26 November 2013

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wow!  Transfers!  Transfer week is always rough and I've been a little emotional these past few days knowing that my companion and many of my friends are finishing their missions this week.  I will miss them so, so,  much.  When my friends were sharing some of the things that they have learnt while serving their missions I was just in awe of how far they've come in the past 18 months.  Each of them has sacrificed so much and I can't believe it's all coming to an end for them.  My class will officially be the oldest class in the mission as of Wednesday and we have some pretty HUGE shoes to fill.

 A story of endurance, patience and long suffering that I have learnt since being here on Temple is about one of our sweetest sister missionaries currently serving who is from the Philippines.  Her father was tragically shot at  the beginning of her mission and this is something that she doesn't talk about  a lot as it is a very sensitive topic but her example of humility is something that stands out to me.  She is totally reliant upon the Lord for strength and knows that He will take care of her and her family.  She told me that she chose to stay on her mission after receiving the news despite the challenges that she has had to endure.  She is such an inspiration to me. There aren't too many sisters in our mission that are aware of her story and her example of striving to follow Jesus Christ is incredible and I love her so much!

Well, I have a new companion and her name is Sister Back (pronounced like Bach the music genius) and she is from Finland/Bolivia so she speaks several languages.  Surprisingly enough, she was also companions with my trainer (mama) Sister Calderwood so thats exciting.  I love her already and am grateful we can be companions for my last transfer.  As Temple Square Co-ordinator's we have the opportunity to help the AP's write up the schedules for the whole mission and it can be quite a tedious job because we only have one computer to set everything up on so being patient and working together in unity with each other can have it's challenges.  Thank goodness for the strength we receive from the Lord or we could go a little nutty and luckily I have a companion who is a little nutty too because we found this toy unicorn and pretended to gallop down the hallway as a, "sanity break" and we were about to do it again when 30 odd missionaries entered the Square from the MTC for visitor's center training.  They had come down to the offices where we were working so we stopped real fast - haha - hid our toy unicorn until they went into the big theater room and then galloped off one more time before going back to work.  Don't worry we didn't spend too much time goofing off but those sanity breaks sure are worth it when you've been stuck in a room with one computer for almost five hours.  Everything worked out nicely.

The AP's had my companion and I assist them in training the mission on what takes place around Christmas time on the Square.  The presentation was fun because we dressed up in Christmas colors, wore reindeer antlers on our head and played Christmas music as the sisters entered the room.  We talked about the many thousands of visitors that will flood the Square over the Christmas season, presented them with the new schedules along with the logistics of Temple Square and staying on the Square until 10:00 p.m. at least twice a week.  We even role played how to usher people effectively up to the Christus Statue in the North Visitor's Centre because sometimes the guests can turn into angry mobs if they are kept waiting too long. It was a successful training and the AP's had written a Temple Square version of the Christmas carol, "Sleigh bells ring…" so we sang it to everyone to end the training.  It was hilarious and I think its what the sisters needed to help them get excited for the hectic Christmas schedule that starts this week  Friday.  But before that, we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday and our celebrations this year will take us back to Noah's Ark where we celebrated last year.  I know it will be heaps of fun because after the fun comes all the hard work!

Oh,  I was able to call Brian yesterday in South Carolina and he is still going good.  He still wants to be baptized so hopefully this week is the week!  I'm hoping I can call more of my people this week to find out how they are all doing.  I hope you all have a great week.  I can't believe how quickly this time has gone.  Oh and Sister Pipe is going outbound to the Yuteca New York Mission for two transfers so this will be the last time I see her as she leaves tomorrow morning.  So, so, sad...but such is life.  I know I will see her again!

Take care,

Love you heaps,

Sister Chadderton

P.s.   This week Sister's Jardine and Ellen who used to serve here took my companion and I out to dinner at CPK's - a delicious pizza place - and a member had paid for all of us! So sweet!  I love Ellen!  And today Sister Kyle - another RM from Temple Square - took us out to lunch and it was awesome.  I hope if I'm ever back here I can do the same for a missionary too!  I love Temple Square Sisters - especially those two!