Nov 24, 2014

Family,

So this week was a really good one....other than our baptism falling on Saturday after doing everything possible to make it happen. But Its okay. It will happen next weekend. 

This week I spent the whole time in Vitória da Conquista. A really nice city. I loved it! I did some divisions with some missionaries there and we saw some incredible miracles. It all started off on Wednesday morning. I got there at 5:30am. We then went to their house and got ready to go to district meeting. We had district meeting.

Then we ate lunch with an incredible couple who has about 8 years as members of the church who had a girl who is 8 years old. I hit it off really quickly with the two of them and all during lunch the three of us (me and the wife and husband) were laughing and having great conversation. Anyway I had no idea that they are less active. Its been almost two years since they have been to church. So they chose me to leave the message with them. As they were talking with the other missionaries I had the STRONGEST urge to talk a little bit about Carson and share my message while using some scriptures about the importance of eternal famalies and temples. I was fighting that feeling a little bit just because I dont share real personal experiences with everyone and anyone, you know? Anyway I read some scriptures and shared with them that I had lost a member of my family and proceeded to show them the dog chains that I use around my neck. As I was testifying of the blessings we have from the gospel and the temples the mother and father just started sobbing. I was a little confused and asked them if everything was okay. The mom got control and answered that two years ago they lost their two year old baby girl to a sickness that they didnt even know she had. She then went on to tell me that is why they stopped going to church. She said that the entire day she had been thinking about her baby girl and was having a really hard day. She then told me that because of the death of their daughter they had stopped going to church. They were angry and questioned why it had to happen. I read one more scripture in The Book of Mormon and testified to them the importance of going to church so that we can prepare ouselves to go to the temple to be sealed with our famalies by the priesthood power. They have not yet been. I invited them to return to church and start reading The Book of Mormon together as a family and they agreed. The Spirit was so strong. Everyone in the house was crying. After leaving a chapter in The Book of Mormon to study that night we left. 

I got a call from the missionaries yesterday and they told me that the whole family was in church and the dad went to talk to the bishop about baptizing their 8 year old daughter and plans to go to the temple. 

Miracles like this happen honeslty...weekly on the mission. As many hard times as I have had Its hard to remember them because experiences like these shut them out. 

Later that same day we went to do some baptismal interviews. As we were walking one of the missionaries said....hey lets go visit a man whos entire family is baptized and has a daughter on a mission. He isnt baptized yet because he believes he doesnt need to be. Well the missionaries have been working with him for over a year but we were determined to help him understand the importance of baptism. 

We got there and started talking. After three hours of talking I finally picked him up and threw him up on my shoulders and ran out of the house yelling back to the family to show me where the nearest river was cause I was gonna baptize him. hahaha. It was pretty funny. He is a little guy. I ran a pretty long ways with him on my shoulders. haha Then we talked for another hour. We explained everything and took away all of his doubts and answered his questions. He has a testimony of the church he jst didnt really understand why we needed to be baptized. So after 4 and a half hours of talking with him. He was interviewed and baptized this Saturday.....another incredible experience. He and his wife also talked to bishop on monday making plans to go to the temple with their daughter in January when she gets home from her mission. 

Thursday and Friday I worked with other missionaries where we also saw some miracles. They baptized some great people on Saturday as well. On Friday I made a contact with a woman in front of her house who is super strong in her church. While the other two elders were teaching someone right next to me I just went on to teach her taught about the restoration of the gospel. By the end I started to testify and while I was testifying I saw a wedding ring on her hand (something you dont see cause its hard to find people who are actually married) and the thought came to share a testimony about eternal famalies and temples and priesthood power. While I started talking about eternal famalies she started sobbing.....again i stopped and asked her what was wrong. She answered that her husband passed away four months ago after 20 years of marriage. Her and her daughter were very sad and having a really hard time. I continued to teach and then left.  

In the beggining of the contact she said she wouldnt go to church cause she had to go to her church. By the end of the lesson she said she would go to church with us. The missionaries called me and told me yestreday her and her daughter were there and really loved it. 

The gospel is true and brings happiness to ALL who hear it and apply it!!

Sorry, I know this email was long and I usually dont share very many stories with you guys. I just wanted to share a couple of experiences with you all because they had a lot to do with eternal famalies. I am grateful that we can go to the temple with our famalies and be sealed for time and eternity. I love you all. 

Have a great week! 

Elder Hadley

 

 

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.

Oct 27, 2014

Family,

So this week was a good one. I had the chance to travel to another city to do a split with some missionaries. It was a lot of fun. I got to work with a missionary from my group named Elder Groll. He is a stud. Then we worked really hard when we got back to our area. Like really really hard and had a lot of people confirmed to go to church with us. But.....unfortunately we did not have as many as had said would go. Thats normal, right? But it was still pretty sad because these people were SUPER solid on going to church. Our investigator  that was going to get baptized this saturday had to go to the interior of the state......super sad. She will get back in two weeks and we will baptize her then. 

Elections happened.....Dilma won again....she is garbage. Aécio would have been way better for this country. 

