Wednesday, June 1, 2011

May 30, 2011

The miracles continue to grow in Prairie Winds. Mike and Nick are doing well and attended the ward pizza party and really bonded well with the members. Tiffany is overly excited for the 4th and has everything set up for it already.

We taught Isabel the first lesson on Thursday. It went awesome! We firmed her for June 11th and she was unsure at first. Sister Pozzi did a good job of helping her feel comfortable with us as Isabel expressed that she believes the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph is a prophet. She doesn't have a problem with being baptized again but is concerned about what her parents might feel about her being baptized. She wondered if she should tell them or not because she understands that she is an adult and can make her own choices but doesn't want to disappoint her dad. This is when the spirit became VERY strong in the lesson because we told her God's truth. We said whenever we are confused about something, we should always pray and find out what God wants us to do. I'm so glad we've received so many trainings on the importance of helping our investigators seeking revelation because that is what the Spirit was telling Isabel... to learn for herself what God wanted her to do in this difficult situation. After that, I shared with her one of the most personal scriputres to me in D&C 84:88 which says, "I will be on your right hand and on your left..." and talks about how angels will bear us up when we testify of truth to others (makes me wonder why sometimes I'm embarassed to share what God wants me to tell people). Isabel couldn't finish the scripture without tears in her eyes. The Spirit had borne truth to her and God was speaking to her heart. We comforted her and let her know where those feelings were coming from and said, "After praying and asking God what you should do, will you prepare to be baptized on June 11th?" There couldn't have been any other answer than "yes" for a person who was as prepared as she was.

We're working closely with Anil. He is still frustrated that his family doesn't respect him. We knew we should teach the Restoration and emphasize that there is only one prophet and one church that is of God. I have never been that bold in my life. Anil was describing his stress about his family and how he feels like he can't take it anymore. We declared the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness and love. I don't know what other way you can teach it. I felt incredible afterwards knowing that the Spirit was with us giving the words he needed to hear. He didn't accept the firm because he is still unsure about the word of wisdom. He can't find confidence to keep it. We do have a return appointment.

The miracles are growing in Praire Winds. I love this area because of the hard work, diligence and obedience that is being put into it. Elder Hansen and Elder Marsden are great companions. Elder Marsden does need to start feeling better though. He's been pretty sick.



I read this talk called the purification process. What it is is that you go on a 40 day fast from all of your bad habits that limit your sensitivity to the Spirit. I came up with a list this weekend and boy was it big!... even as a missionary. I just started today and I know that the Lord will help me become a more effective insturment in His hands as I consecrate more of myself to Him. Probably my biggest weakness is consecrating my all to the Savior... which includes pride, mind, heart, real charity. It's tough but I know it;s worth it. I love all of you and am excited to make this an even better year for missionary work.



Love,

Elder Madsen



P.S. thank you for the packages and I really appreciated the letter you sent me dad. It meant a lot and I gained an incredible insight of why the work we do as missionaries is so important. It's not okay to think that we can just ignore people and assume they'll accept it in the spirit world. There must be a sense of urgency in birnging Heavenly Father's children back to Him

May 24, 2011

Hey her's some picutres. There's one with me and a sister and an elder. Thats Siter Riley and Elder Heap. We're all from San Diego. The missionary with me and the graffiti is Elder Hansen. The other is the baptism. Elder Marsden is the missionary on the far right. Mike is the dad and Nick is his son/

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Keith Madsen wrote:

Hey everybody!



Well, the three leg is awesome! We are having a blast! Elder marsden is from Idaho Falls, ID. He came out in August 2009 but got really sick and went home for over a year. He already served 10 months so he only has 14 months to go. He just came back this week so he's going through some rough adjusting. I don't think I could be able to do what he's doing right now.



This was an awesome week! Mike and Nick got baptized on Friday. It was an awesome evening! The members baptized them and then on Sunday, we had the confirmations in sacrament meeting. I confirmed Mike and Brother Pozzi confirmed Nick. After the baptism, Mike came up to us and said he felt a little empty. He felt like there was something missing. Sure enough, after the confirmation on Sunday, Mike learned that baptism by water is not complete without the baptism by fire. We have a lesson scheduled with Isabel for Thursday and we already have her fellowshipper ready to go. Mike also wants us to teach his son who is moving in from Ontario. He has an incredible missionary mind.

