"Things will get better, they always do."

Mom,

     Tell everyone thanks for the prayers; I could definitely feel the blessings. Elder Wiberg was sent back to his parents this past week in his full suit and name tag  The memorial service went really well. My companion (who trained Elder Wiberg), Elder Berger (MTC companion) and I gave talks at the service and then President Mains closed. It was a really amazing experience to see the chapel 100% full and to see the love all the members had for Elder Wiberg.

     I have really felt the power of the Atonement work in my life this week. I remember the night of the accident just having a feeling that everything would be okay, and even though things weren't okay in my book, that peaceful feeling never left me. I have always had a huge fear of losing one of my family members and that I would never be able to get over it...but, this experience has confirmed to me that all trials are overcome through the Atonement. Something that I felt impressed to talk about at the memorial service was a talk I heard from Elder Holland. He told a story that took place a while ago of a young man and his wife and his two little kids wanting to move across America.  They started their trip and 37 miles into the trip their car broke down. The young father left his family and walked the three miles back to the nearest town.  He found a nice old man to take him to his car and then take the car back to town to get it fixed.  At the shop, the workers couldn’t find anything wrong with the car, so he took off with his family again--and 37 miles into the trip, the car broke down again. So the young father had to make the walk back into town--again. Elder Holland then said if he could speak to that young father, he would tell him to keep walking, to keep pushing through…that "things would get better; they always do". That talk brings peace to my mind..."things will get better; they always do".  I know that is true. This week has been a rough one to say the least, but I know things will get better. Whatever trials we have in life, we can always fall back on Elder Holland’s advice, "Things will get better; they always do." I did see things get better this week. It's hard to forget what happened and get back to work, but that's what we all have to do--especially the Elders that are serving here. We have a work to do--we have priesthood responsibilities to fulfill. A great example that I thought a lot about this week is Dad. He's never taken a break or a rest from his Priesthood duties even through his lay-off or whatever has come up. One thing that I've learned on my mission is that there is no use dwelling on things; what’s done is done and it’s we that need to keep going.

     This week the zone was very motivated and Elder Crosland and I found two new families to teach! A brother in the branch that we met a couple times was working in his garden and, while he was burning stuff, he passed out and fell into the fire.  His wife pulled him out, but it was too late. So we helped with the service and met some of his relatives who we have now started to teach. We also met this Iban couple that got married at 15!!  We were teaching them about the restoration and it was going really, really well; until, a drunken guy came out of the middle of nowhere and ruined everything!! He was terrible; he kept yelling things in Iban about praising Jesus and for some reason he really liked sniffing my hair??  I think it is my Pantene shampoo.  He then tried to lick me and that was when we decided to call it night.  We told the couple that we would come back later!

    

     This week. I have been reading from this huge book called “The Restored Church”; it’s a great book. It has so many details that I never knew! You should find it!!

     I love you mom and thanks for the prayers! 

Elder Madsen