Hello Everyone!

This week has been pretty uneventful. However, I must say that I got a new hat, so I’m pretty excited about that! It’s so warm and it makes my head sweat (which is a good thing, even if it sounds gross). It’s pretty cold here (yes, that’s an understatement) and when we walk around our area on the days when we don’t have a car I have to take a big scarf and wrap it around my face so only my eyes are showing on the really windy days. Your face gets so frozen that at times you aren’t even sure if you’re still smiling. Tracting can be awful because you can’t feel you face move when you speak. But the people that live here say it’s not even that bad yet, so I’m pretty excited for it to get worse…

We had some good lessons this week, but a lot of people canceled on us or were sick which was tough. It’s even worse when you walk all the way over to the farthest part of your area and everyone over there cancels. Sometimes people are nice though and will give you rides. Last night this couple (the wife is a member, the husband is investigating) picked us up and gave us a ride to dinner on their little bucket seats in the back of their car! We were so grateful and it was kind of a cool car, even though it was cramped. They’re super awesome, too bad they’ve been fellowshipped into another ward, even though they’re in our area.

We did a lot of service this week cleaning out a less-active woman in our ward’s house. She used to own an LDS bookstore but it went out of business so all of the merchandise ended up in her front room and she’s had a tough time selling it, so we helped her get it into order and it was really fun. She’s super nice. However, I’m pretty sure that when I get a home of my own that anything that I don’t need is all getting tossed or given away to DI. You can literally feel the difference in a clean an organized home. The Lord glories in orderliness and cleanliness. I’m happy to be able to help people tidy up their homes so the Spirit can be there.

We’ve been having a lot of fun giving away cookies and treats lately. There’s this lady in our ward that we go over to every week and we help her bake cookies to give away to people. This week we had a ton of cookies to give out to our investigators. It’s really nice because then they feel that we care about them beyond just giving them lessons. It’s really nice. J One sister in our ward had an extra turkey that she wanted to give to someone that needed it more than she did, so we were able to give it to one of the really sweet investigator families we’ve been teaching. They appreciated it a lot.

Something cool that happened to me this week was that I got fed a cabbage pancake! It was served to us for dinner by the Hoopers, Brother Hooper had gone on his mission to Japan, which was pretty cool. It’s called Okonomiyaki (which I think means “whatever you like fried in oil” or something along those lines. He explained it to us.) and it was so good! It doesn’t sound like it would be, but I would definitely recommend it! Here is the recipe that they let me take a picture of:

Okonomiyaki

16 oz bacon

4 c water

12 eggs

9 cups flour

3 tsp salt

3 heads cabbage

6 tbs ginger

¾ c tonkatsu sauce, or BBQ sauce (we used Mandarin sauce and it was really good)

Large bowl, stir water and eggs together. Gradually add flour and salt until smooth. Add cabbage and ginger. Stir until evenly distributed.

Heat skillet over medium heat and coat with cooking spray. Pour pancake sized servings into the skillet and add bacon on top. Cook about 4 minutes or until edges are dry. Flip and cook other side until cooked through. Drizzle the sauce over the top of each cake, kind of like syrup.

 

I’d highly recommend it! Enjoy! :D

I was also able to play in Sacrament meeting this Sunday while Sis Rider sang! It was really fun and I loved the chance to play!

 

Oh, a funny story from dinner, Sister Rider and I went to sit down at the table with our Okonomiyaki and when we sat down the little kid stood up and took his plate with him and walked back into the kitchen and said very loudly to his parents “I don’t want to sit over by those people!” We all laughed pretty hard. He’s only 3, so it’s understandable. J

At dinner last night over at the bishop’s house they invited their grandchildren and their parents over. The little girl walked in and said “what are you doing here? Who are you?” The way she said it was so funny! There was no shyness at all. She was quite blunt and I almost laughed, but I told her who I was and boy did she have a lot to say to us. She even told us a story about the wolves and the dogs eating people up. It was pretty interesting!

