Dear Family,
Well, the verdict has come and it has been decided that we will take P-day on Wednesday this week, so thus I am writing today. It’ll actually be kinda weird because we don’t go out on Thanksgiving anyway so they are pretty much giving us two P-days this week. I’d say it’s sad to have to miss out on the work, but yet no one has wanted to talk to us much at all this week, so it’s ok. For some odd reason people want to spend time with their families this Thanksgiving week instead of the Mormon missionaries. Strange. So we will relax for the next two days. Or, more or less, get our faces stuffed with food, gain 50 pounds, and not have a desire to touch food again for a week. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two recent converts, Dominique Williams and Shameka Hill and we have three more meals planned for tomorrow: Breakfast at 9 am, Lunch at 3 pm, and Dinner at 7 pm. It will be lots of fun. It’s also a great time to reflect on all of the things that we are thankful for. Sometimes I am saddened when Thanksgiving gets jumped over due to the big shadow of Christmas looming behind it. Right after Halloween, the stores are stuffed full with Christmas stuff and people get so excited that they forget this tiny little holiday called Thanksgiving and forget to express thanks to others. I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 this week and was reminded of a great Thanksgiving lesson. The most important person that we need to give thanks to this holiday season is, as Benjamin puts it, our Heavenly King. The specific passage I pondered over is right after the famous passage where it is stated that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. Benjamin states that if we should spend our whole lives in service of our God and thanking him we would still be unprofitable servants. He states beautifully that we are always indebted to God. I hope we all would remember that and seek constantly to pour out our whole souls to God for the many great things he has done for us and given to us. That is my Thanksgiving message. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Till next Thursday!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Letter 11-19-09
Dear Family,
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
November continues to roll on and 2009 is almost in the books. Yet I refuse to accept that. The end of my mission is far away because it’s not till 2010. High School football is finishing up. New Mexico isn’t as big as Texas is with college football, but as I told Joe in a personal email, High School football is huge in Texas (have him share the email with you for details). If you haven’t seen the movie Friday Night Lights, I’d recommend watching it. It’s all about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, which is 10 minutes away from Midland, Texas, my first area. I’ve seen the stadium and like many stadiums here, it’s ridiculously big for a high school football stadium. Some stadiums are as big as small college stadiums, like say, Weber State. College football is on the downhill slope and yet I still remain top of the standings in Dave’s college football picks competition. Don’t ask me how I have done it, but yet my luck may be running out, since I’m only one point ahead. And no, there aren’t a whole lot of TCU fans in this mission, even though they seem to be ripping apart the Mountain West from what I hear. In Texas, the big 2 teams people like are Texas and Texas Tech. I don’t know who New Mexicans like, certainly not UNM. I’ve seen more BYU fans than UNM fans. New Mexico doesn’t seem to be as big into football as Texas, but that’s ok. I’ll forgive them.
If you remember a story from a few weeks back, we’ve been in conversation with the most unique investigator. A member of the Strangite Mormons. When Joseph Smith died, there was a debate as to who was the next prophet. We know that it was Brigham Young; however, James J Strang seemed to think Joseph Smith appointed him and took 5,000 followers up into Wisconsin. Apparently they were checking out land up in Wisconsin after Strang was baptized in February 1844 and Strang sent a letter to Joseph saying this was a great place to establish Zion. Strang says that Joseph wrote him back on June 19th, 1844 saying that would be a great idea and Strang was to be the leader of the people. Strang claims he had a vision similar to the one Joseph Smith had on the same day that the letter was written. Well, Joseph got martyred soon after and that is when Strang got the followers to come up to Wisconsin with him. Well, Strang got killed 10 years later and his church has gone downhill since then and there was no prophet at the head of their church afterwards. They go by the direction of the presiding high priest and have been waiting for a prophet that hasn’t come yet in the way Joseph and James got called. The church is down to 300 people in the world, most of them residing in Voree, Wisconsin. They don’t have any temples or missionaries and they have a strange set of beliefs that are out of whack. Interesting people. The lady we are talking to is the nicest lady I’ve ever met, just a little lost. My request this week is for someone to dive into church history and research James Strang and send me his true story, because the story I hear from this lady sounds really fishy and many red flags go up in my mind. I think there are some strings attached to this James J Strang dude, but I can’t make a judgment because I don’t have the resources to do some research on him. It would be great if someone could help me out and send some info from church history or something. Curiosity killed the cat and I’d rather not wait 3 months to figure Strang out, but I will if I half to.
