Final Days

Mom! 

     It is way crazy to think I will be home so soon!! I am excited to see everyone,  I hope everyone is doing okay and that they are all happy. Haha, that is a good quote that you sent ("Leaving the church during times of adversity is like running out of your storm shelter during a tornado"--has real meaning for us Kansas folks)--all it takes is one time to start a bad habit. Elder Hamilton of the Seventy, two conferences ago, told the story about his dad who said, "I will never forget the day my parents went less active." His dad said that back in the day Priesthood/Sunday School meetings were first on Sunday and then you would go home and then come back for Sacrament meeting. One Sunday his mother asked before they went to Sacrament meeting, "Well should we go to sacrament or should we go on a family car ride this afternoon?"  Elder Hamilton said that he saw the look in his father's eyes and knew that it had never crossed his father's mind that they didn't have to go to Sacrament meeting; and, from that day on his family hovered between being active and less active. Whenever I am tired and the last thing I want to do is to go read my scriptures or pray, I always think of that story and it scares me right into reading my scriptures and saying my prayers!

     

     The mission is still going great. I find myself getting more and more sad at random times though, like when I was sitting in a small wooden shack in a water village; it hit me so hard that I have one week left of mission life and then it is all gone. I will leave these amazing people and go back to my nice life in America. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair--what did I do to be born into such good circumstances? I grew up with two parents who always had plenty of money and with everything I could ever ask for, while some kids here don't even get to go to school. My worries at age 16 or 17 were so different. While I was worried about winning a high school basketball game, these kids have to worry about finding a job to help their family survive!! It is just crazy; these two years have been the craziest of my whole entire life!  This time has been such a smack in the face that showed me what the world is really like!

    I am so thankful for all the amazing lessons I learned on my mission; they truly have changed my life forever. When I used to teach people and see how sad they were, I would always worry about them and think how we could make them happy. But, now I see it so simple. There is only one way to true happiness and it is through living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     Haha, yes The Pig was wayyy good! It was a gory day though; I saw more pig blood in one day then I want to see in my whole life!! But I got everything signed up for school and everything is ready!!!  I give my last testimony in a couple days at zone conference and then I actually go back to Sandakan for three days, fly back to Singapore, get my departing interview on Wednesday afternoon, then Wednesday night get my departing dinner, and then Thursday at 6 a.m. start the 20 hour journey home!!

I love ya momma!! 

Elder Madsen