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We had dinner with the F--- for the first time this week and it was really great because they gave us a ton of referrals! Their little grandson who lives at their house is seriously the best kid member missionary I've ever seen! He is awesome. We told them to invite someone to the stake FHE and he wanted to leave right then to take the invitation to his neighbors. It was adorable. If only everyone could be such a great ward missionary!
We saw the P--- family again and managed to get a lesson in with them. The husband actually stayed inside this time and participated in the prayer! We offered to help them split wood on Saturday (he offered to show us how because neither of us posses any knowledge on that subject. We just have a great deal of enthusiasm!). He agreed to let us help, but when the day we had planned to help rolled around, it was raining quite steadily, so we had to cancel and schedule a different day to come do it. Hopefully it won't snow before we can get over there!
We also have a new less active family we are working with, the S---. We only met the wife and she was really nice, until we asked her why she didn't come to church. She had been offended and the memory of it still made her so passionately angry that sister Beckstrand and I were honestly quite alarmed! It turned out okay because she invited us back and was eager to accept the reading assignment. We just don't know what to make of her outburst.
On a different, wonderful note, so many of our less actives are doing so well! We are hoping they will be counted as reactivated this week! Sister N--- read her scriptures all by herself this week when we left and then dropped by for an unexpected visit. We were so pleased to see she was doing it on her own, not out of a sense of obligation to us!
Sister R--- has been faithfully coming to church every week since we started visiting her! We are hoping she will get a calling next week and be considered reactivated! She is also working towards returning to the temple. I am so excited for her! She has so much potential to greatly influence others for good. Sister R--- also fed us dinner this week and sent us home with so many leftovers! People always expect us to eat more food than we really do. However, they can feed me as much ice cream as they want and I will be fine with it! :)
We helped the FIGG girls make paper owls and pretzel owls this week because one of the advisors had a daughter who was arriving home from her mission, so she couldn't make it to the activity. It was a lot of fun! If you want to see the pictures of the owls, they are on my facebook page!
One little girl gave us her owl and wrote us a message on it, the front of it says "your awesom" which makes it twenty times more adorable!
We got to see the movie "Meet the Mormons"! If you haven't already signed up to get in it your area, do it today! Go to meetthemormons.com and request it! It is such a great movie and it will really help further the work as people realize who we are.
We tracted a street this week and the funniest thing happened! So we knocked on all the doors on the street because they were all referrals, but no one was home at any of the houses. So, as we were about to go knock on a door across the street, all of the cars start pulling in on the street we just left! All sister Beckstrand and I could do was stare because what are the chances that EVERYONE will come home right after you finish tracting their street? So we knocked on the door of the home we were in front of and then went and knocked on all the doors again. It was pretty great.
When people tell us they're too busy to attend church I always want to be like, "too busy for what? Eternal life? Eternal families? Countless blessings? Forgiveness of sins?" That excuse has never made sense to me. Almost everyone has 3 free hours on Sunday.
We also had a funny dinner with the elders in our ward. They M--- fed us pasta and anyone who knows me knows that I have serious trouble eating pasta in a dignified way. Sure enough, despite my best efforts it was a disaster. Somehow I managed to get pasta sauce in my bangs! I'm 22! You would think I would have figured out how to make the food go into my mouth, rather than everywhere else!
We got a new investigator this week! His name is B---. He is a cage fighter, used to work for the Army Rangers, and is just an awesome guy. We had a lesson with him while leaning over his back fence. So we ended up with pretty cut up forearms, but it was completely worth it. He has a strong belief in God but he is a slow mover in taking commitments, so we will see how it goes.
We had our Ward steak fry this week and it was a huge success! There were a bunch of non members and less active people there. D--- even came! We were so thrilled with everyone that showed up. It's so good to have events where people can build relationships with ward members, because that's really what they need if they're going to progress.
S--- lessons are going so great! We set her baptism date for October 19th and her husband's Priesthood ordination date right before that so he can baptize her. I hope everything goes according to plan because they weren't at church yesterday.
We spent our whole Saturday morning doing service. We helped R--- and the Relief Society clean out R--- old house. I got put on carpet cleaning duty since I know how to work the machine. Well, apparently I don't know how to work it as well as I thought because I went through half of the living room before I realized in was set to "water rinse" not to a cleaning setting. I was pretty embarrassed.
I didn't mention that it was raining very steadily all morning. So we were happy to be inside. But after we left R--- house we got to go help the rest of our zone move someone out of their house. I swear you could employ missionaries as professional movers. We had those people out of their house and into their new one in the better part of two hours (minus the cleaning that would have to be done after we left). It was a great move despite the fact that we were all soaked and freezing cold. I really enjoy moving people. It's interesting to see the different degrees of preparedness in different families. The more preparation they put into boxing and packing before we get there, the less time it will take, the safer their belongings will be, and the easier it will be for everyone involved. I have also gained a strong appreciation for consistently cleaning one's house.
We have moved out so many people and I have been disgusted by the filth that is left over when they leave. It is so much easier to just always do a little deep cleaning, then your house never ends up in that kind of a situation. Yep, that's my rant of the week.
Yesterday was great as well. We gained a new investigator, M---. We formerly thought he was less active because he told us that he "used to be a Mormon" but when we went over to talk to him last night we found out in the course of the conversation that he had been baptized four times! But none of them were an LDS baptism. So we got a new investigator! And the best part is that he already identifies himself as LDS! So we will have to see how that goes, because he is very stubborn and set in his ways, yet he knows he needs to change. I'll keep you updated.
Well, that's about it for this week! Thank you to everyone who has written me, your replies are on their way back!
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Sister Draney

This week has been a bit crazy because we were on exchanges for part of the week and it’s always weird to be away from you companion.

