Week 102 July 25, 2018 HOME!!!!

Week 98 June 25, 2018

There was a couple cool things that happened this week. First thing was that our Mission President is starting a new thing where he takes all the returning missionaries to the temple one last time. It was probably my favorite temple trip so far. I could sit in the celestial room and think about my mission and about how I want my life to be in the future. It was a good place in which I could feel the spirit. To make a plan with God about what I should do. It was great, I loved it. After that we had a devotional with all the returning missionaries too. 

I actually had a pretty cool missionary experience this week as well. There is this guy named Kevin that the Temple City elders have been working with for a long time. He finally came to church last week. He has a lot of questions just about everything so it’s super hard to teach him because we usually get stuck on one principle. At church was the same thing. He would type it out on his phone and pass it to me. We did that for 3 hours straight. He has SO MANY QUESTIONS. In the end though he did ask me one question that was I was pretty happy to answer and I can see he’s showing progress. He asked me “how do you know God Exists?” He’s someone that wants to see the truth with his eyes or feel it with his hands. Most people don’t get a testimony of God that way. I was able to share my testimony and conversion story with him though. I never gained a testimony by seeing something or handling anything either with my hands, but it was by the spirit. Hopefully he can be humble enough to accept an answer in the way he’s not expecting too.

Well that’s really all for this week!

Week 96 June 11, 2018

This week has been the climax of my mission. So many unexpected things have happened. All the excitement is probably gonna go down after this week. 

Ok to begin, Elder Straga and I have been putting together a day specialized for Members to bring their friends to church. All the talks at sacrament meeting and Sunday school lessons will be geared to the idea that Nonmembers will be there. Making them simple and basic, directed to the message of Jesus Christ and his Restored Gospel. It’ll be a good opportunity for the people the members will bring to get an understanding of what we believe, and more importantly for them to feel the spirit.

We’ve been visiting members these past couple of weeks telling them about this day coming up and getting them all excited about it. It was good for the work because everyone had people they wanted to bring, but also I made some pretty good relationships with the ward. I’ve had so much fun doing Missionary work this way. Instead of working the ward I’ve felt like I’m working with my friends. 

Along with this week, we set a baptismal with Jason. He moved here from San Diego and the first thing he wanted to do was meet with the Missionaries. His old boss made such an impact on his life by teaching him little pieces of the Gospel as they worked together, that he wanted become a member. He’s even having his old boss come up from San Diego to baptize him. Such a cool member missionary experience to witness. 

On top of that, a member from one of my old areas called me up this week. She told us about her daughter and her husband. She said they were looking to get closer to God and have been church hopping recently. We got in contact with them and set up a time to go over and teach them. Everything just fell into place at the lesson. They’re so ready for the Gospel. They want to come closer to God and they’re willing to act. Great, even more people for our teaching pool, its really getting full of prepared people.

We’ve also been teaching the Dowdle Family my four months of me being in this area. I’ve seen how Brother Dowdle is really ready to come back to church. He helps us teach his family and everything. He wants it so bad I can tell. They’re also huge Dodger fans. Mormon night at the Dodger stadium happened this Saturday and we were allowed to go if we took a family. We decided to pick them because we knew they’d love it. We asked them weeks ago. Right before the game though we got transfer calls. Elder Straga and I are getting transferred out. It was a fun game but I couldn’t tell the Dowdle family. I’m planning on going over tonight to say goodbye. 

Tough luck huh?

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 93 May 21, 2018

Well Elder Straga and I have changed up our finding techniques this

week. Some Missionaries managed to get 40 Member referrals in one week

with their ward and we’ve been trying to replicate that. It hasn't

been going so well to be honest. This has also been the first week

doing it this way, and I’ve spent my whole mission doing missionary

work another way so I just need some time to figure it out

hopefully...

I did have a couple cool experiences this week, even though it wasn’t

too successful. The first was when our Bishop took us out to visit

some families. There was a recent move in for our ward that hasn’t

been to church yet so our Bishop thought it was a good idea to go over

and introduce ourselves. We went over and knocked on their door. When

the Mom opened the door you could tell she looked panicked when she saw

who we were. She started giving us a hard time because apparently she

didn’t want to be found and she didn’t understand how no matter where

she went the missionaries always found her. Our Bishop is a really

loving guy and simply explained how the Lord loved her and wasn’t

going to give up on her. This member just started to

cry. She understands God’s love for her and I think she believes it

too. Hopefully we can start working with her or she’ll come back again

someday.

