Fillmore Has More Fun!

This week I moved down to Fillmore! I met my new companion, Sister Lee! She served for 3 months in Brazil and was sent home because of COVID! She is awesome and we are loving Fillmore!

We got word this week that we are allowed to social distance street contact! We are in a car share area, so we have been walking and biking a lot. It is sooo nice to be out in the world again and to be active! 

Crazy experience street contacting! We talked to this man briefly. He was super kind and friendly. But then he had to go, because his friend pulled up, so we went on our way thinking we would never see him again. Then we got a little turned around and ended up back on that street on our way home! He saw us again and called us over! We talked a bit about the Book of Mormon and what we do. He insisted on buying us snow cones and then asked us to please send the Hermanas over so he and his friend could learn more (his friend only speaks Spanish). We promised we would, and left him with a Book of Mormon! So cool!

We are teaching this sweet woman named Charlotte, and yesterday we set a date for her baptism! She will be baptized on the 24th of June. Send prayers her way!

We have been doing a lot of service. The people here are so willing to let us serve them! We did service for the Spanish branch president's wife. They live on a farm and have chickens and goats! It was so much fun and they sent us home with lots of eggs, avocados, and clementines!

I miss my friends back in Santa Barbara, but the work is the same, no matter where you are! I love this Gospel and the hope it brings to peoples' lives! 

Sister Hadden 

Transfers

Hello everyone! I have no time this week because I've been packing...stay tuned to hear why...so this email may 

be short, but it will also be jam packed because we have seen SO MANY MIRACLES this week!

We started teaching four new people this week! THAT NEVER  HAPPENS!! We met them all through Facebook 

messenger. Their names are Athith, Shanay, Christian and Chintan! Three of them are originally from India and 

they are all so ready for the Gospel in their lives! We are still teaching Danny, as well! We had a lesson on 

Wednesday, and he said he would like to work towards baptism!

We got transfer calls yesterday and I am leaving Santa Barbara :( I am so sad to be leaving! I really love the 

people here and I'm going to miss them all sooo much! 

I'm going down to a town called Fillmore with a reassigned missionary named Sister Lee! Don't know too much 

about her yet, but I'm excited to meet her! I'll let you all know what she's like next week!

Sister Hadden

Pictures: service, sunburn from service, I caught a crab, sister T trying calamari for the first time, 

IV with the other YSA sisters, dinner I made (thanks mom for the every plate box)

 

 

It's a Boy!

This week was so fun!

We had mini exchanges with our sister training leader and her comp! They drove down from Santa Maria and spent a few hours with us! We made dumplings and had some great talks!

We got in contact with the LA missionaries, so we will be passing Brent down to them this week. :( We have become great friends, and he is progressing so much it will be sad to send him off, but it will be good for him to be able to get to know the people down there!

We received about 40 missionaries in our mission this past week! We have 10 new missionaries in our Zone, and the elders who live in our complex got one! We brought them a little gift to celebrate his arrival! (See picture below)

We had interviews with President Nakken this week, and it was great to see him and Sister Nakken! It has been almost three months since we've seen them in person!

It was Mother's Day yesterday, and I got to call my Mom and say hi! I'm so grateful for her and all she does for me and my sisters! I love you and miss you, Mom!

We are growing accustomed to our situation and learning to love the way we do the work now! I get to be isolated in the most beautiful place in the world, so we get out of the house as much as we can and explore!

Sister Hadden

Elders new comp, Another elders Birthday, ocean vibes, sister T and I, dumplings with the SM sisters

Emergency Transfers for the CVM

Hello everyone!

Our mission is about to become HUGE! Every mission in the US is! All those missionaries that came home from foreign countries are slowly but surely being reassigned to missions in the US. Our Mission President got a call asking how many he could take and he said 70...they are sending 90! 

A bunch are coming this week, so we are having transfers two weeks early, and there will be two other mini transfers in the month of May! It is likely that we will stay. They aren't moving us much, but they need to arrange all the new missionaries into the mission, so some shifting will happen! There are going to be a bunch of tripans (I'm hoping we get to have another sister in our companionship!).

This week we have been staying busy! Weird I know! We have figured out how to do missionary work over the phone and through social media! We are always making posts for our page, or messaging people, or teaching a lesson over Zoom! Its awesome! We still go hiking and study by the ocean and get out as much as possible! Otherwise we'd go crazy but we are still working hard!  This week we also had a cleaning day where we cleaned for 7 hours! Our apartment is spotless and it feels so nice!