Tiffany is progressing well. She is ready for the 4th!

Our other investigators bailed on us during this week. We're having a rough time getting a hold of them. We do have lessons scheduled this week with them as well. This is a cool miracle: We're working with a less active and told him we wanted to go over the missionary lessons with him in a week. We challenged him to bring a nonmember friend to that lesson. He listed off a bunch of friends he could find for us. We established how were going to follow up with each other and went our separate ways. We hadn't heard back from Tyler for about 3 days so we called him and he said he had someone who was inactive but needed the missionary lessons out in Airdrie. We thought that was pretty sweet and encouraged him to continue to find a nonmember to taught on Thursday. This morning, the sister missionaries in Airdrie called and told us they have a referral for us for someone they had been teaching in Airdrie! We had a "switcheroo" I guess.

We helped Bev out with some service on Saturday. She is really stressed with moving right now that she wants to start the lessons again after she moves. She understands that we have a lot of patience even though we would like to teach her right now.



I was thinking about Mike's comment about his empty feeling and it made me think about how crucial it is that we follow the enitre gospel of Jesus Christ: 1. Faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement 2. Repentance 3. Baptism for the remission of sins 4. Gift of the Holy Ghost 5. Endure to the end... After Mike's baptism, he was only experiencing what 3/5 of the gospel can offer us. The gift of the Holy Ghost is an incredible gift from our Heavenly Father. Baptism is pointless without that gift. I am so grateful for this gospel and how simple it is. It is the only way we can return to live with Heavenly Father.



Love,

Elder Madsen

May 17, 2011

Hey everybody!



Well Elder Hansen are staying but I'm going on another 3 leg! Elder Marsden is coming in so we'll have to get a new bed in. This will be fun.


This week was incredible! Mike is solid and is ready to baptized this Friday. The ward is really excited about it. He asked Brother Kinneard (Elder's quorum president) to baptize him and he asked me to confirm him. We also reviewed the baptismal interview questions with Nick and he passed! So Mike and Nick will be baptized this Friday together. He had no concerns with any of the commandments and is ready. He loved church and enjoyed how everyone there gives different perspectives on topics. Isabel sits in the background on the lessons. She only wants the lessons if Sister Pozzi is there.

We also found out yesterday that Tiffany's mom said she can get baptized as well. She's been taught for the past 2 years and has been coming to church. Her mom figured if Nick was qualified to be baptized then Tiffany could be baptized as well! Tiffany will be baptized on June 4th.

We taught Mengi on Saturday as well. There's a big language barrier with him. He's from Ethiopia but only speaks English. His accent is hard to understand and we don't think he clearly understands everything we are telling him. We taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation and he believes it's God's plan for us. As we talked about baptism, he still hasn't grasped the concept of the Restoration that our church has the only authority to baptize. He said he feels like we're not impressing him. We resolved his concern by telling him that we aren't capable of giving him the answer but that God will give him that knowledge he needs. He didn't accept the firm but Elder Hansen and I are seeing a huge change as we've focused on teaching towards the commitment. It makes the biggest difference especially in our contacting apporaches as well.

We met with Bruce again. He had questions about the 3 kingdoms of glory. He doesn't believe that God would keep someone who is unrighteous from living with Him. He had the concern that he wouldn't want to live in the celestial kingdom if his dad wasn't there. We talked about the importance of commandments and how there' rewards and blessings for keeping those commandments. There's also punishment for us when we don't keep commandments. We then went into depth about the spirit world and how we will all be taught about Jesus Christ and how if we didn't have the opportunity to accept Christ, then we will have the opportunity to do so. We also emphasized that it is never our place to judge someone for their works. That lies with a perfect judge who is God. He knows us better than we know ourselves and will take into consideration our circumstances and trials that we went through. He doesn't agree with it but then we talked about our testimonies of Joseph. Bruce said he skims through the Book of Mormon so we commited him to read and pray about it everyday. He does have a divorce that has to go through so we'll use the baptism to speed up the process. He does have WOW issues so we got him the Stop Smoking Prgram.

