28 August 2012

Family!!!!

Thank you so much for all the emails and support. Today I am feeling a lot better and I have my doctors appointment tomorrow.  I've managed to hang in there and here is my week in a nutshell.

Monday was P-Day and we went bowling and I've learnt that I am not gifted in the bowling area but I did have a lot of fun nonetheless. Then we went shopping and brought some foods that were dairy, gluten, and sugar free that I could eat for the rest of the week. Later we had dinner and then we did some service for the remainder of the night before having to return home.  I was feeling a little nauseous through the day so when I got home I wasn't feel that great and was definitely ready for bed.

Tuesday, I woke up and was still feeling sick and I also had the flu -  a runny nose, sore throat etc. - so in order for me to stay home we arranged splits so that Sister Bishaw was able to go out with a Sister from one of our Wards and I stayed home with Sister Christensen all day. Sister Christensen took me out and we got some gatorade and some other medicines because she said if I wasnt eating then I needed something in me.  I pretty much slept all day and then my companion got home around 7:00 p.m. and she took care of me for the rest of the night.  It's not a lot of fun being home sick.  I'd rather be out working.  So, in my prayers I asked the Lord to help me to go out and work on Wednesday because staying home was boring and that if he could help me get through the day that would be good.

Wednesday was great and we went and visited Anissa and found her in good spirits.  Following our visit with Anissa we had lunch and then visited some elderly ladies that lived in a Care center - probably not the smartest thing to have someone sick visit other sick people - but I didn't think of that at the time.  We had dinner after and later visited with Jesse and Malerie.  We talked about the temple with them and Jesse seemed to have a change of heart.  He kept saying that if he needs to be baptized to be with Malerie forever then he wants that.   In my head I was thinking, "Thats it! I am going to teach those struggling to be baptized about the temple because it truly makes all the difference." So, Jesse is praying about a baptism date.  We ended the night with a visit to Carol.  I was so much happier being out doing the work and the Lord definitely helped me make it through the day. I still felt sick but I wasn't going to spend another day at home and I know the Lord carried me.

Thursday, we did weekly planning with the Boise sisters (Sister Anderson and Sister Hutch) because this week we are covering both Boise and Meridian because Sister Hutch was only on a visa waiver and she got her visa so we're in a trio with Sister Anderson this week and it's really awesome because we get along so well.  We planned out our week, then we went and saw Ben who was making jam.  Cool!   We ended the night by attending a YSA activity.   I survived another day. I also decided that if my spirits are up my stomach doesn't seem to affect me as much.  Sister Anderson said she had similar symptoms to what I have and it turned out she had a stomach ulcer.   I had a blessing from the Elders and it was great.  The Elder that blessed me said that, "I needed to let go of the past and move forward and that I would find the strength to overcome anything that was troubling my body", and in that moment I realized the Lord knows me because I know I can become quite emotional and that along with stress can cause you to be sick more so then actual sickness. I need to learn to let go of situations or experiences that I have as a missionary that may not work out just the way I'd like them to.

Friday morning I had an awesome study session and I was able to actually do a self inventory.  Apparently, trying to suppress feelings eventually catches up with you, and the Lord wants me to use the atonement more then I have been. It was a very spiritual experience. Then we had district meeting, and after district meeting we took these two kids to get snow cones. They live right next to a snow cone shack and they are at home all day every day while their mum (who we teach) works, so we took them to get snow cones and it made their day. I was so glad we could help them have a good day. That night we had dinner with one of our Ward Mission leaders, then we went to a Ward party and it was cool because we  knew alot of the members in that Ward.

Saturday we did progress records and later visited Anthony which was awesome.  We had dinner and after dinner, visited the Sager family who were sick or busy so we left and we were walking around this apartment block and we saw Missy - one of the ladies who we have been teaching off and on - so we stopped and talked to her for a bit and she said when we were about to leave to stop by her place because she wanted help/advice on interview questions because she had a job interview coming up and I told her that was my specialty in my former life. So we stopped by her place later that day and gave her some advice on preparing for an interview, then somehow it turned into this awesome gospel discussion and we even got to meet her husband which has never happened and then had a prayer before leaving. That was definitely the Lord's doing because we were not at all expecting to see her that night.

