Week 75

Hi! 

Well,  I have a testimony that God answers prayers. When I was younger, I prayed that I would live in Wyoming some day. But I didn't mean in the winter. :P According to the locals, its the coldest winter they've had in 10 years. But I still love the work and people here. 

*****TRANSFER NEWS*****Sister Jacoby and I are getting doubled out and doubled into Worland 3rd ward because all of the sisters we are over are on the other side of the Big Horn mountains and it's safer for us to be over in the Big Horn Basin with them in the winter so we don't have to make the long scary drive over there to see them with bad roads. This will be my last area, and area #7.5, on my mission-unless I get mid-transferred which I PRAY doesn't happen. We leave Wednesday and we will be living with a member. So please send all mail to the mission home for now @ 1848 Rimrock Rd. Billings, Montana 59102. We do get to come back to Ranchester for our 10 year old investigator's baptism on Saturday though! 

We had a few member-present lessons with our older investigator this week. We got him to make a commitment to come to church next week and we have his transportation lined up and everything! I'm so excited for him! 

We served dinner at the homeless shelter again with some elders and the Relief Society from Ranchester. It was fun and they loved having us. One guy actually wanted to meet with the elders too!

We finally got in with one of our investigators in Dayton who wants to be baptized. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he had lots of deep questions but he's genuinely interested and he came to church this past Sunday! He kind of fell off the earth for a while and now he's up and going again! :)

Being doubled out is a great way to get in with people that you haven't seen in a while and we got to see our investigator in Sheridan who dumped all her coffee the other week. We followed up and she still hasn't touched it! She's just been drinking tons of hot chocolate! It was so great to hear! 

We went to the temple this week with our bishop, his wife, and our recent convert and we did baptisms for the dead with her for the first time! She got baptized for her parents and some other people she found in her family tree! The look on her face when we drove into Billings and saw the temple in the distance was awesome. She had no words. She started getting teary-eyed and grabbed by arm and held it as she had a huge grin on her face. It was awesome. She also gave her first talk in sacrament and got her patriarchal blessing yesterday! She's moving back to Florida tomorrow and we really think that our leaving the next day is no coincidence. Sisters needed to be here for her! 

Anyway, it's been a great week. I will miss Sheridan. 

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

Picture 1- little town of Dayton 

Picture 2-this is why walking is hard in the winter 

Picture 3-this is why getting to people's doors is hard in the winter (the gate is frozen in ice on the ground)

Picture 4- Billings temple! 

Picture 5- SCRIPTURE POWER! Keeps me safe from being eaten :)

Picture 6- Worland is getting some pretty cool sisters 

Week 74

Hey all! 

This week was busy. 

Monday night we tried to drive to Cody, WY through Billings, MT for exchanges, so we could avoid going through the Big Horn mountains because of bad winter roads, but the trip ended up taking much longer because a snow storm hit and we got lost a few times. So we stayed in Billings overnight and I got to see Sister Shupe which was awesome! Then we headed to Cody the next morning and went on exchanges with the sisters there- Sister Clegg and Sister Kent. I was with Sister Clegg. It was way fun being with her. She's going home this transfer and she's the only sister going home, so I got to go on an exchange with the most experienced sister in the mission! We were able to have a few less active lessons and we taught a solid investigator in a member's home with 3 members present. It was sweet. Those members were great teachers and basically extended the invitations to come to church and all that for us. Haha. It was an interesting day because it dumped snow all day long and by the next day, it was about a foot.

Then we went to their district meeting and then we went on exchanges with the Burlington sisters right after. It's a town of almost 300 but there's like 3 or 4 wards and a Spanish group. The Big Horn Basin (basically that side of the mountains) is very heavily Mormon populated. I was with Sister Taylor and she was an awesome teacher. She has a lot of love for the people here and has been studying Spanish really hard. 

A HUGE miracle this week was that our investigator on date in Sheridan gave us all her coffee to dump out in the dumpster and she had an already made cup of coffee that she bought from McDonalds and she dumped it out. We just followed up on the word of wisdom and she said she's been bad at the coffee part and we asked her to pick another point in the back of the word of wisdom pamphlet to work on and she said, "I just need to throw it out." And she stood up, and gave us all of it. It made me so happy! :'D

We also did a lot of service since we've been back. We helped at the food bank, helped a family move stuff out of their storage units, and helped some members with their Sprouted Almonds company in their warehouse. We sorted and put 5500 lbs of almonds in trays to dehydrate. There were huge bins full of almonds that got washed and sucked up into this machine. It spreads them on trays and puts them on a conveyor belt and we had to sort through them all and stack the trays up. There were 10 dollies of 21-22 trays. 

There's lots of other stuff that happened but those are some highlights! 

