"Latino Choirs"

Hey everyone! I hope everything is going great back home! I don't have too much to update you on this week, but it was still an awesome week! We helped with 2 baptisms for some Elders and we visited sooooooo many people this week! No one was home because everyone ran away. Why did they run away? Because my mission caught on fire again this week! This is the 5th fire since I have been here and this one has been the worst. The wind has been terrible, the ash in the air has been bad and no one can breathe. So that is why everyone ran away and quite a few people got evacuated including our missionaries! 

In other news, we went to serve at "Operation Gratitude", this week and it as so fun!!!! There were so many missionaries there and so many people! That day we put together the 2 Millionth Care Package to send to the troops! They had a whole ceremony and recognized the Church and CASF Missionaries for our service. We also put together packages for the first responders and fire fighters that have been coming to California to help with the fires. It was great to see so many of the missionaries and also help out and serve! 

The other exciting thing that happened this week was that we had our Stake Christmas Concert! This is when everyone in the Spanish Stake comes together and each ward sings a Christmas Hymn. I had been helping my ward practice a little and it was very interesting as the lady directing the choir just told everyone to sing "en su propia voz" or in English sing in your own voice... so everyone was singing a different note, that is why it was interesting. It was so great to see all of my friends from the Spanish YSA Branch because they also performed at the Concert and they sounded beautiful.

The last 10 minutes of our practice, we found out the missionaries also had to put together a musical number! We were running around trying to find a piano and we quickly put together a medley of “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. It turned out pretty nice, I just ended up making stuff up on the piano and we sounded awesome!

I love being a missionary because you get to have so many amazing memorable experiences! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love ya,

-Hermana Hadley 

Our car is covered in ash all the time and so are we.  :(

This is a really nice older man that wanted to take us to dinner! He used to be an investigator, but he says he loves the missionaries so he likes to feed us, haha. It was a very awesome dinner!

Hna. Dunn and I made a gingerbread house...the snowman and gingerbread man have name tags. HaHa!

Our little missionaries <3

Operation Gratitude

The 2 Millionth Care Package!!!

Given to our Church, Mission and the CASF Missionaries! They recognized us for our urgency, focus and hard work! We were happy and honored! :)

All the many, many people at Operation Gratitude

CASF Missionaries Serving at Operation Gratitude

Guess who I found... Sister Garfield!!! She is from my Stake back home and we use to be in the same ward before boundary changes. So excited to finally see her!!! <3

All of my friends from the Spanish YSA Branch at the Stake Christmas Choir Concert!