September 23, 2013 Hola Familia!

CONGRATS TO RACHEL!!!!!!! Thats sweat!!! Nicaragua will be great and I hear if you talk to people they get babtized within the week hahaha The work here is on FIRE!! The sisters have an investigator who is getting babtized the same day as David!! Thats 2!!! Since Febuary!! The branch is going crazy as well! We are currently in operation Buble Burst. We are trying to get so many people to church that president has to put us in the chapel and re-arrange the whole schedual Muahaha its a great plan and our branch President isi working really hard to fight for it in the meetings. All the members as well are really catching the vision and are more dedicated then ever. With these babtisms the work I know will explode. Im on top of the clouds after this week! Aslo, this man who stuggles with smoking and he wants to babbtize his daughter but he cant, anyways he realized that he is holding her back and she is getting babtized as well!!! AHHHHH!!!!! He has really come a long ways esspecially in the past 2 weeks!! I think the diffrence is FHE! They are now holding in their house and the spirit now can dwell there and it makes ALL the diffrence so have FHE it changes lives!! PLUS we are stil working with Peter, man I love that guy he is just sweat and so preped its not even funny... We are so blessed as well! At bishops store house they accidently sent a ton of extra food so they gave it to us and all the baton rouge missionarys that were there as well! Our cubords are stocked and our freezer is full! I dont know if life could get and better right now.. Oh yea! We also played soccer in the pouring rain this week and it was a blast!! Its way more fun that way. We got dumped on on saturday... Speaking of which on top of all that a couple in our ward got sealed!!!! on Saturday!!! We went and it was so great if not the highlight of the week if there was one. That was a great day! After we went to an all you can eat buffet and celebrated with their childen (they are older and not members) it was great for them to see their parents litterally glowing in happiness and the joy they recieve from the temple. I hope they see that and want it in their lives. Yea like I said the branch is on fire and its only getting better! LSU is cruzing ferom what I hear. We had Ihop on saturday as well and ate with all the tailgaters it was sweat. Plus we randomly found a girl on the street who stopped us. She was babtized about a year ago and even keeps in contact with her sister missionary. She moved from den springs and didnt like the ward but thats ok becasue the LSU ysa ward has a new member now! i dont know if we will ever see her agein though because the sister missionarys took over. Thats ok though. OH! Spider is Louisianna are HUUUGGGEEEE!!! We were biking and I though I was cool by going off the road. NOT! Here down south the road is the only place that is not swamp so you just have to realize that. Anyways I drove though a spider web I couldent see. Then, the largest Banana Spider was on my handle bars. I stared death right in the face and it was right by my hand. Thanks to my stength and courage I threw my bike down and ran away like a little girl. its mouth might could have taken off my arm in one bite. Not really but it was about the size of my hand and thats pretty big if you come from the west. Plus is was yellow and black it was pretty nasty. Anyways were are about to go play ball and translate for a court case (turns our we have another job! Playing lawer!) Its going to be fun Ill talk about it next week. Have a good week I know I will!!!!!

-Elder Drollinger

September 17, 2013 The Latest from the Field

Como Estan Todos?!

Sounds like their is a ton going on in the outside world! Sounds like Boulder got hit pretty hard as well. 17 inches huh? Guess thats why is didnt rain here this week!! Im glad you all had fun at the farm as well Im sad I had to miss out! We are actually digging a garden this week for a member tomorrow so im pretty excited for that! There is nothing like manual labor in 94 heat with 80% humidity haha This week was crazy though!! The exchange went super well and I got to be a college kid for a few days! haha We did freedom speach ally where we get people to sign up and ask questions on campus its great! i also went to my first 2 singles ward and institute activities haha It was weird and it was also weird because I did it as a missionary but it was fun we played ultamite frizebee and the other we had lunch! There was a member who took us in his super nice BMW as well it was a blast! We tracked around campus and saw all the tailgating (people here tailgate all week its crazy) To top it all off we got invited to dinner at an investigators house. 

This week we finally contacted Peter!! He is from he carribian and he has the coolest aura I guess you could say he is too legit! We commited him to babtism and he gave up drinking in one lesson and we hardly said a word! Too bad he is english haha and we are turning him over in our next lesson tonight. sad day. But he is giving us a carribian bbq so Im stoked about that!! He is soo golden! THe other cool part is David! (He is ours for real) He got a date!!!! He is so ready! October 12th is the day and we are biking with him to church because his dad wont wake up to give him a ride but he is soo golden as well. This week finally paid off Im on top of the clouds. It dosent even feel like Im on a mission any more in the sence that I just living life and sharing the gospel. People look at you weird and treat you diffrent but its all good.

