Hey everyone!
How are you guys? I loved the pictures of Carrie, and I can´t believe how big she´s getting. I also couldn´t believe Ella! So weird that it´s fall on the other side of the world and the Fair is going on...I can´t believe how fast it´s all going. Looks like it was a good week for everyone.
It was good for us as well! So good to be out and working normally again. We really tried to find new people this week, as a lot of the amazing people we found a while ago are kind of fizzling out. Cinthia told us she and her husband have now been offered jobs as Pastors in the Church of the Real Priesthood, and that the Pastora is going to pay for their wedding in November. That was a real blow. She gave us a list of scriptures to study, and now text messages new verses to us every once in a while, trying to prove how lost we are. She changed a LOT - we were really friends, I still have so much affection for her and her kids and everything, but the last time we visited she was cold and different. It´s so sad when that happens.
I find it really weird she feels like she has to prove we´re wrong with scriptures about false prophets and being led away by the devil, when we never tried to prove anything to her. We just presented her the truth and told her that the only way she could know if it really was the truth or not was to ask God. If we get the chance to talk again that´s what I´m going to tell her. A lot of other churches seem really preoccupied with stuff like that, just from the contact we have - they seem to spend a good part of Bible studies and things teaching "Why other religions are wrong, and what you can say to prove it to them". But the church of Christ isn´t like that - it´s not about proving anyone wrong, always focusing on the fact that the only way to know any truth is to ask God and trust the answer He gives you.
So we went knocking, the 5 references our Stake President keeps trying to get for us not appearing yet, and had some interesting experiences. We met an old man named Bernardo who told us his life story, and at the end couldn´t stop saying how much he loved our visit and how different he felt. I think he really felt the Spirit. So that was really nice. It´s so crazy how many people I´ve met in the last year or so! All so different, with so many stories. Every kind of person imagineable. I´m so grateful to have met all of them, even when things don´t turn out so happy, like with Cinthia.
I´m so grateful for the testimony of this gospel I`ve been building over the years. I didn´t join for the sisters who taught me, or for who the bishop was when I was baptized, or for the friends I had in the church. I really just felt like it was the right thing to do, and it´s been proven to me over and over through the years. I know this church has all the truths that had been lost through the centuries, because the Holy Ghost has testified it to me so many times. And because of that, no scripture anyone shows me is going to shake my testimony. I know the answer God has given me, and that knowledge can never be taken away. It´s not a knowledge that I want to brag about and prove everyone else wrong, just a peaceful, calm assurance that makes me want to share the joy it brings with everyone. I`m so grateful for the opportunity to do that here.
I love you all so much, and I`m so grateful to have an amazing family like you! Thank you all for everything you do for me. I hope you all have an amazing week, and give Carrie a big hug for me. I love you guys!
Sister Madsen
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Quiet Week #2
Hey everyone!
It was so good to hear the latest news from you guys. I loved the pictures of Carrie in her Halloween costume!! Thanks so much for everything. As for me, I´m afraid there´s not a ton to update about this week. We really didn´t work, just stayed in. And of course, the whole time we stayed in it was beautiful spring weather, and now that we think we´re good to go out again (we still have to go back to the doctor) it´s dreary and rainy.
Staying in when you´re a missionary really is no good, but I didn´t get depressed or feel too down or anything. I started Jesus the Christ again and made a goal for when I would finish it, and also am in the middle of Doctrine and Covenants with a goal of when to finish, so I actually got really involved in those two things, which I think kept me from getting depressed.
I had read all of Doctrine and Covenants before, and started Jesus the Christ, but it´s like the first time for both of them. It´s amazing how you understand the scriptures so differently at different times of your life. I feel like I understand things better here than I ever have before. I can try to understand a little more of what it was like for those first missionaries to go out without purse or scrip...and James E. Talmage explains the New Testament in a way I had never been able to understand it before. So I actually feel like I did grow and learn a lot this week, despite not being able to work.
That´s really all we did, only going out to eat at the member´s houses because they were all already planning on us, and going to the doctor for my comp´s injections (that looked like a lot of fun:( ) One fun thing was our lunch was at Alba´s house on Thursday, the day after her birthday, and two days before Luciano´s. So I made them cookies and an apple pie! Which were both minor disasters - I accidentally put baking powder in the cookies instead of baking soda, using an english recipe and not knowing the translation, so they stayed in little balls instead of flattening out like cookies. But they said they´d eat them anyway;) And when she cut into the pie, it was a lake!! Somehow it ended up with a TON of apple juices inside. So it was kind of a juicy pie, but Luciano fell in love with it anyway (he´s kind of an americano-phile. How do you say that? Likes American things.) So that was our adventure of the week.
