The last letter! Ahhhh!!!! I can’t believe it’s here. And of course, no rest for the wicked, this week has been absolutely crazy! Complete with toe surgery, a mid-transfer-adjustment, a mission-wide conference, and many more things. Way to go out with a bang, right?

We had an all-mission conference with Elder Zwick and Elder Hemmingway. We all got to shake their hands and talk to them for a minute. It took forever, but it was awesome! There are a lot of changes being implemented in the mission. We now have to turn in all our key indicators via online area book. I’m not going to lie, I’m glad I’ll be missing that because it is very, very inaccurate and it’s going to be a pain!

It was really cool that the whole mission got to get together though. It’s fun to see everyone you haven’t seen in forever because they’re at opposite ends of the mission. I bet it was really nice for everyone down in Wyoming who never get to see the other missionaries.

We learned a lot about the importance of companions, not only mission companions, but the companions we will have throughout life: spouses, councils in calling, etc. It’s true that the mission is the best training for life! I learned a lot at the conference. We are so blessed to have had this visit!

We volunteered at the Community Café again this week. It was nice to be back after all of these months, but too many people showed up to volunteer (a great problem to have!) and we weren’t very busy, so it wasn’t too exciting.

I had my departure interview this week. It was a great experience and very spiritual. I will admit that I was worried because Sister Thackeray came out of her interview bawling, so I was like, “oh goodness, maybe he is calling everyone to repentance…” But it was a very pleasant, affirming experience.

We went on exchanges this week and President decided to make it permanent! My first and last mid-transfer-adjustment. Thank goodness too, because it’s rough! So I will serve my last 6 days here in Bozeman 2^nd ward with Sister Cutler. She’s really sweet and it’s a pleasure to work with her, though I really miss Sister Thackeray.

I got to meet a lot of people in 2^nd ward and we had a lot of awesome lessons. One of their investigators speaks only Spanish, so we had to teach the whole thing with an interpreter. It was really cool and he is so prepared! His baptism date is the 21^st!

I got to have my last lesson in sign language. We went out to see the D--- family and let them know that there are 4 interpreters in Belgrade 1^st ward and to invite them to attend, but they don’t want to go now because their testimonies have wavered. So I committed them to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon one more time and they said that they would! So, fingers crossed. They are so sweet, they just started going to the only other church that had an interpreter and they are comfortable there now. So sad.

One of the other missionaries that served in Bozeman got in contact with them, but couldn’t sign, so she just typed a message into her iPad and the D--- did not like that at all! She told me that she likes to be talked to, face to face like we were doing. So it was a definite blessing that I got to go see them one more time, even though I have forgotten a lot of my ASL vocabulary over the past few years.

I got foot surgery on Thursday for 4 ingrown toenails. That’s what you get for walking too much in church shoes! ;) I was very blessed and my old branch President offered to do it for free, so I seized the opportunity. It was quite painful I’m not going to lie, and I still am hobbling around in quite a bit of pain, but it was totally worth it! I’ll save you all the rest of the details though, for any of you who are squeamish.

We went tracting which was rough because of my foot surgery but we had such success! Two people invited us back. One was really funny. We felt that we should knock on one last door before turning in for the night, so Sister Cutler pointed out a door and we went and knocked on it. This little old lady answered, clutching her cane like she was going to hit us with it. She said sharply, “what do you want? Why are you here?” So we started talking to her, though she intimidated both of us pretty bad. We started talking about families and she just broke down in tears. It turns out that she lost her husband and her two best friends all within the same year and has been having other hardships.

We both hugged her and she ended up letting us in and talking to us for almost 40 minutes. She thanked us profusely for listening and admitted that she was planning on hitting the person at the door with the cane because someone had been sitting outside her house for a long time that day and she thought it might be the same creeper.

She is so sweet and we are going to introduce her to a lot of people in the church and we will visit her again. Her life is so hard right now! The only thing P--- (that’s her name) has to live for is her dog, B--- (who got her hair all over me…). It was an amazing experience.

The other lady that invited us back is pregnant and has two other kids. When we knocked on her door, we were planning to use the same tracting approach we had been using successfully for most of the night, but to my surprise I started talking about family home evening and strengthening the family! It turned out to be perfect because she invited us back!

This Sunday I got to see P---, one of the people I taught many times with another set of sister who ended up being baptized. I was so happy to see that he’s still attending church. He was homeless since he was 10 but now he has an apartment and a calling in the elders quorum! He looks so much different! It’s really a pleasure to see people’s lives change.

It’s been such a blessing to serve a mission and to get to see the Lord’s hand in people’s lives and to be able to see how involved He is in every single person’s life! He truly loves us and cares about us. I am so grateful for the privilege I have had to serve the Lord full-time for the past year and a half. Though it hasn’t been easy by a long shot, it has been worth it. I know that the mission is the best thing I could have ever done for my life and I’m grateful to everyone who encouraged me to go.

