Excited for the Afterlife (Feb 16 2015)

hey fam! 

dad that is so cool that you get to have the next Face to Face youth broadcast with Elder & Sister Bednar! itll be awesome im sure, i just wish i could watch it.

so for the baptisms. we were able to have one which was emmanuel. enistena was sick and two of the other canidates need interviews. so this weekend we hope to have brights, mobys, enistenas, and rebeckas. we are really hoping and praying. it'll be so neat.

so this week was good. something really sad though. i saw a little girl, probably 7 or 8 or 9. she was just sitting in this bucket type thing crying. she was bathing and as we were passing moby said she had chicken pox. it was so sad. she didnt know how to handle them, and she was just by herself. so momma, thank you so much for taking care of all of us when we are sick. its so amazing to have someone who can just be there for you, take care of you, and comfort you. i just saw her and got so sad.

Elder snows birthday was fun. we ate a couple pizzas. they are soo expensive here. its crazy. but it was good. here they have a tradition where they will soak you with water on your birthday. usually with a bucket. so he got pretty wet.

teaching has been fun. i am learning a ton. i love it so much. even though we dont necessarily teach everything we learn, its still way fun. i dont know why im so excited for the afterlife. its just the sweetest thing. i have been studying a lot about the celestial kingdom and the celestial law and all that. one thought that gets into my mind sometimes is that im not good enough for the celestial kingdom. but i know that thought is of the devil. i know all of us can make it there. but its up to us. we have to decide how we will live. and from that we can shape ourselves to be worthy of living in the presence of Heavenly Father and the Savior. its so cool. and everything about having all knowledge and just not even having time be a thing. i seriously love the gospel. i love it so much. i just want all of my family to be together forever.

so i dont have much more to write. i love you all so much. stay sweet fam. i cant wait to see you in the far/near future. 

Elder madsen

I Want to Live the Happiest Life I Can (Feb 9 2015)

Hey fam!

so first off.  my hair is good. i cut the rest of the sides with the guard off. and the top was about a 4 i think. or shorter. i cant remember. im pretty sure my comp will be leaving me this transfer. he thinks i will train but i dont know. the obedience is good. we have some sweet sweet investigators right now. and me and elder snow could potentially have 5 baptisms this month. which would be so sweet. we are pretty much guaranteed 3 this weekend. its so cool to see the lives of these people change. the time is kind of going faster. i just try not to think about it. if i think about it hard then it seems like forever. but when i dont think about it its fast. leadership is cool. different than i thought it would be. i dont really feel like a leader though. kinda like we are all just working together and im just the one collecting the numbers. ;) haha. its cool though. i havent met my new president yet, im not sure when i will. teaching is sweet. 

kennedy how is your lil pup doing? love you tenny ;)

ah morghan. sorry about your wisdom teeth. that does not sound fun at all. im glad you're able to eat now. passing out is kind of your thing isnt it?  would it be alright if i fasted for you? keep being strong mo. just know this one thing. we only get one shot at this mortal life we have. just that thought makes me want to live the happiest life i can. think about it. when you're in heaven and you look back on your life, what do you want to see? cuz mo its real. the afterlife, everything, is real. thats one thing i think about for myself with my mission. when im done, and im looking back, what do i want to see. because honestly, all we are doing right now is making memories. so we have to make them the absolute best. love you mo.

so bright is doing well. he gets back friday. so itll be nice to meet with him again. and right now another awesome investigator is moby. he is so cool. he has a ton of tattoos, but he wants to change. he's the sweetest guy. 

so momma, you've always been a good nurse. thanks for taking care of us. its kinda funny. i was actually sick this week too. but this time it was super painful. i didint know what i had. so the mission doctor wanted me to get my blood tested. so i went to this hospital place and had my blood taken. nothing showed up but they came to the conclusion that it was a sinus infection. my face and my nose and head hurt so bad. at one point i had a fever. but it was mainly my head. it got to the point where i couldnt even go out. it was so crappy. but they got some medicine for me and now im doing much better.

