Swimming Along... :)

Why hello. :)

So, as if missionary time isn't warped enough... I feel like my concept of time is getting even more twisted because there's no change of season down here! (Okay... there's a slight one. But not enough to make me feel like time is going on as normal. :P) For all of you Utahns up there enjoying the fall colors, LOVE it while you have it! But hey, at least there's one thing that fall brings no matter where you are in the world... I am SO EXCITED for General Conference!! I think it's going to mean more than it ever has to me while I'm on my mission... just like the gospel means more now than it ever has in the past. ;) I LOVE OUR PROPHET AND APOSTLES. I hope you all are getting ready for it, too. We are so lucky to have such inspired men to help us out in this crazy, demanding world!

Don't have much to report on this week... there were three whole days this week that we taught absolutely ZERO lessons. :( Of course, half of our day is at the Battalion, but I'm not used to that! Our branch is so amazing that we always have lessons to teach. I haven't had a taste of the "knockin on doors with no luck" very much yet, which I'm really grateful for. (Not that we tract, anyway, but we do go to houses of former investigators when we don't have lessons to fill our time... it's very draining and not all that fruitful.) I guess it's good for me to get a taste of though. My mission is just a well-oiled machine so I'm not accustomed to all that... I'm very spoiled. ;)

Bill is doing GREAT though! He is preparing for baptism this Saturday and has gone almost 4 days without smoking!! Yay! Whatever clicked in his mind and heart has brought about a big change in his commitment. When I sat by him in Sunday school this week, he seemed to be more cheery and friendly, and I realized how much I really love that kid now! It's amazing how much you grow to love the people you serve... Heavenly Father really lets you have a taste of the joy he feels when someone he cares about comes closer to Him. Bill still has Satan working really hard on him though, so pray for him to make it this week!

Lesson of the week: Line upon line, precept upon precept. (Weird... I feel like this is a lesson I have "learned" before... funny how we have to keep learning these things over and over again, right? ;) ) As much as I have grown up in the church and supposedly should have a lot of gospel knowledge because of that, I feel super unintelligent lately!! Haha. :) I feel like there's just so much to learn still. I want to read everything--the whole missionary library, the Ensigns, the whole Bible, etc--and know everything all at once!! AND, us Battalion sisters only get HALF the personal study time as normal missionaries. :( But I am trying to learn to be happy with what gospel knowledge I'm gaining, slowly but surely. 

That's about it for this week! Hope life is going GREAT for all of you. :) I miss you and pray for you.

