London

To the fam!

Wow, sorry about having limited time to email today!  

It is so great to hear from, each of you!  I love your letters so much!

This week was wonderful! 

Something really cool that happened this week, was the story of Farshad. We found him last Sunday night and we had a great conversation about religion where he explained to us that he comes from Persia, and everyone is forced to be a Muslim there. He then went on to say that he didn't believe in Islam, and was wondering how he could become a Christian! It was amazing! We were able to meet with him during the week, and when he walked into the VC, Elder Sorensen and I looked at each other and we just knew that we should give him a VC tour even though we had planned something else completely. Sister Jung then took him through a spiritually powerful tour where we talked about baptism and what it really means to follow Jesus Christ. Because of this great and spontaneous tour, he accepted the invitation to be baptised. It was great!  He is a legend!

Milton is still doing great! He participates like a champion in church. He is so excited for his baptism this Sunday!
Ah! Almost forgot! I just heard that Michael, someone that Elder Angeiras and I found in Romford was baptised this weekend! I remember when we met him, we were just in our sports cloths for a ward activity. It all started with complimenting his shoes, and now he has entered into a covenant with God! Missionary work is the greatest!!

I know that Jesus Christ lives.  I know that this is the Lords work.  I know that because God loves us he sent His Son and because of that we can overcome ANYTHING through Him!  The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it was translated by a Prophet of God.  The gospel is so great!  

Hope you all have a great week!  

Love ya!

Elder Draper

Smashed the Goal!!!

Heya Mom!

It's so good to hear that everything is going so well back home!  You don't have to ever apologise  for being boring!  I treasure every word I get to hear from you guys each week!  You guys are never boring to me!  

Guess what??  I took an eye test this morning, because I tried on another Elders glasses, just for fun, and it actually helped my vision... it blew me away.  So anyways... long story short, I'm getting glasses.  Kind of weird.  Haha!  So, yah!  I thought you should know! 

Anyways, I appreciate everything you guys do for me, I can feel your prayers all the way across the pond!  That's probably why we smashed our goal!  Our goal was to find 171 new friends (which would have blown the old mission wide record of 106 out of the water) and we blew THAT away by finding 210 new friends!  Haha!  It was incredible!  The whole Zone united together and involved the Lord so closely in the work... it was amazing!  We saw SO many miracles!  

It was also probably the hardest week of my mission.  Whenever you try to do something really great, that will help you and so many others around you, Satan opposes it with all his might.  That happened this week.  Elder Sorensen and I were sick and our investigators were being flakey and we were just facing lots of opposition.  But, we relied on the Lord, and were truly blessed for it.  He strengthened us to achieve so much more than our natural capacity would allow.  I know this is His work!  

I love you so much Mom!  I am having such an amazing time over here in London.  I am learning SO much!  I am truly experiencing the Atonement in my life, and seeing it change the lives of others!  I love being a missionary! 

Sure love you tons!  

Back In London

Hello Mom!

I'm doing so well! I LOVE being back in London... this city has my heart. My companion is amazing!  We work hard and have such a great laugh! The flat is so great!  Very nice! London is still a great place.  It's so fun to be here! Not really.  This week we are pretty much sacrificing our PDay.  We are working as hard as we possibly can to raise the vision of what we can do in the Zone and we are sacrificing lots of stuff.  It's amazing.  We need the Lords help to do it!  We are showing him we are willing to do anything for this great work!

Great things are happening here in the Hyde Park Zone!  Our friend Milton is getting baptized this Sunday!  He's a legend.  So humble. He has made so much progress since I first met him!  Amazing to see the way the gospel changes people for the better.  This Sunday we will have three baptisms in the Zone!  It's exciting!  I had the chance to interview a man called Adam from China... he is such a great guy.  He has such a powerful testimony of the gospel! 

To raise the vision of the Zone we are striving to beat the All-Time record for finding New Investigators.  Ever.  It's not for the numbers, or the praise, but it is because we can achieve so much more than we are right now.  As we show faith and go to work I KNOW the Lord will carry us through!  That's why we're sacrificing a lot this week!  We are trying to find 171 new friends as a Zone in one week. If you could pray for us that would be amazing!

Thank you so much for your wonderful testimony.  I sure love you and your amazing example to me!  This gospel is so true!  It has brought me more joy than anything else in this world.  I love my mission.  I love it so much.  I'm trying to Saviour every moment I get to be in the service of the Lord.  It's going by WAY too fast!

