Jesus is...April 17, 2017

Who is Jesus to you?

Happy Easter

Sister Madsen

Ok one more picture. Exchanges this week with The Sister Kelsey
Jardine from The Lone Peak High School. Can't beat tracting in the
rain!

Very big THANK YOU to Doria Whitley for sending pictures!! We love bonus pictures.

And we talk of Christ April 10, 2017

This week was very good! I had some ideas of what I wanted to tell you this week but I am having a hard time remembering so please bear with me if this email seems to be all over the place. I think mostly what I wanted to talk about is being an instrument in the hands of God. They talk a lot about it in the scriptures and how that is when the people feel the most joy. So this week I tried to make that the thing that I desired most and it has been awesome!! I realized that if that is my biggest desire and focus then it is a lot easier to do things that may be difficult to do. If I hesitate I ask my self "will this be something that can help Heavenly Father" and then it is a lot easier to do it! So that is cool. We have a lot of investigators that I'm not sure how to help. A lot of them are progressing very slowly. Very slowly. And one of them almost wanted to give up. And outside of lessons with her I haven't been very charitable towards her and thinking she has been really lazy. So when she told us she didn't want to meet with us anymore I should have been kind of relieved but I could feel the spirit pretty much saying "what would Jesus do?" And I knew he wouldn't give up on her. And I told her that as representatives of Jesus Christ we wouldn't give up on her either. It ended up being a really great lesson and she opened up to us a lot about how for the most part she doesn't really understand a lot of what we are talking about during lessons. Which is GREAT to know. We are going to go back at a different angle that will,

 hopefully help her. Anyways we have had a great and super busy week in the trio. We are talking 4-5 appts a day. Some fell through but we have still been busy. So Sunday was very nice. We didn't have any appointments and we were able to share the #princeofpeace video with so many people!!! It was so cool. Everyone has had really positive responses. One man even told us about when he was a missionary for his church and he said something I thought was interesting. When he went out he met all sorts of different people. But the majority of the time it didn't matter who he met, if he asked if they could pray for that person they generally said yes. And I just think that is so cool because that has been more of a focus lately, praying with people and I nick that is awesome!! He was really nice. We met another lady named Cathy and showed her the video and for whatever reason the spirit was just very strong in her home as we were showing it to her. And she teared up and thanked us a couple of times. And that the video had given her a lot of peace that she didn't know she needed. She was so happy that we came over. 

These past couple of weeks I feel like we have been running into a lot of people who aren't really satisfied with the church they are at. As well as some who weren't so satisfied when they were coming to our church. But the reasons lately all seem to be the same. And is is that too many people are talking to much about themselves or other people or things and not enough about Jesus Christ. Or what He said and did, or how we can have a better relationship with Him. It's too much of all this other stuff. I went in to church and have gone in to teaching appointments with a very different attitude since. Always making sure I tie everything back to the Savior. And how we can better have a personal relationship with Him. I have felt so much love for Him this past week as I have been seeking to be more connect with Him and doing and saying things that are about Him. Easter is on Sunday. 

Sister Madsen 

Also please excuse any confusion or typing errors that may be in this email. I burned my thumb about an hour ago while making some tortillas.

Sister Fugal and I had a mac & cheese cooking competition. Captured by sister Morales #trio

It got.. heated 

You can still be cool, and be tight with the Lord April 3, 2017

A man who we are teaching who is thinking about being baptized but

also thinking about being a preacher said this to us last week.

I'm trying to think of cool things that happened this week but I

didn't even have time to write in my journal at all so I can't

remember anything that happened. Write in your journal people

Conference was great!

Being in a trio is still fun so that's good. Teaching is a bit tricky

but we are getting there.

The first couple days of this week were a rollercoaster but in the end

I am just grateful to be a missionary, and to be able to serve for as

long as I get to. As it is getting close to the end I started freaking

out a bit but it has only motivated me to work harder and go more

crazy talking to everyone we see and being bold.

But I am grateful for my companions. It is obvious to see the

different strengths each of us have and how we help each other.

Yesterday we went to visit some people that missionaries had been

teaching a long time ago. They all had moved but as we were driving

away to go see another person and I pointed out this really fat beagle

and sister Fugal slammed on the breaks and pulled over and said we

should go talk to the person who owns the beagle and we did and her

name was Diana and she is a high school English teacher and she is

great. GREAT. She was telling us how her job is her mission field as

she helps these young people. It was just a really cool experience.

She accepted a Book of Mormon but seemed a little hesitant so I don't

know what will happen, but it's just cool to be a missionary. You get

to meet so many people and feel the spirit all the time and study the

scriptures for fun and WATCH PEOPLE BECOME DIFFERENT PEOPLE. It's

cool.

I don't remember what talk but I'm pretty sure this was a quote within

the talk someone said but it was my favorite part of general

conference. The context of it was Heavenly Father talking to each of

us and welcoming us into His fold.. or something along those lines.

Anyways the quote was "come as you are but don't plan to stay as you

are" and I love that. On my mission I have definitely DEFINITELY

experienced repentance. And I have a testimony that we can change and

that we are supposed to change. Heavenly Father isn't satisfied with

who we are even when we may be. He knows we can always be better and

that is why there will always be challenges and trials and chastening.

Because he loves us.

I can't look at all my notes right now but from memory I would say

that my favorite talk was probably Elder Renlund's. I loved how he

said we should treat others the way Christ would, and then actually

explained what that means.

I also loved the one by Elder Choi about looking up and not around you.

Have a good week!

Sister Madsen

There are some future Mormons living in our apartment building
And this is the only other picture I took this week. I will repent and
channel my inner sister Dimond next week and be better

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