26 June 2013

Hi Whanau,

I hope you're all having a great week!  You'll be happy to know that I have calmed down quite a bit since my last email and my stress levels have dropped too.  Thank you for all your prayers and a big, "Thank you" to Brother Walsh for sending me some yummy chocolate in your daughter's package. Seriously, "YOU'RE THE BEST!"

Well, as usual a lot has been happening over the past week.  Last Thursday we had Zone conference where we gathered at President and Sister Gillette's home for breakfast.  We ate bagels, banana's and yoghurt.  Their home is so beautiful and a, "dream home" because it has so much personality to it and oozes with a deep love for their culture.  I hope my future home can look like that one day!  After breakfast we drove to, "This is the Place" Heritage park!  We had our training from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.  and Sister Bowden and I did our presentation on how to host large group tours.  Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep the spirit in large group tours, especially if you have anti-Mormon's in the group.  There has recently been a flurry of anti-Mormon's in the area because of the Manti Temple Pageant.

Side note:   We took a flagpole tour the day before Zone conference and there were quite a few anti's on the Square.  We knew they were about and quietly I prayed that they wouldn't end up in our tour group because I really wanted to have the spirit with me and I wanted to share our experience as part of our training with the sister missionaries the next day.  Well, we met six people standing at the flagpole and they were all from New Zealand!   Woohoo!  Two other ladies who were from Denmark joined our group and there was another group of young people standing next to us, so Sister Bowden checked with them to see if they were waiting for a tour.  They said, "Ummmm..., no we'll go to lunch first and then come back!"  We started our tour and it was amazing and the spirit was so strong. The kiwis asked about my greenstone necklace that I was wearing, so I bridged their question by connecting it to how the church came to be in NZ and then shared my testimony.  It was so cool!   After the tour we were walking back to the South Visitor's Centre (SVC) and we saw this same group of young people that had gone to lunch and they were talking to some other sisters.   Turns out that they were anti's and I was so grateful that the Lord answered my prayer and had sent them to lunch so we could have a great experience!

Okay back to Zone conference!  We had a lot of fun with our training and we compared the sisters to Samuel the Lamanite who was great at declaring the gospel to large groups - read Helaman 16:1.  Like Samuel, the sisters declare the gospel message and preach repentance but not  always do they have the opportunity to attend the baptisms.   Helaman 16:1 goes on to say that the people who were converted went and found Nephi and asked him to baptize them and it is similar to what happens in our mission.  We declare the gospel message, the people feel the spirit after we've planted the seed, and we encourage them to make contact with their local missionaries who in turn baptize them.  We had eight bullet points that we shared with the sisters to help them better prepare for large group tours and to finish off,  the Senior couples had arranged with President and Sister Gillette to dress up as tourists.  They had a missionary companionship role play a large group tour with the tourists and for a while some of the sister's were a little confused and then laughter filled the room as they realized what was going on.  It was hilarious to see the senior couples dressed up, asking similar questions to what we would be asked every day.  Good fun!

After Zone conference we had lunch and then spent two hours exploring the pioneer village.  That was heaps of fun.  Some of the sisters got to ride on the little train in the village and ended up derailing it temporarily because there were too many of them.  Luckily, they were able to fix it for the other half of the mission to enjoy the next day.

With our meetings done and dusted it was nice to be back on the Square or teaching at the Teaching Centre.  Yesterday, we were blessed with three new investigators - one from England, Georgia and California.   Amazing!  A member had referred one of her friends to us after watching the Missionary broadcast.  Because our Mission is unique and we are especially busy during the Summer, we didn't get to watch the broadcast on Sunday but I hear we will watch it some time soon.

N.B.  Okay, we are getting booted off the computers again but I will try and find another computer to finish emailing.

Love you all,

Yay, your lucky or I'm lucky, - we're both lucky - because there was room in the other library so Part 2 of my email.