Anyways, though, Thanksgiving is a week from today. That will be very fun. I wish everyone here a great and marvelous Thanksgiving and I will to my best to make it good for me. I don’t know when I will be emailing next. Certainly not next Thursday. Libraries will be closed. I suppose I’ll surprise you. Till then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Letter 11-12-09
Dear Family,
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were going to visit a less active member that lived two blocks away from our apartment complex when we found that a few doors away from him there were several police officers and part of the road blocked off. Well, the investigation scene was between us and the member, but was on the other side of the street, so we decided to walk past, but one of the officers stopped us before we could. We told him that we were just visiting a member of our church that only lived a few doors away, but he made us go all the way around. So without arguing or complaining (you don’t do that to police, they have their reasons as well as a little more authority than you do) we went around. When we finally reached our destination, we asked the member what had gone on there. He said, in a very calm, relaxed voice as if it wasn’t a huge deal, that there was a murder there the night before. Oh, dear. That caught me off-guard a little. A few days before, we were walking through another apartment complex near us and noticed a police officer talking with a middle aged lady. The officer stopped us and asked if we had seen a young gentleman in a blue hoodie because the lady that she was talking with had just been mugged in the middle of the day. We replied that we hadn’t because, um, well, we hadn’t. Don’t worry though, I actually feel very safe in Roswell. We spend the majority of our time in the good part of town and when we do have to venture to the ghetto, bad part of town, we do so in a smart way. Don’t go there at the wrong time of day and take the car. Roswell is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my stay.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report this week. The work is going great. We’ve been very busy the last few days. There has been some drama with the investigators that I’ve mentioned, but that is a part of life. We have been making a lot of progress with this area; I’m really excited for the possibilities that could happen in the next month or so. It’s really a great thing being a missionary. Go TLM! Have a nice week everyone.
Oh and by the way, have a good Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 11-5-09
Dear Family,
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Happy Halloween! November is upon us and that means that Halloween 2009 is in the books and it’s on to Thanksgiving season. Halloween this year was kind of a boring day for us. They made us stay in for the evening and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so we just played Settlers of Catan with the other missionaries in town. I guess that was fun. No one wanted to talk to us that day or the evening before so we got blanked out that weekend as far as production. To make Mom and any others feel a little better about not sending anything, one, I wasn’t expecting anything in the first place, and two, we did wind up with some Halloween candy. The same less active guy who I made the bet with BYU and TCU gave us his whole plate of candy that he had left when we stopped by on Sunday evening. Plus, Elder Thode got a nice Halloween package and he has so generous shared with yours truly. What a nice companion. Thanksgiving this year looks promising. We’ve already had 3 offers for a Thanksgiving dinner and it’s still like 3 weeks away.
So the best news for this past week, which made it a very pleasant Halloween weekend, was the visit of Elder Craig C Christensen of the first quorum of the seventy on Friday October 30th, 2009. If you remember, the last time a general authority visited the mission was last November when Elder Pearson came and tore us all to pieces. Since then, as I’ve consistently mentioned, we’ve made a change in this mission and really focused on the mechanics of missionary work and managed our way into doubling the baptisms here in this mission. Well, Elder Christensen told us what the next step needs to be. He said that we are not going to stop working on the mechanics, but we’re going to have a new focus. He recognized that we have come a long way in this mission and have double baptized, but he said that we are not going to manage our way into doubling again. The way we are going to take this mission to the next level and see greater miracles is by focusing on the spiritual part of missionary work. Developing the true desire and true passion behind the work and developing the great Chirstlike attribute of Charity. That was his message. It really built me up and made me excited for where this mission is going to go. I have enjoyed the success we have been having, but I have been worried that too many missionaries have become “Number Gods”, focusing on solely numbers and getting them as high as possible without seeing the true vision and passion behind it. I truly feel that this message will bring this mission to new heights and new places that no one has ever dreamed and I’m grateful to be a part of it. This is a great work and will continue on. We are all enlisted till the conflict is over. All who have been baptized into this church have signed up to serve Jesus Christ for the rest of their life. You don’t have to be a full-time missionary to serve the Lord; that is just a key springboard for the rest of your life. Peace out all! I’ll write again next week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Letter 10-29-09
Dear Family,
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Question - If your canoe breaks down with four flat tires in the middle of the desert, how many pancakes does it make to take a doghouse?
