This week was busy and slow all at the same time. We didn't have as many lessons as we normally do, but the lessons we did have were all with investigators, it was so great! We have plans this week to restock our less active teaching pool because for the most part, none of the ones we are currently working with are progressing, so we have to start from scratch.
We didn't have much luck tracting this week. We spent the whole morning of Christmas Eve tracting and no one wanted to watch a Christmas video or talk to us. It was so frustrating! It's CHRISTmas people! At least it wasn't too cold. That was a plus.
That day did get better though. We visited R--- and she was feeling much better and will hopefully be released this week. She will probably be readmitted though because she still can't keep food down. She has lost over 100 lbs because she hasn't been able to eat for 3 months and they've been giving her all the nutrients through IV. But we were able to commit her to a baptismal date! We are very excited for her and we hope she will be able to become well enough by the date we set.
It snowed a ton on Christmas Eve which is good because so many people have been wanting a white Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we got to help with the live nativity that the stake puts on every year. They have a truck to gather food donations, so that was our job, to collect the cans and the money that people donated once they saw the nativity. It was funny because everyone in the nativity looked really fat with their big coats on under their costumes.
I ended up running home from the Mangum's house, roughly a half mile, with Sister O'Mealy driving along side me playing Mannheim Steamroller. I felt really good when I got home. It's not every day that someone gets to run a half mile in a skirt and snow boots! :)
We had fun coming home and playing cards with the bishop and his family after the nativity.
Bishop opened all of our packages and wrapped everything, so we actually had gifts to open on Christmas morning! It was so fun! It ended up feeling a lot more Christmassy this year than it did last year. It helps that we had a Christmas tree and that the house was decorated I think.
We had Christmas dinner at the Hornby's and it was really great because there were 3 non-members there. It turned out really great!
We had a lesson with S--- and his friend H--- showed up. It turns out H--- had taken the lessons before and had read the Book of Mormon but was confused and thought it was strange. So we ended up getting into a conversation with them both and explaining some of the things that he didn't understand. When we set up our return appointment with S--- he asked if he could come too! It is such a miracle!! Our return appointment is today, so I'll let you know how it turned out next week.
The D--- family is on date for January 31! They really want to do this as a family and they are progressing so well! Keep them in your prayers! Our biggest challenge right now is keeping the lessons short and focused. The lessons are great but they are waaaaaay too long! So we are working on figuring out how to shorten them. They haven't been to church yet because he got called into work yesterday. Next week is the week! Pray for them!
L--- came to church for the second time this Sunday! He still doesn't have a testimony, but he is reading and giving it an honest effort. He needs prayers too that he will get his answer! He's another one that we are working on having more focused lessons with. He is insists on feeding us every time we come to teach. This week was pot roast, veggies, hot chocolate, and biscuits, with soda and pistachio muffins for dessert. I'm going to gain so much weight…. it just needs to stop! Ha, ha (I haven't gained weight yet, but I watch it like a hawk!)
M--- is doing so great! She is studying everything she can get her hands on and she has questions and studies out the answers. She is getting answers to her prayers about the truthfulness of what she is learning and she shares it with us! We took her on a church tour and she was crying before we even got in the chapel (which was our first stop). She said she felt such peace there and that she needed that peace in her life. She is coming to church next Sunday! It means we will be doing double duty because our church is at 11 and she can only get off work in time to make the 1pm Sacrament, but it will be so worth it! We are SO excited! She has only ever been to church once and has given us all sorts of excuses but now she is getting answers and finding that Spirit and the peace she has been searching for. I think something is finally happening after 7 1/2 years of missionaries! Please pray for her!! She's got a lot of trials ahead and she needs a lot of spiritual support.
As for funny/ gross things that happened this week:
I ate 4 bowls of cereal before I got to the bottom of the bowl of milk and realized that my milk was chunky. It didn't even taste different! Luckily I didn't get sick. I was so worried! I had to stop telling myself to stop worrying because I was going to make myself sick just from worrying so much!
On a different day, we knocked on a door and these two huge pit bulls come barreling around the side of the house snarling (there was no fence) and my companion screamed and scrambled around behind me. I told her just to stay calm as the dogs got to us, and they ended up being okay. I joked with her afterwards that she was SUCH a good companion. She was going to sacrifice me to the dogs! Ha, ha
That's pretty much it for things of significance this week. I hope you all had a good Christmas! I love you lots!
Love,
Sister Draney

For starters let me tell you that I know I spelled thief wrong in my last letter. But I didn't realize it until after is already sent, I was so embarrassed. I guess that's what you get for rushing!
I got my new companion this week, Sister O'Mealy, and we been having a lot of fun. She served in Lovell, Wyoming and this is her first time in Helena.
We finally got to have an appointment with D---, the fourth Ward sisters are teaching a family and they turned out to be related to D---! So we got to have a lesson with him and invite him back to church. It was good because we got to find out his concerns and hopefully resolve some of them so that he can come back to church in the near future.
I got to meet a lot of the people that the Fourth ward sisters are working with, and they all got baptized this weekend! It was so great! There were eight of them they got baptized in one night, and it was really special. They had to re-baptize one of them once, because her dad forgot her name. It was really funny because the mom had to tell him that he forgot his child's middle name. I think he was kind of embarrassed. But at least everyone got baptized and that's what's important.
Sister H---, the older lady who fell and broke her legs gets to come home from the care center a month earlier than expected! It just goes to show the power of prayer. She is doing so well, the ward thought that this might be the last serious injury for her because she is so old, they worried she wouldn't be able to recover. But she has proved them all wrong and is coming home just in time for Christmas!
We also found R---, one of our old investigators, in the same nursing home. She's not doing well and still can't keep anything down. We were able to read the Christmas story with her in Luke chapter 2 and in the book of Mormon. We were also able to sing some Christmas songs to her. That made her really happy, I guess a lot of people haven't been visiting her and she feels pretty alone. I'm happy to know where she is now so we can visit her more often. Sometimes I seriously think I'm a bad luck charm because something bad happens to all of our investigators, but they will all recover and be baptized eventually, right?
I had a great transfer, since I didn't get changed around. I got to see a bunch of missionaries I haven't seen in a while, like sister Templin and elder Greenwall. I wish they were in my zone, but it's unlikely since they both got sent pretty far away.
I got my new companion, Sister O'Mealy and she is great! I hope I'm able to finish out the mission with her because we both head home at the same time. She has a great memory and she's really fun to be around. She's from Nevada, she majoring in business, she has someone waiting for her, she has a bunch of siblings, and a great sense of humor. We were joking around this morning that companions spend more time together than people who decide to get engaged to each other! Too funny.
We met a new investigator family this week that one of our members introduced us to. They're really great, they're practically LDS and they don't even know it! We will be meeting with them in a few weeks because the husband works on an oilfield and will be gone for a couple weeks. But they still really want to meet with us which is great. They have a lot of concerns that the gospel can answer. They're younger and they say that they can't find many couples who are really family centered like they are, most people their age like to be out partying and don't want to start families. They have two cute little boys and they are just an adorable family. And they already know a member family, which helps! It's good to have friends in the Gospel. We are really excited to start meeting with them!
We finally caught up with J---.  He hasn't been to church since that first time, and we been really worried about him. I'm still not sure what's going on with him because he didn't come to church yesterday like he said he would.

We were talking to someone, and they think S--- might have dyslexia rather then an inability to read. I hope that's the case because I would feel bad if he couldn't read.
We ended up starting the lessons over with the I---, apparently from what they told us they haven't received any of the lessons. Bishop says that they have, but if the I--- want the lessons we will certainly give them to them. I hope that this helps them get over some of the issues and concerns they have. I like them a lot and I'm excited to spend Christmas night with them.
We met with L--- again, the woman who is divorcing her wife.  She read the entire pamphlet and took notes and had questions. It was a pretty good lesson, but we're not sure how to extend a baptismal date because of the past issues and we aren't sure how long they will take to resolve. So we met with a member of the mission presidency last night to discuss it. Hopefully it will turn out well because she has a lot of potential and she feels that the church could be true. It certainly is one of the most unique cases I've ever experienced before.
We had a lesson with C--- this week and bishop came to it. He was more focused than he's ever been, and he seemed to really take in everything bishop said. It was nice to see him actually concentrating and not making so many jokes. He agreed to come to church yesterday but never showed up, it makes me sad, and I want to find out why. But I'll let you know after our next lesson with him. I think he really enjoyed the restoration lesson, and agrees with a lot of the things we said. He also stop meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses which is a big plus! Apparently they didn't like the thought that he didn't want to sit around in heaven and play harps and things like that.  He wants to keep growing and progressing and that's exactly what we believe, go figure.
C--- is doing well, we found out that she smoking more again, which makes me really sad. I'm not sure how to help her, and we are sure she wants to be helped. She still wants to gain faith, and hopefully she puts more of an effort into reading, it will come.
L--- came to church yesterday! He laughed at a lot of things the speakers were saying, which made me happy. I hope he enjoyed it, because he left after sacrament meeting. But he said that he would probably be coming back next week, and I hope he stays for the whole thing. He even wore a suit so you couldn't really tell him apart from anyone, except for his earring.
I played a musical number in church, which I enjoyed. I love it when there is a lot of music in a sacrament meeting. I wish we could do it more often. We had a ton of people at church, they had to open up the second overflow!
D--- is doing great, we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ yesterday, and sister Bingham came. We shared He is the Gift, and talked with him about coming to church. We had a long talk on faith. He's changed a lot since we first started meeting with him, and that makes me happy. I hope he will continue to change for the better.

