Week 19, December 19, 2016

Hi Everyone

Christmas is around the corner and it's really hard to actually expect
that Christmas is here without any snow. The weather is good during
the day but recently I leave the apartment in a sweater. Everyone says
in February it gets way worse but people in California are used to
really nice weather so I don't know if they're exaggerating or not.
On Saturday I got a call from the bishop saying I would have to give a
talk. That was really cool. I can finally relate to you Dad when you
had to do the same thing on your mission. I woke up in the middle of
the night because I was so stressed that I paced the room for hours
practicing what and how I was going to say it. I was exhausted, I didn't
get much sleep.
The area is doing a lot better than a couple of weeks ago. I have
two new companions that have been on their missions a long time and
you can see the difference experience makes based on the numbers. My
new companions are really nice and fun. They like to be kept busy. I'm
trying real hard to learn everything I can from the amount of time I
have with them.
We have a lot of new investigators and a lot of them have potential.
Patrick who got baptized last week has fellowshiped a couple of lessons
and he thinks it's so cool. Right now he's planning on college but I
think if we take him out enough he'll figure out he wants to go on a mission.
Also our ward gave us a big bag of Christmas presents. This ward is
really supportive of the missionaries. I get fed every day so I hope
that gives you some comfort mom.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 18, December 12, 2016

Hey transfers were this week but Patrick got baptized on Saturday so I'm gonna talk about that first. Patrick asked his friends in the ward to participate in his baptismal service and it was so fun and super spiritual. He asked Sam to give a Holy Ghost talk and Katie to give a talk about baptism but they both ended up giving baptism talks and Elder Byam gave a quick Holy Ghost talk on short notice. Patrick loved it. It defiantly was a day that he can always look back on see how his life really started. After the baptism an investigator we had came up to Patrick and asked him about the baptism and he bore his testimony. It was way cool.  Right after he was baptized he talked about how good he felt and how excited he was to be baptized. Patrick is really on the right tract for a kid his age.

We took Chica to the visitor center yesterday. Chica told us in a past lesson that she went there before and she loved it. Chica had a great time where she learned that family can be together forever and that meant a lot to her since her Dad passed away and she didn't handle it very well.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 17, December 5 2016

Hey! This week has been pretty fun! We've been working really hard in the Creekside Ward. 
We have a scheduled baptism this week for Patrick. If all goes well I'll be able to tell you guys 
about it next week. Patrick is a 17 year old kid and his parents don't belong to any religion so 
it's kinda weird that he was interested at the beginning. He's good kid and follows all of the 
Commandments. Except for coffee. He drank coffee before but after we taught him the word 
of wisdom he went cold turkey on coffee and stopped. He's a really good kid all over. 
Of all things, he was a street contact too. I'm excited to see what comes of Patrick in the future.

It's kinda weird to think that it's already December and Christmas is around the corner. Time is
going by pretty fast. It's weird to walk outside in December and have it be hot outside too. 
I really miss the snow.  Everyone keeps on saying that it's gonna get cold here but I don't know. 

In ward council our Bishop brought up that our church got invited to an inter faith council made 
up of ministers and priests to talk about the problems of the community and that he couldn't go.
Elder Byam volunteered us to go. We just got a call yesterday saying that we got two seats at 
this meeting. I don't know what to expect but that's gonna be interesting. 

Elder Madsen 🐡