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!