Share the Gospel

Hello everyone, how are you all doing?

Im doing great! Im getting to know my area a little better we can work on more roads now and we wont get lost. Im working good with my companion, we are teaching well together now we know our strenghts and we teach with a lot more power now!

One thing i learned this week from my mission president is that it is hard to share the gospel when you dont have a name tag on. As missionaries we are always asking the members to invite their friends to come to church, we are always asking the members to invite their friends to family night. But President Cordner taught us that it is hard to do this things when your not a missionary and sometimes as missionaries we forget that it is hard. But also he taught that the more missionary practice and help the members share their testimonies they will. It is hard the first time to invite your friend to church. But it is important for the members to do this because it has so much for power. How can we do this?

First Fear of inviting somome to church or sharing your testimony does not come from God, it comes from Satan. Becaue Satan, he doesnt want you to share the gospel becasue he knows it will bless the lives of the people you talk with. But it is scary to do this, one thing i would say it to practice, share your testimony to your family first, your brothers, your sisters, then try with a friend. knowing that this is what God wants you to be doing and that the spirit will guid your words into the hearts of your friends. I know that as you do this the spirit will be with you and you will help the lives of others. 

I challenge you to invite one person to come to church this week! first practice then Invite a friend. If you are reading this and are not a member, i invite you to go to church this week. Talk with somome who lives their and go to church with them! 

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Draper

Sao Jose

Hello everyone! How was your week? I hope it was great!

Transfers were last week, I was transfered from Ranieri to Sâo José. I am opening the area with my new companion Elder Araújo. He is brazilian he speaks a little english,actually he speaks pertty well english, he is from Minus Gerais. He is super funny because of how he speaks and he says a lotof short funny stuff in english. He has a year and 7 months on the mission and is the DIstrict  leader in my district. I split the area with the zone leaders but we live in different houses so its just me and Elder Araújo in one house.

We are opening the area which means that  the missionaries that were there beforeus both left and we came there at the same time. so we dont know the area or the members or anything. But is okay. In my new area its closer to the big city.  I eat Macdonalds for lunch one day haha. but it is way better  in the United States, it also gave me a little bit of a stomach ake probably because it is so different from Rice and beans. 

But i have learned this week with everything new  again, new companion new area new everything to rely on the lord. To have faith in him that  everything will be okay in the area, that we wont get lost that we can help these people in our area as well recieve the gospel. But also how we always need to rely on him not just in the mission field. Jesus is always here for us, we always have an opportunity to talk with God through prayer whenever we want. He is always here for  us. We are his children he would do anything to give us blessing. But also that we need to be ready to recieve these blessings. It you ask your parents for 5 dollars and run  away  really fast as they are reaching in there bag to give you 5 dollars do you think they will give you the 5 dollars? I think not because you ran away. Heavenly Father works the same way, we ask for things in our prayers everyday.Whatdo we  do after we ask? Sleep? Use our phones? How can he bless you  with things if we are not ready to recieve them. He always wants to bless us, so we always need to be ready to recieve them! Im thankful for his help always!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Draper

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all had a good week last week!

Everything is Going really good here in Brasil. This easter sunday was great. We had great talks in sacrament, about the Savior and about his love he has for us. We were able to bring people to church and let them feel the light of christ. 

Easter here is a little different  than in the U.S. They still have eggs and chocholate eggs and all the treats. But this year the championship of the state of Sao Paulo for soccer. So it was everyones two favorites teams. Everyone was watching the games in the bars and eating BBQ in the streets and everyone watching the game. We were in our house and all of a sudden we hear fireworks an yelling and screaming, the whole town blew up! Which means one of the teams scored haha the whole town lights up. 

I love easter! I love how we have a holliday to remember the resurection of our Savior. He suffered and died on the cross for the sins of the world, Why? Because he loves EVERYONE. if he didnt love everyone he wouldnt have done this for everyone. I try to think of the pain he felt, i think of the worst pain i have felt in my life and i dont want to go through that again. but then there is Jesus who felt the pains for EVERYONE at the same time! 

But what is better is that he was resurected. Jesus Christ lives, he is here for me and he is here for you. He lives so he can help you in your trials, all your trials. He has felt all of your pains all of them. all the pains that you dont want to go through again. Jesus is always here to wipe away your tears. He loves eveyone so much and is always here to help. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Draper

My Email Works!!!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are well and had a good last 4-5-6 weeks i dont know how long my email hasnt been working. But it works now and i hope it stays working!

The last few weeks have been great. The weather has not been as hot, but it still rains. Im still in the Zone Ranieri, in the area Ranieri B super good area, lots of good people. My new companion is Elder Galvâo He is from Manaus Brasil. He is the Zone Leader in our zone. He is a super hard working missionary and i and learning lots from him.

Conference was awesome, i really love when we have the opportunity to listen to the prophets. Its is super awesome becuse they are really prophets of God, they know what is best for us and how we can come closer to christ, this is super important because its only through Jusus Christ we can live with Heavenly Father again. I know That as we listen and study the words of the prophets we can be guided in the right direction, we can feel the spitit more in our lives, and we will have more happieness inour lives also. Im so thankful for them and all they do to help us. They help so much, but they only help if you let them.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Draper

Week 16 Prophets and Apostles

Hello everyone! I hope your week was great!

This week was great! The days are hot in the mornings and rainy in the evenings. hot then cold. Its kinda like wyoming! 

This week Elder Uchtdorf Came and talked with our mission and the Sao Paulo South mission. I loved it mostly because he spoke in English but just the love he has for all the missionaries and all the world. Its cool to see that the apostles of the lord are normal guys that like to joke but are also so serious and very spiritual. 

I love How we have the opportunities to listen to the Prophet and the Apostles we have their talks on our phones and we can read them whenever we want that is so awesome! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Draper

Week 15 Talking with my Family

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week!

So the new rule of being able to talk with my family started this week!  

Sorry i dont have a lot of time because of trying to set everything up with my family. 

I had a great week! Its not as hot now its starting to cool down a little bit. 

I saw a tooncan in the trees which is really rare in the city.

Heavenly father loves you and you can always pray to him everyweek and everyday. He wants to help you all you have to do is ask! 

 

Sorry for it being so short! 

Have a great week!

Elder Draper

Week 14 Rain and Blessing

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week!

This week on tuesday their was a huge rain storm! It rained monday night and all of tuesday. I was wet and tired and ready to get into bed tuesday night after walking in the rain all day getting in my warm bed. I say my prayers and hop into my bed...... it was WET! My whole bed wet. My sealing was leaking and all this water has been going on my bed all day. All was good though we had an extra matris and i slept on that for a couple days untill everything dried out. 

This week I had the opportunity to give 3 blessings. It was super hard to do it im portuguese but with the help of Heavenly Father and my companion I was able to do it. I love having the opportunity to help these people here. 

Also this week, after lunch on thursday this woman came up to us and said, I was taught by the missionaries 2 year ago but i moved, I have been looking for the missionaries to teach me again. It was amazing! We taught her, she still loved it, she loved church yesterday, and we will continue to teach her this week. So wonderful!! The lord blessed us!

Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Draper