Don't Pass 'Em UP

I've tried this new thing called having an (incredibly) open mind......

IT IS AWESOME.

My mom is reading some weird book, but she told me the basics of it is "To have peace with yourself you must act on all impressions. If you do not act on impressions and continue throughout your day, you will not have peace of mind. Therefore you are puting yourself in a box."

Weird book right? But its true. I'm pretty sure every single person on this earth even YOU gets little impressions throughout the day. "I should do that.." "I should say hi to her.." "I should shoot him a text..." But we ignore them because they are inconvienient or we do not know what will come of it. Well, my track record has turned out great with acting on impressions! Because even if i never know what will come of it... it somehow influences my life. I feel at peace, and it gives me something more to think about.

Impression Numero Uno: Lady walks into PFPV (My Work) She asked when it got cold around here. SOO we talked about weather. I had an impression to ask her where she was from, i shook it off at first, but of course... I could hear my mom telling me YOURE PUTING YOURSELF IN A BOX. Sooo i did. Turns out shes from the glorious east coast SOUTH CAROLINA. Why on earth did she wind up in Utah??? We talked about all the amazing things to explore back east, i told her i was moving to Washington DC here in a couple months. She asked why? I told her for a mission. And for the 6787654567876545678 time i got that look of "Like james bond or...?" So i added, LDS Mission, for my church. You could see her face was a little bit puzzled. But we continued on our conversation. She was really nice and had a family. Nothing more came from my experience in talking with her about the church. But it planted a seed because guess what??? SHE KNOWS WHAT A MORMON MISSIONARY IS NOW. And she left a five dolla tip so holla.

Impression Numero Dos: Sit by the Loud Rowdy Kids in the back of Youth Meeting ;)

Yes. I was asked to speak a little bit to the youth of my ward with the Elders and my dad on sunday. The WHOLE TIME there was this couple boys sitting in the back being so obnoxious. I could hear them laughing and talking and poking at eachother and i was sitting clear in the front! Silly boys... so the next half of the meeting i decided, hey, i'll go sit next to 'em. So i did. And their faces? PRICELESS. (I hope they are reading this hahaha!) There wasn't even room for me so i pulled up a chair as close as i could and smiled at them. I continued to raise my hand and make comments every five minutes or so, because everytime i did, all eyes went to the back corner and the boys all went silent. I even got a few of them to put their phones up in the front and pay attention imagine that??!! I told them they would get something from it. I think they expected candy or something... i meant scriptural knowledge? And at the end of the lesson one of them looked at me and said... "Its blessings isnt it?" I smiled and he rolled his eyes. It was picture perfect. Gotta love them highschool boys getting blessings doncha? It was an awesome lesson. 

Afterwards, i did hold a really good conversation with a couple of them. I told them that it took me til my senior year to realize if you actually LISTEN TO YOUR SEMINARY TEACHER you will gain something. Weird right? They were amazed too. I don't know if i changed their opinion on serving a mission or even listening to seminary. But at least they know that I KNOW the church is true, and that I KNOW how much it has affected my life. Hopefully someday they will feel the same. Goes to show you can be a missionary and example even to the members of your ward! They are awesome (:

Impression Numero Tres: CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL RANCH BBY

So me and my brother... well okay let me start over. MY BROTHER talked me into taking him to CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL RANCH right before it closed last night. So, off we went. We were looking for some new 'Boots' and started talking to this kid that works there. He was a nice kid. And low and behold our topic of conversation turned into missions. I told him where i was going and etc. Said goodbye, didnt even catch his name. Well, this little experience actually turned on me. I think he was the one who had an impression he didn't pass up, and i gained immensly from it. I got a text in the middle of the night, it was from this kid. He mentioned i probably didnt know him and it may be weird that he was sending this, but he felt like he should send me these specific scriptures because they have helped him immensly within the church and in regards of serving a mission. They were right on key, exactly what i needed to hear. How cool is that?

I think what comes around goes around. Pray for experiences. And search them out throughout your day. Don't pass any up! You never know what can come from them, and you never know what you will find in return! Look at the little, simplest of experiences and blessings and apply them to your life. You will see differences in every situation. Its so cool who the Lord will bring into your life sometimes. Gods timing really is perfect. And people, they are awesome. Stay positive and love the little things.

Love you all! Have a fantastic Tuesday!

Sincerely Yours, Sister Madison Paige

FUN. fun. Fun. FUUUUUUUUN.

Holy! Time is Flying.

In approximately three hours i will officially be 69 days away from leaving this beautiful city of St. George for the Provo MTC, and from there to Washington DC. Yup, the big capital of this Country! GO USA.

I'm so excited.

And nervous.

Mostly excited though.

Okay so this past weekend i was getting really nervous. Ya know. Because seriously i'm going to be in a "random place with random people teaching random people with random leaders...."

And I was getting super nervous right? Well lemme teach ya a little something I learned this weekend.

