This week I spent most of Monday and Tuesday running around with Sister Session trying to say goodbye to everyone in Bozeman. There were not enough hours in the day to see everyone. We were running around like crazy until the very last minute. We spent so much time trying to see people that we didn't get much packing done until it was late at night after we couldn't be out proselyting anymore.  I did get to see a lot of people though which was really nice. It was a bit easier because I know I'll be able to see them again after the mission and that this isn't goodbye forever.
D--- was so sad to see us go, I hope the other sisters take good care of him. M--- cried when we came to say goodbye. I was so sad! It's so hard to leave people you love so much. Because we spent so long saying goodbye I was up til 1:45am packing and trying to get notes and things ready for the new missionaries.
The next morning before transfers at 8 am I was able to see Sister S--- again! She had come back to take her daughter to college! I was so excited to see her again. It seemed like she was gone forever.
It was hard to say goodbye to the F--- family. They're like my family up here. I'm going to miss them so much! Mary wrote in my goodbye book, "if you leave I'll kill you."; I was touched. :)
We made it to the transfer van in time and I got to meet my new companion, Sister Beckstrand. I also got to see Sister McCain, Elder Greenwall and three elders from my MTC district: Elders Graham, Weaver, and Maughan. Transfers are always so fun because you get to see missionaries that you love but hardly ever have contact we because they are so far away from you. I also got to see Sister Rider, my trainer, again because I am taking over her area.
When Sister Beckstrand and I arrived in Helena there was mass chaos as all the missionaries waiting there tried to get their luggage into the correct trailers while greeting others they hadn't seen in a while and trying to take rushed pictures. We got the keys to our Ford Fusion and loaded our stuff into the trunk and headed off into the great unknown! The elders were kind enough to show us because neither of us had any idea where we were going and we didn't have a map yet. 

They took us to our new place and helped us unload and carry our stuff to our new quarters. We are staying with the bishop of our ward, but he was on vacation, so we didn't get to meet him until yesterday. It was kind of strange moving into someone else's house while they aren't there. Luckily we had some company, their huge dog Rolands.
The bedroom they gave us was cramped because there were two queen beds showed in there. So Sister Beckstrand and I rearranged the furniture placement and now we have a lot more room. It wasn't easy though; we had to take off the mattresses and turn the bed frames on their sides, but it was definitely worth it. We also found a huge nest of spider webs in the bedroom next to ours... joy.
I realized how great it is to double into an area where one of your companions was in charge. I already knew how her system of lists, color-coded areas, and strange calendars worked. It certainly made the transition a LOT easier. We spent quite a bit of time planning and unpacking so we had all of our materials since they were all stuffed in our bags and then we headed out to work.
I was instantly very glad that I know how to read maps because we didn't get lost nearly as much as I anticipated. We were able to find the people we had planned to visit and got to know a lot of great people that the missionaries here have been working with. I already know I am going to love them so much, they are so sweet!  Sister Beckstrand is my new companion. She's 21, she went home for 5 months because she got super sick. She suddenly became allergic to everything, they found out she had a brain tumor, she has fibro myalsia (don't know how to spell that) and so she went home and was hospitalized, and now she's back out to finish the last 3 months of her mission! Go her!

 I love Helena but there are so many names, face, and places to remember! But my brain is handling it pretty well. It's not as green as Bozeman and the mountains aren't as pretty, but I really can't complain. It has decent stores and awesome people. What more could I ask for?

The first day we were here we had a dinner with a member at Pizza Hut. We ended up having a really sweet, powerful lesson with her. She is such an amazing woman and she has a true desire to follow Christ and keep his commandments. We are hoping to be able to help her grow in the ways she wants. She is really interesting because before she converted to the church she was part of a new age cult. The things she told us about it were very interesting.
After dinner we got to meet the W---, a lovely recent convert family. It's a mom and two teenage kids. They are so fun and open! We read some of the Book of Mormon with them and hen they decided they wanted us to all read two verses in an accent, so we did. It was really amusing.
One thing I love here is how willing the people are to make appointments. People in Bozeman aren't as prone to letting us set appointments, so I'm loving having so many set appointments! People here are nicer when they turn you down as you tract. Not everyone has said no, but I appreciate not being yelled at or having the door slammed in my face. It's great! Hopefully it lasts haha

Then last night as we were driving down the road, Sister Beckstrand hit a cat, breaking its back two legs. We got out and ran over to see if it was dead, but it ran away into a sewer, where it sat in the water meowing. We didn't know what to do and we felt so bad, but we couldn't get at it, so we left.

So we went to our next appointment (it was about 9pm) and we told them what had happened and they freaked out! So the Wrays (3 people) plus their friend Abraham, plus their 2 non-member friends all grabbed supplies and bundled into their Suburban and made us show them where it was. It was a full-on rescue effort. They were able to get the cat and then they took it to a 24/7 animal vet clinic. So, no lesson for us, but I did feel slightly less guilty about the cat. It was terrible.

