Haag - Week 4

Elder Bensing, a new convert, Elder Hadfield

Elder Hadfield / Elder Bensing

Linz

Linz!

Servus Everyone! 

So, it's been yet another week in the mission paradise.

The last week of June even! Time is out of my hands at this point, and I pretty much sit on Sunday night at my desk wondering where all the week went by. I remember the things we did throughout the week, but it also feels like it should only be Thursday. This week was pretty good.

I had an exchange in Linz this week. It was tons of fun actually. I worked with a German, Elder Bensing, and we got along really well and it was fun to speak German the whole time. Whenever I try to do that, I usually get English responses. Haha.

We had a finding day in Wels also, and it went really well. Wels is a little bit smaller than what I pictured it being, but I had a good time and Elder Bensing and I found 6 Potentials for the sisters there, so we felt it was successful.

We met with lex twice this week. The one time, we took a JAE in our ward, who has his mission call to Africa and is the first counselor in the Branch Presidency as well. He did a really good job, and he and I basically taught the entire time. The lesson went really well, and A said it made total sense that something like that would happen. He committed himself to read and pray to find out if it was true. He was done with 1 Nephi by the next appointment. I want to say Golden, but I'm not jinxing it.

The second time this week, I was actually in Linz and I thought about changing the appointment so that I would be there because I was quite worried how it would go, but I showed some trust and didn't change it. The elders went without a joint teach and taught the plan of salvation, and it went okay I guess. I'm not sure how well it was taught. They said it wasn't as good as the Restoration, and that many concepts were very new to him, but we have another appointment this week, so we will see. I really think he's got a lot of potential.

Other than that, they met with J as well while I was gone and he had tons of questions, so  hopefully we see him again this week. Progress, very slow, but huge progress for a struggling area. Prayers being answered with hard work and some faith. 

I thought this week I would share a contacting approach I have worked on throughout my mission. I saw this hundreds of times at the beginning of my mission. The approach, most commonly for me at least, has to do with the purpose of life. We ask them what kind of purpose they have found in life, or what the purpose is. One of the favorite questions is, 'Wenn sie eine Frage an Gott stellen könnte, was wäre denn die?' (If you could ask God a question, what would it be?) Almost 90% of the time the question that people would ask is why there is so much suffering in the world, or even better, why God lets that suffering just happen.

This question ticked me off time after time throughout my mission, because I couldn't find a great answer for it. I could show scriptures, and I could explain that we suffer through the free agency of others, or that God doesn't sit there and love seeing us suffer, but the answer was never good enough for people, and it was especially hard for me to make sense out of it in German. I couldn't find the perfect answer. I have hunted and hunted my entire mission for a perfect answer that makes sense, and been frustrated over and over. I'd still love your opinions on a really good answer for that question, because I'm still hunting, but I thought I'd share the answer I've come up with.  A specific experience comes to my mind actually.

When I was about 6 years old, my littlest brother was born. This cute chubby ball of love with blond hair that looked just like me. I loved this kid, and I was sure my parents loved him too. Now, the dreaded experience in a child's life is the doctors office, and I remember accompanying my mom when she took my little brother to the doctor for the first time. I sat in the waiting room and heard screaming and crying for about 30 minutes down the hall. Naturally, all babies need vaccinations, and those come by needle. These shots hurt the baby of course, and what parent could forget the look of that baby when the doctor keeps slamming needles over and over into them. It's a look of, 'I thought you loved me. How could you do this to me? How can you continue to stand there as this man hurts me and do nothing about it?' I don't imagine there's a parent whose heart doesn't hurt watching that, and there's also not a parent who wouldn't love to take that pain away from their baby when they could. But the parent knows at the same time, it would be completely false to not vaccinate their baby. The hurt of the shots is probably nothing compared to a deadly disease. But naturally, there's no way for the baby to know that. It's only a couple months old. It's no use really trying to explain that to the baby, because they won't truly understand it. The parent can only tell the baby it has to be this way. The only thing the parent can do is take the child in their arms and hope and pray that the child still trusts them, even though they had to hurt it. That's the same thing that our Heavenly Father does for us. Time and again, we need to be 'vaccinated.' We don't really know why sometimes.

But how could we possibly know? We don't see the entire plan of God as we sit here on earth in our mortal bodies with all the weaknesses we have. Compared to him, we are a young small baby. He stands simply by, and sees our suffering and would more than likely love to end it, or take it upon himself. But he knows, this protects us from something even worse. He knows the big plan. He always stands right there by us, ready to take us in His arms and comfort us, and hopes that we will continue to trust Him, even though that experience just hurt us.  Naturally, that's not the perfect answer, but how great is that? That we have a God that would be willing to sometimes hurt us. I don't understand it completely, and one of the first things I'll ask Him is what I did to be born into the situation I was born into, and what others did to be born into  their situations, and why some have to suffer more than others, but I'm starting to get it. Our God is great. I love Him. 

Thanks for your emails, and your care, great love coming your way! 

Elder Hadfield

Dealing with those Hot days!