Charity is a Gift from God December 14 2014

Hi family!

your week sounds amazing! i cant believe you got to go meet david archuleta and i can totally see momo flipping out over him haha. dad im sorry you're having stress at work. i cant even imagine all that you do. i can say this though, you're in the position you're in because you get stuff done. your work wouldnt know what to do without you. and sorry the dog tipped the tree over. thats s-no fun ;) hehe see what i did there. mom there is a guy i can get a nativity scene from. its not the africa animals though, but it is hand carved. its pretty sweet. i can look for the africa carved one though if you would prefer it.

so today i set up a skype account! so we should be able to skype on Christmas. this week for me was crazy. we are seeing more crocodiles. we saw a HUGE one. it was huge. it was in deep water. and as i pulled my camera out to take a pic he went under. he was directly under us on this little drop off. it was awesome. and i'll attach a pic of another little one, and of some little dogs.

we are working with a really cool brother and sister. the sister, named jennifer, cant read. she can speak english well but she cant read or write. so we teach english every saturday. she loves it. and her brother is awesome. we are hoping to have both of them baptized on the 27th of this month. this week is zone conference. haha planning for it is so stressful. that is one thing ive learned that i hope to keep with me, one day this will just be behind me. so there is no point in letting the stress get to me. just keep calm with the eternal perspective in mind. its super hard, but it has been helping.

This is our chapel, 8:35 Sunday morning

Ha ha, this dust was at the chapel, which is on the second story. The dust was blown up here, and we GET to clean it...every week...

while we were at church i realized something, its there at church that you will meet the humble seekers of truth. they are seeking and have faith enough to come and see for themselves if this is the truth. i love it. while we are teaching the classes, they just take what is taught as truth and they act on it. i also had a realization about charity. i sometimes thought that charity just gives you more tolerance so that annoying people didnt bug you so bad. haha but this week i was proven wrong. there is an elder that i am annoyed with quite a bit. he was a comp of mine. he is in my zone. lately i have been trying to pray for charity every day. and while he was speaking at a baptismal service, i just felt love for him. i didnt know why. but i just felt this sincere love for him. charity is a gift from God. its pretty hard just to get ourselves. it requires Gods help, and it requires that we seek and ask for it, and that we will act on impressions we receive. to do certain things and respond certain ways when put in difficult situations. this work is not easy! but its awesome.

tomorrow is zone conference. we are pretty excited. today has been hectic. love you all!!

elder madsen

The Hot Dry Season December 7 2015

Hey family!

to answer some questions, we have quite a few investigators. the main ones right now are augustine, kate, abigail, jennifer, lawrence, godfred, newton. they are awesome. i am picking up twi (the dialect) a little i guess, not a ton. i still can understand more than i can speak. its mainly the greetings that are useful and several gospel terms. we spend quite a bit of time contacting. some days we dont have time to contact because of the people we are currently teaching. we have a zone conference on the 15th. im not sure if i will speak. but they will typically have at least one zone leader speak so i dont know. i dont get nervous in front of members. missionaries i do get a little nervous, president cosgrave for sure. but once i start speaking it goes away.

mo i cant believe you are getting ready for college. haha and kennedy im glad your puppy and i will get along. i cant wait to meet her! mom kumasi was cool. i love that place. by the way the ties are awesome. i cant wait for you all to see them. i really hope i get to skype. we will go and try to make it work. so for now, just plan to skype. if it doesnt work, you'll get a call from me. which is cool too! i just want to see all of you. so i have a couple things to talk about.

                          

1. the weather here is getting so sweet. its now the hot dry season. its not humid allllll the time. usually my back and face is pouring sweat by the time i walk out the front door, now its not like that until about an hour of walking. sometimes we'll go a whole day without getting too sweaty. its so nice. the bad part is the dust. i'll attach a picture of my scriptures. that amount of dust that came in our room was JUST OVER NIGHT. you can even look at the sun for a couple of seconds because of how much dust is in the air.

                                

2. haha, this taxi driver told me he thinks the reason americans speak fast is because they dont want those who are learning the language to understand what we are saying. i was talking on the phone while we were driving home, and he asked my comp what language i was speaking. it was super funny.

3. one reason i love my mission. it has really given me the "opposition in all things" experience. i will appreciate so many things at home now. i have so many fhe activities that i want to do to help our fam see how much they really have. this mission has opened my eyes so much. i love it!

