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! :)