2 Investigators :)

hey'all.

i finally have investigators to write about this week! haha. i always feel bad when i don't have investigators to write about... this area is just really, really slow. but i promise it's not because sister brown and i are slacker missionaries! ;) heavenly father finally blessed us for our diligence this week. it was actually a really cool story... and it just goes to show how important it is to always be worthy of the spirit!!

so wednesday was a pretty interesting day... we read our schedule wrong and missed our morning temple shift--we thought we were on the night shift. so basically we ended up having a full day in our area and 6 plan-less hours. :( when that happens, it can be difficult for me to keep a good attitude. in addition to that, sister brown wasn't feeling very well, and it's always harder to get things done when you're companion's distracted by her bodily complaints. but i decided to work hard anyway, and do my best to listen to heavenly father and figure out what he wanted us to do with our time that was completely up in the air. because of that, i kept the spirit with me, and we ended up having a pretty good night... and when we went home and planned for the next day, we were still in tune with the spirit.

we were in the middle of setting back-up plans for the next day when i felt unsure about a name we had chosen. it wasn't a huge prompting or anything, i almost just ignored it and moved on, but then i thought, "it's better safe than sorry, and it's just a back up plan..." so we chose a different name. well. turns out that appointment cancelled, so we ended up visiting our back up plans after all. it was like 8:10 pm, 20 minutes before we were supposed to head home, and i kinda just felt done with the day. but when we stopped at this woman's house (a less active who lives with her non-member family) something awesome happened. her husband let us in right away, something we weren't expecting. and then as we were talking to her, this woman's granddaughter appeared. she started asking us questions, and then explained that she was just in saint george at her friend's sister's farewell. that was the first time she had ever been to a mormon church... her friend was less-active for a long time and had recently decided she wants to get back into it. we asked her if she wanted to join us for the lesson, and she said "sure." :) and at the end, when we asked her if she wanted to learn more, she said yes. :) :) yay! it was SO OBVIOUS that heavenly father had been preparing this girl to meet us. it is not a coincidence that we came to her house and this random time in her life where her good friend decides to be active again. and just to think... if i hadn't kept a good attitude the day before, if i hadn't listened to that TINY little prompting... we never would have found her! you'd never guess that the actions of one day lead into the next, but they DO. every choice we make affects our opportunities in the future. HEAVENLY FATHER IS SO GOOD. :) :) and we are excited to keep teaching kim, we really hope it goes somewhere promising. :)

the other investigator that we picked up is a guy named rick that the ASL elders ran into. :) he's not deaf though--they just knocked on his house looking for a deaf person and he was there instead, and he said we could come back. :) he's pretty skeptical, but very nice and willing to listen. i just hope he'll listen long enough for the spirit to get the chance to work on him. yay for the chance to REALLY teach again!! i love teaching. it's my favorite part.

it's such a privilege to be a part of this work. when i sit here to write about my week, i go back through my planner to remember the experiences i want to tell you about... and just hit me how many people, members and nonmembers alike, that i have the opportunity to love and influence. and i'm eternally grateful. i dunno... especially when time is running out, you really appreciate each experience more than the last. (i hit my 4-months-left mark this week.... gah.)

my motto of the last couple weeks, in order to more fully utilize my time as the lord's servant, has been "don't listen to satan." it can be easy to think about the last year of my mission and wonder if i did everything i was supposed to... and it can be easy to entertain those discouraging thoughts. but i read a quote from elder holland that really stood out to me: "god doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been as where you are going." so every time i start to live in the past, i make myself stop and focus on the present. and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes. :) i would encourage you all to do the same.

other fun things: we went to the zoo last week! :) san diego has the coolest zoo ever. much better than the hoogle zoo. we had a blast, and our recent convert family came with us, so it was great. i'll attach pictures.

elder ballard is coming to speak to us tomorrow! he's here every summer. :) we're pretty spoiled. i'll have to tell you all about it next week!

i love you soooo much! and the gospel is the best thing EVER! :)

love

sister madsen

another soul brought unto Christ!! :)

hi everyone!

welp. we... baptized our only investigator on saturday. ha. :) donna is the sweetest, most innocent, child-like old lady i've ever met. really. she melts my heart. i wish you could have been there to listen to her testimony after her baptism. in her timid little voice, with her eyes on the ground and her daughter sarah at her shoulder, she simply thanked the man who baptized her and said, "i feel better now. name of jesus christ amen." OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE HER SO MUCH! the service went great (she was triple dipped cause of her toes... haha poor thing). afterwards we all went over to her house for enchiladas, and many of the ward members came to support, for which i was very grateful. donna and her humble family have taught me SO MUCH, and i'm so grateful for the chance to be part of their lives.

