Ludwigsburg - Week 6

Hey my friends!

So it's been a while now. I'm sorry for that. I'll try to be better. Fact is, I just don't enjoy emailing ya'll on Mondays. Haha. But, we had some really cool things happen this week that I would like to write about. This week was miracle week for sure. I really felt it and now I'm feeling it more. We've been on our feet and out the door for 12 hours every day since Thursday. I'm exhausted. I think we've talked to more people since Thursday than I've talked to combined in my entire mission. On Thursday, I got my new companion. Elder Sorensen from AF. He's a good kid, I like him a lot. We're doing well. We had to close one of the apartments down on Thursday, so we spent the whole day scouring that place and making sure it was going to be okay uninhabited for a little while here. So we did that, and then moved his stuff into our place, and got him settled in. That was a busy day. 

Friday, we went out at 8 in the morning to get Elder Sorensen Ummelded (unsuccessfully). The first 5 people we talked to on the street became potentials investigators. It was awesome. So we figured it might be our lucky day. On the way back from that, we ran into 2 former investigators, U and P, on the street and were able to set up appointments with them. We were kinda like wow. This is cool. So we went back to the apartment for weekly planning and I called about 100 people out of our area books. We now have 15 teaching appointments or so scheduled for this week. We were on fire! We went out on Friday night for a teaching appointment with a less active named Bruder C. He's Italian and he's a boss. We got there about an hour early somehow, so we went dooring. We did one street in that hour, and found 10 potential investigators on one street. Fun stuff. We had a great lesson with Bruder C where he kinda just told us his background. It was fun. He also gave us free food. Super nice. Then he gave me a wet kiss on the cheek. Dang it. Haha. That was a good day. 

So I thought it couldn't possibly get better. Then on Saturday, a woman calls us, former investigator, and she asks if we could come over. So we go over and she's got a friend there who turns out to be a lost member. She wants to be reactivated and bring her friend to church. P is the investigator, S is the less active. Super good deal. We taught them both and they were at church on Sunday. After that, we tried to go by on a FreiChrist family in Ludwigsburg. They weren't home, but then Bruder H from the ward called and told us that he got a call from a less active who had moved back in about a month ago and the guy needed a priesthood blessing. So we tried our best to get out there and it looked like it wasn't going to work out to where we could get home before 9:30, like we're supposed to. My companion was a little opposed to it, but I've always been taught and it's fest in my mind, that if someone asks for a Priesthood Blessing, and if you have an opportunity to exercise the Priesthood, you drop everything to do it. That ALWAYS comes first. Before anything. So we talked about it and ended up going. This guy, S, is from Greece. He was baptized in this ward about 2 years ago, then moved back to Greece, before moving back here about 2 months ago. He has some liver and blood problems that have been rough on him and he was having some specific problems on that day. He asked if we would give him a blessing, but before we did it, he invited everyone in the house to come in. His little brother (nonmember), friend (nonmember), girlfriend (nonmember), and 2 kids (one is a member the other is 7). I was a little nervous, because I had to anoint and give the blessing in German, because my companion can't German at all. But I started talking and just like I've always experienced, words come that you have no idea where they are coming from. It's such a great experience to exercise the Priesthood. Afterwards we sat down and these nonmembers just bombarded us with questions. We ended up talking and having the greatest conversation I've had since R on my mission. We talked for about 2 hours and they left, each with a Book of Mormon, pass along card, and Restoration pamphlet in hand. Such a great experience. It's fun being a missionary! It was awesome. 

Sunday, we had L at church. She's 11, and it's a part member family. She's at church every week and loves it, she just needs that extra push right now to be baptized this month. We're going to get her though. P and S were there as well, and we sat down with Bishop and talked about some plans we have and people we're working with. Really exciting. I enjoyed the week a lot. It's great to be a missionary, and there's so many miracles to enjoy. I love you all and hope you have a great week. I'd love to hear from you! 

Elder Sam Hadfield

Stuttgarterstraße 125/1

74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen

Deutschland

Ludwigsburg - Week 5

Hey Family,

Transfers are as follows.

Our district goes this way: Pforzheim stays the same. Heilbronn changes it up. Ludwigsburg changes a lot. The DL, will go Zone Leader in Wien. Elder Werner goes to Landshut, (super lucky), and I will train this transfer and be district leader. It will be fun. Only 2 elders here now. We're going to go crazy next transfer tearing this area apart. I can't wait. We'll inherit a lot of investigators and an extra area book, so there will be no shortage of work.

As for the iPad question, we got them. We're working with them and for now, they're there for teaching, finding, studying, and planning. We won't have the area book on there before I get home, because of copyright laws, and we're hoping to start social media somewhere in the next year, so I might not get much experience with that either. The iPad isn't life changing, it's just a really nice upgrade. Gospel Library is just blowing my mind. I am having so much fun with it. We sure do enjoy having them. They're very very very very restricted, but it's gotta be that way. Got some of my scripture marking transferred, and I love cross referencing at the touch of a button. So enjoyable. So I can start throwing away needless books now. :)  I synced it to my LDS.org account, so I'll always have all the markings and materials.

