know what I mean…

So, I read the email from Mom today that had Mom and Dad’s Christmas Wish List. First, I don’t know if I’m the only one that thought this, but I found it amusing that mom made a wish list. She usually just says not to give her anything. I guess that it goes to show that even mom is a normal person and has things that she wants for Christmas, Birthday, Mother’s Day, etc. But getting to what I meant to bring, if I were to make a Christmas wish list, it wouldn’t really be too long, I’m not good at wish lists even when I’m not on a mission. It would include things like ties, CDs (Motab, Jeff Goodrich, etc – CDs that will invite the spirit), LOC, an electric razor, and any other things that I can’t think of that you think I would like as a missionary. By the way, if I don’t get anything, I won’t be offended. So don’t stress too much.

I have a request for everyone. I’m sure you all pray for me all the time and I’m grateful for that. However, I would ask if you could do me a favor and be more specific in your prayers. Pray for me to baptize. I know that I am in the bible-belt and everything and many people are stubborn and hard-hearted, but with a recent turn of events, including President Robison being really focused on us needing to baptize, I have came to the conclusion that I didn’t get sent to Texas to receive opposition, to build myself, to know what the real world is like, etc. I know those things will happen anyway, but I feel strongly that I got sent to the Texas Lubbock mission to baptize. President (then Elder) Eyring came here a year or so ago and said that the members in West Texas would blossom. My Stake President and Bishop back in Midland had the baptizing spirit as well. Elder Pearson of the First Quorum of the Seventy came here a month ago and told us we need to baptize and now, like I’ve said, President Robison is talking specifically about that and how it is not just a good idea in the back of our heads, but that it will happen. This mission will explode and I am grateful to be a part of that. That is where I need your help. I want you all to pray with real intent and a sincere heart that Elder Droge will baptize people and bring many into the people to the gospel. Will you all do that? Thanks, I know that you will be blessed in doing so.

However, now I have to go. Everyone have a great week!

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester

Letter 12-1-08

Dear Family,

Wow, it is December and officially Christmas season. Man, time really flies.

So I've developed a new system of how I will do things for email. Ok, not really new, just a tad bit revised. What is it? Well, nothing interesting, so if you really want to know, then you will let me know. Just keep this in mind. Make sure I have your right email address and everyone else's primary email address. How do you find that out? Look in the little box that says "TO" and look at all the email addresses that I've sent the letter to.

Moving on though, I forgot to tell you something about my new companion, Elder Romney. He is from Centerville. I found that real fun to be serving with a very local companion. If you want to visit his parents and learn more about my companion and tell them more about me, here's his address, (edited for safety). Stop by and say hi.

So I have some good news for everyone out there, last transfer I made a record for how many pictures I took in 1 transfer. A few different things went on that helped that, which include my return to Midland and the Bushmans and also Halloween. I also had a companion that loved taking pictures, so that helped. Anyone know what that means? I am "fixin to" make a new picture CD at Wal-Mart and send it home. Slight tangent, "fixin to" is Texan for "about to" or "preparing to." Everyone says that. There's a few other words and phrases that they use that I find fun to use myself, however, one that I have committed myself not to use is y'all. I think it sounds weird and I prefer the Utah version of You all, you guys, or simply just you. Anyway, back on track, I'm not sure if it'll be this week or next, but I will make a new picture CD. I won't do one every transfer, but this one is an exception because I took lots of pictures.

So after all the drama about me telling you that I promised to tell you about investigators here and never doing so because there was never anyone to talk about, I have a few stories for those of you who claim to like hearing about missionary stories. One. There is a lady named Mary Jane Rodriguez. She is married and 26. As you might've found from the last name, she is hispanic. We've taught her the first three lessons already and she really gets the message well. The only problem is her husband. I don't know if Greg has ever ran into this, but he is very possesive of his wife it seems. He is not religious at all. He doesn't want to sit down and listen to us. His wife, Mary Jane, wants to come to church and wants to be baptized, but he won't let her do either. the best that he does is let us talk to her. Greg, since you served in Mexico City, I assume that you know how to deal with hispanics a little bit. If you ever ran into that, you should give me some advise on how we can help her and what we can do to get her baptized.

