06 December 17--Mr. SmithHat

Well hello again,

Thank you Richard Dibblee for the nice letter.

This week was eventful. I moved from Ankadindramamy to 67. My new companion is great. His name is Elder Edgley. He is 6' 4" and probably about 270 pounds. He is from Maryland and he reminds me alot of Josh Knell. We've been having a lot of fun quoting from some of our favorite comedians walking down the street i.e. Brian Regan, Bill Cosby, Steven Write, and Mitch Headburg ( he's the "Ducks eat for free at Subway" guy, hilarious) and some others. It's been fun.

67 is cool, it's the most city-like area I've worked in since I've been here. It is very flat, which is nice for the legs, but not so good for the scenery, but it's one of those, ya win some, ya lose some situations, but that's cool and my legs are happy. There's a lot more drunk people and other people engaged in less-than-wholesome activities here than in my last areas. But the Ward here is absolutely great ( yes, they have an actual ward, not a branch). I bore my testimony in church yesterday and made the mistake of saying " I'm really happy to serve with you in this "branch", and was immediately, and loudly corrected by everyone on the first row and the entire bishopric behind me, " WE'RE A WARD, NOT A BRANCH!" oops:) ( I'm just so used to saying branch is all.) Anyway, yeah, they're really great, and they sing really loud, which I love. I've already received my Malagasy name from the Bishop, "Rakotosatroka" I'm trying to think how to describe the meaning. "Rakoto" is one of the most common names in Madagascar, and they always mix it with something to describe the person. So , Rakoto, + satroka (hat) is my nickname ( in this ward at least.) Last night, they had a Christmas concert ( It still doesn't feel like Christmas, maybe it's 90 degree weather or the humidity, I don't know), and it was great. I really liked when the primary kids sang the songs I taught them in English " Dashing froo vah snow..." and " we wish you a meddy krissmas, and a happy new yeeaa!" I was really proud of them.

I'm still not completely familiar with this area, but I'm excited to get to know the people here. This week was so hectic, that I wasn't able to fulfill my goal of writing down the E-mail before I got here, so once again, I'm just rambling and I know I've forgotten to mention several things that I wanted to. But I think I do it this week. I'm more and more convinced that that is the way to do it because it's nice to write to you, but I get in a train of thought while writing and often forget what else I wanted to say, so I am going to write things as they happen this week. Well, I love you all, and I've gotta go so Merry Christmas! and Veloma!

Elder Draper

06 December 11--Third Rock from the Sun

Today (p-day) all of the missionaries played soccer. I've never seen a field in this country with grass. This was no exception, but it did have deep, muddy puddles all over it. Let me just say this; If someone wasn't covered in mud by the end of the game it's only because they weren't really playing. It was fun. My team lost of course, but I think we had more personality than the other missionary teams, i.e.: "Off sides? What does that mean?" or " This team's tricky, they're using "rules" against us, what's that all about?" Anyway, yeah, it was fun, but now I'm aching and tired and I have no idea what to write about........

Every two months, we have transfers, and that means that I am going to a new area on Thursday called Soixante-Sept (67) which is apparently the dirtiest part of town. But I'm excited because I hear the area is going well, and the branch is great (I've been there once, and I know they sing good and loud, which is not what I have found to be typical of members here.) This transfer with Elder Rock has gone great. Last week, we had 3 baptisms and confirmations, and were starting to get some great investigators as well.

We do have one crazy investigator that I'm not sure what we should do with. His name is Kelly. One of our biggest problems here is trying to get people to come to church. But the first time we met Kelly was at church, and we thought he was a member. Then we found out he wasn't and that he wanted to learn and that he was in our area. He's a really nice guy, but he was trying to do kung fu moves in the entrance of the church and may have scared some of our other investigators away.