Love,

Sister Madsen

3 Month Mark

Hola. :)
I'd like you all to know I'm going to be famous. :) Yesterday a film crew came in to make a commercial about Old Town.... which includes the Mormon Battalion of course! I am the star of the outfitting room (one of the rooms on our tour). Ha. :) So if between October and February you can somehow figure out a way to channel into the local San Diego TV station, you'll see me there making a fool of myself on television. :)
Heavenly Father blessed us LOTS with our investigators this week! :) Vinod is doing great! He accepted a baptism date! However, we'll still trying to get him to understand that church isn't something we do just for fun and that we're different than every other church... and that baptism is a life-long commitment, not something we do just to "check out" the religion. But he's starting to feel something... whenever he comes to FHE or has lessons with us, he says he "feels good"... as well as when he prays. He's having subtle spiritual experiences, we just need to help him recognize what they mean. :) He's such a great kid though! I love it when he prays... "in the name of the Jesus... amen." He called Jesus, "the Jesus Christ." It's great.
We also added two new investigators this week! One is Raj, who is also from India. She came here just over a year ago and since then has gained the strongest testimony of God and Jesus Christ... and she was originally Hindu! She has gone through so much trying to establish herself in America, and the way she talks about God and Jesus... we were in shock. And when we told her she needed to read the Book of Mormon and follow the first principles/ordinances of the gospel she didn't even hesitate. She was all for it. :) So she accepted a date the first night we met her!! So prepared!! Unfortunately though, she told her parents back in India... and they weren't very happy. :( :( Stupid Satan. So she's not exactly planning on it anymore... but we're going to keep trying, so please please please pray for Raj, and for her parents' hearts to be softened. And the other investigator we added is Shekema. She's only 18, which is a hard age sometimes, but she seems relatively promising... like she's got a good head on her shoulders. So hopefully she'll keep our appointments. :) We're going to see her again tomorrow.
Oh! And biggest miracle of the week! I almost forgot! We have an investigator that we have been on the verge of dropping for a couple weeks now... we haven't been putting much effort into him anymore cause he's been so unresponsive. But for some reason he actually came to the Battalion when we invited him. He was with one of his member friends. After they left they had like a 4 hour conversation... and later that night we got a text that said, "Okay, Tucker convinced me. I want him to be the one to baptize me though." ???? It was SO out of the blue!!! :) :) So we're super excited for him... now we just need to get him living the commandments, which might be a little tricky, but we'll work it out. :) I can't even tell you how random and unexpected that was, but hey, guess the Lord knew he was ready even though we had no idea.
Here's a snippet (that's a word, right? :) ) from my journal this week about an awesome experience I had: "A couple came into the battalion tonight and I took them on a tour... the lady was from England and didn't seem super intrigued by the religious aspects (although she was super smiley and nice). So I prayed for help with a skill I have been really struggling with: the ability to initiate a natural, genuine conversation with visitors and THEN tying in the gospel as prompted by the spirit. And it worked! Of course, it helped that they were talkative people and had a lot of questions. :) But I didn't feel nervous or awkward the whole time I was talking to them, and I really felt the spirit throughout the conversation--we talked a lot about the church and the Book of Mormon, and even though they didn't refer, they were willing to read it. I KNOW I planted a really good seed, and after they left I just felt like that was what was supposed to happen with that couple, and Heavenly Father was proud of me. :) It felt so good!" Now if only I could remember that experience and apply it every time I talk to visitors at the battalion, I'd be in good shape... ;)
I love you all!! I know I say that every week but it's true!! :) Keep strengthening your testimony! I know that what I'm trying to do with mine... I feel like it's never strong enough. But hey that's what life's about... we HAVE to keep building our testimonies til the day we die! And someday they'll be perfect. :)
Love,
Sister Madsen

Faith & Softball :)

Hi everybody. It's me again. :)
More great miracles have happened this week, as always. Vinod and Mario are doing pretty good! We had a lesson with Mario last Wednesday night that went really well... and if things keep going well he said he'll be baptized on October 13th! He accepted a date! I was pretty nervous to ask him to be baptized, so Heavenly Father sure helped me out on that one. (SOOOO intimidating.) :) And THEN he came to sports night that night and played soccer with the branch! Hooray! He's made a few friends now, or at least has some acquaintances in the branch. Now we just have to find time to keep teaching him... he just got a new job and works everyday, so he's been turning us down quite a bit. :( Pray that we can find time in both of our hectic schedules to teach him.
Vinod also has a crazy schedule... he is taking 18 credits at two different colleges AND working part time. So we've a hard time scheduling teaching visits with him, too. But he came to FHE last night! He seemed to like it and opened up when people started conversations with him. :) We're going to see him again this Thursday, as well. He has zero Christian background whatsoever cause he's from India... So we are starting from square one, which is a little harder! But if he is ready for the gospel I know things will work out.
Lesson of the week: POSITIVE ATTITUDE=FAITH. There were two days in a row this week where Heavenly Father totally blessed me just for trying to look on the bright side. One of the days we were on exchanges... in MY area! I was leading out all by myself! AND, unlike the last exchange I had, my companion was Sister Pagel, who just got here two weeks ago! All morning while we were at our temple shift I was stressing over our plans for the night because no one was responding to my texts/calls. On top of that, I was struggling with talking to people on the temple grounds... I feel super awkward and incapable when I'm trying to testify/discern the needs of the visitors without my companion! One German couple in particular were completely unresponsive to me and I left the conversation feeling very discouraged. But I was the senior companion for the day, so I felt extra-obligated to put on a cheery face and force myself to think optimistic thoughts. So I tried my very best. Then, all of the sudden, we got a phone call from an extremely less-active who we have been trying to visit for weeks and he said we could meet with him that night! Everything started looking up from there, and over the course of the night, Heavenly Father continued to bless us with people to fill our whole time with. It suddenly clicked for me that having a positive attitude means having faith. For some reason I had never linked the two together before. (It sounds a lot more simple in this email than the way it clicked in my head... to me it was like this monumental discovery! Wish I could explain it better. :P)
Last fun things:
1. RACHEL JOHNSON CAME INTO THE BATTALION! :D :D :D soooo good to see her.
2. I GOT TO PLAY SOFTBALL TODAY!!!! Like legit softball, with real gloves and real bats and a real ball and 7 players on each team (all from my zone) on a real red-dirt field. :D :D Heavenly Father LOVES me.