One other story. I usually won't mention all the first lessons we teach, but here is an exception. We found this lady named Shery Byrd. She has a 7 year old daughter, Lauren, that turns 8 next month. They are both very open and very teachable. They also love talking, especially with us. Well, when we taught the restoration lesson, like I said we did, it went extremely well. They understood and comprended perfectly. They did so well that when I got to telling them about the first vision, I decided not to tell them what Christ said to Joseph Smith. Rather, I decided to ask them what they think Christ said. Here is there response, almost in exact words, "Join none of them because the fullness of Christ's gospel wasn't on the earth." That was amazing! The great thing was that both of them said that at almost the exact same time. Shery actually took notes during the lesson. I've never had that happen before, and Lauren's faith is pretty much stereotypical of that described in Mosiah 3:19. It is through the roof. It's great.

I'll let you know if anything further develops. Those are the stories of the week. I hope you enjoyed. Next week I will let you know how Zone Conference went. That is tomorrow. But in the meantime, my time is up. I am signing off. Everyone have a great week! Let me know how Thanksgiving went.

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 11-24-08

Dear Family,

So, as I have been thinking, I have come to realize that there is something that I should’ve done nine months ago (yes, I have now been out nine months. Crazy, isn’t it?) that I never thought of doing. I am going to leave a disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER / CAUTION/ WARNING!!!! – Apparently I have found out through a recent occurrence of events that there are several people out there that don’t know me very well. Ok, I said that wrong. There are people out there that don’t know a certain aspect or attribute of me. I am a writer. Most of you, if not all of you, know that I love sports. If you paid close enough attention, you will also recall that I said I want to be a sportswriter. Well, there’s a reason for that. I didn’t say that I wanted to be a sportscaster, announcer, player, coach, GM, etc. I said a sportswriter. There is a very good reason for that and Greg was the first one to figure it out. I am a writer. As a person, I am very soft spoken. I won’t stand out in crowd. I like flying under the radar. I am not the greatest people person. I have trouble starting conversations and feeling comfortable doing so. Many of you may have figured that out already. I didn’t go on too many dates. I didn’t go on any dances in high school. I had a hard time getting a job, but when I did so, I was given the option to be a cook or counter person. I jumped at the chance to be a cook, because I didn’t have to talk with people or deal with them. However, I found that when I write, I am a different person. I’m confident. I’m bold. I’m direct. I can get off on weird, random tangents when it wasn’t in my intentions to do so. I can be very animated. I can easily write many different emotions right off the bat. I don’t have to feel a certain way in order to write a certain way, and honestly many times that is the case. I love emailing. I love writing letters. I love texting, yet I hate talking on the phone. Just ask Greg or Annie. Very rarely did I ever call them down at BYU. I would always text them instead. I spent much of my time on the internet back home. Doing what? Most of the time I would be on internet forums. What do you do there? You debate and discuss… through writing! I’d write a short column or give my opinion on something and people would write back and we’d talk, discuss, visit, debate, and so on. It was fun. I was my strength. It was me. That is my disclaimer. Think back to all of my letters and you’ll see many of those things evident. Never get annoyed, offended, or angry at something I say. I wasn’t necessarily thinking that way or acting that way in person, I just got off on some weird tangent because I got into it too much. Yeah, I might’ve been thinking of it a little bit, but when I thought about it in my head it was different, then I started to put in into writing and I got carried away and I ended up exaggerating a little too much. Here’s the other part of it. Sometimes I make the mistake of expecting everyone to be the same way. I love writing and I seem to expect people to love writing back. When I emailed or texted someone and they didn’t say anything back, I felt like I just wasted my time. I’m not a big fan of just sending out newsletters because that never gets any response back. That’s why I loved the internet forums, especially cbs.sportsline.com, because every time I said something, I got a response back. One more example. Before my mission, I collected a ton of addresses from a bunch of my friends, male and female. When I got onto my mission, I sent letters to almost every single one of them and vowed to myself to write back to every friend who decides to write me back. Thus I get a little system going in letters. It ends up sifting the wheat from the tares in the sense that the people who don’t like writing so much don’t respond, so only those who have the same mindset of me write letters. It’s done good for most of my mission, although my pool of people to write back has slowly fizzed away. This is why I’ve been mildly bothered with this whole missionary writing system for family. I feel like I send the Elder Droge newsletter out to people, and you know what I said earlier on my opinion of newsletters. No one responds to newsletters. I’ve tried to fix that via trivia and such, but nothing’s worked. Has it really bothered me as much as it seems? No. Not hardly. Only a very tiny bit. I just got carried away like I always do. Kinda like this whole disclaimer thing. I only intended to write a short paragraph and look what’s happened. Does the fact of me not getting letters bother me? Not at all. The only time I ever think of letters is in the few seconds that I am walking up with my companion to the mail box. I’ve gotten so used to the empty mailbox that it doesn’t phase me. The only thing that bothers me a little is feeling obligated to send out this missionary newsletter every week and must I get into that again?

