Hey Friends and Fam,
It's been yet another great week out in the beautiful,
rolling hills
here in Switzerland. This week is transfer calls
again, and we know that according
to Swiss law, I have to leave the country, because I've been here 90 days on my American tourist visa. So next
week, I'll let you all know where
I'm ending my mission. Isn't that an odd thought?! It's been 2 years since I received my call, and more
than 20 months in the field.
So, it was a good week. We found a new family through dooring
who are open to the gospel. I was able to go on exchange in a
struggling area and we found 5 new
people together. We have people progressing toward their goal of baptism. The sun has decided to start shining more. I'm doing
one of the most important works one could do in this world. Life is great I would say.
As many of you know, the Baseball State Tournament is this
week in Utah. I heard this week that the guys won their first
2 games, and will be playing in
the Quarterfinals tomorrow. S/O to my boys for the hard
work. As I was thinking about this, Wednesday this week will be the
4 year anniversary of the time that we played in the State Championship and lost in 10 innings, and a couple days
ago was the 2 year mark of my last
game. So naturally, as it always is, my mind was drawn this week to the greatest game in the world. I
had the privilege of playing
baseball for 4 years under the greatest high school coach in the state, and learning life lessons from a game I
loved.
As I took time to think about it this week,
I realized that a lot of those lessons
have shaped my mission, and will continue to shape my life. I'd like to share 10 with you, that I believe if a boy
can learn playing baseball, will
shape him into a man as he progresses in life.
1. It's not the Will to Win that matters, rather the Will to
Prepare to Win
* If someone wants to be good at anything, they have to
practice at it. The same stood for baseball. We would practice as
a team everyday after school,
until the evening, then there were those of us who would stay after practice to work on becoming better
personally, then those same few
would be at the gym that night looking to get bigger, faster, and stronger. All of that was in preparation to win.
* The
same stands for missionary work. I remember stepping into my first
couple days in the mission field, and feeling completely inadequate and unprepared. Anyone would feel that way.
Watching and observing different
missionaries, I've learned that sure, we all want a baptism, we all want to be successful, but those who
fail to prepare to be successful,
will always fail.
2. Trust Your
Teammates
* Throughout my years of baseball, it was very important for
me to learn to trust that everyone would do their job
correctly and precisely. To be
honest, there's a few kids I played ball with that I didn't really like off the field, but when it came
down to it, I would have done
anything for anyone of those guys on the field. The trust was developed by the realization that we were working
towards the same goal, to win a
championship.
* The same goes in missionary work. You put 75,000 young men
and women out on the same field from 75,000 different
backgrounds, and you're going to
find guys you don't like, respect, or even connect with. But the fact of the matter is that each one of
the 75,000 is (hopefully) working
towards the same goal. When you're able to put past you the fact that you don't get along off the
field, and you can put your game
face on and be ready to die for him on the field, that's when you see success.
3. Measure a Man by the Size of His Heart
* On the baseball field, if you put the strongest, biggest,
fastest guy out there and pit him against the kid who's got
nothing but pure heart and a push
to win, the kid with the biggest heart will always win. In baseball, you could hardly ever measure an
opposing player by their size off
the bat. You could measure it by looking into their eyes, and seeing how bad they wanted the thing they
were working for.
* In missionary work, I could put the most talented young man
out there. One who has been out for 2 years, and stick him
with a rookie who wants nothing
but to succeed. The greenie, with the influence of the Spirit will win and be more successful every
single time.
4. Get Over Not Being Perfect, and Move Forward
* I often made the mistake of criticizing myself too much as
seeing how well everyone else was doing. It's important
sometimes to step back and
accentuate your strengths as well. If all you ever see is the things that you struggle with, then your attitude will
always be negative.
* In missionary work, if I spent the entire time gawking over missionaries
who were better at something than I was, I would dig myself a hole that would be hard to get out of. I need
to focus on my own progress and
recognize my strengths in the process.
5. Never Be Afraid of Failure
* I remember pitching in my first varsity game. I was so
nervous, and my heart was pounding, and there was more people
watching than there ever had been
before. I came in, gave up a few runs, but still got my job done, and then the game finished. I had some time
to think about it and then the
next day, I got asked to pitch again, against the same team, in the same tournament. Knowing how it had felt
the first time, I promised myself
that I would block out the fear, and give the best I had to give. I came in with the bases loaded, no outs,
in a tied game in extra innings,
and blocked out the people, the voices, the heart pumping in my chest, and struck out the next 3 batters
to end the inning and keep us in
the game.
