Elder Sam Hadfield - Alpine German Mission: Passau

My dearest Family and Friends,

Servus! Fröhliche Weihnachten! I miss all of you especially at this time of the year. I wish you the happiest Christmas ever. (:

I was thinking about what in the world I was going to say this week, and I have been clueless about what to say. It has been stuck in the back of my mind forever. "What am I going to say on Christmas?" Nothing feels quite right. Hopefully I can share something helpful.

So, in the past couple weeks, I have hit the Christmas Spirit hard. I just wake up every morning and feel it run through me and it's really awesome. The past couple weeks, we've been sharing with our members and investigators the Joy to the World DVD. I saw it once with my family but I couldn't remember it. So we were handing these DVDs out and it didn't mean much to us. This week, we had a Tausch (companion exchange) with Neuötting. We went to a member's house and had lunch. There was about 5 members there with us. It was a whole lot of food for us to eat. But, enough about that. To tell you about the host members family, the father had a stroke about a year ago and is struggling to get better, and the mom is struggling to support the family. You can just see that it is really weighing on them. We finished with our food, and sat down to watch the Joy to the World DVD. It started playing and we were all watching and members started arguing about the history of the Tabernacle Choir. It was absolutely annoying. Hahaha. But as we kept going, I noticed that about halfway through it got really quiet. Half the members were asleep. Hahahaha. They were all old so it was understandable, but at least it was quiet. The mom and the dad were still awake and intently watching. Towards the end, the Tabernacle Choir started singing, and I flashed back all of a sudden to Christmas at home. I ran through everything we do during Christmas at home and just had the deepest sense of love for some reason. I specifically remembered laying by the fire and watching the Joy to the World DVD as a family. I looked over, and the father couldn't move, but just had tears streaming down his face. Along with the mom. We were all just crying together. We had the most amazing conversation about His birth. Then, on Sunday, we were watching the First Presidency ChristmasDevotional for Sacrament Meeting. The closing song was Silent Night, where they included the congregation for the 3rd verse. The camera flashed out over the conference center, and I remembered all the times sitting there through Priesthood with my dad, and it just felt like we were all singing the same song together. It was just an overwhelming feeling.

I guess really what I'm trying to get at is that I am really really grateful to be in the mission field at this time of the year. I was walking down the street today and realized that in 3 days it's Christmas. Wow. I'm really excited to wake up on Christmas morning and spend a few days focused 100% on Him who was born, lived, and died for me. I whole-heartedly challenge you to do so. Christmas is completely and totally the celebration of Christ. His Birth, His Teachings, His Miracles, His Death, His Resurrection. There is a phrase in Germany that goes Wende dein Gesicht der Sonne zu, dann fallen die Schatten hinter dich. Which directly translated, says, "Turn your face to the sun, then the shadows fall behind you. Lately, however, I've been looking at it as

Turn your face to the Son,

Then the shadows fall behind you.

Our world is in desperate need of some Son. We, as members and disciples of Him, should have a desire to help others. But, you have to do it and live it, before you can challenge others to do so. So, turn your face to the Son, and let the shadows fall behind you.

I love you all, and I wish you a very very Merry Christmas. The next time I email will be New Year's day, so I will talk to you all in the New Year! (:

Love,

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany