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