Dear Family,
This past week has definitely been an interesting week. I think that I have gone into denial. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Yesterday was Zone Conference. It was really good. President talked about having faith in Christ and how that having that faith in Christ is the best and most important thing that we can walk away with on our missions. The weird time at Zone Conference though was at testimony meeting. They always have the departing missionaries get up and bare their testimonies and for some odd reason they decided to call on me. How dare them. After Zone Conference, we had a baptismal interview set up for Joe Sanchez, but we had to wait around for a while because Zone Conference ended early and I was sitting there pondering and it didn’t seem real that I have run out of Zone Conferences. It honestly feels like that I’ll be to the next Zone Conference at the beginning of March. It’s a weird feeling. I had heard that the mission goes by fast, but I don’t think it’s possible to fully comprehend how fast it really does go by until you are living in your last transfer.
To make things even better, along with all the birthday letters that I have gotten, the Church decided to send me what they thought was a good birthday letter, but was actually the scariest letter of my mission. It informed me that Gregory Coy, Derrick Craven, and Adam Droge will be flying home on Febraury 24th. We take off from Lubbock at 8:55 AM and arrive in Dallas at 10:00 AM. We then wait around awhile and take off from Dallas at 12:25 PM and arrive in Salt Lake City at 2:15 PM. It didn’t give time zones, but it did say that the first flight was 1 hour 5 minutes and that the second flight was 2 hours 50 minutes. We talked it over and the math only works out right when the Time Zones correlate as to where the airport is. So we will leave Lubbock at 8:55 AM Texas time and arrive in Salt Lake City 2:15 PM Utah time. I kind of hid that away. I don’t feel like dwelling on it at all until it is necessary to, but I figured that those who want to be there at the airport to escort me home might want to know because if I didn’t, it would be an awful long walk from the Salt Lake airport to Bountiful. Plus, now those who want to be there can have plenty of time to put it into their calendars ahead of time. If any changes are made or any new information comes up, I’ll let you know.
Onto better things though, how about a golden birthday? I didn’t even realize until a few weeks ago when my companion noticed it that this birthday is the only time of my life that I will turn 21 on the 21st. That’s kinda fun. It is also convenient timing that my birthday is on a P-day. That will make for a fun day. No need to worry about presents. I’ll pull a Mom and say that I don’t really need anything for my birthday. I’m not greedy. Just another day in the life of a missionary.
Speaking of missionary work, we had, like I mentioned, Joe Sanchez’s baptismal interview. He passed, so that is good. He didn’t think he had enough money to pay tithing, however, so the district leader made us promise that we’d have him talk to the bishop about his finances. We also gave him a good talk. We told him that he needs to pay his tithing first, no matter what. If he does, everything else will fall into place and somehow things will always work out. We extended him the promise that the Lord gives in Malachi to prove God. Test him. See if he will not pour you out a blessing that you will not have room to receive it. He took that well. However, he forgot that he will be out of town this weekend, so we rescheduled for next weekend, the 31st of January. We did experience minor disappointments with the other investigators I mentioned. I told about six people. Four of them were committed to coming to church, but Joe was the only one that showed. Chuck and Sharon didn’t commit, mostly because Sharon is scared of coming to church because she is closed in with a lot of people, but Jake, Sara, and Peter were all going to come but for one reason or another did not. I guess that just means we work harder because we’re getting down to crunch time and we really need to get things going. Now is the time. Anyways, though, I better get going. Everyone have a nice week!
Oh, did I mention that I have officially dodged all leadership calls outside being senior companion? Elder Droge never trained, never was a DL, ZL, or AP. Just a regular proselyting missionary his whole mission. Mwa ha ha! (not that I would've turned down the opportunity to serve if President wanted me to, but hey...)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Letter 1-14-10
Dear Family,
So this past week was transfer week and I can officially say what I have thought and hoped would happen has happened. No Surprises. I am staying in Roswell for the next six weeks, which means I will be staying in Roswell until I go home. At the end of this transfer it will be a total of seven months in Roswell, my second longest area total and longest consecutive area. I have also continued a tradition. Roswell is the burial place of my forefathers. My trainer died in Roswell and my trainer’s trainer died in Roswell. My companion, Elder Thode is staying, too, but we got a third missionary with us, Elder Paul Wakefield of River Heights, Utah (a suburb of Logan). I was in a trio once before and I enjoy it. Elder Wakefield has been out six months and this is already his fourth area. I will finish my mission with a grand total of thirteen companions and six areas (five different, being that I was in Eastland twice). No, I never got the opportunity to serve in the Lubbock or Amarillo areas, but that is alright, I’ve enjoyed the places I’ve been.
