Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!

Transfers are crazy, well let’s start with what happened that day. I got packed and rearranged my old apartment because they were getting 2 more people moving into it. Went to transfer meeting where everything you know gets flipped upside down. Monday night I got a call from our President telling me that he was doing an emergency transfer and I will have a different companion who is Hermana Johnson! She is so sweet! I was able to work a little with her in my last zone so I am very excited to be with her, she just finished training so we are both flying a little blind white washing this area and then also covering 2 areas because.... 

The companion that I was going to have was sweet Hermana Dye who has been feeling really sick. We still live in the same apartment as her so on day 2 of being in this area we made a fun trip to the ER to then find out she would be having surgery to get her gallbladder removed. Thursday she had surgery and since then we have been spending a lot of time with her in our nurse’s apartment! CRAZY!! She is doing so much better now and just healing from the surgery. So we have been a trio for the last few days! Always an adventure!

Because of all that craziness we haven't gotten too much missionary work in this week but we are now just trying to meet our investigators :). We have been getting to know a lot of the people here in the Spanish branch in Santa Clarita. My area is so big with Six Flags and many stores. We have done a lot of service this week with Operation Gratitude and we helped clean up a park nearby. Oh and one of my favorite things happened this week... IT RAINED!!!! That has been the best!

We had a fun Halloween party with our Spanish branch and the English ward this week that was fun to meet a lot of new people. We get dinners from the English ward too so hopefully I will be able to keep up my Spanish because even the Spanish branch speaks English here in my new area haha. I will speak to them in Spanish and they reply to me in English... They are funny. 

Tonight for Halloween we are getting together as missionaries to have pizza and watch the Restoration video. We party hard here in the San Fernando Mission ;), for real though we are all very excited to spend time together and watch a movie.

This week has been not a normal week but it has been one of growth for sure. Each and everyday I am growing as a missionary and gaining experiences that will help me in the future! Thanks for all of your love and support! And have a fun but not too much fun Halloween night! ;)


-Hermana Hadley




We came up with some costumes for the Branch Halloween Party.



My amazing new companion Hermana Johnson



A family made us Meatloaf Brains and Potato Ghosts.



Our surprise party we threw for a Hermana who finished her mission.



Monday, October 24, 2016

Moving Out

Once again another awesome week! Lets start off talking about this great family we have been teaching! They are so amazing and are the golden investigators. They are so excited and ready for this gospel. On Wednesday the whole family came to the Church for the primary program practice, a stake youth activity and our English class. It was a little crazy that day because we had too many places to be at once! The family loved the environment of the church as we gave them a Church tour and their 21-year-old daughter told us that she wants to be a missionary. I swear they are already members and this is a joke on us. 

We had some awesome experiences with some members this week too! They have been coming to a lot of our lessons and really wanting to be involved in what we are doing! One of the recent converts in our ward also took us to a Chinese buffet this week. It was pretty dang good and so nice to eat something else besides chicken and rice with tortillas. 

Now for the sad news, I got a call on Saturday and found out that I am being transferred on Tuesday!!! That was so hard to find out! During this time I really have come to know how my perspective has changed here on the mission. My first thought when I found out I was leaving was the people.  We currently have 12 investigators and 7 people with baptism dates who I love dearly. I didn't think too much of myself having to pack or getting a new companion. I have really changed from not looking inward but looking outward to the people in this area. Hopefully because I have only been here for 1 transfer (6 weeks) I will maybe come back to Reseda and be able to see the amazing progress in this area!

Yesterday we had the Primary Program... that was crazy! The primary president went all out. I wish I could have taken a picture but it was in the chapel. She had the whole place looking like there was a wedding and all the children were matching in the primary colors of red, yellow and blue. I even had to have a specific color I needed to wear with flowers that they pinned on me. There were flowers EVERYWHERE!!!! This was not a normal primary program!! It was awesome though and I was so happy I was able to help play the piano for them. After church when I told the bishop that I was being transferred he was very upset because they won’t have anyone to play the piano or the organ! 

It was a very fun week and it is going to be fun to experience something new now! I love you all and I am praying for you!! Thanks for all the love and prayers!!!


-Hermana Hadley



We taught the gospel at a Carnival!



Lunch with Sister Fairmond, our mission nurse!



My fun crazy little district



The cute family that took us to the Chinese Buffet.



An amazing package I got from the Page Family in my home ward!  Love Them!



Monday, October 17, 2016

Is there any more meat on that?

How in the world do I describe such an amazing week? All right lets start with an exchange that I went on. This was one of the best days of my mission so far!!! First let me just say I was scared out of my pants for this exchange. Our Sister Training Leaders that we were exchanging with are English and don't know Spanish and I was the one staying in our area. So what did that mean?

1. I had to drive for the first time in crazy San Fernando California and that is scary all on its own.
2. I HAD TO SPEAK SPANISH THE WHOLE TIME ALL BY MYSELF!!!

Ya, no big deal, just only 5 weeks in the mission field with a companion who is fluent. So with this being said Hermana Carlson and I planned this exchange day like crazy! We made sure I was having dinner with people who also spoke English and had Spanish members come to the lessons we had scheduled so I wouldn't have to talk and teach the whole time. 

I will give you the play by play of what ACTUALLY went down on exchange day. First we did knock out which is where we pick a street and knock for 2 hours. It went good and we left knock out with a yoga ball and some other random stuff this lady was trying to get rid of.

Then we went to this awesome place called Salsa and Beer where one of our members Hermana Mexicano, yep that is her name, works and so she fed us dinner! It was sooooo good and a ton of food! Three words: Bacon Wrapped Shrimp. Dang there was a lot of meat... and more meat... we got fed plates and plates of just meat.  Next week I will send pictures because this week Hermana Mexicano didn't email them to me.