Our bishop is really cool. He and his wife have the neatest hobbies/talents. He spins and dyes wool and his wife is a weaver/ knitter/ crocheter. They have a ton of looms and spinning wheels in their house. It’s so cool! They’re very talented and it’s so neat to see such a useful talent.

Anyways, sorry this is such a short letter, this week hasn’t been as productive as normal for missionary work. Hopefully next week will be better!

I love you all!!!

Sister Draney

Pictures:  me and my companion, Sis. Rider.  Our bedroom and our lovely bathroom that is in the garage.  Our spectacular Christmas tree! 

My Dearest Family!!

This week has been so awesome! We’ve been so busy getting our area organized and trying to get some sense of structure to our area because it was a bit of a mess when we found it. Our project today was all the referrals. We cleaned them out and got them into a notebook so that we don’t have people all over the place and still on the board from several months ago. We also finished lists of everyone in our area by street name and put the streets in alphabetically based on what area of the map they’re in. It’s been pretty fun! We’ve been trying to iron out who all is active or inactive and the other missionaries hadn’t been marking down when people were no longer interested, so we’ve had quite a few upset people.

                We don’t do a lot of tracting because we’re so busy with other things at the moment that we never even finish what we had planned for the day anyways. We only tract when we bike into an area and our appointments all fall through or we’re prompted to knock on someone’s door. But, I do have two cool tracting stories for you this week!

                First, we went to visit a potential investigator but they weren’t home, so I told Sister Rider that we should knock on the next door over. So we did and this man came out with quite a few tattoos, holding his little 5 month old daughter and ended up inviting us back! It turns out that he was the same guy I saw smoking on his porch the second night I was here and that I had felt prompted to go talk to but I didn’t end up talking to him because Sister Rider thought it was a sketchy place at night and because I didn’t push it enough because I was new and uncertain. It’s nice to know the Lord gives us second chances!

                Second, we went to visit Sister Demree and when we left I stopped to talk to the guy that was raking her leaves and we ended up giving a Book of Mormon away to him! He seems super prepared by the Lord and he’s so enthusiastic! It’s interesting because he took us to meet his parents (he’s living with his parents for a few weeks because he only moved here a few weeks ago and he’s trying to find a place) and it turns out his parent’s house is the one Sister Rider had felt prompted to knock on a week ago but they told us to go away because they were Methodist, but it turns out he lives there! So it was so perfect that he happened to be coming around to offer raking services at the exact moment we were in Sister Demree’s house. We had debated whether or not to see her because of something that had happened earlier that week that I’ll tell you later, but it’s a good thing we did!

This week we got our first baptismal date! One of our investigators agreed! She wants to bring her whole family into the church. Her boyfriend that she lives with is inactive but wants to come back to church and they have a young son who they want to bring as well. Her mom is even interested and wants to come to our weekly Book of Mormon study class. We’re super excited! I danced a little happy-dance when we left :D. We will have to get them married first though, or get one to move out, so we’ll see how that goes…

                I handed out my first two Books of Mormon this week and that was super exciting! I feel like such the missionary ;) haha and we handed out a big stack of Mormon.org cards. We have to get more from the mission office today. It’s been great!

                We played district volleyball this week which was really fun. It’s not competitive so everyone just enjoys themselves and it gives us a chance to be silly, which is great. We need that break every so often even though it means we have to wake up at 5:30 am to go do it. It makes the rest of the day just that much better. Speaking of exercise, Sister Rider is a runner, so in the mornings I speed walk with sister Asay while she and sister Finell run circles around us. I’m sure people must think we’re pretty strange.

                There are deer all over the place here! I love it! Just the other week on the way to church a whole herd of antelope crossed the street right in front of us! It was so cool!

                The weather here is crazy and bipolar. I told you last week that it snowed, right?! Well, this week it’s warmed back up to the 40’s-50’s, so pretty warm, but the other day when we were riding home from a lunch appointment it started to rain and the rain was freezing! Then just as we got home it turned into hail, then it because snow which melted 30 minutes later when the sun came out! We could barely see while we were riding and it was pretty miserable. However, I can’t complain that all the snow is gone. I love the fall. I’m so excited that people are starting to put up Christmas lights! I love it! Plus, it makes it feel safer to walk around after dark. The sun sets at around 4pm here, so there’s a lot of time spent walking around in the dark.

