March 31 & April 14

April 14

 So Sister Russell got her visa to Brazil! I got a new companion 2 weeks ago. Sister Wheelwright is from Lindon, UT and fresh from the MTC. She is already making a fabulous contribution to the work here in Warner Robins! I love her already.

This week was awesome! We found many new people to teach and saw lots of miracles!

Earlier in my mission I was looking at our area map and wished that there were glowing dots in the places where the people are ready to accept the gospel. If only, right?

But just last week we had an awesome experience! We went to visit a member, but she wasnt home. Instead of just going back to the car and heading off somewhere else, I felt like we should keep walking through the neightborhood a little longer. My intention was to talk to people who were already outside their homes.

We didnt get too far when I saw a porch light turn on and off 2 times down the street. It was really weird, because that light was shining abnormally bright for it being 3:00 in the afternoon. I was reminded of the thoughts I had a few weeks earlier, and I knew that that light was a sign! So we went and knocked on the door and a sweet woman named Juanita let us in. We were able to share the 1st lesson with her, invite her to be baptized, and set up a return appointment for the next week! What a cool miracle!

Also this week we had the blessing of seeing a Less-active member come back to church!! she hasnt been to church in 35 years! I got a picture with her outside the building for proof :)

So many good things are happening in this area! We are so excited! And the members are excited too!

I know that blessings come with obedience. And the best way to show your faith is to live it! Obeying the commandments is what we need to do in this life to have happiness and strength. And we will be so much more blessed in the life to come because of our obedience. I also know that Charity is the key. It is the strongest, noblest, purest kind of love there is. Miracles happen when we have Christ-like love for the people around us.  

Thank you all for all your prayers and encouragement, I know that they make a big difference!

March 31

It has been nice and spring like here for the past couple weeks. I really love it. I will surely miss it when it starts to get hot. I'm pretty nervous for this next summer. I was blessed to be here last summer, because it rained in abnormal amounts. Almost every day it was raining. So it was cooler than normal. But this summer I dont think I will be that lucky. Everyone keeps trying to warn me. 

Fast Sunday was good for us :) The whole ward fasted together for those who are struggling. And I shared my testimony in sacrament. Also, Kevin was baptized Saturday and confirmed yesterday! And his nonmember mom came to both. We invited her to take the lessons, we have an appointment to teach her at the church this Wednesday! Wow. And that is how missionanry work is supposed to be done! Finding new investigators through the help of the ward and part-member families. And the teaching them in spiritual atmospheres. Like member homes or the church. :D

Did you like the Women's conference?

We had our transfer calls on Saturday. My current companion, Sister Russell, is leaving the country tomorrow (visa waiter for brazil), so I am getting a new companion. I'll be training a new sister! I'm so excited and scared to death!  Wish me luck. And pray for us. I just want to do a good job for this sister.

I love you lots! Have a good week :)

Sis K Madsen

March 24

Things are crazy here this week. Last week of the transfer, and my companion is being shipped off to Brazil! Wish me luck :)

Yesterday was quite eventful! I decided to do a special fast yesterday for the people in the area. So that made church really nice and spirit-filled. We met with the Ward Council yesterday, and confirmed their approval for a 9 year old boy to be baptized (there's been some drama with his family recently) But they said they wanted to go forward with it. 

We taught the Gospel Principles class also. The lesson was on "The Church of Christ Today". Which is basically the Restoration, and first missionary lesson. No investigators or less active members came to church :/ But there were some recent converts in there that I hope benefited from the lesson. I asked them to share their testimonies of the restored gospel at the end of class and that helped us end on a positive note. We emphasized how important it is to share the gospel with everyone because we are the only ones who have the whole truth! And the only ones who have the correct authority and power of God. No one else can claim to be the exact same church that Christ organized.

At the start of RS yesterday the Bishop pulled us out of class and asked us to follow up on a situation. The lady was so sweet and surprisingly calm and collected considering the trial she is facing. She asked us to pray with her. I said the prayer... that was really hard. But my testimony grew as I was reminded of the healing power and blessings of the atonement. So I called on those blessings to help her through. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of the gospel and the spirit world and the Atonement. 

We also got to help get some food for another family yesterday. We originally called one member in the ward for info about Food Banks, and she ended up giving the family 5 or 6 big paper bags of food. Grains, meat, lettuce, yogurt, etc. Bless her heart. It made that family so happy. they are having a hard time right now.

