22 October 2013

Hi family,

WOW! What a crazy, epic week it has been since I last emailed.  I hope I get to share with you the most important pieces of information from my past week.

Okay, so I want to to share what happened before I left the South Carolina Mission to return to Temple Square.  So, on Monday night we had pizza at Bishop's home and it was so awesome.  Pretty much our whole zone arrived for homemade pizza.  Seriously, Bishop is the bomb! The next day I finished packing and a member drove us to Irmo and I went on exchanges with some Sisters that were waiting to find out who their new companions were. Sister Hopper was one of the sister missionaries waiting and I was so happy to see her as she was my first companion when I arrived in the field.  At 5:00 p.m. we met back at the Irmo chapel where we had dinner with the new trainees - fresh from the MTC and they had a testimony meeting and President Holm had Sister Nilsson and I share our testimonies too.  That was an awesome experience.  We stayed at the mission home that night and were dropped off to the airport early the next morning.

Arriving in Salt Lake City was so awesome as we were welcomed by screaming friends at the bottom of the escalator shouting, "WELCOME HOME!"  It was so awesome and the escalator was moving too slow for my liking because I wanted to run down it and hug everyone.  Sister Vaivai was there and some of my other close friends and it was a sweet, sweet reunion. Then we went outside and there were heaps more Sisters waiting to welcome us as well as pick us all up and again more screaming and hugs!  So fun! My first trainee, Sister Pipe wanted to drive me home.  She is a trainer now and I was so happy for her.

My new companion is Sister Vach from Seattle, Washington and we are the Temple Square Co-ordinators.  This assignment was implemented a few transfers ago and it is a really tricky one to explain.  Basically,  we help make the Square run smoothly and we do a lot of the training on Temple Square.  We are in the office a ton and attend the weekly staff meetings with the Mission Presidency. I have really enjoyed it so far and it is an assignment where we are giving a lot of our time to help the Sisters.  We open and unlock the Square everyday at 9:00 a.m. so we miss out on our personal studies at that time and have to make it up later.  But my companion is seriously the best and we have a lot of fun.  Sister R.Walsh is my District leader and Sister Olden and Anderson are my Zone leaders and I am so happy!   Oh and get this, "Sister Olden and I are taking a VIP tour with a Senator Elect of Australia this week!"  It's going to be awesome.

So, I have no idea who all the new Sisters are because there are over a 100 new sisters and I am struggling with their names but its been less then a week since returning so I'll get there.

I have loved being back on Temple Square and while I am missing South Carolina and all the people I am grateful for technology that allows us to keep in touch.  I called our investigator Brian yesterday and he went to church and I was so happy!  He is striving for baptism next week so please keep praying for him and his brother Jeff.

We are really busy as usual on Temple Square and I love looking for the miracles each day. We took a tour the other day with this sweet, sweet, couple from Kentucky.  One of their business associates had dropped them off for a tour (he's LDS) and it was the coolest tour. The Spirit was so strong and they are looking forward to meeting with missionaries once they get back to Kentucky and we are going to call them next week.  Miracle! 

Family I can't thank you enough for the package.  I got it the day after I arrived and I had a party with my room mates that night - munching away on the choccies. Oh and mum, I have the little bag for Sister Bunting, let me know when she comes to the Square so I can give it to her. The package was awesome and the shoes were very much appreciated!

This is my companions last transfer and next transfer  it will be my last.  I love my mission and I love that the world is hastening the work. Can't wait to be a member missionary when I come home.

Love you all, thanks for your prayers and love.

Sister Chadderton

15 October 2013

Hi family!

Thank you for all your prayers and emails this past week. I have had an awesome week and I will be leaving the South Carolina Columbia Mission on Wednesday morning to fly back to Temple Square. Tomorrow we are driving to Irmo where I will say goodbye to my companion because she will be training and needs to attend a meeting with the new trainees.  I will be with another companionship in the Hopkin area until 5:00 p.m. after which I will stay the night at the Mission home with Sister Nilsson.  We will wake up early the next morning to catch our flight at 4:00 a.m. to Salt Lake City.  It will be a very short night!

As mentioned earlier, this past week has been good and we have been finding more and more people to teach. We had dinner with a lovely family the other day and I learnt that the wife is not a member.  She said she would be interested in learning more about the gospel and she even attended church on Sunday with her two children.  It was a huge miracle!  Unfortunately, her husband's work stops him from attending Church on Sunday's but I loved how she came without him.  She's wonderful.  We sang in two different Wards this past Sunday.  One Ward met at 9:00 a.m. and wanted us to do a musical item because they heard us practising for Zone Conference a while ago so we sang for them and then we sang again in our own Ward.  It was awesome, especially when the speaker in our Ward spoke about the Prophet Joseph Smith's First vision and we just happened to sing the song, "Joseph Smith's  First Vision" to the tune of, "Homeward Bound."  Double witness of the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his First vision!!!  It was so neat.