4. another pic ill send is of this horse we found named future. haha he is awesome. i wanted to sit on him, but thats against the rules so i just had to pet him. and it really got me excited for the trips we'll have, dad. i want to go on like a week long horseback trip. fishing and just camping. i want to SO BAD. i cant wait for that.

this week was really good though. we had some awesome lessons and the trip to kumasi was fun. this week was even faster than the last. my mission is flying. my sister mtc mates go home this week. i cant believe that. i have about 6 months left! i have some news though. with the way they are changing things in the mtc, my mission might be extended for 2 weeks. its not official yet, so ill let you know what happens. haha also, on the way home from leadership council. we were in a pretty crappy taxi. and we were trying to go up a hill. the car just kind of stopped and died. then we heard a huge BOOM! a really hot wave of air came through the car and the front started smoking. so we all jumped out. we ended up getting a different car. it was an experience though! sorry i dont have too much to write this week. it was fast. we did a lot of the same things.

love you all!!

elder madsen

                                    

I'm Thankful for the Atonement November 30 2015

hey family! 

so this week was good. it was probably the fastest week of my mission. so fast. i cant believe its monday again. this next week will go even faster. we are going to kumasi again for leadership council. also, i withdrew some money for ties. i ordered some from the member who makes them. ill get them this week and send some pics. i got ten. and still have money left over for some things maybe in kumasi. this week was awesome though. 

Thanksgiving Feast: fried rice, packaged tuna, mashed potatoes & treats!

Thanksgiving Dinner (I'm in front of the window, my comp to the left)

we got to teach a lot. we were able to meet with a lot of really cool people. some of which we really feel are prepared to receive the gospel. of course the gospel is for everyone, but some people just accept it and act on it so quickly. some of the lessons went relly well. especially with a lady named kate. and some didnt go so well. sometimes the people of ghana just want to talk about where you are from. what you're doing. if you're going to marry. if so, would you ever marry a ghanaian. haha stuff like that. i love it though. i thought about home a lot this week. not in a bad way. just that i would be coming home sometime kinda soon. i cant believe my mission will be over. mission sometimes feels like it will be forever. i am not done learning yet!

This is the coolest security guard in the world. He goes by stone boy.

one thing that was especially cool. i realized a lot about the atonement. about how Jesus Christ was the only one who could go through that experience. it was already something i knew. i just more internalized it. i was reading about how he inherited mortality from his mother and immortality from heavenly father. he had power to give up his life. no normal person could do this. just really cool. i also realized, i'll have no time for video games and things like that when i get back. there are so many things i want to do. ive really thought a lot this week about life. i love it. its so short. it feels so long sometimes though. i just want to be a better person. its seriously hard to change some habits though.

the pics you sent were awesome! kenna got married! crazy. haha its cool though. i am excited to get home and date. itll be so fun. i cant believe christmas is almost here! december starts tomorrow! we are hoping to skype. i really hope we can. we asked again if we could skype at this certain cafe and they said they have working cameras and mikes. so we hope itll work well. anyway. i dont really have a ton to say this week. it was good though! i hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. i love you all so much!

elder madsen

Real turkeys for the holiday

I'm Thankful November 23 2015

hey fam!

techiman is so sweet. mom we do see over the missionaries in the zone. to answer your question from last time, we are so busy in that we are delivering supplies, traveling to kumasi, doing a ton with reimbursement, helping the sisters with....like everything. its awesome though! i love it. and we still teach a ton. i know i have said this before, but ill say it again. i feel like i am at a high point in my mission. im happy. i also feel a lot closer to the savior. i have done a ton of reflecting. looking at my life and the blessings i have. and i love the work more and more each day. i honestly love helping people see the truth. apostacy is so apparent. its incredible how it works. from our side its so easy to see, and from their side, its just confusing. its sad. each area i get called to i know its where i am supposed to be. and right now in my life, i know im supposed to be here. there is a scripture in doctrine and covenants that has become one of my favorites. its section 100 vs 4-6. its really helped me see this is where im supposed to be. not anywhere else. lately ive been trying to memorize scriptures that i think are really cool. its sweet. its definitely something i would recommend to the family. maybe as a fam you can do one a week. something that will help you.

this week we are going to enjoy like crazy (for thanksgiving). there is a way good fried rice place. we will buy a ton and there is a shop that sells snickers and other candy. elder snow, one of my past comps (now a district leader here) wants to have a huge thanksgiving lunch. its going to be awesome.

we do have some awesome investigators right now. techiman has been struggling a little. but we have recently found some people that are really prepared. we hope they will be baptized within the next couple weeks. this week im grateful for you family. thanks for being here for me and always supporting me. love you all! oh and dad. we have been using the gospel art book with kids and with older people that cant understand english very well. its awesome. they love it!

Love elder madsen

Doctrine & covenants 100:4-6

4 Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls.

 5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;

6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.