Love you all! Keep the gospel rolling forth! And watch Elder Holland's CES fireside if you get the chance, it was INCREDIBLE.
Love,
Sister Madsen

Pics with Jihye & Lily

Hi everybody. :)
Aren't Sundays just the best day ever?? Heavenly Father blessed us lots this Sunday: we had SIX less-actives--Chrissy, Robbie, Blase, Angel, Josh, and Jared--show up to church this week! We have been working with/meeting with all these people for quite a while, and it was so rewarding to see them all there this Sunday! Robbie and Blase even stayed for the whole 3 hours! :) AND, on top of that, one of our investigators, Vinod, came to church, and he stayed for all 3 hours as well! (Of course, we're still trying to figure out his intentions and gain an understanding of what he thinks we do all this for. ;) But we were so happy to have him there nonetheless!) It is so fulfilling to see our efforts blessed and to watch others make their way back to Christ, even though it takes one slow step at a time.
Lily was also confirmed this Sunday! She couldn't be confirmed the day after her baptism because it was stake conference, so she had to wait a week... We were a little worried about that, but we had no reason to worry whatsoever. Her confirmation was so good! She's officially a member! Of course, she was practically a member already... we even drove her to an appointment once because it seemed so natural that we didn't even realize we were breaking the rules (we are allowed to drive members but not investigators). :P So that was probably the best day at church that I've had since I got here. I was very happy. :)
Funny story about Vinod though... we showed up to his house for an appointment on Friday and something weird happened... Another man answered the door and told us he had no idea who we were looking for. The name "Vinod" was completely unfamiliar to him. He said he'd been living there for a year and the guy we were looking for must have moved a while ago... But we had just been there teaching him in that very apartment 5 days earlier! And then the man left because he was literally on his way out the door to catch a plane. He just left us with a "sorry, I can't help you." So we called Vinod's number to figure out what on earth was going on, and a woman answered and said we had the wrong number. (He also hadn't been replying to any of our texts.) We felt like we were in the twilight zone!! Suddenly he had just disappeared... it was like he never existed and we had just been dreaming the whole time that we had been teaching him!
So we looked at the referral card with his phone number on it and compared it to the number in our phone... turned out we were one digit off. :) So we called the right number and he answered and said he'd be home in a few minutes. When he showed up, we asked him why his own roommate didn't know who on earth he was, and he said that his roommate only knows him by his last name--he had never even told him his first name before!! It was super funny. We felt bad though because he said he had been waiting for us to contact him last Sunday like we said we would so he could come to church... turns out we had been inviting a random stranger that whole time instead of him. Oops. :P Glad we worked that out though. It was really weird there for a minute.
Lesson I learned this week: "don't run faster than you have strength." I think that too often I focus on all these crazy advanced missionary skills I want to develop, and I'm trying to skip right over the basics. But when you think about it, a convert has to start from square one... we don't start teaching them about Kolob, or, as Elder Holland puts it, about the "celestial body temperature of glorified beings." We teach them about the first simple steps: prayer, scripture reading, attending church, etc. Why am I an exception? I have to master the basics before I'm ever going to develop advanced missionary skills. :) So this week I decided to start with sincere prayer. I noticed that not all my prayers are as sincere or heart-felt as they could be... and as I've started to pray with sincere, focused effort, really putting my mind and heart into it, I've noticed a big change already. Sincere prayer, as the Bible dictionary puts it, aligns our will with God's. Our desires begin to change. :) I'm still not doing it perfectly, but it's sure helping.
Last fun thing: JIHYE PARK CAME INTO THE BATTALION YESTERDAY!! :D Yay! It was soooo fun to see her! I hope all my amazing 230th ward friends are doing great. (Feel free to come down and see me with Jihye next time she visits her family in San Diego. :) )
I love you all! So does Heavenly Father!
Love,
Sister Madsen

