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
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