Also something funny happened this week, Bishop Campbell discovered that sister O'Mealy's dad was his roommate in the MTC, and that they've known each other for 35 years! What are the chances?! They are excited to talk to each other when she Skype's home. They both served in the Sydney Australia mission and they both have families, and live in two separate states. They lost track of each other and now his daughter staying in Bishop Campbell's house!
I'm excited for Christmas next week, and I hope you're all doing well! I want to hear all the good things that happen, so keep me informed! I love you all and miss you a lot. I hope you're doing missionary work, and continuing to smile. Merry Christmas! Don't forget to write!

XOXO XO XOXO XO

Love,

Sister Draney

December 2014

What a week! My companion, Sister Lasson, finished her mission and is now home in Tennessee which means I have spent the majority of this week on transfers with the sisters in 4^th ward. I’m sad Sister Lasson is gone! I’m going to miss her!

On the bright side, I’ll be staying in Helena for another transfer! That means I only have one more transfer where I could be moved! Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to finish out my mission and only have three areas. Wouldn’t that be weird?!

My new companion will be Sister O’Mealy. She will be my 11^th companion. I’m seeing if I can set a companion record! Ha, ha.  I don’t think I’ll quite make it to 18 companions though! 

This week was amazing as far as lessons go though. The C--- in our ward met a guy at Costco, and told him he looked like a Mormon bishop. He said he wasn’t and they asked if he would like to learn more about the church and he said yes! So we got to teach him the first lesson in their home this week. They invited us over for lunch and we taught him the Restoration afterwards and the C--- gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon that they had written a note in. Talk about member missionary work!! They rock! The lesson went well but he was a little intimidating because he is very intelligent and we, of course, teach simply. I had the feeling he was analyzing everything we said! It went well, but he said he wanted to study what we gave him before he set a return appointment. So I’ll let you know if we hear back from him again.

We also had our first lesson with L---! Our member that was supposed to go with us backed out at the last second, so we had to scramble to find someone else. Luckily, Sister R--- said she would come, even though she was about to jump in the shower. She is the best! The lesson went really well! He has already read all of 1 Nephi and plans to finish he Book of Mormon by tomorrow! My jaw practically hit the floor when he told us! The only downside is, he hasn’t received any feelings or witnesses that it’s true yet. Then again, I can’t imagine how someone could read the whole thing and not know that it’s true! So I’m praying that he will get that confirmation before we go back for our next lesson. He seems golden!!! I guess we will see how it turns out…

We had another lesson with T--- and once again it was like pulling teeth to get him to express an opinion, so we don’t know how much is getting through to him, if anything. It’s definitely slow going and hard to keep him on track. For example, we asked him where he thought he came from before he was born and he began to go off on a tangent about his pet pig named Bobo that he had had when he was a kid. So when he finished, I asked him again and he finally answered the question. That’s what all of our lessons are like. Very, very slow going. Not to mention he can’t really hear us talking, so we have to shout a lot of the lesson.

J--- forgot our appointment this week and didn’t come to church. He was sick earlier, but we need to get in with him. I’m a little frustrated with him. I hope he just forgot our meeting.

S--- is doing pretty well. He hasn’t come to church yet and we have a suspicion that he can’t read because every time we come over and ask if he has done the reading we left him he comes up with a really creative excuse. This week the excuse was “my friend borrowed my reading glasses”. How many friends borrow their friends glasses?! We would think he didn’t want to read, but then after he makes his excuse, he asks us eagerly if we will read it to him. So we have brainstormed some ways to figure out if he can read without offending him or coming right out and asking. I’ll keep you posted. He slept in yesterday and didn’t make it to church again. Bummer. We called him twice but didn’t have the miles to drive over.

The I--- are doing great! We came over and C--- started asking about what fasting was; so we taught them about fasting and she really wants to do it. So we’ll see if she actually made it. Fasting is hard if you’re only 13 and you’re doing it alone! And S--- has been keeping the Word of Wisdom! To make things even better, M--- asked if she could have a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, she wanted to study it! Oh, if only they would get married and the money thing would work out. They would be so ready for baptism!! Argh!!!!!!!!! So frustrating!

We met T---, the man who wants to be baptized but won’t go into the water because of a parasitic sore on the back of his leg. He was put in the VA hospital and they have drained a ton of fluid from his legs. They are still huge. He remarked on how skinny they were, but they’re still about as big around as my waist! I wonder how big they were before they drained them. Hopefully they will fix whatever is wrong with his legs so that he can be mobile so that he can get to church and be baptized!

One of the boys in our ward, Cyrus, is getting a bone marrow transplant this week from his 6 year old sister. He could use prayers.

I learned a cool new skill this week! Brother Monson taught me how to pick locks and I’ve been practicing on my lunch breaks so it doesn’t distract from the work at all. It’s so cool and I love it! I’ve only been able to pick about 9 locks so far, but I still feel successful. Maybe I can get good at it and be able to earn some extra money someday.

We have a return lesson with the D--- family this week. I’m really excited!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we can get in with the B--- again before January.

I’m excited to be back solely in my own area so I don’t keep having to bounce back and forth.

That’s about it on the updates for this week! Hope you’re all having an awesome December!

Don’t forget to #SharetheGift!

Love,

Sister Draney

Happy December! This week has actually been pretty warm by Montana standards. It got above freezing once or twice and we didn't have any killer wind, so it was a great week!!
On Tuesday this week I woke up with no voices at all. I couldn't speak above a whisper. If I tried, nothing came out. It was really rough for lessons,especially lessons with older people where you already have to speak loudly. Sister Lasson had to "translate" for me when they couldn't hear me.
We had a lesson with T--- about what happens to us after we die. He doesn't believe that people get a chance after this life. I think that that is so sad! We really have to work at it to get him to express his opinion. He loves to agree with everything we say and won't bring up what he thinks, so we really have to drag it out of him.
People here really like to serve plain rice as a side dish. I will never understand that, probably just because I didn't grow up with it. I'm slowly learning to sort of enjoy it. I guess this is why I had to serve a state side mission. I couldn't have handled foreign foods! Haha
D--- is doing really well! He is still keeping the word of wisdom! This week we taught him how to find the answers to his own questions and introduced him to the index in the back of the Book of Mormon. He was very excited to learn how to use it and we invited him to play around with it this week and look up things that looked interesting to him.
We had another lesson with C--- and H---! It was hard to get them to concentrate because C--- loves to joke around. But we managed to sit down in their living room and talk about how the gospel blesses families and how we have a prophet on the earth today. C--- insisted on looking him up on Google. They believe so many things that we do but they just don't realize it!
We also found out that the Jehovah's Witnesses visit them every week.
I got to go on my first facebook exchanges this week as the Zone facebook specialist. It was pretty nerve wracking because I don't like to pry into other people's stuff, so I was more than a little uncomfortable.
We had our Christmas Zone Conference and it was wonderful! I got to play "What Child is This?" And we had a ton of fun with the slideshow pictures! Thank you mom for sending in such a cute picture! It made me smile!
I got my very first crèche (nativity) for $14! It's the cutest hing I've ever seen and I'm very excited about it! We got it while we were on a Christmas stroll in downtown East Helena. We were trying to talk to people and share the He is the Gift video and I saw the crèche in an antique store and I couldn't pass it up. It's been on my bucket list to own a nativity before I'm 30 haha (because they're so expensive).
M--- is doing great! She did her 3 assigned chapters of reading in the Book of Mormon! We are very excited about it.
We also had a lesson with S---. He hasn't had his MRI yet, so no news on that. We are trying to get a set time that we can visit him at every week so we don't have to just keep trying to catch him home.
J--- is great! He couldn't come to church yesterday because he was really sick. We stopped by to make sure he was awake and he was awake, but clearly not doing well. So this is his one free pass! I was pleased that lots of people asked where he was.
We helped Sister O--- put up curtains this week. I dropped each of the 4 nails at least 4 times apiece because they were so tiny I was worried I'd destroy my thumb if I hammered them too hard. It was embarrassing, but Sister Lasson was such a trooper and kept retrieving them for me.
Sorry this is short, but things are great! I'm sad sister Lasson will be leaving this week.
Sister Draney