So, I believe I left people hanging at the end of last letter, so I will fix that. I mentioned six different people that have the potential to get baptized here in Roswell before I go home. If we got all six, that would be way cool. If I got five, I would hit seventeen on my mission which would average out to one per transfer and that would be a fun statistic. The ward’s goal for the year is twenty-four, which is two per month, so with that we would need to get four. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.
Joe Sanchez is our most progressing. He is sixty year old Hispanic guy who is a Vietnam veteran. He had a son get killed in Iraq a few years back, which is tough. He has had a couple of different baptismal dates, but struggled with coffee, which kept pushing it back. He also took a two week trip to California, which turned out to be real stressful, causing him to have a relapse on the Word of Wisdom. Everything is under control now and he has been clear from the Word of Wisdom for a week now and is pretty much good to go for January 24th.
Peter Hardin is one of the nine year olds I’ve mentioned. The other one doesn’t seem to be ready at this time, but Peter is. His parents are both members who have testimonies, but have struggled with church attendance. We haven’t been able to get them to church, but once we do, things will speed up. A wrench got thrown into this story last week when Peter’s dad had a stroke and seizure at the same time which was pretty serious. We went to the hospital to give him a blessing and he is now home, so hopefully everything will be alright.
Jake Gonzales is the non-member husband in an active family. They have 3 daughters who are 17, 20, and 22. Jake has been taught a few times in the past and was close to baptism but wasn’t fully committed. We have recently started to re-teach him and it seems as if he is trying to get his life in order with religion and his a newer resolve to put it as a top priority by coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. We chatted about the Restoration and he believes that it’s true, so I don’t see why he’s not baptized. His second oldest daughter is in the Military and will be visiting for a few weeks in February, so we will see if he’ll accept to get baptized then, because I think that would be perfect timing.
Sara Fink is a seventeen year old high school senior and cheerleader. Her boyfriend is the second ward bishop’s son and he invited her to church a few months back. The day before services, we randomly knocked into her and taught her a first lesson. I don’t think that that was a coincidence. We have been teaching her for a few months now and even though she says that she’s never really been a religious person, this has really caught her attention. She accepted a soft baptismal commitment last week, so hopefully we can set a solid date here soon.
Last, but not least, Chuck and Sharon Nelson are a non-member couple in their fifties. They were a member referral. Chuck is a very educated man, but is also a genius when it comes to religion. He is what some people would call a dry Mormon. Everything he believes is what our church believes, he just hasn’t realized it yet. He loves our visits and loves the Book of Mormon, too. Sharon is scared of people, so kind of avoided us for a while, but randomly opened up and started asking us questions. She had questions about the Plan of Salvation, specifically where do we go when we die, because she had family pass away a year or so ago. The funny thing is that when we started going over the plan of salvation briefly, Chuck was pretty much teaching with us, so that was cool. Their obstacle is that they are very, very busy, so we have a hard time sitting down with them, but once we do, they will progress rather quickly I believe.
So there we go. That is the lowdown here in Roswell. The baptisms we get this transfer will most likely come from that pool, so be praying with me that we can find success. Life is good. I’ll write again next week since I have run out of time. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So this past week was transfer week and I can officially say what I have thought and hoped would happen has happened. No Surprises. I am staying in Roswell for the next six weeks, which means I will be staying in Roswell until I go home. At the end of this transfer it will be a total of seven months in Roswell, my second longest area total and longest consecutive area. I have also continued a tradition. Roswell is the burial place of my forefathers. My trainer died in Roswell and my trainer’s trainer died in Roswell. My companion, Elder Thode is staying, too, but we got a third missionary with us, Elder Paul Wakefield of River Heights, Utah (a suburb of Logan). I was in a trio once before and I enjoy it. Elder Wakefield has been out six months and this is already his fourth area. I will finish my mission with a grand total of thirteen companions and six areas (five different, being that I was in Eastland twice). No, I never got the opportunity to serve in the Lubbock or Amarillo areas, but that is alright, I’ve enjoyed the places I’ve been.
