Fasting Works!

Hi again. :)
Gonna be short and sweet one this week--we went to the temple today so we're a little short on time. :) The temple is amazing! We finally reached the 3 month mark since we last went, so I got to go for my second time today. There was a huge group of us that went, actually, 8 sisters from the battalion and a good 10 or 15 elders from my district/zone that went too. :) It was a cool experience to be there all together. Every time I go to the temple, I realize how much I still have to learn in this life and the next. It's exciting that there's always so much more to learn and figure out... life would get boring if there wasn't!
We went on exchanges this week. Exchanges are a little tricky 'cause you're with someone you don't know as well and you have to figure out how to teach together, but they almost ALWAYS bring about miracles. First of all, you get to learn from someone you've never learned from before. :) Sister O'Neill is so natural at sharing the gospel. Talking to people doesn't make her nervous. She just talks to them like she's already known them for years, and is super real with them. So amazing! So I learned a lot from her. The other miracles that happened--all in the same day--were these: 1. Raj, who had disappeared from off the face of the planet (as in her phone was disconnected and the people she was living with informed us that she moved away and had zero information as to where), called US out of nowhere. We had given her our number on a little piece of paper, so when she got a new phone, she hadn't lost it with her old one, thank heavens. She told us she wanted to come to church that Sunday, which she did. :) So we're going to start teaching her again this week. 2. The Elders gave us a referral of a boy who had read over 60 pages of the Book of Mormon already and wanted to learn more. 3. Todd, a recent convert who totally strayed away right after his baptism and is really difficult to get a hold of, was at the church being home taught when we showed up. AND he said we could meet with him. AND he came to church on Sunday. :) In addition, we got to spend most of that day at the temple, which is always the best place to teach people about the gospel... we had an awesome conversation there with someone for like hour and a half! Exchanges are inspired! 
Fasting is also inspired. Sister Miller and I were feeling slightly down this week because we didn't teach very many lessons... we're running low on people to teach. Sister Miller, especially, was discouraged because she felt she wasn't doing all she could do... which kinda bummed me out in turn. So she came up with the idea that we needed to fast on Sunday (even though next week is fast Sunday so we'd be fasting two weeks in a row). We fasted to find more people to teach. Well, wouldn'tcha know it, we added two new investigators that day. :) AND Raj came back, AND a member brought a friend (Jesus Sanchez) to church on Sunday who said we could meet with him and teach him more. So by the end of this week, we will potentially have FOUR new investigators. :) Not sure how solid they will all be as of yet, but we are very blessed either way. Heavenly Father listens to the prayers of His missionaries!
Sunday was a special day for another reason, as well: we had a missionary Sunday. :) They have those every 3 or 4 months or so. The first hour is all about the restoration, the second hour is all about the plan of salvation, and the third hour is a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ--the first three lessons in Preach My Gospel. And Sister Miller and I spoke on the Restoration in sacrament meeting! I felt kind of silly up there--funny how I've taught the restoration more than anything else on my mission and talked about it an average of ten times a day, yet when I'm standing in front of a crowd of people, I feel completely incapable of explaining it. :P But it was really good for both Raj and Sanchez to be there!! Vinod came too. :) (We're still working on him... please pray for him to gain a spiritual witness of what he needs to do.)
There were a lot of other good things and lessons I learned this week but I'm out of time! Wish I could write more! I love you all and hope you have a great Halloween. :)
Love,
Sister Madsen