Letter 7-20-09

Dear Family,

In follow up from last week, Michael Blakeley is all set to get baptized. We finished teaching him everything and had his interview, which he passed, so this Saturday we’ll be having another baptism here in Eastland. Really his only holdup was the idea of modern-day prophets. We showed him the scripture in Ephesians 2:19-20 and Ephesians 4:11-14 and that showed him that Christ’s church is led by prophets, so it got him over that one stumbling block, which made me happy. From the first time we met him back in February, I felt that he could be Eastland’s next branch president. Now that he will be a member, that first impression could very well be possible in the future, given the lack of priesthood here, but hey, lets take it one step at a time. Thanks for all your prayers on the matter. I know that that helped quite a bit.

Honestly, there is not much else to discuss, just another week that has come and gone. Spiritual thought of the day. The high councilmen came and spoke in church in Sunday. One thing that he taught stuck out. He said he’s been on many disciplinary councils and out of all of them there has been no one that he has talked to that said that they read their scriptures everyday. I think that Elder Bednar once said that if you read your scriptures everyday, you will never go inactive. There is a reason for that. Gospel study is vital to our everyday lives. Like Alma says, we need to nourish the tree or it will wither away and die. That can happen to anyone if we slack off on the basics of reading, praying, and attending our meetings. Something to stew on. Have a great week everyone!

Oh, and by the way, Happy Half Birthday to me tomorrow! Yay!

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester

Letter 7-13-09

Dear family,

So I opened the mailbox this last Thursday and what do I find? A letter from Joe. As I read, something felt a little wrong. Then I got it. It was dated July 27, 2008. That was last year. How in the world did that happen? Oh, well. I hope that’s a first time and last time thing. I would hate it if there were several letters written that took a whole year to make it to me.

So this is a historic time in the Texas Lubbock Mission. If you remember, last November, a stud seventy named Elder Pearson came to our mission and reissued President Hinckley’s commission to double baptize. That was quite the challenge, being that since the conception of this mission, back in 2002, we have averaged 20 baptisms a month. Hitting an average of 40 would be quite the task, but we took it on. A couple of Zone Conferences ago, after having hit 30 baptisms as an average since Elder Pearson left, we set a goal to hit 35, a stepping stone to 40. Well, in June, as a mission, we got 38 people baptized and that pushed our average just above our goal of 35. President Robison being the great fun person he is, decided that we needed to celebrate this occasion and so last week we had a combined zone party over in my former area of Midland, Texas. Great times. Now the quest is on. The goal is 40 and it is just around the corner. I am excited.

In concordance with this, Eastland plans on contributing to this quest to meet President Hinckley’s call. There is a 41 year old guy named Michael Blakeley that we have been working with for a while now. We knocked on his door back in February and have been teaching him on and off since then. He is a great guy. Some would call him a dry mormon because everything that he believes is pretty much what we believe, we have been just trying to help him connect the dots. He loves talking and has a crazy gift that most people wouldn’t understand. They would call it psychic powers, probably like what Lamoni was thinking when Ammon read his mind. I rightfully call it the gift of discernment. Our first visit was crazy. At the end of our lesson Michael gave me some great advice. He pretty much told me that I had a hard time with rejection and often get flustered when things don’t happen the way I expect. He told me not to worry about because I am doing the Lord’s work. I was rather shocked. I hadn’t said anything about that. I felt like I was getting interviewed by my mission president, not an investigator that I had met for the first time. He was right on, though. I do have a problem with that. I hate it when I go through days, weeks, or months when nothing works out. I feel like Alma when he says he wishes that he was an angel and could shout repentance from the rooftops, yet I sin in that wish because I should be content with what I have been allotted. Anyways, Michael has been reading the Book of Mormon and has just started to come to church. I truly feel that he is beginning to see the light and we have set a baptismal date for the 25th of July. He is thinking about that hard. I feel it can happen and I would ask for your prayers for Michael to make it to that date. It would be nice to perform a little swan song dealy and get a 3rd baptism in Eastland before they finally boot me out, if that ever happens. Anyways, have a great week everyone!