Answer - Seven, because ice cream has no bones!
Ha ha ha! Way funny joke. Now if you just stared blankly at the screen after reading that and are way confused right now and even went back and read it a couple of times, you just made my day. The funny part about that joke is seeing people's reactions when they are trying to figure out what in the heck you just said. Its not supposed to make sense. It's great. You guys should try it. A group of three works best when two people know it and the other doesn't. One person asks, the second person answers, and the third person looks way lost and confused because not only does he not understand it, but now he thinks he's supposed to understand it because the joke was answered real easy. I got this from an investigator.
The other joke this week is a joke that I should've told last week. Its a joke that President Robison pulled here in Roswell with me and my new companion. If you remember, I said his name is Elder Thode. Well, its a German name that you pronounce the E at the end when you wouldn't think you would. Now, who else has a name like that? Oh, yes. ME! Drogie and Toadie (you don't pronounce the H in his name either). We almost rhyme! Everyone we meet gets a kick out of it.
Now as far as the area goes, we are doing real well. The two couples I talked about last week are doing great. Freddie and Elizabeth won't get baptized on the 1st of November like planned, but its no big deal. They just have to get married first, so they'll just have to wait a few weeks to get that all worked out. It's kind of a push to tell them to get married in a week, if you know what I mean. We're shooting for November 10th, with November 17th as a fall back date. Mike and Kristy have come to church 3 or 4 weeks in a row now and Kristy is thinking hard about baptism. Mike is way happy now that he has made the commitment to become active again. They have to get married as well, but they already knew that since Mike is a member and are planning on it. So all is well. The work has really picked up now that my companion and I are united. It makes a huge difference when you have the spirit in your companionship.
This last week I did the most memorable church commitment on my mission. We were over at a less active guy's house on Saturday. This guy is a way funny guy that loves the missionaries, but hasn't come to church in like ten years. He is also a huge football fan, so me liking football comes in handy during football season. We got debating on a few subjects and somehow got on to the subject of BYU football. I got excited when he said that BYU was playing TCU later that day becasue that would be a huge win for BYU if they won and a sad loss if TCU won. Well, he joking around with me decided to play Devil's advocate and go against BYU. Well, we made a bet. If BYU won, he would come to church. The plan was for him to call me that evening when the game ended if TCU won. I was hoping for a silent phone and put my trust in the cougars that they could do it. Nope. I got a call at like 8:30 or 9:00 with a really happy Brother Gillies. TCU crushed BYU 38-7. Dang it BYU! Oh, well. Life goes on. I tried to get him to come anyway, but he didn't come.
The last big news before I sign off this week is that tomorrow is a big day for us in this mission. We are headed up to Lubbock for a combined Zone Conference where we will have a special visitor - Elder Craig C Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. I'll let you know how that went when I write next week. Till, then!
