March 23, 2015 - last mission post

Dear Family,

This letter is going to be a bit short, but im sure you can all forgive me for this one. BUt the week went well, for all who have been following scott he is still doing great, we need to get him to church though, he apparently told one of the branch members he'll be there next week so that will be great.. oh and he actually set a baptismal date, for may3rd, i am so excited for him!! i can't wait to hear about all his progress:)

we found some really couple people this week, who the sisters are going to try and see next week, so hopefully for them it will all go well, and im sure it will!! 

we went and saw gertie again, she is just as bright and happy as ever, this time she was in a bathrobe wondering where her helper was so she could get a morning bath, so im sure she was grateful to see us go that time hahah i would be too. 

This week as an irregular finding activity my companion and i drew the plan of salvation out on a bunch of sidewalks, hopefully it will be of some use in the future. you never know who is watching!!

Also we tried to sing Easter songs to people but that failed, one lady accepted then we told her what the tittle of the song was, "i know that my redeemer lives", and then she totally changed her mind and asked us to leave, it was so saddening! But now we know not where to sing. 

Well ya all i love you so very much. I am so grateful for the wonderful opportunity serving hand in hand with the lord has been, there is no greater work, and i am starting to get excited to continue that work back home. I know the gospel is true everywhere, and that every living soul deserves to hear it!!

See you soon, Love Sister Hadley

 

 

Feb 16, 2015

Dear family and friends,

If you haven't already, you should all watch the new Mormon message on lds.org it is SO good!! 

Any-who.. this week we met with an amazing member who hasn't been to church actively in 17 years. We felt this week that we should reach out to our members and show our love to them, and this man was someone that was on our mind for about 4 months, but he lived so far out we couldn't just drop by him, and he wasn't answering our calls, so we just kind of put him on the back burner, well this this week a woman who only lives 10 minutes away from him invited us out to lunch so we took the opportunity to go see him before hand. now we didn't expect to see him we were just going to leave a note, but he was home and let us in! we shared the restoration with him and he knew exactly who he wanted to share it with. I probably wont ever see him again, but he seriously is the coolest, maybe we can get him back out to church slowly but surely.. muahaha!

we didn't see Scott this week because he was out at his moms putting in her bathroom or something of the sorts, but we will be seeing him tomorrow night, yeah we are so excited we are going to take with us this super sweet couple that have just fallen in love with him, so it should be good, i'll let you know how it goes next week. 

..and guess what!!!!! we got to have lunch with the Harrington, they went through the line of authority to the mission president to ask for permission to have us for lunch and the wish was granted, it was so great to see them, i love those two so much, literally heavenly father has blessed me tremendously with such great Canadian parents. 

we talked to some more really cool people. People are amazing, i just love them so much!! you really never know who you are going to meet, and once you get to know them your heart is just exploding with love from them, agh i love it!!

we have a couple appointments set up for this next week so it should be a great week!! plus we have zone conference which always makes things 10times better!!

I love you all and wish you all well,

Love sister Hadley

the lady with the black shirt is lesa, she is hard to get ahold of, always working but we are her visiting teachers, along with another woman who works alot. then there is mike in the glasses he is a recent convert and hasn't been out to church for awhile, he is great, he flew his helicopters at the talent show. then the woman in the pick is joan she took us to lunch and shopping last Monday, we met her through  tracting, unfortunately she isn't very interested in the gospel right now, and then there are the sajevecs, this is the woman who invited us over for lunch, and that is her husband. jessie and rudy , they are the sweetest!

 

March 2, 2015

Dear Family,

 This was another slow week, as far as the work goes. But that is ok, it just means the lord has something great instore!

We knocked on alot of doors again this week, like more than last week, and we found some really cool people, and also some people that weren't very nice, but hey that comes with the calling! 

haha it was actually really funny, one person said they weren't interested so we asked if they knew anyone in the area that could use a couple extra hands, or maybe even just an uplifting message. ..and their response was," i wouldn't send you to any of my neighbors", so naturally we said goodnight and walked away,  and in my head and then shortly after to my companion i said, well if you wont send us to them we'll send ourselves .. bahaha and so we did, we kept tracting, and we found this really nice lady named jill, she said we can come back during the day, so we will next week!

