Why hello again!
Guess what? I actually wore my COAT for the first time this week, and we just turned on our heater in our apartment for the first time last night! Crazy. I forgot what cold felt like. I mean, there's no snow like I've heard you have up there--the sun is still shining brightly down here--but I think it was funny how Heavenly Father noticed that I kept telling people how I missed my Utah weather... so He sent me the cold when I was unprepared for it. Haha. :)
Great stories of the week:
1. Angel, a fairly recent convert in our ward that we have been working with, is from Guatemala... and it took him quite a bit of trouble to get here. Well, he got in a car accident a few weeks ago... and he's not exactly... supposed to be in this country. So he had a court date this week and we were sooo scared they were going to take him away from us!! We've been meeting with him every week, and his poor heart has just gone through so much stress and his testimony was really weakening. I KNOW that Heavenly Father helped him get here because he needed the gospel... his conversion story is absolutely incredible. So we just kept trying to reassure him that no matter how it all ended up, his experience in the States gave him the opportunity to find the truth, and he could take it with him no matter where he went. But we didn't feel like we were getting through to him, and it was breaking our hearts because we love him sooo much! He is so sweet and so pure and just so great. All he wants is to find success so he can help his family. So the night before his court date, we got a little inspiration: it hadn't even occurred to us yet to ask him to receive a priesthood blessing! So we called our branch president at like 9 pm, and he made it happen. Still... when he left us that night we were so scared we might never see him again. :(
When we called him the next day, he didn't answer. :( Our hearts sank. But 20 minutes later he called us back!!! He told us everything was fine and he wasn't going anywhere!! :) Oh my word... I cannot tell you the relief I felt. It was such a miracle. I love Angel and I'm so grateful for how Heavenly Father has shown His hand in his life.
2. Paige!! We showed up at Paige's house for our second appointment this week... but when we called her to come out and meet us she said it wasn't a good time. :( Again, our hearts sank. She still agreed to come out briefly and say hi though. So she did. Let me tell you about one of Sister Miller's hidden talents: she's really good at snaking people into lessons when they don't even realize it. :) Haha. So we ended up reading a few scriptures with her, and what we thought was going to be a really disappointing experience turned out to be exactly the opposite--Paige truly recognized how much she needed to talk with us that night and how much hope we had given her. :) In her prayer, she said she was so grateful to have met us, and she was really excited to come to church with Courtney (the member we had with us who happens to be her neighbor and who is now going to be her best friend. :) ) Sooo great!! She actually had to miss church on Sunday, but she is for sure coming next week and she went to FHE last night!
3. Ba ha ha... Sister Miller and I were involved in possibly the most tragic musical number ever to happen at a church activity. :) We were singing "I need thee every hour" at a stake activity for middle-aged single adults that some other elders from our zone roped us into. (Sister Miller was playing the guitar along with us.) First of all we were singing with them, and they are both COMPLETELY tone deaf. :) AND, only like 8 people showed up to this activity that was supposed to be for like 50 people. So sad. So we had planned on singing the first verse together, the second verse just sisters, the third just elders, and the last all together again. (Oh, and we just eaten, so there was a whole bunch of junk in my throat and it sounded awful.) So we sang the first verse... then half way through the second verse, Sister Miller and I realized that we were repeating the words from the first verse again!! Ha ha ha. We just kept singing it anyway... then the elders... oh man. I'm going into way too much detail. Let it suffice to say that Sister Miller and I were laughing our heads off for the entire night after that. :) I'm just grateful for times to laugh. They make all the hard things about a mission a little less hard. Also, to redeem myself, I was a part of a double quartet for an a capella musical number at the mission president's fireside the next night with three of my battalion sisters, and it was POWERFUL. :) The spirit was so strong. I love music. (And all the senior couples who came to watch us said that out of all the musical numbers, ours was easily the best one... of course, they may have been a little biased. :) )
4. We went to meet a potential investigator (marine) on base with another member. But they were both boys, so of course we couldn't meet inside anywhere, and it was freezing.. so we decided to go wait at the McDonalds on base until he showed up. Well wouldn't you know it, we walked in, and sitting right there is one of our less-actives who hadn't been responding to us. :) Heavenly Father is soooo clever. On top of that, the potential never showed up... so we just taught a lesson to our less-active at McDonalds instead. Turns out he was the one we were actually supposed to be teaching that night. :) AND, because we found him, our member was able to convince him to go to the ward activity that night. Yay!!! God is so good.
If all goes well, Vinod should be getting baptized on saturday! I don't want to jynx it by writing this to you though.... so make sure you all pray REALLY hard that he makes it! I'm sorry that's all I have time for, but I love you with all my heart and I think about you often!
Love,
Sister Madsen
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