On Monday we had family home evening with the E---. Her kids are kind of hard to calm down and keep focused, so we played “the prophet says”. It’s kind of like “Simon says” and then we taught them about prophets and invited them to watch General Conference. It was pretty fun! And it’s probably the only time they’ve ever seen missionaries trying to hop on one foot while touching their noses, for example. ;)

We went to R--- house. She’s the investigator who had stomach surgery. Well, she wasn’t any better this time than the last time we saw her. She had been throwing up for days and was not doing well at all. Her son ended up taking her to the hospital and they found out her stomach is infected. So they ended up having to send her to Great Falls to get the help she needed. We’re worried about her and it kind of puts a damper on her plans to try and attend church soon.

We had dinner at Applebee’s with the B---. It was really good! But the best part was that our waitress had had the missionaries come to her house before and she mistook Sister Glenn for one of those missionaries.  Well, we got to talking with her and we asked if she would like to have missionaries come back to her house and she said yes! So we got her name, phone number, address and sent it off to the other missionaries. It goes to show that you never know who could be prepared to hear the gospel; like the waitress at your restaurant!

After dinner we stopped by E--- house and actually caught her at home! She had her older neighbor over. We ended up teaching him the Plan of Salvation and sending a pamphlet home with him. We were also able to set up a time to meet with her the next day.

The appointment we had with her on Wednesday was really interesting because she loves to talk and it’s hard to get a word in edgewise. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation with an emphasis on family history work (which she loves) and we invited her to come to the family history lab at Helena College on Saturday. She seemed really excited about it at the time, but when the morning came she forgot about it and didn’t end up coming.

We hope she comes next time!

C--- is still making great progress! Even though she didn’t come to ARP this week, she is still making leaps and strides forward! She came to church on Sunday and participated. She just looks so happy! She is glowing every time we see her. She did the additional study in the back of the pamphlets (which I would highly recommend for anyone, active or not), read the Book of Mormon, and has even read some talks! We pray a lot for her to overcome her addiction to smoking because it is such a struggle for her. She wants so badly to quit but the addiction has a firm hold on her. She’s pressing forward and is winning an inch at a time though. Prayers for her would be appreciated.

Her sister, C---, is doing well, but not as good as she is.Her sister is reading her scriptures and saying her prayers which is great! But she still smokes and won’t come to church. She always gives us the same excuse, that her back hurts. I know it does hurt, but there’s more to it than that. She even admits that there is but won’t tell us what the problem is which is frustrating. It’s like a terrible guessing game. Luckily we have the Spirit on our side!

We got in trouble because someone thought we were soliciting this week. We are teaching a ton of workers at the rest home where A--- lives and they got all upset with us for letting them join in. However, we aren’t trying to sell anything and we don’t make them join us. We invited and they eagerly accepted! So now we have two progressing investigators there and a whole handful of potential investigators! It’s so great! And yes, we still go back because they can’t stop us from visiting Alice and she can have her lessons in the front room if she wants ;)

We got taken out to dinner again this week (and people wonder why missionaries gain weight!) with a bunch of members and the other missionaries in our ward. It was so much fun to have such good food and so many people to talk to.

We got a new investigator this week! S---. She moved into our ward from 1^st ward. I’m happy about it because two of our investigators are moving into 1^st ward this week: S--- and M---. So it’s a fair trade. Good news on S--- and M--- is we finally got to have a lesson with them! Thank you for praying for them (Shout out to Allison and anyone else who did J) because it was a total miracle that we got to teach them because their mom has been so busy that she wouldn’t let us come over to share a message. So it was a tender mercy that she let us come over to help her pack and then let us stay to give a lesson.

Don’t forget to follow me on facebook!! We get counted for the number of likes and comments our facebook posts get. Not to mention you get the added benefit of lovely spiritual messages throughout the week by yours truly ;)

We helped at the family history event at Helena College and only 3 people showed up, so we all got to work on our family history. I traced one line back through the fan charts all the way back to Adam and Eve! I’m not sure how correct it all is, but it was so cool!

I also learned about this cool thing called descendancies this week. You follow your family line back and follow the other descendants of your ancestors to get  names for the temple! I’ve been working on it during my lunch break and this past week I found 401 temple names! It’s the greatest thing ever! I would definitely encourage you to try it. Especially those of you who are as intimidated by family history work as I am, but want to take family names to the temple, it’s great!

The R--- didn’t come to church this week because they all got sick. Everyone here is sick! P--- has a sinus infection, the R--- and fifty other people have terrible colds, the W--- got some weird strain of the flu… I’m just so blessed that I haven’t been sick yet. I pray that it will hold off til after the mission!

