Tuesday, October 29, 2013

October 28, 2013



Dearest Family,

I love you so much and I was so happy to hear about Claire's birthday party!!! I love you all so much. Well before I tell you about my week I want to tell you about yesterday.  So we had this appointment, with Calvin, a less active we met, who is awesome! Well it was pretty much one of the best lessons ever and I will tell you about it later because after this amazing appointment we came out to the car. First thing we do is check if we missed any calls, and sure enough we did, but this call was special, it was from Elder Smith, who is one of the assistants, and we know that if we get a call the day before transfer news from him it means You are training or you are becoming a sister training leader, either way it sucks. Well we called him back and immediately he says "Sister Draudt, you're being transferred" I slammed my hand on the steering wheel, cause I was mad, and I hear him say "...is that ok?" and I say "ya...." and then he says "You are going to Riverton Wyoming, and you are being doubled in. You are training a brand new missionary" By now I was crying. He then told Sister Barkdull that she is staying and training a new missionary as well. The phone call ended and I just cried. I love it here so much. I just do not want to leave, it seriously sucks. I am not mad to be going to Wyoming; I seriously thought that is where I would be assigned when I first came out to the field. I know it will be great and I will fall in love with the people there also, but I love it here so much and it is breaking my heart. I have met people, like Tony and Deena, and Amber and Carla, who I know I have been waiting my whole life to meet. I know they have been waiting for me also. Luckily I have my Facebook and I can stay in contact with them, plus I know we will be friends forever, cause I can drive up here whenever I want. Then in next June the Stephenson's will be coming home from their mission, and Tony and Deena will be sealed sometime after I am home, so there is 2 trips right there haha. Great Falls Montana is home, it is where my new family lives and now I have to leave. I remember first coming out to the field and I was determined to never call a place home, cause my home was in Utah and nothing would change that, but now I've grown to love it here and I don't want to leave my home here. It really is my home and it hurts to have to leave. Ok well enough about transfers cause I don't want to cry again. Oh but one thing I am excited for is that I will be going to Elder Normans Zone, I sent pics of him last transfer cause he was leaving and I was so sad, but I get to join him in Wyoming now :) we live 20 minutes away from each other, which means we might even be in the same district. I also am scared and kinda mad to train, just cause I want to have a comp who is older than me in the field, but apparently I won't be getting that haha, but I am going to be the best trainer, I will not let my new missionary feel alone, or sad. I will be there for her to support her and help her. I will help this sweet sister as much as I can.
        
Ok anyways this week has been phenomenal!!!! Well on Tuesday we had our last district meeting as a district before transfers. It was great I loved it. I had a discussion and it was really fun. Then we all drove to Helena, at least the Great Falls zone and the Great Falls East. We went to Helena for the ipad training. I totally thought it would be like the Facebook training where we had like 4 meetings before we could even set up a Facebook account, but no, they gave us the ipads then and there AND I thought we would be sharing an ipad, like one I pad a companionship, but no, we each got an ipad!!!! How legit it that!!! The ipad is our new planner, and area book, we have to transfer all the paper records over to the ipads, which is taking forever. Then we no longer have paper planners, which I am kind of sad about cause it's like a mission memory, but oh well. Our ipads will be used for teaching, we have the pamphlets on them and we have scriptures and hymns and all the church books! We have access to everything church related, like Mormon messages. It will be phenomenal. I think it is stupid when missionaries use there ipads for scriptures, cause that is not what they are for, like ya it's a plus, but that is not what they are for, and I think it looks better when a missionary carries there physical scriptures with them, so I will be using my scriptures, plus I want to annotate my scriptures and highlight them, and after my mission if I just used my ipad all my notes would be gone. They said that we might be able to purchase the ipad when we go home, they have not decided what to do with them yet. Anyways the ipads are very exciting, but I am very scared to, it is a lot to learn! Oh and when we call home, we will no longer be calling, we will be using our I pads to skype, or face time home :) so we can chat for as long as we want cause it is free and I won't have to take turns with my comp :) how awesome is that! I am really excited for that, less than 2 months and I get to talk with all of you!!! On our way home, we literally said over and over "Guess what?" "What?" “I just got an ipad" " no way" "Yup, it’s pretty cool" haha all of us missionaries were having a blast.
          
