Week 28 - Goodbye, Munich!

Guten Morgen alle meine Lieben! 
Man, this has been a crazy fast paced week. Some of the weeks just fly right by you and you wonder where they were by the time they're gone. This week was definitely one of those! So just a quick update. I've now been in Munich for the past 7 months. This past week was transfer calls, and I'll be heading to my 5th area in my 13th transfer. I can hardly believe that it's been that many transfers! So, the question is.... What's happening to Elder Hadfield?? Well, I can give you all a picture as a hint.

Any guesses?? No....?
Alright, I'm headed to Solothurn in... Switzerland!!!!!! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. This will be the first time in over 5 years that American missionaries have been in Switzerland for more than 1 transfer. We are trying to kind of tear down this border with the government and the laws there. So, what's going to happen is I'll get a tourist visa, even though I'm not a tourist, and that's only valid for 90 days. So after 90 days, I have to get transferred again. For that reason, I have to go in with a train ticket for the day that I'm leaving, so I can show the government that I really am only staying 90 days. So after 2 transfers, I'll get transferred again. This makes it 3, 2 transfer areas thus far. But the exciting thing is that this will begin to tear down the weird kind of barrier we have in our mission with the European missionaries and American missionaries. So, a test group of about 5 or 6 of us are going in to see how it all works and to try it out, and if it all goes well, then they'll pull us out and initiate the plan where they mix all of the missionaries up instead of having this barrier in between us. It's totally awesome to be part of this test run. It's the talk everywhere right now among the members and missionaries. This was a process that President Kohler had to go through the Area Preisdency with, then the Quorum of the 12. So it's all a pretty legit deal. Going there with me will be Elder Killpack, Elder Howarth, Elder La Plant, Sister Baugh, and a couple others. So some of my best friends from the mission are headed in with me. I'll be working with Elder Harradine from England. It'll be kinda funky. I picked him up at the airport a few transfers ago when he first came into the mission, but I am SO excited to work with him. I've heard so many good things about him. The temple in Zollikofen will be part of my district, and thats where Elder Seidl from my MTC group is serving. I'm way pumped to see him and others again. This is going to be so much fun. The whole thing seems a little bit iffy and shady, but I think it's going to work just fine. It'll be great to try it out!
That being said, Elder Bybee is replacing me here in Munich, which I couldn't be happier about. There was a few options for replacements, and he was by far the best option for Elder Carr and for the ward. I'm so pumped for him. He's going to be way good here. I think the area is left in pretty great condition. Better than I've ever left an area before for sure.
I'm going to miss Elder Carr a ton. He and I have become absolute best friends. We are so ridiculously excited to hang out at home. He will be at BYU as well, so it'll be awesome.
I'll also really miss this Ward and the city of Munich. After my closing testimony yesterday in the ward there was a lot of old women crying, and S was just bawling and gave me a huge hug. I'm going to miss her a lot. She's the biggest miracle of my mission. No questions. It was such an awesome Sunday for a goodbye. I hate goodbyes more than anything, but I'm pretty sure leaving Munich is going to be harder than leaving home the first time. I'll probably be a mess at Bahnhof when I get on that 5 hour train ride to Switzerland. I've loved this place and grown more here than anywhere I think I have before in my whole life. It's been an AWESOME ride. I can't wait to come back to this city in the future.
Well other than that, investigators are doing great. D, S, and Y were all at church yesterday. We didn't have an extreme amount of time to work with them this week. We went on Austausch in Landshut and pumped up their area a little bit and visited their district meeting, then went out on a finding day back in Passau. I got to see my birth area one last time before I go. This little area of Bayern will have a special place in my heart forever. 

Old Passau

So it's a week of hard goodbyes and memory gathering. I'm excited for what the mission has to throw at me over in Switzerland. It's going to be the coolest ride ever. Super ready to pump it up!

Ich hab euch alle lieb, hoffe dass es euch gut geht. Schöne Woche, wählt das Recht!

Elder Hadfield (:

Elder Sam Hadfield

Fritz-Kaeserstrasse 16

CH-4562 Biberist

Solothurn 

Switzerland

Munich - Week 27

Hallo zusammen!

So, another week down. I think this was week 75 or something like that, according to someone from my MTC group. It's even weirder because the sisters of our group go home next week. What?! I can hardly believe it.

So I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen to me next transfer. I've heard thins... So I'll tell you next week when it's official. (:

Cool story from this week. I was on Austausch in Augsburg with Elder Maw which was really cool.  We had a really good time. But we were on the way back, and we split up on the train, and Elder Maw started talking to an old guy, and I sat next to this older lady, who laughed, got up, and left. So I was sitting there throughout the train ride, and the ticket checker came around. He checked Elder Maw, who had a 2 person ticket, and I had a 2 person ticket as well. So we just used his ticket, and I saved mine so that Elder Carr and I could get somewhere later in the day. Then, the ticket checker moved onto the next girl, who had run to catch the train to visit her sick Grandma in Munich, and had not bought her ticket. So she was begging the controller to let her buy a ticket from him, which would cost about 13 euro, and he wasn't having it. So that meant a 60 euro fine for her. So I saw this going down, and realized I had the extra ticket. So I got up and asked him if I could just put her on my extra ticket. He didn't seem rather happy about it, but what was he going to say at that point? He said, Ausnahmsweise, then swiped my ticket. She was obviously breathing sighs of relief and was really thankful. So she came and sat with me and we had a really good talk.