December is here! I can barely believe it! There certainly is more than enough snow on the ground here to indicate that it's December. We got so much snow this week. One day was white-out conditions and I got lots of compliments on my snow-driving skills. How that for an Arizona girl? :D
This week was really good! Last Monday we had dinner with the W--- and Sister W--- asked how one of our investigators, C---, was doing. We hadn't seen her since her kids were sick because she was never home when we stopped by. So as we were out and about that night we decided to stop by because we thought that maybe Sister W--- was prompted to ask how C--- was.
Not only was C--- home, but she invited us in right away! We had a great lesson and were able to answer a lot of her questions. Her husband was asleep on the couch for the whole discussion which was kind of uncomfortable because we didn't know what he would say when he woke up and found us in his house. It turned out to be okay. He was in the military and his unit was full of LDS guys who he said, "tried to convert him". Hopefully we will be more successful than they were! They are both so great! We will be visiting them again soon hopefully (December is busy for them).
Then again, no ones lives seem to ever get less hectic. Isn't technology supposed to make our lives easier? Instead we just find more things to fill up the time it gives us; for better or for worse.
We also had our first lesson with A---, the elder's investigator, this week! She is so great and has so many sincere questions! She is very wary of false prophets because she grew up in a cult where the leader was a "prophet" but would tell them to do things against what was in the Bible.
She was very comforted to know that God never speaks anything contrary to what He has spoken and therefore, nothing that our leaders say ever contradicts what the Lord has already spoken.
We had dinner with the C--- this week and he told us about the study he did of the precepts that are found in the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that, "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book", so Brother C--- made a study of all of the precepts in the Book of Mormon and so far he has found over 300 different precepts! That is a lot... I asked him how part two of his study was going, the application, and we had a laugh together about how it was definitely a work in progress.
President Mecham has asked us to teach the leaders of all of the quorums and auxiliaries the Restoration, so we stopped by the B--- this week to teach them and we had Brother B--- pretend to be his friend from work that he is sharing the gospel with. It was a tough lesson because his friend doesn't believe in God and it was kind of nerve-wracking because they had their RM son there who just got back from his mission, so I kind of felt like we were being graded, but it all went well.
We spent the week in J--- empty house that she's trying to sell because the C--- had all of their family come in for Thanksgiving. It was very interesting to move out and we quickly realize some important things that we hadn't brought, like a spatula to turn eggs with. It was a very interesting week. We were simply glad that the heater worked, even though there were holes in the windows that let quite a bit of cold in.
We drove out to the S--- on a really foggy night. The visibility was terrible and we had to drive a lot slower than normal. We had a great lesson with the S--- and got to meet their son, B---. He even stayed for most of the lesson! I wish we had more miles so we could go out to visit them more frequently.
We also visited a retirement home and sang Christmas carols to them. They just lit up when we talked to them about the Plan of Salvation. It was really amazing! You never get too old to have the gospel speak to your spirit.
I thought of a lot of spiritual parallels as we drove through the fog. It reminded me of Lehi's dream and the mists of darkness. I felt like the yellow line on the road was the iron rod, because if I stuck to it I knew I would be safe and that we would arrive at our destination in one piece.
When cars were coming the other way I could see ahead to where the road was leading and it reminded me of being a light to others so that they can find their way through confusing times.
Sometimes you can only see far enough ahead to take a few steps, but if you keep moving forward the Lord will light the way before you that you will eventually reach where you want to be. The thing is, you have to keep moving forward. If you stop and wait you will never make it to your destination and you won't be able to reach the safety and warmth that awaits you.
Thanksgiving was great! I woke up with a dry throat and by mid-day it turned into such a sore throat that I couldn't talk, swallow, or yawn. It was quite miserable. I took NyQuil at 4pm (luckily it didn't make me tired) and sucked on cough drops all day. I joked with Sister Lasson that that was the Lord's way of making sure I didn't gain weight from the 7 dinners we planned to go to.
It was so painful that I thought it might be strep, so we only went to three dinners. We went to all of them with the elders. We had a big break in between the first dinner and the other two, so the four of us played board games. I won all of them..not to brag or anything ;) haha actually, technically elder Denslow and I won one because Pictionary was a team game. The Welch's were teasing us that we were all on the same brain wave because we would sometimes guess the drawings in less than five seconds, and the drawings would be really terrible. We played Jenga and I discovered that I am a pro Jenga player. We also played Scrabble with cards. That was really fun! We had a great time. Hands down better than my first Thanksgiving here.
The four of us joke that we are all going to get transferred this transfer because we have way to much fun together.
We had one of our dinners with A--- and she got her answer! Now she is pondering all that she will have to give up when she gets baptized because part of her family is super anti LDS. She was talking to me and she said that she didn't know if she had got her answer, but she felt really peaceful when she prayed about it. I about jumped out of my skin and showed her D&C 6:22-23 and she was so amazed! She just stood there quietly for a moment.
She also was talking to us as she was making the final touches on dinner and telling us how she didn't understand how bad things could happen to good people and why God would let people do such terrible things to each other and I told her that God allows bad people to harm others so that His judgements and punishments will be just. And she just kind of nodded and kept working. Then she slowly turned around and said, "say that again". So I repeated myself, and it turned out that tons of people have asked her that question and she never had an answer for them, but when I answered her question she was amazed because it was the answer she had been looking for! Then we spent some time reading Alma 14:11 and Alma 60:13 and talked about it.
It was a really amazing night and it was especially cool because I could speak just fine whenever I was teaching, but when I wasn't my throat would hurt so bad I could barely talk. It was such a blessing.
There are some moments as a missionary when it's hard to control yourself when the truth "clicks" with someone. You just want to jump up and down and shout for joy! But of course we can't do that. It would be undignified...not to mention it would probably scare them...and drive out the Spirit. But it is just so amazing to witness! I'm so blessed to be able to witness so many people receive their answer and come unto Christ!
We did a lot of "He is the Gift" tracting this week. "He is the Gift" is part of a new church wide initiative. It's an amazing video and if you haven't seen it yet, you need to! It's on YouTube and on Christmas.mormon.org. It is so amazing and the First Presidency have asked us to pass out at least 10 cards for it each day and we have already seen miracles!
We spent one whole evening doing "He is the Gift" tracting without much success and we were heading home and I felt that we should pull over at this one house, so we did and they definitely weren't interested. So we hopped back in the car and kept going and we decided to try  a few more before we called it a night. So we pulled over and hopped out and started knocking. No one was home and we decided to just knock one more door even though it was really late. The man opened up the door and asked what we were doing out so late and we told him that we were out showing a message about Christmas and Jesus Christ and he invited us in!
We ended up sharing the video with him and his wife and then it lead right into the Book of Mormon and it turns out he is really interested! His name is C--- and he  believes that no church on earth is true, but he believes strongly in God. He is very intrigued by the Book of Mormon and asked if he could borrow a copy to read it, so of course we said yes!
We had a return appointment set up with him and H--- and we are so excited! He and his wife are very interested and we can't wait to see what happens with them!
We had a lesson with the M--- this week in which brother M--- tried to convince us that the Bible says that Barack Obama is Lucifer in the flesh. It was quite interesting and I had to keep myself from laughing. It was something I had definitely never heard before! Then someone else tried to convince us that Walmart was the multiple headed beast from the Revelations.
We got stuck this week in our little two wheel drive car. Luckily we made it out without Sister Aller having to get out and push. It makes me wonder what people do when there is only one person in the car and they get stuck. Do they just put it in neutral and get out and push it?
We had a great time shoveling snow this week, Brother M--- blames it on me because I asked him if it was unusual not to have snow by Thanksgiving. Shoveling snow is quite the workout! I actually enjoy it, mostly because it's for other people. If it was something I had to do to my own house I don't think I would enjoy it as much.
We also got to be the bearers of some much needed blessings for two struggling families in the ward. One of them is a couple who are in their 90s and she just fell and broke her hip this week. And the other is a large family with a single, divorced mother who just found out her son is really sick and may die unless he can get a bone marrow transplant soon.
We found two envelopes with their names on them and took them to their homes because there was no other identifier on it and they were filled with money! It was really a blessing to be able to bring those to them and watch how touched they were to be on the end of some church member's thoughtfulness. I really hope everything works out for them both. Bone marrow matches are tough things to find.
It turned out to be a great week even though I'm still under the weather. I keep joking with Sister Lasson that I'd better not still be sick for the Christmas zone conference this Thursday!
I love you all and remember to keep Christ in Christmas this year! I'd love to hear any good stories you have resulting from your efforts to be more Christlike!
Lots of Love,
Sister Draney