I read an article this week in this month's New Era called "Surviving the Social Media Highlight Reel". I really liked what I read in here because, by growing up the way I did and serving here in the states where social media is still around me, I've been able to see the effect it has on me and people in general. I think being able to use Facebook in my mission has helped me develop some internal safeguards and habits that can make social media use a more positive thing in my life. This quote from the article helps explain some of what I've learned: "We can ask ourselves some questions before sharing a post. “What is my intent? Is it to exclude someone or cause jealousy?” If so, rethink your sharing. But if it’s just to share something you’re super excited about or to uplift others, go for it." Social media can be so much better if we keep this in mind. I challenge everyone to post something uplifting this week- whether it be something they learned in their scripture study, something they learned at church, or a little miracle you've had lately. 

Have a great week! 

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

Picture 1-Billings with Sister Thacker and Sister Shupe 

Picture 2-exchanges in Cody 

Picture 3-plows are the BEST THING EVER

Picture 4-snow on our cars in Cody

Picture 5-almonds!

Week 73

Hey world! 

So the beginning of the week just consisted of me being sick and us being stuck in the apartment.

I do feel better now and we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators on date about the word of wisdom. We were kind of nervous for the lesson because she has some word of wisdom issues but her reaction was "This is gonna suck" but she was totally willing to do it! She knows very well that it's gonna be hard but there wasn't any question that she was gonna try! She's awesome. 

We had zone conference in Buffalo on Wednesday and interviews with President here in Sheridan on Thursday.  The conference was all about repentance again and it was really good. I like how they not only talked about teaching repentance, but how we as missionaries really need to apply it too. We will have no power in our teaching if we don't use the atonement ourselves! 

We had a lesson with our 11 year old investigator in Ranchester and we put him on date finally for January 28th! He is a funny kid and wanted to be baptized on dates that are associated with tragic events in history (like the Titanic sinking or the attack on Pearl Harbor) but his parents were able to talk him out of it. It was the most chaotic and unique experience of putting someone on date I've ever had on my mission. Haha.

So cool experience- the other week on exchanges, another sister and I got stuck in the snow and a nice family saw us and helped us out. Well I wanted to thank them so Sister Jacoby and I dropped off cookies last night and it turns out they are a less active/ part member family! They were nice and let us in and talked to us for a while. They're not interested right now but I think their hearts softened a little bit. :)

I hope you all have a great week! 

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

1. zone conference

2. Yummy icicles

3. Im in cowboy country

Week 72

Hey hey! 

So this week I learned that Wyoming really is the least populated state in America. I kind of guessed but it's official. The population is around 500,000. I have been called to serve in the least populated state in all the 50 states of this country. Weird. 

Our exchanges to Cody was canceled on Monday because of high winds but we did have exchanges from Thursday night to Saturday morning and the sisters serving in Worland came here. So I was with Sister Lisberg here in Sheridan and Sister Jacoby went with Sister Dayes to Ranchester. It was my first exchange ever as a sister training leader and it was realllllly rough because I got sick, a snowstorm hit that day, and we got stuck in the snow (in their Toyota Corolla) 7 times. People had to come save us 3 of those times. Some friendly neighborhood people saved us the first time, a homeless guy the second, and 4 elders the third time. Sister Lisberg was so sweet and was super understanding about my being sick but we still were out and about until 8:30pm. 

I'm still sick and went to urgent care yesterday and we were shuts ins all day. I slept and we watched some church movies from the apartment. I feel bad for Sister Jacoby having to babysit me but she's so awesome and willing. 

Some highlights of this week was that we were able to help teach our recent convert how to do family history and we got a huge chunk of her family tree filled in. She's super excited to take her family names to the temple. Her reaction to her discovering her ancestors was priceless. She was yelling for joy and in total astonishment. 

I was also able to Skype in on my investigator's baptism in Bozeman. She was the one who came and found us while we were eating dinner at Oba. She was seriously beaming and so overwhelmed with joy afterwards. It made me so happy. :)

So a major theme in our teaching that I have seen in this past week was the Plan of Salvation. We met with at least 3 people this week on a day that happened to be the anniversary of a loved one's death or someone they loved passed away that very day. I don't think its any coincidence that we happened to show up at that time and in that same situation several times throughout the week. It was so neat to see the spirit work in people and bring them peace as we testified of the truth of the Plan of Salvation. 

This week, we also were invited to dinner with the YSA branch president and some prospective missionaries. Its so fun to see the excitement people have while working on their papers and preparing to go out. That ambition needs to be remembered and maintained throughout ones mission.

So I was going to put a spiritual thought from Chapter 33: Missionary Work from Brigham Young's Teachings of the Presidents book, but I ended up highlighting the whole thing. It's SO good so I challenge you all to go read it! 

