MONDAY, June 25, 2012

Hola!

this week was a week of service for sure. We did a lot of service projects, a lot of cleaning homes and a lot of yard work in the hot hot sun. ANNND we found a few new investigators i just LOVE.

alright, last monday we went to ranch market after working out and bought horchata. it was a joke since i drank about half of it and was sooo full i didn't drink the rest-but way good! And I practiced my spanish with some of the mexicans there.

so my companions aren't big on working out...at ALL. I started getting pretty frustrated and then one day we were at the church building for sister soifua to practice a musical number and i started doing crunches....and then i realized the church we were in was only like a mile and a half away from our house so i decided to run home. they drove behind me or i ran right behind the car...in my skirt. only a few dogs chased me and it felt so much better! Now whenever we get to the neighborhoods at night i get out and run all the way home.

 

this is the seal of the pima maricopa community. everyone has a different path but ultimately we all find God. I really like it, it's a great little symbol and it's EVERYWHERE in the community.

so sister soifua is practicing for a fireside...and because she's practicing i end up doing the paperwork every night with sister snodgress...so. fun. (brinkadera)

 like i said, we did a lot of service projects...A LOT. People on the res just throw their stuff everywhere and there is a lot of trash out in the fields. we started cleaning up these fields and thought the things we were finding were so funny, we had a little fun while doing the service! all items were found within a 10 foot radius of where me and elder francis are standing.

sometimes we feel like creepers because we stake out inactive people's homes until we KNOW they are there. this particular case was a woman who wouldn't answer the door....needless to say, we got in and taught her and she was in church on sunday.

oh yes. so late. sorry! this is out in a field randomly and we think it's a great way to stereotype our indians. just kidding. they don't paint their faces all the time. also, i'm doing the sign for "indian" out here. how racist is that?!

love you all,

sister mad

MONDAY, June 25, 2012

Side note from Madison's parents -- she tried to do a voice email that didn't work.  So we have just a limited letter this week...

Hello!

 

No word on the visa, you know more than I do at this point as my mission president hasn't contacted me since I got here. We have transfers on the 8th I think...sometime that week. That's about all I know about the future at this point.

 

Angel of the week: Nicole. she's an investigator who is married to Wolf (how native is that!?) He is a member of the church and they got married this last October, She's been going to church since then and she wants to get baptized but has had a lot happen to her lately. She is the sweetest woman, she works at the museum on the res so we go talk to her there all the time and she always has lots of questions. She took us out for lunch on Saturday and we all ended up talking about life and how the gospel has changed her completely. She's so awesome, we love her!

Love,
Sister Mad

Pictures!

                                          With Sister Noorda

                                          With Sister Snodgrass and Sister Soifua

                                          Teaching the gospel on the Res

                                          Just messing around

                          Looking for the investigators that lived at this home the previous week.

Blessings of Mission Work by the Irma's

1. By helping others to come to Christ, you come to Christ as well
2. New perspective on what life means
3. Understand why the gospel is important
4. You change as a person
5. You make life long friends
6. Your perspective on missionaries change
7. You have a better understanding of your friendship with Christ
8. Anxiously engaged in a good cause
9. You learn what modesty really is
10. You learn what it's like to have the spirit at all times
11. You understand when the spirit leaves you
12. You learn the importance of families
13. Tolerance for others, for food you aren't use to
14. You understand the importance of a good arch support
15. You learn to submit yourself to the will of the Lord
16. You find what's most important in life
17. You learn the language of the spirit
18. You learn what real chivalry is
19. You read things and learn about things you would have never thought of before
20. You meet people from all around the world
21. You become significantly more happy then you've ever been
22. You understand the value of a hug (especially from boys men!)
23. You understand the value of Priesthood
24. You realize your full potential
25. You understand what it's like to sweat. ALL. DAY. LONG.
26. You learn to respect others
27. You learn how to make and keep goals
28. You learn the importance of scheduling
29. You find joy in the small things
30. You live for mail!!

