Hey Y'all!!
What a week!! It was a good one :) Honestly, I have a really hard time remembering all that happened. I think I remember and then I look back in my planner and in my journal and I think to myself... what??? That was this week?? That feels like 3 weeks ago!! Time on the mission really is the most bizarre thing. It passes so fast and so slow all at the same time. It seems that the time keeps speeding up the farther I get into it though. Everyone tells me that the second half goes so much faster so I am trying to buckle down, keep giving it all I have got, and enjoy the ride!! On Monday we had a lesson with Maira. Remember her?? She is incredible. She is one of my very favorites :) Nah, I love them all. But seriously. At the end of the lesson she said a prayer and it had something like this in it... "I know I act like I don't care a lot but I really do and I really am so grateful these hermanas are here to help me to find peace in my life." She is definitely a teenager but I really do love her so stinkin' much. It blows my mind because I realize how much I have grown in the time since I have graduated from high school. Absolutely blows my mind to think that it has almost been 2 years since I graduated from high school. In 3 months it will be 2 years. Before I know it, I'll be 90! Man, I'll sure make a cute old lady ;) Tuesday was INCREDIBLE!! We had district meeting and then at 1:00 we drove to meet the other Hermanas. Hermana McDonald is now a sister training leader so I got to go on exchanges with her for a day. She came back here and so it was just like "old times." We had the schedule jam packed and lessons set up with members all day!! I couldn't have been more thrilled because the last exchange I went on Hermana Ostler came and all of our lessons cancelled. We ended up only having 1 lesson which was the Chavez family we found that night knocking just before it was time to change back. Needless to say, I was happy to have Hermana McDonald here on a day that was planned out to be stellar! We ended up having 4 lessons with a member that day and one Recent convert lesson with Alma :) SUCH a good day! Norman is progressing so much. I think I talked about how he had made it to church the last week. He has been reading in the Book of Mormon every time we go and has agreed to a baptismal date of the 22 of March. We just got to get him to church consistently :) He works setting up bouncy houses and everyone rents them on the weekends so as you can imagine all of his work is on Saturday and Sunday. I told him jokingly the church would rent out all the bouncy houses for Sunday and that he could have one after his baptism ;) Stephanie is also progressing SO much! She has a date for the 8th of March. It is incredible... she really does understand better what we are teaching better than most adults. I guess it makes sense why we need to become as little children. It was really good to be back with Hermana McD for a day. I realized how much I learned with her and how much I have grown in the short time since I was companions with her. She taught me so much and is an incredible missionary :) We talked about how it's not enough just to get "good" at teaching the lessons. Not enough just to be a "good" missionary... we want to give it everything!! We want to become great. Leaving it all on the court... or mission field in this case. Speaking of becoming great... we had stake conference this past week. One of the 70 was there. It was incredible... the Saturday night session they told us they had received a letter from the first presidency saying to invite the youth and the missionaries to the session and to focus the entire thing on "hastening the work/ missionary work" He said the last time the First Presidency assigned a topic was in 2002. It doesn't happen often obviously. I know that God is hastening his work. We are the workers in the vineyard and this is the last hour. He is making His last calls to all those who are willing to help Him in the vineyard to save as many as possible and bless them with the gift He can give of eternal life. President Durrant talked and he said one of the funniest things. He was talking about hastening the work and he said he was going to tell us his lion king joke. He said, "What does the fast lion say to the slow lion?? MUFASSA!!! (move faster) I was DYING of laughter. His whole talk was so funny and more importantly so inspiring. He invites everyone to use the "Would you be willing to hear a brief presentation of my faith/Christ/my church??" etc. Once he was in a restaurant. The waiter came and asked, "Would you like anything to drink... margaritas?" He was offering them alcohol. President Durrant said, "No, we don't drink alcohol. But would you be willing to listen to a brief presentation of my faith?" The waiter said yes. Shortly after the Solano family had the lessons and a little more than a year later President Durrant and his family were able to attend the sealing of this family in the TEXAS DALLAS TEMPLE. From small and simple things... great things come to pass. OPEN your mouth!! Invite someone. Use the question. Get a name, phone number, and an address. Get it to your missionaries :) Sit back and watch how the Lord will bless your life and the lives of others :) You can do it! I challenge each and every one of you. I wouldn't be a missionary if I didn't follow up on commitments... so next week I will be asking if you have done your homework :) Wednesday was an awesome day. Stephanie had a project due at school of the solar system. She needed a little help and we happened to have some black spray paint so after the lesson we ran and grabbed it. I spray painted her project black (the outisde) to make it look really nice. She was so happy :) It was fun to do! My hands were stained for a few days afterwards pero ni modo. Thursday we were at service and I grabbed a bag of sugar to put it in someone's order and it opened and my shoes were literally FILLED with sugar! It was too funny. I was just like man... such a JENNAY move right there :) Friday, VALENTINE'S DAY was the greatest thing ever! First of all... I woke up and opened a couple packages that I had gotten :) One from my mama and the other from Jackson's mama. There was lots of yummy treats and some really cute Valentine's so.... THANK YOU!!! I loved it :) Valentine's was technically my half way mark as well! It feels so weird to be half done. I want to use all the time I have left to it's best :) I'm going to give it all I've got and work as hard as I can! That day we also had the coolest lesson ever with Stephanie. We came to the church and on the stage we set up the stairs and made our own "Hill Cumorah". We had made our own metal plates as well. We asked the bishop and his family to come and help us. They have a little girl the same age as Stephy and Lizzy. We started out with a game to explain the apostasy and then we moved into another room where we had bishop's wife, Xiomara, and Ramon dressed up as people from the B.O.M. They told of what life was like for them in the time of the BOM and talked about the plates. Then we had bishop as Moroni and he came in the room and led us to "Hill Cumorah" where the girls got to un-bury the plates!! They loved it :) We also had treats in the box for their Valentine :) It was such an awesome lesson and I think really helped them understand! Saturday and Sunday were the stake conference. Last night we didn't have enough gas in our car because we forgot to fill up on Saturday. So we ended up having to walk. We met some of the most incredible people! So it ended up alright that we were walking all night. It made me appreciate all the missionaries in the world that much more that are on foot and bikes :) I know this Gospel is true. I know Jesus Christ lives. He loves you more than you know :) He's with you. I love you!!!!
Have the greatest week ever!!
Love Always, Hermana Hadlock
p.s. it is a joke... we take "9 month mark pictures as sister missionaries" Here are mine :)
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