Week 15

It has been a crazy week!

Some legit street musicians.....love it!

Sister Kearl and I have suddenly turned into the musical number touring companionship. You would be so proud of me mom! I sang in front of 3 different groups of people! I know you are all thinking....."Well she's a Madsen blah blah blah"........but that's kind of a big deal for me! haha!

At the Evangelical church!

The Bishop's wife first invited Sister Kearl to play her violin at her children's kindergarten Christmas program. We got there and it ended up being in this old Evangelical church. It was way pretty inside. The Bishop's wife asked me if I would sing one of the songs. I was like, ok! When would I ever have the opportunity to sing in a German Evangelisch church?! so I went for it. The pastor/priest man totally looked like Harrison Ford and he was rockin the classical guitar. So there we were, two sister missionaries performing in front of a German Evangelisch congregation with Mr. Harrison Ford rocking out on his guitar. It was so cool! It ended up being a really good missionary opportunity for the Bishop's wife because everyone came up to her afterwards and asked her who we were! 

It was really pretty inside!

The outside of the church

Later in the week, Sister Kearl and I were practicing for the Ward Christmas program and again the Bishop's wife asked me if I would sing a song. This time it was Silent Night. Oh boy......let's just say I'm not a soprano but I decided to do it anyways. The program was on Saturday and Sister Kearl played some numbers with the choir and a couple by herself and then the very last number was Silent Night. I was just singing in front of the ward in German. That's fine! Special times......

Santa giving us our presents at the Ward Christmas party!

Delicious German Gingerbread....it has a special name.....can't remember it/spell it.

After the program the elders had a baptism. The man being baptized is Romanian and doesn't know any German. So we had the translation system hooked up to the phone and on the phone was a German to Romanian translator. Sister Kearl and I prepared a musical number for the baptism. We did Savior Redeemer of My Soul and we spent the night before writing a violin part for the music. Sister Kearl is a boss at transposing music! No one could accompany us on the piano except another elder in a neighboring area. So he came to the baptism. Except they came like 5 min before it started so we only had time to run through it altogether ONCE! 

After the Baptism. John (in the middle) was baptized!

I was nervous to sing the song because there were people there who only knew romanion or chinese or german and my song was english. But as we performed the song I looked down at the man who was baptized and he was bawling. Even though not everyone understood the lyrics, the language of the spirit was universal! It was a very amazing experience! I'm glad we decided to do the muscial number even though it was a little stressful to prepare for it :)

Our awkard christmas family photo.....

I also had a split this week. It was my first time taking control in Dortmund. So I had to make sure I knew my way around and that I had appts planned for the day because Sister Kearl was in Herne with the Sister Training Leader. I was a little stressed but it made me realize how much I can actually do on my own. And it also made me appreciate my trainer a lot! 

My split with Sister Clendon. We bought some delicious crepes at the end of our split :)

I hope you are all doing well and excited for Christmas!!! I miss you a lot but I am doing well! I can't believe Christmas is next week! 

It will be a little different this year but I am thankful for this time to dedicate all I have to the Lord!

That man from our ward took us all out for lunch again today. We go to this Chinese buffet every time haha!

My pet elephant......

Love you all!

Sister Madsen