Wyoming Wyoming!!

Hey Everyone!

This week happened SO fast. I don't even remember what happened, but I'll try! So first off...I think I said this last week....but oh my goodness I love this place SO MUCH! Every time we meet a member they are always so happy to meet us and help us with anything we need! This week Sister Peterson has been pretty sick and the ward was so nice about it and wanted to help so much. Also every else around town is so nice too! I love it!

On Monday last week as we were walking down Main Street- oh! Main Street is so cute! It's all old and westerny and I love it! Anyways, so we were walking down main street and a car honked and waved at us. We didn't think much of it and just waved back, you know, just another awesome member. Then we walked into a store and a couple minutes later those members came walking into the store just to say hi to us! Aw I love this place. Then that night we had an awesome lesson with a part member family and the husband (D) committed to be baptized! After that lesson we really felt like those members that came into the store would be good to bring to the next lesson with D. So we did and it was so perfect! If they wouldn't have come into that store to say hi to us we never would have met them before that next lesson to bring them with us! So cool. And D is awesome! He asks a BUNCH of questions and I love it!

The other day we were going to contact one of our investigators and as we pulled up we saw him outside with his dog so we were thinking, "oh perfect!". Then we got out of our truck and started walking towards his house and he looks up at us, makes a really scared face, gets his dog, and runs inside! Hahaha it was funny.

Yesterday at church it was a missionaries homecoming so there was a bunch of visitors and Sister Peterson and I were asked to speak also. I ended up talking about the light of Christ. I don't know why, but I was SO nervous! No worries though, it went fine. When I got up they asked us to introduce ourselves a bit so, you know, I said I was from Salem Utah and I don't know why but I get so many comments on Salem when people hear I am from there. After sacrament while I was still on the stand, like 3 people, 2 of them I don't think were even in our ward, came up and started telling me about where they were from and how they know Salem haha it was funny. Then afterwards we were invited over for lunch at the return missionaries house and there was a bunch of family there.  While Sister Peterson and I were eating, this funny relative of the missionary came over and started asking me all about Salem and then he says, "have you ever jumped off the bridge into the pond?" And I said, "no" then he started going crazy! Hahaha Now the whole house was just listening to this conversation and he was saying things like, "what?! How have you lived in Salem all of your life and never jumped off the bridge?! When you go home that needs to be on your bucket list! Do it! Have some fun! Live a little!!" And on and on! Hahaha I told him I would. I didn't think he was ever going to stop! He was a funny guy.

Not too much happened this week that I can remember. Like I said earlier, Sister Peterson hasn't been feeling very good lately, so we've been kinda taking it easy for her. She is such a trooper and still wants to work so hard! Keep her in your prayers :) This next week is going to be crazy though! Tomorrow we are waking up super early to head out to Worland for a mission leadership training, which is kinda like zone conference but the mission president and his wife are there, and it is a couple of zones put together. Then on Friday we have a mission leadership council and everyone says those are so fun! So I'm excited. It's when the leaders of the mission get together and talk about the needs of the mission, so I'm excited to be a part of that! That is all the way up in Helena. So on Thursday at about 6pm we are going to leave for Billings to stay the night there. Then at dark thirty in the morning around 3am we are going to leave for Helena! Then come back and probably stay the night in Billings again, then be back in Sheridan on Saturday, which is Halloween! We aren't allowed to be out past 6 on Halloween night unless we are with members or have a lesson, so we will see what happens. But it's going to be a good week! :) Sorry if this email is kinda boring.

Oh! Last night it was about 8:30 and we decided to go to a member's home, so we went to the Shreeves and oh my goodness they are just the sweetest and cutest little old people! I just love them! We sang How great thou art to them and the cute old husband sang with us! Aw Sister Peterson and I just felt so much love from them! It was much needed after a long day :)

This week for ponderizing I've picked Alma 34:32! And I love love that scripture! Especially I loved the talk given in conference by Sister Linda S. Reeves in the general women's session when she says, "Understandably, many have expressed that our Father’s promised blessings are just “way too far away,” particularly when our lives are

overflowing with challenges. But Amulek taught that “this life is the time … to prepare to meet God.” It is not the time to receive all of our blessings." I love that! Sometimes we just want all the blessings right NOW when we feel we are doing all we can, but really that is not the purpose of this life :)

I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers!  I hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Jessica playing some tunes in the Rachester Branch Chapel

Opps!  Got the names wrong in the program

Apartment lamp

With district leader, also from Salem

Pheasant back for weekly visit to the church

Turkeys at the church

With Sisters Harris & Pearson from MTC

Part of Moms Halloween care package

Pretty river in Ranchester

Dog thingy in someones yard =)

I LOVE WYOMING!!

