Thursday, July 10, 2014

July 7, 2014

Dear Family!!!
       1st off...its official..I am an adult..well OK..I just feel like saying I am 21 makes me sound so much older it';s crazy. It is crazy to think that for my whole 20th year I have been on my mission...None of you have seen me...that's weird. I feel like I have changed a lot...but at the same time...I am still me...if that makes sense. Well I will get to my birthday stuff in a minute I first have to tell you all about my week :)
         Ok to start off I will begin with Hong. We taught him Tuesday...well that was a fail completely...luckily we had 2 members there who saved it. We taught the restoration and well he was not feeling it at all. We tried to put him on baptismal date, thinking he was ready..well that was bad...he kinda freaked out a little. He was super nice about it but panicked a little..so no date so far, but the members really saved it for us haha.
      Our 4th of July...to be honest kinda sucked. The beginning was great though. We went to this 4th of July BBQ with the Monad Sisters and we talked to non members that were by us in line. We got to really get to know them and after talking in the line the guy that was there gave us plates..and we realized he has paid for our breakfast! How sweet was that, he was not even a member but is so nice. The pancake breakfast was awesome, then we looked at some booths and talked to some more people. There was this booth with wooden puzzles that this guy made. We got to talking and found out he used to be a member, but no longer is. We had a good chat. I ended up buying two of his puzzles cause I realized I need to start getting some things for home. We watched the parade..that was the most boring parade ever..there was no floats ..it was all politics and advertising...Finally after the parade and talking to some more people it was about 2 pm and so we headed home. Earlier that morning we got a text from the girl who said she would have us over for dinner and fire works, she canceled on us...so we had no idea what to do cause in the YSA ward they all went home to their families or to Hysham for the ward camp out..but we could not go cause it was to far away and we obviously could not stay the night..so we did not know what to do. We ended up going home. The Monad sisters invited us to a bbq but we ended up going to see Don (remember Don?) We thought he could use some visitors. IT was a blast talking to him and hearing about his progress in the gospel. Our visit took a lot longer than we anticipated so by the time we got out the bbq was over. So we went home and I had a frozen burrito for dinner...that was kinda sad haha but oh well. We then went and visited with Chelsea Mason, a less active. She has made made leaps and bounds lately! We had this awesome lesson about prayer and how she needs to be doing it. She mentioned how missionaries always show up and we testified that we know it is because of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, he loves her and wants her develop a strong relationship with him! It was such a cool lesson! We were there just chatting till 9pm. We had permission to stay out till 11 though, and we did not want to go home early, but we obviously could not proselyte after 9, so we went back out to laurel and watched fire works on a bus bench for about 10 minutes cause they did not even start to 10:20ish and at 10:30 we had to head home haha...But hey I was able to see some fire works. They were going off everywhere. It was pretty fun, I was ready for bed by the end of it though. That was an interesting 4th of July...that is for sure haha. It is ok though, cause my Birthday totally made up for it! :)
        My Birthday was seriously the best!!!! I loved every second of it! I woke up and the first thing I did was open my Package. The little pillow was super adorable :) Then I loved the purple dress and scarf!!! They were so cute! I loved the jewelry also! Sister De Bry has the dress in pink so we decided to match that day :) I have to say we were super cute haha. I went into the bathroom and on the mirror were sticky notes saying happy birthday and stuff from Sister Debry :) they were adorable. Then finally after getting ready for the day Dallas called and asked if we could meet and read the Book of Mormon cause he is struggling with it! Which I think was a Birthday present from  God cause he knew Dallas was having a hard time but he would not accept help so it was cool that he accepted help. After Dallas we went to get gas and as we are  getting gas Eliza called us....oh my gosh guess what!!!! She is engaged to Eric...I have no idea how much I talk about them..but they are pretty much my favorite and are just awesome!!! I am so happy for them! She had to called after our little office meeting and after President told Sister DeBry and I that we are staying for another transfer (so this will be the longest area I have had so far! Then I got a message from the ZL'S and STL'S singing happy birthday :) haha that was adorable. We went to Hu-Hot for lunch, it is a Mongolian grill, it's pretty decent, I heard they just got one in Salt Lake so that is cool. We then went and visited with Korrin! I just love her it was so nice to see her again! It has been a while. Oh ps I have stuff to talk about with PMG. (Preach My Gospel) ...after talking about my birthday. Anyways we then went back to the office to get some work done cause we found out that an apostle is going to be viewing a report that sister Debry and I put together every week..we have been trying to make it look even better haha. Then we had dinner with Bishop and Sister Williams :) at this Italian place! So good. Then we had an interview with the Sister Training leaders and they gave me a silly gag gift, which was just random stuff. We took lots of pics because it was Sister Barkdulls birthday the day before and we had to take pics together :) haha Then we went to bishops for ice cream cake :) they gave Sister Debry and I each a scarf so that was fun :) We then had to run over to Brandies at like 9 pm because she had a cousin pass away and needed some support..sadly when we got there we realized she just
wanted to talk..she did not really need us...but oh well. We finally went home and went to sleep :)...that was my birthday :) haha IT WAS FABULOUS :) I loved it!
           Ok really quick before I go off on Sunday I have to mention the PMG stuff. They changed some things in PMG. The new member lessons are now to be taught by the missionaries with members. It used to be we would hand them off to the ward and then they would never get it done, so now the missionaries get to head them up and are required to teach the Recent convert for 4 months after baptism, and stay in contact with them for a year! Which is awesome because when we get transferred we usually lose contact because we don't have permission to write them...and it is really hard to get...but now it is required for us to stay in contact with them which means automatic permission. I wish this happened last year.. cause then maybe Amber would still be going to church..I have been trying to contact her..and she won't write me back..that really sucks. I love her so much she is amazing and I just wish I could help her. I am still gonna try...never giving up haha.
          Now to yesterday Sunday :) So we get to church and the West Park elders have an investigator at out meeting! It was not Krista either...it was a different one! I met her after Sacrament and just stayed with her for the rest of church and the munch and mingle. Her name is Natasha, she just graduated High school, and is a sweet heart. She has no religious background, but since the elders found her she has been going to church and she told me that the Book of Mormon makes her so happy. She bore her testimony in Sacrament and was just awesome. She told me she wants to convert to Mormonism! After Sunday school she said "I just am being over whelmed with the Holy Ghost, it feels so good , I just need to pray. " I AM SO SERIOUS! SHE IS THIS GREAT! I showed her a room  she could pray in and let her have a private prayer, she was in there for 10 minutes! then came out and was just glowing :) she said " that was a good place to pray :) hahaha she loved every minute of church and we got an appointment with her and she is coming back next week! How amazing is that! Chelsea Mason came for all of church also and to the munch and mingle! Dallas came to church also. He really did like it, except for in 2 of the testimonies they mentioned Iraq which caused him to have an episode and he just put his head down and was so stiff....then he just got up and walked as fast as he could to get out of the building and then we just let him be...so that he could work through it, but he came back in :) he also came to the bishops dessert night last night. That was really good. All of these YSA activities I thought were not productive, but oh my gosh they are! They help our investigators so much and they are so easy to bring people to and to find people! I love serving in this ward..even though holidays suck in it sometimes hahaha. Yesterday everyone was saying happy birthday also and it just made me so happy. This week has been pretty great all and all :) I love all of you and I hope you have a great week. ps I will send pics :)

  pps, Dallas called and talked to me today and he wants to be baptized.  Isn't that so awesome!  that's another tender mercy from Heavenly Father..  I am so excited

-Sister Draudt ...Andrea....
 








 

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