Mini-America!

Mom!

      Hey!! We just got back from Singapore!   It was amazing!  Singapore is so much like America it is unbelievable. I ate at Dairy Queen, drank a Monster, and ate Mexican food...sounds like my life before my mission!!  Singapore did destroy me money wise, it was like 60 sing!!! That’s 120 RM!!!!  (120 RM is $38.72—the missionaries get 200 RM a month from the Church to live on - Martha)

     We had a crazy experience with one of the missionaries this week.  He become possessed in the middle of the night (note to self...do not mess around in Chinese Temples.) So, we had to bless the house and the Elder, but he is okay. It is so true what you said about as you come closer to the Spirit, you also become more sensitive to other things too!!

      Things in our area are still a little rough! We work with the less active members way more than we work with investigators.   It is hard to get motivated because we don’t have any new people to teach; but, whatever, I like working with the less actives too. We have this one family who hasn’t come to church in a couple years, but they came to fast and testimony meeting this past Sunday.  When I bore my testimony about the Atonement and about how we can all change, the mom just started bawling. Afterward, she said that she missed the feeling of the Spirit so much and that she wanted to have that feeling again. Over the past years, the husband has gone back to drinking and smoking, but he for sure felt the Spirit too!  Hopefully, we can get them going.

     We baptized Koko last week and afterwards the senior couple bought everyone KFC! It was a solid night!  The elder senior couple is kind of a loose cannon. He consistently makes the most debatable comments I have ever heard!! I was translating his talk for everyone at Koko’s baptism.   In his talk, he told Koko that when you are baptized, you enter into the family of Jesus Christ, so now Koko could call himself “Koko Jesus Christ." I was like nope...I am not going to say that! But the senior elder insisted, so as soon as I translated what he said everybody just sat there with the most shocked look on their faces…it was pretty embarrassing.

    We also saw the family of the mother that passed away last week and it was amazing to see the change in them.   I remember that she was just a mess when her mom was dying, but after the blessing she said that she felt at peace.  She said that she knew it was her mother’s time to go, but that everything would still be okay! It is so amazing to see the power of the Priesthood.

      We went to some longhouses deep in the jungle this week and partied with the Ibans for Gawaii...98% of the Ibans were drunk, but other than that, it was sooo fun! They really know how to party!! I ate and ate and ate some more. Person after person kept inviting us to their house. The Ibans in this area would totally accept the Gospel, but unfortunately they live three hours deep in the jungle and don’t have a car...so we have to wait till the President authorizes a church building there.  But, this week was wayy fun!!

     I am still loving my mission and only have two weeks till transfers!!! I love you guys and miss you!!

Elder Madsen

Sibu Success

     Yes Mom, we do have a code word if we are in trouble.  It is "RUN!"  The stupid Filipinos did keep attacking Malaysia, but they were just some pirates from the Philippines who were taking on the whole Malaysian army!!!  I think they have it all under control now.

Inside view of Iban Longhouse

     This week is the famous Iban holiday Gawai. We got to visit all the members in their longhouse and ngagat (Iban dance).   We also had a huge Gawai party this week and it was so much fun! I had to ngagat in front of everyone and, of course, all the Ibans just laughed at me.

    This week I am baptizing Koko on Thursday and an Iban girl named Shela in two weeks!! We don't do too much door knocking because we spend most of our time working with all the less actives that are here, but once Shela and Koko are baptized that is the end of our investigators; so, haha, we will have to start knocking on doors again.

    Today was a really sad day.  Last Tuesday, we went to the hospital to visit a member’s mom who has breast cancer; she is only sixty but she looked like she was eighty.  When we first saw her, she was doing okay.  She was talking, eating, and looked fairly normal.  After we gave her a blessing, she progressed really well for the next couple days. But then, these past two days she really dropped! We went to visit her today and she looked bad.  You could see that empty look in her eyes and her body was swollen all over.  You could tell that she was ready to go, but her body just wouldn’t let her.  Her family also knew that she was dying and the one thing about Ibans is that they have ALOT of family. So there were about twenty people watching her through the glass.  Her daughter was in the room crying by her mom. The daughter had fasted for two days and had so much faith that she just knew that God could heal her mom. So with everyone watching through the glass, I went in there and gave her mom a blessing. As soon as I started, I knew it was the mom’s time to go.  When I blessed her that she was going to a place that was filled with peace and comfort, her daughter just lost it--and then so did I!! It was so sad.  I doubt she will make it through the week. I think that she is still alive because of her daughter--she will not leave her side.  It scares me because she is younger than Dad!  Tell Rick to keep running everyday so he will be alive when I get home! (It would also help if he laid off the late night pantry raids - Martha)

     Next week we leave for Singapore for Zone Conference!   I am so pumped to be in mini America again.  I love you mom so much and I miss you!!  Only about a year left!

Elder Madsen  

Sibu

Mom!

   Your right, I was just thinking the other day of how I didn’t like Miri at first and then by the time I left, I had fallen in love with that place and the members there. I don’t think I will ever be able to forget the people in Miri, but I am getting to love the people in Sibu as well.  The city of Sibu is an interesting place. It is like Miri except Sibu is a lot poorer.  All of our areas are behind big buildings where the people have built little huts and shacks in the alleyways.

     Some parts of Sibu are on fire right now.  I just got back from an area called Sibu Jaya, where my bff from the MTC is serving. I had to give eight baptismal interviews there!!! They are baptizing people by the handfuls in Sibu Jaya. . . but other areas haven’t had a baptism in some years.  

Uno Champ getting baptized!

