Transfers and Tripans

It's transfer week!!!!

Last night we received our transfer calls! I'm leaving Westlake YSA :( and I'm headed to..... 

drum roll...... DOS VIENTOS! Which happens to be a family ward in my area rn haha! 

I am going to be moving apartments but not apartment complexes! Sister Lundeen is 

staying so we will be in the same district! My new companion is Sister Wynder and she 

is the awesomest person in the whole world! She is our sister training leader! We are also 

getting a greenie! We are going to be what they call a Tripan!! That means I'm training....

kind of.... 

There are FOUR Tripans in our new district! Sister Lundeen will be in one too! Our district 

is going to be HUGE! We are calling in a Di- Zone because it's almost as big as a zone!

This week was BUSY! We were out knocking doors for hours on end and had a ton of 

member lessons. We also had a couple lessons with Alan! He is progressing but has a 

WOW issue and so the next lesson they teach him will be the commandments! Hopefully 

he will come to understand that baptism is important enough for him to quit smoking!

Daniel was MIA this week until THIS MORNING when he called us! We have a lesson 

with him and I will get to say goodbye! I was so happy when he called I started crying! 

Some of the first happy tears on the mission!! He said he is still excited to learn and has 

been studying on his own! We can't wait to see him tonight!

I started the Book of Mormon at the beginning of my mission and I"m already in Mosiah 

24! It is really good to be reading it again and really digesting the stories and the doctrine! 

I love reading it...And I've never said that about any book of scripture ever...but it's a good 

book!!!! Check it out if you haven't! 

I will send pictures this week!!! 

Lots of love!

 Sister Hadden 

Butterflies and Blue Skies

Hello everyone! 

It has been a good week here in California! The sun has been out every day this week and we are getting weather in the 80s! We have been soaking it in after all the rain.  

The other thing that has made Cali so amazing this week is the butterflies! There are thousands of them! They are incredible. They must be migrating or all hatching at the same time. 

This week we had Zone Conference. It was the best time. We didn't have to go to another area, everyone can to us. We learned a lot about having the Spirit.  I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" as one of the musical numbers. 

We are teaching a new person as of Saturday! His name is Alan and he's the coolest. The Hermanas referred him to us. He is the son of a less-active member and wants to learn more about the Church. He is super chill and wants to write songs. He is basically raising his little brother and has to drive his parents everywhere because neither of them can drive. He is so humble and grateful for all he has though, and never takes anything he has for granted! 

Daniel is doing well. We are supposed to have a lesson with him today, but his phone broke so we're trying to communicate through Facebook messenger and is sometimes not the most effective way to get in contact. He only has a few lessons left till we are finished so we're trying to figure out if we start over or just go back and reiterate as of the doctrine. 

We found some family names for Anthony this week. It was super cool! We were entering all that he knows about his grandparents and then his great grandparents. We were able to find his great grandma and great granpa's marriage certificate, which gave us the names of his great great grandparents! So cool! We got to go to the LA temple on Friday with Anthony. He did over 60 baptisms! The temple is so beautiful and the Spirit was so strong the whole time we were there! 

It's been quite a week! I love the people in this area and want to stay forever, but next week is transfer week and we'll have to see what happens!

Love, 

Sister Hadden

Today or Bust!

As many of you know, my email has been a bit bipolar the past couple weeks, but this week I'm determined to get my email to you all by the end of P-day!

Anyways...Hello!

This week was pretty normal. That's so weird to have the day-to-day of a missionary become normal! We had a bunch of lessons this week with members and with Daniel! 

He set a baptismal date!!! Right now it's for May 22 but he says it'll probably be sooner! Daniel is a great guy. He's 19 and going to Moorpark college. He is majoring in Bio Chem and is looking for a grad school and I hyped up BYU. He said he'll probably end up going there except he'd be sad if he had to cut his hair which is longer than mine! We call him a happy hippy because he's the smiliest person you'll ever meet and has these long locks and he's vegan. As he learns more about the gospel, he says he feels happier and happier. I told him it's the Spirit affirming the truthfulness of this Gospel! 