It truly is the errand of angels.

Hope you have a week that is not too stressful, and do lots of fun things!

Loves to my shlebs! =D

- Sis K Madsen

March 10 & 17, 2014

March 17, 2014

Caption Contest!! Who's got the best caption??

This week went pretty well. We saw lots of progress with Less Active members and Investigators! No one came to church, but we are still hopeful for next week. This area has taught me lots of patience. With my companions, and with the people. Progress is made very slowly, but it is sure! I may never see the day when some less active members walk into sacrament meeting, but I know that their faith and understanding of the gospel has grown significantly while I am here! 

One of our most exciting moments this week is when an investigator realized that he did have a testimony of the book of Mormon, and with that, he also knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet! Its beautiful :) He is still unsure about joining the church, but he has made so much progress! In the same lesson I was able to recognize one of the key indicators of the Spirit that Elder Holland mentioned in his talk "The Divine Companionship". This one was "Missionaries learn in moment of delivery". Edd asked us some questions from his reading, and we were able to expound on the verse with info that we didn't know ourselves! But I knew that what we taught was true. And He knows it too. 

Looking forward to doing lots of finding this next week. 

Love you lots!

Sis K Madsen

March 10, 2014

A lady in the ward had our whole district get a picture for the local newspaper.

9 Months!!

This last week was great! The weather was sunny and nice. Things are starting to bloom. We were able to come in contact with a few Less-Active members that we hadn't met before, and grew even more in our knowledge and testimonies of the gospel!

My half-way day would have been February 29th. But since there is no such thing I celebrated it the 28th and March 1st! Both days were quite amazing. I have been blessed to see many little miracles this week, I know that the Lord loves me :)

We have started teaching this cute little nine year old boy. He has wanted to be baptized for awhile but family circumstances prolonged the opportunity. Now that things have settled down he is ready to continue learning about the gospel! The date he picked out is March 22nd. We are so happy for him and his family! We are so blessed to have the privilege of helping him be baptized :D.

So these days there's lots of talk about members doing more to help share the gospel with others. To be honest, whenever I heard "missionary work" at home I would almost tune out. The thought made me a little uncomfortable. Sharing the gospel was way out of my comfort zone, sometimes it is still hard for me. So I totally sympathize with people who are scared to reach out! But since being out here I have learned a few things that might help others over come their fear, and have more faith.

First off, WHY do we need to share our knowledge of the gospel?

-It makes us happy.

-When we were baptized we promised that we would.

-And because we know that living the teachings found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only way that we will be able to fully access the blessings of Christ's Atonement, perfect ourselves, and be worthy enough to return to our Heavenly Father and live with Him.

I once heard a quote that went something like this:

"If you really understood the Atonement, then you would not hesitate to share it with others."

~Missionaries are trained to teach, not  to find.~

When people think of missionary work, they think of a couple Elders on bikes going door to door. While the method of knocking on doors may be the most common method of finding people. It is one of the most least effective ways to share the gospel! 

What is the most effective way? For a member to introduce their friend. 

Why is this more effective?

A person learning about the gospel will respond better to it when they have someone that they can trust. Who they know would not encourage them to do learn more unless it could benefit them. They will have someone they can turn to if they have questions, because missionaries can't be there all the time. They have an immediate support system.

Keeping this in mind, here are a few simple ways that you can find opportunities to share the gospel with others:

- Just be a good example! It will attract questions about why you live a certain way.

- Love others. They will feel more comfortable asking questions if they know you love them.

- Dont be afraid to tell people you are LDS. You can also go further and ask them what they know about the church. This is great for correcting misconceptions they might have. 

- Keep a picture of the temple or Christ on your phone/computer/tablet wallpaper, or keep a Book of Mormon or Church Magazine on your desk/in your locker. Having items like this will draw others to ask questions.

- Always invite. People will not likely perform an action unless they are invited to do so. Invite them to church. Invite them to mutual, to ward activities, to dinner. Elder Holland said that an invitation extended in love, will never be seen as offensive. They worst they can say is "no thank you."