Scott got back from Florida so we see him tomorrow night, i am so excited to see what happened while he was in florida! did he go to church? did he read his scriptures? stay tuned in next week to find out more....

we have decided to start meeting our hay bay gang (sharon and the goones) less and less. Sharon i moving forward with the knowledge intake but maybe in couple months they'll be ready to take actual steps, that's a hard thing to do, but sometimes necessary.

Friday we had our talent show!

 Oh my heavens you guys it went off without a hitch. it was the coolest thing i had ever seen, a recent convert who hadnt been out to church for probably over 7 months finally came out, and was talkin up a storm with all the members there, people from the community came and participated, it was just amazing and absolute positive experience for this little napanee branch! 

Here are some pictures from our endeavors:)

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Love Sister Hadley

 

 

Feb 23, 2015

Dear family,

This week was a little slower, but man did it ever teach me to be patient. In that trial the lord definitely showed forth his blessing in the last hour of the day in the last day of the week, and it truly made the entire week worth it! 

We were just having a rough time this week finding new investigators, and Sunday night through an interesting chain of events we were out about 29 minutes away from our house walking down a semi dark highway, which is like the center street of a really small town, and we met this man named dave! as we were talking to him you could see him listening not just listening with his ears but his heart, and he agreed to let us come back, thing is its two weeks from yesterday, because he has a lot going on! we are so excited, he is so prepared, and we were so directed to him by the lord!! man i love this work. I thought before we met him, well there goes a very sad week, we'll just have to work harder next week , which do plan on doing, but it was like the lord just was waiting. 

We have a lot going on this week, bunch of finding time, a specialty training by our mission president, and a talent show that involves the members and the less actives in our area. I am so excited for so many people have said they will be there, we are trying to let everyone see that they all are needed and important. That each of them have talents and abilities that others don't have, like the body of Christ! its gonna be great:)

Well i love you all and hope all is well there.

Love sister HAdley

 

 

Feb 17, 2015

My Dear Family,

HA well what a week, its pullin my brain for a loop how fast it went!

Monday all sister christneson wanted to do was teach, teach, teach. i don't blame her so we went to teach teach and teach. and we taught this sort of crazy lady who we thought wanted to learn more about the gospel but she really didn't want to and we didn't find out until last night when we went to revisit her, it was totally sad but there are others out there are just waiting for us to find them.. so anyways we taught this lady Monday night then we hurriedly helped her finish packing (or tried too), because everytime i reminded her to pack she kept saying "im waiting".. haha waiting for what?, its Monday night at 10:30, we leave tomorrow morning at 6!.. ha well we didn't leave tomorrow morning at 6 because the silly goose still had to pack! unpack and repack and take things out cuz her bags were too heavy .. we got on the road at about 730, fully headed for the BIG city. ya... it actually wasn't a bad drive, i still cant believe i actually drove with SOOOO Many cars, we almost died 3 or 4 times but drive actually did so that's great.. Count you many blessings!! 

Then when we got there i picked up my lovely companion sister Westerlind, who's from California, and drove all the way back, also almost dying 3 or 4 times but never actually happening which is still very great. . Then that night we went out to meet some of the recent converts and less actives and taught scott!! she got to meet him before he left for two weeks!! he said we could look up a chapel while he is away, it was great!! not sure if he did this week or not, because he never replied... BUT then Wednesday we went and served this amazing super sweet old lady, who we found through tracting, the spirit of which had totally guided us to her, and her to us!! we will go and see her again tomorrow hopefully able to teach about the gospel. 

Then we went out to see Theresa this really sweet young single adult in the branch, who hasn't been out to church very much lately, shes allowed us to come and reteach her the lessons so she can fully understand the basic principles of the gospel, her mother is catholic and she feels very close to God in the catholic church but her father was a member of the church when he was alive and she has a hard time letting go of that side of her, it must be hard decision for her since she lives with her mom, but we are hoping that our visit will help. She really is the cutest!! the branch loves her too that's actually why we are seeing her cuz they told us to go see her! 

