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