Nov 25, 2013

Dear Family! So much happened this week!! Tuesday we met with a woman that was given to us through text, and she told us while we were getting to know her and where she is at with her understanding of Christ, and reading with her in the Book of Mormon, that she could feel certain things stand out to her, and they made her happy and warm! that was the first time in any of our lessons where someone has said anything about the spirit testifying to them. So we explained to her what that was and why that was happening, it was an amazing experience, it just sort of started the week off on the right foot. Wednesday we were planning on dropping by these amazing less actives( i think i have mentioned them before, if not the husband is partially paralyzed and bed ridden in a home gets up a few times a week, the wife lives in an apartment with their dogs, she is very lonely and she goes to visit him a lot!) We were going to see sister teepel in the early afternoon and brother teepel after her but she canceled so we thought well we will still go see him. we get into the building and to his room and the door is shut (the door is never shut) so we asked and they said his wife was in their. we thought about leaving because we didn't want to interrupt but we knocked anyways. she opened and laughed and said she was actually expecting us to drop by. Anyways she had come to church with us the week before (the first time in 13 years!!) but as soon as we got in her husband was so excited he mentioned how much he loved that we took her to church with us, he said ok who is giving the spiritual thought, so we read with him and after he said who is giving the prayer?, we laughed a little because of how excited he was. it was beautiful to watch her take care of him when he couldn't for himself, it reminded me of how Heavenly father has been taking care of our family and picking us up when we couldn't pick up ourselves. I love them and i love that they are both together rekindling their love for the gospel we are simply there just to nudge them. I love this work. We finally got in contact with one guy who we have been wanting to teach for weeks, and he wants to learn first but we asked him about his family and he said we can teach them as soon as he feels it is right first, unfortunately he is too busy this week but next week we get to teach him. i am so excited because he has no religious background so instead spending a ton of time with scriptures from the bible and the Book of Mormon we can just go strait to the Book of Mormon!! All week (well basically all month) we have been inviting people to come out to a special fireside by a woman in our ward, who wrote a book about her past (mom this is the book i was talking about a couple weeks ago, i think, maybe just last week) and that fireside was this sunday. We had one person that we invited come, that part was pretty lame but he still enjoyed and actually asked how he can get in the temple afterwards. But before going to the fireside i was excited to hear her speak because i had hear d a little about her book , i wanted to see how it could change the hearts of those listening and i certainly got my answer! because i was listening i learned a lot for myself. Sister Hitchins lead a very sad life in the beginning and she didn't even go into that much detail but by the end of the fireside she had me in tears. She spoke mainly on forgiveness. she said that she forgave her two sets of parents that lied to her and were very mean to her. it took her a while but she did it and now she helps them out. it hit because i have people that i know i need to forgive, and i cant move on with what the lord wants me to until i do. I don't know how i am going to do it, but she really inspired me to. I went to say thank you to her and i couldn't even get the words out of my mouth because my body decided to cry again, that was embarrassing standing there as a missionary, but she was sweet about it. I cant even explain in words how much that fireside and her story meant to me, i wish you all could have been there, it was great, it was the best ending to my week i could have asked for. The weather is getting very cold here and i am so happy to have my coat!! it started snowing on Saturday and i got my coat Sunday, it was perfect timing! bring on the winter! i am so excited we start caroling and living Christmas cards next week so we have been studying the birth of the saviour and memorizing scriptures like crazy, its going to be an amazing Christmas, i want to stay here for one more transfer! i love my area and my companion and these members. Heavenly father truly knows each and every one of us and is wathing over us! I love you all. im praying for all of you, i hope you get well spence and that each and every one of you are finding missionary experiences it is the time for us to perform our labors (alma 34:32 my favorite scripture)
Love you, Sister Hadley

