Haag - Week 9

 Hey Friends and Family, 

We are down to the 4th Quarter here in Europe! This week was a pretty good week, I've been doing good. A couple highlights from the week:

-Exchange with Elder Shaw! We had a great exchange and found a handful of new people to teach in our area -We made birthday cards for less active members and found out one of them was dead.

-I hit my year mark for the transfer call to Munich  *thankful*

-We were in Linz for a finding day. It was really depressing at first, but it got better and more fun towards the end. We found a couple guys for the new sisters there.

-I gave a good talk in Sacrament Meeting that the members liked. They were way friendly with me afterwards and we felt great about it.

-We had one of the best weeks number wise that we've had in our area in the past 5 years.

-Today, we were in HALLSTATT, which is just about the prettiest place in Austria. I'll send pictures. 

So I don't have too much time today, but just wanted to leave you all with a thought I used yesterday in my talk. I was talking about judging people and about the natural man's pride, and wanted an example of a humble person being the tool in the Lords hands, and I found a good one in a talk from President Uchtdorf. Here it is. 

I once owned a pen that I loved to use during my career as an airline captain. By simply turning the shaft, I could choose one of four colors. The pen did not complain when I wanted to use red ink instead of blue. It did not say to me, “I would rather not write after 10:00 p.m., in heavy fog, or at high altitudes.” The pen did not say, “Use me only for important documents, not for the daily mundane tasks.” With greatest reliability it performed every task I needed, no matter how important or insignificant. It was always ready to serve. 

I read that and though, what a STUPID story from the Second Counselor in the First Presidency.

Couldn't he find a better comparison?? But after reading it a couple times, I realized that's pretty much our relationship to Heavenly Father, naturally we aren't pens, we are actually people, but we are those instruments in his hands for good. It's a cool job we have!! 

Alright here's pictures to make up for the lack of a cool email this week. 

 

Halstatt

Halstatt

Halstatt

Halstatt

Love you all, 

Elder Hadfield

Haag - Week 8

This older lady just doesn't get how pictures work!

A day of service!

That Haag Sunset

Salzburg

American Burgers!

The Kaufusi Swagger

Salzburg Zone Swag!

Hello Family and Friends,

I'm going to send two emails this week, if you choose to read one, this is the one to read and think about.

I don't quite know exactly how to start. This past weekend has been one of a lot of thoughts and prayers thrown up to heaven. We were informed on Friday night of the terror attack in Munich where at least 10 died and 21 were hospitalized. This one was personal. Terror in my favorite city in the world, one of the closest spots to heaven for me. I lay in bed on Friday night awake until around 1 am, thinking about the world in which we live. Were there people that I once met or talked to on the streets involved in the attack? Had I walked that exact spot hundreds of times? (I learned later the answer is yes, I've eaten in the same McDonalds many times, and been on the same place at least once a week). What's the next step for the missionary work and the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

More Good than Bad

In the past 2 years, I've seen the hearts of men move from hard to harder. There's plenty more people to be found who don't believe in a God, or that there is any life apart from this. It almost seems like I've gone from strictly talking to people who were just Catholic and didn't want to hear anything, to strictly talking to people who don't believe there is a God and don't understand the suffering in the world. Through the 2 years, there has been countless episodes of terror. Paris, Brussels, Turkey, Syria, Orlando, Paris again, Turkey again, Nice, now Munich, and heaven knows where else. I've stood at the main train station in Munich, and watched hundreds of refugees get off the trains in a completely foreign land, searching for something, anything, to change their circumstances and bring hope back into a hopeless existence. (Just this week, we met a man who traveled 2 years by foot from Eritrea in Africa to avoid being killed). As I watched them step off the trains, I simultaneously watched the German people split into two groups. The one, wanting refugees out, and the other wanting them to stay. There were suddenly demonstrations every single day on Marienplatz, the main shopping center in Munich, refugee homes were burned down, people were treated like animals, and the perspective for me shifted completely. The world is getting more and more wicked. If you were to turn on the news, you would receive reports upon reports that are extremely depressing, and make you think there's no good left in the world. As I see this over and over, my heart aches for the people who I've come to love.