I know that the doctrine that the church teaches is true. I know that it is the only way to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. I’m so grateful that I have the gospel in my life and I’m so excited to come home and be a full-time member missionary!

Thank you to all of you who have been such good writers and emailers over the past year and a half. It has meant the world to me, you have lifted me up and encouraged me. You all mean so much to me!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now. I’m excited to see a lot of you later this week! Stay strong and be an example of the believers!

Lots of love and hugs,

Sister Draney

I got a request for some of the funny things that happened this week, so here they are: The biggest one that’s making my companion laugh this week is that I got asked on three dates! I don't know how I feel about that and she is merciless in her teasing haha

Some guy dangled a balloon right in front of my face and I practically jumped into him I tried to get away from it so quickly (he had no idea I'm afraid of balloons, poor guy).

I got leaned on by the world's stinkiest dog :P so gross. I couldn't get it off of my hands.

Had a guy tell me he wanted to make out with me. Weird and totally gross.

Danced with a member in her kitchen to a ridiculous song on youtube called "Body Rolls/High Kicks" (I think). My companion practically died laughing. Then we rapped the Restoration to them and they made us do it again and video-taped the entire thing. They’re going to send it to us after the mission. They say we are the best sister missionaries ever (heck yeah!).

I played Mexican horse race and the members were super bummed that I figured it out so fast, so they had to have someone else be “Arted”. You bang on the ground and say "hoof" followed by your assigned name. So it's “hoof arted!” (who farted!) then they switch it to “Ive Arted!” (I've farted) but they didn't make it around even twice before I figured it out so I got booted from the circle and they found another victim who “won” because he never figured it out until after the game was over.

In other news, all of our investigators cancelled on us this week. We were super bummed!! C--- got sick, but luckily we were able to stop by before she got sick and have a lesson with her in her kitchen. She is such a sweet girl! We invited her to be baptized at her last lesson and her mom kind of freaked, so it isn’t going to happen before we leave. I’ll be so sad to miss it!

Things are going as well as can be expected with the G---. They weren’t able to have any lessons this week which was really a bummer. We kept in contact through text though.

We had a really awkward moment as we pulled up in front of the D--- house right as they were getting home (we had never met them before, they were a referral), so we decided to wait for a moment for them to get inside, so it didn’t seem like we were just waiting for them in the driveway, but the husband came out with a flashlight to see if we were lost because he saw that we had Billings plates. (The plates give us away every time!) and Sister Thackeray got really nervous and lied to him and said that we were looking for another street. Anyway, we think he totally knew, so it was really embarrassing. Luckily, he was sick when we came over for a lesson later on in the week, so we didn’t have to answer any awkward questions.

The D--- son was flirting with Sister Thackeray! He is a little young for her though (he’s about 9). He gave her a huge hug, then walked away a bit, then turned around and winked at her! Haha it was too cute!

We had a great dinner at the G--- home this week, but at the end they asked us if we would like coffee cake. I was so full that I didn’t want any, but when my companion said no, she looked so sad that I asked if I could take some home with me. To my dismay she gave me the entire pan! I didn’t know what to do with it! We ended up sharing it with some members of our ward, thankfully.

There weren’t many more exciting things this week. We taught many lessons to less active members and active members, but none are really notably progressing at the moment, which is really quite sad.

However, we will be reactivating Sister W--- this week, which is exciting! All we have to do is get bishop to sign off on the paperwork.

I realized yesterday afternoon that I will be home next week and that was a really freaky feeling.... I've been waiting for it to happen, but now that it's here I'm kind of nervous. I guess we will see how it turns out…

I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Love,

Sister Draney

Well, after this you only get two more letters from yours truly! I have all sorts of mixed emotions. Mostly it just doesn’t seem real. I don’t think it will sink in until I’m actually getting on the plane, and I’m fine with that. My companion and I are both going home at the same time and we both want to work ourselves to the bone and leave the area on spiritual fire! Sadly, the ward is getting trunky for us (despite all of our best efforts to keep it a secret. Someone found out!) But we’re ignoring it.

            We had a ton of lessons this week, which was really awesome. We are pleased with our week, but we wish that the 3 people we wanted to put on date were actually on date! Satan is working super hard on them and is attacking their families when he can’t get to them individually.

            Satan really worked hard on J--- family this week. Her 15 year old daughter ran away with a boy and her mom was in a panic trying to find her and worrying that she would turn up dead. Luckily, the next day someone recognized her while they were out hiking and called 9-1-1 and the police showed up just in time. They were planning on pulling a “Romeo and Juliet” and killing each other with these huge hunting knives that they had! The police showed up just in time and said, “really guys? Really?” and they both dropped it. So now her daughter is in Billings for psychiatric evaluation. Poor J---. She is really having trouble and blaming herself for what happened. She told us that about a month ago this change came over her daughter and it’s like her daughter wasn’t there anymore. When she talked to her she said it was like her soul was just dead.