Spanish is going well we have been translating a lot and Im getting pretty good! i dont have to worry about it so much and I can just talk like a normal person insted of looking super novice while I speak haha

Oh! also this week is transfers so thats why Im writing on tuesday. Im staying here with Elder Andrews but Elder Page is leaving :( Other than that our district is the same.

Welp! We are about to go play some frizbee at LSU so i guess I will see y'all next week! Eat some cajun food its super good and drink some Orchata and Alovera Drink they are so so so so so good I love it!!

have a good week I know I will!!!

Mischif Managed

-Elder Drollinger 

September 9, 2013 The Weekly Grinder

Como Estan Todos?!

This week was pretty chill and rainy!! Our friend Hafiz (he is african) has his brother over and went to soccer they are legit and we are working on getting the english missionarys there but for now they are our friends. He takes us whereever we need to go pretty much haha he is a public defender working on his 2nd bar exam. He is legit and has the sweetest family. Blas is doing good we just have been singing songs and translating medical stuff for him. Our new investigator Maricio is doing very very well and I think will get a date! THis other family as well is ready and I love them because the ask questions! Its easy to see what they need and to help them I wish everyone was that cool. THere are so many other people its crazy and I wish you could get to know them like i do and more important I wish you could eat the food they give us its unbelievable but small haha currently all the food we have is 20 pounds of rice and double that in mayo hahaha btw if you watch nacho libre and they put mayo on their corn, its legit, they love that stuff and put it on everything and yes we are going shopping today should be fun! This week Im going on exchanges with the zone leaders to LSU campus! (Im pretty sure) Im stoked it should be a blast. Other then that idk life is good. Oh I forgot my camera again sorry haha next week will just have to be a flood of pics.

Have a good week I know I will!

-Elder Drollinger

September 3, 2013 Hola Familia

Que tal one and all!

This week was a crazy one and one for the journal. This week was the first of the month so we fasted. BUT, we forgot we had Futbol (yea its Futbol not soccer) Anyways you sweat a whole bunch down here when you play and we played for like 3 hours you all know how I am with sports and anyways the next day was terrible and I was so dehydrated but its all good because im still alive haha it was too fun. Also while we are on the subject I got new Tacos! (Cleats, yup sounds just like the mexican tacos) They are sweet my life is changed and I dont slide around now. I even scored my first goal and got some mad props from the latinos so it was great and we got a ton of members and investigotars there as well as potentials its a legit finding and streanghtening activity.

Still no dates or nothing for our investigators. Drinking is evil and I hate it enough said. But we are moving foreword with David! He is 16 and his mom is an inactive (we have lots of those) but he is on fire but we need his dads permition. Once he lied and said he was 18 but later he told us the truth so we are working on that!.

Yesterday a peruvian Member made us some legit peruvian food with some pepper that only grows in peru. Its called Chile Mansano and it is HOT HOT HOT! but the flavor was so good and it tasted amazing I love the food we eat! To break our fast we ate a 32" Louisianna Po-boy sandwich from the locals. Its hard to be hungry after one of those!!

Guess what, we are making a community garden!!! And the coolest part is we are working with all the local churches. To help, we might get a Truck! Slivarado 1500!! The zone leaders dont need it and are talking with president to give it to us to help our with hauling tools dirt and other things. When you leave propety alone down here for more then a month it litterally turns into the jungle book. Some abandon complexes have trees growing out of them and its no diffrent then the ruins in south america with all the concreate and building so it should be hard work ours isnt that bad but it will be diffrent. Ill try and send pictures I forgot my camera. Today im going on exchanges with the zone leaders you can ask dad how that turned out but its complicated. Next week Im going to New Orleans!! or the next im not really sure but Elder Andrews is diabetic so he needs his checkup down there so we will spend some time in more doctors offices which is always fun. One of our investigators had surgery this week. A man shot him in the face and it was a random hate crime. Anyways they took a bone from his hip and put it in his jaw. We gave him a blessing and is the same ol Blas (thats his name) he is home now and is doing very well. Elder Andrew and I sang songs to him on the guitar and I forgot to tell you but Elder Andrew is in the Byu Mens chorus!! So he makes me look pretty bad but it was a really spiritual moment. I dont know why people have to do things like that it makes me sick. Especially to these people. They work so hard to be here and get treated like crap. Anyways thing are good we are working hard and sweating more. Oh! We found a family and they moved from Downtown Denver and are really into the gospel (How could I forget!!) They are legit and I cant wait to go on saturda agein to see them! Awesome family!! Well thats pretty much it. I love the food I love these people!! Have a good week I know I will!