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 10-22-09
Dear Family,
This week has felt like a weird week. I have been so used to having P-day on Monday that now that it is on Thursday, I feel like this is my 2nd P-day this week. This is also going to make the week go by fast because now that I am emailing it feels that it is only Monday, but yet it’s already Thursday and my brain is all confused. This week was also the infamous trading deadline as I like to call it. Transfer week. No I am not leaving Roswell. But I bring that I because I now have a new companion. Elder Pitts, the old companion, is gone. I wish the best for him. I did my best to help him out and put my full effort into helping us be united, but nothing worked. No matter what I did, the guy yelled at me and treated me like dirt. I couldn’t please him. Oh well. Life goes on. I just hope that his mission will change him like it has many thousands of other missionaries. I am way excited for this new companion, though. His name is Elder Trason Thode from Blanding, Utah. He has only been out 6 weeks, but is way humble and spiritual. He has a great knowledge of the gospel. After only one day I can already tell that this will be a great transfer. We will get along great. The spirit is here in much greater abundance and I can feel the striking contrast from last transfer where the spirit seemed absent much of the time.
One thing of note, yesterday while I was waiting for my new companion to get here, we got a call from the Ruidoso Elders. There was a young couple named Freddie and Elizabeth that Elder Wheeler and I were teaching that moved to Ruidoso. We passed them over to the Ruidoso Elders and they picked up the teaching. Yesterday the call to us was that Freddie and Elizabeth were back down in Roswell and the great news is that they now have a baptismal date for November 1st that the Ruidoso Elders set with them. We talked with them last night and they are way excited for that date. I’ll let you know how that goes. Also, there is another young couple named Mike and Kristy that we’ve been working with. Mike is a less active member and Kristy is his nonmember girlfriend (hopefully wife in the very near future). Mike has showed a sincere desire to come back to church and has followed through with that desire. He has come to church the last 2 weeks and is doing everything that he can. The great thing is that since this, Kristy has started to follow in his footsteps and has actually come to church with him the last 2 weeks. We plan on following up with her to see how she feels about the church and about baptism. Hopefully all will go well.
I am now about to sign off, but I will do so by making a small request. If you remember we were working with a Strangite Mormon lady. We had a chat with her this last week and she has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, but yet is confused. She doesn’t believe in lots of the doctrines of our church. One particular one being the statement, “As man is, God once was, as God is man may become.” She thinks Brigham Young came up with that doctrine, but I was wanting to show her that Joseph Smith taught that as well, because she seems like she is really humble and open, just a little misdirected in my mind. If someone could get a hold of the King Follet Sermon by Joseph Smith and send me a copy as soon as possible, that would be appreciated. Thanks and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
This week has felt like a weird week. I have been so used to having P-day on Monday that now that it is on Thursday, I feel like this is my 2nd P-day this week. This is also going to make the week go by fast because now that I am emailing it feels that it is only Monday, but yet it’s already Thursday and my brain is all confused. This week was also the infamous trading deadline as I like to call it. Transfer week. No I am not leaving Roswell. But I bring that I because I now have a new companion. Elder Pitts, the old companion, is gone. I wish the best for him. I did my best to help him out and put my full effort into helping us be united, but nothing worked. No matter what I did, the guy yelled at me and treated me like dirt. I couldn’t please him. Oh well. Life goes on. I just hope that his mission will change him like it has many thousands of other missionaries. I am way excited for this new companion, though. His name is Elder Trason Thode from Blanding, Utah. He has only been out 6 weeks, but is way humble and spiritual. He has a great knowledge of the gospel. After only one day I can already tell that this will be a great transfer. We will get along great. The spirit is here in much greater abundance and I can feel the striking contrast from last transfer where the spirit seemed absent much of the time.
One thing of note, yesterday while I was waiting for my new companion to get here, we got a call from the Ruidoso Elders. There was a young couple named Freddie and Elizabeth that Elder Wheeler and I were teaching that moved to Ruidoso. We passed them over to the Ruidoso Elders and they picked up the teaching. Yesterday the call to us was that Freddie and Elizabeth were back down in Roswell and the great news is that they now have a baptismal date for November 1st that the Ruidoso Elders set with them. We talked with them last night and they are way excited for that date. I’ll let you know how that goes. Also, there is another young couple named Mike and Kristy that we’ve been working with. Mike is a less active member and Kristy is his nonmember girlfriend (hopefully wife in the very near future). Mike has showed a sincere desire to come back to church and has followed through with that desire. He has come to church the last 2 weeks and is doing everything that he can. The great thing is that since this, Kristy has started to follow in his footsteps and has actually come to church with him the last 2 weeks. We plan on following up with her to see how she feels about the church and about baptism. Hopefully all will go well.
