Dear Family,
The month of December rolls on and the Christmas season is well underway. And to get this out of the way, what do you give a missionary for Christmas who only has 2 months left when Christmas hits? Probably something that he could use for a month or two on the mission, yet also use after he gets home. As far as what that is, I have no idea. Elder Droge’s Christmas wish list is empty at the moment, so be creative. And FYI, a common gift is missionary music, but President Robison came out with a new rule that totally axed most of my music that I have collected. We can only listen to vocal or instrumental renditions of the hymns. Yay! … … ! But yeah, be creative and surprise me. That’s all I’m saying. And just remember that there isn’t a need to worry about me too much or ponder over the matter a whole lot because receiving Christmas gifts isn’t at top of my mind this season, so all is well.
Last week I mentioned that I saw snow for the first time on my mission, but it melted away. Well, just hours later a second storm hit and this one was real bad. It snowed and stayed all the way till Monday. I laughed at how the people here all panicked since it was the biggest snow storm in Roswell in six to eight years, yet it was only 2 or 3 inches. It did make for a dangerous ride to our combined Christmas Zone Conference in Lubbock. We were perfectly fine and no one in the mission was injured at all, but there were a few close calls due to the icy roads. One truck tipped on its side and another car with my MTC companion Elder Craven in it slid into oncoming traffic and almost hit a pole but remained untouched. The Lord watched after his TLMites. The conference was good. It had a duel purpose. We had our Christmas celebration on part of it and the other part was great instruction where President Robison gave us our goal for 2010. We are going to triple baptize this next year. We started at 20. We doubled that and hit 40. Now the goal is to be able to hit 60 baptisms. I’m excited for the direction this mission is going, but yet I am sad that I won’t really be a part of this goal, unless we hit it in the very first month. I feel like I am walking away from the mission and abandoning it. I wish I could do more than I have, but like Alma says, I should be content with what I have been allotted. I have nothing to complain about. I saw able to witness first hand the transition that this mission went through in completely changing the mindset and attitude towards the work. I have learned a lot and have become a completely different person. Now it is time to work my absolute hardest and sprint towards the finish line and then jump blindly into this strange new world that I will be forced to enter. Life after the mission. Or better yet, life after death.
Things are looking to turn out well here in Roswell these last few months. We do have a few baptismal candidates for the end of December and the beginning of January. I have this weird goal to hit 17 baptisms on my mission, which is an average of one per transfer. I’m at twelve right now and have to get 5 more in the next 2 ½ months. We have 3 fairly solid dates and a few others that could follow suit, so the goal is looking realistic, but since I have already spent too much time on other things I will leave you hanging. Mwa ha ha! Tune in next week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Letter 12-3-09
Dear Family,
“And now as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God, I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the son of the living God, who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. And I shall not know any better then, than I know now, that he is God’s almighty son. He is our savior and redeemer and salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light, as God our father is in the light, so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his son will cleanse us from all sin.”
-Bruce R McConkie
Thanksgiving 2009 is in the books and now the Christmas season is underway. Thanksgiving Day was a good day. We started by playing in the annual Roswell Turkey Bowl. 30 to 40 people from both wards here in Roswell got together and we split into four teams, playing 3 different games, every team playing each other. My team, with very little help from yours truly, compiled the best record, 2-0-1 (2 wins, 0 losses, and 1 tie). The tie was the very last game we played and it was very tense. We tied it on the very last play of the game. As to why we didn’t do a little overtime fiasco, I don’t know, I just followed what everyone else wanted. Had we lost that game, there would’ve been a 3 way tie at 2-1, so I feel good. Then the rest of the day was very filling. We had a Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner appointment and were just plain stuffed. In between all that, we stayed in the apartment and us and the Spanish Elders in town hashed out 5 games of Settlers. It was fun. Now it is Christmas season and I felt it was fitting to start out my email with one of the great quotes about our savior, Elder McConkie’s final testimony in a general conference, because that is what this season is all about. The way many people react and celebrate it seems like the other way around and the true meaning of Christmas gets lost, especially down here in this mission. People here go beserk about lights, decorations, presents, etc. It’s really cool, yet at the same time it’s a little ridiculous. We’ve already done 3 service projects helping people out with their trees, lights, and what not, one of which was for an atheist couple who don’t even believe in Christ, but love the missionaries. I thought that was a little ironic. They, the Kermodes, actually called the Droge home in Bountiful and left a message on the phone, FYI. To top of the season, on December 1st, two days ago, I witnessed my first snowfall on my mission. Even though I about froze to death, I was very intrigued that I was actually seeing snow on the ground. I never thought I’d ever take pictures of snow, but I did. It was gone by lunch time, but hey. And last, but not least, the mission leadership has impeccable timing sometimes because just when it starts to get cold, they take away our car. So I am back on a bike to finish my mission. They had good reason. Roswell has three sets of missionaries and three cars and they decided that that wasn’t necessary, so they took one away. Lucky us. So I am going to freeze this month, but oh well. I’ll survive. Have a great December everyone and I’ll report again in a week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
“And now as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God, I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the son of the living God, who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. And I shall not know any better then, than I know now, that he is God’s almighty son. He is our savior and redeemer and salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light, as God our father is in the light, so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his son will cleanse us from all sin.”