 GEAUX TIGERS!! 

-Elder Drollinger

August 26, 2013 What week is it I have no idea how long ive been here

Que pasan todos?!

This week was a tough one but it also brought lots of miracles! One of our investigators is in surgery right now he got shot awhile ago minding his own buisness and they are taking a bone from his hip and putting it in his jaw to replace it pretty crazy huh?! The more crazy thing is that I understood that in spanish hahaha We met a guy on saturday after nobody answered their door and we were just walking. He used to play for mizzu football but now his knees are so bad and he suffers from the injerys. They are the size of footballs and he can hardly walk or buy food to eat. The miracle is that he used to investigate the church and he moved and was never found and we found him! We will see him tomorrow but we might have to turn him over to english missionaries but I dont want to. THe gospel will bless his life so much so pay you fast offerings for my new brotha Gary! He could really use some prayers and other things and we are here to love him through his hard times. He has an apartment but not much else. The other miracle is we knocked on a door to find a guy we met the other day but he wasnt there and another guy opened the door. We said "Hello we are missionarys from the church of jesus crist of latter day saints" and then he said "Do you want to come eat tomorrow?" THATS NOT HOW IT WORKS! Let me tell you we can harldy get the few members we have to invite us over for food let alone a guy we never met. Its also a miracle because I prayed that morning that the people in this area would feed us and after a hard day i didnt think it was ok and maybe God was trying to tell me something but he really just wanted to see how bad I was willing to work for it. We found him at 8:40 and curfew is 9. It would have been so easy to go home but we are missionarys and the lord is gathering his sheep and we use all the time we got because their isnt enough time in the day to do all the things we need to do. GEAUX TIGERS!!! Grandma says they are 12th in the nation and people ca feel it! I cant wait to hear the stadium on the first day from where we are and people tell us they can. I got a tigers hat and shirt and Im ready to go! I spent my travel money on that haha the rest goes to food! Thank you for all the cards and such they were amazing I love getting letters! That way I dont have to spend all day reading.

Besides that life is good in the hood. Im not going to tell you what happened but we were out and an undercover 2013 Camero Cop Went in full pusuit. it is the coolest thing I have ever seen! It was strait out of need for speed! Well gotta talk to president but have a good week because I know I will!!

Con amor,

-Elder Drollinger

August 19, 2013 Life in the Swamp

Que tal one and all!

This week being my birthday week I should have expected it to be crazy but I never knew I would be like this haha.

I guess the highlight of my week eas friday (my b-day). My comp woke up and had been throwing up all night so we went to an urgent care. Turns out, urgent cares here are only open from like 7-12 at night but the 4th one was open. He got scremed at by a big black lady who thought he was going to die and she told us to run to the E.R. So we went to taco bell haha and ate some b-day burritos till sister wall told us we could go. So then I spent the rest of the day in the E.R. and turns out he had a kidney stone and he passed it yesterday! In the ER the chairs are all facing the tv and so all day I was like forced to watch a marathon of Dog the bounty hunter hahahaha he is crazy and I guess it takes place in colorado springs and denver so I guess satan really knows how to tempt you! I read my scriptures and drew and lots of things but It was so loud that I could hear it the whole time. Anyways that was a fun day and to top it all off my district and I brought members and investigators and we went to a mexican place and Sister Burns went up and played for the mariachi band for my birthday!!! It was so fun and the food was so good! Sister burns is a music major and actually already graduated boise state and played in a mariachi band hahaha So that was my birthday! Pretty sweet! Everything all day was so funny even though Elder Andrews was in a lot of pain we had fun and he got the help he needed!

