I am going to die with my badge on!:)

HE LIVES! A phrase that has brought a great deal of peace and spirit into my life this week. This is part of our unique message that  we all share. Jesus Christ lives!!!!

Saturday and Sunday we were blessed to have Stake Conference. As a missionary meetings are things that we look forward to. We put them on our calenders in big capital letters and remind each other every time we see an other missionary. I especially love any meeting that has conference in the title. The spirit that is felt and used to teach is always incredible and I learn so much. 

Our stake has been focusing on PMG. Our stake President challenged all of the members to read PMG by this meeting and a lot of them did. It has been so cool to not only hear what members have been learning, but to see it put into action. There was a young man that told of many opportunities that he has had over the past few months to be a missionary. The youth are amazing. My personal favorite part were the talks given on making your home a "Pre MTC"! 

The MTC is POWERFUL. The spirit teaches you in everything you do because that is you focus. You are praying every 10 minutes (either because you are starting a class, lesson, or because you feel like you brain is going to explode). You are constantly talking about the gospel, reading and reciting scriptures, and best of all serving (even if it is just holding the door for someone.) Folks this is how to be happy. This is the most sure formula to do so. 

We had been walking for about 1 1/2 hours and were heading back to our car. We felt like we should turn down one in particular street, not knowing if it would get us back to the street we needed to be on. There was a cute little park path thing that we decided to take (partially because it was shaded and 90 degrees out side.) 

We were walking and stopped to talk to a woman who had to cute dogs. She was so sweet and as we got chatting she told us how her nephew, who she piratically raised, had married a mormon. She told us that she has been trying to learn more about what we believe so she can connect to them better. WIN! We then quickly, without sounding "desperate", explained to her that our purpose as missionaries  is to go and teach people what we believe. Her face lit up! WIN! She gave us her name, number, and address and set up  a time for us to come over. 

The Lord's hand is in this work.

Sue. Man I say her name and just smile. We went into our lesson with her this week really worried because for some strange reason we both felt like she was going to drop us. Quite the opposite happened. We were talking to her and asked her if she believes the bom it true. "Yes" she said. We asked her about Joseph Smith and again she gave us a YES!!! What a relief. She told us how she had read the chapter that we gave her twice because she wanted to understand more and did each time she read it. Folks, The BOM is true! This was a huge testimony builder to me because all week I have been praying extra hard for Sue. I prayed specifically that she would receive answers to her prayers and recognize them. She did.

This is the Lords work. He is my best friend. When the waves seem like they are going to swallow you and you will drown. Remember this, your life guard walks on water. We all face storms in our lives, we need Christ on our ships so that when the storm reaches its high point He can calm our storm and lead us to safety. Each trail that we over come through Christ leaves us stronger and wiser. He is our teacher and friend and HE LIVES. 

I know these things to be true. Study them and ask, and you will to.

Keep on keeping on!

Love you all,

Sister Kate Draney

Friends,

THE CHURCH IS TRUE! THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD! AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Yesterday we are out visiting one of our Less active friends. We gave her some homemade cookies and shared a scripture with her. I love leaving knowing that I was able to brighten their day. ALWAYS LEAVE THEM BETTER THEN WHEN YOU FOUND THEM. on our way back to our car we saw a man walking our way so we kept walking his way passing our car. then he crossed to the other side of the road. Great now we get to make things awkward... so we say hello as we cross over to him. This is always a gamble because a lot of the time it is awkward because they just speed up like they didn't hear us or shew us away. (we get some funny stories from that) But Kevin stopped and said hello. HE IS A MIRACLE. This man was so prepared. We had one of the most easy natural conversations with him. He was very religious and shared things with us that we all together connected back to the gospel. He talked about angels always being around us so I shared D&C 84:88 with him and he loved it. later on in our talk we shared a BOM scripture with him. As sis currie read it I gave him a BOM open to that page she he could follow along. 

His comment after went a little something like this... "Wow that was powerful. When you handed the book to me I was filled with this power and happiness." That my friends is the power of the BOM. The field is white. Our friends are prepared. Those who are ready will see the light and know. We didn't have to do anything but hand the BOM to him for him to know that it was true. He felt it because his heart was soft and he was prepared. 