and now... haha we have ZERO investigators. no one to teach. :) so yesterday, guess what we did? we spent 4 straight hours on the street just contacting people. and going to previous contact's houses. and it surprisingly went really well. usually full-days are not my favorite... but everything went sooo smoothly yesterday, we both knew we were being led by the spirit the whole time, and now we have 4 potential investigators. :) it was such a good day.

we also went to a less active's house who hadn't been to church in years... usually those kind of people arent all that friendly to missionaries cause they don't like the attention from the church. but as soon as this man opened the door, he said, "hi sisters!" and came out to talk to us. we talked to him for like an hour. he has an incredible life story... just had some rough life experiences and hard trials that got him down and he slowly stopped coming from there. but i couldn't believe how excited he was to see us. the lesson that i learned from this visit was this: HEAVENLY FATHER IS SO AWARE OF HIS CHILDREN. last fall, this man was in the hospital for pancreatic cancer. and he survived. shortly after that he drove to the church building on a weekday and looked for a sign or something that told him what time the ward meets but couldn't see anything... she he kind of chickened out, but has been thinking about things every since then. and then we show up at his door. also, this man's records had been lost for a while, so no one knew anything about him... and we happened to find them right at this turning point in his life.   .....? i repeat... heavenly father is SO AWARE.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! :D :D :D :D

now to get the area moving. :) it may be snail's pace right now, but even snails can gain momentum... ;)

i love you! hope you've had a fabulous week!

love

sister madsen

p.s. i'm sending pictures of some fun things: pictures from beautiful balboa park, which we visited last week, and these two cute little member girls who wore their missionary tags from primary when we came over for dinner the other night :)

"and the rocket's red glare..."

oh, hello. :)

sounds like you all had a great 4th! mine was good too! :) i can't believe that last year for the fourth i was watching the stadium fireworks from the MTC... gah!! so weird! this year for the fourth sister brown and i went to our ward's picnic... don't worry. we were DEFINITELY dressed in red, white and blue. :) (that's my favorite part. but i forgot to take pictures! darn...) and then we worked the night shift at the battalion, where we had ANOTHER barbeque (hehe--so spoiled), AND, after closing, guess what we got to do?? we got to crawl on the roof of the battalion--yes, all of us in pioneer dresses--and watch the fireworks on the beach! :) :) (haha... i promise i'm a real missionary and that i don't just do fun things all the time... :P)

this will probably sound a little cheesy. but it's crazy how you come to appreciate events in the world's history the more you understand the gospel. i mean, the revolutionary war is prophesied in the book of mormon!! so awesome. god is in everything. and WE LIVE in the promised land!! how cool is that?? i'm so grateful for a free country where the gospel has been RESTORED, and i'm humbled that i'm blessed enough to be a part of it.

well. the only two investigators we've been teaching regularly both told us to go away this week. (donna's the only one left and she's getting baptized on saturday--i forget that she's even our investigator because she's been set for baptism since we got here and she's practically a member already.) so... yeah. that kinda stinks. :( so we're just in the process of finding again... meeting with a lot of members and encouraging them--well, committing them ;)--to invite their friends! we have a lot of great members who seem willing to help so hopefully we'll see some growth here soon. peter doramus, for example, who is only TWELVE, and who is reading the book of mormon all by himself and is now in mosiah, walked over to his neighbor's house with us the other day to give him a book of mormon! :) "shall the youth of zion falter...? NO!" sooo cool. kids like that make me feel like there's hope in the world afterall. :)

a similar little miracle happened on sunday... magnus, one of the mendiolas who got baptized a couple weeks back, passed the sacrament! (he's also 12.) this young little boy, who had no previous knowledge of the gospel, now holds the power of god. it gave me chills to watch him. :) such a neat experience. i'm so grateful to be a part of this work! even in the times when it seems like there's not much happening.

also it was sister brown's birthday on sunday! she is SO SPOILED. :) our ward mission leader fed us dinner that night... they asked sister brown what she wanted and she said cafe rio. ha. so they made us homemade cafe rio!!! man, it was SO GOOD!! :) (the best thing about going two by two is that when your companion gets spoiled, you get spoiled too. :) ) AND they made this huge white cake with raspberry filling. mmmm.... (and here i am complaining about the need to lose weight... ha.)