There was a cool experience yesterday that I had with the iPad. I downloaded a bunch of videos at the church last week sometime, and we've been showing them in lessons and what not. But yesterday, we were at a member's house, and their 5 year old little girl said she wanted to see if I had something on the iPad. I assured her there were no games or anything on it, but she was adamant that I show her. So I was showing her there were no games or anything and to my surprise she pops open Gospel Library, and goes to the Mormon Messages and finds the one she saw in Primary one time. We were able to watch it together with her family, and an investigator. It really showed me that the work is moving forward and that this coming generation is really going to be incredibly blessed by the use of technology in Missionary Work. Super cool stuff. The work goes immer vorwärts!
 

Can't believe Matt and Jake are home. I bet they were both outstanding missionaries. No doubts about it. Crazy stuff, this time flies. Speaking of which, it's already summer..... wow. Well yeah, the next few days will be spent by me in bed while Elder Werner packs. I got hit by a car on Saturday. Nothing too bad, this Porsche just came flying around the corner and upended me onto the hood. It was weird. I'm sore, but nothing too bad. I kinda got up and kept walking. Funny stuff that happens. I'll have to be more careful. (;

Well thanks for everything dad, I hope it was a great Fathers Day. I guess you know that Father's Day isn't the same here, it's celebrated with Mother's Day, so I forgot all about it. Thanks for all you do for me.  I love you!!!! 

Elder Sam Hadfield

Stuttgarterstraße 125/1

74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen

Deutschland

Ludwigsburg - Week 4

R - Ludwigsburg

R got baptized on Saturday. It's been great helping her get ready. Fun fact - I had an exchange in Singen last transfer and I taught her sister right before her sister got baptized, then I came here and learned that they were sisters! (; Hahaha it was funny. It was a wonderful experience. She loved the experience she had. The baptism was everything I've dreamed. She was really really prepared. I kinda just walked into this one, but it was still wonderful to see. Since I got here, we've taught her the commandments and she didn't have any problems and she was really excited that the church had been restored to the earth. It was cool to see her prepare herself for baptism and so forth. We confirmed her on Sunday and it was a good experience as well. She is from Nigeria and has a little girl that is about 2 months old now. She's going to be strong. She doesn't speak any German, so her teaching was all English. She really loves the missionaries and had that great desire. I sat next to her in church and translated for her yesterday and she was very interactive, scriptures popped open whenever there was something to read and everything.

 Today for P Day we went to a castle that was built in the year 1700. It was so cool. We took a tour and they wouldn't let us take pictures inside. It was literally awesome. So much fun. (: We had a great time.

 I was debating about telling you this, but you wanted details. So here are details. (; hahaha

There was a really scary moment we got into today. It was honestly like the two brothers two episode on mormon channel. I was with a greenie at Bahnhof coming to do emails. There was a guy that got out of a train and yelled that he put a bomb in the train, then the train left, he grabbed some guy and threw him onto the tracks and was beating the crap out of him with a glass bottle. It took about 2 seconds before instincts kicked in and the other Elder grabbed the guy and I was dragging this bloody guy off the tracks. The guy got away onto another train going the opposite direction, but the guy that got mugged really found it interesting that 2 men of God were there to help him. We gave him a blessing and he was doing pretty well before the police got there. Definitely certain situations that the Lord puts us in to affect the lives of other people. It was cool. In those split seconds, two thoughts came to my mind:
1) What would Jesus do? We obviously had the option of sitting there and backing off watching this guy get beat, but the Spirit hit me and told me to step in. It's funny how the Spirit works even in drastic situations like that.
2) I could never live my life the same knowing that I sat there and watched something like that happen when I was a representative of Him. Simple fact.

So there's details! (; I've had ones scarier than that, but you will never hear about those!!

Ludwigsburg - Week 3

 I'm doing good in my new area so far. It's hard but I'm fine. I got a cool haircut today so there's that.

The things you asked about:

Semmel, I love those things. We eat those all the time. When I was with Elder Howarth, they had a deal at the grocery store where you could get 10 of those things for a buck. He and I would always drop by and get those and a Coke and have an afternoon snack. Way cool! 

I had it with Leberkäse back in Landshut quite a bit. They don't do it quite the same here, and the meat isn't as good, but still good. Almdudler is an Austria-only thing. Haven't quite gotten there yet! My German visa expires the day I end my 4th transfer here in Ludwigsburg, October 29, so we'll see what President decides. 

Oma's are still quite common..... so to say. There's old ladies everywhere. I bet they would be more prevalent in Bayern and so forth, but we still run into some people who have REALLY been around the block. 

I've heard a little history of the ward and gotten to know where it started and a little more about that. Kinda cool to see the seeds that were planted long ago take root. Our visit with the Rohrer's was just awesome. She can cook my heavens. They have some stories that you just can't hear anywhere else, and they talked a lot about Alex and Genni Lott (members of Sam's home ward). They have pictures of them and their family as well. Ludwigsburg is really cool, but I find Bietigheim very very pretty. I haven't been in Ludwigsburg enough, but the Altstadt in Bietigheim is just WOW. It's gorgeous. I took pictures there this week but left my camera cord at the apartment. Next week! 

Well there's a little bit for you. I'm excited for all the new things to roll out. June 17th, new iPads and so forth. We're going to Munich to get them and have Zone Conference. Transfers are June 20th and we'll see what that brings!

Elder Sam Hadfield

Stuttgarterstraße 125/1

74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen

Deutschland