Hi family!!!
Yes, yes, I know, it's been a week and a half and no emails! But I did warn you that I wouldn't have a P-Day last week if my Zone was changed and yup, it was changed.
But, first we had Transfer Conference on Monday (last week) and I was a wreck leading up to it because of nerves. I had been with my trainer for 3 months and now a new companion, what? We met as a zone and found out about lots of changes. My companion Sister Calderwood was sent outbound to Louisiana for 3 transfers so I won't see her again until the end of March. Crazy!!! And my new companion is Sister Fialho from BRAZIL! Cool hey! "Bom Dia" is good morning and to say hello its, "Oi" lol not too different to what I say anyway but its fun learning Portuguese. We have taken a few Portuguese tours and the people are really lovely like my companion. But you might notice I look like a whale next to her in the photo because she is very tiny. She is a vegetarian and this contributes to that fact. Poor thing I don't know how she does it but I love her so much and we have had a great first week together. She is super patient and always involves me when we take the language tours and translates my English for the the Portuguese people.
Well, after we found out everything that was happening, we had Transfer conference in the Assembly Hall which was fun, and it was a musical program and the sisters who were performing in the Visitors Centre choirs got up and performed. So I got to sing a few times which was fun. Sister Kealamakia is no longer AP and for her last transfer is a zone leader and Sister Schiaffi from Newcastle Stake is the new AP with Sister Lane from Canada. Oh and my new zone is North 1 so I'm still on the Square quite a lot which is great! Especially since the Christmas lights turned on last Friday.
But wait yes I do live with Sister Smith and she is so sweet! She was companions with my last District leader and its cool to have another Aussie living with me because Sister Schiaffi was living with us but moved out after transfers. Sister Smith is a Zone leader and is so nice. I love her.
So, Thanksgiving was so much fun, honestly, I don't mean to brag, but my mission is the bestest mission. We were on the Square until 1:00 p.m. then we met up at West Gate and caught a bus not knowing where we were all going to or what we were going to do (our leaders like to keep us in suspense). But we arrived at this place called, "Noah's Ark" which is a huge Recreational Centre and we had a massive party. We did a Thanksgiving play to start the celebrations and then there were all these activities for us to choose from. There was Karaoke, Walleyball (so much fun I'm a huge fan) it's volleyball but in a room like a squash court, you could play pool, ping pong, watch Monsters Inc. or Brave or do Christmas crafts. I did Karaoke with my fellow friends Sister Vaivai and Olden and heaps of other sisters and it was crack up. There was cowboy gear provided so if you wanted to you could dress up while you sang. Then we all had a huge Thanksgiving dinner and guess who came to dinner? The General Primary President - Sister Wixom and her husband. Their son is married to the daughter of a missionary couple in my mission - Elder & Sister Creer - and they were asked to put together the Thanksgiving dinner for us all and when her son told his family that his inlaws were planning and organizing the dinner, Sister Wixom asked if she could come to meet all the sisters. So, she did and she had a line of missionaries wanting to talk to her and take millions of photos and she was so sweet. I didn't want to make her just take a photo with me so I didn't but it was so cool having her come. Well, after eating a true American feast we did, "Line Dancing!" Yep! If you can imagine all the sister missionaries going crazy to the country music and dancing it was so much fun. I pretty much danced the rest of the night away as well as played a bit of pool and walleyball. I didn't feel like watching movies again because the last time I watched Brave I was with Button, so stink I didn't wanna watch it without her. But it was so much fun and our Mission Presidency got up and did some line dancing too which was crack up!
Well, the day after Thanksgiving is huge because it is when Temple Square lights up and believe me, "It LIGHTS up!" I can't take pictures at night because there are too many people but the lights are beautiful and there are people EVERYWHERE! It was very overwhelming the first day but I'm getting used to it more and more and I love meeting soooooo many people. The Lord really guides us to who we should talk to so I trust in him.
On Sunday we went to a baptism for Kumbay who my new companion took on an investigator lesson with her old compaion Sister Puttapong from Thailand. Kumbay is in a Thai/Laos Ward and there were 6 Temple Square missionaries who attended the baptism because my companion and her old companion (with her new companion) don't drive (only American and Canadian sisters are allowed to drive). But it was the best baptism and it seemed like the whole Ward had attended and everything was in Thai - I thought Joe would love that. We had to have translators and this one sister translated the whole thing. It was pretty high tech. Afterwards they invited us to eat and there were tables of food lined up of Thai/Laos/Cambodian and American food. It was like missionary heaven. They were so sweet to us and made sure we went first because we had to quickly eat and then get back to the Christmas madness at Temple Square. I think I'm gonna ask President Gillette if I can do my outbound to just that Ward. LOL
But last night and every Monday night the Temple Square missionaries perform in the North Visitors Centre. I sing a few times throughout the night so I go on exchanges with Sister Magaoay - my MTC companion - on Monday's because then our companions can still do the assignments we have. It is so much fun performing and our Mission President and his wife and President Seppi were sitting in the front row and supported us the whole time. It was special and I really do love my mission.
Yay for Sister Chadderton's layover! I am so, so, so, happy! I emailed my Mission President today about the layover, so I will find out details of what we can do while shes here.
Thank you for all your letters. I hadn't received any mail in over a week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. The mail room was shut down from Thursday-Sunday and yesterday I received an in-flux of mail and it really did bless my day.
Well, family its 4 weeks until Christmas and know that I love you all. Thanks for all the support you give me because I really do feel the love from you. Enjoy the hot weather because it's flippin' freezing here. I don't know if I could live in Utah after my mission because I really dislike the cold.
Be safe and keep praying everyday.
Oh, and challenge for the week, "Share the message of Jesus Christ somehow, somewhere, whether it be through a phone call, Facebook, email, at McDonalds etc.. It doesn't have to be long but do it and the Lord will bless you."
Merry Christmas
Love Sister N Chadderton xoxoxoxo
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