After the meat, we had a lesson scheduled with one of our investigators and we had a member set up to come and help me teach and then the member canceled.  So we even had a back up member to help me teach and they canceled. So guess who had to teach the whole lesson all by herself like a big girl to a family that knows zero English... ME!!!!  This was one of the most spiritual moments I have had on my mission so far! I testify to you that the gift of tongues is real! The lesson went amazing and we picked up her 17 year old son as a new investigator!

The next day once again all of the plans we had set up didn't work out so I sat down in front of our white board and prayed for direction. Three names came to my mind of people to go visit, two part-member family's we hadn't met yet and then one less active we didn't know.

For a quick run down of what happened through out the day I taught another lesson all in Spanish and then found a girl and taught her the first lesson and committed her to baptism with a specific date. Then went and taught the less active family and helped them realize how important going to church really is. We also picked up one other new investigator from a part member family. Miracles were in the air that day!

The amazing stories from this week didn't just end there! The best part was this last Saturday we went to go visit a referral that we had gotten from Church Headquarters. It was a self-referral that basically means they turned themselves in ;) and that they were interested in learning more about the gospel. So we picked up Hermana DeLeon, our Relief Society President, and went to go find them.

They are an amazing family that just moved from Peru 5 months ago! They have a 21 year old daughter, 15 year old son and a 9 year old son. After we taught the lesson we invited them to be baptized on November 19th and they agreed and THANKED us for inviting them to baptism!!! The Lord prepares the people!

Most of the family came to church this week and the others had work already scheduled but they are a golden family! I am so happy I get to be apart of teaching them! We had so many investigators at church this week that Hermana Carlson and I were running around like crazy while I played the piano for all three hours! That's what happens when you are the only one who knows how to play and they have the primary program next week. It was crazy! 

Sunday I was also asked to play the piano for a baptism for one of my district leaders investigators. This was one of the most sacred experiences I have had. I didn't know who the baptism was for but when I got there I realized what a special day this really was. The man who got baptized has been an investigator in the mission for a very long time. He has only some movement in his left hand and other than that he is totally paralyzed. The spirit was very tangible in that room. I am so blessed to have been apart of watching 4 worthy priesthood holders help this amazing man make this covenant with his Heavenly Father. 

Last little highlight, I found Charlie Brown fruit snacks at the store this week. It was probably the best moment of this week… I am kidding! The other stuff was at the very top but finding these fruit snacks were a pretty close 2nd. For those of you who know me really well you probably understand why finding these fruit snacks were the best thing ever!

Anyways I love you all!! This church is true and I know that without a doubt! I love this gospel!


- Hermana Hadley



Hermana Carlson and I, really LOVE this girl!



Baptism in Sherman Oaks that I was blessed to provide music for. 





Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Kiwi Our Tiwi

Hey everyone!!  Well let’s start off by talking about an amazing Zone Conference that we had with our mission president this week! Dang I am so lucky to have President Henrie's guidance and love during this whole experience!

He talked to us about the importance of using the Book of Mormon and also always teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ that consists of 5 points that I want to share with you, this is something we teach so many people:

1. Faith in Christ: We need to always have that faith in our Savior. Without that faith we don't have direction in our lives and his guidance, but with that faith we need to act. Faith without works is dead, so what do we do to act on our faith?

2. Repentance: After we gain our faith we constantly need to be working toward become better and working on our relationship with Christ! Repentance is an amazing gift that we have been given that we get to use every single day to constantly be improving!

3. Baptism: This is an opportunity we have to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized with the priesthood authority! For those who have been baptized this is the step of renewing our baptismal convents by taking the sacrament every week!

4. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost: This is something so important in the Gospel! How amazing is it that we get to have the presence of a member of the God Head with us 24/7!! Follow those promptings because they will always guide you to do what is right!

5. Enduring to the End: Well this one is always the hard one... Life gets to us, it hits us hard sometimes. But though the guidance we have been given, by prophets and the Book of Mormon, we can Endure to the End! This step is so important that we always keep going no matter what and put our faith and trust in HIM!!! Put him in charge of your life because I promise you He knows what He is doing :).

Well there is my little spiritual thought that I felt prompted to share with you all this week! This week has been a big learning experience for me as far as trying to progress more in the language and working on lessons for our investigators! The work is progressing so much here and I am so lucky to be apart of it! Our investigator that we had on date for baptism is currently MIA.... so ya, we will figure that one out and I will update you on that later.

Last Monday we had a dinner with our Obispo (Bishop) and it was so great! He is so funny and he has a cute family! We have been meeting with a lot with members in our ward and have been really trying to find Gold Mine families or part member families. It has been awesome to see how many we have found this last week and we will hopefully help progress the work!

One last thing, we have these new TIWI boxes that they put in our cars that talk to us…they are fun. They tell us to get buckled and drive slower. We have learned that you can only go about 5 miles an hour in a church parking lot or it will get mad at you, we just coast all the way to a parking spot. We named him Kiwi so now we have another person in the car with us everywhere we go! 

Have an amazing week everybody! Keep going on and Enduring to the End!!!!


-Hermana Hadley



The San Fernando Zone



Hermana Hadley & Hermana Carlson at Zone Conference



The Elder's from our ward.  We planned to match for Zone Conference and it was pretty awesome!



A cute little letter we got from our Mom's this week!



Christmas Day came a little early!  Got the best package from my family this week 
with some things from home and awesome treats!  They are the best!



We started decorating for Halloween!