Heavenly Father takes care of things... (May 28, 2013)

howdy.

um... let's see...

this week... haha i feel like there were a whole bunch of good things that happened but they were all just random! hmmm... what is worth your reading time...

first of all. teaching the law of chastity is easy. it really is. i've never had a hard time teaching it, or been nervous about it, my whole mission. until yesterday. :) it's much more intimidating teaching it to someone that you know is going to have to make some HUGE life changes before he can be baptized--which might break his decision to be baptized. but here's the cool thing. when people are ready for the gospel, it doesn't matter. if they've felt the power of the truth, they're willing to do anything. :) and joe has definitely felt the power of the truth. if i had to make a list of the most prepared people i've ever met on my mission, joe would definitley be at the top (along with lily, my first convert.) so. he agreed to live it, and to pray about how to fix his sitaution so he can prepare to be baptized. :) heavenly father just takes care of things. it's awesome.

secondly. sunday was INCREDIBLE. we had two investigators there, and a third who showed up for the after church activity.... but that's not all. :) we had SIX less actives, THREE of which brought their nonmember friends/girlfriends. :) one of the nonmember girlfriends made an incredible comment in sunday school... you better believe we'll be seeing her this week! haha. AND one of our members came up to us and said her friend agreed to meet with us! this is the first time since i've been in this area that a member is bringing US someone to teach. (keep in mind that we only have like 20 active members.) so i feel like our efforts are starting to pay off. :) and all this happened in one day! yeah. this work is the best.

lastly. (is that a word?) one of our investigators at church was one we met through a less active who... kind of... well, could have a better lifestyle. the first time we taught him he agreed to meet with us again, saying something about how he had turned his back to god and that he wanted to change. which was good. but it's always difficult to judge sincerity. so. we taught him the restoration, and it didn't go very well, but he still agreed to read the book of mormon. i wasn't sure if he really would... but we went back for another lesson this week and he had read FOUR chapters. not only that, he recited everything back to us... he totally got into it! he was talking about nephi, lehi, laman and lemuel... he even used the word "murmur." ha. and he talked about how nephi cut off laban's head and how his servant followed him... i couldn't believe my ears. it was incredible. but the best part was when we explained more about the purpose of the book of mormon: that it taught the gospel of jesus christ, and THAT'S why we value it so highly... and he got really happy. :) heavenly father can make miracles happen in those you least expect. :) (i don't know if that's a real sentence. ha.)

yup! think thats all for this week! love you MUCHO!

sister madsen

eLEveN??? (May 21, 2013)

hola.

welp. it was another week full of miracles. :) here goes:

1. we had MTE's on Wednesday last week (missionary training exchange) where we get together with like 4 zones (60 or so missionaries) and have a 3 hour training meeting... then we go out to our areas with a "coach"--a third companion who's in a leadership position--and apply what we learned. guess who got to come with us?? sister miller! :D yay! i loved every minute of that day. she is SO POWERFUL. so, we're out and about, and the first cool thing that happens is we talk to this Hispanic guy who lives out of his van. but he didn't speak English. so sister miller and i spoke Spanish to him!! haha we both know enough to kind of have a conversation. (sister mulipola was just lost. haha.) i spoke SPANISH!! it was fun. :) and then we sang a hymn for him. he LOVED it. he kept putting his hand to his heart and looking up at heaven. and we directed him to where he could go to church on sunday and talk to people who really knew Spanish. :) sweet, sweet guy... hope he went.

and then we went to this less active's house. she wasn't home. so i thought, maybe we should stop at this other less active's house who lives in the same complex. but he wasn't home, either. so we started walking away.... and lo and behold he was a couple blocks down on the other side of the street. :) so we stopped him and had a little curb side lesson with him. at the end we asked him who he knew we could teach... he mentioned his friend cole, who we had actually met before because he had joined in on a lesson once upon a time. so we said we'd keep in touch and set something up, and then we left. WELL. then we're driving around looking for an address for a random contact... our appointments had both cancelled. we drove down the street for a while before we realized the address wasn't valid. so we picked another contact on the same street, and we drove back up the street, and then we PASSED it, so we turned around AGAIN... and as we were pulling into a parking spot, COLE--the friend who our less active had JUST mentioned--was RIGHT THERE on the sidewalk. can we just look at how precise this placement was, please?? we drove up and down the street like 4 times. and cole said that wasn't even a street that he normally walks down... and his bus had been late, so it wasn't the same time he'd expected to be in the area, either. he doesn't even live in that area, his brother does. i have no idea where he even lives. it was CRAZY. :) i just laughed. heavenly father is the PERFECT planner. so we had another little curbside lesson with him and explained how evident it was that heavenly father was trying to speak to him. awesome miracle.

