I just want to announce that I have had moose before and I didn't even
know it. A member came up to us at church and told us that the one
time we ate with them, we had moose. Check that off my list.
Another funny Montana thing: we were at a lesson at a members and then
afterwards, the dad told the kids, "Hey! I see some gophers in the
yard!" And then all of the kids picked up their 22s and ran out to the
porch and started shooting. Hahah. It was so funny.
Another funny thing: Here's the ultimate missionary rejection: When
you wave at someone driving by and they yell "NO!" to you from their
car. We didn't even say a word! Haha.
We had exchanges this week and I ended up going to Helena and Sister
Shupe stayed in Dillon. And for some reason, I feel like whenever I
leave my area for exchanges and someone solid is on date, I come back
and hear that they are not on date anymore. It's a curse. Our 92 year
old said he's uncomfortable being baptized being so dependent right
now, so he said he wants to be baptized when he can walk in font
independently (which should hopefully be within the next year bc of
some surgeries he's having), which is understandable. So we are gonna
keep meeting with him because he says it's the highlight of his day
when we come and we want to keep his testimony strong. :)
And I swear, I know Helena and Butte now like they're my own areas
because of how much I've been there (because I've been here for so
long).
We had our car, bike, and housing inspection this week by some senior
missionaries and we are doing good except for the fact we need to
replace all of our tires and we have very little brake fluid left. I
hardly know a thing about cars so that helped. And we should've gotten
the tires replaced BEFORE winter because we got stuck so much but we
never got approval so atleast it's happening now.
We also went to the Montana Youth Challenge Academy graduation because
some of the cadets we were teaching invited us and we wanted to
support them. It was very interesting and orderly because it's almost
military life in the academy.
Some good stuff that happened this week:
-The 9 year old that is getting baptized got his baptism interview
yesterday and passed! Let me tell ya, it is hard to teach a distracted
9 year old all of the lessons within 3 visits. We had to do that
because of a joint custody dealio. So we had to get creative. We
taught tithing with pennies, the word of wisdom with a whiteboard (see
picture below) and had him mark what's good and what's bad, had his
dad teach him chastity (which was extremely modified for his age), the
10 commandments with hand signs, etc. We also had to bribe him with
candy and have him do stretches to keep him focused.
We had an icecream social for the 1st ward for Father's Day, which was
fun. We got to be the icecream scoopers so we could see everyone. :)
Here are some more miracles from this week:
-We taught a 12 year old recent convert the restoration again because
he hasn't been taught it in a while and his less active dad sat in
(which he doesn't always do). And I really think his dad felt the
spirit because he was so focused, nodding and reading the pamphlet. It
was awesome! Usually he just jokes around the whole time but this time
it was serious. So we plan on maybe focusing a little more on him now
too.
-HUGE miracle: So our older old recent convert has been MIA for a
little while now for reasons he wouldn't tell us about. He was so
solid and then refused to go to church and meet with us. Well, we felt
like we should drop by yesterday and he actually answered this time.
He said he felt like we would come by today, and we shared a message
about the roles of fathers (for Father's Day) and Heavenly Father.
Then we asked him if he's going to be in church on Sunday and he said
no. We asked why and he said because he has a hard time breathing and
that he hasn't been paying his tithing because he uses it for medical
bills. We told him he can go in the foyer if he has a hard time
breathing and that tithing shouldn't keep him from going to church
because we all should be at church, even if we are not perfect and not
keeping all of the commandments. He was so solid and even scheduled a
lesson with us! Ah! That just made our day! And mission. :D
We also told him that people like him are highlights of our mission
and we, the ward, and Heavenly Father don't want to lose him and that
really touched him. Ah. I love that guy.
But that's the bulk of the week! It was eventful and great! The
mission is going by so fast and I'm learning so much every day.
P.S.
And don't send packages or mail anytime soon because transfer calls
are next week! Ahh!
Sister Lauren Ney
Montana Billings Mission
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