Just a few things we thought of when it came to mission work!

Eu amo voce,
Sister Mad

MONDAY, June 18, 2012

Hi!

It's Monday on the res. and it's aweeesommme. I wish I could just call you all up and tell you all the stories from the past week because for real, I could tell you some stories. However, I have decided to just tell a few because well.... I think they sum the week up nicely. But firstly: some things that are going down here in the AZ.

1. It is hot as Hades. We have a truck that has AC but it's not like it helps. And wearing a skirt in the heat is a joke. . . . a joke that's going to get really old in the upcoming 18 months. hahaha

2. We are on the Pima Maricopa Salt River community. Most of the natives here are either Pima or Maricopa, but we teach a whole lot of Apache and Navajo as well. I've eaten a lot of beans so far......

3. Which brings me to point 3. I eat beans now. They aren't so bad either.

4. We are on the res but we also teach every single native in the whole of this mission...minus like snowflake. We split the area with two elders, so it's five of us in the ward....they are south Papago, we're north. We cover all of Mesa and north of the res.

5. Because we all cover just the one ward, the ward members have all five of us come eat with them....it makes for great awkward dinners.

6. Everyone in the ward is native. A lot of brown people. :)

Anyways...alright so here are my stories of the week:

We work in some pretty incredible areas in Mesa...areas that if i didn't have the Lord on my side, I'd be pretty worried about entering. So we're in one of these apartment complexes trying to contact a less active...(and we can't go in her home because it's full of drugs...) and we couldn't get a hold of her so we are driving out when Sister Snodgress spotted an old man rummaging through the garbage. So she's all "Sackley you're talking to him". So I open my door and start speaking and he says something inaudible and I'm all "oh voce fala Espanhol?" because Portuguese is SOMEWHAT Spanish...and then he motions to his ears and I'm all OH MY GOODNESS HE'S DEAF. So I started signing with him and talked to him for a while. He had a Book of Mormon already, and missionaries were teaching him when he was living in Bakersfield...but he hadn't seen them in years. I gave him a pass along card and then got his information and called the ASL Elders down here. I've had a few other moments this past week where I've used sign ...who would've thought?

My second story of the week is pretty much how I felt all week long. There are millions and MILLIONS of dogs on the res. We call them "Res Dogs" ...I know. so original. Anyways, they're just everywhere and they all have fleas and rabies and all sorts of things. They bark at you too and every time one comes up to us Sister Soifua is like "training for Brazil!"

So with this in mind, we went to visit a woman in the ward....which was strange because she's super active but Sister Soifua was like "I think we should go see her" so we went over. and she has like 7 res dogs. at least. and they're everywhere on her property. So we're walking up to her home and they're chewing on our shoes and running around yapping and she lets us in and let's just say....if you have seven res dogs, your home will smell like seven res dogs. And we walk into the front room and this overweight older man with tats EVERYWHERE. like....on his face, up and down his arms and legs EVERYWHERE is all "Sisters I have been waiting for you!" And he just had the most kind smile. So we sat down and started talking with him. It was the woman's cousin and he was recently out of jail for selling drugs. He had been in jail for 11 years and while in jail, he had read the Book of Mormon and the Bible every day. He was baptized at a young age and he told us all about his life. How he had been in and out of jail, how he had done EVERYTHING under the moon you could possibly do but that he was here and ready to change his life. He bore his testimony to us which I wrote a little of it down:

 

(With the Book of Mormon in hand) "you can destroy this book, shoot it, whatever. But i know it's true, and this book can never be broken" and "it wasn't my Father who left me. I left him. And I'm back. And it's wonderful".

He had such an incredible spirit about him that I literally forgot all about his tattoos and hard appearance. When he spoke it felt like the smell and all the distractions went away.

 

He came to church on Sunday and we are teaching him the lessons again because as he said "I can only learn as much as you teach me. and I've got a long way to go on the path of repentance".

