15 April 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

Another great  and successful week in the mission field and it was nice to listen to the General Conference talks this week.  Thanks for all the emails and pictures.  You all look so great and hugs all round when I get home.

So, I've been transferred and I am happy.  I am in a place called Tanay, Rizal and my new companion is Elder Merrill from Bountiful, Utah.  He's 19 years of age and a really nice guy and he kinda reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite.  Hehe!  He's doing great in the mission and I'm his follow up trainer because he's only been in the area for one transfer and he's still struggling with the language which means I've been assigned to lead the area.   Our investigator pool is healthy and we have some great people to teach.  We have two baptisms next week which is awesome and then we have one scheduled for May 4th and another for May 11th.  That is so awesome.  Our area is huge but the place we work in is tiny because we are trying to focus on teaching the investigators that are close to the Chapel.  Tanay is a little further down from one area I used to serve in called Teresa so it is considered province.   It's a very nice little town and reminds me a little of Kihikihi.  It's cool and the only problem is that there is no MacDonald's!  (jokes). 

Well,  with my birthday being tomorrow and everything and being in a new area I figured I'm just going to shout the Elders to dinner and then buy a cake and munch it back.  That will definitely be one of the highlights for this week along with our two baptisms. 

Story, "We have an investigator named Randell and he is 23 years of age and looks like he could be my little brother. Hehe!  We gave him a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon last Wednesday -  3rd Nephi chapter 11 focusing on baptism.  We visited him again on Friday expecting him to have read the chapter we'd assigned him and so we ask him if he has read it and he had not only read chapter 11 but he carried on and read chapters 12, 13 and 14 too.  I was shocked but he said he really enjoyed it.  We then invited him to share what he liked from the chapters he read and if he had any questions.  He asked us so many questions and shared a ton of scriptures.  I caught a glimpse of his scriptures and he had highlighted so many of the verses.  I believe he really liked those chapters because he talked about the commandments and how important the law of chastity is and he talked about prayer and how we need to pray from the heart and not use repetitive prayers and heaps of other things. It was amazing to see how a person can receive personal revelation for themselves and build their testimony when they read the Book of Mormon."  

Another cool experience happened yesterday when we went and visited an investigator named Michelle.   She has a baptism date set for May 11th.  So, before we start the lesson we follow up on how she liked General Conference.   She said she liked what she understood and then asked us about tithing and what it is.  We briefly explained it to her and then gave her a pamphlet.  We continued with the planned lesson about the Plan of Salvation and the atonement.  I taught about our life on earth and my companion shared the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was a great lesson and towards the end of the lesson I asked her if there was anything we could help her with.  She started thanking us for teaching her, for being patient with her and for helping her to change her life and then she started to cry and told us how her family is improving a lot and that she feels peace in her heart and comfort when trials come.  When she was crying one of the other members present, looked at her and said perfectly, "Look, look at her, she's feeling the spirit!" and then she started crying too. It was amazing to see how we as missionaries are just instruments in teaching the gospel and we don't do the teaching we just set up the environment for the spirit to come in and let him do the teaching. 

Five weeks left in the field and I'm counting on one hand now.  I'm going to miss it Mum!  I love you all heaps and  hope you had a good week listening to the prophets voice.  I've had an awesome week and I hope this new week will be just as good.  Mahal ko kayo.

