Week 25

I've decided that this was just the week for people to insult me......

whatever that's fine......

First experience: flash back a month ago......we were trying to find a less active's home with our navigator. All of a sudden or navi just stopped working. It was raining and dark and we were lost. We saw this home with lights on and we decided to see if maybe we could charge our navi there. They let us in and it turns out that the Dad is American and has met with the missionaries before. So we finally had the chance to return and visit him this past week. He was totally intoxicated and proceeded to tell us for about 2 hours how dumb we were for coming to Germany and serving missions. He kept telling us we were dumb. It was just really special.....

Our game night! Carl was the only one to show up but we still had fun! It was Elder Seamon's first night in Feucht!

Next: We met a group of Persian men at our street display and we found a time to meet up this last week. We brought them a bunch of persian BoM because they wanted to give them to their friends. After we gave them the books they asked us if we had time to get a drink with them. Sister Miller said yes and we ended up in a bakery with two persian men drinking hot chocolate that they bought us. Oh the situations you end up in as a missionary..........then one of the persian men told me if I wanted to be thin that I shouldn't drink hot chocolate.........um is that a fat joke?haha Thanks for the advice though! But his friend had a really great story and is trying to help bring people to Christ. He told us his conversion story to Christianity and it was really inspiring! 

We had a zone p-day last week! We played at some park! It was fun......this is an awkward hallway pic.....

And then: We were invited to attend the adult session of stake conference this past weekend. It was held in Erlangen and it was fun to see other missionaries and our mission president. While we were waiting for it to start a man from the Nurnberg ward told me that my glasses were strange. And they didn't curve by my ear like they were supposed too. Seriously!!! Oh my....slightly put me over the edge. But anyways.....stake conference was really great! For the Sunday session they had a special broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Bednar spoke and gave his talk in german! Pretty legit! 

Our p-day last week.

Regardless of just being insulted by people who barely know me it's been a pretty good week! And these situations really made me think about why I am serving a mission. Sidenote: my earring just fell out of my ear and I just spent the past 5 minutes searching and crawling on the floor of this sketchy internet cafe looking for it and it has been found....no worries....just lost my train of thought.... Anyways.....I am so grateful I am here serving a mission. I could easily just go home any day but I am learning that I CAN do hard things. And it is so interesting that in any other situation those comments would have really offended me but I know that God has blessed me with feelings of peace and charity. I am so grateful for that!! 

We overnighted it with the Coburg sisters! Love them! Sleepover! And yes that is a rice bag in my pants........

I forgot to tell you about a cool story!!!

This past week we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Coburg sister's musical. They worte a musical for their branch to perform and to invite non members to. Sister Miller volunteered to film the musical for the branch. On the train ride there a man sat next to us and we started talking to him. He asked us where we were going and we said a musical in Coburg. We showed him the invite and he said he wanted to come with us! And he did! He took the bus with us up to the coburg chapel and stayed for the whole musical! We gave him a Book of Mormon at the end and exchanged contact information. We are so glad we were able to go to the musical so that we could meet this man on the way! 

My favorite book I found at the Coburg church!

I love you all! I miss you dearly!! I am going to proceed to give the shameless plug for emails or letters!!! I would love to hear how you are doing!

Love you!

Sister Madsen

Week 24

I forgot to say last week.....Happy Valentine's Day!!! Sister Miller and I had a pretty special V-Day together. We were walking back in the dark and cold to our apt and I turned to her and started singing "I'm through with love" haha! We shared a special moment haha! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

This week has been pretty crazy. We planned a street display for Valentine's Day. So we spent every minute of spare time cutting out hearts and decorating them with glitter. I love glitter so I had a lot of fun decorating the hearts. I probably got a little carried away with the glitter.....I started decorating days in my planner with glitter. It's not a problem......

So many hearts for our street display!

Cutting out soooooooooo many hearts...

Our street display was pretty good. We gave out valentines and candy to the people of Neumarkt. Sister Miller said we were like God's little Valentine cherubs. We found a new investigator and actually she ended up hanging around our display for like an hour. We are excited to meet with her again this week! On Sunday, a member from our ward told us that she was planning on coming to our street display to help but she was invited to a birthday party. She went to the birthday party and one of the ladies showed up with a heart valentine that we were passing out. Our ward member had the opportunity to explain who the missionaries were and she invited all the ladies at the party to church. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

Our beautiful street display! The tent kept blowing over. At one point Sister Miller and I went to talk to someone and we looked back and then tent was gone......awkward!

We also had transfer calls this week. I will be staying in Feucht with Sister Miller for another transfer but Elder Mayne has been transferred to Erlangen. We will miss him! Luckily he will still be in the same zone. 

I'm excited for the new transfer! 

District pic! Our last DDM all together!

In case you're wondering (you could probably care less haha) but my hip is doing better. Sister Miller insists on massaging it every night. Special times..... but it seems to be helping. Not many companions would massage their companion's hip. I am grateful :) 

We threw a surprise birthday party for Samuel. He turned 11!

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Things are going well in Feucht! The elders had a baptism on Saturday. It was the first baptism in Feucht for over a year! Pretty crazy! It was a wonderful service! I always love going to baptisms. The spirit is so strong! 

At the Baptism on Saturday with a member from our ward.

I am so grateful for all the tender mercies I have experienced this week. I have started at the end of each day picking one thing out that God has helped me accomplish that day. Doing that has made me realize how much I need my Heavenly Father and how much He really does for me. 