We met a little old lady named C---. She is adorable and she seems to really be struggling with life and the church. We were able to answer some of her questions about her scripture study. He sister who lives there was not happy to see us at all, but she tolerated our presence.
We got to meet her neighbors, the W---, who are members of the ward. I was kind of taken by surprise because they do not look like members, but they ended up being so sweet. He told us all about his prison tattoos and ended up being really nice to talk to.
One of our ward missionaries (yay we finally have ward missionaries!!) took us out to dinner with this other woman, J---, in our ward who has some severe physical problems that make it so she can't leave her house. She can't even function without caregivers visiting her home. And Sister M---, or ward missionary, is quite the trooper because her husband just died less than two weeks ago but she's still plugging along. It was a really good dinner with great gospel conversation. They told us how they both came to be converts to the church. It was really neat. I don't think we realize quite how many people in the church are converts! It's amazing!

We met so many people that my brain feels like it is full to overflowing with names, streets, and addresses. At ward council they were talking about people and my poor brain was struggling to keep up.
We met a woman named Sister G. We started out getting to know her and asked her about paying tithing because the sisters had made a note to talk to her about that, but then as we were discussing it more and more deep problems started to surface, culminating in her unloading a lot of martial problems (which is not something we really are able to help her with). Thankfully later that week we were able to find her a babysitter for a night when she and her husband are both off and gave her the Preach My Gospel outline for companionship inventory. Hopefully being able to talk without worrying about kids and housework will help them have more unity and start them off on the right path towards repairing their marriage. I hate to see anyone's marriage end, especially when it is salvageable.
We had dinner this week with the cutest older couple. She played the piano for us and then made me play for her which was really fun. Thankfully she had some music I was familiar with, so I didn't make a fool of myself.
Later than night we went to the Relief Society activity. They were doing a clothing swap and we helped them set up and then went around trying to meet people. My poor brain just loses it's capacity to remember names and faces after the first twenty or so people. However, it ended up getting really good. Well, pretty much it was good. Something pretty embarrassing happened though.There was this person there, I couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl. I finally figured out he was a guy and tried to tell him he has something on his elbow. It looks like a piece of food that had gotten suck, so I let him know. The only problem was, it wasn't food. It was a huge mole-thing. I was so embarrassed. Luckily he thought it was funny and was really friendly the rest of the night.
That night it started raining and boy did it rain!! It's like the skies opened up and poured out everything it had. We really enjoyed listening to it that night as we went to sleep. The only downside was that when we had to let Rowland in it made the whole house smell like wet dog. Luckily for me he dried off before he climbed on my bed and decided to sleep with me. I tried to push him off but I was too tired and quickly fell asleep.
We met Sister P--- who is a lovely older lady who lives in a care home because she has cancer and can't remember to take her meds. The sad thing is that she could home now but she doesn't want to leave because her husband and son are not kind to her and she enjoys being looked after rather than the other way around. I felt so bad for her that she found more joy there than at home. We are going to start reading the Book of Mormon with her once a week.
We had dinner with the S---. We had soft tacos for dinner; I mention this because I've forgotten to mention a strange phenomenon that I've observed here. Practically everyone uses ketchup on tacos and soft tacos. It's the weirdest thing to me. They look at me strangely when I ask if they have salsa. It's so strange to me.
This week we got to attend two baptisms. One was in our ward, Helena 5th ward, and the other was in 2nd ward. Apparently a lot of people have been baptized lately which has emptied our teaching pool, so we do a lot of tracting in between appointments. It hasn't been too bad, people here have been relatively polite compared to Bozeman. They are polite usually even if they have no interest in what we're saying.
Before we went home we had a lesson with R---. She had some of the most terribly lame excuses I have heard. We talked with her about her past and how she grew up in the church but stopped coming when she became pregnant and hasn't been back since. She had a live-in boyfriend of 10 years and had no intentions to marry him. She has various excuses for her lack of motivation and inactivity: she likes to sleep in on Sundays, she doesn't like large groups of people, she's lazy, and she doesn't want to put the work in to know if it's true. We talked about Moroni 10:3-5 and how it isn't hard to get the answer. She said she is afraid of the answer she would get because she would have to act on it. She doesn't want to read because she is too lazy. She doesn't want to read with us. She has regular home teachers and she likes their visits. We talked about how she has to intend to do something with the answer she receives in order to get her answer.
It ended up being an ineffective lesson because she wouldn't accept any commitments. Not to mention her kitten shredded my hand. Hopefully something will happen in her life to give her more motivation.
We contacted a whole bunch of referrals this week. A lot of them were less active. Only 33% of our ward is active. Most people let us in and we were able to teach them and set up return appointments. A few were less enthusiastic, like one woman whose parents sent us over. She said, "well I'll be sure to thank my parents for THAT." I was like, well okay then... I was just glad she didn't sic her giant dog on us.
We met Sister L--- and helped her clean and organize a few boxes in her basement then we were able to teach her a lesson and meet her husband. She's another person that simply loaded all of her problems on us. I felt bad for her though, her problems are really rough.
Well, we don't have a lot of time to use these computers, so I'll have to end my email there. But I wanted to include something funny our Relief Society teacher said when we were having a lesson on the Priesthood and she addressed the women and the Priesthood movement and she said,
"People ask me, do you want the Priesthood? and I say, No, I am literally growing a human right now; what more can I do?" (She is quite pregnant.) I thought it was really funny.

Well I hope you're all having a great week! I love you lots!

my new address is:

3655 Meadowlark Rd

East Helena, MT 59635

Love,

Sister Draney

I AM FINALLY GETTING TRANSFERRED! DON’T SEND ANY MAIL TO MY BOZEMAN ADDRESS ANYMORE!!!