lesson of the week:  2 nephi 9:29: to be carnally minded is death, and to be SPIRITUALLY MINDED is life eternal. i've realized, a few times now, that even on a mission, when you're about the lord's work 24/7, it doesnt come naturally to be constantly spiritually minded--its something we have to work toward. and unlike what i thought before my mission, i still won't have perfected it by the time i go home--turns out a mission isn't like some poof of fairy dust that magically makes you who you want to be. :P but it sure does get you closer, so long as you're willing to work at it. :)

think that's it for now! I LOVE YOU!! hope you have a great week!

sister madsen

"for of such is the kingdom of god..."

dear everyone,

okay. I LOVE KIDS. and i love that i get to work with them now! yesterday we did a family home evening with a sister who is working on coming back to church (and her two kids--her husband is not a member and wasn't there... but hopefully we can start teaching him soon). her daughter's name is emberly. she is the SMARTEST 6 year old i have EVER met. i couldn't believe my ears. she can read scriptures. like right out of the book of mormon. every word. and when she doesn't know a word she sounds it out and says it perfectly the next time. she can read scriptures better even than some adults i've met! and she has the cutest, biggest, cheesiest smile you've ever seen. i should have taken a picture... next time. anyway. i just might have this woman raise my children. :P

so we taught the lesson on the plan of salvation, and we used a white board. we had a cut out of a sun to represent the celestial kingdom. after the lesson, emberly wanted to draw pictures on the white board, so we erased it all and she started drawing. a couple minutes later, she had drawn a huge sun with 5 people standing inside: her, her brother, her mom, her step dad, and jesus. "look! we're in the happiest place," she said. she totally understood that only in the celestial kingdom do we get to live with our families, and with christ, forever. and then before we had to go, she said, "okay, i'll erase it for you..." so she started erasing, but didn't erase it all the way.  "i figured you wanted me to leave jesus," she said. (yes, she really used the words "i figured.") :) :) gah! i love this! i love kids! i love the gospel! i love the plan! i love teaching the plan! 

other than that, there's not much else to report... sister brown was sick this week. :( this was the first time on my mission i've ever stayed in because of a sickness... she was throwing up all day saturday and recovering sunday. i learned two things: 1. that i hate having to stay home--i get so itchy to get out and be a missionary 2. that i like taking care of people. there's just something so fulfilling about taking care of someone who's sick. why is that? :) haha she was so surprised that i was willing to clean up her throw-up for her... good training to be a mom, we decided!! :P (sorry that's kinda gross to write about.) but she's feeling much better! 

lesson of the week: repentance is a constant process. sometimes it can be annoying because we have to do it so often. but if we're not doing it, we're not keeping our covenants. and if we don't keep our covenants, we don't get our promises, and we're not happy. "Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest." (alma 12:34)

i love you all!!

sister madsen

Mendiolas & Helen (June 25)

hey fam.

not much to report on this week... whitewashing is basically starting from nothing, so we're just working on getting things going. we have met with a lot of members... so fun to meet with entire families. :) there's such a strength of the spirit that comes in a family setting. also... i dunno. grown people are much less emotional. ha. :) i feel like i've become a lot less emotional/dramatic in my teaching because i'm teaching less emotional/dramatic people. plus, that's just sister brown's teaching style. she just says it like it is. :) she doesn't hesitate to say anything, either... she has no fear. its pretty great. and it's cool how you become a different missionary in every new situation... styles of teaching, contacting, and just working in general, have to be adapted to the circumstances.

i'm already in love with two of our people we're teaching: the mendiola family and helen. the mendiola family was the family that got baptized last weekend. they are the sweetest people... we still go to their house frequently, seeing as they still need new member lessons and donna (their mother) is yet to be baptized. every time we go over we just feel so much love from them, and on our last visit, sarah started crying because she felt the same thing: "i've just never felt so loved and supported in my whole life." and they really need it. especially sarah... she holds that whole family together. i dunno... this means so much less in typed words. i can't really do it justice. but its just amazing how you get to feel heavenly father's love for people. and how much you grow to love them personally. they've taken so much of my heart.

helen had a breakdown this week. she has had some serious struggles... i feel so bad for her. she tried to cancel our dinner appointment, but our incredible ward mission leader convinced her to come still. and she was really glad she did in the end. we shared the story in the book of mormon when the lord lightened the load of the people of alma, that they were able to bear their persecutions and submit cheerfully to their trials until the lord delivered them from bondage. it really hit home to her. (that's got to be one of the best passages in the entire book of mormon, by the way. mosiah 24.) the spirit was super strong, and she followed through on her commitment to attend church the next day. i think she's slowly starting to recognize that we are the help at the "end of her rope"... that heavenly father has allowed all of these trials to happen so that he could then place us in her path and show her the way out, the way to happiness and peace. i hope and pray that she will continue to work with us--she gives us hope quite easily. pray for helen.