So, I believe I left people hanging at the end of last letter, so I will fix that. I mentioned six different people that have the potential to get baptized here in Roswell before I go home. If we got all six, that would be way cool. If I got five, I would hit seventeen on my mission which would average out to one per transfer and that would be a fun statistic. The ward’s goal for the year is twenty-four, which is two per month, so with that we would need to get four. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.
Joe Sanchez is our most progressing. He is sixty year old Hispanic guy who is a Vietnam veteran. He had a son get killed in Iraq a few years back, which is tough. He has had a couple of different baptismal dates, but struggled with coffee, which kept pushing it back. He also took a two week trip to California, which turned out to be real stressful, causing him to have a relapse on the Word of Wisdom. Everything is under control now and he has been clear from the Word of Wisdom for a week now and is pretty much good to go for January 24th.
Peter Hardin is one of the nine year olds I’ve mentioned. The other one doesn’t seem to be ready at this time, but Peter is. His parents are both members who have testimonies, but have struggled with church attendance. We haven’t been able to get them to church, but once we do, things will speed up. A wrench got thrown into this story last week when Peter’s dad had a stroke and seizure at the same time which was pretty serious. We went to the hospital to give him a blessing and he is now home, so hopefully everything will be alright.
Jake Gonzales is the non-member husband in an active family. They have 3 daughters who are 17, 20, and 22. Jake has been taught a few times in the past and was close to baptism but wasn’t fully committed. We have recently started to re-teach him and it seems as if he is trying to get his life in order with religion and his a newer resolve to put it as a top priority by coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. We chatted about the Restoration and he believes that it’s true, so I don’t see why he’s not baptized. His second oldest daughter is in the Military and will be visiting for a few weeks in February, so we will see if he’ll accept to get baptized then, because I think that would be perfect timing.
Sara Fink is a seventeen year old high school senior and cheerleader. Her boyfriend is the second ward bishop’s son and he invited her to church a few months back. The day before services, we randomly knocked into her and taught her a first lesson. I don’t think that that was a coincidence. We have been teaching her for a few months now and even though she says that she’s never really been a religious person, this has really caught her attention. She accepted a soft baptismal commitment last week, so hopefully we can set a solid date here soon.
Last, but not least, Chuck and Sharon Nelson are a non-member couple in their fifties. They were a member referral. Chuck is a very educated man, but is also a genius when it comes to religion. He is what some people would call a dry Mormon. Everything he believes is what our church believes, he just hasn’t realized it yet. He loves our visits and loves the Book of Mormon, too. Sharon is scared of people, so kind of avoided us for a while, but randomly opened up and started asking us questions. She had questions about the Plan of Salvation, specifically where do we go when we die, because she had family pass away a year or so ago. The funny thing is that when we started going over the plan of salvation briefly, Chuck was pretty much teaching with us, so that was cool. Their obstacle is that they are very, very busy, so we have a hard time sitting down with them, but once we do, they will progress rather quickly I believe.
