Personal Letter

I haven't read any of your emails, but they are all already to be printed off. I also have a few photos in the draft folder if you want to go get them, and I have a letter that should be on its way to you sometime in the next day or two. I really hope my mail is making it to the states. They dont do international stamps here, so I dont know how that is going to work out. I got your letter, it couldn't have come on a better day...... and here's why.

The day before yesterday was zone conference, so we got up early to bus home from zone conference, and my allergies were acting up, so all sorts of fun stuff was draining into my stomach. So I felt a little nauseous as we leave the Catania apartment, but I decide that it will probably pass. We got into the car to drive to the bus station, and it does the opposite of pass, It gets 1000 times worse, so I stick my head out of the window and tried to not throw up all over the mission car. We were leaving early because we had an appointment with a less active at ten thirty. I debated at this point telling my companion I couldn't handle a crowded dirty Italian bus, but I decided that our less active was important and powered through. So we are waiting for the bus and in the fresh air and I feel great, but the second we got on the bus I feel terrible again. I knew that I was either going to throw up or I needed to sleep, and the best thing about buses is they are the one time we are allowed to actually take a break in the mission, so I decide to sleep. Unfortunately this was one of the more crowded less comfy hotter buses, so sleep didn't work wort. We had been on the bus for about 20 minutes when we stopped for a city just outside of Catania. At this point I knew I had to get off the bus or I was going to throw up. I also knew we were about a 40 minute walk from Catania and a 5 hour walk from Siracusa so that wasn't an option. So I started to look for something to throw up in. At this point my companion can tell via my body language that I am probably going to throw up, so she is checking the front and the back of the bus for bags, and I'm trying to decided what to throw up in. We had just ordered our English packet and I thought about throwing up in that but I knew that my entire district would kill me if I ruined an English course packet because we have had a lot of scheduling issues through sharing our poster packets, so I decided no. At this point it's too late to find anything else, so I threw up into my hands onto my skirt and down my legs. The irony of this is that 99% of the time I carry wet wipes and an assorted variety of pain meds etc. and we had decided not to bring any of those things to conserve space for zone conference, so I'm sitting here covered in gross crying thinking how I wish that I had chosen to be prepared instead of conserve space. About now my companion came back and she goes Sorella Spencer they dont have any bags. Then she sees me and asks if I have anything in my backpack that I could throw up in again. So I told her to get out my make up bag dump out the make up and we can use that. So she grabs my make up bag dumps it out, and I pour the gross into it. She asks around for a tissue, we find 1 and kind of clean me up. Then we rode on the bus for another hour and ten minutes. When we get to Siracusa she calls to cancel our appointment, and we are almost at our door when Sorella Baker remembers that we had decided not to bring a key because we had expected to come back with the other sorelle. So we waited another hour and ten minutes for someone from the ward to come and open our door. Then I cleaned myself up changed my clothes and got into bed and slept until pranzo. When I woke up the other sorelle were waiting with your letter, which made up for all of the not fun parts of the day. I cant wait to hear from you and I love you so much. The language is coming along great. I actually understood serata famigliare (FHE) yesterday, and our fruit vendor is in my English course so I get really good deals on fruit. All in all, I can't complain.

con amore slla spencer

The work is alive and well in Italy.

OK sorry there was no blog update last week, I had a hard time figuring out how to get photos loaded and it needed to be done so I spent most of my time figuring that out. OK so as you all know I am in Siracusa which is a small small town (not small enough that we know everybody but small enough that I have only been here for 3 weeks and at least five people said Hi to us on our way to get groceries today) on the coast of Sicilia. The work is really slow because we were "blown in", which means that we are both new to this area and that we have 0 solid investigators at this point in time. It is hard but I am actually really grateful for this time to dedicate to the lonelier members of our ward. We have a lot of time to dedicate to the elderly and widows which is absolutely wonderful. We have become family to some of these people which is amazing. I wish that we had more investigators but I am really glad I can spend so much time with these people. I know that I wont have this kind of opportunity in my life ever again, after the mission, and I probably wont have as much time once the work picks up so I am savoring it while it lasts.

