Haag - Week 10

Hey Compadres!

I kind of failed to realize, or just didn't want to realize, that it's actually August. Thank heavens for extensions, otherwise I'd be coming home next week.  But luckily, I got 6 extra weeks tacked on to this great adventure. But it sure is weird to have people start saying, 'Hey, you go home next month!' Yes.... Thank you for the reminder friend. Leave me alone to my work.

The first counselor in our branch presidency leaves in 2 weeks on his mission to Zimbabwe, how cool is that? I'm excited for him, but it's odd reliving the excitement of a really good friend leaving on a mission and realizing that in fact it isn't you, but yours was actually 2 years ago. Rant over. 

I had a good week, lots of meaning to pull out from this week and I think my little spiritual side to this email will be in many ways intertwined with the things that happened. Each day of the week actually had a thought process bringing experience.

First off!!! COOLEST THING EVER. Most of you don't know this because I never mentioned it. F, the man I baptized in Munich, ended up in kind of a broken situation there and had to be shipped back to Cyprus. I got to call him and say goodbye to him, but I was really, really sad. I thought I'd never hear from him again. I started praying my heart out and I was just sad. But out of the complete blue, he emailed me this week and he's back in his home country! He asked for my number and about half an hour later, he called me! I got to talk to him. Best of all, his email works now as well as his WhatsApp and hopefully Facebook. I'm so grateful. Huge prayer answered there! 

On Tuesday, we had an appointment with a lady named M. I had found her last week on the street. She told me that she had lost her grandson from a horrendous motorcycle accident. She wanted answers about where he was and other things. I had asked her if she wanted to know where he was, and she said, 'Please tell me! Do you really know? How do you know? I want to know too.' So needless to say, we were way pumped up for this appointment. I was convinced that this lady was going to be our next baptism if this first lesson went really well. So I studied and prepared and practiced with Elder Walter for it. He is still not totally there with teaching, but it's coming. So we got there, and the lesson was SO good. We taught her the plan of salvation and about the opportunity to be as families together forever. By the end she had tears in her eyes and I was pumping out rays of the Spirit from my bones it was so strong. I asked her how it would be to be together as a family forever and we talked about the only way to do that is to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. She said, 'That would be the most beautiful thing I could imagine.' So I asked, 'When can we come again and talk with you about how that can happen?' And she goes, 'I'm afraid I don't have time for that I'm sorry. But it was nice to talk to you.' I sat there with my jaw on the floor! Nothing we said would change her mind either. I'd never been in that situation. You lay a ground principle so perfectly out and they love it and are eating up your every word, but eventually say they don't have time for it?! That's never happened to me in such a strong way before. That SHOCKED me.

Going on, on Wednesday, we met with a lady who has been meeting with the missionaries for 6 years now, and always comes to church, and loves the missionaries and everything about the church, but has no interest to change. We felt pretty strongly that this is decision time, not time to sit around. So in this appointment we asked her questions about why she kept coming. We were pretty bold with her, and she made it clear that she has no desire to change religions. An old, lonely lady. So we told her that we were sorry, but that if she didn't have desires to change, we couldn't come anymore. Then..... She started BAWLING. Oh my word! It was like dumping a girl all over again. We explained it very well to her, and she was insulting us on the grounds that if we were really messengers of Jesus Christ, we would do it differently, and that we didn't love her. I honestly can't imagine Jesus Christ doing anything different than what we did, saying, 'Sorry, maybe you're not ready now, but let's try again later.' Well, we had to leave to another appointment, and I felt bad leaving this woman sitting on the park bench crying, but who knows, maybe it's a point of decision for her! So, at this point, we've made 2 women cry, 2 days in a row.

On Thursday, we were in Wels, and we had a finding day there. By this point, I was a little fed up from the week we'd been having, and I wanted to try something new and get creative. I'm kind of surprised that I'd never done this before on my mission, but we took a small white board out on the streets and wrote the question, 'Is there a God?' With the answers 'yes' or 'no' on it, and let people tally mark it. It was WAY fun actually. If I had done this 2 years ago, we would have ended up with 90% God-believers. But it was almost 50-50, and I think it was really surprising people. It led to some awesome conversations and a handful of potential investigators. So, maybe it was a good idea. Lots of people looking for answers in our world right now! That may have been the funnest part of my week. I love talking to people.

On Friday, we met with a sister from Poland who is less active. She's excited that I have a brother headed there. (She told us that Polish has 7 cases. German has 4. Viel Spaß Jake ) She told us a couple reasons why she doesn't come anymore, and to be honest, they were all stupid little reasons for not coming to church anymore. I wish people could listen to themselves a little bit better. Sometimes it just sounds so self-centered and honestly dumb, the reasons they don't come to church anymore. It was sad to hear her story. But it is a story and has to be taken with the same amount of seriousness as any other. So all in all, I guess just l saw a common theme this week. There's a million questions, or reasons, or concerns, about the things going on in the world. Sometimes people just won't accept a good answer though. Which kind of seems really really dumb when you think about it. All these people looking for answers, but when we try to share our ideas or answers, they make fun of us or laugh in our faces. Eventually when that repeats itself, you end up with a bunch of moral pygmy's who want answers but don't know where to find them. But the Mormons CAN'T be right. No way.  It's kind of laughable sometimes, but it also makes me sad for our world. I'm happy that at least my family and I get to know the answers. I'm happy you all get to know the answers as well. It's just too bad that there's so few people who are part of the elect! But then I read these week the words of the Savior in Luke 4:18, which really moved me. It's my job too, as well as yours.

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

I know His mission is ever further fulfilled, and He continues to heal my broken heart every single day. I love Him. I also love this work, and being on His errand. To preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to help the blind see, and to set at Liberty them that are bruised. What a responsibility. 7 more weeks of this marvelous work and a wonder!  For all my Missionary friends, enjoy it as much as you possibly can, it flies by!!! 

More pictures from Halstatt:

Elder Hadfield

Here's to you Austria!