Andrea is in Montana : August 5, 2013

I JUST GOT THE TRANSFER INFO!!! I AM STAYING!!!! WAHOOO!! That is the best news ever cause we have a family on date. The Fellman family, which means I will be here for their baptisms!!! Wahooo that was also the other good news for this week. Kayli, the 9 year old was already on date, but we got her brother Izaak to commit to September 7th and his mom Amber to September 14th! Matthews’s b-day haha. Anyways I'm so excited!! This week has been great, like we thought it was all hard until we looked at our numbers yesterday and we realized we actually did pretty well.

I am just gonna start at the beginning. The first thing is that we were able to get them all on date! Which was awesome!!! We taught them the restoration as a refresher and Izaak had not had that lesson yet. He came in halfway through the lessons when his family was already taking them. It went so well and the spirit was so strong! I love it. Then later in the week we got some water bottles and went to print off labels for our finding idea. The elders were at the library and they wanted to know what we were doing, so we told them and then like 20 minutes later after they left we got a call from them, Elders Norman and Rust, asking if they could be in on it, and so we were like “yeah for sure”, then soon enough Elders Taryian and Cupp were in on it as well. So we all got water bottles and put mormon.org labels on them. Then later in the week we gave them out right outside of the fair, and they went so fast, we gave away like 75 water bottles in like 25 minutes. This week we have been in the fair twice, because we had some tickets. We didn't like play around we went and just talked to tons of people.

On Friday it was Sister Taylor's birthday! It was so great and we had a blast. We ate like 5 times right after another. We went to lunch with the elders to Fudruckers, then we went to Tony and Deena's to teach a lesson to some of the coolest investigators ever! And they took us the get food, not even knowing it was Sister Taylor's birthday, but just for fun, and we taught them a lesson also. Then after that we went to the Fellman's for Sister Taylor's birthday dinner, and Cathy Fellman was there also, (the grandma who is a member, her son married amber and then died in an accident at work a few years ago, really sad story), anyways it was a good birthday though we ate stuffed noodles (shells). It was like lasagna. Cathy bought a dairy queen cake, so good!!! Then after Amber's we went to Dairy Queen with 2 of the elders to meet some young women there and their non-member friends. But all the non-members ditched out, so we just had ice-cream and talked with the 2 young women.

When we were getting ready to leave we all were gathered around the girls car, they gave her just a random silly gift, a whoopee cushion, a stuffed frog, an alien sponge that grew to be like 6 times its size. It was pretty funny we were all joking, and then this stupid guy comes up to us, and I'm positive he only saw the elders, like he didn't know that us sisters were missionaries as well, and also that the young women are future missionaries. So this guy comes up and says “Can I ask you a question?" we say yes and he says "Do you have a bible?" We knew he wanted to bible bash, so we all said no, cause ours were in our cars, and he's like oh... ok, but they the young women now realizing the guys intention, pulls out her phone and lets him use it. He then goes off on how we don't speak in the gift of tongues and how that is the only way we can receive the Holy Ghost. He was just a hypocrite because we told him how we do believe in it and we gave an example about missionaries’ barely learning a language, and really they don't even know it, but yet being able to talk to people in the language and having them understand perfectly. Then the guy was like that's not tongues, and he then went off about how this lady was speaking in Spanish and didn't know it...so we were like wow..your Spanish story counts but ours doesn’t. Wow. He said how we were not baptized in Jesus name, and we said yes we were "I being commissioned by Jesus Christ baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” We do duh...but he said that commissioned doesn’t count. Then we said well we say in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and he's like well "That doesn't say Jesus, saying the Son isn't the same thing." He was an idiot. He was saying how symbolism also is not ok, and then Elder Taryan said, "So when they say the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, that is symbolism, so therefore Christ didn't really receive the Holy Ghost. It was great the guy was stumped he just sat there, and then went back to his safety net which was the gift of tongues. He was an idiot, and I know I should not have but I was ticked. I just kept standing up for what I believed and I was getting mad, because he kept saying stuff like that he was like "I'm gonna be nice to you cause you're wrong." But then he would say "You're brainwashed." And "You're wrong and stupid" and we only give generic Mormon answers." I asked him, "Have you read the Book of Mormon", and he of course said no, and I was like then how can you tell me what I believe is wrong when you have not even read the book? He said like I already know what you believe, and I was like no you don't, I know what I believe and you can't tell me what I believe. He was an idiot, and so I just bore testimony and the spirit was not there because he was just there to pretty much tell us we are idiots and going to hell and brainwashed. He kept interrupting me and then he would get louder and louder. Finally I just bore testimony and said I'm sorry you're wrong and goodbye. It took us 2 hours to get away from him. I really did feel bad after I was praying for forgiveness, cause I could have represented the church well and just ignored him and been polite, but instead I was like "Oh you're a dirt bag and if anyone is going to hell it's you case you're telling me I'm brainwashed." of course I didn't say that, but that's what I felt, but I did fight with him, like I just stood up for what I believed. Anyways that was my first bible basher; I will handle it better next time. haha.

