6 Months Already?

This week has been great!

Thanksgiving was so much fun! I have never been so full I all my life and I loved it! We started off at breakfast with the Welch's and they had a bunch of baby children and it was kinda crazy and just like home! ;) We ate a bunch of waffles and yummy bacon :) Then we went and visited with sister Roush! Aw I love sister Roush. When we first got there she was asleep, but right when she opened her eyes and saw us she got so surprised and had the biggest smile on her face :) She makes you feel like you are the most important person in the world! I want to be like her someday. Then we went out to the Dayton and had a feast with the Riecharts! I looove them too! They have a crazy funny family. I wish I would have taken pictures with everyone. Then we went to- OH!! First we had a miracle! A few weeks ago one of our investigators, S, dropped us, but then we remembered that she does hair! So I got my haircut this week by her and we were able to slide in some gospel conversation and next day she texted us and invited us to come and have Thanksgiving dinner with her and her family! Ah it was so cool! God works in mysterious ways  :) We went to her house and had another yummy dinner. She had her parents and other relatives over and all of these people had never really gotten to talk much with missionaries before, so it was a really cool experience. After that we went back to Sheridan and had some pie with sister Holtry! She is so cute! She's probably around 80ish and we played some board games with her and she is so funny! Then we went to the Johnsons for some more pie! Then back out to Dayton for some more pie with Stanbery's! Hahaha it was so funny. One of the sons was trying to talk to his mom, but she was ignoring him because we were talking to her. This is how the conversation went: "hey, hey mom, can you pass the sour cream?" .....  "Mom?"..... - Travis "Hold on I'm having a conversation with someone" ..... -sister Stanbery "Can you pass the sour cream?" .... "Hey mom" ..... "The sour cream?" -Travis "Travis! I don't know where your Nintendo is!"   -sister Stanbery ....... the look on Travis's face was priceless hahaha he was so confused. It was a good thanksgiving! And we have been having leftovers ever since. It's great.

The next day was the Christmas stroll on Main Street! It was so fun! We wore probably every warm piece of clothing we owned haha Including our sweats underneath our skirts yes skirts with an S on the end. Plus we got some hand warmer things and we stayed pretty warm! We went with D's wife and saw a bunch of people we knew and that was fun.

A couple days ago we ate dinner with a family and we shared a message about missionary work and invited them to get 3 OYM's. An OYM is something that we use to do in our mission. It stands for Open Your Mouth. Anytime that we have an honest attempt to share the gospel with someone, so even if they slam the door in our face it still would count as an OYM. And the family accepted the challenge! Then at church this Sunday we noticed that the daughter of that family had brought a friend to church! Later the mom came up to us and said that her daughter had accepted our challenge and later that week her non-member friend asked her about missionary work and the church, so she invited him to church! And guess who gave talks on missionary work and the church this week in sacrament meeting? Sister Peterson and I that's who! It was so cool! God's got everything figured out. I love it :)

My ponderizing for this week is Mosiah 5:15. "Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you His, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of Him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen." I love this scripture! Steadfast and immovable! Christ, the Lord God omnipotent, may seal you His. Everlasting salvation and eternal life. God above all. The words are all put so beautifully. It gets me so pumped to get out there and let everyone know about this amazing gospel. One of my favorite scriptures :)

I love you all! Thank you thank you for all of your prayers and letters and everything that you send my way:)

Love,

Sister Anderson

PS. if you haven't seen the new Christmas Mormon message, A Savior is Born, you should! We have been waiting all month for that to come out haha SO GOOD. Our mission president's wife has asked that we invite our families and friends back at home to share it on Facebook and things! So I invite you all to do so :)

With sister Roush

Sister Judy & Maxwell

Maxwell

All bundled up for the Sheridan Christmas Stroll

With D's wife Christmas strolling

Their Christmas tree

These are all over Ranchester, this is one of the smaller ones we've seen

Out tracting in the snowyness

At Bishop Anderson's house

Love it!

Today's weather & temperature in Ranchester

Wyo Wyoming!

