Hi Everyone!

So part of this letter is answers to questions that I’ve been asked and the other half is what happened this week.

Question: Do I miss movies and books and what do they let you read?

Yes, I miss music and books SO much!! My new comp and I tell each other stories to pass the time. We keep lists of all of the books and movies we’ve seen that the other person hasn’t seen and we spend all of our free time telling each other stories. We go to the library to email and whenever we come here we make lists of books that we’ve read to tell the other person. Sometimes a story telling can last up to 4 hours! I tell her some of the stories I’m thinking of writing. She really likes them and says she’ll be my number one fan! :D I really enjoy it. All we’re allowed to read is the missionary library. Nothing extra. It stinks so bad! We have an approved music list, not even all music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is approved! My wish-list CD for the moment is the Vocal Point CD “Lead Thou Me On”. I miss my instrumentals the most. I also really miss movies. I miss a lot about not being on a mission actually. I haven’t adjusted as well as a lot of missionaries. I struggle to find things to keep me happy and the work is slow here at the moment which doesn’t help matters much. But we keep moving forward!

We have a lot of problems with dogs because everyone here has pets! I think the most animals I’ve ever seen in one home is about 40 animals. No joke. This last week I was licked by someone’s pet deer. His name is Elliot; I fed him a carrot and he licked my head. I don’t think I could ever be a hunter now! That animal absolutely melted my heart!

My companion Sis. McCain is a really awesome person and I’m so happy to be her companion. She’s really funny and is full of good stories!

 I can’t believe I’ll be 21 next month; it’s crazy to think about!

Question: What do we do all day?

Out here we do a lot of things. We do a lot of tracking down less-actives (whether they want us to or not. Usually they’re not too nice). We don’t have a lot of miles to use each day, so we drive to an area and stay out there all day. So if we run out of people to see then we spend the rest of the time freezing to death and tracting. We’ve actually had a bit of success from tracting.

Someone asked what we do for lunch and dinners, we haven’t packed a lunch yet. Sometimes we make calls from our apartment, visit a little old lady who lives nearby, or do online work. We usually keep busy, but eventually we’ll run out of stuff to do for that hour, then I’ll be in trouble because I despise sandwiches. Members usually cover all of our dinners though which is usually nice. One of our investigators gave us something to drink that smelled like a horse-barn! I just tried to stop breathing ad chug it. Luckily I kept it down, but it was a close call. I almost threw it up and then the next day I was sick with a stomach ache. Go figure. And it finally happened. Someone fed us fish. I was a little alarmed when I walked into the house and smelled it, but luckily it was salmon, which I like. It was a narrow escape. Apparently I’m a picky eater.

Question: How is the church doing in your area?

The church is doing okay here. Our ward has 440 people and only 75 are active which means there’s a lot of work for us, but a lot of people like to move and just disappear. It’s tough to try and figure out where they ended up.

Question: Why do you name your trucks and what is your truck’s name?

Everyone out here names their vehicles. Don’t ask me why because that’s just how it was when I arrived! We were going to name the truck Tiancum (or however it’s spelled in the Book of Mormon) but that name was already taken, so we had to change it. He was going to be Samuel, but I liked Samson better and I’m persuasive…so we named him Samson. It’s funny because sister McCain’s last car was named Delilah.  He’s a 2012 Nissan Frontier. I am in love with that truck and I really wish I could own one. But, I’m poor, and that probably will never happen! Haha

As for this week:

We taught seminary for two mornings in a row. I was shocked at how rude a lot of them were by being on their cell-phones, refusing to participate, and blatantly being rude. Finally Sis McCain and I finally got tired of it so we took the candy that we had been using as a reward for questions answered correctly and finally chucked them at one of the boy’s head. Boy was he surprised! Eventually we just gave up and taught the responsive half of class. I now know why I want to teach college.

I learned CPR this week at a Relief society activity. I must have been a little over-excited because I ended up bruising my hand in the process. It just finally started to get better. This week has been one of aches and pains. I bruised my elbow playing dodgeball, then I got really sore from shoveling snow.

It snowed about 6inches- 3 ft in some places, so we went out and did a lot of snow-shoveling service. It was so tiring! See, this is why I love Arizona- you don’t have to shovel sunshine off of your driveway!

All of our set appointments this week forgot or weren’t home when we came. It was really disappointing and this week was really slow for missionary work which makes it tough to stay optimistic.

I don’t have much more to write this week, it was a slow week for us. Hopefully next week will be really busy! We’re looking forward to -20 to -30 degree temperatures, over 23 mph winds, and overall freezing weather.

I love you all and please write! This week I got fewer letters than I ever have in my entire mission, which was sad. Shout out to Grandma Draney, Grandma Gonfel, and Grandma Tingey for writing me! You guys are awesome!

So everyone, keep ‘em coming! ;)

Lots of love,

Sister Draney