It was great to see them - we´d really been missing them. I don´t want to get too excited about it yet, but I think a small miracle might be happening with Alba. In all this year and a half with the missionaries, she had NEVER opened the Book of Mormon. But out of the blue, she said, "Hey, I read both of the pamphlets you gave me. And I started the testimony of Joseph Smith at the beginning of the Book of Mormon." So we tried to contain our wanting to jump up and down, and talked with her about it. She said she still has questions about a lot of stuff - it´s hard for her to believe the angel Moroni really appeared to Joseph Smith and such - but we said it just comes down to her prayer. She said she´d get around to it:) And all of them, the whole family, came to church on Sunday:D
So all things considered, it was a good week! BUt I´m looking forward to a new week of real work. I´m so glad to be here, learning all that I am, and I don´t want to take any of it for granted or waste any of this precious time. I know that everything we teach is true, not because someone told me, but because of the witness from God I get every time I teach it and every time I read the scriptures. I´m so grateful to be here, helping out in whatever tiny way in the Lord´s work. Thank you all so much for helping me to get here. I love you!!!
Sister Madsen :)
P.S. Thanks for the updates, Clyde and Jan! So good to hear from you guys, and glad you´re doing well!
P.P.S. Lola, I need pictures!!! :) Email them to my parents, if that´s easier for you (madsenltd@msn.com). But send them!
It was so good to hear the latest news from you guys. I loved the pictures of Carrie in her Halloween costume!! Thanks so much for everything. As for me, I´m afraid there´s not a ton to update about this week. We really didn´t work, just stayed in. And of course, the whole time we stayed in it was beautiful spring weather, and now that we think we´re good to go out again (we still have to go back to the doctor) it´s dreary and rainy.
Staying in when you´re a missionary really is no good, but I didn´t get depressed or feel too down or anything. I started Jesus the Christ again and made a goal for when I would finish it, and also am in the middle of Doctrine and Covenants with a goal of when to finish, so I actually got really involved in those two things, which I think kept me from getting depressed.
I had read all of Doctrine and Covenants before, and started Jesus the Christ, but it´s like the first time for both of them. It´s amazing how you understand the scriptures so differently at different times of your life. I feel like I understand things better here than I ever have before. I can try to understand a little more of what it was like for those first missionaries to go out without purse or scrip...and James E. Talmage explains the New Testament in a way I had never been able to understand it before. So I actually feel like I did grow and learn a lot this week, despite not being able to work.
That´s really all we did, only going out to eat at the member´s houses because they were all already planning on us, and going to the doctor for my comp´s injections (that looked like a lot of fun:( ) One fun thing was our lunch was at Alba´s house on Thursday, the day after her birthday, and two days before Luciano´s. So I made them cookies and an apple pie! Which were both minor disasters - I accidentally put baking powder in the cookies instead of baking soda, using an english recipe and not knowing the translation, so they stayed in little balls instead of flattening out like cookies. But they said they´d eat them anyway;) And when she cut into the pie, it was a lake!! Somehow it ended up with a TON of apple juices inside. So it was kind of a juicy pie, but Luciano fell in love with it anyway (he´s kind of an americano-phile. How do you say that? Likes American things.) So that was our adventure of the week.
It was great to see them - we´d really been missing them. I don´t want to get too excited about it yet, but I think a small miracle might be happening with Alba. In all this year and a half with the missionaries, she had NEVER opened the Book of Mormon. But out of the blue, she said, "Hey, I read both of the pamphlets you gave me. And I started the testimony of Joseph Smith at the beginning of the Book of Mormon." So we tried to contain our wanting to jump up and down, and talked with her about it. She said she still has questions about a lot of stuff - it´s hard for her to believe the angel Moroni really appeared to Joseph Smith and such - but we said it just comes down to her prayer. She said she´d get around to it:) And all of them, the whole family, came to church on Sunday:D
So all things considered, it was a good week! BUt I´m looking forward to a new week of real work. I´m so glad to be here, learning all that I am, and I don´t want to take any of it for granted or waste any of this precious time. I know that everything we teach is true, not because someone told me, but because of the witness from God I get every time I teach it and every time I read the scriptures. I´m so grateful to be here, helping out in whatever tiny way in the Lord´s work. Thank you all so much for helping me to get here. I love you!!!
