Claire - stick with it. You have made the right decision. I decided to learn to pedal in my teens, got frustrated, left it thirty years and finally got down to it seriously seven years ago. It is hard at times, especially as the pedals seem more of a hindrance than a help for quite a while, but they do become second nature eventually, and what a repertoire you get as a reward!
A good book for learning to pedal and learning to play hymns is "The organists hymnbook" by Anne Marsden Thomas. It starts of with arrangements which are very simple, too plain for serious use, but good exercises, and proceeds on to a lot of very useful stuff, some better than the usual hymnbook versions.
The other thing which really helps is a good teacher. Mine is superb, he has really spurred me on.
Organists - the next generation
Moderators: Dom Perignon, Casimir