November 1, 2011

Hey everybody!

Well, transfers came today and I feel pretty swell. I'm going back to the east for the winter! I'm covering a YSA ward and a family ward (Franklin and Ellision Park). There's a lot of good work going on there so it will be good to keep it going up there! My new companions are Elders Hawkins and Stephan. Elder Stephan is a new missionary so this will be an interesting treat.

We had a very spirit filled weekend. Clara was baptized and confirmed! Bishop asked her how she felt and in a little kid voice she said, "Happy!!!" Amazing what the Holy Ghost does. The elder who did her interview said that she opened the interview with a paryer and asked that Elder Harris wouldn't drop her! Because her knees don't bend very well, we had Elder harris and Brother Hill in the font. There was a white man, native and black man in the font! I guess there's more diversity in Cardston than we thought!

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy came down along with Elder Hiller of the 70 to reorganize the stake. I shook his hand at least 4 times. He also put his hand behind the back of my head and pulled me super close to his face and said something that I couldn't even remember because I thought he was going to kiss me or something! It was a really spiritual event. You could look at the new stake presidency and say with satisfaction that these were men called of God. Elder Hallstrom talked about how there's a difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ. The church is our outward expression of our commitment to Jesus Christ. This includes going to church, temple, activities, our callings and anything else that people can see. The gospel of Jesus Christ is something that we can't measure. It's our inward commitment to follow Jesus Christ. The gospel and the church rely on each other. You can't have one without the other. We need both the gospel and the church to become true disciples of Jesus Christ.

It was a great weekend and I don't know what happened to the time in Cardston. It flew by so quick! I'm glad we were able to see a lot of success towards the end.

Love,

Elder Madsen