                I had a dog jump on me this week with poop all over its paws! It was quite gross but luckily we were visiting her owner for a lesson so I got to clean it off. I don’t think I smelled very good for the rest of the day though…

                Last night we had a member make a really interesting cabbage stew. I thought I wasn’t going to like it but it actually turned out to be really good! Not to mention I was so hungry at church yesterday that I could have eaten a bear!

                I also met a really famous artist, Bill Rains! You should look him up online! It was so cool! We cut us out a buffalo out of paper and signed it. Some of his paintings and sculptures can go for up to $150,000! It was so cool and he was really nice. It certainly made my day! I’ll probably send the buffalo home at some point, so if I do, save it and the postcard in my photo album!!!!!!

                So far I’m 55 pages into my journal! They think I’m strange for writing so much for each day. I really hope I’ll appreciate it a lot later since I’m putting so much time into it!

                I’ve also started keeping a revelation journal and it is the greatest thing. I would highly suggest doing the same. It’s great to look back on past revelation and the Lord is always willing to give you more if you write it down/act on it. It’s been a big blessing so far.

                My Mormon message pick of the week this week is “Courage”. I would encourage you to watch it and share it with people you think exemplify courage in your life.

                Please give everyone my love and know that I’m think about you often and that I pray for you! Also, I’ve been trying to say prayers of just gratitude lately and I’m finding it’s making my prayers a lot more meaningful. I would encourage you to try it for a week. Read 3 Nephi 13:31-33 and remember, the Lord knows what you need, so don’t just pray like you’re calling out for groceries. Make it a conversation!

                I love you all forever!

                Sister Draney

Photos:  1) My companion, Sister Rider 2) our house 3) one of the horses at our house 4) snow at our house! 5) Me :)

Hello All!

So, sadly I left my journal at home, so I will do my best to remember everything that happened this week.

So I met some Tingey's in my ward! And we're totally related! I think he's grandpa's cousin's son or something like that. It was way cool!!! I'm so glad they're active or I would have gone after them with a vengeance! All of our relatives WILL be active! haha

So it started snowing here and it's 19 degrees outside. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the cold? I'll have to buy some more warm things, so don't be shocked if you see that on the card because the mission money barely covers getting settled in this first month. It will be better next month but I can't wait until then to get a good jacket. Because it's snowing we can't ride bikes anymore. now that I'm finally getting some muscles I'm sad to stop. I also have arm muscles, but only on my right arm, which is weird... I'm going to have to even that out at some point... ;)

I've been eating much healthier, but it stinks because healthy food is so expensive! You would be proud though, I haven't bought any soda, chips, cookies, etc. I've been very good. Sister Finell has a blender so we make a lot of smoothies for breakfast with yogurt, milk, fruit, and spinach. They add oatmeal and seeds, but I'm not too fond of those. The smoothies look really gross, but they actually taste pretty good! And they're super good for me. Also, I'm hungry all the time. I work off all my food every day so by the time I make it to the dinner appointments I'm about ready to eat their table as well as the dinner! :)

We've been focusing a lot this week on meeting everyone on our lists (about 5 pages long). Our ward list is 16 pages long and boy are we meeting a ton of people! It's quite crazy but the bishopric is a real help. We're starting to get a real foothold in the area. We met a wonderful old lady who has lived in this little old metal trailer with no heat for 16 years. She says she's very happy and content. I'm happy that she's happy, but every day I meet more people that make me more firm in the belief that I will not ever be in that kind of circumstance.

Lots of people here have dogs, so I come home a lot simply covered in hair. It's a good thing I'm not allergic and that we have a lint roller!