Lots of miracles going on in Prairie Winds. The member trust is skyrocketing and everyone is excited about the upcoming events. Revelation is definitely the key.

Love,

Elder Madsen

May 2, 2011

Hey everybody,



I get to call you... well, actually you're going to have to call me. Our phone number is (deleted) If you could call me at 4Pm MDT (3:00 Pm Pacific) then that would be awesome! The weather has been beautiful (for Canada at least) and we're ready to talk to more people out there.



Are you ready for this? We set 2 baptismal dates for May 21 and found 3 new investigators this week as well. We taught Mike on Thursday. He had a lot of concerns about Joseph Smith and polygamy. Bro Pozzi did a good job of explaining the sociological reasons but then it came down to his testimony of the Book of Mormon. I said, "We can talk logic till the cows come home and it won't make a difference until you ask God these things for yourself. The Book of Mormon is the evidence, every other book you read can give opinions, but the Book of Mormon provides truth." As we planned for this lesson, we prayed and knew we should invite him to be baptized on May 21. Bro Pozzi did quite a bit of talking and I was wondering how in the world we could invite him to be baptized. As we listened and kept a prayer in our heart, the thought came to us that we needed to turn to the Book of Mormon and read the doctrine of Christ. It was clear and simple to Mike what we need to do to be saved. We firmed him for May 21 and he said, "Well, I don't see any reason why not to be." His wife is totally okay with everything but isn't willing to learn yet. We'll continue to work with Nick and see how everything progresses.



We taught Anil on Monday. He is from India and is Hindu but believes that there is only one God and knows Jesus Christ is his Savior (one of the few eh!). He wants to take what he learns from us back to India and be a missionary there. He is married and has 2 kids (ages 17 and 15). He's having a struggle being an immigrant because his kids don't respect him because of the culture change. We taught him Lesson 1 and emphasized the gospel of Jesus Christ over and over again. He knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I set my scriptures on the ground for a second and he grabbed them and put them on the table. He said, "Those are holy books!" Yes, missionaries do get humbled. We firmed him for May 21 and he said he feels like the desire for baptism should come from inside and he also wants to learn more.



We taught him on Sunday at the Diaz's the plan of salvation. We really emphasized the doctrine of Christ with him and drilled it into his mind and heart what he needs to do to come unto Christ. It was probably one the best lessons I've ever been in. We firmed him for May 21 and he gave us the same answer from last week so Elder Hansen asked him, "Look inside of yourself. Do you believe that this is what God wants you to do?" He said, "Well, if I'm lucky." So Elder Hansen asked, "Well, will you be that lucky child of God on the 21st?" He said, "Ok, where is this going to happen?" We invited him to pray and ask God if this is something He wants him to do and to not take our word for it but to ask God for that knowledge. I asked him, "Do you believe that Joseph is a prophet of God?" He said "Yes" and I asked him how he knew that. He said, "Well you told me he was. You are holy men. You wear those nametags and I trust you." We thanked him for his respect and told him he can trust us but that he also needs to seek that knowledge from God.



We taught a referral from the west, Mengi. We taught him the 1st lesson as well. He feels he is not ready to be baptized and wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon first. We also taught a man on his porch. We emphasized the doctrine of Christ and he wants to come unto Christ but won;t commit to anything. There is so much work going on in this area and it's all because of the Lord. He truly leads and guides us and places us in people's paths when they need the gospel. As long as Elder Hansen and I remain bold and obedient (which we are doing), we will continue to see miracles flourish here. We had 4 investigators at sacrament (Mike and Anil were there) and a potential investigator as well. We've really focused on seeking revelation in everything we do which has helped us know where to go.


Love,

Elder Madsen

April 25, 2011

Hey everybody,



The weather is getting very warm up here! Thank you so much for the packages. They're the best and exactly what I needed!!! Miracles have been happening every day here in Prairie Winds.