We had another lesson with D--- and I could tell right when we walked through the door that he had done his scripture reading that we had assigned him. Sure enough! He had done it! He looked visibly different in just a small way. Sister Beckstrand and I commented on it after we left the lesson. It’s so cool to be able to see the Spirit begin to work on someone. We had a great member who came to the lesson with us. We are hoping she and her husband will be his fellowshippers. Her husband couldn’t come because he had the flu (surprise!) but she was a great asset to the lesson and she had some wonderful moments to share and she has a beautiful, simple testimony that is so perfect for going with the missionaries!

We have been doing a lot of tracting in an effort to find more investigators. We might have had some luck this week! We had two return appointments. We aren’t sure how interested they are yet. C--- accepted a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and we were able to pray with her on her doorstep for her grandson (his name is Billy and he could use some prayers, he’s very, very sick). We also were able to talk to this other man who is active in another religion but doesn’t’ really know what he believes. All he knows is that he likes the people. So he’s going to let us come back. J It was a pretty successful week overall! We’ve stayed really busy and the ward has been really involved with the missionary efforts which is such a blessing!

Thank you to those who have written me letters, they really make my day!

I love you so much and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Draney

P.S Funny moments of the week:

This week I was trying to tell Sister Beckstrand that “wickedness never brings happiness” but instead it came out: “sadness never brings happiness” and she was like…well duh Sister Draney! It was pretty great! J

She also found a spider in her garments and I was very impressed that she didn’t scream. They’re all over and you kind of get used to them. We killed a big black one in my bed the other day. It’s a fun sport: who can kill the biggest spider? When Sister Glenn was over for exchanges we were doing our personal study in silence when all the sudden she goes, “oh my gosh! What is that?!” turns out it was a spider; it wasn’t even a very big one either. Maybe someday I’ll get to the point where I’ll pick them up. Or maybe not.

PG-13 humor moment:

We had some funny moments this week! We were reading the scriptures with two of our investigators and while they were reading instead of Gentiles they said genitals. She was mortified! I thought it was just about the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!

This week we have been really busy! We taught about 22 lessons this week, most of which were to non members, less actives, and recent converts. We had 6 less active people at church on Sunday! It just made my day! It's so great to see these people progress; nothing makes you happier as a missionary! 

On Monday after preparation day was over, we had dinner with the L---. We had just barely received a new rule that we aren't allowed to do service for active people (which stinks! They need it just as much as anyone else). Well, when we arrived she told us that she needed help to clean out her pantry because she broke her ribs and she couldn't lift anything up or down. We had agreed to help her the week before because her ribs have been giving her a lot of pain and her husband is disabled and can't help. 

So since dinner wasn't ready and we felt like we couldn't take back our offer because we had already agreed to help, we speed-cleaned her pantry before dinner.

I seriously feel like we are blessed to accomplish things more quickly as missionaries so that we can spend minimal time serving, but still get everything done that people need of us. I never remember being able to work this fast at home. Maybe I just wasn't as motivated...

After our appointment there we went to see R---. She is doing so well and wants to be baptized as soon as she can recover enough to make it out of bed! She had Word of Wisdom problems, but her stomach surgery made it so she can't have those things anymore, so there's nothing holding her back anymore! We are excited for her!

On Tuesday we had a morning full of meetings. We have been encouraged to attend all presidency meetings if possible at least once to talk to the about the North American Initiative. So the Primary let us come to their presidency meeting which was really great of them. One thing I love about a mission is it really lets you see how the church operates and gives you an idea of how to be effective and what is good and what is not. It's really quite the educational process.

We also had a meeting with the zone leaders to talk about everything that's going on in our area so they can better help us and so they know what's going on throughout the zone. We were worried the whole morning that perhaps we had done something wrong and they had called a FaceTime conference to correct us.

We visited the P--- family and we were pretty concerned for our life. It took us 5 minutes to get to the door because they had this ferocious-looking dog and even after it had smelled our hands kept growling and barking in a very intimidating way. So we took it slow so we didn't freak her out and were able to make it inside without getting eaten. Needless to say that when we left she growled and barked at us all the way back to the car. But it ended up not being worth risking a hand to the dog because the husband wasn't interested at all in what we had to say even though he politely sat in on the lesson (he's not a member) and she was in tears during the lesson, but when we invited her to return to activity she told us she would come when she had a reason and that she didn't have a reason. Then she proceeded to tell us all of the reasons she had been offended, which I am sure didn't help her husband feel any warmer towards us. On the bright side we are welcome back. We will probably visit them again when we are in the area since they live quite far out of town.

We had to hurry to our dinner with the W--- afterwards. It was cute because their little girl tried to read a scripture reference in the pamphlet. It was 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and she said it like : second Nephi two DOTS twenty two dash twenty five. It was so cute!

After dinner we went on splits with J---, one of our ward missionaries, and L--- who is a college student visiting her mom for a few months. This was my first time going on official splits. We have had members come along with us before, but we have never had so many lessons at once in my other areas that we could split up. 

I felt bad for the elders because the people they were going to go with bailed on them, so they both had to go with Brother M---. We always tease them that it's just because people like the sisters better. 

I went with Sister Morey and we headed right to the M--- house. We had planned to have FHE with them on Monday night, but they forgot. So we scheduled to come over on Tuesday, so sister Morey and I went to that. We had planned to do an FHE to get her non-member husband comfortable with us and to help him feel good about us coming over. It was a huge success. Sister Morey knew Sister M--- mother and they were good friends, so they bonded from the start. We played Candyland with them and this other game where you stick a card to your forehead and try to guess what you are. 

