Miracles!

Happy Thanksgiving Momma!

Miracles!
This week has been full of miracles. I feel like I say that almost every week but this week especially. Sister and I have been trying really hard to visit every single one of our members once a month. Most the time they're not home or the don't answer but it has resulted in a lot of other miracles. One of the people we were looking for wasn't home but her daughter was and invited us in and was just so happy to see us. She sat us down and fed us and then insisted on taking pictures with us. Well, by us I mean sister M. She didn't want any pictures with me but kept having me take lots of pictures of the two of them as if they had been friends for years. But I'm not offended....:( Anyway, she said she really wants to be baptized but her husband won't let her. It's a really sad situation because she is super great. But I know one day she will get the chance.
Sister and I were searching for a contact who gave us a very vague address. She told us she lived on the second floor of a certain building. Which would be fine if the building didn't have 6 different entrances. We knocked on doors hoping to find her.(Our district leader accused us of tracting. But we really weren't! I hope President Carlson doesn't read this!) But one of the doors we knocked on belonged to a woman named K. She said she was sorry she couldn't help us find the person we were looking for and that she would invite us in if her mother wasn't sleeping. She asked us what we were doing and asked for our number. We then went on our way wishing tracting was allowed in Armenia. We knocked on a few more doors but never did find the woman we were looking for. As we started walking back, K leaned out of her window and ushered us to come in! We went and talked to her for about an hour. We're still not sure if she was real. She fed us chocolate cake and told us we were pretty and that we spoke great armenian. We talked about why we were here and left her with a pamphlet.
That day we went looking for a contact but the Lord had other things in mind. He really does lead the way.

I love you!!!
Love, Sister K

Winter is here!

Drowned rat after rain

View from an investigator's house

gratitude

Tis the season of thanksgiving: Sister M and I have decided to take this American holiday and bring it to Armenia. It has been a great success. We have printed off a lot of President Uchdorf's "Grateful in every circumstance" talks and have been doing little family home evenings with our members. We give them a copy of it, read Alma 26:37 and share what we are thankful for. We then invite them to do the same thing. It's been so great and everyone has loved it!!!! Just because this is an American holiday doesn't mean we can't be grateful in other parts of the world.

The ups and downs of blood pressure: We visited V again the other day (the old man with one tooth). He told us that his blood pressure was high because of the elevation. He randomly then walked out of the room and came back in with a blood pressure cuff. He then told me to roll up my sleeves. (He didn't believe me that my blood pressure was normal). He took my blood pressure and was very surprised to see that my blood pressure some how was normal. How about that. Then later that same day we went to our Relief Society President's house and for some reason she wanted to take my blood pressure as well. According to her device I have a high blood pressure. So I'm not really sure what to think. Is it high? Is it low?

Armenians have a different sense of humor: Sister and I were walking home from our last appointment of the day when we stoped to OYM (open your mouth) an old man near a little fruit stand. He was asking us the typical questions like why are we here, where are we from etc. He walked us over to the little stand that he told us was his and asked us what he could give us. We told him we didn't want anything really. The lady inside the stand looked irritated. She then told the man to leave and he sort of just walked away saying things under his breath. I then asked the lady if she knew the man and she said no. So this man was just trying to give us free stuff from someone elses store. It was really funny actually. The lady didn't think so.

Some things that I am grateful for:
1. This gospel
2. My family
3. Armenia and Armenians
4. My friends and support group back home and here in Armenia
And many more things

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sister K

Hike up to another old abandoned church. So Scary. So cold. So cool.

There's an Armenian saying, "Pulling a donkey out of the mud". Look up what it means.

Delayed miracles

Momma,
Charentsavan is so great. I have been here for 4 months and I never want to leave. Transfers are weird this time around because they're sending missionaries home before Christmas but we're not bringing in the new group of missionaries until the middle of January. So we're not really sure what's going to happen. A lot of moving around. I am praying that I stay. I'm not ready to leave Char.

Another stressful/blessed Sunday: Yesterday was great. We had R come to church again. She didn't want to stay for the last 2 hours but she promised that she would stay for all of church next week. V promised he would come to church but didn't show up. I was heart broken to say the least. We did have a lot of less active members come. It was amazing. It was adorable because a few of our inactives who came yesterday came up to me and asked me if I was proud of them. I love them so much and I'm glad that they know that I'm aware and miss them when they don't come. They all had huge smiles on their faces.

Delayed miracles: A few sundays ago Sister and I fasted that we would be able to find the people who don't know God. We worded it that way but unintentionaly. As you know, Armenia is very Christian. So we have never come across an athiest. Ever. But we found V. V is a rough old man. He argues with everything and likes to tell us that we have silly ideas while he smokes his cigars that he roles himself. But he LOVES us. He is rough on the outside but has the softest heart. I asked him if he would come to church with us and he said he couldn't because he wouldn't be able to go 3 hours with out a smoke. I then asked him if he was happy. He said yes but he wishes he had teeth (he only has one tooth on the top right in the middle). I told him that I couldn't buy him teeth but that I would buy him applesause..... (i promise I'm a good missionary but desperate times call for desperate measures). We then promised him that we had the one thing that would make him happy. It took some convincing but he eventually considered that two little 20 year old girls may be able to help him find happiess. I can't wait to show him.
God answered our fast as we found the one Armenian who doesn't believe in God.

