Goodbye Ludwigsburg! - Week 11

Montag 27 Juli  

Today was an interesting day. We had our studies and shopping to start off the day. Afterwards, we came back and hung around the apartment for an hour or two. Afterwards, we went to Stuttgart and played some frisbee and soccer with the Zone Leaders and the International elders. We also climbed the tower at Killesberg when it was raining sideways, so that was a cool experience. I'll attach a picture from that. I haven't cut my hair for a long time because I am broke as crap, so don't judge. Afterwards, we emailed and then went to the other apartment. We grabbed a couple books, one to take to a member who asked for one, and one to take to district meeting. That was our day for the most part. Oh, I talked to a crazy guy on the Bahnhof bench, and he and I had a great conversation about traveling. It was an interesting conversation to have. He was nice enough though. Fun day.

Dienstag 28 Juli 

Woo! What a day! We woke up, and got some studies done, then traveled over to Pforzheim for district meeting and a finding day. The Heilbronn elders had a 30 minute delay on their train, which was too bad because it took time away from what we wanted to get done, but so be it. We had district meeting in the Pforzheim apartment and it was really fun. It was a good meeting, we had to cut short a little bit, but that was fine. We worked out the finding day assignments and then went over to a Chinese Buffet. Yay. It was so good, but extremely filling and man did we all get bloated. Woo. Afterwards, we went finding and I was with Elder Bates. We talked to so many people and a lot of them were good conversations, but just didn't get anywhere in the end. We went for about 2 hours. It was fun though! I had a great time. Afterwards, we came back to Ludwigsburg to go to an eating appointment. I was sure I wouldn't survive. She cooked for 4 missionaries because she forgot there was just 2 of us now. There was so much food. Oh man. It was the Schiwek family, and they are cool. They've got 3 kids, and they actually met while she was on her mission, because he was her ward mission leader. They fell in love and got married after she went home. Since then, he's gone way inactive and apostate as well. He and I don't mix well...

He was extremely against his daughter being baptized when she turned 8, and he is always looking for ways to bash on the church. I had only talked to him once before, and he was pretty nice when there was 4 of us elders there. So we went over with Johann, another member.

He proceeded to start the plural marriage argument, along with some highly false doctrinal arguments, and my companion is still brand new so he couldn't understand. I was ignoring him the best I could. His wife hates it when he does this, so she was like, "I think you've said enough honey." But he just kept going. I know he was trying to get underneath my skin, and I hate that I let it get to me. I was doing my absolute best to move the conversation along, and then he looks at me and goes, "I guess your German just isn't good enough to talk to me." Now THAT was it. I couldn't take it anymore. We exchanged cross words for a little while when the kids left the room and we could say what we wanted to say. He then he started talking about his new Evangelical church he goes to, and how there he doesn't have to live a health code, he doesn't have to pay tithing, and several other things, and then I got him good. I said, "Oh so you just go where there's nothing expected of you?" he left the room. I was so happy to get out of there.

... I've been steaming for the past couple hours now. Partly because this morning I weighed 178, and tonight I weighed 187. Dang it. Hahaha. It was a really good day though, and I'm happy I don't have to look back and wish I had said something to Brother Schiwek. Maybe that'll spark something in him. Who knows? Great day.

Mittwoch 29 Juli 

Wow. Well, today was pretty good. We both woke up so sick. I thought I was dying. My inside wanted to be on my outside, courtesy of Brian Regan. We studied, then I took a nap instead of eating lunch, and we went out. We had a lesson with Theresa, and it went really well. The Spirit was really powerful and we talked about the restoration more in depth with her. It was a great lesson. Afterwards we came back to do language study and then went dooring a little bit in our area, before heading over to the church for our meeting with Bruder Westrich. We had an awesome discussion and set some more foundation for what we are trying to do. The great thing I think was that he had a computer out and was taking notes and very attentive, as opposed to the other GML's I've had on my mission who don't really care. That was cool. Afterwards we came back, and I worked out. That was the day. It sucks to be sick, but I promised myself at the very beginning, that there will be no 'days off'. Every day I gotta give my all, regardless of whether I'm feeling well or not. Tomorrow is a very full day though, so I hope I feel better!

