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

10/29/12 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

Well, my camera is broken :/ President Nimmer is pretty handy with cameras so I should have it fixed soon, but sadly the hold-up on pictures will have to last another week.

Really not that much to talk about. We have been working really hard here, and have tracted a lot this last week. Our initial baptismal date investigators (Amanda, Crystal and Kim) have sadly all come through, so we are just focusing on building an investigator pool right now. We taught 14 lessons tracting over just two days! (Which for this mission is a lot.) We do have some hopeful prospects. Just keep us in your prayers. I have every confidence in the next week we'll have some new baptismal-date-investigators.

President Holzapfel has been gone in Florida receiving training from some General Authorities, and should be back soon to give us some up-to-date training.

The area (as well as the rest of the nation, I'm sure) has been a-buzz about the upcoming Presidential election. Sadly, I've not received my absentee ballot in the mail. I had it sent to the mission office address and they haven't forwarded it to me. They may be saving it for zone meeting on Friday, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for it to get to Idaho in the mail. I may register here and just vote here.

We have some exciting news from Highland Home! Dyana was baptized on Saturday! We sadly weren't able to attend, but Elder Kaupert said it was a really spiritual experience for everyone involved. Elaine (if you remeber her from previous letters) evidently was at the baptismal service, and went to church yesterday as well. Its cool to hear about these investigators I taught progressing!

Well, I'm sadly already out of time for today! Will have a longer letter next week!

Love

Elder Coleman Madsen

October 22, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!   I'll start off by addressing an issue that every letter I've gotten this week has complained about: Yes I know that I don't take enough pictures. I don't have my camera right now but will have it on Wednesday, so soon I'll be snapping away and yall'll be happy.   Greenville has been ok this week. President Nimmer (branch president) has outlined sort of a game plan for us in the area. We have been working on finding (tracting) but we've also done a lot of contacting of less actives, many who haven't been to church for years and years. 85% of the branch roster is less or in-active individuals. If the less-actives came we would probably have a ward, or at least a much larger branch. A lot of them live pretty far out, but luckily we aren't as stretched for miles as I was in Highland Home so we can afford the trips. We've met a lot of people with a lot of problems, problems that the gospel of Jesus Christ will help solve.   Yesterday we had 22 people attend sacrament meeting, which is pretty high for Greenville. Sadly, none of our investigators were able to make it. Talk about disappointing. We found out after that Dominique actually needed a ride but her phone was dead, and Amanda was having a pretty rough day and didn't come.   We taught Amanda lessons on the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ this last week. Those went very well and she is moving towards baptism. It was sad that she wasn't able to make it to church but there is always next time, and we're just gonna keep trying. The first time is the hardest time.   We have some pretty sweet wheels here in Greenville. In Highland Home we were driving a pretty battered Toyota Corolla, but here we've been given a white 2012 Chevy Cruze, and its definitely the nicest car I've ever driven.   Its been hard finding new people to teach this last week. We've tracted around but no one has been interested. The first week we were here it seemed like everything was going for us, but now Greenville has seemed like the dead town it was when Elder Kaupert and I were here part-time. We are faithful though that it will get better.   Sorry there isn't a lot to report on this week. For those who sent me packages this last week thank you! They made my day! I am making a push to respond to my letters today. Sorry that I am not good at doing that!   Love you all!   Elder Coleman Madsen

