Nov 24, 2014

MOTHER and family,

I am sorry for the past couple of weeks that i havent sent email....I spend most of the time here in the office on pday playing "phase 10" or sleeping. haha. Just kidding I dont sleep that much. Even though I want to....I did a division with Elder Hoggan to do a baptismal interview and while we were teaching a lady at her door i was literally sleeping while standing up and leaning against her wall.....it was not good. haha. 

I sent some pictures to you....I hope that makes up for my lack of writing emails the past fw weeks. haha. 

So this week was pretty good. We worked really hard and were able to teach a lot of great people. So the missionaries in this are before I got here were working with a couple and were trying to help them get married.....why it wasnt done before I dont know but we are finally seeing progress with the marriage....now the progress of their testimonies have come to a halt.....I have taught some of the best lessons that I have ever taught while here on the mission with this couple and....nothing.....its tough to see someone SO SPECIAL start to have more and more doubts. Its like these doubts that are being put into their minds are coming from a series of dreams they have been having.....These dreams are so DUMB and honestly have nothing to do with anything but they feel like God is trying to warn them about something they are doing.

 One dream Salai had (the wife) was that she was at some random church without a name and that people were crying in the church and then two women stood up and started teaching everyone.....that was all that happened in the dream and she thinks God is trying to tell her that she needs to re think all of the confirming answers that she has already recieved...like I understand that she can feel confused because she is understanding things that are not coming from God, but its just a little frustrating when she has recieved many spiritual confirmations about the truthfulness of what we teach.....And with Cardão her husband....this last week we had a lesson and Salai had finished telling us that she wouldnt be baptized cause now she has doubts (keep in mind they have both born testimony on fast and testimony meeting that this is the true church and they have told us a million times they have recieved an answe about everything) then I asked Cardão "if marriage wasnt an issue would you be baptized this week" and he responds (he is really smart and always tries to "out-smart" us haha) "Elder Hadley, if you were on a path and a door popped up in front of you and you didnt know what was on the other side, would you go in?" (he was totally expecting me to say no) but I just said "If God told me to...Id kick the door down" then we had a great lesson with them and responded to a lot of doubts.... but still......its tough.....We arent quite sure what we need to do....the bottom line is they stopped doing their part and allowed the enemy to start working on them....

 And these past two weeks they havent come to church and I talked to them on the phone yesterday and they said they want a little bit of time to see if this is the true church so what are they going to do....stop going to church....okay so after explaining to them that that is not how God works they wanted us to pass by their house today....so tonight we are going to go to their house. Its tough but.....we will not give up on them. We just have to figure out what they need because they are extremely special people and we love them a lot! Thats why you probably could pick up a hint of frustration in the email. haha. 

the rest of our investiagtors are AMAZING and things are going smoothly. 

Elder Fernandes came to visit....it was incredible....I love that man. He gave a training on Faith. And it had been something I have been studying HARD for about 2 months. And his training just was amazing. It helped a lot. We had the time to spend some time with them after the training. It was really cool to talk with him and his wife. And to have Presidente and Sister Andrezzo there with us made it way better.  

I sent a picture of when he came to our house. I hope you guys can open it up. 

Anyway so this week was awesome. I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Hadley

Nov 10, 2014

Nov 2, 2014

I have had the wonderful opportunity of seeing my faith grow immensely while here on the mission. As we know there exsists a HUGE difference between faith and faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. As Elder Russell M. Nelson teaches us: "When we speak of faith—the faith that can move mountains—we are not speaking of faith in general but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."   

Faith in Christ is a principle of power. We as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints should do all that we can to improve the quality of our faith in Jesus Christ so that we may be able to have the power to overcome the trials that we are currently facing and will face in the future. 

Having the privilege of finding and teaching people about the Doctrine of Christ and seeing their lives change because of it has been a huge faith strengthener. By their examples I have been able to witness what the power of true faith in our Savior can do when it is applied. It gives us the strength beyond our own to do what needs to be done. I believe that "the faith that can move mountains" can be understood literally as well as symbolically. With faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice we will have the capacity to move the spiritual and emotional "mountains" that all to often impeade us from remembering who we are and our potential. 

I testify of the power of faith. I know that faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ truly is the antidote for all fear, doubt, and sadness. I know that if we, like many of those that I have had the chance of teaching, apply the Doctrine of Christ in our lives our faith will increase and we will have the power necessary to overcome our hardships. 

I share my testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Elder Hadley

This was my testimony I sent to Kennedy Syrie for her YW thing.....I hope its what she wanted....haha. Sorry I didnt send a family letter. Love you mom. Your letter from the box made me cry like a baby. hahaha.