Take The Road Less Traveled

hey fam! 

your letter was awesome! i loved the pics and mom good job with the pirate stuff. thats awesome. all of you sound like you had a good week. tenny keep doing your homework...you wont regret it i promise. momo sounds like you're keeping up the noise level in the house...thats my girl. also, get up on time. dad and quel i miss hunting so much. i want to just make a little sling shot and hunt some doves here. my two comps ive had have both killed birds with sling shots. thats how they do it back at home. so thats pretty sweet.

so this week was awesome. first of all we had like 4 million people just want to learn about the gospel. they will just come up to us and ask about it. i love it so much. we heard that ebola had entered ghana. it was on this radio broadcast. i dont know if its serious or not. i guess we'll find out. so dad my talk (at zone conference) was so sweet. i loved it. afterwards i just wanted to get back up and continue talking. on the way home from the meeting i was in a tro tro. i went to the back and there were three little kids there. i had a coin with me and i did a magic trick for them. they were flipping out and they just loved it. one of them had a backpack & i thought of the little footstep key chains. i always carry one on me. so i gave it to the little girl and helped her attach it to the zipper of her backpack. she was soooo cute. the tro came to their stop and they all got off and turned back to me and just smiled and waved. so cute.

we also had a baptism. the ladies name is mama v. she is so awesome. we will be having another this weekend and ill be baptizing. haha so family, i noticed something awesome. in john 2 when the savior turned the water into wine. at the end...there is a winky face. showing that the servants...;) they knew...;) ;) hahaha it made me laugh so hard. ive noticed it a couple times in the bible. the winky faces.

anyway. something really cool happened. me and my comp were walking and i felt like we should take a road ive never taken before. so we went down it. while walking a lady stopped us. she said she had a friend in tamale (which is pretty far) who was a member. she used to live there and she had just barely moved here. she said she wanted to know more about the church. so we said that we could meet with her. she was going to town right then so we booked an appointment. later that day we got a call from some missionaries in tamale asking if we had talked to a sister who was from tamale. we said ya, so they said that the branch president from tamale would be calling us. later in the evening we got a call from him. he was the friend of the lady we met! apparently she had told him that she ran into us. he then just told us how happy he was that we met her and he wants us to keep him updated on her progress. it was pretty cool to see how she was just prepared to meet us right then. we have been having cool experiences with our investigators. they are just so ready for this gospel. i can feel my testimony growing stronger and stronger every time i teach and just talk about the gospel.

so i had a sweet dream the other night. it was about the afterlife. me and a whole bunch of people were passing through what im pretty sure was the veil. and once through it there was just a whole different world. it was huge and there were just angels and people everywhere. some of the people i was with stared crying because they were so happy. and then others were crying because they were realizing that the afterlife was real and they hadn't lived the best lives. it was really cool. anyway. thats about it for my week. we will be having a couple more baptisms in the next little while so ill keep you updated. oh and ive searched for a harmonica...cant find one. but if its hard to send then dont worry about it.

love you all!!

Decide to be Happy

hey fam! 

this week was good! i have learned a lot this week. but first off. im so so sorry about preston (a friend who passed away). i cant believe that. he really is in a better place now. and dad. i know ive apologized for being a punk, but i want to just ask for forgiveness. i know that you probably do forgive me. but i just want to read it that you do. 

so about this week. i have been just trying to love the people more. and it is making the biggest difference. i am happy for like almost the whole day...all up until i get back to the apartment and the power is out and our sink constantly leaks and keeps flooding our kitchen and i have to shower in the dark. haha but besides that its sweet!! woo! my new comp is cool...a little difficult. but i am working on my patience with him :) i can feel myself literally becoming more happy just by making the decision to be happy. and i am starting to LOVE these people. so much.

dad im giving a talk tomorrow for zone meeting. im kinda nervous but itll be good. i decided to talk about obedience. it is such a huge problem here. i dont know if this is what other missions are like...but if it is...ah. i dont even know. dont worry i am waking up at 630 every day. sometimes 6:00. and ya i am studying. i am not through the new testament yet. i have been focusing a lot on the book of mormon. i love that book so much. i just get done reading it and i just love it. 

the teaching is going really well. i can use scriptures from the bible to answer the more common questions. i had a really cool couple of lessons where scriptures just came to my head. and a couple guys i was teaching couldnt say anything to what i said and explained. they just accepted it. and it wasnt in a competitive way. just a nice calm way. and i could feel the spirit so strong. i love it. its been super fun teaching and i just am loving it. we have a couple investigators right now that are just so ready for the gospel. they want to be baptized so badly and all we have to do is teach them the lessons. i can hear a lot of twi. i cant speak it fluently but i can speak a little. 

also. someone was confirmed dead with ebola here in ghana. i dont know how real it is. but ill find out soon. maybe ill be finishing my mish in the u.s. haha. maybe. anyway. i love you family! keep sending me letters all about your week. love you all.