Well, now hopefully you know me better. Now having that said, I’ve pretty much wasted my time to say anything else. I only have an hour to write and you know me. I get carried away, but briefly, Dad just notified me of Dave Skelton dying. That is sad. Dad, no I didn’t already hear that. That is horrible. Give the Skelton family my condolences. But also, I have a favor to ask. Does Julien know? The first thing that jumped into my mind when I read that about Dave Skelton is how much Julien loved and respected Dave Skelton. I feel certain that Dave felt the same way. Every time I saw and talked to him, he’d always ask me how his old neighbor Julien is doing. Someone should call Julien and tell him that if he doesn’t already know.

The only news on my part is transfers. I have stayed put, but Elder Sosi got shipped off. Crazy things happened this transfer. President Robison is really going off the spirit and staying away from old trends. The Abilene (and Eastland) area had 2 district leaders before with 5 sets of missionaries (4 in Abilene, only us in Eastland). One DL had 3 companionships and the other had 2. Well, my district leader last transfer got released as a DL and got sent up here to Eastland to now be my companion. His name is Elder Romney. He is a great missionary and fun guy. This will be a great transfer. The only reason he got released as a DL is because he is in the Branch Presidency now. With him released, the districts are combined with only 1 DL. My old companion, Elder Sosi, got a training call and got sent down to whitewash into one of the Abilene areas. So Elder Sosi is still in my district. Elder Romney’s old companion is now companions with another guy who was in Abilene. They just sent him over to the other side of town and Elder Sosi took over the area. So we did a little trio trade thingy. It was weird. The other crazy things are the fact that I am still a junior companion, but an Elder 1 transfer younger just got a senior and District Leader call and another Elder 2 transfers younger got a senior call. My former companion in Brady was a district leader, but randomly got released. He wasn’t disobedient or anything. He just got called to an area where a DL wasn’t needed, so President released him for the time being. I was expecting a senior call, but didn’t get it. The whole group before me are all seniors, for the most part. That’s why I expected it. Was I disappointed? No way! I was quite relieved. Being a junior companion is a lot easier to do and requires less responsibility. I don’t aspire to leadership. If I get it, I’ll accept it, but if not, I’ll shout for joy in being a normal missionary with less responsibility.

I’ve written too much though. Everyone have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester

Letter 11-17-08

Dear Family,

Howdy-do! Was that Texan? I don’t think so. I just made that up. So, I know what you all are thinking right now. Crazy ole Elder Droge has gone mad! He’s angry as ever and is having a pity party. He is immature and needs to grow up because he has the most negative attitude ever! Why is that mean old hag even a missionary? He’s doing a horrible job and might as well go home.

No.

I love life.

I was just experimenting.

Here’s the thing I was experimenting on. FEAR. DUTY. LOVE. I found it gratefully ironic that the letter Dad sent me talked about just that. That backs me up. It’s an equation that really works. People react 3 different ways. One – Fear. Some people react when they are condemned because it scares them into doing things the right way. Two – Duty. Some people react when you say they have the duty to obey or when you give them a calling of responsibility. Three – Love. Some people react when you show them how much you care for them.

There are numerous examples for all three. Yes, love is the absolute best motivator, and I hate to defy the laws of nature, but it doesn’t work every time. Every person is different. In Brady there is a lady I mentioned named Mae Usher. She is an 84 year old black lady who was investigating the church for 3 years going on 4. She has been loved to death. I am not joking. There is no person on the face of this planet that has been loved more than Miss Mae. However, she hasn’t reacted. She knows it’s true, but won’t be baptized. Normally after a while you’d move on. But no, there was a missionary who did that. He saw that she wasn’t progressing, so he stopped visiting her. Right thing to do? Nope. Worst decision of his mission. The whole branch hated him. No joke. They literally hated him. So we had to visit this lady. Do you know what we decided to do? Yep. Fear approach. We read chapters like Alma 5 and 2 Nephi 9. It made her think. It really did. Now, I don’t know what happened because I got transferred out, but hey. Same situation with a guy in Midland. He has spent his whole life almost searching for the truth. It seemed to pain him a lot. We taught him for a long time. I was the one that found him, so I wasn’t obligated to keep teaching, but I just couldn’t get myself to stop going over there. We were bold. We used the fear approach and it got him to think. Especially when we read 2 Nephi 9. It works with people.

