October 3, 2011

Hey everybody!

Conference was awesome... as always! I hope all of the men heard Elder Holland's talk in priesthood session. Pretty powerful because he was bold and loving! Lots of miracles are popping up this week.
Clara is really progressing. She had an interesting way of finding out if the Book of Mormon was true. She said she asked God to allow her sister to be comfortable with her joining the church when she got home, then she would know that the Book of Mormon was true. Sure enough, her sister came home and was really excited to hear that she joined the church. She said now she knows that it's true. We're going o continue inviting her to pray for a spiritual witness through the Holy Ghost but it was pretty neat that that worked out for her. She is very determined to be baptized on the 22nd which is good to see. It's because of the awesome fellowshippers she's meeting thru daily contact and the feelings of the Spirit she has when she meets with us. Her grandson Larmar wants to baptized as well. We're going to get his parents to sit in on the next lesson and we'll baptize 3 generations of a family!

Tyler's mom gave him permission to be baptized! He'll be baptized on October 15th which I am so stoked about. They are such an family and it is going to be quite the experience to see them all there that Saturday.

Kyle is still preparing for the 15th. He lives so far away which makes it difficult to teach him regularly. We usually get once a week but he is a great kid and we're going to do our best to get his cousin Zack the priesthood so that he can baptize Kyle!

I learned a lot from conference and I'm grateful for the lessons I learned. One talk that really stood out to me was Elder Christofferson's talk on repentance. President Archibald was with Elder Jensen on the 70 and he asked President what his least favorite thing about the mission. President said he didn't like correcting missionaries. Elder Jensen responded, "So you love yourself more than God then..." That might sound harsh, yet I know those of you who are parents know that statement rings true. God corrects those whom he loves and it's something tough for me to acquire as a missionary is correcting investigators. Last night, our investigator told us he had been reading the scriptures on and off. We know that there is no way for him to get an answer unless he reads the Book of Mormon for a significant amount each and everyday. We spent quite a bit of time going into the importance of the commitment. Now he's fully committed to reading the Book of Mormon everyday for at least 10 minutes. When we correct others out of love and when it's our place to, then we truly show our faith of how keeping God's commandments will bless us. it's not easy, but necessary.

Love,
Elder Madsen