Christmas 2012

We talked with Coleman by Skype for an hour while we were in Utah. He looks great and had lots to share with us.  (It was the fastest hour on record:)
Here's  a picture of him while skyping us on Christmas!! (Yes, we were all crammed into the screen camera)

Pictures we received from him:

Cool Looking Clouds

Elder Kelley in their study room

Their  apartment from the outside

playing an old rusty piano at an abandoned house in Greenville

Downtown Christmas Lights

Our car

December 17, 2012 Letter

Coleman and Elder K at the temple on Friday

Well I'm finally writing to y'all!   Hope everything is going well for all my family and friends. We've had a good two weeks in Greenville Alabama. As those of you who follow the mission blog can tell, we've had a lot of meetings/activities this month. We had the opportunity to go to the temple last Friday, which was really nice! We (Elder Kelley and I) are busy gearing up for a Greenville Branch Christmas Social that we'll be having on Wednesday. We'll have a dinner and a program with music - I was able to get the mission violin on Friday for it. [By the way I did give the Holzapfels fudge at the luncheon].   Not a whole lot of new investigators in the last week. We've met a lot of different people, but not a lot of them were really interested in what we had to say. S--- came to church on Sunday and we're still teaching her. Unfortunately, nobody else came! I was expecting way more people than that. We were hoping that B--- and A--- (and A---'s kids) would be there as well. We've tried to see a lot of less actives this week, which has been hard since we are  out of miles (on our car) for the month because of all the Birmingham & Montgomery trips. On Saturday with President N-- we went out to a disabled member's house and rebuilt a wheelchair ramp for him.   We had exchanges last week with our zone leaders. Elder Sawyer (from Pete and Laura's ward) spent a day with Elder Kelley and me. He's a great missionary and we all had a good time. He helped us brainstorm finding ideas and ways we can be more effective in the area. (He decorated the gingerbread man in the picture with a bite in its head.)   I wanted to take a minute to thank family and friends for the packages, letters and Christmas cards. I keep and treasure them all, and it's feels good to know that people are thinking about me and praying for me.   Greenville (as you have undoubtedly deduced from my letters) has proved to be a pretty slow area. It's pretty small and people aren't that interested in listening to us. Sometimes we are frustrated (I'd be lying if I said that we were always perfectly happy) but overall we are satisfied with the work we are accomplishing here. It will take time to make this branch here a thriving branch, but we're doing it one step at a time, trying to lengthen our stride every day.   I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. I hope that you all are having (and will continue to have) a great holiday season.   Love Elder Madsen Thanks Jeff and Lisa for the cookies! Enjoying the cookies self photo, I'm guessing!! On the way to the temple

December 10, 2012 Letter

December 12, 2012 

*all photos courtesy of President Holzapfel's Mission Blog


Coleman kept having server problem this morning, so his full letter will come snail mail.


December 10th, 2012

It seems that the server is working now.

Hope everything is well. I'll still send another letter this week.

It has been a good week this week. Not a lot of people found or lessons taught, but still a good week. It was great being able to go up to the mission home for the Holiday Luncheon, even if it's 3 hours away.

We've really been trying to work with less-actives lately. The Greenville Branch is unique in that there are probably 60-70 people on the roster but there is only 1 active family.

Your Son/Brother

Elder Coleman Madsen

Sis. Dunbar, Elder Kelley (comp), Coleman, Elder Cusick, Elder Kaupert (1st comp)

Coleman and Elder Dalo

Playing Away in A Manger at the Christmas Luncheon

December 3, 2012 Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

 

Its been a great week in Greenville! I hope that you all are doing well! The work moves forward!

 

Christmas has arrived here in Greenville Alabama. The city has put up a lot of pretty lights and decorations around the downtown. The culture is very different different here - very few people have lights and decorations on their houses. The Christmas music that they play in stores is really different - pretty much all country and soul.

 

I forgot to tell you last week that I have a new district. Elder Kaupert is still my district leader but now we have 12 (instead of 4) people in our district. The district is us and Highland Home, and now all the missionaries in the two Montgomery Wards. We have Elder and Sister Aston, the new senior couple who replaced Elder and Sister Blau as Military Relations missionaries. They started their mission just three weeks ago. We have sisters in Montgomery now and their names are Sister Kim and Sister Wilson. Sister Kim is from Korea and has been working with the Koreans here in the Montgomery area, where there are a lot of Hyundai car plants (which are owned by Koreans). Elder Crockett and Elder Smidtley are the Spanish Elders for the Montgomery Zone. Elder Banks (Oklahoma) and Elder Hardman (Twin Falls) are serving as the Elders for both the Capital and Carter Hill wards in Montgomery. The transfer before I got out here they had three sets of english elders in Montgomery and until now they've had two, but Elder Banks and Hardman have been really effective in their area and are covering all that territory on their own now (they've had a lot of baptisms). Elder Kaupert and Elder Cusick are still in Highland Home, and then there is us.

 

Not a lot of new investigators to talk about right now. We're still teaching D-- and S-- and V-- and B--. We've tracted half the city of Greenville (you think I'm joking - I'm totally serious) and we are starting to change focus a little bit. We feel that working with less actives more would be an important use of time. It's something that President Nimmer (Stake President) encouraged us to do from the beginning, but I guess we didn't take the less-active work super seriously. There is a lot of potential for convert baptisms with less active and part-member families.

