Family!
Wow! The children just get cuter and cuter. That's crazy to hear that Baby Rawiri has already been blessed too! Well done! I will try and print his blessing off and read it again. This past week has been super busy. Seems like it wasn't as busy as last week but maybe I'm a little more relaxed. We had miracles happen this week. Here it goes:
Monday was P-Day and that night we went up to Vale as Tina and Morgan were having their baptismal interviews today and they both passed. It is such a good feeling when they pass the interview stage. Then we drove home because we had to drive to Boise for the Temple early the next morning.
So, Tuesday morning we're off to Boise and the Temple was awesome. I had a good amount of questions from visitors and a lot of the questions were to do with the structure of the Temple which was interesting. Some of the questions included, "How big is the temple? Why does the Church spend so much money on Temples? Where did the chandeliers come from? Where did the granite come from?" and so forth. It is our goal that after we answer the questions we always try and turn the conversation into a gospel related topic or principle. We can't really proselyte so instead we bear testimony and hope the spirit touches them so they will want to learn more. After the temple we drove home and did our personal and companionship studies and I learnt something during my studies. I have been praying for understanding to see how I can help my companion and how I can have more charity towards her and during companionship studies I was able to see what my role needed to be in helping my companion and so far its going good. We're still not as united as I would like but miracles happen so I know everything will work out. That afternoon we called a referral that we had received. He had recently attended a Temple Open House and had some questions so I was able to answer those questions for him over the phone. I tried to get him to meet with us but he wasn't committing and said if he ever needed anything he would call us. That was okay too. After the phone call we had dinner, then we went to stop by and visit Angie and Blake who are not members of the Church. Blake is probably about 12-ish and Angie is his mum and we were talking to them about the gospel and Blake was close by playing on the computer and he turns around and says, "Yeah, I really want to be LDS because it's the best church ever!" His mum remained silent, so we are going to visit again to see how we can make that happen for Blake. It was cool to hear what this 12 year old thinks about the church, "It's the best church ever!" That's amazing.
Wednesday morning we did our studies, then we walked to visit an elderly lady who isn't LDS but we talked with her about her experience going through the Temple Open House. It was pretty special. And she said she wanted to take her children to the Open House so I am excited to see what happens there. Some of the elderly ladies just want company and sometimes its really hard to know who wants the gospel and who just wants someone to talk to. We were off to the Open House after because we were working from 1:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m. It is Halloween day today so, can I just say that the Open House did not present a flurry of people. It was dead. Nobody was coming so a couple of sisters and I went over to the Temple and took some pictures, then the shift change happened and we were still there. We ended up finding the person in charge and we asked if some of us could be sent home. Probably for the whole 8 hours that we were there today only about 15 people came into the cultural hall. So, when I say dead it was dead quiet! We were free to go and left about 8:00 p.m. where we went to the Boise sisters apartment and played scripture games. It's funny the little games we play to entertain ourselves. Definitely, "No Harry Potter movie allowed in this mission!" Haha. But Halloween was super uneventful and we didn't even have candy which was a good thing I guess!
Thursday morning we were back at the Temple and after the Temple we went to Cafe Rio to eat. Mum, you have got to put Cafe Rio on your list of places to eat at when you visit America again! You will love it! I think I should open one in NZ. After Cafe Rio we drove home, did our studies, then we went to visit a recent convert who has a less active wife. It was pretty special because this recent convert just received his endowements and is excited to go back to the temple. Then we had dinner, then we went to teach a lesson that our Ward Mission Leader had set up for us. There were some people in the Ward who have a mutual friend and this friend wanted the lessons. The Ward Mission Leader suggested we teach lesson one which is on the Restoration and that we commit her to baptism. We didn't even know the person's name or anything, so we get to the lesson and meet the friends of this lady and before we even sit down the spirit says to me, "You're going to teach lesson 3" which is the Doctrine of Christ. And I'm thinking okay, well my companion needs to know this because she's planning on teaching lesson one. Anyway, the ladies name is Shelby and she attended a Temple Open House and she said the spirit was telling her while in the Temple that she needed to repent and be baptized. She was raised in the LDS church but was never baptized. Her dad is less active and her mum is non member. So, we start our lesson by teaching about faith and repentance and the spirit is strong and its awesome and then we teach about baptism and we invite her to be baptized and she accepts! Then the spirit prompts me to say, "We invite you to be baptized at your soonest convenience... Satan will try and stop this baptism so we invite you to be baptized as soon as you can." Pretty much something along those lines came out of my mouth, and she said, "Well, I've been thinking about November 17th which is the Saturday before the Temple is dedicated!" I knew within myself, that that was going to be a tough one to pull off because the Cultural celebration was that very night. I also knew that she wouldn't be able to be confirmed until the following week so we shared that information with her and she said, "Well, what about November 10th?" We all agreed to November 10th being her baptism date. Honestly, she is so ready for baptism. And it was funny because the reason I realized later why I was prompted to teach lesson 3 was because she said at the beginning of the lesson, "I know all about Joseph Smith so please don't teach me about Joseph Smith." A lot of people say that. It was a huge tender mercy. We also ended up teaching her the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity that night. By the end of the lesson I was mentally exhausted but so happy that we were able to teach and testify again. The Lord's tender mercies are surreal.
