Three is a gang March 27, 2017

Hello world. I am in Peoria now and it's cool. Downtown by the river reminds me a little of salt lake which is weird. Because no mountains. But it's the Elders area so we only go there about once a week to do service. I haven't shared a Ward with elders for awhile but I don't think I like it because if there is a place that is even remotely crazy they give it to the elders. But we were talking to this 80 year old lady in her door way and she told us she had to leave because she "Finna go to bed" and that made me smile.

Being in a trio is interesting and good. You always have a buddy. Also we were in this gated community the other day and the houses were huge and I felt like I was in alpine and it was bizarre because the places I've been for the past 7 1/2 months you could probably fit 5 of those houses into one of these ones here. But it is a pretty mixed up area. We've got some city folk and a college and also a lot of doctors and engineers and people who work at Caterpillar

We are teaching a lot of pretty solid people as well so that is exciting! 

Also sometimes trio is hard because you run out of food fast and also you are always late for everything. Always. But we will get the swing of things..

There are a lot of stores here that I forgot existed and it is a problem. 

The Ward.. is HUGE. I doubt I will be able to learn everyone's names. I was thinking about it and I started in the city in Wheaton and the Ward there was pretty big. Then I went to the YSA where probably 10-15 people came. And then Freeport where it was a little more than that and then Galesburg was a little bit bigger than that and then here it is huge. It was like a slow build up back to a big Ward now. We use the overflow and everything.

Women's conference was great Linda K Burton is awesome. It inspired me to start making a list of things I am certain of. Which was really cool because I actually know a lot more than I realized so I'm starting a sort of testimony journal that I can always look back to when my faith or the faith of someone I know may be tested. I know that the spirit is a gift from God. Aka the gift of the Holy Ghost lol. And that gift gives us confirmations of things that are true. And we are blessed with the things that we can confidently say that we KNOW are true. Those testimonies can only have come from Heavenly Father and he has given them to us. And I know that we will all be responsible for how we use those gifts or talents that we have been given and that our testimony falls into that category as well.  D&C 88:81 

Ok.. well I gotta go get a haircut now. Have a good life 

Sister Madsen 

Sister Dimond gave me these awesome adult socks.

And the last selfie we ever took.. 

We had to take all of sister Fugals luggage as well as mine in this tiny car for I want to say three hours.. 

good times 

Ain't that wack March 20, 2017

I've been running around all day in a turtle neck and pigtails in case you wanted a visual for how these past couple of days have gone since we got transfer calls. Even though I knew that I was definitely going to get an transfer call I did NOT expect to revive the news that I received. Sister Dimond is leaving Galesburg and so am I. Ain't that wack!!! Elders are coming in. I am a little annoyed that this keeps happening to my areas so I am trying to figure why that is. But I can see why Galesburg needs Elders. But I am bummed. On Monday we got a new investigator. On Thursday he ended up dropping us. But THEN on Saturday we got two new investigators!! And they are both from the Congo. And I was so happy and so pumped because I LOVE THE CONGO PEOPLE. And then that night we got transfer calls and I found out I was leaving and I cried and cried. And then on Sunday we taught another new investigator from the Congo!! We taught three back to back to back lessons and then had to go to a dinner appointment and I could barely speak normal English. One of the new investigators is named Sarah and she is friends with the Hermanas investigator who just got baptized on Sunday. And she LOVES US. And makes us sing at our lessons. And is just the greatest and very prepared and talked about how in the Bible it says that there will be many false prophets before the second coming and we were like YES!! And we taught about the apostasy and how we can know the truth through the spirit and she looked at us and said she needed to pray about all of this and that she knows God has the answer and he will answer her. It was awesome. And then in our lesson on Sunday we told her we were leaving and she was so sad and hugged us and we all sang I am a child of God and I cried a lil and I will miss her.

This week I learned about how we can better understand the atonement the better our prayers are. We were meeting with Angel and she was going OFF about everything and how she's gotta pray for everyone and all the bad people and the good people and she prays for them because she has to and maybe they aren't even praying for themselves and it hurts her heart and she was just going off about how she can only imagine how Heavenly Father feels about us, and about His son. When he was suffering for us. And He took our loads off our backs and placed them on His. But that no one took that load from Him. It just kind of hit me that the more you pray for and care and understand people the more you are able to slightly understand Jesus Christ. And the worry and the urgency that he feels for us. Prayer rules. Say your prayers. Say long prayers. Think about what you are going to say before you pray. And after you are done just sit there and listen.

Ok bye

Oh. Transfers.. I am going to Peoria and I am going to be in a triYO with Sister Morales and Sister Fugal 😎

Sister Madsen 

Us going to King Gyros for the last time 

Us with Sarah!! 

And Gail who came to church again :)))))))

And Sister Mahoney who is the coolest member in Galesburg 

And dear Sister Georgia Simmons. She is great and served a mission when she was 40. Anything is possible. 

This week in selfies:

Us on st Patrick's day 

Us when no one comes to English class

Us at the greatest store called the Calico Cat 

Twist and shout March 14, 2017

This week was a really good one and I am sad it will be over and that

this transfer will soon be over too because Sister Dimond rules. She

has really helped me a lot and she is just a stellar missionary.

Bomb.com We talked about not being companions anymore and it was

really corny and dramatic and we cried and I just love her. Officially

everyone except two people have been dropped in our area Book and so

we have been working hard and we're able to find a lot of new

potential people which I am excited about!! I love how hard Sister

Dimond works and how much fun we have too. This last week with her is

going to be SICK.