            We feel so bad for her, but don’t know how to help other than strengthening her in the gospel. Luckily she has some member friends so Sister T--- went over and spent hours helping J--- clean her house so that she could think again and get her life back in some semblance of order. Needless to say, the baptism date will have to be postponed. L

            We had a lesson with A---, but he and his girlfriend had just broken up, so he wasn’t in any mood to listen and was on his phone the whole time. Teenage drama. We understood, but were still bummed that we didn’t get to commit him to baptism and fill out the baptismal calendar with him. Oh well, we will next time. We talked with him a lot about how baptism and the gospel will help him achieve the kind of family life that he wants and that was really interesting to him because he’s come from a really hard background and wants to make his future better than his past has been. He can totally do it! He’s an awesome kid.

            We had a lesson with L--- and we brought Brother H--- with us. The two of them really hit it off and we had a hard time keeping them on track. But we’re glad they liked each other! But Brother H--- doesn’t want to take the time to go back later! We were so bummed! We’ll keep working on him. It was a good lesson though because I really felt the Spirit strongly whenever I spoke, so that was really neat. We got to share Elder Holland’s testimony of the Book of Mormon as well- so powerful!

            We had a lesson with the D--- and she told us about some really amazing experiences that she’s had that I won’t write down here. She’s one of those people though that you wonder if those experiences really happened or if she was just imagining them. It’s definitely possible that they really happened, I just can’t imagine the things that she told us about happening as frequently as she says it has. Maybe I just don’t have enough faith.

            We got to go to the adult session of stake conference. Sister Thackeray was guilt-ridden the entire time because the zone leaders sent out a voicemail asking only the people in Bozeman to go to the session but we had asked if we could go and he said (in that voice when parents want you to make a certain decision but leave it up to you and will be upset if you choose anything other than what they want) “Well, we told you the decision was up to you”. So I was like, “Sweet! Let’s go!” But Sister Thackeray didn’t feel good about it once we got there, even though she was excited at first when we were driving over. Then she blamed us going on me. I wasn’t very happy about that, but I learned a lot and she frequently doesn’t seem to like me, so I just brushed it off. I have too little time to worry about what other people think of me.

            We tried B--- again. She is always sleeping! We tried her at 10am, 1pm, 3:50 pm and 7 pm and she was always asleep whenever we came over, so we just taught her on her doorstep, even though she said she didn’t have time. One thing I’ve discovered is that if people say they don’t have time and they really do, if you ask them a question about themselves, their house, their family, their job, or anything they want to tell you about, they will talk to you forever on their doorstep and you get to teach them a lesson anyway. Sneaky missionaries… ;)

            We had an amazing lesson with a new investigator, J---. Her boys were all over the place which made it hard to teach but she has amazing questions and is so prepared! We shared the video “You Never Know” and by the end she had tears in her eyes. We gave her the Restoration pamphlet to read before we come back. She can’t meet for two more weeks and inwardly we were like, “Noooo! We don’t have that kind of time!” But we couldn’t argue because she had a very valid excuse. Two of her boys, her 9 year old and her 5 year old who were both born while she and her husband lived in Peru, are both getting circumcised this week. Poor boys! Talk about a scarring experience!

            Sister W--- is doing well! She will be reactivated as soon as Bishop Carlson signs the form! Now we are working on getting her to stay for Relief Society and hopefully getting her a calling!

            We met the sweetest old couple, M--- and D---. They talked our ears off! Literally! They would talk at the same time, one to each of us, so Sister Thackeray and I had to divide and conquer to try and teach a lesson because they wouldn’t stop talking long enough for a single lesson. We ended up teaching them individually in our separate conversations. They ended up giving us half a tray of Costco cinnamon rolls to take home. It’s official. It’s impossible to lose weight in the mission field in Montana. You can maintain your weight, but not lose. The struggle is real.

            We got to meet the T--- family this week. Brother T--- wants to be reactivated and receive the Priesthood so that he can baptize his wife and daughter!! We are so excited! They’re going to talk this week about how they would like to progress as a family. We will talk to them about it when we return this week. The member that came with us did a great job and he even brought his daughter with him! What a good experience for her!!

            We had another great lesson with the P--- this week. We took the O--- with us and after dinner they invited the P--- to their house for dinner! Heck yeah! Talk about an awesome member missionary couple! We were SO excited! We love it when members make friends with the investigators/less actives when we are not around. It really does the most good you could possibly imagine.

            Well, that’s about it for this week! The temperatures have dropped again. When we got home last night it was 2 degrees! Brrr! We didn’t really think about it and when we got our laundry detergent out of our trunk this morning so that we could go do laundry, it was frozen solid! So we had to use some member’s soap.