The temple, The Spirit (Week #10)

Dear loved ones,

Guess where I just got back from?? The San Diego temple. I FINALLY got to do a session. I know you're all super jealous right now, as you should be, because it was amazing!! Don't complain if I have to drag you all down here for my wedding, kay? :) Every time I go to the temple I am so grateful for the perspective it gives me, and especially for the spirit I feel so strongly. It was such a blessing to be there today... I feel bad for missionaries that don't get to go to the temple on their missions! (Heavenly Father must have sent me here because He knew I'd need it now and then. ;) )
I had an extra amazing day last week. Here's my journal entry from that day:

Today was probably one of the best days I've had on my mission so far, if not the best! We had an amazing companionship study about prayer that was full of the spirit and made me excited about sharing the gospel! Sister Ortez and I grew a lot closer just in those two short hours. I love her so much! I'm so glad she's my companion and that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to strengthen my relationship with her today.
Then we went to the battalion it was just a nice, relaxing shift. And the spirit is always there; it just feels like home. Plus, the spirit from my studying carried right over and kept me in a good mood, which affected my interactions with people in turn... I just had a good time talking with people!! (...including the other sisters I serve with).
Lastly, we had a great day in our area! All of our plans actually went through today, which doesn't happen very often. The miracle of the day, though, was Mario. He was a referral from the zone leaders... we decided we should just show up at his house. We met this cute little branch member at our church building--he's about to head on his mission so he signed up to come out and teach with us--and he said he'd follow us to Mario's house. Little did we realize, it was forever far away! As we drove farther and farther we just prayed that he would be home so we wouldn't be wasting this poor kid's gas and time... And he was! We got to have a quick little doorstep lesson with him, and he said we could come back! We got to add him as an investigator!! :) He's super smart and seems like he'll actually give us the time of day, too. So we were very grateful and excited.
Then we had a great lesson with Jonmikel and Kasey, and Lily came too. We ended up talking about many of the things we had studied this morning about prayer--even though the whole time we thought we had been receiving revelation for another investigator! And Lily gave a great testimony. She is so solid! I love her to death.
After that we got to stay at the church for a bit and chat with a few more people and be with the branch. It always feels so good to be around them, they're just full of so much love! Heavenly Father put me in the greatest place ever. I seriously feel so blessed.
I just felt good all day. The spirit stayed with me, I felt tons of love, and I was finally able to see why missionary work is so fun and exciting. I am SO LUCKY to be here! And so thankful! I want every day to be like this. I know that probably won't happen right away, but THIS is what I'm working toward--this kind of spirit to be in my life every day of my mission. I LOVE THIS!!!