So funny story, on our way to get the ipads we passed the zone leaders in their car, and then then when they passed us, Elder Walch one of the Zone leaders, who is awesome I just love him, anyways, while they were passing us he stuck his head out of the window and turned his head back to look at us as they passed us, and in like a tenth of a second his glasses were swept off his face. There was no way to find them. His facial reaction was the funniest; I don't think I have seen someone’s face change emotions so fast. His mouth just dropped and he was so surprised and just like "oh crap," hahaha, it was really funny. We ended up turning around and looking, but no luck, and that sucks because he is like blind...poor elder.
          
On Wednesday we had 7 appointments, and none of them canceled. How cool is that?  It seriously was like the best day ever. We had a lesson with Patsy, and committed her to baptism, she accepted and we have her on date for November 16th! She is so happy and so are we! Then we also had the Smith family, and Sorina read from  the Book of Mormon, it was awesome, she had a ton of questions, she read the title page, the intro and the testimonies and Joseph Smiths like intro to the Book of Mormon!!! It was amazing!!! Oh and we had 2 potentials hit on us, one of them wrote me on facebook, and said "Come over anytime.  I would love to talk to 2 pretty girls, it's been a long time" ...and then when we talked to him on the phone, he asked if he was talking to Andrea... And I was like "...uhhhh my name is Sister Draudt..." it was weird. That is the one down fall about Facebook people think it is fine to call us out first names. Then we were telling a less active about the single activities and he said “well you're single, so if you go I will come"
            
Ok so I have a really exciting story about some people but I can't write about it through an email, so I will send a letter home :) this story happened Friday while we were making calls when we were in Belt. Don't get your hopes up because if you do it won't be as exciting haha. When Sister Barkdull and I found out we just were screaming out of pure happiness :)
           