Elder Chadderton    

9 April 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,Hope you are all well.  I'm doing good.  This past week has been very busy but spiritually rewarding. We've had Temple day, Zone conference, Temple tour day, Zone leader Council and today is P-Day where we are doing some Zone training too.  It's been great and health wise I'm doing good.Well, we found out about transfers today and sadly,  I'm getting transferred.   I really thought that I was going to finish out my mission in this area, but the Lord needs me elsewhere so I will go where He wants me to go.  I'm not sure if I will be Zone leader in my new area as yet.Well, the good news is that I got my package.  Thank you so much. It was funny because we had ZLC(zone leader council) on Monday, so after the meeting we caught a ride to the Mission office with the AP's because we had to grab a DVD from the office for our zone training on P-Day.  Anyway, while we were waiting for the DVD, the mail man walked into the office and he asked, "Is there a Sir Elder Chadderton here?" PRESENT!  I heard my name and walked over and literally grabbed the package straight away because I knew what it was and I was a little bit excited.  (good timing on my part being at the office).  Anyway, the office Elder's tried to take it off me because they said that I couldn't have it until transfer day.  Aye? That wasn't going to happen because I wasn't giving it up to no one.  Hehe!  Upon opening it I found that all the chocolates had melted because of the heat.  I'm kinda glad I didn't give it up to the office Elders because the chocolates could have been worse by the time I did get it so,  when we got home I chucked everything in the freezer then we went back out to work and taught some great lessons.  We had dinner at Bishop's home and when we got home later that night we had a feed of CHOCOLATE!  Mate, I couldn't handle it aye!  Because we don't have a lot of sweets here, eating rich NZ chocolate in one go gave me a bad stomach ache. Haha!  Dahan, dahan din pag may time Elder Chadz!Other good news included learning so much at our Zone Conference.  Stuff like having Christ like attributes, studying and staying with ones companion.  It was really nice and unlike Sister Chadderton, we had a good feed afterwards.  Loved it!Yesterday, we had ZLC and it was good. We discussed some of the issues in the mission then watched  a talk by Elder Holland and he is the man.  If you want to be chastised as a missionary then that is the right talk to watch.  It was great because he talked about why PMG came about and why the lessons changed.  He also talked about some of the weaknesses of missionaries and how to overcome them. Towards the end of his talk he gave the, "DO YOU LOVE ME" talk where he explains about the story of the apostle Peter after Christ died and how Christ questioned Peter three times if he loved him more than his worldly things. Amazing talk.Well, I'm still a bit sad that I'm getting transferred but I know the Lord knows what is best for me so I am remaining positive.Thanks for everything family. I love you ALL heaps and heaps.  Dad, I'm a bit short on time but I want you to know that I love you heaps.  Thanks again whanau.Oh, yes, I received my flight details and sadly dad, I won't be arriving home on your birthday as I had originally thought because I don't  leave the Philippines until 12:30 p.m. on May 22nd (your birthday) where I have a  two hour flight to Hong Kong and then another 10 hour flight to the Auckland International Airport (home) which means I arrive on May 23rd!  Woohoo!  It's all good.Elder Chadderton

2 April 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

Thanks again for the emails and the pictures, it has been a good week and super hot, but the work continues to go forward.   I can't believe it's April already!  Thanks for putting the birthday package together Mum and Dad.  Hopefully, I'll get it on transfer day which is on April 10.  I am just looking at the calendar and I know these next few weeks are going to pass by super fast, but I hope not too fast.  I only have a short number of days left in the Pines to do all the good that I can. 

Well, it was our Temple day today and it was great because I felt like all my worries left me when I was there and my mind was so clear.  I was thinking on what I would do when I come home. I had some good thoughts come to me so will write them down and plan it out a little more.  Hopefully, I will hit the ground running when I get home.  

Anyway, one good experience that we had this week was to do with a less active member who knocked on our door while we were studying.  She had offered to work with us as a fellow-shipper so we invited her to come by at 2:00 p.m. where she would come with us to an appointment with one of our investigators.   We had a great lesson and the spirit that the member brought to the lesson - despite her being less active was amazing.  Our investigator was so grateful for the lesson.  Fortunately, we were able to visit a lot of our less actives this week and really find out what it is that they specifically need.  It's been great!

We received our April calendar today and we have a Fireside with Elder Ardern this month so I am looking forward to that.  It'll be good to see another familiar face from home. 