yet again this week, we saw little clues and hints here and there with different people that have been such a testimony to both me and sister brown that this area really needs sisters... which is humbling and slightly daunting. it just means that there's a lot to do, and it can be difficult to know where to start, but we're trying!

hope you all had the chance to watch the world wide leadership training on sunday! that was pretty incredible. all of us "oldies" are wondering if the new technology changes are going to be put in place before we leave... i hope so! that's going to be epic. such a motivating meeting! i love re-boosts. :) 

i had two visits at the battalion this week! one from two of my deaf friends back home, and another from my branch president in the MTC!! SO FUN to see them all. :) my branch president is one of the most incredible leaders i know, and he majorly impacted my life. it was cool because sister rasmussen, sister riggs and i were all in the same district with him and we were all on shift together that night--so we took a three-man tour! :) that's never been done before, but we all wanted to do the tour for them together, and it actually worked pretty well! we had a blast. :)

think that's it. sure love you all. :) i hope you are taking opportunities to do missionary work. even in utah. :) there are plenty of less active people that really would come back to church if they were simply invited. i hope you'll all take the challenge to find someone who desperately needs the gospel, and invite them... to an activity, to church, to read a scripture, to watch a mormon.org video, anything. don't worry, if they don't accept the invitation, you were still successful!! you did your part! they need you. please try it. :) i promise you blessings. the cool thing about being a missionary is that you can promise people blessings. :)

xoxoxo

sister madsen

you won't BELIEVE it. :) ONE YEAR MARK!!

Sister Madsen, Sister Brown, Mendiola family

boy oh boy do i have news for you...

okay. maybe it's just extra exciting to ME. but guess what?? I GOT TRANSFERRED BACK TO MIRA MESA! thats the same area as black mountain branch!! only now i'm in the family ward!! haha... its crazy! i already know the ENTIRE place! same streets, church building and everything! and black mountain meets right after us, so i get to see them all the time!! :D haha we were going through our ward list and i knew so many families already because i served with their YSA kids! nuts. nuts nuts nuts. and i LOVE it! i guess mira mesa was just meant to be my home. :) haha everyone in my zone just laughed because i'm back after only 3 transfers! oh my word it was so WEIRD going from a branch to a ward! the whole chapel was completely full... i'm used to just 3 or 4 rows being full! and usually i know everyone's names by the second sunday! there's so many people now that i don't know who to talk to. ha. but it's going to be great cause that means there's going to be more people to work with! also... i miss having little kids around. i miss the noise during sacrament meeting. it took me back to the pioneer park ward. :) and the primary got up and sang for father's day. (i may or may not have teared up. slightly.) it's just cool.... even though i have absolutely LOVED serving in YSA wards, cause i just fit there, being in a family ward has already helped me remember the real purpose of why i'm out here: so that others can be with the people they love FOREVER!

the other piece of GREAT news is that my companion is none other than sister brown!! :D i don't know if i've written about her before, but we are SO SIMILAR. in so many ways. she's been serving with me at the battalion almost my entire mission, she's just one transfer behind me... way back in october we talked about how cool it would be if we got to be companions someday... and now we are!! haha heavenly father is too easy on me. i have yet to get a companion that i don't get along with. or that isn't amazing. sister brown is a go getter. and she's ultra silly. :) i think heavenly father also knows that i need companions who can make me laugh. :) we are SO EXCITED to work together!!! (oh, and i actually fit into her clothes... hehe. first companion i can finally share clothes with.)

piece of incredible news # 3: WE HAD FOUR BAPTISMS ON SATURDAY. hahahaha... we white washed into our area (they haven't had sisters in over 10 years) and an entire family was getting baptized 3 days later!! cesar, sarah, julene and magnus mendiola are 4 of the sweetest, most humble people i've ever met. oh, and donna, sarah's mother... who would have also gotten baptized but she has a pickline in her arm that cant be submerged in water for another 3 weeks. so there's another baptism coming. (funny thing is, cesar and donna are the same age! sarah married really young... but hey, if it's true love... :) ) so cool to baptize an entire family!! guess they how they got introduced to the church? sarah walked onto the san diego temple grounds. she requested missionaries right away and they were baptized like 3 months later. :) AMAZING. she was so prepared.

