The Montana Missionary Life

Hi friends and family!

This week I do believe that I walked and biked through 28 or more spider webs. It's fine, I love spiders and their webs! Yeah no. I don't know what was happening or maybe there was a spider on me and it kept making webs on me? Eh! But it's been a pretty good week! Not my favorite week, but that's okay! :) We had quite a few appointments fall through throughout the week, then on Sunday we had no scheduled appointments at all, but we set a goal to have 3 and by the end of the day we ended up having 6! That was a much needed day! :)

They painted our house! :( It's no longer pink, It's brown. It actually looks a lot nicer but now we can't call it the pink palace! Haha

For a couple of days last week we didn't have our car, so we biked everywhere and oh my goodness I didn't even realize how hilly or area is! By the end of the day we were SO exhausted. I’m use to being spiritually exhausted you know? But not physically too! Haha so I am extra grateful to have a car now, but I love biking too! Oh so the other day we were going to contact this investigator and it was probably about 8:50 at night, but she had a bunch of lights on, so we knocked...waited a bit...then we saw her hall light turn off...then her living room light turn off...then she knocked back to us! Hahaha We didn't know what to do! What are you suppose to do when someone knocks back at you?! Haha then she started looking at us through the blinds and we just waved at her. She says, "who is it?" And we told her "the sister missionaries!" :) then she opened the door haha it was so funny.  I still don't see what the point of knocking back was haha

We met with W this week and turns out he just got married on Tuesday! Haha yeah we don't know where that one came from! We had an awesome lesson with him and we asked him what his next step was and he said to take the sacrament and meet with the bishop! Ah we are so excited for him! Oh! And after the closing prayer he was just sitting there and he says, "I just realized I have a testimony. Thank you for that." Ah! Even our super pregnant member that comes with us wanted to do a couple back flips after that one. He's great. On Saturday we were out contacting a less active and a former investigator that lived across the street from them and I have been trying his house since forever and he has NEVER been home, but when we got in our car about to leave, someone came walking out of the house! So we hurried and got out and it was him! So we got an appointment made and all that jazz and invited him the potluck that was later that day and it was awesome! His name is G.

The general women's broadcast was AMAZING! I love love loved it! B came and she loved it too! We still don't know if she is a member. I don't know why it is taking so long! But before the potluck we had another potluck with the other sister Ward and it was so fun! At first we thought none of our investigators were going be able to make it, so that was a bit of a bummer, but then I saw sister Wong talking to someone and I had no idea who it was (I didn't recognize him), but it was G! Aw it was awesome.  I am so excited for general conference! It's like Christmas and the woman's broadcast was Christmas Eve! :) Good stuff good stuff!

I have been studying about Christ I have really come to know and feel of the love that He has for each of us. I have felt His love for me now in my life more than I ever have before! I know that he lives. There is such a comfort that comes from knowing that! As we accept the atonement in our lives we can feel His love for us more each day. I love this gospel SO much! I know it is true. Every time I bear testimony of it I just know it even more! In John 21:15-17 it talks about how if we love God then we should feed His sheep :) I know you all love God, so go be missionaries sharing your testimony, and feed His sheep! :) It's been a great week! :)

You're all so great! I love you all to pieces!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Out on the bikes for a beautiful sunset 

Brother Bakly photo bombing after the potluck dinner =)

After potluck with the other Sisters in the district

With the kiddies & another photo bomb =)

Emailing on P-day on the couches

The leafs are changing colors

Montana :)

Hello hello!

This week went by so fast! It's been a good one! I'll send the pictures of when we went to the cave! It was so fun! We got so muddy and I loved it! Today we took our car in to get fixed, so we will be on bikes for the next couple of days. So that will be fun! The weather here is so strange. One day it will be so cold we turn our heater on and the next day we will turn back on our AC. Its suppose to be warm these next couple of days so that will be good since we are on bikes! :) Everyone keeps warning us about the weather that’s coming haha especially since Sister Wong is from Hawaii.