I love this place SO much!

So I realized that I didn't tell you all where I was going in Wyoming! Oops my bad! On Wednesday I was in the car pretty much from 8 in the morning to 8 at night.  Oh and we have a truck and I get to drive it! Our members think it's kinda funny that the sisters have a truck, but I think it's great! So I am in Sheridan! We cover Sheridan 1st ward and a branch out in Ranchester/Dayton. This area hasn't had sisters in it for about a year so everyone is so happy to have sisters now! It's awesome! The apartment wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Until we started cleaning it this morning...yeah gross. But now it's nice! And we bought some air freshener things, so that'll be good! Haha

Our area book has very little in it, so we are basically starting over, but seriously this area is awesome! Everyone is SO nice and there is just a special spirit about this place :) We have already seen so many miracles! One of the miracles was yesterday as we were in Ranchester trying to find one of our recent converts. We first went to the house that we thought they lived at, then those people lead us to the house that they thought they lived. So we went there and actually ended up finding a less active! Then when we asked her if she knew where the recent convert lived and she led us around the corner and there was two women in their garage and we got talking with them and they actually knew where the recent convert lived! They told us the street and that it was a yellow house. So we went to that street and to the first yellow house we saw and ended up meeting this awesome guy and shared the first vision with him and the spirit was so strong as we did! God truly led us to his house through the many people that we met. We also asked him if he knew where the recent convert lived and he lead us to one of our members home, and they knew where the recent convert lived! It was a bit funny how it all worked out. It ended up being the other yellow house on the street. "Somehow" we didn't see it. God works in mysterious ways and I love it! Being a missionary is such a blessing! I love having a front row seat in watching the many miracles happen.

Also yesterday we went to church at the Ranchester branch it is SO tiny! The steeple isn't even on the building, it's like a huge thing that just comes out of the ground next to the little church. The chapel is probably the size of a normal relief society room and then after sacrament they pull a curtain and half becomes the relief society and the other half is priesthood. So small. But I love it! The whole branch is just like one big family :) Oh and in sacrament the announcer guy says"and we would like to notice our new sister missionaries! Sister Anderson and Sister Peterson. One is from Salt Lake and the other from Salem! Yes, some of us do know where Salem is." Hahaha they are some funny people. After church the branch president invited us over to his house for dinner and it turned out to be a whole big family get together! It was Canadian thanksgiving! You'll have to tell Aunt Michelle :) SO yummy!

The other day we went to meet one of our investigators and her son was outside and we started talking to him and his mom and then he came up to Sister Peterson and grabbed her hand and took her over to show her the pumpkin that he made! It was the cutest thing ever and his mom said that it was super rare for him to do that because he has autism and doesn't do physical contact. So cute! :) Oh and also we get lost like 75% of the time! Haha but that's okay! They don't have a grid here... The bishop said that the roads basically follow cow trails haha, but we get to talk to a bunch of people to ask for directions! So that's fun! We almost hit an antelope the other day and we almost hit a deer a couple three days ago too. We also saw an owl! While we were having companion study today we looked out the window and there was a pheasant!

On a spiritual note though we met with bishop Anderson the other night and shared a little message with him, but I'm pretty sure we got way more out of it than he did! We got talking about faith and he told us about a story when one of the Apostles just wanted an answer to something, but he wasn't getting it, so he went and talked with President Hinckley and he said, "you know what the problem with you is? You need to learn to take a step in the dark. You only want to see the light!" And I loved that! I felt like he was saying that right to me. I am like that way too often! Sometimes it is hard to take a step in the dark, but as we TRUST God and take that step...THEN we can see the LIGHT! The bishop also asked us to give a talk in sacrament next week on what we thought was the main idea of this last conference. I thought that was a super interesting topic! Because conference is like the scriptures kinda, you know? We all hear or read the same thing, but we all get something so different out of it! What I felt that the main idea was, was to trust in God. So that is what I'll be speaking about :) for ponderizing this week I'm doing is DC 68:6. I don't remember how, but I came across that scripture this week and I love it! Welp that is all that I can think of to write! I love you all and thank you so much for all of your prayers! :)

Love,

Sister Anderson

Jacobs really jealous =)

Time for a flu shot =(

All before leaving Great Falls (pictures above)

Good bye Sister Wong

Hello Sister Peterson!