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester

Letter 7-6-09

Dear Family,

It is officially July and today Dad is 56 years old. I hope that everyone had a very good 4th of July. I’ll be honest and say that for me this past 4th of July will go down in history as one of the most boring ever. Holidays as missionaries aren’t that exciting. At least last year on the 4th they let us stay at a member’s home. This year we had to be in our apartment by 6 PM. We were allowed to go to other missionaries’ apartments until 8:30, but the closest one from Eastland is close to an hour away, so that would be a waste of miles. Out working was rough. There was no one that was home. They were all out celebrating and/ or felt more inclined to spend time with family on the 4th rather than mormon missionaries. How rude… I guess it wasn’t totally eventless. We spent lunch at a barbeque put on by a part-member family. But hey, even if nothing happens, it’s nice to have a day set aside to honor our country. I always remember reading from 1 Nephi where Nephi sees this land and how God fought on our side during the Revolutionary War and how Columbus was led by the spirit in his adventures towards finding this land. So, yes, Go USA! We sang the National Anthem in church on Sunday; that was fun. I heard that our little death spree continues with former NFL quarterback Steve McNair getting shot and killed. That was weird to hear. He had just barely retired when I left. Only in his late 30’s I’d imagine. Not much else happened this last week. We did get into an intense discussion with a Jehovah Witness guy. He was the one who tracted us out really. We were walking along in Breckenridge and he pulled over and asked if we wanted to do a Bible study with him. We didn’t want to feel hypocritical, so we accepted and wow. Talk about a religion that is in the dark. He was very knowledgeable about his religion and very nice, yet very cunning. He actually lived in Utah for 20 years, so he knew how to deal with mormons. We in our religion talk about not being pushy and teaching line upon line, that way people can find out for themselves. Nope, not for him. He was very pushy and threw it all at us at once when we asked some innocent questions about his beliefs. He spent the whole hour cunningly telling us how right he was and how wrong we were and compared us to the Pharisees, calling us vipers, just as he said Jesus did. He told us that we know absolutely nothing about the Bible and that we preach a different gospel because we don’t agree with him and we’ll be cursed for it. I wasn’t contentious and didn’t try to Bible bash, that doesn’t go anywhere, yet I didn’t remain perfectly silent. I had to defend my beliefs and try my best to help him see the light, but it didn’t really work. Oh well. What can you do? Just pray for the guy, I guess. Just be grateful that we are not Jehovah Witness at this time of year. They don’t celebrate the 4th. They believe that it is worshipping your country more than your God. To each his own, I guess. As for me and my house, we will honor our country because I know that without this country, we would not have freedom of religion and this church may not exist. God gave us this country and we should be grateful that we have it. That’s my Independence Day thoughts. Have a nice week everyone.

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 6-29-09

So apparently this last week is a popular week to die. We were in the parking lot at our branch president’s apartment in Breckenridge, putting our bikes on the bike rack, about to drive home, when our branch president, President May, walks out and tells us that Michael Jackson is dead. Elder Reed and I were both dumbstruck. That was shocking news. Then, later, Saturday night, we were informed by an investigator that Fara Fawcett (sp?) and Ed McMahon died. Wow, thought I. No, we weren’t done though. Apparently Billy Mays, the oxi-clean dude / inventor guy, got nailed in the head with something when his plane landed and died 2 days later. Interesting week. Surprisingly, the Billy Mays death surprises me more then the Michael Jackson death. Well, silver lining is that those four will soon be informed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be taught in the spirit world. How fun for them.
So we parked the other day and went out finding (tracting) in the ghetto when something funny happened. Apparently, some girl saw us park and decided to have a little fun with our car. We got back an hour or so later and discovered that the phrase ‘Jesus Loves You’ was written all over our windows. I got a kick out that. We washed our car last P-Day, like we always do, and it didn’t quite come out, so we have been stuck with it all week. This week is car inspections at Zone Conference, so hopefully we can get it out today, but if not, so be it. At least the vehicle coordinator will get a laugh before he marks us down.
So I have a very random, very unimportant question that jumped into my mind last week. It came when I was gazing at the first vision picture I have on my wall by my study desk. Every picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we see is depicted of them having a beard. I know that Christ probably did during his mortal ministry, just because that was the trend back then; it was kinda difficult to shave in my mind. Do you think they will have beards when we see them? Do you think that we will be allowed to have beards? If you look at any other picture of a heavenly messenger, none are ever drawn with beards. Puzzling thing. Only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Maybe that is why Jesus was selected as the savior. Out of all our father’s spirit children, Jesus was the only one who had a beard like our father. Hehe. On that note, I’ll sign off. Everyone have a nice week and a wonderful 4th of July on Saturday.

