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

 

 

Feb 2, 2015

Well My dear family,

Its been another GREAT week. Sharon and earl and Anne and Tracey did not come to church, but they are earnestly praying and seeking for direction from God, It has been an incredible experience to sit there and witness their pleas to the Lord, i say Pleas, because what they say you can feel is coming strait from their hearts. I love them so much, i just wish and desire for them to see what we see already, for their eyes to be open. Its all in the Lords timing though, i realize that, its so great!

Scott did come to church!!! OH YEAH! He walked in the door, and everyone greeted him, we could hardly say hello to him, it was great! Then he only stayed for sacrament, it was fast and testimony meeting, hopefully he was able to find some answers he was looking for. We will follow up with him this week to find out. It'll be great!

Well we had skills and interviews this last week, and i had a great interview with the president Clayton, it was the first time i actually had questions ready, and knew what to ask. He is so inspired, i didn't get to talk to Sister Clayton, because she wasn't there, she was heading home from the states due to recovery from a surgery, which went great! 

We found a new investigator this week, it was great her name is hope, she has talked with missionary's in the past, we need to help her see the purpose of missionary's a little better and once we do that she'll be great!

This last week we took tons of pictures of our endeavors and so i will share them you, my companion goes home next Monday so we are taking as many pictures as we remember to. and this week is her last week so we ill most likely be taking lots more. we have so much good planned for this week, it truly keeps our minds off the harsh cold that we have been experiencing. i love this work its so full of great people, and so much truth. i found the answer to anything is in the scriptures and confirmed by prayer. Its so simple, isn't it great?

 I love you all, KEEP BEING GREAT!!

Love, Sister Hadley

the picture with sister christenson cut off is teh frenchs, we helped them pack .. again.. to move.. again:). then their is the lady with the brown hair squeeed inbetween us with me in my red coat, she used to take the discussions from us, we had lunch with her that day, and took the chance of teaching her and inviting her to church, she still declined.. try, try, and try again!.. eventually it'll work out;) then there is just me and sister christenson with all the lovely snow i had to drive 45 minutes in to get to our skills and interviews.. im gonna be a pro driver after driving in canada.

 

Jan 26, 2015

Well my Dear Family,

GUESS WHO CAME TO CHURCH??? Yep you guessed it!! Earl and Sharon and Anne and Tracey. They kept their promise!!! it was so exciting, and we think so far that they had a really good experience, now the question is will they come next week? stay tuned.. 

but seriously it was so great! everyone talked to them and welcomed them. for speakers for sacrament we had a visiting speaker who was a return missionary, so he and his parents talked about missionary work and that was alright at least the talks included a lot of personal application so they could get that from them, but the most amazing part was the second hour. The Branch presidents wife sister lee, i skyped from their house, taught and amazing lesson! she loves the scriptures and so she has amazing insights, unfortunately they didn't get to go to gospel principles because of some miss communications with our church leaders but i am actually grateful because she did very well with reaching out to them. 

Scott didn't come to church because he was sick, but we met with him this week and he was super excited to go to church, he just must have been doing to much ice fishing because he caught a cold. he said just because he didn't come this week doesn't mean he isn't interested still. so we are excited to see him this next week and to continue to help him move forward in his search for truth. 

We have been walking lots in hope to find new investigators but to no avail yet. maybe this next week, we did find some people that said we can come back, so that is exactly what we will do!! 

This next week is kind of a big week, we have lots of appointments set up with some people who are potentially interested, and then also with our investigators, and with some members and then we also have skills and interviews. This will be my last skills and interviews on my mission that sort of makes me sad, but also excited because skills and interviews are great, i love talking to the president and his wife. They are amazing people! 

i don't think it is this week that Canada has their holiday of family day i think its the week after but if i don't write next Monday you will know hwy.

I love you all!!

