On Thursday morning we get a text while at the office and it is
Johnathan's aunt, and the text just says "Promise wants to be baptized
asap!" Promise is her daughter. Bahahaha this seriously made my day! I
am so happy she wants to be baptized, and she is a great person, it is
just funny cause of the situation..like over a text, and the phrase
"baptized asap" We are going to begin teaching her, but it will not be
asap, because there are a lot of things she will need to work out before
being baptized. I love this because it shows that people in the world
recognize truth and they want it in their lives. We are excited to being
working with Promise.
On Thursday we also were able to teach Korrin the Plan of
Salvation. She is so amazing! The spirit that was there was so strong!
Everything was going against us trying to meet with her, like none of
the members could come, and she was sick, but yet she still wanted us to
come. We taught her, and she bore testimony to us. This gospel is true.
On Friday we were finishing our weekly planning session and
we were at the church because we needed wifi. I usually don't use my
paper planner at all anymore, but I decided I needed it just in case, so
we ran outside to go get it. When we tried to get back in the church the
door was locked. Everyone who was there when we arrived was gone and
well our keys to the church were inside and so was our phone. We did not
know what to do. I said that we should say a prayer for help. Sister
Spencer wanted to check the other door first. So we did...and well it
was locked. So we knelt down on the grass and we said a prayer. Not even
kidding, as I closed the prayer we heard a truck pull in. When we
opened our eyes there was a guy in the parking lot. He just happened to
need something out of the basement, and he had keys so he let us in.
Miracle! Heavenly Father answers prayers!!! He really does! That
strengthened my testimony. We had a wonderful rest of the day. It was
beautiful outside and we were able to teach several people :)
Saturday was rough, but really it was not, it was absolutely
amazing, just hard haha. On Saturday morning we went into the office
and well it was different then most days in the office because the
missionaries that were who were leaving were at the Temple, and at
about 9:30
they returned to the mission home to grab their bags and head to the
airport. I have never been here to see missionaries off, and it was
hard, because almost all of the missionaries who left were ones I worked
with and knew personally. The ones who especially effected the
beginning of my mission and really helped me out. Elder Julander, my
first district leader in Big Fork, Elder Peterson, my first Zone leader
in Bigfork. Then Sister Romrell, she left. She was my personal angel in
the beginning. She helped me so much. I remember being in such a rough
spot and so down and sad, and when I was transferred to her 3 weeks in
and she helped me out so much. I remember telling her how it seemed like
18 months was forever and it was taking so long. I remember her looking
at me, and saying "I love my mission, I never want it to end, It is
going too fast. One day you will feel this way too." She really meant
what she said and I could tell she did. I have reached that point, I
love my mission. I did not believe her at first, but she was right. She
had only been out about 8 and a half months when I was with her...now
she is home. 10 months later. That went way to fast. She has 10 months
left when she said it was going fast, I only Have 8 months left. How
crazy is that, it really did go fast. Bleh....haha. Sister Romrell
really helped me and I will always be thankful to her for that. Elder
Farabee left, he was my district leader in Great falls when I first got
there. His district meetings were always so funny and made me laugh.
Elder Rust left this transfer also. He served in Great Falls 3rd Ward.
The whole time I was there we worked really closely with him. He taught
me so much. He has a strong testimony and is a hard worker. I admired
him as a missionary and I want to be a missionary like him. He was
probably the hardest to see leave, because I worked with him the longest
and I learned so much from him. He loved the people, he always had a
positive attitude and wanted to bless others. He loves the Savior and
when he taught, weather in a lesson, or in district meeting I always
could feel the spirit cause he really believed and had faith in what he
taught. I was lucky enough to be able to say goodbye to all of these
amazing missionaries. Most missionaries don't have that chance, and even
if it was hard to do I am so thankful I had that chance.
After all the missionaries left we went home and studied,
then later went out to Hardin (45 min away) We met up with the elders
there and tried several people with no luck at all. Sister Spencer was a
little down cause we did not have any luck, but I realized on our drive
home that I learned so much from that experience! Elder Howard really
worked hard, he called so many people, and he had really purposeful
prayers, he followed prompting that he had. At the end of trying people
we went back to the church and made a "Game plan" for next time we come
out so it is more productive. I learned that I want to have more
purposeful prayers, like he does and I want to speak up and follow
promptings of the spirit when I have them. I want to make a game plan
with sister Spencer with this new transfer also so we can have more of a
productive transfer.