Donnerstag 30 Juli 

Well today has been pretty good. I felt a lot better this morning even though I got about 2 hours of sleep. That's the life. You'd think you could escape the high school/college late nights by coming on a mission, but no. Well, today, we had studies, then went over to Marbach, a little ways away down the S4 line. We were in service clothes to help Peter and Bettina move some stuff to their Keller. He's a member who has some real disciplinary issues right now, and she's a non member. She's also Ms. Germany. Just saying. She won Ms. Germany a few years back. Out in Marbach, they had a Floh-Markt going. A 'flea market', which is American for 'a poor man's shopping dream', and missionary for 'dream come true'. We were just walking through, and I saw a good looking watch, and Elder Monson broke my other one about 3 months ago. So I grabbed it. It's some pretty cool bling. Anywho, we went over to Peter's and helped him for about an hour. He's got a real cool house and it's right in the middle of the city market. His basement is like a medieval dungeon, which is not rare at all here. The area where I'm at was around 1200 years ago. Crazy right? Afterwards, Peter wanted me to explain baseball to him. He's a big sports guy. He was the women's national ice hockey coach here in Germany. So we had a fun conversation. Then Ms. Germany Bettina came home. She wants to get baptized, but they're living together, and there's too many problems at this point, along with a lack of desire on Peter's part to make progress. Baby steps. But we got to teach Ms. Germany. Now that was cool. Not many other missionaries will say that. It was fun, really good start to the day. Then we went over to the church so I could write our ward email and get some stuff done on the computer, then we went home, got dressed into regular clothes, and went to our dinner appointment with the Zimmers. It was awesome. They are both super cool. They're that old married couple that argues but loves each other so much they just can't stand it. Her dinner was really good. We had a great lesson with them, and they invited us over for Elder Sorensen's birthday next month. That will be good.

Freitag 31 Juli 

So July comes to an end. Wow. Never imagined being here. If any of you can find the button that stops time, hit me with it. Today was great. The Ehepaar called this morning and we went over and helped fix up the other apartment to get it ready for the sisters. We're for sure getting sisters now. (: that will be cool. After all that, (it took hours), we went to Familie Stein for dinner. It was so good. He grilled for us and made corn on the cob, it was unreal. I was feeling right at home. Well, tomorrow is transfer calls, so we will see what happens with that. I'm feeling that we will both stay! I hope I stay.

Samstag 1 August

August already? Man. Well, it's still early morning, but we got transfer calls bright and early. President called. I'm going to Munich to be a Zone Leader with Elder Croft, and Elder Sorensen stays here and gets Elder Barnhart!!!! Wow. Such a cool transfer call. Sisters Poll and Cook are coming here. I wish I could stay and see it here, but Munich will be awesome. I'm really excited. Maybe I can Tausch back into Passau!! (: I will also be in Munich for Oktoberfest!!! Gotta get me some Lederhosen or something. It will be way cool. So today we taught Theresa about prayer and how it helps. She said a prayer for us at the end and did a great job with it. She's pretty upset that I'm leaving. Most people do get upset when missionaries leave. Afterwards, we went to Bruder Cataldo's, and my stupid set in. I checked the bus schedule for Monday-Friday instead of Saturday. So we got one of our priests to go with us, and we were waiting for the bus, and I was having a great conversation with some guy on the bus bench, when Bruder Cataldo calls, and tells me it's Saturday, there is no bus. Dang it. I was ready to cancel the appointment and go home, but he goes, "I even bought pizza for you." Double dang it. I didn't want to put it to waste, so I admitted the defeat that we would be home late, and we made the hour long walk out to his place to eat pizza and read in the scriptures with him. We got there at about 8. Stayed till 9:30, and we were going to make the hour long walk back, but he called a taxi without us knowing and put 12€ in my hand. I tried to pay him back, and he got mad. Like he was going into rage mode. So we admitted defeat and I took my first taxi ride on a mission. Triple dang it. Pizza was good though.

