The Jew, the Agnostic, and the 70

The title today comes from some of the people we met this week. Ill explain later on=)

The week started with a conference with Elder Montoya, one of the area 70. He talked to us missionaries in a very direct manner. That we had a lot to improve to be the representatives of Jesus Christ that we should be.  He talked to us about how sacred our calling is as missionaries. That really we have a special power to make promises, and if we are worthy, the Lord WILL justify our words and follow through with the blessings promised. He challenged us to make promises in the name of Jesus Christ, and made US a promise that if we make promises in this manner, that we will have more investigators come to church. He gave us lots of motivation to go out and find new people.

{Ok, 2 things: Miranda said this was actually a parade for Dia de Amistad, or their Valentine's Day.  Looks a little morbid for Vday!!  But I have to say, in both these pictures, that smartphone addiction is everywhere!!  Hahahaha!!}

{And this picture is actually a resting pic by this sweet sleeping dog.  But take a look at the notebook Hna Pastillo is holding up... they had notebooks made for their companionship?  Pretty adorable.  =)}

So Wednesday we spent almost the entire day just knocking doors, trying to find the "escogidos" or the elect. We got rejected at almost every single house, and heard a lot of excuses. At one door we knocked, this young guy came out, looked at us, and said "Sorry, we're Agnostics" and slammed the door. I wanted to know what the heck agnosticism is! Haha! But something I love is that my companion and I never get discouraged when we get rejected so harshly, we just laugh. We are super sad because it really is their salvation, but we can't get down about it because they just don't realize!

Then while we were knocking doors in the crazy heat of Cochabamba, we took a break to go buy some icecream. I have this suspicion that every time I get a craving for icecream it is for something. This time it was because right when we walked into the store to buy icecream, a man came up to us and asked if we were missionaries. He presented himself as Gustavo. He is from Cochabamba, but all of his life he lived in Virginia! He started talking to me in English, and told me he had studied many different religions including mormonism. He had just decided to move to Israel to become a Jew, so he was in Bolivia doing the paperwork he needed to. He knew a TON about our religion, and we talked for a while about a bunch of our opinions and why we are here on a mission.

With these experiences and more, this week I really learned that as representatives of Jesus Christ we have a special light. We have the authority to act in His name, we have a special way of attracting attention. NOT just because I am a white girl, but also because we are set apart with priesthood power, and it shows.

Fun Facts:

-There are always random people here taking pictures of me #neverseenawhitegirl

-I wash all my clothes by hand now! (AKA if it isn't underwear, it hardly ever gets washed)

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

~Hermana Madsen

We're Halfway there...OOOOHHHH...Livin' on a Prayer!

I am officially halfway through my full-time service to the Lord=)

{playing barbies... I edited out some of the graphic-ness of it since it's a missionary blog. =) }

The last 9 months of my life I have learned and changed so much. I have changed in terms of my stomach capacity as well as my mentality. But my mind has not changed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only completely true church on this earth. I have met people from many different religions, and learned a lot about what drives them to do good. But I know that the morals I have been taught since my childhood would bring EVERYONE more joy and peace than any other religion or other support group. 

My mind has changed in my ideas of the world and what I thought it was. The world is hard, but there are so many good people! I have learned how important it is to have a family, and that when the world starts to tear you apart, you have to strengthen your family against the world, and against the adversary.

The most prominent lesson I have learned here is that the adversary is real. There are people here who have seen crazy things. I have heard many stories of people getting possessed by devils, and it is always resolved when they use the priesthood. Every time I hear these stories, I don't think about how scared I would be if it happened to me. I think about how blessed we are to have the power to resist things like that. How lucky I am to have known the priesthood all my life. 

We have more power than the devil.

I love this scripture my mom shared with me. James 4:7 says,"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

We are strong when we submit ourselves to God. When we are focused more on the Savior than on the world, the devil will not have power to harm us. I know it is easier as a missionary to submit my life to God, but I know it is not impossible to do at home. We can still enjoy the things that the world has to give to us, while still being within the will of God.

{chicken feet again}

I love the mission, and love you all! Have an amazing week!

Fun Facts:

- As a symbol of good luck, or to cast out bad spirits some Bolivians dry out dead lambs and hang up their bones and skin in their houses.

- They sell juice, milk, and water in individual personal bags to drink.


{Jeff passed on his hatred of mushrooms to his children. =(  }









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

~Hermana Madsen

I saved the Bishop's son

So the title comes from a cool scary experience I had this week! We went to help our bishop's wife cook dinner for her kids and she left the room to hang up some laundry, and as we were eating with the kids, their little boy started choking on his food. I am so blessed to have taken first aid classes. I was able to quickly respond, giving him the Heimlich maneuver, and out popped his giant wad of food! Nothing was in vain=)

This week was a little low in numbers, but high in spirit.