Anyway, we set up an appointment, and he was there ( which usually doesn't happen.) We had a good discussion, and by the end we couldn't decide whether he was certifiably insane or just crazy happy, because he answered all the questions better than most people. His house, however, was a long way away, and we decided that the only way we would keep teaching was if he kept coming to church. He’s come to church every week. Now, I don’t know quite how to describe how many times we have tried to get some of our favorite investigators to come to church, and they have never, not once, come. The last thing we would think of doing would be to tell someone to STOP coming to church, but yesterday, and some other events leading up to it, confirmed our fears. Kelly, in all seriousness, told us that he is from another planet. He also said that he could speak every language fluently (however he refused to speak English) , and then started speaking gibberish—“speaking in tongues.” Then he stared and the sun for a really long time saying that on his planet he could stare at the sun all day and be just fine. We’re still trying to figure out what we should do about him.

I mention this to illustrate some of the different problems we encounter in this mission. Because this is a 3rd world country, you are more likely to meet a certifiably insane person just walking down the street here than you would in another country, because most people would get professional help in other places.

This is sometimes a problem for missionary work because, in this area alone, I know of a few inactive members that we have consistently gone to every week that need professional help. And it’s difficult to determine how to help them. Sometimes it’s difficult because it is apparent that they don’t want us there, or they tell us how they are destitute, and beg us for money.

We really do want to help, but we can't give money, in part because it's against the rules, and in part because even if we did give money, we would run out quick and what then? They more than likely wouldn't be helped. It's sad because they reject exactly what we can give them; they don't believe us when we say the gospel will help them more than money ever could.

I know it's difficult for these people. Poverty is real and terrible. I heard a statistic from a member from America that works for the Embassy here. He said if this country had a 5% increase economically every year for the next 20 years ( which is apparently completely unheard of) they would catch up to some of the poorest countries in Africa. I don't know how true that statistic is, but I've seen the living conditions for some of these people, and I don't need statistics to see that poverty is a big problem here.

Well, it's great to hear from you, My goal this week is to take Dad's suggestion about writing the E-mail during the week and that way my thoughts will be more clear and articulate ( maybe:) and if not that, at least they'll be longer.

OK. Well, I love you all, Merry Christmas by the way ( I got to teach all the primary kids "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in English yesterday at church, it was fun, and a bit of a challenge because they can't for the life of them pronounce " TH" or the English "R" so I ended up singing with them " ..... jingle all vu way" ) OK Veloma! for reals this time.

Elder Draper

06 December 3--Manahoana

(Original email title: Manahoana! "mana- 'one' (making the 1 sound like "own" as in; " I own a 25$ guitar") just in case you were wondering how to pronounce that.)

Well hi there,

Wow, it's nice to hear about everything. I didn't get an E-mail last week, so I was able to read both of them this week and I don't know where to begin. You guys are certainly keeping yourselves busy. It's been a fairly uneventful week comparatively speaking. And at this point, I don't know what to even consider "eventful" anymore, because I'm used to all of the things I used to consider "odd". It's not strange to me anymore that as I walk down the street, everybody's staring. Before, I used to wonder what they were staring at, and sometimes I would look to see if there was something on my shirt, or on my face, " did I miss a spot shaving?" " Is my zipper down?" . Now, If I see a white person, I'm almost temped to shout " Jereo! eo misy Vazaha!" ( look! there's a white guy) It's funny how things work. I can truthfully say that the word " vazaha!" does not bother me anymore, which is nice. It's amazing to me how completely racial barriers are destroyed when you really get to know somebody.

I'm in a nice Internet cafe right now listening to Christmas music in French, it's really hot outside and somebody's staring at me as I'm writing this- somehow I am not reminded of Christmas, but I don't think Christmas will ever be like this again after the mission, so I'm enjoying whatever version of Christmas I can get.

