Elder Bryce in Wisconsin: Madison week one! Goodbye Appleton 😭

Well this week was super hard. Probably one of the weirdest weeks of my mission, if not the weirdest. So it was hard to leave Appleton, lots of relationships and friendships that have been put on hold for a time, but that is life and so be it! I am very excited about working here in Madison but it is a completely different form of work than any other area I have been in, so let me tell ya about it!

So I left Appleton on Tuesday night so I could be in Milwaukee wednesday morning to have a meeting and meet my new trainee. So we met and his name is Elder Winborg, and he is a super cool guy! He is very prepared missionary and loves the work out here. I have loved being able to get to know him. So we drove someone else's car back up to Madison and made the journey to our apartment with them. Madison is huge compared to any of the other cities I have served in! People talk about it being a smaller city and that it isn't really a city but I totally disagree. I think it might be the biggest city I have ever been in, or maybe it just feels like it because I have been in these super small towns for a long time. Also I think the campus is bigger than any campus I have ever been on, and I am pretty sure that I have still only seen about half of it, we keep finding new places every day. So yeah, it's pretty crazy. We don't have a car, so we have been riding busses around a little bit and that is pretty fun! You meet some interesting people and they get you places faster than walking, so that is always good!

Well this week was full of all sorts of emotions. So to start off when we first got here it was just confusion and trying to take it all in, then it led to discouragement because we didn't know how to street contact, and then we got okay at it and I was starting to feel good and then Saturday happened. So first, nobody is on campus on Saturday. It's summer so there aren't a ton anyway, but Saturday was completely empty. So then we tried to do some bus contacting and pretty much got lost on the bus system. Then we tried downtown and there were so many people that it was hard to choose just one to stop and talk to... So it's been a learning experience for sure, lots of trial and error, but it is getting a little better!

The ward here is super cool, it is kinda weird to be in a Ysa ward where everyone is close to your age. There is a couple kids that come that are still 18 which is weird cause I am used to feeling young compared to all of the Elders Quorum but now we are like average! So that's weird! But also they signed up to feed us a bunch this week, so we will get to know some of them more! I am excited to see how it goes, we will for sure be doing things that I have never done before for the first few weeks!

We have also seen that people will put them selves in super awkward situations to ignore us. So we are next to this guy on the bus and Elder Winborg looks at this guy and says "hey how's it going?" the guy didn't look like he heard him so elder Winborg said it again and the guy looked right at him and then just continued to sit there. So then we had a super awkward 5 minute bus ride right across the row from this guy and it was hilarious 😂 you could just feel his hatred toward us!

So that is life in Madison, I hope life at home is just as interesting! Here is a short spiritual thought for you:

So we heard from a family from the Ivory Coast who immigrated here 10 years ago and some of their struggles and conversion to the gospel. One thing he said that I really liked was "we had to keep fighting to stay strong in the gospel" I think the word fighting is super cool. We don't just push, we don't just walk, we don't just try in the gospel. We must fight for our testimony, we have to really fight for it. It doesn't come when we just sit back and relax, it requires effort. That's why missionaries testimonies grow so much. We are putting it to the test daily. So fight for it, it will help you see how much you really need it in your life!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Reynolds