* If I spend my entire time throughout the day worried about
what people are going to think of me, or if I'm going to
fail talking to this person, I'm
going to be an extremely crappy missionary. If I can get over the fear, I can make miracles happen in the
lives of people who are searching.
6. Your Attitude Can Determine the Overall Success of the Team
* I remember as well playing on teams where if you struck out
and chose to come back to the dugout and have yourself a
pity party by throwing your helmet
and bat on the ground, you would then be riding the bench. I remember the feeling of one coming back
to the dugout, throwing his things
around, and it affecting the whole attitude and thus success of the entire team.
* So a part of it is dealing with disappointment. Maybe I
strike out instead of getting a hit and driving in a run. Maybe
the investigator dropped us
instead of getting baptized. But how I choose to react to that can affect my companion, my district, the
members, which overall affects the
success of the mission as a whole. How one learns to overcome disappointment will determine how successful
one is in life.
7. Don't Back Down From a Challenge
* Another good way to say it I suppose is never give up. In my sophomore
year, our team had a less than average season and we ended up in a play-in game against another average team to
see who got into the state
tournament. We beat them 7-6 or something like that. The tournament was double elimination, and we lost our
first game and it looked bleak.
Many would have thrown in the towel or stopped working hard. But we won our next 10 games or so to make it
into the state championship. What
an incredible experience.
* Today, I've been blessed by this lesson as I come and
go into new areas with new companions. I know that no matter what
the situation is, I can make
something great out of it, but only if I don't back down from it.
8. Leave the Past in The Past
* This is one I'm still learning and perfecting. This is the
baseball experience from 4 years ago where we were one strike
away from winning the state
championship. All I ever wanted in my baseball career was to win a state championship. I remember the feeling of
watching that pitch, being ready
to jump up and run onto the pitcher’s mound in a huge dogpile, hold the trophy, put a nice ring on my finger,
and celebrate for a long time. But
as fate would have it, things turned out differently, and we lost the game. 4 years later, I still struggle
with the memory of losing what I really wanted.
But if I dwell only on that
memory, it will always prevent my success. Leave the Past in the Past, because you can change history TODAY with one swing of a bat.
* If I spent all my time as a missionary dwelling on the bad experiences,
or the stories of what missionaries have done in my area in the past, I would be less than what I need to be,
and always hindered by the
knowledge that I can't change the past. I would rather focus on changing the past with one swing or one 85
mph fastball.
9. Play Everyday Like it's your Last
* Nobody really knows exactly when they'll play their last
game of baseball. They may have a good guess, but that guess
may be marred by injury or
something else. For me, it was in my senior year that I happened to have stress fractures in my back from too
much repetitive pitching, and had
a shoulder problem, which seemed to get worse throughout the season and still bugs me now. I'm
really thankful that I could
finish the season, but it just goes to show, you never know.
* I've seen a couple of missionaries come to the end of their missions
early. Completely unexpectedly, one needs surgery, or one is diagnosed with a disease, or a tragedy in the family
happens. It's no secret. Life
isn't fair. So we should treat everyday like we don't know what's going to come tomorrow because we simply don't know.
10. Never, Ever, Ever Quit
* I remember an experience when I was about 10, where I got
called on to pitch in a city league game, and I did horrible. I
walked a bunch of kids, and lost
us the game eventually. I came home that night with the determination that I would never play baseball
again because I was so bad at it,
and I couldn't pitch. Sitting there wallowing in my sorrow, I remember my dad coming into my room and
reminding me that 'Hadfield's
aren't quitters', and that I could do anything I stuck my mind to and one bad game didn't determine my destiny.
If I had chosen to quit, I would
never have lived the amazing baseball experiences I had, and never learned the lessons I did.
* How grateful I am that one bad choice or chapter doesn't
determine my destiny. One bad day as a missionary never
determines my complete success or
failure. I know as well that I will never, ever, ever quit in the work of God. What a priceless lesson. All in all,
I'm so grateful for the lessons I learned playing the greatest game there is to play. In a game of inches, I
learned how to gain those inches,
which will help me to gain inches in life. I envy my former teammates who get to play on one of the
greatest stages of high school
baseball this week, but I know I'm doing an even greater work on an even better stage. What an opportunity to
learn about life! I LOVE BASEBALL.
Enjoy your week,
Elder Hadfield
 |
| Bern Zone Conference |
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