I’m going to Helena 5^th ward. I’ll get you all the address ASAP. But until then you can still send it to my mission address (1848 Rimrock Rd. Billings, MT 59102). I’ll be leaving on Wednesday morning. My companion and I are getting doubled into the area (which means we’re both new there) which will be quite the adventure to try and find out where everything is and who everyone is!

I’m really sad to be losing Sister Session. She will be going to Sheridan, MT in the Butte zone. The first thing she said when she heard it was, “I’m going to butt!!! No!!!”.

I’m extremely nervous about getting doubled out of the area. The new sisters will have no idea what is going on and they will have to start rebuilding the relationships that I’ve already built from the ground up all over again. I hope bad things don’t happen because of it.

I’m not really too devastated about leaving. I expected it because I’ve been here for a long time. I’ll miss the people here like crazy though! They’re like family to me. I don’t know how I’ll got 7 months without them in my life! The new sisters better take good care of them…

            Anyways, in the good news! D--- (the guy whose trailer we helped clean) has come to church for the second time in 2 weeks! Keep in mind, he hasn’t been to church in DECADES. I was so excited to see him! He seemed more comfortable and smiled when people greeted him. I hope he keeps coming!

            We saw A--- and she is doing to well! I’m glad we introduced her to the other sisters so she definitely will be taken care of.

            R--- finally got an apartment. It’s funny because the apartment he got is the one that the 3^rd ward sisters are moving out of this week! It was totally obvious from all of the MormonAds all over the wall that it is a missionary apartment. We are just really glad that he finally got a place so that he doesn’t have to worry about his housing deadline anymore.

            We went on exchanges this week. Sister Jones and Sister Templin came to 1^st ward for 3 days. It was really frustrating because even though we were supposed to work in the 1^st ward area Sister Templin kept telling us they had set appointments we needed to go to, so we didn’t get to visit many of the people in our ward.  I love the other sisters, don’t get me wrong, exchanges were great. They were just a little frustrating. It’s hard when there aren’t enough missionaries to do all the work that needs to be done.

            K--- is still K---, no progress this week. But we wanted to talk to the Beehive class President and put her in charge of fellowshipping K--- and finding other fellowshippers.

            I’m worried about K-- because we are such good friends and I know she likes us. It’s going to be rough when we leave. I’m going to miss her so much. I hope the other girls are nicer to her. She’s such a stellar young lady.

            C--- and D--- have been really quiet lately. C--- says he needs time to think about everything. D--- really wants to learn more, but C--- is holding her back. I’m really sad that we don’t get to be a part of her learning experience. I have faith they will both get there eventually.

            P--- passed his baptismal interview! I’m going to miss the baptism, but I’m so happy for him!

The T--- moved into 2^nd ward, so we passed them on to the Sisters there. I’m sad I won’t be seeing them anymore but perhaps the 2^nd ward sisters are just what they need. J

            The H--- were out of town this week so they couldn’t come to church which was a real bummer.

And the we ran into a small hitch with the D--- family (the deaf family). I didn’t think through how I would let them know I was at their door. I was hoping their doorbell would be connected to their lights, but it wasn’t. So we weren’t able to get ahold of them for church! Ahhhhhhh!!!! L

            We finally caught M---! We were able to watch the Restoration video with her (something we’d been planning to do for a month now) and she was really touched by it. The Spirit was definitely there. I wish she hadn’t had this new boyfriend because she would be so much further along!

Hopefully we’ll see L--- before we leave. I’ll be sad not to be teaching him anymore. He’s right up my ally. I know how is brain works and it’s so fun to teach him! Oh well, I guess I’ll get to meet new people.

            I had to buy space bags for transfers. I underestimated how many clothes I had because of the season change. Luckily I have been able to fit everything in (so far) but we will see. I have yet to put the sheets in, or the clothes I washed today, or my bathroom stuff…or my towel for that matter… (yikes!)

            We’ve been running around telling people goodbye. It’s sad but it’s made better by the fact that I’ll be able to see them again.

            There is so much I could share but I’m going to cut it short this week because I have a huge document to work on to pass to the new sisters with all of the information on it.

            Please write! I miss you all! I appreciate your love and support so much! All missionaries need it and I’m so blessed to have you all! You are so wonderful!

            Lots of love til my next letter from Helena,

            Sister Shaela Draney

Hey Everyone!

I’m in a hurry this week, so this letter will be a short one, sorry! However, maybe it’s better for you to not have to read so much. ;)

D--- and C--- didn’t do their reading. D--- is a lot more excited about this than he is. She really wants to move forward with her investigation but she also doesn’t want to be divided with C---, which makes it tough. We’re still working on them though! We had a really good phone-lesson with her this week. She really wanted to know why we had joined the church and told us about some of her past experiences and it turned out to be a really good lesson.

L--- lessons are going GREAT! We had a really long lesson with him. There were 4 missionaries because he wants all of us to teach him but I’m the one who primarily does most of the teaching. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I’m the only one who really knows the Bible (I’m the only one who has read it) and so I’m the one who is able to answer his questions and really make it so he understands. We’ve had some pretty intense discussions and he took a Book of Mormon and is really excited to read it! One of my favorite things he said was, “How long does it take to be converted?” and I answered him and he said, “well let’s meet every week, or maybe more than once a week for as long as it takes.” I was doing cartwheels inside!! :D I was so happy! Also, he refers to the LDS religion as “we” now. After only two lessons! He’s like, “well, they just don’t understand us” or “we just need to tell them the truth!”. He is amazing!

