Gramma Draper

Aaron's Gramma Draper passed away yesterday. My mom was able to call his mission President to let Aaron know. As you can imagine how hard this must be on Aaron to have just left on his mission, having Gramma pass away and being away from family at this time. His mission President was so kind and let Aaron write a letter home.

Hey everyone,

I really hope that you got yesterdays email. I was told yesterday about Gramma. The president was sick so he was only able to talk to me over the phone. When they called for me to go to the front office I was pretty sure why they were calling me but I was hoping I was wrong. 

It was pretty hard to hear over the phone but he did it in a really good way. He said that he would be here today so we could talk in person. 

I will miss Gramma so very much. I do know that she was in the temple with me yesterday. She passed away right around the time that we were starting the session. I am very sad that she is gone but I am very happy that she can be with Grandpa and uncle Chris again. She will now be able to stop Grandpa from using that "C word" (CRAP) so much and spend the time that she lost with uncle Chris. 

She was the best Gramma anyone could ever have. I did fast yesterday and I put her name in the prayer box. When we went to eat, guess what was for dinner... Papa Johns pizza, Gramma was probably telling me to go eat like she always did, I was definitely being tested. Although I found out about gramma before we ate, I decided to keep fasting anyway. I know this is a trial that I have to go through and I do wish that I could be there with all of you. However, I know that I am out here for a reason and I am happy that I can have Gramma with me all the time through out the next two years and the rest of my life. 

The last couple days have been pretty rough, with emotions and that stuff, but I have a pretty great district and they have definitely helped me. 

I know all of you will miss her very much but I hope you all are happy too. I am doing just fine. 

I love Gramma with all my heart.

I will see you in 2 and don't worry about me... too much,

Aaron

Hey everyone,

Tell grandma how much I love her and that I will be praying for her and I am fasting right now. She is the greatest grandma anyone could ever have. We are going to the temple today and I will be asking for a special blessing for her. I love her so, so, so much and I can't wait to see her when I get back. 

This week has been alright. My comp is starting to laugh a little more and joke but not much. Most of the time he is straight faced and doesn't really join in on our conversations. One day we had study at 710 so I was taking my time and went to brush my teeth. I guess he said something to Nelson like "Draper better be ready in 2 minutes" because he thought it was at 7. So, Nelson just said "Dude, just calm down. Its at 710 today." The rest of the day he didn't really talk to much and was mad at Nelson. I have talked to Nelson about him and he has the same views about him as I do. I'm pretty sure Ngatuvai does too but he keeps most of it to himself. He has said some stuff but not much. I am trying to get along with Udall better. I get along really well with Ngatu and Nelson. 

Nelson reminds me a lot of Andy. He's skinny, sings all the time, and makes cheesy jokes a lot. I am really glad I at least have them in the room. The rest of my district is pretty cool. They are odd sometimes but we get along pretty well too. Oh, Udall was mad another day because we didn't want to get dressed in church clothes because it was service day. So we had to get a sack breakfast instead of the cafeteria. I want to be in normal clothes as much as possible. 

I have been sick the last 3 days. It's just a cold but its really annoying. My nose is runny all the time and is all red and dry now from having to use so many tissues. 

We have gotten Adrianna to commit to baptism. So there is some progress going on there. The lessons seem to alternate from bad to good. Our second lesson went amazingly well. It was a pretty cool experience. Somehow we were coming up with words and it was flowing great. We taught about the restoration and had her read it and for some reason I thought I should say "Mucho agradecido" I'm not sure if thats correct Michael but thats what I said. Then she started talking to Udall and after a sentence or two, she turned back and said "Quien agradecidos." I didn't know exactly what to say at first but I ended up saying something like "Mi familia vivir eternas...muy especial." It was awesome and I will always be grateful to "Adrianna" for asking me why. I'm sure "someone" was helping us out through that whole lesson. Again, Michael I don't know if its correct Spanish but that is what I said, haha. 

I played volleyball again did pretty good. Our Zone leader was being a huge jerk to one of the people in his district. The day before the ZL spiked the ball in E. Cox's face and he got a little bloody nose but was fine. I'm thinking they were making fun of him through that day til we played last night. They kept trying to aim for him and making fun of him. It looked like one of them tipped it and it went out so E. Cox asked if he did. Then the other guy just yelled at him and told him to get some glasses. So, I said I thought it was tipped also but he didn't hear me. Then I kept hearing E. Cox say stuff under his breath like "Come on guys just knock it off. I'm sick of it." So I went and told him I thought it was tipped also and that they were being "jerks". I hope it has stopped. They were not acting like they should be espescially as ZL. I did block one of his spikes, which made me feel pretty good, seeing as he is about 6'5" and can jump. If they do it again, I will say something to them.

