Monday, July 31, 2017

"You Cannot Fail"


Hello everyone!!! This week was awesome as usual :) being a missionary is the best! Seriously, I feel so lucky that every day I get to wake up and realize that I get to spend the whole day serving my Heavenly Father! This week we had some fun little experiences that have really strengthened my testimony!

This week Hermana Starke and I gave a training at District Meeting and we had a surprise... President Henrie came to our District Meeting. When we saw he was there our whole district turned to each other and panicked a little because when he comes it is a little stressful. We had an awesome District Meeting and our training made President laugh:). At the end of our meeting after President laughed, one of our District Leaders said, "Well good job guys, we were on our best behavior!!!" 

This week we have really been buckling down with finishing the lessons with Roberto:). He is progressing really well and is going to be getting baptized this Saturday! Wahoo!!! This Sunday we went to church and Hna Starke and I gave talks and did a musical number with our Ward Mission Leader! It was crazy because it has been exactly a year today since my farewell talk. I gave a talk on how we can be more like Ammon from the Book of Mormon and how we are all part of the Lord’s Fold. I gave them ways that they can help to bring back the sheep that are missing from the YSA fold. 

We had an amazing 3rd hour lesson that our Branch President and his wife gave about putting on the Whole Armor of God. The lesson really hit home for me. We really need to be spiritually ready to go and keep going even when we fall. I attached a link from the lesson that I want you to watch. Maybe some of you have seen it before but watch it again. I love that in this video you can see that WE CANNOT FAIL. We have the Lord on our side and he can never let us fail. Here is the link: You Cannot Fail

Mom Note: You can access the link through the blog, but may not be able to through the automatic email that gets sent out. It can be found on You Tube under the title: "Father's Day Video Derek Redmond You Raise Me Up"

We go through trials to make us stronger and when the falls come, we have someone right there to pick us up! I have a huge testimony that I know we have a Loving Heavenly Father who really cares for us and wants us to be happy! I hope you have an amazing week! Love you and Keep on Keepin on!

-Hermana Hadley 



These two pictures were posted on the CASF Mission Facebook Page
Sister Henrie wrote:
Hermanas teaching at District Meeting today







These Pictures were sent to our family through another surprise text this week :)


Monday Night Dinner with the YSA Spanish Branch President's Family



Hermana Starke, Branch Presidents wife Hermana Vasquez and Hermana Hadley




When people bike lock their ladder to a pole... gotta lock everything up around here.



Cute little Tea Cup Puppies!!!



Hna Starke spilt her water bottle all over herself. 



Our Branch President putting on the Whole Armor Of God, 
we thought he looked like Elmer Fudd. :)


Mom Note: This week we were able to attend a Pioneer Trek with our son Parker.  We were asked to come prepared with the name of a person we were going to trek for.  I chose our cute missionary Hermana McKay Hadley.  I experienced a wonderful moment as I participated in the "Women's Pull".

The Women's Pull is where the men walk to the top of the trail and only the women bring the loaded handcarts up. This represents the many men who died along the trail and the strong women who continued to bring their families by themselves.  This is usually the hardest climb of the entire Trek.  Our Women's Pull was 2 miles long with many hills at a 11% grade and took us 2 hours.

As I began the climb I looked up and noticed that the Women's Pull Trail was called,
"McKay Ridge". This was a sweet tender mercy from our Heavenly Father during my Trek experience seeing the name of who I was trekking for. <3





On Monday we were able to have a little conversation with McKay by emailing back and forth.  This week our conversation was of course about our Trek experience. We wanted to share part of the email  conversation that we had with McKay.

Stanford: Who is your Trail Boss?

McKay: Heavenly Father

Stanford: What is your handcart?

McKay: THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!

Stanford: When is your Women's Pull?

McKay:  TODAY!!!!!



Monday, July 24, 2017

"Stuck in LA ...Uh Oh"

Hey everyone!!!!!

This week went so fast and so slow at the same time. YSA has kept us very busy, we come home so tired every single day it is crazy! There is currently a huge teaching pool in YSA that we are working with. We had 6 people on date for baptism this week! That is such a crazy number especially for YSA!