Love sister Hadley

Jan 19, 2015

Dear Family,

This week was awesome!! we found two knew investigators this week, and one of them has just been completely prepared by the lord to receive the gospel. i kind of feel like what he is saying is a trick like someone has told him exactly what to ask and what to say. seriously its crazy awesome. he owns his own business and does a lot of ice fishing (which i totally want to do, yeah.. i'm turning Canadian on yas) we are so excitedt o go back and teach him! we will see him again on wednesday. 

i had exchanges on thursday with my mtc companion! i was so nervous for it, just becuase of the way that we left off, but it was so fun, she was nervous too but we just totally made it one of the best days i have had in a long time! we got to see and teach Melanie and Chris (the part member couple that's not married that i started teaching in belleville with sister cross) and when we came out of the lesson my temporary comp sister kurtz said, oh my heavens that was the best lesson we have had with them in forever! and i guess it opened doors because melanie is getting married next month and baptized march 7!!!!!!!!!! i am so happy for them:)) i love that family with all my heart!

then on Saturday we got to hear from ELDER OAKS!! oh yeah! he is so funny, and our area seventy came, elder allard and then elder oaks companion was elder kacher, who in return are both amazing as well. it was such a good day. i have a strong testimony of what the prophets and inspired leaders of the church have said, "what you put into it, is you get out of it." and i had so many questions a few that were personal but mostly ones of how we can help our investigators move forward with their specific concerns. i had them all written out and throughout the meeting all i had to do was fill in the answer, it was remarkable, the lord truly hears our prayers!! 

 

there is even greater work to look forward to this week, earl and sharon said they will be at churhc this sunday, so we are looking forward to that, and hopefully we can get tracy there too ( he was the one who gave earl and sharon as a refferal to us, we met him tracting, and didtne have much success with him until his wife started sitting in on our lessons (anne, she is catholic and doesn't want to join just likes to listen)). anne holds tracy back from coming to church because they go to her brothers church in belleville (hes a preist). but Tracy is very involved in the lessons and could be progressing if Anne wasn't holding him back, we wont give up on him!!

i saw janet taylor Saturday and that's who this picture is with, she is someone i knew from my first area in Mississauga.  and i dont have the picture with sister kurtz with me i will give it next week.

I love you all!! 

Love Sister Hadley

 

Jan 12, 2015

Dear Familia! 

oh boy oh boy we had an amazing week!! Two main things i learned this week are, hard work does pay off and faith without works is dead.

So before this transfer started my companion and i made a goal to find new investigators and to have two baptismal dates in the first two weeks. we truly dedicated these first two weeks to finding, we have knocked on SO many doors! and GUESS WHAT?????.... we found 4 new investigators!! and they are all amazing people!

 The first person that we found, his name is eric, was through tracting! who would have guessed?.. they actually let us come in too!! that's my first time ever!! and it was my companions first time where we would teach on the doorstep and then ask if we could share more with them, and at the end my comp added well how about now do you have a few minutes, and he said yes!! he had a stroke a while back so remembering things is going to be hard for him, but we are prepared to teach and reteach and reteach and reteach and reteach the lessons if necessary.

Then we met Micheal and Darlene. they aren't married so that will be difficult.. but they are the sweetest old couple ever!! darlene is catholic, and has the greatest insights and questions a missionary could ever ask for. Micheal has a daughter who is a less active member, but hes not a member he actually doesn't like churches because he thinks they are full of people who dont live what they preach. which in some cases is true.. so ya cant really blame the man, for that one. we will be seeing them on Thursday again! 

then we met David, he was originally a referral from Micheal and Darlene but then we were out walking around his area and he was having a smoke so we stopped to talk to him, and he doesnt believe that there are angels (that morning i had poured my heart out to my companion about how i felt about angels and how real they were) my heart only shattered a little when i heard him, easily mended though so its all good, he is going through a lot though and he seems to be very stuck in heis train of though and the way he looks at things but hes gonna let us come back and "show him some resources" and we handed him the book of mormon and bible right then and there for him to study from before we come back, we see him on tuesday. 

oh boy oh boy are we ever excited, now oiur goals for this week are to get members to come teaching with us (already set up for most lessons) and to find two more new investigators or three or 4 or 5!! 

miracles do happen! 

im not sure if i told you or not but gertie that super sweet old lady who had been coming to church has moved away to a better nursing home, im gonna miss her!! 

oh and my dear family, will you please keep jim leavens and his wife and family in your prayers, sister leavens has gone back to the hospital due to a growth in some of her tumors, and they cant do chemo becuse she is so week, and sick so the tumors keep growing. please pray for her to either be healed or comforted, whatever gods will be. 