Sonntag 2 August

Today was my goodbye to the Ward. It was good. I gave my testimony and it was awesome. We had great classes and what not. Then we did studies the rest of the day. That was it. Good week!

Ludwigsburg - Week 10

Hey ya'll!

Montag 20 Juli

Alright, so today was swell. We started out by studying and going shopping. We then came back and cleaned up the place. It's looking good. We had a lesson with L, our little 11 year old girl who is in the part member/less active family. We asked the baptismal questions and she was really sharp and ready to share her knowledge and testimony, it was awesome! We were talking about the baptism a little bit. It's so discouraging because she wanted her grandpa to baptize her and we had it all set up so that would work out, and last week he had a minor heart attack and is in the hospital now with his left arm totally paralyzed. All together, we don't think it would be right to go forward with the baptism while grandpa is laying in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. So we're waiting until he gets out so he can at least attend. But, this also leaves no worthy members of her family to baptize her. We gotta find someone new to do it, but someone that's special to her. The family is also going on vacation for 2 weeks coming up here, so we're looking at beginning-middle September for L's baptism. Yeahhhh. We had emails after that. Emails were great. I got to talk to a lot of friends around the mission and at home. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we came back home and planned. Today, I started the 13 week P90X3 block again. Tonight was the Total Synergistics. That was fun. I'm beat! Going to bed.

Dienstag 21 Juli

Today was an awesome day. Elder Sorensen and I got up at 5:30 and went down to the soccer field. We played soccer for a little bit and threw a football around. It's a good thing to get the brain going in the morning. At about 6:30 we came back. I did the Agility X workout which is a fun one. That was tiring. After all that, we had studies from 9-10, and then at 10:30 we took the train down to Stuttgart for District Meeting. It takes about 10 minutes to get all the way into the Hauptbahnhof there. It's also under heavy renovation and construction which they hope to finish by 2021. You wouldn't believe how crazy that place is. There was a missionary last transfer that got pickpocketed there. His year card and wallet, gone. Oh man. But district meeting was great. We had a decent one. I could have personally planned for it better. That's ok though. We had lunch afterwards at Milaneo, Germany's biggest shopping center. It's huge. It's like a girls dream. After that we had Austausch planned, so I went to Heilbronn with Elder Gappmayer and Elder Sorensen and Elder Bliss stayed. Elder Gappmayer is in his 3rd transfer and desperately trying to get comfortable communicating with people and adjusted to missionary work. I'm glad I get to work with him a couple days. We went to Lauffen, which is just outside of Heilbronn, first. We were dooring there and this guy answered and I told him about the restoration and he was like, 'Wow, this really makes sense!' He took a Book after a nice little lesson on the doorstep. Then another guy invited us in to talk. We talked with him for about 45 minutes. It was a great lesson. It was cool to see. That was pretty much our day. It was 100 degrees again today, so I'm just drained. I'm out!

