Highlights from 2018

I hope all our readers enjoyed a beautiful Christmas. We sure did! The highlight was Skyping with the Sweetest Missionary Ever on Christmas Day. She truly has a missionary spirit of love and service. She would love to hear from you! I'll include her email addy at the end.

As we wrap up another year to embark on a new one, our hearts are filled with gratitude for all we've accomplished this year.

January-

In January, Marissa started her full time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was called to serve in the Cusco, Peru mission. She also turned 21.

I chose two words to guide me through this year- Trust and Faith. I've been trusting in my Heavenly Father to keep my baby girl safe in Peru. I'll talk about faith later in this post.

February-

In February, we visited Hardware Ranch to see the magnificent elk there. We also discovered some cool prairie houses in Idaho while on a scenic drive, and I wrote a fun homeschool series on my personal blog. We also celebrated Zach's 25th birthday. 

March-

In March I saw the first blooms of my very first tulip garden. The crocuses came out first and cheered me with their yellow color. 

April-

In April we celebrated Easter as a family. And my hard-working guys surprised me with my very own craft room. It's beach themed and has become my favorite room in the house. 

My craft girls love it, too. 😊 Our first craft time in the new room was a spring craft party at the end of April where we made tulip gardens.

May-

In May I hosted my first Homeschool Meet and Greet. It was a lot of work, a lot of fun, and the turnout was better than I expected. It was my way of advocating homeschooling in my community. I hope to host another one next year. We also attended our town's Black and White Days as a family. We watched the parade and horse pulls.

June-

In June I started weekly craft days for my craft girls. This was the first time I've done so and it made my summer delightful. Every Thursday I hosted two 2-hour craft sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. It worked great! The girls made kindness rocks, a Father's Day gift, nature journals, and leis. We also went to Summerfest which is a summer tradition for us. Summerfest is a crafts fair in Logan, Utah.

July-

In July we celebrated Darcie's 23rd birthday. For craft days my girls made dream catchers, beach scenes, vision boards, and pineapple pencil cans.

August-

In August I wrapped up my weekly craft days with two final crafts: lollipops and scrapbooks with photos from our summer fun together. We also came up with a name for our club: the SURF Club which stands for Sweet Unique aRtsy Friends. I also hosted a mom craft! Marcus got his driver's permit and started his driver's ed class, carpooling with three girls in our ward (church congregation). One of the girls told him that he doesn't go to "real school" and as a response, Marcus wrote a personal essay which I posted on my personal blog. It's called, What is "Real School" and I think he makes some honest points!

September-

In September, Darcie, Marcus and I participated in our first Walk MS with Zach. It was Zach's second Walk MS. Zach was diagnosed with MS when he was 23. It was an emotional experience for me which I've heard is common for mamas. We hope to pull together a bigger walking group next year so come join us! It was also my birthday and David came home that weekend to spend it with me. The boys and I went hiking to Bloomington Lake which was fun. Marcus and I visited David in Montana (he started working there this year) for the last week of September and first week of October.

October-

In October I hosted a Halloween craft party. The girls made Halloween wreaths, witch cauldrons, and monsters. They wore costumes and for dinner I served mummy dogs and monster mac 'n cheese. Marcus participated in a week long Youth Conference through Liahona (his distance school). 

November-

In November I decided to host weekly craft days again! To accommodate the girls after-school schedules I ended up hosting a group on Monday, another group on Wednesday, and a group on Friday. Whew! It was a lot of fun. They made story pumpkins, foam turkeys, stain glass art and turkey cupcakes, and penguins. I took Thanksgiving week off of course. We celebrated Thanksgiving as a family. At the end of November, Marcus and my friend, Heather, and I, saw the Broadway show, Finding Neverland at our local theater. (For my birthday this year, David gave me the best gift- season tickets to Eccles theater.

December-

In December I hosted a Christmas craft party for my SURF Club girls, of course! The boys and I also went to Eccles to see a Bar J Wranglers Christmas concert. Just before Christmas, three of the moms of some of my craft girls surprised me at my door. They sang, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and gave me a spa gift. It was a really sweet act of friendship that meant so much to me.

The most beautiful part of our Christmas Day was Skyping with The Sweetest Missionary Ever. She's amazing! She is soooo happy! She was bubbly and cute and she would love to hear more from extended family and friends so WRITE HER! Her birthday is coming up (January 12th) so send her birthday wishes. Her email is: marissa.madsen@myldsmail.net

After Christmas, we kept our yearly tradition of going down to Salt Lake City (or thereabouts) to attend an event as a family. This year we chose to walk through Thanksgiving Point's Luminaria. My brother, Clint, and his family joined us. David's mom, who spent Christmas with us, was there, too. It was COLD! But it was a lot of fun. We also visited the BYU Museum of Art and went to dinner at Rodizio Grill. Yum!

