Week 41

Last P-day all the sisters bought Dirndls.
I already have one but of course I had to try the cheetah dirndl on!!!

What a week it has been! Change is in the air. And now what you all have been waiting for....Transfer results!!! I have been transferred to the far and foreign city of Nürnberg!!!! haha! it is literally 10 minutes away from Feucht but I am so excited!!! 

We listened to transfer calls in our Dirndls!

I was way stressed! But who would have thought Sister Hansen would be my new comp!

My new companion is Sister Hansen! and we already know each other because we went on a bunch of splits! She is awesome and actually finishes her mission in 6 weeks! So we only get to be together for 1 transfer.

But hey....I'll take it!

Sister Hansen!!!!!

Other transfer news:

Sister Diethelm is training in Feucht!

Sister Fowlke and Elder Seamons have both been transferred to Bonn.

Sister Fuller is still in Coburg (her 8th transfer there)

There are 22 new missionaries coming this week!

Exciting stuff!

My last sport Abend!! Tschüss Sebastian!!!

Tschüss Thomas!

After transfer calls on Saturday we had a ward party at a members home. We had a bonfire and grilling and a hayride and a wheelbarrow race and volleyball. It was so much fun. 

Ward Activity!!!

Wheelbarrow Race

I will never forget Nathali!

We love Nani!!!

Plus Bishop just sat by the fire and played the guitar. I totally sang along. Maybe not missionary appropriate songs oops! But Bishop and I were totally rockin out! He is so cool! 

Bishop Grunder and his guitar.

Bishop Grunder and his wife! Love them!!!

It was my lats Sunday in Feucht. It is always really hard to say goodbye but I know I will be able to see a lot of these members again on splits or stake meetings. I really loved serving in Feucht. The ward feels like my family! But president comes home in 2 weeks and I won't be there. Hallelujah!

My last Sunday!:

Lovely Fenja!!!

The Grassers!

Bruder Bopp! We may or may not have sung a duet together last Sunday.
Special times

But I have only a few more days here. I will be saying goodbye to members and packing (oh joy). I am so excited for a new city. I feel really good about the change! Change is good. Sometimes hard but good.

We also went to a Botanical garden in Erlangen for pday.

I read a talk this last week from the last Priesthood session by Elder Hallstrom. i love what he says about change. "The invitation to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him both requires and expects change. Mercifully He has not left us alone. 'And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness....Then will I make weak things become strong.' Relying upon the Savior's Atonement, we can change." 

It was way too hot to be outside but good thing I had my fan!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you!!!

Sister Madsen

Week 40

I am currently sitting in the internet cafe and it is sooooooooooo hot. I think today it is 40 degrees celsius which comes to about 104 fahrenheit......um not ok. There is definitely a reason I was not sent to Africa on my mission. Plus it is way humid here....oh boy.....sweat! Tmi....

I am maybe 65 years old and bought a fan to use.
I may or may not be using it right now......

It is so hot!

Anyways.....last Wednesday I spent my 9 month mark in Frankfurt. Sister Diethlem had MLC and she needed a companion to travel with here. We left at 7:30 and made the 3 hour journey to Offenbach. Then I met up with Sister Wood and Sister Clendon and we went to one of their appointments in Frankfurt. The lady was way nice but she fed us way too much cake. I look forward to the day when I am not forced to eat food I don't want to. #missionaryproblems Then they had an appt pretty far away so they had to drop me back off at MLC. MLC crasher! Woohoo!

Sister Hamner!

Sister Miller!

But it was so fun because I got to see Sister Hamner for the first time since January and Sister Miller for the first time since she left Feucht and Elder Schmidt for the first time since he left Dortmund! We didn't get back to Feucht until about 10pm. It was kind of a long day!

Elder Schmidt!

This week we also did a lot of garden work. One of the members made us lunch solely from the plants in her yard. yum....and as we were walking through her yard she picked off a flower and told us to eat it. Tasted like dirt.....haha But I am learning a lot about plants which is kind of fun!

We alos met our new senior couple this week, Sister Dixon and Elder Grafstand. They have been on their mission for 1 month and they serve in a military ward in Ansbach! We love them! They are so nice and took us out to lunch after they did our apartment check.

Street Display in Erlangen!

