Week 5!!!

Hello hello!!! life here in Prattville is kickin!!!!!!!!!! I am learning so much I don't even know where to begin!

 

this week I got to go on exchanges with sister bush from la Canada. she is maks age and went to byu Hawaii. she is a dream come true. we are basically the same person-so full of energy and happiness. I think people were getting overwhelmed. the district leader called and he was like "oh boy both of you are together!!!!!! that is too much enthusiasm for people to handle!" so true, yet so fun. I learned SO much from her-baptism invites are not scary, I need to be bold and stay focused on my purpose, and i need to use my enthusiasm to help people understand how the gospel will benefit them. I was observing her in teaching situations just thinking "holy cow she is perfect how will I ever be that good of a missionary?!" but she is just the nicest, sweetest, cute little thang and she makes me feel so loved. so I am applying the things I observed and it is wonderful. i am learning to have patience with myself, because god is slowly making me into the missionary he needs me to be. this is a learning experience, i am not just going to be awesome right now! hahah we met this one family out in the open grasslands of Alabama and they started singing some gospel music for us. i was loving it! and then sister bush sang "where can i turn for peace" and the spirit was so strong. it was beautiful and peaceful. she has a voice of an angel. then the fam said a prayer and of course we all hold hands and they are just praising their lord jesus. i am constantly reminded of my days at tlcs and it is so classic!!!! we also taught this other lady the restoration and at the end we all sat in the longest, most beautiful, needed silence in the world. she just starting balling. you could see the spirit touching her SO strongly. it was something she had never experienced. she couldn't explain it but she knew god loved her. and it was remarkable. that is what we live for here and i love when people tap into that love!! it is REAL!

 

the companions are great. we are learning to be more unified, which requires lots of communication! especially with 3 of us. and i love to talk so i am trying to be quiet and let the other sisters talk, but most importantly-let the people we are teaching talk!!!! sister Jensen is full of love. she is always hugging everyone and staring into their souls with this precious look she can put on. i love it. sister haws is 22 and full of knowledge. she is the oldest of 9 kids so she is very calm and knows everything about cooking. she is the one who answers all the hard questions. shes basically taken every religion class at byu so that's awesome. and i basically just bring the energy. hahha we are all motivated to work hard and that is wonderful. i am so thankful!!

 

a few experiences from the week:

 

1. we went over to visit the lady who was naked and i helped do the leg exercises with. she knows we are sent from god bc she really needed someone to come over and help her out but her family wouldn't even call. so she cried and was so thankful. everyone cries around here-whether it is out of sadness or the pure gladness of the gospel. it is quite entertaining. so i carry tissues and they actually come in handy! so we filled up a bucket with hot water and put baby oil in it and massaged her feet. she said we were like jesus and i was like "hollaaaaaaaaaaaaaa that is exactly what we are trying to do!" i was loving it.

 

2. we went to teach this other lady who is in her 50s and lives alone. it was 8pm and pitch black. she lives in a trailer and it has nothing around it but scary forests. we were trying to teach her the 1st lesson but she couldn't stop ranting about her life. and this was the 2nd or 3rd time we had seen her! she has has 2 abusive husbands and has a son who committed suicide when he was 18 in the forest that surrounds her house! and she has the same picture of her son up in her little house like 50 times. and it is so scary because his hair is covering his eyes in the pic. she was telling us how she has the wood with the blood on it that her sons head was last on in her room. we were like "wow, that's beautiful". now don't you dare show us! and she was telling us how she covers all her windows bc people used to stalk her and that she has a loaded gun just in case. so after that lesson we all had an earie feeling so we are going to teach her at chick-fil-a from now on. much more friendly/not haunted environment. but she has had a really beyond difficult life and you just cant help but love them. god loves all of us, whether we deserve it or not. and he wants us to succeed!!!

 

3. we met this boy mr smooth the other day and we were just chatting about positivity and life and i asked him to be baptized. he said yes. i basically started cracking up because i could not believe i actually did that. so funny!!!