:) It was a wonderful day. And Lily got BAPTIZED on Saturday! It turned out so well. Our ward mission leader is incredible and pretty much organized the whole thing, so it took a huge load off us poor missionaries. :P I was so grateful for him. There were a good 40 or 50 people there, too, including her non-member family who came to support! And Lily was glowing. So was her friend, Josh, who performed the baptism--he was the one who introduced her to the church in the first place, and it was the first live baptism he'd ever performed! I'm so happy for both of them. President Fisler described it perfectly when he stood at the end and talked about the parable of the sower. He described the hard soil, the thorny soil, the seeds that fall by the wayside... "and then there's Lily," he said. She was definitely the rich, fertile soil that soaked up the seed and watched it bloom right away! She was so ready! Lily gave her testimony, too, and she described it as finding her "focal point," the thing that every ballerina needs to keep from getting dizzy as they spin. Life is just dizziness until we focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ. :) She's incredible! I'm so excited to see how the Lord is going to use her to bring others unto Him.
Heavenly Father also blessed me with two opportunities to follow a prompting this week, and I was rewarded each time I did. We went on exchanges this week, so for one day I was in my area WITHOUT my companion, and Sister Stirling didn't know anything about it--so I was leading out all by myself! It was scary. And right before we were about to take off, I had no idea where we were going to go. I had a few options laid out, but I just kept going back and forth and back and forth. Finally, I just went with my gut instinct (aka the spirit) and who would have known... we showed up at a referral's house and he let us in. Oh, and he listened to us. Oh, and he said we could come back. ?? :) So we added another investigator (Vinod) and I didn't even have my companion. Was that all Heavenly Father? YES!
The second time I had a prompting was to visit someone who had skipped out on our appointment the day before and didn't call us back all night... I was really reluctant to bug him again the next day (since someone who skips an appointment seems like they don't want to listen anyway) but for some reason I felt like we should. And, of course, it turned out great. :) He actually answered the phone and said we could come over, and apologized for missing the appointment. We had a great lesson with him, too! Heavenly Father is so good. Always follow promptings, everyone!
Guess who came into the battalion?? 3 of my deaf friends from back home!! I'm sending a pic with them. :) It was SO GOOD TO SEE THEM! It made my entire night. And I got to interpret the tour for them (even though I did horrible--I can't believe how rusty my signing is already). But I love it. It felt so good to sign again.
And just for fun--a man from Denmark also came in yesterday. As soon as he saw my name tag he says "That's a very Danish name!" :) I told him that my ancestors were from Denmark and my grandpa served his mission there. It was cool to make a connection with him... and we had a pretty intense gospel discussion afterward and he accepted a Book of Mormon! He also gave me his email so we could keep in touch and I could see what he thought about it. I think he'll like it.

Sorry for the long email, but I just HAD to tell you all the great things. I love you all. Life is good. :) :)
Sister Madsen

1st Zone Conference :)

Dear family and friends,
For those of you who don't know, missionaries are given a special missionary planner that's made just for us by the church, and we get a new one every transfer (they only hold enough pages for six weeks). I usually tend to write the month/date on the top of each page a few days in advance. Well... I was flipping through writing the dates a couple days ago and all the sudden the pages ran out! ...?!?!! It really freaked me out for a second. :) Ha. Can't believe transfers are just about here again--as in next week!
This was a pretty crazy week as we experienced the tragedy of losing our most valuable possession: Sister Burden finished her mission on Saturday and flew home! You never realize how much you love someone til they're not around anymore... or how much you depend on them! Sister Burden had been in the area for 3 months longer than Sister Ortez and I, so she was like our superhero and we were her sidekicks. It's almost amusing how scrambled and lost we are without her. :P The good news is that the members of our branch still love us and help us and are looking out for us. WE HAVE THE MOST AMAZING SINGLES BRANCH IN THE WHOLE CHURCH. (Okay, besides the EB3 ward when it existed.) So even though it takes us 30 minutes to read the map and get to a house that's only around the corner (I LOATHE street names--why can't the whole world just use numbers like Provo?), we're still breathing and surviving and doing our best. ;) We sure miss her though! She's so loving and funny and fun to be around... it's not nearly as great of a party without her! I love her to death!
I had my first zone conference this week. Zone conferences are 6 hours long. :) Sounds like fun, right? Ha. It was actually really great. President Clayton gave us an awesome lesson about evidences that scholars have found in the Book of Mormon that proves its true origin, and how there's NO WAY Joseph Smith could have written it. It was crazy!! I wish I could tell you all the awesome things they've discovered about it and studies they've done. But the funny thing was what he said at the end... He told us specifically not to share these things with our investigators. Why? Because a testimony of the Book of Mormon does not come from scholarly evidence. Facts and things can help assure someone of its truthfulness, but the root of someone's knowledge of its divine origin has to come by the spirit. Thank heavens, too! We don't have to prove ourselves to anyone! The spirit does it for us. :) Missionary work is SO COOL!
Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is learning how to love people. (Maybe I've mentioned this before, I don't remember.) Missionaries HAVE to learn to love people right off the bat! People are so much more willing to listen if you're speaking out of love, and not just doing it because it's your job. Not only that, but it becomes much more enjoyable for the missionary too--when we do things out of pure love for others, it's desirable! The thing is, I'm not very good at this yet. (I mean, I love people, but it's hard to love complete strangers right away.) I'm praying a lot for the ability to see people how God sees them. I want others to feel like I really love them and want the best for them. After all, if we have not charity, we are nothing.
LILY IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY! My very first baptism. :) So excited. And, miracle of all miracles, we had another lesson with Moises and Reuben yesterday, and they said that if they get an answer that it's true, they'll be baptized on September 29th. We actually committed them to a date! On our second meeting! PLEASE, please pray for their hearts to be softened enough to receive an answer.
I love you all. Thank you so much for your love and prayers for me!
Until next week,
Sister Madsen