So there we go. That is the lowdown here in Roswell. The baptisms we get this transfer will most likely come from that pool, so be praying with me that we can find success. Life is good. I’ll write again next week since I have run out of time. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Letter 1-7-10
Dear Family,
Seven days of 2010 has come and gone. It has been a good week. I think though that having my calendar opened to January of 2010 has been the biggest insult of my mission. Stupid calendar. I think the calendar has tried to make up for it, though, because it is a flower calendar that I collected when I bought some Pero at a health foods store for Joe Sanchez as a substitute for his coffee. They offered the calendar to me for no charge, so I took it. I think the quote on it in January’s calendar teaches false doctrine. It says that flowers are the sweetest things that God created and forgot to put a soul into. I think flowers do have souls, but maybe I’m wrong. It does say in the Book of Moses that everything that God created was created spiritually before it was created physically. Not like it’s that important anyway. I don’t think Henry Beecher (the author of the quote) had the Book of Moses right off hand, so you can’t really blame him. Anyways, the idea that I am in the last full month of my mission has bothered me and caused the new year to start off a little weird in my mind, but at the same time I am way excited for this new year because the missionary work in 2010 is just going to catch fire in this mission. That is evidenced in what the mission goals are for 2010 throughout the mission. President Robison set a goal for us to triple baptize this year. 60 in one month. That will be remarkable. Elder M Russell Ballard told President Robison that you can get 40 and maybe even 50 without the help of the members, but you won’t hit 60 or beyond without the help of the members, so that is our focus. The members are the means. That is not just what our mission president has said, that is the direction the prophet and the quorum of the twelve want us to take and it has been evidenced in conference. I think there has been at least one general authority in the last several conferences that have talked about member missionary work and several recent talks devoted solely to member missionary work. Take Elder Perry’s talk in May 2009 as an example. Elder Perry is the current head of the missionary organization, so what he said then is huge. Back on terms of goals, our stake president here in Roswell set a goal for 210 convert baptisms in 2010 for the Roswell Stake and the Roswell 1st Ward set a goal for 24 convert baptisms. Take into perspective that the numbers for 2009 for the stake 114 convert baptism and 11 for the ward. Everyone has very high expectation for this year and everyone’s attitudes are in the right place. It is way exciting. I am planning on contributing all I can in the very short amount of time I will be here. If I am allowed to stay in Roswell this next transfer I see an honest potential for 5 or 6 people to get baptized here in this ward in the next two months. Statistically, having everyone get baptized that you think will get baptized doesn’t always happen, but we at least need to get a minimum of 4, because to hit the goal for this ward of 24 in the year, we need 2 a month. I don’t have time to give details about people, I’ll do that next week, but if you want to pray for some people, here are some names of specific people that have the potential to get baptized: Joe Sanchez, Peter Hardin, Jake Gonzales, Chuck and Sharon Nelson, and Sara Fink. I do have to get going, but I will give some details later, probably next week, about these people. Till then, peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Seven days of 2010 has come and gone. It has been a good week. I think though that having my calendar opened to January of 2010 has been the biggest insult of my mission. Stupid calendar. I think the calendar has tried to make up for it, though, because it is a flower calendar that I collected when I bought some Pero at a health foods store for Joe Sanchez as a substitute for his coffee. They offered the calendar to me for no charge, so I took it. I think the quote on it in January’s calendar teaches false doctrine. It says that flowers are the sweetest things that God created and forgot to put a soul into. I think flowers do have souls, but maybe I’m wrong. It does say in the Book of Moses that everything that God created was created spiritually before it was created physically. Not like it’s that important anyway. I don’t think Henry Beecher (the author of the quote) had the Book of Moses right off hand, so you can’t really blame him. Anyways, the idea that I am in the last full month of my mission has bothered me and caused the new year to start off a little weird in my mind, but at the same time I am way excited for this new year because the missionary work in 2010 is just going to catch fire in this mission. That is evidenced in what the mission goals are for 2010 throughout the mission. President Robison set a goal for us to triple baptize this year. 60 in one