As for Bany (or in english Bonie) He needs a little more time. A really bad influence moved into his place (a chavo) and the drinks were pouring the last time we passed by so we are going to help him out with that. We found some new potential investigators and they have a ton of potential!! We are really excited to begin teaching them this week.

Last P-day we went to LSU Campus!! It is super super super pretty and it really just wanted me to go to college more. The buildings and the history and everything is so crazy awesome! I will send pictures in this email. GEAUX TIGERS!! FIRST GAME IS IN 14 DAYS!! We went into the music building and saw the stage and practice rooms and it was all legit! We even went to the student Union haha It was like we were college kids except we were in our mission clothes so we stood out pretty well haha Going to college there would be sweet! The grounds are unlike any other that I have seen! The stone is amazing!

Overall this week was a little frustrating with the work but the branch is moving foreword and we have 7 investigators at church yesterday! of 50 total at church including 6 missionary 2 senior missionary's and every baby there haha but everyone counts!

Im also on the hunt for some sweet soccer boots so if anyone has some suggestions my feet would like it haha soccer is the best finding tool we have besides english class and my feet get torn up so Im looking!

Several people this week stopped us and wanted to sincerly thank us for what we do. The lord has been preping the south and soon Im sure I will explode with members. Mitt Romney really blesed the bible belt! Everyone realizes who we are and that we are belives in Crist just like them and we mean to live the principles we preach on sunday. They really like that about us especially the babtists!! They love mormons!!! 

Good luck this week and have a good one because I know I will!

-Geaux Tigers!

Elder Drollinger

August 12, 2013 Livin the Mish Life in South Burbank

Que tal one and all!

All I have to say right now is I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! This week was incredible! Louisiana is so great and the people here are even better! Its like im not even in America. I dont ever have to speak English because we live in like a hispanic area where nobody needs to speak english. All the stores are Spanish and all the restaurants are too. So thats really fun! Louisiana is SO green!! When I say I live in the jungle I really mean it! It feel like Im in jungle book with all the birds and random things we see. The other night we played soccer, we play every saturday with investigators and their friends as a way to get referrals and follow up with commitments. Anyways, the field is like the only place Ive seen where you can see the sky and I was lovin life yelling in spanish and playin futbol with my hombres. Life is good! I played so hard my feet bled and then I played some more because I loved it too much! (Thanks for the triple antibiotic meds Mom!) Dont worry my feet are fine and they are normal now.

We had the chance to serve in the bishops storehouse as well and that was sweet! I just want to say one thing. It means so much to these people around here to have a place like that. Around here money is hard to manage and hard to come by and a job means the world to them even if it is washing dishes because it means their family can eat that week. So remember that each time you fast because these people will thank you forever.

Most of the people we work with are called chavos. Chavos are men who leave their country and work here and send money home to their familys. The people we really work with aren't really chavos though because chavos smoke and drink and aren't really faithfull to their fams but we are working with two houses packed with good men who have good intentions plus they live honorable lives. They come from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and any other country you can think of. They also cook like crazy and I am now super biased towards in-state spanish speaking because I get to sample foods all around the world and I am loving it! Every house no matter what it looks like or who lives there will offer food to you. THey say the spanish elders get the most fat because more people feed them.

The branch we work with has about 40 members and we pull from the entire city. It is so small we meet in the releif society room for sacrament. They are the best and their is plenty of work to do. We have 6 missionarys serving including me in the branch and we keep busy. The problem is most members work for American Way which to me sounds like a get rich quick scam but I guess people get by but they work on sunday so its hard to get people to come to church because whatever job it is they need money over church when they would get the blessings if they went church over money.

I am sooo lucky because the temple is like, right around the corner from where we live AND I went already! We are the only missionarys who get to go because the branch needs the missionarys to go to help people and the english elders cant go because their wards take up the space but because we are so small branch temple night isnt filled up and we "have to" go. Sounds tough huh?! But it is super tiny, like, smaller then Vernal but just as awesome. I Love the temple!

So yea thats my life we are working on a man named bonie and we gave him the babtism date but we shall see if he comes to church he didn't yesterday :( We teach a lot but it is hard. It sounds like their hasn't been a babtism here since feb!! We just work with retaining the members we have too a lot but at the same time we teach a lot too idk how to explain it.

Anyways life it good, the grass is green, the food is incredable, the spanish is hard but I love it and God is good!

-Elder Drollinger