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