Well, today is going to be a busy day and I said most of my goodbyes yesterday and I know I will miss my Ward SOOOOO much.  I love the people here and I'm so grateful that I got to meet so many wonderful people.  I still have lots of laundry to do along with packing, printing off photo's and going to Bishop's house for pizza.  I'm so happy that my last night is at Bishop's because he's so awesome!  I hope you get to meet him because he's coming over to New Zealand in February for a holiday with his family.  You will love them!

I can't believe that the three months of my outbound experience has come to an end and I'm very much aware of the time I have left before my mission finishes.  I am so blessed with all of the experiences I've had.  I love you family  and please pray for me that I won't freeze when I get back to Salt Lake City on Wednesday!

Sister Chadderton xoxo

8 October 2013

Hey family!!!

Oh my goodness, General Conference was AMAZING!!!!  It was so nice to view it all without having sore feet.  I am so grateful for the blessings that the Lord gives us but I want to tell you about my past week which was awesome.

Monday night we had a great lesson with the Taber family who live on a golf course.  They are vegans and we were served some of the most delicious food.  Anyway, they had invited their neighbours over to hear a gospel message.  I believe the lesson went well, mainly because I remember coughing and spluttering a lot through it due to my flu.  I'm grateful for the spirit.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and then carried on to our next lesson with the two brothers - Brian and Jeff - our Hawaiian whanau.  Jeff didn't join us in the lesson when we last  visited but he joined us this time.  He told us of a dream he had and I was in the dream but he doesn't remember what I said but he woke up feeling at peace about the things I had said so he decided then to start joining us on the lessons.  When we would visit before he'd come up with lines like, "This is more for Brian then me!"  I think he's realizing its important for him to learn and do as well.  The lesson was awesome and following the lesson they invited us over for dinner on Saturday.  They had made us Kailua pork and chicken luau with pasta.  I think they knew this kiwi girl was missing her polynesian foods.  I love our investigators!!!  The biggest blessing came when both Brian and Jeff attended the Sunday sessions of General Conference at the Chapel the next day!!!!  They even asked for a priesthood blessing from the Elders.  It was so awesome.  I love the gospel!  Please keep them in your prayers as they are struggling with personal issues and are to be baptized next week.

Well, on Wednesday we woke up at 5:00 a.m. and car pooled with the Sisters in West Ashley area to Irmo.  It is a two hour drive and we arrived a little early so we stopped by the waffle house for breakfast.  At 9:00 a.m. we had Mission Leadership Council with all the missionary leaders and it was so good.  We had a break for lunch and later came together with all the trainers and district leaders in the mission. There was about 180 of us at this meeting and it was a little overwhelming but the spirit was awesome.  My companion and I did our training segment which was all about working effectively with members and the importance of 1) Earning the trust of members,  2) Meeting with the members before the lesson to fill them in on the lesson plan and 3) Testifying of what the members share.  We did a role play and it was super fun.  You really had to be their to capture the spirit of it all.  Because the training was for two days, we got to stay the night in the mission home with 21 other sisters.  It was so much fun and I'm definitely excited about seeing my sisters on Temple Square (T2) next week.  The next morning, we got up and did some exercising where we went running around the Irmo Dam and it was so beautiful.  I forgot my runners so I just ran in bare feet!  Go me!  The leadership training was awesome and I really love the South Carolina Columbia Mission and I know I will miss it terribly when I leave.  The members and investigators are so awesome. I don't think I'll get to see any of my investigators baptized in person but I'm excited to call them and strengthen them when I get back to the Square.

General Conference - President Monson in the Sunday morning session gave an awesome talk and in his opening remarks he basically said that he would go home after Conference and write in his journal that this was one of the most inspiring conferences that he has ever attended!  Cool aye!   The Waddle family are amazing and had us over on Saturday to watch the first session of Conference with them.  They'd put on a huge spread of delicious food for everyone.  We watched the second session at the Ward families home and that was fun too. I really felt the Lord's love for us this weekend because everyone was talking about missionary work and how they should do more of it with the members and be evenly yolked.  I have decided to change my way of thinking so that instead of having a fear of returning home because I will miss my mission,  I've decided to turn that fear into excitement and get excited for my next mission - being a member missionary and helping all of my loved ones who do not have the gospel to learn about it through the missionaries.  So, if any of my friends are reading this who are not members of the Church, visit mormon.org and chat with a missionary on their because they can help answer any of your questions and help put you in touch with the missionaries in your own country. This message will not only bless your life but the lives of your family members too.

