With Braden’s prep-days on Saturday, he was able to participate in the Stake-sponsored “Mormon Race 2017” which is like a tough mudder.
Today was the “MormonRace.” Way less intense than the trailer showed it to be! I finished a tad bit out of breath and covered in mud but that was about it! I think a game of basketball is more tiring but it was fun to hangout! I took some good videos and pics and we got medals! My team was really slow and wanted to walk so we didn’t win anything haha!
Braden was recently called as Assistant to the President. He and his comp have an incredibly hectic schedule. Here is a snippet from his first week:
We have gotten wrecked this past week with NO SLEEP. My first day we did reports and a conference with all the missionaries that got here recently. We had one lesson and when we came back to unpack we got two missionaries who were headed home the next day. That day at 4 in the morning we had to get up to send them with the secretaries. From there we slept and came back to the offices to do more reports and meetings with president. thursday we got up at 5:30 to work out before our 4 hour meeting with president. After that from 11AM to 12:30 AM we were doing reports to get ready for our leadership council. I woke up on friday destroyed but nervous for our leadership council because we had to give a 45 minute presentation and I have to lead the whole conference. We finished there happy to be done when boom more unexpected guests came to sleep in our house. Today for P-day we basically just slept and bought food!
I have been thinking back on some of the most important stuff I have learned up to this point, and will share one of those things with all of you. Or basically all members of the Church. Sometimes we think missionary work is only for missionaries but really you guys are like 50 times more effective at this work than we are. The people investigating the Church see us missionaries as robots sometimes. We walk around in shirts and ties, do nothing all day but proselyte, and we can barely speak the language of the country we’re in. But when we get the help of members, the investigators can relate to them. They see the Church isn’t just for robots, but for real, normal people with real, normal challenges that present themselves daily. This impact of members took place in a lesson last week with a new investigator. As we talked, she listened, but really didn’t seem that interested. But when a member of our Ward bore his testimony and his story of conversion, everything changed! Now she is very interested, reading the Book of Mormon and praying daily!
Braden with President Urrea and companion Elder Marquez
Braden’s Grandfather, Terry Drake, who currently serves as a Counselor in the Missionary Medical Department for the Church, traveled to Mexico City to give the key note address at a conference for all of the care providers in the Mexico region. He was able to travel Sunday to visit Braden in the Cincoc Ward.
Elder Drake with his Grandfather – Terry Drake who was able to visit him Sunday
Braden is now located in the Cincoc area with a new companion.
My new comp is elder Olea from Chile! he has 13 months and we are zone leaders in atotonilco! I met him my second transfer in the mission! cool guy who loves to take pictures!
Time for transfers! Elder Drake with new companion Elder OleaElder Olea and Elder Drake
One of the first things they did was climb a near by hill overlooking the area (Click for Video).
Today was sweet, we were really hungry so we picked up hamburger meat and I made some high quality hamburgers! I put a pic in there. They were so delish!
At the top of nearby hill overlooking their areaAwesometown Represent!No idea what these are, but I need some
Wonderful to hear from our missionary on Mother’s Day – actually a week early on May 7th since they celebrate Mother’s day in Mexico on May 10th. This pic says it all:
Braden talking to Jenn via Skype
He looks and sounds great although his English is suffering big time.
Time is moving very quickly here in Mexico! Right now I am in an area called Bellavista which means Beautiful View. I am not going to lie – the view isn’t the most beautiful, but the people here are awesome. My comp is Elder Trinidad from the Dominican Republic. This guy has about the same time as Logan in the mission.
Elder Trinidad and Elder Drake
We have been finding some awesome results in our area from just talking with everyone. There are always times when we see people in the street and think “aw they look scary, I’m not going to talk to them” or they look like they are doing fine without the Gospel. If you are like me and think like this – STOP!! Everyone on the planet can and will benefit from the knowledge of the restored Gospel, but a lot of people don’t know that. Luckily for us, members of the Church DO know that. So it is now our responsibility to share this knowledge with everyone!
We had an amazing baptism this week to complete a part-member family. Their names are Bernardo (the father) and Karen (the oldest sister)! I physically got to dunk Karen. The family heard the lessons a year or so ago and the mom and another daughter got baptized. They are seriously awesome and I am so bummed that I am heading out without being able to get to know them better (Braden found out he is being transferred again).
Siguen siendo campeones!
Elder Drake
District soccer matchBernardo and Karen get baptizedYup, that’s B!
Braden has been transferred to his third area and has been called to be a “Zone Leader.” Along with his companion, they’re responsible for about 24 missionaries in their surrounding area. Here is the latest update directly from him after we asked him about his first week:
Super HECTIC week! We had a meeting every single day. From giving trainings to the other new leaders, to a leadership council meeting, to giving our first zone meeting. But woah it absolutely flew by! Not to mention we didn’t have water in our house like half of the week. And surprisingly I am not too stressed out!
My comp is Elder Michael Cannon. He has exactly 3 weeks more in the mission than I do so we are figuring this whole mission thing out together! He is from, you guessed it, Cedar Hills Utah. He played football and likes fitness! We get up early every morning to run to the exercise park in our neighborhood. Tons of dips and pull ups and suicides on the bball court! I love the neighborhood. Our house isn’t completely finished but when its done its gonna be awesome!
This week we had an intense experience with a less active family, and we learned the importance of having members at the lessons. She told us about problems she is having with the gospel and the Church. She is losing a ton of her testimony, and it seemed like the words Elder Cannon and I were saying were having almost no effect on her. Then one of her friends, who is a member and had joined us for the discussion, got up and bore her testimony to her about how sometimes we don’t always understand why things are the way they are, but we can always trust in God. They both started crying and the less active committed to start reading the scriptures and praying daily! Super cool experience.
Love and miss you all!
Elder Drake
He also caught a super crazy cat fight on video outside their apartment window:
Blowing off steam at a local parkCute Huskies!Visiting Baroque Colegio de San Francisco JavierSoccer jerseys from local teams – Braden bought PumasLocal market outside the Colegio de San Francisco Javier