My companion and I were asked by the AP's if we could put together a farewell movie for Elder & Sister Palmer who is one of the Senior couples that are leaving.  On Saturday we had a mission-wide security training and we told the sisters to come between 1:00 p.m - 3:00 p.m. and we would film them for the movie.  In the meantime we attended a District meeting and it was really good.  I really love the sisters in our Zone because they are so amazing!  After the meeting we concentrated on putting the movie together as it had to be completed to give to the Palmer's the next day.  My companion fell sick during the filming so I took her home and planned on finding an exchange so that I could go back to the Square to keep working.  While I was at home, I tried studying the Ensign - and just like I would do when I was in High School - l fell asleep on the floor for at least an hour and woke up with a fright because I couldn't believe I stayed in that same position for the whole hour.  Haha.  Well, I'm grateful that the Lord gave me time to rest and regain my energy because He knew I was tired.

On Sunday morning we attended Sacrament and it was beautiful.  Our mission choir was led by Sister Palmer for the last time.  She and Elder Palmer will surely be missed.  Remember, they were the ones who helped put together our, "Sound of Music" performance.  After Sacrament the Polynesian sister missionaries sang, "Aloha Oe" and then put leis on them and the whole mission sang, "God Be with You!"  It was very emotional for us all.  After Sacrament, we attended, "Music and the Spoken Word" because the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (MOTAB) were home.  So happy they are back. I finally met Brother and Sister Chatterton!  They are a really sweet couple who thanked me for my missionary efforts and they were accompanied by their son Scott.  Sunday was a great day!

Monday morning I went and played Volleyball and then our day started at the Beehive House.  One of our sister companionships called to say they were sick so we sort approval for them to go home and rest.  Last night we had Teaching Centre time and went on Chat room and took inbound calls which is how we found two of our new investigators.  We also took a family through the Visitor's Centre to watch the movie, "God's Plan" and they loved it.  Their family were here for a reunion and the children are so cute.  The family was part Tongan and part Hispanic and one of their little girls loved playing with the tassels on my belt.  She looked up at me and said, "Are you my Aunty?"  I wanted to hug her because straight away I thought of my little niece - Princess Hinalei - and it made me miss her!

We are three weeks into this transfer and its hard to think that in a very short time my companion will be going home at the end of this transfer.  I love her so much and am grateful for her example.  We work so well together and she is so amazing.  I can't wait to visit her one day when I go to England. 

Today, another companionship passed off and it was incredible. The spirit was so strong and they taught with such sincerity and love.  You could really feel the spirit.  I love learning from these sisters and feeling of their faith and determination in all that they do.

Well family, "Aloha Oe" 'til next time.  Be strong and carry on, carry on, carry on!

Love you,

Sister Chadderton

Pic 1:  Senior couple's role playing

Pic 2:  The train the sisters derailed - you can see why!

Pic 3:  Me, with some sisters from my Zone.  The sister sticking out her tongue is Sister Sloan and she is awesome!

Pic 4:  Us with the Palmer's who are leaving and Sister Dean from Aussie with her companion Sister Eggenberger from Switzerland.

Pic 5:  Sister Bowden and I with one of the pioneer village people who's brother served in the Wellington New Zealand Mission.

 

19 June 2013

Hi Family and Friends,

This week has been so, "full on" and it makes me even more grateful for P-Day's each week. The responsibility of a Zone leader requires some adjusting to, but I'm thankful I have a companion who has done this a few times.  We have had a lot of meetings, including planning a Beehive House training with the Zone leaders in East 2 Zone.  We presented the training this morning and later on today we have a Zone meeting with all the sisters in our East 1 Zone.