We kept up with our 80% 7 days again this week. On Thursday, we went on splits and Elder Hansen and Elder Lewis tore it up! They found and taught 3 new investigators. It was awesome! Elder Booth and I found 2 referrals for the Spanish. We were walking around these houses looking for a specific address and we saw a lady through the window and so we went up and knocked on her door. She said she only spoke Spanish, so I thought to myself, "Well, I took 3 years of Spanish... should I try it?" Sure enough I just started talking about who we were in Spanish and she was talking back as well. I spoke just enough to find out she was Pentecostal and that the Spanish missionaries could come back on Saturday at 3 Pm... Gift of tongues or what?!?!?! CRAZY!!!



We have return appointments with all 3 of those investigaotrs. One of them is Nick's dad. He said he wants to come back to church everyday. He had concerns about polygamy and Elder Lewis and Elder Hansen resolved them very well. We hvae a lesson with him again on Friday. Eric, a Filipino (I would be teaching another Filipino, haha), let Elder Hansen and Elder Lewis in and they only had 10 minutes with him for the 1st lesson. They firmed him and he said he wanted to learn more. Elder Hansen and I got out of ward council and felt like we should go get all of our investigators to church. We ran out and caught Eric at the door while he was asleep. I guess we guilt tripped him into coming because it was Easter. He said, "Oh, you're right! I gotta go! What time?" Eric was really able to feel the Spirit especially during Gospel Principles class. The lesson was on faith and beleive me... Filipinos are very faithful. We have a lesson with him on Tuesday with a Filipino member helping us out.



Elder Hansen continued to follow our 15 minute rule and found a Native lady and her family to teach as well. At first, she said she was up for anything but Chrisitianity and Catholicism... let's just the Spirit is a wonderful tool. As we taught the plan of salvation, she said it made sense to her. She doesn't want to give up her native beliefs. As we taught more about Jesus Christ, the Spirit was very powerful and we firmed her for May 21. She said she wanted to talk to her family about it more first. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read from it. She seemed to be ignoring us this weekend as we knocked on her door. She said the Jw's were stopping by as well.



We met Bev on Sunday. She has been in the hospital. The Sunridge elder's gave her a blessing and she said she felt like it helped out a lot. There was a lot of stress going on with her because of the black mold and electrical problems in her place. Apparently, she's been having a mild heart attack for the past 3 months... while Elder Reese and I were teaching her. She's very limited on what she can do and will keep us posted.



Right now, we have over 10 investigators and set up at least 5 new investigator lessons for this week. Miracles are everywhere here in Prairie Winds.



Love,

Elder Madsen

April 19, 2011

We got 2 brand new investgators in the past 2 days. Nicole (French lady we saw riding bikes with her kids at the church parking lot) wanted to hear a message about the Book of Mormon. She is completely against the Catholic church and knows a French speaking member in our ward... can you say "The Lord placed her in our path"? We went over on Sunday after church with 2 French Book of Mormons and Bro Joly talked to her quite a bit and they had a good relationship with each other. We taught the 2nd half of L1 and emphasized the Apsotasy. We taught about the Book of Mormon and how we can know if it's true. Then as we taught about how the Book of Mormon brings us closer to Christ, we also taught about baptism. The member then said, "The best converts wait 20 years to be baptized." We thought to ourselves, "well wait till you hear the date the Lord wants." We firmed her for May 14. Bro Joly's head turned so quickly I thought it would fall off. She said she wants to learn more first and accepted the soft firm. Later that day, we were walking and saw her. We asked what she thought about the lesson and she loved it and read 50 pages of the Book of Mormon that day! She said it is a lot clearer to understand than the Bible. We'll keep you posted on her.

Sherry was a lady we ran into last week from following the 15 minute rule. She's had a rough past (divorces, addictions) and wants a clean start. Well what better lesson than the doctrine of Christ. Elder Hansen and I went in there and listened to her and the concerns she had. She's making a lot of mistakes but the Spirit told us to listen to her and let the Holy Ghost tell her to shape up, not us. As we taught she understood that what she was doing was wrong. We taught about Christ and repentance. We taught her you need to forsake your sin in order to repent. She understands now the steps she must make in order to fully come unto Christ. The Spirit was really working with her especially as we read through the doctrine of Christ. We firmed her for May 14th and she accepted. We have a lesson with her on Wednesday.