To all of our friends and extended family, thanks for being a part of our lives. We love you and wish we saw you more often. We wish you a Happy New Year and a successful 2019.

Christmas Time is Here (Mission Update)

Merry Christmas! We are so excited to Skype with the Sweetest Missionary Ever on Christmas Day. Here is last week's group email (she didn't send one out the week before) There is a prayer request:

Hey everybody! Hope you are having a great week! 

We have had a great week, with everything going on we have two with a baptism date for the 29th of december. We were going to invite Hermana Rosa to get baptized but she is going through hard times right now and so we had the Elders come give her a blessing. Please keep her in your prayers. Also Hermana Patty was invited to get baptized but she thought it was too soon and wants to learn more. So we will continue teaching her and inviting her to be baptized. 

Christmas is truly here. We bought a small fake tree and decorated it. 

We also have our Christmas stockings hung up. 

Also our stake had a Christmas activity. It was really fun and we helped with the Primary kids. 

Here I am with this cutie! She didn't want her picture taken at first.

Then there's this crazy boy!

Then after the activity we got pizza!

So this week my companion locked the keys in the house and so she climbed in through the window to get it open! She knocked over the tree but nothing else happened. 

So on Friday we had our district meeting and I gave the lesson. I think it turned out alright, at least I hope it did. 

Today we got together as Hermanas and made sugar cookies then decorated them as a zone. 

It was way fun! Sending you all some pics of that wonderful time! There was about 150 cookies made and eaten. 

I love you all! Hope you keep the Christmas Spirit alive and think of ways you can Light up the World this Christmas Season! 

Love, Hermana Madsen

Doesn't she look happy? She was able to Skype for a few minutes yesterday to try the connection out for Christmas Day. She looked great and was her normal bubbly self. Yay! Thank you for your prayers on her behalf and for the emails to her. It means so much to her to hear from you! Keep it going into the New Year. Her email is: marissa.madsen@myldsmail.net

From our family to yours,

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is Coming to Town (Mission Update)

Hey Everybody! 

This was an exciting week. I'll tell you about the week then our busy weekend!

So this week we found 7 new people to teach. One of them we asked his children who were playing outside if they were home and when he came we started talking to him. He asked us where we were from (a normal question) and when we replied saying we were from the States he started talking to us in English! Apparently he is a professor of English and studying English. He wouldn't let us talk in Spanish saying he wanted to practice his English so we taught in English. Then later we got asked to do two English interviews where the students ask us questions and we respong, all done in English. Since it's the times of exams all the students studying english are looking for someone who speaks english to talk to. So that was our English week!

We bought a puzzle and we work on it at nights. It is a thousand pieces and so hard!

Also this week we had our Christmas conference! It was so much fun. We did it in Puno. We had 3 other zones with us. We had to do three things, a video, a song, and a dance/sketch. It was really fun! I'll make sure my mom posts the videos on her blog. We also got Christmas gifts from some families who sent some for all missionaries in the mission. Since our mission presidents are leaving this year, this was their last Christmas so they gave us gifts. It was such a fun time and we definitely felt the Christmas spirit! So Christmas came a little earlier this year. 

Our zone singing and being us!

Our zone with President and his family. 

And that was our week! It was a fun, adventure filled week! Hope you are seeing Christmas everywhere you go and feeling the Christmas spirit as well. Share a little Christmas Spirit! Love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Hermana Madsen

Please send Marissa some Christmas cheer! Just drop her a line or two in an email. Missionaries love to hear from friends and family and know they are not forgotten. Thanks!

marissa.madsen@myldsmail.net

Happy Thanksgiving! (Mission Update)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For thanksgiving we had a zone dinner. We had turkey (two of them), stuffing, peach cobbler, mashed potatoes and gravy. We also had rolls and green beans. It was way delicious! We had a blast making the food and then eating the food, a real Thanksgiving dinner from the USA. 

An elder crashing our photo!

I made gravy!

The food.

This is the zone! As you can tell, we are mostly north Americans. Also, one hermana got cut off! Oops. 

Also, we knocked on a door ready to contact and two members walked up. We asked if they lived there and they told us no. Then the door opened and it was another member! Except we knew where this member lived. Then he invited us in to meet his sister and brother-in-law and his niece. It turned out it was their whole family and that we crashed a little girl's birthday party. Oops. Later this week we are bringing her chocolates. And we will also be teaching her family since only the mom is a member. 

