Hi everyone!!
I cannot believe I have been here three weeks already. I only have one week left til I'm in sunny San Diego!! (What????) Time has flown. All the days kind of blur together, too, so I'll try to write what I feel like I can remember. ;)
Our 4th of July was a lot more holiday-ish than I thought it would be. :) We had classes and everything like normal, but at the end of the day we had a special fourth of July program with fiddlers and bagpipes and a speech about the holiday and lots of flags... so it was fun. :) Then to wrap up the night they gave us icecream bars and let us go outside to watch the stadium of fire fireworks from the MTC grounds! (I know, hard to believe, right?? They even let us stay up past our bed time to watch them! :P Haha.)
On Friday we had something called in-field orientation. We spent the whole day in a conference/workshop kind of thing where they taught us about working with members, settings goals and figuring numbers, finding people to teach, etc. It made me excited but super nervous at the same time!! It hit me that soon I'll have to be contacting and sharing the gospel with real people--not just my fake investigators! It's kind of a scary thought. Actually, this week is the very first time they're going to let us really talk to people, because this week is different than the last three: we're headed up to temple square a couple times for training, and they're going to put us on exchanges with the temple square sisters! AAAHHH! We're also going to spend a good chunk of time in the referral center this week on the phones... with real people who have real questions about the gospel... I guess I'm so used to it not being real that I don't feel ready to talk to real people! It'll be okay though. :) I have to start sometime.
Sister Riggs and actually taught our last lessons with our "investigators" (our two teachers) this week, and on our last lesson with "Elliot" we finally committed him to baptism! I believe that we were the only companionship in our district to commit both of our investigators to be baptized. That's a pretty good feeling... our teachers are always telling us that we're too hard on ourselves and that we need to recognize how well we've done, so I guess I should be proud of that. :) But I definitely should still recognize that the only reason we were successful is because the Lord did all the work, not me.
Our district elders left this morning! We four girls feel so lonely without our elders. They have totally become our family, and we're going to miss them so much! It's amazing how much you grow together and how well you come to love people that you spend all your time with over a period of only three weeks. Those elders were all strangers to me three weeks ago, but I truly consider each of them a blessing now and I know that Heavenly Father put us together because there was something I needed to learn from each of them.
The biggest thing I am still working on is having faith. I always thought I had faith before I got here, but it has become quite clear to me while I've been here that I need much, much more faith as I go about this work than I realized! I know that those of you who served missions will totally understand what I mean. ;)
Oh, and my ASL friends keep showing up to firesides to volunteer as interpreters!! This week I saw Sarah Anderson!! It was so great to see her, she put a huge smile on my face! I miss my ASL ward... and signing all the time!! I feel like I've been without it for soooo long!
Anwyway. I love you all. :) Thank you again for your letters, they mean the world to me. Remember that Heavenly Father loves you!
Help out the missionaries in your ward, wherever you are!! They need all the referrals they can get!! :)
Love,
Sister Madsen
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