2. lily, my very first convert who i LOVE with all my heart, came down to visit the battalion this week just to give me the news that she started her own mission papers! and that she's going through the TEMPLE in September, which means i get to go!!! :D i am SO EXCITED! it is going to be such a neat experience to go through the temple with someone i helped bring into the gospel.

3. we FINALLY had two investigators at church this sunday! :) it's been 4 weeks since we've had ANY. joe loved it--he texted us afterward and said how much he enjoyed himself and that he was looking forward to next week. oh, and he signed up to bring food for two different activities. ha. he's so solid. i was really grateful to have investigators there... sunday can be a really disappointing day when no one shows.

4. last but not least--in fact, BEST--GRANDMA CAME TO THE BATTALION THIS WEEK! :D :D :D yyyaaaayyy!! it was SO GOOD to see her! i had no idea she was coming, she TOTALLY surprised me! i was walking up the street to the battalion for my shift on Thursday afternoon and i saw a few people sitting on the porch from a distance... "that looks kinda like my grandma," i thought. but it didn't really register until i got closer and looked again. and then i realized it was her and i screamed super loud (i actually scared a few people i think--ha) and i dropped my bags and ran up the stairs to give her a big hug! :) oh i was so happy!! sister Rasmussen and i took her on the tour and we had a great time. (grandma is friends with sister Rasmussen's mom, so she knew her too. :) ) thanks for coming grandma, I LOVE YOU!

 

yesterday was my eleven month mark. (what?!?) an elder was talking to me at the battalion who's going home at the same time as me and brought it to my attention that i only have FOUR transfers left after this one. for some reason, that BLEW my mind. I've only thought about how much time i have left in months... transfers go by like nothing. ah! good motivation to make each one as special and full of hard work as i can.

i love you! the gospel is TRUE and its INCREDIBLE!

love love love

sister madsen

I LOVED TALKING TO YOU ALL! :)

HEY FAM!!

oh my goodness it was SO GOOD to hear all of your voices on sunday! can i just tell you how i felt afterward? first of all, like i could conquer the world. :) but secondly, it helped remind me of what really matters: everything i go through and struggle with, all the frustrations i face when people don't progress, amounts to nothing when i really think about my family. in the end, i won't look back on my mission and think of all the little things that went wrong--i'll look at it as a whole and think of a year and a half of great service to the lord, and since i've given him that time, and if i continue to live faithfully afterwards, i get to be with MY family forever, and that's all that matters. everything else is so insignificant. I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH!! :)

we had a great mothers day. even though we're not mothers, and even though i'm in a singles ward, all the boys treated the sisters with chocolate and roses. haha. :) but the best part were the tender mercies from heavenly father: we were expecting 4 or 5 investigators at church that day. well. none showed. :( so i was tempted to be disheartened. but then our ward mission leader's less-active mother came to hear him speak in sacrament meeting, and when she showed up, we were able to reach out to her and have her sit by us. (she had us over for dinner the other week and we just came to LOVE her.) and for some reason, it just felt GREAT that she was there, and it didn't matter that none of our investigators came. and THEN, we didn't have any lessons scheduled--no one wants to set appointments on mother's day. so we went contacting, which is always draining--especially in 99 degree weather. but we ended up having three whole lessons, one with a less active who we were sure was going to reject our visit--but he came out and talked to us, and at the end of the lesson when his mom walked us to the door, she was SO grateful we had come. so it felt wonderful to make HER mothers day by helping her son. :) i love tender mercies.

also, another lesson i learned in personal study this morning is that my voice needs to match the voice of the spirit. sometimes when i'm teaching i get so overly excited to explain things that my voice and attitude is too... much. too forceful. the spirit speaks by a still small voice. i, too, need to speak humbly, simply, and with love. and that's when the spirit will back up my words and help my teach-ees feel the truth.

lastly, i want to testify that the power of the atonement is REAL. i still haven't figured it out all the way, but i feel like i experienced it this week. and it made EVERYTHING better. pray for the atonement to help you in whatever aspect of your life that you need--not just with the bad things, but with the good things, too--and i promise it will work.

i love you all soooo much! next time i talk to you it will be IN PERSON! ah! that's crazy. where is my mission going?? SLOW DOWN, MISSION!!

love,

sister madsen

when you set a goal to write about a miracle

hey again!

so. this funny thing happens. when you set a goal to write about a miracle that happened in your journal every day, all of a sudden you start noticing more miracles. weird, right?