Being on the very front battle lines of all of this as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I'd like to promise you all there is much more good in the world than there is bad. There are millions of people looking for answers, trying to be happy and live good lives. Just reading the news reports, you would never see that. But I promise, there is much more good in the world than there is bad.

The Only Way

I also know that the only way to find true happiness and to stay safe and secure in our world, is through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through becoming as He is. The pattern that we follow of Faith, Repentance, Baptism and Renewing and Keeping Covenants, Receiving the Holy Ghost and Following His Promptings, and Enduring to the End, is the only way. That makes it all the more important that we don't walk away from our role as covenant children of Heavenly Father and give up our future for something we want now. President Kohler sent us a quote from President Benson this weekend. It's also in Preach My Gospel Ch. 1. It says: 'Only the gospel will save the world from the calamity of its own self-destruction. Only the gospel will unite men of all races and nationalities in peace. Only the gospel will bring joy, happiness, and salvation to the human family.'

I don't know why all the bad things in the world happen, but I know God has a plan, and that He is gathering His people before the Second Coming of His Only Begotten Son. It's so close, I can almost feel it. 

Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them

Just a reminder from D&C 45.

26 And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.

27 And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound.

28 And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel;

The promises and prophecies are being fulfilled and are right at hand. It's time for every one of us to decide. What side do we want to be on? If you read the scripture, you have the choice of having your heart fail you, your love waxing cold, and sitting in darkness, or you have the choice to be the light in the darkness. I'll take the obvious choice any day, but I want you on my side as well. 

Think on the good in the world more than the bad. I know it's there, I've seen it.

Elder Sam Hadfield

PASSAU, the place where it all started for Elder Hadfield!

Olympic Plaza - Munich

Sorry, I don't have any Pokemon Emojis  

This week has been pretty good. It's been difficult to find new people to teach. The area is honestly just the small city of Ried, a little less than 10,000 people, and then little dwarf villages everywhere. Makes things interesting. But that's what we are out on the hunt for, to catch em all. All that will listen and open their hearts.

Speaking of catching them all, we are starting to see the effects of Pokemon fever. It's downright hilarious. We see groups of kids all the time just playing and walking around at night. The other day, we were in the mall to grab something, and I went to the bathroom, and there was a guy simultaneously doing his business and catching a Pokemon. Multitasking baby. 

We did quite a bit of service for less actives and others this week. Lots of harvesting and fruit picking. It was enjoyable though. We got some good progress on people out of it. There's around 150 members here, and we have 40 active every Sunday, so the other 110 are our job to look over, combined with the ward council. I feel like a home teacher combined with a missionary, but it's a pretty similar job I suppose.

 Last Monday, we went to Salzburg for PDay. It was downright beautiful and so much fun. We have great pics, I'll send you some.

On Tuesday, we were back in Salzburg for Zone Training. I walked into the church and heard, 'Ahhhhhh, there he is!!!!' You got it, my boy Elder Kaufusi!! I've missed that kid. It was a blast to catch up a little bit with him. He even saved me some beef jerky from his package he got from home. That deserves the ultimate shoutout. Here's to you Elder.

Later after zone training before we went to get lunch, we were shooting a ball around, and we got Elder Apel, an East German, to try and jump to touch the rim, and while he was doing that, Elder Kaufusi poster faced him by dunking over his head. Hahaha it was funny, I've got good pics. Zone training was pretty good, I enjoyed it. After, when we went out to eat, one of the sisters bags got stolen. That was really too bad, but a few hours later, they located the iPad, and found her bag with keys, phone, and iPad all still inside. Miracle big time.

At zone training, Elder Apel passed on the patriarchal walking stick of the zone to me, which goes down the line and stays with the oldest elder in the zone. I guess I'm old.