            I love you all! Remember to always live as if someone were watching because someone always is! (See P.S for story)

Love,

Sister Draney

P.S So we take these “Thank you” photos holding a big “thank you sign” and give them to members after they feed us or do something for us. We were in Bozeman, in the middle of a field, taking a picture and later in the week when we give someone our thank you picture and note she was like, “Oh, I saw you guys out there and I wondered what you were doing!” This was like 20-30 minutes away from Belgrade! What are the chances?! So, you never know who’s watching you!

Is it spring? I'm not really sure... Montana has a lovely way of getting your hopes up that the weather will be good and sending them plummeting to the earth. I can only hope! All of the farmers want more rain/snow though. I would totally be down for some rain. Bring it on!

This week has been all over the place. We had mission leadership training, a ton of appointments, moving into a new apartment, and then I got sick. All sorts of great stuff.

Mission Leadership Conference was back in Helena which was pretty exciting. It would have been even more exciting if I'd been gone for longer. But I got to see a ton of my good missionary friends. Sister Thackeray and I also gave a discussion (yikes!), I played the piano for the whole meeting which I enjoyed, and I had to give my "departing testimony". The discussion went really well. I love speaking in front of groups, so that was one of the best parts of the day. As for the "departing testimony" it didn't really seem real because I'd seen so many missionaries give them, but it always seemed like my time would never come, but now it's here and gone. 

Moving into the new apartment went really well. The ward totally hooked us up and I felt so guilty because we're both going to be leaving in a few weeks! They're so excited to have sister missionaries and we haven't told them that we're both leaving yet. I hope they aren't upset... :/ A few of the ward have figured out that we're going home and are getting trunky for us! We're like, "no! We don't want to talk about it!" but they insist, so we have to find creative ways of diverting the conversation. Usually by asking them a question about what's going on in their lives. That always works. 

So many people showed up to move us into our new apartment that we really didn't have anything to do! There were five men from the elder's quorum setting up two twin beds in our room. There wasn't even room for us! But now we're all settled. The apartment is huge, which is nice, but it smells of smoke and dog. We found out that the people below us smoke, so the smell is wafting up through the vents into our apartment. It's really gross. We leave the windows open all day and that really helps. 

When we moved in at first we didn't have a shower curtain, so we had to be really careful when we showered not to get the floor wet. We weren't always successful. Luckily, one of the members had one they had forgotten to give us, so we didn't have to wait until p-day to go get one. 

We've had some great lessons this week. Just today after district meeting our district leader, Elder Izatt, complimented us on how many lessons we have been having! Apparently we have skyrocketed the last elder's numbers. That made me feel pretty good because we've been working hard. We both really want to go out with a bang and leave the mission completely exhausted. 

We had a great lesson with Sister W--- and her roommate this week. Her roommate isn't a member and Sister W--- is returning to church for the first time. Her roommate had all sorts of questions about the word of wisdom that we were able to answer and we had a great discussion about God's hand in our lives. 

Her roommate's name is S--- and she's is one of "Gertie's Babies". You should look it up on google. Basically, this woman, Gertie, did secret abortions in the top of her chiropractic clinic and would sometimes tell mothers who were coming in to have their children that their babies had died and then would sell them to couples who wanted to adopt. Apparently S--- was sold to her parents for $500. It's a crazy story. Apparently there was a furnace in the back of Gertie's shop and no one knows what happened to the other kids. I'm eager to read about it when I get home. It sounds like a crazy story. Apparently People magazine interviewed her and the other kids that were also sold by Gertie. So cool...

We taught Sister W--- another lesson later in the week. We were hoping S--- would be there, but even though she wasn't it was still a really good lesson. We taught her the Restoration mixed with the baptismal interview questions to get an idea of where her testimony stands and what we can help her with. It ended up being one of the most unified lessons we have ever taught as a companionship and the Spirit was there very strongly. She is really doing so well and is even reading the Book of Mormon all of the way through which is really strengthening her testimony. 

We had dinner with the cutest old man. His wife recently passed away and he doesn't seem to have many people to talk to because he talked our ears off! We didn't mind at all because he is so awesome. :) He has some of the most interesting antiques in his house. He also does yard work for a ton of his neighbors, just to be nice. He has a whole gang of kids that follow him around and help him out. 

We met the S--- this week and had a great lesson with N--- (the mom). We had come over anticipating to teach the kids. She was really closed off at first, but eventually the kids kind of disappeared and we taught her. She expressed a lot of wonderful spiritual experiences to us and told us of one question that she had always had and she had always asked the ministers of every faith that she had attended, but they had never been able to answer it to her satisfaction. I asked her if the missionaries had been able to answer it, and she paused and told us she had never asked the missionaries. So I asked her if she would share her question with us. She did and it was a question that is answered in the first paragraph of the first lesson that we teach! She basically asked why all religions preach that God only likes the people in their religion and that the rest of everyone is out of luck. It is totally a question that the gospel answers! We have another appointment with her this week and she is very excited for it. 

