Buenas tardes!
I have lots of things to tell you this week :) But first off... how's the weather there?? It has been real cold here!!! I'll get to that story in a minute though :) So.. Monday night we went to visit one of our referrals. Her name is Sylvia. I guess someone had asked if she could receive a blessing because she has some type of really bad skin cancer. She has been going through a lot lately and we hadn't been able to catch her at home to finally meet her. Monday night though we finally caught her at home! She opened the door and let us right in without a second thought :) She told us her whole story and started to cry and said she was so glad that we had come. We told her we will bring someone with us to give her a blessing when we come again. When we were about to leave she told us that she had some empanadas she wanted to share with us! I was so happy when she said this because earlier I had told my compa how bad I wanted an empanada. How crazy is that? :) She also gave us this really yummy cactus fruit that I think is named tuna. It's in Spanish so it sounds different but it sure is good. David and Lili had given me some once and so it made me think of them!! Sylvia said that her daughter had really been struggling and asked us to pray for her and thought that maybe we could talk to her. I am really excited to see what will happen with her! Tuesday was a good one. We started out with zone meeting! Our zone leaders are super awesome and they decorated the gym all Christmasy. Hermana McDonald and her sister had a really awesome idea about a mission bucket list. She shared the idea with me and it started to go around the mission. At Zone meeting we got to give a training on it and it was really good! We talked about how we are no different than Moroni or Alma and Amulek in the scriptures. There's things on the bucket list singing in a lavandaria, contacting a police officer, having five families at church... etc. So it's pretty fun :) I have loved my time with Hermana McDonald. There have been rough patches just like there is with everything but we have seen so many miracles together and been through so much. That night we had a lesson with Hermana Sanchez. We really felt impressed to share the Joseph Smith movie with them and we weren't sure why because we had already taught the first lesson. Nevertheless, we trusted in it and went along with it. When we got there we put it in and because we had to go into the living room where the dvd player was the husband ended up joining us for the lesson instead of watching tv. Right when we started the mom and dad of Hermana Sanchez showed up too so the mom got to watch it with us! By the end they all said they would be baptized they said they just needed to learn more about everything but they really liked what they had seen. It was really good :) We also had a lesson that night with our recent convert as our ward mission leader's house but he didn't show up for a long time. Even though we didn't get to teach him the lesson we had planned it all worked out because I got to know my Ward mission leader a little better. Wednesday morning we had service at the Co-Op. It's a food bank where we do service. Jose, who runs it told us he wanted to take us to lunch for our birthdays. He is very strong Baptist and isn't really too fond of the Book of Mormon or our religion but he thinks all of us missionaries who do service there are nice and we're friends so we figured it would be a good opportunity. That night we ended up getting to go to his house and share a message about the Book of Mormon with him and his wife Maria :) She is the nicest in the whole world!!! She had bought hot chocolate (Mexican style) and cookies (from the Mexican cookie store) all for us because she knew we were coming that night. When we started teaching about the Book of Mormon Jose left the room and that made us really sad... but we found out he was listening because when we said certain things he would yell from the other room! Haha. I just hope that he got something out of our message from the other room :) We gave them each a Book of Mormon with our testimonies written in it. We invited them to pray about it and ask. I really believe that one day they will come around :) They also bought scarves for both my compa and I. It was so sweet of them!!! Thursday night was a bit of a rougher day and we didn't find many people home. People are more accepting talking about Jesus Christ and Christmas at this time of the year... the problem is that it gets dark so much earlier and it's cold. So there aren't people outside like there is during the rest of the times of the year so it has actually been a bit harder with the work lately. Pero, no importa!! We will keep working hard and giving it our all :) We are still are praying that La Familia Checker can be baptized on Christmas!!! So keep them in your prayers please :) They are the most amazing family. We went over there last night because Arelis (who is now 13) had her birthday yesterday! We felt bad we didn't have time to make her anything or buy anything so we made her a little card. When we asked what she had done for her birthday she pointed to the cake on the table... It was just a tiny little cake in a tin container. It really humbled Hermana McDonald and I to realize that they truly have so little... Nevertheless, they are incredible :) I wonder if they missionaries that taught the dad just about 30 years ago in Ecuador would've ever thought