We had a cool experience with planning. We planned everyday for the upcoming week for Nick's parents to come to church. Then, Nick's dad showed up unexpectedly. He stayed for all 3 hours and loved it. He said he is going to come back every week and wants a lesson on Thursday. He has a lot of questions but trusts us as missionaries that we will answer his questions.
We also have a lesson with Seerad for this upcoming Saturday. We are busy, busy, busy! Elder Hansen has incredible faith and motivation. He is a wonderful missionary and knows where his priorities are. He is definitley internally motivated and I learn a lot from his humility. I'm really doing my best to become spiritually converted unto Christ.



Elder Scott visitng us was a real treat. Elder Brimhall was his companion (the one who gave us a training in February). Elder Birmhall said power comes from 3 sources, faith in Christ, obedience, and sacrifice. Elder Scott was very powerful as he taught. I beleive there is a problem with the church and people getting married because Elder Scott told us that right after our missions, we need to get married. You know it's a problem when they're telling missionaries to start looking for wives. He, President and Elder Brimhall taught about the importance of being spiritually converted unto Christ. We all have external motivations in our lives but are we following Christ because of those reasons. Are we only doing the things we're supposed to for the praise of men. Now, I'm not saying that all external motivations are evil. If it wasn't for the positive motivation that David, Lisa and Dad gave me from their missionary expereinces, I'm not sure I would be out here. But eventually, there is going to come a time in our lives where those external factors will be removed. Then where do we turn to? We must be internally and spirtually converted unto Christ because He will always be there for us. He loves us and wants what is best for us. What He wants in turn is our hearts. We're not asked to walk across a 2000 mile prairie floor. We aren't asked to break our china to make temples. We are asked to give a broken heart and contrite spirit. I promise you that by being spiritually converted unto Christ, we can receive more of His love and understand His will more and more.



There is nothing better than hearing an Apostle bear witness of Christ. Elder Scott said that in order to become an Apostl, you can no longer have a belief or hope that Christ lives, but a knowledge. The Spirit was so powerful and I'll never forget that day where I heard an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ bore witness of Him. He said, "I say this accepting full responsiblity from Father in Heaven for what I am declaring for I fear no rebuke."



Love,
Elder Madsen

April 11, 2011

Hey everyone!



Well, as we're faithful and obedient, we can see a miracle a day and sure enough we did this week. We had very effective 7 days with members and they've been taking the challenges seriously. It's just a matter of time before we'll be teaching a member referral. We found at least 6 potential investigators through our own efforts as a result of beind diligent with our planning and being where the Lord has wanted us. We ran into 2 teenagers, Chrsi and Joel, and talked to them about the importance of families and Jesus Christ. They gave us their addresses and phone numbers and as they drove off, they honked and waved to us. We'll be teaching their family this week. Yesterday, as we were following our plans, we walked by a group of people hanging out on their porch. We passed by and stopped by our place on our plans and came back to those people again. We waved and they waved back (wave back= go get em!) so we talked. They thought we were people from the elections but we explained how we were messengers from Jesus Christ. They let us talk to them. There were 2 black guys that were drinking and smoking that I talked to and Elder Hansen, in a seperate conversation, was talking to the lady next to them. I remember teaching them about Joseph Smith and the First Vision and I could hear Elder Hansen talking about the Word of Wisdom to the lady. 2 lessons at one time! The people I was talking too were definitely tipsy but the lady Elder Hansen was talking to sounded sincere. We'll be teaching them this week as well! Miracles!!!

We got a media referral for a muslim named Seerad. He has a family and requested for an Urdu Book of Mormon (I guess God will get the gospel to ANY language). We gave it to his son and came back on Saturday and Seerad thanked us so much for the book. He has been reading it and actually comprehended that it was written on gold plates. There is a language barrier and he also works out in Rocky Mountain Village (somewhere up north) and is only available on weekends. He is coming to church on Sunday and we'll be teaching him soon as well. At church, we saw a casually dressed Middle Eastern man (from Sri Lanka) named Bertram. He sat in the back and almost left before sacrament meeting... but we caught him. He's Protestant and has a duaghter and gave us his address. He said he'll bring his daughter next Sunday but he also has a language barrier. We need the gift of tongues or something.

