English Fast

Olá minha amigos e familia! Como está??


So another week in the MTC is done! This week we will hit our one month mark! Its so crazy to think that I have been a missionary for one month! It seems so long ago that I last watched Greys Anatomy (I dont even talk about it anymore-my family would be so proud) or saw my family, or held a CHILD (i feel so baby deprived). But it also seems like this month flew by! Only 2 more weeks until I am in Portugal and that thought FREAKS me out but also makes me so excited!! You can only take cafeteria food for so long. But whenever I complain about the food my teacher always tells me on my mission I will pray to eat food like we have here and I think he is right.

TA BOM, ESTA SEMANA:

Wow this week really flew by! We focused a lot on the Book of Mormon this week. IN class we all will write down a personal question in our journals, and then get in a circle and read from any book in the Book of Mormon together. One time we did this my question was answered 4 times in the first 7 verses we read. This really just testified to me of Heavenly Fathers love for all of His children, and that is why He gave us this book. I also taught relief Society of the Book of Mormon and I studied Elder Hollands talk, "Safety for the Soul" and it is SO GOOD and so powerful please everyone go watch it I loved it!!

Also, this week Sister Shepard and I taught all of our lessons with no notes! It was so scary at first because I speak like no Portuguese, but it was so much easier to feel and follow the spirit! One of our lessons was with out teacher, Irmao Workman, and we were planning on teaching about baptism, but then he mentioned he was distracted so we asked why. Our teacher then ended up telling us about something he was struggling with, and we got to help him come closer to Christ. That would of never happened if we just read our notes and taught the lesson so I am so glad we were able to follow the spirit!

We had an English fast on Thursday and it was SO hard! It made me realize all of the Portuguese I dont know. All we really learn is church stuff and how to teach lessons, so this week I have been trying to memorize words for small talk. But we ended up breaking that fast at like 5:30 because we were all just eating dinner in silence hahhaha

So last Monday night we had a TRC lesson where we teach members of the church. It was our second time doing it so we were pretty confident, but then we get this Brazilian guy who speaks SO last and then half way through our lesson he started teaching us and it was so fast and I could not understand one word he was speaking. It was so bad that I actually started laughing halfway through the lesson which is like SO BAD, but then I realized that is how everyday in Portugal will be like and that made me stop laughing REAL quick. 

On Sundays we all have to prepare talks in Portuguese and the branch president will just randomly chose people to speak. The majority of my zone was betting on it being me speaking and I was SO nervous. But I clearly did something right and the Lord was blessing me for it because I did not get called up to speak THANK GOODNESS!

I watched The Blueprint of Christs Church last night and it was SO GOOD. Seriously go watch it there were so many things he talked about that I had never even thought of before it was so awesome!!

We did "street contracting" to other missionaries this week and it was so cool! I would speak in Portuguese and my companion would translate to English. It was only like 3 minutes but it was so cool just barely talking to them and then feeling prompted to share a message with them. One of them actually said they really needed to hear that and I fist pumped because the spirit is so AWESOME! 

Oh also so our district looked up every ones mormon.org profiles this week and it was so funny. It was like facebook stalking but missionary edition hahah I love my district and zone!! 

Okay this email is SO LONG so props if you got through that whole thing! I love you all so so much! Thank you for all of the emails and trying to keep me up to date on the outside world as I am in this Provo bubble.

Com Muito Amor,
Sister Jones 

Additional notes from Madalyn:

Hosting went so much better this week and was so much fun!! I didnt see anyone I knew but its okay. Also I got girls who had an elavator in their building which is good. Last week we had to carry her huge suitcases up 4 floors it was TERRIBLE! 
Thats so exciting that Dallin is coming home this week! Give him a hug for me! Its weird that I wont see him for SO LONG! ​

Kyrsten and Samantha ran into Madalyn on the Temple grounds this past Sunday!

If You Could Hike to Kolob

Ola amigas! 

So on Wednesday we will hit our halfway point in the MTC which is CRAZY! The MTC is so hard and so much work but it also is so awesome because there is so much power and strength among so many missionaries here! 

This week was so great but it also was just a huge blur because it flew by! 

