Week 23 January 16, 2017

Hey guys! This was a crazy week. Ok so this is what happened.
Thursday we had district meeting and the AP's came to our district
meeting unexpectedly. We were all surprised but didn't think much of
it. After district meeting they told my companion he was getting
emergency transferred to East LA. We hurried back and he packed half
his stuff. He planned on only taking half of his stuff that day on
Thursday because he'll be able to come back on Friday for Chica's
baptism.
Well while he was packing we got a text from Chica saying that even
though she appreciates everything we did for her, she would have to
cancel the baptism because it wasn't going to work for her at the
time.  We called and texted her and got nothing in response. We
panicked and called a ward member that loves to go out on lessons with
us. We told him the situation and he agreed to come out and go on
splits. We dropped off the other Elders at a referrals house and then
we went over to Chicas house.

The entire time since we got that message I thought about what and how
I was going to talk to Chica to figure out what was wrong. I walked up
to the door and she answered. We said hi and she said she was in the
middle of dinner and to call her THEN SHE WALKED AWAY AND SHUT THE
DOOR. I thought I blew it. I didn't think she was going to answer our
phone call because she didn't before so I thought we just lost her. I
decided to have the member take us around to some
referrals because we had a car.

While I was directing him to the house a car got T-boned right in
front of us and they both bounced and spun off each other and ended up
on the other side of the street. We got out and helped everything then the
member I was with had to fill out witness reports because he's the one
that actually saw the impact of the two cars.
While we were waiting on the curb our member Brother Larsen got a text
from the other Missionaries and they actually called Chica and she
answered the phone and were able to talk to her and talk about
everything that was going on. Apparently her sister takes care of her
rent and once she heard that her sister was gonna get baptized in our
Church she wasn't having it and wouldn't let Chica.

Ok the next day we met with Chica and she said that she was ready to
go through with the baptism and that she'd talk to her sister. We
had to tell everyone the day of that the baptism was back on. We
called everyone and got the whole baptism planned out. It was awesome.
Then she sent us another text saying that the baptism wasn't going to
happen. We had to cancel everything. We had a lesson with her and some
members and we had a lesson with Chica once again. She wants to be
baptized so bad but every time she talks to her sister she just can't. 

It's so sad. She seems determined to be baptized
this Saturday, but we'll see what happens with her and her sister.

We had Stake Conference and we heard an Area seventy talk and he met
Chica and she was really happy after she met him and heard what he had to say
to her. I found Chris at Stake Conference and it turns out he did get
baptized! I got a picture with him. Well that's all that happened this
week.

Week 22, January 9, 2017

Ok guys this week is for real. Chica came to church and her baptism is
on Friday. It's really happening this time. She's so happy that she
was able to make it to church this week. For the last couple weeks she
hasn't be able to come because of circumstances out of her control.
She kept on moving her baptism back and back each week because she
didn't feel right getting baptised without going to church the week
before. She's really cool and understands the promise she's making by
being baptized.
Last Saturday was the day that on old investigator of mine was
supposed to be baptized. I'm hoping he did. I talked with the
missionaries that are teaching him now days before he was supposed to
be baptized and they said he was progressing really well and they didn't
see anything getting in the way of him getting baptized. I won't be
able to know for sure or not if it did go through for a while but I have hope.
Patrick comes out with us on lessons and he loves it. He's gets
excited about doing missionary work and I hope that he makes the
decision to go on one. He also passed the Sacrament for the first time
this week. It was really cool to see him do that and for him to be excited for
it as well.
I heard the weather in Utah was super bad this last week and I want
all of you to know that I wore a short sleeve shirt all day yesterday
and it was so nice.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 21, January 2 2016

Hey guys how's it going. This week has been pretty cool. I gave
Patrick the priesthood so mom if you can send my Line of Authority
that would be super cool!
For New Years the Tate family had us over and we played Prophet bingo
and had cake pops, that were super good!
This week we didn't ride the bus once but members drove us
to all of our lessons so that helped out a lot.

Sorry so short.

Elder Madsen 🐡

Week 20 December 26, 2016

Hey guys! Thanks for showing your Christmas spirit and your love
through your packages! It was really cool! This was my first Christmas
away from home and I spent a Christmas Eve with the Rowley family and
they has us the Missionaries perform in their Christmas program and
when they were done they had us stay after and practice for a song they
were planning to sing at Sacrament meeting the next day. After that
we went over to our investigator Ivan's house for a Christmas party
with his family. Ivan is a cool kid and his family loves the
Missionaries. They sent us home with lots of Tamales and they bought
us cologne? I felt really bad that I didn't get him anything but we
had a lesson with him.
On Christmas Day we woke up at 6:30 and all of the Missionaries living
in our apartment opened their presents. It was a way cool experience.
Defiantly a thumbs up. We sang in the choir for the Christmas Program
and joined in with the Rowley family for their musical number. After
Church we went caroling with Patrick who was baptized a couple weeks
ago. He had a really good night and is looking forward to serving a
mission. He thinks it's really cool and he has a lot of fun when he
comes out on lessons with us.
I was able to call home yesterday and that was super cool too! I'm
sorry this email is so short but it's just a really busy day!

Elder Madsen 🐡

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 🐡