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 6-22-09

Dear Family,

Well another week has come and gone. This last Sunday, as I’m sure all of you know, was Father’s Day. Typically, holidays aren’t too big for missionaries, but it’s nice to have a special day where we can think of our fathers, even though we don’t get to call home on like we get to on Mother’s Day. Nothing too exciting happened, outside the fact that Elder Reed and I spoke in sacrament meeting here in Eastland. That’s happened several times here in Eastland. I think I have spoken 4 or 5 times since coming here last October. Joys of being missionaries in a small branch. This time I talked about a very good story that pertains well to fathers. Alma the younger went about destroying the church and was a very wicked and idolatrous man. What happened? He had a lovely visit from a friendly angel that kinda chastised him a little. Turns out that Alma decided not to argue and was born of God and spent the rest of his life as an amazing servant. Well, it’s not very often that something like that happens. There are a lot of wicked people on the earth and not too many get the opportunity of being chastised by angel from the other side of the veil. So why Alma? Well, in Mosiah 27, verse 12 I think, the angel clearly states that he came to convince Alma of the power of God because his father prayed with much faith that he would. That is a good lesson taught right there. Every one of us should learn from this great father. We have people we know that have strayed from the path or that have never got on the path and we are obligated to pray for them and help them out. We can’t just pray any old prayer. We have to pray with faith. Dad must’ve had a revelation of what story to send this past week because the one he sent went along perfectly and I actually used it in my talk. It’s about a story of a town that is about to die because of no rain. They all gather in to pray and rain comes. As they are celebrating they see a seven year old girl who had an umbrella. What’s the significance to that? Well, she had so much faith that she expected the rain to come, despite the circumstances, and thus brought an umbrella with her. That’s the type of faith we need to have. That is the type of faith that Alma Sr. had towards his son and because of it, a miracle happened. Praying with that type of faith does indeed produce miracles and that is the type of faith we need to have. As I think about that, I have a long way to go; I’ll get there one of these days. But anyway, have a nice week everyone.

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 6-15-09

Dear family,

So I made mention a few weeks back when I was talking about the cookbook that I may not be in Eastland very much longer. Umm, well, I was wrong. I didn’t think I’d ever pull off a 4 transfer (6 month) companion and a 6 transfer (9 month) area, but I have. I’ll be staying here in Eastland till at least the End of July now. I was thinking, after this transfer I have 5 transfers (7 months) left. If I were to stay in Eastland with Elder Reed for the rest of my mission I will have tied Dad’s record that he always talks about. 15 months in one area and 10 months with the same companion. Think I can make it? Well I certainly hope not. That might drive me crazy. As much as I love Eastland, I would love to go to at least one more area, hopefully two. I have this weird goal of being able to see the whole mission, serving in all 5 zones. Most missionaries get close, but I have a weird record of only hitting 2 zones, those being the two southern zones. I’ve served the Texas Lubbock South mission. I have yet to meet a missionary to pull off the same feat as me. It would be nice to break that streak make it north some time and get to Lubbock, Amarillo, or New Mexico, but we’ll see what happens. In concordance with that (me being in Eastland for a while, I've made the decision to split up the photo CD's for my second stay in Eastland. Eastland part 3 will be coming to you shortly. And no, it will not include pictures of the wolf spider I took. Those will be on Eastland part 4, which will not come till at least August. But I did get some good pictures on part 3, so it'll be ok.

So outside that, the only other news is that I laugh at Texans once again. Every time they see a dark cloud they say that a tornado is coming. It is quite comical. Yes, it is tornado season here in June, but I doubt that I’ll ever see a tornado. I think in the last week Eastland County was under 2 or 3 tornado watches, with surrounding counties getting a tornado warning. We did get some good storms and good pictures for me, but in my opinion, none were even close to what we experienced in Utah that one year. I looked at the clouds and said to myself, ‘we ain’t gonna get no tornado today.’ (I don’t know if I actually said it that way, but that is how any Texan would say it). However, if a tornado does come our way, don’t you worry, I’ll be ready. …ready to take a picture! Mwa ha ha! That would complete my mission. A picture of a hurricane would be fun, too, but those don’t touch our mission. We’re too far west, dangit. All we get when a hurricane hits is a little bit of rain. Anyway, on that note, I’m signing off. Peace out!

Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester

Letter 6-8-09

Dear Family,

Well I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for all the recipes that were sent. If you still desire to send some to contribute to the Eastland Branch cookbook, you still have some time. I’d say tomorrow is the deadline to get them sent. So that’s that. I’m still plugging away here in Eastland. Only God knows how long I will remain. Not a whole lot to report on this week. After our two baptisms of Josh and McKayla, we’ve had a minor dry spell. I try not to let that happen, but sometimes it just does. I feel kinda bad. President Robison instructed on the idea of an escalator effect and not an elevator effect. He said that some missionaries will work hard, then get a ton of baptisms at once and then start from scratch and a while later get a ton more baptisms. That’s the elevator effect. What is much better is to have the escalator. Once you get someone baptized you should have someone right behind them ready to get baptized then continue down having someone on each level of progression. Then you don’t skip a beat in your work. I tried to do that here in Eastland, but people just decided jump off my escalator, so once we got our baptisms, there was quite the jump in going to the next step where there was someone present. Oh well. What can you do? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We must press forward with a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and all men, feasting upon the words of Christ. Good things will come. They just don’t always come in the way and time I expect them to. That’s quite alright. I can find comfort in knowing that God hasn’t forgotten about his children in Eastland, Texas. He will prepare a way for them to come to the light. But if not, I will still trust in the Lord. Have a dandy week everyone.

Elder Adam R Droge

The DrogeMiester