That being said miracles are happening every day. The other day we were heading out to do ricerca per gli meni-attivi (searching for the less active) and I don't like to bring my Book of Mormon for distribution unless we are searching, because it is heavy and our area covers a lot of ground, but this morning I decided to put it in my bag. We spent a while knocking on a few doors with no response when we hit a name on a street we were unfamiliar with. We spent about an hour and a half looking for his house before we decided to move on so we could get a couple more houses in before prazo (in Italy its against the law to knock on doors between 1 and 4p) and we moved on to another street we were unfamiliar with. We spent about 40 minutes looking for this house as well when someone stopped us and asked if we were evangelists. We said no and introduced ourselves. She told us she was very curious and she said she wanted to hear more. So we sat down and gave her the first discussion. When we were done she gave us her number and address. We get a lot of fake numbers so we did a squillo {RING}(really common in Italy you call and let the phone ring once and then hang up.) and her phone actually rang! Right now I think she is more curious than anything else, but I think she has been searching for this for a long time. The work is alive and well in Italy.

Con amore
-Sorella Madyline Spencer

(this weeks email comes with a couple of pictures!)

Saved by the mission president's wife! Pictures!!

Mady wasn't able to send pictures this week (Oct 2, 2013), but the mission president's wife has saved the day!! These pictures are from her blog from the Catania/Palermo/Malta Zone Conference held a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

This is her bearing her first testimony (according to Sis Waddoup's blog)

And some miscellaneous shots.....

And my all time favorite.....she is absolutely glowing!!

More Pictures!!

I finally found out how to snag photos of Mady from other blogs to share here! (Where there is a will, there is a way!)

These were borrowed from a sister that she roomed with in the MTC that is now serving in the Milan Mission.

Personal Email

Ok so I am writing you a really long letter about how I'm feeling and growing in the mission but that is a lot harder to do in email so for the most part my email will just be a surplus of information. I also am printing off your email so I haven't read it yet. I read the part about blonde hair being a gypsy good luck charm though haha. We dont have gypsies in Siracusa so for the time being I am set.

Ok first off happy happy birthday! I thought about you a lot on your birthday. and missed you tons. I hope that you had fun! We took a cool picture of us holding a sign that I hope that I am going to figure out how to get to you. I'm working on it.

So photos. You can only send 3 at a time and it eats all of your email time so I'm going to upload them all and then save them as a draft and you can log on and grab them. Madyline college 2012. This is allowed. I'm working on it now, but my comp is being difficult.

I went to a FHE with a family in our ward and while we were eating I noticed that they had a birdhouse on their wall. I commented on it and told them that you had tanto in our house. They responded very excitedly and with very Sicilian accents so I just kind of nodded and smiled. After a few minutes of excited moments they paused as if waiting for a response. I had no idea what they said so I said si. Everyone looked really surprised so my companion turned to me and said your mom lets all the birds fly around the house? I explained and she tried to clarify, but I'm not 100 percent sure they got it so there might be a family who thinks you have 100's of birds flying around our house.

Also I have been recording a little synopsis of my day in my planner every day and once it is done I will send it to you.

Also I got on family search.org the other day and the only person recorded was dads mom. If you could send me dads dads general info I could probably get started on that.

Ok the comp is being truly unkind. It looks like pictures wont happen this week but you can log on later and check and see if I figured it out.

Ok about packages. Padded envelopes are safe they dont go through customs they just go straight to our house. If you send one out there a few things that we cannot get here. Mostly because this is Siracusa, Rome has more stuff. Face wash is really different here, and I really really like the stuff you sent me in the MTC. If you dont want to spend that much money sending face wash I understand, and I am looking for something here. Maybe we will find something really exciting that clears all skin problems so its up to you, but if you would be willing its anti oil grayish silver tube and I love it. Also marshmallows. I was trying to explain them to a recent convert and they were so confused. If you could send a package I would love to show them.

