Happy June!

I already feel like it’s been June forever, even though we’re only a couple of days in. In a few days I hit my 8 month mark; crazy, right? I only have less than a year! Ahh! Where does the time go?!

This week has been absolutely one of the longest, busiest weeks ever. We drove down to Billings twice this week (for reason’s I will disclose later) and tried our best to have as many lessons as we could. So we were jam-packed all week!

On Monday I got to introduce Sister Session to the Sullivan’s deer. She thought that was really cool. We also got to see a little bit of the house of her employer. Apparently I was wrong, he’s the 11^th richest man in England.

On Tuesday we got to wake up at 4:30am to drive down to Billings because Elder Carlos Godoy was doing a mission tour. It was really great to get to meet him and listen to him. All of the missionaries in the mission learned “Called to Serve” in Portuguese and sang it to him. He joked that for a minute he thought he had the gift of tounges because he could actually understand what we were singing! It was really great. He gave us a lot of good advice about how to find people, how to be a  better Preach My Gospel missionary, and (surprisingly) about marriage. It was extra-funny because right before he came in we had just had a discussion about elder-sister relationships and “locking your heart”. We all thought it was pretty great because he had no idea that that was what we had just discussed.

They provided us with a lovely Café Rio dinner (the staple of all LDS functions here) and icecream sundaes. You know, sometimes I think they’re trying to make us all gain weight. Sadly, I think it’s working. Sister Session has gained 25 lbs since she came out. However, she’s still super skinny, so I’m way jealous.

After we got home from the mission tour we were completely and totally exhausted but we still had 2 ½ hours of proselyting time left, so we pushed through and went to our dinner appointment. They had some really interesting blueberry muffins cooked with coconut oil, it was really good. Then we went over to K--- to work on Personal Progress and make sure she was going to go to mutual the next day.

On Wednesday we volunteered at the library and I got to show Sister Session around which was pretty fun. I enjoy knowing what is going on in different places. I also enjoy it when people come to me at the food bank to ask what they should do with certain items or jobs they’ve been assigned.

We had dinner in town the Mortensons who took us to Qdoba, a restaurant in town that is kind of like Chipolte. It was really good. Sister Session and I each got something different and then split it.

On Thursday after we did weekly planning and volunteered at the food bank our high priest group leader, Brother Evans, took us out to Ihop. (We’re really getting our fill of fast food this week!) But he’s a single man, so he can’t have us over to his house. I really enjoyed Ihop though. I’ve only ever been there a few times.

We visited K--- and her parents again. She was busy so we talked to her parents and her neighbor. They were building armor for their next SCA war. They let me try on their armor and it was so cool and heavy! I felt like I was ready to take on the world! I must admit it was really neat to watch them working on more armor. They were making some plastic pieces by putting them on the barbeque and heating them up. All of the metal pieces have to be welded. It looked really complex and we even ended up having a good talk with them, despite all of the fun we had.

I took Sister S---- the painting I finished for her. I’m so sad to see her go next week! Not to mention I have no idea  what I’ll do in the mornings now… She’s so awesome and is making such progress! I’m so proud of her for all of the work she’s put in to making this change in her life.

On Friday we helped a less active woman in our ward, K---, weed her yard. When she asked us to help her weed I thought it wouldn’t be too bad  and that we could finish it all in 2 hours or so. That was not the case. We barely got ¼ of the yard done! The weeds were huge and tough to get out. I will admit that I enjoyed it a lot because it was outside work and I love to be out in the sun. She fed us dinner and we had a good talk. If it wasn’t for her kids nap times we really wouldn’t have a problem!

The Kroffs let me borrow their keyboard this week because they asked me to accompany them in a musical number on Sunday and I had no time to practice! Luckily everything went well and the number sounded fine. I was so nervous though! I haven’t had that little preparation time for as far back as I can remember.

On Saturday we had another musical number practice because I’m in charge of the musical number for the zone training this next week. Once again, I didn’t have nearly enough time to prepare! I’m excited though. I love any excuse to play the piano.

Afterwards we had to go to Billing again because Sister Burton was doing a training meeting for all of the leadership in Montana. So we got to hitch a ride with a member from 3^rd ward and go to that. It was so informative and I learned a lot. I would share my notes, but I forgot them at home. It was really unique to get to meet her and get a picture with her. I was walking past her on my way to say hello to a Sister I knew from the Billing s Hilltop ward and she reached out and grabbed me and gave me a hug. I felt very special. J

The sister from 3^rd ward took us all out to Subway when we were done. We didn’t make it back to Bozeman until 11:15pm and we were all exhausted. It was all we could do to climb into our pajamas and fall into bed when we got home.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. We had some good lessons. I gave Melissa a good laugh when I tried to make her cello make vibrato noises. Apparently I was a terrible failure. She said (and I quote) “you look like you’re having hand-seizures!”. So apparently a cello career is out of the question for me unless I get some serious help.

I hope you all had a wonderful week. I hope you are all staying safe and having fun. I love you all a lot and I hope you know that!! J

Til next week,

Sister Draney