Week 61

Hello all! 

This week was great! I turned 21 and it was awesome. We did some fun stuff and we went out to dinner with a returning less active, an active family had us for lunch and made me a cake, I was sung to by the whole branch on Sunday at the potluck and by other missionaries on the phone (just like last year), etc. 

We went to Great Falls last Monday for zone preparation day and for a stake missionary meeting and then we went to Helena the next day for a zone conference. The roads were a bit icy but we are alive. I'm surprised but not surprised that the whole caravan of missionaries made it without accidents during that trip. I appreciate the prayers! :) 

One of the many things I learned this time was that the wolf we feed is the wolf that will win. It's an old story about the rivalry between a good and bad wolf. We can label all the good traits and Christlike attributes we need to strive for as the "good wolf" and the "bad wolf" with the opposites. I have seen this many times in my mission. For example, I am going to be negative when I feed that emotion. When I dwell on the annoying or not-so-good things that happened that day, I'm going to have a bad attitude and outlook. But when I focus on the good and have a grateful heart, I can be happy, have the spirit, and enjoy my mission. We cannot serve 2 masters so one wolf has to win. That's the one we feed. It's still something I'm working on but this principle is true. 

Here's a miracle: We were contacting a former investigator and it said in the area book that they weren't sure if she lived there anymore. So we decided to try it and see and we found a family who listened and wants us to come back! They took a Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and everything. The dad is not that interested but he says his kids are and his wife was. Definitely have a testimony of contacting formers. 

We found a pretty awesome guy in Sunburst this week. We were contacting a referral who ended up not being interested and then we hopped back in the truck. But then I remembered that we should tract around the referrals house and we said another quick prayer and started knocking. It was cold and not so enjoyable but the last house we tried ended up being a guy who has a Book of Mormon a member gave him who works with him at border patrol and has been reading it! He showed us and had lots of questions and believes some of what we believe. He was more than open to us coming back next week and literally asked us what else we wanted to share with him before we left. It was awesome. 

Later that night, we had dinner and FHE with one of our investigators at a member family's home. Both members are converts so for FHE (and Sister Smith's and my training), we heard their convert stories and the investigator we brought soaked it all in. He's the one who has to wait until he's 18 to be baptized because of his parents, and one of the members had to wait as well because she was 16 when she wanted to join the church. He thanked them afterwards and said he could relate. Aw. Such a good FHE. :) 

Well, that was a good chunk of the week! Hope you all are having a good day!

Week 60

Hello world! 

Not much to say this week. 

Last week we went to Glacier National Park for preparation day again and it was gorgeous. We went through east and west Glacier and it's easily the prettiest place I've ever been to. I just want to live there.  

We had district meeting in Cutbank this week at a senior couples house because the Elder is too sick to come to district meetings in Shelby. So we all talked about our favorite talks from conference and they fed us Canadian thanksgiving!  

This week, my testimony of tracting around referrals grew. We had a referral in some apartments and we tracted around a found a guy named Sam who was super receptive and wanted us to come back! Woo!

Little blessing: Some older LDS ladies who were traveling from Canada came and talked to us when we were having lunch at Pizza Hut and paid for the whole districts meals! :) I feel so grateful for people who are generous like that! 

This week has been cold. I think it's here for good now! There was fog, sleet, and now we have a couple inches of snow and it's still snowing. We've been doing lots of tracting lately so the weather always makes it an adventure. I look like I'm dressed for winter already but when you're knocking doors in the cold all day, the cold gets to your core fast so you have to hunker down. 

We had an awesome dinner at the branch presidents house and we had a less active, recent convert, and some investigators there and it was all thrown together that day- so that was sweet! 

We met a cool guy at a former investigators house who basically asked us if he could come to church and be baptized. He was like, "So what do I do? Just show up and get baptized?" Hahaha. We wish but no. :P He unfortunately didn't come to church but we have high hopes for him! :) That was a miracle. We went to the formers house to try to pick them back up again. They're not interested but love the church and missionaries and know everything about it so they were basically teaching him along with us. So maybe through him, we can get this family going again!