biggest miracle of the week: we contacted a guy named joe on the street two weeks ago who said he'd randomly had a thought the day before that he should get involved helping the youth somehow, so he agreed to come check out our YSA branch and the institute. he showed up the day we agreed on and we had a short intro lesson and showed him around. he seemed to like what he heard and agreed to come to church. well... he didn't show last sunday. and he didn't respond to our texts or calls all day. :( so i was disappointed. BUT. he did text the next day and said we could meet whenever. so there was hope again, and i was relieved. :) WELL, we met him on thursday, and it turns out there's a much more than hope. he had read the whole restoration pamphlet, the intro to the book of mormon, and the testimonies of the witnesses (the last part we hadn't asked him to do). he agreed to everything we taught and it all made sense to him. and then, near the end of the lesson, we talked about what he would feel as he received his answer. he responded by saying that's how he already feels--that every time he talks to us, every time he walks in to the institute, when he reads what we give him, he feels peace and strength and GOODNESS. !! :D he said he's had a lot of experience with different churches in the past, but none felt like this one. and that when you're at church, you should never feel alone. he then went on to explain how it was so weird that we happened to run into him right after he'd had that thought, which he knew had not come from himself. and he accepted to be baptized in june. :) um. can i just tell you that my mind was BLOWN and i was screaming with joy that whole ride home??

THIS IS NOT MY WORK. THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD. and i just get to sit back and watch it happen. :)

also. what if we had never talked to joe?? what if i had given in to my fear and just let him pass by? he isn't someone i'd normally feel comfortable talking to... he has tattoos and all that... but he was walking a long with his son freddy who's three and that gave us courage--an excuse to start a conversation. divine intervention, really. and how many people have i let pass by that were THAT prepared?? it makes me want to talk to EVERYONE, so i don't miss a single one of them.

miracle number two: crutches. :) there was a young family who came to the battalion and the father decided to sit out while the rest went through the tour because he had done something to his foot and was on crutches. so he sat on the rocking chairs on the front porch. well. i decided to sit by him and talk to him.... just casual conversation. but guess what casual conversation turns into, ESPECIALLY when they can't get up and walk away from you very easy? :) it turns into an ENTIRE lesson on the restoration. and him wanting a book of mormon at the end of our little chat. :) SO COOL. and i didn't have to do anything.... just relax and start talking. ha. 10 points to heavenly father, yet again.

last miracle: we went to contact a less active who we'd met once before but was clearly into some yucky stuff... well, his mom, who we'd never met, was outside in the garage. when we walked up to her she almost started crying. i thought, uh oh... and was tempted to walk away. ha. :) but she said, "you are JUST the people i need to see today... that was like watching two angels walk up my driveway." she then went on to explain how she had a 22 year old son that she'd been butting heads with all day and she'd been having a really hard time... we explained that that's who we came to see, and she said it was a miracle. "go right on in," she said. we had a pretty good lesson and he agreed to come to church on sunday... his dad was there and said he'd take him. to be honest, i kind of doubted the boy would follow through. but their whole family came to our branch on sunday! he actually showed up! and then his mom got up and bore her testimony about us coming to her door exactly when she needed it, calling us angels again. can i just tell you how good it feels to be a servant of the lord and know that i was EXACTLY where i needed to be RIGHT when i needed to be there?? he is SO GOOD!! he knew the whole situation, and we were just trying to go about our day the best we knew how! ha. if you can't tell, my mind is still blown.

welp. that's all for the week. :) i might not have seen any baptisms in three months, and we may only have 1 progressing investigator who might end up in the family ward, but missionary work is more than baptisms and numbers. it's little miracles that all add up in the end. :) and i love it.

love you all, have a fabulous week!

sister madsen

car trouble number 2! :)

hey everyone!