so there is this super old lady in our ward. she speaks no english. and she is just so sweet and way funny. she comes to church everyday even though she can hardly walk. she uses this big stick to walk. and she hits our hands way hard when she shakes our hands. we asked her how old she is, and this is a common problem in ghana for the older people, but she didnt know how old she was. she said she didnt go to school so she didint know. haha she is so sweet. ill send a pic with her sometime. 

my district this month will hopefully get 8 baptisms. i really hope we can achieve our goal. itll be so sweet if we do. 

are we related to truman g. madsen? i have been asked that like 8 million times. 

one way cool thing i found out about myself, when i need to find a scripture, or a passage out of anything ive read. i can remember exactly on the page where i read it. so i just look for that spot. it helps with teaching and studying so much. its way cool but i just wish i could remember the passage and page and verse and all that. 

well i love you all. i hope you have an amazing week. sorry i cant write more. and sorry if i dont comment on some things that are important. if i left something out i apologize. love you!!

elder madsen

Eternal Life is the Greatest Gift Feb 2, 2015

 hey fam!

dad, i am so happy to hear that the presentation went well!! and ya could you just send some of that confidence my way? ;) thats way cool. im excited to hear how it goes. haha the hunting continues. see you work hard but you also play hard. which is so sweet. 

so, Doctrine & Covenants is so cool. i love it. i have been reading a manual along with it and i am learning so much. i have really come to love and appreciate Joseph Smith. he is such an amazing guy. i also decided that i need to marry someone who is serious about the gospel. who will want to endure to the end. i keep realizing more and more each day how serious the gospel is. and how important it is to keep all the covenants we've made and all the commandments. eternal life, living with heavenly father and the savior is the greatest gift we can be given. and i want it so badly. so so badly. and i want it to be with all of my family. just being in complete joy and happiness with everyone. there would be nothing better.

momma. weddings...sounds kinda stressful but definitely worth it. im glad you are doing well. haha and im glad morghan is recovering from her wisdom teeth. tell her i say thank you for keeping the tradition of winking alive. kennedy congrats on your part in the play!

so this week....aahhhhhh i have a story for ya'll. first off. our investigator bright is the coolest guy in the world. he had to travel to accra for two weeks but he will be baptized at the end of the month. we thought he was just trying to run from us and everything. but he really did travel and he has called us like every day. he just checks up on us. haha he is so cool. i cant wait to have him back and to be teaching him again. 

but for the story. so i was cutting my hair. it was getting kinda long and it was time to cut it. so i decided to cut it. as a was cutting it i needed to take the guard off for a second to clean the clippers. i was talking to other elders in the apt while doing it so my mind was somewhat occupied. and of course, i forgot to put the guard back on and continued right up the back of my head. hahahaha so i had a HUGE line going straight up the back. and this was with no guard. like lower than a zero...like, no guard. and guess what else, my president was coming over the next morning to go over our and the zone leaders areas. to make sure they were even. and he also wanted an interview with me, he was unable to have one at the zone conference, so he just used this time to do it. so i didnt know what to do, leave it and let it grow back out, or just do all the sides with no guard. so i just left it. and the next morning when president and sister holmes came over, i explained and showed them and they both just laughed haha. so president said i should just cut all of it without a guard, so i did. i left the top kinda long. but then i just decided to go shorter. i dont have a picture of the final cut. but here is one of the back, and one of the sides done with the top long. dont post the one of the top long and the sides cut. haha silly me. ill never ever ever do that again. i can tell you that much. so it was an experience that i learned from. to take time while cutting hair. and to be attentive. 

ha anyway. thats about all. im kinda sick today. i have been for the past couple days. not a fever or anything. just feel sick. its annoying but itll pass. love you all!!!