Like I said, we walked away from the appointment and I was just so overcome with his testimony. Such an incredible man! If he is the one reason I am on a mission, my mission is a success.

Some cultural things about the natives I thought you would enjoy:

First of all, they're literal descendants of the Lamanites...so like Mosiah 1:5...yep. exactly.

Secondly, they have incredible stories some of the old timers tell about their people...a few I have heard so far:

A successful king was struck dead for three days and then awoke and told his people all about repenting and coming to God (King Lamoni maybe?)

Of course, the stories of a white God coming to heal their people

And the last is that their people come from the sea...like they came on boats to the land they have now. . . . . just like 1 Nephi.

Welp, that's all for the week! Like I said, this area is incredible I am LOVING it.

 

love you all,

sister mad.

MONDAY, June 11, 2012

Hey-o!

Alright I am safe and sound in Mesa, Arizona!

getting here stories:

The plane we took was a four people across plane and it was quite small. Also, the guy I sat next to was AWESOME. I sit down and the minute I sit down I noticed he texted a friend some choice words exclaiming how angry he was that he had to sit next to a missionary. I thought "oy this is going to be a looong flight!" And then I decided I should probably pray to be able to talk to him, and that I hoped to change his opinion on missionaries.

Well before we even took off he let me know he wasn't Mormon and that his family was but that he had no interest in the church because of different things he has found in his adult life. I'm talking to him about the weather when he says this...so I'm all "oh..........okay........." And then I asked him about his family and just asked very broad questions. He had his dr. dre head phones waiting to go into his ears so I decided to try hard to talk to him the whole plane ride so he couldn't listen to his music. I asked him about work and where he was going and family and all the basics. He asked me about a few brief things like where I was going and I tried hard not to get too preachy on him.

After about an hour of talking about everything from his travels to Florida to how his parents left the church, we discussed how God loves all his children and that even if you don't go to church every Sunday, if you're doing your best, then you're doing great. I told him that sometimes I feel closer to Heavenly Father on the top of mountains than in an actual church building. He agreed and told me about a few experiences he had had on top of the mountains and in nature. I briefly explained that the prophets always talked about having experiences "on the top of mountains". We chatted the entire plane ride and by the end of the ride, he had said a few times "I have no desire to be a member now, but a few years from now, maybe."

As we got off the plane he said "thank you for talking with me. And for not trying to get a referral from me." I told him I'd let him slide this one time if he promised that when sisters knocked on his door years from now, he'd let them in. He laughed and then I went to find the mission president.

Which is a funny story too because I'm walking towards baggage and some dude is all "oy sister! Your friend is waiting for you, oh my (bad words) I can't believe I am talking to a Mormon Missionary! You just glow, as you walked around the corner I just knew you were who she was looking for!" I was a little confused, he then told me he was a Christian and that his missionaries go to South America to build churches. I told him how fantastic that was and then said good bye. Mostly because I am super awkward these days and can't remember how to end conversations well. I then met Sister Ellsworth in the baggage area, from far away she looked like she could have been my companion. President Ellsworth followed quickly after and we then waited for another VW (visa waiter) in the lobby....and while waiting he conducted my interview and Sister Ellsworth bought us cookies from Paradise....which was of course, heavenly.

finding out my area.....

So as I am waiting with the President for the other sister to come in I let him know that I had family EVERYWHERE here. He told me how great that was and that if I ever saw them to make sure to say hello and hug everyone, but that I shouldn't set up a time to run into them because my companion would probably feel bad. And then within the same sentence he said "but you will LOVE the area you are going to. I can just tell YOU WILL LOVE IT" And then he proceeded to not tell me where I was to be going for a few moments....So he looks it up and is all you're with Sister Snodgress and Sister Soifua. (Utah and American Samoa). They are a great companionship. they live in a basement of a home with members, they have a big grey truck and they are on the res. .........you know, like the Apache reservation in Scottsdale.