-elder madsen

Love the People

hey family! 

this week was super good. we had a baptism! it was jacob. he is such a cool guy. so humble and just ready to be a part of this church. i took some pics but i dont know if i want to send them. maybe...maayybbbee. your week sounds way sweet! all of you. tenny im sorry you didnt get a part in the play. and mckenna and shalisa are both back! thats awesome! i cant believe that its been a year and a half already. so far it feels like ive been out here for about...2 years now. haha. time here is weird. im loving it more and more though. 

two missionaries that i became pretty good friends with just left (to go home). like they just walked out of the cafe and now i wont be seeing them for the rest of my life. its alright, elder miller gave me a ton of stuff so that was sweet. so mom, my class at dan peterson sent me a package with a ton of pics and letters. it was so cute. i love them so much. and dad, i had a dream that when i got back you felt inspired that our whole family should move to jackson county Missouri, and i just felt inside me that the second coming was here. it was pretty sweet but freaky. 

im getting a new comp this transfer. he is a guy that has been in my apt with me. his name is elder onen so it'll be sweet! one thing I've seen, there are so many missionaries that are disobedient its crazy. like so many of them have personal phones, and they watch movies and cartoons. its crazy. i just think of missionaries that finished their missions when i was home and i think of what kind of missionary they were. its crazy to see how many missionaries there are here that just do whatever they want. 

this week went by pretty fast. it was good. i am finally thinking less and less about home and more about my mission. and now ill be the companion in my area who knows my area well, and itll give me a little more responsibility. anyway. right when i sit down i just blank and i dont know what to write about. i taught a lot this week. a lot. one thing I've realized, the second you develop a love for the people, the second this "work" is no longer work. it becomes something that you just want to do. i havent developed this love enough, but sometimes i just feel it and it makes things so much easier and better. 

i love you family! bye bye!

-elder madsen

Teaching with President Holmes

hey fam! 

this week sounds like it was pretty fun for you all! so this week was good! this week was hard though with studying. we have had a ton going on. president holmes came out teaching with us. scariest thing of my life but it was sweet. it made me focus on the people and the lessons so much and it gave me a different view of missionary work. it made it easier and more meaningful. its something im trying to do more of now, just focusing on the people and the lessons. it'll make my days better and i'll learn so much more i hope. also they might send you some pics. please don't post them unless i approve of them. haha

so mom, the women here wear these headband things. they also wear big gold loop earrings. they look like pirates. seriously. its so awesome! im totally getting a headband for you. i taught a guy who acted and talked just like jack sparrow. it was so cool. i was trying not to smile the whole time. he is so cool haha. i got a hug from a drunk guy, he was super nice. it was kinda weird but he just wanted a hug. 

so teaching, i taught a pastor. he has a very nice house, car, and compound. yea..we are teaching him again Thursday. we have been teaching a ton. we have a baptism this week! the guys name is jacob and he is so ready to be baptized. we also have a couple more baptisms in the next little while. 

this last week we had so many fm's (free meals) at members houses and investigators houses. one day we had fufu one meal right after the other. we ate at our bishops house then left to an investigators house and had more fufu. i couldnt finish it. it was so much. so one of the elders in my apt, its his birthday today and he is taking us all out to this restaurant. im so excited! ill send pics. anyway. thats about it for this week. i love you all. im sorry if i dont respond to everything that is written. but i read it. and i love it. keep writing please! love you!  

Haircut!

hey hey hey fam!

So first off just a couple things from me. First, president gave us 30 min extra on the first monday of every month, so I guess that would be today. So those will have to be the days that I send pics. And I'll have to go to town for that. And I'm not in town. So it'll be about a month until more pics come. HA! Sorry. 

Soooo I chopped my hair off. I cut it so short. When I'm in my pjs I look like a prison inmate. So sweet. So dad, I started with the scripture mastery (cards). I did the Book of Mormon in a week and now I'm on to D and C. I decided to start with the scripture mastery first just because, and it already helped me in one of my talks. You can literally just pull any one of those out and use them for a talk. They also tie in together really well. Dad also I wanted to say sorry for being so difficult when you were helping me out with the preach my gospel stuff and just when I was getting prepared. You really did a lot for me and I'm so sorry I acted the way I did. 

Fam! I want you to try and get ahold of the missionaries close to the house and try to have some of you serve as a member present lesson. You HAVE to.  So this week was crazy, the power, the gas, the water, everything went out. We were suffering for a little. It's all good now. I'm learning how to make stew and different foods. It's pretty cool. We make cereal. We boil sugar and water together, roast oats, and then mix the sugar and oats together then use powder milk and water and its finished! Cereal. So that's fun. Today was a zone activity. We played American football and it felt good to move fast again. I'm starting to love it more and more out here. 

Some worries that still come up: I'm so old and I'm just starting. I don't know how everything with school will work out when I get back. And I'm gunna miss SO many good movies...that one isn't serious. But still. haha! The two worst are time & age, those worries will leave eventually I'm sure.

That's so sad about Ruger, poor dog (a cousins dog that died). Kennedy that's awesome you might get a dog, hard work pays off. Morghan, those boys. flip. Have fun at the dances. No kissing. Dad I'm sorry there aren't any doves, they are everywhere here. And lizards. A ton. And my monkey. He's so cute. 

I just want to encourage everyone to try and read all of the Book of Mormon and then to ask Heavenly Father about it. Gaining your own testimony is so huge, and I see that now. So please family try. I love you all, till next week

-elda martin aka elder madsen