Duty approach works as well. 2 less actives in Midland had been loved to death, but weren’t progressing. With the first guy, he had been on and off his whole life with his testimony. One day (before I got there) someone told him that he has the duty to raise his 8 year old son in the gospel. Well, it worked. His son got baptized and his testimony was really strong. Even though he struggled coming to church with his job, he felt the blessings from the gospel come for the first time in his life. 2nd guy was a recent convert baptized Last November. He was still very new in the gospel and shallow because of a rough life. He had started to slide back a little. What happened. They called him to be the Secretary in the Elders Quorum. Soon after, do you know what happened? Well, we stopped over and he had been reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church more. We asked him what sparked that. His response, ‘I got to. I’m the Elder’s Quorum secretary now.’ He felt the duty of his calling and responded.

Love works best, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had several people respond to us because we were loving and kind and showed them that we were down to earth, normal people. It is the best. I know this goes against the popular vote, but I try to be loving in most of my letters. What happens? People love and respect me back thinking that I am a great missionary, but the missionary stereotype is just too strong and they don’t feel obligated to respond in words. I tried the duty approach at the beginning of the transfer a few weeks ago and that did the opposite effect. People still had the missionary stereotype in mind. So what did I decide to do? Fear approach. Did it work? Well, I got letters from Mom (2 – 4, I believe), Dad, Bruce, Joe, and Dave. You decide for yourself. Just note to self, don’t use fear approach on Dave, he’ll make you look and feel like the smallest person on earth. But hey, I got a sports update out of it, so all’s good right? I commend him for being very blunt about what he says, though. I hate it when people try to sugarcoat their feelings. It happens all the time and it bugs me. Lots of people tell us that they are interested just because they don’t want to hurt our feelings. NO!!!!! TELL ME THE TRUTH, YOU HEFFA; I DON’T WANT TO WASTE MY TIME! But hey, life goes on. Like I told Dave, out here I have been told so many times that I’m not going to make it to heaven because of what I believe, it’s not even funny. Actually it is, but that’s beside the point. Also, I love debating on internet blogs and forums and I spent lots of time on them during high school. It always seemed like I was being attacked. I was told that my view and thoughts were stupid almost every single day, but I loved it. It was fun. I especially enjoyed all the grief I got when I said the Giants will beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. That was fun. I started to get a little respect when that happened. Nice timing, eh? Now I’ve disappeared off the face of the planet in the internet debating world.

Point being, if you want to give me grief and call me an idiot, bring it on! I’m used to it. Also, if you would like to throw in your opinion on what the rule is on missionaries writing home and what the purpose is in doing so, I have formulated my opinions on that and am ready to respond. Like I said, I enjoy debating.

As for missionary-wise, this week was a dud statistically, so not much interesting things to tell you. Like I said, this area has been bone dry in accordance with investigators when I got here so we have been spending much of our time building it up and I feel we are getting close to getting some investigators that will go somewhere and when it happens you’ll be the first to know. Ok, I lied. My journal will be first to know. Then the district leader, because he calls Sunday night. Then you will know third, maybe fourth, because I have to email President Robison, but you get the point.

Mom – Thanks for those Halloween pictures. It was great to see the fun that you had. Like I said, I had fun on Halloween as well. You’ll see the pictures later. I can’t remember if I got Emily’s wedding announcement from you this last week or the week before. I think it was last, but thanks. That was nice to get and scary as well. It hasn’t really sunk in that Emily is actually married right now. I wonder how many others are married. Someone should find out for me. Ask one of the Pond twins or Emily or someone like that that graduated and let me know or have them let me know. That would be interested. Also Mom, you mentioned something that made me sad. You said that you think I would move to Texas after I finished college. That grieves me. I would never do that, unless the whole family moved down. Even then, I would miss Utah. I would love to visit Texas a few times and keep in contact with some of the people down here, but as for moving permanently, I couldn’t do that. I’m too much of a Utahn.