This week has consisted of many visits to a pharmacy because my poor comp has been so sick. We used a little of what all my comps call "My who-do-voo-do" but that only went so far. So she has been sleeping a lot and coughing out a lung or two. And I have been cleaning, studying, and trying to entertain myself. But here is the cool thing. Even though we were only able to go out a little we saw some of the most amazing miracles ever!

 We were having dinner and were finishing up when the neighbor of sister Moobury (who is an elderly widow in the ward) came over to check up on her and see how she was doing before she left for her trip to Hawaii. We invited her to sit down and have some food with us. She did and stayed for the message as well which was us teaching her the restoration. We committed everyone to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She agreed to do this as well and agreed to letting us come by after her trip. The Lord knows our hearts and how badly we wanted to be out teaching this week so he gave us special miracle to be able to do so.

The other cool part to this story was before dinner I had to thought to EDPEP (role play) teaching the Restoration. Then low and behold.... we got to teach it to someone who needed it. 

We invited 3 of our friends to be baptized this week!... none of them accepted a date but were able to express concerns that they had. From this we will be able to help them come closer to our Father and eventually make those sacred promises with him that will bless them forever! 

SUE AND DANIEL CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! Yeah yesterday was a great day! Deedee is praying about a baptismal date! We have a lesson with Matt and Erica Tuesday and we are going to invite her to be baptized! Prayers would be appreciated! 

Missionary work is the most rewarding work. This church is true. I know it with everything that I am. I know that Father talks to us through the scriptures, so read them. We are so loved and are always enough!

Alma 53:11 is a great scripture I came across today. Take time and make an oath with Father to bring you closer to him. He will help you and it will bless you!

Keep on keeping on in the Harvest!

Love you all so much,

Sister Kate Draney

This week... wow.... it amazes me how I learn so many different things each week, even though I am technically doing the same thing that I have been doing for the last 9 months. I have learned and relearned that Father will always and is always teaching us. it is just up to us to recognize and accept the lessons being taught. 

So first news of the week. The transfer is over but I am staying in Goleta with Sister currie. I am super pumped because she has a unique way of teaching me A LOT of lessons that i REALLY need to learn. What a blessing. Not to mention one of the LA that we are working with told us last week that she hopes that we don't leave of split up soon (not knowing that we would find out if that would happen in just a few days) because she connected better to us and felt so much more comfortable with us. So her prayers were answered. 

So this week was a great one in the work but I feel more impressed to tell you more about my studies this week then the people I talked to. So to start off...

At our missionary coordination meeting this thursday my ward mission leader gave us a quote that has changed my mission. he said "LOOK FOR THE PURPOSE OF EACH DAY". He told us of an experience that he had on his mission. Him and his comp had had a HARD day. They got to thier apartment with 10 min before they had to go it. They had knocked literally every house in thier area and so they decided to go and walk down the street. In doing so they met a really unkind man. this doesn't help the day but they don't let that beat them. So they keep going and a man walks by. he tells them that he is on his way to pick up the body of his daughter that just died. (WOW) they bore testimony about the P.O.S. and he invited them to come later and teach him more. That was the purpose of their day.

Because of the new tansfer I took some time this last week to sit and think about what I learned this transfer. I will admit it has been my hardest one thus far. But "PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY". I had an understanding with Father in which I learned about perspective. This is what I learned... your eyes are the window to your soul. You go where ever you look when you walk and similarly with life and attitude. In every situation there are two perspectives, the optimistic with the half full glass, or the pessimistic with the not enough in the glass. When your dad takes a drink of your chocolate milk you can cry because you now have less then you did before and wont be able to enjoy as much and you were hoping to. Or you can smile, grateful to share and say thanks for leaving that much for me. 

Every day and in every situation we get to choose what glasses we will use to look at the situation. We can wear our "life isn't fair and everything from this person is said to hurt me or make me angry" glasses. Or you can put on your "I love life and nothing is going to get me down" glasses. What I've learned is the second pair make life a whole lot easier and more enjoyable. It really all does depend on how you look at it or choose to take it. There are times when someone might say something to hurt you but that doesn't mean you have to let it. You can look at it with a positive attitude and shake it off. This is what you do when your eyes are set on the Savior. That is where joy comes from. When your sights are set on your self EVERYTHING is going to hurt and you are not going to find that same joy from the same situations. We are in control.