Sister Madsen :)
P.S. Thanks for the updates, Clyde and Jan! So good to hear from you guys, and glad you´re doing well!
P.P.S. Lola, I need pictures!!! :) Email them to my parents, if that´s easier for you (madsenltd@msn.com). But send them!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Quiet Week
Hey everyone!
It was so good to hear from you and see the videos and pics of Carrie! I can´t believe how she´s already talking! It´s all passing SO fast. Also, I got your package with the letters and everything! Thanks so much for everything you sent! The chocolate is amazing. Thanks so much for always taking care of me:)
As for us, we´re grounded this week! S. Cantuara went to the doctor on Friday, again, after a huge long process. This is how the public doctor works in Brasil: We went there, waited forever, got in, she told the doctor her symptoms (cold that wouldn´t go away) in a two minute visit , doctor didn´t even look at her or anything, prescribed antibiotics and gave her an order to go get an X-Ray of her chest. We went downtown to get the order approved, not sure why, then went waaay out to the hospital to set up an appointment for an X-Ray. This was all at the beginning of August. So the date they gave her to come back for her X-Ray was August 20. We went back that day, waited forever, got the X-Ray....then she picked it up a week later. Then on Friday we took the X-Ray to the doctor for her to look at. So more than a month after deciding she was sick and needed to go to the doctor, she finally found out that there´s a lot of infiltration in her lung (is that what you call it?) and she´s at the beginning of pneumonia.
The problem being that she didn´t take the antibiotics the first time, so I think her sinus infection (what I was 90% sure she had, not being a doctor) never went away and stuff got down into her lungs. So now the doctor said she has to take oral antibiotics as well as 7 injections, one per day, and we´re not supposed to leave the house during that period. Bah! Seven days inside for a missionary is like...the end of the world. So we talked to the president´s wife, the health coordinator for the mission, and she agreed that we shouldn´t leave the house. So we stayed in that day.....only, the next day, our whole zone was supposed to go to Livramento for a Mission Tour with the first president of our mission. We couldn´t miss that, so we went! We also went to church on sunday, and are out today.....but really, I´m pretty sure it´s impossible to just stay in that apartment for 7 days. We had to escape! So that´s the story of how we´re grounded.
So, it´s really hard to stay in as a missionary. I think it makes you depressed, because you´re so used to constantly having something to do, and then just staying in with absolutely nothing to do except read (a selection of 4 books), write or clean....it´s pretty tough. But we´re already on the fourth day, so it´s going fast!
So there´s not a whooole lot to tell this week. There was kind of a scary story that happened on Thursday. I never know if I should tell these stories or not, if they´re like talking bad about people or something. But they really happen - some people don´t receive us well. So on Thursday we knocked doors in the neighborhood of a girl who had gone to church with a friend in another ward last Sunday, and the elders had called to tell us her address. So turns out she´s kind of Jehovah´s Witness, goes there with her sister a lot, but was super receptive and liked the message. So we started knocking around her house, and the whole neighborhood was Jehovah´s Witness. Not making any snap judgments or being prejudiced or anything, but when you´re a missionary, Jehovah´s Witnesses don´t let you in. At least not in my experience. But a teenage boy at one of the houses let us in and said his family was home, so we went in and started talking to him.
So it turns out his family is also Jehovah´s Witness, but he hasn´t gone for a few years. He actually thought we were missionaries from his church, which was why he let us in. But he was pretty cool, listening to our message, until his mom came out from the other room. He sat with his head down and stopped really answering our questions...then at the end, we invited him to pray to know whether our message was true, and kind of heard a scoff from the other side of the bookshelf.
Then when I said, "Ok, can we say a prayer before we go?" his mom jumped out and said, "NO. Prayer, no."
Silence.
"Can you tell me who you pray to?" she asked, angry.
"Umm, God..." I replied, afraid to get into a fight.
"In the name of whom?"
"In the name of Jesus Christ, like it says in the Bible." I was already getting ready to leave because I could tell she just wanted to argue.
"And what is God´s name?"
Dang it, she really wanted to argue. "God the Father´s name is Elohim," I said, knowing I was playing into her argument but not knowing what else to say.
"Can you show me where it says that in the Bible?" still angry.
"We´re not here to argue, just to share a message about Jesus Christ..." I said, super scared. I know I shouldn´t have been, being a missionary and everything, but...it was really scary. She just had a really scary demeanor, and I´ve always hated being yelled at. We basically said we had to go, but said we could come back another day if she really wanted to talk, but we weren´t here to argue with her. So we kind of ran out of there to avoid a fight, saying all we could tell her was we know God loves us, and thanked her for receiving us.
