Holy cow what a week! We have been so busy, mostly with tracting. We have almost doubled our potential investigator pool and we have return appointments with all of them in this coming week. It's so great! It was originally frustrating because all of the people we had planned to see weren't home, so we thought that there must be some reason why we felt prompted to visit those people when they weren't even home, so we started tracting and had a ton of success.
We visited M--- again and we had quite the interesting conversation with him. We had planned for it to be a short lesson because we had given him the pamphlet and he read it. The only problem is he had some issues with the fact that we claim to be the only true church. We talked to him about how Jesus only set up one church while He was here and M--- was like, "Oh, you got me!" But then he went right back into the circular conversation that he started, so we didn't get anywhere.
We talked to his daughter though and she is one of those that believes that she is closer to God outside, that God is nature. There are a lot of those kind of people here in Montana who feel like they are closer to God while they are in nature rather than in church. It's one of the biggest problems we face is trying to teach people why church is essential.
We had a big meeting this week in which they introduced some new things we are allowed to do on Facebook, but with it there were a ton of new rules introduced. One thing that's pretty cool is that the mission introduced a new hashtag that they have created as a mission. They had to teach most of us what hashtags actually were which was pretty funny. So the new hashtag is called @bookofmormoning. It's where you take a picture of yourself doing something with a Book of Mormon and hashtag @booofmormoning. If you want to see some examples you can check my facebook later this week. You should use it and help it spread!!
That night we knocked on a door and it turned out to be this hardcore atheist that we met a few weeks ago. We had nicknamed him Corihor because of his attitude to everything we told him. He wanted to talk to us but was just as stubborn as before. He told us the only reason he wants to talk to us is because he thinks we are amusing and entertaining. It was kind of creepy because he told us that he doesn't have the thing in his brain that releases chemicals, so he doesn't have feelings. He said he is clinically labeled as a psychopath, minus the violent behavior. He just has no emotions. He wants us to logically explain how there is a God, but he won't accept the possibility that there is a God. We don't really think it's a good use of our time to go back even though he wants us to.
We had a great dinner at Sister R---; we talked about the law of chastity which was kind of weird, but she wanted ALL the lessons and that was the next one in the line. Then again, it's always a little uncomfortable to teach the law of chastity.
We visited a referral and she was not happy to see us at all, so the conversation lasted less than two seconds, but it ended up being an inspired referral because we walked next door where a family was building a basketball hoop and started talking to them. They couldn't really escape because they were working (which is the best) and we ended up having a pamphlet lesson with them outside and setting up a return appointment! We are excited to go out this week.
On Friday morning all of the people we had planned to see weren't home or they were ill, so our morning was suddenly completely clear as we decided to go find some less active people that were in the area and we had the strangest experience.
We met L---, who lives in this house surrounded by a high fence and tons of bushes. The front door doesn't open and she saw us walk up and she motioned us around to the back yard. She came out and it was very strange; she seemed quite guarded but showed us around her backyard. She insisted that we take some of her seashells and then sat outside and smoked and drank her coffee. She kept making this disgusted face and said that one of us smelled, talk abut embarrassing! Well, it turns out she is hyper-sensitive to smells like perfume and hairspray. Well, neither of us we're wearing anything besides deodarant. Well, L--- was so determined to figure out where the smell came from that she started grabbing our hair and clothes and sniffing them. The most awkward part was when she came up and smelled my ARMPITS. I was mortified. She came to the conclusion that it was our drier sheets. She wanted us to come back and do some service for her, but now we have to go back, odorless, for a test run first. I'm glad to know it was a good smell rather than a bad one though. I was super self conscious about it the whole time we were there.
She is super atheist and isn't willing to change, so we will do the service and probably won't return until she is more prepared to hear the gospel. She was also super rude about her opinions, so it wasn't a good place for the Spirit to be. She is a fiber artist, so she quilts and does thread art.
I can't really describe all of the people we tracted into that didn't accept our message. The real topper was one girl at B--- house who was super, supreme rude. I'm shocked at how rude some people can be. We should be nice to everyone no matter if we agree with them or not. We should try to lighten other people's lives. There is plenty of bad in the world without us adding to it.
We had dinner with the B--- after MCM and she was so kind; she took us out to go find a referral for an hour, until it was so dark that we couldn't see the house numbers (a common problem in Montana where there are no street lights). We didn't find the girl, but she came back very enthusiastic about missionary work and told us she wanted to help us more and thought about tracking the girl down on hear own. She was just the greatest because we didn't have enough mile allotment on the car to go find our referral. Even though we didn't find our referral we found another man, C---, who wants us to come back and teach him! We also found a woman that had taken the missionary lessons and isn't interested right now, but now where know where she is at. :)
We have been having a lot of temple prep lessons to help people get ready for the temple prep class that we are hoping is going to get going soon. We are so excited for everyone that is preparing to go to the temple. We got to work with C--- this week to help her prepare to go to the temple before her mission.
We spent all of Saturday morning trying to track people down. We didn't have any success with the people we were looking for. Only one was home. We were able to have a lesson with her, even though she was the door that we were most antsy about knocking on because the had a sign that said, "No soliciting, we know who we are voting for, we have found Jesus, unless you're selling thin mints, seriously GO AWAY!" So we were nervous to knock on her door, but we did anyway and braced ourselves for the verbal lashing we were sure we were going to get, but it didn't come. She was more than happy to see us and we were able to have a lesson with her.
Then on our way back this man flagged us down. We had talked to him the week before and the other people in the driveway when we had last talked to him were super rude and uninterested (which was quite the opposite of his neighbor who was polite and uninterested), but they were gone this time and he waved us over and showed us everything about the car he was working on- a Chrysler 300 for all of you car buffs- and we got talking to him and ended up having a pamphlet lesson with him. He wants to come to church and he asked to keep the pamphlet. We have a lesson set up with him for next Wednesday!
We got to drop a hat off at the deaf family's house and I got to sign with the little three year old again, he is so cute!
We went to go track down a less active and he turned out to be the mayor! Ha, ha go figure... Anyway, he wasn't home, so we will have to go back. They were like, "do you know whose house this is?" And we were like, "yep, and he's a member so we re trying to track him down" (but we said it more tactfully).
We ended up going across the street and having an amazing lesson with the man across the street. It turns out he isn't a member, he had an LDS girlfriend a long time ago, she had given him a Book of Mormon and he believes that it finishes the story of the Bible and has a testimony of it already. He last read it 6 months ago! So we have a return appointment with him next week!
I just can't believe how much the Lord has blessed us this week as we have been out trying to find people. He has been blessing us so much! We are so grateful. We hope that it goes somewhere with all the people that the Lord has given us.
I also wanted to mention how awesome it is to have iPads because I had a number of scriptures that came to my mind that were just part of a scripture and I was able to search where they were quickly because of the iPad so they lent a lot to the lesson. It's such a blessing to have modern technology because it enhances the lessons so much because it makes things the missionaries know so much more easily available.
This letter is coming out late because of Columbus Day yesterday. I had a great preparation day. Sister Beckstrand and I split because she is going to the temple on Saturday and I can't go because a different sister needs to go with her. They both worked with the same family while they were in Missoula and that family is getting endowed and sealed this Saturday so they got permission to go. So they had to give up their p-day in exchange for going to the temple. So I chilled out with Sister Parr and the other sisters. We had a great time but it was kind of weird because they are all going home really soon, so it made me more aware of how long I have left on the mission which was both a good thing and a bad thing. :)
Well, I hope you all are having a amazing week! Don't forget to be a great example to those around you!
Love,
Sister Draney