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

Week 59

Hello, world!
So this week we had transfers and I picked up Sister Smith. She last
served in the Butte zone.
This week has been fun. We tried whale blubber gum (which is not too
bad)". So I can cross that off my bucket list. Hahah.
We went to Great Falls women's session of general conference!!! We had
a service project before and then dinner and the broadcast. It was so
great! I love what President Uchtdorf said that we need to walk with
whatever faith we have but always seeking to increase it. Sometimes we
struggle with our faith and we just have to hold on to the bit we have
at the time but not give up there. We should always strive to
strengthen our testimonies along the way! I also loved how Sister
Bonnie L. Oscarson said that we live in perilous times but also in the
fullness of times. We have the tools necessary to keep is strong as we
live in these last days! Heavenly Father trusts us to use them. I
loved absolutely everything but that was just a few points!
Oh! And we were able to have a less active come! She drove the hour to
come down and stayed for the whole thing! It was awesome and she took
lots of notes during the broadcast. :)
We had a lesson earlier on in the week with her and she was a mess.
She has had a spiritual experience lately that has made her want to
change her life around but she has such difficult obstacles in the way
that makes her fear changing. But the spirit really directed us in
knowing what to say and what scriptures to share and she's stuck with
her decision to change! She says she feels so much better about
herself now as she's gradually getting better and obeying the
commandments. I can even feel the difference about her. :)
We also went to a funeral this week and I (again) didn't even know the
person but we went to support the members who were grieving. And we
also were contacted BY a referral we had while we were in the
cemetery. So that was the most unique referral contacted I've ever had
in my life. Haha.
Some less actives came to church yesterday and bore their testimonies
in sacrament meeting! It was so great to see them do that. We also
shared some simple missionary experiences in sharing time in primary
as well. Little kids are so cute. They were so excited that we came
in. :)
Another miracle that happened was that we decided to talk to a lady
that we often see walking on the streets. We were walking on the other
side and crossed over and just started talking. She said she was
actually baptized into the church when she was younger but has been
less active for most of her life. She's not in our records here so
that was cool that we found her! We shared the Restoration pamphlet
with her and she said we could follow up with her later.
It's been an awesome week and we are going to be traveling a lot this
next week to Chester, Sunburst, and Great Falls.
Hope you have a great week!

Sister Lauren Ney
Montana Billings Mission

Week 58

Hey everyone! 

This week was busy and packed with traveling. 

We went to Chester Monday night through Wednesday night and we were dropped off and picked up to save miles, so we were on foot-so we couldn't go very far. We tried everyone within the town of Chester who is an active member, less active, and investigator because there's not many people in the records from a town of 800. And we knocked doors too. I would say we had more success with the active members because all of our other lessons fell through and we couldn't get ahold of many others. We built some trust with the members by painting someone's deck, popping in at another's dance studio, etc. We also had dinner at our branch presidents house in Inverness with an investigating family, so that was awesome. 

The next day, we went to Sunburst with another member to try people up there. We found a semi- active couple who owns a quilt shop. Their whole life and couple story seems like it should be straight out of a Nicholas Sparks book. They were awesome. 

The next day, we went to Great Falls for zone training and some crazy stuff went down.  The whole mission is training again! Every companionship is going to go through the first 12 weeks again and have an extra hour of the day to do it. Holy cow. I'm kindof excited because I liked getting down to the basics. We also set some zone goals to get 20 baptisms in the zone by the end of the year and we made a plan to do that. 

Faith:

-100% invitations to baptism in the first lesson 

-pray for focus investigators by name everyday in personal prayers

-5 new OYMs a day 

Sacrifice:

-keep dinners to 1 hour 

-be effective until 9pm

Desire: 

-give out atleast 1 Book of Mormon a day

Attitude:

-memorize and recite Alma 37:40 every day

And one of our zone leaders had me and 2 other elders bear our testimonies on how Jesus Christ has helped us in our lives and the spirit was SO strong after that. If anything can bring the spirit, it's testifying of the Savior. Without a doubt. 

Then of course there was general conference!!! My goodness, it was amazing. I especially likes when Elder Yamashita said "Be ambitious for Christ". That really stuck out to me and how he said to serve God with a joyful heart. It may be hard to do that sometimes but when we do all that we are told to do, it will be more natural and a part of who we are. 

What was everyone's favorite parts and why? I would love to get responses! Lauren.ney@myldsmail.net

Hope you all have a great week!

Week 57

Hey everyone!