I thought I'd share a little of our summertime schedule here on Temple Square with you. We have different responsibilities on the Square and everything is to give us opportunities to teach the gospel.  We do motor coach tours, hospitality tours, investigator lessons with Elders, hourly flag pole tours, organ recital tours and my favorite, Beehive House tours to name a few.  Summer is, "large group tour" season so it isn't uncommon to show a group of 40 people around the Square.  Having been out for almost a year coupled with my work experience at the Polynesian Cultural Center - which really is how the Lord prepared me for this specific mission - I have no fear of and showing large groups of people around. The Beehive House is buzzing with people and my companion and I are required to be at the Beehive House twice during the week which then allows us to go off and fulfill our other duties as Zone leaders.  In all honesty, I have been a little bit more stressed this week then usual and chocolate is probably my best friend right now, but don't worry, I'm still waking up at 5:50 a.m. every morning to work off some excess energy either through basketball or volleyball.  I am grateful for my friends and our little exercise group which mostly consists of the Polynesian sisters.  My goal for this transfer is to help the sisters out where ever possible, help them to know how awesome they are and just love them and have fun doing it.  All the sisters are a bit over-worked and stressed but they are so hardworking and some times, they don't get time to eat or sit for too long so we miss out on studies in the mornings with our early morning meetings but they don't complain and say,  "We can make up our studies in our teaching center time!"  That is so awesome!

I have had lots of blessings this week and those blessing included seeing my friends Emily Trujillo, Paige Bush and Bec Howard from Australia.  While we didn't have a lot of time to catch up, it was a huge blessing just seeing them.  It was also great having my sister missionary friends return from their outbound assignments.  I missed the sister missionaries a lot and its incredible at how quickly the turn over of sisters happens with each transfer.  Jenna, we just received a Sister Lee from the Idaho, Boise Mission who knows you and she is doing an outbound experience here and she said to say, "HI!"   We were in desperate need of Mandarin speaking sisters, so the Missionary Department sourced sister missionaries from other missions close by who spoke Mandarin and had them transferred here.  Poor things, as I've spoken to a couple of them and both were equally shocked when they found out they were being re-assigned to Temple Square.  We are so grateful to have them here!

Tomorrow, we will have our Relief Society class a day early because on Thursday we are having our Zone conference.   Sister Bowden and I have been asked to present a 20 minute segment about, "How to help the sister missionaries feel more confident during large group tours!"  The conference will start at the GIllette's home at 7:30 a.m. where we will have breakfast and then travel as a zone up to the beautiful, "This is the Place Heritage Park" where we will have our training.  It's going to be a full on day, packed with lots of fun, especially knowing that we will be fed lunch too.  A huge, "WOOHOO" for free meals!

Well, as I mentioned earlier, this week has certainly been full on, but I am really enjoying everything I do, despite the added stress.  Today, one of our new sisters (we have four in our zone) "passed off" and she hasn't even been here a week.   She's amazing!  Last week for District meeting another of the new sisters said she had committed someone for baptism over the phone while she was in the MTC and had done it again.  These new sisters are incredible and the Lord is really watching over our mission and blessing us with such strong sisters.   When the sisters pass off to us, Sister Bowden and I pretend to be a, "Mother and daughter team from England" and it can be hilarious.  We have so much fun, but the best part is when we role play and whenever Sister Siegle or Sister Walsh share their testimonies, I can feel the spirit so strongly.  No matter how short the testimony,  the spirit is still strong.  I have learnt that when you testify with the spirit the investigator's can feel of that spirit and know that what you are teaching is true.  Sometimes as missionaries we may not know if the people feel something, but I know they do!

I love this gospel, I love this Church,  I love the Lord and I'm happy to be a missionary.  Next month I will hit my, "1-year mark" and I keep wondering where all that time has gone, but I'm thankful for the things I have learnt over the past year and the things that I am yet to learn in the coming months. 

Love you all,

Sister Chadderton xoxo

The last one standing

P.s.   I forgot to mention that last Monday when we had our transfer conference activity, we were blessed to watch a preview of the new pioneer movie entitled, "Ephraims Rescue" by T.C. Christensen and it was, "INCREDIBLE!"  It is the best pioneer movie ever, even way better than Legacy.  I plan on acquiring a copy of it and bringing it home before I leave.