October 16, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!   Well, sorry my weekly letter is late this week - our p-day was so crazy we weren't able to write yesterday. Things have been going real well here in Greenville. It has been a really unique experience opening up a new area. The work goes well. We have 10 investigators and 2 with a baptismal date with more on the way today!   My new companion is Elder Kelley. He is a 21-year-old missionary from Detroit, Michigan who was converted to the church when he was eleven. He has been on his mission 16 months now. Elder Kelley is a very hard worker and has a really sociable, down-to-earth personality. It's an honor to be able to serve with him. I will still see Elder Kaupert because he is now my district leader. We have a small district of just Elder Kelley and I and Elder Kaupert and Elder Cusick (the new missionary he is training). We'll have our first district meeting tomorrow.   I will miss my old district. Elder Clanton, my former district leader, is now serving in the Tupelo Mississippi Stake/Zone with Elder Hullinger, one of my MTC companions. Elder Dunn is still serving in the Capitol Ward of Montgomery. Elder and Sister Blau finish their missionary service tomorrow and return home to Centerfield Utah. I will sure miss them, they were great teachers and great examples of effective missionaries to all of us young missionaries in the Alabama Birmingham Mission.   [Mom, you asked about my musical experiences as of late. I played the piano and did a special musical number on the violin for the transfer meeting on Wednesday. All with 2 days notice (no big deal haha). ]   Y'all who follow the mission blog probably saw the pictures from the Montgomery Stake Conference this last weekend. Elder William Walker of the Seventy came and reorganized the stake presidency here with Elder Hymas (an area seventy). Typically missionaries only attend the Sunday Morning Session of Stake Conference, but by Elder Walker's request we came up for the adult session Saturday Evening, which was very focused on missionary work. In that evening session, I was reminded of home when Elder Walker talked about some experiences he had opening up the tours for the renovated Boise Temple. I'm assuming that must have been in the last week or so, the way he was talking about it. President and Sister Holzapfel both spoke at the adult sessions and gave really good talks. I enjoyed being able to see many of the members from Highland Home at both sessions of conference. President Millington, who had been serving as a "transplant" branch president of the Tuskegee Branch, was called as the new stake president. Elder Kaupert and Elder Kelley have served with him and say that he is an amazing individual who goes above and beyond in the call of duty. The stake presidents here in Alabama are very involved in the work.   In Elder Walker's Sunday address he talked about 3 evidences of modern-day revelation today: (1)The giving of Patriarchal Blessings (2)The process of calling full-time missionaries and (3) The process of calling new stake presidents. All three of these things testify that God really does head this work. How could they work so well if they didn't?   I had some new experiences in Montgomery. Because we are about 45 miles away, we spent the night with the Carter Hill Elders and were able to go teach with them Saturday evening. It was a unique experience being the only white Elder with a group of four elders going into "the hood" of Montgomery. Kind of cool though, and I met some good people.   We have a very nice apartment! We have a front room/study with a study table and kitchen table, a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, and an extra room that could serve as a second bedroom if needed. Our apartment is conveniently located right next to Wal-Mart and Super Foods so its easy to get to the store when needed, and not too far away from town.   We have done a lot of tracting in the last five days. We didn't do very much tracting in Highland Home because it wasn't a very good finding option there, but here it has definitely been working well. Friday we had an amazing lesson with Amanda. We almost didn't stop by her house, but the spirit told us to stop by one more. Funny how that works. She had an open heart and mind and has an earnest desire to be baptized. We've had lots of lessons and a lot of people are coming closer to Jesus Christ. We are going to have a lot of people at church Sunday! We recontacted Dominique, an investigator Elder Kaupert and I tracted into, and committed her to come to church. Greenville as of late has been averaging an attendance of about 15 people. I feel we will soon double that with our new investigators coupled with our work with less-active families. We have probably 4 times as many less actives than actives in this area, and there's so much potential with them! In the next few months, you will see amazing growth in Greenville, I promise you that. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be here at this significant time in the history of the Greenville Branch.   We anxiously await the arrival of the senior couple, but we don't know exactly when they will come. Last we heard Elder May (the housing coordinator for the mission) was having difficulty finding a place for them to stay. Hopefully they'll be here soon.   Well, love and miss y'all. Hope to hear from ya!   Love, Elder Coleman Madsen Elder Kelley and Elder Madsen Montgomery Stake Conference

October 10, 2012 Transfer Day

A quick update -- Coleman has been assigned to a new area-- the  Greenville Area with a new companion, Elder Kelley.  We look forward to hearing more from him on Monday.

His address is:  102 Chalet Drive, Greenville, AL 36037

October 8, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

 

Well, its official, Im being transferred.....I will be leaving Highland Home early Wednesday Morning. :/ I've been blessed by this opportunity to serve here for twelve weeks and be trained here! I won't know where I'll be going until the transfer meeting on Wednesday. President's really good with putting the Transfer powerpoint on the blog so you may find out on that before I'm able to contact you.

 

Elder Kaupert has been an awesome trainer! He will be staying here in Highland Home and training an incoming missionary. We made some pumpkin pies today as a last hurrah :) He still has 15 months left, so odds are we'll be in the same zone or maybe district in the future. He's been here in Highland for 6 months now.

 

I really am grateful for this opportunity I have had to serve in the Highland Home/Greenville areas and the Montgomery Stake. I kinda hope I stay in the zone, cause Elder Walker of the Seventy is coming this weekend to reorganize the Montgomery Stake Presidency, and I love being there when General Authorities come, but I'll be happy to go wherever I'm called!

 

Conference was really good! I was really excited about the message about missionary work! I bet a lot of girls my age are accelerating their plans to leave on missions now. It really excited me, I was giddy the whole day - it's such a historic announcement! We were able to have some good conference watching experiences! We spent both days in the Highland Home/Sardis area and made sure conference was going at the church. We help set up conference in Korean for the Kim family to watch over the internet. We watched the Saturday Morning session at the church. We ate lunch there and saw the press conference about missionary work with Elders Nelson, Holland and Evans which was really good. We watched the afternoon session with Cubert and Becky in their home. We had been praying for that session to be what they needed to hear, and the messages about families were perfect for them! Priesthood meeting was really good. Funny enough only Elder Kaupert, Brother Gillion (the branch clerk) and me were there to see it, which surprised me because this was an off week for Alabama football, so I thought there'd be more people there.

