Tuesday January 24, 2012

Hey Mum,

How’s it going??? We had a sweet week and zone conference was pretty good. The work has been good too. My companion’s good & I’m not sick. Transfer day is next week and I’m happy and excited.

Nothing too exciting happened over this week but we doing good and we are progressing in the work. We have over 6 members come to church for 4+ times which means they are active now. Astig. The less active lessons are going good and we’ve found some more to add to the teaching pool.

We have about 4 potential missionaries in this area. So for the rest of the transfer I want to focus on them and help them get worthy and gain the desires to serve a mission. One of the goals that were laid out in the area broadcast was that we need to save the rising generation and getting people in to go and serve the Lord is one of the main ways that they want us to do that.

Sweet as that Uncle TC and his whanau could come over for a visit. Looks like they are doing good. Do they have an American accent??? Hehe. That’s sweet.

Thanks for the pictures. Hinalei’s growing heaps and Baby Joe as well. Is he starting to stand up and that? It sounds like everything pretty sweet at home. I’ll attach some pictures for you. A guy I met on the street gave the sunglasses to me. I talked to him and he was asking me all these questions. He had some glasses on so I asked if I could try them on and he went and grabbed another pair and gave them to me. Cool aye?

As I mentioned transfer are coming up and they're going to be combining zone leaders so its going to be interesting to see if I will transfer or not. I think I will (of course that's up to the Lord) but I’ll definitely be put with another zone leader.

The Zone Leader conference was good. They had all the ZL’s sit up front and we had to teach a workshop as well. It was definitely different being up the front this time. It was different not having Sister DeLaMare there but President seemed all right. In the conference we focused on working with the ward council and how to contact and help the less active members. It was good and we did a lot of role-playing, which was cool. We were shown things to do in order to work with Bishop and the other auxiliaries in order to help them help the returning members.

Life is good and I love you all. Take care and keep being awesome mum.

Elder Chadderton

Tuesday January 17, 2012

Hey Mum, 

I’m doing good, still going strong. Time is flying by seriously - I have been out now for over 8 months on my mission and I still remember getting on the plane to go to the MTC.  It’s scary but great to see the improvements that have happened and the changes that are continually happening. We had a good week, with the temple, P-day, exchanges, temple tour, Area Presidency broadcast and then church. It was busy and good. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Bulanon, he’s a Filipino and he’s a great missionary. As Zone Leaders we are supposed to do exchanges with the district leaders once a transfer and so we did that this week. It is cool going out to the other areas and seeing what the work there is like. I got to know him and the others in his house, Elders Oetllie, Webster and Victorio.  They are all good missionaries. 

The temple tour was good. I don’t know if I told you about that but we take our investigators and less active members there to feel of the spirit of the temple.  They have workshops set up to explain different ordinances and things about the temple. eg. Moroni, importance of families, baptism for the dead, the MTC (it’s right next door) and the temple recommend. It is cool and it helps the members gain a desire to later pasok there. 

The Area Presidency broadcast just helped put in context the changes that will be brought about in the pines in the next couple of years.  With the focus of getting members to the temple, and a huge focus of establishing the church and strengthening the stakes that are here by bringing back the priesthood holders that have been lost. It is going to be great. The invitation has been given to all to help bring back one member each that was lost. It’s a lot of work but it’s going to be sweet.  They explained that if we have no vision we are lost, meaning, with no goal we don’t know where we need to go. 

Yeah that’s sweet. We had our zone activity today we did Filipino bowling, it was hilarious, the balls don’t have holes and the pins are made of plastic. Oh, and the pin setter upper gets paid by the hour. Haha, but it was awesome and for P25 each it was a lot of fun. I got pictures but I forgot my cord again sorry! 

I finally bought a usb drive and copied all my pictures to it and then cleaned up my camera. Happy! 

About the music you mentioned - that would be welcomed openly. We have DVD players here and we can play church music if we have it. So that’s great if you want to send the music CDs on over, and also some Moleni brothers and stuff if you can. 

I got your letters and also one from Nicole Horsford.  I was excited getting that. It’s so sweet to have someone from back home going to the neighbouring mission. Sooo sweet!  In tagalog “astig talaga”. If you see her can you tell her thanks for me? I’m excited for her. 

The work here has been good. For the first time Elder Cortz and I broke the goals that we set. It was amazing. The work is going forward and we’ve had 4 less active members come to church for 4 weeks. That means they’re active now. Exciting stuff. The Lord is helping us in this area. 

A bit of sad news - Sister DeLaMare's father passed away this week so she’s headed home for the funeral and so President is manning the mission alone. He’s a great man. We have our zone conference on Wednesday, which should be cool but different cause Sister DeLaMare wont be there. Oh well! 

Well, good on you Mum for taking care of Uncle Rana and always being there for your family. I love you Mum. Take care of yourself and keep going. 

Elder Chadderton

January 10 2012

Hey Mum,

Life is good in the Philippines. Healthy and alive!  Work has been great and I have been noticing an improvement in the language.  The way I measure that is by how bad my English is becoming (lol).  It has been a good week.

