Passau - Week 9

Hey everybody!

How was your Christmas? I know mine was nearly perfect. It sure was great.  We have too many toys and too much candy.  We don't know what to do with ourselves!  Elder Barnhart and I are just totally smashed. We are so tired it's ridiculous.   I really enjoyed Skyping time with my family last week. It was way cool to see all of their faces on Christmas morning.

So, I don't have a lot of time this week, but I want to again thank you all for your prayers. They mean so much. I told you all about R - the referral we got from Church Headquarters about a month ago. We came back from District Meeting on Tuesday and we were planning to talk with him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We got there, and after our prayer, we told him what we were going to talk about, and he said, 'Oh, like in 2 Nephi 31, right?' Hahaha, we were so blown away. He asked us if we had seen the email he sent us and we hadn't. In it, he said that he read 2 Nephi 31, and thought it was so cool, that he read it again. He wrote in the email about how excited he was that there is a chance for him to start fresh through baptism. He couldn't make it to church on Sunday because he was with his friends family at a Catholic mass, but he said he felt an emptiness without being in the House of God. We didn't even have to teach anything! He is coming so well, and we set that baptism date for the 21st of February. He really wants to finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism, which shouldn't be a problem because he is into Alma after just 3 weeks of reading. It blows my mind how amazing these people are, and how the Lord has prepared those hearts for us. We just have to be BOLD and willing to share our message! 

 
Thanks again for all your support! I love you all.

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany

Christmas Day 2014

Skype - December 25, 2014
Passau, Germany
Church Family History Center

We were able to Skype with Sam around 10 am MST today.  It was a wonderful visit!  He told us all about the progress of the people they are meeting with.  R has a baptism date set for February and just finished 2 Nephi with deep feelings about baptism and a new start.  B is progressing slowly, and they have another appointment this week.  C is progressing very slowly, and is seeking baptism but still has a few things to work out.  He is reading the Book of Mormon and is in Alma.  Elder Barnhart is a District Leader, and therefore they travel quite a bit for exchanges with other missionaries.  Sam is having the opportunity to go work with other missionaries and he is loving it!  They were in Landshut again this week where they travel for district meeting and meeting with members of their branch. Their area goes up to the border of the Czech Republic and their area covers several hundred square miles.

What impressed us was how happy Sam is.  He said he would not want to be anywhere else right now.  He and Elder Barnhart laugh a lot together, and they have become good friends.  Elder Barnhart mentions that Sam eats well because Elder Barnhart makes dinner every night, and he made the comment that Sam plays a mad piano.  Elder Barnhart is grateful Sam has a supply of bleach pens for his white shirts.  Sam was able to bear his testimony in German for us.  It was such a delight. When our 45 minutes were up, we all expressed our love and Sam said goodbye and clicked off.  No time for long drawn-out goodbyes or tears.  He just seemed delightfully happy - which makes his family happy.  It was the absolute sweetest highlight of our entire winter!  Merry Christmas to us!

Passau - Week 8

My dearest Family and Friends,

Servus! Fröhliche Weihnachten! I miss all of you especially at this time of the year. I wish you the happiest Christmas ever. (: 

I was thinking about what in the world I was going to say this week, and I have been clueless about what to say. It has been stuck in the back of my mind forever. "What am I going to say on Christmas?" Nothing feels quite right. Hopefully I can share something helpful. 

