A Few Small Difficulties July 21 2015

 ok fam. sorry for the delay. yesterday was a Muslim holiday. internet cafes...and pretty much every shop was closed. we got a new policy today about teaching muslims. our teaching pool is about to go down a little. we are not allowed to teach them unless they are interviewed by our zl's. and we cannot even approach a female muslim unless we are given permission from her husband if she is married, and her father if she is not. we can't proselyte around the mosques. there is kind of a lot but it was from the first presidency. 

first off i wanted to apologize for not wishing everyone a happy birthday last week. i feel bad. so much was on my mind that i just forgot. so i hope everyones birthday was amazing! including coco's. also it sounded like i was bragging or something when i asked if you all were doing hard things. i didnt mean it like that. i just wanted to know if all of you were still at my side in this lil adventure. i had a dream about bridger this week. we were just talking. and we were sad about something. we just hugged each other while we were crying together. it felt incredibly real. i woke up just missing him like crazy. i love you so much bridger!

dad about what you said with the apostasy. i read a scripture this morning, 2nd nephi 28:20. it is simply put. but it just reminded me about what is going on back home. i truly do believe that these prophets of old saw our time. this world is changing. i dont know what its gong to be like when i get back. i feel like im going to be entering a totally different place from when i left.

so this week was alright. haha sometimes contacting here is a little difficult. we had a little problem with our branch president. long story short. he kept afi and emmanuel too long in his office after church. two weeks in a row. and he just tries to answer allll questions. when we went to visit them after their talk with president we had a lot of concerns come up. how the pearl of great price came about. questions about doctrine and covenants. the use of oil and the priesthood. things with joseph smith. it was crazy. so we had to talk to our branch president. and this past sunday none of their family came to church. it was really sad. we are still working with them. but it will be a little more difficult now.

the happy news is that sis becky will be interviewed this week and also emanuella and steven. emanuella stays with the amoa family. and brother amoa will be baptizing his wife becky, his son steven, and emanualla. he is so excited. they have also started having family home evening which is so good. we are happy for them. 

Beetle at our church building

Roasting a pig at a ward activity

And eating the pig...

so that is pretty much all from this week. it was good! this week we will be having a fireside with the whole district. and president cosgrave is coming up. anyway. i love you all so much. im so happy you had good birthdays and i cant wait to be there for the next ;) 

elder madsen

The Gospel Changes Lives July 13 2015

so first off it sounds like you all had an amazing week. sorry i cant respond to everything this week. The computer im at is super old and the keyboard can hardly type. I wanted to write so much. a couple things from this week. i really wish i could type the whole story but this keyboard...basically emmanuel's wife, Afi, traveled to accra for about two weeks. in that time we taught ema a ton and he came to church both sundays. when sis. afi got back, she told us something had changed in ema. he was different and she was wanting to know what all we had been talking about. so we caught her up to her husband and now the whole family is coming to church. its amazing to see how the gospel blesses families. and amoa and becky have been coming. this month we could very well have 7 baptisms. it would be an amazing month. i was thinking about the gospel. and its so simple. if we want to live in the celestial kingdom with our Heavenly Father, all we need to do is live a righteous, kind, and loving life. i guess it sounds easy when you put it like that. but its possible.

the rain here in tamale is getting crazy. it comes like a wall. literally one second it wont be raining where you are and then the next it is just pouring. tamale is my favorite area for sure. i love it here. its hot and its hard but its so worth it. my comp and i are just dead tired all the time. but it feels good. Heavenly Father is helping us. we couldnt do it without him. one thing that i love about my mission too. it is making my life completely centered on the gospel. pretty much all i think about is the gospel. its so sweet. its going to be sad going back into the world.

sorry i couldnt write more this week. honestly this computer...anway, i love you so much family! Keep writing me all of your fun adventures. how is everyones scripture study? are you all still doing hard things?! :)

-elder madsen

New President! July 6 2015

Hey Fam!

So this week was good, ive been trying something. with the talk on pride it helps you realize when the pride in yourself is showing. so i have been trying to look out for those things and just counter them. one of my biggest weaknesses is admiting when i am wrong. its so hard for me. but ive been trying and its nice. i need help though. so prayers for that would be awesome!! this week we got to meet the new pres and his wife. they are awesome! president Cosgrave is super funny and his wife is kind. they will be good in this mission. when he was going around shaking everyones hand he would ask where they were from. when he got to me he just said, "oh! i already know where you're from. its good to officially meet you." cool guy. the place we went to meet him was techiman, it was so cold in the mornings. im going to die in utah.

so sunday was amazing. all of amoas family came. and the footballer came with his family. when we watched them walk in i just felt so happy inside. it was amazing. we have been working with becky amoa ever since i came to tamale. and now she is coming. she just seems happier. its incredible. its times like those that i just love being a part of this work. so right now i am in kumasi. my comp was called to be a dl so we are here for the training. thats pretty much two weeks of not going out. its bad for our investigators. but we will still do well with them. one of the greatest lessons i think i will learn on my mission is how to love. its not easy to love someone that isnt showing love. but thats why charity is the greatest of all the christ like attributes. it is one of my goals. to gain this attribute. i feel if i can do that, it will change every aspect of my life. even how you view things. 

anyway fam. i wish i could write more but i dont have a lot of time. i have pics but they will have to wait till next week. one more thing, i am loving this work more and more. and i am seeing that i am supposed to be here. i love the people and the place. they definitely test my patience at times, but i love them. love you all so much. talk to you next week!!

elder madsen

An Amazing Family June 29 2015

Hey Fam!

