Dear Family,
Surprise, surprise! Interviews with President Robison are tomorrow, so p-day is today. Yet another month has gone away. January of 2010 ended in an interesting way, so let’s get down to business.
I believe I left everyone hanging with the story of Joe Sanchez. Last week we ran into a sticky situation with the baptism that was unresolved when I emailed last week, but the story is now completed. All that was heard from Joe about his wife was negative things, so when Joe called Thursday morning saying that his wife had some issues with him getting baptized I was kinda nervous because if you don’t have permission from the spouse, they can’t get baptized. Not having a clue of what we were getting ourselves into, we ventured to the Sanchez home a couple hours after emailing to visit with Joe and Velina Sanchez. Turns out Velina wasn’t such a bad lady after all; in fact, she was actually a great lady who knows her husband a little more than we do. We learned that Joe isn’t a very good communicator. All that Velina knew was that missionaries were visiting with Joe and that he was coming to church. Well, suddenly Joe tells her that he has to get baptized and has to pay his tithing, keep in mind that she heard this a few days before he said he was getting baptized. Red flag flies up in her mind. She remembers that Joe has gone to several churches before and been baptized 3 or 4 times in the past, yet has never been able to be fully committed to a church and when he says he has to pay his tithing another red flag goes up because his finances aren’t in the right position for him to pay tithing. Turns out we find that Joe is horrible with money and is in a lot of debt. So what does Velina do? She wants to talk with the missionaries about it because, even though she’s not a huge fan of the church, she is a very good Christian lady that has a lot of truth in her. She is under the impression that if you’re going to join a church, you have to be fully committed. Either go 100% or not at all and she didn’t know if Joe should be baptized because she doesn’t feel he can keep all the commitments, especially tithing. Wow. I am so glad that she talked with us. One, we told her that this isn’t our decision like Joe made it sound. This is Joe’s. Joe does feel very good about this church. He says he feels better about this church that he has about any other church and that was evident because he has come to church every week and started living the Word of Wisdom and continued to visit with us and stay strong even though he received lots of opposition. Now as far as finances go, that was way over my head. First off, I’m not a marriage counselor, which is the position I was put in for that hour while they both bickered back and forth. Second, I’m only a 21 year old kid. I’ve never really had to deal with finances enough to resolve that concern. So what did we do? Reinforcements. We took Bishop Malcom over on Friday and shabang! Right decision. I learned a whole ton. Bishop sat down with Joe and Velina and talked with them both for an hour while we sat and watched. Bishop pretty much sided with Velina and made Joe make some commitments as far as his finances go and also some commitments to communicate with his wife and then passed for baptism. Even though Velina didn’t attend the baptism and isn’t real interested in the church, she felt comfortable with Joe getting baptized and I believe that she will soon follow if Joe stays true to the commitments he has made. Joe was baptized on Sunday, January 31st, as planned and it went real good. I was happy. He will get confirmed this upcoming Sunday in Sacrament Meeting.
As far as our other investigators go, I want to get at least one more baptism before I leave and it looks like we will make that. The person will be Sara Fink, the 17 year old high school senior who is the girlfriend of 2nd ward bishop’s son. She told us this week she wants to get baptized, but I don’t have time to tell that story, so I will tell it next week. Jake Gonzales is doing great but has been out of town for the last two weeks on a work assignment, so getting baptized this month is questionable. We set another baptismal date with Peter Hardin, the nine year old who’s family is less active, for this month, but they still aren’t committed to church, so that is questionable as well. Chuck and Sharon Nelson are doing good, but we are working slower. So that is it for this week. Everyone have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Letter 1-28-10
Dear Family,
“I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my ‘last days,’ but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.”
--Elder Jeffrey R Holland (Safety for the Soul, Oct Conf 2009)
What a great day to be a missionary. My birthday last week was good. Several people called and wished me a happy birthday, I got a birthday dinner from two different people (not on the same day, but both between last Thursday and now), and received Greg and Wendy’s birthday package in addition to another bag full of birthday goodies from one of the people who also provided a dinner. So I was well taken care of, no worries.
Time is running out, but yet there is still plenty of time to get things done. Although Elder Holland’s talk last conference was surprisingly intimidating (I had to double check in my mind to make sure I believed the Book of Mormon because he made me feel bad that I didn’t believe in it stronger), I share the same desire. I want to make it absolutely clear to these people that I testified to them that the Book of Mormon is true.
Some drama, good and bad, has happened this week. It turns out that Joe Sanchez could’ve been baptized this past Sunday. We postponed it because he was going out of town, and he did, but he returned earlier than he expected and showed up for church on Sunday. By then it was too late to do it that day, so this week will be just one more week of commitment, as Bishop Malcom said. Joe is really excited about Sunday, but writing on Thursday this week is a bit of a disappointment on your side, because I will have to leave you hanging. His wife, who has never had a problem with us teaching him, has suddenly turned against it. We have never taught her, tried to a few times, because she is closed minded to the church and doesn’t really want to talk to us. Yet she let Joe get involved and make his own decisions. Now she has said that if Joe pays his tithing, she will kick him out of the house, and she may be against him getting baptized. A baptismal candidate can’t get baptized without the permission of his or her spouse. All this news transpired today when Joe called us a few hours ago. She wants to have a chat with us personally later today. Put this story on pause now, because I don’t know how this will transpire. We will find out in a few hours and you all will find out if Joe got baptized… in one week from today. To be continued… just pray that everything will work out. It doesn’t bother me. Every baptismal candidate gets attacked by Satan the week of their baptism and 9 out of 10 times, the investigator pulls through and gets baptized anyway. I’ve only had one story where the investigator completely choked the week of their baptism and still isn’t baptized. Everyone else has done good. So I’m not too worried. Joe’s baptismal service has already been planned out and preparations being made, so it better not fall through, but whatever happens, the Lord is in it.