 

4. the other day we planned our day well and after church we visited 10 people-some with appointments, some without but not one person opened their door!!!!!!! so sad. so we finally went to our last ladies house and of course she wasn't there. but we said hello to the workers across the street and this one man says "hey do you have a bible?" i said "well yes!!!!!" this little old black man desperately runs over to me and i hand him the book of Mormon. he promised he would read it with his daughter and was pleading for us to come over. it was a MIRACLE! you could see it all in his eyes- he needed god and he knew it. God had tried our faith and satan had began to make us feel like failures b/c we had taught 0 people, but then we found that old man and it was beautiful!

 

5. we went to a trailer park to teach this lady but she dropped us so i said "hey lets go talk to those girls!" we walk over and just start chatting. it ended up being a beautiful gospel discussion with a 21, 19, and 17 year olds girls. they all had babies and were smoking and were beat by their boyfriends. it was so sad to see their lives but they were SO nice and open and interested in the gospel. they said "maybe im Mormon" bc they were telling us their beliefs and they were directly lined up with ours! so awesome! and they believe in god and the 19 year old has a daughter who is 1 1/2 and she looks about 27. so crazy. but she knows god and has tons of experiences in her life to show her this. and they really want to go to the baptism and church! unfortunately they didn't make it to either but maybe next week!

 

6. starkeisha was baptized. she is in the other ward but we invited investiagtors so we got to go! we brought kim and her 2 sons (which we had to find a ride for, and get a carseat for) and her neighbor shakeria (snooki). we also brough michelle and her 2 daughters! it was beautiful! i was talking to kim and she said she def wanted to be baptized. WHOOT hoot! and the little girl shakeria is only 8 but i love her. she was begging me to be baptized. she was saying "Madison-when can i do it?!? i want to! " i was asking her "how do you know?" she said god was telling her in her heart. and it is easy to write children off but i know she has felt god. we have had a few little ocnversations when she has been outside and i have great faith in her! and she was asking me if i had a book for her! well YES precious little daughter of god, here is the bom! we went back the next day and i said we really need to nkock on her door and she came out and said she had been reading! what!? what 8 year old reads the book of Mormon? and it is so sad bc i know her mom does tons of drugs and just doesn't treat her right. snooki (her nickname) didn't choose to be born into that family and she cant change anything. so i sure hope her mom lets us keep teaching her bc she has so much potential!!

 

well sorry this is the most long/random.rant in the world.

 

Halloween was AWESOME!!! i painted my nails, made funfetti pancakes (thank you fullers!) and dressed in orange and black. loved it!

 

and a HUGE thank you to everyone who wrote me letters! i am writing yall back asap! Emmett, mom, sarah bullen, jenny smith, jane pera, mary partin, sandy, garrett taylor/jane busk (in the mexico mtc together!!! so fun!), 2 from megan bertha, rose leopold, zoe hart!!! I FEEL SO LOVED, HUMBLED, AND GRATEFUL for yall in my life. it was so glorious to read your heartfelt words.

 

oh and we picked pecans this week! there are trees everywhere and the pecans are so huge and heavenly! i love finding food in nature! such a novel idea these days!!!!! hahha

 

i love yall so much! the church is true! the atonement is infinite and here for everyone! the power is real and we can change! no matter what! so beautiful!

 

xoxo Sister Madsen

 Sister Bush

 The Hawaiian plantation. I look scary, but the scenery is gorgeous!!!

my homeboys. javarus and lil' willy!

 Sister Bush

 just driving in our friend laurens car! enjoying the breeze and cowboy hat! why not!?

pumpkin pancake i made! so yummy! it even had bananas in it! so fun!

 Halloween. haha

 sister platt (from san diego, bffs with megan, ty, marie, lauren, drew, etc) and i are in the same district!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! crazy how that worked out! so we see each other all the time! and at district mtg we both got matching letters from our mutual friend sarah bullen!!!!! so fun!

 

thank you for all the goodies!!