January 27, 2014

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…

Actually, that’s not true. It’s freezing. Quite literally. Just because the sun is shining does not make it warm! The wind makes it worse, but luckily it’s not blowing today.

                This week has been a busy one! It was transfer week which means that the whole mission is in a mad scramble to get everyone moved around. I lost both of my companions (Sister Hardy and Sister Nashio) Sister Hardy is in my old area in Billings and I’m SO jealous! Sister Nashio was sent to Lovell, WY.

                Sorry, I can’t remember how much I wrote last time, only that I didn’t have my journal with me, so bear with me!

                We went to teach Cavan this last week and to our surprise his two roommates sat in on the lesson and they had a lot of great questions! We hope to go back over this week. I think there is great possibility there. They are all really great and about our age which means that sadly, we’ll have to hand them over to the elders that are covering the university ward. Oh well.

                The apartment looked so empty after everyone packed. I will admit that I was quite excited at the prospect of having more space. Well, my new companion, Sister McCain brought enough stuff with her for two people, so there really isn’t much of a difference. I definitely think I will need my own room up at college for at least one semester so that I don’t go crazy!

                Sister McCain is from Texas (even though she was born in AZ) and she’s 20 years old. She went to hairdressing school and she wants to own a bakery, home school her kids, and work a large garden. She also knits and crochets. I’m seriously outweighed in womanly skills here! But I did feel accomplished that I could make a proper frosting flower when Robyn, a less active woman in our ward, taught us.

                I’ve been blessed by the Lord with deep sleep lately because Sister McCain snores. Very loudly. At first I tried to shake the bunk bed and wake her up, but she is a very deep sleeper. So the next step was to throw something at her or to bring up a flashlight and just shine it at her. But I felt bad, so I just prayed that she wouldn’t snore or that I could sleep through it, and luckily my prayer was answered!

                This week all of the missionaries in our zone made snow cones out of the newly fallen snow and poured the syrup on top of it and it was surprisingly delicious! Mmmmm got to love that pollution! ;)

                This week I also hit my 100 day mark! It was quite the celebration! Well, okay, it was only me who celebrated, but it was still cool! Then I went through my calendar and marked all the other important dates so that I could celebrate accordingly. It also made me think of some of my lovely friends who are leaving on missions soon!! Kay Shaeffer, Whitney Dean, and Brooklyn Young! Good luck you guys! You’ll rock the mission field! ;)

                We finally had a lesson with the man we tracted into who we dubbed Robin Hood. We found out his name is actually Mark, but we still call him Robin Hood at home (bad sister missionaries, I know! Ha, ha). He is really awesome and had a lot of good questions. One of my favorite things to be able to do as a missionary is to clear up people’s misconceptions about the church. A lot of people think they know things about the church but a lot of their information is either partially true, or completely untrue. So we got to expound on the things he already knew a lot. It was good and he invited us back. I’m not going to lie, I’m really looking forward to it! He’s a stellar guy AND because he doesn’t go to the university, we don’t have to hand him over to the elders! :D

                In other news, I almost was eaten by a pit bull this week. We spent 15 minutes inching forward trying to decide if we could make it to the door or if he would attack us. We had our escape routes all planned (all I had to do was run faster than Sis McCain ha, ha). Eventually I decided to go for it and I just didn't look at the dog and we made it! When we left Sis McCain was like "Are you all sweaty?" I was like "Yeah, you?" and we were both so sweaty from thinking we were going to lose a hand ha, ha.

We also went to go look inside this house that was being built and as we were coming out this car pulled up and I was like "watch that be the people that own the house" and it totally was! It was so embarrassing! But we started up a conversation and it turned out okay. Now we know them already when they finally move in ;)

                We went to the Francis’ house for dinner and their little daughter kept running and jumping into my arms! It was the cutest thing! Little kids are so cute! They make me miss my siblings.

                This week we also wrote a huge “mormon.org” on a frozen pond in one of the areas we were working in. It was so fun! There were little kids ice skating on the other half of the pond (it was a big pond); that’s certainly something you never see in Arizona! I was personally happy that we didn’t fall in since it was a rather warm day.

                We also met a lovely woman who was referred to us by a member of the ward. Her name is Margaret and she’s from Uganda, Africa. A lot of her siblings live in London, so she gets to go there every year! I’m so jealous, can you tell? Her dog was also really excited to see us, so he jumped up on us and I still have scratches all over the backs of by hands because his claws were so sharp. Margaret is another person we were able to clear up some misconceptions with. She thought that we worshipped Joseph Smith and that he had simply written the Book of Mormon and she didn’t really understand what the Book of Mormon was, so we were able to clear a lot of it up and once she understood she was a lot more eager to read the Book of Mormon. She’s a Baptist and she is so nice!

