Hope
you all had a wonderful New Years! Here in Peru they love their fireworks. They
kept me up, but I stayed in bed, it's chilly at night. But before that we had
fun with Sparklers and matches.
Saturday we had our conference and we went to
Puno to have it. It was really nice.
This
is my group from the MTC. 7 of 11 of us are here in Puno or Juliaca.
That
same Saturday we had a baptism so we had to leave from the conference real fast
to get back in time to the baptism. It ended up starting an hour later anyways,
but we got to make sure everything was ready. There were two baptisms. The
first is a little boy who is 8 who's dad and mom are both members. We have been
going over the lessons with him but it doesn't count as an investigator. He's
the cutest though! The other was our pensionista. She's the one that feeds us!
;)
Here's Leonel and his dad. He is such a funny
kid! But the best!
And here we are with Hermana Lourdes and her
family.
And this is everyone that came! There was a lot
of people. We even had an investigator there named Percy. We've been teaching
him but he's leaving to Arequipa. He's a really good person and wants to get
baptized! Too bad he's leaving. He won't be back until March. Maybe he'll
continue his path in Arequipa and get baptized there. All I know is that it
depends on the Lord.
And
this is us with Leonel!
It
was a great week! The Lord's work is here and it's moving on. The Church of
Jesus Christ is growing and we can see God's hand wherever we go. It was
an amazing opportunity to teach Lourdes and Leonel.
Hey
everybody! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was quiet and not much
happened. I did happen to be able to talk to my wonderful family! So that was
way nice and lots of fun!
Christmas Eve all the Hermanas were invited for
breakfast. We had fruitcake (not a joke) and hot chocolate.
It is a tradition for my companion to eat
Chinese food on Christmas Eve, so we ate Chinese food. It was good.
We
had a sleepover with the other Hermanas and the Hermana leaders got us all
stocking with candy and little gifts. Way cute!
Christmas
morning we made waffles. We were told they had a waffle maker, but it's not.
It's like one of those sandwich grills. But it kinda worked.
So
that was basically my Christmas! Other things that has happened is that we had
another Pollada, it's a lot of work and I wish they would just do yard sales or
a bake sale. Much easier. It was for our investigator so we helped out
with that Saturday.
So
not a lot to write about. Not a very busy week. Hope you all that a wonderful
New Years. I'll talk to you all next year!
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.
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.
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
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!