This week the assistants were here. I don't know why but whenever they come and ask to meet with us I just feel like we are about to be called to repentance. But they are so nice and that never actually happens! Haha they are awesome though and we had a zone conference and it was so powerful! We talked all about the priesthood and how the mission is raising the bar. I don't know if I already mentioned this but President Wadsworth has changed the standard for how many baptisms that we should have a goal for each month. I don't remember if it was a scripture that he used or what, but it was about bringing many unto Christ and he said that many doesn't mean 1 or 2 or 3...but 4! It use to be 1 a month, but now it is 4. 4 baptisms a month per companionship! And we are super focused on member missionary work! We have been meeting with members and getting everybody pumped about missionary work! We can knock on 1,000 doors and get 1 baptism, but of member referrals, as Elder Martino of the 70 said, 2/3 will be baptized. Members are SO KEY. We all know someone who doesn't have the gospel in their lives, so share it with them! Invite them over with the missionaries for dinner or something! I don't why but I'm so pumped for all of the members to start doing missionary work. I know that through the members we can reach our goal of 4 baptisms a month.

This week we also had a lesson with a less active family and holy moly I've never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson before! This husband and wife have been taking care of two of their grandkids and one of them passed away a while back and that brought them back to church for a while and now they have slowly fallen away from the church again. We talked with them a while about faith and eventually they just started opening up and we talked about the plan of salvation and how they have a goal to go back to the temple! The wife was so worried and felt like she didn't have enough faith any more and we were able to testify and we could feel of God’s love for them so much and their grandson also. :) Aw! I just love them so much! I know that they will make it back to the temple :) This morning though, we got a text from them saying that his mom passed away, so keep them in their prayers. They were at church yesterday! And the P family was too! And B! sister Wong and I were SO happy!! The P families daughter has 5 little boys and they all came too! They were running all over the place and it was kinda crazy, and our ward mission leader was trying to chase down one of the little boys hahaha it was kinda funny, but what can you do? At least they were there! :) We also sang "if the savior stood beside me" in sacrament meeting yesterday! It was so fun! I love being a missionary and people will just call you to do random things like that all the time! Haha one time we almost were going to sing at someone's funeral.

Anyways it's been an awesome week! I can't wait for this week with the women's general conference! And then general conference next week!! Good stuff. good stuff. Oh! And we are having a Ward Dutch oven/potluck thing this week and it's a contest and we are the judges of it! Haha another plus that comes from being a missionary! ;) I LOVE IT!

I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers :) Go be missionaries!

Love,Sister Anderson

Out in the Field...

Driving to the cave

Trail to the cave

All the caving missionaries and guides

She's going in!

They're all in the cave!

The Caving Sisters

Breakfast for dinner

Sunrise

Sunset

ALOHA!!

Aloha Friends and Family!

Sister Wong says that whenever people give talks and stuff at church they say aloha and the whole congregation says it back! I'm going to Hawaii. For reals. It's been an interesting week! On Monday we met this lady and she is so sweet! She is going to be baptized next month :) We were meeting with this less active and talking about the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong! Then her daughter came in and I asked her how she was doing...(yeah I shouldn't have) the spirit left SO fast. Turns out she just beat up a woman! She went on and on swearing up a storm about how some woman got mad at her for leaving her dog in the car for more than 20 minutes and I guess the woman pushed her a bit or something so then she grabbed her head and banged it against the hood of the car! And then she just left her on the ground!! Then she asked what I would have done in that situation...hahahaha I don't even remember what I said.. I know I wouldn't have thrown her head on my car!

Oh and we met this cutest family and the kid wanted to get us a drink, haha he goes "you want some tea?" We said we don't drink that. "You want some coffee?" We said we don't drink that either. "Then what do you drink?!" Hahaha and we met with them the next day and had this other interesting lesson. So we are teaching the restoration right? We showed them a video and the son who is about 9 started crying and the spirit was so strong! And I was just so excited! Then the children went wild! The 9 year old kept leaving to "release some gas" and the other children were just laughing their heads off and the mom was like one of the children just laughing and wrestling down her children.  Sister Wong and I were just trying to smile and do anything to bring the spirit back and their attention! We were exhausted after that lesson! Haha We also have this other investigator, B, and she is awesome! We are trying to figure out if she is a member or not haha cause she doesn't know.. She has had an interesting past, but she is on meds now so she is thinking straight and stuff and she is pretty sure that she was excommunicated? So yeah I'll keep you posted on that one but she is just so cute! The other day she said she wanted to make a t-shirt and advertise for us! Hahaha she's a keeper.

