Hermana McKay Hadley: "Until After the Trial of Your Faith"

Mom Note: It was so great to finally get an email from McKay on Tuesday. We went 15 days without emails because her Mission President said with Christmas Day being on a Monday it counted as a P-Day, and of course Libraries were closed that day. Also, because New Years was on a Monday, thankfully he allowed them to have P-Day on Tuesday the 2nd. Thank you for your patience as it has taken a few days for me to put her Blog together. Keep in mind as you read this email, she wrote it before President Monson passed away.

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I didn't write last week, I was a little busy Skyping my family!!! It was so great to talk to them last week and see their lovely faces! Christmas was wonderful! We spent most of our day at the Esocbar’s house that day where we had Lunch and Dinner. This is where we were also able to Skype and do our laundry on Christmas hahah!!!! Yay for free Laundry!!!!! Christmas in the mission is so special because there is always a wonderful spirit in the air and it is a blessing to talk about Christ to everyone!

I would like to share a story with you that happened the Wednesday before Christmas. There is a really cute family that is in our ward that I love so, so much. They are the Godinez family. They are a very strong family and they have 3 kids. Diego who is 12, Rebecca 3, and Rachel 1 month old. The mom is a convert of 1 year and has been so excited to go through the temple and be sealed as a family!

We met with them the Tuesday before Christmas and she was telling us about how excited she was because the next day, Wednesday she was going to be having her interview for her temple recommend. That next day (Wednesday) we saw them at the church and they were so excited. We went into a meeting and then they left to go home.

On their way home, with the whole family in the car, they got T-boned by a drunk man who stole a car and was going 80 mph. The car was completely totaled and it looked like everyone involved should have died. The mom got out of the car and pulled her husband and 3 kids out of the car. The husband just had some problems with his nose. Diego went in the hospital just because he was a little beaten up. Rebecca had a little bruise and Rachel... the 1 month old was untouched! THE BLESSINGS OF LIVING THE GOSPEL!!!!!! It is such a miracle that they were alive and ok! I will send pictures of the car because it is truly unbelievable and such a miracle! We spent part of Christmas night with this sweet family! They are so strong and I love them so much!!!!

We found out that our mission will have a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles visit us on January 12th. I feel very blessed because they have asked me to provide the music for the special meeting. I just found out that it will be President Russell M. Nelson and I am so excited for this opportunity! There were so many other things that happened in the last 2 weeks. I don't have time to write about everything, but I wanted to share a huge miracle.

This last week was really slow for us because everyone was out of town or busy with the holidays. We also got sick so the work was a little hard. There were a few days were everyone was canceling or no one was home, and honestly, we were getting a little discouraged. We worked and worked and worked and nothing was happening and we were very sick.

On Thursday, we had an appointment with one of our "internigators" which means he has been an investigator for forever. They canceled and I just had a huge prompting to keep pushing to meet with this family. They said they were going to play soccer.... so, we went to go find them. We went to the park and we couldn't find them anywhere!!! It had been a long day, but we made an appointment for Friday at 6 and they canceled again!!! I was so done, but I kept having this feeling to go back... so we went by their house after our dinner around 8. They were home and we had a wonderful lesson about the Plan of Salvation.

Now, I want to tell you a little bit about this family. The mom and the son are members and her husband is basically a member. He has been taught by the missionaries for about 3 years off and on and he goes to church almost every week. Each time that I have been in Reseda I have taught him, but he never wanted to get baptized.

At the end of this lesson we told him that he was ready and this time he said YES to be baptized!!! He is getting baptized on the 27th of January!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!! His wife got very emotional and said that she was so excited, then we said that we were excited too! Then he turned to us and said, "I am more excited than all of you!!!!"

He will be getting baptized 3 days before I come home! He is the reason I am back in Reseda for the third time! We left that lesson feeling over joyed! God will always bless us, but not until after the trial of our faith.

All of the hard things that happened earlier this week went away! I love, love, love being a missionary! The blessings are incredible and I love seeing God soften and change the hearts of people as he continues to change my life!

That was my huge miracle of the week and I am sooooo grateful for this time I have left to serve! I hope you are very excited for the New Year and New Beginnings! Keep on going and sharing God’s love with the people around you!!!

-Hermana Hadley

The Godneiz' Car on December 20th after getting their temple recommends. Can you believe they all walked away and a 1 month old was in that car! Such a Miracle and they are so blessed!

We spent Christmas Night with the Godneiz family and this is cute little Rebecca who only had a bruise above her eye from the accident. <3

Zone Conference on December 22, 2017

Mom Note: Got this picture from the Mission Facebook Page, and yes she has asked me to get a haircut appointment for her the day after she gets home!

These Elders are buddies of ours! Elder Howe broke his elbow when he fell off of his bike. By the way our sweaters say, "Fleece Navidad" we thought it was so funny!!!