yesterday we went and taught this investigator that the last elders had taught a couple times. her name is helen, she is 69 years old and she is so sweet. she has a lot of medical problems though and her husband died last year. he happened to be a member of the church, but not active. it was really cool because she totally opened up to us and told us how she knew god was there, but he was giving her a lot of road blocks at the time and it was really difficult... she started crying and said that she feels like there's something she needs but doesn't know what it is. we explained how we were it!! that we were there to help her and god had sent us to her in her time of need!! so cool. and then she told us how "the boys were really nice... but it's just different talking to females..." 3rd day in our area and heavenly father was already showing us why mira mesa needs SISTERS. :) it was a really neat experience. i wouldn't doubt that her husband is really the one pushing this all along on the other side of the veil... hope we can get her to feel that soon.

something else that is kind of fun is that we have roommates! we were told that with all the influx of missionaries we were going to have to share one of our tiny little battalion apartments with another companionship for a few weeks... we were not too ecstatic about that. (4 sisters, 1 shower, and only an hour to eat breakfast and get ready... yeah.) but now i LOVE it! haha it's just a party all the time. and sister amendola and sister silva are hilarious. :) its so much fun. there's stuff EVERYWHERE in our aparment. but other than the completely unorganized living space, its a blast.

welp. i think that's it for now. :) change is exciting. hard, but exciting. :) oh, and the battalion is getting CRAZY. so many visitors. must be summertime. :) but it's really fun.

i love you all and i appreciate your prayers! pray that i don't gain like 50 more pounds cause i'm in a family ward now and we have dinner appointments EVERY night! hahaha.

love love love

sister madsen

area # 3, here i come!!

hi again!

aaaahhhh!!!! i'm leaving santee!!!! :( i totally knew it was coming. it was weird. also, it's crazy how much you grow to love people. you don't really realize how much you love them until you have to leave. :( i'm going to miss my little area and our little institute like crazy!! and my samoan! :( she is so loving and so, so good to me. i'm so grateful that heavenly father gave me the chance to be her companion. i really needed her... she is one of the most christlike people i have ever met. (btw, i told her she could come live at our house when she comes back from samoa to go to nursing school at UVU... so you might be adopting a beautiful little samoan, mom! ;) )

i don't find out where i'm going til tomorrow... i don't believe i'll be leaving the battalion... but i could be transferred to a family ward!! that would be nuts. can you believe i've only taught 18-to-30 year olds my whole mission?? i'll let you know next week what the new area's like!

this week was a great way to end my time in the area. we added another solid investigator who is also being brought into the fold by a member... that makes two that we found right before i leave, of course. :P her name is becca... she could easily be baptized like next month. so, even though i'm sad i don't get to teach them, i'm glad that i'm not leaving sister mulipola with nothing. she's got some great things to start with her new companion.

also, we went to a baptism this saturday!! (i'm still counting it as one of OUR baptisms, even though she was baptized into our branch... :P) it was mary!! i don't know if you remember her, but we taught her for a long time and committed her to baptism right before we realized she didn't technically belong to our area, but the neighboring one. so, she had three sets of missionaries that helped her along the way! here's a picture with all of us. :) she is soooo solid! i'm so excited for her. she's already doing member missionary work, too... incredible. i love that girl. it was so great to be a part of her conversion.

i also had another great surprise at the battalion this week!! sidney elliot came to visit!!! i got to take her on tour! it was so fun to see her sunshiney face, she's the sweetest girl ever!! and she's going on a mission!! WAHOO!! she's gonna be incredible, i'm so excited for her. love you sid!!

last, but not least, we passed joe off to the family ward missionaries this week. sad that we had our last lesson with him... but excited that he is going to get married and BAPTIZED! i think joe might be one of the biggest miracles i've been able to be a part of on my mission. and here's the coolest thing--he sent this text last night: "i just wanted to let you both know, in case you're assigned out of SD that i thank god that he put you both in my life even if it was for a short time. you both will be in my prayers as you continue your missionary work. i would like to still keep in touch. i travel all over the world frequently so no matter where you guys are i most likely will be going through. god bless you both and thank you for everything." :) it meant SO MUCH to me... especially coming from him--he's not really a touchy-feely kinda guy. and THAT is the greatest reward of this work. RIGHT THERE. :) i cannot even explain how rewarding and humbling that feeling is. it is INCREDIBLE. i'm so, so grateful that we randomly found him that day and that i got to be part of his journey. (also, i can't wait to be with freddy, his son--the CUTEST little 3 year old you've ever met--in the celestial kingdom. :) )

missionary work is AMAZING!! remember that there is nothing better than helping others come to christ! 

i love you!

love

sister madsen