We were frustrated with K--- and our ward young women leaders this week. We stopped by K--- house to invite her to mutual that night and she was so excited to go tubing but as we started calling people and no one would pick her up her enthusiasm greatly diminished. Eventually she told us she didn’t want to go anymore and we were so frustrated!! We feel like almost no one has faith in K---. They all think she will become inactive after getting baptized, so they don’t even bother to fellowship her or invite her to anything. Oh, I had such a hard time keeping my cool when I talked to some of the people about showing more support for K---. We’re going to assign some young women specifically to be her fellowshippers this coming week with the help of the YW Beehive president. She’s a sweet girl.

I had another lesson with the D--- family this week. I had been feeling strongly to go back there because who knows when another missionary that knows ASL will be in the area? So we went and had an awesome lesson with Brother D--- (no one else was home) but he agreed to come to church this coming Sunday! I am so excited!! Poor Sister Session, she had no idea what was going on; she just kept nodding and smiling and when we left she was like, “So what happened?!”. It is difficult for me to watch other people sign, sign my replies, and remember to verbalize everything for my companion. I’m just so happy with the result! I’ll keep you posted on if they come.

D--- came to church this week! It shows that service really works! It reminds me of the service of Ammon. It may not seem to produce fruits at once but in the end it turned out the greatest results! Because of his service the doorway to the gospel was opened to thousands! Never forget the importance of service. It is one of the most important things we can do as missionaries. We need to show the people we care, not just say that we care. Actions speak louder than words. That’s another reason why it is so important to be an example of the believers in all that we do because you never know who is watching and your actions will speak volumes to people that watch us. Live what you believe all of the time and you will never go wrong!

We had an awesome Zone Training this week. We focused on the small and simple things that we do every day in missionary work. I really appreciated that because it’s so good to get a reminder about the basic things that have been asked of us and to find ways to better magnify our callings. It also helps us bounce ideas around for how to use our time most effectively. In fact, we had more lessons this week than we have all transfer! President requires at least 20 lessons a week and this week we finally managed o go way beyond that! It felt really good.

Sister Session’s family came to visit this week because her grandma flew in from the Philippines for the first time in 18 years. She has really bad alzheimers and she probably won’t be around much longer so she got permission to see them. It was so great to get to meet all of her family. They’re so sweet and funny. It was really cool because her uncle is the manager for Journey, so they had all kinds of cool stories.

They told us some of the funniest stories about her grandma. Apparently she woke up in the middle of the night a bunch of times and kept wandering around the hotel saying, “I’ve got to cook rice…I’ve got to cook rice…”.

Oh there’s so much more to tell but the library is kicking us out, so I’ve got to go. More to come next week! Don’t forget to write!

Love you all lots!

Sister Draney

Dear Family, Friends, Acquaintances, People I don’t know, and anyone else,

I seriously don’t know where the time goes. I can’t believe another transfer is almost over and I’m beginning to get nervous again that I will be transferred.  But, if that’s the case, I had a good, long run in Bozeman. Not many sisters get to stay in the same area from December until August! But, if it’s all the same to President Mecham, I would love to stay here with Sister Session for another transfer. I love the ward and Sister Session is awesome!

Anyway, on to my week. On Monday we decided to stop by the W--- house really quickly because they had made an appointment and then cancelled it. When we walked up brother W--- was sitting out front talking with some of his friends. We thought it was kind of awkward because clearly he wasn’t busy and now we were showing up and sort of catching him. Well he got up and came over and invited us in to his house and we ended up having a great discussion with him. There was only a brief moment of distraction when their cat attacked my face. I really didn’t mind but his wife went to get hydrogen peroxide to put on the cuts.

We didn’t get out of his house til past curfew when his wife was leaving for the stocking shift at Target. He told us that he was glad we hadn’t given up on him because whenever missionaries had come in the past and he told them that he wasn’t interested in coming back to church they left and he never saw them again. He said he really appreciated that we still came by and tried to work with him. He said we were “welcome to try to get him to come back”.  It was a really good night after all and we were pretty happy with the outcome of our visit.

Tuesday was our day of volunteering. We spent the morning in district meeting; I was assigned to give a role-play on the same topic I got two weeks before. It is hard to prepare two different role plays on the same subject, but my second role play of “Panned vs Unplanned Lessons” went a lot better than the first time around. Sister Session and I brainstormed together. It was arguably the longest role-play we’ve had in a long time.

After district meeting was over we took Sister Templin with us back to our apartment to eat lunch because her companion, Sister Lemmon, had to stay for a meeting and Sister Templin would have been bored sitting by herself while they talked. It ended up being good because we got to have a long talk together and talk about some of the things that were bothering her. She is a really great sister.

We dropped her off at the church after lunch and headed over to the library for our volunteering shift. We got a lot done and got to meet some people which is always fun. Volunteering at the library is something I look forward to every week.

We had to cancel our dinner appointment that night because one of the ward members had called us in a panic. Our ward was in charge of running the Community Café that night and they needed 8 volunteers but only two people had signed up. She was desperate for more people so we agreed to come help.

The Community Café is kind of like a soup kitchen, only better. They get all of their food from donations to the food bank and their chef whips up whatever he can using the ingredients he is given. The people that come in are waited on and served like they would be if thy had gone to a real restaurant. Most of them are homeless or going through a rough time in their lives.

