Hi Whanau!
Wow! I cannot believe that it's already been a week since I last emailed, and yes dad I've hit my 8 month mark and its terrible. Sorry! When they say a mission goes by fast ,they are not kidding and now I'm thinking that possibly as women we get jipped 6 months of serving, but all goods, the Lord has a plan for me and I will obey.
Well, get this, as you know, on Thursday mornings we have Relief Society and last week we went to the Relief Society Building and we had a guest speaker by the name of Sister Carol M. Stephens who is the 1st Counsellor in the General Relief Society Presidency. Yay! The lesson she gave was so, so, awesome. My companion and I are in charge of the music for Sacrament meetings, we often we are asked to lead the music for other meetings. We were asked to do the music for our Relief Society meeting and it was just the coolest experience. From what I wrote down in my planner, Sister Stephen's covered material in her talk taken from the book, "Daughters of My Kingdom." She talked about how the church wasn't organized until the Relief Society was organized and that there were servants of the church that were women during Christ's time. We were encouraged to read Romans 16 about Phoebe. She wanted to let us know how much Heavenly Father knows us individually and she shared some cool experiences about when she was called into the Relief Society General Presidency and how she was set apart for the world. It was so cool. She gave us a hug and it was so sweet. So, I took some photos with my Mission Relief Society Presidency. They are, Sister Carter (CA) Relief Society President, Sister Ince (Canada) 1st Counsellor, Sister Vaivai (NZ) 2nd Counsellor and Sister Creal is our Secretary.
Oh, I'm glad everyone liked the picture with Elder Leota. That was cool and I can't help but think of him as Kendall.
Anywho, I had an interesting experience last Friday when I was in the Teaching Centre on the phones and I receive a call and it's from a missionary who is serving in the Virginia Mission. He called in just to make sure that the phone number on the pass-along-cards that they hand out, works. I just laughed when he said that and responded, " Elder, oh ye of little faith!" Turns out he is from Utah so I asked him if he knew anyone that I could call and share the gospel with. He said, "Yes, my mum!" Wow! I was surprised and then he told me that his mum is less active and hadn't been attending church for a while and gave me her number. I was excited to call her after we hung up. I learnt that she became engaged on Valentine's Day and will be married before her son returns home. I invited her to the Square with her fiancee so that I could show them around, but also to share a lesson and help them commit towards getting sealed in the Temple in the future. Her fiancee is not a member and I'm really glad the missionary that called in allowed me to call his mum.
So, this past week has felt like we've had a lot of anti's visit Temple Square. I shouldn't be surprised as it happens a lot here. There was one strange guy in the Beehive house who kept asking hundreds of questions, like, "Is this original or is this original?" "Where did you get your facts from?" " Where is the manual?" " Can I have the manual?" Sadly, he didn't want to listen to any answers so our friends in security came over and told the man it was closing time. Turns out, the next day he came back and did the exact same thing to some other sister missionaries. Yep, exactly the same thing! We have a lot of wonderful and interesting people come to the Square and it really is a great place to teach, especially when you have amazing tours where people are willing to listen and be taught. Yesterday, we went on our first motor coach tour meaning, we have a big bus filled with a group of people arrive at the Square for a tour. I hope to go on one of these tours one day. The company is called, "The Moostache Joe Tour Bus!" Epic! We had 33 sweet, elderly people arrive to take the tour but they all needed to go to the restrooms first. We then started the tour at the Assembly Hall, and then onto the Tabernacle where we did the pin drop. The flag pole was next and one guy asked some great questions so we showed them the Temple Model and then ended at the Christus. They were so cute and most of them kept saying, "Speak up Love!" I guess it's because they are elderly but the spirit was so strong and when they asked questions and it was great to be able to answer them. But, the worst thing happened at the end of the tour. So sad! We were taking them back to their bus and one of the ladies had dropped a $5 note and it was flying along the ground so one of the old men started chasing it and he ended up tripping over and landing face first in the snow with the rest of his body on the concrete floor. The part I saw was him ricochetting off the wall with snow on his head, holding the $5 note tightly in his hand. Firstly, I nearly had a heart attack and secondly, I thought I might have to call an ambulance. Well, other than being a little embarrassed, he stood up, dusted himself off and walked towards the bus. I was so glad he wasn't hurt.
Our practices for the March 15th performance are slowly getting better. We have two hour choir practices on Sunday nights and during the week we meet with the Island performers to practice Pokarekare ana, Poi e, a Samoan Siva and Aloha Oe. We're getting there! The stage that we will perform on is so tiny but we are working around it. We had a two hour practice this morning and now I'm wasted. Lucky for me it's P-Day and I can sleep.
I've had a great week family and on Sunday we had Elder Richard G. Hinckley and his wife speak in our Sacrament meeting. They were great and I enjoyed listening to Elder Hinckley share stories about his dad. Oh how I love President Hinckley! His wife spoke about the importance of keeping a journal and he talked about the sacredness of the Sacrament and how many people take it for granted. He also talked about the pure doctrine that we have about the true nature of the Godhead. It was so cool.
I love the mission and I love you all. Be safe!
Sister Chadderton,
P.s. Keep writing to me. I love your letters! My address is below:
Sister N Chadderton
50 NW Temple St Rm BSVC
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150
United States
Picture 1 - Performance practice
Picture 2 - Place mats we made
Picture 3 - Sister Gillette, myself and my companion
Picture 4 - Me with my Mission Relief Society Presidency
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