Oh yes we got transfer news yesterday and I am staying here with
sister Spencer! Wahooo Anyways back to Saturday! Saturday night we
taught Brandie and well in the beginning her and her boy friend were
fighting! There was so much tension there. But at the end of the lesson
Brandie was so much calmer and I felt prompted to have us sing, so we
sang Battle Hymn of the Republic because it is her favorite song and the
lesson ended on such a positive note. We then went to Adriana's and
watched the talk by Bishop Stevenson about "Your 4 minutes" which was
one of my absolute favorites from conference. Adriana started crying
during it, and well we just a had a wonderful time with her and her
roommate Elise while we sat on the floor of their dorm room and watched
that talk. I think it was good for Elise too because she is Less active
and her husband is not a member. He is deployed right now and comes home
this next week. She is meeting him in California where they live. While
he has been gone she moved up here to go to school. She is such a sweet
girl and I really hope that talked helped her.
Ok now to Sunday!!! YAY!!! Yesterday was such an amazing
day! Well it was fast Sunday and we started our fast the afternoon
before since they do a munch and mingle after church on fast Sunday.
During sacrament almost every testimony was about the atonement, it was a
fantastic meeting. The spirit was strong, it carried over to Sunday
school also where we talked about the atonement also. Seriously I think
it was just the best Sacrament meeting I have had since being here. I
also was able to talk to Zoe and Teffy, who live in our ward, they are
active, but Teffy just moved here from Utah, so I am trying to get to
know them. Zoe is going to hair school, she is cutting my hair this week
:) That should be fun...hahaha!! I also was able to talk to Korrin a
lot : ) I just love her, she is great. We then had the munch and mingle!
Dang that was awesome! I was so hungry and we had sub sandwiches. So
good. After the munch and mingle we taught Korrin, and a lady she
brought with her and with whom she is really close. We talked about
Faith, repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. We asked her
about how she feels the Holy Ghost and also the lady she brought and it
was wonderful. We also talked about moving her baptismal date up and she
said she does not want to wait till August, but she is thinking about
June. I think it is really cool to see her pray about a date, normally
we set it, but I have to say I think Heavenly Father wants her to pick
the day and I love being able to watch her choose. She is still praying
about May. After the munch and mingle we headed home and studied (I have
so much to tell all of you about my studies this week, but I will save
that for the end) Then after studies and dinner we headed out. Funniest
experience ever. We go to try this guy, Jessie, and his landlord sees us
outside and tells us that we need to walk in the door to knock cause
his door is further inside. We walk in and we hear a shower, but we did
not know if it was a shower or sink...so we knock...MISTAKE! The water
stops, we then knew it was the shower. This young guy peeks his head
outside of the door and is quiet and then he says "oh...sister
missionaries...give me a second." BAHAHAHHAHAHA So awkward! We went
outside and waited for him haha. When he got dressed he came out and got
us. We stood outside the apartment though cause he was alone, and so we
could not go in. He is a little slow, but a very nice guy. We asked why
he doesn't come to our ward. He told us that he goes to the family ward
cause our ward never fellow shipped him, no one really cared about him.
My heart was breaking. He told us he had seen the elders, but they
never tried to talk to him. If we were elders he told us he would have
not talked to us. We asked if we could come back again and he said yes. I
am determined to help him know the ward does care. I think one of the
reasons I might be here is for people like him. We have a lot of special
needs people in our ward, more than normal. Our ward is really nice,
but they do not know how to work with people like Jessie, and I think I
might be here to help them. Because there are a lot of people like
Jessie in the ward who don't feel like the ward cares, we have run into
him a couple times. I want to help the ward realize they are children of
God! It breaks my heart to see them all be left out. Not that they
always are, but there have been occasions and I just think about Josh
and it breaks my heart. I never want anyone to treat Josh the way I have
seen some people be treated here. Really though most people are very
very kind to them. It is hard to talk to people like Jessie though and
see how he feels. Anyways enough of my rant.