Friday we had District meeting and it was good, then we went to Vale to see Duane and Laurie and we listened as they shared a miracle that happened to them. Laurie had had a mammogram and she received a phone call to say that she had a questionable spot show up on the mammogram and she needed to go in and have an X-ray done. So, for her, the first thing that comes to mind is breast cancer and so she was worried. Duane was a little upset by this because he had a sister that died of breast cancer and so they get in the car, go to a members house and ask for a blessing. Laurie said once she got the blessing she just felt this feeling of peace come over her. The next morning she went for her X-ray and they told her that it was a lymph node instead not a spot so everything was fine. She attributed it to the blessing and the prayers so that was a really cool experience that strengthened them regarding the priesthood. Laurie will be baptized eventually but she wants Duane to do it and he is currently unable to at the moment. But, given a bit more time and it will happen. After seeing them we drove to Nyssa and filled the font and got ready for Tina's baptism. It was a good baptism and she felt the spirit and bore her testimony. It was great. Needless to say, when we got home that night we crashed into our beds. It was awesome!
Saturday we got up and headed off to the Temple early where we worked from 9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. Unlike Wednesday, IT WAS SO BUSY! Lines upon lines of people were at the Open House. It was amazing! I had tons of opportunities to answer questions and at one point of the day I had an entire church congregation surrounding me and throwing question after question at me. There were probably 30 people around me and I kept thinking, "I need a companion! Where's my companion?" But the Lord strengthened me and helped me to answer all their questions. We get a few cynical people who ask questions about how expensive the Temple looks but we are able to testify of how much more money we spend on humanitarian aid then we do on Temples. It's awesome helping people to realize that we actually take care of the poor and needy and we don't just spend money on building Temples. After the Temple we rushed back to dinner and then we had the first session of Stake Conference that night and one of the Counsellor's in the Stake Presidency came up to us and said, "Sister's are you ready to speak?" In my head I was like, "He's joking right?" But I blurted out, "Yes of course, we're always ready!" And he said, "Okay good!" It was all in good humor until he invited us to sit on the stand and my heart dropped and I thought, "Is he for real?" Turned out he just wanted us to sit on the stand. It was a great Conference with a huge emphasis on Senior couples serving missions.
Sunday was the second session of Stake Conference and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake City where Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke to us mostly about missionary work. Some statistics they shared was that they were use to receive up to 600 applications a week from people who want to serve a mission, now they are receiving about 6000 applications a week. It's incredible the response to the call to serve. After conference that night, we visited with Art and he has changed. His room/ house is almost his small chapel and it looks really cool. We then visited some less active members and then did our weekly planning.
Overall, a really good week filled with miracles. We have two baptisms this coming week and it's the last week of the Open House so its going to be busy. Have fun at Brooke's wedding. I did send her something but I don't know if she will use it at the wedding. Give her a big hug for me please and give the children hugs and kisses too. Love you all and have a great week. Sister Chadderton xoxo
Picture 1 - Sister Tonuu and I
Picture 2 - Me holding a picture of the Boise Temple
Picture 3 - Me holding a picture of the Salt Lake City Temple (for you Sister N)
Picture 4 - Me, Tina and Sister Armstrong at Tina's baptism
Picture 5 - Me and Sister Armstrong
Picture 6 - Me out the front of the Boise Temple
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