So, in the past couple weeks, I have hit the Christmas Spirit hard. I just wake up every morning and feel it run through me and it's really awesome. The past couple weeks, we've been sharing with our members and investigators the Joy to the World DVD. I saw it once with my family but I couldn't remember it. So we were handing these DVDs out and it didn't mean much to us. This week, we had a Tausch (companion exchange) with Neuötting. We went to a member's house and had lunch. There was about 5 members there with us. It was a whole lot of food for us to eat. But, enough about that. To tell you about the host members family, the father had a stroke about a year ago and is struggling to get better, and the mom is struggling to support the family. You can just see that it is really weighing on them. We finished with our food, and sat down to watch the Joy to the World DVD. It started playing and we were all watching and members started arguing about the history of the Tabernacle Choir. It was absolutely annoying. Hahaha. But as we kept going, I noticed that about halfway through it got really quiet. Half the members were asleep. Hahahaha. They were all old so it was understandable, but at least it was quiet. The mom and the dad were still awake and intently watching. Towards the end, the Tabernacle Choir started singing, and I flashed back all of a sudden to Christmas at home. I ran through everything we do during Christmas at home and just had the deepest sense of love for some reason. I specifically remembered laying by the fire and watching the Joy to the World DVD as a family. I looked over, and the father couldn't move, but just had tears streaming down his face. Along with the mom. We were all just crying together. We had the most amazing conversation about His birth. Then, on Sunday, we were watching the First Presidency ChristmasDevotional for Sacrament Meeting. The closing song was Silent Night, where they included the congregation for the 3rd verse. The camera flashed out over the conference center, and I remembered all the times sitting there through Priesthood with my dad, and it just felt like we were all singing the same song together. It was just an overwhelming feeling. 

I guess really what I'm trying to get at is that I am really really grateful to be in the mission field at this time of the year. I was walking down the street today and realized that in 3 days it's Christmas. Wow. I'm really excited to wake up on Christmas morning and spend a few days focused 100% on Him who was born, lived, and died for me. I whole-heartedly challenge you to do so. Christmas is completely and totally the celebration of Christ. His Birth, His Teachings, His Miracles, His Death, His Resurrection. There is a phrase in Germany that goes Wende dein Gesicht der Sonne zu, dann fallen die Schatten hinter dich. Which directly translated, says, "Turn your face to the sun, then the shadows fall behind you. Lately, however, I've been looking at it as 

Turn your face to the Son,

Then the shadows fall behind you. 

Our world is in desperate need of some Son. We, as members and disciples of Him, should have a desire to help others. But, you have to do it and live it, before you can challenge others to do so. So, turn your face to the Son, and let the shadows fall behind you.

I love you all, and I wish you a very very Merry Christmas. The next time I email will be New Year's day, so I will talk to you all in the New Year! (:

Love,

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany

Tallest Brick Building in the World

Passau District

Munich & Stuttgart Zones - Christmas Conference

European 2-pant Suit - $100 US Dollars

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Outside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Catholic Cathedral - Dom (Inside)

Exchanges

Elder Barnhart and I having a little fun with a Catholic Statue

Elders Hadfield, Killpack, Barnhart, Talbert

District Meeting - Passau

Branch Christmas Party

Passau - Week 7

Familie und weiter! Servus!

Can you believe we are here a week before Christmas? Wow.  R made it back to church this week, C and B are on vacation. (Aren't all Europeans?) It is way cold here. Like freezing. Hahaha. No snow yet though.

Time sure flies out here. I don't have too much time this week, but I just want to share a short thought.

We had our zone Christmas Conference this week. It was super awesome. Towards the end, President Kohler busted out Meet the Mormons and we watched it together. I loved it! You were all definitely right when you said it was awesome. I love the stories of each and how different, yet the same, they all are. President actually received the first copy of the movie to ever exist in Europe. So nobody here has ever seen it. Hahahah. 

But the thought I wanted to share comes from Sister Kohler. I'm sure, I hope, you have all noticed the new Christmas initiative from the church. I hope you're watching the video, and #ShareTheGift 'ing all over Twitter and such. It is really such a great push from the church to get the message out there about the true meaning of Christmas. Sister Kohler talked about one of the greatest gifts she received, which was a watch from President Kohler, while she was on her mission. By the way, President and Sister Kohler are only 50. But, then, she talked about what literally is the greatest gift she has ever received. She shared ways that we can all receive the gift this holiday season, so I'll share them with you. 

1. Learn of Him as much as you can

    -our mission challenge is for everyone to finish the 4 gospels before Christmas. It is a really good way to learn about Him and His life, and what He was like.

2. Reverence Him

    -it is kind of interesting that this second step follows the first. It seems kind of automatic that if you learn of Him, you'll reverence Him.

3. Follow Him

    -Do your best to do the things He wants you to do, not just what you feel like doing. Walk in His footsteps

4. Using the Gift

    - Truly accepting the Gift means letting the Atonement clean us. It means giving our sins away, instead of foolishly holding onto them. 

So there is your 4 steps to receiving the gift! Now go do it. Get buckets and don't forget the rebounds baby!

