Fam June 26, 2017

Low point of the week: we saw a squirrel get hit by a car 

High point of the week: everything else

SO Sister Muhlestein is the best and I love her. She just makes me want to be a better missionary and she is so cool. I am grateful to be her companion. 

We didn't find 11 investigators this week but we did find NINE which is awesome and probably more than I found my first six months on the mission hahaha it was a MIRACLE, in fact, one of them was even named miracle 

We were super focused this week and just were trying really hard and we came so close! I am understanding more and more what it means to set goals that motivate and push you. We definitely wouldn't have found nine if we hadn't of had a high goal. We have decided to do something cool like that every week. So this next week we are going to invite 30 people to be baptized 

Speaking of Baptism.. we were able to get our investigator Jim on date!! We had prayed and felt like July 22 would be a good day for him. Well when we brought up baptism in the lesson he agreed that he needed to be baptized but seemed a little hesitant still so we decided to let him pick the day. And He said the end of JULY!!!! So we put him on date for July 22 it was awesome!

A couple of other crazy things happened this week. We went on exchanges with the Belvidere sisters and it was fun! Sister Reynolds and I walked EVERYWHERE. It was a lot and we were late to our appointment because everyone couldn't decide if we should pass people by and not talk to them so we could make it to our appointment on time or if we should talk to them. We had been walking ALL DAY and saw no one. But when we were in a rush was when the people came out 😑 but it was OK and the senior sisters came and picked us up and came to our appointment with us. 

We also were able to see our investigator Carol at church as well. She is 1000% a hippy. I love her. Every time we show her a picture of Christ or share a scripture she says she gets chills it's awesome. She is a very spiritual lady. SO I was stressing out of my mind when she came to church because sacrament meeting was so noisy I was worried it was distracting her and that she wasn't able to feel the spirit. We asked her what she thought after sacrament and she said she really liked how the speakers talked about their kids and that everyone sat with their families and that the husbands had their arms around their wife. It was an unexpected but really cool answer. This church is a church of family. Whether you have a family of your own or the church is your family

We, are FAMily hahahaha

Have a good week! 

sister madsen

 I am emailing so late because we wanted to make mission bears at build a bear 

Rockinford June 19, 2017

This week was crazy!!! Sister Fugal and I drove up to Peoria and I met

my new companion Sister Muhlestein and we headed out to work for the

day. Sister Muhlestein is really cool and we get along really well.

She is like an improved version of me hahaha. It's inspirational. But

we have a lot of fun! She is from Taylorsville Utah and plays soccer

too, she has been out for about a year and is just a young wise lady.

And I had seen her before a couple times while we were both serving in

the same Stake and we both felt like some day we would be companions

AND THEN IT HAPPENED. Cool story. Anyways we have had a lot of fun

together so far. Our first day we were heading back to Rockford and we

got a call from our zone leaders saying that an area called Belvidere

was getting whitewashed and that now there would be Sisters serving in

that Ward instead of Elders. But GUESS WHO LEFT THE APARTMENT NASTY

WHEN THEY LEFT 😑 SO they kindly cleaned up a lot of it while we took

the sisters out to lunch and then we went over with them to check it

out and help them clean anything that they needed. And it still looked

pretty crazy so we ended up helping them for awhile but it was a lot

of fun! Then we went to get their luggage out of the car and it

started POURING RAIN. We were soaked after a minute. Good times

Rockford is a little different than Peoria and we aren't teaching as

much but that is OK because we have a lot of time to talk to a lot of

people on the streets and things like that which I haven't gotten to

do in forever so that's been fun. And we found two new investigators!!

One of them is this Buddhist lady who isn't actually very Buddhist..

in that she believes in Christ. She just lives more of the Buddhist

lifestyle it seems like. But we talked with her about Jesus Christ and

showed her a couple of pictures of him as well as a video and she kept

saying "look, I've got chills!!" It was so cool.

The spirit has definitely been with me a lot this week and teaching me

and just hanging out kind of. I think I am just paying attention to it

more but it's been really cool!

Nothing else really stands out. But I'm excited for this upcoming

transfer!! Sister Muhlestein and I are going to kill it hahaha. We

have a goal to find 11 new investigators this week so that we can meet

the monthly goal that was set of 15. And right now we only have 4. So

we gotta find 11 more!! It's gonna be crazy but I'm excited to tell

you about it next week. Sister Muhlestein is the best. THE BEST. she

is just a really hard worker and I'm confident that we can find all

those homies with Heavenly Fathers help and guidance.

Sister Madsen

ALSO it was Stake conference so I got to see some people from Freeport

and I about died it was the best

Sorry these emails don't really have my personality in them anymore.