We showed up at 4 and were able to help them get ready for the night. We were servers and we actually met 3 potential investigators from people we met there! It was very successful. We aren’t allowed to proselyte at community service events but they all approached us, which then gives us license to talk about anything religious. It was a great night!

After we finished volunteering we went out to see D--- and C---. We talked about the Book of Mormon and its relationship to the Bible and ho they support one another. We also discussed Mary, the mother of Jesus and what our church’s stance is on worshipping her. We also covered what we think about praying to saints. We asked C--- if he would be willing to put in the effort to know if the church is true again and he said that it would be worth any amount of work to find out if it really was true. So it was a great start for him!

They agreed to read the two introductions to the Book of Mormon before we see them next. I believe that they can both receive the witness that the church is true if they only will put in the effort! The real trick will be to see if C--- will do it, because they are determined to do everything together, so if he doesn’t put in the effort, she won’t. Ugh! Agency can be so aggravating sometimes!

We worked on cleaning D--- house again. I tackled the main living area and much to my surprise  Sister Session volunteered to tackle the bathroom! Remember the pictures? The horror-bathroom? Well, with gloves and a face mask she went in, ready to do battle and she had amazing success! However it was probably the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. I helped her finish the sink and we found a shelf that was glass that we didn’t even realize was see-through. It was so gross! But it’s a far cry better now!

I cleaned the kitchen which meant removing about an inch of matted dust and hair from the kitchen floor. It was quite the job but luckily our Lysol cut through it and it looked so much better! I had to scrub it with a bath scrubber to get it really clean. It was nice to see that the things we had originally cleaned had stayed clean for a whole week.

We did have a lesson with R---, we had to run out the door to make it on time. We had no makeup on and our hair was almost dry (we had to abandon the blow-dryers to get there on time). We had a really good lesson with him though. He is having his temple recommend interview this Sunday and we have been discussing the temple a lot: what goes on with baptisms for the dead, why we attend the temple, post-mortal life, the blessings of going to the temple, etc. And this Sunday he got his recommend! We are so excited for him and will continue to discuss the temple until we are sure he understands.

We ran home really quick to finish getting ready for the day and then we drove up to Big Sky to teach the A--- and a few other people. The A--- sewer system in their store had gone out though, so we weren’t able to have a lesson with them or anyone else we had planned on seeing.

We did, however, get to see the professional bull riders who were in town. We heard about it when we stopped to see Sister A--- in her store. Apparently that’s where all of Big Sky was that night, which explains why no one was home. It was pretty cool, we got to see a little bit of it on the big screen they had up, but we didn’t get out of the car because Sister Session had a bad feeling about it. I was kind of glad we didn’t get out because after a minute of watching there were a lot of drunk men stumbling out and looking lost. One was led out by a girl with her arm around him and he kept pulling her tighter to his side. It looked really uncomfortable. We drove back shortly afterwards because it was getting late.

On Thursday we got to go to Butte. We got to see the massive mine that they have there and hear about a terrible mining accident that had happened there. It was the most deadly accident in hard-rock mining in America that ever happened.

We had dinner with Sister S--- when we got back from Butte. Well, I guess she is Sister R--- now. She got married recently after a 1 day engagement to a man that had been her husband’s best friend. Their story is kind of cute but we were all really surprised to hear that he had suddenly gotten married. She talked to us about it for all of our dinner appointment. She also fed us a massive diner because she didn’t want leftovers.

We also saw P--- that night and some of the students that I taught from the Bible College. It was a really interesting night. Poor P--- is trying so hard to quit smoking and he is so close! I’ve been praying that he will have the strength to get over his addiction so that he can be baptized.

On Friday we helped D--- because she was really stressed with this cake that she had to make and so we helped her to make 500 brownie bites and sugar flowers out of gum paste. I also learned how to make fondant which was pretty cool, and messy. It was a very interesting experience, one I’m glad that I had. We had to leave before we made a large dent in the amount of stuff she had to do, but I’m glad we got to help her out.

We had another lesson with R--- before we headed over to the S--- house for dinner. They fed us the most amazing noodle dish! It was perfect for summer and so delicious. I’ll have to get the recipe. After dinner and a good conversation D--- cleaned up a bit and we got ready to teach a lesson, however before we could start talking she comes over and puts Apples to Apples (the game) on the table and starts setting it up; needless to say that they were not interested in learning anything that night. We were so disappointed.

After we got back from dinner we had a texting lesson with D---. She texted us out of the blue about all of these doubts, questions and concerns. It was after curfew so we couldn’t call or go over to talk, so we ended up having a lesson over text. It was a little frustrating because it took so long and is an imprecise method of communication, but it did the job.

On Saturday we volunteered at the Sea Pea festival. It was really fun because we got to paint faces and meet a lot of people. It was really interesting to try and paint the things that people wanted without any prior practice face painting. I even got to do a few adults. One of my favorites is this little girl who came up to me and wanted me to turn her into a snake. So I covered her face in green then did tiny little scales all over her face and gave her a forked tongue. It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

As we were leaving I stopped to get some cotton candy because it was super cheap and I couldn’t resist. As I was buying it this man who had got his face painted with his son came up to us and started asking us about the LDS church, what we believe, and what we do as missionaries. It turned into a 40 minute discussion and we have an appointment with him this week. He believes a lot of the same things we do, especially regarding abortion and gay marriage. The best part is that his real name is Lazarus. How cool is that!? He’s golden! We are so excited to get to talk to him this week.