She was a really cute 18 year old girl from Poland. She's been here for 5 years and has learned perfect German. She and I just had a really great conversation on the train and she gave me her number. Then offered to come home with me hahaha. But now she's being taught by the Elders in Augsburg and who knows what will come from it. Cool deal right?

So yeah, it's been around 70 degrees today. Holy cow it's been great. We went out Mountain Biking today with a member and it was tons of fun just to be out.

Investigators are doing good. D is a little less ready than we thought he was, but is coming pretty well. I think he'll be definitely baptized, it's just a matter of when.

M is doing alright, just hard to get in contact with and lost his job as well.

S is nix. Unbelievable. Frustrating too.

S is progressing, has been to church a few times now.

A is coming along. We are trying to teach all the lessons to him slowly through scripture stories this time around. It's working pretty well. That man loves to read...

Munich - Week 26

Today was cool. We were at Neuschwanstein again with our district. We had a really good time. We are so dang busy. 

This week has been great.We went to Ingolstadt for an Austausch and there are 10 new people to teach. Then we came back to our area, and with just the few days we had to work with, we found 10 people in our area, and taught 11 lessons. Things are going really smoothly here. We have 4 progressing investigators. D is coming often to church, and he is wanting to marry our member girl hahaha. So yeah, it's looking pretty good. We're trying to set a date with him this week. S is coming along really well, just doesn't want to be baptized yet. He's more active in our ward, than in his other Protestant ward. A is doing well -- loves the Book of Mormon, just needs a further testimony of it and needs to come to church. M HAS COME BACK. We've taught him twice this week, and he's so ready this time around. He's really really close. I'm excited for him. I want to stay here!! We also got a call this week..... from..... S!!!! (: He wants to meet again. I'm really pumped to see him again.

As you can see, things are really going. We're always really busy. Flooded with appointments. I think I'm leaving this transfer though from what I've heard. We'll see. I'll still keep contact with all these people. Transfers are on March 3 by the way.

Favorite German Pastry: I love the Krapfen. It's always a nice refresher.

Breakfast is almost always Musli.

The zone is progressing really well. I know that we've gotten 30 more lessons in the past couple weeks than normal. It's exciting to see the progression. 

Alrighty family, I gotta get in bed. I love you! (:
Sam

Elder Sam Hadfield

Lommelstraße 7

81479 München

Deutschland

February 2016 Mission Leadership Conference

Munich District Meeting

Munich - Week 25

Hey Fam and Friends!

Mission Leadership Conference- January

Baptism Day!

So here's a quick update on things that are going on. This also means I'm online for a while and you're allowed to email me all you want. We've been crazy busy lately. This past week was the only full week that we'll have in our area this transfer. This week will be crazy. We only have 2 full days in our area. Kinda crazy.

Let me give you a rundown of how the week went. On Tuesday and Wednesday I had an exchange with Elder Griffey. It was a lot of fun we taught a lot of people including D, M who is a referral, and M. We talked to D about the restoration, and we taught Mfor the first time in a long time. It all really well it was a lot of fun. 

On Wednesday, we taught J, a new convert, and S, a new investigator. It was pretty successful, he's just interested in learning more about the church, not really for conversion at this point. But that doesn't mean we can't still try with him.  On Thursday, we had to have an exchange with the office others to be able to be at all of our appointments. We had two member eating appointments that day. We also taught two more lessons that day. On Friday, we ate lunch at a less active's house. We also met with a member that night. 

On Saturday, we had a new family moving from North Germany so we help them with their move-in. On Sunday, obviously we had church, and two surprise evening appointments. We met with S who fed us cake and talked with her about her new calling. We also went to the YSA family home evening, which was great to be there. It's been a pretty good week. Yesterday, we met with S again, and also with A. Yep that's right we finally met with A. It was really good to see him finally, and he's been having some pretty good experiences with the book of Mormon and praying about it. I'm excited to see how he further progresses.

In other news we were able to see the missionary broadcast yesterday, and I really enjoyed the talk from Elder Oaks. It put into perspective what we're doing and why we are doing it and why it's so important. I pulled a lot of the whole thing. One of my favorite parts was where they talked about how sometimes The best teacher is just the listener. And how the one that listens has the best opportunity to bring the influence of the Spirit. That's something that I can work on for sure. I it also made me think about when we open our mouth and why we open our mouth. I was sitting in the bahn the other day, thinking about talking to this guy. So I put a bigger worldly perspective on. I realize that it would be weird for him to hear about church while he's in the middle of Munich. And I thought even bigger, why I am supposed to talk to him. Then it made me think even bigger, why he needs to hear it, even if he doesn't think he needs to hear it. So those are some of the thoughts it brought to mind.

Anyway, that's kind of how the week has gone. I hope things are good with all of you. Shoot me an email, let me know how you're doing. I miss you all! Have a good week.

Elder Sam Hadfield

Lommelstraße 7

81479 München

Deutschland