6/09/14

Hi All!!

This week was so good!

A little funny, but we taught some great lessons and had a blast!

First we got an appointment with one of our former investigators, well he said the only way he would meet with us if we went on a dog walk with him and we could teach him a lesson by doing that. Well we started to talk to him and talk more about the gospel asking him questions, and he proceeded to take us on a two and a half hour walk in the wilderness with his dog. That was a sight to be seen two Mormon missionaries in skirts and Sunday shoes hiking while sharing the restoration. This was one of those I can’t believe this is happening, only on my mission moments.

We also taught this man named J he has been an investigator for a while he loves the church he loves everyone he knows it’s true but doesn't want to do anything about it. So our lesson with him was just trying to figure out how best to help him. This was a really good lesson, and now we know how best to help him progress!!! I love how the spirit is a constant in this work!

This week we also had an amazing lesson with P our recent convert and his family we talked about the priesthood and how important it is to us in our life! It made me think of how grateful I am to have a worthy priesthood holder in my life! It made me realize how much I love my dad and how he has always had his priesthood accessible to me. We shared the Mormon message sanctify yourself and it was probably the most spiritual lesson that I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. I LOVE MY MISSION!!! I LIVE FOR THESE MOMENTS!!!

We did a lot of service for a less active member whose pipes burst and she had to clean her house before she could call the land lord. Her house was so gross that she would have been evicted if he saw it! So we helped her with that which made me think of how grateful I am for my mom who made me do my chores and kept a very clean house and taught me to do the same. We were able to help her out we did her laundry and her dishes and cleaned and sanitized everything, so now it is good for them to get the pipe fixed. (EWE that was one of those times you are glad there are two of you.)

This week I don’t know why but I have been just noticing many little things that I have had in my own life and in the mission life that I am super grateful for and I think it has defiantly brought me closer to Christ in that aspect.

This week in my book of Mormon reading I have been reading in 3 Nephi when Christ comes again. I am so grateful for this part! It’s amazing how much Christ loves the people in the book of Mormon that he blesses each one individually! It’s so amazing!

This week really cemented my testimony on the power of the priesthood and prayer! I am grateful every day for my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be living my life for Christ right now!

Love you all!!
Sister Mady Proctor

6/02/14

Hi Everyone!!!

This week was so great!

First of all this week we had one of our investigators P get baptized!!! It was so great, Sister Cox and Sister Williams have been working with him and his family for a few months now he got baptized this Saturday! It was one of my most spiritual baptisms I have ever been a part of, the whole time it was just amazing! P was super prepared and ready and it was amazing, there are four sister missionaries in the ward and we got to sing during the time P was getting ready. We sang I know my father lives and Joseph’s first prayer to the tune of Come Thy Font, it was so amazing! I loved it and I loved that I got to see a whole family become complete in the form of the gospel! Amazing!

So this week we talked to a few of our investigators and got to know them but for the most part we tracted.

We met J, one of our investigators. He is going through a tough time and the only thing that he has found that has worked for him is being angry, so we are trying to help him out. He knows that this church is true but right know he doesn't want to stop his lifestyle, so we are working with him.

We met B also an investigator, he loves the book of Mormon with a passion but does not as yet want to give up smoking so we are working with him, trying to help him gain a testimony so it is easier for him to quit.

This week we did a lot of service, we did the most for one of the less actives that we teach C. She is going into surgery this week and she needed a lot of help to get her house ready to leave, it was a little nasty, but we got it clean so that after her surgery she won’t get an infection from living in her house.

This transfer one of our zone goals is to try to sing at the end of a lesson or beginning to bring in the spirit and oh boy has it worked! It’s amazing how a hymn can change the mood so fast and bring the subject back to Christ it is amazing.

That was our week it was Sister Williams birthday on Wednesday, she is such a trooper and SOOO amazing, she is rocking her second transfer in the field! (I am privileged to be her second trainer)

You all ROCK! Have a Great week! Write me if you have time!!!
Sister Mady Proctor!

5/26/14

Hi friends and family!

So this week I left my dear, dear Simi Valley…it was way sad but I know that the lord wants me here in Camarillo! The good news is that J was baptized this Friday and the work of the Lord will still go on no matter if I’m there or not!

So transfer meeting was so awesome, it was exactly what I needed. We first went to a training meeting because it is my first time training and I’m super excited it was perfect, it answered all my questions and I found out that I am officially the only visa waiter in the California Ventura mission, which means I’m awesome!!! I get to stay here longer!