Yesterday were elections and we weren't allowed to leave the house except for church in the morning. Last time there was elections, the guy who lost kind of went crazy and blew up some bridges and caused some riots ( I guess demanding a "recount" just wasn't dramatic enough) and they pulled the missionaries out of the country. So this time, they've had the American Government looking over things just in case. But I don't think anything like that will happen again because everybody likes the president now, and he doesn't seem the dictator type. And if he loses, everybody got a free T-shirt from him (me too) so he'll still have lots of people wearing his shirts and that should make him feel better. Anyway, during our confinement to the house, we had Teriyaki Chicken and rice, which was really good, and I rediscovered that I really like to read. My companion decided that he would go insane if we ever had to stay inside for a week. I still don't know who won the elections, but we were given the OK to leave the house this morning and everything seems to be going fine.

Well once again I'm out of time because I 've spent most of it waiting for the computer to work, but it's been really nice to hear from you. I'm amazed at all of the things going on in your lives, the marriages, the mission calls, the babies etc.... I'm sad to miss all of it, but I'm truly grateful to be here. I'm realizing more and more that it doesn't matter where you are on your mission that it can be the best thing for you. It is certainly not the easiest thing I've ever done, in fact it's quite the opposite but I sometimes I can feel what it's doing to me, what it's doing for the people here, and that's what makes me want to do more. I think....I think I think too much, and for some reason I can't articulate any of it right now. Oh well, I should probably be going anyway. Well, it's been nice writing to you, I love you all, and I pray for you everyday. Veloma!

Elder Draper

06 November 26--Still Small Rain

Well,

Our first appointment this week was good. It was with a fairly recent investigator named Padoue ( we contacted him while trying to see who could get more rejections). Padoue is skeptical of religion in general, and it's obvious he's been to lots of other churches before, and has received missionaries from lots of different churches before. So consequently, he likes to argue. Sometime during our first discussion, I stopped the lesson and basically told him that if he wanted to argue with us, he wasn't going to get anywhere, and that we had better things to do with our time. He listened much better after that, however every so often, he would start up again and dispute a passage of scripture that I'm pretty sure he hadn't even read before we presented it to him. Any way, somehow through it all, we've managed to get him to read the Book of Mormon, and during our last appointment, he had some legitimate questions. We answered them and proceeded to testify about the Book of Mormom and that if he read it , he could know for himself whether it was true or not and had him read Moroni 10:3 - 5. He was silent for a moment , and then said, " you can say that and it's great, but...." and just then the rain came. Now, I've been in this country awhile, and I've seen some rain storms, but this was ridiculous. This rain storm came instantly, with no warning and it came hard, and we were in a house with a tin roof. The rain hit the tin roof hard, and it was like being in the middle of a crowded stadium, I couldn't even hear my companion who was right next to me yelling in English. So, all Padoue could do was sit and read and wait for the rain to stop (and it didn't stop, in fact, it got worse). In the end, he stood up and told us to come back later because he wanted to learn more, but I think the rain helped. He was about to argue again, and was silenced by the rain. We got up and were about to go, this surprised him that we were about to go out into the storm, we told him we had another appointment to go to, and I think this surprised him even more. I think we left him with the impression that we're here for a reason and that we believe in what we're doing. We'll see if that comes to anything.

I don't have much time, this computer has been crashing the whole time. Thanksgiving was nice. after Thanksgiving was not so nice ( I've been pretty sick for the past 3 days because of it ;) but I'm doin' good now. Efa Salama Aho!

Well, nice to hear from you. Until next time Veloma!

Elder Draper

06 November 20--Here's your sign

OK,

Well, another week has past here in Madagascar. It's amazing to me how fast time goes by, because I feel like I just got here, and yet, somehow I can speak the language. Congratulations Ben! Amazing. Thanks for the letters Richard Diblee, Sophie and, as always, Mom. I'm always at a loss as to what to say when I write these things. I'm still working on it.

