Hermana McKay Hadley: "When Life Gives You Lemons...You Stop and Smell the Roses"

Hey everyone, so there is a ton of stuff that happened this week and a lot of things I want to share so I am just going to jump right into it. So, this week was crazy. We have been busy getting ready for Hermana Nelson to fly back home to South Africa. We had interviews with President Henrie this week on Tuesday. It was so good to sit down and talk with President. He is such an awesome man and I am so lucky to have such a great Mission President. We talked about all the growth that I have seen in myself as I continue on this amazing path of being a missionary.

On Friday, we had a little adventure. That was the day when Hermana Nelson went on her departing temple trip. So, I was in a trio with the Sister Training Leader's for a day. We woke up early to hurry and get on the road to beat the traffic. We started driving at 7:10 am and we were in some traffic and got up to the mission office a little after 8 this was when our adventure started.

I was 95% sure I knew the way back let me just say that much. Well we hit a TON of traffic because we were heading towards LA on a Friday morning, then we got lost and accidentally ended up at the Burbank Bob Hope Airport... opps. We were one exit away from leaving the mission. That was a little crazy and we didn't end up getting back to our apartment until about 10:00. Then at 4:00 we had to drive back up to the mission home to pick up Hermana Nelson and then back. In total I drove 4 and a half hours and 110 miles later we finally were done driving around all of California... it was a long day and I was so sick of traffic.

I would like to share some special spiritual experiences I have had this week. The first was on Saturday we had a very special Women’s Broadcast for a few of the Stakes in California. We were able to hear from many of the sisters in the Women’s General Presidencies. One of them spoke to us on Keeping Christ in the center by doing a "High Five"

1 Prayer: Have sincere personal prayer with our Father in Heaven.

2. Scriptures: Learn of Him

3. Sacrament: The Heart of Sunday

4. Service: When you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God.

5. Temple: Regular temple attendance brings the Spirit into your life and into your home.

I loved hearing their stories and about how often we start to look inward and not outward.

Now for my little personal revelation I received this week. On my mission, I have really noticed a reoccurring theme of aligning our will with the will of the Father. I was reading an article in one of my studies this week that really hit home. I would like to share some things that I learned with all of you:

1. Everything we go through happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus Christ. As you do this you will become more like Him.

2. Give yourself to Him (God). He cannot work with what he doesn't have.

3. "Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart."- C. S. Lewis

4. Desire + Dedication= Divinity

To end I wanted to share a personal experience that I had this week. I joined my family in a special fast for one of my dear sweet cousins who I love dearly. She would be getting results from a test to see if she had a Genetic Disease. Saturday I knelt down to start my fast and really pondered what exactly I wanted to fast for. This was when I realized how much I had changed.

Pre-mission McKay probably would have fasted so that the result would come back negative. But then I realized something that I had learned, God has a plan, he has his will and what we need to do is learn, grow and apply the things we learn from Him. I fasted for comfort, peace, and understanding with whatever the results would be. I knew that sometimes we can’t ask God to make something happen but we need to ask him for understanding.

Today when I got online to email my family I found out that the results came back positive. It is hard to be away from family at this time but I knew that this is part of God’s plan for her and Christ knows exactly what is going on and what she is feeling. I know that whatever we go through in this life is because it is part of God’s plan for us. I love my cousin so much and I know without a doubt that Christ is there with her every step of the way. I know this gospel is true and I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us so much and I want to share that with you in the name of my Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

- Hermana Hadley