Anyway. Sorry I dont have a lot of time to write. We had lots to do today and still have lots more to do....but I love you guys and hope you all have a great week. Tell michelle and nate I love them. Give all of the grandkids a big hug and kiss for me. I am super excited to see all of the little ones here in 3 months....crazy how fast its going by....I am still focused but still...its a lot easier to think about home now. haha. 

Love you all!

Elder hadley

Oct 20, 2014

Family,

Hey so this week was a really good one!! We had a lot of time to work in our own area and that was really nice. We found and taught lots of less actives and found lots of new people. We confirmed lots of people to go to church with us but we were only able to take a few. It was a little sad but as i have learned here on the mission you have to count the small victories even if they are small. haha. 

We took a less active lady to church from São Paulo. I think she is like 60 years old. We call her grandma. haha. Its super funny cause she yells at us all the time so we yell back at here. Like on Sunday she was taking forever to come out of the house and we just stood outside yelling at here to hurry up and that we were going to leave her. hahaha. She is pretty funny. We also took some girls who actually went by themselves which isnt something tha happens every sunday. haha. They are really good. They are 24 and 25. You find here that girls take life way more seriously than the guys. Not always but a lot of the time it is that way. Then the couple who we are helping get the papers to they can get married also went. They are seriously the coolest people. They are a young couple and they LOVE it when we teach them. Cardim the husband is such a stud. He has incredible questions and understands things of the gospel so well. The book of Mormon is helping out a lot. Its great. I am pretty tired and working in this super hot sun is difficult but the people that we find each day and the others that we are working with make it all worth it. 

 This week we will travel to a city called Itabuna to do a split with some missionaries. I am pretty excited. I have already been to the city because it is super close to Ilhéus, where I was serving. But I have never had the chance to actually work there.  

Thanks for the birthday wishes. We were able to work really hard on my birthday even though I was pretty dang sick. President and Sister were traveling so I didnt get a cake....haha. Because if you are a missionary in Salvador then they will buy a HUGE cake and take it to your house for you. But they were in the interior traveling so they called and sand to me. Last year they were also traveling....its okay. Next year maybe I will get a birthday cake. haha. 

So i heard BYU is having troubles and lots of injuries....thats super sad. They were doing really well. I feel really bad for Taysom. I hope he is doing well. 

Dang the family pictures and the pictures of my nieces and nephews is super great to see. I seriously have an urge to grab them and kiss their cheeks. I miss those babies!!! Everyone will be at my homecoming and leave the babies at the house until I go to BYU to make up for the two years I didnt have with them. haha. 

I hope you all are doing well. I miss you guys. Love you!! Have a great week!!

Elder Hadley

Mom, I still havent gotten the box....haha. but its okay. Its coming.

Oct 6, 2014

Hey, 

Alright so I have heard from a few of my friends that mom is saying that she hasnt heard from me in the last few weeks....haha. Sorry mom I thought I was sending email. The truth is, like I have already said, I dont have a whole lot to say when I sit down to write you guys. haha. I am not sure why but I really dont. But I will try to be more detailed. 

So here we go:

I got back to salvador and I am loving it. I love my companion and I love the other missionaries who live in our house. It is seriously like the best house on the mission. Everyone is so good and works really hard. We have a missionary named Elder Hoggan who is actually the mission secretary and probably will be for the rest of his life cause he is so dang good at it, living with us and he honestly is just an amazing kid. i am super impressed with how he carries himself. He doesnt force it and isnt like awkward or weird or anything but he just is a really good kid. I remember he got on the mission when I first went to go train and I wanted to train him so badly!! But I didnt. ha. Anyway. 

This first week back in salvador was great. Here at the Stake center during general conference I saw tons of people from Itapuã and Bandeirantes, the two areas that I worked in while I was here before. I saw members, recent converts, and less-actives that i worked with. It was super emotional. I loved it. haha. I think I might have lunch for the rest of our Pdays while I am here in Salvador. 

During the breaks of conference sessions me and my companion spent a lot of time with Presidente Andrezzo talking about the mission and really just talking. Its honestly very humbling to be able to work closer with him. A man incredible inspired, loving, merciful, pacient, and very obedient. He really cares for all of the missionaries and you can see it. On saturday he took me and my comp to eat at McDonalds. Wow.....the 2nd time on my entire mission....haha. It was pretty dang good. It had been a long time. 

We have a really good group. We are working with lots of people who need to get married....something that is very difficult to make happen here in the state of the Bahia....Its a long and difficult process. Even for those who really want it. 

Elections this week.....thats been pretty crazy for the past month and a half. Lots of commercials and stuff like that. they do elections here WAY different.....

Not much is new. We are preparing a training to give tomorrow about The Book of Mormon. Probably the best topic to give a training about. We hope and Pray it will be a success. 

I loved general conference. It was incredible. I loved all of it and took some great notes. I really enjoyed Jorg Klebingat and Elder Bednars talk. Elder Holland....like always. I loved Elder Scotts talk. And Elder Godoys talk was amazing as well. I was spiritualy fed. I am sure you were as well. 

I hope you have a great week!! I love you all!!

Elder Hadley