First stop Ross. Just buying some mission gems. And this, very kind, security guard striked up a conversation with me. And it turned into a total missionary experience. Which is funny because... its supposed to be the other way around. But God knows me. And Gods timing is perfect. We talked about the gloves i was buying, which led to why i was buying them, which led to his historic childhood memories in washington dc. His face lit up when i told him i would be spending the next eighteen months where he cherished so many memories!! And he wanted to know why it was i was going there. So i told him "oh a mission!" Expecting him to just 'know' what that meant. But no he had no idea! At first i was like Common dude you live in Utah, i know you know that i know you know what this is man...common........................

Nope. No idea. So i explained to him briefly what i would be doing while we walked up to the checkout. Yes, this guy followed me to the checkout. And we chatted. And it was good. I feel like i left a very good impression of the church. The only thing i was lacking was a stinking pass along card so he could learn more about the church. But i do remember him saying as i left 'Goodluck on your Mission!" as if he knew all about the mormon church. It was a unique experience that really boosted my confidence about this whole preaching the gospel thing. Which led to the next days adventure....

I met this boy. He asked me if i was attending college and i said no. Follow up question: Oh just hangin' out? layin low?

HAHAHAHAHA YEAH MAN.

So i told him, i was going on a mission, but this time i decided to be more specific because EARTH TO MADI most people think of james bond not mormons when you bring up the topic of 'missions.'

He too asked whats a mission? and what i would be doing. So i gave him a brief summary, thinking, eighteen year olds don't care about this, he probably thinks i'm stupid. And to my surprise... he answered "Wow. Thats really cool. I love learning about religion, i think it is so interesting."

WAIT WHAT?!?! COLLEGE KIDS FIND RELIGION INTERESTING??

K. Can i take a minute to rewind and tell you again. GODS TIMING IS PERFECT.

Right then and there, it hit me. My mission, my companions, the people i'll be teaching, the people teaching me, it is not random. Gods timing is perfect. We are all going to be at that place, that time, for a reason unknown to me right now. But it is most definitely not random. And this wasn't either.

I asked him if he belonged to any specific religion, to which he replied something about being "sort of catholic but not really." But he had read parts of the bible and found it quite interesting. He was concerned though, because some of the verses scared him. He said....and i apologize in advance for the profanity, but he seriously said this. He said it freaked him out that Christ was going to come down to earth, a second time, on a chariot, with a serpent tongue and f shiz up. MY FACE. If i could have gotten my face on camera at that moment, man. Million dollar photo right there. My jaw dropped. But i pulled it together and listened to the rest of what he had to say. He continued to tell me that he was even more terrified of the scriptures about lucifer! Because if their is a God there MUST be a devil as well! And started telling me about some belief about satan coming to earth for three days and capturing people and.....................................that was a tangent. He paused for a second and waited for me to add to this three days of tourment thing going on....

And i started up the plan of salvation conversation. It was Perfect.

I told him my church believed that before we were born, we were spirits in heaven. God needed somebody to atone for all of our sins, have you ever been taught about the atonement? (he said no) Jesus Christ came to earth, he was crucified and suffered for all the sins of the world, and if we believe in his name, follow the commandments and endure to the end, we can repent and become like him (he mentioned something about how he had learned about this before and nodded to go on) I told him, Jesus Christ and Lucifer both offered to come to earth and had a plan, Christs plan was that we would have agency, Lucifer wanted us to be forced to do what was right *He screamed PLOT TWIST, apparently he was blown away by this thought of Lucifer being in on the whole plan thang* Yes yes plot twist exactly. But God presented Christs plan. And Lucifer was angry so, he fell away and took followers with him. (This freaked him out he wanted to know who the followers were!) No no, the followers fell away too. Us being on earth, shows our commitment to this plan. We chose this willingly thats why we are here, to be tested and tried, we were given agency for this purpose, it was Christs plan. And he has given us a way back to him.

This conversation went on for a solid half hour before it was interupted. He was fascinated that he had made his own choice to come to earth, and by the talk of the atonement providing a way for us to go back to heaven and live with our families again.

I can honestly say i've never had such an in depth talk with the church with a nonmember my age. It was amazing! And has boosted my confidence immensly, i am so excited to have conversations like this all the time on my mission. I don't know what will come of that conversation, i haven't talked to him since! But if anything, it really prepared me in many ways.

One being, i always worry about what i'm going to say to people I am no biblical genious. But at that moment, the casual conversation just flowed. I just KNEW what to say. Its just the simple gospel teachings and docterine that fascinate people. I think as members sometiems we take for granted some of the simple blessings of the church, that mean so much to people who have never heard these things. Watching his face light up and these new teachings made my heart melt and my testimoney grow beyond anything i can describe. It was so simple, but i can see how it can change a life around.

The gospel is amazing and i cannot wait to teach it everyday for the next eighteen months.

From the famous words of my amazing stake president topham "You don't have to be a drone, have fun."

Seriously! Don't look at the mission rules and down on them. Don't look at them as rules! Look at them as guidelines coming from God to make your mission experience the best it can be. Look at them as goals and challenges. Make it fun, make it enjoyable.

Amen Brotha.