February 28, 2011

Hey everybody,

Well, the Northeast is a very interesting place. We're right next to the airport and this is Elder Reese's last transfer... joy! His dad is in the Air Force so he's lived all over. He lived in las Vegas during high school and his family is in Virginia and pretty soon, he'll be moving to Alabama. He and I were in the same zone in Lethbridge for my first transfer and we would guard each other in basketball. He's pretty good (Let's just say I didn't do a very good job of guarding him)

I love this area! The members are so awesome and the people are very humble. I've never had people this receptive to us during tracting and contacting. It's a pretty poor area. There's lost of East Indians and there's a Siek (Muslim or Hindi) temple next to our church! We see at least 10 police cars everyday but the Lord is watching over us. These past 4 days, we found 7 potential investigators. Bev Seeward is a referral from a member and is meeting with us tomorrow. She had an out of body experience after a heart attack and said she had a decision to either stay down here or go to heaven. She knows there is a life after this and so the Plan of Salvation will be an awesome lesson to share. We've been applying the 15 minute training and because of that, we were able to find 2 people through tracting who we will be teaching this week as well. Another result of the 15 minute training caused us to visit this part member family where the mom is a recent convert and the dad has been holding her back from attending church. We visited with them and the dad wants to take the lessons now. We'll be teaching them on Wednesday.

This one is something I will never forget. We were sitting in church and the Spanish missionaries call us over. A man from Egypt walked in and asked for a Bible. He said he felt so good to be at church. Elder Reese told him that was God's love for him. I told him if he stayed longer, he would be able to feel more of God's love. You could definitely see Satan working against him because you knew deep down inside, he wanted to stay but he kept saying, "No, I gotta go." Eventually, he saw picture of Christ on the wall and aksed, "Who is this man?" Elder Reese told him about Jesus Christ and He came down to die for our sins. He started crying. "I have too many sins, I can't be in this holy place," and Elder Reese told him that is why we come here, because of our sins so that we can come closer to God. He stayed for Gospel Principles class and sure enough, the lesson was on the Atonement. It was a bit overwhleming for him and he told us he has some questions for us when we meet him tomorrow night!

Miracles are happening here and as we stay obedient and work hard, the Lord will continue to bless us. We've found a potential investigator everyday so far.

I love you and hope there are lots of good things going on down in San Diego. Leaving Banff was pretty rough and Elder Nielsen got his visa. Divine called us after we said goodbye and was crying. She is really going to miss me and wasn't sure why I had to leave. That's a pretty tough thing to answer but all I could say was the Lord wants me in East Calgary so that's where I am. Continue to pray and be diligent in all the commandments.

Love,

Elder Madsen