Anthony (our recent convert) is doing great and we get to go to the temple with him this Friday...hopefully. It hasn't worked out the past few times we've tried to set it up, but this time it will! 

I gave a talk in church on Sunday! My topic was the 2014 General Conference talk "Love- the Essence of the Gospel" by Thomas S. Monson. I touched on how much God loves us and he showed us each individually the love he feels for us in ways we can understand. Like for me, music shows me God loves me, so does my family. For Sister Lundeen, swing sets show her God loves her. Everyone sees God's love differently. I talked a little bit about how we can show God our love for him! Through prayers of gratitude, and following the commandments he's given us! But the best way we can show our love to God is through serving our fellowmen! (Mosiah 2:17) What better way to serve our fellow men than to share the gift of the gospel with them. The eternal perspective we have and the peace the gospel brings to our lives is truly a gift and as we share it with others we are showing God that we love him. We are serving his children and bringing them closer to him and he wants nothing more!

Time has started to fly again and I've already been in the mission field for a month! Tranfers are in two weeks! That's CRAZY! In love hearing from everyone. Thanks for the emails and the letters! 

Love you all,

Sister Hadden 

PS: pictures next week 

Last week's email . . . oops

Hello everybody! 

What a week! I think I'm the most exhausted I've ever been but I'm adjusting! Slowly but surely!

We boothed on Moorpark college campus twice this week! It was a fun time talking to people of all different backgrounds and having them come to you rather than knocking doors all day. That, I've decided is the least fun part of the mission. It also happens to be what we do the most! But as they say: you can't teach people until you find them, so that's what we're doing!

The members here are really incredible! I'm in a YSA (young single adult) ward. They are all so willing to come with us to lessons and to help us any way they can. Maybe it's because many of them were recently missionaries themselves. We love the enthusiasm though, whatever the reason for it may be! 

What happened this week... well, our washing machine broke down, we found a lemon tree with free lemons (I was very excited), we made lemonade, we ate with a member for the first time (our neighbor Joyce who isn't very active but is the sweetest lady in the world), we had district sports (the most fun), we taught 6 friends and many members! We used our crock pot for the first time; we made pulled chicken with beans and corn and stuff (it was supper yummy!) and we had leftovers for days. Some guy gave us grapefruit; we brought him cookies to return the favor. 

We celebrated my 1 month birthday on the mission!!!

We went on a hike this morning to a poppy field! It was beautiful and we could see the whole valley all full of very nice houses and a lot of money. Our area is very wealthy for the most part! 

We were walking down the street and this lady drove past us, then reversed back to where we were, and asked for a pamphlet and what we were representing! We were shocked and overjoyed! We gave her a pamphlet with our number written on it! Hopefully she calls us. We'll see. 

There is a member on our ward named Evaline. She was born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Afghanistan! She converted to Christianity when she was young and went through a lot of persecution and violence because of her decision to follow her heart. She was able to flee to the US with her son. She was living with a member family and they eventually adopted her and her son. She is a member of the Church now and is attending adult school so she can go to college and become a diplomat. She astounds me, She has been through so much and all her trials have only brought her closer to our Heavenly Father. 

She still has scars and sometimes gets emotionally overwhelmed and faints. Last night at a ward activity she was pushing herself to her limits, having the best time but still straining herself emotionally! She was hugging me goodbye after the activity and suddenly went limp. Luckily I was still holding her and was able to lower her to the ground and turn her on her side. She came to about a minute later. She just laughed it off, but then on the way to the car she fainted again, this time Sister Lundeen was walking with her and was able to grab her arm before she bit the pavement. We again attended to her in till she woke up, then practically carried her to the car. It was an exciting night, to say the least!

We've been seeing miracles this week and we hope to see more. Keep us in your prayers!

Love you all! 

Sister Hadden