Hasta Manzana CCM!

So biggest news of this week was getting my flight plans! yay! I'm for sure going to Bolivia! I leave on Tuesday.  I love my district more and more, we have really concentrated on being more on-task this week and getting as much done as we can because we realized how close we are to leaving! 



Spanish is coming along, we finished learning and are just reviewing now! Crazy! Something fun we did was figured out everybody's spirit animal and they fit perfectly! (Totally feel like a little kid doing it but so fun). 

We hit our one month mark in the MTC this week and it feels absolutely crazy! I feel like it all went by so fast and I can totally do that 17 more times:)

{Friend Gardener from BYU}

I love this work that I am doing.  I love learning Spanish, and I love making a difference in people's lives.  Now I just need to work on putting those together more!

It is really cool watching our zone progress and grow closer together and closer to God.  Each person who has come and left have grown so much.  They always ask Elders and Hermanas from the districts that are leaving to speak in sacrament meeting. I am so scared I am going to get called this next week! But it'll be good practice for the field if I do I guess! 

So I am going to have a really hard time saying goodbye to everyone.  Especially my District and my teachers.  Hermana Skidmore and Hermano Kartchner have taught me so much in my time here.  They didn't just teach me Spanish or just how to teach, they taught me to be a missionary.  Something I really admire about both of them, but specifically Hno. Kartchner is that he is still in missionary mode serving everyone he can and is so close to God even after being a year home from his mission.  I want to be that kind of person that has such a close relationship with God that I will want my life to follow his will with exactness and I will always want to be serving Him.




{Miranda built these snowmen today!}




{Those 2 in the back are full-size}

I came across this scripture in my studies- 3 Nephi 12:10-12.  It talks about being persecuted in the name of the church and that we will receive blessings for standing up for it and not denying it.  I know as a missionary I am blessed already as I preach the gospel and bring others to Christ.  But as a member forever in my life I want to be willing to stand up for what I believe and never deny Christ or his commandments or his prophets no matter the consequences.

I invite everyone to read that scripture and make a resolve to stand up for Christ in one way this week:)

Yo sé que por medio de Jesucristo podamos ser misioneros cada día. Jesucristo es mi Salvador y defensor. Yo sé que cuando venga el tiempo para ser un representante de Él, estaré fuerte y no le dudaré. Le amo a mi Hermano Mayor. Le serviré el resto de mi vida. 

Don't count the days, make the days count!

~Hermana Madsen

Be the best YOU you can be

Ok so stuff actually happened this week... sort of! We got a new district in our zone and I had the opportunity to go meet all of them and give them some intro stuff to the MTC!  I really love all of them and I love being seen as "The old missionaries."  We are the second oldest district, but everyone says we just seem so old.  I definitely remember that feeling! 





We taught a ton and this week I feel like I actually learned how to be a missionary rather than what to teach as a missionary.  We did a lot of activities that helped us towards the goal of Teaching People, Not Lessons.  Something I am not very good at in Spanish is just having normal conversations and getting to know people, but they kind of taught us how to do that finally!

On Valentines day we woke up early and left some Valentines for everyone in the zone:) Also, all the Hermanas dressed in all black... because we're dorks!

I also realized this week how amazingly blessed I was to get the teachers I did! They are literally the two best Spanish teachers in the MTC.  They have such strong testimonies and are amazing at Spanish.  I am so so grateful I got them! Hermano Kartchner, one of our teachers, has incredible stories of miracles on his mission.  He probably is the person who has inspired me the most out of anyone I have met out here! He has a motivational story and a super motivational testimony.  He was a missionary who was dedicated to being exactly obedient and he received immense blessings from it! I want to be as nice and funny and obedient as he is.  

Tuesday devotional Elder Ballard came to talk to us! He talked about being the best YOU you can be and one thing I really love that he said was "You are the only one limiting your success." I know that when I put my all into the missionary work and say each night on my knees that I did MY best, that I will see my mission as successful. 

Les quiero todo! 

I should be getting my flight plans this week... ahhhh!

Don't count the days, make the days count!

