Solothurn - Week 9

Hey everybody,

Yet another eventful week. Can you all believe we are onto May already?? my goodness, time is just flying. Anywho, this week was awesome like I said. I can honestly say that I feel such a deep love for the people we are teaching and for this area and for the members. It's not quite a Munich love, but it's similar. Anyway, onto some of the highlights from the week.

On Tuesday, Elder Killpack and I had an Austausch. I had him here in Solothurn and it was great to be with him one last time before he goes home. He and I have a pretty good bond. We taught A first, and had a pretty solid lesson about the Restoration with her. The Spirit was pretty thick and we could all feel it. We committed her again to pray and ask if it's the time for her to be baptized. We are working on taking super solid Joint Teaches with us to teach. Good lesson. Right after that, we went to F and had our first lesson with him there. He accepted the Book of Mormon really well, was excited to read, he already prays like we do, and he committed to come to church next week. All a good deal and a good Austausch. 

On Thursday, we were with the Z family for lunch and had a hilarious time. She is really funny and loves missionary work. They're an awesome family. After that, we hit the streets out in Solothurn. We had talked to people for about 3 hours, and then we saw this guy handing out free bibles. We knew the sisters needed one for an investigator they had. We walked up to him and tried to take one. He wouldn't let us have one because 'we don't believe in the bible'. So you can imagine this conversation led straight to a bash. I destroyed the guy after asking why it is that millions of people can understand one book so differently and expanding on that. He quoted a scripture to us, which I opened up and read the context of and was extremely odd. He was silent after that, but still refused to give us a free bible. Jerk. That night, we were at A again with our good friend G.

Friday was epic. We had an appointment with the M family. We got there, and the daughter answered and said her parents weren't quite home yet but that we could come around into the backyard. The son and his friends were playing soccer, and invited us to play. The parents got home and we were playing soccer with their kids and the neighborhood kids. So dad came to play too and it was tons of fun. We played for an hour or so, ate with them, then went over the first lesson and the Restoration. Throughout our discussion, there was a type of Spirit there that is just tangible. It's those moments where you can just feel your heart swell with happiness and the wish that these people will be touched by the Spirit. We asked if they thought that in theory Joseph Smith's story could have happened. They all answered yes. Then we asked if the believed it did happen. It was really quiet, then the 15 year old daughter said yes. I'm pretty sure it shocked her parents to hear that. We asked them if they would be willing to be baptized on the 18th of June. The mom was a little bit freaked out, but again the daughter said yes. After talking about it, they decided not to commit directly to a date. But mom was at church yesterday, which is for the first time ever, and it was really a huge step of progress. 

Saturday, we had a lesson with a new convert who struggles to come to church because of his work. We thought we were teaching the word of wisdom, but we showed up and we weren't teaching the word of wisdom and it was really obvious. One of those were you look at each other and say, 'No, we need to do something else.' After the opening prayer, we still didn't know what we were going to do, and we just decided to start sharing testimonies in a circle about the Atonement. It was so powerful yet again. I got to share 2 experiences from my mission where I have really felt the power of the Atonement very strongly. It turned into a great lesson. 

Yesterday, we were at church. It was a great fast and testimony meeting. At night, we were at M and his family's house. They insisted that they feed us their Ethiopian food they had made. When Elder Harradine was out of the room, M told me what the food was. It would have been nicer to not know actually. We had Lamb Stomach, Chicken Innards, and Boiled eggs, with pancake like tortillas, and the spiciest African sauce you can imagine. You just tore a piece of tortilla, grabbed with the other hand as much as you could hold, and threw them both down. Elder Harradine was struggling his way through the meal really badly. I actually didn't mind it that much. They were very impressed that I finished and had seconds. I'll send pictures. 

Way fun week, with some pretty powerful experiences. I've enjoyed it a lot. I'm down to just 4 weeks in Solothurn, so the work goes forward, and we will see what happens. 

Just a quick thought. This weekend will be 2 years since I received my mission call, and on pondering that, I thought a lot about my youth and experiences with YM leaders and campouts ⛺️with the bros. This quote from a President Monson talk came to mind. 

"The paintings of Norman Rockwell on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post magazine or in Boy’s Life always brought tender feelings to me. Of the two paintings I most admire, one is of a Scoutmaster sitting by the dying embers of the bonfire and observing his boys--fast asleep in their small tents. The sky is filled with stars, the tousled heads of the boys illumined by the fire’s glow. The Scoutmaster’s countenance reflects his love, his faith, his devotion. The scene recalls the thought, “The greatest gift a man can give a boy is his willingness to share a part of his life with him.”"

You can all ponder that on your own. It's meant a lot to me to have leaders who were always willing to share parts of their lives with me. I look up to those guys a lot.

Alright my friends, that's all for this week. I love you all, enjoy the spring weather! ☀️

Elder Hadfield

'A religion that does not demand the sacrifice of all things does not have the power to lead men to salvation.' -Joseph Smith

With G to visit A

Ethiopian Food