Bruce – As for Julien, I never actually tried Culver City. After I gave up and decided to bring that back up, I found a map of Los Angeles and found Culver City. But I still need help from everyone, how would you for mat this address, “3742 Hughes Avenue Culver City Los Angeles California 90232.” I don’t think that all goes on one line and I can’t get it to work with the mail system. Also, Bruce, you mention High School and a few of your teachers. I’m glad you find high school easy. I found the same thing. People growing up blew high school out of proportion. You mention 2 teachers, Gunnerson and Springer. I never had Gunnerson, but I remember the name. As for Springer, I did have him and I remember that I was one of the few people that actually liked the guy. I thought he was real cool. Not too many people did, however. But if you take another computer class, here’s the teacher to get: Coach Boog. His real name is Clark Stringfellow, I think. He is the coolest, easiest teacher ever. If you do your work, you get free time to either browse the web and play games and such or do your homework. No joke. He’ll give you an assignment to do that takes 30 minutes or so and you have 2 class periods to do it. It’s awesome.

I have news about transfers, which is this week. My companion is leaving and I am staying. I know my new companion, but I’m not supposed to know, so you get to wait till next week to find out about him. Plus, I’ve spent way too long writing this letter. Don’t expect letters like this in the future. Enjoy my stupidity in getting carried away with my letters because I am going to fix that. I was about to say I will try to fix that, but Elder Pearson said to stop using the word try and Yoda said Do or Do Not, there is no try. But I gotta go. Everyone peace out and know that I am not negative and immature. I have a very good feeling about life and I am enjoying every minute of this. I don’t really want to come home. I’d just assume sign up with the 3 nephites, but that’s not an option here, they have to kick me out eventually, and when they do, don’t worry about me going back. Even though many of you think otherwise right now, my family means a lot to me and that’s who I want to be with during life. So farewell and GIT-R-DONE!!!

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester

Letter 11-10-08

Dear Family,

Right now I am kind of surprised. My thoughts don’t dwell on mail very much. I could care less. However, when I get a week where absolutely no one writes, it shocks me a little. Usually someone from home sends something, but no. No family letters. No friend letters. Not even Mom, Dad, Bruce, or Joe. Outside transfer weeks, I think that’s a first. I’ve been trying to avoid the missionary stereotype where the missionary is obligated to write but people back home don’t have to because they are just too darn busy to say anything. Well, I would promise you that I am busier than all of you combined, but it’s not worth it. I guess this will just have to be like this and I will accept it. I’ve been out long enough that you all just have got used to me not being there so you don’t think to write. Sucks to be me, I guess. I honestly think that it is hypocritical for people to expect me to write every week when they don’t send squat. Well, guess what, I’ve been tempted to go back to what I did earlier in my mission, only send letters to those who deserve to hear from me and haven’t been hypocritical, but I won’t. I had 3 or 4 people hypocritically threaten to disown me earlier, which is why I stopped and decided not to go back, but just know that I still love the idea, so don’t tempt me. Elder Pearson of the First Quorum of the Seventy was bold enough to tell all of us TLM-ites that 2.2 baptisms a year is ridiculous. Well, I can say the same thing. Not writing your missionary is absolutely ridiculous. Nonsense. Garbage. Needs to be stopped. I can be bold in saying that because it’s true and has even been said in conference. Its especially bad for you that have gone on missions and know how it feels not to receive letters. Repent all ye slothful people! I think it’s humorous that the most consistent writers, Mom, Bruce, and Joe, are the ones who have never served a mission. Bruce and Joe – I’ll make a vow right now. When you go on your missions, I will remember my mission and these instances where no one cared enough to say anything and how rejected I felt and on thinking back on these moments I will write consistently and update you on me and everyone else. You can count on it. I feel like Moroni condemning Pahoran. Hopefully I will get the same response saying I’m sorry you were offended, I did have a purpose in not responding, and I will do what I can to help you.

Now, there are a few of you who deserve to hear from me because you have tried your hardest. I won’t point you out, you know who you are. Quietly and silently to you, this condemnation letter doesn’t apply to you. Please read on. I’m not going to put anyone on my blacklist. If I don’t send an email to you, it’s due to my own stupidity in forgetting to check the box. However, if you have gone over a month without sending anything, be honest and close this email right now. I’m finished with this hypocrisy. Repent and send a letter. Then you can open the email back up and see how I’m doing. Then commit yourself to write consistently. That doesn’t mean every week necessarily. That would be nice, of course, but at least every other week or every third week. If you decide to do it monthly, great, just make sure to send some hardcopy pictures or a sports update with your letter and that will make due.

