Spring Weather‏

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