To wrap it up, doing some of these suggestions may be a little uncomfortable, but I can promise that that's the hardest part! The only thing we have to do is be a friend to others, and provide them with the opportunity to learn more. As they desire to become more involved, then you can let the missionaries do the teaching. You don't even have to worry about it! The member's job is to find. and the missionaries job is to TEACH. They are the ones set apart and given authority to do so!

If you feel a little apprehensive about the missionaries, think of it this way: A missionary is set apart and given the same authority as an Apostle. But their authority is not for life, only for their missions. They are "little a's". You would probably love to have an apostle teach your friend, right? 

 

All in all, don't worry. As we strive to live Christ's teachings and have His Spirit with us, we will be guided to know what to say and do!

"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left,and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels roundabout you, to bear you up."

 I love you all! <3

Just Another Day in Paradise :)

The weather this week has been pretty great. 60s and 70s the whole time. I'm loving it. This is what spring looks like apparently :) We have been trying to take advantage of the awesome weather and contact as many people as we can. 

On Thursday we were lucky to do lots of service! We came and volunteered at the library. We helped cut out papers, organize, and shelf books in the children's section. The lady who is over the kids place is named Miss Penny. She is sweet. We look forward to getting to know her better and sharing Jesus with her. The same day we also helped a family clean their kitchen and pack their dishes to move. The Coleman family. They are a family that the sisters met a while ago, we went to go see if they would be interested in taking the lessons again and ended up helping them clean. The good news is that they do! The bad news is that they are moving to another house in the 2nd ward. My district leader gave us unlimited permission to travel anywhere in the district! So we can probably still teach her. But if it ends up being too far away we may just have the 2nd ward elders teach them. We are still pondering about it.

I learned a lot about revelation in my studies this week. I know that obedience is the key to receiving guidance and assistance from God. When we are obedient, we can be trusted with more knowledge and responsibility. We bring ourselves closer to the Spirit by standing in holy places, just as we are commanded. I love the scripture:

 "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." D&C 88:63

My goal is to be an AP-status missionary. Everyone knows that the ones who are the most obedient are the ones who get to be AP!
I love y'all lots! Have a good week :)

Michelle's baptism cake

Merry Christmas!

Christmas:

     On Christmas Eve we had lots of fun caroling at the Hospital! President Cottle encouraged us all to go as districts caroling, rather than knocking doors. A suggestion that Sister Ramdsen and I loved! We started at the hospital, just visiting a member of the stake, and then we decided to just stay there all night. We worked with a very helpful nurse who gave us lots of patients to sing to. (Sometimes it was because she knew they loved music, and sometimes it was because she thought they needed some Jesus) Only in Georgia. Sister Ramsden and I are the only sisters in our district so we pretty much carried all the elders while we sang. It was very fun!

     We also went to go visit Miss Ana and her son Edrick Bisher. We took them Sparkling grape juice and played games with them. We read the christmas story from Luke 2 and dressed up like the Nativity (pictures to come!). It was such a sweet way to end the night.

      Christmas day I got to skype mi familia. I love them :) We also visited some members and Less-active members. Helped them remember the Jesus-part of Christmas.

Thanks for all the cards and Christmas wishes! 

Warner Robins

I've been here almost 6 weeks already, but the area is fabulous. We are in a city, much like St George with how many stores there are. Nothing like tiny Thomson GA at all! We are also right next to a Military base, so there is a lot more diversity with all the people! Lots of asians, white folk, one or two hispanic here and there. There is also more diversity with religious beliefs. There still tons of baptists, but there are more people here who are not christian at all. And the housing is nicer. The people are richer (because they're in the military). Which is both a positive and a negative. It is not as easy to find people humble enough to teach.

I am the assigned driver, I like driving. Sister Ramsden doesn't like my driving, but that's okay. I drive like my dad.

We were blessed to have two baptisms on Saturday! (Dec 28th) Michelle Henson, and Ana Bisher. Its been a long journey for both of these ladies! We are so excited and happy for them :)

My favorite Mormon Message video! Origin.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/youth-videos?v=2505987918001

Change is in the Air

This is Kemyiah. She is 8. She will be getting baptized on November 9th! We are so excited for her :)

Here is a pic of us two with our Missionary name tags! She got hers from Primary :)

The leaves are changing colors! It is so pretty down here. It is also getting a lot colder. But no snow for us yet!

  I listened to Elder Nelson's talk this morning and I really liked it. Y'all should read it or re-read it!

Love Y'all!