Well, over all it was a good week. Days definitely go long over here and I have already had the "Groundhog Day" complex. Sorry if I missed some questions you wanted answered. I'll try and answer them next week. Just remind me what you want to know. 

I love grandma more than she could ever know.

I love you all,

Aaron

January 21st 2012 (Handwritten)

Hey Guys,

Me again,we are just washing our clothes.We did them after e-mails, which was really dumb, because now it's an hour maybe more process instead of a half hour. Sorry I know my handwriting sucks.

There is someone from Boise, Elder Hessing in my Zone on the same floor as me, he seems cool. Hessing's dad went to Capital as well.

I have been playing v-ball during gym & it's going better then I thought. There are still people that don't play real well but there are good people too. I have broken the rule of not keeping score. I just can't play without it. Ngatuvai plays v-ball with me and is pretty good at serving. I did have a Sister ask if I played in high school. So, all those volleyball nights have paid off. Udall just runs & does push-ups.

Yesterday was probably the longest! We were stuck in a classroom for 10 hours. The first day & a half we just went to our room to study but I found out that we weren't supposed to do that.

I am struggling with Spanish. I feel like the worst one in class, but oh well, I'll figure it out.


The 1st day we were here, they had everyone stand up when they called their country or state. There was one person from Taiwan, 5 or 6 from Idaho and a few others had about that many. And then Utah...pretty much the whole room stood up. Dad & Michael did say I would be surrounded by Utah people.


Don't forget to take Sadie's collar off at night so her neck doesn't rub raw & keep exercising her.


Just saw that our P-day will be on Friday for the rest of the time we're here.


Sorry that this was so jumbled.I just kept thinking of other stuff & trying to answer questions.


I love & miss all of you.


-Aaron

Aaron's 1st letter!!

Hey family!

It has been going alright over here. My anxiety pretty much disappeared right when Kayla and I said goodbye and I wasn't nervous at all. 

First day didn't actually seem that long. My host took me around and showed me my dorm and classroom. My first thing to do was an orientation on the computer. We just listened to them talk about the MTC and rules and other junk. For some reason mine didn't have sound. I tried everything, probably 6 headphones and 3 computers and nothing. They finally took me to another room and it worked. I probably shouldn't have said anything and just got it over with, sound or no sound. 

My teacher is really laid back. He speaks in English and Spanish and you can ask questions in English and he won't get mad. I don't know if that is a good thing or not though. Our classroom is in the tallest building and has windows! Its good to see the mountains but it makes me want to be out and on them rather than stuck in class. We did some workshops where they have an "investigator", some people thought it was real, where the whole group of us try to figure out what they need to talk about. People were pushing the Book of Mormon and church way too soon I thought. We didn't really know too much about them before they started to do that. 

The food here is alright. Its not bad but its not amazing either. Still I end up eating to much. I think this food fills you up faster than home. I haven't had anything mess with my body. I have ate and drank everything people have told us not to, and nothin. I got the bottom bunk by the door. I like that a lot better than the top. 

My companion is Elder Udall from Eager, Arizona. I have been trying to get him to open up and laugh with us.. Hopefully he'll loosen up. He is a wrestler. He is about 5'6 and 140. He said he was a state champion wrestler in 3A. My other roommates are Elder Nelson and a Tongan Elder Ngatuvai (Nah-too-vye). They are really cool. We get along really well and joke and laugh. Nelson did remember that his mom had talked about me and then that triggered my memory as well. My whole district is getting along really well, so far. There is only 3 from outside of Utah. Me, Udall, and Lanham, who is from Austin, Texas.

We gave our first lesson yesterday and it went terrible! We didn't think we would have to get in the door so we just kind of stood awkwardly until I finally remembered how to say who we were. Then it just got worse from there. She didn't really show interest at all. She said she liked going to the Catholic church, which was not what she said in the intro video. She said she just went and came home. Maybe we just didn't understand, which is a high possibility. We didn't even know how to say 'Can we come back again'. There is just a few things that went wrong and there is a lot more, but I don't have much time left. Udall took it way too hard though. It sucked and we sucked but we'll just do better tonight.

Thank you for all of the letters and donuts, there were two boxes so my district will probably have some. The letters definitely helped a lot and it was really good to hear from you all. I am doing just fine. Oh, our mission president is pretty cool too.

Love and miss you all!!!

Aaron