We were also at another less active members house sharing a message

when one of her friends came over to her house. He was kinda

disrespectful and wanted to disrupt our message so he began to pour

shots for everyone in the room even for us. While we were there, I

could see the people had felt the spirit. Even though the environment

wasn’t the best at that time, everybody’s demeanor had changed. They

calmed down and listened to us.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 91 May 7, 2018

Apartments, Apartments, Apartments

I really don’t have too much to say about this week other than that we knocked through so many apartment buildings. It’s not my favorite thing to do but I can’t figure out another way to find people to teach. We’re going through a lot more people to find those that are ready. I’ve learned that not many people are home in the mornings, noon, or in the afternoons. Everybody is home in the evenings but that’s when all of our appointments and dinners with members are scheduled. We don’t get a lot of use out of our prime time.

We were able to teach a family that we found last week from Egypt. It turns out we also have a member from Syria that speaks Arabic so she was able to come on a lesson with them and teach them. We had to teach them the Word of Wisdom the first lesson. They wanted to give us tea and coffee, so we explained to them why we couldn’t accept it. Our member testified to them about how she knew the commandment came from God and how she’s been blessed for following it. 

Here’s a picture of me with my old and new companion.

Elder Madsen

Week 90 April 30, 2018

Ok so this week the transfer ended which is also Elder Cheng’s very last week in the mission. He’s been doing pretty good. For his last week he worked pretty hard, it was actually pretty cool to see him finish off strong. The ward loved him and he loved them and serving his mission in America. We had to run around and say goodbye to a lot of families.

I’m going to get a new companion. His name is Elder Straga. I haven’t heard too much about him, I think he’s pretty new. I’ll be able to tell you more about him next week. 

This week has been pretty exciting for Missionary work. It’s seemed like for awhile our current investigators weren’t really progressing or haven’t any spiritual experiences, and we didn't find any new promising people for awhile. It all changed this week though. We were able to teach Shane enough that he was able to know that he needed to be baptized. He picked his own date too. 

We also found a family while we were tracting. They did think we were police when they first saw us though. We quickly explained to them that we Missionaries and what we did as missionaries. We spoke with them for a long time about Jesus Christ and his gospel and they deeply have a belief in Jesus Christ. They were so happy with us that they asked us to come back and meet their Dad.  

This last week has been awesome serving with Elder  Cheng. That’s really all I have to say about this week! 😊

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 89 April 23, 2018

It’s been a great week. Today has been really busy though and right

now is the only time I have to write. My companion went and got his

patriarchal blessing today. A member had to come  and pick us up real

early to get in another Stake to have a Chinese patriarch to give the

blessing. After that we went shopping and got our hair cut. Right now

I’m just getting back from a Zone activity and I have to prepare for a

lesson I have at 4:30. Then we have dinner with some members at 5:30.  It’s

kinda busy but I like it that way. I don’t want to sit around and

waste my time with nothing to do.

Oh yea it was my Birthday. It was great and thank you for sending

packages and letters, I really appreciate it. It was kinda just

another day for me. Most birthdays I have a countdown going off in my

head as soon as it’s April and I start countdown until my birthday. It

didn’t really happen this time. It’s kinda hard to believe I’m 20. 

I expected to feel different but I really don’t.

We’ve had a couple cool experiences this past week. Our neighbor

walked into church today. That was pretty cool. She’s actually in our

Areabook and we tried to find her before. It didn’t work out though

because her address the missionaries wrote down was wrong. I’ll have

to read through the AreaBook and figure out why the missionaries stopped

meeting with her. She’s really interested in learning. I’ll be able to

tell you more about her the next week after we teach her some more.

