Well, another week has come and gone and I'm not really sure how else to start this letter.
My talk on Sunday went great other than I had prepared WAY TO MUCH and only got to give about half of it, which is interesting considering back home the problem with giving talks was usually the opposite. But you live and you learn.
We had a lesson with Steve this week, I'm not sure how much I've talked about him but he's great. He has been less active in the church for awhile and typically goes through cycles of wanting to change and get his life back together and then out of nowhere he gives up and stops talking to everyone and goes back to how he was living before. When I came into the area it was sort of an iffy time where he had been doing pretty well and was trying to resolve his issues and get back active in the church, but he wasn't really progressing and everyone was kind of bracing themselves for him to leave again, and drop the missionaries and he just hasn't. It's so cool! I didn't really see him at his worst but just to see the change in him since I've been here has been crazy. He shaved off his huge beard, stopped wearing tanks and shorts to church and started wearing white shirts. He comes to fhe and institute, he comes to all hours of the church, he has asked us if there is a calling or something he can do to help the branch. He texts us everyday his favorite scripture he read that day. He invited his dad who is not a member to church. He asked if he could help us with lessons with our investigators, he has a goal to go to the temple now. It's been awesome
And then this week HE DROPPED US.
It was probably the most stressful day of my life. We teach him every week usually and the day after our lesson this week he texted us and said he didn't want to meet with the missionaries anymore and that he felt like he was wasting our time and wasn't progressing. Sister Ensign and I died. DIED. We called him but he didn't answer but he told us he would call later that night. So the whole entire day we were walking around stressed out of our minds. Trying to figure out what we could say to help him. Then finally he calls us and we talk about it, and he said he is moving to Minnesota in a couple months and he is worried that he relies to much on the missionaries for his spiritual progression and so when he leaves he is just going to fall away again. So he wants to kind of practice and grow on his own and see how he does. It was weirdly a very positive drop. I guess not meeting with the missionaries helps some people. Who knew?? Anyways he waited a couple days and then he started texting us again and he signed up to take us out to dinner next week so I'm pretty positive we are all still friends. YSA is weird.
Wednesday was crazy. We spent most of it in Arlington Heights which is a ways away (is that how you spell that? I have no idea) but we were walking around and it just starts pouring rain out of nowhere. And we didn't bring our coats or anything and we couldn't go back to get them because our apartment was far and we were almost out of miles so we just continued on walking around in the rain. And it kept raining and raining. Really huge and fast rain drops. After walking around for awhile in the town square or whatever it was. And we turn down the corner of the neighborhood we parked at and THE STREET HAS FLOODED. So we book it to our car to hurry and leave before we get stuck there because it was almost curfew and I'm not really sure what happened.. I don't know if I was just running too fast, or my skirt was too wet and heavy but as we are running to the car my skirt literally falls off my body IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, right off of downtown Arlington Heights for the whole world to see. I DIED. luckily I'm pretty positive we were the only ones dumb enough to be outdoors at that point so I don't think anyone else saw. Hopefully...
So we return home and start to wonder to ourselves why our zone leaders didn't tell us about any sort of flash flood warning or anything. And then we get a text from Steve WHO JUST DROPPED US. Asking if we are ok and that he saw on the news that two tornadoes had been sighted in our area. Sister Ensign and I were like WHAT IS GOING ON WHY IS NO ONE FROM THE MISSION WARNING US. I'm glad to know Steve has our backs..
Those are the main things that happened. We do have an investigator Tamara who we taught the law of chastity to, who is the cutest, but still a YSA so her life is crazy as well. Texting her is a hoot. She told us the day after our lesson she might break up with her boyfriend and move out of his house because of it. and because they just got into a fight anyway.. So we will see.
YSA... It's madness. We get drunk texts and phone calls from potentials a lot more than I thought we would. And we get to fist bump everyone in the ward. I love it
Have a blessed week
Sister Madsen
Also we got to go to the temple for a YSA regional conference. We didn't do any work inside but some people brought their friends who weren't members so we got to go on a tourwith them and answer their questions!! It was a very sly move on the members part and a great missionary opportunity haha, some of them might come to church! ALSO my iPhone/iPad photography is still goin strong
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