K--- was baptized this week. It was an awesome baptism though I'm still worried that she wasn't baptized for the right reasons. Unfortunately, that's not my call to make. She didn't show up for church this Sunday. :/

We taught S---, a youth minister for another church, and the lesson went really well, even though we couldn't go in because it was only him there. He had a lot of questions that could be easily answered. It was a little confrontational because he kind of threw his questions at us like an accusation, but by the time we left he wanted his fiancee to come talk with us as well and hear the lessons. He is going to read the Book of Mormon and really pray about it. We made sure to emphasize that he wouldn't get an answer unless he really wanted to know, if he was open to the answer, and if he really meant to do something about it. 

Our lesson with J--- went really well this week. She is praying about a March 7th date. She has been investigating the church for 20 years! But she finally quit smoking two weeks ago and is excited that she can finally be baptized! Just last night on the phone she was telling us that when her husband walks by (he still smokes) that it makes her feel sick and that she really wished he would stop. We are so thrilled!!! She also really wants her kids to get involved in the church. She wants them to be influenced to make good decisions and to be around people with good morals. I agree with her 100%! (of course) It was a crazy lesson though, and it went waaaay too long. We're hopefully going to have future lessons in member's homes so that the Spirit can be there and there aren't so many distractions. 

Then, for the last 3 days I've been sick. Nothing too big, just really irritating. I didn't do anything interesting on p-day at all because I just had to lay there. 

I love you all! Thank you for all of your letters and support! 

xoxox

Sister Draney

This week has been so long and so short all at the same time! I got transferred and it feels like I've been in Belgrade for forever already. The people here are wonderful! I've never had a warmer welcome in my entire mission. They are simply thrilled to have sister missionaries, but I feel so bad because both sister Thackeray and I are leaving in 4 weeks and we don't have the heart to tell them.
We have had an awesome week lessons-wise even though all 13 appointment the elders made for us before they left fell through. I hope they don't ask how they went...
We have had a lot of fun figuring out how to get around and despite all your teasing, Dad, I do have a pretty good memory for streets and places I've been! :)  (I don't know if you remember teasing me about that)
There are a lot of promising people here, whether or not they'll be baptized before we leave is up in the air, but they will get the someday!
There is this wonderful girl names C--- and she has been going to church for two years with one of her friends who invited her. Two years! Her family has all taken the discussions with her, but they don't believe it as much as she does, but they are all really supportive of her, which is amazing! She is working hard on Personal Progress and even gave a talk at the Standards of Excellence night this week.
Then there's A---, his mom picked up and left him and his two older brothers. Now he is living with a member of the ward and is going to church and is thinking about being baptized. It's cool because they aren't pressuring him to be baptized at all. He's a great kid.
Then there's A---. She is a young woman with two inactive parents who won't let her get baptized until she is 18 but she still wakes up every morning to go to early morning seminary. That girl has more determination than I think I've ever seen in a young woman!
We met K--- and her mom C---. K--- is 8 and is getting baptized this Saturday. It's a little hard to watch because we know she is getting baptized into inactivity. None of her family are active, but they want her to be baptized. When we asked her why she wanted to be baptized she told us it was because of the treats and the presents. Though I do admire her because her mom drops her off and she goes to church all by herself! I just hope she has the strength to keep going and that her mom keeps driving her.
Our new relief society president is great. She gave us a huge list of people to contact so it gave us a nice base to start with. She also came and helped us clean out our new apartment.
We are moving into our new apartment this week which seems kind of pointless considering how long we both have. But it was so dirty and Sister Thackeray was super no-nonsense and told the manager we wanted it cleaned again or we wanted to be paid for the time it would take us to clean it. (The apartment would never have passed any inspection by any of my previous landlords.) and he did it! We got $100 off of rent to clean it ourselves. Not that it does us any good, but it saves some money for the Church, which is good!
The ward has been so great, they are furnishing our apartment for us with things that the members no longer need. I am getting so spoiled as a missionary. I'm going to move into my first apartment after I'm married and be like, "okay, so who is going to furnish it for us?" Ha, ha just kidding. But we are spoiled!
I forgot how beautiful Bozeman is. The weather has been great and I've been loving all the stars that I can see. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I came back.
We had the coolest experience this week! We had spent a whole night trying to track people down from Sister Mason's list (the RS president) and we hadn't had any luck, so we decided to pray over the list to see who the Lord wanted us to visit (yes, I know we should have done that to begin with, but hindsight is always 20/20).
So we prayed over the list and sat for a minute. I was a little embarrassed because we had specifically prayed to know who on the list we should visit, but the name that came to me wasn't on the list, so I asked sister Thackeray to tell me who she thought of first and she said, "S---" and that was exactly the same person I had thought of! I was blown away! Talk about revelation from the Spirit!
 So we headed over and he wasn't home but we ended up talking to his wife at the door. She had never talked to missionaries before because she was always at work when they stopped by. We had such a good talk and were able to have a lesson with her. She said she wanted to come to church, but then never showed.
It was funny because we invited her to church and she said, "where is it?" And sister Thackeray and I just looked at each other and started laughing because we realized that neither of us knew where the church was! Oops! Luckily our ward mission leader, Brother Rogers texted us back quickly and we were able to get it to her.
We had another cool moment where we realized that Sister Thackeray worked with a lady in the ward back in college! It's crazy how differently their lives turned out. Sister Head has two kids and Sister Thackeray is on a mission. It was so cool for them to get to see each other again!
We have a new address and I'll include it here, please write, because I love letters, but as things get closer to leaving, my replying time might decrease.
605 Nevada St. #1
Belgrade, Mt 59714