-Bruce R McConkie
Thanksgiving 2009 is in the books and now the Christmas season is underway. Thanksgiving Day was a good day. We started by playing in the annual Roswell Turkey Bowl. 30 to 40 people from both wards here in Roswell got together and we split into four teams, playing 3 different games, every team playing each other. My team, with very little help from yours truly, compiled the best record, 2-0-1 (2 wins, 0 losses, and 1 tie). The tie was the very last game we played and it was very tense. We tied it on the very last play of the game. As to why we didn’t do a little overtime fiasco, I don’t know, I just followed what everyone else wanted. Had we lost that game, there would’ve been a 3 way tie at 2-1, so I feel good. Then the rest of the day was very filling. We had a Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner appointment and were just plain stuffed. In between all that, we stayed in the apartment and us and the Spanish Elders in town hashed out 5 games of Settlers. It was fun. Now it is Christmas season and I felt it was fitting to start out my email with one of the great quotes about our savior, Elder McConkie’s final testimony in a general conference, because that is what this season is all about. The way many people react and celebrate it seems like the other way around and the true meaning of Christmas gets lost, especially down here in this mission. People here go beserk about lights, decorations, presents, etc. It’s really cool, yet at the same time it’s a little ridiculous. We’ve already done 3 service projects helping people out with their trees, lights, and what not, one of which was for an atheist couple who don’t even believe in Christ, but love the missionaries. I thought that was a little ironic. They, the Kermodes, actually called the Droge home in Bountiful and left a message on the phone, FYI. To top of the season, on December 1st, two days ago, I witnessed my first snowfall on my mission. Even though I about froze to death, I was very intrigued that I was actually seeing snow on the ground. I never thought I’d ever take pictures of snow, but I did. It was gone by lunch time, but hey. And last, but not least, the mission leadership has impeccable timing sometimes because just when it starts to get cold, they take away our car. So I am back on a bike to finish my mission. They had good reason. Roswell has three sets of missionaries and three cars and they decided that that wasn’t necessary, so they took one away. Lucky us. So I am going to freeze this month, but oh well. I’ll survive. Have a great December everyone and I’ll report again in a week!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Letter 11-25-09
Dear Family,
Well, the verdict has come and it has been decided that we will take P-day on Wednesday this week, so thus I am writing today. It’ll actually be kinda weird because we don’t go out on Thanksgiving anyway so they are pretty much giving us two P-days this week. I’d say it’s sad to have to miss out on the work, but yet no one has wanted to talk to us much at all this week, so it’s ok. For some odd reason people want to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving week instead of the Mormon missionaries. Strange. So we will relax for the next two days. Or, more or less, get our faces stuffed with food, gain 50 pounds, and not have a desire to touch food again for a week. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two recent converts, Dominique Williams and Shameka Hill and we have three more meals planned for tomorrow: Breakfast at 9 am, Lunch at 3 pm, and Dinner at 7 pm. It will be lots of fun. It’s also a great time to reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. Sometimes I am saddened when Thanksgiving gets jumped over due to the big shadow of Christmas looming behind it. Right after Halloween, the stores are stuffed full with Christmas stuff and people get so excited that they forget this tiny little holiday called Thanksgiving and forget to express thanks to others. I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 this week and was reminded of a great Thanksgiving lesson. The most important person that we need to give thanks to this holiday season is, as Benjamin puts it, our Heavenly King. The specific passage I pondered over is right after the famous passage where it is stated that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. Benjamin states that if we should spend our whole lives in service of our God and thanking him we would still be unprofitable servants. He states beautifully that we are always indebted to God. I hope we all would remember that and seek constantly to pour out our whole souls to God for the many great things he has done for us and given to us. That is my Thanksgiving message. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Till next Thursday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Well, the verdict has come and it has been decided that we will take P-day on Wednesday this week, so thus I am writing today. It’ll actually be kinda weird because we don’t go out on Thanksgiving anyway so they are pretty much giving us two P-days this week. I’d say it’s sad to have to miss out on the work, but yet no one has wanted to talk to us much at all this week, so it’s ok. For some odd reason people want to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving week instead of the Mormon missionaries. Strange. So we will relax for the next two days. Or, more or less, get our faces stuffed with food, gain 50 pounds, and not have a desire to touch food again for a week. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two recent converts, Dominique Williams and Shameka Hill and we have three more meals planned for tomorrow: Breakfast at 9 am, Lunch at 3 pm, and Dinner at 7 pm. It will be lots of fun. It’s also a great time to reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. Sometimes I am saddened when Thanksgiving gets jumped over due to the big shadow of Christmas looming behind it. Right after Halloween, the stores are stuffed full with Christmas stuff and people get so excited that they forget this tiny little holiday called Thanksgiving and forget to express thanks to others. I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 this week and was reminded of a great Thanksgiving lesson. The most important person that we need to give thanks to this holiday season is, as Benjamin puts it, our Heavenly King. The specific passage I pondered over is right after the famous passage where it is stated that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. Benjamin states that if we should spend our whole lives in service of our God and thanking him we would still be unprofitable servants. He states beautifully that we are always indebted to God. I hope we all would remember that and seek constantly to pour out our whole souls to God for the many great things he has done for us and given to us. That is my Thanksgiving message. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Till next Thursday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 11-19-09
Dear Family,
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Letter 11-12-09
Dear Family,
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 11-5-09
Dear Family,
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Letter 10-29-09
Dear Family,
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
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