We had a less-fabulous visit with K---. We stopped by and asked her if she wanted to work on Personal Progress or have a lesson and she kept complaining that she was too tired. When we invited her to church on Sunday she said that she was going to fighting practice with her dad. I don’t know where her fire has gone! It’s such a night and day change and it’s really disheartening. I don’t know what to do. 

And yesterday we went to two Sacrament meetings because P--- was going to bear his testimony in 2^nd ward, so we went to support him and to hear what he would say. It was a wonderful meeting and the Spirit was so strong. P--- did an amazing job! I’m so happy for him!!

We had a lot to do in our ward as well, we sang 2 musical numbers for Sister Pitcher’s relief Society lesson before we had to book it over to the High Priest’s lesson to give the ending part. It was a little crazy, not to mention that one of our less actives, M---, who hasn’t been to church in months, suddenly showed up on Sunday with his mom and his non-member girlfriend! It was a great Sunday!

After church we had dinner at the Monsons, complete with zucchini boats, summer squash spaghetti, salad, and chicken. I felt very healthy. She also made this amazing fruit salad! She told us what her recipie was, you should try it!

Strawberries

Blueberries

Mangos (when you dice the mangos squeeze the hard middle part over the rest of the fruit so that it gets covered in juices)

And lime zest (don’t skip the lime zest, it really is what makes the salad pop!)

We had a great time at their house. They invited a lot of people over so it was quite the evening. They also took us on a tour of their new house and I got to hold their new kittens. Oh! They also exploded a watermelon by wrapping rubber bands around it again and again (about 500+ of them) around the middle until it buldged and then burst! That’s also something that would be fun to try! Just don’t look directly above it because you don’t want it exploding in your face. Hold it with your feet. I’m sure there is probably stuff online about it, but don’t ask me, I’m a missionary. ;)

Well, that was my week! I was pretty pleased :) Write me! I love to hear from you!

Don’t forget to keep a prayer in your heart, even if it’s only a song. D&C 25:12

Much love!

Sister Draney

It will be August this week, how weird! Time is just flying by, it’s amazing!

We are working with R---- this week on temple preparation. We asked him why he wanted to go to the temple and he said, “because it’s somewhere I haven’t been yet.” So, clearly we need to do a lot of work on helping him understand why we attend the temple before he gets his recommend and goes to do baptisms for the dead.

So this week was a little strange because we had exchanges, which means that we swapped companions with the Bozeman 2^nd ward sisters. So I went to 2^nd ward for three days with Sister Templin and Sister Session went with Sister Lemmon in our ward. It was really weird to be away from 1^st Ward. I’ve never left 1^st Ward for transfers since I got here in December. It was weird but refreshing to be in a new place.

So, the names this week might be a little different than the people I normally write about, but they were all amazing to get to know and to get to teach.

Sister Templin and I accompanied P--- to the office of Brother Tubbs, our stake employment specialist to set up an account and begin looking for work. P--- looked so good all dressed up in his shirt and tie. He is really working hard to change his life and to turn over a new leaf. He applied for a bus driving job and at a gas station and various other places. It was really interesting because P--- didn’t know how to use a computer at all. So we had to guide him through all of the steps and help him understand what the sign-up form wanted. He typed with only 1 finger and it took such a long time that it was difficult to stop myself from wanting to do it for him. However it’s important that he learns how to use technology. It’s like a little kid, if you give them a chore to do it may take them longer to do and they might not do it as well as you, but it’s important to let them do it, however slow they may be, because in the end practice will make them better. It’s the same with P---, he’s very slow on the computer but having those skills will make him more attractive to potential employers. We even set up his first email account and showed him how to use it.

We had dinner at the B--- house.They invited a non-member friend T----, to dinner and she seemed really apprehensive when she first showed up, but we chatted with her and tried to ask her all about her life and her work. Eventually she began to open up and see that we are normal people. I think when people see missionaries they don’t really think of them as normal people capable of talking about non-religious topics. Obviously we can talk about non-religious topics…we’re just really good at directing an un-related conversation to the gospel. ;) Dinner went very well and we felt accomplished when we left. T--- seemed very at-ease and she agreed with everything we said in the lesson we gave after dinner. She kept nodding and smiling as we taught. It was very good.

We dropped by their bishop’s house to get a letter for P---. P--- is trying to get into this house for homeless people trying to recover from addictions and to do so he needed a letter from someone verifying that he is homeless. The bishop did such a good job, it looked very professional.

Sadly, later that week when P--- went in for his drug test it came back inconclusive. It was a rough day for P--- because he was so excited for this new place and now he has to wait a week for them to send it to a lab. We are all a little confused that it would be inconclusive because he says he hasn’t done any drugs since the 4^th of July. We feel inclined to believe him, however drug tests don’t lie. So we will just have to wait to hear back from the lab.

We taught this young girl, K---, that is ready to get baptized but isn’t sure if she wants to anymore. It was a very powerful lesson. We read Moroni 10:3-5 and talked about exactly what it tells us to do to get an answer to our prayers. She didn’t understand it at first but by the end she was excited to try it out and find out her answer. Poor Sister Templin, she got eaten alive by ants.