I love you all so very much!!!! 

Love sister Hadley

there is lots more to look forward to this week

Jan 5, 2015

Dear Family,

This week was so good!! We did lots of finding activities, aka mostly tracted.. 

I started driving again, because my companions license expires this month, so yay guess who had to drive her second day in a snow storm on the freeway!!!.. this girl.. oh boy we are lucky we are alive! just kidding it actually hasn't been that bad its good practice really because i might have to drive in the city (like toronto) in a few days.. eeek which will be worth it because we get to see Elder Oaks!! and a couple of the seventies will be with him, elder allard, and elder katcher. well. so far we think we get to go .. we qualify but we'll see if not we get to listen to him over the phone which isnt as great but its still pretty cool. .. 

so we found anew investigator this week, her name is crystal! fancy that:) she is a friend of a partmember, this part member is into some pretty bad drugs, and has the terrible habit of smoking, but she is like the best missionary in the world, always bringing her friends to us, crystal seems to be pretty serious about it, she has already given up drugs, and is on a programm to give up every last drop of them, and she is currentyl giving up her oen habit of smoking, last night we met with her, and at times when she didnt seem to be listening she would just blurt out a question that you knew for sure that she was listening. she is the sweetest you can just feel the heavenly father has for her hundred of miles away. I am so excited to work iwth her, she wants to be baptized but we would have to wait until after she finishes her programm, more details to follow later.. 

earl and sharon are still doing great, earl still plans to get baptized in another church, so sad.. but sharon is doing her studies and just loves the stories in the book of Mormon so far, i feel like a little kid opening a present on Christmas morning when we ask what she learned from her studies, she always has really good connections!!

only bummer about this week is we had no church yesterday do to a crazy storm that hit, and all the roads were icy, then in the afternoon they were melted.. it was lame.. and i was sad about ti, sunday just isnt sunday without church!!

well i love you all and will continue to pray for your health!!

something that i have learned this weeks comes from doctrine and covenants 8:2 basically the Holy Ghost Speaks with a voice that you can feel more than you can hear. 

Love sister hadley

Dec 29, 2014

Dear Family,

I am staying in napanee another transfer with my current companion, this will be 6 months together kinda crazy! but its gonna be so fun!

this week we honestly did just a ton of finding, we really need new investigators. 

Earl and Sharon are somewhat progressing, sharon is connecting the dots between the truths and messages we are sharing but Earl isnt, he has decided to be baptized.... but not in our church. it really broke our hearts, and the hardest part is if he was making connections like sharon he would already be baptized. It is his choice, we haven't given up completely we have been really strongly inviting him to do the studies we leave with him, and he finally did one! so not all hope is lost. But sharon said she would be baptized when she receives a confirmation for herself, right now we just got to get her to church, which is difficult because of her heart condition, however not impossible. i love them so much and i just want them to have all of the blessings of the gospel that are possible!!

i saw melanie Saturday, someone i had taught when i was in belleville, and she is doing really well, it will be really hard to leave Canada and to not see her or her family again, i love them too!! i might get to see her one more time since i am staying here this transfer.. we'll see but i am happy for her and the progress she is making, she is such an example of never giving up what you know is right for what someone else thinks is wrong. 

we met with a lot of members this week as well, we also have a few appointments with some less actives that we havent seen the whole we have been here. its gonna be great. 

i am grateful for the members and their help in the work they are so important.

 it was so good to hear from all of you on Wednesday think i gained another 10lbs from that day becuase of all the food that was forced down me :( ....never will i ever force a misisonary to eat my food.. 