This week I was reminded of my former " accident prone" nature as I was walking home one night. In my defense, it was dark, and the Malagasy people are all short, and so their concrete road signs sometimes reflect their height. Anyway, I was walking and looking down ( because you will twist your ankle and/or fall in a ditch if you don't sometimes) and I noticed to my right that there was a concrete pole rising out of the ground. What I didn't realize was that this particular concrete pole was in fact, a triangle yield sign, about 4 feet too close to the ground. The next thing I knew, I was knocked flat, with a severe throbbing pain on the top of my head. I had run head on into the corner of the sign, and was literally laid out on the ground. My companion thought I had run into the pole, and was laughing hysterically. And while I was in severe pain, and on the ground, I couldn't help but laughing at myself too. Between the laughs, I shouted my frustrations in English and Malagasy of " YOU'RE ALL REALLY SHORT!!" at the next group of Malagasys ( who walked under the same concrete yield sign, without ducking, with no problem.) They laughed too. It was pretty funny. I walked away with a large bump and a small, ( emphasis on small Mom:) gash on the head, my pride more or less intact.

I believe I mentioned before about how I'm trying to cultivate patience, mostly with myself. I might also add, "humility" to that list of "virtues yet to be attained". Just when you think that you have "sufficiently humbled" yourself, you find yourself on the ground in lots of embarrassing pain, wondering why you ever thought you were doing "pretty good". I don't know if I'm describing this well, but I've realized how many things I need to work on. I'm happy to say that I have improved in many things, however, I'm finding more and more that I can never allow myself to settle for anything, because that's when the Lord shows you just exactly where you lack ( and sometimes it hurts.)

I don't have too much time to write this week, so I'll just say that I love you all. I pray for you and I love to hear from you. I'm excited for Thanksgiving, because the whole mission is coming to the mission office for the "Island Conference" and we will get to have an actual American thanksgiving Meal. Life is good. Well gotta go. Tune in next week for a possible eventful letter from -

Elder Draper

06 Nov 13--Birthday

WOW!

Thanks for the letters everyone! ( Mom, Dad, Jesse, Lizzie, Sascha, Mabel, Sophie, Sage, and Carrie.) That was a nice birthday present. Yesterday was great. We started off with Trix and Cocoa puffs in the morning, went to church, came back and ate a roast with mashed potatoes. After that we went back to church, and had a baptism. It was great. I was a little nervous because while I can speak the language, some of the names these people have are like tongue-twisters. Her name is RAZAFIMAHARO NIVO Navalona Yasminah ( I got really lucky with that name, because that is one of the easiest I've seen). My companion's first baptism happened two weeks into the country, and he didn't even know the kid, and didn't even see his name until he got into the water. And that name was RAHARILALAO MAHEFALAINA Joelisoa Mamy Hantenaina. Anyway, It was great, I pronounced everything correctly and she went all the way under and came all the way back up without trouble. We've been teaching Yasminah for the past 3 months and it's wonderful to see her progress, and finally be baptized. I've also got pictures from before and after the baptism. After the baptism, we went about the rest of the day's work as usual. When we got home, we invited two other elders (Elder Fowler,and Elder Jenson from my MTC group) over for German Chocolate cake, and coconut ice cream. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me while I played guitar, then I blew out two large candle sticks (citrus scented, mmm) each representing a decade. The cake was good, period. It was a good birthday. I'm 20. Time flies. Amazing.

I've taken most of my time waiting for this computer to work, and then waiting to read your E-mails, ( which, again, were wonderful, thanks) however, my time's almost up. Thanks for the Card Grandparents Draper. I'm excited, because I bought my guitar for the equivalent of 25 dollars, so the 20 dollars will be put to good use:)