Nov, 17, 2013

Dear Family,

This week was awesome!! the lords timing is everything! So we lost henry, he's not ready right now but he said he would keep reading and praying and he said maybe later we can come back to teach him, we also had to drop another one of our investiagors the one that reads in arabic, he never has time for us. BUT even though we had to drop two investigators we gained three!! let me tell you how.. so the first one was given to us in a text we still haven't meet with her we are working on it, shes just busy. The second one was a former investigator and we knocked on her door a couple weeks ago to get to know her and to try to teach her again, but she wouldn't let us in she wasn't feeling great, so we called her a week later, and dropped by but she didnt answer. This weekend we went to drop by her and she opened her door, she wasnt feeling well again and said she was gonna need to go to the doctors we explained to her what a priesthood blessing was and asked her if she wanted one, and that got her questions rolling, point of the story she wants to come teach her this week and after that if she feels comfortable she will recieve a blessing at the end of the week!! i am so excited, she seems like an amazing woman and we only got to talk to her for 15 minutes! then while i was on exchanges this Friday night we received what seemed to be a tender mercy. Durig nightly planning with sister Degroot (that's the sister training leader i was with) we were talking about something i cant remeber but we then moved into how it has been very difficult lately with trying to find people to teach and not seeing anyone progress, and how hard it has been to start my mission that way because that's now how i pictured it and that not what i wanted, how hard it has been to keep thoughts of wanting to go home out of my head, and she started to speak to me, but as she was speaking it wasnt her, it was heavenly father telling me that everything is gonna be ok, telling me how proud he is that i am out here, just inviting people to come to hear of his plan, and i started to cry silent tears, as soon as i did i could feel so much being lifted off my shoulders, i dont even know how to explain it correctly, but as she was still talking my district leader called and i wasn't sure if i should answer and a thought came into my mind, "answer it" so i did, and my district leader said that he had a solid investigator for us. A man named robert is moving from oshawa into our area he has been taught everything except the commandments but is already living the commandments, he has a baptismal date set for dec. 8. i couldn't even respond to him because what was controlled crying before became very uncontrolled. the lord heard me, he is always watching over me and my companion but until that moment i hadn't felt it. now i do and i know that whether or not this man is actually baptized the lord does prepare people for certain times in their life to receive the gospel. We may not understand what is happening and why we have to go through so much turmoil but he does, and that's all that matters, because in the end he knows that all our hard work will pay off and the blessings will pour out abundantly, if we continue to do our part. So much happened this week but i wanted to share this with all of you to let you know, that yes the mission is hard dang it! But even though i have thoughts of coming home, i really don't want to. I know i am where i am suppose to be, these people need me! even if it is just to hand them a card, that is a starting point all in its own. This work is so amazing!! I just love to see it touch peoples lives. This one girl on the bus as i was talking to her she asked me what i was doing here and i said i am trying to share with people a message of  happiness, that i know is true because it was once shared with me! i told her that i try to talk to as many people a day that i can because i want all people to be happy, just like i am.she said thats awesome, and i said yeah its pretty amazing would you like to learn more and she said yes! but shes ysa age so we wont teach her but she will be able to learn more all because i sat next to her and started talking! Spencer i am keeping you in my prayers as well as everyone else. I hope everyone is doing well. Good things will come to those that work diligently. mom that scripture was perfect to how my week went, the lord definitely put me in my place. I love You all!!

Sister Hadley

P.s. i got a bob and her is a picture of it. the one is with the sister i went on exchanges with and the other is with the roger family, she helps us teach and we have come really close with their family but they are moving back to the states soon

Dear Mom,

I love you and that you shared your favorite quote, i remember when you shared that with us the first time, i just pictured you saying it all over again. I knew asking you for advice would be better than jumping to the mission office. Say thank you to  amy for me! i honestly don't take a ton of ibuprofen but i wont take any more, promise! its getting colder here, suppose to snow tomorrow but rain and sun the rest of the week with lots of wind (that's what makes it cold).christmas ideas: i could use another white undershirt longsleeve or short sleeve, mine for some reason have these weird stains( they are like yellow, but i didnt get anything on them) and they are both like that and they are from seagull book, im telling you its odd..  Lipgloss, im running out of that .. umm maybe a hymn book with my name on it.. everyone keeps thinking my name is amanda.. or one with no name on it.. but if not thats okay ill just cover it up with tape. but i honeslty i dont need anything really just pictures of everyone in the family and the clydes too, i want to see little cody and kenzie and cade and boyd and nicole! a scripture i found this week studying was Luke 1:37 basically says nothing is impossible with God. That one little line goes a very long way! i love you and pray for you, i hope you have been able to have the experiences you wanted. i havent heard anything from elder hadley, i hope he is doing well. tell patrick and sharia to write and michelle!! 