also if you havent seen this you should watch it!! i wish i could just meet david archuleta ...sigh

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.youtube.com_embed_PrLoWt2tfqg&d=AwMFaQ&c=82cVa77x-2kAfjYEmhmCyUaMeBJ7fQxZGCLs3MhYKXs&r=RHYJxIuYRHrrHc3utZupXGehSbIDEFNS1TUoU5dC7f4&m=OQhPDcIvACEq2tOa8sxqk_TH-PB5ceN6FevnXmIp10Q&s=-EN__RXNjgsFj8T4HThzC96yS4FOmg6HdMACXsE1mVA&e=

Love sister Hadley

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec 22, 2014

This week was amazing!! we had our zone conference on Tuesday and i sang in one of the special musical numbers, we sang oh holy night, that was on my mission bucket list, and i can now check that off!

 then strait to applying those teachings on Wednesday, and Thursday we planned how we could apply those teaching to the week ahead.

Friday we had our branch Christmas party and Saturday we walked all day, tracting out the elect, we found a few and met with this incredible less active/ part member family during the night, i can not wait to see how things go with them, i really do love them already!

 Sunday we had our Christmas program and that was different, instead of having speakers they had everyone read a scripture, and sing hymns in-between, and yes we sang a lot because there's not much to choose from in a branch.. but also our branch gave us this really nice Christmas basket full of food an a couple gifts, when they handed it us it hit me like a ton of bricks that this was my last Christmas in Canada... it was a bitter sweet moment, but i love them everyone of em!this branch is just amazing, each member is SO VERY IMPORTANT!!

i will see you guys in a couple days until then say-la-vee! ...(not sure how to spell that)..

MERYY CHRISTMAS 

Love Sister HAdley

 

 

Dec 15, 2014

Dear Family,

oi! what a week, we found two new investigators this week, and one of them is an artist, so i am just absolutely in love with his home! he is building a kayak right in the middle of his LIVING ROOM!! and he has tons of paintings on his walls, other than his amazing home he is a pretty amazing person. a few months ago, like when we first got here we contacted him on the street gave him a book of Mormon and heard nothing more from him, until one of our investigators, grant, who we are no longer meeting with on a weekly basis referred us to his neighbor the craigs. so we went over and what do ya know?? its the man we met on the street!! he has been reading the book of Mormon and he had a lot of questions, the amazing part is he already received some anti material and strait up told us he had but that he was willing to put that aside and still listen to what we have to say, and that was only the first visit him! we see him again this week. i am so excited!!

i am excited for this week period. mostly because we had a great experience with our branch setting up and spending time speaking to people and singing for people at the Nativity. it was such a great experience to get to know them through sharing with the community the birth of the savior and we had around 28 different cultures expressed through these nativity's it was absolutely incredible. and mom everyone loved the wassil, at one point we ran out so everyone said "sister hadley we need you!!!" and i said "me?" and they "said yes! we need you to make more wassil." i said "i dont know how to do that!", their response was, "its your moms recipe!"

so i went and called the woman that i wrote it down for because she was at home resting from her chemo and i got the recipe and made it but boy oh boy did they ever love that stuff.

this week we have our Christmas zone conference actually tonight we travel into Toronto area which is about a 3 hour drive ya... but itl be worth the drive i love Christmas zone conference!! this is my companions last zone conference and tradition is to have all the missionaries that will leave before the next zone conference to have them bear their testimony about their mission and i love listening to them, there have been a few that have helped me make changes in my mission. i am excited to listen to what she has to say, also my last companion will be doing the same thing, and few other people i know. 

 we have a bunch of appointments set up with members and less active members this week and we have our Christmas dinner party, as to which we have invited the whole community too..not really.. but just about. so we will be really busy constantly learning how to get to know serve with and find through the members of our branch. 

here are some pictures from last week because i forgot my cord last week.

love sister hadley

ps mom i made cinnamon applesauce (definitely not the same as yours) with potatoe pancakes (also not the same as yours) and it was so good, i dont know if  i said but we have been trying to get to know each other so we did our favorite food and this is one of mine!