I hope you all had a happy new year and made some awesome resolutions! 

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

Week 71

Hey everyone! 

Hope you had a great Christmas! 

So this week was fun and full of caroling. So on Monday, we were supposed to head to Billings because MLC in Helena was on Tuesday but it was cancelled because of bad weather, so we ended up going to a live nativity for 2nd ward instead and we were in it as wise men. 

We went to Ranchester and Dayton on Tuesday and contacted some people over there. 

On Wednesday, we taught a recent convert and one of our investigators on date and they were so awesome. I feel so lucky to be here to meet such awesome people who are ready to learn. We also went caroling with the other missionaries in Sheridan and did some service for those we stopped by- like haul wood. 

Thursday, we had a few more lessons and an active member lesson at night. I think some of my favorite parts of missionary work is teaching active members because they are so ready to learn simple truths of the gospel and do missionary work. Sometimes you have to get them excited about it but when they jump on the bandwagon, so many miracles happen and they start thinking of their friends and family who they love and need the gospel! 

Friday was a lot of traveling. We had zone training in Gillette (1.5 hours away) and it focused on repentance- how we can use it on our own lives and how to teach it to others. Then we had our ZLC, or zone leadership council, (for zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders) and we Skyped in for the Wyoming West zone's ZLC after ours to discuss the needs of the sisters over there. Then from there we went to Ranchester and Dayton (2+ hours away from Gillette).

Saturday was Christmas Eve and it was AWESOME. In the morning, we replaced some elders who were ringing bells in front of Walmart for the Salvation Army because they were sick. That was never something I really wanted to do, but it was kind of fun and we got quite a bit of money! Then we visited one of the nursing homes here and saw some members in there. One was sick bad enough to where we had to dress up with isolation precautions- so we had to put on medical masks, a gown, gloves, and booties. She just loved our visit. She asked us to sing for her and we didn't have our iPads in the room with us to see lyrics, so we sang the best we could from memory and while wearing masks. It was interesting. Then multiple members had us over and one older member had us carol with her to multiple different places including the homeless shelter- which was so cool! I've never thought of that before. 

On Christmas, we Skyped home and had breakfast and dinner with some members. We went to sacrament in Ranchester and Sheridan and sang every Christmas hymn in the hymn book just at church alone. Then after church, we went caroling with the elders at another old folks home and it was so awesome because some residents were so happy when we came. We gave them cards and candy canes too. A snow storm hit and we got stuck in the snow (even in our truck on 4 wheel drive) and I had to shovel and push us out. All of the companionships in Sheridan got stuck at some point yesterday. So we had to hunker down indoors again. 

For a spiritual thought this week, I thought this just fit perfectly. It's an excerpt from an article in last year's December Ensign called "In Tune With the Christmas Spirit" and its about caroling! 

"At the beginning of our hospital visit, I had noticed that there were really only two gifted singers in our group. The rest of us did the best we could, and while we sounded decent, we were nothing spectacular. However, with each patient that we visited, the Spirit seemed to increase, and so did the quality of our voices...

I’m not sure why this small miracle occurred. Perhaps because we only desired the talent to make others happy, it was granted to us for a short time (see 1 Corinthians 14:1). I wasn’t the only one who noticed--another woman in our group commented on the way out, “I’m not a very good singer, but I always find that my voice improves when I do service like this.”

I definitely saw this happen throughout the week as we served people through song! Especially because they were about Christ! Heavenly Father helps us when we are in His service. 

Have a great week! 

Week 70

Hola! 

So this week was crazy. Before I left Bozeman, we put another one of our investigators, the one from Jordan, on date. And it's SO SAD being transferred right before people's baptisms. I know the next missionaries will take good care of them though. 

Sister Ashcroft and I packed our luggage and our apartment and then we had transfers on Wednesday. It was an all day affair for me because I was getting moved to Wyoming. We got in Sheridan at night and I'm officially in Wyoming now. It's weird. I was thinking I was only going to be in Montana for my mission but guess not! 

Let me tell ya, it has been COLD this past week. There was lots of wind and snow from the storm that came in on Friday. We were told by the assistants to not go outside unless we had set appointments for all ofFriday and Saturday. But they forgot to send that message to my zone, so we were proselyting Friday day until we were informed that it applied to us too. Haha. It was -19 degrees and -31 with the windchill on Saturday. It was so bad we had ice only in the INSIDE of our truck. Not really on the outside and it wouldn't come off. Cars aren't made to operate in this kind of weather. 

We had an awesome lesson with an investigator who we put on date for baptism on Friday. 

