Happy November! Boy how time flies! Some of the missionaries in our mission are posting pictures of several inches of snow on their facebook pages. I’m so glad it has only snowed once in Helena and it didn't stick! I'm still not mentally prepared for winter and I don't think I ever will be. At least I'm not in Siberia where it is really, really cold.

We met S--- this week. She is a less active, her husband isn't a member, and they have a cute 10 year old daughter that they adopted from China. We have only met S---, but the rest of them sound nice. We are meeting with her again this week because she has a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and she wants us to prove it with the Bible. She is sincere, just very doubtful. She wants to know it’s true but she can't talk to her family about it because they are all so emotionally invested that they get frustrated when she doesn't see the truth. Funny thing is she is actually related to the H--- from Bozeman! Who would have thought?!

We did a lot of tracking people down this week because we had a few extra miles at the end of the month. We had to do a lot of it in the dark because it's getting dark earlier here. People kept shutting off their porch lights before we get off the doorstep, so it is hard to get back to the car without falling flat on our face in some of the areas. That's why I always carry around a flashlight with me.

We got to meet Sister R--- granddaughter this week and we are going to start teaching her at Sister 

R--- house. She's 17, her name is H---, and she's had it really rough lately. She was really interested in the message we shared.

We also tracted into this lady named C---. She has 5 kids in her blended family and she is so nice! We met her as we were trying to track down less actives in the area. The people that had lived in her house had moved, but she is super interested!

I had the grossest food of my mission this week. A family made us tofu soup with mushrooms in it. I couldn't even choke it all down. Luckily, they also made this amazingly delicious oriental chicken thing, so I ate lots of that instead. Tofu and soup don't mix well. Then again, tofu and anything doesn't mix well in my opinion.

We stopped by the H--- house to see if we could get an appointment with them, since they didn't answer the door the last time. We just wanted to know if they were interested, so that if they weren't we would stop bugging them. As we walked up we saw the mom looking through the window, so we smiled and waved. We went up and rang the doorbell and two of her kids answered. They told us their parents were busy (clearly a lie, since we just saw the mom) so we asked straight out if they wanted us to come back and the kids were like "probably not". I can't believe the parents hid from us and sent their kids out to send us away! It's not like we bite or are going to get angry. Seriously.

We saw the I--- again and had a very bold conversation with them about why they aren't coming to church/getting baptized. We told them that we had come because we felt they were ready to move forward, but if they weren't ready that we wouldn't be able to keep coming over. The other missionaries would come over and hang out. Not us. We are here to work and if they aren't willing to make the needed changes in their lives then we have other places that the Lord needs us to be. Personally, I really hope they are ready. I like them so much and they are all so sweet, especially their grandkids. They have such pure intent and they want to make good choices. They even want to read the Book of Mormon and come to church!
Something I am seeing more and more is that it's the kids who are making the push. It's the kids who want to get baptized, who are pushing the parents to go to church. It's amazing to see. They clearly are the chosen generation. They don't need a parent to pull them, they are going all on their own!

We had a crazy amazing lesson with J---.  She taught herself tithing.  She already knew why we pay tithing and that it was ten percent and already pays tithing, she has since she was little, so it was no big deal for her to pay it now. She also already knew what fasting was and bore a testimony of how she sees it bless her life. We shared with her what the funds go to.  We discussed the law of chastity and the blessings of living it and she wears a purity ring.  We went over the baptism interview questions and she answered them all and bore her testimony of the prophet and repentance! We hadn't taught her the word of wisdom yet so we summed it up and she immediately said she was drinking coffee and tea but was fully committed so she quit then and there.  We moved her baptism date to the 8th of November! So she is getting baptized this Saturday! We are beyond excited for her!

We had another crazy lesson with the man we found, S---. He received everything really well.  His friend was trying to convince him Mormons were wrong and God stopped miracles and there aren't prophets, and he even started yelling about how "Mormons talk to the dead!" Which clearly isn't true. S--- wasn't having any of it, he even argued with his friend to support us, which was surprising, but we would have much rather there had been no arguing or yelling at all. The two members we brought with us were very taken aback and Brother M--- said it was the most intense lesson he had been to in 30 years!  We used his friends Bible scriptures to support the lesson and it ended up working out.  The Spirit was really strong when we were teaching, then it wasn't when his friend was talking so you could definitely tell the difference in the room. S--- accepted his baptismal invite for November 29th and is so excited to read the Book of Mormon and come to church.  He said he's been searching for his purpose in life and hasn't tried this religion yet and will sincerely read and pray.  He prayed at the end of the lesson to know the truth and he was so sincere.  He is stoked to meet with us next week! And we are going to be meeting with him at member houses from now on to avoid crazy lessons like the one he had last time.

Mountain adventure- we were looking for a less active named L---and she lived way up in the mountains. It's a good thing it wasn't snowing or we would have been in deep trouble. We started off looking for her and the mountain gradually started to get steeper and steeper, and the roads started getting rougher and rougher, but we were so close to her house number that we kept going. The roads started getting so bad that we weren't sure if our car would make it, and eventually we didn't. So I had to get out and push the car up part of the mountain then eventually I couldn't push anymore so I had to back her down the mountain until we could find a spot that was wide enough to turn around. So I got to walk down the mountain backwards so I could make sure she didn't drive off the mountain! It was actually pretty fun because the grass was over 4 ft high and it felt like we were on safari. So that's how we track down less actives in Montana!

Halloween was fun, I was a pirate and Sister Beckstrand was a nerd. It was so fun! We walked around the trunk-or-treat and asked for referrals. We got quite a few referrals and a lot of candy which made me really happy. We had to be in by 6pm so we went to the Binghams house and watched them catapult flaming pumpkins with their trebuchet. It was just about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time!
This week was a really good one and I'm excited to see what November brings!

Love you all!

Sister Draney