The bishop has asked us to visit all of the widows in the ward each week. It takes up a lot of time because a lot of them don't have many people to talk to and they're quite lonely. I'm not sure what his reasoning is behind having the missionaries do it, instead of visiting teachers, but I'm sure it's inspired and I just don't understand but I feel like it doesn't contribute to the missionary work in the area at all because they never have referrals for us. But they're super nice and we love visiting. I actually felt bad though because we visited this one old lady and she talked at us for like 45 minutes and both Sister Rider and I were dozing off, we are usually always tired but this was a new one entirely. I felt bad but she didn't seem to notice. We were just so exhausted and she had one of those voices that just sends you right off!

We have this one family that we try to visit but they're never home, even for the set appointments, so that's really frustrating. Their little girl loves the Gospel and is really pushing her family.

There are a lot of people with mental problems here that make it difficult for them to attend church. Either they're afraid of people, or they have some other kind of disorder. There are so many of our investigators that want to come (or say they do) but have problems being in the classes. Usually Sacrament meeting is okay. But no one really came this week.

Oh, this week was fun because one of the people that was supposed to be feeding us called us to tell us that her kids were sick and that she was going to have to send us pizza. We figured someone would be at the church and it would take too long to bike home so we had her send it there. Only, it turns out no one was at the church! So we ate our pizza on the church lawn, in the dark, in the freezing wind. It was pretty fun! We were so cold that our dinner only lasted for about 30 minutes instead of an hour because we wanted to get back into people's homes so we started up early. It was great :P

My bike tire popped, again. I have a talent for destroying bikes. Sister Rider rode it home because she's stronger than me and she's a trooper. We ended up walking though once it got really flat. So we're bikeless but it doesn't really matter because we're not allowed to ride in the snow because there are too many accidents.

You guys should watch some Mormon Messages this week, they're my absolute favorite!! :D That's our version of TV since we can download them all onto our iPads. We watch them on Sunday mornings and sometimes while we exercise.

For our district workout on Friday we had a boot camp day and I thought I was going to die, I was so tired! And I was really sore the next day.

I also discovered that I love raking leaves! We did this sister's backyard and I jumped in the pile and it was so fun!!!

This week we visited a less active woman's house and she was so nice, she fed us a ton of lemonade and pretzels. When Sister Rider and I got out of the lesson we looked at each other and realized we both had to go to the bathroom so bad! So we started booking it to the nearest members house (a block away) but she misread the map and we went the wrong way. We were sure we weren't going to make is when a member of the Alkali Creek ward pulled up alongside us and offered us a ride! She took us to her house and let us use her restroom. It was the sweetest thing. It made me feel like the Lord was watching out for us because she wasn't even in our ward and she didn't know us at all, yet she took the time to stop and ask and take us to her home. The Lord truly cares about us and about the small things that matter to us (like finding a bathroom) we are so blessed!

Don't forget as Thanksgiving is coming up to look for the ways the Lord blesses you and remember to be extra grateful! I've been trying to do that as I fall asleep, but I'm usually so tired that I only get through one or two things before I'm out like a light!

Well, I'm sorry this letter is so short, but I don't have my journal and I have fifty billion letters to respond to (well, more like 20) but still! I'm running out of time! I love you lots! And this time write me back!!!!!

xoxoxxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxx

Sister Draney

p.s Don't forget to help the missionaries out in your area all you can. I know they'll appreciate it! To members offered us rides this week and they were my angels! Be some other missionary's angel! :)

You can write to me at my new address:  618 Alkali Creek Rd.  Billings, MT 59105

I'm in Montana!

Hi everyone!

I'm going to try and get as much down as I can because I only have a limited amount of time before my minutes on the computer run out!

So here's what's happened since I left the MTC:

On the plane one of the flight attendants noticed our name tags and said that she wanted a new name like us and so it was a wonderful missionary opportunity and we were able to tell her a bit about who we were and give her a Mormon.org car. I hope she follows up on it, she was so excited when we told her she could be Sister Tempest, she thought it was so neat! (she gave me two cookies, she must like me! haha)

The ground was covered in snow when we arrived. Sister Runolfson was like "nope! I changed my mind! Take me home!" (jokingly of course) but we were all so nervous about the cold. Luckily it melted the next day and it hasn't really snowed since. It snowed a bit this morning, but it didn't stick.