After meeting Jessie we went out to Lockwood (which is a suburb
right outside of Billings) We tried finding one person, and they lived
in the middle of no where, I had to back up Sister Spencer at one point
so we could turn around and try finding someone else. We both Felt we
should see "James" we have never met him, he is just a less active on
our list. We started driving and I realized the phone was gone! We
thought it was under my chair, it was not. We then got out and took pics
with the sunset. :) So pretty. We finally got to Jame's house and
knocked on the door. Sue Holman answered and said he did not live there
any more and he has a baby (her grandson) but she let us in and her
husband was there and her other grandson John who is less active. He is
YSA age and loved to talk to us. We were definitely there for a reason
haha. Not for James, but for John :) We chatted with all of them for a
while and held their baby ducks....it pooped on me! But it was so cute,
so I decided I was not to upset... hahaha. Brother Holman kept talking
to us, which was great, but I kept having the feeling to ask John to
come to the singles ward, but I did not get a chance for a while.
Finally I sorta made my chance and just interrupted a little and told
John he should try out the singles ward and he said "Ok, that sounds
cool," That was so much easier than I thought. We got to talking and he
told us he wants to come back, but he is just self conscious because of
his tattoos and his beard haha. He is scared people will judge him.
Sister Spencer was the best, she said "They won't judge you, and if they
do, you tell me, I will punch them" Bahaha I love Sister Spencer
haha. We also were able to get John to coming to FHE tonight. :) I hope
he comes. He seems like he will. Before we left we asked if we could
share a message. I have been trying to apply what I have learned in my
personal study in teaching and so I shared something from my studies
earlier that day. I really had no idea how it would go, but I really
felt like I needed to share it, so I did. I shared 3 Nephi 17:5-8. I
want to share it with you all also, because It really stood out to me in
my studies It says
"And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you. Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy. For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you."
This really made an impact cause I think about the Nephites and how
they felt that the Savior had to leave the next day, and it was so hard
for them. I would not want my Savior to leave me either. That would be
so hard! Then the Savior decided to stay a little longer, and he heals
these people of their infirmities. I love that he does not want to leave
them either, so instead he heals them. I know that, is what our Savior
does for us. He loves us and wants to help us. He will heal us. I love
when the Savior says "I see that your faith is sufficient that I should
heal you." I want to have that faith. I want my Savior to be able to say
that to me also. While we were at the Holmans I challenged all of them
to think of something that they can be healed from and to let the Savior
heal them. I want to challenge all of you (who ever reads this) to
think of something you need healing of, weather it is physical,
spiritual, emotional. Ask and pray for healing, and then act on the
faith you have to be healed from it. I can promise you that the Savior
will heal you with the power of his Atonement.
When we left the Holman's; Sister Holman gave us huge hugs
and said "You were suppose to be here tonight. I needed that message. I
need to be healed. She explained to us why and it was so special. We
were able to feel the spirit so strong, and I know we needed to be there
for us and for them. I love how Heavenly Father works. He will put us
where we need to be at the time we need to be there. Just like tonight
:) What a miracle.
After the Holman's we prayed to find our phone and we went
back to the middle of no where, and our phone was right there, so easy
to find. That was a miracle also :) This week has been a week of
miracles.
I was able to learn so much from my studies this week. I have been
reading in 3 Nephi. I am going to ask all of you to read chapter 11,
because that chapter is Christ coming to the Americas, and I know we
read it a lot, but it really is one of the best Chapters, so please read
it this week, and also Chapters 17 and 18. I have learned so much from
17 and and 18. I promise that when you read these chapters you will
learn something that you have not yet learned and you will also receive
guidance that you have been seeking. I can promise that. Please read
them. I love you all and I know that this church is true. I know
Heavenly Father guides and directs our church and he loves us and he
wants us to be happy. The atonement is real.
Sorry the email is so long, I love this gospel and I am so
thankful I was able to share with you so much of what I learned this
week :) I love you
- Sister Andrea Draudt
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| Best sunsets ever! |
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| Sister Mechams birthday! we decorated for :) and we got her that sash haha |
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| Our life in the office..it gets crazy!!! That board took us forever haha... |
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