March 14, 2011

Hey everybody!

Another chinook came! No winter coats, ice on the roads or snow shoveling this weekend. We got a new bishop yesterday, Bishop Wright. I don't know if I already told you this but he served in our stake. He was on his mission from 2002-2004 so he's a pretty young bishop.

This week was very interesting. We haven't been able to contact Mikhael since last Saturday. We've been calling and stopping by but it's only been a week so we'll see how things go from here. We taught Bev again on Thursday. This lesson went a lot smoother than the first one. She had less tangents to go on and we taught very simply. We got through half of the Plan of Salvation and then went over the Word of Wisdom. She said she can't go cold turkey on smoking and coffee because the doctors said it would be too stressful on her heart. She has a plan where she's going to stop smoking by March 19th. We were pretty concerned about this because her baptism is on the 26th. We encouraged her to do all she can to keep the Word of Wisdom. She wasn't at church on Sunday because of the Dailylight Savings time so her clock was an hour behind. We're meeting with her today and will have to reschedule her baptismal date.

We had an awesome 7 day challenge where the majority of the lesson was where worked with the member to find out how she was going to invite her friend! This is was awesome because this is how 7 day challenges should go. We talked about her concerns and about her friends and how she was going to invite them. It was awesome to see the spirit of revelation work with the member. We're excited to see when we get to teach her friends. It's fun to be able to work with the members. I really enjoy it... but teaching investigators is probably what I prefer.

Now for the part you all really want to hear. Elder Christofferson came on Saturday. The Spirit filled the room as soon as he walked in. We all got to shake his hand which was pretty special. I was waiting and Elder Real (member of the 70) whispers to me, "He's quite a powerhouse huh?" When he shook my hand, I was awestruck. He asked where I was from and then smiled. It was pretty awesome seeing an apostle when they're not in General Conference. Their personality comes out a lot more. He asked a question and a missinary answered his question with a quote from Elder Christofferson. He then said, "Wow, do we have a cookie for this elder?" Some things that really caught my attention was when he talked about salvation. He asked why don't we just dunk a paper with a bunch of people's names on it and then pull it out? Then he said because salvation is individual. We can't rely or blame anyone else that is here on earth. He also said judgement isn't about how many good works we have done but more of what have we become? As he said that, I turned to my Preach My Gospel and worte that down in the Plan of Salvation section. Now I know how I'm going to teach that section. One missionary had a good question which was, "What do we say when people are happy with their religion?" He said ," Find some way to get the Book of Mormon into their hands. Tell them we appreciate your faith and qualities that you have. We're not here to take away your goodness but simply to add to it."

It was a real treat to be able to shake hands and be taught by Elder Christofferson. What an incredible humble man he is. I want you to know that this church is not directly led by men like Elder Christofferson but it is led by the Lord. They are the pure and consecrated servants in which he uses to do His work among the earth. The Spirit confirmed that to me very strongly as I sat there. I love you all. Take care and keep looking for those opportunites to invite.

Love,

Elder Madsen