We have a busy week ahead of us because despite having Temple day today, we have Zone conference tomorrow and on Saturday we have Temple tour day.  Monday we have Zone Leader training and P-Day will be on Tuesday as we have transfers on Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday will be General Conference.   Hey, and then the following Tuesday it's my 21st birthday!  We have an appointment set up for that day and I learnt that one of our recent convert families has a son whose birthday is on the same day as mine so they have invited us over for dinner on the Saturday.  Cool aye!  And before you know it, Mum, I'll be calling home for, "Mother's Day!" 

Noon bago lang ako sa mission binahagi ko sa inyo about sa kahalagahan ng ating pagtitiis hanggan wakas.  Ngayon nanaranasan ko na kung gaano yun mahalaga.  Matatapos ko na ung mission ko at nararamdaman ko na parang gusto ko tumigil na gusto ko sana magpahinga, pero di ko talaga pwedeng gawin yun dahil narerealise ko na hindi ito ung time ko na hindi ito para lang sa akin pero naglilingkod ako para sa diyos.  Para tulungan ang kanyang mga anak makabalik sa kanya. instrumento lang ako sa kamay ng diyos at tulad ng lahat ng mga instrumento, minsan, kailangan ko din ng 'tuning'. hondo pwedeng mag 'give up' hindi pwedeng mag 'quit'. kailangan ko magtiis hanggang sa wakas.  At kahit dumating ung wakas alam ko meron pa akong magagawa pag uwi ko.  Gagamitin pa ako ng diyos para maisakatuparan ung mga gawain niya. 

I love this work and while it hasn't been easy it has been worth it.  I love you all.

Elder Chadderton

25 March 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

So glad to hear you're home safely mum.  Thanks once again for the emails and pictures.  It has been another good week and I'm doing fine.  The weather has been a bit of a scorcher but the work has been great and last week we had an awesome baptism.  

As far as the past week of events goes,  we've had a pretty normal week of work - not overly busy.   My companion and I have been playing basketball just about every morning this week.  We wake up around 5:55 a.m. and study from 6:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. and then we go to the basketball court and play from 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. then on our way home, we stop in and buy some pandesal (delicious, small bread rolls) for breakfast and then we get ready for companionship studies at 9:00 a.m.   It has been great to exercise because it shows me how unfit I am due to the lack of exercising.  Elder Carman and I are having a great time. 

On P-Day last week we went bowling with some of the other Elders in our Zone and it was heaps of fun.  Elder Carman and I found this store that sells TimTams and we've been having some TimTam slams.  Only thing is they are a little expensive but so worth it. 

It was a blessing and a miracle for us that everything worked out for our baptism because on Saturday we started the day with a service project helping this one family.  The service project consisted of putting a napkin, a plastic fork and a plastic knife into a plastic bag.  One of the families in our area do this as their job so we helped them out.  Interesting job!  After the service project we went to the computer shop to print out the baptism program and then headed to the chapel where we filled the font, set up the room and made it look pretty.  Once we finished setting up we headed home to shower, change and go out again.  A few of our appointments fell through which was a bit disappointing but we soldiered on and visited with this one member who not only had a lesson but fed us too and by the time we were done, we had to go back to the chapel.  The person we were baptizing arrived around 6:00 p.m. so we took pictures outside and then started the service.  I sang a song called, "I Will Lead You" and it is a really nice song.  The baptism was great. 

Yesterday was a great day of work.  We had church in the morning then headed home, had lunch and went to work again.  We visited four families in this one area that is close to our house then we went to another area and contacted a referral that we've started teaching.  Awesome family.  We then taught a young girl by the name of Joy who is a special child and her family wants us to teach her so that she can be baptized.   After our discussion with Joy we went to our dinner appointment with a family that recently joined the church.  It was another awesome day and at the end of it all we headed home and did our planning before calling it a night. 

Thanks for all the awesome advice that you guys continue to give me.  It's super helpful and I know that I still have a lot of good to do.  One piece of advice that Jenna mentioned in her email - that I've been running through my mind is, "Finish your mission first and the Lord will take care of the rest!"  That's exactly what I'm doing!  

The mission is quickly coming to an end and I want to finish it on a good note.  Thanks again Whanau.  Love you all and take care.