Of course after the fact I´ve thought of a million better things to say to her, but I don´t know if we´ll ever see her again. We said we´d be around there on Tuesday, but know that we´re grounded I`m not sure if we´ll go. The weirdest part was she said, with the strangest attitude, "We cross paths in the street a lot. I see you guys all the time - I even pointed you out to my friend the other day. The other day you guys went to the Baklizi (supermarket) and bought food." Like she was revealing some horrible secret about us. It was like...yeah, we´re real people, who eat food...I don´t know, the way she said it it was like she really hated us. S. Cantuara basically said, "Yeah, we´re normal people, children of God just like you..." It was the strangest experience, and made us feel really terrible at the time, that bad adrenaline rush. But after, as we weren´t feeling in the spirit to knock more doors, we went to Alba´s house, who, although she doesn´t actually believe in our Church and doesn´t want to be baptized, is the most amazing Christlike person and comforted us saying there are a lot of closed-minded people in the world. And I got the impression, "She just doesn´t know." If she know what our message was and what our purpose is, she wouldn´t have treated us like that. I really hope she can open her heart to at least say hi to us next time we cross paths.
It was funny, right after leaving I felt like I was tired of being a missionary, tired of being recognized and thought of as an ET...but immediately after, I realized, no way. If people want to judge me for being a representative of Jesus Christ, it´s a privilege to be judged. I would gladly withstand worse things to be able to represent the Savior. I thought about when Paul said he would never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and how much worse things he had to put up with. So, I´m really glad for that experience. A little opposition is always good for us. I´m really glad I realized that I never will be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and that I´d gladly withstand any punishment or any judgment for standing up for what´s right.
So those are my stories from the week! Lots of stories for a quiet week. But as always, I´m so glad to be here on the mission. It´s really the greatest possible experience I could have had. Every day I come to know our Savior better and better, and my testimony of Him gets stronger. I´m so grateful for this opportunity to grow spiritually. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God lives and that He loves us. I know Jesus Christ overcame death and sin so we could return to the presence of God someday. I know God hears and answers our prayers, and that His ultimate goal is our happiness.
Thank you guys for always loving me and supporting me on my mission! I love you all so much. Have an amazing week!
Sister Madsen
It was so good to hear from you and see the videos and pics of Carrie! I can´t believe how she´s already talking! It´s all passing SO fast. Also, I got your package with the letters and everything! Thanks so much for everything you sent! The chocolate is amazing. Thanks so much for always taking care of me:)
As for us, we´re grounded this week! S. Cantuara went to the doctor on Friday, again, after a huge long process. This is how the public doctor works in Brasil: We went there, waited forever, got in, she told the doctor her symptoms (cold that wouldn´t go away) in a two minute visit , doctor didn´t even look at her or anything, prescribed antibiotics and gave her an order to go get an X-Ray of her chest. We went downtown to get the order approved, not sure why, then went waaay out to the hospital to set up an appointment for an X-Ray. This was all at the beginning of August. So the date they gave her to come back for her X-Ray was August 20. We went back that day, waited forever, got the X-Ray....then she picked it up a week later. Then on Friday we took the X-Ray to the doctor for her to look at. So more than a month after deciding she was sick and needed to go to the doctor, she finally found out that there´s a lot of infiltration in her lung (is that what you call it?) and she´s at the beginning of pneumonia.
The problem being that she didn´t take the antibiotics the first time, so I think her sinus infection (what I was 90% sure she had, not being a doctor) never went away and stuff got down into her lungs. So now the doctor said she has to take oral antibiotics as well as 7 injections, one per day, and we´re not supposed to leave the house during that period. Bah! Seven days inside for a missionary is like...the end of the world. So we talked to the president´s wife, the health coordinator for the mission, and she agreed that we shouldn´t leave the house. So we stayed in that day.....only, the next day, our whole zone was supposed to go to Livramento for a Mission Tour with the first president of our mission. We couldn´t miss that, so we went! We also went to church on sunday, and are out today.....but really, I´m pretty sure it´s impossible to just stay in that apartment for 7 days. We had to escape! So that´s the story of how we´re grounded.
So, it´s really hard to stay in as a missionary. I think it makes you depressed, because you´re so used to constantly having something to do, and then just staying in with absolutely nothing to do except read (a selection of 4 books), write or clean....it´s pretty tough. But we´re already on the fourth day, so it´s going fast!
