It Happened! March 7th

The news I am referring to in my subject line is that I have finally taught a lesson!!! It was cool. We got a referral from the Elders and we had been trying to get a hold of her all week but she were never home and wouldn't answer our calls. But on Friday night Sis Smith was like "let's go visit her" and they were on the whole opposite side of our area but we went anyway and she was home!! And had a bunch of friends over! And they let us in!! And the next thing I knew we were teaching the restoration to all of them. I pretty much had no idea what was going on the whole time but it was still cool. Good thing sister smith has taught people before. Anyways a couple of them left the room to get food from the kitchen and sis smith immediately turns to me and is like INVITE THEM TO BE BAPTIZED and I was like noooooooo I don't even know how. And I think she thought I was saying that because I was scared. But in reality I had suddenly forgotten everything I learned in the MTC and I seriously didn't know what I was supposed to do. Sis smith was like "just do it anyways!!" And I was shaking my head and then they all came back in the room and sat down waiting to be taught and there was silence. I realized that sister smith was basically forcing me to talk so I turned to all of them and popped the question saying "I love the Holy Ghost so like, will you guys be baptized?? Sometimes I wonder why the Lord didn't call me to a foreign speaking mission, and sometimes I remember. Needless to say they said no. But sister smith was persistent and committed them to prepare for a date and she pretty much salvaged the whole lesson. It was great. And sis smith and I were laughing for like 10 min in the car afterwards bc I did so bad. And that happened every time I ever invited anyone to do anything at the MTC too, they ALWAYS said no. It was hilarious, even typing this now sister smith and I are laughing about it. At least I know what I need to improve on. Presentation is EVERYTHING. I'm glad we at least have a second lesson with them next week, but we might have to give them over to the YSA missionaries which bums me out but sis smith keeps reminding me that we are all on the same team so it's fine I guess. We have found a lot of people this week through family history. Most people don't really want to talk/aren't interested in religion bc they already have their own (also last week everyone was Lutheran, this week everyone is Catholic. I don't understand..) but they will totally talk about family history. And we slowly sneak the gospel in there. Anyways we have found a lot of people this week, who we end up having to send to other missionaries bc they are either in their 20s or aren't from our area or don't speak English.(Also in case any of you were concerned the Hermanas brought me a pillow so it's fine. I love the Hermanas ) It's crazy. It's good that we are finding people though. The next step is to figure out how to find ~our~ people. The ward here is great. We had 4 lessons fall through this week, all of which we were going to have members at, and two of them were with the same member!! I always feel bad when that happens bc we get the members hyped and ready to help us teach and then there ends up not even being a lesson and we look like idiots. But the members are always nice about it. The lady who came with us when two different lessons fell through was like "oh snap!! And then she puts an arm around each of our shoulders and says we will get them next time. I love her. And she always brings us food for no reason. It's great. This other member saw that we didn't have any meals this week and took us out to lunch at panera and I almost cried it was so sweet. But my favorite member story so far is of this Elderly Man named Brother Rann in our ward who sent us a referral for this guy he met at work. Now first of all Brother Rann is like in his 70s and plays the organ during sacrament and he used to be in some sort of band and he rocks out, he is my hero. He works for Uber for fun and that's how he met the referral because he was driving him home from his karate class. Which it self is amazing, but the story gets even better. The referral didn't want to meet at his house so a member said we could have it at theirs. Brother Rann wanted to come as well bc it was his referral and he said he would pick him up and meet us at the members home. Inevitably this lesson fell through as well but brother Rann decided to show up anyways and have dinner with the Johnsons too. It was crazy. He brought over some brownies and started to tell us all about how much he loves to bake and watch tv and how he's worried he is becoming a couch potato.. I'm not sure how this happened but we got on the subject of dogs (which, I guess if you are talking to me dogs are bound to come up in the conversation) and brother Rann is like don't even get me started on dogs, I've got 5 at my house right now and a new batch of puppies!! And I FREAKED. OUT. Why we didn't plan on having the lesson at brother Rann's house I will never know. Anyways he started talking more about the dogs and then he reveals to us that only two of the dogs are his, and rest are foster dogs WHAT. he does foster care. FOR DOGS. I didn't even know that this was an actual thing but now it has become one of my life goals. Anyways one of the foster dogs had puppies and no one even knew she was pregnant so now his house is crazy. He told us that all missionaries should be required to carry puppies bc they are people magnets, he is a genius I wish he worked at church HQ so we could all walk around with puppies. I love that man. And then on Sunday he was rocking out on the organ at sacrament and was doing his own solo pieces in the middle of hymns it was great. I felt like I was apart of motab. I love him he's the coolest old man I've ever met he's cooler than me. He is everything I want to be in life I don't even care if that sounds weird that's how great he is. The members here are awesome and I feel so blessed to be able to be around them they are great member missionaries who are always asking to help us out. Now we just need to find some people so that they can!!The new Easter video for the church came out yesterday and I hope you all get the chance to watch it. Yesterday we shared it with a less active member and she started crying and then I started talking to her about it and I started crying and then I look at Sister Smith and she's crying too and we were all just sitting in the corner of this McDonald's crying. America is great, and you can feel the spirit anywhere. Stay gold Sister Madsen Also I really liked this scripture this week Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it And if anyone is looking for a good talk to read: Stay in the Boat and Hold On by Elder M. Russel Ballard is a good one