so first off this week was probably the best week of my mission. it was incredible. for a couple reasons. first. we met the COOLEST family in the world. when you think golden investigator...this family should come to mind. we contacted them in their house, which is huge and really nice. he is a former professional soccer player. he's played against chelsea and other teams and his wife is a medical doctor. the first lesson we had with them we taught the restoration and i have never felt the spirit so strongly in a lesson before. it was so so strong, and they understood the lesson better than anyone has before. especially with the apostasy and the loss of the priesthood keys, and then the restoration. at one point the husband asked if someone has been baptized in another church, and they come to this one, do they have to be baptized again? and then the wife answered him! and said yes because this is where the keys are. the men in the church are ordained to baptize and confirm. she then continued to say that she herself had a need to be baptized and confirmed because she was baptized into another church and wasnt confirmed either. this is why i love the scriptures. she really realized that after we shared the experience of paul in acts where he baptizes disciples who didnt have their baptism preformed correctly. they love the gospel so much. and they start asking so many questions that i just want to teach them everything so so fast.

the husband came to church Sunday, and after he got home he was telling his wife all about it. and when we followed up that night she told us she would be definitely coming next week because the husband said that "she cant know how he feels right now, because she didnt go!" haha it was so sweet. even after church members of their old church came over and started telling them a bunch of untruths about the church. so when we came over, she told us that the best people to ask about these sort of things are the members. so we cleared things up and they are all good. the family mainly speaks french so we got a french book of mormon for them. and during the lesson of the plan of salvation we read so much from it, and their understanding of the plan of salvation was incredible. they are accepting everything we read and talk about as truth. they have four kids. three of which qualify for baptism. one is 5. tomorrow they are having us over for fufu. when we teach people like this, i get really nervous. EVERYTHING needs to be perfect. i just cant even explain the spirit that was there during the restoration. it was amazing. we just walked away smiling. this email is super long. so more is coming.  

the second reason this week was amazing, we went on exchange and i got to go out with elder lokofo. we came out at the same time. its rare that you get to go out with an mtc mate. in one of the lessons we had there were 15 people in it....haha i honestly can say it was one of the sweetest lessons ive ever been in. i feel like that must have been what the savior felt like when he had people just sitting around him. it was so so cool. ill send a pic sometime. it was in the other elders area. and three of the guys came to church sunday. some were muslims. it was so cool.

and the last reason was the baptism. our water at the chapel was out. so we had to go to another chapel. they were also having a baptism. total there were 5 baptized. and i had the amazing opportunity to baptize 3 of them. including akwasi, our investigator. it was so cool. so the pics. the amoa family, they are so amazing. the baptism, and a tradition here, some people will grow out either a thumb or a pinky finger nail. haha so my thumb has been growing for some time. 

this week we are going to techiman to meet the new president. so that will be fun. we will travel for 3 days so it will take a lot of time out of proselyting. anyway. i love you all so much. i love my mission like crazy. talk to you next week! 

Elder Madsen

Happy Father's Day June 22 2015

 So first off, dad i have the doctrine and covenants manual. its really good so you dont need to worry about that one. but im super super excited for the pearl of great price. and you changed the picture on the family room wall!! i love it.

this week was good. we were teaching brother amoa. he was baptized over 20 years ago but hasnt been to church for a long time. bro amoa knew patriarch johnson, the one who really helped bring the church to ghana. so we watched a movie with bro amoa about him and the church coming here. it was really cool. and herita was with us in the lesson. we got onto the topic of the book of mormon and she just bore her testimony of it. she said she is far into second nephi and she reads it almost every night. she said that when she wakes up in the morning she just feels happy and ready to go. it was awesome. and that week amoa came to church with his family, we were so so happy to see him. we are also teaching a boy named akwasi. he is felicia's son. he is eight and has the most amazing memory. when we follow up on the things we learned the time before, he can tell us almost everything. he understands the gospel really well and will hopefully be baptized the next sunday.

this past sunday i gave a talk in sacrament. of course i waited till saturday to prepare. i was so tired and wanted to just eat and sleep. so i thought, "i can just use a few minutes to prepare it." i was able to pick my topic, and i chose faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. anyway, it was prepared and we went to church. i was the second speaker. so the first speaker gets up and says, "so today i have decided to speak on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." haha when i heard that...i knew i couldnt speak on the exact same thing. so i had to use just a few minutes to prepare another talk. i chose to talk on the atonement and i just put together all the scriptures i knew of with the atonement...haha and for sure Heavenly Father helped me. i got up next and gave my talk. it went well. i love the topic of the atonement. it was pretty funny. i feel like that is heavenly fathers sense of humor. i wanted to use just a few minutes to prepare a talk, so he gave me just a few minutes ;)

dad i hope you had a good fathers day! i wish we could call on fathers day as well. but dont worry, christmas is just around the corner. ill print this talk you sent and read it. well family, i love you tons. i cant wait to hear from you next week. one other thing, mom and dad i see the way you live. you keep satans ways completely out with music, movies, everything. i want to be like that. you see youth and adults making exceptions to these things. but you two have been an amazing example. when i get home. i need to live like you. no music that is even a little bit bad. no movies that are bad. all of it. i just think about what it means to be a "true follower of Jesus Christ." i know nobody is perfect. but you two really set an amazing example of what that means. i love you all tons. talk to you next week!

Ps i wanted to print the talk but the guy here said that the machine here has been jammed and wont work. so i was just saying a little prayer and asked if we could try. so he tried and it worked just fine! heavenly father is lookin out for me! ;) and im sure the new mission president will be great. i get to meet him in the beginning of next month. ill send a pic!