Haag - Week 12

Hey Colleagues and Acquaintances, 

First week of last transfer is down. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but when I was in Munich, Elder Croft and I had a goal in the 6 weeks before he went home to teach 100 lessons and find 100 new people. We came really close and almost hit the goal, and there were lots of blessings for that, we baptized a few people right after he went home from our hard work together. So I thought I'd try the same thing, but in the last 12 weeks. Because we are not in a city of 2 million, rather of 10,000.  a little different situation for sure. But it's going really well so far. 7 weeks in, we have 61 lessons and 47 people found. That's a pretty big accomplishment in my eyes. Huge turn around in this area. I'm pleased with the way things have turned themselves around.

Anyway, I'll have to tell you about a couple cool things from the week. On Wednesday night, we were dooring in Haag, and we passed what looked like this total homeless guy washing his clothes in the fountain in the middle of the city. Gross, right? Avoid him, don't talk to him. WRONG. He actually talked to us, and I think Elder Walter was a little grossed out at first, but I've dealt with these kind of people for the last 2 years. He spoke a little German, and I found out he was from Denmark. So I invited him to come over to our church on his bike and we showed him the church and taught him in the chapel. Really moving experience. Something totally different than what I thought. He actually ended up speaking perfect English, asked great questions about the Book of Mormon, took a copy, prayed about it in the end. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences lately. He's on a little tour around Europe and has been away from home for a month. He's headed to Spain on his bike. Wow. Brave guy. But we got his email address and I'm going to keep in touch with him. One of those head turners that makes you realize your first judgments are almost always not correct.

There's a former missionary from our mission here on a school exchange for a semester named Elder Morey. He and I lived together for the last 8 weeks of his mission or so. He was such a cool guy and a huge example for me. Anyways, we talked on the phone this week, and much to my surprise, one of my friends from high school was right there with him, Bee Eide!!! How cool is that?! It was cool to talk to her and to hear voices of a couple great friends. Those are nice little pushes to work hard and go all in for the last 6 weeks.

This weekend was also cool. We had a missionary from our ward leave to Zimbabwe. I got to be pretty good friends with him before he left, which I was grateful for. I'm really close to his family. On Saturday night, we had a ward party and grill night, it went great, and on Sunday was his farewell. There was tons of people there and he did a great job. But just being that close to that family and watching them this weekend has brought back a million different feelings and flashbacks to two years ago. It was a way cool weekend, maybe the best one of my mission. BUT…

Elder Hadfield and Calvin (headed to Zinmbabwe on his mission)

The coolest experience of the week was on Wednesday afternoon. I got a visit from S in Munich, our new convert! She had her last vacation day before going back to work and chose to drive 3 hours to come visit me and take us out to lunch. Words can't express how stoked I was to see her again. She's the biggest miracle ever. Another good little push. I love her. She's been through a tough couple of months, but has stuck to the truth and to the church, which is great to see. It's funny how much one person's life can be changed by a few basic truths. Another great push for my last 6 weeks.  That's where my thought comes in this week. I spent some more time thinking about S and her conversion story this week.

Elder Hadfield and S 

Back in December, right after she was baptized and confirmed, the week after was Christmas. For Christmas, the best present I got was a typed up letter of her conversion story, starting from the day she was born. I won't share details or anything, but she had a very rough childhood, up to the point of leaving home, being brought back, living in fear, and then meeting her husband as a teenager. Through all of that, she had a bad motorcycle accident, where she saw the life after this and felt herself being pulled away before being thrown back. She always wanted answers to what that was. (I remember being a little shocked seeing her tears when we talked about the veil of forgetfulness, like, 'Oh come on, that's not even the good part yet!') she got married, had kids, before her husband made some bad decisions and the marriage ended, her son had a transplant at age 6, her mom died of cancer and her dad had troubles too. Just thinking about all of that, I was living when some of these tragedies were going on. I didn't know her name, or who she was. But she was slowly being prepared. Maybe even from the time I was born. Now that's funny to think about. My mom held me in her arms for the first time, but at the same time, a lady in Munich was being prepared to hear the gospel from someone who was a tiny baby at the time, and was destined to become a sort of 'mom' for me on the mission. Going on, in Summer 2014, right after I received my mission call, she crashed. Went into deep depression and struggled. Moved out to a different part of the city, switched jobs, and the works. I, in the meantime, was sitting in class at BYU, ready to get out on my mission, hoping there might be someone prepared to listen to me. I spent the first 3 months of my mission in Munich Zone, and basically worshipped the zone leaders. I thought they were the coolest guys, most successful missionaries I had ever met. Why couldn't they have found her to teach her? They could have done just as good, or even better. But clearly, I think I was supposed to play some roll in this plan. I came back a year later and through a miracle, my companion and I found her, and being so prepared, she was baptized 6 weeks later. Such a cool experience. I would never have thought that sitting back home in 2014 during the summer, that someone had just hit rock bottom, and that I would be the one to bring them the gospel in Winter 2015. That has really strengthened my testimony that there are people being prepared for each one of us. Not for somebody else, but for us. For my friends in the MTC, for my returned missionary friends, for my brother who's just getting ready to go, for my buddies all over the world, for all members, there's a special role that we each have to play in someone's life to help them, and often without thinking about it, we fail to realize that we are being prepared to help someone, just as well as they are being prepared to hear what we have to tell them. That's been a huge testimony strengthener here.

I know that God's plan is perfect, and that we each play an important part. I've been so grateful to play such a cool role as a missionary for the past 2 years. Keep at it, I guess! The work has never been better. (: 

Love you all,

Elder Hadfield