Mittwoch 22 Juli

Well, as I was sleeping last night, we got a text from Church HQ, a referral yay! We were doing studies and an electrician came over to fix some stuff. He got outta there so fast. Then Elder and Sister Bos, the Ehepaar, came to inspect the apartment. They hadn't done an excellent cleaning job, but it was fine. They took us out to lunch afterwards, (aren't senior couples the best?), and then we came back and finished studying, when the breaker box started going haywire. We would flip it on and it would work for about 2 minutes, then blow again. Turns out Mr. Handy Dandy Electrician Dingus was in such a hurry to get out of there, he did his job wrong. Wooo way to go buddy. So we had to wait for him to come back and fix it. After all that, we jumped on a tram and took it for about 15 minutes to go by on a guy they had lost contact with. On the tram, I sat with 2 girls from Australia, who were with their grandma from England. They were so cool. They were just on vacation, but I told them I was from Utah and of course, they don't know that, but you say Las Vegas and California, people know. So I said California and they were super interested to hear what it's like. They were so cool. They were like 17 or 18. We had a lot of fun just talking for 15 mins. Australia seems like the place to be. I'm not coming home, I'm just going to Australia. But yeah, we went by on this guy and turns out, he's in Hamburg. What the heck. So we doored the area without much success, then came back. We still had about an hour, so we went dooring again! It was so frustrating though. The building was 4 floors high, so we're hitting the doorbells from the outside of the apartment building and you ALWAYS start top to bottom. It's an unwritten rule. So we start on the top floor, and the first guy lets us in, we walk up 4 floors and he slams the door. So we got back out, do the next guy, he lets us in, we walk up 4 floors, and he slams the door. Haha all the way down to the first floor. I hate stairs. The next building I doored a guy on the top floor and he leaned out his window and I started talking to him and he told me he would be ashamed to go door to door soliciting a religion. I shouldn't have, but I responded quite sarcastically, and it turned into a little bit of an argument. I told him I was having fun doing it and that nobody could make me stop. So he decided to spit his tobacco down at us. Ooh, now it's on... He told us that he was Christian, but didn't associate himself with any denomination. I told him that he wasn't acting very Christlike and that we could help him with that. I was being a little bit too sarcastic. I just can't help it sometimes. It's a bad trait of mine. He told us to go away, so we stayed there and doored his entire building while he sat up there watching. It was quite joyful to see the anger in his eyes. We left with a little wave, and he said he was going to call the police, and I told him to go ahead. So he did. The fuzz roll in, and ask us for our Geistlicher Ausweis, which is just the papers that prove we are allowed to proselyte in Germany. So we show them and they let us go on and I think that made the guy the most mad, that they couldn't do anything about it. It was fun. After that, we Tausched back, and went back to Bietigheim. We looked at our referrals notes on the Internet and it has a note that says 'Ich möchte auch gerne Mitglied werden!' or for you English speakers, 'I'd like to become a member.' Yes. We will go by on him tomorrow and see if it's real, seeing as we get fake referrals all the time. Hope it's a good one! Tonight was the Yoga workout by the way. Yessss. It was fantastic.

Donnerstag

23 Juli Wow man, today was a busy day. We woke up and after studies and lunch we were out the door. We had a lesson with R and T. We worked through the preparing to enter the holy temple book with them and showed a video and shared our thoughts together about it. It was really powerful and we did great. R's baby was in the hospital earlier this week, but doing better now. T is still struggling through family tragedy. She's doing better though. After that, we went by on our referral. He was getting out the door to work and so we gave him the book, he told us he wants to be a member, and we set up an appointment to come by on Sunday. Sweeeeeet he wasn't a fake!! We'll get him on Sunday. After that, we swung by a member to give a Serbian book to her to give to her friend. She wasn't home but we left it in the mailbox. Afterwards we went over to the church to send the ward email and emails to less actives and investigators. Got that done quick. Then went over to U, a friend of ours who had a baptism date, then was told about the Holocaust victim baptisms for the dead, and since his grandfather was one of those, it got him. He got online and found some anti stuff and poof it was over. But he's awesome. Friends with members, and really nice. I hadn't met with him before tonight. He made us dinner and dessert and we talked a lot. He has some really really cool WWII stories and what not. We talked about the church and his standing with that. He asked some questions and we told him we'd be glad to come by next time and talk about it. Then we came home. On the way home, we experienced a typical German summer night. Hundreds of people gathered in the city doing karaoke and dancing and eating together. Right with the river running through the city, sun setting, band playing at the fancy restaurant, hundreds of people just walking around having fun together. It's so cheesily romantic. Way typical European. I love it. It just feels so European, and it makes me romantically trunky. (: super fun day though. Tonight the workout was The Challenge, which is about 7 rounds of as many push-ups and pull ups as you can do. That's a fun one!

