Goodbye, Passau! - Passau - Week 11 ~ Hello, Offenburg! - Week 1

Hello Friends and Family,

So, as things turn out, this is my last week in Passau. It sure has been a wild ride. I love this place, and I really hope I can come back someday. The interesting thing is that there are 30 missionaries leaving and only 6 coming, then next transfer there are 30 more leaving, and 10 or so coming. Then the next transfer 30 leave and 10 come. So we lose 60 missionaries or so in the next few months. Areas are being closed everywhere and we're down a lot of missionaries. So hopefully that means a bunch of the guys from high school get called here!

 Honestly, they need someone who is really experienced in Passau because they closed the sisters here and one of us kind of expected to leave.  Elder Barnhart is training again (because he is SO good at it) and I am headed to Lahr!  Elder Barnhart has a 4-man job on his shoulders here in Passau and he's a little stressed out about it. 

(; Hahaha

Passau to Offenburg GERMANY

I'll be living in a 4-man apartment with some really cool missionaries, including the one that trained Elder Barnhart, and my new companion is Elder Mohn. 

Sidenote:  His mom found my mom and sent her a friend request on Facebook, then copied our family picture, and sent it to Elder Mohn to see if she had the right family!  He said, "Mom, you're already creeping on my new companion!  Yes, that's him!"  His mom says that Elder Mohn is a funny guy and a hard worker who likes to take lots of pictures on P-day!  Their family is from Arizona.

It should really be a fun and exciting new area, the thing that sucks is leaving and saying goodbye to everybody. But, I'm really excited for Lahr, it's in the middle of Schwarzwald and right on the border of France. So I've been to 2 corners out of the 3 in the mission that I can go to. My guess is that I will be in Lahr for a long time. Dad will have to ask Elder Bartholomew about Lahr. Elder Bartholomew sure has done some great good here.  I'm honored to follow him.  Not much to tell about investigators. Nobody has had time to meet. We have met some really, really cool people on the street who love to talk, but have no interest. I think the biggest miracle of my mission so far is the lack of a language boundary. I don't feel any stress over speaking or understanding German. Just a desire to become fluent. I'm sure that point will come.

One of the best parts of my weekend was yesterday. They asked us all (4 missionaries) to bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting and we decided to sing the EFY Medley in German.

One of the awesome things, is that since our zone is partly in Switzerland, we get to go to the temple in Switzerland every transfer. I will probably also be there for a long time, because Elder Mohn goes home in 2 transfers, and I will probably be staying through the summer when all the new missionaries come in.  (Don't worry Mom, I'm already packed, you don't have do it for me again - Thank heavens.)

Thanks to those who sent me things for Christmas and I want to send my greatest condolences to the Lires family. Sister Lires had a great affect on my life and I will forever remember her example of gratitude, reverence and love whenever we would take the sacrament to her.  No matter how awful she felt, she insisted on kneeling to show proper respect.  

An eventful week over here with transfers.  I'm really excited to be doing what I am doing, and I love missionary work! That's all for this week. Have an awesome week everybody, I hope to hear from you!  Love,  

Elder Samuel Hadfield

Friedrichstrasse 26

77654 Offenburg

Germany

Passau - Week 10

Elder Hadfield, R, and Elder Barnhart

Hey Everybody Servus!!

How are things back home? I hope you all had as great of a New Year's as I did. It was super super cool. We all went to a family's house and watched them blow up fireworks and played little kindergarten games with the kids which was one of the most entertaining parts of my mission so far. (: I hope everything is good and you have a positive outlook for this year. 2014 is a year I will never forget for so many reasons, and probably the best year of my life up to this point. I'm ready and excited for this year. 

My message today will be centered around our golden investigator, R. I have told you all the story up to this point. What I never told you is our worries with him. He, being a college party kid, has had an issue with alcohol. That's just what he loves to do on weekends with his friends. So obviously it was a concern. So we had planned to talk to him about the word of wisdom on Friday night when we were on an Austausch (exchange). Elder Fox, from Neuötting, and I taught him at the church. We showed up a little early and planned to show him the church's new year's video. Well, he finally got there, and we watched the video and right after the video, he said he had something to tell us. To give you a little brief introduction, this video from the church is about Lot's wife, when she was commanded to leave and on her way out, she looked back, and turned into a pillar of salt. The message is don't look back. She didn't know what the future had in store for her, it could have been better than the past. R looked at us and said that on New Year's Eve, he knelt down and told Heavenly Father that this year he was going to become a member of this church and to do that he would never drink alcohol again after that night. So he went out and partied and woke up that next morning with the goal fixed in his mind that he was finished forever with alcohol. We hadn't even broken into the lesson yet! We hadn't even taught the Word of Wisdom, before he had the impression that he needed to change. He chose without our help to not look back and move into the future. My message to you is DON'T LOOK BACK. The Lord has amazing things in store. Start fresh, start new. (: 

To expound, yesterday in Fast and Testimony Meeting, R got up to bear his testimony. We had been working on prayer lately because he said he felt like he didn't God to guide his life through prayer, because he was already being guided by Him in other ways. He stood up and walked to the pulpit, and he said that his friend needed something that week and so he prayed for her, and the next day, she received it. The next day, he went to a party where you were supposed to bring a book that was important, so he decided to do a little missionary work and take the Book of Mormon and the Bible and tell others how they were related. He opened to a random scripture in the Bible, and it was Isaiah 41:10 which says

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 

He said at that moment he knew God was guiding him and that he needed a relationship with him. He said that he got on his knees that night, and he felt a little silly, but because we had asked him to, he did it. He asked our Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon is true. He felt an overwhelming comfort and peace that it is. He is AMAZING. I sat in back beaming from ear to ear. I couldn't believe it. I'm pumped out of my mind. I love R more than I thought I could love anybody here. It's awesome to see him progress. He'll be ready. 

But, my main challenge for you is to share your testimonies this year. 1 Timothy 4:12 tells us to be an example of the believers. Sharing your testimony doesn't exactly mean that you have to tell other people what you believe. But, if you everywhere you go, mirror the Savior's image in your face and actions, you'll build the testimonies of others as well as your own. Then, we all grow together. For your New Year's Resolutions, think about this. The Lord can't work on what He doesn't have, so be willing to give yourself to Him. If you do that this new year and become truly an example of the believers, then what reason do we have to look back? There is my challenge for you! (: I love you all, Happy New Year!

Elder Samuel Phillip Hadfield

Eggendobl 4a

D-94034 Passau

Germany