Transfered?! :D‏

Hey Family!!


So, big changes!! So today was our transfer meeting, and I was 99% sure I knew what was going to happen.....President told me in my interview that he would be pulling one companionship out of Ipiranga, so it would end up just me and Sister da Silva to combine to the two companionships. So Sister Pedrozo and Sister Witmer have already packed their bags and everything because they knew they were leaving, and I was trying to plan out combining all of our investigators into one big teaching group, how we would plan everything, etc.


But then today it was just one surprise after another! I told you how we do it, right? With drawing the nametags out of a bag, our whole zone together......so someone drew Sister da Silva, and Elder Borges, the Zone Leader who had all the info, said "Would you believe her companion´s sitting right next to her?" So she looked at Sister Pedrozo, her current companion, and starting screaming, Yay, we´re together again! But nope, then he announced her area......Vila Rica in the city of Santiago!! A city that´s never had sisters (as far as I know) in the history of the mission! And her companion.....Sister Witmer!! So they´re both leaving together to open an area!


So I started to wonder about who would end up staying with me....but then Sister Pedrozo´s name was drawn. Everyone thought he was kidding when he put up her area.......Alegrete! Another city that´s never had sisters!! Two huge surprises in a row! So she would also be leaving to open an area, with Sister de Oliveira. She was super excited!


Then it came to my turn.....I was positive I was staying, because who else would there be to take care of our area? The only question was who would be my companion. So of course I told Elder Borges to stop joking around when he wrote my area on the board.....Uruguaiana, a city that hasn´t had sisters for 2 years! But he really wasn´t kidding.....I´m really going!! To open the area again with Sister Cantuara (who I´ve never met). So.....none of this probably means as much to you guys as it does to us here, but it´s very crazy!! The whole time I´ve been here, it´s just been the same 5 cities that have sisters, and now all of a sudden 3 new ones, that ALL 4 of us in our apartment are going to open.


So that means....no one is staying to take care of our area! He´s handing it over to elders! Just when all the difficulties were starting to get better....but it´s good, it will revive the ward a lot. But.....I´m going to Uruguaiana!! Tomorrow! 6 hours away, waaay over on the boarder with Argentina! (I know, it sounds like it should be the border with Uruguay, which I thought for a long time, but nope, it´s on the River Uruguai, which is the border with Argentina). So I´ll get to practice my Spanish....Sister Cantuara and I will get to start from scratch.....I´m super excited!! :D


And in other amazing news, Sister Raphaela came last night! Her mission is officially over, but she´s staying 2 more weeks like I explained before. But, so for these last few transfers she´s been back in Cruz Alta! When she trained me it was in the 1st Ward, where she stayed for 7 months, then went off to a few more cities, then went back to the 3rd Ward to finish. So she spent more than half her mission there! But she brought news of everyone from the 1st ward......and they´re all doing so, so well!! EVERYONE that we worked with is still firm in the church. Jovana is loving being a Young Women´s counselor, and Marcos (less active) is going to church a little at a time. And remember Rosane, mom of Malika and Claudia, who I told you the crazy story about, how she told us she had been baptized as a teenager, but then on our last day told us she never really had been, she had just said it so we wouldn´t "try to baptize her"? But then she said she realized that a church that did the things she´d seen it do had to be true, and she even wanted to be baptized that weekend before we left?


Well, she was baptized shortly after we left, and Sister Raphaela said she´s a completely changed person now - she stopped smoking, separated from her boyfriend, she even changed her house to be cleaner and more open with a picture of everyone in the family´s baptism displayed on a table....she said it´s hard to describe, but you can even see a change in her appearance. I was SO SO happy to hear about her....and Cirlei´s marriage turned out alright (which we helped her start working on), she was baptized and had her baby.......Elenice also got married and was baptized, and now she and her two kids (who used to be less active) are all going every week! She even showed me a video of Giulia (Jovana´s daughter) and Carol (cousin) singing the young women´s song from this year, with Jovana standing in the background singing along.....and watching all three of them singing by heart, Marcos standing quietly as always, but then wrapping his arms tight around Jovana......I started to cry from the happiest feeling I´ve ever had in my life. All the memories of those people came flooding back, and I felt this incredible love for them, and this incredible happiness at how far they had all come. It´s impossible to describe, but I´ve never felt a feeling like that in my entire life.


It really is like Preach My Gospel says in the very front - "more happiness than you have ever experienced awaits you" on your mission. I´m so glad I get to have this opportunity. Thank you all so much for helping me get here and supporting me in this incredible experience. I love you all so much, and I hope I can convey to you a little of the joy I´m feeling - the joy that comes from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that He is the only wait to gain such joy in this lifetime, and to gain eternal life in the world to come. I know He lives, and I know He loves us.


Have a great week! I´ll update you next week on the first week in Uruguaiana!!! :D


Love always,
Sister Madsen