FAMILY!!!
Soooooo good to hear from you all. I miss and love you heaps!!! I can't believe I am in my 4th week on the Square and in less then three weeks its transfers. Some of my dear friends that I have made will be going home next transfer and some of my friends from the MTC will arrive. It's cool.
I really love the letters from home so mum, feel free to upload this email to my Facebook page so I can encourage more of my friends to write letters to me. But seriously guys, there is a whole heap of you that will read this, and you know I can't go on Facebook and read all your pages and blogs so jot down stuff in a letter and send it to me. It means a lot. K thanks :) Kia Ora to the parental's, sisters and the grandparents for all their letters. Here is my address again if you have forgotten it: Sister Nicola Chadderton, Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission, 50 N West Temple St. Rm BSVC, Salt Lake City, UT 84150-1891, USA.
Oh and I loved seeing so many familiar faces this week. Thank you Sister Tong for the Milo and Tim Tams they seriously made my week and it was so awesome to see you, Amanda and Ellen. I was heading to the Square for lunch when I ran into Amanda who I learnt was trying to find me and then on Sunday when our Sacrament meeting was almost done I recognized this random girl in the back row. Talk about small world but so crack up seeing Ellen Petty. Tu meke bub!
Well to update you on the week.
Last Wednesday night was our Zone Activity at President Harmon's home - he is loaded as a lawyer - but is so loving! We went up to his house in the mountains somewhere and had a massive chill session. Some of the sisters went on a hike and others went to the outlet mall but me and some of the other poly sisters stayed and had a jam session on the ukuleles and guitars. Get this, he has his own cowboy room decked out with there own soda machine and lolly cupboard with like king size chocolate bars. Oh, and did I mention they don't have children at home anymore? The house is pretty much kept up for the missionaries lol. So awesome! We had hamburgers for dinner and then went back home. Such a fun day!
On Thursday I passed off. YAY! So, this means we can take any tours including motor coaches and pretty much anyone now which will be fun and as a reward we got a free meal at the Lion House which was perfect timing because on Friday morning we had a zone meeting and they asked us to start a fast on Saturday for all our investigators in our zone. So, Saturday we took our first "official tour" and then rushed to the Lion House, got our food and kind of devoured it and then opened our fast. I love the Lion House so much. Why can't money grow on trees? (lol).
Our fasting was great and at the end we came together as a zone (22 of us) and I got to say the prayer to break the fast and then we basically talked about the miracles we had seen because of our fasting. It was so awesome, one of our progressing investigators text us that morning to say hi while they were sitting in church and they said that the people were so friendly and he was so happy he went. Miracle!!! The missionaries picked him up for church and they have built a friendship with him and are going to continue teaching him but he doesn't want to stop hearing from us too. So he's lucky that he's got 4 missionaries keeping in touch with him. I love the gospel and that was only one miracle because almost every companionship had witnessed a miracle within the 24 hours that we fasted. So cool!
On Monday our district was eating at the lunch table and so I taught them how to play the chicken game. Bgerk! (chicken noise) game. Jordan Scott will probably have to explain it better but its crack up. So there we were 10 sisters playing this game and we were just busting out laughing the whole time. I love my district we are so international. The sisters are from Pakistan, Philippines, Mongolia, Scotland, Chile, NZ (me) and then my companion who is from Alaska. So we all bring something new to the table but we are a really close district. We plan on having a picnic after this.
On Tuesday we took the rest of our explorer day that we were meant to finish on my day 1. It was so awesome. We went to the Church History Library and it was HUGE! Then we went to my companion's favourite restaurant, "Blue Lemon" which is AMAZING! Seriously, it's like, "Where have I been?" Then we went to the Relief Society building and had this awesome tour. We go downstairs and look at all the three General Women's auxiliaries - Primary, Young Women's and Relief Society. So we were on our way out when this lady was talking to one of the hosts. She was so sweet and came up to us and talked to us too and was like, "Its so nice to have known you and met you", and shook our hands and said, "I'm Sister Reeves." Well, I couldn't quite remember who she was but then realized her picture was on the wall that I had just been looking at. Turns out she is the 2nd Counsellor in the General Relief Society Presidency!!! Me and comp were buzzing and literally glowing when we left that building. Oh and they have these books mum where they have recorded every single person who donated $5.00 to the building of the Relief Society Building so that it could be built in October 1947. So, I didn't think I'd find anyone I knew but I looked through to see if any of our ancestors names were recorded. Anyway, turns out I found some and it said, "Heeni Christy of Nuhaka Branch donated $5, Mere Ayra Whaanga also from Nuhaka Branch, Sarah Taurima Whaanga from Opoutama Branch and Tuseiti Solomon from Tahaenui Branch all donated $5 towards the building. It was so special to see some of my whanau from that time who faithfully donated that money. It roughly calculates to about $63USD in today's currency. I love Temple Square! Have I said that??? I can't wait until you all - family and friends - get to come over to see all the amazing things here and learn more about the Church's history because its freakin amazingggg.
This morning I thought we would go to the Temple but we had another mission meeting scheduled at 7:30 a.m. which was exciting too and it was in theTabernacle. First of all, we had a special tour and we got to sit in the choir seats and really feel what it would be like to sing in the choir at General Conference. Dr. Richard Elliot is the principal organist and he told us all about the Tabernacle and the organ and he played us some songs. It was especially cool when we all stood and sang, "Called to Serve" with our missions unique 3rd verse which I'll have to send home to you. But the last lines say, "See All Nations Flow Unto It, our Lovely Temple Square! (repeated).
Our mission is lovely and unique, but it does have its challenges and I always try to focus on the positive. I can't wait to have a proper sit down lesson with an investigator face to face and I miss having primary and young women around. It's weird being so segregated from everyone but its only for a short time. It is my trainers hump day a.k.a half way mark today (9 month mark). I'm trying to work hard and make every moment count as well as have a great time.
I love you all. Thanks for your prayers and please write me letters as I love getting them. I don't expect fancy packages because they take so long to arrive and cost so much but send photos or letters. If you'd like to hear from me then you should write me first okay, cool thanks.
P.s. On Saturday some of my district are going to get pizza's delivered (if we are allowed) and have a little celebration so, "Happy B'day to me!" Yippeee!
Pic 1 - Sister Elliot, Sister Olden and me
Pic 2 - Dr Richard Elliot at the organ (look out for him during General Conference)
Pic 3 - Sister Reeves - 2nd Counsellor General Relief Society Presidency
Pic 4 - Me, Sister Wilhelm (Chile), Sister Richardson (our District Leader, from Scotland), Sister Calderwood (Alaska)
Pic 5 - Couple in glass case reminded me of the grandparents
Pic 6 - Off to zone activity
Pic 7 - Me and Sister Wendy Vaivai and her companion Sister Mata'utia from the Gold Coast
Pic 8 - Me sitting at the organ
Pic 9 - Me and my companion
Pic 10 - Sister Magaoya drinking milo and eating Tim Tams
Pic 11 - Me hugging the books
Pic 12 - Me and John Wayne cut out.
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