This is also my companion’s last week in America, so I made him some

French toast one day and then crepes on another day. He’s from China

and American  food is too sugary and sweet for him. Both require syrup

and he refuses to eat it with both. I don’t think he really liked

them. He didn’t get the full effect. Although he did eat his crepes

with BBQ sauce. He say it tasted good.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 88 April 16, 2018

WHEEEWWW! Today was so busy. This morning we got a ride from a member to take us grocery shopping but they were late and then they took us to help his brother. Then we had a lesson with Shane today because that was the only time he could meet. Then we had to go back to the grocery store because Elder Cheng didn’t get his cookies... now I’m back though. The week was good anyways.

The work is slow but it’s getting there. We’ve been finding a lot through the members which is really good because I believe the Lord prepares people that are around people that know the Gospel. Shane is doing really good but he’s still just super busy. Elyse is doing great but she’s been sick so we haven’t been able to meet with her. I love teaching the Dowel family, they’re super funny to teach. We haven’t been teaching them too long so I don’t really know what to say about them just yet. There’s also the Hagg family that we’ve been teaching recently and they are getting their lives together.

I used to serve in the Alhambra Ward and when I was there I taught a guy named Michael Opiola. I taught him almost a year ago. His baptism is sometime this week! I’m so happy for him!

I’m sorry this email is so short. I want the chance to talk to all of you guys!

          Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 87 April 9, 2018

I’m sorry I didn’t write too much last week. I was super tired. Hopefully this email will be better.

One of the cool experiences this week I think is something I figured out about feeling the Holy Ghost. Actually a better way of putting it would be how I know I’m feeling the Holy Ghost. I usually always feel the spirit in Sacrament Meetings, in lessons, and especially in General Conference. There’s two things I feel when I’m feeling the spirit and that comfort/peace and a determination to do better. 

Doing missionary work is stressful at times. Sometimes I stress out on the “what if’s” in  missionary work. Just kinda over thinking things sometimes. Whenever I feel the spirit though, there’s a lot of peace that comes and comforts me. It reminds me that I’m just the tool in the Lords hands to deliver his message to the people. Sometimes I forget that, and think it’s my job to make the people ready for the gospel. When In fact it’s not. That’s how I know I’m feeling the spirit.

Also I know that I’m feeling the spirit when I feel a determination to do and be better. That's what I felt while watching General Conference. It’s not a guilty feeling that I’m not doing good or enough but it’s a feeling like I want to be better. I want to raise above where I’m at right now and be better. Haha I know I’ve said better a lot in this paragraph but that just how I can explain what I’m feeling. I see that a lot too when people start learning about the church and start keeping the commandments. They want to change and repent, and be better. 

Other than that our teaching pool is getting bigger. We have a couple new investigators now so things are getting better.

Elder Madsen

Week 86 April 3, 2018

I really don’t have too much to say about this week. General Conference was huge and I loved it. Elder Cheng and I got matching haircuts and he hated it. I was also so excited to go to the temple I had to get up at 3:30am to get so I ended up spending most of my P-day sleeping.

Week 85 March 26, 2018

We got haircuts by a member today.

Week 84 March 19, 2018

Hey guys! This has been a pretty exciting week. Transfers came and
Elder Cheng and I are staying together. This is his last 6 weeks and he
has been saying how he really wants to go all out with the time that he has
left. I’ll probably have a lot more to talk about this up coming
week.

Shane came to church again. He’s really busy so we haven’t had too
much time to meet with him. Every time I see home though, I get more
impressed with him. He’s totally changing his life around, and he has
a lot going on in his family life so it’s cool to see that he puts
everything aside and comes to church. Our members are really doing a
good job of going out of their way to help him out too.

Elyse’s baptism is on Friday. We just taught her at the Peterson home
yesterday. We finished up on teaching her about families and temples.
I really like teaching about temples because there’s a whole new
attitude towards everything. Of course the spirit is there but I’m
talking about when you first tell people that they can be with their
family and loved ones after you die is a whole new thing that people
don’t get to hear about.
That’s what it was like teaching Elyse yesterday. It’s always super
fun anyways because they make fun of each other and us the entire time
we’re there. A lot of stuff goes over Elder Cheng’s head though. They
speak too fast and he doesn’t understand American jokes.
Anyways her baptism is this Friday and she picked the entire Peterson
family to participate in one way or another. A couple Sister
missionaries that taught her before are pretty close by so they’ll get
to come too. It’s going to be a cool experience for Elyse.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 83 March 12, 2018

