Wedding Bells and a Wolf

This week has been CRAZY!!!! So many exciting things have happened and I am so excited to share them with you guys! I just wanted to testify really fast of the power of the Atonement, I have seen it work through me and also through my investigators every single day! 

Let me just go through what happened this week, Monday we went as a zone and we went bowling which was so fun! There was no one in the bowling alley except one random old guy and then all of a sudden 20 missionaries come in, it was pretty funny. I didn't do that bad too. I got second place!

This week we did a ton of service and one of them was at this animal park where we raked up dry dead grass and if any of you know me you know that was.... well not a good thing because I just happen to be allergic to the outside. So I stood at the top of the hill and supervised, more like I stood at the top trying to breath and see through my swollen eyes, good times.

Wednesday was an awesome day! Brenda our investigator GOT MARRIED!!!!! We are so happy for her and she is so excited to get baptized this Saturday. She is married to a less active member who has now been starting to come to church with her and their cute little girl Mary Jane. This is a huge step for Brenda and her family and we are very blessed to be a part of helping her change her life. SO BLESSED!

Friday we did some more service for a lady who has a farm. Some of the zone came and we washed her horses and played with goats. It was fun and don't worry I loaded up on my allergy medication so I survived.

It was just a week full of animals because yesterday we were knocking doors and this guy opened his door and said, “Do you want to see a wolf?” ummmm I was pretty skeptical when this random guy started to close his gate and go get his pet wolf. I was convinced this was how my life was going to end, being attacked by a wolf in this random sketchy town called Val Verde in the middle of the mountains with no service. (Don't worry mom it is totally safe) so I pet a wolf and also got pictures. 

This week has been filled with some fun little adventures and some awesome spiritual experiences. I love the life of a missionary! Shout out to PARKER my little brother for turning 16 this week and being ordained as a Priest! I love you bud and I am so proud of you!

Also it was Stanford Day this week so I naturally I had to make a German Chocolate cake to celebrate Stanford Day and Parker's birthday. The Elders were very happy about that!

Anyways I hope you all have an amazing fantastic week and here are some pictures to make up for not having any last week! Le Quiero! 

-Hermana Hadley

Note from Mom:  Stanford Day is a made up Holiday by our adopted neighborhood children that has been celebrated for the past 5 years. It is on Stanford's half birthday (November 9th) each year and it is celebrated by dressing like Stanford, doing your hair like Stanford, watching Stanford's favorite shows and eating Stanford's favorite cake. The days events end with smashing a pinata in Lynette's house filled with surprise items from cooked hotdogs to glitter in years past.

The Service Project while I was "Supervising"

The cake was so good!!

The horse I cleaned, we were good friends.

Elder Myers got attacked by the goats.

The Wolf!

Some cool old cars we found.

The one tree that looks like Fall and Hermana Johnson!!! :)

Note from Mom: 

We received this surprise picture of McKay at FHE last night 

with the Henao Familia!  She loves this family! 

Being Blessed with an Hour

This has not been a normal week at all. But that usually means growth as a missionary. God loves us so much and he gives us trials that he knows we can handle. Some sad news that happened this week was that Hermana Dye went home. It all happened very fast but we know that the Lord has a plan for her. Her health wasn't doing very good and because she is now home she can get the help that she needs but we love her so much and we are excited for all the amazing things she is going to do. She found out late Friday night that she was going home and so we hurried and packed her and she left Saturday morning. So we were glad we had an extra hour of sleep! 

With that being said we are now in a trio permanently covering 2 areas andwe have 17 investigators we are trying to balance. It is going to be crazy but a heck ton of fun. We have one of our investigators getting baptized this next week on the 19th and we are so excited for her. She will be getting married this week and then we need to just keep working with her during the time before her baptism. We are so excited! 

Halloween: Well last Monday we had dinner with a family from our ward and then watched the Restoration video! It was awesome and I was able to see Elder Martin again! It was so great to see someone from home and we just sat there and talked and got caught up. 

OH, this is some big news, so our Spanish branch plays soccer every single Saturday and we go because it is an awesome way to get new investigators and also work with the Branch. Well... I made a GOAL!!!! Yup just remember I am playing with Latinos and I made a goal!!!! I also did eat it pretty hard and now have some cool bruises on my legs but that just means I was having fun. 

Spoil alert!!! We were able to watch the Christmas video for this year early and it is AWESOME!!! It will come out on November 25th, so be excited! Anyways have an amazing week and know I am keeping you in my prayers! Love you all!

-Hermana Hadley

Happy Halloween!

Transfers are crazy, well let’s start with what happened that day. I got packed and rearranged my old apartment because they were getting 2 more people moving into it. Went to transfer meeting where everything you know gets flipped upside down. Monday night I got a call from our President telling me that he was doing an emergency transfer and I will have a different companion who is Hermana Johnson! She is so sweet! I was able to work a little with her in my last zone so I am very excited to be with her, she just finished training so we are both flying a little blind white washing this area and then also covering 2 areas because.... 

The companion that I was going to have was sweet Hermana Dye who has been feeling really sick. We still live in the same apartment as her so on day 2 of being in this area we made a fun trip to the ER to then find out she would be having surgery to get her gallbladder removed. Thursday she had surgery and since then we have been spending a lot of time with her in our nurse’s apartment! CRAZY!! She is doing so much better now and just healing from the surgery. So we have been a trio for the last few days! Always an adventure!

Because of all that craziness we haven't gotten too much missionary work in this week but we are now just trying to meet our investigators :). We have been getting to know a lot of the people here in the Spanish branch in Santa Clarita. My area is so big with Six Flags and many stores. We have done a lot of service this week with Operation Gratitude and we helped clean up a park nearby. Oh and one of my favorite things happened this week... IT RAINED!!!! That has been the best!

We had a fun Halloween party with our Spanish branch and the English ward this week that was fun to meet a lot of new people. We get dinners from the English ward too so hopefully I will be able to keep up my Spanish because even the Spanish branch speaks English here in my new area haha. I will speak to them in Spanish and they reply to me in English... They are funny. 

Tonight for Halloween we are getting together as missionaries to have pizza and watch the Restoration video. We party hard here in the San Fernando Mission ;), for real though we are all very excited to spend time together and watch a movie.

This week has been not a normal week but it has been one of growth for sure. Each and everyday I am growing as a missionary and gaining experiences that will help me in the future! Thanks for all of your love and support! And have a fun but not too much fun Halloween night! ;)

-Hermana Hadley

We came up with some costumes for the Branch Halloween Party.

My amazing new companion Hermana Johnson

A family made us Meatloaf Brains and Potato Ghosts.

Our surprise party we threw for a Hermana who finished her mission.