This last week was another crazy week here in Madagascar. I'm anticipating an even crazier one this week, I'll see what I can do to contribute. We met an American guy who has lived here for 7 years and doesn't speak Malagasy or French. He buys the cool rocks you see at malls in America here, and sells them to malls in America for a much larger price. Interesting guy. He walked in the restaurant and saw all of us ( we had just had a district meeting, so there was about 18 of us) and exclaimed " It's the MORMONS!" , and " whoa!, it's a whole convention of Mormons! You guys are everywhere!" Nobody else knew what to say to him, because none of us are used to speaking English to other people. But I started talking to him. He said he had been studying religion since he was 20 and that "we were his favorite" (probably said to please the crowd.) But he did seem to know a lot about us, and he had the basics right. He sat down, with his young Malagasy "interpreter" ( she was ok at English) laughed and said, "no coffee for you guys!" Then I said " well, even if we did drink coffee, it's 95 degrees outside with 100% humidity, you do the math." He laughed again and he talked about how everyone here notices the white guys with ties and a black badge and how he always had to explain who we are. He said he respected what we were doing ( and told us how weird the Jehovah's Witness's were, and that ' you guys really need to get rid of them' ) He wasn't my favorite person, but I relate this experience because it made me realize how much we stand out. If missionaries are noticed walking down the street in America, they're an absolute novelty to people in Madagascar.

Lots of other things happened this week as well. But I'm out of time. I'm so grateful for all of you. I'm so grateful to be in a place where people are receptive to the Gospel. I'm grateful that I was able to baptize someone on my mission and that it probably won't be the last. Thanks again for the letters. I love you all . Veloma!
Elder Draper

06 November 6--Birthday Present

It always amazes me how fast the weeks go by, and yet, last week seems so long ago. I got the package you sent, and it's wonderful. Thank you.

My companion is crazy, but so am I, so we get along great. It's funny to walk down the street and be the center of so much attention every day (even if it is only to shout " vazaha!" at us). Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to suffer a withdrawal when I get home because nobody's looking at me,( or shouting "vazaha!" at me). My patience is constantly being cultivated on many different levels, but mostly with myself. I also think it's funny, that while I am on the opposite side of the world, speaking a language that I had never even heard of a year ago, that I can recognize several random people walking down street, stop them, and say " How ya doin' , Clark! How's your daughter?" or " How's the job search going?" (If people were staring at us before, they get really curious when we start speaking Malagasy to a random person on the street that we apparently know.) It's even funnier when we're walking down the street and somebody we don't know shouts, " Elder Jappear! ( my name as pronounced by Malagasys)" then they walk up to us, and ask when guitar lessons are.

Both me and my companion admittedly do NOT like tracting. However, when all of our set-appointments fell through one day last week, we were forced to. We saw in the distance behind a maze of close-knit houses, a large Peptobizmo-pink house, and decided to knock on it's doors. After every door in the house rejected us, we decided to make a game of it: whoever gets the most rejections wins. Bonus points for the particularly obnoxious rejections, and subtract points for every appointment scheduled. The point would go to whoever initially contacted the person, regardless of who did the most talking. I beat Elder Rock (or Elder " Vato") 15 rejections, to 1. I won because I got 2 obnoxious rejections, and he had to subtract a few points. This made tracting a lot more fun though, and we knocked on a lot more doors that way. We also kind of had a race with some Protestant Malagasy Missionaries during the tracting. We made sure that we'd get to the house before them, because if we got rejected, it would be a guaranteed rejection for them and they wouldn't even try. It was fun.

This week should be good. I will baptize somebody for the first time on my mission this next Sunday, which is coincidently, my birthday. My companion says we will celebrate with the package of food he got last week, with cereal in the morning and German chocolate cake in the evening. Life is good.

Well this computer is about to crash, so I've gotta go, but it's been nice talking to ya, I hope I get to hear from you next week.

Veloma!
Elder Draper

06 Oct 30--Poverty and the "Red Island"

Well, another week here on the "Red Island" has come and gone. Yesterday and Saturday, we finally had the chance to watch conference. It was one of the best I've seen. It's great to hear from you. I got a package of Halloween candy from the Kings, so tell them thanks for me, (or misaotra or merci or whatever.)