Hi guys! I had a pretty good week this week. It rained a lot which was awesome because we don’t get that a lot down here. I savored every moment of it. Besides the weather though Elyse did not get baptized on Saturday because sadly a relative of hers passed away and the funeral was on the same day as her baptism. We decided to pick a different day which is understandable of course. She’s ready, we just need some time.
I don’t remember if I told you guys much about this kid named Shane either. Well he walked into church two weeks ago and we later found out that he lives in a different area. And he’s YSA. That’s two different wards he belongs too and not ours. We tried to explain to him this week that he would better progress in the gospel by attending the wards he was supposed to go to and he refused to go to the family ward which he lives in because he feels that he was guided to this specific ward. He’s kinda open to the YSA Ward though. He actually went into a long story about how he’s known about this church building for quite sometime and how he’s always felt like he belonged there. I can’t really argue with the guidance of the Holy Ghost but I know it would be a lot better for him to go where he needs to go. Great kid, I love being a part of his teaching experience, but I want the best for him.  We’re going to try to bring some YSA kids with us when we go and teach him. 

That’s pretty much it for me though. Oh and I gave talk in Sacrement meeting about the mission of the church. This week we also got smart phones. They’re too big.

Week 81 February 26, 2018

Finding the Elect...

I did a lot of tracking this week. Our map is a little outdated and there are new neighborhoods in our area that our Areabook hasn’t picked up yet. We decided to tract those first because it seems like missionaries haven’t had the chance to be there before. It was kinda rough, a lot of people were pretty well off in life and weren't interested. Although all the Chinese people we tracked into were really open. All the Americans pretty much closed off as soon as we talked about Jesus Christ. The Chinese loved it and wanted to learn more.  

We’re also teaching this girl named Elyse. I don’t know if I said anything about her last week. She’s been taught for the past 6 months and we just finished teaching her all of the lessons. Her baptismal date is for March 10 so we’ll see what happens. 

I like my area I'm serving in.  Everybody knows everybody and all the members know the other wards missionaries.  This ward actually has 7 priests, that's the biggest I've ever had.  

The weather got cold for California.  We actually had to put on sweaters.  Everybody told us we were crazy for being outside in these conditions.  

I’m sorry this email is short.

Week 80 February 20, 2018

I don’t think I sent a group email home last week. That was my bad. I was pretty busy just moving in. The week before I left though I was able to see Sister Rolon’s daughters get baptized. Their super cute kids that loved learning about God. I think my favorite lessons were teaching these two. Whenever we would ask them a question they would scream out the answer and try to beat each other to see who could get the right answer first. Super funny and energetic lessons. Our last week we were able to take them to the temple and their Mom had some great spiritual experiences when we went. It was really could to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changed this family's life, and I will always be grateful to be a part of that experience.

This week has been interesting. We’ve been going by all of the missionaries contacts before and trying to clean out the teaching pool. We’ve already talked to a couple new people that we’ve found on our own. We had a lesson last night with a couple of members present and the lesson was awesome. This Ward hasn’t had too many baptisms for the past year but from as I can see the Members are super Missionary minded. Hopefully we can work together with the ward to find some people.  

That’s pretty much it for me this week. I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 78 February 5, 2018

So this weekend I’ve been kinda sad because I have to say goodbye to everyone. 

Glendora 2nd Ward is where I’m being reassigned. I haven’t heard much about it yet so I looked it up on the map and it’s the smallest area in the mission. I used to have the biggest English area and now I’m going to be at the smallest... I won’t be biking because I’ll be walking. It used to be a Sister’s area but another Elder and I are going to be whitewashing it. I haven’t whitewashed an area before, but it sounds like it’s going to be a rough start at first but that’s ok. It’ll be fun. 

This week my companion and I took a family we’re really close with to the visitor center. It was really cool and spiritual, it definitely helped get them prepared for their baptism on Tuesday.