Things are going great here! We are very excited to see what we can do here in Belgrade!
I love you all!
Sister Draney

This last week was pretty good! it's weird that it's February. It seems like January just barely started! Well, transfers are upon us again and I'm getting moved to Belgrade in the Bozeman zone. Woooo! The Bo-zone! I'm really sad, but a little excited. I love Bozeman and I'm sad I won't be in town like I was last time.

C--- and her kids came to church again and they loved it! She checked out the primary and we're still waiting to hear back from her. They even bought new church shoes! We had another awesome lesson with her and found out she has been defending the church to her friends that tell her not to meet with us. She says some of the things they say about the church are just stupid! For example, one of her friends said that the Book of Mormon was written by men. and she was like, "so? The Bible was too! And it was written by kings, not by prophets!" I nearly died of happiness! She comes up with a lot of good questions. They're definitely going to get baptized. I just wish I could be here to be a part of it!

T--- and P--- are doing well. We had a pretty good lesson with them and the members stayed afterwards to talk with them and ended up discussing the Restoration with them! it was great! Usually we really like members to stay after lessons and talk with the people so that they can form bonds of friendship with them.

J--- came to church this Sunday and even bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting! It was so great!!! She is right on the verge of reactivation! If she will just keep coming to church that will be great. She mentioned how different her home feels when we are there and she said she wants that in her life.

We visited A--- this week and she said we were angels because of how good she felt when we were there and how it lingered after we left. We wanted to tell her that it was because she was reading the scriptures, but it was in the middle of our RS lesson and we couldn't.

We had a miracle with M--- this week! We finally understood that her concern wasn't about the Priesthood but about what would happen to her family who hadn't been baptized before death if there were no LDS members to do the work for them. So we went over that part of the Plan of Salvation again and now she's willing to be baptized and work towards a date! She still has some hurdles: she has to get married and live the word of wisdom, but we're a lot closer than we were!!! I'm so excited!!!

No luck with C--- and H--- yet. That will be up to the missionaries who stay to hopefully work that out.

Well, that's about it for this week! Thank you to everyone who wrote me letters! I will probably not be able to reply until after transfers, but they will come! You're the best!!!!

Lots of Love and Montana bear hugs,

Sister Draney

I can't believe February will be here by this time next week! Where has January gone?!

We have been very busy this week, despite everyone dropping us. We have been meeting with a lot of members and committing them to invite someone over for dinner (it doesn't have to be with us) to teach the ward to reach out and begin to develop those friendships that could turn into something more.

We have also been doing a lot of tracting which makes me very, very grateful for this warm spell! We have been enjoying 40-60 degree weather for the past couple days and I am soaking it in!!! It's making people here a little more cheerful, so we have been getting a few return appointments and a lot of at-the-door lessons.

We had one of our investigator families at church today; C--- and her kids! They stayed for all three hours and they loved it! she even sent her kids off to primary and nursery, with only a little anxiety haha. We have another appointment with them in a couple days. Keep them in your prayers please!

One of our dinners forgot us this week and we showed up at her house, but we didn't want her to know that she forgot dinner, so we pretended we were just stopping in, and then we went and got a little Caesar's pizza. She's so sweet but she doesn't have the money to feed us unexpectedly.

We had a ton of lessons this week with less active and part member families. We are trying to work out a service project for one of the part member families but we've had to ride the ward a lot to get people moving on it. They had already agreed to do it, it's just that everyone else was expecting someone else to do it. I don't mind arranging it if it means it's going to get done. But I feel bad constantly having to harass the ward to do something they already said they would do.

I wish I had a lot of exciting stories this week, but all I have are a lot of strange and uneventful tracting experiences. Someone got mad at us last night for being out too late. I'll have to say, that was a first. Sometimes I wish I could tell people exactly what's on my mind, for example, last night it would have been:, "Hi, it's cold and windy and I have a headache, but I care enough about you and the message I'm sharing to be out here when I really wish I could be inside by a fireplace with some popcorn. So will you please let us in so that we can help you find the gospel so that you can be eternally happy? Oh, you don't want to be eternally happy? My bad then. We'll just ask your neighbor." haha but that would be bad form. ;) I really do enjoy tracting though because it makes you feel so successful, even if all you get is rejection after rejection. It's the fact that you're working hard and giving the Lord your all that is satisfying.