Guess what! Sister Peterson and I are staying here in Sheridan! No transfer news! Woo hoo! This week has been pretty good! We went on exchanges with the sisters in Worland which was quite a drive, but it was really pretty and snowy! And a great exchange! Sister Freeman came here to Sheridan with me and we were able to see many miracles! I love going on exchanges with all of the sisters because I learn so much from them! They are all such great missionaries and none of them got transferred either, so I still get to work so closely with them and we are even getting a couple of new ones! :)

For thanksgiving this week we are suppose to be in having dinners or serving people all day. As of right now we have 5 dinners planned. Starting at 8:30am for breakfast! I’m so excited. We are going to be SO FULL. A couple three other people have offered to feed us also, so we will see. Then the next day is what they call the Christmas stroll! They shut down Main Street and everybody comes and shops and they have a bunch of free hot chocolate, chili, hot dogs, and cookies! Which is good since the weather looks like it will be in the single digits. We are going with D's wife since he is working, so that will be fun!

Speaking of D, we are still meeting with him every week. He is still coming to church when he doesn't have work. As for becoming a member of the church, that isn't exactly on his radar, but he is slowly and surely coming to grasp the gospel more and more and I know he knows it's true. It will just take some time :)

Last night was cool! We went to visit with a less active and she kinda had some connections with both of my grandpas! She grew up in Germany, close to Frankfurt, and I told her about grandpa B serving around there, and ya know I tried to remember the things grandpa B taught me how to say in German. haha Then once she moved from Germany she moved to Star Valley Wyoming where grandpa A lived! She said she knew a lot of Anderson’s and she is 90 so they were around the same age! We are pretty good friends now that we have all of these connections. haha

A couple weeks back we were going to contact one of our former investigators and she wasn't home. But there was a guy out blowing the leaves and I really felt like God had placed him in our path for a reason. However I just kept walking and the feeling kept coming stronger and stronger! Then I told my companion, the guy seemed busy and the leaf blower was super loud, but we figured better safe than sorry, right? So we got talking with him and turns out he has actually met with missionaries in the past and we set up a time and met with him this last Monday and the lesson was great! We invited him to pray about Joseph Smith and the restoration and when we did he sat right up, set down his coffee, and started praying! He gave a beautiful childlike prayer and the Spirit was so strong. After he prayed he said, "I feel a warmth in my heart". I've never had someone get an answer to their prayer right in front of me like that before!  We were able to meet with him again this week and taught the plan of salvation and he again prayed right on the spot and got that same warm feeling as he did before. It was such an amazing experience and testimony builder for me that prayer really does work and everyone can turn to God to find answers to their prayers and He will answer them.

For ponderizing this week, since it's Thanksgiving and all, I'm doing D&C 59:7 "thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all thy doings". Short and sweet! Don't really have to do much memorizing with it, but just having gratitude in our hearts and minds throughout the week and really throughout our lives helps us through anything we are going through. "Count your many blessings name them one by one...and it will surprise you what the Lord has done" It's so true! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers :) Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Dirty truck from all the driving

With Sister Freeman

A composed district

Ok not so well composed now =)

First snow in Sheridan

Wild turkeys - Happy Thanksgiving!

Beautiful sunrise over Sheridan

Matching Sisters

When they show up early for district meetings they eat mandarin oranges

Tonights moon

Sheridan is Awesome!

First things first. This is the last week of the transfer… so we get transfer news on Sunday. This has been the fastest transfer EVER, so fast. I really really really really hope I stay here is Sheridan! I LOVE everything about this area SO much and I love being companions with Sister Peterson. She goes home after this next transfer, so I hope we get to stay together :) Being a sister training leader I kinda have some ideas of what will happen, but ah I really love this place. I trust that my mission president is led by God in the decisions that he makes and I will be put where the Lord needs me to be.