I love you all! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Madsen

P.S. I am starting a dirndl series of photos. This is a few of my kitchen series haha! I'm weird........

Tada!

Sister Madsen in her Dirndl is a whole new animal haha!

Week 23

This week has been.....special haha!

I was on yet another split! 

Sister Miller had MLC and then had to prepare for zone training with the other Sister Training Leader so I was in Nürnberg from Tuesday to Friday! But the best part was that I got to be companions with Sister Fowlke for the week. She was my MTC comp. We had so much fun together! The sisters there have been using a car because the senior couple has had visa problems so we were just cruisin around town the whole week! Driving in Germany is frightening but Sister Fowlke does such a good job.

Best split evah!

One day we had to go to the physical therapist because I am a grandma and hurt my hip. How do you even do that?! haha! But anyways.....the physical therapist was a young German man with an eyebrow ring and he just massaged my butt for like 45 minutes. I'm not sorry about it...haha! But Sister Fowlke was a trooper and just had small talk with him as he did it. Special moments.....I was so grateful we would be driving for the week because I was pretty sore afterwards. Such a tender mercy. 

The Lord is looking out for me! 

We had zone training this week! It was so great! I love learning from the other missionaries. We talked a lot about becoming the missionaries and people we want to become. And since our zone isn't that unified we ate donuts off of strings for a little activity. Nothing brings missionaries together like eating donuts off of strings. haha! It was fun! 

Eating donuts at zone training.

Donut on a string....

I also had to opportunity to go to the Frankfurt Temple for the first time on saturday! It was so great. We left at 6:10am and there was a bus for the whole stake. Our ward sat in the back of the bus. Party! haha....but really! Our bishop is hilarious! We did two sessions back to back. And I got to see Mimi who did a mini mission with me in Dortmund. It was great to see her! We didn't get back to our apt until 9:30pm. So it was kind of a long day but toally worth it. I LOVE the temple! 

Temple bus! aka party bus!

The temple!

For p-day Sister Miller and I went Dirndl shopping. They are the traditional German dresses! haha! So hilarious but I totally got one. I really wanted Lederhosen because they are cooler but the lady wouldn't let me try them on because she said I needed a Dirndl haha! So German....

Dirndl Shopping!

This week was kind of crazy and I wasn't really in my area for the majority of the week but it was really a good week. I am so grateful for the time I had at the temple! God continues to show me that he has my back (as my mother would say). I am so grateful to serve a mission. I was thinking this morning about all I learned so far on my mission. It really is a lot and I still have so much more to learn! 

Sister fowlke and I on our split

Thank you for your continued support and love and prayers!!!!! 

You are all the best! Love you dearly!!!!

Love,

Sister Madsen

Week 22

This week was very interesting......

I pretty much go on a split every week since my companion is the Sister Training Leader. I actually don't mind it too much and I love spending time with the other sisters. In fact, this week I will be on a split from tuesday to friday with Sister Fowlke my MTC companion. We are both so excited to be able to work together again. I seriously love her!

Sister Miller and I

This week I was also pretty sick. I guess in the middle of the night I was coughing and Sister Miller told me I kept saying things like "Oh no!" and "I am going to die!" haha! So hilarious! I wonder what else I say in my sleep....kind of makes me nervous! Anyways.....So I spent Thursday sleeping. And you would think that having a day to sleep on your mission would be awesome! Yes! but really no because my body would not let me do it! Kind of lame.....but I felt a lot better afterwards. 

And then Sister Miller got sick on Saturday so she slept for about half the day. It was kind of nice to have the morning to myself and I did like 3 hours of personal study! Hollah! But we are both feeling a lot better so no worries! And the elders brought me a jar of nutella to help me feel better. Very wise!

Feucht Missionaries! Elder Wichtermann is from Switzerland and Elder Mayne is from American Fork! Love them!

We taught young women's this week and it was pretty special. The girls wouldn't talk at all! No class participation is hard when you can barely speak the language you are giving the lesson in. But oh well I just kept telling them my life stories in the most horrendous German and if they thought I was crazy they should have spoken up haha! 

We are also preparing for a street display that we are going to have on Valentine's Day. One of the ward members (who reminds me SO much of Jill Dodson) is so excited to help us. She loves going out with the missionaries! 

This weekend we get to go to the Frankfurt temple! Wooo! I am so excited. I haven't gone since I've been in Germany! We are taking a bus with our ward! I am really looking forward to it and it is really what I need right now! 

The elders are obsessed with snow!

One of my favorite parts of the week was when Sister Miller and I went to visit a 93 year old member from our ward. She wanted us to simply sing hymns to her. So Sister Miller and I sang about 5 hymns to her. It was such a peaceful experience and I felt the spirit so strong. It was a moment that reminded me why I am on my mission. It really is the simple things sometimes that make the biggest difference.

I love the scripture in Alma 37:6 that says:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Lilli and Phine! They are President's granddaughters and we are teaching Lilli in preparation for her baptism in a few weeks! She just turned 8! They are so precious!

It doens't say that by many great things are great things brought to pass. It is truly the small and simple things that bring about great things in our life. I have truly noticed a difference from just reading in my scriptures everyday. It is such a simple thing to do but it really does make my day GREAT!

I love you all! I hope you had a fantastic week! Miss you dearly!

Love,

Sister Madsen