~ Hermana Madsen

Wifting Leights

We had three investigators this week! One is our TRC investigator named Viri.  She is super tough and super real.  It is going to be a blessing I know, but right now it is really tough.  Our other two are Eva and Fernando.  However, we had to drop Fernando after a couple lessons because he wasn't progressing and he wasn't wanting to keep commitments.  That was really hard.  Learning to recognize an investigator who isn't progressing is really hard. We talked about how we are called to gather the elect, and when those we are visiting aren't ready to hear the gospel, we need to go find those who are ready. Otherwise, Eva is progressing really well and I love teaching her.  

Every day brings trials, but we have found the most success when we are obedient! I have definitely grown a testimony of exact obedience.  It's hard but worth it! 

Spanish is coming along.  We decided as a district to do Spanish Saturdays and go the whole day without English! It worked for about 1/2 the day and then it was tough... haha! 

I HIT MY HALFWAY MARK AT THE MTC!!! It has felt like months but at the same time only feels like a couple days! I love working out every day! We found that even doing stairs gets a little energy out and keeps us healthy:) The "wifting leights" is Hermana Elkington who can't seem to keep her words straight ever... Sand Hanitizer, my eck nitches, etc.

We are getting a new district in our zone and we all are a little over-excited but I am so ready to see some new faces and make some new friends!

I love learning, but it seems like I may never get out of here! I know I need every single day I have here but it feels like ETERNITY! It's ok because I have amazing friends in my district helping me along:)

Les quiero todo! Dios nos ama mucho:)

Don't count the days, Make the days count!

Con amor, Hermana Madsen

Saz!

Ok this week.... I don't even remember which days were which. But let's see....

Hermana Saari and I had a really tough lesson with our investigator Salvador. Nothing went as planned and then I couldn't think of any words to say in English let alone Spanish.  I got super discouraged because I am a perfectionist and hate not being able to do things perfectly... but I turned to God and got past it. I still struggle with teaching especially when I can't connect with the people I am teaching. But after that lesson in which I felt like we failed, we were challenged by our teacher to invite Salvador to be baptized! I thought it was a big order but I knew that with the help of God I could do it. Hna Saari and I planned the lesson specifically to what the spirit told us to teach. Side note: that's one of my favorite things about my companionship with Hermana Saari. I love that we can be studying for a lesson and we always get the same spiritual prompting almost simultaneously. She's an awesome companion. She has already helped me be so much better of a missionary. Anyway: the next lesson we taught to Salvador was about eternal families and about everything from there leading up to Baptism. I don't remember a lot of what was said in that lesson but it was exactly what he needed to hear. One specific point he had was that he was already baptized in his church when he was a baby. We explained it in a way that made perfect sense to him and when we invited him to be baptized he accepted!! That made me feel a lot better about my teaching abilities:) 

Then Friday we met our other teacher and his favorite Spanish saying he learned in Mexico is "Saz!" Meaning "dang!" So now that is our district's word when anything happens:) 

I love my district with all my heart. They are all like my siblings. We are doing great besides all the Elders and some of the Hermanas getting sick. I'm healthy though! I love working out with the Hermanas! Hermana Hutchinson (from Texas going to Salt Lake) is my workout buddy! I can feel myself getting stronger and healthier:) I hope I can keep that up out in the field!

Spanish is coming... we set some major long term goals that I am going to do my very best to achieve. 

Hermana McKenna Merrill is in my zone! I'm so excited to have one of my childhood besties here with me. She reminded me today while we were in the temple that we used to have conversations about being in the celestial kingdom together and now we could be in the celestial room together having made covenants and being called to serve the lord. Super cool:)

Other than that... I have just been stuck in a classroom for hours on end each day so not super exciting... haha!

I want you all to know my testimony has grown so much and I'm becoming better and better with every day.  

Yo sé que Jesucristo es El Salvador del mundo. Yo sé que la única manera que podemos volver a Él es mediante la fe en Jesucristo y su expiación. No estoy solo en mi misión. Tengo el poder de Dios cuando enseño. Me encanta ser misionera y yo sé que estoy al CCM en Provo para un razón. Puedo ver ese razón más y más cada día. No quiero salir! Pero yo sé que hay gente en Bolivia esperan para un mensaje solo puedo darles. 

Les quiero todos! 

Don't count the days, make the days count. 

Con amor, Hermana Madsen



And she's going to kill me when she gets home, but she added this little note to Jeff & me:

Also not something everyone needs to know but I just got called to be the zone STL:) super excited to be in a cool leadership position that makes me want to be a better person:)