November 5, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!   We've had a great and amazing week here in Greenville. The work has finally started to move at a faster pace here in this area! Thank you for your prayers!   We had a zone meeting last Friday where they started training us with some very new tracting techniques that have worked in specific missions that we are trying out here. Very different stuff. We are trying to modify tracting approaches so we find those who are prepared, and don't spend a whole lot of time for those who are not interested in our message. A lot of new stuff coming I think.   This announcement about the new mission ages is affecting our mission a lot, as it is the missions throughout the world. President Holzapfel this morning told us that he has been told that in one year the Alabama Birmingham Mission is projected to have 250 missionaries (we have around 160 right now I think). There will also be modification of mission boundaries throughout the world to accomodate the new missionaries.   A bishop from one of the Montgomery wards sent us a referral a few weeks ago that we finally were able to contact. His name is Mark and is probably in his 50's. We had about a two-hour long lesson/discussion with him about the church, and it was amazing to see how prepared he was. He knows a lot of members who have set positive examples for him and his respect for the church was evidenced throughout our meeting with him. He has some health problems and wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but we are excited to continue to teach him and his family.   We also have a new investigator named Patrick, who is living and breathing evidence thatmormon.org cards work. He was probably one of about 200 people we've given mormon.org cards to on the street, but he actually got on the website and was intrigued by what he saw. Amazingly enough, right as he was looking it up his doorbell rang and, lo and behold, there we were tracting at his front door. We've had a couple great lessons with him.  He came to church yesterday and was really impressed by what he saw and felt.   Yesterday we were tracting with the new tracting techniques and met a Hawaiian woman who actually is an inactive member of the church. She wasn't on the records or anything, and hasn't gone to church since she left home probably ten or so years ago. We were able to teach her and her family and hope to get them out to church.Her fiancee and 8-year old daughter haven't been baptized.   We have a zone conference this coming Thursday. By the way Zone Conferences are different than Zone Meetings. Zone Meetings are monthly and are done by the zone leaders, while zone conferences happen less often and are done by President Holzapfel and the assistants. I have to put together a 30-minute musical program for it. Found out this morning. Should be fun.   I went on exchanges Friday with Highland Home and actually got to spend the day in my old area! Got to see a lot of members of the branch there and teach them. Its weird being so close to them but not seeing them ever.   Love and miss yall!   Elder Coleman Madsen