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