Sunday I hit a wall again and was feeling sick all morning so I rested for a bit, then we went to church and spent the rest of the day visiting people, and then we had dinner, then we saw the Sagers and had a great lesson then we went and picked up Sister Anderson and then we were home by 9:00 p.m. 

I am doing a lot better and I am looking forward to seeing the doctor tomorrow and excited for this week spending time in two different areas and then we get transfer calls on Friday. I have 4 transfers left in the mission and I'm thinking that I may possibly be transferred because I have been in Meridian for 6 months.  We will see what happens.   Today I am excited because we are doing exchanges with Sister Cline and her companion so Sister Bishaw is going to Nyssa for a day and Sister Cline is coming to Meridian/Boise with Sister Anderson and I. I have a feeling we are going to have way too much fun, but I won't complain.  Have a great week family and thank you so, so, much for all your prayers, fasting and support. And mum, I think I'll pass on having you put chocolate in my package. I will let my stomach heal and try to eat real proper foods.  I am okay without chocolate.  Have a great week. Love you all.  Sister Chadderton xoxo

002 - Me with my purple top and the Elder's in their purple ties - randomly we all were wearing purple this day

006 - Me next to a giant, monster of a truck

001 - Sister Anderson, Sister Hutch, me, Sister Bishaw - eating!

21 August 2012

Family,

Good to hear you are all alive and well and hopefully on the mend. This week has been tragic health wise as I have been unwell just about every day but you just keep on keeping on. 

Monday, it was awesome to see Irene and Megan and Megan, and for a second I felt like my world was getting that much smaller and that we were all in Idaho together. That night we had FHE with a lady in one of our Wards and then later we went over to the Singles Ward where they were having FHE but their activity was, "Where's Wally" and it was being held in the mall and as missionaries we are not allowed to roam the malls so needless to say we didn't go. Instead, we went and visited Lindsey before she heads off to school in Colorado and it was a good visit.  She was very hesitant to take a Book of Mormon from us the last time we met with her, but this week we were talking about missions so we shared a passage from the book of Alma where Ammon talks about his mission and she felt the spirit and was like, I need a copy of that book. So thats always exciting. Our night ended.

Tuesday we did some service in the morning, then we had lunch and went out tracting and we met an Atheist, who after the conversation was over, admitted to actually believing in a higher being - he wouldn't label it God but nonetheless he reckons their is someone there. It was interesting because he started by talking about objective truth and we probably stood at his door for several minutes listening to his views.  We left and went and met up with the Boise Sisters because it was exchanges again and I had Sister Hutch for my companion and Sister Bishaw was with Sister Anderson, so we had dinner and then did splits.

Wednesday we had a packed day with appointments which made for an early lunch, then saw Anissa and had an awesome lesson with her about pre-earth life, then we went and visited Ivy who wants to be baptized!   We were suppose to see Anthony next but he cancelled and moved the appointment, but it worked out because we were running behind schedule on all our appointments and so we got to see Ben right on time, had a good lesson with him about Joseph Smith and then we went back to the Mission Office to exchange back. It felt like such a quick exchange. Then we headed back to our area, had dinner, then went to see Michelle again and taught her about the importance of tithing and then, we saw Carol for a little bit. Overall the night ended good. 

Thursday was probably the worse day when I got real sick. We did weekly planning, and then we went and saw a naturopath lady and she did some tests to help diagnose what might be wrong with me and she reckons only about 20% of my digestive system is working properly which is why I keep getting sick.   She suggested I stay away from Dairy, Gluten and Sugar products (which is pretty much what I know) so that my stomach can heal.  Impossible is what I thought. But I need to get better.  

Friday was District meeting, and then we got to see Lois and help her with her puzzle, then we saw Aimee and later had dinner and then went to the Sagers.  Visiting with the Sager family would definitely have to be the highlight of my week as Dan Sager - the dad - is an ex-Jehovah's Witness who has been coming to church for about a year now. His kids Alec and Shyanne were baptized back in April when he quit tobacco, and he has just quit drinking coffee .  He asked us about temples and we told him about sealings and the power of being sealed as a family and he turns to his wife who is LDS and says, "I want to be sealed to you!"  Then he turns to us and says, "So when do you think I would be ready for baptism?"  Originally, he was wanting to wait until he knew he was ready and we suggested the first week of September, and he said that that was when his wife's birthday was - September 14th, so he chose September 14 as his baptismal date and I just sat their as I could not believe what had just transpired.  It was amazing because he felt the spirit testify of the power of being sealed to his family and now he wants that for them. So that was really a cool experience.