Super heroes!

Hello Wyoming!

Sister Peterson in the rear view camera =)

The tiny church

Rooster pheasant in church parking lot

The owl (on the fence post in center)

Um...News! Wyoming Here I Come!!

So this week has been awesome! 

Every week is awesome really. Well I'll start with transfer news! So yesterday, you know, Sister Wong and I were just having companion study and then our phone started ringing.  So we looked at it and it was the president! So of course we freak out a little bit and then I answered and he said "hello Sister Anderson, how are you doing?" We talked for a second and he said "I'm calling about transfer information" (on the inside I was freaking out because since when does he call about transfer news?!) Then he said "I would like to assign you to be one of the first Sister training leaders in Wyoming" .....ah..... So yeah I don't really remember the rest of that call because I was in shock! I've only been out here for 4 months! How am I supposed to be a Sister training leader?! If you're like I was before my and mission and you don't know what a Sister training leader is.. They are basically a zone leader kinda? But over a bunch of zones and only for Sisters.  If that makes sense? Like, I will go on exchanges with all of the Sisters and stuff, over all of Wyoming! Goodness this is going to be a major learning experience this transfer that's for sure! Sister Wong is staying here in Great Falls and is going to be training a new missionary! I am going to miss Great Falls SO much. I LOVE it here! It's like home :) and the ward is like family! But I am really excited to go to Wyoming :) My new companion is going to be Sister Peterson I've met her before for like 6 seconds and she was super nice! So I'm excited! It's going to take two days to get there. I leave on Wednesday for Helena, then to Billings. I will stay the night there and then to Wyoming! I think...haha it'll be good.

I don't have very much time to write, but this week was so great! Yesterday at church I was walking down the aisle out of the chapel and out of the corner of my eye I saw W! And I said "hey!" I think I startled him a bit haha but then he asked me to introduce him to the bishop! Ah! It was so awesome.

We met a bunch of cat people this week! People either have a few dogs or a BUNCH of cats. Like 10. In their house! Oh! And we were tracting the other day and the cutest little boy and his brother asked us if we were going to their house, so we were like yeah! Sure! Haha and his mom turned out to be deaf and I used my very limited ASL and her little boy would translate for us and it was awesome! The gospel is awesome!

Ponderizing for this week is Psalms 46:10. Be still and know that I am God... Oh man I am going to be ponderizing that one SO much this next week!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Off to work we go!

Conference Was So Good! So Good!!

I think my favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's. He is awesome and said everything that I needed to hear! The gospel is so simple! :) I love it!

It snowed on Saturday! I loved it! It was so cold though. Sister Wong was so funny. Haha she was SO cold and so funny about things that she didn't know about cold winter weather. You would think people would have more sympathy for us and let us in their houses, but no. One guy goes, "what are you doing out in this weather?!" And we laughed and talked for like two seconds and he says, "yeah, not interested" and slammed the door! Hahaha people.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators and he has been meeting with missionaries for more than a year and is so solid and is just like a member! He's like an active non-member. He is living with one of our recent converts though and they won't get married, so he can't get baptized! We brought 2 members with us, the husband use to be the bishop and he's awesome. During the lesson he just laid down the line and basically told them that they need to be married tomorrow and baptized the next day. It was great. It didn't happen. But we are meeting with him today, so we will see how he's doing and what the wedding plans are! ;)

I don't have too much time to write, but it has been a great week! We met a guy that use to be Elder Oaks's executive secretary or something like that! He isn't a member and Elder Oaks use to always invite him over to his house to have dinner with the missionaries and stuff! He is a pastor for a church somewhere and basically told us that we worship the wrong people and will be destroyed one day.... but he was really nice! :)

Oh and I loved the ponderize talk! So good. Sister Wong and I are going to ponderize each week together! Haha this week we are doing Helaman 5:47. It's a good one! Oh and we met with the P family and we got them back on date! And G and another person, M are on date now too! We are so excited for them! :)

I hope you all have a great week! Next week is transfers.... I hope sister Wong and I stay!!

I love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Anderson

All bundled up for tracting =)

The snow broke a tree limb

Beautiful fall scenery

Jessica's smile after a visit to the dentist =)

Cute little Montana gift shop

Watching general conference at the Allen's house

Making spoon rings at brother Bailey's shop

Our spoon rings

Dairy Queen P-Day

The pink palace (no longer pink) and SNOW!

A members pet iguana

Best district ever!