This week I have been studying faith a lot and read 1 Nephi 17 which is where the Lord commanded Nephi to build a boat and all of his brothers mocked him. Nephi then talks about how capable God is of helping Nephi build a boat, and talks about all the miracles that took place in the Old Testiment because of God's power. Nephi had perfect faith in the Lord and was willing to rely on Him fully. I have found myself lacking a lot of faith when it comes to learning the language. Like I totally know the gift of tongues is real, but in lessons I get scared to open my mouth sometimes because I dont know if the Lord will fill it with the words I need to say, but He always does!!! We watched a devotional talk by Elder Holland last night that talked all about how missionaried need to open their mouths because the only way truth can be known is if it is stated. So this week I am going to open my mouth a lot more, even if I have no idea what I am going to say beforehand.

So our first investagator was our teacher (but we had never met her) and we were teaching this girl named Paula. She accepted our invatation to baptism and was just so awesome. Then this week our teacher told us who Paula actually was. It was someone she taught on her mission in Portugal, who was actually a guy named Pedro. She showed us pictures and said that he is now preparing to serve a mission and I actually started crying because I was just so happy for him even though I didnt know who he was. I felt such a love for his character my teacher was portraying and it made me SO excited to go out in the mission feild and teach so many others like Pedro.

This week Sister Shepard and I taught a lesson with no notes at all!! Which is crazy because less than 2 weeks ago we had our whole lesson written out and would just follow the script! It was so awesome and I was so proud of myself, but then the next lesson with the same investagator went so bad and it was totally a humbling experience. We got a little to prideful about our language abilities and then he started asking us really hard questions and we just sat there like ummm God loves you and so it will all be okay HAHAHA so we studied A LOT after that lesson. 

On Wednesday we hosted new missionaries! I had to watch so many moms cry I actually started crying myself it was SO SAD and all the elders in my zone made fun of me but it was so hard to watch!! It made me miss my family so much :( We do it next week too so hopefully it will be better and I wont be as emotional hahah

Also one of our investagators is a less active who wants the spirit back in her home and I got to talk about how you can do that and testify how the Gospel really strengthens my families and it made me miss them SO MUCH again. Its weird because I never got homesick in college but here I think about them a ton! But then a say a little prayer and get back to work and it is all good :)

Um also all of the elders in my zone make fun of me because I am terrible at pronouncing words and totally sound so American so I am working on it a ton!! Also they make fun of me because I thought it was "If you Could Hike to Kolob" but like cut me some slack who even sings that song??

Yes this week was so awesome and I felt so blessed to be a missionary and be serving the Lord! I love this work with all my heart and am trying to be the best missionary possible even though I am constantly falling short! 

ALSO huge shout out to all of my friends who enter the mission field today! I am going to miss seeing them in the MTC but I am so excited they are getting out of here!! 

MUITO AMOR!

Irma Jones

They take staying close seriously!

Everyone teased them about looking like devils so they took an appropriate picture!

Madalyn's favorite time of the week...napping on the Temple lawn!

Saying good bye before Addison flies to Spain!

Sister Barber and Sister Jones

Handwritten Letter

On Monday Madalyn wrote her family a letter because having only an hour to email everyone was just not enough time so she decided she would write more details in addition to the emails she sent.  Below is a copy of her letter! The pictures below were sent to me from an employee at the MTC- it's of Madalyn cleaning the bathrooms haha!  Addison also sent me a picture of Madalyn and her!

​Hello Family!

Okay I feel like there are so many things I always want to tell you guys, but an hour is SO short and I got way more emails than expected this week.  I know that will die down in like three weeks but I figured I would write a letter that is not rushed for you guys so you can know more about the MTC!

The MTC is awesome! The first few days lasted FOREVER though!  Plus we have so much studying and that was so hard to get used to, but now I am super grateful for it!  I have really grown so close to the Lord this past week and I can really feel the spirit guiding my life!  In my room its me and Sister Shepard.  We are alike in some ways, but also really different too.  Sometimes it’s hard though because she did theater and can memorize passages so quickly and she gets the language so quickly.  But she has been really patient with me and this week which is so nice.  I memorized the missionary purpose “convidar as pesoas a achegarem-se a Cristo e em sua expiafao ajugando-se a recceber evengelno resturado por meio de fe’ em Jesus Cristo, do arrepedimente, do baptism, de se receber dom de Espirito Santo, e em perseverrar a te’ o fim”- the spelling probably sucks on that because I did it from memory, but I am trying to say it as fast as my phone haha!