Something I know that we can do with authority as missionaries is make promises, and if we do it according to what the spirit tells us, that it WILL happen. D&C 82:10 says that God is bound to keep His promises when we do what He tells us to. 

I shared this scripture with one of our converts who is struggling with keeping his side of the promise he made with God at baptism. Then we, the 4 missionaries that were visiting him, made him a promise that applied specifically to his life and his needs. We promised him as missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ that if he stopped smoking and drinking for one week, that he would find the work that he had been lacking for weeks.

During this moment I felt a power I know to be the power of God. I do not hold the holy priesthood power of God, but I know that as a missionary set apart with this power, I have the authority to speak in the name of Jesus Christ. I know He will support me in all my righteous wants and deeds here in the mission because I am bringing the truth to the people here in Bolivia.

I love the mission!

Love you all!

Fun Facts:

-When people have a family member die here they hang a black plastic grocery bag on their front door.

-There is this yummy drink sort-of thing called Sumo that is choclo and maicena (no idea if those exist in english) and they go around selling it in what look like big metal bombs=)

{I looked up choclo: a chewy, large field corn, and maicena: a cornstarch kind of fine corn flour}

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

~Hermana Madsen

86,400 minutes

We have 86,400 minutes every day. The leaders in our zone compared the minutes we have to $86,400 that reloads in an account every day. If we had that much money, we would use up as much of it as we could. So shouldn't we use up every minute of the time we have been freely gifted?

This fits my feelings about the mission this week. Seriously it feels like this week flew by. I barely have any time left, and I just want to make the very most out of it. Every morning I wake up and my companion tells me her dreams from the night, and in every dream someone tells us that our time is incredibly short and that we need to make the most out of every minute.

I have seen how we have been blessed as we spend as much time talking to people here and helping them. I have seen that really God leads our footsteps and we have found lots of amazing people by "coincidence". But I testify of what Elder Rasband and Donald L. Hallstrom said in this conference that God has His hand in everything and that there really isn't such thing as coincidence. Everything in my life has brought me to this moment and I wouldn't change a thing.

Sorry this has been short, I still need to learn to use my writing minutes better=)

Live it up this week! 

Love you all!

Fun Facts:

- Even though it is SUPER hot here all day, everyone walks around in jeans and long sleeves because they don't want to get burned by the sun!

- We were super tired one night, and when we went to wash our faces for the night, Hermana Pastillo asked me if I wash the water. Yes. I wash the water.







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

~Hermana Madsen

Thank you Dad

Thank you Dad for teaching me since I was young how to use the bathroom in the woods. It saved me this week when I asked to use our convert's bathroom and it was just a hole in the ground.


{I'm thinking the security on this property is aMAZing.  Look at the spikes on that gate - I won't be climbing over that wall.  No one's getting onto that property today!!!}

This week was amazing! General Conference was amazing and I learned so much! Something I absolutely loved was that there was a main theme of all the talks that we really all are so important on this earth. EVERY ONE OF YOU IS IMPORTANT. God has a plan for everyone and every single person needs to realize they are so loved! There is nothing to far out of the reach of the atonement of Christ. I have learned that very well here on my mission. Don't give up. You are all important to God, and to me. I want to see all my heavenly brothers and sisters back in the Celestial Kingdom with me!

This week I met two atheists. I don't know if I have ever talked with atheists in my life before, but there was a huge difference between the two I met. The first one was a woman waiting for her kid to leave from school. She told us she didn't believe in God or a life after death. But there was doubt. There was a want to believe. Even though with her words she told us she wasn't interested at all, her attention and her eyes told a different story. We talked with her using inspired words that were not ours. We opened our mouths, and the words came.

The second was a grandpa that we met knocking doors. He left and immediately told us that there was no God. That believing wouldn't do anything for us and that all there was to believe in was Science. When we talked to him, there were no inspired words. There was no spirit. He did not believe, and when we opened our mouths there was nothing that came. 

There are people who will change in this world. Even if it is with time. And there are others who are okay with where they are and will keep living the way they are. But I know it is my job, our job, to give everyone the chance.




{don't miss the Christ statue on the hill overlooking Cochabamba}

Fun Facts:

-I met a man who was 100 years old! He was still walking around and healthy! The only defect he had was a broken hip, but still walking=)

-Here in Bolivia the people who drink aren't just drunk on weekends... they are walking around drunk every day, at all hours of the day.

{On transfer days, they seem to meet here to greet all the new missionaries into the mission}

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

~Hermana Madsen