Now on to me. This last week has been great. On Sunday we did a mission wide fast to double the baptisms here in the TLM, like Elder Pearson said needed to happen. Then Tuesday was district meeting / interviews with President Robison. Everything that Elder Pearson said about how much potential this area has and what we need to do here really hit a chord with President Robison in the sense that he sees the same way as Elder Pearson. Everyone has a stereotypical attitude about this area. It is the Bible belt. Very few have had success. It won’t ever go anywhere. Hence the fact that there has been a mission average of 2.2 baptisms per year per missionary. Well, that is what we are trying to get rid of. President Eyring, a while back when he was Elder Eyring, I believe, came to this area and said West Texas will blossom. The stake president back in the Odessa Stake (when I was in Midland) had this same prophetic vision. He pretty much prophesied that there will be many wards, stakes, and temples in West Texas, which is why he was very adamant about BAPTIZE NOW! The bishop back in Midland had a dream one night of the congregation overflowing with people. Now this. President Robison told us in District Meeting that this will happen. It’s not just a dream. It’s reality. They put a temple in Lubbock for a reason. How has it made me feel? Overjoyed. I’ve had a wonderful week. Amazing spirits. Why? Just go ask Mom what has been promised about me on my mission in several occasions. I feel like blessings about me are finally going to be fulfilled. I’ve been confused my whole mission on how few people have listened here, but I have a new resolved drive. President Robison also said that we don’t yet know exactly how this is going to happen, we just know it will. Miracles can happen and they will happen in this mission. In future meetings, we’ll be slowly discussing various things that we can do, but right now the focus President Robison and Elder Pearson have had is mainly obedience. How fitting. Obedience has been my theme for my mission. I’ve tried to be exactly obedient, down to the very letter of the law. That’s how I’ve always been and honestly I’ve been disgusted and appalled by how many missionaries here are disobedient. No real worthiness issues, of course, but disobedient to all the small rules that don’t make sense, like, for example, why to get up at 6:30 when you can get 10 extra minutes of sleep and still make it to studies on time. Little things like that. President threw down on obedience and lovingly chastised us all and quite honestly, I enjoyed every second of it because I have a testimony of obedience and I think everyone else needs one. This won’t happen overnight, but I know that it will and I am excited and pumped.

As for this week, it has been great statistically. We had six new investigators, half of which being a family of three. Coincidence? I think not. Still no investigators of note yet. This area was bone dry when I got here due to the fact that it’s only been opened to missionaries for a few months, but we’re working on it. We’ve got quite a few new investigators now that we’re starting to work with so things are about to catch fire, so that’s a step in the right direction, I guess. I’ll promise to let you know when we have anyone worth talking about that will go somewhere.

Know that I am doing absolutely wonderful. I love it here. I am enjoying every minute of it and not even the fact that my mailbox has been real empty recently can get me down.

Oh before I forget, 2 items of Business.
1 – Bruce – that address you sent me for Julien hasn’t worked. I’ve tried formatting it several ways, but the letter always comes back to me. The only thing I figured out that is the city is Culver City (I looked on a map). If you can somehow manage to get me a correct address that is formatted correctly that would be bueno. If not, I won’t cry too hard.
2 – Mom – I got the most recent bank statement from Zions that was late September and October and that was all peachy, but they never sent a statement for August and Early September. If you could manage to somehow get me a copy for that time period, that would also be bueno. If not…well…I guess I just won’t be able to fully balance my checkbook and that isn’t peachy.

Peace Out and Git-R-Done!!


Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 10-27-08

Dear Family,

Well, I am writing a few hours earlier than usual today. Tomorrow is a combined Zone Conference where Elder Pearson of the Seventy is coming. It is located it good ole Midland Texas. This Morning we are driving up to Abilene where we will depart for Midland at 6 tonight. We are going over early to Abilene so that we can hang out with some other missionaries while we are there. So if you intended to email some small note and missed me, sorry.

So I finally got the letters of who the new bishopric back home is…from two different sources…thanks. And that is really surprising. I didn’t expect Jared Larsen to be the new bishop. Isn’t he only in his 30’s? If he’s older, he doesn’t look like it. I guess that’s not too surprising since he was on the high council, but still.

Hey, Annie, that thing that you sent about President Packer’s testimony in his home ward was really amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you haven’t read it, read it. Don’t just read it either, listen and follow closely what it says. We are in perilous times and this nation is on its way to being humbled, and if we’re not prepared, that’s a very bad thing. We need to really pray, read, study, and worship the Lord like we mean it.