                We also had dinner with the Driscolls and they live in an apartment with one son and a huge mastiff! He was bigger than I was! Seriously! But he was one of the least intelligent, sweetest dogs I’ve ever met. They put him in the bathroom and leaned a little baby gate (like the one you put on stairs to keep little kids from climbing them) up against the door and that dog thought he was stuck in there! He whined and cried but he didn’t make a move to touch the gate. He could have stepped right over it he was that big! But he just sat there, crying away. Poor guy. All he needed to do was bump the gate and it would have fallen right over!

                Oh, I also played a musical number in church today which was way fun, and nerve-wracking.

                So, before I end, here is my recipe of the week! It’s Café Rio green sauce apparently. It’s so delicious and I don’t know how well-circulated it is, but here’s the sauce:

                Café Rio Sauce

                1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet-made per recipe using sour cream instead of milk

                2 tomatillos- tomato like vegetable with husks around them

                ½ bunch cilantro

                1 clove garlic

                Juice of 1 lime (it’s not too much, trust me!)

                1 jalapeno- seeded

                Use food processor to blend all ingredients well. Chill.

               

                It’s so good. We put it on our egg burritos and it made them taste fabulous. Then I put it on my pineapple and it was similarly delicious ;) Seriously, you should try it!!

                Also, in case you’re interested, she also gave me the recipe for the Café Rio pork: (it makes a lot!)

                Café Rio Pork

                3-4 lbs pork roast (butt or shoulder)

                Cook in crock pot with:

                1 can Dr Pepper

                1 T minced garlic

                4-8 hours High or

                7-8 hours low

                Shred and return to crock pot

                Mix and pour over pork. Cook additional 1 hour:

 1 ½ c ketchup

1 ½ c Brown sugar

3 t lime juice

2 t minced garlic

½ t salt

Pepper

1 t cumin

               

Annnnd (I know you love me ;) )

                Café Rio Rice

                3 c water

4 t chicken bouillon

                4 t minced garlic

                ½ bunch cilantro

                1 can chopped, green chilies

                ¾ t salt

1 T butter

                ½ white onion

                3 c Uncle Ben’s converted rice (converted because of the missionaries! ;) haha)

                Blend cilantro, green chilies & onion in food processor. Bring water to a boil- add all ingredients.

                Simmer on low for 30 minutes-covered.

                We all love Café Rio. I also have the Black Bean recipe and the chicken recipe if anyone wants them. J I hope you all enjoy, because I certainly did! If nothing else, try the sauce!

                I love you all and I hope you’re having a great week! Keep the snail-mail letters coming! They make my week!

                Lots and lots of love,

                Sister Draney

Hello Everyone!

The letter is short this week, mostly because I forgot my journal, which means I have no idea what has been going on in my life. The days all blend together because you’re doing the same thing every day.

Both of my companions are getting transferred. So tomorrow I will get my 6^th companion in just 3 months. (That’s a lot of companions) I’m wondering if they’ll ever let me keep one!

We finally had some appointments that didn’t fall through which was very exciting for us! And we even had one success with tracting (hopefully) we’re going back to teach him today.

So a lot of times we forget people’s names because we meet so many people in a day, so we give them distinctive nicknames so that when we put them on our board we remember who they are. So right now we have Robin Hood, Packers guy, and curly hair man. It’s pretty funny and we’re always a little sad when we find out their real names and have to take the nicknames down.

One of the less active members of our ward came to church this Sunday! We were so happy that we were just beaming ear to ear all of Sacrament meeting! He even stayed for all 3 hours! It was great!

One amazing experience we had this week is that we went to visit a woman named Vivian and when we came to talk to her all she could say was “oh! Now I know the Lord is looking out for me and that He loves me! He sent me three angels to talk to me!” and it was so sweet. It’s amazing that people can feel the Lord’s love for them just by us being there.