Then we wanted to have a lesson with them that was about a principle of the gospel that wouldn't freak out the husband, so we had a lesson on obeying your parents, tied in with repentance and the Atonement. Needless to say the parents liked the lesson and the kids were more enthusiastic about being obedient. 

So they told us we were welcome back which was definitely a success and it was great to watch their walls come down as they relaxed and realized that we weren't so bad. I hope great things can happen with that family if we foster an environment where the Spirit can be present and where they can learn about the gospel in a non-confrontational way.

We saw the W--- but the wife wasn't home so we couldn't stay, not to mention the husband and his friend wouldn't turn on any lights and wouldn't turn the Tv down or off, so it was impossible to share a message. Not to mention, P---, their little boy, was going to the bathroom in the middle of he living room on a little port-a-potty. Not the best environment. 

Then she introduced me to D--- who we are hoping will become someone we can start working with so that he can become active again.

Then we visited the W--- and had a great scripture study with them. We talked about how The Lord is our greatest champion and how sometimes the results of our faith are not instantly manifest. However, even if they don't see the results of their faith immediately it doesn't mean that they don't have faith. We talked about having faith even if we can't tell how much faith we have.

Sister Beckstrand also had a successful night. They saw many people and L--- had a good time. Apparently she taught really well. I hope she decides to go on a mission; she would make a great missionary.

So sister Beckstrand and I went home tired but very happy with the night's work.

The next day was beautiful, so we decided to bike! Sister Beckstrand's tire was a little flat and kept getting progressively more flat as we rode, but we don't have a bike pump and she can't ride my bike because it is too big for her. 

To make matters better, as we got to S--- house for our first appointment it had begun to rain steadily. We hoped it would cease by the time we finished our lesson with S---, but that wasn't the case.

S--- is so amazing. She came to church last Sunday and she told us when we came over for her lesson that it was the first time she had been to Relief Society in 3 years! Now, as of yesterday, she had been to all 3 hours of church twice! It is so great to see!! It seriously is the best to see her want to change her life and then work to make it happen.

Sometimes I forget how young we must appear to people. Whenever I am in lessons I feel so old, almost the same age as the people we visit. I guess there is a difference between physical maturity and spiritual maturity (not saying I am close to spiritually mature, I have a LONG way to go). It's just that someone commented on it yesterday and I guess it had never really occurred to me that we must appear quite young to those we work with. It's a wonder they take our challenges and trust our suggestions. It must be a gift of the Spirit to missionaries. The church must be true if people our age can preach the Gospel and help people 3-4 times our age. 

As we left S--- it was raining lightly so we tried to ride quickly to R--- house, but as soon as we set off the rain intensified and the temperature dropped. By the time we had even made it a mile we were quite wet and we gave up trying to duck our heads to keep dry. We were glad to duck under the cover of the doorway when we arrived. We tried to straighten ourselves without much success before we went in.

R--- never opens the door because she can't make it out of bed yet, so we knock and just walk in. She was having a really rough day. She was throwing up as we came in and told us she had been throwing up all morning. She kept alternating between putting on her air mask and heaving into a trash can. It was so sad and there wasn't anything we could do to help. She wasn't sick, it was just complications from the surgery. Luckily her son showed up to see her and give her her meds and was able to call her doctor. Sister Beckstrand is a sympathetic sick person so she couldn't stay in the room. She kept asking me to play her piano, so I did while Sister Beckstrand tried to share a comforting message. We weren't able to stay long though because there wasn't anything we could do.

Luckily there was a break in the rain as we set off again.

We decided to head over to the W--- to see if they had a bike pump we could borrow. By the time we made it to the W--- it was raining again. After thoroughly searching their garage and their house we had no luck and were completely without transportation and it kept raining harder and harder. We decided to visit J--- in an attempt to wait out the storm and still have lessons. 

J--- is disabled and really can't go anywhere, so she was thrilled to see someone had stopped by to see her. She is alone a lot, so I can understand why she kept talking, and talking, and talking. We didn't get much of a lesson in because by the time we could get a word in edgewise it was time for us to leave for dinner. 

Contrary to our hopes, the rain had not died down while we were at J--- house. If anything, it had gotten much, much worse. We quickly realized that we couldn't ride home in it with Sister Beckstrand's flat tire to get the car so we could get to dinner. We saw the elders drive by but here is a new rule that we can't ride with elders and vice versa. We called them anyway because we were stranded under a garage awning, but of course they couldn't get us. They had the assistant with them and they told us yesterday that their consciences were screaming at them about leaving two sisters in the rain. 

Luckily, after a lot of calls our dinner appointment finally answered her phone and was able to pick us up in her truck. Thank goodness everyone in Montana has a truck! So she was able to take our bikes and us to dinner. We were so grateful!

After dinner we had a great lesson. We had planned to see A--- and J---, (the worker there) to teach a lesson. When we arrived there was also another worker that was about J--- age named R---. A---, the cute old lady that she is, practically commanded them to sit for the lesson! So they both joined in and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. J--- was full of questions and we were able to answer a lot of them, but some of the we had to take home for further study and answered a few days later.