I sure love you Mom!
Have an amazing week!

Elder Draper

Farewell for Jacint Horvath.  Lunch at cheeky Nando's.

Love Is The Motive

Hiya!

Man!  Lots of change this week!

It was sad to say goodbye to my son and the amazing missionaries I was serving around in Romford.  The ward was also incredible.  So many amazing faithful members.  There were amazing memories made in that blessed land, and I will forever love those people.

(Note from Mom: Zhaun-Paul is too modest to say it but he and his companion are the new Zone Leaders in London. He only told his dad in his letter, that funny humble kid!) 

It has been exciting to be back in the city of London again.  There are 10 different nationalities in our Zone, so we get all kinds of awesome people and culture!  So many people buzzing around from place to place.  I don't live in the same flat as the first time I was serving in London. Our flat is not far from South Kensington where the chapel is. We have an awesome four man flat with Elder Zollinger (Utah) Elder Marin (Spain) and Elder Sorensen (my awesome companion from Idaho.) It's fun!  Plus the biggest crane in EUROPE is in our back garden... pretty cool.

We are teaching an awesome guy called Milton.  He is so sincere about learning the gospel.  He came to church for the second time in a row, and he is reading and praying every day.  He watched the Prophet of the Restoration in the VC and was blown away by it.  He loves the church and is excited to be baptized at the end of this month.

Something I've been thinking about a lot recently is what motivates us to act. In the England London Mission we say that love is the motive.  I've been thinking about that a lot.  It should really be our love for our Saviour that motivates us to change, to become better, to be a light to those around us, and to apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives.  I know that if we have this wonderful love of Christ motivating us, we can accomplish great things through Him!  It truly is wonderful.

Love you guys!  Have an amazing week!

Elder Draper

1.  Me Ft. The Rosetta Stone

2.  The Hyde Park district very serious

3.  The lads at the British Museum

4.  Vivian!  The coolest recent convert!

5.  Awesome Members from Romford Ward

 The largest crane in EUROPE is in his back yard.

Back to London!

Heya!

Hope everyone is doing well!  I feel pretty bad for slacking on sending these big group emails out...

Anyways!  This was a great week!  Turns out it was my last week in the blessed land of Romford. I'm sad to be leaving.  I've really come to love this ward and the amazing people here. It's back to the big city for me! I'm returning to the blessed Hyde Park Zone!  That's where I was before when I was in Britannia, just a different area, and a different ward (not YSA.)  My new companion is called Elder Sorensen.  He is a legend!  He's from Idaho, and he is hilarious!  I'm so excited!

This week our friend Michael came to church.  You may think that's not a very big deal, but he postponed his holiday JUST to come to church! He loved it.  After church there were two baptisms he got to see and he felt the spirit.  He is so excited to be baptised!  What a legend! This week I was reading in Jacob and the allegory of the olive trees stood out to me so much.  The Lord is SO involved in this work.  He is labouring right along side us.  I know that is true.  This is His work.  This is His Glory.  I know that He lives and loves us so much!

Keep strong in the faith!

Elder Draper

Here's some of his letter to his dad...

Hey Dad!

First of all I loved what you said about purpose and planning!  The mission just released a new Preach My Gospel Chapter 8 that talks about just that.  Amazing.  You always know just what to say... I don't know how you do, but you do.

To answer some questions: 

Food: I tried a deep fried sausage... it was interesting!

Pastries:  there are some incredible raspberry doughnuts at a shop called Sainsbury's.  They were wicked good.

Exercise:  YES!  To be obedient you exercise for 30 min EVERY day! I've been doing some frisbee, some running, and loads of this P90x stuff.  It's fun!

Fast:  The White Handbook says once a month, but I tend to do it quite a bit.  Especially fasting with people in the district that their people will progress and that they can achieve their goals.  Maybe every 2 weeks or a bit more.  I have a HUGE testimony of fasting.  I don't think I really had one until my mission.  It has blown me away the miracles I've seen because of it.

Studies:  I have loved my studies.  I have learned SO much! Seriously!  Every morning is just incredible.  I love the scriptures.

Language Studies:  Elder Angeiras is fluent in English!  No language studies needed!

This next pic is Zhuan-Paul's first companion in the mission...

We don't have any idea what he's wearing!