I also got some crazy, scary news from home. Emily Hartvigsen is getting married next month. Mom asked me if that’s cool. Um, well, kinda and kinda not. To think that someone that is my age and that I have grown up with and graduated with is getting married scares me. That means that I am, theoretically, old enough to getting married. Yikes! Let’s not think of that too much. I’m not really that old. I’m still a teenager! Well, for another 3 months anyway. But hey, on the bright side, tell soon to be Mrs. Emily congrats for me. You could also make mention that I have yet to receive a wedding announcement on my mission. Let me rephrase that. I haven’t ever received a wedding announcement that was directed right to me. It might be cool to get that on my record, if you know what I mean…

So, I haven’t received any political opinions as of yet, but let me switch the trivia right quick. We have an investigator that is part member family and the dude in that couple loves to ask random questions. One of those questions that he asked this week has to do with a subject that I know a little bit about, but I have never looked into that deeply. He asked what our church’s view on astrology. I know that astrology is looked down on. I remember that mom always says that astrology is the devil’s version of astronomy, but that’s about all I know. So 1 – what exactly is astrology and 2 – what is our view on it? I told him that I would email home and ask about it and I would let him know what the response is really fast. So please, chop chop! Don’t make me a liar!

Well, quite honestly, that is about it for me this week. Our one investigator that was going through a rough time with her dad dying officially dropped us. She was honest with us and I commend her for that. Not everyone is. In fact, most people aren’t. I don’t worry about her. She’s only 26 and will get more chances in the future. Before you say that that is horrible and feel all bad, hold yourselves. It didn’t really phase me because I really didn’t know her that well. The only other good investigator we have, I just barely met this last week and haven’t taught him a lesson, so that’s that. I am doing great. Being in the Branch Presidency is a good experience; it gets me overwhelmed at times, but hey, that’s ok. Dad tells me it’s an omen for the future. I would certainly hope not, but I guess you never know. Lift where you stand, right? Don’t seek for a crown and don’t seek for a cave. Just stand close together and lift where you stand. Don’t aspire to certain callings, but if the Lord calls you, magnify your calling. There are many people that could be in leadership callings, but those callings may not be what the Lord has called them to do in this life.

That all came from President Uchtdorf’s talk in priesthood. When the Ensign comes out, that’s definitely a talk to look at and study. But I have to go now. Bye!

[ELDER DROGE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!]


Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 11-3-08

Dear Family,

Well, this has been quite the eventful week. First off, I got both of the answers I wanted from my last two serious trivia questions about Obama and Astrology this last week, so thanks. That really helps. One now I can answer the question that the part member family we're teaching had about Astrology. Two - now I know that the world isn't going to explode when Obama gets elected like them Texans here think. In fact, things are pretty much the same from when I left and now I wished I would've thought to ask for an absentee ballot or what not so I could actually vote. I am supposed to remain silent here and I do, its not worth the contention that I would cause and the instruction about being politically neutral is in the white handbook, so I follow that. I will just be silently glad if/when McCain loses and Obama wins because, I know it's harsh, but I don't think it would be good for a senile old man to run the country when he can't even count to 10 without making a mistake. The fact that he selected Palin as his vice-presidential nominee instead of Romney says a lot. He could've won with Romney. That would've been the best combo. McCain could run the war because he's a POW and Romney could run the rest of the country because he actually knows what he's doing. Did I ever tell you that the people here loved Mitt Romney to death? He would've won Texas in a landslide over McCain and Obama. People were ticked when he dropped out. That would've given us a lot of attention. It really would've. People would've listened to us. Oh well. But no, McCain doesn't select Romney, he selects Palin just so we could make history and say we have the first woman vice president. Anyway, I'll shut up about that. I just had to get that out since I 't been able to and Shawn brought some light on the subject of Obama. Texans have a tendency to be biased, judgemental, and stereotypical. It's quite humorous, really.

