Selamat Christmas!

Mom! 

     I’m glad you liked your birthday present.  The lady who made the bracelet said that the beads mean power and beauty so queens mostly wear them.  Since you rule the house with an iron fist,  I think it fits you well!!  I didn’t know if Meg would like the purse I got her for Christmas.  It took me a while to pick it out!  I hope she likes it--this lady made it by hand!

      I loved Skyping the family!  Everyone pretty much seems the same!    Mom, the last words I heard you say when I hung up was, "They better not throw him in jail; I’ll get my passport ready."  I just started cracking up--hahaha. Don't worry mom, the police here have fake guns and I am way faster than they are, so I can out run them!  I probably wouldn’t be able to show my face outside for at least six months though, because I am the only orang putih (white man) in Melaka.

Elder Madsen, Elder Johnson and friend

     The sisters made us a really good Christmas dinner and then after dinner we went to an Indian ladies house.  She made us homemade fried chicken and roti.   It was the second time on my mission that I had to tell my companion to pull over because I thought I was going to throw up. The Indian ladies just kept piling the food on my plate and even though I begged them to stop, they wouldn’t.  I really do miss BBQ so much; there is no such thing in Malaysia. I would kill someone for some ribs or brisket. The closest thing they have in Melaka is chicken feet.

     This past week has been pretty eventful!  Christmas was really fun, of course.   Then on Wednesday, we met a huge Tamil family and we went over to teach them. They were really accepting and it was going really well until a 5 year old boy walked right in front of me, looked me in the eye, and then pooped on the floor right in front of me.  Of course, I instantly started gagging uncontrollably--it just ruined the lesson! But after everything was cleaned up, the family committed to read about the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So we will see how that goes!  On Thursday,  I was in the jungle teaching at the Tamil kampung again and this time those jungle dogs were vicious. I was flying through the jungle on my bike and one dog jumped in front of me and I hit it!  The dog was okay, it just ran away, but then three more dogs came out of nowhere. One jumped on me and bit my leg.  I let out my most intimidating yell and the dogs all ran away, but it was crazy!  The bite didn’t break through to my skin, but for some reason I have a weird rash on my leg.   I hate going through that jungle!!  Those dogs just wait for us and then they pounce!

       Friday was just a plain, rough day... The water at our house was having problems and so my companion went up stairs to try and fix it.   All of the sudden, I heard a scream and what sounded like a waterfall in our house. I sprinted up stairs and found my companion lying spread eagle on the floor with water shooting out of a broken pipe on the wall.  I sprinted and turned the water off, but the damage was already done.  We had to call the plumber to come fix it.  I was already in a bad mood when we left the house; so, I started riding madly into town, hit a speed bump and just totally ate it. I was so mad! AND then to top it all off, that night while we were eating durians at a member’s house, someone stole Elder Johnson’s bike! As soon as we walked outside and I saw that his bike was gone, I got on my bike and rode straight to the Portuguese Settlement.  They are the worst people alive; all they ever do is get drunk and steal stuff.  I knew it was them, so I rode over to the Settlement.  These drunk guys started cussing, throwing stuff at me, and saying stuff about white people and Americans.  They knew that I was there to look for the bike they stole, so they all got pretty confrontational.   It was like the whole Settlement was ready to kill me!!  I decided to just get back on my bike and ride away; however, I did tell them that I was going to call the police, but I know that the cops won’t do anything. I hate to say it, but that bike is gone--long gone. I am just glad they didn’t steal my bike! 

      Besides the water and the bike incident, this week has been really good!   We met a lot of new people and newly baptized Brother Tan is doing really well--so overall, a pretty solid week!!  I love you mom and Happy Birthday!! I will let you know when I get my package from Singapore!! 

Elder Madsen 

Reflection

Mike sent everyone in the family Christmas letters and gave us a glimpse of his overall thoughts on his first six months of his mission.  The following is a collection of his letters:

      So far on my mission, I've had some of the most discouraging and loneliest days of my life; but, at the same time, I've had some of the most rewarding and best days of my life.  My least favorite part of my mission is tracting by our house because all the Chinese just slam the door in our faces.  I also get fed up of being in the rain every day of my life, always being sick, and always having people yell stuff at me. Some days we bike up to 15 miles in the pouring rain.  Then when we get home, we are soaked and because we don’t have dryers we go to bed soaking wet.  The best part of my mission is seeing the change in people.  One man that we baptized had a drinking problem, no job, and three kids to take care of.  His family was basically homeless; but, we taught him the gospel and now he has a job and his family can afford a house!  On Saturday we had our second baptism.  It was such an amazing feeling!  I remember when we beat Bishop Meige in basketball my senior year.  When the fans rushed the court, I felt like I was on the top of the world; but, on Saturday, I felt a hundred times better than that.  When we first contacted this guy, he was always making excuses of why he couldn’t meet with us and he always would cancel his appointments.   One day we just told him straight up that, "We didn’t leave behind our families for two years just so we could come here and baptize people.  We came on a mission because we know that what we teach is true and we know that it will improve the lives of everyone who hears it."  After that, the guy met with us and from then on he kept progressing and progressing.  At the time, he was drinking six shots of super strong coffee a day and in three weeks he stopped drinking it altogether.   It was amazing!  After he was baptized yesterday, he gave one of the best testimonies I've ever heard.  

     The most important part that I have learned on my mission is how truly blessed I am.  I used to think that my life was so hard.  All I worried about was school, girls, and basketball.  I see kids here with no clothes begging on the streets.  They don’t have parents and they have to beg on the street or go to work when they are seven years old.  They have to worry about what they are going to eat, where there are going to sleep; and, for some of them, if they are going to live to see another day.  I have learned that I am blessed to have a great family and a great home.  If you had told me that on my mission I would ride my bike tem miles everyday in the rain, I would have said, “No Thanks!”  But, I find a joy in missionary work that I didn’t find from basketball or friends.  Even if I am sick as a dog and soaking wet all the time, I am still always happy.  

