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!