Saturday we had meetings and we had to do progress records, and then we went out tracting again and ran into a lady who also gave us a health lesson on how to have more energy and all this stuff so we are going to try and change some things. The night ended with watching parts of President Monson's birthday celebration that was broadcast.  We didn't get to see it all but what we saw was cool. Then we called it a night.

Sunday we went to three Wards and we were fasting for Ivy so that her mum's heart would be softened so that she would let her be baptized. We had an appointment with Ivy and when we got their Ivy's mum came out and pretty much was not happy with us, so we didn't get to see Ivy and won't be able to see her for a while now.  Its so sad how Satan will use anything and anyone to stop the Lord's work but we are going to keep praying for her to see what we should do to soften her mum's heart. Then we went and saw the Sager family again and answered a bunch of questions for them. It was actually pretty cool. Then we came home. I was feeling so sick last night that I thought I could sleep it off, but it isn't going away and when I woke up this morning I still felt sick. I can't decide if I am suppose to be getting sicker before I get better but nothing seems to be working, so I called the nurse, but the closests appointment I can get with a gastro doctor is September 10th. What I am going to do until then I am not sure, but I will have to watch what I eat real closely. 

Overall, a lot of good happened this week despite me feeling a little under the weather  and not being able to concentrate because of my stomach! Frustrated is probably what I am feeling more then anything.   Thanks for the support and emails and take care family. I love you and don't worry because I will be fine, it's just annoying.  Love you.  Sister Chadderton xoxo

14 August 2012

Family!

Thank you for all the emails and especially for the Olympic updates.   Quite proud of our little country really.  Life on this side of the world is great. I will try and update you as quick as I can. This week has flown by and I can't believe it is Monday again.  That is so cool about the Family Home Evening idea to have a mini olympics for Hinalei.   It made me laugh reading about her, "God of Mation's!" I can just see that and Baby Joe is so stinkin cute!!!! 

Monday - was P-Day and it was a good day. We went food shopping (woohoo) and then thrift store shopping and I managed to find a red winter coat, fully lined for $5! It was a score.  Then that night we had dinner with an awesome family who have 4 boys - the oldest being 16 and the parents always encourage them about one day serving a mission and it is awesome. Then we saw Lindsey again and answered a lot more of her questions, then the night was over.

Tuesday was District meeting because we had a training on Friday so it was moved to Tuesday. Then we went and saw a less active family and picked apricots.  It was Anthony's birthday today and we were invited to stay for cake and ice cream after our visit.  It was nice to casually get to know his parents, then later we had dinner and went on splits with some of the young adults from the YSA Ward. It was cool because we met some potential investigators which was a good use of our time.  The people we tried to meet weren't home.

Wednesday was weekly planning, then our night was going to be so busy with appointments we moved our dinner appointment to a lunch appointment, so we went to lunch, then we went and saw Aimee who is a recent convert.  I am struggling to find a teaching/ learning style for her because it seems everything we do is boring to her, so I need added inspiration on how to make it a little more fun.  After Aimee, we went and taught Linda the second half of the restoration . It was awesome actually, especially because it was in a members home and the spirit was so strong, then we got dropped back to the church building only to find out all our other appointments cancelled on us. So we said a prayer to try and learn where we needed to be, and low and behold we both felt we needed to go and visit Michelle. So, we went to her house and she is normally never home, but she was this time and she asked if the Relief Society President had sent us and we assured her that the Lord had sent us.  She said she really needed to see us today.  It was quite cool. We listened to her for quite some time and it was so interesting because we asked about her conversion story because she is a less active recent convert.  We asked why she wasn't coming to church anymore and this kind of stomped her but she said she couldn't put it down to anything so it gave her some food for thought.   I love seeing the way the Lord answers peoples prayers and how cancelled appointments always mean that their is somewhere else for us to be. The night ended with us seeing my favorite person Carol who told us she is moving. So thats not cool.