Nov 24, 2014

Dear Family,

This week felt like a month, but it was good!!! we are also getting ready for another good week. we have exchanges tonight so tomorrow i will  be with sister wan lass and then we will drive into the city tomorrow night for our zone conference on Wednesday and meet my companion and her companion there, then Saturday we have this big relief society activity that we are gonna try to get Sharon to go to.. we'll see.

Jim was confirmed on Sunday.. his wife, sister leavens, wasn't feeling well at all so they did the confirmation in their home so she could be there, it was incredible first they administered the sacrament to her, then the confirmation. with the way she looked Sunday everyone is unsure of how long she has, but we are all praying for incredibly hard. My heart goes out to that family, boy have they been through alot!

well we are still hoping that Sharon and earl will connect the dots as they read the scriptures, we saw them last night and watched the 20 minute restoration video after explaining prophets the second time through, and she said its true but its like something is missing when she says that.. like maybe shes saying it to be said.. i dont know we'll see this week! 

i don't know what else to say because my brain is this muddled mess of memory.. need to get that fixed before i get older.. should be another great week though!!

i love you all so very much, oh and happy thanksgiving to all you americans!

Love Sister Hadley

this blanket is from the harringtons

 

 

Nov 10, 2014

Dear Family,

it has been a week of miracles, and how many more will be coming i am not sure but how grateful i am to have witnessed the few already. near the beginning of the week i had this distinct impression to go check on Shirley and earl (an older couple we had raked leaves for the weekend before, we met them because someone referred them to us) but i ignored it because we had too much to do, and faintly later that day i felt like i should call them but i forgot. then as we were heading to do some dropping by people i felt it again, and i told my companion we needed to go see them either later today or now, then i rethought that through and said no we need to go see them now, so we turned the car around and headed towards their house. there was a  different car parked in the drive way (not their car)  and we had a few urgent things to take care of so we did so, as we finished them the car left and we headed towards the house. the phone started to ring in my pocket, and normally i would just let it ring until after we leave someones house but i felt impressed to pick it up so i stopped where i was standing which was halfway up their drive way and i looked at the number, and it wasn't programmed in but i had remembered the number just by the number themselves and it was Shirley, she was calling us! i answered and right away she said, i am sorry to be calling you again! but i really need your help raking up our leaves, earl and i just cant seem to do it, and my immediate response was we are already here, so we walked up the rest of the drive way and raked her leaves. it was in the moment of checking the phone number to see who was calling that to me it felt like heavenly father was saying you are in the right spot at the right time. that sometimes our planned activities may need to change, but first we have to be able to listen to the spirit, other wise it doesn't work and we don't do the will of the father. 

second miracle--- Monday we started teaching another incredible couple that came from a referral, their names are Sharon and earl. we taught them the restoration and Sharon had questions and as soon a those questions came out more did and a few of them were from negative resources such as gossip of friends of the beliefs that we apparently have that are not true at all or have been twisted. However she and her husband listened as we explained that it is through prayer they can receive a confirmation of what we have taught and is true. They let us come back! and yesterday we taught them again but this time the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was such a good lesson, it seemed as it dot were connecting in their brains, we found out that Sharon is related to an investigator that is getting baptized this Sunday (another miracle i will you all about)and so we invited them to come to the baptism, and they said they would see how they are feeling, Sharon has open heart surgery today (please pray for her that all will go well) and so they may not be up to it, but they didn't say no! and both times we went to teach we had incredible fellow shippers, one of them was a friend from a few years ago and had lost a bit of contact with each other, it was incredible to sit there and to hear her testify of the gospel to her friends.  so more good news to come in the future, ..... they might have already bought tickets to come to Washington in the spring.. or they were talking about it. they are such incredible people!!

