Family! 

Another week done and dusted! I was so excited to get pictures of Hinalei's 3rd birthday party! We decided to do emails first thing this morning and I have been thinking about the, "Little Princess Hinalei" all week! My goodness she looks so much like her mother! The pictures of her first day at pre-school were amazing (Tear! She's all grown up and saving China!!!) No, but really, please give her big hugs and kisses from Aunty Jenna! Thanks for all the emails once again. Cola, next week I hope your papers are in! I am so excited for you! You are so close! 

Well, family, this past week was amazing! The, "End" of the week was FANTASTIC! I think I want to just skip to the end of the week, but the beginning of the week was great too. We finally got our car back last Wednesday, but up until then, we were still walking. Once we got the car, we were off to Carey for the day to visit with Brenda and Ed and guess what? Ed gave up drinking! Woohoo! This certainly means he is coming back into full reactivation. He has attended all 3 hour block meetings at Church for the last 4/5 weeks and we are excited because he certainly looks like he is working hard to take Brenda to the temple when the time comes! I am so excited to see the progress he is making. On Thursday we were in Richfield and stopped by a less active sister's home. Her name is Annette. Wow! The difference in her countenance was incredible. She was so happy and you could feel this sense of great appreciation she had for us being in her home. It is so awesome to see the progress in Annette and others that we have been teaching. Friday we went back to Carey because we hadn't been there for two weeks so we went and did some service for a few families. This one lady that we stopped by to visit hadn't seen us for 3 weeks and she told us how much it meant to her for us to be there because she proceeded to throw a really big, "Pity Party" for herself and she said through the messages we share, it helps her find the strength to keep going. It is definitely the spirit she feels when we are there, and it was awesome hearing it from her. We went and helped another family lay hardwood floors. Just so you know this is the second time I've laid hardwood floors so by the time I finish my mission I will be a regular contractor! It was a lot of fun and I liked it a lot because it was a cool learning experience. We have another family who needs us to help them sheet rock their wall. I don't know what that means but give me a few weeks and I will learn it. (lol). That was our Friday! 

Yay Saturday! We finally got to meet Elder M. Russell Ballard! It was incredible! My companion and I decided to fast so that the experience would be more meaningful and it really was meaningful and incredible. Elder Ballard talked about how as missionaries we need to be better teachers by becoming a more understanding teacher. He said when you meet and talk to someone on the street you can discern what principle or message they need to hear and you can quickly adapt the lesson to their circumstance. He then went on to talk about how the scriptures in the Preach My Gospel book were chosen. It was so funny listening to him share this experience because he said something along the lines of - "You have to stand your ground when you're in a room with all the apostles trying to pick a scripture!". Hes like, "You have Dallin Oaks on one side saying he wants this scripture, you have Boyd Packer on the other side saying he wants a different scripture, then you have Thomas Monson wanting a different scripture!" He said, "Boy you have to have a backbone when it comes to those meetings!" He was very relaxed about sharing stories about the Prophet and the Apostles and you could just imagine in your mind, all the apostles, with the Prophet, trying to narrow down which scripture is the most effective for Preach My Gospel. Elder Ballard also talked about the purpose behind creating the world. He said it was created so that people can come to earth, get married and have families so they can have experiences. He shared this with us because he was trying to help motivate us as missionaries to motivate those who we teach who think they don't need to get married and can just live together. It was amazing! Following his talk, he opened the time up for questions and one Elder asked, "What is your motivation for doing missionary work?" Can I tell you that at this point, this was the most, "Powerful" moment in the whole session for me because Elder Ballard nailed it in his response as he bore this almighty, powerful, testimony of the Saviour Jesus Christ and why, "He" is the motivation behind everything we do! He also said, "Once we learn to make Gethsemane more than just a word and actually utilize and apply the atonement into our lives, then we are able to truly understand how motivating the Saviour is in our lives." After he spoke everyone had the blessing of shaking his hand and then we had a Mission wide picture taken with him. That was the coolest opportunity to shake an Apostles hand and have a picture with him. 

Another fun part of being at this conference was getting to meet a lot of missionaries that I hadn't met before and I found out that there are a few more Polynesian missionaries in the mission then I thought their was. So, we took a "Poly" picture of all of us with roots back to Polynesia. To be fair, most of them were raised in America - but I wont judge them! It truly was a great day. 

Sunday arrived and Sister Cline and I had to speak in another ward. The topic was, "The blessings of missionary work." It was a cool experience for me and I am learning how to speak a little bit slower and, how to tie in other talks to mine. That was a cool experience. This church is so true! It is amazing! We have trainings and more trainings coming up this week, but it will be a good week. 

"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY" everyone! We have already had a few people give us boxes of chocolates. So awesome! Anyway's, I love you all and hope you enjoy Samoa Mum and Dad. Enjoy the beach for me. Love you all. Take care, Sister Chadderton. 

003 - we may have gotten stuck in the mud right after getting our car back and this is what it looked like. 

005 - the polynesian missionaries I found in the mission 

006 - me with my new companion, sister schopef with her new companion and some elders in our district.