Transfer news: I'm staying in Shelby and Sister Thomas is going to
Missoula. My new companion is going to be Sister Smith and I served in
the Butte zone with her a lot- so I already know her decently well. :)
The weather has been so weird. One day was in the 30s and had an awful
windchill and then the other days have been in the 70s! I don't get it
We had one of the best lessons ever this week with the 15 year old I
was talking about the past couple emails. We met with him at the
church and we had a sister who was his Sunday School teacher the
couple of times he came to church in the past. He
Had the bombest lesson ever. He read the pamphlet we gave him and he
soaked the whole Restoration in. He believes that Joseph Smith saw
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that having prophets could really
help guide him and his family. He says his parents will be supportive
of him learning but his extended family will probably oppose. He said
he bought church pants to wear on Sunday bc he wants to be respectful.
He also wants to learn because he's investigated churches in the past
and he really felt the spirit here. He said it felt close to him. We
committed him to be baptized on my birthday-October 15th!!!!! 😄 I'M
SO EXCITED!
We also had a lesson with our media referral/ investigating couple. We
have permission to teach them with the elders who are teaching their
in-laws in Cutbank (who this couple referred) who are also
investigating but we are still trying to work that out. We taught the
Plan of Salvation and they're doing good and they came to church this
week!!! Our 15 year old and the investigating grandparents of the
recent convert 9 year old came too! It was a beautiful day. :)
We had testimony meeting for district meeting this week and I felt the
spirit so strongly just among the 6 of us. I am so blessed to work
among other chosen servants of the Lord who testify of Him every day.
This week we volunteered at the thrift store in town. I love working
in thrift stores. You never know what's gonna come in. Haha.
We went to a Hutterite farmers market this week. The Hutterites are a
religious group that live in colonies up here and are very self
sufficient. They have lots of acres of community gardens, make their
own clothes, raise their own animals, and so on. They have a distinct
wardrobe and speak German.  So we got some produce from them.
We also helped at the primary program practice. The kids were so funny
and I just stood in as a teacher because they had teachers missing.

Sister Lauren Ney
Montana Billings Mission

Picture 1- we were in a trio for a little bit with a cat that followed
us all the way down the street
Picture 2- if you let us in your house, we will break your dishes.
Limited time offer. :)

Week 56

Heyo!

So this week was pretty great.
We had our annual branch corn roast where they grill and deep fry
Canadian corn. It was pretty good! I've had so much corn lately
though. I think I've had more corn within the last couple of weeks
than I've had in my whole life!
I learned how to can things as well- mainly apples and relish. We just
happened upon 2 different ladies that needed help canning this week.
And we made homemade apple sauce with this big contraption thing.
We went to a funeral of a less active member of the branch. I never
met him but we went to support the people. There were maybe only 10 in
attendance. This was the 3rd funeral I've been to on my mission and I
hardly knew all of them.
We had some awesome member present lessons this week. I just love when
members come with us. And I have found these scriptures and have been
thinking a lot about the benefit of THREE witnesses. In 2 Corinthians
13:1, it says, "This is the third time I am coming to you. In the
mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." and
2 Nephi 11:3 says, "...Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath
said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more
witnesses, and he proveth all his words."
When we have a member present in our lessons, the testimony of the
doctrine being taught is so much more powerful. The people who are
learning can see that other people, besides the missionaries, have
faith in Christ and have seen blessings come from living His word. So
go out with the missionaries! You will be able to participate in the
most important work- the work of salvation. :)
We contacted lots of referrals because they piled up because no one
was ever home when we tried them. We were up there in the 20s.
For district meeting this week, we all met in Great Falls to hear a
guy by the name of Craig S. Michelsen speak. He's currently a young
men's president in one of the Great Falls wards and he had written
some books on church doctrine. He's had some other higher up callings
in the church as well. He actually spoke to our zone about the signs
of the second coming and all of our minds were blown by the end. It's
kindof sad though because everything he taught is in the scriptures.
We just don't study and utilize them enough to know the important
information that Heavenly Father has given to us. So that's something
I need for work on. It's definitely evidence of 2 Nephi 28:30,
"...thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line
upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and
blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto
my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I
will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from
them shall be taken away even that which they have." And if we don't
read and understand the scriptures we have now- we won't be able to
receive additional scripture Heavenly Father has for us in the future.
He actually started off with talking about the preexistence. I felt
the spirit so strongly when he was talking about that and I started
crying. I don't know why. It just hit me really hard.
We had an awesome miracle yesterday. We previously met this lady at a
Mexican restaurant who said she wanted us to start teaching her son
again because missionaries in the last have tried to meet with him. So
we went over yesterday and met him and he was so excited that his mom
gave approval. He didn't take the lessons before because he thought it
would go against his parents wishes. So we just said "Yeah. Your mom
is all for it." He asked how many lessons there are and what happens
when they're done (so we of course brought up baptism and church) and
he took a Book of Mormon and everything. So we have an appointment
with him later this week and he's so cool!
Hope you all are doing great!

Sister Lauren Ney
Montana Billings Mission

Pic 1-Making applesauce!
Pic 2-Sunflowers that are taller than me!
Pic 3-It's been reallll rainy this week.

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