Freitag 24 Juli

Today was weekly planning day. We had to go over to the Ludwigsburg apartment because there was people coming to read meters and check up on things, and we're the only ones with a key. So after personal study, we left and went over there. We were there for about an hour while people checked things out. Afterwards we headed back and had lunch and started weekly planning. After 3 hours of that, your brain just gets hammered. I was dying I tell ya. The first 4 weeks of his transfer, it's just been me planning, making all the phone calls, while my son reads the area book. Today, he kept throwing the phone at me telling me to call people, and I would throw it back, tell him he was big enough now to call people. I think it scared him to death. I wasn't making another phone call until he made a few. He wasn't happy. But he tried a few which is major progress. I set up the lesson for our dinner appointment, and then we went off! We went to the Zelder family. It's really cool, because Schwester Zelder's maiden name is Klemm, the huge wonderful family from Landshut. She's the daughter there. Long story short, the Klemm family was taught by Elder Garrett's mother years ago, and many years later after not knowing what happened, the Garrett family met an Alicia Klemm serving in the Temple Square mission. She's the daughter of Horst Klemm, the man taught by Elder Garrett's mom. He was baptized after she left, and their 5 kids along with it. She had no idea about it until that point. It's such a cool story. Elder Garrett got to serve in Landshut, with the family his mom taught. I had a Family Home Evening at the Klemm's house in Landshut once. It was the one where Bruder Klemm thought I was avoiding my Sausage when I really was just saving the best for last, and so I pounded down 7 of those suckers just to show him I really loved them. He still talks about that to this day. I impressed him. (: but the Zelder's are awesome, they have a 5 year old daughter named Hannah. She was so scared of us at first, but I asked her about her bunnies that I saw outside, and she realized that I'm just about her age at heart. We got along just fine after that. We had some Schwäbisches Essen that was really good. Knödel meatballs in sauce along with potatoes. Super super good. It was awesome. Afterwards we had Tiramisu, and turns out at Elder Sorensen had never ever heard of Tiramisu before. Weird. It was really good. She used an awesome cocoa powder with it. I shared the lesson from the August ensign (it's awesome to have iPads). It was a kids story for Hannah. It was really good. I think they really appreciated it. With our GML Bruder Westrich, we've talked about going to members houses, and making absolutely sure that we make relationships with the kids to show them that the missionaries are cool so that they get this picture of missionaries as role models in their heads. It's been really fun. (: they live on an old American military base, so afterwards we walked around, all the streets are named after states and it's kinda funny. There's also a golf course that we found. We're going for PDay no matter what Elder Sorensen says. Then we came home. I did the CVX workout tonight. Good workout.

Samstag 25 Juli

Today has been pretty good! We had studies this morning and afterwards we decided to go into downtown Stuttgart to visit a less active in the hospital who said he needed to see us personally. He and I have become fast friends, so we were excited to see him. We didn't really know where the hospital in Stuttgart was, so we were free balling it. We took the U Bahn a couple stops then tried to walk up, but the sidewalk on the super busy street suddenly ended and turned into a 2 foot wide curbing. We figured the sidewalk might start again a little ways ahead, so we kept walking, until an old man drove past blaring the horn and using fingers that no old man should ever be using. Then we figured we might turn around. So we did, found the right way, hiked a mountain of vineyards (literally) and found the hospital. Yes finally, we found it. Walked to the information desk, he checked out yesterday. Gah. Fine. The whole trip may have been worth the pictures and adventure though. It was awesome. I'll attach a couple from it. After that we went by on a family in our ward who got into a really brutal motorcycle accident on Monday. That's interesting because he was supposed to be our joint teach on Monday, but didn't show up and I felt like I should call, but shrugged it off. DON'T IGNORE SPIRITUAL PROMPTINGS. He broke his thumb in the accident and she was thrown off the back under a car which rolled. Miraculously, they're both doing really well, and just sore. I would love to drive a motorcycle when I get home, but that's just scary. So we took them chocolate. Because chocolate solves all problems. They weren't home, which means they still might be in the hospital. Hope they're doing alright! That was our day though. Just a couple things that took really long to take care of. Workout tonight was The Warrior, a military one. It's fun! 