month. That will be remarkable. Elder M Russell Ballard told President Robison that you can get 40 and maybe even 50 without the help of the members, but you won’t hit 60 or beyond without the help of the members, so that is our focus. The members are the means. That is not just what our mission president has said, that is the direction the prophet and the quorum of the twelve want us to take and it has been evidenced in conference. I think there has been at least one general authority in the last several conferences that have talked about member missionary work and several recent talks devoted solely to member missionary work. Take Elder Perry’s talk in May 2009 as an example. Elder Perry is the current head of the missionary organization, so what he said then is huge. Back on terms of goals, our stake president here in Roswell set a goal for 210 convert baptisms in 2010 for the Roswell Stake and the Roswell 1st Ward set a goal for 24 convert baptisms. Take into perspective that the numbers for 2009 for the stake 114 convert baptism and 11 for the ward. Everyone has very high expectation for this year and everyone’s attitudes are in the right place. It is way exciting. I am planning on contributing all I can in the very short amount of time I will be here. If I am allowed to stay in Roswell this next transfer I see an honest potential for 5 or 6 people to get baptized here in this ward in the next two months. Statistically, having everyone get baptized that you think will get baptized doesn’t always happen, but we at least need to get a minimum of 4, because to hit the goal for this ward of 24 in the year, we need 2 a month. I don’t have time to give details about people, I’ll do that next week, but if you want to pray for some people, here are some names of specific people that have the potential to get baptized: Joe Sanchez, Peter Hardin, Jake Gonzales, Chuck and Sharon Nelson, and Sara Fink. I do have to get going, but I will give some details later, probably next week, about these people. Till then, peace out!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 12-31-09
Dear Family,
Wow, 2009 is over. That is just unreal to me. 2010 brings in, not just a whole new year, but a whole new life for me and I am very nervous, but yet I felt the same way about 2008 when I was ready to embark on my mission and that all worked out, so I guess there is nothing to worry about. I’ve just been reflecting on all the happenings of 2009 and I am amazed. It has been a wonderful year with many great miracles. I am sad that this year is over. 2010 brings new adventures. New obstacles. New challenges. Many great things lie ahead and it is time to make the absolute most of these first two months of the year. Savor every last moment.
Elder Thode gave me a fortune cookie yesterday. Normally they don’t bother me at all. They are really fun to read. However, this one scared me to death. It said, “Romance will come your way soon.” Horrible. How dare it tell me that! It’s an awful good thing that fortune cookies don’t control your destiny or I’d be in a lot of trouble.
A few questions real quick. First, I got to wonder about the history of Joseph Smith III. What is his story and background? Second, the scriptures say to love everyone and Christ was especially adamant in the New Testament about loving your enemy. Is hating Satan going against that? He is a spirit child of our father in heaven and at one point was the son of the morning. I wouldn’t think that that is a bad thing, to hate Satan, but it poses an interesting point.
Anyways, that’s all for now. Everyone have a great New Year’s Eve celebration and a Happy New Year! Great wishes to all in 2010!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Wow, 2009 is over. That is just unreal to me. 2010 brings in, not just a whole new year, but a whole new life for me and I am very nervous, but yet I felt the same way about 2008 when I was ready to embark on my mission and that all worked out, so I guess there is nothing to worry about. I’ve just been reflecting on all the happenings of 2009 and I am amazed. It has been a wonderful year with many great miracles. I am sad that this year is over. 2010 brings new adventures. New obstacles. New challenges. Many great things lie ahead and it is time to make the absolute most of these first two months of the year. Savor every last moment.
Elder Thode gave me a fortune cookie yesterday. Normally they don’t bother me at all. They are really fun to read. However, this one scared me to death. It said, “Romance will come your way soon.” Horrible. How dare it tell me that! It’s an awful good thing that fortune cookies don’t control your destiny or I’d be in a lot of trouble.
A few questions real quick. First, I got to wonder about the history of Joseph Smith III. What is his story and background? Second, the scriptures say to love everyone and Christ was especially adamant in the New Testament about loving your enemy. Is hating Satan going against that? He is a spirit child of our father in heaven and at one point was the son of the morning. I wouldn’t think that that is a bad thing, to hate Satan, but it poses an interesting point.