I am now about to sign off, but I will do so by making a small request. If you remember we were working with a Strangite Mormon lady. We had a chat with her this last week and she has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, but yet is confused. She doesn’t believe in lots of the doctrines of our church. One particular one being the statement, “As man is, God once was, as God is man may become.” She thinks Brigham Young came up with that doctrine, but I was wanting to show her that Joseph Smith taught that as well, because she seems like she is really humble and open, just a little misdirected in my mind. If someone could get a hold of the King Follet Sermon by Joseph Smith and send me a copy as soon as possible, that would be appreciated. Thanks and have a great week.
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Letter 10-12-09
Dear Family,
So the good thing about being a missionary is that when something bad happens, there is a way good support system. I think I mentioned briefly in last weeks email that I had a mysterious rash that was bothering me. Well, it got real bad this last week and so I got it checked out. Monday we were over at the stake president's house, President Wiser, on P-day (the Zone Leaders in town live with them, so we relax there instead of in our small cramped apartment) and he was concerned when I showed him it. One of the counselors in the stake presidency is a doctor, so President Wiser took a picture of the rash and sent it to him to look at. That night we were visiting one of the recent converts here, Dominique, and her Dad was over. When we showed her Dad, he thought it looked like shingles, so Dominique jumped on to Web MD and we looked at pictures and read information about Shingles and it matched perfectly with what I had. We then went over to a member's house and she gave me a bunch of advice and a few things that would help. Next morning comes around and the doctor in the stake presidency, Doctor Torres calls me and I basically have a free doctor's appointment over the phone and he confirmed that I had Shingles and prescribed some medication that would help. I got the medication and it has worked like a charm. I've felt almost no pain since taking it and now the shingles are almost gone. Sister Robison, the mission president's wife, was also involved in this. I had called her Monday. So all is well and now I just get to look back and remember the added drama this past week that has continued to make my mission a very dramatic mission.
So last week I made some comments about conference and gave my feelings on what we were taught. This week I wanted to hand out some awards for conference, or better said, make mention of the specific talks that stood out to me. First, I think the best talk this conference once again came from Elder Holland. His talk on the Book of Mormon was way hardcore. It made me scared to ever deny the Book Mormon. Not that I ever would, but hey. Elder Brent H Neilson told me that I was fulfilling prophesy right now and said that the field has never been whiter and more ready to harvest. I thought that was cool. Last transfer I took the advice of my companion and decided to write down the personal revelations that I receive. I found it has helped. Elder Scott referenced to doing that same thing and made me feel happy that I am already taking the advice of an apostle. Meanwhile I think President Uchtdorf snuck in to my apartment here in Roswell and read my revelation journal before he gave his talk on love. On my mission, the passage where Jesus tells the pharisees that the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor has really hit me hard, especially in correlating the love of God with obedience, because 'if ye love me, keep my commandments.' That was President Uchtdorf's whole talk on Saturday morning. That was awesome. Elder Oaks taught us some way cool doctrine on law. God's love and God's law correlate perfectly because we are judged based on the law we can handle. Elder Hales gave the loving assurance to all of us that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. That helps anyone who has questioned those two facts. Last but not least, the general authority that I felt was speaking directly to me was Elder Ballard in priesthood session when he gave the loving advice to returned missionaries. No I am not one yet, but I will be before the next conference session and I have accepted that. No I am not trunky and not excited to go home. Rather it has given me the extra drive to work even harder and made me kind of sad. I do not want to leave this great work, but my time is soon up and I need to move on with my life. Elder Ballard told me personally what I need to do next. All in all, there were many great talks and all of them should be studied and if I'm not mistaken, we made history Sunday afternoon - the first African American to speak in a general conference. These are just talks that stood the highest to me personally.
So it is time for me to end, but I have 2 matters of business real quick that I need to bring up.