So as I type right now, I am in a little community center and there are native Americans all around me. And. it. is. awesome. I am so excited about it. The Sisters I am with are way sweet and I am so excited to be in a little closed off area in mesa. They've been telling me all about how incredible these people are and I can already tell it's going to be an exciting few weeks here. My mission president's wife gave us grapefruits off her tree in the back yard and I think this week starts the beginning of my goal to like fruit. We were in the mission office for a while and there were a ton of sisters in there we were all chatting with. When they heard i was going to the res they were all "no fair that area is awesome!" ....in fact, I think I might be okay with never going to Brazil.

 Brincadeira. maybe. Also, i think i spelled Brincadeira wrong. fail.

welp that's all for now!

love you all,

sister mad

p.s. here's my address:

Arizona Mesa Mission
6265 north 82nd street
scottsdale, AZ 85250

                                Sisters from the Brazil Belo Horizonte Mission

SATURDAY, June 9, 2012

Ola Amigos!

So Friday is what they call "in field day" it's basically where they pump you up to do missionary work. It's 13 hours of meetings and it's a LOOONG day. So pretty early on in the day I connected with an Elder who was deaf. He had a cochlear implant and we talked for a while about how strange it was for him to be able to hear. He was going to Australia on his mission. He's English speaking. He's deaf. Needless to say, speaking with him is a little harder because his words are very robotic. Anyways, we signed a lot of the day-it was so strange to be pulling out the sign language after 9 weeks of straight up Portuguese! During the lunch break I was signing with him and my friend, Sister Sa Gari (from Brazil) came up and started talking to me in Portuguese. So i started translating her Portuguese and his signs for a few minutes-very weird experience. After dinner I even was chatting with him before the class and the teacher began speaking quietly. He couldn't hear so he asked me to translate for him. I was VERY nervous but he understood the main points of the message and said I was did just fine. Except at one point, I am sitting in between him and his companion...and his companion doesn't sign...or speak Portuguese and I couldn't remember the sign for angel so I turn to the companion and I'm all "como se dez" and he's like wha??? hahaha wrong languages. Apparently my sign box is the same box my Portuguese is kept in. At least for now.

Along those lines, my angel of the week is my deaf friend. I can't remember his name for some reason so he's "my deaf friend". Last night he asked me what I was most nervous about in the field. I told him I was very nervous that I would forget all the Portuguese I knew in Arizona. He just shook his head and said in his robotic voice "Sister Sackley, I am deaf. I will never speak better English than I do now. People will always have a hard time understanding what I am saying. In a few months, you will speak perfect Brazilian Portuguese. God has reasons for me going to Australia. He would not set me up to fail. There are reasons you are going to Arizona and then Brazil, you've just now got to find those reasons, I know the Lord knows what he's doing". Needless to say, it was a tearful moment and right after he volunteered to say the prayer. In his robotic voice he gave a beautiful prayer and sat back down. His confidence and boldness inspired me, that's for sure!

Dear Logan and Garrett and any other boy who has yet to go on a mission and is reading this letter: Be. Chivalrous. To. All. Women. I can not even begin to tell you what a difference it makes in the Elders that have and don't have this quality. It doesn't matter who she is or how weird she is or how weird she looks or how weird she smells. Open the door for her. Or at least give her the same respect you would give your mothers. Thankfully I have been blessed with very good Elders, but I have seen others here and I know what goes on for others. Just be nice okay? That's all. Treat her like how you'd want your future wife to be treated.

Alright this is weird I have 13 minutes left and nothing else to say! So I guess I have this: To all of my single lady friends who are questioning a mission in the slightest: go.

I can't really say how hard the last 6 months of waiting were. it felt like the day to go would never come, and at the same time it came so incredibly fast. Advice i would give though? They are hard months. hard and confusing months. So i will say for sure that if you are questioning it at all, go to the Lord. And then remember that Satan will try everything he can to get you to not go. EVERYTHING. So realize that when everything is falling through and your testimony is on the rocks that is Satan. And that you should just acknowledge it for what it is.

