Hello Family and Friends!
It's been a good week this week! We are moving closer and closer to Cubert and Becky's baptism, it's this Saturday!
I'll start out by answering a question that a few people have asked me in their letters. As you all know, Elder Kaupert and I actually cover two different areas, the Highland Home Branch (which is Crenshaw County) and the Greenville Branch (Butler County). Some of y'all've asked the ethnicity of the people I'm teaching (if I'm teaching black people or white people). In the Highland Home Branch the members are all white. When we tract in Luverne we find some black folks, but very few; Crenshaw is a very white area of Alabama. In the Greenville Branch the actives are all white (except one older lady) but there are a lot of black less actives. The majority of people we tract into in Greenville have been black, mainly because we have been tracting in black areas of Greenville. Sadly though, our tracting efforts and baptismal committments we've made in Greenville with these people haven't come to fruition. So, the ethnicities we interact with really just depend on where we are.
We survived "severe weather week". We had the hurricane/tornado warnings which I talked about last week, but that night the remnants of Isaac came back from the north - we got some pretty bad thunderstorms and 7 inches of rain! We had a Flash Flood Warning for the whole area, and there were a lot of roads closed. Within 1 week we had had 1 Tornado warning, 2 tornado watches, 1 severe thunderstorm warning, 2 flash flood warnings, and a flash flood watch.
I know I've mentioned the food in the past, but let me just say this - It's dang good! I love the fried okra! I don't know what people were saying that it was the most disgusting vegetable ever. I haven't tried it boiled or pickled though, which I hear is less good. We get to eat with people a lot; members, less actives and investigators. And it's all pretty good food (and lots of it).
The last week and a half or so I have been focused more on faith then I have in the past. I've been reading Ether Chapter 12 at the beginning of each daily personal study. There are so many things that can be applied to all of us - Faith really is the empowering principle of gospel lives.
The community was hit by tragedy last week. Two older ladies (members) are in the hospital, and one man ( an inactive member) drowned in a pool yesterday and some homes have burned down. I've never experienced a small town before, but its amazing how in a small town within an hour everyone has heard what is happening. People are a little distressed, hopefully this season of bad luck will end.
We had a zone meeting last week (and of course, I had to play the piano :/). We found out that our zone, which only had 4 baptisms in July, had 9 baptisms in August! We also heard that when Elder Koelliker came, he felt like our mission needs to attend the temple more often. Previous to now, missionaries generally get to attend the temple once every 7 to 8 months. We now have a temple trip scheduled for next Friday. I'm glad for the opportunity, its been a while since I've been.
The missionaries get to watch the CES firesides. Last night's CES fireside with Elder Holland was GREAT!! He is one of my favorite GAs and the message he gave is so applicable to everyone - I encourage y'all to watch it, I believe its on LDS.org.
We have no new investigators this last week, but we've recently got some referrals that I feel really good about. As we've gotten closer to Cubert and Becky's baptism weve been seeing them more and more. Hopefully will have more to report next week on that front. I'll send the pictures I've been taking next week as well.
Love y'all and miss y'all!
Elder Madsen
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