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!

Haag - Week 3

Vienna

Vienna

Vienna

Vienna

Vienna - Elder Hadfield / Elder Liechty at Schloss Schoenbrunn

Salzburg ZoneConference - June 2016

Salzburg Zone Conference June 2016

Vienna Autobahn

Vienna

Vienna

Vienna

Seien sie gegrüßt

Hey everybody, First off! YOU ALL NEED TO STOP! Haha I've gotten so many emails with pictures at MLB Games, with summer BBQs, on the beach, you name it. Knock it off!! 100 days though...

What a week for the books. It's been such a melancholy feeling week for me. It was so to say a kick in the pants, a total eye opener, of how old I'm getting to be on the mission. First I must say, we had a better week.

On the street, I found a guy named A while Elder Liechty was sending a letter to the office. He is Austrian, lives in downtown Ried, and is very faithful, but looking for the right church. We met with him on Friday night, and had a great appointment, and we are ready to go back on Tuesday. He's agreed to hear all the lessons and figure out if it's true or not. That's a huge first step that a lot of people won't even take, so I'm really excited!

We had another new investigator this week named J, also Austrian. He was taught by the elders a little while ago, but it ended because the elders kind of stopped teaching him things and he found the appointments not so worthwhile. We hit him with a great friendship and the Spirit, and he's agreed to meet with us again this week.

We also have another new investigator named M, Austrian yet again, who lives in Haag. She's married, has two kids, one of whom is in Seattle on school exchange right now and gets back in about 20 days. She's a teacher there, and met with missionaries 30 years ago right before the area was closed for 10 years or so. She's way cool, and we are hoping something comes of that. Woohoo, we gonna get this place rolling!! 

I met more people who know my dad this week, they're just crawling everywhere. Isn't that so cool with missionary work?

So, on Friday, we got to take the drive to Wien/Vienna. We were the next one’s scheduled to pick up a replacement car. We went from a crappy old car to a nice 2014 model Hyundai. The thing runs like a dream. Digging it way hard. Driving in Wien was HELL though. After we got the car, we had to fill it up, and realized we had no Vignette on the car, which is required to legally drive on the Autobahn. We needed to drive into downtown Vienna to find one, and so we illegally drove on the Autobahn, (shhhhhhh) to go find one of these things and it was 85 Euro, my goodness. We were pulling pennies out of our wallets trying to pay for this thing to get home. Haha. And I still have to pay for my new visa, oh shoot. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch there on Stefan's Platz I believe, and took it over to Schloss Schönbrunn to eat. It was way fun, and I never thought I would get to go to Vienna, so it was quite an experience for me. I loved Vienna!

Saturday was Zone Conference in Salzburg. It was a great time, I got to see Salzburg! The church there is right by the Sound of Music castle. There wasn't time for pictures, but there will be a next time for sure. Let me tell you how weird it was to hear guys like Elder Lyman and Elder Jensen give their dying testimonies. Guys I lived with for 6 months, who went into the MTC 6 weeks before I did, and are already on their way home. That slapped me across the face with a reality check.

Even more so, I had an interview to get a new Temple Recommend with President, the one before I go home, and as soon as he started asking the questions, I felt the Spirit so strongly I can't even describe. Kind of a weird place to feel the Spirit, but I kind of became overwhelmed seeing how differently I viewed the questions and seeing how far my testimony has come in the past 2 years.  I think the whole spiritual side of this week though came from Zone Conference itself. It wasn't even a part of the conference really to be honest. To start the conference, they showed the Golden Slideshow, which is just the slideshow containing pictures of all the missionaries in our mission in the beautiful places we serve in. We show it to the missionaries (Goldens) who come into the mission every transfer to get them pumped up. The pictures kept flashing by, and I saw Elder Croft, and Elder Carr, and Elder Samuelson, and Elder Ridd, and Elder Barnhart, and countless names of missionaries who I love who have gone home already. I've seen the slideshow like a hundred times by now, and I lived with the office elders when they made it, but this time I was just bawling like a baby as I realized its all starting to come to an end. I had such a hard time controlling my emotions. The last song in there is so cool actually. The lyrics go:

"Remember the Promise, Remember who it's from,

Remember that it's keeping is tied to what we've done.

Breaking down the walls of pride, listening to realize,

There's a love that's strong enough to lift us all."

That Promise is so real, and that Love is strong enough to lift every single one of us. I used to think that this love was the Savior's love that He showed for us through the Atonement. As I heard those lyrics, I just became so overwhelmed. I realized how much and how deeply I love this mission. I love the people here. I love the culture. I love the members. I love the missionaries. I love the people who have been baptized. I love my mission president. I love my companions. I love this experience. I never knew I could feel a love this strong. I realized, this love that the Savior has for us, can be deeply implanted in each one of us, and when we share that love for each other, that's the love that lifts us all. I have felt it for the first time through these experiences. I know that from it, I will never ever be the same. This is my Home.

Elder Sam Hadfield -- Wien!

Haag - Week 2

God is Great, (Alcohol Free) Beer is Good, and People are Crazy

Servus und eine liebe Grüße an alle von euch!  Soll ich einfach das ganze auf Deutsch schreiben?!

No, you probably wouldn't get it at all. This week has been yet again, challenging, but rewarding. The things I'm learning one by one are helping me out quite a bit. This next month in Europe, there is nothing but ⚽️⚽️⚽️, which makes for interesting missionary work. Whenever one of these three countries plays, everyone is at home or in the bar watching. Tricky for us, you see? It also makes things interesting, because we live above a Turkish bar, and a Sports Gambling shop. The Turks have been out until 5 am the past 3 days. That keeps us up at night, but at the same time, it is pretty entertaining to watch. 

So, a cool story from this week. Turns out, my DAD served in this area 40 years ago. WHAT?! I got up in Testimony Meeting yesterday and said something about it, and a couple members were whispering like, "oh yeah, I knew I remembered that name from somewhere!" I've met people who still remember my father and his missionary work.

In his e-mail to me last week, my dad told me about one guy, Christian Hones, who was a young man here when my dad was on his mission, and served his own mission a little later. Well, I found his name in our member list, and made it a goal to go by on him and find more out. Elder Liechty didn't really know anything, but we did go by. We met him just as he was coming home from playing the accordion in an old folk’s home. He's a little more than half blind now, which makes it next to impossible for him to come to church, but he has a burning testimony of the gospel.

I decided to put him to the test. When I greeted him, I said, "Hallo, Ich bin der Elder Hadfield." He froze for a second and thinking about it, he then said, "You wouldn't happen to know the Elder Hadfield that served here 40 years ago, would you?" "You bet, that's my dad." When he heard those words, he started crying real tears and threw both arms around me and hugged me with all the strength of his frail old body. After our conversation, he said, "You remind me exactly of your dad. The tone of your voice, your laugh, the way you speak German. You are exactly like your Father, he was a great missionary."

 That blew me completely away. The missionary service of my dad is remembered here over 40 years later? Are you serious?! That's taught me a lesson this week, und zwar, the Mission of the One. One Mission, One Missionary, can change the course of history. As a missionary, you often feel very small. You are one in 75,000. What difference could you possibly make? Then, to think about it deeper, the Mission of The One made ALL the difference. Jesus Christ was one in billions of people that have lived on the earth. But He was The Son of God, and His mission changed the world.

So can mine. So can yours. How cool is THAT?! I love this gospel, and I love this work. I love our God, He is a God of Miracles and of Power. 

Have a good week, enjoy it. Ponder on your current mission on this earth. Make it one to be remembered. 

Elder Sam Hadfield

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