Sonntag 26 Juli

Today was good. We had church and it was nice. We had 2 investigators there, so I feel like things are progressing. Afterwards, we had a lesson with the referral. He is doing well. He has finished the Book of Mormon in 3 days. Can you believe it?! That was super cool to hear. He wants to be baptized, so we will start meeting with him more often. (: that was pretty much our day. Our district did really well this week.

P-Day!

Ludwigsburg - Week 9

Hey everybody!

Montag 13 Juli 2015

Today was pretty simple. We had PDay. We taught a new family named Familie Nesper, they seem super cool. Their whole family had baptismal dates about a year ago and just fell off the map since then. We'll see how it goes. Afterwards, we kinda walked around. I had to grab some stuff to send a package home, so we did that. Went shopping for groceries and what not, cleaned the apartment. President has been really ticked off with some missionaries lately with the apartment cleaning thing. Missionaries just refuse to clean and it's embarrassing. I've never lived in a not clean apartment, and it's pretty easy to keep it clean, so I don't see what the big fuss is with all that. Just clean the apartment!!! Fun day overall.

Dienstag 14 Juli 2015

Boy, I woke up this morning feeling like crap. I figured I would get over it and that I should just push through, so we went on a run, and while Elder Sorensen ran around the track, I just played with the soccer ball and shot around. We got back and got ready for the day and it just hit me. I was really not feeling well. My mom would be proud that my companion was right there to tell me, "It's because you've been eating too much candy!" I guess Birthday weekend took its toll. After studies, I laid down while Elder Sorensen ate lunch. Afterwards, we went out to Marbach, like the very corner of our area, and did Vorbei's. Everyone we wanted to go by on had moved. That was fun. We had one thing we had to do in Ludwigsburg, so we rode back there and got it done, then we came home and finished studies and that was our day! Tomorrow should be busy though.

Mittwoch 15 Juli 2015

So last week the crazy lady in our ward called my phone, which was weird because she always calls Elder Sorensen's phone. But she said she had a friend from Serbia that wanted to hear about the gospel. So we set up a time where we could go see her and her friend in the city park. This morning we went and did that. This lady was pretty much Communist Russian. We sat down and she goes, "Alright, if you want to change me, I'll say goodbye to you right now and leave." I felt a little spark of adrenaline rush through me, like coming on to pitch in the last inning of the game when everything matters. I got pretty bold and I said something along the lines of, 'I'm not going to change you, but you're going to want to be changed.' It got quiet and I was waiting for her to get up and walk away and for us to move on with our day, but she had absolutely no response for that. So she sat there kind of dumbfounded and we started talking about her beliefs as an Orthodox. They've got some funky stuff there I tell ya. I talked to her about her family and I tried to bring up the point that families can be forever and she shot that out of the air. She goes, 'I love my family, but I never want to see them again after I die, that would just be too long with them.' She was a tough nut to crack. We talked with her for a while about her thoughts on prayer and repentance. By the way, she doesn't need repentance because she's already good enough. But I started introducing the Book of Mormon and telling my story with it. That's a story for another time I guess, but her heart really got hit hard or something because she opened up and was very warm and open about it. She took a book and promised me she would read it and pray about it. So good deal! Then we parted ways. We had a few people to go by on. One of our investigators was sick, so we took her chocolate.... Because who doesn't love chocolate when they're sick? After that we got ice cream. I've just been so unhealthy this past week. A member had given us a gift card for ice cream. I love our members. Then we had a lesson with Rachel, our neubekehrt, new convert. We went through the restoration with her and it was awesome. She said something at the end that really touched me. She's a brand new convert of just barely a month, and she goes, "It's impossible for a 14 year old boy to have cooked up a story like that, and then written a book as powerful as this one. It has to be from God." You're dang right Rachel. You go girl. I felt like I should ask her for a referral, which we refer to as goldmining, and she gave us a name, so we'll have to look at that. Digging down that mine baby! That was our day summed up. Fun day. Donnerstag

