Hello Family,
Thank you so much for your amazing emails! They were all so uplifting and I am proud to say I support the All Blacks. Last night I was at a members home and this guy goes NEW ZEALAND JUST WON, but I much prefer hearing the story from you all about the victory. Proud of those boys. And you all sound like you are having a good time. I have been anxious to email you all week because it has been such a great week.
So are you ready for my week? Wednesday was the primary activity. Tuesday night was spent getting things ready and as I mentioned last time I was going to teach the girls the Haka because I had it on the Haka pens mum sent. We also set up a Japanese room to teach them origami, a Samoan room to teach them how to make lollie leis and a Italian room to teach them how to play soccer. We started with the Japanese room and making origami took way longer then we thought it would. It was good. We had about 20 girls there so they were all very excited. We then went to the NZ room and I told them about NZ and then I told them I would teach them the haka. Let me set the scene - I have personally never ever done the haka in my life. I didnt know the actions for it, neither did I know the actual pronounciation for the words (call me a plastic maori) but I kept telling myself these are girls that have never even heard of my country how would they know the difference. So I made up my own actions, and pronouced the words how I best thought they sounded, and boy they thought i was the beesness. It was funny because a few girls from one of the schools skype with a school in NZ and that school taught them the haka and after the activity they say those were different actions then what we learnt. I said yeah probably, I am doing the ancient actions not the modern actions. Man I hope I am never asked to do that again. Then the parents arrived and wanted to see the Haka performed by there girls so there they go again performing the "Sister Chadderton version of the Haka" for their parents. It was more enjoyable because I kept laughing to myself at how dumb I sounded, but we ran out of time and never got to Samoa or Italy. Overall it was a good event and the girls loved the missionaries. About 6 of the girls who came were members the rest were non-members and I heard one girl say I thought this was going to be boring but it was so COOL.
That night went well we had the baptismal interview with the Hayes family. BEth there 9 year old didnt know if she wanted to be baptised on saturday yet but we had her interviewed just incase she changed her mind. Her mum said it was her decision and she was praying about it but didnt feel like she had gotten an answer yet. Her mum said just keep praying you will get an answer. Wednesday was the last time we saw them before their baptism so we prayed all week that she would get her answer and that she would want to be baptised on Saturday.
Thursday was training and it was a real priviledge to be at the training session. It was for all theZL's and DLs and trainer and I was the greenest person there. They split us up alot and we had to do one-on-one role plays to each other and I ended up having to role play with Elders who are going home in 4 weeks so it was intimidating to say the least. But by the end of it I realized I am just as much a missionary as they are and the role plays forced me out of my comfort zone and made me realized I can teach and I know what I am talking about. Then on the way home we stopped at Panda Express for dinner. It was delicious! I thought of you all while I ate my orange chicken. Then that night my companion and I went on splits and I was to teach these 2 guys who are in their 20's who have had a hard upbringing. The man who set the appointment for us kept saying you will have a hard time feeling the spirit in their home because its such a bad environment. The guys names are Robby and Danny and I get there, they are holding the dogs back for us (BTW did I mention there are more dogs in idaho then people?) and then we walk in and they have chairs set up for the missionaries. We also had a ward mission leader there and he started talking and saying things then I heard in my head these words " Your the missionary, you have the mantle, you take control" and I thought thats right. It would have been very easy to step back and support the ward mission leader and without my companion I was a little scared but hearing that I sat up and I started the lesson. The spirit was there so strong and I know it was the Lord leading the entire discussion. It was such a humbling experience to hear that. I have the missionary mantle, its time for me to step up and do the work I have been sent to do. I have been crusing along for long enough and the Lord is saying to me "Step up Sister Chadderton your living far below your potential" and hearing that made me realize there is so much more I should be doing for the people I teach and meet. So that was an eye opener this week. Quite a great experience.