third miracle JIM leavens is getting baptized!!! So.. Jim is the husband of our relief society president (who has cancer and has been fighting for a couple years now, she goes for chemo on wednesday, please keep her in your thoughts and paraders as well). this couple is the most loving couple i have ever known, they have taken in her sons kids because he couldn't take care of them so they are about 70 years old each and have 3 teenage kids, they are incredibly strong in that house. anyways... jim has been taught by missionaries for years ever since he met and married sister leavens which was quite awhile ago. but he has refused to be baptized for many reasons. when we first got here he had just finished a baptism interview because the sisters before us had prepared him to do so. well we asked him about it and he didn't want us to teach him , and he didnt want to be baptized even though he goes to Church every Sunday, and get the church news every day, and is a family history consultant, AND shares his testimony in church, so his "nos"  didn't stop us from going over and sharing spiritual thoughts and engaging in doctrinal conversations. this Tuesday we said that's it, this man needs to be baptized so he can go to the temple with his wife before something happens to them. so we went over and boldly but lovingly asked him to let us teach him so he could prepare for baptism and briefly reminded him of the blessings of the temple, but he declined, and we walked away very distressed, actually my companion was in tears and i had felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest, we were beaten we didn't know what to do well we did but we didn't know how to do it. so we as we paryed we included jim in our prayers, pleading to know what to do. Well we had asked jm to help us with family history work for a recent convert and his recent convert brother, and he gave us a call on thursday and said to pick it up, then he started to say something but said never mind we'll talk about it when you get over here. i hung up the phone and exclaimed he wants to be baptized (i felt like i was in the best two years where the elder is just waiting for the phone to ring and then starts singing "hallelujah".. even though its not the same thing it felt that way. my companion and i got really giddy we tried not to get our hopes up but just kept feeling like that was what he was going to say.. so we went over when we had arranged to and were very calm as we did so, and then after he explained the family history stuff he said i have decided to be baptized! and he explained why and the whole time i felt like singing and jumping up and down, i am so happy for those two, they truly deserved the blessings of the temple in this life and in the next and now they are going to get them. we have gone over to teach him the few things that were missed or not recorded that may have been taught.  and he will be baptized next week at 7 o'clock on Sunday! the blessings of God are so Great!

we have met with and taught many other great people but i have written a very long letter so i will let that be. i love you all and constantly keep every single one of you in my prayers, how grateful i am for the blessings of temple and the truth that we have. 

Love sister Hadley

ps transfer call are this next Sunday

Nov 2, 2014

Dear Family,

This week we found a couple people who like to test the waters but wont jump in on account of full faith. so we are working with them they are pretty incredible people.

 One of them we just taught yesterday and he laughed at us because we want to come back and teach him but he let us in anyways though he had met with missionaries in the past, when he opend the door he said so your here to debate?! well come in then, and before we entered we tried to assure him that we were not there to do anything of the sort. however we sat with him, i think because he had such an experience in the past he was guarded and you cold feel the spirit of contention there a little bit, it wasn't super strong we tried very hard to not feed it but he was very defensive. we shared with him many truths from the scriptures and tried to teach an organized lesson but didnt get the chance so we set the scene up so that next time we go over which will be Friday (yay!) to teach the paln of salvation. 

       While we were there in that lesson we talked about god and who he is. his questions were along the lines of is there only one god? are there more? and is god masculine or god feminine? and when we become gods do we become higher than him or what? and so i pulled out my handy dandy scriptures and opened to Genesis where in many parts it says the LORD God, knowing that LORD refers to Jesus Christ, so Christ is a God but we also have our heavenly father who is a god and is Christ father as well.. and i dint get to explain it very well becuase he interjected and said Christ couldn't be that god in the old testament because that God is vengeful and the god in the new testament is loving and caring there is no way they can be the same person. and it hit, immediately the spirit taught me that Christ was not exempt from this plan of our heavenly father that he too had a time when he needed to come down that yes in  the old testament he is vengeful at times but he hadn't gone through mortality to completely understand and that is why in the new testament he seems more loving and more caring, he just like us is learning coming to understand, and on top of it we know he had a special calling because not only did he experience his own life but he suffered for everyone's sins, imagine the understanding he had afterwards and now when we call upon him we can do so with assurance that he knows perfectly our circumstance. i thought it was incredible of course i didn't share that with him because it didn't feel appropriate but it was just so ... well i don't have words for it but my chest almost burst from the desire to be taught and understand more!! it just was a proving point that these lessons we have are not only for the investigator but we also learn. i loved it!! that was one of my highlights for the week!!

