Worlds Without Number

Sister Madsen and I have the wonderful opportunity to teach the Gospel Principles sunday school class in the Young Single Adult ward at BYU Hawaii. It is a ward of wonderful young students and non-students living off-campus in the nearby town of Laie. We are having a rewarding experience interacting with these fine young people both at church on Sunday and when we see them coming and going to their classes throughout the week.

One of our recent lessons was on the subject of Jesus Christ as our redeemer and creator of the universe. To highlight this theme I compiled a slide show of the earth, the milky way galaxy and countless galaxies millions of light years away from ours. The images were taken from the Hubble Space Telescope in low earth orbit. It has special equipment to record images in deep space using light frequencies outside of those visible to the human eye. Looking at these images is an awe-inspiring experience. We are amazed and grateful to the scientists and technicians who  continually advance our understanding of the physical universe through inspired research. We are likewise grateful to God for continually advancing our understanding of our spiritual universe through ancient and modern scripture. Each compliments the other. Science and religion are both testaments to the glory and omnipotence of God. It is amazing to realize how much the ancients understood about the physical universe through pure revelation from the Holy Spirit. We are blessed to have both science and religion.

We hope you enjoy watching this 4 minute video as much as we enjoyed preparing it.

Aloha from Hawaii,

~ Elder Joel Madsen ~

From: "O to P"

This week we attended the Fall Ohana Meeting at BYU-Hawaii for all faculty, staff, and missionaries/volunteers. It was a meeting to review the summer activities such as the sailing of the Iosepha and the Campus Expansion projects and to introduce all new faculty, staff, missionaries and volunteers. Ohana means "Family" and family means "nobody gets left behind".

The rest of the week was filled with the usual meetings and a trip to Honolulu to meet with several testing labs.

On Saturday the week culimated with a gathering of friends at our neighborhood swimming pool. The pool party was a blast. Joel had Hawaiian music playing in the back ground using his I-phone and small speakers; he prepared some awesome hamburgers and hot dogs, too. The children ranged in ages from 18 months to 17 years of age so there was lots and lots of splishing and splashing. There were quite a few 'cannon-balls' as well. It was a potluck affair with lots of yummy food: delicious salads, fresh-cut watermelon, chips and dips and cookies. It was great socializing with a few co-workers without discussing work!

Joel and I have been asked to teach the Gospel Principles class. This was our first week to do so. We are looking forward to getting to know these fine young men and women in more depth. The lesson was on our Heavenly Father. Joel put together an awesome mini-video with photos from the sands of the seas to the stars in the heavens. It testified as did Alma that "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a 'Supreme Creator" - Alma 30:44

Aloha nui loa,

Sister Madsen

God's Wondrous Creations

Our new surroundings in Oahu have afforded us a fresh look at nature. Here in the tropics we are observing and learning about plants we have never seen before. Some of them are absolutely amazing. I am constantly in awe of the wisdom and benevolence of the Gods when they created this world. "And the Gods said: Let us prepare the earth to bring forth grass; the herb yielding seed; the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed in itself yieldeth its own likeness upon the earth; and it was so, even as they ordered." (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 4:11)

The scriptures also help us remember that all these creations were to beautify the earth and be of benefit to mankind. This purpose has become more obvious to us as we have observed some of the trees found in our tropical environment. I will post a few photos we took this week and let you comment on this blog what benefit to mankind you may see in them.

On another topic, we are pleased to announce that we no longer need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. We have free range chickens everywhere on the North Shore of the island... even in the shopping center.

[caption id="attachment_338" align="alignright" width="300"] The chickens are coming![/caption]

The roosters begin crowing about 4:30 a.m. but we don't hear them too often. What we do hear every morning is the beautiful chirping of the birds living in the tree outside our bedroom window. First one bird starts a chirp at about 5:30. Then another chimes in a few minutes later. By 5:45 a.m. we have a chorus of birds all singing a beautiful cantata. This continues until the dawn breaks and then once they are all heard and accounted for, they go about their business finding breakfast. It is truly a wonderul daily ritual of nature.



Lastly but not least, we had a surprise call from our friends in Pepperwood, Skip & Lauralee Douglas and Greg & Karen Tanner. They were here visiting for the week in Laie and the night before they left the island we had a marvelous 3 hour dinner at the Leonardo's Restaurant here at the Turtle Bay Resort. What a delight it was to see our friends again.

Next week we are meeting up with Fred & Marilyn Glauser and Dan & Sherrie Wells from our old ward. We look forward to sharing a Hawaiian meal with them and renewing our friendship.

The following week our dear friends Terry & Debbie Green are staying with us for a week. Their daughter Jaimie is getting married here on the North Shore and we are excited to visit with them and be part of this celebration.



Until next time, a fond Aloha!

Elder Madsen

The Iosepa

BYU-Hawaii's 57-foot traditional wa'a kaulua or twin-hulled Hawaiian sailing canoe, Iosepa, be trucked via semi from BYU-H campus to Hukilau Beach in Laie where it was later launched with the aid of a special tractor. It will remain moored off at this location for a few days prior to setting its course for a trip around the island. This event occurs bi-annually so we were thrilled that we were able to see and touch this magnificent vessel and watch the process and see it moored in the bay the one time it will be done during our mission term! [slideshow]

I like looking at old churches and barns and there is a barn right here on the property at Turtle Bay. I've got a good look of it on the mornings I walk the golf trail and finally took my phone on one of the walks and got a shot of it as well as a close up of the flowers of the Plumeria tree.

Had a fun P-day yesterday as we had some friends over for brunch in the morning and then went out to dinner with the other construction missionaries, the Essley's, in the evening. It was fun getting to know them all a little bit better.

We reallly enjoy attending the single students ward. They are all so awesome and it is fun learning about them: where they are from, what they are studying, etc. Today in Sacrament Meeting, we had two young women speak on agency. Tiara from Australia and Maria is a Peruvian born Californian.  A third young woman, Lisa, spoke on life being a journey and that the Holy Ghost is our traveling companion. And on this road trip we may get a little road weary and road dirty from wrong turns and we can't get the dirt out no matter how much we try but the Savior can through the Atonement. I really related to that analogy having done loads of laundry over the years! Relief Society was taught by Cisi  who is from Tonga and served a mission in Chicago, Illinois so you can see that we have great diversity here and we love it!

Aloha From Hawaii,

Sister Madsen

Getting Down to Business

We have been extremely busy this past week, learning our new assignments, trying to remember names and faces, trying to remember what goes where and doing some strategic thinking for the construction projects... whew! Time has really flown by and sometimes it doesn't seem like we have accomplished very much. However, I am sure that we will become more productive as the weeks pass and we settle in.

The people we work with in the office and in the field are wonderful! They are the salt of the earth and we love them all. Our church assignment allows us to work with the college students on the weekends and once the ward gets re-organized, we will be working with students during the evenings... Can't wait.

We have Hawaii license plates on the Lexus now. They will become a souvenir when we return to the mainland in a couple of years. We celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary on Friday August 10th. After a longer than expected work day, we drove into Honolulu and did some shopping and went to dinner at PF Changs (they have a full gluten-free menu... hooray!) and then went to the movies. We arrived back in Kahuku at just past midnight, but we didn't turn into pumpkins so everything turned out okay.



Terry and Debbie Green's daughter Jaime is getting married in Hawaii in September so Terry and Debbie will be coming to the island to stay with us for a week. We look forward to their visit. This is a hint for any of the rest of you who would like to come visit us... su casa!

We are too busy to be homesick but of course we love and miss you all. Keep in touch and may the Lord keep you safe and healthy.

Aloha from Hawaii,

Elder Madsen