 

I'm running out of time (as usual) but will email more next week. I thank you all for your letters and packages, and especially your prayers. They are needed, and they are appreciated.

 

Christmas is here, and what better gift is there to give than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I am grateful for this opportunity I have to spend the holidays here in Alabama teaching the gospel. I miss you all, but I am happy!

 

Love,

 

Elder Coleman Madsen

from Susan - Coleman wanted me to mention that Elder Christofferson will be visiting their mission in February.  A General Authority visits only once every three years, so the missionaries are very excited to have him come.

November 26, 2012 Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Hope all is well! Sorry I wasn't able to email y'all last week!

 

We had a good Thanksgiving last week. President Nimmer invited us over to eat Thanksgiving with his family. I missed being home though! We also were fed at the Gulley's house (members in the branch). It seems weird that its Christmas season now! Greenville isn't that decked out, but maybe that's just cause its still November.

 

We had two investigators attend church today. D-- and S-- are 19 and we met them on Saturday. They seemed to enjoy church and are planning on coming back. We've been able to teach lessons to other investigators, but its hard to actually get people to keep commitments in this area.People will listen to us talk, but they don't want to do much more than that.

 

We were able to re-establish contact with our former investigator A-- last week. We went over on Saturday and she invited us over for dinner with her family that night. It was kind of a belated-Thanksgiving dinner thing. It was good to be able to see and talk to her again.

 

The weather has been super up-and-down lately. Last night when we were finishing up it was 34 degrees outside, and right now its 75! Alabama weather is kind of different.

 

Our Stake (the Montgomery Stake) has their giant Christmas activity this week. Every year, the saints here put on an "Inter-faith Nativity" where people from all over the region bring different nativity sets and have them on display. They also have music programs going on. Its Wednesday to Sunday from 1-8 each day. It's a lot of time and effort, but its a great opportunity to expose other people to the church. Supposedly a lot of non-LDS are involved in it.

 

We will have an opportunity to go to the temple again in a couple weeks. We'll also be invited to the mission home for a holiday luncheon with the mission president and his wife.

 

Things are going well! Love you all!

November 19, 2012 Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Well, the big news is that we (Elder Kelley and I) are staying in Greenville for another transfer. This transfer will include Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year. Our next transfer will be on Jan. 2nd 2013. I am excited for this opportunity to stay and to work with the people here. I know that we will have a baptism in the next 6 weeks!

 

I will send my letter via snail mail this week. Hope things are going well. I saw pictures this morning of the Boise Temple Dedication and Cultural Celebration. I am so happy!

 

Love,

Elder Madsen

 

November 13, 2012 letter

Coleman playing at the Zone Conference

Happy Early Birthday Mom!

Family and Friends,

Sorry I wasn't able to write yesterday! The public library was closed due to Veteran's Day.

As you've probably seen on the mission blog, we had a Zone Conference last Thursday. This is actually the first Zone Conference I've ever had (not including the multi-zone conference in August. It went really well. The musical numbers I organized turned out. It's hard putting three different numbers together in 20 minutes, but we sang some easier hymns and luckily we have some singers in our zone.

Even though I don't (or at least shouldn't) follow politics on my mission, I couldn't help overhearing the outcome of the presidential election last Tuesday. Tuesday night we were teaching a lesson at an investigator's house, and when we left Florida was tied up with 75% of the votes counted. I was more than slightly disappointed with the outcome, but I have faith that God let happen what needed to happen. I think it's just important that we fast and pray for our leaders, regardless of their party affiliation. We live in turbulent times today, and our leaders need all the prayers they can get. [Did the education measures pass?]

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but as part of my personal study each morning I've been reading 30 minutes of the Book of Mormon. I started a little bit before I got transferred here, and I'm now about half-way through Alma. I think there's something special about reading the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover that you don't get just studying chapters or verses from it. I feel that when you read it in its entirety you really improve your understanding of how it fits together. I've really been enjoying my personal studies lately, especially reading about the Book of Mormon missionaries (Alma, Amulek, Sons of Mosiah etc.).

It has been another kind of slow week. We've done a lot of tracting and have a few new investigators, though none who are really interested in what we have to say (at least yet). We went to Fort Deposit for the first time yesterday, and tracted a little up there. We are still teaching Patrick, although he hasn't progressed very much this week. We've done a lot of service the last few days for a family (members), helping them clean up their house to be inspected later this month. They hope to move into an apartment soon. 

We do have a lot of investigators right now, just not a whole lot who are really motivated to really pray and find out if what we say is true. Some feel the spirit, and feel that what we are saying is true, but we just have got to get them to act on what they feel. The work sometimes is frustrating when people don't keep commitments, but it's still a great work and its great to be a part of it.

I am excited for the Boise Temple re-dedication this week, even though I won't be there for it. I hope that all of the members there have an opportunity to see it.

I love you all!

Elder Coleman Madsen

photos courtesy of Mission President's Blog:

Coleman and another missionary practice discussion techniques