I'm tired always haha

Sister FUGAL
Us after the rain
Rainbow
Sister WHITLEY from Peoria

We took the Belvidere Sisters to steak and shake!
Sister Reynolds is a new missionary and she is so sweet! She gave a
spiritual thought at one of our meetings and it made me cry. And
Sister Prisbery who is training her is the cutest person alive

Peoria Pictures June 12, 2017

This update will be mostly pictures for a change because I know you have all been so DEPRIVED. We had sister's conference this week so I got to see a lot of my sistas who I love so that was awesome because I have been in the middle of no where away from them for a long time. And if you thought I was done talking about sister Corbett you were wrong!!!!!!!! I love her. A tender reunion was had and tears were shed and shame was nowhere to be found. She is the best, I love her. Ok. I can't think of anything else to say about her besides I love her. I am going to change the subject before I start crying in this laundromat. SHES JUST THE BEST PEOPLE. I love her and can't wait to see her again 

Anyways

I also got to see Amber! From Freeport! She taught all of us self defense at sisters conference and it was great. I love her a lot. I JUST SAW SO MANY OF MY FRIENDS IT WAS THE BEST. We took a Freeport sister's reunion picture.

It was good to catch up with other sisters who I haven't seen in a long time, including sister Anderson and hermana Sorensen who came out with me from the mtc. We are ancient now. But wise. Maybe.. haha

Randy's baptism issue is pending but it is looking up so maybe he will be baptized soon! Which is good news because I am being transferred! I will be going up to Rockford!! I have loved Peoria so mucho and I loved the Rockford Stake while I was there so I am excited to go back. But sad to leave of course. But it is in good hands with Sister Fugal. And I will probably see her soon when we come back for Randy's baptism!!  

The mission is good people. Life is good. And it's what you make it. Or better yet it's what you let Christ make it.

Have a blessed day!

sister madsen 

Sister Anderson!

AMBER

the Freeport ladies

Hermana Sorenson

The district 

Our Awesome Australian Ward mission leader and his family

Illinois! We went to the Caterpillar museum. 

OK this is the last one but also the most important.

Look at how SHOE-NITED sister Corbett and I still are 

sow what June 5, 2017

What a beautiful week!! It is so hot. And so many people are outside!!

Back home I liked fall and winter better but as a missionary summer is

definitely the best. So many people to talk to and everyone is just

generally in a better mood. Sometimes it is kind of crazy because

there are a lot of people and it can be overwhelming but then you just

take it one person at a time and it is ok. An interesting thought I

had during district meeting this week was what if my mission was only

one day long? I think I had this discussion with some missionaries

when I was in my first area and we were trying to decide if it would

be easier to have like a two week or a month mission etc.. talking

about amounts of time. And there are pros and cons to each. The longer

you are out the more experienced you get. But if the mission was only

two weeks it wouldn't be hard to give your all every single day and

just work your brains out. We didn't come up with a conclusion. But I

randomly remembered that during district meeting. And then I started

thinking about what if I only served my mission for one day and that

day was today? And what would I do differently? And then WOW. I

realized that unfortunately I would do a lot of things differently.

Which is sad but also good because now I can see where I need to

improve. I remember somethings that I was lucky enough to understand

earlier in my mission. That Heavenly Father wants us to be at a

certain place in our lives but that he doesn't expect us to get there

TODAY. And we just need to take things one day at a time and make sure

we are doing something to improve every day. But we don't have to

suddenly change everything and solve all of our problems. Mostly

because we can't.. anyways I just need to be better at taking my

mission one day at a time and focusing more on the day than the week

or the transfer. Just focus on doing all that I can today. It was a

good experience and I'm glad that I was able to apply it to missionary

efforts. and needless to say I have made some changes and will

continue to do so. Keep repenting people.

The best day this week was for sure Saturday. We did service at a food

kitchen in downtown Peoria and then our mission nurse needed us to go

to the doctors and she told us to go to the Methodist place which is a

HUGE hospital hospital. And so we go to the front desk to try and

figure out where we are supposed to go. And we are talking to the man

at the front and he looks a little familiar. After he helps us he asks

if we are Mormon and we told him yes! He said we had talked to him

awhile ago while he was fixing up his yard but there were three of us.