The winning story for this week goes as follows: On Thursday as we were on our way to another appointment, we saw a man lying motionless in the middle of the sidewalk near a busy street. Since I've been here, I've seen lots of drunk people and am used to seeing drunk people doing strange things, but there was something different about this person. We asked some other people how long he had been there and if he was drunk. They said he had been there a half hour and that he was not drunk but very sick. I looked a little closer and it occurred to me that he was probably on the verge of starving to death. Immediately we thought of calling the police or an ambulance to come and help. The second we started to help, a crowd of people came to see what we were doing, and started to block traffic. I handed the phone to several different people to call police or somebody. None of them knew the number, and it was starting to get ridiculous, so I finally took the phone back and flagged down a taxi. We picked the guy up--he was stiff as a board--and put him in the small taxi. I couldn't bend his knees, but we got him in somehow. As we picked him up, two policemen even drove by at separate times on motorcycles, and looked at us, but didn't stop. We got in, and drove him to the hospital.

When we got there, they took him and put him on a stretcher. The doctor beckoned us to follow him in. He looked at the man, and said he might be sick, but was probably starving, however, he could not help him unless we paid them first. We explained that we are missionaries and that we don't really have money. The nurses sarcastically retorted " we don't have money either" and started speaking French to us. They basically said to the effect that we were white, and of course we have money, all the while, the man lay unconscious on the stretcher. The hospital was only for French people and rich Malagasys, we realized as we looked at the people, and the nurses, who were very "well to do." We asked what we could do to get help for the man. They told us we could pay for IVs and an ambulance to transfer him to a different hospital, so we payed them and left. It was an eye-opening experience. I thought it was ironic that every day we walk down the street and people shout "Vazaha!" at us, they think we're French , and love to tell us how rich and selfish we are. And yet this man had laid a half hour on the street, about to die, and people just walked past him. They didn't even have a pretense of helping him, until we came. Personally, I could not, in good conscience, just walk past. In the mission rules, we are not allowed to give to beggars, and sometimes you feel guilty, but you have to keep walking.

Last night, as we were walking home, we came across the same area where we found the man we helped. Someone called us over as we passed. He didn't shout "Vazaha!", he didn't speak French in a mocking way,( he didn't even try to speak french, which was refreshing.) He pointed across the street at a woman with a baby, and told us that she needed help. We told him we didn't have any money, and why we were here, but that we would see what we could do. We walked over to see what the problem was. It was a cold night, and I asked if the house right next to us was her house, she said that it was. I felt the crying baby's hand and realized it was freezing. I suggested that she should go inside because the baby was cold. She refused and then said the house wasn't her house, I pointed out that she had already said that it was her house. She then agreed again, that it was indeed, her house. This conversation was beginning to get frustrating, if not a little weird. After talking with the lady for a little while, I arrived a the sad conclusion, that she was crazy, and that the house was in fact, her house, but that she refused to go in. We talked for a little bit more, and realized that we couldn't do anything, and left.

I realized a few things from these two experiences. The man who pointed the woman out, had seen us help the other man earlier that week ( I may have even given him the phone call the police.) And he knew that we weren't just regular people, and here to help. If not that, why else would he have called us over to help someone else? I also realized that sometimes, we can't help everyone, because they refuse to be helped. I also realized that, I love America. In America, if a man passed out on the sidewalk, even if he was drunk, 5 minutes wouldn't pass before 10 people with cell phones would be calling for help, and help would arrive promptly.

I still don't have any solid conclusions about life, except that I know the church is true. I still have lots of hope for these people. And I know that the gospel is the solution to every one of their problems. It won't eliminate all of their problems by any means, however, it will take care of some of the major ones and allow them to put their problems into perspective. I am here to help people, and I'm trying to give them something better than anything else anyone else has to offer.

Well, my time is up, and I've gotta go, so Veloma! and I'll write to you next week.

