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!