A request from our mission office: please send all letters to my actual address, not the mission office, until after Christmas. They are getting bogged down with a ton of mail. My address is:
3655 Meadowlark Rd.
East Helena, MT 59635
Also, they request that any packages not be sent til after transfers on December 16th because they can't forward packages and we may be moved from our current address.
Thanks!!
So, this week we met a whole slew of new, interesting people. We were trying to track down less actives and tract at the same time and we met a man who made a monument to his dogs in his backyard. I thought that that was very Montanan. We met a woman who slammed the door on us before we even made it to the porch. We met a man named A--- and were chased by his guard goose. It was funny because we couldn't figure out what was coming after us at first. It was really unexpected to discover that it was a goose!
One of the elders in our district was threatened with a gun. I'm sure it was pretty exciting, but I would not want to meet that man!  Being threatened is definitely not on my bucket list! He was pretty excited about it though.
We had mission leadership training this week. The meeting lated 7 1/2 hours and was really good. It kind of put a kink in how much work we could get done that day though. We learned a lot about "coming to the mountain of the Lord" and about how the mission leadership council works.
On Monday we had a meeting with our stake president and I put my groceries in the church fridge and freezer so we didn't have to use a bunch of miles to go home and drop them off. When we came back from the meeting someone had opened my new box of hot pockets and eaten the whole thing! I was beyond furious. It wasn't any of the missionaries because they were all with me at the meeting. So let this be a lesson for everyone: if you didn't buy it, don't eat it! They ate my lunches for half of a week! It's a good thing I didn't know who they were because I was not having very Christlike thoughts towards them. Not to mention, I couldn't replace them because Walmart was all out of them. It was a bummer.
We met a girl named E--- this week as we were looking for less actives. The less active had moved but she ended up letting us in because she thought her fiancée used to go to our church when he was little. Turns out he was actually Baptist, but we were able to share a little lesson and leave them with a pamphlet. The most awkward thing is that when we arrived their atheist friend stood up and left.
E--- said she would read the pamphlet and pray about it. She told us to come back when she was finished. So I was like, "okay, so next week?" And she gave me the strangest look and said, "next month. I don't read that fast." I was definitely surprised, seeing as how the pamphlet it only 16 pages long and 6 of those pages are pictures... But we will see her in a month. Hopefully I'm still here.
I'm sincerely hoping that I'll get to finish my mission here. Two more transfers after this; it's totally possible!
D--- kept the Word of Wisdom again! Only he thought it as just for one week, so he had coffee yesterday morning. We committed him to 3 months though. It's great to see him making progress. We just pray that he will see the blessings from living the Word of Wisdom because that's what he is looking for is the fulfillment of the promises in the pamphlet. I know they will happen, but the real question is whether or not he will notice them. Sometimes these things happen gradually.
We called T--- this week and asked if we were still on for our first lesson and he said, "one minute, I'll let you talk to my wife". I had the "great, now she's going to tell us they aren't interested and to never come back" moment, but to my surprise she was so friendly and told us we could come over in ten minutes! So we took our ward mission leader and went over.
It turns out she is a member which I why she was so okay with us coming over. We had a great lesson with T---, but we can tell it's going to be slow going. He's 86 and very set in his ways, but he is also very willing to listen to what we have to say. We are excited to go back! We got the wife visiting teachers this week.
We had dinner with the elders at the L--- family's house. They put elder D--- in charge of making the pancakes and it was so gross because he kept pulling dog hair out of the batter. It made me really glad he was cooking them, rather than the family, so that he could pull it out, but it was still so gross. This is why we don't have pets inside.
I made funnel cakes this week and the elders ate so many that they made themselves sick for the whole morning. It was pretty funny. Poor elders...
We finally got in to see S--- again! He is finally recovering from the hypothermia and severe dehydration. He has to get an MRI this week because something is wrong with his legs. The lesson was great though because his Bible basher friend was no longer there. His new roommate is a less active LDS member who left because she was offended. Ugh, it makes me so frustrated when people deny themselves eternal blessings because of something someone said or did!
We are hoping to re-set his baptism date this week because he's not going to make the old one. He's supposed to read out of the Book of Mormon this week. I'll keep you posted.
This week has been SUPER windy! It blew so hard that it knocked over someone's massive black trash can and we got to do some spontaneous service and help them clean up all the trash that blew everywhere.
It made me very glad that we had some set appointments on Saturday morning so that we didn't have to be out tracting in the wind. We tried tracting in the morning but the wind was blowing so hard that it was extremely difficult to make it back to the car, not to mention that we could barely see and we were narrowly missing the tumbleweeds that were taking flight all around us.
We had dinner with sister O--- this week. We were able to help her hang all of her pictures because she can't stand for long periods of time, so it would have been practically impossible for her to hang her own decorations. She made us really good soup but it was so hot that I was sure I wasn't going to be able to taste anything for a week.
Then, on top of that, last night I bit my tongue so hard at dinner that it started bleeding. My poor tongue is just taking a beating this week!
The R--- have actually been doing family scripture study and prayer!! FINALLY some signs of progress! It's funny because we actually went over to give them the ultimatum: either you start progressing, or we can't keep visiting. So thankfully we didn't have to give it!
Two sister missionaries that went home a few months ago came back to visit yesterday. It was so cool to see them! But it was also a little weird. They were all cute and they could hug boys. It was really strange to hear them refer to each other by first names as well because I don't know them by their first names. It was kind of strange to see the "other side". I think I'm good where I'm at, haha.
The I--- are doing great a well! We had scripture study last night with M--- and she told us some very personal, spiritual stories about her life and it was amazing to see how God has played such a huge, obvious part in her life. We are excited to keep working with her.
We also had a lesson with the whole family earlier in the week. We sat down to give the lesson when brother Ivers asks us out of the blue to teach about the Word of Wisdom. We were more than happy to comply, as I'm sure you can imagine.
It ended up going really well! S--- was so upset that she had disobeyed God and had had tea that morning. We explained to her that she wasn't in trouble and that now she could not drink those things because she knew what God wanted her to do. She is so enthusiastic about doing whatever God asks of her; it's simply amazing! I tell you, the kids that I have met have had stronger convictions and testimonies than the adults I've met. It's no wonder they are a chosen generation and it's no wonder that God tells us to be like a little child, easy to be entreated. They are all so eager to follow the Lord. It's really admirable.
I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. The bishop's family is coming from out of town, so we are getting booted out of the house for the week. We are going to live in J--- empty house. It should be very interesting...
Other than that, life is good! I hope you are all staying happy and safe! Don't forget to remember to look for things to be grateful for this week. If you have time, you should watch the Mormon message- "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving". It's a great message!
I love you all!
Sister Draney

Well, this week wasn't too exciting. We had transfers and I got to see a bunch of missionaries I haven't seen for a while, which was really fun.
It's been freezing all week, literally. The church parking lot was so covered in ice that when the vans came in to get the missionaries they couldn't stop and slid quite a bit. All of the incoming missionaries were full of stories about how they almost died during transfers. I rest my case, snow is good for no one! (Well, it's good for water supply, but rain could take care of that too...)
Sister Beckstrand got to say goodbye to a lot of people, which was nice. It also meant we got a lot of lessons because we shared a brief message with everyone we visited.
This week I discovered I am better at playing air hockey with my left hand than my right. Who would have guessed? Sister Beckstrand was soundly thrashing me while we waited for the transfer van so I switched to my left hand because I figured it couldn't get any worse, and up ended up beating her with my left hand! Woo! New skills.
We had another great lesson with J--- this week. He had so many questions and actually had read the pamphlet and studied it out! He had also read from the Book of Mormon! He promised he would come to church on Sunday but he slept in and missed it. I was really disappointed and he felt really bad about it.
We weren't able to visit S--- this week because he got lost while hunting. Luckily search and rescue found him, but he still ended up with severe dehydration and hypothermia, so he wasn't really in a fit state for a lesson.
We had a great lesson with the I--- this week! He told us he wanted to be fellowshipped in, so boy are we taking that as a challenge! We brought the entire Tyler family to the lesson: two adults, two teenagers, and one returned missionary. So when all was said and done there were 11 of us crammed into the living room for a lesson! It went really well and the whole Tyler family was really involved. It turned out that they already knew the I---, so it went even better than we had planned! They are committed to praying each night as a family and we are excited to see how it goes!
We had a lot of cancellations this week, which means we didn't have nearly as many non-member/less active lessons as we had wanted to. We had a ton of active member lessons, but it was fairly discouraging. Hopefully this week will be better.
P--- dropped us this week because his wife doesn't want him to meet with us. I am SO bummed because he knows the Book of Mormon is true!! Ugh! Sometimes people can be so frustrating! I guess there are people out there who are ready that the Lord wants us to find and He is taking great care that we don't spend time with people who aren't ready. I just wish it had happened before it became absolutely freezing! It physically hurts to be outside. I'm so excited for it to warm up to the 40s for a few days this week.
On the bright side, D--- kept the commitment to keep the Word of Wisdom! I am so happy for him! Usually that's a hard one for people to keep right away. He's going to keep doing it to see if the blessings that the Lord promises will come.
This week we taught him about the law of chastity. Talk about one awkward lesson! Two young women teaching a grown man to be chaste. We totally should have made the elders do it. It was a hard lesson because he doesn't believe in keeping the law of chastity.
Oh well, we keep pressing forward and hopefully this coming week will be better! I hope you are all safe and happy! (And warm)
Lots of love,
Sister Draney