This week I gave a talk in our district church meeting. I spoke on the talk "Tomorrow I Will Do Wonders Among You" by Elder Holland! He talks about how much God loves us and sees the efforts we are making! He says "the great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying"... "the Lord blesses those who desire to do good"! That is so comforting! We aren't having the same success we used to, but the Lord sees our desires and our efforts, and we are being blessed for it!

Miracle time! We message a TON of people on Facebook messenger and usually 2 or 3 people respond saying they're not interested and 1 or 2 say they are interested but are really bad at setting something up! Yesterday this guy Amer messaged me back and said he really appreciated my message and really needed it in that moment! He totally recognized my reaching out to him as a miracle, and said he would love to learn more!! We have a lesson set up for tonight! Sooo cool!

I'm doing really well! I'm loving that I have more time to study the gospel! Christ's new testament church IS back on the earth and I'm so grateful for it and the knowledge I have because of it!

Sister Hadden

Pics: Me and Sister T, Hike ft. Random sheep and sheep pup, Fruit cart fruit, zoom call with some returned senior missionaries

Ground Hog Day?

This week flew by! When almost the same thing happens everyday, the days start to blur together. You can really get used to any situation! I've decided to make the most of this time! 

Elder Klebingat, a member of the Seventy, gave a devotional to our mission last night (over zoom, of course). He shared some awesome insights with us! He shared with us how we can set and achieve goals! 

We are not stuck because we are in a certain situation or have certain limitations! If we tell ourselves we cannot improve any further, WE are putting limitations on the atonement's influence in our lives! It is an infinite atonement but only as we let it have that effect on us!

As we put in effort to learn new things, grow, and improve, we become more like our Savior! But it does take work! We can either pay the small price of discipline, and or the large price of regret! 

During this time we have--well--time. Time to learn, and time to improve ourselves! It's a special opportunity and I have decided to use it! 

The other thing he shared with us that really effected me was this: He committed each of us to pray consistently, ESPECIALLY when we feel like not praying! He shared that prayer is our direct communication with God, our most powerful tool, and the adversary will do ANYTHING to distract and discourage us from prayer!

I love my mission and I'm so grateful for this time and the opportunities it opens! We are never stuck, we can always bend and stretch to fit our situation and fill the roles we have been asked to fill! 

All is good here! Send updates! I'm out of time so if I didn't email you back individually I'm sorry I'll try next week!

Sister Hadden

Soup I made, ocean vibes, waterfall hike, some selfies! 

20 April 2020

Not too much going on this week. 

Sister Taupa'ū and I went on a couple more hikes, we've been teaching our friends Brent and Danny pretty regularly! They are so awesome! Brent has been praying and says he feels a lot closer to God now! Danny is super excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn from it!

We have regular meetings over zoom and google hangouts with other missionaries which is super fun! We learn a lot from everyone and get new ideas for the work! 

We're staying busy! Yesterday we had back-to-back zoom calls all day. We talked with our ward members, other missionaries and the people we're teaching about Come Follow Me! I'm so grateful we have come follow me right now! It is so insightful and helps us all stay on the same page! 

This week while we were studying, I was struck by King Benjamin's example of selfless service! This made him a great leader and ruler! Christ was the perfect example of this! He served everyone and was always humble. This made him the greatest leader! 

I love the scriptures! They have been such a light for me during this time! I love reading and learning from the experiences of the people in the Bible and the Book of Mormon!

Hope you all had an amazing week! Send updates! 

Sister Hadden 

View from our hike, painted cave, I did sister Taupa'ū's hair for fun, CA vibes, extra time for cooking so we made dumplings!

Happy Easter! 🐰🌷🎉

Hello,

We've had another week in quarantine...so fun!

Yesterday was definitely a highlight of the week! We had a bunch of meetings with people we're teaching, members, and missionaries all about Easter! We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ the whole day! 

I made a little video for FB this week and in it a bunch of the members of our ward say who Christ is to them. I was really surprised when almost all of the answers we received were different! Of course there were some similar or overlapping words but for the most part we got unique answers! It really touched me and made me think of how individual the atonement is. 

Christ is there for us however we may need him! He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane for each of us, individually! I am so grateful for the atonement and have seen it heal myself and others from spiritual, emotional, and physical hurt!

This week has been good! Not much happened out of the ordinary but we are keeping busy and doing well!

Sister Hadden

Pictures!

Hiking, morning run, studies by the pier, selfies because why not?, easter egg hunt 6 feet apart with the elders and the sisters (the sisters won), caught the ice cream truck!