We met with Bruce again (also because of being diligent with planning) and set up a lesson with him for Saturday. Bev is in the hosptial and has requested a blessing! We met with Nick's parents and told them about baptism. They want to come to church and see what it's like... Elder Hansen just got someone to go to church just now while I was e-mailing... wow!

There are lots of miracles happening and I know the Lord's hand is in all of them. Elder Hansen is very humble and willing to learn. I just hope that I can be a good example and help him to start his mission off in the right footstep. The district is doing well. There are lots of miracles waiting to happen as well with the other companionships.



Thank you for the birthday presents!!! The electric razor is awesome!!! I got a birthday cake and card from the Bunka's which was awesome! Elder Scott is coming to the mission on Monday in Ft. McLeod because his flight got delayed. I love all of you, please continue to pray for me.



Love,

Elder Madsen

April 5, 2011

Thats awesome about David and Cheryl and HAM!!! YEAAAAHHHHH!!! I just need one more married and maybe a couple more nephews and the mission will be fulfilled!!! Congratualtions!!! Just do everything you can to make sure that everyone in our family is attending the temple as much as possible. I miss it... I really do. I am grateful to be able to do the work for people that are living but there is a special spirit of protection in the House of the Lord.



Love,

Elder Madsen



P.S. I got 2 packages from you and one from Grandma. Thank you so much!!! I'm excited to open them!

On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 10:59 AM, Keith Madsen wrote:

Hey everybody,



Well Elder Reese is going home but there's good news... I'm training and going District Leader!



This week was really rough. Elder Reese was very excited to go home. General Conference was amazing! I hope you all remember the Spirit you felt as you listened to prophets of God counsel us in these confusing times. I hope you all listened to the talk by Elder Johnson of the 70 where he talked about afflictions. He said great and troubling times precede the greatest and most spiritual experiences of our lives. The Nephites went through 3 days of darkness before the Savior came, the Saints traveled across the great plains before they had a temple that would stand through the Millenium, Elder Mercado and I went through several rejections and very challenging experiences before we met the San Juan family. Of course, the most climatctic event was the Savoir's atoning sacrifice in Gethsemane and Calvary before He broke the bonds of death. Whenever we go through these tough times, we need to remember that revelation comes after obedience, not the other way around. Laman and Lemuel received angels when they were not obedient and look how they turned out. Be grateful that God is perfect and all knowing because He knows exactly what we need in our lives. He is there for us.



We met witha less active who is going through a rough time. We asked if she was reading or praying her scriptures and she said she was too overwhelmed to do so. Something profound came to both of us and we said that the times when you feel like you don't want to pray are the times when you need to pray the most. Try it, what have you got to lose? It's something that has helped me in the hardest times of my life. He is listening and will answer.



Love,

Elder Madsen

March 28, 2011

just a short one today... sorry



This week was pretty good. We were able to work with the members with the 7 day challenge quite a bit. A less active found us someone to teach. She has absolutely no fear with sharing the gospel, I guess she just needed someone to prod her a bit. We also had a recent convert (James) who was very excited to talk to his friend about the gospel. 7 daying less actives and recent converts is where it's at.

Elder Reese and Elder Mott met with Bev on Tuesday and finished the Plan of Salvation. She is really depressed right now especially with the passing of her friend this week and she is having some illnesses with her heart again. She didn't make it to church. We got a new person to sit in with us on the lessons and that's going a lot better right now.

We found out from Kristie's (Bruce's common law girlfriend) dad that Bruce still has to divorce his previous wife so his baptism might be pushed back. He was too busy to meet with us during this week and didn't make it church either. We have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday and so the law of chastity is on the agenda for that appointment.

Tiffany and Nick are "back together" again. We talked about baptism and Nick's parents don't want him to be baptized until next year. He said they don't really know what it means so we'll talk to them about it. They are really retaining information well and are progressing very smoothly.

We are working hard still to get those new investigators especially from the less actives. Elder Reese is excited to go home. I better make this the best week of his mission.

Love,
Elder Madsen