Conference Weekend! :D

I loved conference this weekend!

While many of the speakers said things that touched me; the talks by

Sister Bonnie L Oscarson and Richard J Maynes addressed and confirmed many of the thoughts I have had since before my mission. I wish to share these thoughts with you all this morning :)

Sister Bonnie Oscarson began her talk with the statement: "If you do not have a testimony of the church, now is the time to do what it takes to find that testimony!"

A couple thoughts crossed my mind when I heard that statement. First, she is right. NOW is the time for us todevelop our testimonies, because, as Elder Ochoa expressed, "The perilous times are now upon us!" At a younger age, children need to find their faith because of how crazy the world is becoming! 

My next thought was a question: How do we find our testimony? I then thought about the word 'find'. It is a doing word. To develop faith we must act. I believe the word "faith" to be an action word, a verb. If we wish to have a stronger testimony then we must exercise faith to obtain it. 

"Dedication"

"Perseverance"

 and "Self-discipline"

are verbs that Richard J. Maynes says will help us find and strengthen our testimonies. The best way to gain a testimony of somebody is to LIVE it, according to Sister Oscarson. What better way to gain a testominy of Christ and His gospel than to live it? 

Sister Oscarson challenged us to choose a principle of the gospel and apply it more fully to our lives. If our desire is to know/become like Christ, then we must emulate the characteristics that He has.

Hope

Charity

Love

Virtue

Patience

Diligence

Obedience

All of these attributes of Christ are action words!

As Elder Maynes discussed how we can keep our testimonies in shape, I was reminded of the famous Nike catch-phrase "Just Do it". This gospel is a doing-thing! I will be working harder to live the things taught in church so that I can have a stronger testimony of it. I invite all to join me :) We are promised that as we strive to "Develop spiritual stamina," then we will find peace and strength to endure any trial given to us, which is something that we all need to face these perilous times that are upon us!

I know that is true. I love you all! Have a fabulous week!

-Sister Madsen

Met the Mission Pres. on J-Day :D

This week has been pretty eventful. We got to see our dear President and Siste Cottle :) We love seeing them because they're like our parents away from home. They love us like we're their own children and we love them back :)

We also had companion exchanges this week. That's where we trade companions with another set of sisters for 24 hours. I always learn a lot about how to be a better missionary/teacher on exchanges. I went to work in their other area and we saw lots of little miracles. I always love my assigned companion even more after exchanges too :)

We are so fortunate in this area, because we have a member who likes to come out with us as much as he can. He is going to the mission field soon and he wants to do as much missionary work as he can before he gets there! Its so wonderful because he knows everyone in the area, so the people are more receptive to us. His testimony is a great addition to our lessons as well. I know that we have seen God's work unfold here at a faster pace because of his help!

The three of us like to wear our glasses to work because it makes us look smarter, haha. We call ourselves the "Four-eyed Three Amigos".

Hope you all are doing well this week! If you didn't get to watch the Relief Society Broadcast, I highly recommend it. Even if you're not a part of the Relief Society :)

Here's a link:

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09?cid=HPTH091213087&lang=eng

Scripture of the week: D&C 88:115

This week has been exciting, yet uneventful. We did lots of work trying to find more people to teach. I know that God is really in this work, because everything that happens is all because of Him! We found much success this week, I am so excited!

Scripture of the week : Ether 12:6

We recieve a witness only after the trial of our faith. We must first have faith, and then we will see miracles!

Example: The apostles first had to believe that Christ was really risen from the dead before He appeared to them.

Song of the week: "Let it Begin" from the 20-something EFY soundtrack. Yall can youtube it or something :)

Love yall!

Go Break a Bow

This week Sister Turner and I have been focusing on finding more people to teach. We are working with some really really sweet people, we love them! So we hope to find more just like them.

I will send yall some pictures of the scenery over here. It is so pretty! There are so many green trees it blows my mind! ...And sometimes I feel a little claustrophobic because I can't see past all the trees... but then I get over it.

Haha, this week I also read about how When Nephi and his family were in the wilderness they started to experience some hardships. And then Nephi broke his bow; "..which was made of fine steel" he points out, Haha. And Nephi was the only one who wasn't complaining about the conditions. So we have this running joke about how that must have been therapeutic for him.

"Oh, go break a steel bow and get over it."

Anyways... Fall is coming! So all the tall trees will be changing colors! I can't wait to see how everything looks. We are in the country in this area, so when we drive anywhere it is always quite nice. Very scenic ;)

Thank you for all your constant letters - I love you!

God Bless ;)

 

Pain is Simply Weakness Leaving the Body

Thanks to everyone for all your love and birthday wishes!

We are working with some awesome people right now. A young man in the ward is home from his mission for a few months, and he is helping us with the work so much! He wants to continue being a missionary while he is home until he can go back to the field. It is so great because he knows everyone, He likes to go tracting with us and he even sets up appointments for us and brainstorms ideas to get the members more involved with growing their ward. He is a perfect example of a Member Missionary!