11 June 2013

Okay family are you ready for this???

"I am not going Outbound, but have been made a Zone Leader and my new companion is Sister Bowden from England and we are assigned to the East 1 Zone."

It really came as a huge shock to me because I wasn't nervous about transfers and thought that Sister Pipe and I would just remain together to finish training and then I'd be sent outbound.  Well, with transfer conference yesterday, they were read out and I was, "shocked" to say the least when I learnt of my news and started crying because I won't be with Sister Pipe anymore.  I didn't feel qualified to serve as a Zone leader either, but I did chuckle to myself when I learnt that I'm going to be over East 1 Zone which covers the Beehive House.  So, I'm going back to my dear friend Brigham's house.  It's going to be so much fun.  I didn't sleep a lot last night as I thought about the weight of my new responsibility, but really there isn't much of a difference between a Zone leader and any other missionary apart from having a few more opportunities to serve so that'll be nice.  Sister Vaivai has also been made a Zone leader and her companion Sister Cummings will be trained by another Sister and they will be in my Zone.  That's  going to be heaps of fun.  Sister Vaivai is assigned to West 2 Zone which covers the Humanitarian Centre and Welfare Square.  I don't think I'll see my mate alot this transfer besides our early morning basketball games but that's okay because I'm hoping we will both go outbound to the same place next transfer as we seem to do everything else together which is super cool.

So, family my new P-Day will be next Tuesday so don't forget to write me and I'm sorry if you have to wait an extra day.  Sister Bowden was the sister who trained Sister Stolp (one of my previous companions) so it's like one big happy family circle. Haha!  

We have had a lot of blessings this week and one of them was seeing my little cousin Elder Solomon as he came through the Square.  It was hard not to hug the little guy but so neat to take him and other missionaries on a tour.  One of the other missionaries included Andrew and Elene Ormond's daughter who is going to serve in the Philippines.  It was so cool to meet her.  Yesterday I also saw my mate Keri - who bytheway, gets the gold medal for spending two hours trying to find me - especially in the hot Utah sun after a long drive from Idaho.  So sorry Keri that you had to wait so long but it was great to see you.  The reason Keri couldn't find me is because I had to speak in a Sacrament meeting in one of the two homeless Branches in Salt Lake.  It was such an amazing experience and I would love to go back there every week.  They were so sweet and we stayed and helped out with Primary and the children were adorable and we sang a song that we had learnt and they are learning too.  It was so cute.  At 3:00 p.m. the Branch had a little brunch for anyone who visits or attends and for some of the people that is probably the only meal they will get that day.  It was definitely a humbling and great experience. They fed us too and gave us a little, "Thank you" bag of goodies.  

I loved hearing about your FHE and the things you have been focusing on.  Hina, I'm glad you read and taught the lesson about, "Walking in Circles" from the June Ensign, because I absolutely loved that talk and I believe everyone needs to read it.  It's wonderful to hear how your family has been strengthened as you follow the counsel of the Prophet and continue to witness the blessings in your home as you apply the Prophet's teachings.

One of the highlights of this past week would have to do with one of my long time investigators.  I can't remember what name I used for him in previous emails, but he is a contractor and works six weeks overseas at a time so when he is home we can call and teach him.  Otherwise, we email him a daily scripture to stay in touch.  Well, due to weeks without too much contact, we emailed and asked this question,  "Do you believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" He emailed back and said, "In short, the answer to your question, "Do I believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" "Absolutely!"  He then proceeded to share other things in the email that he believed in, including the belief in modern day prophets and how much he likes the Book of Mormon because of how straight forward it is.  He was the investigator that I said was having a hard time interpreting the way the Book of Mormon speaks so we posted the Children's Storybook version of the Book of Mormon and New Testament to him.  He takes them with him everywhere and said they have helped him understand the scriptures a lot more. He's coming to Utah to visit his friends in August but I will be going outbound July 24th so I won't get to see him.  I won't be back on the Square until October 16th which means I will definitely miss General Conference too. So, thank goodness most of my friends and my parents visited me during the two General Conference sessions that I was serving on the Square.  I know the Lord will take care of our investigator.   Well I love you family and am sad to see so many of my missionary friends return home this transfer - including my mission mum Sister Calderwood - but thank goodness for Temples because we know we will see each other again.