Mission work is HARD work. Nothing about it is easy. It's meant to be stressful and it's meant to be frustrating. I think that's the best part about it. You are always going to be tired. But even in the past 2 months I have been here, I have noticed serious changes in my life. I have realized that the Lord knows me a whole lot better than I know me. And that the people I have met here and the things that have happened, were always meant to happen. There is no where else in the world I would rather be tonight than in this computer lab with the German elders. (side story: they're from Germany and they're all "speak English to us sister!")

No but for real. Go on a mission, I was so nervous about how weird some of the sisters might be here at the MTC or how naive I would think the elders were...and you know what? If you are looking for the weird sisters, you will find them. if you think the elders are naive, they will be naive. But if you come here and realize how many sisters are in the same boat as you? How many of them had the same problems, the same doubts, the same fears you would realize you were meant to be here all along. And you know what, the elders have their moments. And so do I. And it's great to pretend you're 19 again. Because when you start hearing them bear their testimonies, it doesn't matter how old they are. they've got the same name tag on that you do.

Alright I am getting off my soap box. Tomorrow is my last night here! It's a strange feeling to be honest, i am packing my stuff (please pray it all fits: warning to anyone going foreign speaking: they give you about 25 pounds worth of books....yep). And I am going to miss my little Mozambique/Angola elders so bad! Ah they are the best and it's so weird to be leaving them. I feel like we've all known each other for years at this point. Also, please pray for Sister P. She will be a solo Sister and I'll be honest, her elders have not been as amazing as mine have. Pray that she makes it!

I leave the MTC at around 5am...there are A TON of us leaving then, so hopefully we leave on time. My flight leaves at 8:20am. So I will check in as soon as I can and then call...maybe like 6:30am my time? We will see. Pray all goes well!

eu te amo!

 Sister Mad

WEDNESDAY, June 6, 2012

I got the reassignment ... (if the Brazil visa doesn't arrive this week)

MESA ARIZONA!

I leave Monday. That's all i know so far, I'll call you all Friday night around 9 my time. Love you!

TUESDAY, June 5, 2012

Hello Family!

It's 4 o'clock in the morning and i am OF COURSE awake. don don dah!

Alright things this week:

I get my reassignment on Thursday! It's kind of weird because at this point, I could still be going to Brazil, or somewhere stateside. Either way i will leave Saturday, Monday or Tuesday these upcoming days. Crazy! I have this secret desire to get called to Pocatello Idaho or like south Salt Lake because how awesome would it be to serve somewhere totally (pathetic) COOL for a few months. So we'll see!

Things I would LOVE you to send me:

-any good quotes you can find about anything. Even movie quotes. I have a quote a day for my planner and am quickly running out of ideas.

-a jump rope. Like a good sturdy one that would last my whole mission. I need a way to easily get cardio in once I am in the field and I would LOVE a good jumprope.

-cute duct tape. Weird need but my journal is already falling apart a little at the edges because I take it everywhere and I'd love to wrap it up in something besides silver duct tape....maybe a colored duct tape from Target?

-Paradise cookies? :)

-Ice breaker mints (they don't sell them here and they're like the only thing we can have because as missionaries we aren't allowed to chew gum.)

-also if you're SUPER bored, there's a really awesome dress that's from downeast and it's red with little tiny bluish flowers? short sleeved and looks like t-shirt material. All sisters have it here and i totally love it.  Maybe you could look into it? or have Amanda buy it and I can pay whoever back for it? THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.

Alright that's all for now. I'll write later. Love you all!

Sister Mad.

(Later Today)

Alright amigos.

It is another week in ""spiritual prison" just kidding.  We love it here. Also my keyboard is pathetic this week. Bare with me.

I HAVE A COMPANION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay kind of. Her name is Sister Jessica Payton and she is from Provo. and I love her and she is awesome. The poor kid is dealing with me trying to remember what it''s like to be around girls. Everyone keep her in your prayers, once i leave for the field she is on her own for the next 6 weeks (We don''t expect any sisters for a while).

