Hey everybody!
This week just flew by! Elder Sanders and I are starting to see some progress going on in Lethbridge. We received a referral on Wednesday for a mom who felt "disconnected" from her former chruch and had heard about our church and attended it and loved it. Haha this lady is so prepared, it's not even funny. We went to her house and she had her Book of Mormon out and the first thing she says is "So I was reading this the other day and was kind of confused... like where did it come from and stuff?" My jaw dropped. I thought "You've already started reading it?" Haha it was awesome. We taught her about the history of the Book of Mormon and then taught the first lesson. She totally felt the Spirit as we were teaching. In this mission, President Archibald made us promise that we would give a firm invitation to be baptized in every lesson. To me, that was a little uncomfortable but not during this lesson. We told her about the feelings she was having during our lesson and we told her it was the Spirit testifying to her about the truthfulness of our message. Then Elder Sanders invited her to be baptized and she said yes! I thought to myself "If only all of our investigators were like her". She drinks coffee but we're going to teach her tonight about the word of wisdom so we'll see how that goes. She is moving this summer though and she'll be on vacation for the next two weeks which is a real downer for me. Elder Sanders and I pray for her everyday.
We have some more investigators that we're trying to reach but most of them are going on vacation. Geez Canada! What's your deal? Is July like your "Hey let's not do anything!" month. Just kidding but it is kind of frustrating. Oh well!
So there's this program in the mission called the "7 day Challenge". During our weekly planning session, we pray for specific families that can participate in missionary work. This part of wp is awesome because this is where your testimony of revelation kicks in to high gear. My companion and I have been praying about this one family and received our answer that Heavenly Father has been preparing someone for the missionaries to teach that this family could find in 7 days. The whole time before we met with them, I was praying that they would know in their hearts and in their minds that this is what their Heavenly Father wanted them to do. So last night we stopped by this member family (who we've already taught a lesson to) and told them about the revelation we received. They said "Well, our son is on a mission, so I guess it's our turn to do some missionary work as well." They accepted our challenge and we will be keeping in contact with them. This morning, they decided they wanted to start a fast tomorrow night and so Elder Sanders and I said we would join them.
It's amazing how powerful the gift of revelation is IF you act on it. I've only been out here for 5 weeks and have noticed that the power of prayer is real and that Heavenly Father is there. He uses the Spirit to guide us in our everyday dealings so that we can be instruments in His hands so that we can help Him fulfill His work and His glory. Another thing I noticed is the importance of gratitude. Everything you have comes from something and everything on this earth has been given to us from our God. So when you do something good in your life or something awesome comes across your way, who do you thank? Yourself? No way! All the glory should go to your Heavenly Father. After every lesson Elder Sanders and I teach, we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the gift of the Spirit. Yes, we put a lot of effort into the lesson plans and making the trips to homes on our bikes which is good and makes us feel like we're important, but it's important for us to remember that this is Heavenly Father's work. This is His glory and we must never lose sight of that. Humility is the key to everything in our lives.
I love you all. Thank you for the e-mails. Sorry if I dont respond to them all but I'll try my best. This gospel is real and I'd like to invite you to remember to thank your Heavenly Father and your Savior for all that they have done for you. If it wasn't for them, there'd be no hope and no reason for all of the happiness we have in this world.
Love,
Elder Madsen
P.S. it is hotter than a very hot place where Satan lives right now
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