Haag - Week 1

District Raclette

Hadfield & Harradine

Innsbruck & Liechtenstein

Goodbye Solothurn!

Goodbye Solothurn

Goodbye Solothurn

Elder Howarth, Elder Hadfield, Elder Killpack

Servus!

What's up everybody? I've just been bumping over here in Austria for the past few days. My oh my, it's weird to be here. The beginning of the week was really good while I was still in Solothurn.

On Monday, we had our family home evening at the Caiquo's, the friends of the Meier family, our investigators. Camila Meier came with and we had a really good time. I enjoyed it a lot.

On Tuesday, we had district meeting and ate Raclette together as a district. It was fantasticcccc. Such a good quick food, I love it. Super super Swiss. That was also my day to say goodbye to everybody. It was sad, I feel like my time in Solothurn was faaaarr too short. I said a lot of goodbyes, and to the young men and young women, who I learned to really enjoy there. I stayed up that night packing and writing in people's Tschüß books as we call them. I was up really late trying to get everything ready. 

Wednesday came, and off on a train to Zurich Hauptbahnhof we were. At 7:00 in the morning. We got into Zurich a little after 8, and I got to say goodbye to the elders going home, Elder Howarth and Elder Killpack. It was great to see some people. At 9, the train to Munich left for the dying missionaries. Ours left at 10:40. There was 4 of us on the train, Elder La Plant, Elder Apel, Elder Spencer, and I. We rode and rode and rode for an eternity. We went through Liechtenstein and through the Alps. Passed through Innsbruck, man what a gem, and eventually at 5 o clock, made it to Salzburg. Then another 2 hours on the cricket train over to Ried. We got back to the apartment at like 7:30, which made overall for over 12 hours of travel to get to a new area. Man. I'm the one driving, which feels extremely odd to be driving a car on a mission. Since then, it's been a lot of knocking on doors, a million no's, and lots of prayers. There is not a single investigator here. The area is 100% deadddd. The members don't really want to support too much either. There has been one baptism here in the last 20 years. Woof. What a statistic. There was a long time where there were no missionaries here and they've been back for a while now, but the members just don't seem to care too much. To be honest, I have NO idea what I'm doing here, hence the tons of prayers. This wasn't exactly how I had pictured the downhill road to the finish of my mission. I expected a nice downhill ride where I could go my speed, have tons of success, and finish proudly. But it feels right now like the car just broke down and I'm on the side of the road trying to wave down help instead of driving. So far, prayers are just hitting the ceiling. I don't get it. I suppose there are times like that for all of us, I just wasn't expecting one here. I could use your prayers I suppose. I don't see an extreme immediate change to the circumstances in sight, but I do see hope. 

The spiritual thought for this week comes from everything I just wrote about. This is my second or third time in this type of a situation on my mission. One thing I notice is that every single time it happens, the only thing that truly keeps me going is my personal study of the gospel that I get every single morning. That keeps me pushing through, which I suppose is a life lesson. I have seen my testimony in the last few months build line upon line and precept upon precept, which I find extremely cool to have experienced. Now it's being put to the test. 

So a couple things from my personal study this week. I was reading the Book of Mormon, and came across the part where the Lord keeps telling Lehi and his family that 'if they are righteous and keep my commandments, they will prosper in the land' over and over and over. I was kind of like what the heck? They get it don't they? I viewed it as more of a 'slap upside the head' kind of thing. Like a football coach when his player doesn't do the drill right and he smacks him across the helmet and says, "DO IT AGAIN!!!" Or when you drop a fly ball in practice, and Coach Nelson yells at you from across the field telling you to screw your head on and get in the game before he tells you to drop your mitt and start running. 

Well, pondering this, I opened the institute manual and read what it says there. Apparently, the Lord tells them 34 times in the scriptures that if they are righteous and keep the commandments, they'll prosper in the land, if not, they'll be destroyed. When I read that, it kind of hit me. God's not standing there slapping them upside the head saying, 'You messed up again, let's go, get it right!' But he's saying more of a thing along the lines of, 'You're going to be tested. This won't be easy, but when it gets hard, you can always remember what I'm telling you right now.' What a loving Father we have to help us build that type of muscle memory, so that when times get rough, we know exactly what He has told us in the past. Even when it gets rough, we always remember His promise that if we make the right choices, we will prosper in the land.

That's it from me for this week. I love you all.

D&C 12:7-8

"Behold, I speak unto you, and also unto all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work."

"And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate to all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted in his care."

Elder Sam Hadfield

Hartwagnerstr 24
A-4910 Ried im Innkreis
Austria