Thursday we had leadership training, so Sister Howard picked me up and we went to leadership training all day while Sister Lee (Sister Howard's companion) stayed with Sister Bishaw for the day. After leadership training I went on exchanges with Sister Romine-Furr who is serving in Nampa and we had to put into practice what we were trained on that day. It was a really good exchange and I actually like Sister Romine-Furr. 

Friday morning, Sister Romine-Furr made us breakfast - spoilt aye? And then we went back to the second day of leadership training, then we were going to stop and have lunch on the way home, but the traffic was so bad it was pointless. Idaho decided to do roadworks all at the same time on every major intersection so its been slow moving traffic for days now. Anyways, we got to our 1:00 p.m. appointment a little late, but the appointment itself was good because we were seeing Charmaine again and it has been around 6 weeks since we last saw her.  So that was cool. Then we saw Craige, then we had dinner, then we had another appointment that night with a less active family along with two other less active families. We taught a few lessons so it was good. Its really interesting trying to understand why people choose not to come to church anymore. No valid excuses really. But still, I feel they hinder their spiritual progress for a load of non-sense. 

Saturday turned out to be a busy day. We had breakfast with the Stake President first thing, then we went to a baptism in our Stake, then we delivered progress records, then we went and saw Taryn for the first time in 2 weeks, then we came home and we were going to have dinner with the Christensen's that night and as we got to the house, Brother Christensen said that the car had just jumped into the cabinets they have in their garage so their is a huge dent in the front of the car and the cabinets are destroyed. They said they were pulling into the garage and all of a sudden the car did this weird leap frog thing into their cabinets. Sister Christensen was shaken because she was the one driving, but in all of that they still had dinner on the bench for us. My goodness the love people have for the missionaries is amazing.   That night we went to the Elders baptism and that's where I met Sister Tolman and we saw the Sager family too - love them. It was a good end to the night.

Sunday was pretty busy with six hours of church, followed by lunch and dinner and a correlation meeting and a lesson. In a nut shell. And then last night Irene, and Megan Wright and Megan Weaver called to say they are taking us out to lunch today. Woohoo! I am so excited!!!!!   This last week has flown by and this is already week 4 of the transfer and honestly this transfer is going so quick. Oh so I have to tell you what happened on Monday. I got a text from the Earl family saying that they have set their endowment date for October 27th and their sealing date for January 11th. When I got that text I was like, "Their is my answer. I am  staying until February because I'm not missing their sealing!"  So, I felt so at peace about the whole thing. Then Wednesday Sister Westover text and said that they are now getting endowed and sealed on the same day - October 27th!  But still February feels right.  So, family,  plan on February 21st! Pretty confident that that is when the Lord will say I am done with my full time mission.

I love you all. Thank you for your constant support and love. Take care, Sister J Chadderton xoxo

Most of these pictures are self explanatory.

001 - Me outside our house.

002 - My companion and I

003 - Jumping Zone picture

004 - Zone picture

005 - Anthony's birthday cake

006 - Sister Tolman and I

Love you all!

7 August 2012

Hey Family,

Thank you for all your emails and great to hear Sister N arrived safely and she is settling well into the MTC. I know she will love the MTC. Anyway's my week has been good (actually really good) with lots of spiritual confirmations and experiences that helped build my testimony.

Monday night after P-Day, we visited the Sager family and then we had about 30 minutes left in our day and we didn't want to go home. We were just about to give up and then decided to go and try this one referral that was never home when we visited her so tonight another miracle - she was home - and she invited us in and we taught her so many lessons.  It was incredible that she was intrigued everything we taught her.  It was a great ending to the night and we will definitely be going back.