This week has been great. We were told about an awesome scripture in Phillipians 3:2 the first three words fit our tracting experiences everyday pretty well. ;) The other day we picked a street and more than half of the houses had gates around them with probably 3 dogs barking at us and they all had a beware of dog sign out!  Ah, I'm thinking about buying some doggie treats.

But as we tracted we were led to so many people who are ready for the gospel in their lives. Many many seeds have been planted in this area and now the field is white and all ready to harvest! Before we go tracting we always pray and ask exactly what street God would like us to be on and we always see miracles! On Tuesday we met this awesome lady “L”. Well first we met her kids as they were riding around outside, then as we went to the house there was a big pit bull inside the gate around their house. But luckily the mom saw us so she came out and we started talking. She said that she was making dinner and we asked if we could help and she said yes! Then as we went in turned out she didn't really need any help, but we got to know her kids a bit and she is super interested in the gospel! We are pretty sure that Spanish is their first language and the kids are starting to learn English. Sister Peterson speaks Spanish! it was awesome. We also found a few other new investigators this week! I REALLY REALLY am hoping that I don't get transferred. I LOVE these people SO much!

We also went on exchanges with the sisters in Gillette. I was with Sister Cutler, which was kinda funny because she was my sister training leader when I was in Great Falls and now I am hers! Haha She goes home this transfer :( She is such an amazing missionary. I love going on exchanges with her! When we go on exchanges one of us stays in our area and one of us goes to their area and it is usually just for one day and we spend the night here or there and then we switch back the next day. It was so fun! We saw SO many miracles. First thing when we got into town we stopped to get gas. It was a bit of a miracle we even made it to town. We were probably running on fumes. My bad. BUT it was good! Because if we would have gotten gas anywhere else then we would have missed out on a bunch of miracles! So when we get gas as missionaries we HAVE to get the receipt, but the machine thing outside wasn't working and it wouldn't give me my receipt, so we went inside. Turns out one of our members owns the gas station and we got talking with her for a bit and one of her employees isn't a member and we got talking with her too and hopefully we'll be going to lunch with her sometime soon! Then the member also told us about her less active son in town that is married to someone who use to be taking the discussions, but the mission boundaries changed and somehow we just lost her records. So missionaries have just never been back to see her. Then right after the gas station we went to where she said their house was and we didn't exactly know which one was their house, so we just tracked the whole street and we found them and a different new investigator too! Ah. It was so cool.

Thursday was kinda crazy. On Thursday we do weekly planning. Long story short the area book app that we use for literally everything had an update and little did we know that when we updated it, it would erase everything that we had put into it since the last time that we could sync. (When we sync it puts everything into the system so we both have all of the information) Unfortunately for us.. we had just finished weekly planning. So everything that we had just spent hours planning for the entire next week was GONE. Most missionaries were planning at the church and at the church it wouldn't let you download it. We went to a member’s house and picked up their wifi and we downloaded it there, not many people in the mission had been able to download it yet I guess. So we called up the assistants and they warned the rest of the mission about it. haha Then we did a speed round of weekly planning and tried to put in the things that we could remember. We are kinda super lost without our iPads, but I love them! So yeah! We figured out that we had about 7 hours of planning on that day...That's a lot of sitting..and planning.

On Sunday we had only one set appointment and it got canceled, so we had all day to find people and tract. We generally don't tract past 6 because it is already pitch dark by then and people aren't too happy when we knock on their door. They say they are going to sleep or putting their kids to sleep, but it's like 6:30! Who does that!? Anyways. So we will usually find less actives since they know who we are and they are nicer to us, and it was such a miracle! As we prayed to know who to see and where to be the spirit lead us exactly where to go! We went from having no lessons planned to having 8 lessons that night! Aw I love being a part of this work.

For ponderizing this week I'm doing Heleman 5:30. I love that scripture! Lately I have really noticed how quiet the Holy Ghost can be, and recognizing those promptings are so important! I'm excited to ponderize this one. :) Well I can't think of anything else that has happened this week. I love you all! Thanks again for all of your love and prayers :)

Love,

Sister Anderson

Happy Veterans Day!