Thirteenth Week in Melaka

Mom!

     Thanks for sending my Christmas package!! I should get it soon when the APs come to Malaysia--I can’t wait!!   I now have a pretty cool battle wound.  About six weeks ago, I got too close to a motorcycle and it burnt my leg really bad! A huge bubble formed on my leg and everyone kept telling me that I needed to go to the hospital, but I was afraid that they would try to cut my leg off or something.  Now I basically have a tattoo from the burn; it’s fully healed, but the burn left a dark scar on my calf.  You wanted to know about the snake picture that I sent you.  Elder Sroufe and I found that cobra dead on the street! Elder Sroufe scared one of the Malays with it and the man got so mad that he called us babi bodoh which means “stupid pig”—haha!   

Babi Bodah Cobra

     This week one of the district presidency came to visit Melaka and he felt so bad that we had to ride 30 minutes to church every week that he gave us 50 RM each!! The rest of the week wasn’t too exciting.  We tracted almost every day to find new investigators, but we just got rejected pretty bad. We didn’t find even one person to teach!!  But, something pretty cool did happen.  Our investigator who I am baptizing on Saturday was having problems feeling the Holy Ghost.  I had the feeling that we needed to watch the restoration video with him again.  We watched the video with him and he said that he felt so peaceful at that moment, like he didn’t have a worry in the world.  I told him that feeling was the Holy Ghost telling him that everything he had learned is true; and, BOOM, he’s being baptized in just a couple days!! That makes two baptisms so far! Other than that, we went to Singapore for Zone Conference.   We got to watch the Christmas Devotional—President Monson’s talk was amazing!!  While I was in Singapore, I ate a burger for the first time in awhile--a big juicy one with bacon and an egg on it!! Just like home!!  Also this week I trained my new companion on the area and went with Elder Sroufe to say goodbye to everyone.  Can you make Ginger live for another 19 or 18 months!!  You can do it! (Ginger is already 12 years old, so Mike is asking for a miracle!) I love you mom and can’t wait to Skype in just a couple more days!! 

Elder Madsen

Twelfth Week in Melaka

     Elder Stroufe is getting transferred today--so he is a little grumpy.  The two places in the mission that missionaries do not like to serve are Singapore and KL (Kuala Lumpur).   It is really hard to find people to teach in those two areas.  The other day, Elder Stroufe and I were trying to guess where he would be transferred and he said, “If I go to KL for my last area, I will kill myself!”  Guess, where he is going? Yep, KL, so he is pretty upset—haha.  I already know my next companion, Elder Johnson.  He is a pretty cool guy. 

      We had our branch Christmas party this week. It was a good party except that I lost my Santa job.  Remember when I told you about the new senior couple that just came to Melaka?  Well the husband has a lot of the same qualities as Santa (age-wise and look-wise), so he stole my Santa job. I was devastated!!

     This week we went back to teach the Tamil family that we found in the jungle.   It went really well!  After the appointment was over, it was really dark and we could not see a thing!  While we were riding home,  these crazy jungle dogs attacked us from out of nowhere.  Nothing serious happened though; the dogs tore my pants a little bit, but we managed to get away after they chased us for a while. The Chinese man that we have been teaching is pretty much baptized--we are getting everything ready for his baptism on the 23rd of December. Elder Stroufe and I also had a rematch this week against those little badminton girls.  We had been practicing hardcore, so we were pretty confident going in. But this time it wasn’t even close, they just destroyed us!!  We also stopped by another member’s house and found him passed out drunk on the floor with his kids running around outside.  His wife went out of town and she is the one that holds that family together. As soon as she leaves, he just goes and gets drunk.  So we took his kids to get them something to eat and then we made sure that they stayed inside the house!  We also visited my favorite sister.  She had us come over to clean her house while she spent time watching her front door to make sure that no one would murder her.  I told you that she is crazy! 

     That has pretty much been my week.  I am still enjoying our nice new house and I am getting excited for my Christmas gifts!!!  I hope everything is going good.  I love you and miss you! 

Selamat Christmas!
Elder Madsen

Eleventh Week in Melaka

     This week in Melaka was pretty good!!  On Thursday we spent the day with Sister Molly--she is probably my favorite member! She is hilarious mom; I wish you could meet her!!  She never leaves the house--like NEVER. She has her daughter bring her food three times a day and she sits there and watches TV.  She finally had to leave the house to go to the bank to sign something, so we got to go with her, probably the highlight of my week!

       This week we moved into our super, super nice house. We have a massage chair and we actually have beds too which is nice.  We are in a brand new area so we have a lot of places to tract that missionaries have never been to before!! The AP's also came into Melaka on Friday to do splits. My job was to take one of the AP's across the whole state of Melaka to try and find this small village of Vietnamese whom we could teach.  So, of course, I got lost and we spent basically the whole day wandering around Melaka trying to find our way back home. Other than that, the AP said I did really well, haha! We went to that village that we found in the jungle last Saturday and taught a Tamil family and it went really well! The Chinese guy that we are teaching is still doing really well and still on track for his baptism on December 23.  He was drinking four cups of coffee a day and now he doesn’t drink it at all!

      The Zone leaders are coming today to go biawak hunting with us! Oh, and a drunk guy threw a beer bottle at my head and I ate white fungus soup; so, overall, a pretty solid week!!  I love you mom and miss you!! 

Jumpa Lagi,
Elder Madsen