In 1995, I transferred into a real estate position in my Church employment at the area office in Atlanta, Ga. Soon after, I called Roger Goodwin, a real estate agent who was LDS and who was an appraiser, about a property in Athens, Ga. This was the first time we had spoken, and I introduced myself by name at the beginning of our conversation.

After our business was concluded, he told me my name, Madsen, was a special name to their family. He told me the following story:

Many years ago, the missionaries had spoken with his mother and older sister and left some tracts with them. His father had not paid much attention until one day he was home from work early for some reason, and as he sat in the living room he noticed the pamphlets and began to read them. Almost from the beginning he felt there was truth there and began to hear the missionary discussions. Soon the family was attending Church and most of them were ready to be baptized. His mother was not yet convinced, and they held off making the baptismal commitment for some time. However, they became very active in a small branch that for a couple of years had not had missionaries assigned there.

One day, however, two sister missionaries arrived in town. They failed to find members at home in the area, so they went to visit the Goodwin investigator family, whose name they already had. Roger told the family story (he was not yet born) of how his mother was so impressed by the very new, humble, red-headed Sister Madsen and her simple testimony. Before long, the family was baptized. From this family has come numerous full-time missionaries, bishopric members, temple marriages, plus a strong family heritage of faith in and support of the restored gospel.

I asked him when and where this was and he told me it was in Kirksville, Mo., about 1950. As I thought back, I told him I wasn't perfectly sure of the date, but that my red-headed sister, Dorothy, had served in Kirksville on her mission about that time. I told him I would check and that my sister, now Dorothy Madsen Bramwell, was serving as the mission president's wife in the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission.

I contacted Dorothy, and she remembered the family very fondly and said their first visit was about just her third or fourth day in the mission field, and that the Goodwins were very involved in the growth of the branch and also projects raising money for their building fund — all before they were members.

— Delbert R. Madsen, Brockett Ward, Atlanta Georgia Stake

Another in a series of "Missionary Moments."

Illustrated by John Clark