To see a spiritual message involving this snake, follow Sister Shaela Draney on Face book

J--- was baptized this week!! It was an amazing experience. She was so excited even though none of her family showed up to support her and her uncle told her friends that she is ruining their family.
The Spirit was there so strongly and when she bore her testimony she talked about how she felt like her heart was going to explode! She said she felt amazing!
Everything went really well and one of her friends even showed up! The whole room was completely filled with people to the point where there was standing room only. The wards did such a good job coming out to support her.
They're going to have to transfer her over to 4th ward because that's technically where she lives. So  her boyfriend, is going to go with her to both meetings until she feels comfortable switching. Everyone is being really relaxed about it which is nice.
She is such a special spirit and she is so prepared! All of this adversity before her baptism will just make her stronger for all that will continue to come later.
Nothing else this week was quite as exciting, but we had some other good moments.
We have been trying to get in to see the C--- for months and we finally got in this week! All of our appointments had cancelled one night and we were discussing what the Lord wanted us to do, because clearly He wanted us somewhere or all of our appointments wouldn't have cancelled. So we decided to try the C--- and they were actually home and free to talk! We had a great lesson and the Spirit was there very strongly. We testified of the need for them to return and of the blessings they are promised for returning. We were quite bold with them but because the Spirit was there so strongly they really listened rather than getting defensive. One of the members of our ward joked that only sisters can get away with being so bold. People would get angry with elders. Ha, ha perks of being a sister missionary!
Sister C--- said she wanted to come to church this Sunday if she could make it. She didn't actually end up coming and I don't know if something came up or if she just decided not to come, but it's a step in the right direction at least!
We had another lesson with the I--- where we were really bold. We told them how it is, and told them that if they don't keep commitments that we can't continue to visit. Our purpose isn't to just be friends, it's to help them move forward and if they're not doing that then there are other places the Lord needs us to be. I really pushed Brother I--- because he always says that someday he will come back to church and we managed to progress to he will "try" to come to church, but I wasn't having any of it because either he is going to put in the effort or he is not.
We talked about not letting other people influence his salvation because he wants to be fellowshipped back in and he had some past offenses.
We were also bold with M---, even though she isn't a member. She knows the Book of Mormon is true, but she isn't acting on it.
We had a long talk about how to increase our faith and set out a game plan for helping them return to church. We will have to try it and see if they start to progress. They don't want us to give up on them and I told them that we never would as long as they were progressing and keeping their commitments, which means they will be active in the near future. It was the longest lesson I've had in a long time, but it was completely needed.

We had another lesson with P--- and we brought the W--- couple with us this time. I was sincerely hoping that he would actually invite us in to his house this time despite his wife's attitude, but I was completely wrong and I wasn't dressed to stand outside for an hour and give a lesson, so I was freezing the whole time. It was a good meeting though, we talked about the Priesthood a lot and explained what it is, what it does, and how it sets our church apart from other churches.
I never know what he is thinking because he answers all of our questions in one or two words statements, which makes it really hard to get a feel for what he is learning and how he feels about all that is being taught. Hopefully the lesson this week will result in more active question-answering. He knows the Book of Mormon is true, he just doesn't quite have a grasp on the rest.
We had a fun Word of Wisdom lesson with one of our active families. We got two big containers and labeled one "good" and one "bad" and as we listed off foods they had to throw the ball into the right container. It was pretty fun! They certainly enjoyed it and the little kids got the point, which is what we were hoping for.
We had a good Word of Wisdom lesson with D--- as well. He's really starting to change but he won't admit it. He actually has been saying some of the prayers at our lessons and has been doing our assignments each week. This week we had a lesson about the Word of wisdom and he committed to keep it for one whole week, which is a start. It will be perfect because we meet with him a week from today and we can commit him to another week! Luckily he doesn't seem to have any strong addictions that will really be a struggle to get over. He does really like his coffee, but he says he can give that up. I'm excited for him! We both feel that he could be ready to start coming to church in a few weeks. He won't commit to it yet, but we are getting there.
We had a lesson with the M--- and we talked about where they stand. Sister M--- believes that any church could be right, she thinks what matters most is where you are comfortable. She has tried the Book of Mormon but isn't interested in reading it. She doesn't read the Bible often either. She hasn't gone to church in years. We talked a lot about faith and talked about how it has blessed their lives. She prays regularly. She has attended a few LDS services a few years ago. She feels fine where she is at. She doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon with us.
It's so interesting how so many people believe that all the churches can be right, but yet they don't have the things Christ said must be present in his church.
S--- and S--- weren't home for our appointment...again. It's getting really frustrating because we brought the same member with us all three times and I feel bad that he keeps having to drive out, just to have to turn around and go home. He is such a trooper though. We have been discussing dropping them. We have had several doorstep lessons with him in which he is really interested, but every time we actually set an appointment he isn't there.
Our zone leaders have started having companionship study with all of the companionships in the zone. It sounded really strange at first, but we had ours this week and we were able to work on teaching at the door, which is something Sister Beckstrand and I really wanted to improve at. It was hard and awkward to role play it with the elders, but it turned out to be really effective! We had so many door lessons this week and even found a potential new investigator named L---!
L--- is so cool. He can do all sorts of impressions and Sister Beckstrand and I were laughing so hard as he demonstrated! He says he is Baptist but hasn't been for a while. He is very open to new ideas and is going to read the copy of the Book of Mormon we gave him before our next appointment (not the whole thing, obviously), but we are so excited! He's a cool guy who seems really prepared.
We had 31 lessons this week which is a lot for us!  The mission goal is 20 lessons a week. What a way to finish a transfer!! We have also been getting 100% pamphlet lessons and the mission goal is 75% so we are pretty proud of that. And we have been getting 100% member-present lessons which is a huge accomplishment! Not to brag or anything, I'm just so excited about what has been going on here!
I'm really sad Sister Beckstrand is leaving. We teach so well together and one of the people we taught on the doorstep remarked how we just seemed to feed off of each other because our transitions were so smooth. It was quite the compliment. I will really miss her because she isn't afraid to go out there and work hard. I know I can depend on her when we are in stressful situations and I know she has got my back if I suddenly draw a blank. It's going to be a little frustrating to start all over with a new companion. I guess I still don't get to break my record of having a companion for more than two transfers.
Sister Lasson will be my 10th companion and I will only get her for one transfer because she goes home at the end of the transfer. Hopefully that will mean she will want to work hard. I really, really hope she isn't trunky because that could make things really tough, especially because the weather is so rough, it's going to be all I can do to motivate myself to get out in it ha, ha.
We had another awesome moment this week when everyone cancelled on us. Once again, there was somewhere better the Lord needed us to be. We had decided to go track down less-actives and tract around since we had so much now-open time. However, as we were driving out of the trailer park I looked over at S--- house out of habit because we are always trying to catch her home, but she is never there. This time was different though! I saw her sitting on the porch and made Sister Beckstrand turn the car around.
We ended up having an amazing lesson with her. We were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation and what happens to babies who pass on, because she had just recently had two miscarriages. It was a very good lesson and the Spirit was there. She still wants to be baptized which is a miracle in and of itself because the first question she asked was a make it or break it question.
She looked right at me and asked what the church's standpoint was on gay people. I was able to explain and talk about the law of chastity that God expects all people to live by. It was a satisfactory answer thankfully. It was such a miracle to catch her though because we have been trying to for so long!
We were asked to visit the L--- this week. Brother L--- has gone inactive because he believes that he can prove that the church is false and he is well on his way to atheism. We had a good lesson about the human body and the world and how it couldn't have all happened by chance. We also talked about the scientific method and null hypothesis and how it is possible to test the promises in the Book of Mormon to see if they are true. He really looked like he was thinking about what we talked about, which is a good start.
We found a ton of people that are on our lists that have either moved or have gone less active. There were a few angry ones as always, but luckily only one of them turned out to be dead. That's always awkward. For example, "Hey, is Jody home?" (Awkward pause) "Jody has been dead for almost 3 years." (Us) "oh goodness, I am so sorry....". Yep, there is all sorts of fun to be had while trying to find people. We keep hoping and praying to find the prepared ones.
We have been going in circles with C--- and C--- which has not been fun. They will probably need to be dropped soon.
We introduced C--- to the R---. They had such a good time talking and discussing church that we had to interrupt them frequently to get the lesson in. It was good though because C--- needs more friends and she needs a couple that can come to lessons with us and help her build her testimony. Our ward is so great at missionary work!
We stopped by E--- place at the care center. She is the little 90+ year old lady that snores all through church. It was a really funny visit because we had to yell everything- the lesson, the prayer, the song. But it was totally worth it because she seemed so happy. We also got to share a message with two other non member ladies who were sitting in the living room. The caretaker was standing right there and looked kind of intimidating and we hoped she wouldn't tell us off for sharing a message and singing to them, but afterwards she pulled us aside and thanked us for coming and told us that we had made the ladies day. Apparently they don't get visitors often. It's so sad. It's like they were just dumped there by people waiting for them to die. The ladies were really nice.
Yesterday at church we had a ton of people there! Jess was confirmed and that was wonderful! We also had two excommunicated members there, one of which we have been working with for a looooong time. I was so shocked to see him and his wife walk in!
We also had quite a few less active members there which was so great! J---, K--- cousin, even came all by herself! I was so impressed. She didn't stay for all three hours, but this is the second time she has come to Sacrament meeting and it is definitely a start!!
It has been such a great week and it was a great way to end a transfer. I am so excited for all of the wonderful things that are going to happen this transfer! Hopefully our lessons will continue to improve, our investigators and less actives will move forward, and we won't lose any toes to frostbite.
Thank you for all of your support and prayers! They do matter and they are needed! And a shout out to those who have sent me letters, it makes my day so thank you so much!

