Elder Bryce in Wisconsin: Madison is Sooooo Fun!

This week was one of the most interesting weeks I have had on my mission. We have been starting to get used to the area, and it has been pretty fun! Downtown Madison always has something weird going on, and campus is still really empty because school hasn't started yet. So it is still a little rough to try to find a good place to contact people, but we have a couple of good spots that we like to go to! We were able to finally meet some of the people that have been taught in this area before we got here. They are super cool, and we think that they will progress towards baptism fairly quickly!
We seemed to stay pretty busy this week, especially after Thursday. On Tuesday we had Zone conference and learned all about Facebook and how we get to use that! So if you haven't noticed yet, I will be posting on Facebook occasionally to share the gospel. We have basically been told that if it fulfills our missionary purpose then we can do it when it comes to Facebook. So we don't really know how to best use it yet, but we will be finding out soon! Here in Madison there is a very diverse group of people. On one day this week we met a lady from Jamaica, Kenya, and Greece. There's always a bunch of Asian people as well. I'm not sure if they're Chinese or Japanese or what, but a lot of them don't speak super good English. It's really funny when you try to stop them on the street and they don't understand a single word you're saying. But it's really fun!
So also on Saturday, I was able to baptize a woman who is in the Madison First Ward! Sisters were teaching her and the person she wanted to baptize her was out of town and so they asked me to do it! It was a really cool experience, and I am so grateful for the spirit that was felt. I am also very thankful for her testimony and knowledge of the Gospel! It is so cool to see people change their lives and come to know their savior even more!
So on a less serious note, one really funny thing that happened. We were walking down a street called State Street, it is in downtown and has a lot of bars and things that tourists like to go to. We were there and this homeless guy stopped us and asked us about the doctrine of progression... So that was fun. But as we were talking to him this thing called the trolley Pub Rolls by on the street. It is literally a moving bar. So basically there were 10 drunk people pedaling to make it move and singing very loudly while we were trying to teach a guy about the Plan of Salvation... It was pretty awkward. We laughed about it a lot! Also we had a pretty funny story where we got lost on the bus and didn't end up getting home until almost 10... whoops!

It has been so much fun, but here is a bit of a spiritual thought for the week.
So I have really enjoyed starting to read Isaiah. It is still hard for me to understand sometimes, but it helps me learn a lot when I really focus on it. Anyway, there are multiple times in the Isaiah chapters of the Book of Mormon that he is talking about how wicked the people are and how the wrath of God will come down on them if they don't repent. But every time that it says that, it says afterwards "His anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still" I love that no matter what we do God's love is always there for us, and that no matter how bad of a situation we are in, "His hand is stretched out still' He is always willing to help us! We just need to turn to him!!
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Never forget that God loves you!

Elder Reynolds