On a brighter note, if you remember back to last week, I mentioned that 3 out 4 people that were going to come to church didn’t show. Well, 2 of those 3 that didn’t show 2 weeks ago came to church this past Sunday. Jake Gonzales and Sara Fink were both at Church on Sunday in addition to Joe Sanchez. We haven’t had the opportunity to teach either, but Jake went and played basketball with the Elders Quorum on Tuesday and we have a set appointment with Sara tonight after P-day ends. We also plan on dropping by Jake afterwards so all is looking good. We finally were able to sit down with Chuck and Sharon Nelson this past week and taught a great Plan of Salvation lesson. Sharon has Agoraphobia, a fear of people, but yet she expressed that she really wanted to come to church, yet she isn’t quite ready because she describes her fear and random panic attacks to being in the same room as a tiger. That’s not a pleasant thought so I can understand that being in a closed up church with 200-300 people would be a little much. We plan on taking them on a tour of the church to help her feel more comfortable (we would do that on a weekday when the church is vacant) and we hope that that will help. Chuck would come, but his Sundays are pretty much controlled by his wife. It was funny when we were teaching the lesson because Chuck was pretty much teaching with us. He has so much truth in him that he said that he believes in the pre-earth life, the spirit world, and the 3 degrees of glory and even knows where it talks about them in the bible. Wow! We’re the only church that teaches those doctrines and he already believes in them. He’s what you call a dry mormon.
So that is the updates. We have not been able to catch the Hardins, but are still trying. Now I have to go because we have a big day in front of us. Take it easy everyone and have a great week, and a wonderful Groundhog day on Tuesday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
“I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my ‘last days,’ but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.”
--Elder Jeffrey R Holland (Safety for the Soul, Oct Conf 2009)
What a great day to be a missionary. My birthday last week was good. Several people called and wished me a happy birthday, I got a birthday dinner from two different people (not on the same day, but both between last Thursday and now), and received Greg and Wendy’s birthday package in addition to another bag full of birthday goodies from one of the people who also provided a dinner. So I was well taken care of, no worries.
Time is running out, but yet there is still plenty of time to get things done. Although Elder Holland’s talk last conference was surprisingly intimidating (I had to double check in my mind to make sure I believed the Book of Mormon because he made me feel bad that I didn’t believe in it stronger), I share the same desire. I want to make it absolutely clear to these people that I testified to them that the Book of Mormon is true.
Some drama, good and bad, has happened this week. It turns out that Joe Sanchez could’ve been baptized this past Sunday. We postponed it because he was going out of town, and he did, but he returned earlier than he expected and showed up for church on Sunday. By then it was too late to do it that day, so this week will be just one more week of commitment, as Bishop Malcom said. Joe is really excited about Sunday, but writing on Thursday this week is a bit of a disappointment on your side, because I will have to leave you hanging. His wife, who has never had a problem with us teaching him, has suddenly turned against it. We have never taught her, tried to a few times, because she is closed minded to the church and doesn’t really want to talk to us. Yet she let Joe get involved and make his own decisions. Now she has said that if Joe pays his tithing, she will kick him out of the house, and she may be against him getting baptized. A baptismal candidate can’t get baptized without the permission of his or her spouse. All this news transpired today when Joe called us a few hours ago. She wants to have a chat with us personally later today. Put this story on pause now, because I don’t know how this will transpire. We will find out in a few hours and you all will find out if Joe got baptized… in one week from today. To be continued… just pray that everything will work out. It doesn’t bother me. Every baptismal candidate gets attacked by Satan the week of their baptism and 9 out of 10 times, the investigator pulls through and gets baptized anyway. I’ve only had one story where the investigator completely choked the week of their baptism and still isn’t baptized. Everyone else has done good. So I’m not too worried. Joe’s baptismal service has already been planned out and preparations being made, so it better not fall through, but whatever happens, the Lord is in it.
On a brighter note, if you remember back to last week, I mentioned that 3 out 4 people that were going to come to church didn’t show. Well, 2 of those 3 that didn’t show 2 weeks ago came to church this past Sunday. Jake Gonzales and Sara Fink were both at Church on Sunday in addition to Joe Sanchez. We haven’t had the opportunity to teach either, but Jake went and played basketball with the Elders Quorum on Tuesday and we have a set appointment with Sara tonight after P-day ends. We also plan on dropping by Jake afterwards so all is looking good. We finally were able to sit down with Chuck and Sharon Nelson this past week and taught a great Plan of Salvation lesson. Sharon has Agoraphobia, a fear of people, but yet she expressed that she really wanted to come to church, yet she isn’t quite ready because she describes her fear and random panic attacks to being in the same room as a tiger. That’s not a pleasant thought so I can understand that being in a closed up church with 200-300 people would be a little much. We plan on taking them on a tour of the church to help her feel more comfortable (we would do that on a weekday when the church is vacant) and we hope that that will help. Chuck would come, but his Sundays are pretty much controlled by his wife. It was funny when we were teaching the lesson because Chuck was pretty much teaching with us. He has so much truth in him that he said that he believes in the pre-earth life, the spirit world, and the 3 degrees of glory and even knows where it talks about them in the bible. Wow! We’re the only church that teaches those doctrines and he already believes in them. He’s what you call a dry mormon.
So that is the updates. We have not been able to catch the Hardins, but are still trying. Now I have to go because we have a big day in front of us. Take it easy everyone and have a great week, and a wonderful Groundhog day on Tuesday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 1-21-10
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
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
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
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