Love,

Sister Draney

Happy November! Boy how time flies! Some of the missionaries in our mission are posting pictures of several inches of snow on their facebook pages. I’m so glad it has only snowed once in Helena and it didn't stick! I'm still not mentally prepared for winter and I don't think I ever will be. At least I'm not in Siberia where it is really, really cold.

We met S--- this week. She is a less active, her husband isn't a member, and they have a cute 10 year old daughter that they adopted from China. We have only met S---, but the rest of them sound nice. We are meeting with her again this week because she has a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and she wants us to prove it with the Bible. She is sincere, just very doubtful. She wants to know it’s true but she can't talk to her family about it because they are all so emotionally invested that they get frustrated when she doesn't see the truth. Funny thing is she is actually related to the H--- from Bozeman! Who would have thought?!

We did a lot of tracking people down this week because we had a few extra miles at the end of the month. We had to do a lot of it in the dark because it's getting dark earlier here. People kept shutting off their porch lights before we get off the doorstep, so it is hard to get back to the car without falling flat on our face in some of the areas. That's why I always carry around a flashlight with me.

We got to meet Sister R--- granddaughter this week and we are going to start teaching her at Sister 

R--- house. She's 17, her name is H---, and she's had it really rough lately. She was really interested in the message we shared.

We also tracted into this lady named C---. She has 5 kids in her blended family and she is so nice! We met her as we were trying to track down less actives in the area. The people that had lived in her house had moved, but she is super interested!

I had the grossest food of my mission this week. A family made us tofu soup with mushrooms in it. I couldn't even choke it all down. Luckily, they also made this amazingly delicious oriental chicken thing, so I ate lots of that instead. Tofu and soup don't mix well. Then again, tofu and anything doesn't mix well in my opinion.

We stopped by the H--- house to see if we could get an appointment with them, since they didn't answer the door the last time. We just wanted to know if they were interested, so that if they weren't we would stop bugging them. As we walked up we saw the mom looking through the window, so we smiled and waved. We went up and rang the doorbell and two of her kids answered. They told us their parents were busy (clearly a lie, since we just saw the mom) so we asked straight out if they wanted us to come back and the kids were like "probably not". I can't believe the parents hid from us and sent their kids out to send us away! It's not like we bite or are going to get angry. Seriously.

We saw the I--- again and had a very bold conversation with them about why they aren't coming to church/getting baptized. We told them that we had come because we felt they were ready to move forward, but if they weren't ready that we wouldn't be able to keep coming over. The other missionaries would come over and hang out. Not us. We are here to work and if they aren't willing to make the needed changes in their lives then we have other places that the Lord needs us to be. Personally, I really hope they are ready. I like them so much and they are all so sweet, especially their grandkids. They have such pure intent and they want to make good choices. They even want to read the Book of Mormon and come to church!
Something I am seeing more and more is that it's the kids who are making the push. It's the kids who want to get baptized, who are pushing the parents to go to church. It's amazing to see. They clearly are the chosen generation. They don't need a parent to pull them, they are going all on their own!

We had a crazy amazing lesson with J---.  She taught herself tithing.  She already knew why we pay tithing and that it was ten percent and already pays tithing, she has since she was little, so it was no big deal for her to pay it now. She also already knew what fasting was and bore a testimony of how she sees it bless her life. We shared with her what the funds go to.  We discussed the law of chastity and the blessings of living it and she wears a purity ring.  We went over the baptism interview questions and she answered them all and bore her testimony of the prophet and repentance! We hadn't taught her the word of wisdom yet so we summed it up and she immediately said she was drinking coffee and tea but was fully committed so she quit then and there.  We moved her baptism date to the 8th of November! So she is getting baptized this Saturday! We are beyond excited for her!

We had another crazy lesson with the man we found, S---. He received everything really well.  His friend was trying to convince him Mormons were wrong and God stopped miracles and there aren't prophets, and he even started yelling about how "Mormons talk to the dead!" Which clearly isn't true. S--- wasn't having any of it, he even argued with his friend to support us, which was surprising, but we would have much rather there had been no arguing or yelling at all. The two members we brought with us were very taken aback and Brother M--- said it was the most intense lesson he had been to in 30 years!  We used his friends Bible scriptures to support the lesson and it ended up working out.  The Spirit was really strong when we were teaching, then it wasn't when his friend was talking so you could definitely tell the difference in the room. S--- accepted his baptismal invite for November 29th and is so excited to read the Book of Mormon and come to church.  He said he's been searching for his purpose in life and hasn't tried this religion yet and will sincerely read and pray.  He prayed at the end of the lesson to know the truth and he was so sincere.  He is stoked to meet with us next week! And we are going to be meeting with him at member houses from now on to avoid crazy lessons like the one he had last time.

Mountain adventure- we were looking for a less active named L---and she lived way up in the mountains. It's a good thing it wasn't snowing or we would have been in deep trouble. We started off looking for her and the mountain gradually started to get steeper and steeper, and the roads started getting rougher and rougher, but we were so close to her house number that we kept going. The roads started getting so bad that we weren't sure if our car would make it, and eventually we didn't. So I had to get out and push the car up part of the mountain then eventually I couldn't push anymore so I had to back her down the mountain until we could find a spot that was wide enough to turn around. So I got to walk down the mountain backwards so I could make sure she didn't drive off the mountain! It was actually pretty fun because the grass was over 4 ft high and it felt like we were on safari. So that's how we track down less actives in Montana!

Halloween was fun, I was a pirate and Sister Beckstrand was a nerd. It was so fun! We walked around the trunk-or-treat and asked for referrals. We got quite a few referrals and a lot of candy which made me really happy. We had to be in by 6pm so we went to the Binghams house and watched them catapult flaming pumpkins with their trebuchet. It was just about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time!
This week was a really good one and I'm excited to see what November brings!

Love you all!