R--- was attentively listening the whole time. She said she didn't have any questions and believed what we said. She also asked if she could take the pamphlet and a Book of Mormon! It was the greatest!! We invited her to church on Sunday and she agreed.

However, she wasn't there at church on Sunday and we found out from A--- that she had forgotten and had come in to the rest home later, practically in tears! She was so sad she missed it! So A--- invited her to come next week and I really hope she shows up.

It was such a fabulous day despite all of the difficulties. And A---, who was mourning the fact that she "wasn't useful to anyone" is now being an instrument in the hands of the Lord for a greater purpose. It's so amazing to see how the Lord is blessing three people's lives at the same time in different ways. He is the best!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was really interesting and different. Instead of listening to the assistants and President Mecham talk, we did a bunch of role plays and discussions in break out groups. It was really interactive and I learned so much!

Then we had the strangest meeting where they trained everyone on how to be a trainer and told us that we were getting a bunch of new missionaries in to the mission this next transfer. I'm rather surprised that we can take more missionaries. I thought we were close to our cap. I'm secretly hoping that they're going to split the mission. I think that would be so cool! But I guess I'll have to wait a week to see what happens. I kind of hope I won't be training. I like having a companion who knows what they're doing. Oh well, I can't be selfish though. ;)

That night the Roberts fed us the best dinner! I thought they were going to have to roll us out of the house. In true Montana style we had amazing steaks, potatoes, corn on the cob, ice cream, salad, and bread. It was so filling! And it was the best dinner I've had in a long time!

That night sister Beckstrand and I went on splits again because she had to go to this Family History convention at the college to help out and I needed to be in the Addiction Recovery class to support some of the people that have been wanting to go but felt to intimidated. So I went with J--- and Sister Beckstrand went with S---. It ended up working out well, even though I liked the ARP class in Bozeman better. We weren't allowed to talk in this one, I guess they figure we're not addicted to anything.

C--- is still changing and she came to church again! The transformation is indescribable! She looks like a completely different person than she did the first time I met her. She is literally glowing! She has put so much effort into this transformation and  am so proud of her! She is working so hard to quit smoking and it is still a challenge but she is more determined and more successful than anyone I've ever seen before! Please pray for her!!!!

We helped the G--- pack some of their house this week. We are sad they are leaving and hope hey are happy in 1st ward. I really hope that they keep track of the two girls, they are so precious and so ready for the gospel! They just need their dad's permission to get baptized. If you could pray for them, S--- and M---, that would be great. They really need it.

We taught a lesson to A---, the German foreign exchange student that is staying at the Bywater's house. I tried to talk more slowly so she could pick up on the words, but Sister Beckstrand talked normal speed, so I don't know if she got it. She was excited though and asked if she could keep the pamphlet! Then she came to church on Sunday. I hope we will be able to plant the seeds so she will meet with missionaries when she returns to Germany in 2 weeks.

P--- is doing great! She is really working through some trials of faith right now with her desire to pay tithing and become temple worthy. It is such a huge test of her faith though because she isn't sure if she will be able to make ends meet if she pays tithing. We are hoping that she follows through with her commitment to pay it for the next two months to prove the Lord. I guess we will see!

The W--- want to begin working to go to the temple. I am so proud of them! They've been keeping their Word of Wisdom commitments and it's very possible that they could be ready in the near future.

D--- is still progressing. Slowly. Very, very slowly.

And the best news for last!! Pete, the man I was helping work with in Bozeman got baptized on Friday!!!! I was so excited! He wanted to Skype me and was crying he was so happy! I am so happy I got to be a part of his baptism, even if I missed some of his lessons. I can't wait to see him again someday. He has truly changed his life! It's amazing!!

Well, it's going to kick me off, so that's all I have time to share. I love you all! Don't forget to write and send pictures!

Love you!

Sister Draney

This week has been all over the place. 

Because Labor Day was preparation day we only had an hour to email. Our stake president is dean of a college and was able to open the computer lab for us for an hour so we could email. It was really great and such an unexpected surprise!

The whole zone got together at President Romney's house to wash our vehicles. We formed a giant assembly line and got all of the cars through quite fast. It was nice to be able to get to know the other missionaries in my new zone. 

We got to play games at the park with whatever sports equipment we could find in President Romney's house, so we ended up playing some form of baseball with a plastic bat, whiffle balls, and a tennis ball; using frisbees and pool noodles as bases. It was pretty fun even though we couldn't keep score (they don't want us getting too competitive). So you could swing as many times as you needed to to hit the balls, which ended up being good because the wind was so strong that the whiffle balls would go every which way once the wind caught them. 

Then we played ultimate frisbee but everyone was so tired that it wasn't much fun because we were all out of running energy. We probably should have played that one first in retrospect. 

Then we played some sort of game where you have to roll really heavy balls across the field and try to get it close to a little white ball. It was pretty fun and it was a challenge because the ground wasn't even at all.

On Tuesday I got to give a discussion in district meeting on Treasuring up the Words of Christ. It turned out really good considering I forgot that I was giving a discussion til Monday night when Sister Beckstrand asked me if I was ready for my discussion the next day. It ended up quite nicely and I wasn't even able to present all of my notes because everyone participated so much. It was a tender mercy because as I was putting it together my copy of Preach My Gospel kept falling open to the exact pages I needed. It even fell open to some pages that I hadn't read in a while that I hadn't thought to look at. I was so grateful for His help!