 

This work is so amazing. It’s incredible that we all have the same Book of Mormon with the same words, yet it is so deeply personal to all of us. It is truly inspired of God. It can change lives and it not only changes people’s actions, it changes their character. They truly have a desire to change once the Gospel enters in to their lives. There is nothing better that we could be doing than sharing the Gospel with all we know. It can be intimidating; it’s even intimidating to me and I do it full-time! But we have promised the Lord that we would and the greatest joy you can imagine comes for keeping that commitment. This gospel is wonderful, it is truly a gift beyond measure. Without it I would be lost. I can’t express my gratitude enough for my Savior and what He has done for me and continues to do every day. I am so blessed.

 

Oh, something interesting did happen this week! I got a haircut! Ha, ha not very exciting you say? Well, she cut off roughly 6 inches, so now my hair is quite a bit shorter than it was originally! It’s weird having short hair, but I think it’s cute.

Another funny thing that happened to me, as I got to church this Sunday, I realized that I had forgotten to put on a bra that morning because we were in such a rush to get to our MCM meeting. We were busy for the rest of the night so I spent the whole day feeling very self-conscious. It was like one of those bad dreams, except I never woke up.

We went to a gymnastics tournament this week that one of our recent converts invited us to. It was so fun! And it was a good opportunity for them to feel our support. The branch president’s wife came too.

And we got our car repaired this week.

Yep, that’s about it this week. It’s not too exciting, I know, but that’s all I have! I hope this week is a wonderful one and I love you all!

Love,

Sister Draney

Hi Everyone!

Wow, it’s been a while! It’s been absolutely crazy these past few weeks. We didn’t get so send emails this week because my companion was in the hospital, so I had to stay with her. On Friday she was feeling a little sick so we stayed in and let her sleep and she said she was feeling better in the morning, so we went to church. At the end of Sacrament meeting we look over and she’s doubled over, clutching her side and crying. Luckily we had a surgeon in our ward that examined her in the bishop’s office and sent her to the E.R. We had to practically carry her out to the car because she couldn’t walk and she threw up all the way there. We were kind of panicked because we had never taken someone to the E.R before and she looked really bad. To add to the stress Sister Horrocks’ visa had arrived and she was leaving for Brazil that day! She ended up having to leave with Sis. Nashio in the hospital. She was really worried about her and it must have been tough to leave.

                We ended up staying in the E.R for 8 hours with our devoted ward mission leader. Then she and I were transferred to the hospital overnight. She stayed there for 2 days and they ended up putting me on exchanges so work could still be done in our area. It was really tough to leave her with Sis. Lasson, but they released her the next day. It turns out she had had a UTI, kidney infection, and an inflamed colon. It didn’t look like much fun, to say the least.

                She ended up staying home for two more days while I worked with Sis Glenn in our areas. It was productive, but not as productive as I would have liked. Our area is pretty slow right now and no one ever seems to be home. It’s tough, but it is what it is and as long as we are doing our best then the Lord is pleased with our efforts.

                When Sis Nashio was finally approved to leave home all we had time to do was go to our dinner appointment before we had to go pick up our new sister. Sister Hardy, our new third companion, is from temple square and she is doing her out-bound part of her mission which typically lasts for about 2 transfers (or about 3-5 months) depending on the assignment. She’s really fun and we’re enjoying having her. She’s been out for 7 months, English speaking, and she’s glad to get to try out a “proselyting mission” as she calls it. 

                We were also excited to finally replace our shower curtain this week! The elders had one when we moved in, it used to be clear, but it has been a muddy brownish-black color all this time, so we finally got a chance to go to the dollar store and get a new one. It’s cheap, but it’s clean and that’s all that matters!!!! It’s a funny thing to be excited about, but now I can touch the shower curtain without gagging. We held off so long because good quality ones are expensive at Wal-Mart, but a member suggested the dollar store and they had them!

 I have to tell you, it kills me to email in the library every week surrounded by books. I miss reading SO much!!! It’s not even funny. I tried to convince Siri on my ipad to tell me a story the other day. It wasn’t a very exciting story. Then I tried to commit her to baptism. She accepted the lessons, so it’s a start! I can be the first missionary to baptize the internet! Ha, ha ;) Won’t Nate be jealous?

                I had my aura read this week by a less active. It was pretty cool and apparently a lot of people can do it here and it always makes me nervous, I feel like I need to control myself better so they can’t “read” me. But apparently (for those of you who are dying of curiosity) I’m a rainbow, which is apparently unusual. And to make mattes even better, she says I need to marry a rainbow. Yeah, I don’t know how I’ll tell if they’re a rainbow or not. But I was pretty proud of myself for being unique ^_^ apparently a lot of people are blues or greens.