The language is funny because we “sh” all the S’s and the R’s are H noises.  And “Cao” is really common and it has like a “show” with it in the back of your throat.  Like with is “com” but you say it with your mouth open the whole time so the “m” sounds funny.  We had Brazilian teachers this week. It was so hard to understand them!  The language gets super frustrating sometimes because in lessons I will want to say something, but I don’t have the words.  But like in lessons sometimes a word I have studied before will just come to my mind- it’s awesome!   The gift of tongues doesn’t work the way I thought it would- you have to work for it so much- but then it helps you after all you can do.

The food here isn’t terrible, but the other night the only option was chicken fried steak.  Seriously the grossest thing I have ever eaten!  Then one night it was raspberry chicken or meatloaf.  I had a nice tall glass of water and a peanut butter sandwich and then we all ate so much junk food at 9:30 p.m.

Waking up is not getting easier- actually a lot harder but we are “presservar ate’ o fim”!  Enduring to the end!

One thing I am really working on is getting confidence in the language.  Sometimes I really want to say something, but I won’t know one word so I just won’t talk, but I really just got to say it.  Like right now people totally understand if you make mistakes- plus the quicker you make mistakes the quicker you learn the language.

I have so many funny stories form things happening here, but I have told a lot of them already.  I just love my whole zone so much!  We are all so close and they are so funny.  We have an elder who looks exactly like Cory in the House from Disney Channel.  He is my favorite!  I love him so much.  Also the district leader didn’t talk to me for a whole day because I kept getting him out in four square and he was so bitter.  It was so funny!  He even withheld my mail for almost a whole day.  Oh and Robyn and Dave overnighted me a package of Butterfingers…it was so awesome!  Mail is great because you can read it everyday instead of just Mondays.  Also Elder Nattress has been emailing me a lot and we discovered that my companions boyfriend (Nathan Hale) mom is super close with him and his companion which is so funny!  Such a small world that I am connected to a girl from Texas through kissing cousins haha!  Its SO funny!

Okay I don’t know what else to share.  The days here are so long but I am learning SO MUCH and I always come home so happy to be a missionary. Here is my testimony in Portuguese:

“Eu sei que a Dues chama Jose’ Smith ser um porfeta.  Jose’ Smith restora o verdade igresdia de Jesus Cristo a terra.  Eu sei ave atreves de a expiacao, nos pedimos voltar a pai celestial.  O Livro do Mormos es verdadiero”

(Okay that was rough I don’t know how to spell ANYTHING!)

Con Amar-
Sister Jones

Abacaxi

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!! 
Wow so much has happened this week so I am just going to try to type as fast as I can sorry for all the typos!! 

Okay First I am the WORST because I forgot it was my fathers birthday last week so HAPPY 46 AND ONE WEEK DAD!! I love you!!!

Okay so this week we watched Chacater of Christ by Elder Bednar and it was the best!! But it really made me realize how much my needs and wants don't matter anymore. Like once I go out to the field it is no longer about me, but about the people I will be teaching and doing the Lord's will. I didn't realize how greedy and selfish I was until I got out into the field. It has defientely been a huge humbling expereince but it has made me so grateful for the MTC and the time we have right now to prepare and learn before I get to Portugal. 

Okay so this week was AWESOME I'm just  going to do bullet points because I have so much to say!

-Everyday for excersize time we play four square and its the BEST! A guy in our zone played in high school which I didn't even know existed but like we get so competative and yell at each other and it's the high light of the day. It's serioulsly so funny though!!

- My companion Sister Shepperd and I say the exact same thing, at the exact same time, in the exact same tone all the time. Like its so crazy and everyone thinks we are like doing it on purpose but it just happens its so funny!!!!

- So I decided instead of saying oh my gosh I am just going to say abacaxi such means pineapple in portugese and now like the whole zone does it. It's so funny we say it so dramatic and no one else even knows what we are saying its awesome!