Anyways, that’s all for now. Everyone have a great New Year’s Eve celebration and a Happy New Year! Great wishes to all in 2010!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 12-16-09
Dear Family,
So on Monday I received a very disturbing call. It was Sister Hansen, the secretary to President Robison, calling to know what airport I wanted to fly into. She had the information that I was from Bountiful, so she assumed the Salt Lake airport but wanted to double check. I told her to send me to the Los Angeles airport and she laughed. I think that would be quite funny if I could’ve gotten away with that. I didn’t even think till later about the Atlanta airport. I should’ve had her send me there…
Anyways, onto more important subjects, since that is a long time away, how about talking about a different phone call, the one in nine days from now. I’ve heard rumor that people back home have extended family that they are trying to schedule with and want to know when I will be calling. Well, honestly I do not know. President has this weird thing about not wanting to tell us until right before when it comes to holiday information. It’s quite inconvenient, but what can you do. I tried to get information out of the Zone Leaders yesterday so I could write today, but the ZL I talked to decided to be a smart Alec and play guessing games with me before he just told me that President was going to email us today about it and refused to say anything else. That got me a little annoyed, but I decided to wait till emails today and guess what? No email from President. How nice. So now I am sitting here with no information. Don’t worry, though, interviews with President are tomorrow (which is why P-day is today) and I will ask him. Once I know, I will be smart and do something perfectly legal, have someone here call home for me and let you know. Mom has received a couple of phone calls recently from Roswellites so it might be one of them. Reflecting back on last year, I think Elder Romney and I called in the evening, so that would be my guess and it would be me calling home, not the other way around. I think it’s free for our sprint phones to call after 7, but I could be lying. Anyways, I’ll get back to you somehow on that.
So I will hold true to the promise I gave last week, we have three baptismal candidates that should get baptized here in the next month or so if everything goes right. The most solid is a Hispanic guy in his 60’s named Joe Sanchez. He was a referral from a member. The member talked to him about the church and invited him to take the lessons and he accepted. Well, we dropped in and the rest is history. He was very accepting. He’s been looking for a church his whole life, but never was settled on any one church until now. He feels really good about this church. He’s received some opposition from his family, but we’ve helped him through it. He would actually be getting baptized this upcoming Sunday, but has struggled a little with the word of wisdom. He actually quit smoking and drinking 6 months ago, but has a hold up with coffee. When we taught the word of wisdom a week or so ago he was drink five to six cups a day, but is now down to one, so we’re confident that he’ll break the habit soon. He’s also going out of town for the holidays and won’t be back till the beginning of January, so we set his date for January 10th.
The other 2 candidates are both 9 years old. We asked for the over-eight-unbaptized list from the ward clerk and found both Gracie Gillies and Peter Hardin on it. Gracie is the daughter of a part-member family. The husband, Doug, is a less active and the wife, Judy, is non-member. We’ve been visiting with them for some time, he’s the one that told me he’d come to church if BYU beat TCU, and the wife is somewhat standoffish, but I think that she’d come if he’d get active. Surprisingly enough, they are surrounded by members that have kids Gracie’s age that have gotten her to come to church and commit to baptism. We set a tentative date for January 3rd, but we want to make sure Gracie getting baptized is her honest decision and not something she’s doing because her friends want her to. As a side note, I gave Gracie the Book of Mormon that the Bountiful 9th Ward Primary sent to me to give away. In the letter the Primary sent to me with the Book of Mormon, they said that they put a penny in a jar for every person that brings their scriptures every week and when they save enough money to buy a Book of Mormon, they do so and decide who to send it to. I thought that was very sweet and so I thought it was fitting to give it to a Primary-aged investigator. Gracie really like it (it had a picture and a note from the primary in the front page) and has begun to read it. Someone pass that on to the Primary President up in Bountiful. I think the primary would like to hear this story.
Last but not least, Peter Hardin is the 9 year old son of a less active couple and the story is real funny. Once we saw his name on the list, we dropped by and visited with his mom, Sister Kelley Hardin. A week later, she lost her job. We stopped by again the day after she lost her job, having no idea that she had. She told us that and saw that as a sign that she needs to come back and get Peter baptized because all that was holding her back was that she worked on Sunday. We talked with Peter and he is a really nice young boy that is anxious to get baptized. We set a date for the 27th of this month and were going to start teaching this past week, but the family got sick. That may push the date back a little, but that is alright. We’ll just pray for them to get better soon, because Peter has to come to church twice before baptism.
