Family!‏

Hey guys!!

How is everyone this week? I LOVED the pics of Caroline, I can´t believe how big she´s getting, and how adorable. You guys have to get her ready to talk to me on Mother´s Day!:)

As for here, it´s been an ok week. I can´t believe how quickly everything´s passing. The weeks and months are starting to fly by. It´s almost 6 months now that I´m here in Camobi! I can hardly believe it. I´m actually not getting tired of the area at all. The ward is amazing, and I love everyone here. It´s great working with Sister Lopes! She´s so fun and funny and outgoing. I learn so much from her all the time! We´ve been trying new, interesting ideas to get to talk to people and such. So she´s really great.

But I´m trying to think of what I can tell you about this week...it was pretty normal, without a lot of excitement or anything. The most exciting thing was last night, when we put on a fireside for our ward. Sister Lopes´ idea she brought from her other area is something called CTMM, Centro de Treinamento *Membro* Missionario. (Member Missionary Training Center?) So we put up a poster a bit ago that said "CTMM...Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" and tried to make everyone curious about what it was. So then last night we did a fireside to kick off the program. The idea behind it is that members want to help but a lot of times don´t know how. So the CTMM is trainings and such to help them know how to help the investigators when they come to church, how to bear their testimony in a lesson, how to start talking to their friends about the gospel, etc.

So the fireside turned out pretty cool! We wanted to get Presidente Myrrha to speak, but he was already booked. So we looked and looked for people to speak up til the last minute, when we decided we would just have to speak ourselves! But it was better that way, because we got to address what we wanted and introduce the program:) So for S. Lopes´ and my part, we copied S. Nogueira´s call letter, took out her name and addressed it to "Dear Member Missionary", changing the term of service from 18 months to "all your life" and such. We gave one to everyone and had them all open them at the same time, everyone got pretty excited. So our part was like "congratulations! You´ve received your mission call to work in the Santa Maria mission. But now how are you going to know what to do? You can´t all go to the CTM in São Paulo...so we brought the CTM to you!" etc etc. It actually turned out pretty cool! The members got really excited, and walking home one of the young women started talking about one of her friends who she´s always wanted to give a Book of Mormon, etc. So hopefully the members will get excited and start helping out!

It´s really the only way we can have success. Except for the rare times we meet really nice, receptive people, talking to people on our own doesn´t get us very far. People here are very closed, and most of what we hear all day is "I already have a religion." But when the members show a good example, get their friends asking questions, etc, it´s so much easier for us to approach them. So all of you at home, start thinking about your responsibility as member missionaries! Missionary work isn´t something to be done by people with nametags, but by every church member. It´s all of our responsibility! So start thinking about the people in your life who are looking for something, who don´t know the purpose of life, who need what the gospel offers. I know you´ll all do a great job:)

Thanks so much, everyone, for all your love and support. Thanks for being the greatest family I could ask for. I love you all so much - it´s hard to describe, but know that I do. I´m praying for you always. Keep praying for me, please!

Til next week!

Sister Madsen