Hermana McKay Hadley: God Bless America

I am HERE in San Fernando!!! I love this place so so much already and I have only been in California for 5 days! First lets start off by telling about my crazy trip out of Mexico! Alright we got up at 2:30am got to reception (gathering place at the CCM) at 3 on a bus by 4 on a plane by 6:10, so that was kind of a crazy morning.

I had a layover in San Francisco that was a blessing. I ate a hamburger and I don’t remember hamburgers ever tasting that good!!! I was also able to have the opportunity to talk to my family on the phone for a short period of time! I loved being able to talk to them and hear their voices!

We got on our plane to go to Burbank and then the plane took off an hour and a half late, so we were a little late finally getting to Burbank. I got off the plane and this amazing feeling of peace came over me, I felt home. Right then in that moment I knew this was MY mission and I was ready to get to work.

The AP’s took us to the stake center where transfers were happening and one of the first people to greet me was none other than Elder Colby Martin!!!! For those who don't know who that is, he is my neighbor from home and we have grown up in the same ward! It was so nice to see a friendly face! I met with President Henrie and then it got pretty crazy after that and I met my companion Hermana Carlson!! She is amazing and we get along so well! We also have a lot of the same friends from Clinton including Brookelyn Smith!!! We found out we were opening a new area (white washing) so we did not know anyone and we also have a pretty great car so that is nice!

Ok so I will share some of the highlights from this week! Currently our main investigator is a lady who is so solid! She has so much faith and believes everything that the missionaries have taught her. She just won’t commit to a baptism date so I will let you know when that happens!

We have been getting to know the ward and our area! The ward members are awesome they feed us a lot!!! They feed us lunch and dinner almost everyday and the amount of food they give us is nuts... and they dish it up for you and then you have to eat all of it!!!

Two times this week Hermana Carlson and I went to go find a referral and ended up finding other people instead. One of them was the Crossing Guard who is a cute little old man who said he knew someone special was going to stop by and so we taught him about the Restoration and he loved it! So we are working on finding a time to teach him!

Also this was the amazing miracle of this week. We were walking by a retirement home and went and said hi to a lady who was so emotional to see us. She had been praying for someone that was teaching truth for a while and she knew it was us. We sat and talked to her for a long time and she wanted to pray with us and then we put her on date for baptism, yup she is getting baptized in a few weeks. The only sad part is the English missionaries have to teacher her so we had to hand her off.

Our ward is awesome, there was a huge party that all of them had a few days ago called Noche de Hispanidad. So basically it was crazy with a ton of music and dancing and food! I really got a feel for the culture at that party and went home with a headache. But one of those good headaches!

The ward has not had a piano player so I am the only piano player in like a 20 mile radius... Haha. The people in the ward have been singing the hymns without music or off their phones. How terrible is that? So when I played the piano, let alone the organ, it was very new for them and I looked at the congregation and they started to get emotional. All of them were really caught off guard to hear music during sacrament meeting. So my eternal calling on this mission is to play the piano. Anyone who is reading this who doesn't like taking piano lessons... Do it!!!! It will bless your life and everyone around you!

All right one really fast funny story, there have been a ton but this is my favorite. Hermana Carlson and I woke up on our first day and did our morning exercises and I was about to get in the shower when we realized that it was 4:30 in the morning! What happened with the alarm? We don’t know but we went back to bed and woke up a few hours later.

We are having so much fun and I love it here so much! I love the people and I am loving Spanish, it is hard to speak sometimes but I have gotten to the point that if the people are not speaking really fast I can understand them all! I know I am where I need to be!!!

Love you guys a ton!!!

-Hermana Hadley