Happy Halloween!

First and foremost... transfer news!!  Oh my goodness. President knows that I'm always soo anxious to find out transfer news. He's only told me early maybe two times. On Wednesday we got a call from President saying he doesn't want me to be anxious anymore haha and he wanted to talk with me about my next assignment. So of course I knew I was going to be transferred. He told me that my companion would be Sister Wagstaff who is coming back into the mission and we are going to be doubled into Columbia Falls!!!! Aw man you don't even know how excited I was when I heard about this, and still am. First of all, Columbia falls is BEAUTIFUL. Second, I LOVE getting doubled in.Third, I felt about a year ago that I would be companions with Sister Wagstaff, and she's amazing. I'm very excited. Keep the people of Columbia Falls and Sister Wagstaff and I in your prayers please! It's going to be the best transfer ever.

Miracle!

On Tuesday I was on an exchange with Sister Freeman and we were walking around in a trailer park when we saw a girl getting out of her car. We went up and started talking with her and turns out her grandma is a member of the church! We talked with her for a bit and set up a time to meet with her later in the week. When we met with her again she told us about when she was growing up and when her grandma couldn't be there for her she would send the missionaries. Her grandma passed away a few years ago and she has noticed that anytime she is struggling her grandma still continues to send missionaries. Just before we had started talking with her she had been thinking about what she needed to change in her life to be a better person and turn her life around, then we said, "hello!". There are no such thing as coincidences. God’s plan is perfect! "the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men". God is preparing a way for each of His children to come unto Him. I love this work!

Also Victoria's little girl Bentley was blessed yesterday!

We also had our trunk or treat with both of our wards combined and it was great. It's not very dignified for us to wear costumes as missionaries, so Sister Linney and I just wore matching outfits haha If I got a dollar every time someone said, "you're twins!" Or "good costumes" or "are you really the missionaries or are you just people dressed up like missionaries?" I would have a lot of dollars. We already get told we're twins a lot when we aren't matching.     

Since today is Halloween we missionaries aren't going out and proselytizing tonight. So far we've done the only normal thing to do on Halloween and we went to a wedding! Later we're going to carve some pumpkins, put some caramel on an apple and watch a church movie! Life is so good! :)

Hope you all have the greatest Halloween ever!  CTR

Love,

Sister Anderson

Sister Linney

Pumpkin carving fun at the church

Our Halloween cake

Some scary doors

Twinners!

Caramel apples at the Millers!

Exchanges with Sister Freeman

Peace

Some zone fun in the leaves

Sister Pearson!

Sacagawea

Hello family and friends!

I LOVE HELENA. I would love to finish my mission here. The odds really aren't in my favor for that, but you never know! We get transfer calls this coming Sunday, so we shall see. Also we are starting to see that hunting season combined with the election is no fun for missionaries in Montana, but that'll end soon. Luckily not everyone hunts in Helena! We saw tons of miracles this week!

Monday we played some good ol' volleyball as a zone. Met a cool kid named Jack! We were contacting a referral that we had received and met his son, jack. It was a quick visit, but we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and talk about its importance and how it answers questions of the soul. It was one of the more powerful 60 second lessons that I've had.

Tuesday I spent the day in Helena with Sister Meek! I was her sister training leader down in Wyoming too, so it was good to see her again! I mostly remember the evening. It was just a great evening. It started with dinner at the Colby's! (They feed us ALL THE TIME and it's the best) then we went to a lesson with the Linters!! They're  so great. The mom is a member, but hasn't been to church in a long time, then she has two of the cutest girls ever! There's Tey'ana whose 10 and Kayla whose 7. The girls really don't know anything about the gospel. so we taught very simply. Explaining who God is and what prophets are and who Jesus Christ is. Then somehow we got talking about who Adam and Eve are and you could tell that Kayla was really trying to wrap her head around it all then she says, "...they were the first ones on the earth? ...wait..so when does Sacagawea come in?" Hahaha I love them. And Tey'ana really wants to be baptized! Her and Kayla both had A TON of great questions and they LOVE learning about the gospel! They're like little sponges! For Tey'ana baptism they want to wait until their grandma can come, so that will be in January! :) We are teaching them again tonight. Oh and they came to church!! We weren't really expecting them because this weekend was the start of the rifle hunt for deer or something, but they came!!  They both have friends from school in the ward as well!  After that lesson we went to see another family. The dad is a less active and the wife is not a member. We taught the restoration and the spirit was SO strong! She will be baptized the end of November. :)

Thursday we thought we were going to get shot by a man in the woods when we went up the wrong driveway. He had big targets along his driveway with bullet holes already in them. There was no way to turn around other than to go all they way up to the house, which was basically at the top of the mountain. We about started crying.

Friday I went to Shelby with Sister Smith! Shelby is a great place and has got some great stuff happening there. Their investigator gave me the name of Beatrice.

Saturday we got Cafe Rio!!! And also a family that we are trying to work with, the Lewis's, came to a baptism and we gave them a tour of the church!

Sunday was great of course :) I love Sundays. Lots of church, then we met with the McKays and talked with Kayd about being baptized! He's a wild 9 year old. We also got to have another lesson with the Austins :) I love them so much. They are such a great family and I can't wait for them to all be sealed in the temple next year.