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany

Passau - Week 6

Servus Familie und Freundin!

Wie geht's euch??

Wow. Wow. I really owe all of you a big thank you. 

Last Sunday, Elder Barnhart and I sat across the desk from each other wondering what the heck we were going to do this week. We had absolutely nothing planned, because there was nobody to meet with. I mentioned in my email last week that our investigator pool dropped to 0, and I asked for your prayers. Well, your prayers are better than mine apparently. (; This was by FAR the best week of my mission, and maybe one of the best weeks of my life. I need to tell you about it.

So, on Monday we had our P-Day, which was pretty uneventful. We also had a former investigator call us and yell at us for dropping brownies by. (Who doesn't want brownies?!) So, pretty uneventful.

On Tuesday we took an hour and a half train ride to Landshut for District Meeting. It was our final District Meeting with our district before transfer day. It was way fun. The only thing is that on District Meeting days our day gets shot because of the train rides and the 30 minute walk it takes to get to the Church in Landshut. But, when we got back, B called and invited us over.

On Wednesday,we woke up and went over to B's house. He is a Nigerian refugee who has been taught for almost a year... He had been on vacation in Nürnberg for the past 4 weeks, so I had only met him once before. He got back and invited us over. He told us he didn't want to meet anymore because he wasn't happy in his life. We asked how much he reads in the Book of Mormon and he said, "Not at all." We spent the next hour and a half bearing testimony and crying together. He really got it. We left with a return appointment and a nice commitment to read and pray. I started to think this week was not going to be so bad at all. Then, on the bus ride home, a former investigator, C, called and said he wanted to be baptized for New Year's. HAHAHA. Out of nowhere. We were like "Wow, this day couldn't get any better." Then, we walked home and we had received a referral from Salt Lake Headquarters. This was the biggest miracle of the week. We popped it open and it said R. . .. We looked at the map and the guy lives around the corner from the church. We flip the page and there's an email from this guy. He talks about how he saw the Lindsey Stirling interview and wanted to meet the missionaries. We were PUMPED. 

Thursday, we go over to R's house. He let's us in happily and is excited to talk. He is 24, a student here, and German. But we sat down and he started talking in American English. We asked why and he said that he thinks Americans are better, and he likes the culture more. BOSS. Then, out of nowhere he whips out a BASEBALL BAT. Tell me how many Europeans you know that love baseball.... He is a huge fan of baseball. They have this small Sandlot here in Passau and he and a couple friends go play there all the time. So sick. I pulled a Book of Mormon out of my bag and as soon as he saw it he was like, "I want to read that book." Hahaha, nothing is holding you back, my friend. We had the first lesson, which can be hard to understand, and he looks at us, and says that it makes total sense to him. We left walking in the clouds. We texted him that night, because he only has a tablet, no phone, and he said he was really sorry to tell us that he only had time to read the first 13 chapters.... HAHAHA oh my gosh.

Friday, we go back to B's. We teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and just hammer baptism with him. We set a baptism date with a man who has been taught for a year. January 24thafter he gets back from work in Nürnberg. MIRACLE. (By the way, we text R back and he's finished with 1st Nephi)

Saturday, we went to a baptism for another area in our district and I had to play the organ. I've never played the organ before in my life! It went well though. It was really cool to see, and obviously very spiritual. Awesome!

Sunday came, and we showed up to church, and there is R waiting at the door in a new suit, our other former investigator, and B. It was Fast Sunday, so everybody, all 30 people, in our branch, were bearing testimonies. The time was almost up, and all of a sudden, R gets up and walks up there, and bears the most beautiful testimony in the world. (WHERE DID THIS GUY COME FROM???) We haven't set an exact date for our former investigator C, but next week we will. 

So what I owe you, is a huge thank you. I believe your prayers led our footsteps this week. Sometimes, combined faith, is a lot more powerful than just one, and that was definitely seen this week. I am so thankful for all of you. I just want to leave one thought about prayer and really life in general.

It's my favorite quote:

"Out of all the titles deserving of a Deity, a creator of the universe, and ruler of all men, He has asked us to address Him as Father."

His love is truly that of a Father, and I bear that witness.

I love you all!

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany