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