So there´s not a whooole lot to tell this week. There was kind of a scary story that happened on Thursday. I never know if I should tell these stories or not, if they´re like talking bad about people or something. But they really happen - some people don´t receive us well. So on Thursday we knocked doors in the neighborhood of a girl who had gone to church with a friend in another ward last Sunday, and the elders had called to tell us her address. So turns out she´s kind of Jehovah´s Witness, goes there with her sister a lot, but was super receptive and liked the message. So we started knocking around her house, and the whole neighborhood was Jehovah´s Witness. Not making any snap judgments or being prejudiced or anything, but when you´re a missionary, Jehovah´s Witnesses don´t let you in. At least not in my experience. But a teenage boy at one of the houses let us in and said his family was home, so we went in and started talking to him.
So it turns out his family is also Jehovah´s Witness, but he hasn´t gone for a few years. He actually thought we were missionaries from his church, which was why he let us in. But he was pretty cool, listening to our message, until his mom came out from the other room. He sat with his head down and stopped really answering our questions...then at the end, we invited him to pray to know whether our message was true, and kind of heard a scoff from the other side of the bookshelf.
Then when I said, "Ok, can we say a prayer before we go?" his mom jumped out and said, "NO. Prayer, no."
Silence.
"Can you tell me who you pray to?" she asked, angry.
"Umm, God..." I replied, afraid to get into a fight.
"In the name of whom?"
"In the name of Jesus Christ, like it says in the Bible." I was already getting ready to leave because I could tell she just wanted to argue.
"And what is God´s name?"
Dang it, she really wanted to argue. "God the Father´s name is Elohim," I said, knowing I was playing into her argument but not knowing what else to say.
"Can you show me where it says that in the Bible?" still angry.
"We´re not here to argue, just to share a message about Jesus Christ..." I said, super scared. I know I shouldn´t have been, being a missionary and everything, but...it was really scary. She just had a really scary demeanor, and I´ve always hated being yelled at. We basically said we had to go, but said we could come back another day if she really wanted to talk, but we weren´t here to argue with her. So we kind of ran out of there to avoid a fight, saying all we could tell her was we know God loves us, and thanked her for receiving us.
Of course after the fact I´ve thought of a million better things to say to her, but I don´t know if we´ll ever see her again. We said we´d be around there on Tuesday, but know that we´re grounded I`m not sure if we´ll go. The weirdest part was she said, with the strangest attitude, "We cross paths in the street a lot. I see you guys all the time - I even pointed you out to my friend the other day. The other day you guys went to the Baklizi (supermarket) and bought food." Like she was revealing some horrible secret about us. It was like...yeah, we´re real people, who eat food...I don´t know, the way she said it it was like she really hated us. S. Cantuara basically said, "Yeah, we´re normal people, children of God just like you..." It was the strangest experience, and made us feel really terrible at the time, that bad adrenaline rush. But after, as we weren´t feeling in the spirit to knock more doors, we went to Alba´s house, who, although she doesn´t actually believe in our Church and doesn´t want to be baptized, is the most amazing Christlike person and comforted us saying there are a lot of closed-minded people in the world. And I got the impression, "She just doesn´t know." If she know what our message was and what our purpose is, she wouldn´t have treated us like that. I really hope she can open her heart to at least say hi to us next time we cross paths.
It was funny, right after leaving I felt like I was tired of being a missionary, tired of being recognized and thought of as an ET...but immediately after, I realized, no way. If people want to judge me for being a representative of Jesus Christ, it´s a privilege to be judged. I would gladly withstand worse things to be able to represent the Savior. I thought about when Paul said he would never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and how much worse things he had to put up with. So, I´m really glad for that experience. A little opposition is always good for us. I´m really glad I realized that I never will be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and that I´d gladly withstand any punishment or any judgment for standing up for what´s right.
So those are my stories from the week! Lots of stories for a quiet week. But as always, I´m so glad to be here on the mission. It´s really the greatest possible experience I could have had. Every day I come to know our Savior better and better, and my testimony of Him gets stronger. I´m so grateful for this opportunity to grow spiritually. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God lives and that He loves us. I know Jesus Christ overcame death and sin so we could return to the presence of God someday. I know God hears and answers our prayers, and that His ultimate goal is our happiness.
Thank you guys for always loving me and supporting me on my mission! I love you all so much. Have an amazing week!
Sister Madsen
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