We attended the Addiction Recovery Program for the first time that night to support P--- and another one of their people, Monica. It was really interesting to hear people talk about their struggles. I think the church program is really amazing; the people there were contrasting it to other addiction recovery programs they had tried, like Alcoholics Anonymous. They were talking about how the coins weren’t good incentive because when they messed up they would have to give them all back and start from scratch. They liked how the gospel isn’t like that. You don’t have to start over. Sometimes you make mistakes but it doesn’t matter how many times you fall, what really matters is how many times you pick yourself up again. (That was a quote, though I’m not sure from who. I just can’t claim that I can word a statement that well. Ha, ha)

We had a lesson with P--- outside of the church and it was a great way to end the day. He is so awesome! I’m so glad we get to teach him. I’ve been present for so many of his lessons that he’s counted as a joint baptism between 1^st and 2^nd ward sisters. How great is that?!

On Wednesday morning we left at 8am to head over to D--- house. We picked up the other sisters (because our truck was still in the shop) and all of our cleaning supplies and headed over. When we arrived he was still asleep, but he went in to change and let us in anyways. And thus began the greatest cleaning service project in the history of Bozeman 1^st Ward.

I started on the sink and the other sisters started on the walls and other places. We got our gloves and masks out to start cleaning and just seconds after we started one of the other sisters let out a kind of strangled gasp. We all went over to see what had happened. Now, D--- walls are always a sick kind of yellowish-brown but we figured it was just stained from years of smoking inside his trailer. Well it turns out that it wasn’t stained, it was covered in tar! As she had started wiping it came off and revealed the white walls underneath. So they set to work trying to find the walls underneath the tar and dust. Sister Lemmon wrote “Mormon” in giant letters in the tar with her glove and Sister Session drew a smiley face. Let me tell you, Lysol will cut through just about anything. We went through almost 2 bottles in the 3 hours we were cleaning D--- house. I set to work on the kitchen. I started cleaning off dishes that I thought were rusted, but they weren’t rusted at all, they were covered in some sort of dark, nasty liquid; like tobacco spit. It was so gross. I spent all of my time trying to find the sink and the counters. There was so much dust on the stove and on all of the pans. We had to throw some stuff away because it wasn’t salvageable. I was of the opinion that we should just burn the trailer, however that wasn’t an option. The bathroom was the worst. I couldn’t believe it was something he actually used! The bathtub was black and it looked like something had been set on fire in it. The toilet looked like something you would need a hazmat suit to clean. We didn’t dare approach the bathroom because it was so disgusting. The whole toilet was smeared with waste and stained. It was terrible. Everything was covered in dog hair from his terrier. Sister Templin cleaned off the stairs and she ran her hand over the carpet and a massive glob of hair and dust came up. It was roughly the size of a loaf of bread. It was terrible! There was so much dust and hair in the carpet that it broke their vacuum. When she started it sent up such a cloud that we were all very, very glad that we had bought face masks. We couldn’t finish vacuuming because the vacuum couldn’t handle it.

In the end, by the time we left his house wasn’t clean, not by a long shot. However it was significantly less dirty than it had been. We’re going back in a few weeks to see if we can dent the mess further. At least now he can get some air in his house because Sister Lemmon cleaned off the screens that were clogged with smoke, tar and dust. He was very grateful. He asked what he could do for us and I told him to read a verse out of his copy of the Book of Mormon and he was like, “well, besides that.” I will admit that his answer was kind of frustrating because we had just spent 3 hours cleaning his apartment so he didn’t die of the filth and he wouldn’t read out of it himself. He has to have us read for him.

Needless to say we were very, very glad to get home and shower. It was one of the nastiest service projects I’ve ever done. But it came with such a good feeling that it was well worth it. It must make Heavenly Father sad to see one of His children living like that in such a terrible place without the light of the gospel in his life. He has such great potential in his life! We just have to help him realize it. It’s hard to break old habits.

We had a great lesson with A---, the lady we found on the side of the road while we were walking. She is so amazing! She talked and talked to us and showed us around the house. She agreed to come to church this Sunday and she actually came! She loved church and the people really took her in and encircled her. She also wanted to come to a little boy’s baptism but she got a migraine and wasn’t able to come. We taught her about Joseph Smith and about the Restoration and she agreed with us on everything! She is so prepared. It just goes to show that no matter what age people are at, they can still accept the gospel and it can make such a change in their lives. We will continue to teach her with the 2^nd ward sisters.

The big disappointment of the day was that someone had stolen R--- grill that we found. Augustine was so upset because it was on her front porch and it just disappeared. We assured her that it was okay. It ended up being alright though because Lowes offered R--- a full-time job and he has decided to leave KOA. So now he has to find a real place to stay. He can’t just stay in the tent for free anymore like he has been doing. Speaking of the KOA, this last week the people from the show Sister Wives came and stayed at our KOA to film an episode about camping. R--- said it was irritating because they had their whole crew with them. They were only there for a couple of days. I didn’t get to meet him.

I tried Sister Lemmon’s “toxic cleanse” that she drinks every day. It almost made me throw up. It has unsweetened molasses, honey, water, and cayenne pepper. I think it might have one more thing, but I’m not sure. It was so gross. Cleanses like that are definitely not for me!

We had another lesson with P--- in the parking lot of Walmart. It was a great meeting except for the fact that we were sitting in an ant pile. Luckily none of them bit us because the Spirit was there and we didn’t want to disrupt it by moving.

