Sister Jessica Anderson: Happy 4th of July!

Hope you're all having fun in Richfield and wherever else you are for the fourth! For us we get to stay out till 10:30 so we will be with the cutest old couple ever, the Heinitz (they’re 89 & 92 years old and in better shape than I am) and their grandkids as they set off fireworks! I'm so excited. We also had a ward breakfast this morning and we'll be going to a BBQ for dinner! It's a good day. Also half of our ward went to Utah for the fourth and half of Utah came to Helena. Utah license plates are all over! And we keep meeting members everywhere! I’m starting to get a taste of what it would be like to be a missionary in Utah. haha

This week has been kinda crazy. It was transfers, so we had Sister Harward with us for a day while she waited for her new companion from the MTC, so it was fun to be in a trio again for a bit! We also packed everything and unpacked everything because we were told we were moving, then they said just kidding wait two more weeks. haha Then on Thursday we found out that we were to have a zone training on Friday morning, so we threw things together with the zone leaders and it all turned out good! Yesterday we went biking and I about died because I'm so out of shape! We only biked for maybe a mile and once we got to where we were going no one was home on the street except for one lady and when she opened the door she said, "sorry, no thanks!" And quickly closed the door. We looked like we had just ridden our bikes 100 miles. It felt like it too! Haha we need to get on those things more often..

Lauren is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday!!!! Aw we are so excited for her!! She too was in Utah this past weekend. Haha She goes down there like every other weekend. She's on fire and so ready for it. :) Rachelle is on date for baptism now!! She's pretty excited. We did a tour of the church with her and one of the bishops was there filling up the baptismal font and we showed that to her and he talked with her all about baptism and how important it is. The spirit was SO strong there and she definitely felt it :)

In relief society yesterday we went over the talk, Patterns of Peace, by Bishop Waddell from this last General Conference. It is an amazing talk about what we can do to find more peace in our lives. There are 3 steps with a promise, Learn, Listen, and Walk. I wish I had more time to write about it, but I'll share a couple quotes from it, "However far we may wander from the path, the Savior invites us to return and walk with Him. This invitation to walk with Jesus Christ is an invitation to accompany Him to Gethsemane and from Gethsemane to Calvary and from Calvary to the Garden Tomb. It is an invitation to observe and apply His great atoning sacrifice, whose reach is as individual as it is infinite. It is an invitation to repent, to draw upon His cleansing power, and to grasp His loving, outstretched arms. It is an invitation to be at peace." ..... "The peace we all seek requires more than a desire. It requires us to act--by learning of Him, by listening to His words, and by walking with Him. We may not have the ability to control all that happens around us, but we can control how we apply the pattern for peace that the Lord has provided--a pattern that makes it easy to think often about Jesus."

I love you all and I hope you have a great Fourth of July!

Love,

Sister Anderson