Today we also got free lunch from a member who invited all the missionaries in our zone to lunch. It was really good. Other than that, we are just doing the same as always! Teaching, Finding and Learning!!!! Hoping everyone is doing well. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Till next time!

Love, Hermana Madsen (November 26, 2018)

Smores and Birds (Mission Update)

Hello everyone! This week has been crazy busy! 

Tuesday after our meetings, we made smores! They were really good, we made them using the oven. 

Tuesday we were walking back to the house for lunch and I found a baby bird in the ditch, wet and unable to fly. I couldn't help but capture it and take it home to try and help it. He did kinda fly away the next day. Hope he's save out there. 

So Wednesday an Elder called us and told us to cancel all our appointmens for the next day because we were going to Sicuani. Thursday we left and went down to Sicuani to listen to Elder Montoya of the Seventy. He talked to us about many things, about adversity and about how we can't change some things but we can change others. It was really good and nice. After we got to shake his hand. 

This sign is really funny when you know both Spanish and English! It was the sign on the bus. Señor means both Lord and sir. Talk about translating bad!

Then on Sunday all three of us missionaries (My companionship and the other missionary who is with a mini missionary) gave talks in Sacrament Meeting. I think it went really well. Then in the night we were walking down the street and this little boy goes "Hola Grande!" (hello big) at my companion. It was so funny!!! 

Till next week! Have a good Thanksgiving!  (November 19, 2018)

Clothing Rack and Pizza (Mission Update)

This post is out of order because the first one disappeared off this blog! But thank you for following along with Marissa's mission. It means so much to us!

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is doing well. 

Well this week has been exciting! In my last email I talked about Halloween but the day after that is Dia de los Vivos (Day of the living) and the next day is Dia do los Muertos (day of the dead).  There was a lot of parties and people drinking those days and almost no one was home. There was also a concert right outside, by the cemetery that we live really close by. There was music all night long. 

We were contacting the other day and decided to knock on a door. We waited and knocked again and then someone came to the door. We started talking to this lady who was really stressed out over these papers she was preparing for her kids that she taught and we told her we could help her so she invited us in. We helped her, talked with her then after taught her a little about the Restoration. When we got to the part of the Great Apostasy, we invited her to read the scripture in Amos about there being a famine in the land. She was so worried and asked when it was going to happen and we explained that it had passed. We then told about Joseph Smith and ended it there because she had something to do but she asked us to return. She has family that are members. It was a really good experience and I felt the spirit with us as we testified of Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. 

Saturday night the funniest thing happened. My companion went to her clothing rack and removed a clothes hanger and suddenly it broke and fell. It was so funny! And now her clothes are on a blanket on the floor. We're waiting for a new one. My companion is the best! Here she is standing with her hanger in shock. 

Today we played sports and then went to eat pizza with some other missionaries. Here we are altogether with our food:

It was really fun. I love my mission and I love meeting other missionaries and growing close to them. Hoping everyone has a wonderful week! 

Love you all!

Hermana Madsen (November 5, 2018)

Trio For Three Days (Mission Update)

Hey Everybody! How are you all doing? 

This week not much has happened. We have been out contacting all week, knocking on doors, but not a lot of people opened their door. We share a sector with another companionship of Hermanas but one left and went home because she finished her mision so we were in a trio for a couple of days. Now she is working with a mini misisonary, someone from the ward who is going to be her companion for the next couple of weeks. 

We were walking and found some little girls playing and so we gave them a contacting card and started to walk down the hill after talking to them a little bit. When we get to the bottom of the hill, we looked up and they were there yelling at us, pointing at the card, saying we forgot it. We yelled back at them saying it was theirs. 

Also, everyone remembers my companions name and not mine. I called someone and talked to the and said goodbye and they told me "See you later Hermana Perry!" Then on Friday we walked into Noche Misional that we have every week and all of the kids ran to my companion and remembered her name but not mine and didn't talk to me until minutes later when they remembered I was there! It was sad but fun. I'll just make friends with the dogs. My companion can make friends with the people. 

Also we ran into some dogs and they ate all my Lays but I made new dog friends!

Then one day we were bored and my companion asked for random numbers so we did math equations! Math is fun!

We went with our third companion to visit her convert and they all wanted to take a picture with my companion and I. I think because we were white and two gringas? It was way funny. 

For P-day we got a list of things we needed to find and went on a scavenger hunt around Juliaca. It was way fun. Here's a couple of pictures: 

On a bridge.

Recreating a statue (close enough, right?).

With the trash! 

That's pretty much all for my week! I hope you are all doing well and having a great time! Remember to enjoy every moment, the good and the bad!

Love, Hermana Madsen  (November 12, 2018)