Mom 

      I forgot to tell you more stories from last week.  When I arrived at the Sandakan airport (smaller than our house), I came off the plane with a huge suitcase and with my bike that was all boxed up!!  Of course, there was no one at the airport to pick me up and I knew only the address of where the missionaries lived. So I got on a trolley and just managed to get my bike on there.  I then got off and went to get a taxi. The taxi guy took one look at my stuff and was like, “NO!!”  I begged and begged him to take me, but he was not budging, so I offered him 10 RM.  He took one look at my stuff and then at the taxi and then at my stuff and finally said...”OK!”  There were 12 people trying to smash my huge suitcase, my bike box, and me into that taxi. After like 20 minutes and after putting on a show for everyone in the airport who were watching this white kid with all his stuff get smashed into a taxi; I finally was able to get in.  I had to lay on top of my box in the back seat and ride with my head out the window!! Unfortunately, it cost 400 RM to even fly with my bike, so that is why I didn’t have any money in my account, but the mission has already reimbursed it!

      This week was good; we worked way hard!  However, Wednesday was one of those days where I just thought about home a lot! This area was shut down four months ago and just recently opened back up so there isn’t a lot to do; so, Wednesday was full of knocking on doors and getting rejected. But, it’s okay, I just gotta stay focused. On Thursday, we spent the whole day painting the Branch President’s house...pink!! Three times this week the whole town of Sandakan didn’t have power for several hours and once this week we didn’t have water for the entire day!!! So, it has been kind of sketchy here, but I still love it!

     Yesterday, we went to see a wealthy Chinese widow and we thought we were just going stop by, but nope—she went all out for us. She reminds me a lot of Granny. This is how our phone call went--I called her and she picked up the phone and said, "WHAT!"  I said, “How are you?” and she said, “VERY BUSY!!”  Then there was a pause and she said, "So what time are you coming over...make it 6!” And, she hung up! So, we go over to her house and her backyard is a jungle so she had a bunch of fresh fruit!! Rick would have loved it!! She had fresh pineapple, papaya, banana, and coconut!! Then she cooked us fish soup with Chinese herbs, it was wayyyy good. She is the nicest lady once you start talking to her too!!!

      I sent you all a letter a couple days ago!! It very well could be my last one??  I love you mom and cannot wait to see you!!

Elder Madsen