So at transfer meeting, we got to listen to the testimonies of the missionaries going home and my dear friend went home this transfer Sister Stoker! I’m going to miss her way to much! Her testimony was amazing and I want to be able to say my testimony with as much confidence as she did! I love that we live with each other and we learn and grow from each other.

So this transfer we are splitting a ward in half so two sets of Sisters are there now and it’s so much fun. It’s a blast to be able to pretty much white wash and meet people! We get to explore the new areas and find new people to teach!!!!

We have a baptism this week a part member who has been taking the lessons for a while I’m super excited for him and his wife. His wife was less active but is coming back strong as ever and I love this family already, they have us over for dinner every Wednesday night and I’m looking forward to teaching them and getting to know them more!

We do a lot of tracting but heavenly father has given us a lot of strength and so it really is not very hard at all.
This week was my fist week follow up training and it went well. The training book is very informative plus Sister Williams is pretty much training me at this point, it’s so great! She is doing everything she has been taught is very Obedient and we are having a really good time working hard but enjoying it at the same time.
Even though we have four in our apartment our conversations stay very Christ like. This has been such a great week I love everything about this work and the people I get to meet!

Love you all!!!
Sister Proctor

5/19/14
Hi all

This was an awesome week! We had so much fun!

J, our 11 year old investigator has changed here baptismal date to this week on Friday! So crazy we had to run around and get everything going so that she would be able too! She passed her interview and her mom who is less active is so excited! She is so happy to see her child choose to be baptized it’s so cute. We taught the law of tithing and on Sunday she paid tithing it was so cute.

J and b are some of our investigators, we had a lesson with them on the word of wisdom at a member’s home and it went very well. We found out that he is a smoker but that he has been trying to quit and this is what he needed to hear to help keep him strong! I just love the word of GOD!

We taught L the word of wisdom and law of chastity and turns out she is already keeping both of them so she’s very excited! She came to the woman’s conference and loved every minute of it she really likes the social aspects of the church as well! The church programs are inspired!
We have been teaching M and he is still going strong! He came to church he loves the members and is just getting along great!

L and L are new investigators they are from the Philippines and they are so great! They are defiantly searching for the truth and they want to know which church they should join! They are so great!
This week have had done a lot of work in with less active members, we have found some really good ones that are ready to come back to church or at least meet with us on a regular basis.

We also met with D she has not seen missionaries in 8 years but she is going through stuff and is super lonely so this is the best time for us to come in help her out and teach the gospel!!!!

So this chapter on Simi valley is coming to a close I’m super sad about it, but Camarillo is going to be awesome I get to be a 2nd trainer for a new sister and open a new area it’s going to be a lot of fun I’m very excited. I have loved it here the ward is awesome the people are just coming out of the wood work and it’s been so great! I know that the lord wants me somewhere else even though I don’t want to leave! It’s all in the lord timing!

I’m getting my visa work taken care of and hopefully I will be in Brazil in the next two transfers I’m very excited to begin my 2nd half of my mission and super excited to be here at this time!

Missions are awesome!!
Love Mady

5/12/14

Hi all

This week was a really good week!

It started off with a lesson with M, he is so funny we taught him the Ten Commandments, he loves the movie the Ten Commandments so he was making references to that the whole time it was really quite funny. We have these cards that explain the Ten Commandments and every time he read them he was like, exactly! He just is so funny and is moving closer to his baptismal date he really does love the church and he is feeling like he belongs.

We set L our Jewish investigator with a date on Wednesday! We taught her about prophets and baptism and it took a little talking to but she agreed for July 5th! So that is exciting!
High priest night, on Wednesdays we go out with the high priest to visit their home teaching people, it is really fun and we got to visit with a few less active members and share something with them it is a really great program.

C is our new investigator, we found her knocking and she is super nice, she is going through a really hard time right now, she is looking for a church and she loves to talk about her problems, we are just getting to know her, we will teach the restoration to her this week it will be the best!

M we taught an awesome lesson to this week all about praying and reading the scriptures! He really makes the scriptures come to life and I love it! He was baptized a few years ago and is coming back to church with fire he loves it and calls us his sisters! It’s so cute!

So this week we get a call from our ward mission leader and he says that he has two people for us to teach! One has already read the book of Mormon and wants to get baptized it was awesome!
They came to church, 9 investigators to be exact and they all loved coming to church and the ward is just so awesome, we don’t have to worry about them because they just take out investigators under their wings and lead them to where they need to go.