Elder Chadderton

Monday 10th, 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

Thanks for all the emails and pictures. What a strong spirit I feel from you all. I can just imagine sitting in our living room and sharing mission stories with you all. Don’t cry mum - but I am - I miss you all and love you all so much. 

I got my "Trunky letter" today, which informs me that they're organizing my flight plans for coming home. I just need some information. Please send our Bishop's name and our Stake President's name. I was going to request  the mission office if I could get a direct flight home but they said usually they take a different route cause its cheaper. It’s all good. 

It was so sad to hear that Aunty Kun has not been doing well. Take care of her mum!

It was awesome to hear that Jordan is preparing for his mission. It is the best decision that I’ve made in my life and I know that it’ll help him for the rest of his life as well.

There are things that you learn on your mission that seem so indescribable and you just can’t explain them. We had ZLC last week and it seemed that as we were there I was being enlightened as to how the things we do now as leaders in the mission will help and will be very similar to things that we'll do after the mission. It’s been so awesome. 

tulda ng sinabi ko nakaraan linggo hindi ko talagang maipaliwanag ung mga natutunan ko dito sa mission pero nagpapasalamat pa rin ako dahil bahagi ako ng totoong simbahan ng diyos. 

Oh – so we got new mission rules.  We are allowed to email friends, different family members and recent converts in the mission. Cool aye? So now I am allowed to email Jared and Charlton and my other mates. The only thing is I don’t have their email addresses. Ayos lang. Also our email time has now been extended to two hours for everyone. Double cool aye?

So other than that not much has happened this week but the work has been going well and we have another baptism on the 23rd of March. It’s awesome. Take care and have a great week. 

Hey Mum & Dad, I am so jealous you guys get to go and see Sister Nicola in her mission.

Oh and for my birthday I already have a dinner set up (he he) but a small package of little treats would be awesome. Anything would be happy – its up to you guys.

The mission rings I ordered are done but I haven’t got them yet. The lady still has to send them to me. All goods - I’ll send a picture when I get them. 

Love you all heaps.

Elder Chadderton 

4 March 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

Thanks for the emails family and the pictures too Danii.  Awesome!  Your question mum regarding the Tatay of the Ustare family and why he wasn't baptized is because he passed away over 20 years ago, so the Nanay is excited to do the temple work for her family when the time is right.  We are trying our best to reach out and teach the older sister.  I think she doesn't like us very much, mainly because when she returned from Abu Dhabi she wasn't too excited to learn that her family had changed religions.  But, she's slowly warming up to us, so hopefully we will have the opportunity to invite her to be baptized before I return home.  That will be sweet to see the whole family complete. 

Cool stories mum about the Ward Movie night and all the popcorn that the Primary made and also the bargains at the Op shops.  Good on you.  It's awesome that Otis and his family are moving into the Temple View house.  And, mum, you've got to  stop reminding me that I only have 10 weeks left.  You are more trunky than I am.  Hehe! Cute! 

So, this week was a good week.  Transfer day went well and we received some really great additions to the Zone.  It's going to be a good transfer and I know the time will pass by quickly because we're all busy in the work.  This morning Elder Carman and I did our planning as Zone leaders where we went through some key indicators and set new goals so that we can better focus on the mission goal of teaching priesthood.   We are focusing on finding this transfer.  We set a goal to do 5, "Open your mouth" (OYM's) every day,  which basically means we have to talk to or contact 5 people - they are counted as contacted if we give them a Book of Mormon or pamphlet and get their name, phone number and address.  We figured that by doing this we will have achieved several of our key indicator's - helping a new investigator, contacting someone, placing a Book of Mormon with someone, increasing the number of lessons we teach and having a member present during our lessons.  It's going to be great and we decided that in order to move the Zone forward we as Zone leaders need to set the example for the rest of the missionaries in our Zone. 