 

So my mission president, President Cottle, challenged us to read the Book of Mormon again in 90 days. We are also supposed to choose a special topic to look for and highlight while we study. After much deliberation, I chose to study about "Strength". It seems that finding strength has been a recurring theme for myself and those I am working with so far in my mission. This morning I read a verse in 1 Nephi that I liked;

"If it so be the children of men keep the commandments of God, He doth nourish them andstrengthen them." (1 Nephi 17:2-3,13)

I liked this verse a lot because it reminded me of a talk given in our sacrament meeting yesterday. The talk was on Keeping the Commandments, and how when we keep those commandments we are showing our faith. We are truly living our religion and that is the evidence of it. The speaker said: "If in a court of law you are accused of being a Mormon, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

Well, would there be enough evidence? I hope so.

I know that if we strive to keep the commandments we are strengthened by the Lord. God also promises that He will prepare a way for us to always fulfill what is asked of us.

 

My love to all of you always <3

Sis Madsen

Trials and Potential

So this past week I have done a lot of traveling and we got to meet Elder Giddens of the Seventy, cool eh?? It seems like a lot of my study and training has been centered around the same message, and I would love to share that with you. Please read, and don't write anything off because it comes from a missionary.

I've been thinking a lot about trials and how we handle them. I've also been thinking a lot about how God expects us to handle them. Sometimes they are two very different things.

Sometimes we can see the blessings at the end of our trials, and sometimes we can't even understand why we've been given them.

Sometimes we think that if we pray hard enough, God will relieve us of our trials. Sometimes it's that easy. Just an act of faith.

Sometimes it's not.

Sometimes, God tells us "No, I cannot take this trial from you, not because I don't love you, but because I love you too much to limit your potential.

We need our trials, without them we would be weak! Physically, when we are sick and weak we are not happy. We are much more confident in ourselves when we are healthy and strong. God helps us to be strong, so that we can have that happiness and confidence, and ability to perform more because of our strength.

He knows our potential. Like a good personal trainer He helps us build up our muscles. He gives us only what we can handle, but enough to make us sweat, to make us stretch ourselves past what we think our limits are. We don't stop doing pushups when we start to get tired. We do those pushups until our arms feel like they're going to fall off! That is how we become stronger.

Sometimes we are only asked to do 5 more pushups, sometimes its 500 more. What I have come to understand is, God doesn't like comfort zones.

Do we trust our Trainer? Do we perform what is asked of us? Do we beg for Him to let us take a break, or do we quit entirely? Quitters are weak. They will never grow, and they will never fullfil their potential.

The purpose of our life here on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our experiences. How do we do this? The scriptures tell us: "wait upon the Lord".

What does it mean to wait upon the Lord? The word 'wait' means to 'hope', 'to anticipate', and 'to trust'; to endure to the end, "with great diligence and patience".

We may not understand our trials, we may still have reason to ask: "O God, where art Thou?" We may be as Job, who lost all his possessions, his land, home, animals, family, reputation, physical health, and even mental well-being. Yet he waited upon the Lord and bore a powerful testimony: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” 

Sometimes, life just sucks! It is incredibly hard. We feel like our arms are going to fall off at any second. But I know that you are not alone, your arms are still intact, you may not recognize it, but Christ is right there next to you, and he is pretty buff because he's done this workout before. He won't let you fall!

Dont leave the gospel when times get tough! We may feel weak, but we are never alone.

"I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST, WHICH STRENGHTENETH ME".

I love you too much to limit your potential.

.

~Sister Karely Madsen

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/waiting-upon-the-lord-thy-will-be-done?lang=eng

photo of entire mission with Elder Anderson

2 For 1

Hey Everyone!

A lot happened this week! I orginially was going to write it out for yall but I decided to just attach my recordings for this week to my blog instead. Less writing.

I studied a talk by Elder Neil L Anderson the other day and I really like it. Yall should take a minute and read it, okay? Okay. Here are some of my favorite highlights though:

Concerning our trials, Peter wrote: "Think it not strange, concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you." (1Peter 4:6)

"When faced with a trial of your faith, Don't step away from the church! ...Distancing yourself from the Kingdom of God during a trial of your faith is like leaving the safety of a storm cellar just as the tornado comes into veiw.

Stay within the safety and security of the household of God. There is always a place for you here."

John 14:18 "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you."

I also love John 14:27 :)

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/trial-of-your-faith?lang=eng

An Elder said something funny the other day;

"Anyone can eat when they're hungry, it takes a real man to eat when he's full!"

I guess they must get a lot of member dinners! ;)

Thank you all for your letters and support!

Special thanks to my fam and Shelby :)

Ps, I got letters from Grandma, Lizzy, Shell, and Emilee this week, thank you! You are so cute! I will write back soon :)

~Sis Karely Madsen