We also helped with a street display in Erlangen! It was way hot that day and there were a lot of drunk people in dirndls and lederhosen. But it is always fun to street displays! And we brought Lara along!! Afterwards we went to a baptism in Nurnberg. The Regensburg branch now has a new member yay! I love baptisms! I love how this gospel is all about changing and becoming better and that we always have the opportunity to turn to Christ. After the baptism I wanted to get a picture with him because we are basically homies and he tried to kiss me. Say what?! Nothing like a little action on your mission. It was pretty funny and our zone leaders got a good laugh from it. Good times....

More Street Display...

This week is finding week for our mission. Sister Diethelm and I made a deal with our ward council that we will talk with 50 people every day and they will invite more of their friends to our ward activity next week. We are discovering that it's actually pretty hard to talk to 50 people each day....especially in Feucht. But we are up to the challenge!

All the ladies in Erlangen

Saturday we have transfer calls! Crazy! I guess we'll see where the wind blows me! I love it here in Feucht. I love the ward members.
I love my companion! 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!! 

Love,

Sister Madsen

Week 39

Yay! It's June! I remember a few months ago looking forward to this time thinking that it was going to be really hot and that I was going to die. But I think it pretty much rained the entire week.....um ok! Kind of put a damper on things.....haha...so funny.... But I didn't think it could rain this much!

Waiting for a Bahn

But here's some highlights of the week....

Monday: PDay! I bought a few new tshirts in preparation for crazy hot weather since I almost died last week. It rained all day and was freezing! We played a mexican drinking game with water with some other missionaries. I almost puked because I drank so much water haha! Then we helped with a member family move this huge trailer into their backyard. Sister Diethelm and I were wearing our skirts and pushing this thing through mud and in the pouring rain. Quite the sight to see!

After pushing a trailer through the mud.....haha

Tuesday: We had zone training in Bayreuth! We learned a lot about finding and then we had a huge finding activity with everyone. We had a little competition to see who could get the most points. Sister Diethelm and I take competitions very seriously...unfortunately we didn't win....but the finding activity was really successful and the Bayreuth elders now have a few new investigators! Yay! Later that evening we went back to Feucht and had a really good lesson with one of our investigators. We taught the plan of salvation and at the end he said that we have answered some of his questions that he has had for the past 30 years! 

We hit some pinatas for Zone Training!

Wednesday: Um.....cannot remember what happened.....haha......oh yeah it rained all day and we had a lesson with a new investigator. She literally talked for 1 hour straight. I think we maybe got 5 minutes in.....we'll have to find a solution for that. We also visited the Schwab family!!! Love them! We looked through a bunch of their old baby photos together. Good times!

We were excited to see some Shakespeare!

Thursday: More rain! Today was a holiday in Germany so we had a fun game day at the church with the ward. We played a huge game of werewolf. It was getting pretty intense and some of the married couples were getting really into it! I love the Feucht ward! We have so much fun together!

The end of the play! So good!

Friday: We got to go to a shakespeare play! Oh how I have missed theater! haha! One of the young women in our ward was in a play for her school. We got permission from president to be able to go. It was so good. They did "A Midsummers Night Dream." I may or may not have understood anything. Luckily I have read it before so I knew what was going on. Shakespeare is already sometimes difficult to understand but German and Shakespeare together requires too much brain power! Helena did such a good job!!!
So proud of her!

Helena after the play!

Saturday: We got to go to the temple! The stake had a temple bus! We pretty much start in Nürnberg and then make a few stops along the way to Frankfurt and pick of members from the stake! We had to wake up at 5 am! But I am so grateful that I was able to attend the temple! Muchly needed! Plus it was an absolutely beautiful day! So blessed!

Such a beautiful day at the temple!

Sunday: Fast Sunday! Our investigator came to church and got a priesthood blessing for his leg! He told me he has been trying to get his friend to come to our church. He thinks he would love it. And his friend doesn't even speak German! Say what?! I think he has really felt the spirit as he has attended church and wants his friend to feel the same way!

Overall it has been a pretty good week! We have a crazy week ahead of us! My 9 month mark is on June 4th! So crazy! I can't believe it. I feel so blessed to be able to be a missionary! I love seeing the gospel bless lives! It has truly blessed my life.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Madsen