     We spent most of this week trying to find the less active members in Sibu, but we also found some new people to teach. We are teaching this little boy who loves to play Uno with us.  We told him that if he does his reading, we would play Uno with him!  He is such a good kid.  Every week, he brings his friends to church and teaches them out of his Book of Mormon picture book!

     In the last four months that I have been working with the Iban, I have never felt the presence of the Spirit so strongly in my life; but, I've also never felt the presence of Satan so strongly in my life.  The Iban culture has pagan rituals in which they practice a belief in witches and evil spirits.  We have had some crazy experiences and close calls; but, I have witnessed the power of the Priesthood in dealing with those experiences.  It has made me realize that evil spirits do not stand a chance and they know it. Whenever we meet people who have are possessed, the one thing that those people cannot stand to see is us--they will do anything they can to get as far away from us as possible. It makes me glad that I am on the "winning team" as President Mains always says.

I love you Mom and I loved Skyping with you!!

Elder Madsen

Funnies!

     On Mother’s Day, we had the wonderful opportunity to Skype with Elder Madsen.  A couple of hours of talking produced a lot more insightful stories than a weekly email.  What follows is some of the more humorous stories—the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

    We asked Elder Madsen if he would ever like to serve in the mission home in Singapore.  With a definite head shake of "No", he explained that other than the AP’s the only elders that serve in the mission home are those that have excellent computer skills.  The Singapore Mission covers more than a thousand miles, so keeping tract of housing and paying the bills is quite a chore—one best done by a computer geek (aka: someone under the age of 25).   Ostensibly, this is a well-known fact because none of the missionaries will admit to having computer skills!  Michael told the story of a new missionary who wasn’t aware of the computer geek potential and therefore let it slip that he was really good on the computer.  This elder was immediately transferred to the mission home and remained there for nine months.  He worked with the previous mission president for five months and then stayed on an additional four months to help the new mission president get acclimated to the daily business of running the mission.  Apparently, neither the new mission president nor the newly assigned senior couple were computer geeks; therefore, many errors were made which ended up financially enhancing certain Malay landlords’ bank accounts.   This humble elder did not want to point out the errors to his leaders, so after everyone went to bed, he would spend several hours each night hacking into mission accounts in order to make the corrections.  This elder told Michael that the four months he spent working with the new mission president were the most stressful months of his entire life!

      Elder Wong is a native missionary that Elder Madsen knew in Miri.  Elder Wong’s primary language is Chinese, but he practices his limited English skills on his American companions. Quite out of the blue, Elder Wong started randomly saying “end quote” at the end of his sentences.  This really confused the other elders as they had no idea why Elder Wong continually used that phrase. However, the light turned on as the missionaries were watching a videotape of general conference.  Elder Wong was simply imitating his church leaders; therefore, he thought that he was supposed to say “end quote” after every sentence!

      We asked Elder Madsen about his love for the tribal Iban people.  Once Michael stopped laughing, we learned that our pronunciation of Iban (which we unquestionably pronounced the same way one would pronounce “ipod” and “iTunes”) was completely incorrect.  The correct pronunciation is e(long e) ban(short a). Who knew?  Thanks to  Apple, I never considered that there would be any other way to pronounce a word beginning with the letter "i".  

     

     Although internet sources say that as of 1930 the Iban people no longer practice headhunting, one has to ask what to do with all those extra skulls laying around.  Skull chandelier anyone?

Martha

Moving On!

MOM!!!!!!!!

     I am getting transferred to Sibu!!  My greenie and I are “white washing” in Sibu!! (We are opening up a new area all by ourselves.) We are still pretty close to Miri, but I am so, so, so sad.  I just wanted to cry. I already told the members in Miri that I was leaving and they were pretty upset.  They wanted

Iban girls at Gawai Dayak festival

to show me off to all their friends during Gawai Dayak  because I can eat so much.  (Gawai Dayak  is an Iban festival celebrated on May 31 and June 1 of every year. The Iban’s fix up their houses and make a big feast.  Then everyone goes from house to house visiting and feasting on food.)  Anyway, the next two days, I will just be going around saying good-bye to members and trying my very, very best not to cry.  I am like 100% shocked.  I didn’t think that the President would ever have one semi-experienced missionary and one brand new missionary white wash an area! It is going to be really, really, really hard, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

    This week has been a pretty good week.  We found ten new people to teach, so the new missionaries that will be coming into our area are pretty lucky! We spent six hours knocking doors on Thursday and we met this one amazing family! I was so pumped! We taught them about the restoration and they were really receptive to the message.  I think once everyone gets past Gawai Dayak, the family will be baptized! 

    On Saturday, we were out knocking on doors when my branch president called and said that we needed to be at a less active member’s house in ten minutes for a funeral. We biked super fast and the moment we stepped inside their house I heard in Iban, "We will now hear from the white man, Elder Madsen."  I was like, what??  So, still drenched in sweat, I had to get up and share a message on the Atonement! When I die, I want an Iban funeral. No one is even sad!! It is like a party!!  Everyone just comes together and eats kampung food and laughs!  Their funerals are awesome.

     The Malaysian elections were yesterday and the government was voted out.  The people here are pretty upset to say the least...we were not even allowed to leave our house yesterday (Sunday).   It was soooo boring!  We literally sat inside allllll day long.

     Well that was pretty much my week...I am still debating about running away to live in the jungle with the Iban people.  Then when my mission is over, I’ll just pop out of the jungle and fly home, haha! I cannot wait to talk to everyone! Next time you see me, I’ll be in Sibu!! I love you mom and I can’t wait to Skype!! 

Elder Madsen 

P.S. Can you add white strips and deodorant to my birthday list?