he would be meeting with missionaries again here. YOUR WORK IS NEVER WASTED!!! Even if you don't see immediate results. Now to Friday... CRAZIEST THING!!! So remember the humidity factor here in Texas?? It doesn't snow normal here. It was sort of raining/snowing/misting all night long. With freezing temperatures this is never good. When we got outside Friday morning everything... EVERTYHING was covered in a think layer of ICE!!! Our car door was frozen shut. Everything was frozen. The other thing was that the side walks were ice skating rinks. Not even joking :) When we were heading out we got a text from our zone leaders that said all the missionaries were to stay inside that day. No one was to leave. We were shocked but we could honestly see why!!! I will send pictures. It was honestly the craziest thing ever!!!!!! My shoes must have had a little more grip or something because I could keep my balance at least somewhat well but my companion nearly fell a million times... she looked like a baby giraffe on ice :) AHAHAH!!!! Honestly, I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. Well... with all day inside I decided I finally had time to clean!!!! I think missionaries have been living in that apartment since '09. I even found teaching records from Hermana Schulte (I went to school with her two little brothers in T-ville) here in my area book. Anyhow... it really needed cleaning. So I cleaned for 8 1/2 hrs straight!!! Our apartment has never been so clean and organized :) Hermana McDonald was able to catch up in her journal and she wrote 41 pages in her big journal. What a day :) I ended by writing Christmas cards and writing in my journal as well :) When we got up Saturday it had melted a bit and then re-frozen. We got a text saying that we were not allowed to use our cars that day. We had a project we needed to get done at the church so we headed out... on foot :) OH MAN!!!!!! Funniest experience of my life! Seriously when I say baby giraffe on ice I mean it. Her shoes had no grip and she was ALL over the place :) She was holding onto me the whole time. She was convinced that her shoes are made specifically for sledding :) We were standing at the stop light waiting to cross and she starts singing... preach the gospel!!! Preach the preach the gospel and she's dancing all over the place. I am quite certain every pair of eyes at that stop light were on us :) I was honestly DYING laughing!!! We had 3 different cars roll down their windows and say something. One yelled.."Cuidado!" Which is careful in Spanish :) Ah seriously.. it was straight ICE! I've never seen anything like it. Needless to say we were sliding rather than walking and a 15 min took 45 min with us linked arm in arm nearly the whole time :) We couldn't stop laughing! We finally made it back to our apt. and seeing how no one wanted to drive us and we couldn't walk we ended up staying inside again that night. We watched some missionary movies and did some more journal writing. It made for a low week of lessons but as least we made it through alive :) OORAH! Saturday night we got the call... the transfer call. When we looked down to see President Durrant calling we both got a little nervous and then picked up the phone :) It was President and Sister Durrant asking my companion to be the new sister training leader!!! So now she is going to be companions with Hermana Ostler, my old companion, who was made sister training leader as well. We were excited for her but super sad!!! This meant two things... 1. She would be leaving Grand Prairie. 2. That I would be taking over the area!!! This stressed me out a whole bunch last time but it all worked out in the end so this time I just decided to have faith and it will all work out :) I am super sad she is going because I have loved my time with her. Nevertheless, I am going to love my new companion!! Her name is Hermana Moore. She is actually from Rexburg, ID so that'll be fun to talk with her about good ole Rexburg :) Sure miss that place ;) -18 winters! Ha, thought I'd be getting away from that here but I guess not. Also, Hermana Kirkham from the MTC is coming to take her place so I will be in the same district as her again and get to see her every week!! :) WWWWWHHOOOO!!! I'm super excited about that :) Yesterday, lots of church services were canceled but our bishop decided to hold sacrament. We only had about 20 people there but it sure was an incredible Spirit. We had a really good lesson with Alma, our recent convert last night. We went and said bye to a lot of people and there was a lot of crying. Hermana McDonald has been here for 5 transfers so people sure are going to miss her! Hermana Martinez (same member that had us over for Thanksgiving) fed us yesterday and it was pretty delicious :) Well... even after transfer calls and a few days of ice skating all is well here in good 'ole Texas!!! :) I sure love you all and hope you have a great week! You're in my prayers.
Love always, Hermana Hadlock :)
Oh yeah... as far as calling on Christmas :) I should either be skyping or calling on face time!! :) Hopefully one of the two. So I will try and let you know next week :) can't wait!!! :)
And funniest thing ever.. this morning... I had mice poop in my breakfast! Then I took a drink of milk and it was rotten. Sometimes in life.. you can laugh or cry... :) So choose to laugh!!! :D
The ice storm!!! :) This was my compa trying to cross the street :)
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