 

Sunday Morning Session we watched with Larry (branch mission leader) and Brenda with our investigator. She came to church a little bit a few years ago, but stopped coming when some friends told her some things that really scared her about the church. Elder Kaupert and I have been teaching her for about 6 weeks now, and she was pretty impressed by what she heard. (go President Eyring and Elder Holland....exactly what she needed to hear!) We had to leave to go watch the afternoon session at someone else's home, but she enjoyed the session so much that she stayed and watched the afternoon session with Larry and Brenda! It was a great conference for the work here in Highland Home.

 

Well, some sad news. Saturday night one of the McGough's cats (Castillo) was attacked by their dogs (Tip, Spike, Emma and Rusty). We thought Castillo was dead, but luckily he survived. He's at the vet right now, keep him in your prayers.

 

Well, I guess that even on an LDS mission I can't get away from the fact that I'm a musician. I am playing piano at the transfer meeting and am doing a violin musical number.

 

It'll be sad to leave our investigators, but I know that there will be new people to meet and to teach in the place i'll end up!

 

Well, with everything that has happened in the last few days, I don't really remember anything else to report, how sad is that! Love you all! Hope to hear from you!

Love

Elder Madsen

 

October 1, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

 

We've had a great week! The weather is continuing to stay mild, usually in the low to mid-80s. I enjoy the work we are doing here so much! We have 2 new investigators now who we are really excited about. We taught them first lessons in the last week.

 

Greenville Branch, as we said before, is getting new missionaries next transfer. The exciting part is they are actually getting two sets of missionaries! They will have a set of elders and a senior couple. [The story of why they're getting two is quite miraculous, I'll tell y'all about it in a letter.] We expect, and are excited for, real growth in the area of Greenville in the coming months. For the first time in about a month, we were able to go out and spend Saturday and Sunday in Greenville, spending the night in the church building. The branch is small in numbers but definitely not small in spirit. We had a short but really powerful fast and testimony meeting yesterday.

 

This week I have been thinking about the importance of members with missionary work. I know y'all probably hear this a lot, but members are such a valuable part of the missionary process! This woman we've been teaching works with a member in the Highland Home Branch and that member was so helpful in our teaching of the first lesson with her. The best investigators come from member referrals and having members in lessons is so powerful. I would invite everyone who reads this letter to pray every day for more missionary opportunities. I know that as we do this, and as we become more willing to be instruments in the Lord's hands, that we can bring so many souls to Christ.

 

Cubert and Becky have been doing so well! As I have said, they've really adjusted to member life. When we were teaching them the word of wisdom, the lesson was long (probably 1 1/2 hrs) and the spirit was there. At the end, they committed to keep the Word of Wisdom, and they have held true to that since then, not slipping once! And (just as exciting) they paid their tithing for the first time yesterday!

 

Another plug-in for member missionary work - I firmly believe that the support Cubert and Becky received from branch members here in Highland was vital to them feeling comfortable with their decision to be baptized, and that that same support helped them so much after they were baptized as they familiarized (and are still familiarizing) themselves with the "Mormon Culture". We [members] are more different than we sometimes think we are, and new members need a friend to help them learn. Be that friend.

 

Just as important as that, I think its so important for active members of the church to reach out to those who are less active. Oftentimes (though not all the time) those who are coming less feel because they are afraid they aren't wanted. Let them know they are wanted, and be their friend regardless if they are coming to church are not.

 

Well, back to my life. Some of y'all have asked how often we eat with members. We eat with members really inconsistently. There have been weeks that we have eaten 5 or 6 times with members, and weeks where we haven't eaten at all. The mission has discouraged wards and branches to have "feed the missionary" signups, so we eat with members when they come up to us and ask to feed us. The food, all in all, is very similar to what we have back home, with the exception of the okra, collards, turnip greens and butterbeans. Okra is the best, I could eat some every day! Of course, I've only ever had it fried, and I hear boiled or pickled okra isn't as appetizing. I've not had chittlins yet, and I hope I'll never have to. I'm sort of indifferent with the hush puppies and fried cornbread.

 

Conference is coming!! We are excited! We are planning on watching the sessions of conference with different less-active members, and we are excited for the influence conference will have. President Holzapfel in a letter challenged us missionaries to have a question that we need answered going into conference. I invite everyone to do so - Conference has a unique power to speak to the soul.

 

Well, love you all. Thanks for your letters, love and prayers! God be with you!

 

Love

 

Elder Coleman Madsen