deja vu July 17, 2017

Today is my golden month mark because I hit 17 months today (which.. is the 17th) and it is weird! Time just cruises on by and I'm not really sure when it will hit me but that will not be a fun day.. and this transfer in general has gone by really fast. I can't believe the next time I write you July will pretty much be gone. I don't know where it went! I think it has to do a little with the fact that Sister Muhlestein and I are so busy and we get along so well. I have never felt so unified in my life! I say this every week but I really can't figure out how to explain it other than we are just the same. But different enough that it works. But pretty much the same. Ok. You still don't get it but I DO and some day I will be a better explainer. 

I am just going to cut to the chase and let you all know that Jim is actually not getting baptized. Yes.. this is for real happening to me.. again! I don't even want to count how many times someone has almost gotten baptized and then like a week or two before it doesn't happen. There is a quote about how no one is going to know if they have endured to the end until they are safely dead with their testimony burning inside of them. And I think you can say the same about baptism. Missionaries can not know for sure if their investigators are going to be baptized until they are safely dunked 

A little background is that Jim was only here in Rockford temporarily for work and they kept extending his employment because they needed him and THEN on Wednesday, HOURS Before his baptism interview he texted us and told us he was going to move back to Indiana this Friday. And that his employer had told him that he was done in Rockford and they didn't need him anymore And Sister Muhlestein and I were like "Lol Jim so funny stop pranking us" and it turns out he wasn't.. 😑 we had a final meeting with him that night instead of his baptism interview. Tears were shed. But I know it is for the best. It will be good for him to get baptized where he actually lives and can already have that support from that Ward to help him and welcome him when he gets baptized. But it is sad we won't be able to be there

I will never laugh again when I hear a story about one of the Hermanas investigators moving to Mexico a week before their baptism

But we made two Elders in Indiana very happy this week so that was cool.

Besides that this week has been pretty crazy but pretty fun! We went on exchanges to Elgin and Belvidere! It was weird being in Elgin because I served in that area last summer when I was in the YSA and the whole time I was a little freaking out in my brain but sister Willes helped me keep my cool haha! And the Belvidere Sisters just crack me up so that was fun. Belvidere is a little tiny crazy town so it was fun to go back there too.

Carol came to church again this week and stayed for all three hours! She loved it. She also told us she was thinking about becoming Mormon and asked us if she was good enough or worthy enough in the middle of a lesson and Sister Muhlestein and I lost our minds. So we are working with her on that. She also talked a lot about the Beatles again and how much she hates Yoko Ono and it killed me 

Something I thought about a lot this week was that we knew what our life was going to be like before we even got here. And we were PUMPED. Even though we knew how hard it was going to be. And my spirit knew I needed to go on a mission. I'm still not sure why, but I'm glad I'm here. But now I hope I can remember that when I am going through something hard, that in the life before this one I knew this was going to happen, and I still came down here! So there has to be a reason for it and something better is just around the river bend 

Before I end this email I just really want to make sure everyone knows that I love sister Muhlestein A LOT and we have had such a fun transfer together and I hope we get another one together. But we will see

sister madsen 

Elgin exchange! We were teaching this lady Sally on her porch and I said a prayer at the end and I opened my eyes and her cat was just sitting inside my bag

And this is Sister Willes! She is awesome! Her and I both like roller and ice skating and it was fun to spend the day missionarying with her! 

Look at this persons YARD. 

The Belvidere Sisters live above an Italian food place and we got cannolis 

And Belvidere is just insane 

💥🌪☀️🇺🇸🌽July 10, 2017

Hola!! This week we went on exchanges with the Rockford Hermanas and I learned how to introduce myself in Spanish. Also I love Hermana Ward because she is so HARD CORE. We shared Galesburg together when I was there and I was sad I wasn't able to be around her when I got transferred but now HERE WE ARE and we got to be companions for the day. She cracks me up. 

The two most important things that happened this week was we had a lesson with Carol and she misunderstood an announcement that was made at church and thought it was going to be closed but in reality it was the temple that was going to be closed. When she realized that and that she could come to church this Sunday she quietly said yesssss to herself in the middle of the lesson and I was dying. She's the greatest. Hopefully we can talk to her more about baptism soon. AND THEN when she came to church there was a member talking about the Book of Mormon and he was talking about the different styles of writing and he was going off on the things it talks about in 1&2 Nephi and Carol turns to us and tells us it says "and it came to pass" sooo many times and then the speaker says the exact same thing after her. I was DYING!! We all were. She liked his talk so much she clapped afterwards. She is awesome. She is in Mosiah right now. I love her. She is a widow and we are so excited to teach her about the plan of salvation and temples this week!! 

