January 24, 2011

Hey eveybody,

Well, I'm very tired and drained mentally especially with the San Juan family but I got 2 companions to helpme out.

We met with them on Tuesday and finished the lessons. Obey the law of the land... does that include speeding?... something to think about. Anyways it went welland they want to be baptized on the 2nd. Please pray for this family to be baptized specifically on that day.

As far as their spirituality, they are reading from the scriptures together and they each shared with us their favorite verses from the scriptures. Their faith is solid. Divine and Jessica came to the morning session and Florentino came to the evening sacrament. Norma and Dorothy had to work. Maybe the Lord knew they wouldn't be able to come on Sunday so He told them to get baptized next week? Norma is theonly one who hasn't been to church twice yet.

We met with Lorne on Saturday and taught the 2nd halfof lesson 2. We also showed him the movie Finding Faith in Christ. The Spirit was very strong and afterwards he said, "There's a lot of hope for me!" We invited him to be baptized on February 19th. He said he wants to still pray about it but he thinks baptism is "wierd". We toldhim about how it's a way the Savior showed us we need to follow him. I toldhim it was symbolic of how we wash our sins away and start a new life. It's now making more sense to him. His girlfriend (member) told him that we onlyinvite him to be baptized because we love him and she said," Everytime they come over, they're probably going ask youagain to be baptized but with a different date." I was so happy it came from her. So he's going to pray about it and we gave him another reading assignment.

Last time, we assigned him to read 2 Nephi 2 but he misread it and read 2 Nephi 12 instead. So, the first time Lorne readt he Book of Mormon was in Isaiah. He's going to be a solid member I tell you. Start them off strong!

There's a Bible Study going on Wednesday nights and we're doing our best to get people to go to that (Church is a higher priority though). The ward seems to begettingreally excited about missionary work. Elder Mercado's recent convert just got married to a guy she met online. He's a member and they want to get married in the temple sothat will be exciting... especially for Elder Mercado.

Well, I love you all and sorry these e-mails are shorter and there's not as much testimony but I want you to know that this gospel is true and I'm so honored to be able to share it.

Love,

Elder Madsen

January 17, 2011

Hey everybody,

So it turns out that Elder Mercado's lump was a cyst. We got it checked out on Tuesday and the doctor gave him some antibiotics and a cream. He's not having too much fun especially with all of the walking we have to do but it is getting better. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers.

Good things are happening in Banff. We met with the San Juan's on Tuesday and talked about following the prophet and the 10 commandments. So we emphasized the 4th commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy. We talked to them about ways they could attend church and we invited Florentino and Norma to take their lunch breaks. Florentino isn't able to leave the hotel during his lunch break and Norma hesitantly accepted. They still want to be baptized and really want to attend church. Wednesday evening, we had dinner with President Yawney and he said we're going to do the evening sacrament meeting. So last night was the first official Banff Branch evening sacrament meeting. Florentino and Norma came (their daughters attended the morning session) and really enjoyed it. President Yawney and I gave short talks and there were 4 other members who came to help out. We had a 20 minute Sunday school class afterwards and talked about the church organization. The Lord provided a way for them to go to church just like we promised. It's wonderful to be able to see the Lord's hand work with everybody here in Banff to make it possible for this family to attend church and for them to be able to gain access to the Atonement.

We met with Lorne on Saturday and taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation. Sister Ganter-Pomares (Relief Society President) said that the Spirit has never been stronger in her home. Lorne is a very special child of God. He's had a rough past and is very susceptible to the Spirit. As he read from the scriptures in the Book of Mormon, he said, "You know, I have no idea what this scripture means, but it feels good." That's the kind of spirit this man is. We talked about Jesus Christ and he feels like Christ has been a guide in his life but isn't sure if he was actually a person. It's very complex but as he reads the scripture assignments we gave him, he will come to know who his Savior is like the rest of us have done. We invited him to be baptized on February 5th and he said he wants to think about it. He said he feels an instant connection with us and the members. We had to leave because of our curfew but afterwards, Lorne and Sister Ganter-Pomares were talking and Lorne told her he wants to meet with us agin on Saturday.

We found 2 Jamaicans on the street to teach and there's a Insitute/Bible Study class that goes on Wednesday nights that we invited them to. They know one of the members who is also a Jamaican so that helps out a lot. We now can invite them to the evening sacrament meeting as well.

I feel really blessed to be in this area at this time. There are so many miracles and the Lord has kept us in the dark for quite a while. Faith is the key in those moments and I have seen that over and over in this area. Allowing the Spirit to be the senior companion is the only way to go.