We both immediately remembered who he was! He was nice and gave us

water and we had ended up talking to him for about a half hour that

day. He has had a couple of experiences with Mormons. And he likes

cooking and watches a man who is Mormon and has a cooking show on the

internet.. or something like that? Anyways I asked him if he had

cooked anything good since we last talked to him and he said he was

making pizza tonight and invited us over???!!? Okay?! We definitely

said yes hahaha. He gave us his address and told us to come by around

5. We then searched forEVER for the place we were supposed to go. He

told us to go to the emergency room. We went but couldn't really find

a desk or anything so we were wandering around the halls of the

emergency room. Then we found someone and they sent us to the surgery

floor. So then we wandered around there for awhile looking for a desk

or someplace that wasn't just always and hospital rooms then we found

someone else and they sent us somewhere else and they we got to that

place and they told us to go to the emergency room 😑 we were dying we

had NO idea what to do. Earlier in this process sister Fugal jokingly

said we should go to the pediatric floor because they would be nice to

us and take pity. Well now things were getting desperate. We decided

we would go check that floor before we gave up. We got there and met

these two ANGELS. They first tried to send us to the emergency room

but we must have had some sort of look of despair on our faces. We

talked with them for a couple more minutes and they were like "we are

pretty sure you are at the wrong place.. this is a hospital.. you

probably just need to go to the doctors office" and we said YES!! Then

they told us the address of like.. a normal family doctors office that

was affiliated with Methodist. While they were writing the address we

got to talking about the church and they had both been to Nauvoo and

said they loved it. Before we left one of the women told us she needed

to tell us something. She told us how she had grown up in a non

religious home and how she had a neighbor who was Mormon and every

Sunday when she was little her neighbor took her to church with her

for like 6 years and that now she is a Christian and everything she

had and loved and the peace she felt she owed to that woman and how

she wished she could find her and tell her and she thanked us on her

behalf and I could have cried!! I almost did. It was a big testimony

builder to me of the influence we have on other people and the seeds

that are being sown as we live the life that Christ would want us to

live. And I say this all the time but either I forget or I don't apply

it to myself or something because every time something like that

happens I feel like one of those dolls where you press the button and

it just like.. collapses haha. Anyways, to build on that concept more,

we had dinner with that man at the front desk, jimmy, and his family.

It was a good experience and we were able to have a good experience

and answer some questions. We also shared a message with them and it

led to a conversation where they DEFINITELY felt the spirit. But they

still weren't interested at this time. But that is ok. Sister Pace

sent an email awhile ago to some of the sisters serving missions and

she talked about faith and I really liked this part of what she said

As missionaries, you are helping people develop and increase faith.

Sometimes you're helping people reclaim their faith.  Sometimes people

who accept a first discussion will not let you back in, BUT they may

start praying again daily because of something you said.

After that dinner appointment I was kind of confused. Trying to figure

out what God had wanted to happen in that situation because it didn't

really seem like anything happened.. the spirit brought that back to

my mind and gave me some comfort. I hope they prayed. I have

definitely been seeing the blessings of previous missionaries efforts

in this area and I hope that I have been able to sow the seeds for

some missionaries too! Like the story of the pioneers who planted

crops along the trail out west and they would never be there to see

them harvested or reap their rewards but they knew that someone would

Love you!

Sister Madsen

Weak week May 29th 2017

Madness! Always madness. 

This week I have been really tired and I honestly can't remember a lot of it. So I am sorry.

Randy's baptism will more than likely be postponed! We went over the interview questions with him and he had some concerns with tithing. So we decided we would reteach it to him. During our next lesson at the bishops house we talked about tithing as well as commitment. That the promises we make at baptism, along with all of our other covenants, is not something that is done halfway or occasionally. Either you are in or you are out. Can't really just dip your toe in the water. You gotta go all the way under. And Randy has the desire to be in!! But he lives with his sister and they pay the bills together. He told us he had tried talking to her about it before but she said he probably couldn't pay it so he was scared to talk to her about it again. But we all built up his courage and gave him pep talks to be ready to talk to his sister. And then we saw him on Saturday at the Elders baptism which I will talk more about. But he came and he was pretty frazzled and upset and told us that he can't get baptized. He was really upset. He to,d us he talked to his sister and she said well if tithing is something you need to do when you get baptized then you can't get baptized right now. He asked us if he could still come to church and still take the sacrament. It was tender and a little bittersweet because he told us that right before Deann's baptism began. I think it made him a little sad. Anyways afterward the bishop came and talked to all of us and told Randy the story of Nephi getting the brass plates and how it took a couple tries. He then told Randy "all you need to do now is find another job where you earn a little more money!" We Hope Randy will remain positive and hopeful. But as for now he is off date.

Ok next part of this email. We were supposed to go on exchanges this week but something came up and it had to be cancelled. Well we were both supposed to go to the Morton sister's area and so we had in literally NOTHING. It was a little crazy. But we were able to see a lot of the people we normally weren't able to see and we put Kathy's son Patrick on date!! MIRACLE. We wouldn't have been able to do that if we had been on exchanges so that was pretty cool to have that opportunity. And then we went back the next day for another lesson and he told us he broke all of his cigarettes and threw them out! What??? I honestly didn't believe him but he definitely did!! 