I'm out of time. but I know that I love you all! you are in my prayers. Keep on keeping on in the work!

Sister Kate Draney

Oh my gosh what an amazing week! I don't even know where to start. I feel so blessed and have all everyday for the past 7 days. This week has been a week of miracles, not because I've been doing missionary work different or anything but because I was looking for them. You truly will find what you look for, in people, in situations, in work, in love, in life in general. That is part of the reason that it is so important to look to God in every thought, to keep your sights set on the temple, and to have an eye single to the glory of God. 

When you really think about it you go where you look. I mean you can try to walk with your eyes closed but you aren't going to get anywhere very fast and you will probably end up hurting yourself. If your eyes are looking only at the things of this world how in the world are you going to walk in the paths of God? I think about David. Looking was his downfall. So look to God and see miracles all day everday. 

I wish I had the time to share with you all the amazing miracles that I had this week but I dont so I will give you some of my favorites...

On Wed we had a lesson planned with a woman named Elain. She is a friend of our bishops. He asked us to go and see her so we did. When we went over the first time she was busy but told us that we could come back and talk with her more next week (being this week). She also told us that she was catholic and not planning on changing ANYTIME soon. 

So we go over and talk with her for about 30 min. She is not interested in our message but will sit and talk about life with us. Lucky for us every aspect of life relates back to the gospel. LOVE IT! In talking she told us of some really hard trials that she has had to face and ones that she is facing right now. We asked her if we could share an uplifting message with her, and to that she agreed. Usually I can think of something really quick to share and a scripture to put with it. But my mind was BLANK. Ahhhhh worst moments as a missionary. I was rambling on as I flipped through my scriptures trying to think of something that would connect to her situation. 

Then a thought came to my head that I had had earlier that day at a LA's house. We had been reading with the LA in 1 nephi and I got a thought to leave my book mark where we left off. So now we are at Elains house and I remember that. So I start to tell her about Nephi and his life. We tell her about the family situations that he has and some of the struggles that he goes though. I took her to 1 nephi 17 aka the "good trip" "bad trip" chapter (thank you sister snow) and showed her how nephi and his brothers went through the same things but because of the attitude they say very different things about it. 

Then we went somewhere else showing the faith that Nephi had and I was able to bear my testimony about how amazing it is to get to learn from people like this. I told her how Nephi is my hero and why. She was amazed at how well we knew the BOM and asked us how long we had studied to know it that well.

Okay so pause! At this point in the story the spirit was thick enough to cut. Like I'm talking cutting trough butter. But not butter that has been sitting out and is all soft and delicoiusl and ready to eat. But butter that has been in the freezer. She BOM is such a powerful tool and we are told as missionaries to help people to "feel the BOM". That is what went down that night. She felt the BOM and it changed her. You could see the change and IT. WAS. AMAZING!!!

So by the time that we left she was on a spiritual high that we have all felt at one point or an other in reading the BOM. She told us how she is now going to put her BOM in her bag so that when  she needs strength she can open it up and get some!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE SPIRIT!!!!!!!!! AND THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has had a BOM for years and admitied to us that she just never wanted to read it (dang satan knew she would love it). So when we were able to read some with her she FELT IT and had a change of heart!

Amazing right?? I thought so.

Oh man I wish I had more time to tell you all about how awesome missionary life it. I is hard dont get me wrong and I can always use prayers and letters, but I can truly testify that it is Gods work. I know it because I see His had in EVERYTHING. I would invite and encourage all of you to pay a closer attention to the little miracles that you have everyday. Do what I did and write them down so at the end of the day you can see how much your Father loves you. These are things that He set into course YEARS ago. He loves you that much! So take some time to recognize that love and to thank Him for it.

I know these things are true! Share the Book of Mormon because it changes lives. Make it a goal to always have one with you so when the spirit promps you can give it or share it with someone!

I love you all! I miss you but not enough to come home any time soon :)

Keep on keeping on in the hastening the work of our Lord!

Sister Draney "Dreamy"