Family!!!
Woohoo another week of great emails. I honestly look forward to pday so I can read all your uplifting emails. So I have much to update you on. After emailing you all last week I went to Target brought some food (because I had to leave all my other food in Emmett) then we went to the DI and I brought a few sweaters. They are nice and will add to the warmth of my wardrobe. I am so excited to get my christmas package. But what address did you send it to? Did you send it to the mission home? Anyways my new personal address is:
25 N. 160 E.
Shoshone, ID, 83352
So for the next 5 weeks I guess you can send letters and mail and stuff there. Then after shopping we came home. We live with a member of the stake presidency and its no where near as much space as I had in Emmett so alot of my summer stuff is going to stay in my suitcases because I dont have room to unpack them plus I clearly dont need them right now. After unpacking, pday was practically over so it was into missionary work. We had dinner with a member and then visited some LA people.
SO this is the break down of my area. I live in Shoshone, I cover Dietrich (which has 2 wards), Carey (which has 2 wards) and Richfield (which has one ward) so our area includes 6 wards. Not as many as we had in Emmett but they still keep us busy nonetheless. Our schedule for the week is as follows:
Monday - Pday and work in Shoshone that night
Tuesday - District Meeting in Jerome(about 30mins away) then work in Shoshone that night and then we head out and stay in Carey. Carey is about 45 mins - an hour away from Shoshone.
Wednesday - Work in Carey - stay the night again in Carey
Thursday - Work in Richfield - Return to Shoshone that night
Friday - Work in Shoshone
Saturday - Work in Dietrich
Sunday - Any of our areas?
So needless to say it is a very busy area and we are hardly home except for the weekends but it makes for quick weeks. Yes Dad the areas are tiny and everyone lives basically on farms so were mostly on dirt roads. The closest grocery store is in Jerome and honestly this is the size of Probably Nuhaka or smaller. Alot of these towns arent anything excpet chapels and people. The thing about our area is that we have ALOT of LA people. Everyone is either a member or knows alot about the church and just doesnt come. So alot of the work we have been doing is with LA people. It is certainly different from Emmett but I know I need to be here. The Lord is teaching me humility and patience and Charity all in one.
My companion is amazing. She is from Highland, Utah and is so determined to just work work work so its great. We have a lot in common but I love how enthused she is for missionary work and how intune with the spirit she is. She is a hard worker so needless to say the Lord blessed me with my companion.
Okay so this week was good and we did do real missionary work. Tuesday we had district meeting so I met all the Elders in my District, then we came back to Shoshone and contacted some people. We were looking for this one family but the address we had been given was wrong so we knocked a couple doors around the area and found this LA guy who apparently no one in the ward even knows about. So we will go back and visit him one day. Then we had dinner with a family, and then we picked pears for another family, then we went to this other LA house her name is Norma and her house was a mess so we just got to work cleaning her house. By the time we left we had only just made a dent in the Kitchen but we passed her details onto the RS president so hopefully she gets help cleaning her house. She is an elderly lady living alone so she doesnt clean. Anyways we had a cool experience on Tuesday. We were looking for another referral we had been given but no one was answering the door. We talked upstairs of this apartment block and knocked another random door and this lady answered. Her name is Lily and she said she had been given the lessons before but hadnt really understood. She was raised in Spain but now lives in Idaho. And she said she would love to come to church and hear the lessons again. So we have an appointment with her for tomorrow so we will see what happens there. It is crazy how much the Lord guides his work and how he really does know where we need to be and what people we need to see.
Then Wednesday we were in Carey and we met Bethany. She is a LA but she is a fun lady. We just need to channel her energy into church activities. Then we had a lesson scheduled that night with Brenda and Ed. There daughter got baptised about a year or so ago and since then she has changed her life and wants her parents to do the same. We taught them about the priesthood and the BOM because they had questions but the spirit was so strong and when we extended the invitation to be baptised Brenda said YES! Ed is already a member (LA) so we can work on reactivating him but Brenda is committed to baptism on December 3rd which is real soon so we have some teaching to do. It was the coolest experience and my companion and I were on cloud 9 after it happened. This will be the first baptism my companion gets to see so its cool seeing her excitment.
Then Thursday night we met with a guy named Walter (Pronounced Valter) and he is from Brazil. He is a foreign exchange student so we are not sure if we get to baptism him or if he has to wait till he returns to him home country but he has so much faith and is willing to learn all he can. He is 15 and we taught him the first lesson and it was very much directed by the spirit.
Then Friday we had Zone Conference. It was a special Thanksgiving one and it was in Twin Falls so it was an early start for us. It went from 9am - 5pm so that took us away from our area for the entire day but it was very uplifting and motivating. I love my mission president and his wife. They always set this fire alight in you at any of these conferences so I loved it. And then as a special Thanksgiving day treat we got to watch "17 Miracles" its a new movie put out and its not made by the church so we werent allowed to watch it except its made by Excel or whatever that movie company is and our mission president let us watch it. It is an incredible movie and I think thats what im going to get you for christmas. Its about the Willie Handcart company, but it is a very touching movie. Then we came back to our area and taught a few LA that night and then returned home throughly tired.
Saturday we spent in Dietrich and we started by helping a family can pears. BTW everyone is crazy here over canning food or food storage. Honest to goodness I have never seen so much home canned goods before. Its cool. It inspires me to get food storage together (in the future.) Then we taught a few people. Sue, and The Rasmussens who are all LA. Then we headed back to Shoshone for the evening and we went to the Care Center to be with some Elderly Ladies for dinner. It was a special thanksgiving dinner and these ladies are LA and have no family around to visit them so the sister missionaries do. It was so sad being in the care center as these people are so lonely and have no choice on what to do with their lives. It made me realize yes mum and Dad when you get old you will be living with me. Goodness I dont want to ever see you in that condition. But it was very very humbling. Very Humbling. Knowing that the Lord loved them just as much as he loves me. My companion helped me realize that I needed to show them I loved them more because thats what the Lord needs us to do. So over the course of my time here in Shoshone I really hope I can start feeling that love for them.
Then Sunday we went to help a LA family get ready for church only none of the kids were home so the parents just came with us to church. Then we contacted some referrals and taught a few lessons. It was a good and busy week.
Everyone is getting all excited for thanksgiving and we have had several families invite us over for thanksgiving so that is cool. I think I will be eating more than I can handle on Thanksgiving day. But im excited to see how its done in Idaho. This area is exactly where I need to be right now and for that I am very grateful. The Lord knows what I need better than even I know what I need so that is inspiring to me. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be on a mission. Yes it might get hard sometimes but honestly that is one thing I am very grateful for is this mission and the lessons I am learning that I will be able to use throughout my whole life. I am grateful for my very very supportive and loving family. If only every missionary had as supportive a family as I do there would be a lot more happy missionaries. I am so grateful for my Saviour and the infinate sacrifice and his atonement. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and his diligence in doing whatever the Lord asked of him even to the point of sacrificing his life. I am grateful for the plan of salvation and the sure knowledge that I have that I will be able to live with God one day. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. For the people in the book of mormon who lived their lives as our examples. Who lived and died so that we could know them. Alma is my best friend, Nephi is my best friend and I am so grateful for the example they are to me. Family I could go on and on but I hope that this week you stop and honest to goodness ask yourself what your thankful for and remember that all those blessings come straight from God. I love you all. Have an amazing week and I have attached a few pictures of my companion and I. Take care. Big kisses to the niece and nephew for me. Love you. Sister Chadderton
PS the pictures were right after Zone Conference. We came out and it was pouring down snow. BTW I just found out that snow is frozen rain.....
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