Sister Draney

27 October 2014
This week I had the opportunity to be interviewed by our mission president, President Mecham. It was great to be able to talk with him about some of my goals that I have and be able to get his advice.
A mission is a wonderful opportunity to work with many leaders and to see those whom the Lord calls. It's interesting to see that leaders come from all sorts of backgrounds; some are qualified leaders and others have no experience at all, but the Lord qualifies whom He calls and it is cool to really get the chance to see that as we work closely with ward councils and mission leadership.
This week we took members out with us like crazy! We had 11 member present lessons this week, which is a ton! That means that we had members at 11 lessons with someone who is not a member. We would have had more but a few people cancelled on us. That isn't counting all of the lessons with less active and active members. It is so great to see the ward getting involved! Just last night we were able to go on splits to track down people that were quite a ways from town. Both of the members really enjoyed the experience, which makes us really happy! I have yet to have a member go out with us who didn't like the experience. You should all go out with the missionaries in your area, it's a great opportunity!
The W--- moved out of our ward which makes me really sad. As we were helping them move Sister Beckstrand and I joked that it "seemed like we had moved all of this stuff before" because we had just moved it just a little while ago.
We gained a new investigator, put her on baptismal date, and then she dropped us less than a week later. It was a bummer! But it leaves us more time to go find the people who are ready, I guess. It's always sad when someone chooses not to accept the gospel. We know how happy it can make their life and we try to explain it to them, but sometimes they just don't understand or aren't ready to make the needed changes in their lives to follow Christ yet.
We had a miracle this week as we were going to visit one of our investigators. She wasn't home...again. But the girl that opened the door happened to be a less active from 4th ward  who was staying with her and we were able to teach her a lesson and set up an appointment for the 4th ward sisters to meet with her. It was a miracle for them because they had been praying to get in contact with her for quite some time. The Lord works in mysterious ways!
We had another lesson with C--- and R--- this week. We brought a member, a recently returned missionary from South America. Oh boy did my inner Bible basher come out. They were trying to prove the things they believed with the Bible and so many scriptures came to mind that were in the a Bible that contradicted what they said. I eventually had to make myself stop showing them the other scriptures because they just weren't going to listen. I felt bad at the end of the lesson for letting myself get so drawn in. Simple doctrine is the way to go.
We had a great lesson with J--- this week. He came with so many questions and we were able to sit down and answer all of them with the pamphlets and the scriptures. It was an amazing discussion and he wants to come back to church! (He didn't make it this Sunday, we aren't sure why yet). But what made the lesson even more amazing is that Sister M--- came to the lesson when just 3 hours before she had cancer removed off her nose. Talk about one tough lady! No one else from the ward was free to come with us and so we called, not knowing about the surgery, and she wanted to come despite it!
The other day Brother H--- (a recently reactivated ember) called us up and told us he had a friend named L--- who really wants to quit drinking and he asked if we ever could just "happen" to show up the next time he was over and talk to him about the addiction recovery program, so we did! It was a great discussion, but we were pretty sure he was at least a little drunk. He said he would come to church this Sunday with brother H---, but he wasn't there either.
We did have one success this week as far as church goes: K--- and his cousin J--- came! They only stayed for Sacrament meeting, but it was a good start! Everything worked out great, the people we had asked to sit by them came and grabbed them and they all sat together. We are excited to hear what they thought of church.
And the elders got an investigator to come to Sacrament meeting and he stayed for all 3 hours, so that was so great!!
This Saturday I got kind of sick, luckily it was just a stomach ache and we were having a ward craft Saturday, so Sister Beckstrand went in and talked to people while I died on the couch. After an hour or so I was fine and the day continued. It was a great activity and so many people were there! It's called "Souper Saturday" where they do crafts and bring soup to have for lunch.
We had another amazing miracle, the elders tracted into this little girl who mentioned that "the Mormons haven't been around in a long time" and they gave her a pamphlet and told us to go over. I'm still not sure why they didn't knock on the door, but I'm glad they didn't! We went over a couple hours later and knocked and we didn't even have time to introduce ourselves before they pulled us in and had us sitting in their living room. Apparently the I--- LOVE sister missionaries and they were so eager to talk to us. It's a part member family. Inactive dad and the wife and their kids aren't baptized. Actually it's two grandparents raising their grandkids. So we are going to start working with them. We are way excited!
We also found another part member family, the H---, and the member husband wasn't home, but the wife invited us in anyway. We had a great talk with her and she showed us all of her wedding pictures and told us all about their life. We were able to have a lesson with them and it turned out really well. Hopefully we will start teaching them soon!
And yesterday we had a lesson with the M---. We have been trying to get in to see them for months and they let us in last week and we had a great talk and lesson. Well, brother M--- came to church yesterday and very nonchalantly said, so when are you coming over tonight? He told us that his wife really likes us and that she will talk to us, but whenever the elders come she hides in the basement. So he really wanted us to come back. We had a lesson about the light of Christ and she tried to give us a bottle of homemade pickles. She succeeded in getting us to take the applesauce. She is warming up to us and we hope that she will soften her heart and allow the elders to teach her too.
Well, that's a condensed version of my week! I hope you are having an awesome month and are enjoying the nice fall weather! Don't forget to go out with the missionaries, or post a #BookofMormoning!
Love you all!
Sister Draney

This week some members took us out to eat at a place that was attached to a casino. Thankfully they were separate, but both Sister Beckstrand and I were a little apprehensive about it. It ended up being good though and we had a ton of leftovers to take home.
On Tuesday we went to visit the H--- family with Sister S--- our Primary president. We had tracted into them and this was our return appointment. We arrived a little bit early and sat in our car to wait for her to arrive. We could see their house across the street and we were a little concerned because all the blinds were drawn and the lights were off. We watched as this little girl biked up and knocked on the door. No one answered. She rang the doorbell and no one answered. We were a little discouraged as we watched her bike way until we saw movement in the upstairs window. They were peeking out of the blinds! They were hiding from us!
So we didn't want to look like creepers sitting across the street so we pulled farther down the street to wait. When Sister S--- arrived we walked down the street to their house, but right as we got there, their car pulled out of the driveway and they left. It was kind of funny, but very disappointing. So now we have to go back and talk to them and see if they actually want to meet with us.
So we went to some other teaching appointments with her.
Sister S--- gave me an ammonite necklace and it is the coolest thing ever. It's a fossil that is cut in half and polished. It's hard to describe over email, you'll just have to see it later.
We had the coolest miracle this week! We planned to go visit the W--- after Sister S--- dropped us off at our car, but it was too early to go over. We decided to go tracting in J--- trailer park. We felt that we needed to be there but we both felt a little nervous about tracting a trailer park at night.
So we decided to go ask J--- for referrals so that we could go to the safer places. However, she was no help because she doesn't really know her neighbors. So we set out and started knocking on doors but no one answered. Finally, one man opened his door. His name is S--- and we were able to give an overview of the Plan of Salvation because one of his sons had passed away.
We set up a return appointment and he really wanted us to meet his son, S--, but he wasn't home. Steve told us that Seth is super spiritual.
We walked away to continue tracting after praying with S---, but we didn't feel that any of the doors we were passing were right. Somehow we ended up heading back towards S---s trailer after only a couple minutes. I saw that there was a new car in front of the trailer with people getting stuff out of the back, so I called out, "Hey, are one of you S---?" And one of them called back, "yeah, that's me!" And bounded over to shake our hands.
He introduced us to his two friends C--- and B---. They told us they had been out DJing in the park and we told them we had just talked to S---s dad and we asked if we could share a spiritual message with them really quick and they agreed.
We started with an overview of the Plan of Salvation but they had so many questions and became so engaged that we ended up teaching the whole lesson and inviting all of them to be baptized!
S--- agreed and was so excited, C--- agreed a little reluctantly because he still isn't sure if there is a God; B--- is content in his church but said that if he came to know that the things we taught were true that he would be baptized.
It was such a miracle because we had been praying to find people who were prepared to accept the gospel and we have at least two, if not four!
The next day Sister R--- came out with us all morning! We visited B--- first and had a lesson with him. We had planned to extend a baptismal invitation but the lesson got so out of hand that we couldn't. He just wanted to talk about politics, world chaos, disease, etc. so it was hard to get the gospel in and when we did he started talking about how it's possible to have too much religion and "don't we ever talk about anything but religion?". Needless to say, it didn't get anywhere and we explained what our purpose was as missionaries, so we were going to talk about religion. We probably won't be going back for a while because he is clearly not ready right now.
We had our next appointment cancel on us so we took Sister R--- tracting. She definitely got a firsthand look at how rude some people can be. I think it's good for members because it shows them what missionary work can be like and makes them more willing to help us with referrals.
We had our first lesson with K--- after we tracted. As we talked with him and did "how to begin teaching" we came to realize that he knows nothing about the religion he was baptized into. He is super open and we were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation because he cared for his mom when she was terminally ill up until she died. It was a great, spiritual lesson and he really wants to get his answer if the Book of Mormon and the gospel is true. We have a return appointment next week. And he just texted us as I was typing this and he said, "it's funny, after you guys left I got a warm feeling" and we just were like, "Ahhhh!" We are so excited!
If he becomes reactived it will be just like a convert baptism because he has never had a testimony or been active.
We also had our first lesson with P--- this week. I don't know what it is with the Plan of Salvation but everyone seems to need it this week! Sister W--- came to our lesson with us and when we knocked on the door this lady came and looked like she was about to tell us to go away, so I quickly asked for

 P---.
We ended up having to have his lesson outside because his wife wasn't too thrilled that we were there. We had planned to teach the Restoration but then he started telling us about how his ex-son-in-law had just died as he drove to his 8 year old son's birthday party. It was so sad! So we started talking about the Plan of Salvation instead. He listened intently to everything we talked about but kept his answers short. I invited him to be baptized after the lesson and he wanted to know how baptism into our church was different than any other baptism, so we talked a bit about the Priesthood.
He said he would have to study more before he agreed and he honestly seemed to intend to study. I have high hopes for him! He seems very sincere in his approach to all that we shared with him.
After the lesson we went to go visit P--- and found out that she actually has set aside her tithing for the first time in forever! We are so excited! Not only is she paying her tithing but the G--- family also paid their tithing for the first time in years! What a miracle!
This week I hit my year mark and I got to read the letter I wrote myself a year ago. It was interesting to see how much I've changed since I first wrote that letter. I have accomplished to some degree all of the things I had hoped to accomplish so far. Overall I was very pleased as I looked back over my year of missionary service.
Sister Beckstrand celebrated my year mark with sparkling apple cider and weekly planning (it was an unfortunate way to spend a lot of the day, planning.)
I had to go on splits after planning, so I was out of my area all night. I ate tuna casserole on a coffee table for dinner, and we had a few lessons.
When I got back to our ward I found out I missed the most exciting night EVER!
They were walking around when someone called out, "hey, are you the Mormons?" And they replied that they were, and he said, "well, I'm ready to be baptized!" They couldn't believe it! His name is 

T--- and it turns out that he has received all of the lessons but can't be baptized because of an open parasitic wound that can't be submerged in water. So we are working with some nurses in our ward to see if there's a way around that with airtight, waterproof bandages.
And then they had a lesson that was set up for us by a member with a girl named J---. She accepted the invitation to be baptized, came to all the sessions of stake conference, and told us yesterday that she got her answer that the Book of Mormon is true and is going to be baptized! We are SO beyond excited!!! Member referrals are the BEST!
I had a water-chugging contest with Elder Denslow, one of the elders in our ward and I totally would have won, but he got a .5 second head start.
We have had such a great week of finding! We found a bunch of less actives and part member families that are going to let us come over again to teach them!
We had our first lesson with one of them, J---, last night and he is so ready to come back to church! His dad and step mom who live with him (they're way older, J--- is in his 30s) ramble constantly. They are both members but they smoke pot and think that they're perfect, we are going to start going over when they aren't there to detract from the Spirit.
We also found a potential investigator as we were trying to track down a less active man. It's been such a productive week for finding!
We also got to go to the Priesthood meeting because we are missionaries. Sister Beckstrand and I kept joking about how cool it was to be invited to the "super secret Priesthood meeting". I find it funny that so many people make such a big deal out of going when it's not any more exciting than any other meeting.
Overall this week was awesome!