Thank you family and friends for all of your prayers.  I really do feel them and I know it's your prayers that carry us missionaries through the hard times.  I loved all the talks at General Conference.  I felt that the speakers were very direct and BOLD in their messages and I loved it.  The main theme I got from conference was how daily decisions determine destiny and how God's laws and doctrines don't change.  Another huge thing was making sure we are not putting anything before God.  I loved it!

Well, I better leave time to email some other people but thank you family for all you do and for all the people who are sacrificing for me to be here.

Love you all,

Sister Chadderton

Leadership training, Waddle family, Kailua pork and chicken dish.

1 October 2013

Aloha family,

We've had some awesome miracles this week which included going on exchanges with the travelling Sister missionaries - Sister Gale and Sister Garlick!  Joseph - I had your families photo hanging on the wall in my room and Sister Gale looked at it and said, "I know him, he's from Hawaii and he graduated from Kahuku High School!"  What a small world aye? Anyway, during exchanges we were able to find more people to share the gospel with.  There have been a few moments where I've wondered why I was sent to the South Carolina Colombia Mission to serve out my outbound experience and I believe I have had a few witnesses as to the reasons why.  One of these witnesses happened this week while we were visiting some less actives.  When we left the less actives home we decided to do some tracting in the neighborhood.  It just so happened that we knocked on this one door and a guy comes out and we introduce ourselves and ask him a few ice-breaker questions.  After the formalities he said,  "I'm actually moving overseas soon for College."  I then asked him, "Where are you moving to?"  He then replied, "I'm moving to New Zealand!"  You cannot imagine my surprise when he said that.  I told him that I was from New Zealand!  He was excited and told us that he was accepted to AUT and will be studying some course with a very complicated name that I can't remember.  His course starts in January 2014.  Crazy!  In all my excitement to hear that this guy was moving to our beautiful country I failed to seize the moment to ask if we could leave a message with him but we will try and visit him again during the week.  

We have been finding so many people to teach through the help of our less active and part member families in the Ward.  One of our investigators attended church yesterday and it was such a tender mercy.  The day before church, we called him to remind him of attending and he said that he had gone out to buy a white shirt because the other night when we had a lesson with him one of the members asked him if he had one.  He is from Hawaii and was just planning on wearing an Aloha shirt to church but when we had called him he told us that he wanted to show respect for Heavenly Father while at church so that's why he went out and bought one.  It was so cool having him come and sit with us at church.  Our Summerville 2nd Ward members are amazing because they really understand the importance of helping investigators and almost every testimony that was shared yesterday was directed at the investigators that were in attendance.  Those who shared their testimonies were all converts to the church and their stories really helped the investigators continue on their journey towards baptism.  The Spirit was so strong and I am so grateful for everyone who shared.

So, I caught the flu from Sister Gale while on exchanges and have been sniveling, coughing and sneezing a lot. My companion has been very patient with me and I swear the whole time I was on Temple Square I think I only ever got sick once.  However,  I come to South Carolina and I feel I am constantly battling something.  Oh well trials make us stronger!  This next week we have lots of training to do in Irmo.  We are going to a Missionary Leadership Council on Tuesday morning and then we have Leadership Training Coordination for the rest of Tuesday and the whole of Wednesday.  My companion and I are doing a whole training on teaching with members so that'll be fun.  I love how President Holm's gives my companion and I opportunities to give training to our fellow missionaries.   All the Zone leaders, District leaders, Trainers and Sister Training leaders of the mission will be at the leadership meeting so their will be a lot of people in attendance.  The mission home is approximately two hours from where we live in Charleston so we will be staying at the mission home for the two days of training.  I'm so excited!!!  I'm trying to get myself well enough so that I don't spread this flu bug with others.

Well, miracles happen everyday and while I feel I never have enough time to email you about all of them, I am glad you are enjoying my letters home where I feel I can write and share more about these miracle stories.

I love you all and thanks for your prayers.  It's kind of sad to think that I won't be on the Square during General Conference this weekend with my Sister's but I'm very excited for General Conference nonetheless.  We are watching the Saturday session at one of our members homes - the Waddle family - and on Sunday we will go to the Chapel with our investigator's to watch it.  The Relief Society broadcast was AMAZING!  It was all about making and keeping covenants and I know that's what this life is all about.

We have lots of lessons lined up for tonight with our investigators.  Yippee!

I love the Lord - One faith, One Lord, One baptism!

Sister Chadderton

P.s.  Awesome to hear about all the new mission calls.   I am so stoked for everyone.