Tuesday was a little hectic where it was one of those days where we had hourly appointments planned  from about 10:00 a.m. onwards but our 10:00 a.m. appointment cancelled so our first lesson was now at 11:00 a.m.   The appointment took us out of our area only because the family requested Sister Missionaries to teach their two girls - 12 year old Linda and her sister Veronica who is 10'ish.  The girls want to be baptized but their Dad's counsel is that they need to take things slow.  We are just teaching the girls for now but I believe baptism will come later.   After the lesson we met  two new investigators - Dillon and Tyson who were former investigators. Their mum moved back into our area so we are going to resume teaching them, and then they too will be baptized soon enough.  After that we were supposed to see Anthony but he was working and hadn't let us know so instead we did some tracting. Then we had dinner, then we went and met with a less active lady named Michelle. We had such a cool lesson with Michelle and she knows what she should be doing, but because she works on Sunday's she hasn't been able to come to church. Then Alyssa Moncur took us to another appointment and the investigator wasn't their so we taught the less active girlfriend instead. Overall a busy but fruitful day.

Wednesday was another awesome day. The highlight of the day was with Anissa. Her husband was the one who wrote the Thesis on what wasn't true about our Church, and she asked us to research where in the Bible it talks about people seeing God and living. I was so skeptical at first to show her all the stuff I had researched because I didn't want it to seem as if we were Bible bashing, so instead we started by reading the account of Jospeh Smiths first vision, then we went slowly through references in the Bible that talked about people seeing God, and it was awesome. The Spirit was so strong and it confirmed to me the truth of what we were teaching. The Lord definitely is the same yesterday, today and forever and it was just a rock building moment for my testimony because as much as I already knew all this,  it was confirmed to me again that Jospeh Smith truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and being able to research it was awesome. The rest of the day was good. But the spirit in that lesson was powerful. That night we saw Ben and because he is a navy man we got a whole lesson on the navy which was pretty funny but good.

Thursday was my 1-year mark so we went out to lunch to Cafe Rio!  It is an awesome restaurant and the food was good. That night we taught a couple of lessons but the day wasn't as eventful as I would have liked it to have been, especially because we spent a lot of time on weekly planning. But I still can't believe that I've been out on my mission now for a whole year already. I was reading my journal around this time last year and its funny how things have changed. And I've realized that all my jounal entries from a year ago are so dumb because I wrote things like, "The spirit was amazing today in our lesson!" And that was it. I didn't expand on the lesson or who we taught it to or anything. So, clearly I need to improve on my journal writing skills. Lol

Friday we had Zone training, then we taught some of our recent converts and then visited with Anthony where we watched the DVD, "The Testaments" and he loved it! Then we taught a few more recent converts that night.  Overall, it was a slowish kind of day.

Saturday we tracted pretty much the whole day and it was actually enjoyable. We tracted into this one guy and we asked him if he had a religion and he said yes, ah yeah, ah yeah i do!  So we asked him what religion it was and then he said he had no religion, none, its nothing, I dont have one. And I kept thinking to myself, "Seriously, I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you!" But anyways he clearly wasn't interested . It was a miracle that we survived the day though.

Sunday, I had another rock building testimony moment. We taught Viet who was studying to be a Catholic priest for 14 years, but he isn't studying anymore and we were teaching him the first lesson aout the Restoration and Joseph Smith and the spirit was so strong, but he kept talking about his Church and his authority and why do we need a restoration if the Catholic church is already on the earth.  I kid you not, I felt like standing up and throwing the Book of Mormon at him.  Fortunately, I didn't and I remained as calm as possible and we asked him to hold on to his questions until after the lesson and encouraged him that before he tries to question the Church to please read the Book of Mormon.  Despite my frustration, It ended up being quite  a cool exprience because I was very worked up after we got out of the lesson because of how faulty his logic was and how stubborn he was being, but then I decided that I knew what is right and I'm not going to let him pull me into any form of debate.  It made me grateful for the testimony that I do have, that Joseph Smith truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and that his true priesthood has been restored on the earth and that the Book of Mormon was preserved for our day. It was just an awesome experience. Then we went to our YSA Ward sacrament meeting and it was all about missionary work and how amazing the Sister Missionaries are and it was a very humbling experience. The day finished good.

Overall a good week. Solidfied my testimony that I already thought was solid.  I love you family and I hope you like the pictures. Have a good week and stay safe. Love you, Sister Chadderton xoxo

001 - Skype pics

002 - More skype pics

004 - 005 - Us at Cafe Rio (Barb Webb and Tania Bovee)

006 - My polkadot dress (got it for $4)

007 - Random object in the sky

008 - Cast on

009 - Cast off