The weather has been crazy. This morning we woke up to 5 inches of

snow! But on Tuesday there was a tornado.. but the little dead boy of

Galesburg prevailed and nothing happened to our town. The night of the

tornado both Sister Dimond and I woke up about 11:30 from all the wind

and lightning that was happening and I was super tired so I just laid

there for a really long time. Then I decided to go look and see what

it looked like outside and in the process of getting up I knocked the

phone over and the screen lit up and it said we had 5 MISSED CALLS.

And they were from our zone leaders and we had s bunch of ominous text

from them as well. So we text them back asking what is going on and

all they text back is "seek shelter NOW" so I tell Sister Dimond and

she shoots out of her bed and is grabbing things and we start to get

ready to go to the basement. THEN the city tornado sirens start going

off and Sister Dimond is DYING and drops everything and just yells "we

have GOT to go" as she leaves the apartment 😂. Storms are NOT her

thing. So I catch up with her and we run down to the basement and call

the zone leaders and they kindly let us know we are in the worst part

of the storm and to sit tight. So we stayed there and waited for the

storm to pass and it sounded insane outside. And then the next morning

we go outside and nothing was wrong. With anything. Sister Dimond was

so mad hahahaha. Sometimes that happens in life though. In the moment

and in your brain sometimes you are freaking out and thinking

something is terrible and making it this big huge deal and then when

the moment is over you realize it wasn't actually that bad. That

pretty much has summed up my time on a mission so far hahaha

That's all for this week

Sister Madsen

P.s. I am pretty sure I accidentally created a situation where we are

going to be eating catfish at a members home in the near future. Pray

for me.

Our church in the middle of the corn field
Free masons are everywhere...

A fraction of the selfies on my device

Exchanges happened

And Sister Dimond and I realized we had never taken a selfie at the Walmart

TornadNO March 7, 2017

Heyo

This week there were tornado warnings every which way but nothing happened. We were at a Members house and teaching them and then all of the sudden they rushed us out of the house and said "YOU NEED TO LEAVE BECAUSE A TORNADO IS COMING" which I feel like was the opposite of what you are supposed to do if a tornado is coming and someone is at your house. Sister Dimond was dying but we were fine. They passed between Galesburg and a recent convert told us later that week that Galesburg is protected and she knew nothing was going to happen when the tornado came because their is a little boy buried at the bottom of a church downtown who was SACRIFICED for something and so he protects us???? We are looking into it. 

This week people started coming to English class which is awesome and fun and also sometimes I need like an hour after class before I start talking normal instead of broken English again. But it's my favorite. We put up flyers at the laundromat and that seems to have mad a difference.

Sister Dimond told me there were angels in our room the other night.. Which I guess is better than the alternative.

Our Bishop lost his mind at PEC yesterday and it was awesome. He is great and really wants to help and change things to make them better so that the Ward will be stronger and it's just cool to see. He has been coming against some resistance lately but but keeps going for it and pushing people to do more. It's awesome. I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE CARE ABOUT THINGS. The day I'm not able to go to PEC or Ward Council will be a sad day. 

Zone training was good! I was called to repentance a lot. It was awesome.

Missionary work has been going good. I have trying to be more focused lately and because of it I have been feeling a lot better about things which is awesome. It's a weird concept but the more you commit yourself to work or to Heavenly Father or whatever it is that you are trying to do that might be hard, the more dedicated you are to it the easier it is and the better you feel.

When I was fasting the other day I was thinking about the pioneers and WOW. They are hard core. 

Say your prayers everyone! 

Bye

🌪Sister Madsen🌪

This weeks selfies:

1) #trains (we are always stuck behind trains in Galesburg) 

2) we drive with the hermanas to district meeting and they had to pick up a mirror on the way home so we couldn't see them 

3) a buffalo 

4-end) just.... an insane amount of selfies 

This one is a shawty February 27, 2017

What has happened? Nada. But that's fine. The work will go on.

Galesburg is cool. It was one of those weeks where it went by really

fast and was all a blur and then Saturday was super long and nothing

happened but we gave away like four Book of Mormons and the people

weren't interested but they took them anyways so that was cool. We

went on exchanges to Morton and the Ward and the missionaries work so

well together there that I was speechless. Sister Dimond and I

accidentally stayed up really late talking one night and then felt

like zombies the rest of the day. But as soon as we got out the door

it was fine for a little bit and then we got in the car and felt tired

again, and then we would get out and talk to someone and not feel

tired or at least we would forget we were tired. Every time we were in

the car or apartment though we were tired it was crazy. Heavenly

Father helps us accomplish his work. It's cool! I'm still tired.

Sister Dimond is cool. She had to sign up for an institute class this

week so that was weird. Also we dropped a lot of people. We went to do

service at a less active members house and she ended up just taking us

out to lunch? It was awesome. This is a bad email and nothing connects

together but let's just roll with it OK? We got ahold of Tati who is

from the Congo and used to be coming to English class but hasn't been

lately. Anyways he answered the phone and said hello? All confused and

we said hi Tati! And he said oh!!! My sisters my sisters hello! Yes!

My sisters my sisters hi my sisters. It was the cutest. Illinois is

great and I have run in to two people this week that I had previously

contacted so that was crazy. Galesburg is a lot bigger than Freeport

but sometimes it feels smaller. Does that make sense? Anyways.. keep

the commandments! Love you bye

👩🏼‍🌾Sister Madsen👩🏼‍🌾

Exchanges! I went with Sister Waters who is the nicest human alive

Oh Illinois

And of course, Sister Dimond and I :)
I love her a lot!! She is so fun

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