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. 

Oct 6, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was incredible we got into the homes of many including investigators, new people to teach, and the homes of those who have chosen to forsake their covenants with God. My heart yearns for these people so very much, often times i feel myself reflecting on the words of the Book of Mormon prophets who have much grief for their brethren because their hearts are hard or they have forgotten their God for a time or that they just have not opened their eyes to truth. Conference was incredible it helped me see alot of what i need to do to help these people and after i have done all that i can thats when i should truly be sad becuase i can do so much more. And so after this conference i have made a promise with myself and to God to work as hard as i possibly can, harder than i am at this moment to be a mouth piece for the lord, to get out of the way, to let him use me as much as is possible for the next 6 months so they can truly come to know their Heavenly Father and his son our Savior Jesus Christ. Almost every single person testified either about our Father in Heaven or Jesus Christ or both of them, i took note of every one of them and if they didn't testify of them they testified of our prophet who is Gods mouthpiece for the world today so in that round about way testifying that god does exist and that he lives. I want each and every person to know this i cant believe the amount of people that do not, it seems so hard to believe but there are so many people who are unaware or if they are choose to walk another way, we cant let them do that!! i am going to try even harder i promise! .. Other than an insane love for the work being intensified in my heart the work continues to move on and we definitely have our work cut out for us.

I love all of you so incredibly much, here are a few pictures from the week.

Love Sister HAdley

ps i am staying in napanee with sister christenson!!

 

Sept 29, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was incredibly long/short feeling and super jammed packed!! i had so many good experiences i dont even know where to start!!

Monday we taught this guy named Glenn, we met him on the street the first couple of week we got here, it was such a hard lesson because he talks incredibly much and its not necessarily about the gospel so we had to keep him SO focused it was like moving through molasses.. no joke. But he allowed us to come back on Saturday and so we did and this time was a bit different he accepted a baptismal date and basically said it would be ridiculous to not be baptized by someone holding the authority of god when the ones who previously baptized him are sitting in jail, "shows there real authority" he is super funny!! but sometimes i question if he is telling the truth, my companion thinks otherwise so until he proves us differently i will trust in her judgement! he has a few things to overcome but nothing that atonement doesn't cover!

Tuesday we helped a less active/part member family pack to move back into napanee (they were in a surrounding area) and we taught Nate and Sharon, who are doing amazing!! Sharon went to the woman's broadcast which she loved!! and they both came to church this Sunday. they are definitely on their way to making a covenant with God, i am so excited for them just want to shout it from the mountain tops   which is weird because we don't have mountains here.. hills? not much of those either...housetops?! that''ll do!

Wednesday i had exchanges, that was miraculous i don know if you remember much of Melanie and Chris who i taught in Belleville who ended up moving right before i moved, well just so happens where they moved is where i had exchanges... so i got to go and teach her with sister wanlass (my exchange comp) it was amazing to get to see her nad hear what has been keeping her from church and her desire to go back, if was incredible to sit there and to hear her speak of the strength she was gaining from god to keep her going to church even though other and situations wouldn't have her be there. there were a few more experiences on my exchange that just made it a sacred exchange. i will share one. 

As we finished having dinner with this incredible family we knew we had to start heading for napanee or we wold be late to home, but we hadn't contacted anyone on the street all day we had been in appointment after appointment, so we followed the spirit and went to search for someone to talk to, to our surprise there was a man sorting his recycling as we talked to him he could see in our faces the faith we had to talk to everyone we meet to share the gospel, about 7 times he said i want what you have, i want your fatih. we told him of course that we couldn't have it, but that we had a message that could help him develop his own faith and one day it can be just as strong if not stronger, i don't know what happened to him after i left that day but i hope good things because he was definitely prepared by God!

and this experience just left a feeling in my heart i thought my chest was going to burst becuase of how happy i was, i was so filled with the spirit from that day, it was beyond expression but saturday during the broadcast something that sister marriott said reminded me of this if you want to give a light to others you must glow yourselves.

we found some other investigators and the week finished storng that we even hit our standards given to us by our mission president, this wekk will match it!!

i love you all!!! 

p.s i would be happy to help with lambing in the spring.

he horse is from last week email, the flowers and watrer fountain are from a lucnh we packed and had in belleville becuase we couldnt go home, and other picutres

Love SISter HAdley

Sept 22, 2014

Dear Fam-Bam!!

