January 21, 2013

Been having a great last couple of weeks here in Highland Home!

 

V---, S-- and S--- continue to move closer to baptism! We've been teaching them, and all three were at church yesterday.  We are still planning on a February 9th baptism with the three of them so S-- and S---'s father can be there.

 

We're still teaching E--- and looking at a baptism date this Saturday. She still has concerns but enjoys coming to church and has been reading from the Book of Mormon every day. President Holzapfel is actually coming down and teaching her with us tomorrow.

By the way, you pronounce Honoraville "Huh-nor-vuhl". In the south you say "-vuhl" instead of "-ville" (Greenville, Honoraville, Prattville etc)

 

The weather dropped off very fast. Early last week we were in the upper seventies, then it dropped in 2 days to highs in the upper 40s!

I thought I'd take a minute to tell you about our district this transfer. I realized I didn't tell you how our assignments changed at transfers. We (Greenville and Highland Home elders) have the most random district assignment! We are assigned to Tuskegee District with Tuskegee, Alex City and Wetumpka (Elders and Elder and Sister Windsor), cities east and north of Montgomery. We meet in Montgomery because it is the most central city for all the areas. We have a great district though!   Elder Munns (our district leader) serves in Tuskegee with Elder Taveiuveu (think I spelled it right). Elder Munns came out around the same time as me and is a great district leader. Elder Hunt (from the MTC) is in the district and is training our mission's first 18-year old missionary (Elder Gomez). Elder Hardman and Elder Campbell  are serving in Wetumpka. Elder Kelley is in Greenville and is training Elder Hawley (from Arizona).   I'm enjoying serving with Elder Cusick. We get along really well. We both have experience in the area so we know a lot of the people.   Love you all!   Elder Madsen

 

January 14, 2013

Hello Family and Friends!

 

Crazy week in Highland Home! Sorry I wasn't able to write a whole lot last week - it was a hectic preparation day!

 

The biggest news is that we have four baptismal dates! E---, V---, S---and S--- (all investigators from when I was here before) have committed to be baptized (E--- on January 26th, V--- S-- & S--- on February 9th).

 

I was on exchange with Elder Tolman (one of our zone leaders) when we made the 4 commitments on Tuesday.  It was a really powerful day.  I  think he's from Lindon (maybe knows McGills?).  E---'s was initially this last Saturday (the 12th), so we taught her every day this week. Ended up pushing it back a couple weeks to give her time to breathe though.  It worked out really well because the early date gave her an opportunity to progress. Probably the happiest, most stressed out, and longest week of my mission so far. But I've survived :)   A lot of really spiritual experiences.

 

We've [also] been able to see V--- and her grandkids three times this last week. I saw them on Tuesday (when they committed to be baptized), and then Elder Cusick and I taught them on Wednesday and Thursday. V--- wasn't able to attend the Stake Conference broadcast cause she's back in the hospital. It was really impressive that S-- (her 12-year old grandson) found a ride and came anyways!

 

Big week for Alabama football! I know I've not really commented on sports or my "team affiliation" before now (thought I should focus on the missionary work) but I had a lot of "Bama Pride" after Monday night's game :)

 

Crazy weather this week! Highs in the upper 70s and Low 80s. Seriously!! We've been tempted to turn the AC on but it seems criminal to do that in January. It's supposed to get colder in the next few days though.

 

We had our "Regional Conference" broadcast which included the stakes in the Birmingham, Jacksonville, Baton Rouge and Little Rock Missions yesterday, together with Stake Conference the night before. Elder Cook and Elder Scott spoke.

The main message from Stake Conference and the broadcast was teaching gospel principles in the home, and how the home should be the main place of gospel learning. They talked a lot about how the Book of Mormon is key and doing this, and how families should be reading the Book of Mormon together.

 

It was an exciting weekend for the Highland Home Branch. They organized a high priests group leadership yesterday. The branch now is pretty much now a functioning ward, with attendance averaging in the mid-80s each Sunday.

 

As you know, Elder Christoffersen is coming to the branch soon. There will be some other General Authorities coming with him. 

 

Well, that's all I have time for now. Keep E-- and V---  and S--- and S-- in your prayers! I love you all!

 

Elder Coleman Madsen

January 7, 2013

Susan's note:  Coleman was transferred back to Highland Home January 3rd.  He has a new companion but was able to attend and participate in the baptism of a young lady who he and Elder Kelley had been teaching over the previous weeks.

Hello Family and Friends!

Well S--- was baptized yesterday! It was a really cool experience. She had wanted to be baptized for the last few weeks, but we hadn't been able to get to teach her a whole lot. The whole thing was put together last minute but, overall, it went well. We only got that one picture as they were leaving because we were having "hot water issues" (missionaries' worst nightmare at a baptism) so we ran out of time to do pictures before. The Greenville branch came up here to Highland because they don't have a baptismal font, which worked out well so I was able to be there. It was a really good experience for Elder Hawley (Elder Kelley's trainee) to see a baptism so soon (less than a week out in the field).

Elder Kelley & S. at her baptism

I am gonna compile my journal entries on S--- and send them to y'all so you can get the full story. The whole experience happened on off weeks so y'all probably want to know more. I'll send a baptism program as well.

President N--- baptized her, Elder Kelley and I gave the talks, and Elder Hawley (Elder Kelley's new missionary) confirmed her. President Holzapfel gave us permission to do the confirmation there at the baptism since stake conference is next week.

It has been great to be back in Highland Home!....

These pictures are from transfers on January 3rd:

Elders Hullinger & Forbes from Coleman's MTC District

Coleman with Sister Leifson (She's from Eagle and was one of Susan's Mia Maids!)

Elder Kaupert (Trainer and then district leader)

Coleman's 3 companions so far (Kelley, Kaupert & Cusick)

December 31, 2012

(Last post for 2012!! Time flies...)

Hello Family and Friends!

Hope all is well! We had a good Christmas here in Greenville.

I need to update you on a few people since my last letter (a lot has happened in the last few weeks). So A... (who I mentioned to the family in my call home) is our latest investigator and is progressing really fast. She is an 18-year old from Arizona living here in Greenville with her godmother. She's been keeping all of her commitments and should be baptized in the next couple of weeks. She has come to church the last two Sundays and is getting to know the people there.

Of course, as soon as we have a baptismal date approaching is when I get to leave....:/  We got our transfer instruction calls this morning! I will be leaving Greenville after serving here for 3 months (6 months if you include the time we covered the area in Highland Home) and Elder Kelley will stay here and train a new missionary. The big news is that I will be returning to Highland Home! How cool is that?  (I've decided that I'll be banished to the south end of the mission the whole two years, haha). I'm really excited to be able to go back and serve with the great saints there. Elder K... will be leaving Highland Home so I will serve with Elder Cusick (from El Paso, TX) who is the missionary that Elder K... has been training the last couple transfers.

I have really enjoyed the time I've been given here in Greenville. True, it's been a little slow. But I really feel that we were able to do a lot of good here. People are starting to warm up to the missionaries a little more, more members are coming more regularly to church, and the baptisms are coming. It will be cool to still have Elder Kelley in my same district and to be able to see how Greenville continues to grow!

I've neglected to tell y'all that Elder Quentin L Cook is presiding at a regional conference here in two weeks (whether he'll be here in Alabama or if it'll be broadcast from Salt Lake I don't know yet). And of course, Elder D Todd Christoffersen is coming to the mission in February.

Will have pictures for you next week :)

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year!

 

Love you all!

Elder Coleman

 

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