Then friday was more training and we came back and that night had an appointment with a girl named Katrina who is 13. We were tired and she cant be baptised for about a year because of her family and so we were going to teach her the commandments as more of a filler lesson than anything. Anyways she was very distracted we were up to commandment number 4 about keeping the sabbath day holy and then all of a sudden we asked "Do you know that God loves you?" and she was like kinda, and we were shocked, we said how do you kinda know? and she said well he doesnt answer my prayers. So we pryed a bit more only to find out she was being bullied at school and teased and every day she asked for the teasing to stop and it wasnt stopping. She said she purposely got in detention during lunch so she had something to do instead of sit by herself at lunch time. It broke my heart to hear her say that. I kept thinking in my head this little girl does know that God loves her. It was such an incredible realization that from now on we need to build that relationship with God. We asked her to pray but it was a sad lesson.
Then SATURDAY ARRIVED!!!!!! I have attached pictures for your viewing pleasure. We set up for the Earls baptism but the font was taking forever to fill. There baptism was at 2pm and 1.50pm the font was barely 1/3 filled.We were praying it would be filled on time. It had been filling for 2 hours. We then went and looked at the switch and found out that we didnt have it on full power. We turned the power up and that bad boy filled up in barely 20 minutes it was incredible. The Earls got there and they were so excited. They looked beautiful in white and it was incredible to see them all be baptised. As the baptiser was getting out of the font he pulled the plug on the font and my companion and I looked at each other like NO DONT EMPTY THE FONT we told the stake president he ran back there and got the guy to put the plug back in. The room was filled with people there was no standing room left for people to watch the Earls and it made me happy to see the support they had.
Then as we were saying goodbye to the Earls the Hayes showed up. They were an hour and a half early to their baptism, but they said they wanted to make sure they made it to their baptism. We then went to show them the font and we opened the door and WHAT - the entire font was empty. So once again we had the lovely task of filling the font. It was such an experience, but the Hayes boys were facinated by the font filling and would update up constantly on how deep the water was. Anyways the most incredible thing was Beth. We said "so beth whats the verdict? Today or next month?" and she does Im getting baptised today. And we said did you get an answer and she said yeah "last night I heard a voice tell me I need to be baptised on Saturday and I looked but I didnt see anyone so I decided it was God" it was incredible to hear the Faith of a 9 year old say she got an answer and that she knew she needed to be baptised. I thought this was such a huge event in her life, and it was cool to see that her mum had enough faith that she would get an answer that she didnt force her. Anyways the Hayes baptism was much more intimate and we had it in the primary room in comparison to the chapel where we had the Earls. Geri the mum cried after her baptism, but it was a great day. I feel so very blessed to have witnessed it.
Then Sunday we got to see them all get confirmed and the rest of the week has been good. The Lord is really taking care of me. OUr teaching pool decreased dramatically once the Earls and the Hayes got baptised so now we are out finding people to teach. This week we have mission tour of Friday and we get to hear from Elder Bowen so that should be exciting. They want the sisters to sing at it but we will see if that happens.
OHHH also my pday is changing to Monday. Starting next week. So my next pday will be Oct 31st. So please email me a day earlier so I still get all your wonderful emails. Because the temple is closed they are moving our pdays back to monday. I am excited to get to have mondays as pdays.
And as for my christmas package........ Hmm I will give it thought and let you know next week. I need some white singlets (i normally buy them from wet seal?) and I would love another black cardigan from glassons? or the warehouse I dont mind but other than that I cannot think of much right now. I will let you know though. Also as for a present for the Earls and the Hayes I think anything from NZ. A little care package from NZ they would love. They are very humble families so they would be appreciative of anything.
Well family this email is mighty long. I hope you sruvived reading it to the end. I hope you enjoy the pictures. And thank you again for all your emails. I love you all very much! And I hope you have a great week. I cant wait to hear what exciting things happen in this next week. Good luck with the primary presentation whenever that is. Take care, Sister Chadderton
PS when we got to our car this morning the back window was frosted over so needless to say it is getting cooler. I even have a scarf on today. So enjoy the heat for me. And Cola make sure you bring cold clothes with you. Utah is just as cold!
001 - our lunch last pday. French toast, bacon and eggs,
002 - Sister Westover and I at the training. We were the only sisters there
003 - Earl Family in White
004 - Me and my companion with the Earl Family in White
005 - Second time around waiting for the font to fill
006 - my companion and I with the entire Hayes family
007 - my companion and I with Geri, Beth and robert the 3 hayes being baptised
008 - We were playing with hats last night.
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