Friday was actually really cool. We had a referral at the border of our area with Passau. We drove out and it was the hills you could always see from the Passau apartment. I got to take some very cool pics and be back close to the place where it all started 2 years ago.

We found a new guy named O this week. He's from Eritrea. He may just be the most earnest African I've ever met in my life. He ran away to avoid a required 40 years of military service, and abuse at home. He walked from Eritrea to Sudan, where he paid a man to give him a fake passport so he could fly to Turkey. From Turkey, he walked to Austria where he was caught by the police. He's been granted permission to stay here though, and he's incredibly cool. Asks really good questions and takes the answers seriously. It's been a while since I met an African like him.

Not too much other than that, but work is good, and the gospel blesses lives. 

Love you all, have a good week. 

Elder Sam Hadfield

Haag - Week 7

 Salzburg P-day Pictures!

Servus from Austria! 

This week has been pretty good. Elder Walter and I are getting loads of work done and we got 3 solid new investigators this week, and things are going good.

It has only rained this week, I don't know why. It's been a completely different story from last summer. Last summer was around 100 degrees every single day, with 100% humidity, and no air conditioning. You would lay in bed at night with as many fans as you could get on yourself, and sweat yourself to sleep. Hahahaha. It was often hotter in the apartment than it was outside. This summer has been totally different. A few hot days here and there, but lots of rain, and it's been pretty cool for the most part. I was really hoping it wouldn't be like last summer, and thus far my wish has been granted.

Our contact with A had sadly broken off somehow. I don't know what's up. Things go way good and all of a sudden, he's gone, and nowhere to be found. We'll need to find out what's up with that this week.

We got the Area Book Planner App in our mission to test it out. I think we are the only mission in Germany, and one of the only missions in Europe using it right now. Which is probably good for the rest of the missions, because it's total garbage thus far haha. The app doesn't function too well, and it's taken hours and hours of time away to work on it and try to install information about people. Hopefully the church takes a look a that, and throws some changes in there.

We also had interviews with President Kohler in Salzburg on Wednesday. It was my last interview with him before I go home. It was actually really fun. We talked a lot about good memories from the mission, and about other stuff. He told me what he tells every dying missionary. To start writing a list of the things I've learned on my mission. Good deal. Our interview lasted about 30 minutes. Long interview. 

I figured a switch up might be nice for today. Instead of spiritual, I'm going for a funny experience from my mission. You'll all get an absolute kick out of this one. Try and just picture this situation as it takes place. Here it goes.

Alright, so I arrived in Munich, my new area on August 6 last year. The old zone leader gave me my phone, and Elder Croft and I got started working. It was pretty tight that day between Elder Croft and I. Of course it was. On your first day together with anybody, it's always a little weird, just because you don't totally know each other yet. We got done working that night, and we had had a few appointments, and talked to a bunch of people, and had a lot of new potential investigators. It was about 9:00 and we still needed to get home. So we jumped on the U-Bahn, and were riding home, and of course, on my first day, I don't know exactly where I need to get off. Elder Croft was standing somewhere talking to somebody, and I was talking to a 25 year old girl as well. Trying to get all the work in that we could. At every stop I would look back to make sure he was still there. At the University, a bunch of drunk teenagers got in the Bahn with

July 18, 2016 – Group e-mail (pg 2)

their cases of beer and what not. They were loud, but I didn't think too much of it. It just made the U-Bahn even more packed than it already was. About 5 stops later, the Bahn stopped where we were supposed to get off. I was so focused on the conversation I was having that I didn't notice we stopped and Elder Croft got off. He saw that I didn't get out, and came to tell me to get out. He held the doors open, which is dangerous in and of itself. As I pushed through the crowd to try to get out, one of these drunk teenagers mistook Elder Croft as the train controller asking people for their tickets. He got mad that he was holding up the train. So this drunk kid grabs both doors, jumps in the air, and karate kicks Elder Croft square in the chest. Huge boot print on his white shirt and all. I scooted past the last person, and Elder Croft had his fists out ready to go. But right as I got out, the train doors shut, and the Bahn kept going. How's that for a first day with your new companion? I was so embarrassed that I had caused the whole thing, and Elder Croft was rightly ticked off, but as I look back on it, I'm so happy that all happened, because it was a laughing point we could look back on, and a first day I would never forget. From that point on, we always got along.   How's that for awesome? 

