Hermana McKay Hadley: "Our Mission is on Fire, Sour Milk and a Sad Goodbye"

Hey everyone! This week has been crazy! We sadly had to say goodbye to Hna Jensen this Saturday and now we are back to two :( We are sad to have her go, but we are so proud of her! She was an amazing missionary and a huge blessing in my life! Now she is home with her sweet family and has already started school at BYU!!!

This week we did a lot to help with a funeral that happened in one of the family wards this week. I was able to help by playing the piano. It was very special to teach other people about the Plan of Salvation during this hard time in their family.

A quick update on Jessy, the lady I talked about last week who is homeless, she is doing great and progressing well :). She is very special and we are so blessed to teach her about our Savior.

Our mission is quite literally on FIRE!!! It has been raining ash from the sky and we come home and brush it off of our clothes!!! It has been so hot and we have a big fire in our mission right by my area. This last week we were knocking doors and it was 122 degrees........ I WAS MELTING!!!!!!!! It was the hottest temperature I have ever been in!!! You know when you open the oven door after it has preheated and the heat hits you in the face…that is what it felt like for the full 2 hours of knocking doors! They say it is going to cool down a little and that would be a miracle! We are praying for 115 degrees next week!

So, this week we had an interesting little experience, one day we went to a place to grab a drink and the one that Hna Starke got was milk based. She is lactose intolerant so she only had a little and it made her stomach upset so she didn’t finish it. Well, she also left it in the car for like 2 days...in the heat...you can only imagine what has happened to this milk in that amount of time. I took the drink to move it and then the cup holder punctured a hole in the side of the cup! IT SPRAYED EVERYWHERE! All over the carpet and in the backseat. Let’s just say we have been dry heaving and driving with the windows down, in the heat, for the last few days...lesson learned.

This Sunday was awesome! I love Fast Sundays, and I especially like it when our investigators come. It really is an amazing opportunity for them to hear the testimonies of so many members. We had one of our AWESOME investigators come to church. His name is Raul and he has been coming to church for the last few weeks. He is really cool and kinda famous in certain circles! He was top in the nation for 7 years in World of War Craft (very popular game on the internet). You would think he was a nerd, but he is not.

Anyways he was sitting next to me during sacrament meeting and turned to me and asked if you had to be fasting to share your testimony, I told him no, and he got up! The whole Branch Presidency looked at us with their mouths touching the floor! We were all shocked. He got up and announced that he was an investigator and he wanted to talk about how this church has blessed his life and how excited he is to be baptized someday. He talked about his faith in Jesus Christ and some of the experiences he has had! We all about died!!!

I want to end by sharing part of an Ensign article from this month by Elder Jeffery R. Holland called, "The Gospel Path to Happiness". The quote that really hit home to me was "Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder".

I know that sometimes we expect happiness in our lives and try to chase it, but as we look outward towards others, serve and love people, we suddenly find ourselves happier and happiness has come to us!

I love you all and I hope you guys have an amazing week!

-Hermana Hadley