- This week for devotional Elder Anderson came and spoke and it was AWESOME! It was also his birthday so we sang happy birthday with an organ accompaning us and it was definitely the prettiest happy birthday I have ever sang.

- They split our district this week and I was so sad. We all almost cried because we all llove each other SO MUCH! But now its just 2 girls and 4 elders so 6 people in total and its so much easier to learn so its for the best.  Plus we kept our teacher which is good because he's so wesome!!

- SO I serioulsy love all the girls in my room so much. WE laugh so hard with each other I feel like I am in college. Like yesterday night we sat round eating chips and salsa talking about funny date stories and first kisses and funny things like that it was so wesome they are serioulsy the best!!

- I wrote down D&C 11:21 but I dont remember what it says or why I wrote it so maybe look it up and it will be cool??

- An elder in our zone brought a CROCKPOT on his mission. I thought that was so funny idk hahahha

- Addi, Haley and I were all reunited this week it was so sweet!! WE miss Kelsey who is killing it in Taiwan though!!

- So two days ago sister shepard and I were trying to teach a fake lesson to an elder in our zone with no notes and so Sister Shep was like "do you have children?" and he responded saying they are outside playing. But for some reason I thought they were talking about if he had heard about prophets before and so I was like "So you know who Moses and Abraham are??" and he was like wait what. Yea so we had to start the whole lesson over again because we were laughing so hard!

-There was a bat on the 4th floor Saturday night so we got this speaker thing saying we had to evacuate and we didn't know why so we grabbed like all our important things hahha so we had so much stuff just to chill in a starewell. Also I prayed it would go away and the minute I ended the prayer the announcement came saying we could return and everyone was freaking out over the power of prayer it was awesome!!!

- Sister Shepard and I learned Book of Mormon Stories in Portugese this week and then we sang it at the devotional before it started it was so funny! 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! Like I am always so happy when I get to put on my name tag every morning!!! 

Also thank you for all the email and love!! Serioulsy getting a letter is the greatest thing thank you all so much!!

My address for everyone who has been asking is:
Sister Madalyn Jones
Sept. 14 POR-LIS
2005 n. 900 E. unit 211
Provo UT 84602 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE!!!

Sister Jones

Taught My First Lesson

Oi amigos e familia!!


Well I have been in the MTC like 5ish days but it feels like I have been here a lifetime!! I love it and I feel like I am learning a lot, but it also makes me feel like these 6 weeks will go by SO SLOWWW!! But that's okay I probably need all the help I can get because Portugese is SO HARD! 

Okay so we got here on Wednesday and just got straight to work! I love the spirit in the MTC so much and it really just testifies that I am in the right place doing the right thing. My companion is Sister Shepard. I love her a lot! She is going to the Portugal Porto mission though so I won't see her after the MTC :(. We have 13 people in our district. 4 sisters and 9 elders. Me and the other 3 sisters are going to Lisbon along with 6 elders. I already really like my district but we get distracted SO MUCH! haha

 Thursday we had our first day of Portuguese and it was so crazy! Our teacher is irmao Workman and he is the hardest teacher but I am kind of happy about that because it makes me feel like I will learn a lot quicker (hopefully).  About like 4 people in my disctrict are fluent in Spanish, and Sister Johnson lived in Brazil for 2 years so like they all are getting the language so quick and so its hard not to compare to them but I am definitely not as good as them hahah. On our second day in the MTC we got called to be sister training leaders and we were like wait what?? haha But its been good because we have been able to learn and get to know all the sisters in our zone. Four of the sisters in our zone left today because they got their visas so they are now in the Brazil MTC. SO its just us 4 going to Portugal and then 2 sisters going to Cape Verde so its not too much.

Friday we taught our first investagator which was so cool because we literally had just heard Portugese for the first time the day before. At one paoint I bore my testimony that was written down on paper and then Paula (our investigator) asked me how I knew and I was like shoot I dont even know Portuguese! But then though the little of the language I know I was able to say that through bprayer I can talk to Heavenly Father and the Espirito Santo (Holy Ghost) testifies of the truth. 

Saturday was a hard day because we realized how much dang studying is involved to teach lessons! We have to write it in English and then translate it to Portuguese and then practice it. Also I totally suck at pronouncing the words -like SO BAD haha. 

