"Oh, we're halfway there...Oh, Oh Livin' on a Prayer"

As you can see by my title this week.... I hit my halfway mark!!!! I can't believe it! In some ways, it feels like I have been here forever and in others I feel like I just got here! I am so glad I have had these 9 months to learn and grown and I can't even imagine how much more is to come. 

So, to start out telling you about my week I will write about last Monday. We went on a hike as a "Zone Activity" but nobody came besides us and the Elders that also serve in our ward so we called it "Most of our District Activity". The rest of the Zone was just being lame but they missed out cause.... WE SAW THE OCEAN!!! It was very very very far away and there was a lot of pollution so we had to try really hard to see it but IT WAS THERE!!!! It was crazy to remember it does exist. 

This Thursday we had a quick little drastic change in the mission that we are calling "The Purge". President has decided to completely change our music policy where we can only listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Classical, and LDS songs by LDS artist. It has been a big change for all of us because we listened to a lot of other Christian Music or groups like Enya. This has actually been a great experience to get the text about the change and then have Hermana Nelson and I look at each other and begin to go through the CD’s. There are many blessings of being exactly obedient! It was cool to have all the missionaries go home and have a pile of CD's that were labeled "yes we can" and a "no we can't" pile.  Exact Obedience brings Miracles!

This week we also had an amazing lunch at Rafael’s mom's restaurant! It was sooooo good, she is an amazing cook! We sat in the restaurant and read in the Book of Mormon with Rafael and then went and had another lesson with an investigator in a Starbucks down the street that day. It was an exciting and interesting lesson.

Sunday, we walked Rafael to church which was a little far but his mom didn't want him walking alone so I rode his scooter for half the time. We came riding into church in style! :) Being a missionary is always an adventure! I hope you are all going to have a great week and an awesome Mother’s Day! Also, if you see my Dad wish him a Happy Birthday, he is going to be --- years old!!! ;) Haha Love you guys and have an awesome week!

Love,

Hermana Hadley

We visited the Primary this week and got a picture with all of them :)

Zoom in really close and look past the pollution and you can see the ocean 

right infront of the back mountain...I promise it is there.

On our hike with the Elders

How the Elders actually felt about us making them go on the hike! 

Just kidding they loved it!

Eating amazing food that Rafael's Mom made at the Restaurant

The Cake Picture from a post 2 weeks ago finally arrived! 

Made for a Relief Society Birthday Celebration

"Count Your Mini Blessings"

Hey everyone!!! Hope all is going great at home! This week has been fun but not too much has happened. It was kind of a long week especially compared to the crazy week we had last week. This week Hermana Nelson and I have been doing this new thing where we count our Mini blessings every day. Also, when we set goals in the morning we set a goal for how many miracles we want to see that day! It has been awesome to recognize these blessings! 

This week we found some new investigators who are really great! It is amazing how the Lord's timing plays an important role in our missionary work. The people we found were all needing us at the exact time we knocked on their door. I am so excited to start working with these people and begin to see the changes in their lives. :) 

Also last week I forgot to tell you that I ate this crazy hot pepper.... I was crying for a solid 15 minutes after I ate it. We were having dinner with a member and Elder Yeck turned to me and said, "Hey if you eat one of those peppers I will eat one too." So, after some convincing we ate the peppers. I about DIED!!! I felt numb all over my face and I was crying from the heat. Elder Yeck didn't even flinch. But he said he paid for it later.  So ya… that was an adventure.

This Sunday was the fifth Sunday so that meant... Missionary Sunday!!! In Sacrament Meeting Hermana Nelson gave an awesome talk and so did Elder Maynes. I played a musical number of "I Need Thee Every Hour" and Elder Yeck said he would happily take the job of sitting with all of our investigators. :)

It was a little crazy because while I was playing the sacrament hymn on the organ our phone went off. It was one of our investigators telling us that he was on his way to church. He had never been to church before and he would not know where to go. I went and sat down with Elder Yeck and we were trying to figure out how we were going to go get the investigator because both of our companions were up on the stand and we cannot leave at all without our companions.

So right before Hermana Nelson ended her talk and before my musical number he let us know he had arrived. So, I went to one end of the room and leaned out the doorway (obedient to every mission rule) and motioned for him to come in... it was a little crazy. Then I had him go sit with Elder Yeck while I went up to play the musical number which by the way went really well. :) Sundays as a missionary are always a little crazy but we are defiantly being blessed for our obedience!

