9 Months Already?

I can't believe that I have been out for 9 months already. That's half of my mission! Luckily they have changed the MTC to being 3 weeks again, so that has pushed everyone's going home date back a week, so that gives me more time!! :) I still feel like the MTC was a week or two ago. It is going by WAY too fast. It just makes me want to work harder! I have learned so much, met many amazing people, and had so many great experiences. I can't wait to see what this next 9 months has in store!

This week has been so great! We went up to Helena on Tuesday for MLC and learned A TON. It was great. After MLC once we got back to Billings we had some stuff that we needed to do at the mission home and we were starving, so we ended up with the President and Sister Wadsworth for a while and ate some dinner! We sat for a bit and talked about miracles happening around the mission and it was amazing just to listen to them. I love them SO MUCH! They are such amazing people and the spirit is so strong in their home.

Something that really stood out to me from MLC was when we talked about the importance of getting our recent converts to the temple. That's what it is all about! I was thinking about the Dayton family the whole time. Did I mention they have a "Family is Forever" sign on their wall in their house already? I love this family to the moon and back! They are so great. This week as we met with them we again taught the plan of salvation. Then towards the end we brought up baptism again and talked about setting another date. The wife has felt a bit held back because she was wanting to wait until her entire family could be baptized together, but the husband starting talking and said, "ya know, since I've been taking these lessons I can see why you are wanting to be baptized. I am not as ready as you are, but I don't want to be holding you back if you are ready for this."  This meant a lot to her :) and now she is praying about a date she feels she could be ready for baptism.

We did exchanges with the sisters in Cody this week and we saw many many miracles! I wish that I had time to write about all of them. The Lord is just so aware of each of his children, rich, poor, young, old, healthy, sick (speaking of sick like everyone is sick around here) he cares about them and leads us to them everyday. I am constantly learning more about how I can better rely on the spirit and trust the Lord in all that I do. I LOVE D&C 100:4-8 especially 8. I know that I have that promise to rely on as I go forth in this work.

Also today President Wadsworth sent out an email about faith and asked this question, "What are you doing on a daily basis to strengthen your faith?" This is something that I have thought a lot about lately. We should constantly be exercising our faith and striving to come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. If we aren't...then what is happening to our faith? If faith is like "a little seed" then we should always be nourishing it and helping it to grow. We do this with scripture study, prayer, going to church and the temple, serving others around us, baring testimony...ect. Like it says in 2 Nephi 26:13, the Lord will work mighty miracles in your life according to your faith! :)

I love you all!

Love, Sister Anderson

On the way to MLC in Billings

Mission Leadership Committee of the MBM

Exchanges with the Cody Sisters Thacker & Timothy

Some fun with Pringles =)

Jessica drew a nice picture while they drove to Helena

Dead tired after their MLC travels

They drink a lot of milk and name it =)

Selfie!

Vacuuming the truck

Missionary Life in the MBM

Hey! That's weird that my emails didn't get to you last week... Oh well! I will send them again! This week has been kinda crazy and strange and so great! It was transfers and a lot of missionaries got transferred, so we had Sister Smith staying with us for a day until she got her new companion. That was fun to have her with us! Also this week we have done a lot of service. I wore pants for almost an entire day...It was so weird.

We taught the whole Dayton family!! Aw it was so great. We have only been teaching the mom and a couple of the kids in past weeks, but this week all 5 of them sat in on the lesson. We again taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong testifying of the truthfulness of the message. The mom and two of the kids came to church yesterday too!

We had a pretty interesting lesson this week. First here's the back story. Last week Sister Bell and Sister Huerta were out in Ranchester visiting some people and they really felt like they needed to tract out this one street, so they did and there was only one man home on the whole street. They talked with him for a bit and set up a time to come back. Didn't think much of it until later last week when he called and asked, "why did you come to my door that day?" we told him, and turns out he is a member of the church and has basically just been waiting for someone to help him to get back on the right path! We were pretty pumped about it. Then it was an interesting lesson because of the kids. haha He has a 3 year old that is the size of a 5 year old, then our member brought her 8 year old kid. Both kids have some disabilities. Half way through the lesson the 3 year old went to close the front door, (it is a miracle it had been open the whole time) but then the 8 year old started crying because he was afraid and then the other kid went crazy and then the door got closed some more and it got crazier. Then the dad went to grab something so we said a quick prayer together and the spirit came so quick and everything was good after that! :)

Sister Bell and I are SO excited for this transfer!! Starting it off with a 12 hour round trip to Helena at 4am tomorrow morning for MLC!! It's always a good time.

This week a scripture that has been on my mind a lot has been Alma 17:3 "...they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." I have "experimented upon" this verse and I know it is true! We have done a lot of fasting and prayer and we are seeing many, many miracles because of it! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church with the fullness of the gospel on the earth today. The atonement is real. It brings me so much happiness to know that I can repent and become better and happier everyday. I want everyone to know this! There are so many people that don't know of this happiness. Everyone needs the gospel! :) I love being a missionary! It is the best decision I've ever made.

I love you all! Love, Sister Anderson

Wrinkle Boy - he sheds a lot!