We also went to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A member works there and he took us on a tour and it was really cool. I’m sorry this email is so short but I hope all the

pictures make up for it. Next will be better.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 77 January 29, 2018

This last week we found a couple cool people and more people walked into church. A guy from the ward has been teaching his girlfriend and introduced us to her last night. She’s super polite and has already started reading the Book of Mormon on her own. Her boyfriend is really smart and doesn’t really teach stuff onto her level of understanding. She decided that she’s gonna have to read it to understand it for herself. The guy that walked into church, his name is Chris, and he met with Missionaries in the past but he never could get baptized because he was struggling with the Word of Wisdom. Now he has overcome that so he came back to church to find the missionaries. That was a really cool story I’m glad to be apart of. We going to be teaching him so I’ll tell you more about him and our other investigators next week.
    We had interviews with our Mission President and during interviews he told me that it was getting time for me to be moved to a different area. I’ve been it this Ward for 6 months so he’s right but I don’t really want to leave. Eastmont is pretty cool and I’ve gotten really close with all the members. I’m gonna be pretty sad when I leave. 

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 76 January 23, 2018

Man this week was great! Shana our investigator got baptized this weekend. David her husband baptized her too! I love David and Shana, they're so cool, I’ve never had a closer relationship with any of my investigators than I have with them. It was the high light of my mission. 

I also had to give a talk on Sunday, that part wasn’t so fun. Even though I talk with people everyday 24/7, I still get crazy nervous giving talks at church. When I spoke on Sunday I said the same thing over and over again and all the words I said shot out of my mouth super quickly. Man it was not good.  I hope I get better at giving talks in church before I come home. 

      Speaking in church wasn’t totally a negative experience though. I used my talk on Sunday to invite everyone we’re working with to come and watch me. We got a couple people to come that haven’t been in awhile and that was really awesome to see. The people I really wanted to come though were Joanna and Nathan’s family. We’ve been working with them for two months and they’ve been progressing really well. They’ve been keeping all their commitments except for attending church. This week was kinda make it or break it for them. Elder Xu and I decided that if they didn’t come this week we would have to move on for more people to teach. Church started and Joanna and Nathan were nowhere to be found. Right before I stood up to give my talk I saw Joanna’s daughter, Adilene walk into the chapel. Joanna and her family came in late but they came! 

     I’m also moving out of Boyle heights. My apartment will still not be in my area but it’ll be closer to my area than before! I’ll be moving apartments most of the day so I’ll probably not be able to talk. I sent this email at the mission office when I went to pick up the truck. 

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 75 January 15, 2018

Sorry this email is so short! I was really bad with my time today. This week had its ups and downs for sure. The first day of the week my old companion in Eastmont came back on exchanges and we went and visited some recent converts and other people we had taught together. We also visited some people that’s taking the lessons right now. It was kinda sad, we stopped by to see why they didn’t come to church and they had a pretty bad incident happen with their family. By the end of they week they were doing better and getting over it. We also had a baptism scheduled this week but some people got in the way and it didn’t happen. Things might change this week.

Week 74 January 8, 2018

This week was sad finding out that the Prophet had died. A member let us know the night it happen and we woke up in the morning and saw his text. I had a meeting that morning too and of course we sang, We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet.  While we sang that song though a part really stood out to me when we sang the the 4th verse and at the very end it said “While they who reject this glad message will never such happiness know”. That part really hit me and it made sense. Before being on my mission I had a different sense of what happiness was. I’m very thankful for going on a mission and to be sharing the Gospel with other people. 

    President Oaks came and spoke to our Mission. He really threw down and I learned a lot from what he had to say. He talked about the difference between what makes a good teacher from a bad teacher. Recently I’ve been studying PMG in the hopes to help me become a better teacher so I took notes like crazy when President Oaks spoke. He’s also a really funny guy. He roasted everyone.

     Also Elder Xu and I have been having a frustrating time recently. We're probably gonna start dropping a lot of people. I don’t have too much to say about them because there has been no progress.

Our district went to the driving range today for P-day and that was really fun. 

The camera guy also caught me trying to peak over the Sister missionaries so that I could see President Oaks when he walked in and he put it on Facebook.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 72 December 25, 2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I just talked to most of you so I’ll just send some pictures home this week. 

The first picture is me holding Shaq’s shoes.