Fletcher Madsen formerly in Africa

Spokane, Washington, that's close to Angola, right? Fletcher.madsen@missionary.org https://fletchermadsen.blogspot.com/ This week has been really amazing, but a little bit sad. Many Elders and Sisters in our zone, including all the other Elders besides Elder Gordon and me in our district left this morning. We decided to meet one last time on Sunday night as a district and talk about how amazing our time has been here at the MTC, especially with each other. After we shared stories, words of encouragement, and some spiritual thoughts, we sang hymns #249 and #152 together, "Called to Serve" and "God be with you till we meet again". It was a little sad, but strengthening as well. Our district has been such a good example to me of righteous missionaries, doing the Lord's work and thinking of others before themselves.  After the Elders in our district said goodbye to our Sisters, we went back to pack. But we decided before we needed to g...

Another crazy week at the MTC. Elder Gordon needed to get his eye checked out, and I had to get an x-ray for my finger for a volleyball injury. Don't worry though, nothing serious, the Lord definitely protects his missionaries. Elder Gordon got some nice shades from that visit, so he got to show those off a bit. We pretended he was blind and helped him walk to class, we got plenty of weird looks as you might expect. It may not sound extremely fun, but we had a blast doing that. Also, Elder Gordon and I have yet to receive our visas, so I might be spending my first transfer serving the in the Spokane, Washington mission. There's definitely not a lot of Portuguese speakers there, so I'll have to study very diligently in the hour of language study that we are allotted in the field. I'm starting to even think in Portuguese, so going to Spokane for 6 weeks might throw me off just a bit, but with the Lord's help, anything is possible. I know wherever I am called t...

Week 4 Fletcher.madsen@missionary.org https://elderfletchermadsen.blogspot.com/ 3 weeks down! Ola amigos! I can't believe that I've been here for almost a month. Time is starting to fly by. I don't think I've gotten eight hours of sleep a night in my life before this, but even as I'm getting more sleep than ever, I still feel fairly tired most of the time. The missionary schedule definitely takes a lot out of you, but it is so worth it. A good example of me being tired, this morning (Preparation day, commonly known as P-day) I went to wash my clothes, but I put them in a dryer instead. I didn't even realize I put them in a dryer until I came back and realized they were very warm and not as wet as usual, whoops. Luckily my tide pods didn't explode, so it just ended up being a minor setback. The gym has been closed for a while, so we've been playing a lot of sand volleyball, which has been really fun, other than when the bottoms of our fe...

Weekly Email (Tudo bem!) I never liked being healthy anyways, it's too comfortable for me. If I'm not making any new antibodies how can I possibly be progressing? Okay I'll stop with the jokes, but yes Elder Gordon and I were sick this week, although Elder Gordon was worse for sure. We've been practicing staying positive so we've just been joking about how this is simply preparation for Angola and how we'd rather be sick. Trust me, I' much rather be healthy. My diet definitely doesn't help. The horror stories about the food at the MTC aren't true at all, but I swear the only vegetables I've seen on campus are lettuce and sometimes tomatoes in salads. Guess I should start eating some of the three year supply of vitamins I have stored up, but that would just make too much sense.(Just kidding, don't worry mom I'll be alright, and yes I started taking them today) Exercise time definitely isn't as fun when you and your companio...

Well that week went by a lot faster, at first time felt so slow but now I kind of want it to slow back down again. It was definitely another crazy week. Elder Gordon and I learned a lot about what being zone leaders is like through trial and error. Honestly, being a good zone leader is mostly setting a good example, and we're plenty busy already. Portuguese is coming along at a decent pace, thanks to our wonderful teachers and district that has been great friends but help to keep us focused as well. I finally found an actual sized basketball at the courts today, so that was fun. The other Elders joked that I'm zone leader because of my basketball skills, definitely not true in the slightest, but it's a nice compliment, and it feels good to hoop again. Most of my most funny and crazy stories so far involve Elder Tafuna, an Elder in my hall who plays football (or played I guess) for the University of Utah. He used a paper towel and an iron to cook a hot pocket in one han...