After district meeting Sister Beckstrand really wanted Dairy Queen, so we got royally lost trying to get there because of all of the one way streets and funky intersections. 

We barely got back in time to swap companions so we could go on exchanges! I went to Helena 4A for two days with Sister Strong. It was pretty fun! I love going on exchanges to different wards because I don't know as much background about the people so I can really focus on the teaching a lot better, for whatever reason. I think it's asker to teach pure and plain doctrine if you go in without any prior information to cloud your thinking. 

We got to go introduce sister Strong to S----. Sadly he was too busy at that moment to have a lesson, but we set up an appointment to go back to the next day. I'm sad I won't be able to teach him much because he's so prepared. Sister Beckstrand and I like to joke that we're supplying every area with investigators but our own! 

Every person we find seems to be in another area's boundaries which is super frustrating. It's nice though because we know we're doing something right because we ARE finding investigators, just not finding them in our own area. 

On Thursday we all got to go to the temple! President decided that the whole mission was going to attend the temple this transfer and our zone's day to go was this week. We spent a long time preparing for it and it was so exciting to finally have the day here!

Despite the excitement, when we all arrived at the church at 6am and climbed into the big vans that we're going to take us to Billings, we all promptly fell back asleep. Most of us slept all of the way there. We are always so tired that any down time usually results in sleep, despite our desires to do other things, like catch up in our journals. 

The temple was such a spiritual experience. When we arrived President and Sister Mecham were standing out front in their temple clothes to welcome us. I thought that must be a little bit like what heaven is like. Everyone is clothed all in white, waiting to greet you and take you somewhere special where you can feel closer to God. 

We took a picture with them and enjoyed a very uplifting temple experience with lots of personal revelation and peace from the Spirit.

We didn't get home that evening until almost 10pm. We were all exhausted but happy. The mission treated us to dinner at the Golden Corral after the temple and then we drove back. We ended up singing hymns for two hours on the way home! It was really great because almost everyone in the van could sing, so it sounded really good. I love to sing in a group!

The Lord works in mysterious ways, so when we arrived at home we realized the phone was missing and we came to the conclusion that it was still in the van. That was a problem because they were rentals and were on their way to be returned. W couldn't intercept them because we had hit curfew and weren't allowed to leave the house. We also couldn't call anyone because we had no phone and no numbers written down to be able to use the house phone with.

So we spent a long fretful night and a fidgety morning study as we waited until we could leave to go find it. Without the phone we are in terrible trouble because we need it for almost everything!

We were very blessed and after getting lost, getting directions from a police woman, and searching the airport, we were able to find the rental agency. The man there was so nice and let us take his phone to call ours and he let us take the keys to go search the vans. It wasn't too intelligent because he didn't ask for any collateral. So we could have taken off with the vans and his phone, however, since we're missionaries, we didn't. We found the phone and then I started talking to him about the church and he was so interested! We ended up teaching him a lesson at the counter, giving him two pamphlets and a Mormon.org card. We got his number and invited him to church. Hopefully we see something out of it. It was a tender mercy because if we hadn't lost the phone then we never would have met him.

The Helena 5th ward (where I am) is the designated ward for all of the deaf members in Helena!! I'm so excited! It just shows that The Lord does take your talents and put them to good use! I'm planning to search out some deaf events and try to go proselyte there

We finally got to meet the R--- in our ward this week. They have some interesting kids and animals. It was a very distracted lesson because both of them kept jumping up to do things. However, they expressed a sincere desire to come back to church and we are going to start working with them. It will be a great thing for their two kids and for their family in general. It's great to see how the gospel brings families together. I love getting to watch the change take place!

We also met D---, a less active who is looking for something more in his life. So now we're working with him to help him find the things he's looking for. It's a hard situation because we can't push him at all. The moment we push him he starts backing away. So it's a bit of a delicate situation, but I'm sure he will come around with consistent effort on his part to do his assignments.

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK! 

So our miracle of the week is C---. She is amazing! We have been teaching her sister, C--- and the first time we met her she was super brisk with us and didn't want anything to do with us. The two sisters live together and they are probably in their late 60s. Anyway, while I was on exchanges C--- came up to sister Beckstrand and told her she wanted to quit smoking, take the lessons and become active again! 

So we have been working with her a lot this week and it's amazing the change that we've seen in her! There's a light in her eyes and around her face, and she physically looks different! I can't really explain how drastic the change is, but she is reading her scriptures and studying on her own. The light is coming back into her life and she is working so hard!

We arranged for her to get a ride to church and it's turns out she knew the person we arranged to give her a ride. They've been good friends for years. Anyway, we were supposed to call her on Sunday to see if she still needed the ride but we had left the phone at home (yes, this week as been full of phone mishaps). We were running late to PEC but we felt that we should turn around and go to her house and ask her in person.

That ended up being a miracle too because she was on the phone with her sister and told us later what had happened. 

