A long train of thought from the Galesburg train yard February 20, 2017

Hey, this last week I made a lot of mistakes so the sacrament was AWESOME.
We saw a lot of cool miracles that made me scream in the car which is
always 10/10 But the best was that this less active lady we have been
working with named Gail who hasn't come to church in years came to
church and I almost died. Her grandson got baptized on New Years and
we have been attempting to teach him the new member lessons and for
some reason the restoration hasn't been very clear to him so we
decided to watch the hour long restoration to help him out and we got
Gail to watch it with us as well. Now. I've seen this movie mucho
times.. but the spirit was like, THERE, in that room. We are all
watching and I'm crying, I sneakily look over to the left and Sister
Dimond is crying, I look over to the right and Gail is crying. Then
I'm crying even more. Nick, I can't remember what he is doing. But the
important part is Gail is crying. At the end of the movie they show my
homie the salt lake temple and I'm crying EVEN MORE. The movie ends.
We all talk about it. Gail is crying. Talking about all these things
we have because the gospel has been restored. The only thing Nick says
is "we killed Joseph Smith" like 5 times. because, Illinois. The
spirit prevails. We testify of the restoration and before we can leave
Gail asks us what time church is and I almost fall over. That was on
Thursday so we weren't sure if she would come because there are a lot
of people who tell us they are going to come to church and then they,
don't. But we walk into the chapel, see the other family the
Bickerstaffs who we are trying to help go to the temple, and I'm all
pumped. And then I turn my head and I see GAIL and it was crazy and I
was happy and it was awesome. I love the message of the restoration
for so many reasons and the amount of reasons just grows on my
mission. Also I've been out a year now. Weird. Anyways. If we didn't
have the restoration we would still have Jesus Christ. But we wouldn't
know him the way we do because of it. We wouldn't have the
relationship with him that we do and we wouldn't have temples and we
wouldn't have the fullness of the gospel and we wouldn't have the
knowledge that God speaks to us TODAY. Because the Book of Mormon is
the key stone to our religion all issues with our testimony ultimately
fall back on it and the restoration. So there you go. If you have
problems read the Book of Mormon. All of the scriptures we have are
wonderful. But it is through the Book of Mormon that we are able to
obtain a testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that this church
is the real deal.
I have really been able to see how Heavenly Father consecrates every
small effort and expounds it like he did with the 5 loaves and two
fishes. All I did with Gail was press play. All we do all day is open
our mouths and talk to people. All we do is hand them the Book of
Mormon. All they do is read it and pray about it. And it's so simple.
AND IT CAN CHANGE ENTIRE LIVES. AND FAMILIES. AND COMMUNITIES. AND
GENERATIONS. And it's all because of Heavenly Father. He is so
intricately involved in all of our lives and He is so smart and he
uses little things and brings to pass big things. Listen, we watched
17 miracles the other day in relief society and I haven't stopped
freaking out about it. But thats another email for another day. Some
people have to give so much. I don't know how to end this email but
life is good and being a missionary is the greatest and this has
basically just been a year of blessings that I had no idea were going
to happen and now they are going to bless me for the rest of my life
and if anyone is thinking of serving a mission, DO IT. It's hard but
you'll be fine and you will be blessed forever
ok love you bye
👵🏻sister madsen👵🏻

Also this week I told a lady that reading the scriptures is the
equivalent of stalking God on Facebook so there's something for you to
think about

You thought I was lying???????? Think again. More selfies

A very blurry Peoria zone

Lovest Thou Me? February 13, 2017

This week is great, sister Dimond is great. She is on 🔥fire🔥if I hadn't been told that this was her last six weeks of the mission I never would have been able to guess. She had a cool idea that we should make a goal to pass out two Book of Mormons a day and when she said that I was like uhhhh but then we have been able to do it every day so far so that's really cool! She is a great missionary. One of the people we were able to give one to was named Joe and he had literally gotten out of jail that very morning which was insane. But really cool. We were definitely put into his path, he has the chance to turn his life around and he said he thinks this book might help him do that! Which was cool. We are going to see him next week.

I will keep this email short so I can hopefully have time to email everyone I have missed these past couple weeks because I've been slacking!! But I have just felt the spirit work through me so much this week. It's been kind of freaky, but really cool at the same time. I know this is Heavenly Fathers work! And that he uses us when he knows we are ready and act on the things we are told to do. I feel like this has been the theme of my entire mission, way back to being trained with sister smith, but the theme is JUST DO IT. I know.. someone should come up with a company that says that or something... but sometimes there are things that are hard or weird or confusing. But we just need to do them. In Jesus the Christ it talks a little about the Good Samaritan and how those who passed by had plenty of excuses and reasons not to help the man who had been robbed. And excuses are easy to find. But the Good Samaritan had no excuse because he didn't look for one. He didn't want one. Same with me. And you. And everyone. There are plenty of reasons not to choose the right if we look for them. But we don't have to look for them. Choose the right because you want to. And if you don't want to, change yourself so that you want to. And that type of change comes through becoming like Jesus Christ and having the desire to follow him and keep his commandments because we love him. When we want to follow Jesus we won't look for reasons not to.

Ok bye

Sister Madsen

Us with some of The Congo fam 

Sister Dimonds favorite hobby is taking selfies 

The time is far spent February 6, 2017

Hello I have the smallest amount of time in the world to email because
sister Wallace and and I have been running around town because this is
her last day!!! She is getting transferred back up to Chicagoland in
Elgin! And I am staying down here and Sister Diamond is coming here
for her last transfer!! This week was 20/10 so I am sad I have no time
to email about it. But I'll give you a couple highlights
*the most spiritual lesson about the restoration I have ever taught.
We taught to a couple who are coming back to church and want to be
sealed in the temple SO BAD. And so we taught the restoration and then
the sister asked us to share our testimonies of Joseph Smith because
she knows testimonies get strong when you hear others. So we did that
and it was just wow. Joseph Smith is the prophet who restored the
church back on the earth
*I realized why I am on a mission
*a family fed us during the super bowl and it was make your own pizza
and it was glorious and I was stuffed. And then they made ice cream
cake. And then I was more stuffed and felt like going home and laying
down forever. Then we went to an appointment with Nana who is apart of
the Congo family who are already members. And they were eating dinner.
And they offered us dinner. And you DO NOT say no to Congo people. So
we had to eat even more  fed us this crazy stuff called Fufu and it is
this corn dough that you eat with beans or with this juice that has
seeds and some sort of fish and bug in it. And the corn dough like
expands in your stomach and I literally cried afterward I was so
stuffed.
*we made dream catchers
*dodged getting caught in the middle of a long running feud between
two families in the Ward
* we tried to have a lesson with Angel but she spent the whole time
talking about all of her dead pets. Most of which were MURDERED. She
had some kittens that literally had a hit on them
There is more but I can't remember I'm sorry but also no regrets I
love you all, have a good week
Sister Madsen

I am finally reunited with my true love

Here is a picture of the Peoria zones featuring the top of my head.
Us and the hermanas
Sister Wallace and some of the Murhulas!!