Have a great, happy, blessed week.

P.s.  We went to the Cheesecake factory with Sister Pipe as it was her first time ever and it was amazing.  I usually order fish and chips from there because so far its the only place I know that sells fish and chips but as we were waiting,  a sweet couple asked if they could buy us dessert because we had already paid for our meal and I learnt that the husband had a sister who was serving in Guam. Turns out his sister was in the MTC with me in my District.  Small world!  But definitely the blessings continue to flow from paying my fast offering.

First picture is to show how beautiful we all look at 6:00 a.m. in the morning - this is our early morning basketball crew and we play 3-4 days a week.  Sadly, half of these Sisters will be going home this transfer.  The gentleman in the picture with us is Bob and he is on the Square almost everyday and he is our friend. He helps greet the people and makes us feel safe and we laugh a lot because he's quite funny. Love Bob, and he buys us cheesecake sometimes too.

4 June 2013

Hi Family and Friends,

Today marks, "Week six" of this transfer so next Monday I will learn what my new assignment will be, whether or not I have a new P-Day or even the possibilities of a new companion.  I'm pretty sure Sister Pipe and I are going to finish training together and then I'll go outbound but we shall just have to wait and see.  I cannot believe how fast this transfer has gone compared to the other six transfers because this one seems to have flown by.

Buddy!  It was so crazy that I met your friend Elder Stoddard from the Philippines on the Square (well. Robb I should say).  He was looking for a Sister from the Philippines because he had a package for her from her family and of all the sisters on the Square to stop and ask for information he came up and asked me and after seeing my badge he said, "Do you have a brother who has just gone home from the Philippines?"  Small world! 

Well, "Thank you for my package!"  And thanks for posting it to me Uncle TC and family.  I was so excited to receive my Missionary 9 month mark book and I think I've showed it to everyone in the mission.   "Haha!  Just kidding!  But really!"  It was so amazing and everyone wants a book just like mine, so look out Hina you might get some requests!  I have to put a hold on eating any of my goodies because my Fijian friend arrives back from outbound next week and I promised her that I would share them with her.  Hopefully, I don't get sent outbound for that very reason,  but if I do then I'll have to figure something out, but it will also mean that I won't be on the Square for the next General Conference which makes me a little sad. I wanted to be here for all three conferences, so, again, we will just have to wait and see.

This week has been busy, but lets be honest, "Which week isn't busy?"  But hey, we were asked by the sisters who have the assignment as, "Apartment co-ordinators" to help move some furniture and other items from a couple of the apartments.  The co-ordinator's told us that the removalists would be coming between 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m.  We changed from our missionary attire into casual clothes ready to start moving everything at 12:00 noon and it turned out that the removalists didn't arrive until 3:20 p.m. so Sister Pipe and I, along with Sister Savelio and Sister Frietas moved as much of the furniture as we could onto the lawn and left the heavy stuff for the guys.  But we had pretty much cleared out the two apartments thinking that the removalists would be there sooner.  When we found out that they would be late we waited for them outside.  I got a nice tan and we hadn't eaten lunch so Sister Savelio and Frietas went home and made macaroni and cheese and corn beef with cabbage while Sister Pipe and I guarded the furniture and role played teaching on the Square.  It was alot of fun.  I ended up getting a little sunburnt as my skin hadn't seen a hot, sunny day for over a year so it was a great feeling.  President Seppi - who is one of the Mission President's counsellor's - came and helped us when the two men from the removal company arrived. There was an upstairs and a downstairs apartment that we'd emptied of furniture and the men had estimated it taking 8 hours to empty. Well, we got everything in the truck in an hour and then drove over to the new apartments and that took us a little over an hour as we had to send everything up the elevators.  It was hard work and we were all pretty tired at the end of it all so President Seppi said, "Lets go to dinner!"  He took us and the other 2 companionship's who were already at the new apartments out to dinner at The Lion House Restaurant.  It was so delicious and it being the end of the month we were down on food so it was heaven to us to eat at Lion House.  Thanks President Seppi!  The next day (you would be so proud of me) I woke up and ran the canyon and it was fun.  I ended up running it twice last week because the other counsellor in our Mission Presidency,  President Harman drove all the way from his house out in Park City to come and run the Canyon with us at 6:10 a.m.  Let me tell you, for a man who is over 60 he smoked all of us!  Apparently, he runs every lunch time and he works in the city so he is used to running and he was so fast.  I hope I can run that fast when I'm  60!!!