Ah! And there are squirrels everywhere! So squirrels usually run away from you right? Well we saw this one the other day and it was coming after us! I didn't even know what to do! Oh and also there was a dog and he was going to eat us the other day! But luckily the owner came out.

We just barely got back from caving! It was SO fun! I'll try to send some pictures. Probably next week I will be able to send them, but we were crawling around in this cave and there were crystals everywhere! So fun. But then right at the end brother Bailey saw a cougar! One of our elders has a limp and brother Bailey told him to take off while they watched the cougar. Cool stuff! Haha we are all safe! No worries :) It's been a good week. I've really noticed how blessed that I have been to have grown up in the gospel surrounded by awesome family and friends. :)  

Sorry this letter is all over the place. I love you all! :)  

Love, Sister Anderson

Montana Missionary

Hi family and friends!

This has been a super weird week..... But still a pretty good one! So on Wednesday Sister Moyer and I drove up to Helena and she took off for the woods with her companion, then I picked up Sister Siefenua (she's from Salem too!) and we went back to Great Falls! Then she got with her companion, Sister Adair and me and sister Hodgson were just left alone. She is training a new missionary too! But she thought that we were going to be in my area all day and I thought that we were going to be in her area all day...so... I had already canceled all of my appointments that we're going to happen and so did she because that's what we were told? So...yeah! We're went around finding people and then did some tracting for a while and holy moly I have never had so many doors closed in my face and people that just did not want to listen to anything that we had to say. Towards the end we finally got talking with this one lady and she was super nice and invited us into her pretty back yard. :) So that was a good end to the long day!

The next day we were suppose to get our new companions at about 2ish so we went and did some service and chopped up some trees and went to a senior home for a while! That was interesting....haha Lots of dentures and lots of Yahtzee being played. Our new companions didn't end up getting here till about 4 because one of their tires blew out on the way and then they ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere! But then I got my new companion! Her name is Sister Wong! When I first heard her name I was thinking..oh no, what if she doesn't know any English! But no worries! She speaks English! Haha She is from Honolulu Hawaii and is the sweetest person you'll ever meet! I just love her so much! After dinner we went to meet everyone at the church because we all had a meeting 45 minutes away with the stake president. So we headed out and all of the sudden the elders car broke down on them so we had to stop at this place for a while and everything was just going wrong and we just were not suppose to go to that meeting for some reason. So we went back to our area and met with one of the daughters from the P family :) We had a great lesson with her and who knows? Maybe that is why all of the cars kept breaking down today? But as far as the P family goes satan is working super hard on this family. We are doing everything we can to keep them pumped for the gospel, but little things keep happening and it is making it so hard for them to progress! Keep praying for them!

W is still doing awesome! He said he prayed on his knees 3 times this week! He's just awesome. In our lesson we asked him who God was to him and that was easy for him to answer.  Then we asked him who he was to God. He said he'd have to think about that one. And I did to! That's a question I hadn't really thought of for myself before. Who am I to God? I really like that question! :)

Welp Great Falls is still awesome! It has been super cold and rainy here lately. I don't know how I am going to survive the winter, but I like it! We are scared to turn on the heater because it will come from the vents and that is where that terrible smell is coming from! But yeah It even hailed super hard yesterday! It was Sister Wongs first time seeing hail!

I love you all! Love,

Sister Anderson

Out in the garden

Last picture with Sister Moyer

The goodbye district breakfast.  

Jessica dropped all the bacon! But they ate it anyway =)

Her new greenie Sister Wong!

All the Sisters she went out with (currently serving on her side of the mission)

The hail storm

The hail