Alright, have a good week, enjoy it. 

Elder Hadfield

Haag - Week 6

Heroes Get Remembered, But Legends Never Die

Hey Family and Friends, First person to get the movie quote in my subject line is a winner!

First of all, a little shoutout to my little brother who got his mission call this week and is headed to POLAND about a month after I get home.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. 20 feels old, but it's nice to have a PDay birthday. For my birthday, we actually hiked up to a castle here. It was closed on Mondays, but they left the gates open.... hehehe.

We went and walked through the whole thing, and were probably in rooms nobody should be in. We saw written documents from the year 780. How nuts is that??

Wow. What a week. I feel like an 80 year old man every single day. All of a sudden, the hardest thing I do everyday is try to wake myself up in the morning, and not fall asleep during studies. that's part of getting old on the mission I think. It's weird to think that I would be coming home in a month if I hadn't taken the extension. Glad I did though.

So this week, I got my new companion, my greenie. Elder Walter, from Frankfurt area. A GERMAN BABY. It's so cool training someone from one of the countries in your mission, there's something special about it. I'm starting to realize how much German I actually do know and how good it has become from my first few transfers. He's lived in Shanghai for the past 4 years, and it's really cool to hear stories from there, especially how the church functioned. He speaks pretty good English, I think. But, we haven't spoken a single word to each other in a language that isn't German. It's going pretty well. Naturally, there are some differences when you hook up a companionship from two different nations, but for the most part, we are doing just fine.

Elder Hadfield / Elder Walter

On his first day, we taught A together. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was a powerful, powerful lesson. Another top 10 lesson on my mission. I told Elder Walter before we started that when he felt the spirit really strong, that was the point to invite him to baptism. So Elder Walter invited him to baptism and he accepted. How about that for a first day, first teaching appointment of your greenie's mission? It was one of those lessons where I walk out, and just can't stop fist pumping and jumping around like I just won a huge baseball game. It was that good. I never pictured fist pumping as a part of the mission, but hey, when the adrenaline runs, what else can you do? The baptism date is on September 3.

I've been starting to realize how much this area has struggled in the past couple years. I can count on one hand the number of new investigators found in THIS area THIS year before I got here. The members have kind of lost faith in the missionary work, and personally, I would find it so much easier to just go from less active to less active having useless appointments every single day, rather than to go out and find new people, but that's not our job, is it? A is a big glimmer of faith right now for the whole ward and for us. Please pray for us and him.

I guess as a little spiritual side of the week, I'll add something. On Wednesday, Transfer Day, I was at Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, and I had to watch Elder Lyman and Elder Jensen, as well as a slew of other guys who have become my best friends in the mission, jump on the train to go home. As I held tiny little Elder Jensen, I realized how heart wrenching and cruel this is. Guys that I've lived with and worked with for 2 years have become my best friends, and all of a sudden, they're gone. Realizing that, and hugging guys who feel like brothers to me, the tears just came. Hard. They wouldn't really go away after a while either. Not after the train doors closed, not after the train started to go and Elder Apel and I ran the length of the platform with the train, tears flowing, waving goodbye. Not after a couple hours. It's still taking its toll on me. Realizing that I'm one of the next ones isn't too easy either. Life is all  about that I suppose. I can hardly wait to be with some of my brothers again, especially my real brothers (and sister). Heartwrenching to get ready to leave, exciting at the same time. I've still got a little while to think that all through though.

Just a reminder, Heroes Get Remembered, But Legends Never Die. My mission brothers are legends to me. People connected with memories that will never die.  

