Oct 28, 2013

Dear Family,

What a week! It was still a little rough, but we focused on the simple blessings and that made it all the better. even though the week was rough we werent sad, we were surprisingly happy. First we had exchanges this wednesday, i was so scared for them! apparently the sister that i was with was sister tebbs trainer and she wasnt very nice are welcoming at the begining, but by the end she warmed up. so i wasnt sure how my day with her was gonna go. It went so wel!!!! she taught me to not be afraid of talking to anyone. I feel like i have never had so much succes than what we had in those 24 hours, even though the appointments fell through, we went to visist other people and by doing so we got a refferal, so we went to contact the refferal eneded up teaching her, and inviting her to be baptized it was amazing! The woman we taught was disabled and lived byherself on her couch cuz she didnt have a bed, it was sad, i felt so much sorrow and love for her. i seriously wanted to tell her she could have my bed, but i dont think that would go over so well with the mission president. anyway she was such a chosen daughter of god, i loved getting to meet her. then we went and tracted apartment buildings. first you should know, i dont like tracting or so i thought, becuase people never open their doors or if they do no good comes from it. but i think aprtment buildings are different, we spoke with 3 or 4 different people that made return appointments! the people were so nice, even if they didnt want us there, normally thats not the case. then we taught a lady who had been disfellowshipped. she wasnt able to take of the sacrament for six years! six years!!! thats a long time .. plus she couldnt read the scriptures or pray in public. but she still read and prayed privately, her experience has made her so much stronger, she has never wanted the gospel in her life the way she does now, her hearing is this november and it sounds like she'll be able to pass, hopefully anyways, ive been praying she will. so exchanges changed my view on how i approach people and do things. interesting that night when we switched back we went to see a man who afteer telling us was excommunicated, hes in his thirtys has a family two little boys who are about 3 and 1 his wife isnt a member but walking to their home you would not have thought so. .it looked like a picture perfect mormon family, if there is such one. .anyways he went through a lot too but they way he handled it was different, he let it tear him away from the church and now doesnt believe in god or life after death. it was the saddest thing ever. to hear him say he knows he wont live with his family after death. My companion actually started crying, and she never crys. It just goes to show that trials define us, they are there to mold us into who we are to become. Ultimately through our lowest points in life, we either cling to that which we know will bring us happiness for forever  (Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father) or we cling to the things that mask over our anger and saddness, things that bring us temporal happiness (worldy things, Satan). I saw both situation in one day, it strengthend me so much, seeing that woman go without christ and The lords spirit for six years, i know i never want that and if i do, i want to be like her, working so hard to better myself so that one it can be in mylife again, thats what i want that man and his family to do.. we're gonna have to work on it!! It was such a great week. we then had one of our new investigators commit to baptism on friday, and saturday we went to see two less active familys! they are so great. this one family the little boy wouldnt leave me alone so i talked to him while sister tebbs talked to the mother, so she could feel of the spirit without distraction. and she did, but the little boy said to me randomly i love you and i miss you, i know that little kids may say that all the time, but this little boy looked right at me and said it, i dont know if that was carson or not.. but to me it certainly felt like it, it was something i needed to hear after a week of crazy up and downs. i loved that quote you shared with us, i know its true. i love you all and i pray you are all doing well! patrick adn sharia look good in their homecoming outfits, and the gravestone was perfect!! i loved gettng to see that. really quickly, my bishop came up to me sunday, and said he watched the boise state game and loved it, he noticed spencer when Sorenson got hurt, he said it was the sweetest thing to see him take off his helmet, but then he shouted," but he is one ugly dude!" i started laughing and said why becuase of his stache? and he said yeah, and i laughed and said eh you get used to it! he just laughed! oh how i love it when people i harldy know come up to me to talk about spencer and the game. Love you all!!

Love Sister Hadley