That’s all for this week, have a great day and I’ll write again next week and call a few days after. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So on Monday I received a very disturbing call. It was Sister Hansen, the secretary to President Robison, calling to know what airport I wanted to fly into. She had the information that I was from Bountiful, so she assumed the Salt Lake airport but wanted to double check. I told her to send me to the Los Angeles airport and she laughed. I think that would be quite funny if I could’ve gotten away with that. I didn’t even think till later about the Atlanta airport. I should’ve had her send me there…
Anyways, onto more important subjects, since that is a long time away, how about talking about a different phone call, the one in nine days from now. I’ve heard rumor that people back home have extended family that they are trying to schedule with and want to know when I will be calling. Well, honestly I do not know. President has this weird thing about not wanting to tell us until right before when it comes to holiday information. It’s quite inconvenient, but what can you do. I tried to get information out of the Zone Leaders yesterday so I could write today, but the ZL I talked to decided to be a smart Alec and play guessing games with me before he just told me that President was going to email us today about it and refused to say anything else. That got me a little annoyed, but I decided to wait till emails today and guess what? No email from President. How nice. So now I am sitting here with no information. Don’t worry, though, interviews with President are tomorrow (which is why P-day is today) and I will ask him. Once I know, I will be smart and do something perfectly legal, have someone here call home for me and let you know. Mom has received a couple of phone calls recently from Roswellites so it might be one of them. Reflecting back on last year, I think Elder Romney and I called in the evening, so that would be my guess and it would be me calling home, not the other way around. I think it’s free for our sprint phones to call after 7, but I could be lying. Anyways, I’ll get back to you somehow on that.
So I will hold true to the promise I gave last week, we have three baptismal candidates that should get baptized here in the next month or so if everything goes right. The most solid is a Hispanic guy in his 60’s named Joe Sanchez. He was a referral from a member. The member talked to him about the church and invited him to take the lessons and he accepted. Well, we dropped in and the rest is history. He was very accepting. He’s been looking for a church his whole life, but never was settled on any one church until now. He feels really good about this church. He’s received some opposition from his family, but we’ve helped him through it. He would actually be getting baptized this upcoming Sunday, but has struggled a little with the word of wisdom. He actually quit smoking and drinking 6 months ago, but has a hold up with coffee. When we taught the word of wisdom a week or so ago he was drink five to six cups a day, but is now down to one, so we’re confident that he’ll break the habit soon. He’s also going out of town for the holidays and won’t be back till the beginning of January, so we set his date for January 10th.
The other 2 candidates are both 9 years old. We asked for the over-eight-unbaptized list from the ward clerk and found both Gracie Gillies and Peter Hardin on it. Gracie is the daughter of a part-member family. The husband, Doug, is a less active and the wife, Judy, is non-member. We’ve been visiting with them for some time, he’s the one that told me he’d come to church if BYU beat TCU, and the wife is somewhat standoffish, but I think that she’d come if he’d get active. Surprisingly enough, they are surrounded by members that have kids Gracie’s age that have gotten her to come to church and commit to baptism. We set a tentative date for January 3rd, but we want to make sure Gracie getting baptized is her honest decision and not something she’s doing because her friends want her to. As a side note, I gave Gracie the Book of Mormon that the Bountiful 9th Ward Primary sent to me to give away. In the letter the Primary sent to me with the Book of Mormon, they said that they put a penny in a jar for every person that brings their scriptures every week and when they save enough money to buy a Book of Mormon, they do so and decide who to send it to. I thought that was very sweet and so I thought it was fitting to give it to a Primary-aged investigator. Gracie really like it (it had a picture and a note from the primary in the front page) and has begun to read it. Someone pass that on to the Primary President up in Bountiful. I think the primary would like to hear this story.
Last but not least, Peter Hardin is the 9 year old son of a less active couple and the story is real funny. Once we saw his name on the list, we dropped by and visited with his mom, Sister Kelley Hardin. A week later, she lost her job. We stopped by again the day after she lost her job, having no idea that she had. She told us that and saw that as a sign that she needs to come back and get Peter baptized because all that was holding her back was that she worked on Sunday. We talked with Peter and he is a really nice young boy that is anxious to get baptized. We set a date for the 27th of this month and were going to start teaching this past week, but the family got sick. That may push the date back a little, but that is alright. We’ll just pray for them to get better soon, because Peter has to come to church twice before baptism.
That’s all for this week, have a great day and I’ll write again next week and call a few days after. Peace!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 12-10-09
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
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, 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
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