On the note of "the field" the visa has yet to arrive and so we are currently in limbo until Thursday night when they will give me travel plans. It''s the most annoying thing because at this point, they won''t even tell me if they submitted my name for reassignment. I could be in Brazil next week, I could be in the MTC for another week and I could be in some random area of America. All guesses are welcome, my personal guess is somewhere in California or Arizona (most of us head there for reassignments) however I have this secret desire to serve in the Boise Idaho mission. Because the people that get called there are probably really humble. Ha just kidding. The people that get called to Africa are humble. ANYWAYS.

Entou, I was having a ""Sister moment"" on Thursday afternoon in which i was just so annoyed with a lot of the Elders because well, they were acting like 19 year olds. I felt a little forgotten and a little upset about not getting the visa and I just wasn''t feeling a whole lot of love. I was writing in my journal about how I just was so over the feeling of having no one helping me out and having no one to rely on when I decided my attitude was bad and I needed to change it. I quickly picked up my scriptures, hoping to have one of those moments where you flip open to THE SCRIPTURE OF A LIFETIME. Instead I dropped them. Feeling completely pathetic at this point I knelt down and started crying when I realized my scriptures had fallen straight down and the only thing that came out of them was my little credit card sized photo of Christ with his arms stretched out. On the back side of this little photo was that cheesy poem ""footprints"". I read it, cried and then found a little note from Mallory talking about if I ever felt down that I should know everyone is cheering me on. And then I had this overwhelming feeling and I could feel every single little prayer anyone has offered on my behalf. So thank you, they are very much appreciated.

Alright now that I''m all emotional in the computer lab with tons of elders around I''ll tell you the funny stuff Logan wants to hear:

First off, Taza and Husband? You know her twin sisters and one is going on a mission? Well a girl from my ward in Rexburg got here on Wednesday and I saw her Wednesday night and was talking to her and gave her a hug and GUESS WHO HER COMPANION IS. Umm yep. Let it be known Sister Sackley had a little girl crush moment and Elders M and C totally witnessed it. I was all ""oh my gosh are you Naomi Davis' sister?"" and she started laughing and I was all "I love your sister''s blog."" And then I realized what a weirdo I am and how I have become everything I swore I wouldn''t. An awkward Sister missionary. yep. She was nice about it but seriously. The girl is a hipster and I see her everyday and we talk for a few minutes every time and I just want to be her.

I wanted the lyrics to ""leaving on a jet plane"" because it is our song we sing when someone from our zone leaves for the field. We all sing it to them as they get on the bus and then we say ""hey Elder, good day to be going to _______ right??"" It''s either Brazil or Africa and we all wish we could get on the bus and leave with them.

Another thing we like doing is talking about our grandiose plans for when we get off the missions. A lot of them involve marrying famous people or becoming the prophet (totally random things that are almost unachievable) and then after we all gush about our secret desires someone says "".........and then it was two years previously" Yes it''s totally dumb, but we really enjoy saying it and we all laugh every time.

Welp I only have one angel this week, and that is my substitute Sister Peterson. She went to Brazil on her mission, she''s been home for a year and a half, she''s way fun and she gives me hope that 18 months from now, I might be normal again. Oh wait! this Wednesday is 2 months!! I can''t believe it''s already been two months. The time flies by. So does the time on this computer. Also, sorry about the whole double quotes thing "" "" ""  It''s annoying me and I can''t fix it.

Hope all is well! I'll hopefully call this week about the reassignment...if I don''t it''s because I am here for another week.

Love you all,

sister mad.

XoxOxoxoxoxOXXOXO (big kees little hug......)

p.s. there is a couple going to Pete and Kelly''s mission I met yesterday. They were hoping I''d send a good word for them, the only problem is I can''t remember their names....I want to say it was like ""Raamp"" but thats wrong. They met in Hong Kong and the Sister said they went shopping together if that helps at all!

p.s. What are your Thursday and Friday night plans this week? What would be a good time to call Thursday?