Love you all, have a good week.

Elder Sam Hadfield

Haag - Week 5

Remember Who You Are

Hey Freedom Lovers Big and Small, (and my non-free European friends) 

How are you all doing?? Another week has gone by too fast. It was a successful one though. 

Today begins my 16th and 'would have been last transfer' if I hadn't been extended a transfer. It also begins my last week as a teenager. Quite odd to comprehend yet.

We got transfer calls on Saturday, guess who's getting transferred? Elder Liechty. He's going to Dornbirn down in the mountains, and I'm getting another Greenie! I'm way excited, this will be a fantastic way to go out. Our district didn't change too much, but I'll be District Leader this time around.

Well, I was looking in my journal from a year ago, and all I could write about was how hot it was. It was blistering hot last summer. 105 degrees, 12 days in a row. We haven't seen any of that yet. It's been a nice cool 80-90 and lots of rain so far. Maybe the hot is still on its way though, who knows?

I had another Austausch with Elder Bensing this week in Linz. It wasn't supposed to be like that, but there's a member in Linz, and her non-member husband plays golf, and wanted me to come play with him. We played 9 holes on a pretty short course, but with plenty of trees. I was hitting the ball so good, I almost felt better than before my mission. Picked up a couple of birdies, and shot a 36 on a par 35. Look out dad. I beat him by 10 shots, I hope he didn't feel too bad. We had a good lesson with him and his wife afterwards, and I think it was really important that I was there. We had a good time with them.

Other than that, we taught A again. He's so legit. He downloaded the church app on his phone and has been referencing it. He's coming to some great questions u areas he reads, and looking for his own answers. He's in the middle of the Isaiah chapters right now, and he loves them. He's coming to church this week, and my greenie's first appointment will be with him on Wednesday night.

So my thought comes from President Kohler's message at the last zone conference that I found really meaningful. He was talking about who we are. When we as members of the church are asked that, we usually say, 'I'm a child of God.' Which is good, it's true. But what makes us then so special? All the other people that walk on this earth are children of Him as well. Shortly put, we are descendants, whether adopted or by blood, of the House of Israel. Meaning simply that we belong to the one of the tribes. Which assigns us to a specific job in the gathering of Israel and in the preparing for the Second Coming of the Savior. Now, when one knows and understands their part of the job, that makes them much more than 'just' a child of God. It makes them a covenant birthright child of Him. Which piles on the responsibility and the accountability.

Picture it like this. We are all on the world, and it's like this big cruise ship. We're all together on the ship. But we, who are part of the covenant, are like the crew members who are there to do a job for a purpose. As for the others, they're just here on the ship to enjoy it. Sometimes that seems pretty enticing to us, to want to just walk away from the responsibility of working on the ship and just go lay in the sun. But we know what comes at the end as workers. We're getting paid for our job at the end of the cruise. They aren't. It's the different roles we are playing on this earth. Now our job as members of the covenant and of the house of Israel is to help these people recognize that they have completely forgotten who they are. They've forgotten that they belong to this family and this covenant. They forgot that they are children of Him. Which makes it hard to trudge around life, without an exact purpose or deeper understanding of why one is here.

I love this President Kohler comparison. He compares the whole thing to the Lion King, when Simba struggles to remember who he is and what his purpose is. I'll attach the movie clip at the end for more emphasis. But basically, his dad, Mufasa, comes to him, and Simba is reminded that he has forgotten his father because he has forgotten himself who he is. He has the potential to become like his father, a king. His dad leaves him with the ringing words, 'Remember Who You Are'. It's exactly like our job here. To remind God's children of who they actually are, so that they can have the blessings that we enjoy as well. That's my firm testimony. 

Don't blow up too many fireworks without me. 

Pday in Gmunden

Don't play soccer in your slacks! :)

Bishop & his Family

Love you people, thank you for your prayers and support.
Elder Sam Hadfield