Holy Toledo!! we had another kid! congrats to Cherise and Richard!! send pictures asap! And theres another one coming that will be so exciting! i cant believe how much time has gone by. This Wednesday marks my one year mark out on the mission! Everyone was right time does just whiz on by, and continues to go by faster and faster! i hardly know anyone that i am serving with in this mission, the ones  i knew have all left so it looks like it is time for me to make more friends!

This week was great!!

Monday we did nothing for preparation which is probably what we will be doing today..

Tuesday we had a zone conference and it was so good!! our mission president is amazing he and his wife are so inspired from God, you simply can not argue a single thing they say.

Wednesday-thursday we found a new investigator. We went to dop by some we had met before and unfortunately she wasnt home, so we turned around and there was a lady putting out her garbage and we asked her if she knew where this woman was she said no but you could try looking around the back so we walked back and nothing, so we said oh well, and went to go talk to this lady standing by her trash, and we taught her the first vision right then and there! she loved it and told us her son was very much into our religion and when we come back she will be excited to have him there too! it was great. So we left with smiles on our faces, and a better hope for the area. friday we received instruction from Elder Craig a Cardon of the seventy during a mission tour. that was amazing as well. It just felt like he was teaching us exactly what we needed to hear according to our preparation and prayers, seriously every time i wanted to raise my hadn and ask a question he went on to answer it. He was being taught as he was teaching. then coming off of that spiritual high we went to teach this new woman (sharon) and her son (nate) and they both had such amazing questions and nate sat there just so intently listening and waiting for more spiritual food, you could tell the spirit was so present. they set a date to be baptized for october 19th! we are so excited to help them reach their goal! and they came to church sunday and everyone was friendly to them and inviting. also saturday we did service in the community, handing out stickers for a scarecrow festival, for a head count. it was the smartest thing we had ever done, we proabably met close to 500 people that day, and some of them were people that had given us excuses not to talk to us or had slammed their door in our faces, it was good to get out in the towns eye!

well all in all as you can see it was fun!!

so the one is a giant unicorn that is 26 years old that  amember forced us to get on and take a picture iwth at the end of the festival.

the other is of the mission tour, this is only half of the missionarys in our mission they had to do two days for the tour

then there is one of all of the sister we had to sleep with 19 sister is one apratment one floor too, so some were in the kitchen on towels others in the living room and the bedrooms, i was in a crack between wo mattreses honeslty i thin i had the warmest spot becuase everyone woke up freezing

Sept 15, 2014

My Dear Family,

The work of God is powerful, if thats all i could say in one letter thats all i would say. i love feeling that intense feeling of love every time i force myself to do something im not 100% comfortable doing. Often times i have heard members say i cant do that im not a missionary ah aha.. well the only difference between a full time missionary and member is that we have the responsibility of making sure a nonmember is taught all they need to know before baptism and that they are ready to make their first covenant with God and even then we need members help. I as a missionary get nervous too! and im not going to say i don't because i do, and maybe the reason it looks easy is because i have the time to seek out the spirit every morning of every day, of every week, of every month for a year and a half that when push comes to shove i do all i can to listen to and follow his voice. And that allows me to talk to people and that allows me to teach people and that allows me to invite people to be baptized and that allows me ask strangers on the street to come to church. But its not me, its the spirit giving me that strength because i asked for it and CHOSE to act on my faith, and as members we have the exact same access to him as missionary's do if we so choose to act on that faith that each of us has. Maybe there isn't time in a day to read scriptures daily.. make time.. maybe there isn't enough time to say a prayer before running out the door.. make time.. and maybe there isn't enough time to be grateful.. make time.etc. Because each time we do we invite him into our lives more and more, and then we start to see that we can do instead of we can't do. Because its not us, its Him.  What a lesson to learn let me tell you!! and im probably not even done learning haha 

I feel like even though we may not have many investigators right now that we are doing alot of work for this area, there is never a moment where we are not doing anything... unless we are eating. Busy bees make for good honey!!

I love all of you, i will send some pictures of our adventures this week, one of our recent converts James Berry has a chinchilla (i may have spelled that wrong)

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Sister Hadley!