J and B we set with a date! J is so cute and when we first started the lesson he said I think I’m ready to get baptized! He is so cute! He is 70 and just found out he has cancer; he is going through it very well.
J lesson we had an awesome lesson with her and we invited two member girls to come with us they cracked us up, of course we started with the law of chastity so that was an awesome subject to talk to an 11 year old about and then the word of wisdom.

It was such a good week, so much fun stuff happened! I got to talk to my family and it was amazing! I miss them so much and don’t realize it until I’m talking to them and hearing their voices then it hits! I do love my mission and I’m having a blast here in California!!!

Funny moment this week
I had to use the bathroom so bad so I had to ask a stranger if I could use their bathroom as we first were meeting her.... that was really awkward, but when you got to go you got to go, my parents know all about this!!!!

We were teaching a less active, his son was outside with a huge white rope exercising right outside the window without a shirt ... a little distracting…

We met a free mason, still have no idea what that means but he told us all about it and it left me with a bit of an icky feeling.

We were talking to this lady and she told us that she knows the truth about god the mother, that’s right, she believes in one god the mother, at least she believes in something.

Well that was my week love you all
Sister Madyson Proctor

May 5th

Hi All

This week was a really good week!

I love to see how normal it is now to be a missionary and to talk to everyone its really great!

I really do love Simi Valley, it gets super-hot! It’s so nice, the people here are great, the ward is so great, all they want to do is help and it’s just so awesome!

So this week we met with a former Member. She had not been seen by missionaries in 8 years, but first started going to church in Agoura (my last area)! She is really good friends with one of the less actives in Agoura, I know her very well. It’s so interesting how the Lord works things out. First she let us in and unloaded all her issues that she has with the church. We found out she went to church for a whole year, when she was told about the temple it turned her off and she never came back. After she told us everything she hated she told us that we had answered her prayers! CRAZY! She is going through a lot of surgeries and stuff and she is very lonely. She wants to know if god still loves her! She took us as her sign that he does love her! She wants us to come back and visit so that’s good!

We taught one of our investigators the law of chastity and word of wisdom lesson and at first I was a little scared but it turned out really great! He loved it! He learned that he had to quit a few things. He was so open and it really was a really great lesson! He is on the road to being baptized on June 14! So it’s going to be great!!!! He is such a funny guy and he loves when we bring members, he comes to the 4th ward and our ward so he comes to 4 1/2 hours of church. He really is funny and we found him tracting even better! He also told us his healthy diet, a bowl of cereal for breakfast and two microwave burritos for lunch and whatever for dinner! He told us, yeah I’m already following the word of wisdom.

We taught one of our investigators the ten commandments it turned out really well she is so smart she basically taught the whole lesson, she goes to a Christian school so she knows all the basics, her mom the less active is getting into the church again and is loving it!

We taught a sweet couple, he is having a really hard time; he is in his 70s and found out that he has cancer. They caught it early so he hopes to be healed soon. He loves learning about the plan of salvation, it was really good. We invited them to baptized but they are still not sure yet.

We had a Young Woman’s and Young Man’s fundraiser at the church and four of our investigators came! It was so much fun it was book of Mormon themed so it was great for our investigators. They got to meet so many members and got to see what the youth of the church too! We got to eat with our hands and the youth did a little skit and it was just supper good and fun! Me and Sister Mason got to help with the food! I got to cut chickens in half and it was fun to use my culinary skills again even just for a little while!

We visited a less active member, he is just so funny!!! He is a veteran, we asked him if he had any kids and he said that he might have a few 1/2 oriental kids running around that he doesn't know about, he also says that Alma is his main man! I looovvveeee Him he makes my week so much better! He always makes me smile!!!

We had a lot of investigators at church and the members just swooped in and took them to their classes. The couple we are teaching came to church; he was so excited he loved church! As he said good bye he went in for a hug before I could even stop it! Yeah he is 70, it was my first man hug in 9 months:)
So as we were tracting we ran into some very interesting characters...this happened two different times but as we knocked the person answered happens to be Asian and can speak English and they just laugh at us awkwardly until we give them a card and leave. It is super funny!

We also found out that one of our members, who is a convert, his mom was a nun and after she left the convent she had 17 children… I was rolling! It was supper funny and so unexpected!

That was my week! Love you all
Sister Mady Proctor