We attended Makyla's baptism on Saturday and that was so beautiful!   We had the opportunity to meet her dad and she had a lot of friends and Ward members attend so it was awesome to see all the support.  She is going to make a great missionary one day.  I know it.  Our awesome Zone leaders drove us to the baptism and it was fun.

Well, family, as I come to the end of another transfer it's always nice to look back and reflect on what has happened.  This week I have really been grateful for listening to the spirit.  After our Relief Society lesson I wanted to be more in tune with receiving personal revelation every time I prayed.  I decided to put it to the test during my personal study.  Sister Pipe and I had planned on teaching Mattie the lesson, "The Plan of Salvation."  I wanted to know if that was what she needed to hear and if not, what it was we should teach her.  So, as I studied I kept seeing a pattern happening with everything I was reading.  The topic of, "Prayer" kept surfacing, especially the importance of making our prayers more meaningful.  I wasn't too sure if this was an answer to my prayer as to what to teach Mattie so during our companionship studies I told my companion about my impressions and she agreed that we should go with my promptings.  We called Mattie and told her what we wanted to teach her about and she sounded quite relieved and happy because she said that she doesn't like to pray on her own.  She said she will pray about something specific if we ask her to, but otherwise she feels inadequate to pray and ask God for things.  To help with the lesson we used an article about Elder Cornish' experience taken from the Ensign.  He talked about biking home past the chicken store and wanting to buy a piece of chicken but he was short of a quarter.  He prayed and soon after spotted one on the side of the road.   She loved the lesson and said she found it really helpful.  I am so grateful that we have a loving Father in Heaven who answers our prayers to help us fulfill our missionary duties.  I know that to receive personal revelation one doesn't have to be a missionary.  I know I love being a missionary.  I enjoy going home tired every night and having a companion that doesn't mind working hard.  I love you all! Remember who you are!

Sister Chadderton

P.s.  So here's some fun photos!   We had our zone activity last week where we went to this beautiful park and ate ice-cream and other foods and played, "Water balloon volleyball" which ended in a massive water fight.  We also played twister and some other fun games. It was great!

Other pictures are of some of my Canadian friends - Sister Kyle & Sister Takahashi (we went to BYU-H together) and Sister Magaoay.  Lots of fun pics! Oh and theres a random picture of all these photos on the wall.  Mum,  tell Jessica Bickford I hung up the pictures in the photo album she sent me right next to my bed because I loved all the quotes!  Oh and the random one with sisters watching a movie is because we are allowed to, "borrow" a church movie and watch it on P-Day so last Tuesday night we arrived home to our room mates and other sisters watching the movie, "The Errand of Angels."  Notice the mountain of pizza boxes and diet coke!  Good times as missionaries.

There's also a picture of me and my Zone leaders - Sister WIlliams on the left and Sister Rojas on the right.  I love them so much and they both finish their missions next week!  Crazy!