Something I have see this week is the importance of asking people questions. Especially questions by the spirit. It changes the whole lesson and makes it feel more like we are teaching a person. Not a lesson. ;) anyways.. it has changed the outcome of our lessons every time. And we learn so much more about the people we are teaching and their understanding of what we are teaching as well. Everyone is just better off when questions are asked and the conversation is taken to the next level. I know the same can be said for our studies. If we ask ourselves questions that help us learn and apply what we are reading to our lives we will feel more uplifted and less like everything is routine or going through the motions

Still haven't talked to Matt since we put him on date.

The elders had a baptism this weekend for a woman named DeAnn who is literally as golden as they COME. She showed up to general conference and then the next week came to church and asked the elders what she had to do to be baptized??? Like. Ok. And she sings in the choir and made her own baptism program and she is literally just the best. I love her and am so happy she was able to be baptized! And the Ward loves her and she is just awesome. No words. She wanted to be baptized forever ago but couldn't because of some family issues. Those issues have changed and the first thing she did was come to church!! Priorities. It was so tender. Her brother is a member and he lives in New York and he FLEW HERE so that he could baptize her. It was 10/10

Ok bye

Sister Madsen 

This is the closest we have ever come to taking a picture together 

May 22, 2017

I don't really remember what happened this week. There were a lot of meetings, which was good! But also bad, because.. people are outside while we are inside. But it was still good.

I had an interview with President Griffin and it was just so great! He is a wise man.. we talked a lot about goals and the things that I want to do before the mission is up 😶 and how setting goals can give us just a little extra push that we might not have even tried for. Anyways.. it was really good I can't explain. He also talked a lot about how faith without works is dead but that works without faith is also dead and that blew my mind. #believe in your goals.

We had our finding/extra exchange this week! I went with sister Jardine again and this time instead of rain it was a little toasty outside. And usually when we are out we get a couple of people who offer us water bottles and usually we say that's ok but that day we were searching and seeking for the good folks of Illinois to give us some waters and we had no such luck. BUT we did get to have a lesson with Matt! Outside! Haha, but it was good! We put him on date for July 22 which is so exciting! Even though it was the least spiritual baptism invitation there ever was. That's ok!! He said he wanted to get baptized in the end of July so I pulled up my calendar and asked if July 22 would work and he said yep and whoop there it was hahaha. But that's exciting! 

Another trivial thing happened this week and that was that sister Fugal and I were talking about cafe rio and then that night for dinner a member made us the sweet pork cafe rio salad and I was the happiest person ALIVE. I didn't even pray for it. 

Ok one last thing. There is this scripture.. about being anxiously engaged... And on my mission I have very much wanted to be lead by the spirit and have these cool miracles happen where I like KNOW that there is no other way that a certain scenario could have happened besides me or my companion or some random person being led by the Holy Ghost. But it hasn't really happened. Which bums me out. But I read that scripture and the spirit told me to calm down, to not wait for the prompting but to just go for it and see what happens. A lot of times people talk about praying for missionary opportunities or just opportunities in general, they wait until the Holy Ghost is like "oh man.. this is it..HERE IT IS!!" but that scripture is saying don't wait around for me to tell you what to do, JUST GO FOR IT. Make it happen. Create your own opportunities, show me you want it and I will help get you there.

Ok.. that's all for this week

Love you! Thanks for emailing me!! And reading this!! Whoever still does haha

Sister Madsen

D&C 58

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

Plant? Dead.

Illinois? River 

I can only come up with so many titles in a year and a half May 15, 2017

The laundromat story continues.. we just gave away a Book of Mormon to a man waiting for his whites to dry. Didn't want to give us his phone number but I'm sure we will see him around someday.

The biggest news of this week is probably that RANDY IS GETTING BAPTIZED. So happy! It was a crazy story. We had a lesson in Bishop Thompson's home with him and his wife and Sister Thompson just straight up invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!! He is on date for June 11th! Sister Fugal and I were in disbelief and had no idea what was going on for half of that lesson but we just let it happen and let them go for it haha so that was awesome! 

An investigator Vicki who I love told us she wants to be baptized really bad because she wants the Holy Ghost but she doesn't want to be because she doesn't want to have to come to church for the rest of her life 😑 we got a little real with her and asked which was more important and she said if she died she would regret not being baptized but at the moment she doesn't regret it.. sometimes it is hard to rationalize with people. We will see what happens.

The main thing I wanted to say is how awesome the Sabbath is. Vicki was talking about how living is killing her. And how exhausting it is to be on the go go go all the time. And her whole thing with not being able to be baptized is that she can't/won't come to church and her whole problem in life is that she NEEDS to come to church. Elder Holland says it best so I'm not gonna say anymore but I love you all. Let us take full advantage of the blessings we have.

xoxo sister madsen