Love,

Elder Madsen

January 10, 2011

Hey everybody,

Thanks for all the e-mails this week guys... really appreciate it. That's okay though because I don't want to even think abouthome after this week.

This week waschalk full of miracles. On Tuesday, the San Juan family told us they wanted tobe baptized on Januray 17. We talked to thebranch and most of the families would not be able to make it to the baptism so they decided to push the date back to the 22nd. The 3 daughters attended church and loved it. Divine and Jessica have been to church twice now and Dorothy has been once. Florentino and Norma (the parents) have had work and it's been difficult for them to get Sunday's off. The branch was not supportive of the evening sacrament meeting idea so it looks like it's up to prayers and faith now.

As for the lessons, Tuesday was lesson 3 and it went awesome. We also taught about the Sabbath day and how we keep it holy. Divine said she wanted to go to church "again and again and again". There's a very powerful spirit to that girl. Thursday, we felt prompted to teach the word of wisdom, tithing andthe law of chastity. We were all very nervous because they're a very poor family and Florentino said he is a "coffee lover". Were also really apprehensive because at the end of our last appointment, they brought out Nestea and orange juice for us...We chose the orange juice. So we fasted and prayed that the Spirit would bear truth to this family about these commandments. We role played each principle and did our best to figure out how to resolve their concerns. We went in to the lesson and the Spirit was very powerful. We asked them "Who is Joseph Smith to you?" and Florentino blew my mind away. He read through the introduction of the Book of Mormon prior to meeting with us and talked about the Restoration andthe 3 witnesses. It was incredible. Elder Nielsen taught the word of wisdom and they said, "No coffee then... All right!" We then taught the law of chastity and modest dress. The parents were smiling. We then taught the law of tithing. We were concerned about how they were going to take this lesson but Norma said, "With God, all things are possible." They accepted 3 commandments without a doubt in their mind.

Afterwards, we brought up January 22nd. Norma may have a tough time getting that day off. For the closing prayer, Divine asked God to let her mom have the 22nd off because "we really want to be baptized as a family." You cannot tell me that there wasn't a divine power in that room that evening. This is a family whom God has prepared to come to the knowledge of the Restoration. Everyone in that room felt God's love because truth was being taught. The best part is that they recognized those things. They feel and know that this is God's truth.

Saturday night, we met with a less active girl and her non member boyfriend. Prior to the dinner, we asked Tiffany if she would be comfortable with us inviting her boyfriend, Lorne, to takethe discussions. She said she would wait but that if we felt an overpowering impression ofthe Spirit, we should. Well, we felt that Spirit right after she hung up. We went over and had a great dinner and we all really bonded well with each other. After dinner, before we even said anything, Lorne basically opened up his entire personal life to us. He told us about his rough past and how he came to know that God is real and how it's been a blessing. Each one of us were able to relate to him in different ways. He knows a lot about the church and even told us his body is like a temple. My eyebrows went straight up. This man has been prepared to meet us. We talked to Tiffany afterwards and she said that Lorne wished we could stay longer. She said he wouldn't stoptalking about us and there is something about us that he enjoys. So Saturday at 6 PM, we will be having a dinner and a lesson.

The Lord is working his hand in Banff. That is truth. I know that as we continue to work hard and be obedient and let the Lord lead us through the dark, God's prepared children will be placed in our paths.

Love,
Elder Madsen

January 3rd, 2011

Hey everybody,

Well transfers were only 5 weeks this time but it looks like Elder Mercado and Elder Nielsen and I are staying together for another one. This will be pretty exciting staying together especially with Elder Mercado's expertise with the Filipino community.

This week was pretty awesome! We met with the San Juan family and taught them the 2nd half of the plan of salvation. We asked them where they wanted to be at the end of this life and they all said the celestial kingdom. We then invited them to be baptized on January 8th and they said they would call us on Thursday. Before we ended we asked them why they wanted to be baptized and they each gave a different reason: to be born again, to come closer as a family, to have a peace of mind, to find out what their religion is and also because it's a commandment. We then asked what their concerns were and they just said they want to be sure that this is something they want to do. We then invited Florentino to offer the closing prayer and to ask Heavenly Father if this is something they want to do. He gave the prayer and the Spirit was way strong. We also reminded them that after the prayer, to listen to the answers that Heavenly Father is giving them. After doing that, we waited until Thursday.

After fasting and going through some physical struggles (Elder Nielsen got frostnip), we finally got the phone call we were waiting for! Florentino and his family want to be baptized together on the same day!!! The only thing is that they want to decide on a day tomorrow when we met again. Our prayers, your prayers and definitely their prayers were heard and answered. So tomorrow, we will set a date and continue to teach them.