We hadn't called and she was starting to wonder if she really should go to church and she was talking to her sister about her doubts when I walked into her house! She said it was a complete miracle and an instant answer to her prayer. It was so amazing. She said that she took it as a sign from God that she should go to church and that she was on the right path. It was so amazing to be someone's answer to prayer.

She got her ride to church, stayed all three hours and loved it! She even had a great talk with the bishop for almost an hour and when she came out she was so pleased. I was grateful because our bishop can be a little intimidating. She loved church and her whole face was lit up. Now she is starting the stop smoking program and will attend addiction recovery class this week with us. It was the most amazing experience to watch! God is so great!

We had a ton of less actives at church this Sunday! 4!

C--- was one of them.

S---- an older lady who classifies herself as less active. We are giving her the lessons as if she were an investigator and we committed her to following the prophet and watching conference. She's also going to read all of last conference in preparation for the upcoming one!

P---- an older lady we're trying to establish a pattern of daily personal scripture study with. We're also going to start helping her get back in shape enough that she can attend the temple. Woo!!

R---- she is recently baptized and her two daughters want to be baptized as soon as their dad gives his permission. Her baby has a lot of health issues, so she has only been twice since she was baptized. It was so great to see her there and she looked so comfortable. It was a blessing for us because we have been trying to get ahold of her to schedule a lesson but she hasn't gotten back to us, so we were able to schedule a lesson with her at church.

We also had the most awesome lesson with the W---! They have Word of Wisdom issues and their friend J--- who we are also working with was over. So we had the lesson and it turns out J--- has some Word of Wisdom issues too! So the lesson ended up being divinely inspired because we had no idea that she had issue with that. They all committed to live the Word of Wisdom and we are very excited for them.

We had another miracle with J--- this week. She had us over for dinner and we had planned to practice one of our lessons on her because we didn't know if she struggled with anything, so we planned to teach tithing to her, but instead of that we found ourselves talking about fasting. Then she started talking about how she hasn't fasted in decades! So it ended up being just what she needed! She was supposed to fast yesterday, but yesterday was so busy I never got to talk to her about how it went.

We had a stake missionary meeting last night. It is great how involved the stake is with missionary work! Every six weeks they hold a stake missionary meeting where everyone gets together and discusses the work going on. It is so great! I wish every stake could be like this. I also wish all of auxiliaries were as on board. But we have time to work with them.

Well, I think that's about it! This has been a fabulous week! I hope your week was as equally amazing!

I love you all! Don't forget to write!

Love,

Sister Draney

I (Fawn--Sister Draney's Mom) asked her in my letter what it is like to live with the Bishop’s family.  This is her reply.

Sometimes they fix us breakfast on Sundays, but they hardly ever feed us. However we do have free reign on the food, but we don't take too much, because that would be rude. But it's nice to have some spices and flour, sugar, etc without having to buy it because we don't usually need much and it's so overkill for us to buy a big thing when we don't need it all. 

It's nice living with a family because it's more homey. You feel like you have a real home to come back to, rather than a little apartment that's pretty bare. It's nice to see real life go on around you. It gives me more of a sense of being apart because sometimes I forget how different our life style is until I see other people going about theirs and I'm like, wow, it is different

Happy September!

This week I got to know a lot more of the area. We had so many lessons a day that we barely squeaked home for food and curfew at night. Some of the people I met:

S--- and M--- they are so prepared for the gospel. They keep commitments and are enthusiastic about church and baptism. They just need their dad's support.

 M---- we are helping her build her testimony and strengthen herself to help her become active and to strengthen her family.

W---- the most awesome family ever. They are all recent converts and they love learning and growing. We are working on helping the get to the temple.

S---- met him at Walmart and shared the Restoration with him right away. He wants to be baptized and we have a return appointment soon. He is so excited about the Book of Mormon and is especially excited because he has Native American ancestors and he is excited about the people it describes in the Book of Mormon.

D--- met him while he was mowing his lawn. As we were biking down his dirt road his dogs started running at us and barking like they were going to attack. Poor sister Beckstrand was a little nervous, but like a lot of dogs here, they were all show and we made it to his house without getting bit by anything more than the swarms of the mosquitos that were dive-bombing us. He turned out to be a less active member for decades and his family aren't members. We have a return appointment this week and he is excited to take the lessons again. It was great because he said, "now I don't normally do this, but I'm going to give you guys my phone number and email and we will set up lessons." It was so great to see someone's heart softened. It just goes to show that you can never judge a book by its cover because he doesn't look like someone you would think would be LDS just by looking at him.

We are also hoping to teach his daughter and her son. She is really interesting; her name is D--- and she has dreadlocks and a tattoo that goes all the way up one leg. She likes to run Spartan races. She was really kind to us though, she let us use some of her mosquito repellant because we were being eaten alive. Somehow I made it out without any bites since I was extra-vigilant about killing anything that landed on me. Sister Beckstrand however, was completely covered in bites, which is extra unfortunate because she has a habit of picking off any scabs that form and scratching her mosquito bites until they scab over. So her legs are covered in newly formed scabs and scars. She says it really doesn't bother her to have all of those scars, so I guess it's not a problem for her. We also met his daughter’s friend while we were there and she also wants the lessons! But sadly she lives out of our area, so we had to pass her on to the other missionaries, but I'm sure they will do a great job teaching her and her son. They seem so prepared and they really want to know how to have eternal families.