Love Sister Hadley

 

Nov 10, 2013

Dear Family!!

What a week! Whew! There are some definite ups and downs, more ups than downs though so thats great!! we still dont have very many new investigators. People are just too busy to see us, even when we show up on their door step, if only they would give us 5 minutes, but they dont even give us that. We'll get em though... eventually! So one of our investigators has been in pakistan for two weeks and he just got back so we met with him and talk him about the gospel of jesus christ,(faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) as we did so i felt impressed to invite him to be baptized again( we have invited him before and he wouldnt commit because he had a valid concern as to why not, and we thought we had gone over that and resolved it) but he didnt accept apparently his concern never really went away. We dont know what to do, been praying hard for this guy, he needs the gospel in his life, he needs a closer relationship with christ, hopefully through much study and prayer we will know what to teach him by the next time we see him. Henry (im not sure if i said his name last time but the one who came knocking at our door asking for reading material) is having a bit of a hard time accepting the book of mormon as scripture and accepting joesph smith as a prophet he also is afraid that he is wasting our time, but we were able to share the restoration video with him, and he watched it on his own, we saw him in the hallway and he said it shined alot of light in on the situation. But we had to go and he had to go so we didnt go into detail about it, when we see him this week we will have to follow up with him better. But i see alot of promise in him he reads the scriptures, here and there on his own, and i know that when everythings starts to click in his head he will be so much more happier and confident in himself. I cant wait for the day! He needs this so much, and he started searching on his own i only hope he gives us enough time to teach him how to build a realtionship with heavenly father and Jesus Christ so that if he does decide hes wasting our time then he will at least have the scriptures and prayer to turn to.  our other investiagtor came to church!! and we got him a copy of the book of mormon in arabic, so he can start to understand what he is reading now! I am so excited to see where these three will go! i Know that the lord prepares people at certain times to learn  of his gospel, and these three are prepared, they just need time. We went and saw a less active lady who hasnt been to church for quite some time now, and shes a bit bigger, big enough to eb on dissability. but she is the sweetest woman! the first time we went last week, she talked our ear off!! adn we almost had her at saying yes to coming to church, but then she changed the subject, and yesterday wehn we saw her she let us pick up trash around her house and clean up her kitchen a little bit. nedt week we are going to go and wrap her christmas gifts for her kids. I love being at her house( even if my clothes get covered in cat hair) my favorite part is just that i get to serve her, becuase she cant do things for herself i love being able to do them for her! It helps that her sense of Humor is outrageous! Enough about me, things are going well here, they are starting to turn around very slowly!

whys everyone getting hurt? sheesh!! spencer i hope you heal right, and mom you too that sounded so painful about your hand, i would have been bawlin like a baby, you're too tough for your own good! I love all of you so very much and enjoy hearing about you, seriously is the best part about starting off my week! I cant wait till christmas to be able to talk to all of you. im also excited becuase as a mission we will be reading the entire old testament the entire doctrine and covenants and the pearl of great price, in one or two days.. im not sure.. but the point is we are reading all of them. its gonna help me reach my goal of reading every single page in my quad during my mission. i have already strted over with the book  of mormon and i started reading in the new testament, its such a blessing to know all of the scriptures especially when peopl want to know how the bible and book of mormon work together. I love the scriptures! they are my anchor. i didnt take many pictures this week but here i a picture of our zone that we took on monday of last week right before transfers. fun group of missionaries they are so inspiring. Love you all!!!

Love Sister Hadley