We haven't been able to get a hold of Chris for these past 2 weeks. His job has changed and his phone doesn't work anymore. We're also figuring he's probably getting some outside pressure at the moment. Prayers for him to fight against Satan and to recognize the feelings of the Spirit he had with meeting with us will definitely help.

This is so awesome to be able to see the San Juan family's prayer answered and I am so excited to continue to work with them and see them progress and watch their faith increase along the way.

Love,

Elder Madsen

December 20, 2010

Hey everybody!

Well this week was pretty awesome considering the fact that we now have a third companion as well. Friday night, we got a call from the Assistants and we're training! Elder Neilsen is from Medicine Hat (2 hours away from Banff) and is waiting for his visa to the Utah Ogden Mission. He hasn't been to the MTC yet so we're doing a lot of crash coursing on some things. Elder Neilsen is awesome and is very eager to learn so Elder Mercado and I are doing our best to show him the ropes and are teaching him the importance of obedience to the mission rules as well.

We taught lesson 1 to Florentino and his family this week. They loved it and were able to feel the Spirit as we taught. As we taught the apostasy, Norma asked, "Well then, which church is true and how will we know it?" If that wasn't a heaven sent question, then I don't know what one would be like. We taught about Jospeh Smith and the Book of Mormon and how as we pray about these things, God will answer our prayers just like He answered Joseph's. We invited them to be baptized on January 8th and their answer was an indication that they were applying our teaching to themselves. They said they wanted to pray and find out if it's true first. We asked them if they came to know of its truthfulness, would they be baptized. Norma looked at us like we just asked a stupid question. She said, "Of course! Absolutely!!!" Their daughters Jessica and Divine were at church on Sunday because everyone else had to work but we set up a return appointment for this Tuesday. They're a wonderful family and are very in tune with the Spirit.

Chris is doing awesome!!! We taught the first half of lesson 2 and committed him to read 2 Nephi 2. On Wednesday, we come back and he read the whole chapter! Not only did he read it but he was understanding it as well. He said, "Oh this is where you said we have agency and this is where you talked about Christ and this is about Adam and Eve." He also prayed before AND after he read. Elder Mercado and I were bouncing in the couch like little kids. We were so happy he had kept his commitments. We taught lesson2 and about eternal families. We watched a movie on temples and the work we do there. He saw a picture of the font and asked if he could get baptized there. We said,"Yes... in fact many times after you're baptized!" Oh, he's still preparing for the 8th of January. We taught about eternal marriage and after the movie, he said, "Man, now I gotta get my wife (his fiancee)!" We're meeting with him tonight and tomorrow.

The work is going well and we are doing our best to make every minute of the day count. We were doing service and one of the workers asked why he needed to read the Book of Mormon to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior if he already knew that the Bible was true. At first we were stumped. We tried talking about how the Book of Mormon strengthens the Bible and adds witness of Christ. He lost interest pretty quick and I felt bad because I knew there was an answer that would leave him thinking and wanting to read the Book of Mormon. After about 10 minutes of pondering and prayer, I went to Thomas and looked him in the eyes and said, "If you want to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, you'll read the Book of Mormon." He had a look of wonder in his face as we left the thrift store. He wanted to do something for us for Christmas. We told him he could read from the Book of Mormon and he said, "Well then, you need to read from the Bible." Okay, no problem for us.

I love being a missionary and love the work. Prayer is real and God does listen and answer our prayers and I know Florentino's family will receive an answer. You too can receive an answer to the witness of this work and gospel even if you have already receviced your answer.

Love,

Elder Madsen

December 13, 2010

Here is Elder Madsen’s message for this week. In his e-mail to Jackson, he said it had gotten down to 20º below zero! We aren’t mentioning how warm it is here (80º today!) after reading this e-mail we are glad that we sent Filipino goodies to share in his Christmas Package!

Hey everyone!

All right, hold on to your seat for this e-mail. Starting on Monday night, Elder Mercado and I were finally able to meet with Chris and we taught the first lesson and extended the firm for January 8. He accepted! His main concern was that his fiancee wants to marry him in the Catholic church in December 2012. We encouraged him to continue to prepare for the 8th. His other concern is that he works on Sunday and isn't able to switch shifts. That's a real downer. We met with him Tuesday and watched the Restoration DVD. He said he had a good feeling in his heart as he watched it. We also read 3 Nephi 11 together and he said it was very clear and made sense to him. The Spirit was so strong that night that we told him these feelings could also be felt by his fiancee. He said he would talk to her about the church. He's so humble and very shy but prepared. He has a Filipno member friend and he talked to him about the church. He told us that Chris is very excited to be baptized! He just needs to find a way to be able to go to church.