lots of finding yet to do still many poeple to help. we are working with lots of less actives too. and its incredible this young man i mentioned last week, he didnt come to church but we taught him again and he didnt even know the law of chastity was a commandment!! so it is definitely a blessing we can help him see and understand what god expects of us, beucase he does want to do good he just doesnt know what good entails of really, so its exciting!!

i Love you all!!

SIster Hadley

ps i had exchanges this week, heres a picture.. our apartment was being fixed this week so we didnt get to shower for two days so i just put my hair in a hat the second day becuase it was all greasy... that explains the hat-do

Oct 27, 2014

Dear Family,

It was a great week, we did lots of tracting to find people because that's all about we can do here. But its fun, probably one of the highlights of the week is when we go out and tract, and we don't do it for hours on end.. well sometimes but mostly just here and there a little. another highlight of the week was our skills and interviews this Friday followed up by district conference Saturday night and Sunday morning, we fortunately got to be around our mission president adn his wife for three days, that's not normal for us!! especially since we are way out in the boondocks! but it happened and it was great, boy is that man and his wife inspired from God! There are so many changes being made in our work, or in the process of being made  its really going to turn the work around and help us out. The big focus is on less active work, which i am so excited for!! we are working right now with a young man who has gone less active and yesterday we committed him to come to church and allow us to come over every week to help him prepare to pass the sacrament again, he said yes he would like that, and it was just as exciting if someone had agreed to be baptized,honestly in some ways even better!!

District conference was incredible!! to hear the testimony's of so many people, was my favorite part i love testimony's because you can see where people match in similarities and where people differ and how God makes up those differences, how leads them and guides them. there were a couple quotes that i loved that i want to share.

"Introductions break barriers" -- reach out to those that we do not know that come into our chapel, help them feel at home

"Words touch the mind , but feelings touch the heart"-- again let the investigators feel our love for them, and if you dont have love for them be a conduit for heavenly father so they can feel his love for them (however im sure many people are very friendly with most investigators) let them feel at home 

"the lord will provide a way to help those that cant help themselves" -- this was one of my answers to how i can help investigators make commitments 

"The spirit is alive"-- The spirit is not and IT he is a He because he truly is alive i have never felt so guarded of this before, but knowing who he is, he deserves the respect of being referred to as alive, im sure that wasn't the purpose of why they said that but that is how it stuck out to me.

anyways as you can see it was a good week end! PLUS i got to see everyone from belleville, oh yeah!! that was so awesome, i think i gave about 100 people hugs in about and hour if you were to combine the amount of time we lingered after both conferences. record time? probably not.. i might be able to beat it next time. lots of good people to converse with. 

This week will be interesting we have a few appointments set up with some potentials and visiting teaching with some less actives so we got to get them on the keep commitments train!! Congratulations Michelle and Nate on the new arrival, im sure hes just as precious as the other two! i cant wait to meet him!! 

Happy Early Birthday Spencer!! considering i cant say it on the day of.. 

I love you all!!