Last Wednesday I attended my first Zone Leader council meeting. It is called a council meeting because ideas are put forward and we have the opportunity to give our opinions and advice, then we sit in 'council' and discuss the ideas and look at any changes that need to be made in the Mission.  It is really cool.   One of the changes that has been made is in the member present lessons for the mission.  Our main focus is changing from a baptising mission to a rescue mission.  It is awesome and everyone is stepping up to the change.  My Zone is doing good and as a Zone activity next week,  we're planning to go bowling.  Cool.

Oh yeah, the reason why my email is late (if you hadn't already figured it out) is that it is Temple day and we got up really early to get ready to be at the temple on time.  We arrived at the temple, got changed and got into the session and waited for everyone else to fill the room. The spirit in the temple is indescribable.  It is always great to be able to do work for our kindred dead and assist them in their own salvation.

Sounds like life is good back home and that you are all having fun doing all kinds of different things.  Sounds like Cola has got her head pointed in the right direction now.  Good on yah Cola!  Preparing to enter into the service of the Lord really is the best place to be. 

We had success with some of our less actives where we had over 10 come to church and it was amazing.  I was soooo, happy when I saw them walk through the Chapel doors.   Woohoo!  The Lord truly is helping us as we focus on the less actives this year and I know we can accomplish our goals.

Okay a story.  We were in the jeepney returning from an appointment and we met a less active member.   She had given us an idea of her address but it wasn't exactly right and she said when we go and vist her to just ask people in that area where she lived.  So, on Sunday we decided to go and look for her to bring her to Church.  Anyway's, on our quest to look for her we bumped into this drunk guy.  He came over to us and started talking to us in English so I asked him if he knew where this one person lived.  He was all happy (in a drunk way) and started to show us the way so we followed him -  keeping in mind he is drunk!  We come to this one house and he shouts out, "Hey your friends are here, you have visitors!"  The lady tells us to come inside, but strangely,  it isn't the lady we saw on the jeepney, it's a different person.  Aaahhh???  She invites us in and starts speaking English.   I respond in Tagalog and we start having this big conversation of why I am here in the Philippines.   Anyway, we were able to share part of the first lesson, get a return dinner appointment and commit them to read the pamphlet of Lesson 1. Astig.  Well, in the end we did not find the person we had originally set out to look for but we were blessed to get two new investigators and a dinner appointment. 

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Life is good and I'm now in my 9th month here.  The language is coming along well and Elder Cortezano and I are doing good.

Take care and give my love to the Whanau.  Please tell the grandparents and Uncle Rick thanks for the emails. Love you heaps.

Elder Chadderton

P.s.  The software on this computer doesn't agree with my camera.  I'll try sending some pictures next week.

Happy New Year, January 2 2012

Hey Mum,

Happy New Year and thanks for the emails.  I'm doing fine, "Buhay pa rin!"  I received your letters in the mail run today too.  The chocolate stash has been divided and devoured and it has been my main source of food this week (terrible I know) but I realized the faster I eat it the faster it will run out.  All goods!

This week has been a good week wherein we accomplished a lot of work, even though we still got punted.  That's life!   We've had a lot more success this week and I was so grateful to the Lord in that I know he was helping us.  It was exciting to finally have some success. My tagalog is improving and I'm starting to lead a lot more of the lessons that we teach.  I've been told by people that I'm practically fluent (pero hindi).  I know that I have a long way to go,  but I am getting faster and better at saying the things I need to say.

New Year's here is insane and you said in your email that we were probably sleeping during the New Year celebrations.  Mum, it was almost impossible to sleep because the fireworks started at about 10.30 p.m. and went all through the night until about 3.00 a.m.  The fireworks displays were amazing but very loud.  It was more like a noise contest between neighbors and my companion and I went outside of our apartment and just gazed at all the fireworks going everywhere.  Even our next door neighbors were lighting off fireworks and it was sweet.  I'll send some pics.

Well, it sounds like you are all having a good time.  Soon, Cola will be back in Australia, dad and Joe will start back at work and life will continue on in 2012.  I have 1 year and 4 months to go and it doesn't seem long at all.   It is crazy to think that when I call you next (Mother's Day), I will only have one year left.  Countdown! (lol)  I know that I have to finish my work here and I feel like I'm gaining more confidence in speaking the language and one day I will know it inside out.  Astig!

Mum, I finished reading the Book of Mormon on December 31st 2011and I have started reading it again.  President DeLaMare challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before Easter.  Woohoo!  It's a good challenge and I will do it as I love the Book of Mormon.  I know I've said this before in that I'm sad that it took me so long to gain a love for it and realize that it is more than just words on a page but that it teaches the doctrine,  and it is the word of God.  One thing Elder Cortezano and I have been trying to do in our lessons is to emphasize the importance of the Book of Mormon and the effect that it can have on a person if they read it.  I know a lot of people make excuses about reading it because of the depth of the language or because of how small the words are. Honestly Mum, if I can read it in tagalog and get the gist of it the people here should have no problem.  It is an amazing book and I know it is true.

Well, Mum this email is short, but know that I love you all and I am looking forward to a good year in 2012.  "Retention" is what our focus is this year and I am excited to help increase the fold of God.

I love you heaps, take care, and keep being awesome.

Elder Chadderton