Purple on purpose, with a recent convert

Looking out of their apartment, their truck is on the left

Exchanges with Sister Cutler

Dinner with the Bangerters

Photo bomb!  One of the Bangerters daughters

With a handful of "fuzzies"

Car Selfie!

The Weeks are going by Faster and Faster!

It's been a good week!

We did a couple of exchanges with some of the sisters in Lovell and Burlington, so that was fun! And the drive there was Soo pretty! No dog bites while tracting this week! So that's good, but I just have to act like I'm not terrified of dogs while I'm on exchanges with the sisters. haha We ate dinner with the cutest family last night and they have 3 little boys and they are all so funny! The oldest is 7 and in 2nd grade and I guess at dinner the other night he said to his parents, "to love yourself makes zero sense, but to love a woman… that makes a thousand sense!" Hahahaha so funny.

Soooooooo D. Yeah remember how I said we were going to teach him about the word of wisdom last time? Yeah well we did that...and...he freaked out. I don't know how to put it, but he does NOT like being told what to do. We brought a member with us and he was awesome! But it got to a point where D actually stood up and walked out of the room! Then his wife got him to come back, but he came back drinking a cup of coffee. Hahaha he's a funny guy. It was really sad to watch the wife though. She has been so excited for him to be baptized. We also met with him yesterday and it was a little better. We are meeting with him again tonight, so it should be good! :)

Our teaching pool is still really small here, so we are trying to build it up and get working with members more and tract more. Which I love! I love love love the members here and tracting is so fun! Most everyone is so nice at all of the doorsteps! They just don't want to know more about the gospel though. So that breaks my heart a bit, but we will find someone! We've got a couple of referrals that we are going to go to and they sound pretty awesome! :)

Oh here's a cool miracle for you! The other day we were about to start tracting on a street, and before we started we said a prayer. After the prayer we weren't really feeling like we should be on that street anymore. The letters P and E came to Sister Peterson’s mind. So we looked up a street with those letters and there was Parker street! So we went there and it felt right. So we tracked it out and nobody really wanted to talk with us.  Then we got to the last house (it's always the last house) and a lady came out and she was so sweet! We got talking with her and showed her the “He Lives” video and the Spirit was SO strong. The lady's eyes started filling up with tears as she too felt the Spirit. It was amazing to watch as she felt so much love, comfort, and peace from the Spirit.

We went over to the Riecharts yesterday to talk about our scripture that we have been ponderizing last week and we all talked about the different things/insights that we got out of it. Its cool to see how people get so many different things out of just one verse! This week we are going to be ponderizing 2 Nephi 2:11. It's a long one, but it's a good one! I haven't really started looking at it much yet, but I'm excited to get into it. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It's been a good week here in Wyoming! Thank you for all of your prayers :) I love you all!

Love,

Sister Anderson

46 days till Christmas!

On exchanges with Sister Clegg

Driving through Wyoming

Bucks just chillin in a yard in town

Sunrise from the apartment

Fire in the sky

The cutest little 7 year old boy

Ever tried a sour warhead?  =)

Travel Travel Travel and a Feisty Dog!

It's been a pretty eventful week!

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! :) We couldn't do much on Halloween, but we did go to our stake trunk-or-treat! It was so fun! Everyone was dressed up so cute! Even all of the parents! I didn't see this costume, but one of our members dressed up as the mom being ponder and the dad being memorize and all of the kids were ponderize! Hahaha so Mormon. So cute. Then once 6 came around we had to be in our apartment, so we did some planning and some face masks and things and went to bed early! It was so nice :) Then we woke up and realized it was daylight savings and we got a whole extra hour of sleep! Aw... God is good.