1 - It has been advised by the mission that we get a flu shot and a swine flu shot, but the catch is that we will have to pay for them. President Robison asked us to talk to our families about the matter and see what they think. So that is what I am doing right now. Hint, hint…
2 - President Robison has also decided to switch up or P-days from Monday to Thursday. Don't expect an email next Monday, the 19th. My next email will come on Thursday the 22nd, 10 days from now. Talk to you then. :)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
So the good thing about being a missionary is that when something bad happens, there is a way good support system. I think I mentioned briefly in last weeks email that I had a mysterious rash that was bothering me. Well, it got real bad this last week and so I got it checked out. Monday we were over at the stake president's house, President Wiser, on P-day (the Zone Leaders in town live with them, so we relax there instead of in our small cramped apartment) and he was concerned when I showed him it. One of the counselors in the stake presidency is a doctor, so President Wiser took a picture of the rash and sent it to him to look at. That night we were visiting one of the recent converts here, Dominique, and her Dad was over. When we showed her Dad, he thought it looked like shingles, so Dominique jumped on to Web MD and we looked at pictures and read information about Shingles and it matched perfectly with what I had. We then went over to a member's house and she gave me a bunch of advice and a few things that would help. Next morning comes around and the doctor in the stake presidency, Doctor Torres calls me and I basically have a free doctor's appointment over the phone and he confirmed that I had Shingles and prescribed some medication that would help. I got the medication and it has worked like a charm. I've felt almost no pain since taking it and now the shingles are almost gone. Sister Robison, the mission president's wife, was also involved in this. I had called her Monday. So all is well and now I just get to look back and remember the added drama this past week that has continued to make my mission a very dramatic mission.
So last week I made some comments about conference and gave my feelings on what we were taught. This week I wanted to hand out some awards for conference, or better said, make mention of the specific talks that stood out to me. First, I think the best talk this conference once again came from Elder Holland. His talk on the Book of Mormon was way hardcore. It made me scared to ever deny the Book Mormon. Not that I ever would, but hey. Elder Brent H Neilson told me that I was fulfilling prophesy right now and said that the field has never been whiter and more ready to harvest. I thought that was cool. Last transfer I took the advice of my companion and decided to write down the personal revelations that I receive. I found it has helped. Elder Scott referenced to doing that same thing and made me feel happy that I am already taking the advice of an apostle. Meanwhile I think President Uchtdorf snuck in to my apartment here in Roswell and read my revelation journal before he gave his talk on love. On my mission, the passage where Jesus tells the pharisees that the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor has really hit me hard, especially in correlating the love of God with obedience, because 'if ye love me, keep my commandments.' That was President Uchtdorf's whole talk on Saturday morning. That was awesome. Elder Oaks taught us some way cool doctrine on law. God's love and God's law correlate perfectly because we are judged based on the law we can handle. Elder Hales gave the loving assurance to all of us that God lives and Jesus is the Christ. That helps anyone who has questioned those two facts. Last but not least, the general authority that I felt was speaking directly to me was Elder Ballard in priesthood session when he gave the loving advice to returned missionaries. No I am not one yet, but I will be before the next conference session and I have accepted that. No I am not trunky and not excited to go home. Rather it has given me the extra drive to work even harder and made me kind of sad. I do not want to leave this great work, but my time is soon up and I need to move on with my life. Elder Ballard told me personally what I need to do next. All in all, there were many great talks and all of them should be studied and if I'm not mistaken, we made history Sunday afternoon - the first African American to speak in a general conference. These are just talks that stood the highest to me personally.
So it is time for me to end, but I have 2 matters of business real quick that I need to bring up.
1 - It has been advised by the mission that we get a flu shot and a swine flu shot, but the catch is that we will have to pay for them. President Robison asked us to talk to our families about the matter and see what they think. So that is what I am doing right now. Hint, hint…
2 - President Robison has also decided to switch up or P-days from Monday to Thursday. Don't expect an email next Monday, the 19th. My next email will come on Thursday the 22nd, 10 days from now. Talk to you then. :)
Elder Adam R Droge
The DrogeMiester
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