Jam time: Sister and I have this ringtone on our phone that is so great to dance to. So we started putting random, meaningless alarms on so that we can have jam sessions everyonce in a while. It's great for relieving stress.

Sorry about no pictures. Both of our cameras aren't working now. We'll figure something out.

Some counsel: I recently started a study journal. I should have done that at the beginning of my mission but I didn't. But since i've started, I love it. I write about why certain scriptures mean certain things to me at specific times. It's really cool to read back over.

My favorite lesson in PMG: I LOVE teaching a first(The restoration). I sound so missionary right now but I get so excited when I know we'll be teaching a first. It's so great.

I love you!!!!!
Love, Mads

Hastening

Momma,

We have been blessed lately with people just popping into our lives. Member referals, former investigators, old tatiks randomly coming up to us on the street asking us when we're going to come to her house to teach her. The Lord is hastening His work and He isn't letting anything get in His way. The work here is incredible. I love every second of my mission. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

R came to church yesterday! Which is a big deal because we have been trying to get her to come to church for a few months now. She is an investigator of ours who belongs to a chuch called shabataba. Their sabbath is on Saturday. She loves the doctrines that we teach her but she has a really hard time with the fact that our sabbath is on Sunday. But she is progressing really well and I know she'll figure things out. She seemed to enjoy her experience at church yesterday. I was REALLY nervous to say the least. I was praying the whole time that at least one member would be nice and talk to her after church. Our members have a hard time with that. My prayers were answered as our Relief Society President and a few others came and introduced themselves. It was more than I could have asked for.

I love you momma!

Mads

First snow

Momma,

Sister and I are just doing finding right now.

Listen to the spirit: A few days ago we were just walking from member to member's houses giving spiritual thoughts and asking for referrals. We were about to go to the church to take a break when I had a former contact pop into my head. We had knocked on her door a few times a she was never home so we kind of just forgot about her until that moment. We went over and a girl my age opened the door and invited us right in. We walked in to see a few other people none of which were the original contact. We sat down and asked them about themselves. We found out that they were our contact's daughters. They were very friendly and just loved us. As we were talking to them about our purpose slowly more and more people filtered in. By the end all 4 of her daughters and their kids were in the room listening intently to us. They were really excited about why we were there and agreed to meet with us and receive the lessons. They didn't come to church yesterday... :( but they're golden.

This week was great and I love my mission!
I love you!!!!
Love, Mads
P.S. Our first snow was last night!

First snow!

Bright red lipstick was all we could get away with for a Halloween costume

Sevan

Momma!
I am the worst daughter ever. I forgot my notes from general conference agian!! I'm just going to take a picture of the notes I took from my favorite talks and I'll send that to you. It's super lame, I know, but I know that it's the only way to make sure it happens.

I realized that I haven't been telling you when our investigators get baptized! So I'll tell you right now. So O, I, M, A, Y, and L all got baptized. They're all still active except one and they are so incredible. I isn't coming to church because she lives in a far away village.

Investigators: We have 6 investigators right now. None of them came to church yesterday which was really disheartening. But we're not getting down on ourselves. We both know this transfer has a lot in store for us and Charentsavan.

Weather: It is getting so NIPPY here! I've already broken out my heaving winter coat and mittens and gloves!

I'm really sorry that this letter is really short this week but I really needed to write Em. That was really important to me. I think about her often and really miss her.

I love you momma!

Trip to Sevan

Happy Fall

Momma!

Favor: Will you send me some recipes. Just simple ones. Breakfast ones, dinner ones, a few pastry ones. Ones that are easy to make. Just if you have time. Thanks!

So Halloween is not celebrated here. I'm really sad about it because I love Halloween.

Transfers: Transfers went really smoothly. A lot of my best friends in the mission were in the group going home so it was hard saying goodbye. I'm staying in Charentsavan again. I'm really happy. I've grown to love it here. My new companion is Sister M from my MTC group! Do you remember her? She's the one that we watched her opening her call before I got into the MTC. The one that was really loud, and excited? Haha I hope you remember. I LOVE HER. She is the most pure, sweet person ever. We have already had such a blast together. We have huge goals and lots of expectations for this transfer! We are both really excited to work hard and be successful!

Most spiritual moment: The elders and us went after church to our investigators house. Her little daughter is super sick and we offered her a priesthood blessing. We are all pretty new in the mission (Sister M and I are in the same group and The elders are both new) and so it was a little rusty. I listened nervously as the new elders tried to explain about the priesthood power and the blessing they were about to perform. I looked up at her to see how she was taking it all in since we had only ever met with her twice before. She was listening intently. One of the elders asked her if she had faith that her child would get better. She sincerely replied that she did. From the moment we walked into her house the child was hysterical because of how sick she was. But as soon as the elders laid their hands on her head she stopped. She hiccuped a little bit like children do after they have be crying. The blessing was in broken Armenian with stuttering and mispronounced words but the spirit was beyond powerful. After the blessing the child tried reaching out to me. My heart melted. We all left on cloud 9 I think.

I love you all!

Love, Mads

Fall in Charentsavan

Fall carving