Jim is still steadily working towards being baptized on the 22nd I don't know if I have talked a lot about him but some background is that he requested a Book of Mormon because of a Facebook ad. He had a lot of common misconceptions that Sister Muhlestein and SISTER WALLACE (mvps) were able to clear up and then he asked if the could come back and teach him more. And then every lesson that he has been taught has been about something that he had been struggling with or was something he had questions about that very same week and then the sisters would teach him about it. And it freaks him out how on point the lessons always are. But in a good way.. anyways he is being baptized and it is very exciting and cool and the Ward loves him! The bishop came back in town this week so I got to meet him and he is awesome. We had a great lesson with him and Jim on Sunday and the spirit smacked all of us. He will be interviewed this week and baptized the next. Jim is cool because he helps me to realize how small our role is as missionaries. Most of missionary work is character building I have decided haha. And we work and work and try to get people to a certain point where they will do something but it is literally all just Heavenly Father. He has such a hand in everyone's lives and is doing so many things to prepare these people. We just picked the lessons to teach Jim and Heavenly Father helped him during the week to have things happen that would make him have the desire to know things about the word of wisdom or tithing or whatever. And the spirit is all testifying and he is like "you sisters are something else!!" But we literally did nothing.

Heavenly Father is awesome and we just work here. I have been out for this long and I still don't know what we do to be honest haha

In other news on the fourth we had to be in by 7 pm BC Americans are crazy and sister Muhlestein and I partied HARD CORE we went crazy it was wild!!

Actually. we both just wrote in our journals the entire time and then went to bed as early as possible. Wild!!!!!!

Stay cool 😎

-sister madsen

Selfless selfies. A gift for you 

Exchanges! With Sister Jagielski and again with the Hermanas

#usa

#utah

It's good to be a missionary July 3, 2017

I am trying to thing of what happened this week but I am very unfocused BECAUSE THE GREATEST THING JUST HAPPENED. Since we are in Rockford aka mini Chicago aka less than an hour from FREEPORT some of my bffs came to visit me!! I love them and miss them so much! But I am glad I got to see them before they move out west! It was so nice. Heavenly Father has been so good to me my entire mission. And it has just been great getting to see what He has in store for me. His plan is perfect

SO remember how we had nine investigators last week? Guess how many of them kept their return appointments?? A grand total of ONE. Wow. 

But President Griffin once said if every 1/20 people we find gets baptized then we will find 20 new people, drop 19 and baptize one. So there you have it

But this week has been good. As has every other week in Rockford. I love it here. Our investigator Carol came to church unexpectedly and it made my Sunday. She is the one who is a hippy and we have a senior sister who was also a hippy so we introduced them and it was a match made in heaven. They were peace signing all over the place

Jim is still doing good and is still on date. 

We went on exchanges with the Sisters from Elgin and it was so fun! Sister Jagielski and I were companions and she is such a hard worker and we found TWO new investigators. Within minutes of each other and it was on the same street. Ones name was Dave and he ended up being the person this week that kept his return appointment!! Miracles

We also met this guy named Skyler who we taught the entire first lesson to on his porch and invited him to be baptized and he said yes. It was insane!! But there is no time to waste here so Sister Muhlestein and I will just be here every week going crazy. I love it and I am having a lot of fun and so thankful to be on a mission! 

No regrets

Sister Madsen 

MY FRIENDS!!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! I can't even talk about it

Me and Dea. finally! 

Me and JUDY and Dea and Lashay and Roschea and Malachi and Keynora 

La'shay. Still takin selfies 

Also I forgot so here is a mini story: we have started doing a Book of Mormon class once a week and this week was WILD. It was going good until an alarm started going off about a storm warning in the middle of class. And then another one did and it said tornado warning. And then we opened the windows to look outside. And then the tornado sirens started going off. And then we were stuck in the church will all the young men and young women and scouts and whoever else for TWO HOURS. It was a real bonding moment 

Especially when senior sister Greene started running outside into the lightning for fun.