Week 55

Hello world!

So last Monday we went to Glacier national park for preparation day!
It was probably the prettiest place I've ever been to. Hands down. The
pictures don't even do it justice.  It's crazy how it's so flat here
but only an hour or so away, it's all mountains and valleys and lakes
and glaciers. It's amazing. I want to go again so bad. :)
So quite a bit happened this week. Here are some of the miracles:
Sister Thomas and I decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant here in
town for dinner one night (it's one restaurant of like 3) and right as
we walked in the door, a lady/ our waitress approached us and said
past missionaries have tried to meet with her teenage son and she
gives full permission to come by anytime and basically asked us to
teach him! It was so cool! So we are trying to meet up with him now!
We got a media referral too! So if I remember right, this is the one
and only media referral I've had on my mission so far. So a lady went
on Mormon.org and asked for a bible so we delivered it to her and set
up a return appointment to go over the Restoration with her! The next
time we saw her, we taught her and her husband and they started
flipping through the Book of Mormon right when we gave them their own
copies and they texted us and told us they were already reading it
together right after we left! The husband is willing to be baptized
but she is a little hesitant. I think they will receive their answers
quick though because they are very sincere and honest people. :)
We also went to Sweetgrass which is at the Canadian border. It just
looks like farmland over there too. There's no big wall or anything
like I pictured. There were just little markers and indirect signs
that marked the border. Customs and all of that is in the middle of
town and on the other side is a Canadian town called Coontz and it all
looks like one big town just on opposite sides of the markers. We were
there to contact some referrals. We were given the wrong address of
the referrals and at first, we went to a house that was surrounded by
military trucks and the sign next to the door basically said they
could used armed forces against us if we are on the property. It
wasn't some joking sign either. It looked really official. So we
decided to back away slowly and call the person that referred us to
them. We had no reception and the pay phones were out so we went to
the post office and they gave us the right address. The person was no
where near that place. Hahah. So we were glad we are alive.
We had exchanges and I went to Helena. I basically count that as one
of my areas now since I've been on exchanges there so often. The
sister training leaders live with some members in a mansion in the
woods and I didn't get much sleep that night because I swear there was
a bear outside responding to the dogs barking incessantly at it. The
dogs went nuts and I heard a creature that sounded like a bear respond
to them. I was too tired to check but now I regret it. :P
Well, other than that I also realized the future is here. At an active
lesson, the dad just said "Alexa" and asked a question and some robot
machine like Siri answered from somewhere in the house. It was crazy!
And then at another members house they had a microwave DRAWER and
there was a vacuum in the wall that sucked up dust from sweeping at
the mansion house. So my mind has been blown all week.
Here's a spiritual thought I found this week:
"These deficiencies just illustrated are those of omission. Once the
telestial sins are left behind and henceforth avoided, the focus falls
ever more on the sins of omission. These omissions signify a lack of
qualifying fully for the celestial kingdom. Only greater consecration
can correct these omissions, which have consequences just as real as
do the sins of commission. Many of us thus have sufficient faith to
avoid the major sins of commission, but not enough faith to sacrifice
our distracting obsessions or to focus on our omissions."-Elder Neal
A. Maxwell
(Sins of omission are sins of not doing the things we have been told
to do. Commission is when we do the things we are told not to do.)
This especially pertains to us when we have made covenants and have a
more expansive knowledge of Gods commandments, we are held more
accountable. We stand on a higher plane with higher responsibilities
involving our use of agency and works to exemplify our faith. So I
have taken that to heart and have tried to focus on what I have been
lacking to do because that has eternal significance as well.

Sister Lauren Ney
Montana Billings Mission

adventures at the border