I hope you are all having a great week! Write me! You only have a few weeks left, YOU CAN DO IT! :)

Lots of love and sorry this is so short,

Sister Draney

Hello Everyone!

I wish I had a lot of good to report this week, but this is probably the most depressing week of my mission, so not much good happening, sadly. Stay tuned and I’ll give you the rundown.

We had a great lesson with L---  about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she wanted to be baptized before the end of the year. At the end of the lesson we gave her a Word of Wisdom pamphlet to study for our next lesson. Later the next day we got over 18 text messages at once. She read it and didn’t like the fact that she couldn’t be baptized without giving up her substances and she began calling us deceitful liars and just about everything else you can imagine. Long story short, she dropped us like a rock, deleted our number, and doesn’t want to ever speak to us again. It was a drastic overreaction to the Word of Wisdom, in my opinion.

C--- and H--- d--- are very stuck on the fact that the LDS church doesn’t support gay marriage. C--- told us that he would rather be in hell with his gay friends than in heaven alone. We have brought bishop and one past bishop and studied like crazy, and at this point it’s up to the Lord. I’m very discouraged because it’s just this one thing.

M--- is hung up on baptism. She believes that her preachers were called of God and that he put his hands on them and gave them the authority to baptize. She is very adamant that she is correct and won’t move forward until this is resolved.

S--- forgot his appointments, again. And I am now the only person in the zone with faith in him. It’s very disheartening. I really do think it’s a weird mental thing that causes him to forget things. Sister O’Mealy doesn’t want to visit him anymore.

The one bright spot of our week was C---. She is golden! And we had a great lesson with her and she asked Sister Clark to come. She believes everything we shared and we have another appointment set up for next week. I’m feeling very hopeful!

Transfers are coming up at the end of the month and I’m not sure what to hope for anymore. I guess that’s for the best, so hopefully I won’t be disappointed either way. It would be a bummer to have to pack up again though. Packing is not my favorite…to say the least.

In other exciting news, I learned how to extract a broken light bulb and repair a lamp. That was pretty fun. We also got to teach the YW class yesterday!

It’s warming up here and gas prices have dropped to 1.89, so all is good! Send me letters and emails! I miss you all!

Lots o’ love,

Sister Draney

This week wasn't very exciting so there's not much to report on. We were dropped by the B--- we went over for a lesson with them and we sat down and began to teach and she said that she and her husband need to talk a little bit about religion before they wanted to continue further. Her husband is the one that told us that she wasn't home when she was, and he's the one that won't join us when we talk. She asked eagerly for the church address and time that we meet and seem sad to see us go, we just hope that she will show up at church one day or that we have planted the seeds for future missionaries. They really are golden, or at least she is anyway.

C--- has moved out of our ward boundaries and so the fourth Ward sisters will be working with her for a while, because she's too far out for us to visit regularly now. We are hopeful that now that she's out of an environment of smokers that she will be able to quit her addiction more easily. She seems to be doing well, and we are very hopeful for her.

The d---- family are doing well even though they didn't come to church this Sunday, we aren't sure why yet. They are planning on getting married soon so they can get baptized. We are having a small problem with their views on homosexuality and the bishop a slightly concerned. They still seem very set on baptism and they loved church last week. C--- keeps referring to his baptism as his "shower date" which I think is pretty funny. They keep saying how everything they learn just "seems right". It's so exciting!

L--- came to church yesterday but left after sacrament meeting. He still doesn't have a testimony yet and were trying to figure out how to help them have spiritual experiences where he recognizes the Spirit so he can gain a testimony. Will keep you updated in the future.

M--- didn't come to church yesterday because of work, but everything is still going well with her.

We sang a musical number in church this Sunday and we didn't start preparing until Saturday. But it turned out pretty well, at least I think, I couldn't really hear myself. You never know with musical numbers... People will tell you you did great, even if you didn't.

We finally got to see S---, one of our former investigators who said she "needed a break". She seems to be doing really well and we were able to share a brief message. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching her again soon.

We didn't get to have a lesson with S--- or J--- this week.

Last night we were contacting a referral and we knocked on the door 3 times. They clearly were home but the TV was on so loud that we weren't sure if they could hear us. Turns out they could because their little girl came upstairs and her mom told her to go back downstairs and she said, "but mom, there's a GIRL at the door!" To which her mom replied, "if I wanted you to answer the door, I would have told you." It was pretty funny because the little girl was so baffled. Kids are so awesome and honest. Sister O'Mealy and I just walked away laughing.