Speaking of Shawn's letter, I hear that he is now or very soon going to be officially Chaplin Shawn that could still be going to BYU. That is way fun. Isn't it great that if we trust in the lord with all our hearts and in all our ways acknowledge him that he will direct our paths? Solomon really hit that on the nail. Congrats! So, I ran out of serious trivia questions that actually meant something, but I did think of a small trivia that comes from the Book of Mormon. How old was Mormon (son of Mormon, father of Moroni) when he, 1- was first the leader of the army, abandoned the Nephites as their war leader due to their wickedness, 3 decided to repent of the oath he made and lead them once again, and 4 got killed in battle? So, on to me. This past week was really quite eventful. It started on Monday where me and Elder Sosi drove down to Abilene for P-Day and went paintballing with all of the Abilene missionaries. Paintballing was awesome. I enjoyed it. Getting hit didn't even hurt. If you haven't gone yet, you should go. That could be the next family outing, a paintballing trip. That would be a blast.20 Anyway, after that was over, we headed down for our long drive to the combined Zone Conference, which was why we went to Abilene in the first place. Zone Conference was Tuesday morning. You'll never guess where it was. Good ole Midland, Texas. Yep, I returned home. It was great reliving the memories of being in Midland. Guess what was even better? When we got to Midland Monday night, guess where we stayed? Yep, you got it. Brother and Sister Blaine and Margene Bushman. There were 17 missionaries who slept comfortably in their home that night. It was really nice of them and they loved it to death. When they asked if I was going to be there, they were told that I wasn't going to be there that night. Well, I guess plans changed or something because they got a pleasant surprise when I walked in Monday night. It was great seeing the Bushmans again. They really felt like parents to me and it was great returning home. It's like coming home from college for a weekend. It was great. After Zone Conference was over on Tuesday, us Abilene missionaries went back to pick up some stuff and decided to take pictures around and in their big tree up front. You'll see those pictures in the next CD I send. Then as we were about to leave, the Bushmans got home again and offered us dinner which we gladly accepted. I was sad to leave that night, but knew it had to happen, so I was just grateful to have had the opportunity to return home to Midland. About Zone Conference, though, it was incredible. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Kevin W Pearson of the first quorum of the seventy was there and boy, he's intense. He was just ordained last April, so if you don't recognize the name, don't panic. He was also a mission president of the Tacoma Washington mission, I believe, and definitely fits the general authority mold. His message was basically on how to become a more effective disciple of Christ. In the nicest way possible, he made us feel really small. In a normal sense, I see it as he ripped us into to pieces, threw us in a blender, and turned it on high. He said that 2.2 baptisms per missionary per year (the average here in the TLM) was ridiculous and threw down on obedience hardcore amongst many other things. I really enjoyed it. I took plenty of notes that I can look over and learn how to be a better missionary. It was/is/will be very beneficial. Wednesday, the day after we got home, Elder Sosi got a huge headache and couldn't go out, so we stayed in. That wasn't very fun.

Friday was lots of fun though. It was Halloween. We went over to a potential investigators house who is big on Halloween and tried on a bunch of costumes and got plenty of pictures that you will all enjoy. We then went over to a member's place at the nursing home and got more fun pictures because all the nurses were dressed up for Halloween. Then we had to be done with missionary work at 6, so we went over and hung out at another member's house that evening. It was fun, but can anyone believe Halloween 2008 has passed and it is officially November? Where has this blast year gone?20 Being in the branch presidency continues to be a great experience. This Sunday, I had my first experience conducting Sacrament Meeting. I didn't think I'd do that in at least like 40 years if ever. It was great. I also taught priesthood for the second time this transfer. Elder Sosi and I switch off every other week on that. I also had fun with the financial clerk stuff. It being fast Sunday, there was lots of tithing and fast offerings to do. I also did the reconciliation thing for the month. There were some unreconciled differences. I didn't know what to do and so the stake financial clerk is coming over to help me this week. Don't ask me what all that means. I don't have time to explain it and I hardly know what it is myself, I just do it. Go ask your ward financial clerk what it means.

So to conclude my long epistle this week, mom said that she or someone has been praying for an extended autumn this year and it has worked. I find that humorous. Do you know why? Here in Texas, it doesn't even feel like autumn has even begun. It is still in the 70's and 80s pretty consistently. Its funny how the weather worked out down here this season. May was scorching hot and made me nervous for the summer. It was above 100 and many days close to 110 for the last half of May. June, July and August cooled off a bit but it was consistently in the 90s and upper 80's. There was a good stretch of time where it was actually a degree or two hotter in Utah during July. Now in September, October, and running in to November it has coasted in the 80's and 70's. Very different than Utah. I've been used to having all 4 seasons. That hasn't been the case and I don't think it will be the case. I've really only had 1 season and a small glimpse of a second season. I laughed when I heard it snowed in Utah. Snow hasn't even been a thought in the back of mother nature's head down here. It's nice. But I gotta go. I've spent too much time. Peace Out!