Elder Sam Hadfield - Alpine German Mission: Munich

Weekly Update 21 September 2015

This week has sure been quite the ride! It was transfer week, which makes us in Munich extremely busy. There's been kind of a big event every day this week. I'll tell you about some of our week.

On Monday, we had a really good appointment with a member. We've started calling members up and asking to come by for 30 minutes to share a thought. We tell them we don't need food, we just want to share something. What we are working on doing is getting our members in PMG more, so they understand a little more what we expect from them, and we get more on the same page goalwise. It's also a good way to trade ideas of how to better get things working in this area of the world. This one was with the H's. He's a high councilor in the stake, and was the high councilor for Passau when I was there. We had a great talk with them and chose to work through the 1st chapter of PMG this week. We'll go back next week and talk about it with them after they get back from vacation.

On Wednesday, we went and picked up 21 new missionaries from the airport. It was totally crazy to be at the airport exactly in the spot where I was a year ago, but this time on the other side of it. What happens is the missionaries come in, and we hug them and tell them how much we love them and are excited for them to be here, then we split them into groups between us and the AP's, then we take them on a Bahn back to the mission home, and let them have their first round at contacting. It was really cool to see them give it their best shot. There was one sister from Germany in my group who was so scared and was just basically holding onto my pant leg the whole time. We sat down together and started talking to this man who told us how annoyed he was that we would sit next to him and try to talk to him, and she just started shaking even more. Haha but he got replaced by a lady, who was so nice and friendly, and it really helped this sister to calm down a little bit and get settled in. That was good. I imagine we will be good friends after that experience. These 21 new missionaries were really stellar. They were totally ready to go get em and that was a good thing to see.

On Thursday, we had Transfer Day. So we spent the first half of our day at the train station seeing missionaries come in and go out to new areas. There was a problem though. The German-Austria border was locked because of refugees, so no trains were running. So we had to drive 10 missionaries to Salzburg and bring 5 or so from Salzburg back to Munich. It wasn't such a bad thing though. We had a miracle on Thursday night. Our appt on Wednesday with G fell out, which we were pretty bummed about. He told us there was no chance this week for us to meet, which was disheartening because he was leaving on vacation at the end of the week for 10 days. We really wanted to catch him before he left. So we called some less active on Thursday morning on the other side of Munich and set up an appointment with him for that afternoon. We went to the appointment and on our way in, we ran into G. In the middle of nowhere, on the other side of Munich. He had the feeling to visit a friend there in the same complex as our less active. We were able to get his email and information so that we could email him on vacation and what not. Then we ring our less actives doorbell, and he's not home. For an appointment we made out 3 hours before. So we walk out and G is sitting on a bench, because his friend also was not home. We walked up and said, "G, I think God wants us to meet today." He looked up and said, "I think you're right." In his prayer he said, "Thank you for helping us meet each other today." Our paths were definitely directed together, that's for sure. There are no coincidences. We had a great lesson with him about the plan of salvation.

On Friday, the dying missionaries went home or had their parents pick them up. Elder Ridd's parents picked him up. That's a scene that will make you trunky. It was definitely hard to watch. But it wasn't so bad. It was cool to meet Elder Ridd's parents as well.

Here's where the fun comes into play. On Friday night, I found myself praying for a better look at who I am right now and what I need to do to improve myself more, praying specifically for a challenge. Saturday afternoon we were helping our hoarder friend clean up a little bit, and he was so sick. The man has no personal hygiene either. So he just kept coughing in our faces and touching us, and at the end, we gave him a blessing. So germs were just flowing everywhere, and I woke up yesterday morning, and my voice was gone, and still is today. That's definitely a challenge as a missionary. I don't feel so sick, just like a head cold, but my voice is 100% gone. It's hard to have so much to say, and be able to say nothing. So there's the challenge, (at least I hope that's it).

Saturday was also the beginning day of Oktoberfest, and Munich has gone totally wild. On opening day, there were 300,000 people there. We were right in the middle of all that. Imagine 300,000 people wearing Lederhosen and Dirndl's and drinking and you've got Oktoberfest. It is so awesome. I literally love the atmosphere. We are headed out there today to go on some of the rides and take pictures of crazy people. Gotta buy me a Lederhosen today as well.

Alright, so here is the highlight of the week. Saturday morning, at noon, 300,000 people watched the Burgermeister pop the first keg to open Oktoberfest. At noon, we were in a lesson with Stefano. We had taught the Restoration, and he was just crying. This 20 year old kid, who is insane and before 2 weeks, had never heard of Jesus Christ, looked at us, and said, 'I feel it.' 300,000 people were outside thinking they were experiencing true happiness, but Stefano was the one experiencing the lasting happiness. He asked if he could be baptized at 12:00 sharp. It will be a long road, but we will get him. awesome awesome lesson.

Alright, so I'm headed out to go to Oktoberfest. Hope you all have a good day. Love you guys. Have a good week.

Elder Hadfield