Sister Jessica Anderson: Christmas in Wyoming :)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Christmas in Sheridan was pretty great! :)

On Christmas Eve we went Christmas caroling with some of the elders in our district! That was fun! Most of the people let us sing to them. Some just closed the door, but it was fun when they would not close the door on us! :) Christmas day was so great! I loved getting to see my family and talk with them for a while :) Then we had a dinner, then 1/2 of a dinner because we had to leave to our other dinner and then to some pie! Oh my goodness I am still full from all of that food and our fridge is full of leftovers, so we are set! haha It was great and so much fun to see how other families spent their Christmas. At first I did miss the usual big family get together for Dad’s birthday and everything, but it really helped me to focus more on the Savior and the wonderful people here in this area. I love them all so much and it was fun to spend it with them :)

This week is going to be crazy. Tomorrow we will take off for Cody and do some exchanges with the sisters there, then on to Worland for some more exchanges. We’ll then be back in our area for a day and a half, then Sister Peterson will get all packed up and we will take off for Billings and she will go home on Saturday :( I am going to miss her so much! I have learned so much from her and we have become super good friends. She is an amazing missionary! Once she takes off I will be in a trio somewhere...maybe in Billings? not sure.. We don’t get transfer calls until Sunday, but I am 99.7% sure that I will be staying in Sheridan, so that’s good! We will just have to wait and see who my new companion is.

I know I talk a lot about mormon messages, but there are so many great ones and they are so inspired! There is one called, New Year's: Look not behind thee, and they ask random people about New Years and the story of Lot and his wife. Remember that story? When Lot and his family are told by God to leave the city and of course it was hard, but they listened to the Lord and left. One thing the Lord told them was, "look not behind thee". But for whatever reason Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. As we make our New Year resolutions or goals for the coming year we should look not behind us and live for the future! We have a Savior and He has already given us everything that we need to move on, to start fresh. We can choose to look forward and know that God has a plan for each of us and we can trust that His plan is a lot better than our own. This year we can prayerfully go about making new goals that will bring us closer to Christ. Whether it is to finish the Book of Mormon, bear our testimonies more, pray every day, or read the ensign cover to cover every month. There are so many ways that we can come closer to Christ and more become the person that our Heavenly Father knows that we can be.

Sorry this email is so short! I love you all and I hope that you will have a Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Anderson