Thursday we just did lots of planning for the area, had our coordination meeting and went to introduce sister westerlind to the Thompson s! Friday was our first district meeting of the transfer and we get to go to belleville almost every Friday again. its not as weird as it was before because i have been here for so long. then we went out to talk to lots of people in the freezing cold, they weren't entirely receptive but we had fun doing it, so it was still a good experience. Then we went to teach earl and Sharon, and anne and tracy, earl actually was sleepin because he was sick. we taqught abo0ut following the prophets and sharon had some amazing questions that we got to answer that allowed her to make connections.. more connections, bless heart she is going through so much but still very strong in having us come over and teaching. I love that family so much! .. but then again who do i not love so very much!! this place is just incredible.

i heard that melanie and chris are still planning on getting married saturday i am SOO happy for them, one more step in the right direction. 

Saturday we found a new investigator named barry, he is great he set himself with a baptism date for the 14th of march, that might be alittle soon because of his background but then again anything is possible with God and we are gonna work for it!! He is great though. he came to church inspite of everything he is going through it was great, and then on top of it all he asked for a blessing, and we had never even taught him about what a blessing was but he must have just known from his friend in the church. as i sat there and ,listened to his blessing i could just feel the love our heavenly father has for him, it made me appreciate love a little more, and loving unconditionally if our heavenly father can do it, why can't we?

sunday we had exchanges. I was sad because it was my last exchange i was driving home last night and i just felt like crying, i love my leaders and especially my sister training leaders they have always helped me see what i can improve on in a very loving way. i hope to be that way someday. And now here we are. so as you can see the week went by way too fast!! Oh and family day was yesterday that why i am emailing today! I love you all, and hope everyone is well:)

Love Sister HAdley

sister kurtz is the one with the dark hair she is great, this was our second exchange together! plus she was my mtc companion. sister westerlind is the other lovely lady

 

 

Feb 9, 2015

Well My Dear Family,

We couldn't have asked for any greater amount of blessings this week. We met some incredible people simply through talking to them on the street asking them who they know and lots and lots of tracing and walking  in the snow ya!

Scott came to church or really sacrament meeting, because our church almost got canceled due to weather. i am so grateful it didn't! i think i have come to appreciate the sacrament so much more since being out here, and that probably sounds really cliche but its so very true! so he came to church and he really liked it!! he is so normal too!! you don't get that very often around these parts. unfortunately he is leaving for two weeks, to escape the cold with his wife, they are going to Florida! ya them, i wish i could just hide in their suitcases its gonna be so warm over there!!! we will see him Tuesday night before he leaves though so we'll make sure he knows where the Florida chapel is that is closest to him so he can keep going to church while hes away!!

 WELL its come down to it, and i am losing my companion we drive out tomorrow morning her to fly home and me to pick up my new companion sister westerlind. i don't know her, she must be relatively new. I am excited for the transfer merely because i am excited about all the work that is going on here. But i am so nervous or scared really to approach the final day, simply because i just watched sister christenson do it and it stressed me out in the process.. BUT this transfer is going to be great nonetheless. Seriously i will have to tell you all about it next week, because we just have a bunch of appointments set up for the first time that hopefully by next week they will all still be there but ya never know!!!!!

I am so grateful for this work, and boy oh boy for the knowledge you gain. we were looking at it this morning and as i looked inside i could just see this huge difference in understanding of the scriptures from before i came out. I love the scriptures so much, and i honestly cannot comprehend how people can continue to tell me that the book of mormon is not scripture, it so clearly is!!! Moroni 10:3-5 take the challenge if you havent already and if you have let it only confirm what you already know, how great is that feeling!! 

Sounds like lots of excitement is happening at home, I love you all!! and welcome home matt, even though im saying that from canada, i think it still applies .. maybe not.

Love, 

Sister Hadley

ps scott is in the leather jacket. the couple is branch president and sister lee and one of their sons austin. the lady is sister lasher, her nad her husband like to square dance! then there is the big group picture with earl and sharon on my right with their two dogs and their son is on the far left his name is john, then in the middle of them and john and on my left is anne and tracy