Elder Draper

06 October 23--Laugh Out Loud

Ny fianakaviako,

It's great to hear from all of you. Thanks for the letter Thomas, and Wade ( and of course, Mom and Dad.) I also received letters from Rosie, Jennie , and Jeff within the last 2 weeks, in fact, according to Jeff's letter, he left for Japan the day I got the letter. It's really cool to hear from everyone. I've been avoiding getting too tied down to a schedule because, well, that's just always been a prominent aspect of my personality ( although not necessarily a good aspect.) Consequently, I have found little time to respond, and the letters I did send were sent back, (apparently I'm not supposed to send pictures in letters.) But, I think this transfer is going to help me in that respect.

My new companion, Elder Rock, is hilarious. I think in this last week, I had more "laugh out loud moments" than the entirety of my mission. As a companionship, we are very impulsive - we taught another large group of kids, "Red Rover", ( and yes, another kid got clothes-lined, so we're going to think twice before doing that again,) we helped one of our investigators wash clothes, (we got the well water and everything;) we helped push a car out of the mud while it was raining, and we talk to a lot more people, etc... It's been fun.

I'm also having to deal with some new challenges. My new companion is self-admittedly not a linguist and that while he has been in the country for a year, he says that I'm better at the language. So, I'm having to lead most of the appointments, I carry the phone, I set up the appointments, I make sure we keep to the schedule, and I keep track of the statistics ( how many appointments, referrals, new members, baptisms, etc....), and so I'm having to completely leave my comfort zone and fight against my chaotic personality constantly, it's definitely a work in progress. This may be the start of a good thing, even though I'm dreading the outcome (I never want to become up-tight and bureaucratic about things, because those kinds of people bother me most.) However, I have never been good at consistancy, and that personality-trait has not done me any favors.

This country is wonderful, these people are great. We're going to help with a family-home-evening tonight in a house so small that our knees touch when we sit. The family is making food, and we're going to bring mofo-kajajaka ( cockroach bread, really brownies) the conection is about to go so I've got to as well veloma!
Elder Draper

06 October 16--Wonderful Week

Hello,

A wonderful week has come and gone. Unfortunately, it's still kind of cold here, and it's been that way since I've arrived. Apparently, it's supposed to be much hotter this time of year already, but then again, there's always next week. It's wonderful to here from you. Alice in Wonderland for Halloween: I'm really sad I have to miss this year. Oh Well, this place is it's own "wonderland" sometimes, you'll never get bored here if you pay attention:)

Anyway, the next set of new missionaries have come, and with them came transfers, so I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Rock, he is from Utah. He is wonderful and I am excited to work with him. He is probably the happiest missionary here, and it is definitely rubbing off on me. The word " Vazaha!" does not bother me half as much as it did working with Elder D, just because Elder Rock is so happy (and as great as Elder D is, he always made a point of going after the "Vazaha sayers" and getting very angry at them) So, I'm looking forward to the day when the word "Vazaha" and the people that come up to us thinking we're French and accuse us of being the cause of all their problems will no longer bother me at all. Elder Rock is so happy to the point that, if you didn't know him, you might think he was a little slow in the head, (for lack of a better description.) However, Elder Rock is actually very smart, and he said something very wise to me my first day working with him; He said," If you can't learn to control your own emotions, how are you supposed to even begin to help these people?" He went on to say that, while we're only 19 and 20 years old, these people begin to trust us and let us in to their lives, and that we're kind of like Psychiatrists because for some reason, we know what they need to do to overcome their problems and when they take "our" advice, it works. So, I'm trying to be more calm, and have more charity everyday.

Guitar lessons are good. I have about 6 people that have become regulars and they have come every week for the past month and a half and all I had to do was stop them on the street once and play their guitars once. I only wish it was that easy for getting people to come to church. I'm a little bit scatter-brained right now and I don't have too much time to write, but my goal for the letter next week is a coherent and informative letter. OK, well I've gotta go. It's lovely to hear from all of you, Thanks for the letters.

I love you and I pray for all of you always. Veloma!

Elder Draper.