On Saturday we had stake conference and President Mecham was here and it was so freaking awesome, but he would look at us, because we sat in the front, and then take notes, and then look, and take notes, so I am pretty sure that is when he decided that I would be transferred! Lame! Stake Conference on Sunday was amazing also. President Mecham told us a story that was really neat so I am going to share it. So President served in Mongolia, but only for a couple months, because Sister Mechum got sick, and then they came here. Anyways he told us a story about Mongolia. So there was this senior couple who decided to go on a mission and requested a ward somewhere.  They were very excited for their mission call and when they received it and found out they were going to Mongolia, they were very upset, that is not what they requested at all. They decided they did not want to serve and did not accept the call. They continued to live their lives and not go on a mission, but something was missing and after a long time they decided to re-apply, this time they requested some place and said it was because of medical reasons. They knew they would get a great call, and this time the call came and they were so happy and excited and when they opened it up they read...Mongolia...They again were not very happy. They gave it a lot of thought and realized there was a reason for them to be called there. They left for Mongolia, not very enthused. When they arrived they were assigned to the area with a huge prison, and not just any prison, but one of the worst prisons, where the scum of the scum go, they worst and most vial criminals. Well they had to do service and that is where they were assigned. They were so scared and worried about serving in the awful place. The husband caught on the language pretty fast, and since he was a male, they let him work with the inmates. He ended up falling in love with it and loved serving there, the inmates grew to love him also but his poor wife was assigned to the kitchen, they were too worried about her to let her work with these awful criminals. She did the same thing day in and day out, she cleaned and cooked. She never really caught on the language, she really was struggling. She could not communicate with anyone and still was really struggling with the language. One day she had had enough and was so alone, and sad, she ran out to the court yard and screamed, "Does anyone speak English" Sadly there was no reply, so she screamed again but louder "Does anyone speak English" She knew there would not be a reply, and just started to walk back to the kitchen, then a quiet voice came from far away in the prison, that was high security, where not even her husband was allowed. This is where the worst of the worst criminals were locked away. She heard a reply, “I do."  She was not allowed to go in to this high security part of the prison though. This ate at her, she needed to find this person, after months of coaxing and gaining trust, and her husband was able to let the guards let her in.  They brought her to where she heard the voice, and it was a small very cold, awful cell, with no light. They opened the door and she stepped in. The voice then spoke and said "Mom, I knew you would come" This was their son. A son who years and years before went off on his own and decided to not live the best life. They had lost contact and worried about him daily. They had no idea where he was. He had done some dumb things and ended up in this Mongolian prison where he was sentenced to a life in prison, until he was executed. He has been rotting in that cell for years. They will now return from their mission in a couple months and are bringing their son with them.  They are bringing him home. This story really touched me. There were so many sniffles in the chapel after he told this story. How amazing is that? This shows me that Heavenly Father has a plan, and we need to follow it. What if this couple denied the call to Mongolia again? They would have never found and rescued their son. This story was about a mother finding her son. But it relates to all of us, and I think about it especially with me. I may not have known the people I have met before my mission, but I knew them before this life, and they are waiting for me to find them, just like this son. They may not be in a prison cell, but they could be in a spiritual prison and I am here to find them. I know that I am here in Montana for a reason, and soon to be in Wyoming. I know Heavenly Father sent me to Montana because I was assigned in the pre-existence to find certain people, and they are relying on me, Andrea Draudt, to find them. I will find them; I will follow God's will. I will do what he wants me to do. I want to help others find eternal happiness and find their way back home to him. I used to think I was called to Montana because it was just a good place I could serve, but I can now tell you that it was not just a good place I could serve, but it is the one place I have to be at this time in my life. Other souls are relying on me. I KNOW I am in Montana because I have been called of God to serve here. When I first got my call I remember crying because I was so sad.  I WISH I could take that back.  I wish I could tell myself to shut up and deal with it because I was crying over the best place I could have gone.  How stupid. It's not where you go, it’s about the people. I have made eternal friends here. My life will never be the same. I am so thankful I am serving the Lord and that I have this special opportunity that many never have to help others come unto Christ. I am so thankful I cannot say it enough and I will never be able to put it into words when trying to explain how I feel about Great Falls Montana, and how I feel about the people I knew before this life and after 20 years have finally been reunited. I feel like I become more whole every time I meet these people.  Like something was missing I never knew was missing, until I find them. Just like them when they find the gospel. I am so thankful to know that I can spend eternity with these people I have known.
        
Oh I never told you about the lesson yesterday; I guess I should do that real quickly. So we went to this guy’s house who is probably about 26 his name is Calvin.  We obviously have to bring someone with us because it is against the rules for us to be alone with a single guy. Well he is less active. He is from Layton Utah. So I assumed he was raised in the church and I should not have assumed because I felt dumb after assuming because he was not. He learned about the church from friends in high school and joined when he was 16. He was active for 2 years and then when he was 18 his dad (who is a jerk) kicked him out, and so he went inactive, then he joined the air force and got active, then became less active again. He has a 4 year old daughter in Utah. He is amazing.  We asked him why he stopped coming and he was like "I don't know..." and then he said "But I will come this Sunday." I think he just needed a push.  Because we taught him the restoration and asked if he would read some of the Book of Mormon. He agreed and then we started talking about other stuff and he came back to the topic and said "Wait, where do you want me to be in the Book of Mormon before we meet again?" and we were flabbergasted. We assigned him to read the intro, the testimonies and the Joseph Smith mini history thing, and then he said, “That's only like 5 pages!!! Dang!  He is awesome.  So we assigned him the first chapter of Nephi also. Then he was like "Do you still do the dinner thing, like can I feed you next week?" and we told him we would have to bring someone cause we were not allowed to be alone and he was like "Ya, no problem, that's a good idea, like you need to be safe, and I understand that's totally cool." So we planned a dinner with him, and he is cooking, which says a lot, I think. Sadly I will be in Wyoming....lame...because he is awesome and I don't want to leave!!! Anyways Calvin is pretty much the bomb.com

But anyways that was my last couple days :) I love you all so much and I will be sending a package or 2 home, cause I have collected a lot while I have been here...so be prepared haha :) I love you
                       
                              -love Andrea :)

Elder Scott who just left to go home.
The Smiths
The First Snow!


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