Wednesday night, we met with a family whose dad we met on the street. They asked us a lot of questions about our church and about missionaries. They said they wanted to meet "friends from our church". So we told them about sacrament meeting but unfortunately they work on Sundays as well (very common for the Filipino culture in Banff to have to work on Sundays in the hotels and restaurants). They said that next week they would like to hear a message about our church!

Thursday night (careful, there's 2 miracles on this evening) we had dinner with the relief society president and her friend, who is a former investigator and her son, Thomas. Sister Ganter-Pomares told us that Thomas is the key in terms of both of their conversion because the mom, Kat really relies on Thomas for a lot of things. We bonded very well with Thomas and invited both of them to church this Sunday. Kat really wants to go but Thomas wasn't sure. Sister Ganter-Pomares talked him into it and they both accepted. We then met with Florentino and his family on Thursday night. We asked if we could have a lesson but Florentino wanted his wife to be there as well before we taught so that the whole family could be there. So it turned out to be a good meet and greet session but we will be teaching him and his family this week as well. He and his wife also work on Sundays which is also unfortunate.

So all in all, we have about 13 people that we're really focusing on. I absolutely love the Filipino people. Not only do I have an awesome Filipino companion, but the families we are meeting are wonderful and have such an awesome spirit to them.

I'm so grateful for the success we're seeing and the miracles that are happening. This week is going to be so busy for us!!! We're so excited. I've had good nights of sleep unless I worry too much about our investigators, then it's not so good.

Well, I love each of you. Christmas is only 12 days away. I have something to send to you guys but I don't know if it will be there in time. You'll like it too. It's a Candianized Madsen style Christmas package so I hope you enjoy it.

Love,

Elder Madsen

December 6, 2010

(Note from Kathy: He is referring to Mira Mesa’s football team making it to the CIF finals at Qualcomm tonight, NOT the Raiders upsetting the Chargers yesterday!)

Wow, that's awesome about the football team!

Well, Banff is still beautiful and I'm still here. All of last week, I had really good feelings about this transfer and wasn't really too sure why. After this weekend, I realized is what simply a foreshadowing of what was to come. On Friday, we had our branch Christmas party. It was by far the best Christmas party I have ever been too. Out of the 70 people that were there, about 20 were nonmebers. The night was wonderful but the only complaint was that there weren't enough missionaries. Elder Mercado and I were running around trying to talk to everyone we could. Our food got very cold by the time we were done.

Here's the best part. Every year, the Relief Society sponsers a famil that stands in need of things. President Yawney selected this Filipino family and found out through one of his employees that this family needed a television set. So, President and Sister Yawney found a T.V., DVD player and stereo system all in an entertainment center for about 100$.

Here's the even better part. Elder Mercado and I were eating (our very cold food at the time) and we saw a man waving to us. We walked over and he wanted to talk to President, so we introduced them to each other. This was the father of the family who was sponsered. Tears were coming out of his eyes in gratitude for the generosity he had received. President said it was from the whole branch and that he should come to church sometime. Unforutnately he works on Sundays but he gave Elder Mercado and I his address and phone number so that we could meet his family. Miracles I tell ya, miracles.

Now for some more fun stuff. Elder Mercado and I were walking in downtown Banff and Elder Mercado felt we should trun down this one street. I agreed and sure enough, as we were walking, I slipt on some ice next to this older man. I apologized saying, "You'll have to excuse me, I'm from California." He laughed and said he was from the Phillipines. Elder Mercado jumped in and started speaking Tagolog. We both eventually bore our testimonies about the temples the mas said he had seen in the Phillipines and how our families can be together forever. He said we could share a message with him on Wednesday.

Miracles are happening up here, it's just that we've got to go find them and have faith that they'll happen even though there's lots of adversity and challenges with rejection and mockery. This one couple was walking out of their church and we had to approached them before. We had a casual conversation and asked how their day was at church and asked them what they learned. The man said, "Not to talk to strangers!" and laughed. All I could think was walk away and wait until he stands accountable to God about how he treated two representatives of the Lord on that day. I'm realizing a change in myself because if that had happened to me 7 months ago, I would've said some clever or sarcastic comment that would've left him feeling very bad about himself and would not make me happy at all. Now that doesn't mean I didn't come up with a comment inside of myself that would've probably made him cry so I still have some things to work on.

I hope all is going well with you. I know the Lord is watching over you. Whenever you feel abandoned or alone, read D&C 121-123. Our adversity will be for a small moment and will be for the better.

Love,

Elder Madsen