We had food bank volunteering as usual on Thursday. It was a little different though because we had to go to the Community Café to help them move a stove. We didn’t end up being much help because they had the men and the elders lift it. We also got to draw banners for Patrick’s goodbye party. He is one of the managers there and we will be sad to see him go. I ate some of his cake and I felt like I was going to die from overload of sugar.

On Friday we went to the library to make the game for our ward movie night later that evening. Sister Session ended up making it while I supplied a few ideas. It was one of the games with the squares where you have to find other people with certain characteristics and get them to sign your box.

We had an early dinner, 4pm, with the Warrens. It was very healthy- quinoa, chicken, and onions. They also had a kale and cabbage salad with strawberries for dessert. It was kind of nice because I didn’t feel weighed down with food after we left.

Our ward movie night was a total flop. We invited so many people and texted/called over 40 people to remind them and after all of that work and setting up the projector and the lights and the snacks, only 5 families came and all of them were active. We were SO disappointed! It was quite terrible. We had a good time talking with the families that were there though and caught part of the baptism of a little boy that was going on down the hall.

We visited V--- early on Saturday morning and it turns out it was her 91^st birthday! Luckily her daughter-in-law rescued us and gave us a bag Butterfingers to give to her. She was so excited to see us and we were able to sing to her. As we were leaving we ran into Sister Marlow who was picking up V--- to take her out to lunch for her birthday. She asked us to come along, so we agreed and had a very nice lunch with them at Applebees.

We had to go to the church right after lunch because we were all having interviews with President Hopkin, one of the members of the mission presidency. We ended up waiting for 3 ½ hours to be interviewed. It ate up our entire day and my interview was less than 5 minutes. It was pretty good though and it was nice to talk to him.

The most interesting part of the night was the fact that we had 2 dinner appointments scheduled because D--- and C--- (our new investigator and less active) called us and asked what we were doing at 6:30. We told them we weren’t doing anything because we would be out of dinner at that point. Well, they told us they wanted to feed us and they sounded so excited that we couldn’t turn them down. We went to our dinner with the S--- first and tried to not eat very much but they kept offering us more. So we ate a decent dinner there before heading over to C--- and D---.  C--- and D-- had gone all-out to make dinner for us. They were so excited to see us, they set the table so nicely. We had a fabulous dinner with them, complete with Martinellis. After dinner we had an amazing lesson with them. We had planned to teach them the Restoration but D--- had so many questions that we had a three and a half hour discussion with her about her questions. Every time we answered one she had another one for us. C--- even helped us teach and explain to D---. Her questions were amazing and she seemed so excited and mostly satisfied by our answers. We are giving them another lesson tomorrow; this time there will be more structure.

Well, the other night I had to get up to go to the bathroom. I was just laying down to go back to sleep when all of the sudden Sister Session starts screaming in her sleep! I was so scared I nearly wet myself haha. After she stopped I was like, "Sister Session?....Sister Session?..." but she didn't respond. So I was kind of freaked out that she would do something else like charge out of bed and grab me so I turned on the lights to wake her up. She was so confused! She had no memory of it at all. It was really funny and kind of scary at the time. I had a tough time going back to sleep.

We had a lesson with R--- on Sunday morning before he was going to go to 3^rd ward because his job prevented him from attending all three hours of his ward. So he goes to two hours of 3^rd ward and one hour of our ward.

On our way back from R--- lesson we saw a duck on the side of the road that wasn’t moving away from the cars. We thought that was strange so I made Sister Session turn around and park the car. We walked back and when we got closer we saw a drain and when we looked inside we saw 9 ducklings huddled together in a corner with the mom calling them. We hurried home to change into pants and grab some things. Sister Session had the idea to bring a dish cloth, tie string to the corners and use it to lift the ducklings out of grate. The grate was sealed to the ground by the asphalt. We hurried back to the place with our supplies (including the handle of our broom) and went back to the grate where I lowered our little “hammock” into the grate while she scooted the ducklings in as best as she could. It took quite a while because the ducklings were freaked out, but finally we were successful. More people came to help us and one woman kept the momma duck and the ducklings we had rescued from wandering off without the rest of the babies and another woman came with a little pole to help us herd ducklings. Eventually a police officer showed up when we had fished two or three from the grate and got out. I was a little nervous that we would get in trouble, but he was like, “So, issters…what are you doing?” We explained and he turned out to be from 2^nd ward. He turned on his lights and then proceeded to set cones out around us so we wouldn’t get hit and stayed with us until we rescued all of the ducklings, which took us about an hour. Eventually it was a success and we got them all out! We herded the whole family to a little stream and they all swam away peacefully. Hopefully we didn’t scar the ducklings for life. It was a great adventure! It was funny though because we couldn’t touch the ducklings because then the mom might not take them back. One fell on this lady’s lap and she was like, “oh no! Get it off! Get it off!” and I was like, “Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it!” and finally it managed to get off and back to its mom.

It was quite the morning!

We finally saw the S--- again last night and got to have a good chat with them. Before we left we asked to sing a song for them and they agreed. We sang “How Great Thou Art” and they loved it so much that they had us sing other hymns for over half an hour including “Nearer My God to Thee”, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, and “The Spirit of God”. Their cat even loved it. She came in and jumped up right next to us and sat there watching us the whole time. I tried to pet her. She bit me.

All in all we had a wonderful week! It was a little unusual but I enjoyed it. I hope you all have a great week!

Love you all!

Sister Draney