I love you all and hope you are having a great week! Don't forget to write me!

Sister Draney

Holy cow what a week! We have been so busy, mostly with tracting. We have almost doubled our potential investigator pool and we have return appointments with all of them in this coming week. It's so great! It was originally frustrating because all of the people we had planned to see weren't home, so we thought that there must be some reason why we felt prompted to visit those people when they weren't even home, so we started tracting and had a ton of success.
We visited M--- again and we had quite the interesting conversation with him. We had planned for it to be a short lesson because we had given him the pamphlet and he read it. The only problem is he had some issues with the fact that we claim to be the only true church. We talked to him about how Jesus only set up one church while He was here and M--- was like, "Oh, you got me!" But then he went right back into the circular conversation that he started, so we didn't get anywhere.
We talked to his daughter though and she is one of those that believes that she is closer to God outside, that God is nature. There are a lot of those kind of people here in Montana who feel like they are closer to God while they are in nature rather than in church. It's one of the biggest problems we face is trying to teach people why church is essential.
We had a big meeting this week in which they introduced some new things we are allowed to do on Facebook, but with it there were a ton of new rules introduced. One thing that's pretty cool is that the mission introduced a new hashtag that they have created as a mission. They had to teach most of us what hashtags actually were which was pretty funny. So the new hashtag is called @bookofmormoning. It's where you take a picture of yourself doing something with a Book of Mormon and hashtag @booofmormoning. If you want to see some examples you can check my facebook later this week. You should use it and help it spread!!
That night we knocked on a door and it turned out to be this hardcore atheist that we met a few weeks ago. We had nicknamed him Corihor because of his attitude to everything we told him. He wanted to talk to us but was just as stubborn as before. He told us the only reason he wants to talk to us is because he thinks we are amusing and entertaining. It was kind of creepy because he told us that he doesn't have the thing in his brain that releases chemicals, so he doesn't have feelings. He said he is clinically labeled as a psychopath, minus the violent behavior. He just has no emotions. He wants us to logically explain how there is a God, but he won't accept the possibility that there is a God. We don't really think it's a good use of our time to go back even though he wants us to.
We had a great dinner at Sister R---; we talked about the law of chastity which was kind of weird, but she wanted ALL the lessons and that was the next one in the line. Then again, it's always a little uncomfortable to teach the law of chastity.
We visited a referral and she was not happy to see us at all, so the conversation lasted less than two seconds, but it ended up being an inspired referral because we walked next door where a family was building a basketball hoop and started talking to them. They couldn't really escape because they were working (which is the best) and we ended up having a pamphlet lesson with them outside and setting up a return appointment! We are excited to go out this week.
On Friday morning all of the people we had planned to see weren't home or they were ill, so our morning was suddenly completely clear as we decided to go find some less active people that were in the area and we had the strangest experience.
We met L---, who lives in this house surrounded by a high fence and tons of bushes. The front door doesn't open and she saw us walk up and she motioned us around to the back yard. She came out and it was very strange; she seemed quite guarded but showed us around her backyard. She insisted that we take some of her seashells and then sat outside and smoked and drank her coffee. She kept making this disgusted face and said that one of us smelled, talk abut embarrassing! Well, it turns out she is hyper-sensitive to smells like perfume and hairspray. Well, neither of us we're wearing anything besides deodarant. Well, L--- was so determined to figure out where the smell came from that she started grabbing our hair and clothes and sniffing them. The most awkward part was when she came up and smelled my ARMPITS. I was mortified. She came to the conclusion that it was our drier sheets. She wanted us to come back and do some service for her, but now we have to go back, odorless, for a test run first. I'm glad to know it was a good smell rather than a bad one though. I was super self conscious about it the whole time we were there.
She is super atheist and isn't willing to change, so we will do the service and probably won't return until she is more prepared to hear the gospel. She was also super rude about her opinions, so it wasn't a good place for the Spirit to be. She is a fiber artist, so she quilts and does thread art.
I can't really describe all of the people we tracted into that didn't accept our message. The real topper was one girl at B--- house who was super, supreme rude. I'm shocked at how rude some people can be. We should be nice to everyone no matter if we agree with them or not. We should try to lighten other people's lives. There is plenty of bad in the world without us adding to it.
We had dinner with the B--- after MCM and she was so kind; she took us out to go find a referral for an hour, until it was so dark that we couldn't see the house numbers (a common problem in Montana where there are no street lights). We didn't find the girl, but she came back very enthusiastic about missionary work and told us she wanted to help us more and thought about tracking the girl down on hear own. She was just the greatest because we didn't have enough mile allotment on the car to go find our referral. Even though we didn't find our referral we found another man, C---, who wants us to come back and teach him! We also found a woman that had taken the missionary lessons and isn't interested right now, but now where know where she is at. :)
We have been having a lot of temple prep lessons to help people get ready for the temple prep class that we are hoping is going to get going soon. We are so excited for everyone that is preparing to go to the temple. We got to work with C--- this week to help her prepare to go to the temple before her mission.
We spent all of Saturday morning trying to track people down. We didn't have any success with the people we were looking for. Only one was home. We were able to have a lesson with her, even though she was the door that we were most antsy about knocking on because the had a sign that said, "No soliciting, we know who we are voting for, we have found Jesus, unless you're selling thin mints, seriously GO AWAY!" So we were nervous to knock on her door, but we did anyway and braced ourselves for the verbal lashing we were sure we were going to get, but it didn't come. She was more than happy to see us and we were able to have a lesson with her.
Then on our way back this man flagged us down. We had talked to him the week before and the other people in the driveway when we had last talked to him were super rude and uninterested (which was quite the opposite of his neighbor who was polite and uninterested), but they were gone this time and he waved us over and showed us everything about the car he was working on- a Chrysler 300 for all of you car buffs- and we got talking to him and ended up having a pamphlet lesson with him. He wants to come to church and he asked to keep the pamphlet. We have a lesson set up with him for next Wednesday!
We got to drop a hat off at the deaf family's house and I got to sign with the little three year old again, he is so cute!
We went to go track down a less active and he turned out to be the mayor! Ha, ha go figure... Anyway, he wasn't home, so we will have to go back. They were like, "do you know whose house this is?" And we were like, "yep, and he's a member so we re trying to track him down" (but we said it more tactfully).
We ended up going across the street and having an amazing lesson with the man across the street. It turns out he isn't a member, he had an LDS girlfriend a long time ago, she had given him a Book of Mormon and he believes that it finishes the story of the Bible and has a testimony of it already. He last read it 6 months ago! So we have a return appointment with him next week!
I just can't believe how much the Lord has blessed us this week as we have been out trying to find people. He has been blessing us so much! We are so grateful. We hope that it goes somewhere with all the people that the Lord has given us.
I also wanted to mention how awesome it is to have iPads because I had a number of scriptures that came to my mind that were just part of a scripture and I was able to search where they were quickly because of the iPad so they lent a lot to the lesson. It's such a blessing to have modern technology because it enhances the lessons so much because it makes things the missionaries know so much more easily available.
This letter is coming out late because of Columbus Day yesterday. I had a great preparation day. Sister Beckstrand and I split because she is going to the temple on Saturday and I can't go because a different sister needs to go with her. They both worked with the same family while they were in Missoula and that family is getting endowed and sealed this Saturday so they got permission to go. So they had to give up their p-day in exchange for going to the temple. So I chilled out with Sister Parr and the other sisters. We had a great time but it was kind of weird because they are all going home really soon, so it made me more aware of how long I have left on the mission which was both a good thing and a bad thing. :)
Well, I hope you all are having a amazing week! Don't forget to be a great example to those around you!
Love,
Sister Draney