Today I've been thinking about hope and came across the talk, Hope through the Savior’s Atonement, by Elder Maxwell. If you haven't read this one for a while you should! In it he says, "Real hope keeps us “anxiously engaged” in good causes even when these appear to be losing causes on the mortal scoreboard. Likewise, real hope is much more than wishful musing. It stiffens, not slackens, the spiritual spine. Hope is serene, not giddy, eager without being naive, and pleasantly steady without being smug. Hope is realistic anticipation which takes the form of a determination--not only to survive adversity but, moreover, to “endure … well” to the end". Hope is a great attribute that we can always be developing.

Have the best week ever and be a missionary for Halloween! ;) jk but send pictures of your cute costumes :)

Love, Sister Anderson

The Shelby Sisters wall and Sister Smith!

Great Falls Cafe Rio! The Helena Sisters

Cutest! Charlie taking selfies during our lesson

A new friend at church =)

A members house, this was only a third of all their cats

We love Annabelle!

"I Thought God was a Caveman and Roamed with the Dinosaurs?"

This week has been packed full with great experiences! I love being a missionary.  I got to go on exchanges with some amazing sisters this week and we also had Zone Conference! I learned SO much.

I'll start with some random things that happened this week...

- Sister Wadsworth came to a lesson with us!

- We taught a 9 year old about the plan of Salvation and he was a bit confused because he had always thought that God was a caveman and roamed with dinosaurs. That was a new one for us!

- We got a referral for a Ronald saying that he wanted a bible, so we went to his home and it was one of the more interesting experiences I've had. We knocked on the door and a lady answered and just smiled and closed the door. So we decided to try some of his neighbors and as we were talking to one of them Ronald came out of his house and over to us while we were still talking to his neighbor. Haha He waited at the sidewalk until we were done. We gave him the Bible and tried to start talking about who we were and the restoration, but we couldn't really say much because he just kept talking! He told many stories. Mostly about the glory days back when he was on the high school basketball team. He's in his 50s or 60s. Very nice guy. We invited him to church.

With both of the exchanges we went on this week I was with a couple of pretty new sisters. I love serving with new missionaries! As I went to lessons with them I saw their excitement for the work, their love for the people, and how badly they really want everyone to come unto Christ. They have forgotten about themselves and want to work so hard! That's what missions are all about. No one just happens to have a happy successful mission out of good luck. It starts with desire! If we really do desire to serve Him with all our hearts, then we will show it by being obedient and fulfilling our purpose 100%. Yes, some days are tough but most missionaries are on a mission because they've chosen to be here. There really is a difference between 'serving a mission' and 'going on a mission'. I LOVE my mission! My love for my mission hasn't been a result of God caring about me more or good luck, but I love my mission because I am committed to loving it for 18 months. It's not always easy. Some days are better than others, but I've made the choice to be here and to do all I can to help others to come unto Christ. There is nothing else that brings me so much happiness! I still have SO much to do and learn while being a missionary and I'm grateful to have a couple more months to do that :)

Have the best week ever!

Love,

Sister Anderson

Some P-Day volleyball fun with the Helena zone

Diiji Nizhoni

Currently here in Helena is pretty cold and it's snowing!! I can't decide if I like it or not, but if it's going to be cold then it might as well be snowing so we can wear our warm snow boots!

This week has been great! Not too many crazy exciting things happened, but we have found a couple of awesome new investigators! I went on an exchange with Sister Arnson again and they are in a car share so we biked everywhere and it was so fun! They don't really have any hills in their area so I survived it pretty well. ;)

Learned some random new things!

1. I learned from Sister Stewart that in Navaho tribes before you kill a spider you have to say, "nikei adin" which means, "you have no family" haha It's super taboo to not say it. If you don't say it then that spiders family will all come looking for the spider you killed and be all over your house.
2. I learned how to say it's been a good day in French and Navaho

Navaho- Diiji nizhoni (Dee jay nishjonay )

French- Setay un bonjour

1. Kinda learned how to make a knife...
2. Biking is pretty nerve racking when it's pitch dark outside and all you can see is your companions back bike light in front of you to follow
3. How grateful I am to not have been put in a car share throughout my mission.

Throughout this week I've focused a bit more on the power that a testimony has. I've really noticed the spirit that comes as we bare sincere testimony, especially of the Savior. I loved the talk by Elder Cook last week about being valiant in our testimony of Christ. In it he said, "If we are to be valiant in our testimony of Jesus, we must avoid the stumbling blocks that entrap and impede the progress of many otherwise honorable men and women. Let us determine to always be in His service. While seeking knowledge, we need to avoid the philosophies of men that lessen our commitment to the Savior. We must see sin in its true light and accept the Savior’s Atonement through repentance. We need to avoid looking beyond the mark and focus on Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and follow His doctrine." I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

I hope you all have the greatest week yet and are able to focus on the Savior more throughout it!

I love you all!

Love,  Sister Anderson

Its snowing!!

Lots of washing machines!

Exchanges with Sister Arnson - Biking buddies

A family we went to visit had lots of goats, pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, cows, and horses

MLC from September

Exchanges with Sister Jacoby

Face mask fun =)

Some bubble blowing fun