I love you sosososo much. I really hope I can get these photos to work so that you can see how blessed I am here. I hope that the Lord is blessing you, and I cant wait to hear all of your stories. xoxoxoxo Madyline

Week 2 in country

I only received a mom e-mail this week, but I did get some pictures that I can share, so I suppose that will have to do for now.

"The cool buildings are in a town called Avola, they are know for their almonds, and the word for almond is really similar to my name." {mandorla=almond}

These next 3 are my personal favorites!

This is what you get when you order a hot dog in Italia!

This dish was made for the Sorelle (sisters) by a student in their English class. They are teaching English to the Italians and it has proven to be a great finding tool to teach the gospel.

I assume that these are the missionaries from her area, but I am not sure because of the vague email I got from her today. She assures me that next weeks e-mail will be wonderful. (IT BETTER BE!)

That's all for this week!

I love missionary moms!!

I received a sweet email from a missionary mom whose daughter is serving with Mady. She even sent a picture! Thanks Allison!

Her first week in country

I am officially in Italy. I was shocked at how much you can feel the love and guidance of the Holy Ghost in the MTC but it is about 1000 times stronger in the field. There was one day where both companionships (we have two sister companionships in this ward) were planning a lesson for a part member family in our ward. When we went to talk about what we wanted to teach, we had planned the same lesson down to most of the same scriptures. It was really cool to see how the Lord uses us to teach his children what they need to know.

I am serving in Siracusa (Sicily) right now, my companion and I were "blown in" which means both of us are new to the area so we are starting from the ground up. We have one investigator that the other sorelle were not making progress with anymore, hopefully we can make a difference. He is a wonderful guy who just does not have any hope. He has had a really hard life and he doesn't seem to believe that God could possibly exist, but I hope that we can help him find his faith again. We spend a lot of time finding, which we don't always have a lot of success with, but once someone accidentally buzzed us in and we were able to fill an entire apartment building's mailbox with pass along cards (that's legal here.) I'm pretty sure a miracle is going to come of that.

The language is kind of tough, the southern dialect is very different than what I learned in the MTC, so I don't always (and by that I mean, almost never) understand what people are saying to me, but I can fake it for about 5 minutes because I'm pretty sure I know what they are probably saying so I do OK.

Our biggest tool for finding new investigators is the English course. I teach the advanced course, which is tough because it turns out that I don't have a lot of knowledge of English rules. There is a man in my class who is obsessed with America. He has a cousin who lives in Michigan who he is going to see next summer, and I have great hopes for him. I know there are a couple of people who get this who are either serving in Michigan or are from Michigan, so maybe I will tell him to look you up, because he is DEFINITELY going to be baptized by then.

I am so grateful I am on a mission. Its changing me so much. I have learned a lot about hard work and about loving people. It's amazing to me that our Heavenly Father has the ability to show so much love for each and every one of his children, but he does. He loves every individual person in Provo, in Georgia, and in Siracusa, and he just does the most wonderful whimsical things to give us the happiest lives possible.

The coolest thing about serving in Italy is knowing that I'm not in the birthplace of Christianity, but the place responsible for Christianity's ability to endure for the last 2000 years. I am walking where apostles walked and talking to descendants (mom please fix that spelling) of people who talked to Peter and Paul! These people have a lot of faith. Its kind of misdirected sometimes but they truly want to believe in something. Hopefully we can lead them to the thing that will bring them the most happiness.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mady sends two emails to me every week. One for the blog, and one for me. This next section includes excerpts from her personal email.


Oh mom you have no idea how much I miss you. As missionaries we spend a lot of time talking about our families, and I just continue to be amazed at how wonderful mine is. A lot of missionaries don't have parents who would take care of them when they had bad dreams or when they were sick, and I'm so grateful for the compassion and love our family has. I'm using a computer in a public internet cafe and it is pretty old, so I haven't figured out how to email photos yet. My address is Via Poblio 17, 96100 Siracusa, Italia. I cant wait to hear from you! I am anxiously awaiting letters from home! Italy is a lot like Georgia in weather and culture. People are very kind, the biggest difference is that men read into kindness a little bit more so you have to be careful. My ward is fantastic. They tell me my Italian is great and they love practicing English. Members expect you to eat a lot. They don't do leftovers so we legitimately have to finish everything on the table. We went and got gilatto and I ordered 'nutella fredo' (cold nutella) it was so gross, but I have had gilatto since and I love it! ...... My apartment is the biggest in the mission, and was just remodeled because of mold.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This week, I got a third e-mail.