Sister Chadderton asked me to share a miracle that I've experienced this past week.  A few that come to mind are that I consider it a miracle when we make it to all of our scheduled appointments and are on time too.  I also consider it a miracle that on Fast Sunday I fast for 24 hours and haven't died yet!  Hehe.   I consider lots of things to be miracles - even the very small things - such as understanding and applying the things I learn during my personal study to my missionary work, good health and not getting sick for such a long time because since my time in Teresa I haven't really been sick at all which is almost a year now.  Other miracles include having a great transfer this past week and a good Zone, having an awesome companion, having good friends, having active recent converts, having the strength to cope with the demands of missionary work, having the gift of tongues and many more.  That's  just a short list of the things I see as miracles.  I also see miracles through you family. 

Thanks for everything and thanks for being an awesome family and for your continued words of encouragement.  Thanks sa lahat.  Malaki talaga ung mga blessings sa buhay ko.  Di ko talagang maipaliwanag kung gaano ako nagpapasalamat sa diyos. ang daming blessings ang kanyang ibinibigay sa akin at sobra akong grateful sa lahat. 

Alam ko na maiksi lang and oras ko sa mission at talagang mabilis ung mission kapag na engaged ako sa gawaing eto. ito talaga ao ung gawain ng diyos at kanyang kasiyahan para makita tayo bilang masayang mga anak ng diyos. mahal na mahal niya tayo . di ko talagang kayang maipaliwanag kung kalaki ung pasalamat ko sa diyos pero sana naipapakita ko yun sa kanya sa pamamagitan ng aking mga ginagawa. mahal ko siya at alam ko na mahal niya ako. napakabilis po ng sampung linggo at before you know it nandyan na ako sa tabi ninyo. ang saya ng araw nayun. mahal ko kayo. 

Ingat lage at patuloy tayo sa ating paglalakad pabalik sa diyos.

Elder Chadderton     

26 February 2013

Hey Mum and Whanau,

Another great week here in Sumulong.  Thanks for the emails, pictures and all the great words of encouragement.  The time is really getting closer to the end for me and I'm happy to be in a good area with a good companion.  For your information, it's transfer day tomorrow and that is why this email is late.  Dad, you're right Sumulong is a massively long road that seperates our areas.  We are part of Marikina Stake and our Bishop is Marcelino Abril.  He was sustained as Bishop two weeks before I arrived in this area. 

Great job on helping Danii and family with their move into the new house.   Moving is always a stressful event, but at the end of the day you get a good nights sleep.   You guys sure have been busy.

Well, this past week we had the baptisms for Sister Charito Ustare and her son Zhenrry Ustare.  Everything went according to plan where we went to the chapel on Friday night and set up the room and filled the font with water.   On Saturday morning we arrived at the chapel around 8:00 a.m.   The baptism was at 9:00 a.m. and we welcomed those who were attending.  Bishop presided over the service and we had great support from the members.   After the baptisms, the nanay - Sister Ustare -  shared her testimony and it was really special.  The spirit was super strong.  She shared the story of how her eldest son was living and working in Abu Dhabi and while he was their his friend shared the gospel with him and later he was baptized.   When the son returned to the Philippines he introduced his family to the missionaries.  The youngest son Zhenrry was associating with the wrong crowd and had a few Word of Wisdom issues.  The missionaries had set a baptism date for the family back in October 2012 but due to delays, it was reset for January 2013.  Further delays saw it reset for February 2013 where they were finally baptized on Saturday 23 February 2013.  It was a super awesome story and I loved the experience of witnessing a mother being baptized by her son.  It truly was great!

Other than that, there isn't much else to report.  We did have all our scheduled appointments fall through within the space of 30 minutes this one particular day.  On the bright side, we were able to carry on and do some finding and more exploring of the area. 

Hey Mum, after this transfer I have one more transfer!  The time is going way too fast and before I know it, my mission will be over and then my second mission will start!  Man!  

Thanks Whanau for all the support and the good words of encouragement.  I love you all and pray for you.

Ingat kayo lagi.  Mahal ko kayo

Elder Chadderton