Hermana McKay Hadley: "Question Mark or an Exclamation Point"

Hi everyone! I hope all is well back at home! This week has been so awesome! I want to first give a shout out to 2 of my very good friends who in the last 2 weeks have opened their mission calls! One to Tennessee and the other who will be going to Germany!!!! I am so excited for them and the amazing opportunity they will have to be a missionary!

This week we were so blessed to have a General Authority come visit us, Elder Ian S. Ardern from the Quorum of the Seventy. It has been a great week with many trainings and a lot of changes in the mission. First I wanted to share with you some of the highlights from the training we received last Tuesday by Elder Ardern.

Elder Ardern helped us recognize that we work in the same purpose as he does. This message was very powerful to me. He talked with us about the importance of our calling and how it doesn't matter where we are called but the simple fact that we are called. We are here because the Lord wants us here.

I have a favorite quote from the training that I have already written down and posted on the wall by my desk. It was something that really hit home that I think will apply to everyone. As Elder Ardern was talking about our purpose and our power as missionaries he told us, "Don't put a question mark where the Lord puts and Exclamation Point!!!"

We go throughout life with many tasks and responsibilities and a lot of the time we look at ourselves with a feeling of inadequacy. Go forward in your life knowing that every time the Lord gives us a prompting, a calling or a feeling it is because he knows we can do it. So don't question it.

I learned so much from our training of things I can apply to my life as a missionary and also my future. I know that Elder Ardern has been called of God and was inspired to share with us what we needed to hear to better ourselves as missionaries.

In other news, on Friday we had another training where we were informed about our new missionary schedule. I will send a picture of the one for my mission. This new schedule is focused on us having our own agency and focusing on what we can do specifically for our area without having a set part of the day that we are not able to visit with investigators.

Also we have the option of going to bed earlier so that is some very good news for all of us. They changed the way we keep track of our numbers, before we had 9 key indicators for our area but now we only have 4. These are some big changes that will take some adjusting but we know that this is what is going to move the work forward!

The work has been great as far as the investigators go. We had a member with us at every single lesson we taught this week, yes the first week that numbers don't count for having lessons with members. That just helped us recognize that everything we were doing was for our investigators. We have such an amazing Spanish Branch that has been so supportive in our missionary endeavors! I have seen so many miracles each and every day I serve! The investigators I am blessed with right now are so special and I feel blessed and so lucky to be able to teach them right now!

This week marks my 6th month mark in the mission!! It is exciting and scary at the same time! Also it is my little brother’s 13th birthday on Friday so if you see him wish him a Happy Birthday!!!! Have an amazing week everyone you are in my prayers.

-Hermana Hadley