Oh my goodness....boy do I have a story for you! Hahaha it's a good one. So Sister Peterson and I were out tracting at this trailer park and for some of the trailers there is a fence around them and that usually means there is a dog inside. So we kinda shake the gate and make some noises and if there is a dog then usually the dog will come running out. So we went to this one trailer and it had a fence around it. We shook the fence a bit, opened it, and we didn't see or hear any dogs.  So we walked into the front yard and up the stairs to the deck where the front door was and knocked on the door. Then we heard some dogs start barking and I looked over and there was another door and this door had a doggie door on it! Then these three dogs came running out of it!! Oh my goodness I was so scared. My immediate reaction was to jump onto the railing of the deck while Sister Peterson's was to take off screaming and running to the gate, but when she had to stop at the gate to open it the dog bit her leg! Then she hurried out and got away. Meanwhile I am still on the railing up on the porch. The lady came out of her house hahaha she didn't even act like it was strange that I was standing on the railing of the porch. She just came out, grabbed her dogs and said, "I guess I need to get a bigger 'beware of dog' sign", and went inside. Then I booked it to the gate. Sister Peterson's bite wasn't too bad, but we called the mission medical lady and she said that we needed to go to urgent care and get it checked out. So we did and they just gave her a prescription thing just in case the dog had rabies or something. It was pretty eventful!

Then the other day it almost happened again! We were out tracting, shook the gate, no dogs, walked up to the door, knocked, heard some barking, saw another door, saw a doggie door, feared for our lives, I jumped onto a box thing, Sister Peterson took off running to the gate, but this time she made it! And this time the owners weren't home, so I was just stuck on this box with 3 dogs around it barking at me! I said a couple twenty prayers and then the scariest dog went inside! Then I got off the box and one of them didn't move, it just kept barking. The other one just barked at me and followed me to the gate! Woo! Prayer works everybody! And I have a newly found fear for dogs. Sister Peterson in the meantime was just taking pictures of me. haha

Like I mentioned last week we had a bunch of traveling and meetings this week and they were awesome! On Tuesday we drove to Worland and had a mission leadership training. On our way there I don't think I have ever seen so many dead animals on the side of the road.  Also.. on the way we went over a mountain pass and it was snowing up on the mountain and super foggy! I'll send some pictures. We stopped for a second and then when we tried to get going we couldn't! So luckily we have a truck and I put it into 4 wheel drive so we were fine :)  The meeting was amazing! The spirit is always so strong and I always learn SO much.

On Friday we were in Helena for the mission leadership council, that was awesome too! We had brother Hemmingway and another important brother there (sorry I didn't catch his name) one of them is the head of proselyting for the church and the other is the head of technology! They gave a lot of great council and as a council we changed quite a few of our missions rules and it was kinda crazy, but awesome! This mission is moving forward so quickly and I love being a part of it!

We were able to meet with D again this week! He is still awesome! The only hold back for him is the word of wisdom. We are going over that tonight with him. It should be good!! We were also able to meet with a less active, C, and we talked about the plan of salvation with her and as we did the spirit was SO strong. There were a lot of people all around us, but it was like it was just us in that room. The spirit was so warm and so THERE! As we left Sister Peterson and I just looked at each other and almost wanted to cry for some reason! We just felt so much love for her and knew that we were suppose to meet her :) Last night some members invited us over for some dessert and while we were there we decided that we would all ponderize together for this week! The scripture we chose is 1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." I love just taking these scriptures apart as I ponderize them. I've only just started to pick at this one, but I love that it says "walk" in the light. Not run,  jump, or leap. But to walk! Walking is slow pace and it takes time. We don't need to be moving so quickly! I for sure need to learn to "walk" more, rather than trying to run. I hope that makes sense.

All is well here in Wyoming! I'm pretty sure that every time we get in the car we just talk about how much we LOVE the people here! I've said that a lot in these last few emails, but ah! I just love these people! And I love all of you!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Jessica now scared of tiny dogs =)  Can you blame her?

Downtown Sheridan

The Shreeve's (cutest couple ever)

The openness of Wyoming

Traveling over a mountain pass

Wyoming Sister Training Missionaries

Wyoming Sisters with mission mom on right (president just said something funny)

Follow God trailer

At urgent care following Sis Peterson's dog bite

Making Cookies =)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Masks

Scary!