Yesterday was a blessed day! Sundays are so so good. The spirit was so strong and most of the day was in English which was SO GOOD!! We sang in the MTC choir, mostly because it was fast Sunday and we got to eat dinner and hour earlier haha but I love it so much! The whole fireside was about Joseph Smith and so we sang Praise to the Man and the spirit was so strong!! It made me so grateful for Joseph Smith and the Sacrifices he made so that I can be a missionary right now and teach others about this restored Gospel.

Um not going to lie.. it's so hard to study so much here. LIke we probably study for 5 hours and day and have 3 hours of language class and so staying focused is my biggest struggle. I also didn't realize how hard it was to be exactly obedient. Like I guess I am pretty used to bending the rules but we have a goal this week to follow the rules exactly so that we can get the maximum amount of blessings because we need all we can get. 

I have really been thinking about 1 Nephi 3:7 where Nephi is like "I'll go and do the thing that the Lord has commanded for I know that the Lord gives no commandment save he shall prepare a way". I know my mission call was from the Lord and that He knows I can do it. Somedays I feel like I will never be fluent in Portugese and never be a good teacher, but I know there is a reason I am going to Portugal and I just need to trust in the Lord. 

Umm so something funny that happened this week was Sister Shepard, Sister Johnson, Sister Foster and I all went to go the bathroom and after getting out of the stalls we walked over to the sink and saw a urinal and then realized we were in the guys bathroom HAHA so yes I still embarrass myeslf even though I am a missionary. 

Also my parents sent me the biggest box in MTC history probably! My whole room loves them dearly for it hahah especially the night before fast Sunday.

Oh and I have seen SOO many friends and I love it so so much!!!  I have seen Addi a few times, Krista is right down the hall, and I see Haylie a bunch too! I went to the temple with Sam Hunter today so that was cool!! I think I have seen everyone I know at the MTC and I love seeing so familiar faces!!
​
Love you all!! The church is true!! 
Tchau, 
Sister Jones  

The pictures below are me and my companion, the Sisters in my Zone and my entire Zone!

Sister Training Leader

Oi!!


Hello I made it to the MTC yesterday but we didnt have time to email so hope you could wait a day!! I am here and my companion is AWESOME!! Its Sister Shepard and she is from Texas! (Dada was right). We have 2 other girls in our district one of which is Kate the baconator and I love her. Sister Shepard and I just got callled to be the sister training leaders on our 2nd day of the MTC so hhahaha pray for me!
Portuguese is coming but its SOOO hard.

MOM I FORGOT MY WALLET IN YOUR PURSE!!! Please please send it to me ASAP! the address for mail is the address for the MTC (idk what it is but look it up!) and the mailbox is 211 or a package is the address that I got from Sister FOster that you have! Please send it soon bc it has my temple reccomend! 

Um I think that is all there is to say! I love my district. Sister Shepard and 3 elders are gong to Porto and then me and the other 2 sisters and 6 elders going to Lisbon. In our zone its Brazil, Mozambique and Cape Verde.

My P day is Monday so send some love I'll come on in the afternoon..

LOVE YOU!!
Tchau tchau

Reporting to the MTC

We had a day in Salt Lake City before dropping Madalyn off at the MTC.  We chose to do a session at the Salt Lake City Temple.  It was a great experience seeing a live session.  That Temple is so beautiful inside!  We then ate lunch at the Beehive house because who doesn't love their rolls??

Before we dropped Madalyn off we stopped by the Provo Temple to meet up with Xander Dorius.  He is a boy that has grown up with Madalyn in our Ward.  He returned home from the Portugal Lisbon Mission the night before.  It was so great and helped ease nerves hearing about the area that Madalyn will be serving in.  Also learning the the Mission President and his wife are wonderful people!

Madalyn was to report to the Provo MTC at 1:15 p.m.  It was a morning filled with excitement and anticipation.  Madalyn and I were both anxious for this new adventure to begin.  There were no tears for us the entire day not even at the final drop off.  However Ryan's tears started at 9 a.m and did not stop until 2 p.m.  He really had a hard time letting his little girl go.