it was an adventurous week! on wednesday we were on our way to our area--as in, on the FREEWAY-- and our care broke down! it started shaking and all these lights and messages started blinking on my dashboard and when i pushed on the gas it wouldn't engage until i reached like 5 thousand RPM. so i got off immediately... i was so scared that our car was going to explode or something! haha :) but we made it off the freeway alive (thankfully no one ran into us)... and even though that could have ruined my day, i actually enjoyed the adventure of it all! it put me in a better mood than i was already in! haha. i just got to enjoy the prospect of the funny situation we were about to be in and see what heavenly father had planned for us. :) we pulled over on a random road while we waited for our fleet coordinator to come save us... and outside of the little house we parked by was a little old man doing yard work. welp. naturally we decided to talk to him, considering he was the only human being in sight. :) he was such a SWEET little old man. his name was frank, and it just broke my heart talking to him. he lived alone, and it was his brother's birthday, the only family member he has thats still alive, but who lives on the east coast. he talked about how he always has panic attacks, and about how he felt like he wasn't worth anyone's time, that he just tries to do his best to live what they teach at church and not hurt anyone. we testified about the plan of salvation and about how he really COULD find happiness, that it didn't have to always be "elusively around the corner." he didn't give in to letting missionaries come by, but he expressed how glad he was that we came to talk to him... "that makes two good things that happened to me on my brother's birthday. someone offered me a puppy, and you girls came to talk to me. that makes it a good day."  !!! it was such a blessing to talk to that sweet man... we left him with a chapter of the book of mormon to read. (he already had one.) i just can't wait for frank to see how much he really means to heavenly father... that he really has worth, despite his shame-filled opinion of himself and his life.

and guess what? since heavenly father's perfect, the two appointments we would have missed because of our break down fell through anyway on their own... you know me. i would have been real stressed to miss a lesson. :) but he took care of it. he's just so good. we got dropped off at our institute and still were able to have 4 lessons, despite the set back. one of them was with elisabeth, one of our investigators. she told us she didn't want to learn any more. oddly enough, i felt really good about it. i know that i did everything i was supposed to with her. i know she felt the spirit and right now she's just afraid of the truth. and i feel like her friend... like when she sees us around she'll still be excited to see us. and i will still be excited to see her. i LOVE that girl. and in the end she'll come around, because ultimately she wants to do what god wants her to do. so i'm not worried. :) it's a GREAT feeling, knowing that i accomplished my labor in that area of the vineyard, even if it means the fruit isn't fully grown yet.

guess what else was AWESOME? :) we had a special YSA fireside with the whole region. they're called mission president's firesides, and they are composed of a missionary choir, special musical numbers by missionaries, mormon message videos, and testimonies of recent converts. oh and a message from president clayton. and they are always SO GOOD. the spirit is soooo strong.... they're specifically for the purpose of inviting nonmembers so they can feel the spirit testifying of the truth. well, we had two investigators there (one was sara, who we lost last week, but she still wants to come around to the activities). so it was great. AND, the best part of ALL, i got to see all my friends from my wonderful black mountain branch!! josh, lily, courtney, meaghan, tori, heather, oliver, paul.... oh my heart was so happy. I LOVE YOU BLACK MOUNTAIN! (i know you're reading this. ;) )

i often have the thought come to mind--and maybe i've already written about this--that i wish an apostle could be my companion. like, i think to myself, "man, if elder holland were in that lesson, there's no way we would have lost that investigator." and then it hit me. even when JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF was testifying to people, they didn't believe him. the savior of the world, the master teacher, the son of god--and people didn't listen. it's not that. it's simply people's choice to harden their hearts or ignore the spirit. if i am living worthy of my calling, i am a representative of jesus christ. i stand in his place. and i just have just as much power to influence people by the spirit as if he or elder holland were standing right beside me. :) CRAZY, huh? (haha so i guess now the pressure is just to make sure i'm living worthy of my calling! sometimes i'm pretty sure i'm not. but i just have to keep trying.)

also, i'm grateful for inspired leaders. i had a pretty crazy doctrinal discussion with elder seegmiller, the battalion director... he loves those. the discussion basically turned into him seeing straight into my soul and saying something that i really needed to hear. (talk about root cause analysis. :P) i know he spoke directly by the spirit.... it was really strong. very powerful experience.

so. it's been an eventful few days. we finally got a couple good contacts this week, too... hopefully they'll turn into solid investigators soon! we're really in need of those. so those contacts were a huge blessing from heavenly father. (he was mostly blessing sister mulipola's faith... when i get discouraged cause we don't have people to teach, sister mulipola doesn't even question. she just says awesome faith-filled prayers and things turn out. :) good thing we have companions to make up for our weaknesses!)

sorry this email was a novel. ha. so much stuff to write about! but i love you ALL and i hope you've had a great week!