Love Sister Hadley

the one is a picture of the sister in my district that slept over so they wouldn't have to travel very far, they are the sister that are actually in belleville now

and the other was a test shot to see if i wanted us to stand there

 

Oct 20, 2014

Dear Family,

My week was great, there were a few times this week that I felt way to passionate about the gospel... if thats even possible... but each time surprised me and almost brought me to tears why did i not know these things before? And how grateful I am to know them now. For example Saturday we visited some members in the branch that have been in the church for almost a year now, it is a mother and her son. the mother said she had been having some terrible pains and blood in her urine, our first reactions were or better the first words out of my mouth were why haven't you gone to the hospital? And have you received a priesthood blessing? Both very important resources to rely on when your body starts to malfunction. There were reasons as to why she didn’t go to the hospital but it seemed as if she didn’t know she could call on a someone to give her a blessing, and if so she wasn't a hundred percent comfortable or sure of how to do it. so we put on our paper, that goes into the priesthood meeting every Sunday morning, please talk to sister so and so today and offer a priesthood blessing due to physical illness... no one had told us if that was done or not. Then yesterday we called this sister to see if she would go teaching and it was about 8 at night and her son informed us that his mom wasn't feeling well to go out and teach because she was having very bad pains in her side, she couldn’t get off the couch, and through some communication difficulties we were eventually given permission to arrange someone to give her a blessing. so we called a priesthood holder, and inside me I felt like he just didn't understand the urgency of the request I could feel this odd feeling building up inside me one that was supportive and it was a familiar feeling that I had felt before after teaching about Christ so I knew it was a good odd feeling but it made me feel like I was coming off crazy or something and so I even questioned myself, am I acting to rash? To quick? To dramatic? but I pushed it further with the priesthood holder and cut right through his reasons as to why she could wait or why she hasn’t needed to receive one yet, and through that persistence he and another priesthood holder went over as soon as they could and gave her a blessing immediately after he called and said she will be going to the hospital tomorrow, and thank you for letting us know about her, she needed that blessing. The thought in my head was she wouldn’t have gone to the hospital if she hadn’t received a blessing and she wouldn't have received a blessing if you hadn't persisted and you wouldn’t have persisted if you hadn’t known the power of the priesthood. And how grateful I am to know of that power, that it is made available to us and many other resources of truth given to us by our father in heaven. 

The Priesthood IS real!

this week did lots of finding and we foudn a lot of people that are interested. the people that we are teaching right now are doing quite well, they just need to decide for themselves if what we share is true, so that they can move forward, but they wont pray.. SO.. we will continue to invite them to pray and explain why they would need to and do all we can to help them. BUT if soon they arent willing to do much we may have to start focusin on some other people as hard as it would be .

we have district conference this coming saturday and sunday which is the equivalant to your stake conference, and i am excited! for multiple reasons one of them being i will get to see people from belleville. 

we also this wednesday hvae skills and interviews, so in other words, interview with the mission president!

well i love you all and enjoyed hearing about all the accomplishments of everyone. i am very sad that i will not get to come home and see bouncer, can you send me a picture of him mom before he passes? 

Love Yous!

Sister Hadley
 

Oct 14, 2014

Dear Family,

We had thanksgiving yesterday it was an interesting dinner at a recent convert/part member home but we were very grateful for their love and friendship. we forgot to get a picture with them so we will have to send one another time. The night before we also had a thanksgiving dinner with another member of the church her husband, her son and his wife and his son and daughter and ex-wife, also an interesting meal, but once again we were grateful to them for allowing us to be a part of their holiday celebration. yesterday for thanksgiving we did lots of finding, and it was super fun. it wasn't much different than what we did last year, some street contacting and door knocking but maybe it was just the year difference the time i've had to grow accustomed to those activities, i actually enjoyed it! 

Saturday we also had a really great day where a member was with us almost every hour of the day taking pictures of what we were doing on putting them on the internet (due to The Book of Mormon play being shown in toronto) so we did normal activites but had members with us the whole day to show the world what we do!

we sang in sacrament meeting for thanksgiving and everyone enjoyed it, including myself i love to sing! 

Citlali congratulations!! i am so excited for you, you will absolutely love it out there, but you probably already know that, enjoy the next year and a half with the people of Chicago!!! 

here are some pictures form the week, oh yeah we went fishing last monday it was fun, i caught two fish a pike and a smaller fish, sister christenson caught a pike.

ps rob and vivian the ones who helped me with my stomach issues in belleville came and took us out to luinch it was anice surprise, and we made squash soup this week mine in on the left.