I barely remember anything! We have been so busy this week but it has been such a good week.
On Wednesday we left early in the morning to drive to Helena for Mission Tour. Elder Godoy of the seventy came to speak to us. He is my favorite person of all time. Hahaha he is from Brazil and has this thick accent, but he is such a great speaker. President Mecham is fantastic, and everyone knows that. He is a fairly serious man, and has been very successful in his line of business. It has been said that he runs our mission like a business, so you can imagine, our meetings are pretty serious and intense. But Elder Godoy gets up there and is dancing and laughing and cracking jokes. It was really cool to be able to laugh and enjoy the meeting but still be able to feel the spirit and learn from what he was saying. It was an interesting comparison. BUT! He said that the Montana Billings Mission is the highest baptizing mission in all of the United States and Canada. EAT IT! That's right! All of the United States and Canada. He was very impressed with our numbers. He said taht he really feels like he does not have a lot to worry about with us. It was really neat. The leaders of the mission had a separate meeting with him and he talked about a few things that I really liked. He drew on the board a person and drew a line right down the middle and said that there are two sides to missionary work and us as people. The first side is techniques. So he wrote down techniques we need to have as missionaries. So, hard working, organized, good with people, master teacher, goal oriented etc. and on the other side he wrote attributes. So, loving, patient, obedient, diligent, knowledgeable, faithful, hopeful etc. Then he told us a story about how on his mission there was a missionary that was a dog. He worked and he worked hard. He loved being out and talking to people and seeing results from his efforts. He had a go, go, go mentality. Then he spoke about another man, who was super tall and you could just feel his spirit when he walked into the room. He was on the quieter side, but when he studied from the scriptures, he STUDIED from the scriptures. He had a big heart and had the attributes taht every missionary needs to have. So he had those two missionaries stay together for a week and they became the PERFECT missionary. He asked us to take a personal inventory and see which side we tended to lean more towards. It was really interesting to think about.
One other thing he said that I really really really liked was about the size of our calling. He drew another body on the board. It took up the entire board. Then he drew a little tick man inside the body. He said this, (the body) is your calling and this, (the stick man) is you. Many times when we are called to a calling whether it be on our missions or in our life, the size of the calling is much bigger than we are and we can feel overwhelmed with all this room we have to fill. Then he said the key words, "you were called for who you could become, not what you are." I found a lot of comfort in those words because a lot of time I feel like that little stick man inside this huge body, or calling. But he said that through the experiences that the Lord provides for us we can fit the size of our calling. He talked about looking at who we were when we came out compared to who we are now and how we are already filling the calling that we have without even realizing it. I needed that. It was a great reminder to me of teh potential that the Lord sees in all of us.
Elder Godoy picked random people to interview and he interviewed Sister Greenfield. :) I was so happy to hear about that. She said that she got to speak to him in Portuguese and express her concerns to him. I don't know if I told you or not but Sister Greenfield canceled her visa to Brazil and it has been really difficult for her. But I think talking to him really helped her.
The next day we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council), so we stayed teh night in Helena. We were given some names from a ward in Helena to go visit and some streets we could tract. We didn't have a car so we walked pretty far to the streets to tract and get this. GET THIS. We hit a gold mine! We found 3 new investigators and taught 5 lessons in the 4 hours we had to do missionary work. The 3 new investigators are SOLID. We gave each of them a BOM and set up a return appointment with a time and day. We also asked them to read a certain chapter that we felt inspired to assign them. All of them were so open and so nice to us. I think as a missionary because we talk to people so much you are able to see genuine interest that people have and let me tell you. GENUINE INTEREST MY FRIENDS. Each of them also had heard of teh Book of Mormon and know members. I was really impressed with how many people we talked to said that they had a copy of teh BOM that their friend gave them. Way to go people of Helena! It was awesome, such a good night. Bummer it wasn't in our area. You are welcome Helena 3rd ward.
So funny story...hahahahaha as we were walking home from the best night of entire lives a car passed by us and Sister Steck waved at them. No big deal, we keep talking about whatever, then I look behind me and teh car that passed by us flipped around and was coming for us. I was like Sister Steck, hold my hand, make them think we are lesbians....she didn't. But the car pulled up to us and it was a couple guys and they were like, " hey do you need a ride?" My instant reaction is looking at my name tag and saying, "Thanks guys, but I am a nun." hahahah just kidding. I wish I had said taht. But, I was like, " No thanks we are actually really close to our destination." LIE FLAT OUT LIE. Our destination was like 5000 miles away. But the guy is all, "Oh, we just wanted to help two cuties out." Ew. Go away young blood. Hahahahahahaha Sister Steck said something else to them and they drove away. I should have given them a law of chastity pamphlet. OH well. That was hilarious. But the next day was MLC, it was wonderful. I got to see Sister Bonn. Love of my life.