OK, we personalize EVERYTHING here! Our walls, our planners, our scripture cases, EVERYTHING. If you can find some great photos I would love to get them. If it isn't to much of a hassle I would love one real photo and a version you printed off the computer so that I can tape it to stuff like planners, and encourage everyone else to do the same. I love photos! Also pictures of Christ and quotes from prophets are also greatly appreciated.

I really appreciate getting dear elders because it's always nice to hear from you, but would you mind typing something up and mailing it to me instead? The dear elders get really confusing really quickly and we don't have a lot of time to piece them together. Also a nice short handwritten note would be nice as well even if it's on a sticky note.

Also what nationality am I? People ask me all the time. I get Russian and Polish a lot and frankly I do not know.

People are obsessed with my hair here. It's weird.

Sorry this is a mess, they have different keyboards here.

I love you to infinity and back, no take backs.

Travel Insights - Here they go!

This was taken from the Rome Italy Mission blog kept by Sorella Waddoups. Mady was one of those lucky ones traveling 8-10 hours by train to Sicily.

"The first day the new missionaries arrive, they are extremely excited and motivated and really, really tired. By the time they finally get to bed, they are completely exhausted. (I wish there was a better way to do this, but it just doesn't work out that way.) Because of the great distances some of them have to travel to reach their final destination, some of them have to be up by 5:00 am. The missionaries going to Sicily have an 8 to 10 hour train ride. Some of them have to take a plane to Sardegna or Malta. Most of the others usually have a long bus ride to reach their assigned area. Add into that equation the fact that it's also transfer day for the entire mission and it becomes quite hectic. We have missionaries coming to Rome from all over the mission to meet up with their new companions or else being transferred to another area of the mission to serve with someone else. It's complicated. Our wonderful assistants put the jigsaw together and somehow it all works in the end. I just pray each time that everything goes well and it does, but only because a higher power than us is overseeing everything. The assistants spend all day taking missionaries to and from the airport, train station and bus station. They are amazing. They really work overtime to accomplish such an amazing feat."

Arrival Pictures!! She made it!

Rome Italy Mission Blog

I was able to talk to Mady the day she flew from the MTC to the mission field. It was so great to hear her voice! She sounded so happy and excited. I know it hasn't been easy for her, but she is growing so much. I have been reading the Mission President's wife's blog. Her name is Sorella Waddoups. She is wonderful at posting pictures! For that I am grateful. I have tried to find a way to capture those photos to include in this blog, however I have yet to figure out how to do that. That being said, the next best thing is to give you the link so you can go look at them on Sister (Sorella) Waddoups' blog.



Experiences of New Missionaries
http://romeitalymission.blogspot.com/2013/09/experiences-of-new-missionaries.html

New Missionaries
http://romeitalymission.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-missionaries.html

This third link does not have pictures of her, but gives some interesting insight into what they go through just to get to their assigned areas.

Here they go
http://romeitalymission.blogspot.com/2013/09/here-they-go.html

I hope you enjoy!

A day in the life of Squirt the Missionary

So I sent Mady several packages while she was in the MTC. One of the things I sent her was a figurine from the movie Finding Nemo. It was "Squirt" the young turtle that Nemo met along the way. I sent it with this message..... Don't be a squirt. Write your mother!

My darling daughter has such a wonderful sense of humor. I got the following box right before she left the country.

Once I was able to get the pictures developed (it only cost $15!!), I found pictures of her adventures with Squirt in the MTC. It was a fun box and I am always so glad for as many pictures as I can get. There were more than what I am posting here, but these were my favorites. I hope you enjoy.

I didn't think I would miss her as much as I do. Man was I wrong!