Mission Broadcasts, Crazy Stories and Sam's Club Hotdogs

January 30, 2017

Hello friends and family!

This week was amazing! It went by way too freaking fast though. On Wednesday, we had a worldwide missionary broadcast. It was really interesting. The executive missionary counsel got together and held a meeting and we missionaries could be a part of it through the camera. They talked a lot about our missionary purpose and focus and how we can build faith in the lives of our investigators and the members where we are serving. They also talked about how we define success as missionaries and gave encouraging words to help us not beat ourselves up about not being good enough. Some of the things that I really love that were said were:

- "All things gather together in one. There is little or no spiritual power when we treat these fundamental principles of the gospel as separate things." - Elder Bednar
- "The baptismal invite and commitment should be based upon the individual and promptings from the spirit" - Elder Oaks
- "You're not just called to proclaim the gospel, you are also called to establish the church" - Elder Oaks
- "Will a missionary continue to choose what he knows is right whether or not the Lord decides to grant unto them "success?’ That is when you are establishing the church." Elder Bednar
- "You just have to be as good as you can be. God will magnify you to be more than you could ever become. We don't want missionaries beating themselves up saying,” I'll never be good enough.” None of us will ever be! But the Holy Ghost will work through you." - Elder Bednar

They also talked a lot about some changes being made to missionaries worldwide. They rearranged our daily schedule to make it not as blocked out as what we now do at particular  times of the day. Now it is more flexible and we are able to choose when we do certain things to be most effective. They want us to use our agency to be able to plan out our own days so that we learn this skill for when we go home as well. They also changed the things that we report on. We used to report to our leaders how many lessons we had, whether they were with active or
not active members or investigators and referrals received and contacted and a bunch of other things. Now we only focus on a few things: new investigators, Investigators who attend Sacrament meeting, investigators who have a baptismal date, and if anyone was baptized and confirmed. I am really excited about this new change because it changes our focus and helps us to better see how effective we are being. It is really cool because we are now more focusing on how we can build the faith in people's lives rather than anything else. I am excited!

Sister Gillespie and I have been so poor lately... Here's a few of the creative things we've had to eat...
- Saltines in chocolate icing
- We wanted eggs... But we weren't sure if they were still good. So, we opened a few to make sure... The first one was good... The second one was...........BLACK INSIDE! It was BLACK and ooooh. The smell.... You know how everyone says "it smells like rotten eggs!" Well guess what?
This smelled worse!!
- We really wanted brownies, but we didn't have any eggs... So we made a concoction up with this brownie/cookie mix, corn syrup, water, and sugar... It wasn't that bad!
- A Ketchup sandwich... Sister Gillespie would have no part in that though.
- Tortillas rolled up with strawberry cream cheese inside
- Old mac and cheese
- And the sisters from our ward brought us some soup to have for lunch yesterday! It was so kind!!
But we got our money allotment today #thankthelordandtithing so we are good!

We bought a
ton of groceries for super cheap today! 🙌🏾 score! And on Friday we had a member give us $20 for food. Since it was the end of the month we are really running low on funds and food… We needed to make this money STRETCH. We went to Taco Bell for lunch then we decided to go to Sam's Club for dinner... And lunch the next day… And dinner again… We did pretty good though! We made 20 bucks last us four meals! It was kind of embarrassing though going to Sam's Club three times in a row with the same people working… One lady even said something! She was all "weren't you guys here earlier today" and we were like "umm…Yes..." But hey, when we went the third time, we saw two people sitting on the corner and they looked freezing! My mom sent me a package of hats and gloves and stuff so we pulled over and gave two beanies to them. They looked so happy! The man put it on right away and patted his ears. It was so cute!

Here are some funny stories for the week!
- So one day we went to dinner at a member's house and their dog peed on sister Gillespie's leg. She had to go into the bathroom and wash her shoes and tights haha. Then when we were sitting down after dinner he started notice my leg... I think he likes me....
- The next day we went to another member's house and their cat is super evil. He pretends to like you and then mid-pet, he turns into Satan and bites you. Well... While we were eating, we were just talking about random things and then Sister Gillespie goes "Ah! The cat is under my skirt!!" She looked so terrified. The cat had been playing with the bottom of her skirt and decided to hop up onto her lap... Underneath her skirt.... I may have snuck him some food....good
job cat.

- Topeka is full of interesting/sometimes crazy people. Nothing as freaky as a guy with an ax though hahaha. But last week sister G and I were in the car getting ready to leave when we saw this young women dressed in this weird dress thing with two baseball hats on, one backwards and one forward.... She was just walking in the middle of the road sauntering around. I was like "what the heck, she is crazy looking!...We should talk to her." Then this guy comes running around the corner yelling at this chick and like waving his hands all over the place! I was like, "oop never mind! Pretend like we don't see them!" The guy then ran back behind the corner, crouched down in a creepy way, and started eating something from a bag he was carrying.😮 Then he got back up and started running after this girl like hecka fast. Thats when I said, “Oh heck no! I had started to drive towards them when sister G asked, "what are you going to do if he starts attacking her?" I said, "I don't know-run  him over!"...  But in the end
he just jumped into a car and she got in and they drove off... super shady stuff! I love Topeka!!

While I was in Abilene, Sister Southwick (one of my STL's/best friends) taught me how to use a prayer journal. It is the coolest thing ever and has helped me so much!!! What you do is you say a prayer like normal but then in the middle, you ask a question and then stop praying to write what you feel impressed to say in a journal. It has helped me receive a lot of answers to prayers, questions, and worries. I love it!!!

Well, that’s my week! I love you all so much!
Sister Magda
 
P.S.  Sister Gillespie had me dress up in all of my clothes and model!  I know.  Me.  I've come a long way!!!!