love

sister madsen

mission conference! (April 16th, 2013)

hey everbody!
we had some pretty exciting things happen this week! first off, we had a mission conference (or mission tour). it's where our visiting general authority comes and speaks to all the missionaries! unfortunately there's too many missions for all the apostles to visit... plus we just heard from elder ballard a few months ago. BUT-- the cool thing is that Elder Whiting of the seventy was still called to visit our mission under apostolic authority. :) and let me tell you, it was SO POWERFUL! it was like being in the MTC all over again--hundreds of missionaries in one room, all listening to a chosen servant of god. :) he taught us about learning to follow the spirit and about the doctrine of christ. i teach people the doctrine of christ every day--yet my eyes were STILL opened to more. i can't believe how perfect heavenly father is in EVERYTHING that he does. and THEN, our mission president chose a dozen or so people for elder whiting to interview... and guess who was lucky number one?? ME! holy smokes that was nerve wracking. ;) but it was no pressure, just a little 5 minute get-to-know-you and give you a little counsel. (he said something along the lines of how mission tours shouldn't just be a big meeting--he likes to actually talk with the missionaries he's there to work with. :) he was awesome.) he asked me how my mission was for me so far, what i've learned, if i'd seen success... it was a cool opportunity for me to recognize some things the lord would have me do, coming from the mouth of a general authority. :)
the other exciting event of the week was that i got to go on exchanges with my wonderful sister miller! seeing as she's a trainer sister, she got to come to my area with me for a day. oh my gosh i love her so much! i miss teaching with her, she is SO POWERFUL! the one lesson we had with a less-active... oh my goodness, the spirit was so strong. he even said it himself--that he could feel the spirit, i mean. it was a good opportunity for heavenly father to remind me how much more effective i could be if i always taught in unity with my companion. that came a lot more naturally with sister miller... of course, she's not really human, so that's expected. but i'm going to work on teaching in better unity with sister mulipola. (don't get me wrong--mine and my companion's relationship is great. :) we love each other tons. we're just not that great at teaching together... not one of our strengths. so it's gonna be my goal.) anyway... it was great to be reunited with my best friend for a day. :) well--she's best friends with everyone. ha.
sad news of the week though... sara doesn't want to get baptized anymore. :( she was the only solid investigator we were holding on to. so that's been difficult. we're praying and fasting for a miracle with her. and to find new people that have been prepared by the lord!
that's all i've got time for! i love you all! hope you're having a fantastic week!
love,
sister madsen

the weeks are just meshing together :) (April 9th)

hi everybody,

i keep trying to think of my week and cool things i want to write you about, and i feel like my brain is in a fog! the weeks and days all start to blend together and i can't remember what i've already written about. ha. i need to be better about keeping my journal up to date so i can use that as a reference.

conference was AWESOME! we got to watch all four sessions this time... usually we have to miss one session because the battalion needs sisters on shift. but we got to switch shifts... he he. :) we watched them at the institute on saturday and at my branch president's house on sunday, on soft couches just like home, and had yummy lunches in between. :) SPOILED. the talks were amazing, of course... they mean so much more out here on a mission. i loved the plug that elder anderson gave to missionary work. :) hopefully a lot more members will have heard it and will be willing to share the gospel with their friends so we can have people to teach! i also loved sister dalton's talk... just listening to her speak and watching her face glow with the spirit made me want to be just like her in every way.... especially so i can become a strong mother who raises strong daughters who KNOW they are children of god. however, if i am going to raise that kind of children, who don't care about the world, i have to stop caring about the world myself! that leads into my other favorite talk, which was about seeking acceptance from my heavenly father. SO GOOD. i know that talk was for me. i hope you all had an amazing conference experience... that you feltl like god was speaking directly to YOU and answering all of your questions.

sara came and watched conference with us. she is pretty much the one solid investigator we have right now. :) she's pretty golden. however, she's concerned about tithing. so we are teaching it to her tonight... pray that it goes well and that she will be able to understand WHY we have it--for blessings!!

besides sara, the work is pretty slow... we have a few other investigators who we're meeting with but aren't really progressing. however, we just added a new one last night, thanks to sister mulipola! her name is cynthia. sister mulipola talked to her a couple weeks ago at the booth on the college campus... we weren't sure anything would come of it, but she actually responded to our text last night and agreed to meet with us! she agreed to take the lessons, as well. so we'll see where it goes. :)

right now we're just trying to get our members to focus on making new friends. they all just hang out with each other, so they don't have anyone to share the gospel with! pray for our branch to be able to reach out and expand their circle of influence a little bit. 

i'm sending a picture of our easter lunch! we had a zone conference and the relief society who served us lunch made it really festive. :) i don't remember if i wrote much about easter... but it was wonderful! holidays that celebrate the life of the savior are so much more powerful when you're his representative. :) HE LIVES! and he has overcome the world... which means we can, too. ;)

i love you all SO MUCH. don't forget about this little missionary out here who is cheering you on!

love,

sister madsen

 

oh and p.s. we went bowling last p-day and LOOK WHO GOT A TURKEY! yours truly. :) hope you're proud of me, sister.