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 🐡