There was another awesome moment when we were having a lesson at P--- house and I heard this loud buzzing noise coming towards me (like the sound a big bee, or a wasp might make).  Needless to say I was alarmed, and when I saw it fly past me I backed up and then tried to get off the couch as quick as I could so that it wouldn't land on me. It headed straight for sister O'Mealy and as I was standing up she took her iPad and whacked it straight at me! I was so terrified I screamed and made a beeline for the bathroom, P--- was just laughing from her chair the whole time. Sister O'Mealy was pretty freaked out and joined me in the bathroom a second later. I ended up stepping on it, it turned out just to be a large beetle. But it's legs hung down when it flew, just like a hornet or yellow jacket. P---thought it was pretty strange that it wasn't hibernating or dead. I do not like bugs. I joked with sister O'Mealy that she was trying to feed me to the bugs since she didn't succeed in feeding me to the dogs last week.

Well, that's about it for this week, hopefully the coming week will be more exciting! Hope everyone is staying safe and happy!

Sister Draney

 a frozen water fountain

 Christmas eve food drive

The snow has finally set in big time. As we were driving to the library to email, we ended up getting stuck and it took four people (myself included) to push us out. People are so nice! It makes me really happy to see that people are willing to go out of their way to help others.

This week there isn’t much that’s too exciting to report. I was holed up for many days with the flu which was really rough. There’s nothing worse than a missionary who can’t do missionary work and is too sick to study or do anything productive. However, now I’m feeling better and am happy to be back at work again full swing! It does completely destroy my goal of making it through my whole mission without a sick day, sadly. Oh well, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Yesterday was really great though! We had 4 investigators at church!!! That’s more than I’ve ever had my entire mission! I was absolutely thrilled! The d--- family came to church and stayed for all three hours. They liked it and then said that they are going to come back regularly. Apparently they asked C--- to introduce himself in Priesthood meeting, which he did, for 6 minutes! Then he proceeded to bear his testimony! Crazy! I had members coming up to me afterwards and asking why he wasn’t baptized yet! Their son, J---, also went to Primary without any fuss and stayed the whole time! I am beside myself with happiness!

Then we accompanied M--- to the 1 pm Sacrament meeting because she couldn’t get off of work to make any other meeting and we told her of COURSE we would come with her to any meeting she could make it to! So it was a long day for us church-wise, but it was so great because M--- now plans on coming back every week! Such a miracle!!! She cried through parts of church and seemed to really like it, even though she was struggling to stay awake (she’d been at work since 1am)

We were disappointed because L--- hadn’t come to church like he promised he would, however at a stake meeting later than night we learned that he had forgotten about the time change and had gone to all 3 hours of 3^rd ward’s meetings by himself! Talk about dedication! Now we just need to help that boy get a testimony! J

Seriously, can anything be greater than yesterday? AND we also followed up on a referral and now have a new less active! Oh the Lord is so good!!!

We still have a few bumps to get over for the three of them, but they are all putting in a ton of effort. M--- and L--- study the pamphlets and the questions in the back so thoroughly that the pamphlets fall apart and they are covered in notes and questions! H--- has been looking all over the LDS websites and reading. She has even been listening to the Mormon Tabernacle choir! Ahhhh! I’m seriously the luckiest, most blessed missionary on the face of the earth!!!

As for everyone else: R--- is doing great, she was able to go home (fingers crossed that it lasts) and hopefully she will being to start getting well so we can work towards her baptism date on March 7. We put the date a little far out so that she has time to really get well and attend church.

S---- we had an interesting appointment with him because he had more friends there, which means we didn’t get to teach him much, but we have 3 potential investigators out of his friends! His house is like a hot spot for potential investigators. Now if only a few of them would come for the lessons…

J--- was out of town for our appointment. Again. I’m quite miffed with him. I don’t think he realizes that we actually schedule out time for him. He just cancels on us like it’s nothing.

Funny story of the week! We went back to C--- house to try and set up another appointment. Her husband, Russ, came to the door and we asked if she was home and he said that she wasn’t, then his daughter runs up and calls out, “she is home!” and in case once wasn’t enough, she stuck her head under her dad’s arm and said, “she is!”. Her dad gave her a look and popped her on the chin (I felt bad for her, she had no idea her dad was lying on purpose) and closed the door partway and went to go get C---.

We asked her if she still wants to meet with us and she says she really does and set up an appointment for next week. Ah, you have to love kids! I hope she didn’t get in trouble. How embarrassing for the dad…

L--- didn’t come to church this Sunday. We aren’t sure why yet. We haven’t been able to pass her off to the elders yet. Apparently something is going on in her life and she wants us to call her again in a few days. I’ll keep you informed.

That’s about it for this week, since I spent 90% of it in bed haha

I love you all so much! And please keep writing me! You have no idea how much of a boost it is to get your letters in the mail! And for those of you who sent me Christmas cards, I give you a large, mass thank you!!!! You made me smile! I love you all!

Xoxoxoxox

Love,

Sister Draney