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.