Well, as you either already know, or will find out, I'm serving in Billings in a place called Hilltop. I'm living in this awesome house with another companionship on a ranch with horses. No one else lives there and there is a cave that we want to hike up to one morning for our exercise. It's funny, I had thought that the one place I didn't want to go was Billings, and where did the Lord send me? Straight to Billings. And I'm sure that He'll send me somewhere new as soon as I become fond of Billings. It's kind of cool that I'm here though because Sister Asay from my MTC district is staying in the same house as me, and Elder Maughn and Elder Graham are also here! So I'll probably get to see them today for preparation day (our mission president doesn't let us call it p-day.)

My new companion is sister Rider. She's pretty cool, I sent a picture of her. She doesn't get excited like I do, which is tough, and she never waits for me on the bikes (she's so fast!). But she's really nice and never gets discouraged. She's helping me a lot with my memorization. I have to memorize "My Purpose", "The Standard of Truth", D&C 4 (the whole section), and 3 Nephi something... it's so tough to memorize all of them! I'm still working on it. May I just repeat, scripture masteries are saving my life! It's so much easier to memorize out here because I had practice in seminary.

The house we live in is pretty barren. The shower is out in the garage with the washing machine, but it's in its own room and it's in the same room as the furnace, so it's always toasty warm which is SO nice. I actually killed a black widow in there this week. All the other sisters freaked out and I didn't want it in there so we used a ton of bug killer on it and it shriveled up and died. I'm so glad it's gone because it was probably the biggest one I've ever seen and I don't want to find it in the clothes or in the shower, or anywhere! Now I'm kind of spider-paranoid.

I didn't have any food my first few days because we couldn't go to the store so I had to get it from the other sisters and I'm so glad to finally have food of my own!

There's not much exciting happening in this area yet because both sister Rider and I are new to the area and we're trying to get our feet under us because we know no one in the ward or any of the less actives or investigators. So we haven't made much progress because we're mostly going around trying to get to know people. It's frustrating because the other companionship we live with has a lot of success because that sister has been here for a while.

One cool thing did happen this week though! One of our investigators (we think, we aren't entirely sure what his status is as far as the church but he doesn't know much about it. His wife, a member, explains a lot to him. He's in his 70's probably and is missing a ton of teeth but has the most awesome smile!) Anyways, he showed up to church this week with his nonmember son's family in tow! He was grinning and looking as natural as can be, smelling of cigarettes but looking for all the world like the happiest man on earth! I'm still not sure why he came because he's so deaf that we didn't think he had heard any of the lesson that we had given his wife, but apparently he had because he showed up in a 40 year old suit (he told us how old it was). It was amazing! I hope he starts taking the discussions and coming to church.

The first day we were using the bikes, my tire popped and we had to leave it at a members house and get a ride home because it was Halloween and the missionaries aren't allowed to be out.

I play the piano pretty frequently here. You should send me some more music, especially Christmas music/ CD's (approved ones). And I need you to send me the recipe for Orange Julius because I really want to make some and I don't have it!!!

We serve in a lot of trailer parks which seemed kind of sketchy to me, but apparently there are a ton of them here. I can't get over how many people are comfortable living in the filth I see inside of some of them. Don't get me wrong, a lot of them are really nice, but there are also a lot of dirty ones.

I had my first rejection and it wasn't that bad at all. I think it would be worse if I knew them, but since I didn't, it didn't really phase me.

I've now had a dinner cooked in a pumpkin. Pumpkin is actually pretty good! I enjoyed it.

Ah there's so much I want to tell you but not enough time!

When I do get facebook, you're not allowed to comment or like anything I say. Mission rules.

Oh here's a quote for the quote board: "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles."

 

I love you all! Have a good week!!

Love,

Sister Draney      

 

Sorry the pictures aren't in chronological order. One of the horses at the home where we are staying and our car.  Me with President and Sister Mecham my first day in Montana at the Billings temple. Back at the MTC with my district and my companion.