We went to our Ranchester branch for sacrament meeting yesterday and then to Sheridan 1st ward for the 3 hours. Ranchester is closer to the Montana/ Wyoming border and we actually cover some towns in Montana too. It's so weird and I can't keep the 2 states separate in my head. 

We are going to Billings today for MLC (Mission Leadership Council) tomorrow and we won't be back into our area until Wednesday. MLC is for zone leaders, sister training leaders, and some other mission leaders. So there's lots of traveling this week. 

Here is a spiritual thought I got from my studies this week:

"We cannot gauge the worth of another soul any more than we can measure the span of the universe. Every person we meet is a VIP to our Heavenly Father...

        One woman who had been through years of trial and sorrow said through her tears, “I have come to realize that I am like an old 20-dollar bill--crumpled, torn, dirty, abused, and scarred. But I am still a 20-dollar bill. I am worth something. Even though I may not look like much and even though I have been battered and used, I am still worth the full 20 dollars.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf "You Are My Hands")

Have a good week and stay warm! 

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission 

Week 69

Hello family and friends! 

Transfer news: I'm going to be a sister training leader in the Wyoming East zone! That means I'm going to go on exchanges and do training with sisters in the Wyoming West zone because we are the only sisters in the Wyoming East zone. So I will be transferred to Sheridan, Wyoming on Wednesday and I'm going to be companions with Sister Jacoby, who I served with in Great Falls! I'm really nervous for this huge change but excited. I'm sooooo sad to say goodbye to the people here though. I haven't had enough time! :(

***So if you send anything to me, send it to the mission home address: 1848 Rimrock Rd. Billings, Montana 59102 and they will forward it to my new address. And let me know if you have sent anything to me recently to my Bozeman address so I can tell someone who is still here in Bozeman to forward it to Wyoming if I don't get it before Wednesday!

So this week was nuts- in a good way. 

We got a new investigator while we were eating dinner with a member at a Brazilian cafe called Oba. She saw us walk by the store she works at as we were walking to Oba. She came in and basically asked to take the lessons because she wants to be baptized. So that was awesome! She's sweet and came to our ward's Christmas party/ fiesta (it was Mexican themed) and loved it. On Saturday, we taught her the Restoration and she loved it. When we taught the First Vision, she got chills and we helped her identify that as the spirit. She said she's like Joseph Smith and has been looking into different religions all her life but didn't feel right about any of them.  She says she feels peace when she reads the Book of Mormon. She also loves the quotes from Thomas S. Monson that she finds on Pinterest. When we invited her to be baptized, she was ecstatic and started crying. She basically has just been waiting for someone to ask her. We committed her to be baptized in December 31st. She said the closing prayer too and is so excited to come to church, read the Book of Mormon, and everything. She said she felt overjoyed.  She is the cutest thing ever and Sister Ashcroft and I were on cloud 9 after that lesson. 

We also had an awesome lesson on Book of Mormon with a less active this week. We originally went over to share the Christmas video with her but then as we got talking, we discovered she doesn't really have a testimony of the church anymore but still refuses to join any other religions. We asked her if she has read the Book of Mormon at all recently and she said no and that she doesn't understand it or why the people in it are significant. That turned out to be one of the most spiritual lessons I've had in this area and we committed her to read it. We testified of the truthfulness and explained some reading habits that will help her get more out of it. 

It dumped snow and got really cold this week. It got in the negatives. The air hurts your face and my toes lose all sensation. They don't even sting. They sting then go completely numb. I have started wearing 2-3 layers at all times now. Our zone was really smart and went caroling when it was 6 degrees outside and we had to go in our cars and thaw once in a while. But we are rotating which areas we carol at so it becomes a finding activity/ blitz sort of thing. And one part member family told us to go in their teepee in their backyard and it was so cool! 

Oh. And plows make me happy. One of these days, I'm gonna make cards and just put them on the windshields of the cars with plows on them. They do such a wonderful service to the world. 

I also read this this week and it really struck me: 

"Your call has eternal consequences for others and for you. In the world to come, thousands may call your name blessed, even more than the people you serve here. They will be the ancestors and the descendants of those who chose eternal life because of something you said or did, or even what you were. If someone rejects the Savior’s invitation because you did not do all you could have done, their sorrow will be yours. You see, there are no small callings to represent the Lord. Your call carries grave responsibility. But you need not fear, because with your call come great promises...

There will be times when you will feel overwhelmed. One of the ways you will be attacked is with the feeling that you are inadequate. Well, you are inadequate to answer a call to represent God with only your own powers. But you have access to more than your natural capacities, and you do not work alone." -Henry B. Eyring ("Rise to Your Call" Oct. 2002)

Sister Lauren Ney

Montana Billings Mission