Oh I forgot to tell you, so the people we live with the Gunther's, own a jewelry store and for Sister Taylor's birthday they gave her this very pretty simple sapphire necklace, Montana is very famous for its sapphires, and they are rare and pretty, especially the Yugo ones they are expensive too. They didn't give her a Yugo but they did give her a sapphire, and well while I was downstairs for a minute I guess bro Gunther asked when my birthday was and she said it was just a couple weeks earlier, well later in the day we came home and he gave me a present, awwww how sweet! It was the same kind of necklace, and these are not cheap by any means, how sweet are they. It is very pretty and I am so excited that I have a sapphire that was mined in Montana that I can keep with me forever!! A great souvenir :) Well that was pretty much my week haha.

Yesterday we went to the Belt Branch for church, because we cover the Great Falls first ward and also the Belt Branch, which is about half an hour outside of the city and it totally was awesome! I had only been in the branch building once before, and it is so small, like the chapel had folding chairs, and is like our Relief Society room back home, and then it splits into two rooms for Sunday school. The classrooms are like coat closets, not even kidding! This building was itty bitty, like half the size of my seminary building!! How crazy is that!!! It was great though. We went to branch council and like 3 out of the 6 brethren were wearing cowboy boots ...wow...different haha like cowboy boots are dressy here, weird, haha! Belt is a super cute little community, like if you look outside of Great Falls you couldn't see it, cause well it's all flat, but then you get out to Belt and there is this dip into a little valley where Belt is. It's really cool actually. I totally thought I would miss the mountains, but I oddly enough really like the open. I like the city and then on the outskirts how it is just flat and open. But I don't think I would like a small town in the middle of nowhere that was all flat. I just like the city and Belt haha. So like we met with the branch President during Sunday school and the first thing he said to me was "Have you ever thought about getting your jaw fixed?" K, I know I have a jacked up jaw and mouth, but still, it kinda made me mad. Don't worry I'm over it like it's totally ok, but I was frustrated that he asked me that instead of like, "Hi how are you" and stuff...after church the same young women we were with on Friday took us all around and we contacted a couple of their friends and one of them we taught their family, like we weren't planning on teaching a lesson, but they are catholic, born catholic, but they don't know a ton about what they believe, anyways the dad is a huge history buff and knows a lot about our history as Mormons, and so we were talking about it, and he had a lot of his facts straight, he's a super nice guy and it was great to talk to him, he said I think I’m a Morcath (Mormon/ catholic), haha it was funny, they weren't interested in converting, but they loved to learn what we had to say, and they would be great LDS people, like I can see them converting sometime in the future. They already have the values of LDS, Like the 2 young women said that Hannah, the girl their age (who looks like Taylor Swift not even kidding) at school people call her Mormon cause of how she acts already, she reminds me of Nicole, like if you didn't know Nicole wasn't Mormon a couple years ago before she was baptized, you would have thought she was, because of her high standards and personality, just a great amazing girl.

We then taught a girl and her boyfriend who have been interested. He is a member but not active and she is not a member. She is 19 and has taken lessons before. We are now starting to teach her. :) We also had peach ice cream for dinner because we ate with Lindsay Ryan (a yw) and her mom and this couple. The peach ice cream was homemade! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! It was so amazing! Gah the food here is so good I'm totally gonna come home fat, just so ya'll have a warning, I'm trying not to, but I don't know if my efforts will work...well I love ya'll have a good week and be safe, and if you all can remember Amber Fellman in your prayers. She is struggling with some problems she has and needs some help. I am praying for her, but she can use all the prayers she can get, she is such an amazing investigator and amazing mom to her kids, please pray for her :) I love you all have a good week.

Love, Sister Andrea Draudt

so there is a pic of me, sister Taylor, then one of amber, cathy, and kayli, payton is the cousin, the little boy, then there is another picture of me sister taylor and elder cupp,. the one with the glasses and elder taryan, they are the elders who we are around a lot, sadly taryian is leaving this transfer to Dillon, we also came out together

Here are some pictures from district meeting, this is most of the district, but it will change tomorrow cause of transfers, but ya they are great, so it’s me sister taylor, elder stakebake, norman, rust, fayrbee, cupp, taryan and simper. They are pretty much amazing. Just saying.