elder madsen    

Obedience=Blessings Jan 26, 2015

heeeeyy fam. So first off, dad when i read that you get to be in the same room as all the twelve i just get jealous. i want to sit in those so badly. ive been reading some talks lately and even just from looking at them you can see that those men are inspired. so i have been studying in doctrine and covenants and i have some questions. ill ask them next week when i prepare them. ill be praying for you. good luck with it and let me know how it goes. i write my friends but sometimes they dont write back. checking email back home is not too common. its alright though. i write you guys so its good enough. :)

Kennedy...your dog is so awesome and tiny. i hope it stays safe. thats scary how many things can hurt it. itll be fine though. Morghan im happy for you :) keep being strong sista. one thing that helps me too, is seeing how much these people trust and believe in god. it has actually helped my testimony grow a lot. people that you know well and you trust. they know god lives. and they love him so much. its a good example for all of us. i cant believe Macquel is getting married. thats crazy. im just a lil sad i wont be there. but its alright. ill get to hang out when i get home. haha

so i know i promised pics but i forgot my camera for reals. sorry sorry sorry. haha and as for this last week. my comp was super sick. he did what he wasnt supposed to...he drank unfiltered water that a member offered him. haha i didnt drink it for that exact reason. woops. lesson learned i guess ;) he is doing well now though.

im excited for the new mission president. i think itll be kind of cool to have two mission presidents for both half's of my mission. so the lord is blessing us like crazy. and i know its on our obedience. me and my comp made a deal to be more obedient together. and we are getting the coolest investigators. and even when we were talking about how we were being blessed, this guy and girl came up to us and started telling us how they wanted to come and see the church. and for the most part you can tell when someone is serious and when someone is not. we are meeting with the guy tomorrow. we just had a baptism yesterday. his name is yaw attah. and we have an investigator named bright who came to church yesterday and he absolutely loved it. so much. he is just so happy to be learning all about the gospel. its so cool to see the joy people receive from the gospel and the church. anyway. i have little time today...gotta talk to easton and all haha. love you fam!-elder madsen

Sick for the Week Jan 19, 2015

hey fam!! so this last week was filled with sickness and heat. me, my comp, and another elder got sick. not at the same time though. so we were in for a lot of the week. but we still had awesome lessons. i gave kelvin and his sister a harmonica, they LOVE them. so much. they are young kids so they are just having the best time with them. 

so in the year of 2014 the ghana kumasi mission had exactly 1,000 baptisms. we had 950 with two weeks left in the year. and in the second to last week we had 25, and the last week we had 25. and in december that is super hard to do. so i thought that was pretty cool. my new mission president is from HIGHLAND UTAH!! how crazy is that. i dont think i know him. i forgot his name though. 

also i was thinking. the harmonicas you sent were awesome. and i can play hymns on them and stuff. but they cant hit certain notes. so if you can, if its not too expensive or  anything right now. i was wondering if i could get another one. one that has the two sets of notes. top and bottom. they are more "advanced" but i think it would be fun to get good. they are pretty easy to figure out and play so i think it would be fun. 

well, on to your week. momo its so cool to see you driving! how is it? do you love it? tenny im glad you and your pup are doing well. haha she seems kinda crazy. i hope that kinda goes down a lil by the time i get home. i cant believe Macquel is getting married! how are your feelings about it? he seems like a cool guy and if he treats her right and has a plan then im all for it, and i cant wait to get to know him better. does he hunt or fish? if not, at least get him good at fishing so we can go a lot when i get back. haha 

sorry i dont have a ton of pics to send. i am not really taking too many. i need to though. my ward is soo cool. the members are awesome. one thing ive realized about Ghanaians, they are all just children at heart. its kinda weird because i feel like there aren't any adults here. just a ton of big little kids. they are so sweet and just fun. i feel like that was one reason i was sent here. you can just joke with anyone. even our bishop is just loud and fun and super funny. thats pretty much everyone here. love you tons family. ill send pics next week. we got transfer news and im staying here. so thats good! i love this apartment.

love, elder madsen