                I don’t know what it is with creepy things happening in Bozeman, but this week we were driving in a neighborhood and we passed a house where we saw a girl standing on a porch in with really long dark hair falling around her face. We remarked on it because she seemed weird and kind of out of place, but when we got turned into the neighborhood she disappeared. We were all pretty freaked out. I joked with them that we should go tract that door. Sis Nashio and Sis Hardy weren’t too enthusiastic about that idea.

                We finally got to go out to our branch in Big Sky this week. On the way there we saw a group of bighorn sheep right by the road, a huge herd of elk, a largish herd of deer, a herd of buffalo, and 3 bald eagles. The only things we were missing were moose and bear.

                The branch is amazing but small. The other sisters were kind enough to only take a few minutes each and leave me with 15 minutes to speak and only a few notes (we were each supposed to speak for 7-10 minutes, so I wasn’t prepared for 15) but somehow I managed to fill the time and everything was okay. But it was nerve-wracking because in a branch everyone pays really close attention. We did get to meet a woman and her daughter that recently re-activated themselves and we’re going to her daughter’s gymnastic tournament this Saturday. Her name is Elyse and she is so cute!

                We went out trying to find people last night and we tracted into this Baptist man and I ended up talking to him for quite a long while. He was so blunt and contradictory that my knees were shaking and I felt a little woozy but the other sisters said I didn’t seem flustered at all, so kudos for that I guess. I kept waiting for one of them to jump in, but no one did. I was able to hopefully clear up a few misconceptions he had about the church and even though he still didn’t want to hear our message we left of friendly terms.

                Now for the week before last week:

                I returned my scale that said I only weighed 50lbs every time I stepped on it. As much as I am flattered by that, I think that I would know if I was only 50 lbs because I would be in the hospital.

                We spent New Year ’s Day at a party at our ward mission leader’s house. It was an awesome opportunity to meet the members and to socialize a bit. We also got to play Catchphrase which is so much more fun when you’re a missionary and you haven’t played games in months!

                I frequently get distracted by the stars when the night is clear. They’re so beautiful I can’t help but stare! My companions tease me about it all the time. J

                We met Tyson this week. He is the most stellar 10 year old I’ve met on my mission so far! He’s reading the whole Book of Mormon by himself and he wants to read the Bible next. He says he wants to go to the temple and that’s his goal. He can’t be baptized because his dad won’t allow it, so we’re hoping he’ll let us talk to him so we can work out whatever is keeping him from letting his son get baptized.

                We also spent 40 minutes calling EVERYONE and trying to get appointments set up. We only got one appointment set up but then we missed it because we were in the hospital. We’ve had a lot more luck this week, we have a grand total of 4 lessons set up, which sadly is pretty good compared to weeks past. Hopefully the work will start picking up soon! But we love it here and the people are friendly and the ward is stellar.

                I have an invitation to extend to you. Our zone has really been focusing on our language this week. The world was created by words, the Priesthood is exercised through words and faith, so much in this world is only words and words are so much more powerful than we give them credit for. They had the power to hurt someone for ages after they were said if we let them. So, as a zone we’ve been cleaning up our language. We completely cut out the word “hate” because that’s such a strong emotion that we really don’t actually hate 90% of the things that we say we do. It’s funny because if we slip up and say it Elder Holland (our zone leader) is always like “wow, that’s a mighty strong feeling you’re having there”. It’s funny, but it’s so true. We’re also cut out decaffeinated words like “crap” and “shoot” or anything that could be mistaken for something worse. It really makes a difference and I would like to invite you to try it. Try and clean up your language and see what a difference it can make. Ever since I’ve been doing it, the word “hate” shows up like a red light and people use it so often. So try it and I would love to hear how it goes for you!!

                I hope all is going well in your lives and remember to read your scriptures every day and you’ll see the blessings!

                Lots and Lots of Love,

                Sister Draney

Happy New Year!

So, I'm in the hospital, with Sister Nashio. They think she has a kidney infection. So I got to spend the night on a fold-out recliner (not the best night's sleep I ever had) and now since Sister Horrocks got her visa to Brazil and left this morning I'm all alone! So, super exciting. Anyways hopefully they'll let us email later when she's up and moving again, but if not, next weeks letter will just have to be extra long! :) I'm doing just fine and I'm staying healthy. I was right though, there's nothing worse than a sick companion, you run out of things to do very quickly! Not to mention I can't even really talk to Sister Nashio because she's so drugged up on morphine that she can barely keep her eyes open. 
Sister Draney