This week we were able to go on exchanges with our STL's (Sister Training Leaders), I learned a lot ... that's pretty much all I am going to say.  One of my favorite quotes is "Everybody missionaries differently" so basically that was how our exchange went :).

This last weekend our whole YSA was on a campout and they even took a ton of our investigators, which is awesome, but that left us for 3 days with no members to take to lessons! We got really creative and went into finding mode. We were able to find a few new investigators and go visit some less actives which was very helpful because we have been needing to build up our Branch! 

I wanted to share an amazing experience that I had on Sunday with one of our investigators Roberto! We planned this huge trip to the LA Temple Visitors Center on Sunday where we were able to bring 12 members from our Branch and our investigator. It started with us just inviting a few and then all of a sudden everyone wanted to come so why not!

Roberto is going to be getting baptized soon and we thought it would be really helpful to take him to the Temple Visitors Center. He has been having a few doubts and has been nervous... which is expected. We drove up after church in 3 different cars and had an AMAZING tour! The LA missionaries did a really good job helping him feel the Spirit and involving all of his awesome friends to help him learn. 

After the tour, we were talking with our only girl member that came to drive us Hermanas, and everyone (including her) wanted to stay for this special Pioneer concert that they were doing at the Visitor Center! So... we were stuck at the LA Temple without a ride home. Now the LA Temple is not in our mission boundaries and we knew that we really shouldn't stay without permission from our President so our Branch decided to pray, haha they were really cute.  

After the prayer, we called President to tell him we were stuck in LA... that was a scary phone call. We called him and all he said was well... Hermanas you have been working hard... enjoy the music!!!!!! WHAT???? We were so so excited so we stayed and listened to a beautiful concert that was put on by a lot of the missionaries in the LA Mission.

It was one of the most beautiful experiences I have had on my mission! The music really helped me remember how grateful I am for my ancestors and all that they did so that I could have the Gospel in my life. It was a beautifully done program that I am very grateful I was able to attend! 

I hope you guys have an awesome week!!! On other news, I cut Hermana Starke’s hair this week... people are trusting me way too much with their hair all of a sudden, everyone wants me to cut their hair! I didn't go to school for that but it looks really cute:). I will send pictures of that for sure next week!!!  Thanks everyone and have an awesome Pioneer Day!!! 

Love,
Hermana Hadley 


All of us at the LA Temple Vistors Center! Roberto, our investgator, is the one in the black jacket! :) That was the first time we have seen him dress up!



Some of my best friends in the Branch, Fermin and Omar



Mom Note: Received this surprise picture through text Sunday Night from a lady from Logan, UT who just happened to be at the LA Temple. She said, "Ran into these two beautiful Hermana's at the LA Temple Visitor's Center. That is their investigator in the back. She is doing such a great job. You can be proud. :) 
I'm a missionary mom too, on vacation."



Last Week we played Quittege from Harry Potter... TEAM GRYFFINDOR!!!



Hna Starke and I found The Habit!!! Reminds me of Home :)



When you know your area is Mexican...


 Mom Note: Last Monday Night we received these pictures from the Branch President and his wife Hermana Vasquez. They feed the missionaries every Monday Night. Hermana Vasquez told us that they have done this for years and they love the Spirit they leave in our home. We are so grateful for good members watching over our missionaries! <3

On Monday July 17, 2017 The Vasquez's called it "Adventure Monday" and took the Hermanas to 99 Ranch Market, an Asian Market, to get Fried Fish for dinner. 




Chinese Restaurant looking at Cooking Ducks



Picking out their fish for Dinner



Hermana Hadley's Dinner!



Crabs!!!



Hermana Starke knows how to hold a Crab being from Oregon!



Hermana Hadley also knows the proper techinque 
because she has cooked many live Crabs before her mission!



Yep, that is what the sign says...



SEAWEED!!!



Beef Tongue???



Hermana Tongue???



No Thank You!



Edible Beef Blood, isn't all Beef Blood non edible?



And of course one last picture of more tongue, Duck Tongue at $14.99 a pound :)