New Investigator, A "Bishop Larsen Moment"

Dear everyone,
AAAHHH! I only have 17 months in the field and one of them is already gone?? You've got to be joking.
Time is such a weird thing. I'm glad that after we die we won't have to worry about weird things like linear time. :) I've been thinking a lot about how I've used my time for the first part of my mission and if the Lord has approved of how I've chosen to use it. I'm sure that He is proud of many of the things that I've done, but I'm sure there's also room for improvement. I know I've written about this before, but time is so precious out here and I really don't want to waste it--yet sometimes I still do! So one of the things I'm working on is recognizing when I'm wasting time worrying about myself... and then focusing.
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: we finally, FINALLY added a new investigator yesterday!!! :) :) :) His name is Moises. He is a very strong Christian (he goes to some community christian church). We're actually teaching both him and his brother (who is only 17--not technically part of our ward since we're YSA) and they both know the Bible cover to cover. It created a few problems for us as we were teaching them--they were whipping out scriptures like I've never seen and explaining why they believe that God and Jesus Christ are the same person. It was pretty tricky! But in the end we just explained that regardless of our differing beliefs, we weren't there to convince them of anything... we were there simply to invite them to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it's true. We also taught them about personal revelation and how they could go to God Himself with their question about whether or not God and Christ are the same person--they don't have to take our word for it. They committed to read the fist chapter of the Book of Mormon and to pray and ask if it's true, and then they said we could come back and teach them more. :) :) :) Rewarding?? YES. Pray for Moises and Reuben to have their hearts softened as they read the Book of Mormon--we need them to be open-minded!
Another great thing that happened this week was a lesson with one of our less actives... one that actually ended up being for ME. We read a talk with him by Elder Bednar about the atonement. In it, he explains that the journey of life is to put off the natural man and to go from bad to good, and then good to better. Most members of the church understand the healing and cleansing power of the atonement--this is what helps us go from bad to good. But many church members don't understand another part of the atonement: the strengthening and enabling power that helps us go from good to better. After we have completed the first principles/ordinances of the gospel, we have to keep progressing from "good" to "better"... oftentimes we try to do it on our own by setting goals, recognizing our weaknesses and improving them, etc... We are not supposed to do it on our own! In fact, we can't. And eventually we'll realize that. Well. I realized it this week. :P We are supposed to continually use the atonement to strengthen us as we keep progressing and keep getting better. How are we supposed to get closer to perfection without the help of the only perfect person who has ever existed? Why do we try to do so?? I don't know if I'm making sense, Elder Bednar says it a lot better. Read it. :) But it hit me really hard as we were teaching him, cause I feel like I'm having trouble progressing, yet I haven't asked for the help I need from the enabling power of the atonement. So that's another thing I'm gonna work on. Cool principle, huh?? The gospel is incredible.
Also, I had a Bishop Larsen moment this week. :) For those of you who attended the EB3 ward, you know that every time he would teach us, he started with the plan of salvation. Why? Because we all need that perspective. :) We taught a lesson about the plan of salvation this week, and it was just so refreshing and exciting! As we talked about each step of the plan and really felt the spirit, I just realized how GREAT it's going to be when if we can just endure to the end!! This earth life is such a short time, and all we have to do is get through it and do our best to enjoy it and follow Christ... and we're rewarded with eternal happiness and glory!! I'm so excited for that time. :)
That's about all the time I have this week. I love you all!! Thanks for your prayers that I know are being sent my way!
Love,

Sister Madsen