We drove back with the Elders to Missoula and went to go pick up our car and when we got in it stunk so bad. We drove around teh rest of the night trying to think of what it could be but couldnt' think of it. But as the night progressed the smell got worse and worse. And I was like, something has died in our car. It was that bad. So we suffer through this janky nasty smell for two days. On the second day we pull into a neighborhood to tract and I pop the trunk to get supplies and the smell just blasts my face. IT WAS AWFUL. I look down and there is a half gallon of milk....that we bought on Monday....it was Friday. HOLY NASTY. We get back in the car and we drive to the nearest dumpster while I am plugging my nose and holding the 1/2 gallon of cheese out my window. And I say cheese because this milk is now a solid my friends. It is no longer a liquid. And we get to teh dumpster and Sister Steck decides to OPEN IT! Don't worry. I have it all on video. I was laughing so hard I couldn't stand up straight. That milk was the nastiest thing I have ever beheld in my entire life. But it was also the FUNNIEST THING OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. The next morning we hosed down the carpet of the trunk and cleaned out the car hard hard core. But every time we get in the car, the smell is a reminder of our stupidity.
Funny story NUMBA 3! Hahaha I am just full of them this week. On Saturdays here in Missoula they have a giant Farmer's market and Craft market down town. So we thought we would give it a shot and see if we could talk to people. It was really cool and we met a lot of really interesting people. But the most interesting of them all was the man we met as we were leaving. There were a group of people walking around asking everyone to sign a petition. So this man with long dreads approaches us and asks us if we want to sign this petition. This guy is so animated and keeps calling me Sister Mo-line over and over. THe petition had something to do with stopping bear traps....son, you are in Montana, that is never going to go down. But we tell him we can't because we aren't from Montana and that we are here as missionaries. The guy stops then says to us, " I leave my blessing with you my Sisters in Jesus, I leave you my blessing of Holy love, Holy blessings, Holy joy, Holy peace, Holy healing. Believe in my words and touch everyone you see and if you act within the next 24 hours you will heal 1 million of God's Holy children." I LOVE THAT MAN SO MUCHHHHHHHH!!!!! I just laughed as he said all of that. I tried not to, but I couldn't help it. Oh man. It was hilarious. I LOVE MISSOULA! So many wonderful people here.
Now as far as the work this week. We had some awesome experiences. First, Herdeep. We tracted into an Indian family, from India the other week. She let us in and we had the most pleasant conversation about God. It was wonderful. She radiated happiness and light. We asked her what her religious background is and she is Sikhism. I had never heard of it before so we asked about it and it sounds very open spiritually. She talked a lot about how they believe that all religions come from God and that if it is good it is of God. I asked her about Jesus Christ, and she said, "I do not know much about Jesus Christ, but I know taht he has changed many of my friends lives, so I love Him. I love Jesus Christ for what he has done for my friends." I kept thinking, what if everyone was more like that. Understanding and loving of other people. She did not know about Jesus Christ, but yet she loved Him because she knew the happiness it brought into the lives of those around her. Before we left she invited us to have evening prayers with their family. SO COOL! THey have a prayer room in their home that is full of pillows and paintings of God and all these beautiful ornate things. We had to cover our hair with a cloth and they read from a scriptural book in their native language. IT WAS THE COOLEST THING OF MY LIFE. She told us the interpretation of it and then invited us to pray with them. So we knelt down in prayer and prayed for them and their family. It was really interesting. She accepted a BOM and set up a time for us to go back and read it with her. I LOVE HER. It was so cool.
We also found another lady tracting and had an awesome lesson with her this week. She was pretty skeptical of the Book of Mormon, and she actually read quite a bit from it. And she noticed that in her home she had two paintings of Christ by Mormon Artists. By the end of our meeting she said she was very intrigued that she felt such a pull and a love of these two paintings by Mormon artists, and then we showed up. Cool huh? We have high hopes for her.
Dad, you asked about James.....James oh James. He called us the other day and we went over there and he has a new girlfriend.....I am pretty sure his divorce is not even finalized yet. And teh girl he is dating was his fiance before he married Gracie. Oh the drama. He told us that he was talking to his new girlfriend and that they decided he should go to her churhc. I have come to the conclusion that satan works through woman. It is out of control. His girlfriend was there with him and we basically just said that all we want to do is help their relationship with God increase and grow and we still want to have our scripture study meetings each week. She seemed cool with it so we are actually going over there tonight. We are hoping we can get her interested in the gospel and reading from the Book of Mormon. So we shall see. James is killing me! But it will work out.
We also found 2 new potential investigators this week! Cross your fingers!
Sister Ward was my Sister Training Leader when I first came out and she is going home at the end of this transfer. :( She gave her departing testimony at MLC and I cried like a baby. I don't know her very well but that Sister made such an impact on me as a missionary and as a person. She showed me that it was okay to have fun on a mission, that the mission is the good life. The more she said that the more I understood that this gospel really is the good life. There is no where else I would rather be than right here right now. I cannot believe I hit 9 months on Wednesday and that my time out here is half way over. It makes me sad to think that this does have a time limit on it and that one day it will all be over and I will be going home. I hope by that time I will be pleased with the person I have become and like dad says, I won't die with the music still inside of me. I love this work. I love this gospel. It is the good life.
Dad, I am praying for you and your job. I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love and support! You are the BESTTTT
Love ya,
Sister Montana Moline
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