A good day

Valentines Day

Pictures from last week

Love love Main Street Sheridan

Sister Bell got accepted to BYU!

Nice buck

Maxwell the dog

One of our members made this cool cloud thing.  It changes colors!

Transfer News! Valentine's Day! President's Day!

Transfer News! Sister Bell and I are being sent to.... The Alaska Anchorage Mission to be the new assistants! Just kidding, we are staying in Sheridan! I LOVE Sheridan!! So after this transfer I will have been here for 6 months! That's half a year! And 1/3 of my mission! Crazy. I wouldn't mind serving here for the rest of my mission.

This week has been SO good. We did have one of our investigators on date drop us. That was sad. Sometimes we wonder what more we could have done for him, but we can only do so much and it is up to them whether or not they will accept it and let it change them.

We also did exchanges with the Burlington sisters this week. I was with Sister Dayes! She is also from Arizona and she's awesome.  We had a great lesson with Sierra. Keep her in your prayers. We did a whole bunch of tracting and met quite a few people that weren't super happy to see us :) but it was nice weather! So that was good.

This last transfer has been so great! I wish I could just tell you all about all of the miracles that have been happening everyday. It's been incredible!

We are still working with Brandy! Brandy is the mother of a family of 3 children. We have been seeing lots of miracles with her. Lots! This week her husband should be joining in on the lessons, so everyone pray for Brandy, her husband Danny, and her kids Cindy, Waylan, and Devin, that they will be able to progress and be baptized this transfer. we are so excited for them!

We also met this guy named Donte and he is so funny and awesome and he came to church yesterday! We gave him the Book of Mormon last Saturday and he is already almost done with Alma!

This week I have really been able to see that God is SO aware of each of his children. He wants all of us to be happy and return to live with Him! He's given us the Book of Mormon, prophet's, commandments, prayer and so much more just to bless us and help us to be happy! :) We went to 3 sacrament meetings yesterday and in all of them we learned a bit about the plan of salvation.    There's a quote that I really like from President Henry B. Eyring that said, "Heavenly Father has made each of us unique. No two of us have exactly the same experiences. No two families are alike. … Yet a loving Heavenly Father has set the same path to happiness for all of His children. Whatever our personal characteristics or whatever will be our experiences, there is but one plan of happiness. That plan is to follow all the commandments of God.” It's so true!

Missionary work is great! Sheridan is great! Life is great! The work is great! You all are great!

I love you all! Love, Sister Anderson

Exchanges with Sisters Huerta & Dayes

The last District meeting

Valentines Day care package from home

Jacob's Valentines present that he made

Teaching a Moose

Enchilada stacks for dinner.  So good!!

We were starving at the church, the elders brought us food. Was actually really good!

Sheridan!

Really warm day =)

Funny sign =)

Out in a rain & wind storm

Donte has a dog named "winkle boy" and he sheds a lot!

Super Bowl & Trains

This week has been great! We still have been seeing so many miracles. We did exchanges with the Worland sisters. I was with Sister Parsons! She is a great missionary. I always learn so much from the sisters.

Something kinda funny. We are suppose to be home by 9 or 9:30 at the latest. But last night we got home at 10:15. All because of a train! We were headed home for the night and there was a train between us and our apartment. It was soooooo long. SO the train went for a minute or so and still didn't reach the end. Then it slowed down and stopped. And it went the other direction. And then it stopped again. And went to other direction. We waited in front of this train for a solid 40 minutes! We thought we were going to have to sleep in our truck, but we called Brother Johnson (our ward mission leader) who told us there was a way around the train. It was pretty funny. I would try to relate it to the gospel but I don't have time, so there's your homework!

One of my favorite miracles from this week would probably be when we were teaching one of our investigators, Ryan. He has been doing so awesome and keeping every commitment. We did know that he had a word of wisdom problem though. This week we taught him the word of wisdom and at the beginning of the lesson he just said, "good luck ever getting me to live the word of wisdom!" But as we taught we really trusted and listened to the spirit. We asked him if he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he said he didn't doubt it. Then we asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon was true. He thought about it for a while, debated back and forth with himself, and came to the conclusion that he did know that the Book of Mormon was true. We then explained that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, then going onto the fact that he received revelation from God - the word of wisdom. He understood it all very well! Then at the end he said that he will try to live the word of wisdom! He also said that today he had his last cigarette! It was amazing to see him have a change of heart as he felt the spirit in that lesson. I know that we can do nothing without the spirit and I am learning more and more everyday how I can better rely on it and trust God as I go forth. I think that this is the thing that I have been learning the most on my mission so far. To trust God.

Sorry I don't have much time! And my emails are getting shorter and shorter. But I love you all!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Sister Anderson

Also the Super Bowl made it really hard to be productive. EVERYONE was

watching the Super Bowl.

With the Worland WY Sisters Van Ausdale & Parsons

Van Ausdale goes home this Saturday!

That darn train!

A cool temple that the Ranchester branch is making out of names they take to the temple

Scary chicken that tried to eat us =)

Funny car wash

Black and gold this week

Delivering cookies

Local deer

Feels so weird to wear pants!  

Yeah we're bad

Our broken mirror

Selfie!