W--- we spent two hours trying to find him because we were told he was in the hospital, then when we arrived we were told that no one by that name there, so we got to call his family and they told us he was at a rehab center, but they told us the wrong one. So we found the center, but he wasn't there either. So they found him for us at another care center and so then we set off to find this new care center. We were lost for almost an hour trying to find this referral. We ended up having to call our ward mission leader to give us directions. It's tough in Helena because a lot of the streets don't go in a straight line. There will be a break and you'll have to turn left and go for a ways to continue down the same road you were on.  It ended up being totally worth it because when we finally found the right place and as we walked in we met another man who was not a member and ended up teaching him a lesson and now he wants the missionaries back! It's great. W--- was doing well and we had a nice visit with him and were able to learn about his family and teach about the plan of Salvation. It was so great!

A--- and P-- They are so interesting; they have very obvious Word of Wisdom issues because there were hookahs everywhere, and she can't get to church because of work, so we are starting small and helping her do the things she can to work towards full activity and a temple sealing. Her kid is so cute and they know they need to be at church, so I hope they will be able to have the faith and motivation to start making the small changes that will lead to a large lasting change.

We did a lot of service this week. We helped the W--- move out of their old house and into their new house. It was especially challenging because the second floor of the house can only be reached by a little metal spiral staircase, like the one you would find in a tiny lighthouse; only, it's not constructed safely. The railing looks metal, but it's actually a plastic pipe that it curved around to look like a proper railing and they measured poorly for the staircase, so it has a lot of wooden spacers, which make it dangerous to climb up. Not to mention that it's really narrow, so it's hard to get much of anything up and Sister W--- wouldn't let the movers take the staircase partially apart to be able to get the mattresses up it. It was quite interesting.

To make matters worse, she kept leaving to get stuff that we "needed" and would be gone for 3 hours at a time. It was frustrating to not have her there to direct us. She gets stressed out with things like that though. She had a panic attack and ended up in the hospital because of stress over the move, so I can sort of understand.

We met the M--- this week. They are inactive but the son is preparing to go on a mission. However the problem is, he is only going to about two Sundays a month of church and I worry that he's not ready to go through the temple. I don't want him to turn out to be another C---, like back in Bozeman. I hope they don't send him if he's not fully prepared. I think they're looking at this as an opportunity to help him become fully active, but unless his heart is in it and he is fully prepared, it might not change him at all. However I can't really say anything because I don't have the same inspiration and authority as the bishop does over he ward, so if he feels that the Spirit is telling him this is what to do, I can't really argue. I can mostly just worry.

We also helped Sister S--- move a ton of stuff from her house and out of her crawl space into her horse trailer. She has so much stuff and she's moving it all to a storage shed, and then is going to have a garage sale in town. It was two full trailers worth of stuff and she isn't even finished getting it all out. I am happy she is getting rid of so much because a lot of people here can't let go of things. She just has way too much stuff.  She took us out to Subway after we finished and we were so hungry! I ate a whole foot-long.

                We spent forever looking for B--- yesterday. Our map was no good and we ended up going down a ton of incorrect little roads, hoping they were her driveway. Sister Beckstrand got pretty freaked out at a few of the houses that had multiple "don't trespass, I will shoot" or "warning: firearms in use" or "trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again". I got a little nervous at a few homes, but not as badly as sister Beckstrand. At one house she was trying to turn around and get out of there really fast and I had to reach over and grab her arm and go "Oh my gosh!" Really loud, so she thought someone was coming after us. She screamed and then she punched me when she realized I was kidding. It was totally worth it :)

It's quite cold here at night now. They days are usually fine, but you can definitely feel fall approaching. I'm in denial. I don't want it to ever be cold again. However, that won't happen because Montana is freezing for most of the year. I'm not excited to give up my summer clothes when the snow comes. Hopefully it won't come until at least October or November.

                We started reading the Book of Mormon with P--- this week and it went really well.

                There are so many people that have a desire to read the Book of Mormon but just don’t have that motivation without follow up. So we are trying to help a lot of people in the ward establish a pattern of scripture study.

                We started reading scriptures with A--- once a week and when we came this week she was playing Scrabble with the nurse. We joined in and started talking to the nurse about her life and her plans. She had to leave for a while to distribute medications, so we were able to talk with A---. When the nurse, 

J---, came back we asked if we could share a message and ended up teaching her about the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and the power of prayer in our lives. She was really interested and quite excited to learn more. She took a copy of the Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, a pass along card, and seemed really excited to read them. I can't wait to follow up with her and see if she read either. She doesn't have a steady religion and is looking for one in her life and is super open to the gospel. She said a lot of other religions don't make sense to her.

 It's hard not to get way too over-enthusiastic about teaching when people seem so prepared, because you don't want to freak them out or overload them with information.

There are tons of spiders in our basement that we live in. I was doing laundry this morning and a spider crawled right out of my clothes in my dirty clothes basket! I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.

Well, we don’t have much time left and that’s about it for this week. Happy Labor Day and Happy September!

Also, sorry for any spelling mistakes, I typed most of the letter on my iPad because we don’t have much time to email here in Helena like we used to, so please forgive all present and future spelling mistakes.

Love you all!

Don’t forget to write!

Sister Draney