Our investigator ended up staying for all 3 hours and really enjoyed it, we were so happy about that!!! I wanted to end by sharing a little bit of what my little 13-year-old brother Logan wrote me this week. He bore his testimony in church on Sunday and also shared it with me, "Life is like an equation waiting to be solved by the most important things in life like baptism, receiving the priesthood, going on a mission, etc. and if we do it correctly we will end up with the answer of a perfect or happy life with your family." Gotta love that kid! He has it right! We need to try our best to figure out our own life equation and solve it!!! Keep on going everyone and try to count all of your MINI blessings that God gives us each and every day!

Love,

Hermana Hadley

I Love being a Missionary!

Me dying and Elder Yeck just sitting there with the hot pepper!

We found a chicken walking around on the street but he did not cross the road. Haha. 

I told you it was a slow week. :)

One of our Mini blessings: Our ward mission leader found out we did not have dinner one night and so he bought us McDonald's and brought it to us once we got home! <3

We came across this front yard and decided the people here 

are very dedicated to their city of "L.A." :)

"Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming"

What a week! So much crazy stuff has happened but, first off the amazing news... RAFAEL GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was so amazing! He was so happy to be baptized and it was so special to see how excited he and his mom were! Now I am going to share with you the craziness of all that happened in order for him to get baptized! 

It was one peaceful Tuesday night, we were sitting at our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader talking about all of the wonderful miracles and things that had happened that last week. Hermano Najara (our ward mission leader) then told us, "Oh by the way, I called to reserve the baptismal font for Rafael for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday but they told me we had to do it at 5:00 pm, so I told them that was fine".

That conversation was all in Spanish so I quickly turned to my companion to make sure I understood and we looked at each other in a panic. We couldn't change the time at all! Rafael's mom had already been trying to get work off for that time and we had a ward Relief Society party at 5:30 that would conflict with many wanting to attend the baptism! It was not going to work. The stake lady who was over the scheduling would not budge. She told us that we had to do it at that time to save water because there was another baptism happening that night, which was understandable... but THIS IS SOMEONE’S SALVATION!!! We can save water another day!

Mom Note: Our family got a HUGE kick out of this letter from McKay. Because of my current calling as the Stake Primary President and trying to schedule 200 children in our stake to get baptized this year with a font that takes 3 hours to fill, I realized while reading I am THAT Stake Lady! We are a little more forgiving in these situations. :)

Back to Hermana Hadley:

Ok anyways, bless her heart but she wouldn't budge, so we came up with a plan. We did everything in our power until we took this problem up with the big man, President Henrie. Before we called him, we decided to have a backup to present to him. So, we called a member in the ward and asked for a favor. At first, they thought we were joking but after we explained they agreed. We had a secret backup plan that was all ready to go. We called President and the conversation went a little like this... 

President: "Hello Hermanas, how can I help you?"

Us: "Well President we have a little problem, the stake won't let us baptize our investigator at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday (we then explained the whole situation)"

President: "Alright Hermanas, well what can I do to help."

Us: "Well we have 2 plans, one of them is having you make some calls to the stake to let us baptize Rafael at that time and the other is....... (cue the drum roll) we have it all arranged for him to get baptized in a member’s swimming pool." 

President: "Well Hermanas I am impressed. Good job at using your resources. I will make some calls and then we will see, but good job!"

Very long story short, we were pretty dang close to baptizing Rafael in a swimming pool. But after pulling some strings we are happy to announce that Rafael was baptized in a font, at 3:00 on Saturday! :) He has been such a great kid and he has such a great future ahead of him. We know because Satan was throwing a little tizzy fit all week, but we kept swimming, almost literally, and saw all the blessings of it!

I am so glad that I have been blessed enough to teach Rafael. My favorite quote from him this week was, "Wait, you don't watch TV as a missionary? Even the Elders??? Well, I guess I have all this time before I am 18 to watch TV so I can probably last 2 years without it"! Look at him already planning for a mission!!!

Thanks for all your prayers I have truly felt them so much this week! Love you guys and keep swimming and going strong! The gospel is true!!

Love,

Hermana H

THE BIG DAY!!!

My New District!

This awesome dog we played with during Knockout!

Hermana Nelson looking diligently at our map 

because you can't use a GPS when you are on bike....new life skill.

PICTURE OF A CAKE COMING SOON  :)

The Cake at our Relief Society activity! It looked and tasted amazing!!!

Rafael got Baptized! :)

Rafael and his certificate that he had finsished reading the whole Book of Mormon!!! He bore his testimony about it this Sunday in Relief Society after he was confirmed!