Sister Jessica Anderson: Hello Family! :)

This week has been crazy and so good!

Started off with another dark thirty morning drive heading off to Helena for MLC. MLC was awesome. It always is. I think the main idea that I got out of it was having the faith to receive and act on promptings that we receive from the Holy Ghost. Sometimes the promptings can be super strange and can put you way out of your comfort zone, but it will always work out! :) One elder told an experience of one time he felt prompted to stop a car that was driving down the street, random, but he did it! And those people in the car ended up getting baptized! On our way back to Billings we were in the transfer van with some other sisters and a bunch of elders and we all decided to sing Christmas songs and hymns on the way back! There is such an amazing spirit that comes from music.

Also this week we had a few different Christmas Parties! First our branch in Ranchester had one and it was at this cute cabin looking place and it was all decorated like Bethlehem inside and everyone dressed up like shepherds and wise men! It was so fun! They acted out the whole nativity scene and it's amazing how strong the spirit was as they did :) The next night our ward in Sheridan had their Christmas party and so many less actives came and D came too! The people here are just amazing and so genuine with their love and kindness towards us. The singles ward even made us some stockings with a bunch of presents inside them! Then yesterday the community put on a whole big free dinner thing at the holiday inn for everyone to come to, so we went with a bunch of members to that and then watched the Christmas devotional! The Christmas devotional was SO GOOD! I loved President Uchtdorfs talk on giving thanks and Elder Bednar was really good too. And everyone else! And the choir was amazing! Aw it was just all good. If you haven't watched it you should!

An update on K: he has disappeared. Nowhere to be found. But no worries! We will find him somehow somewhere sooner or later :)

Many miracles everyday! The other day we were told that we were giving discussions in zone training, which was in 2 days and we had zero time to prepare them, so we decided to pray and ask God if we should take time out of our proselyting, or if we would be able to continue working and still somehow be able to prepare our discussions. After we prayed we both felt like we should go tracting, so we went! At first no one was home at any of the houses, then we saw a car pull up to one of them, so we went there! This guy was awesome and said to come back in 20 minutes when his wife would be there! When we did they turned out not being super interested, BUT she had a lot of questions about the church that we were able to answer and testify of. She works with our ward mission leader Brother Johnson, so at work the next day she talked to brother Johnson about us and they got talking and he ended up showing her some Mormon messages! They are such a sweet family! Someday someday someday they will come to accept the truths of the gospel :) I know it! Also on that street we were able to meet a man who has a son that is a convert in the other ward. He doesn't know much about the church and we were able to tell him about Joseph Smith and the first vision! The spirit was so strong. I know he felt it! You could see it in his eyes! I think it may have scared him a bit though to feel the spirit because he wanted us to leave pretty quickly after that, but it was amazing to be so lead by the spirit to that street and to those people.

I love being a missionary! There is such a spirit and a happiness that comes as we help others to come into Christ. I was reading in Alma 26 today and came across verse 12 and I have heard this verse many times before, but for some reason it stood out to me a lot more today! "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in His strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise His name forever." I'm going to ponderize that one for this week :) There has been so many more things happening, but I don't have time to write it all :) I love you all!

Love,

Sister Anderson