16 Juli 2015

Today was pretty great. We had Zone Training in Stuttgart. So I got to see Elder Howarth again, as well as Sister Bishop and Elder Adam. I got to see Elder Dean too, my little brother. They're all doing well. Zone Training was a hit. Elder Hunt asked me to start it off with a couple success stories related to our zone goal. I think that really set the tone of the meeting and started us off right. There were two guys there from BYU to give us a language assessment. That went pretty well. We all got an idea of where we're at. Then we talked about iPads and the pro's and con's we've all seen already. It was a good discussion led by the Sister Trainer Leaders. Let me tell you, if any of you have questions about the role of women in the church, you should see Sister Ahlm stand up in front of 20 elders and lead a meeting. Hahaha that would resolve all your concerns. After Zone Training, which lasted over 4 hours, the district came to our apartment and had leftover cake and ice cream and we did language study together. That was sure fun. Great day overall.

Freitag 17 Juli 2015

Today we went on another run. Came back, got studies done, and I ran to a shop real quick and sent my package, and then we went over to a less active who told us to come back later. Dang. So we came back and did weekly planning. Afterwards, we had a lesson with Bruder Cataldo scheduled. He's a less active from Italy. He enjoys calling me Elder Sammy. Because I guess Hadfield is just too much. But yeah, he's got quite a bone to pick with a couple members. He's got a really strong testimony, and loves the gospel, but it was too much for him when a member left his wife and 4 kids to have an affair with his secretary at work, and then a couple weeks ago, a college kid in our ward stood up to give his testimony, and told the whole ward he was gay, and described in very vivid details the situations he had been in. With our 60 primary kid sitting right there. Great. But Bruder Cataldo really didn't like that. He called one of them one of those words my mommy told me not to say. He even said it in Italian and I could understand. That's when you know your language study has been paying off. Gift of tongues baby. But yeah... He also ordered us pizza. When I say ordered pizza, don't picture the typical American family ordering 2 pizzas for the whole family. In Germany everyone gets their own huge pizza. Jawohl!! It was awesome and he gave us some groceries too. Just a super generous guy. We love him. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and when I say we read with him, I mean he read it to us in Italian. He gets going when he reads the scriptures. You can't stop him. I love that guy.

Samstag 18 Juli 2015

Today the weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do. It was very much like a teenage girl. It rained all morning throughout studies and lunch. Then as soon as we went out, it got blasted hot. Today was rough. There was a city party and so there wasn't many people around or at home. Kind of a weird day. The Ehepaar found out I could play the piano though, so they brought us over a keyboard which was really nice of them. I'm going to really enjoy that. That's my stress reliever. We had a cool experience though. We were almost done for the day, but we still had about 20 minutes. Elder Sorensen had been whining about how sore his body was and I wasn't feeling very good, and I think we were both ready to go home. But I felt like we should do one more Vorbei. It was received with whining and what not, but we did it. On the bus, a lady with a cool dog talked to Elder Sorensen about the church. She was super cool and it really forced an attitude change there and it was a good example to show him that we don't waste time here! The guy wasn't home, but the lady made it all worth it. Super cool. Sonntag 19 Juli 2015 Today was great. I love going to church here. We got out of the apartment around 8 to get over to church. We rode the S-Bahn down to Ludwigsburg, and umsteiged there. In Ludwigsburg, it started raining and it was awesome. I love the rain. When it rains, I get as giddy as a 3 year old on Christmas morning. We got on our next S-Bahn over to the church, and I talked to a poor old lady who was going out hiking in the rain. I was worried that she might get washed away off the trail or something, but all she could say was, "Ich freue mich über den Regen!" Too funny. Church was great. It was the Hoffmann's last week in church. Dang. They're headed to Singapore for his new job this week. I enjoyed the Priesthood class taught by Br. Stein about the importance of Temples. For those of you that didn't know, (so all of you), the Frankfurt temple is closing in September for renovations, and the Freiberg temple is already closed for maintenance. That means the closest temple for these members is around 4 hours by car, and is a very very small temple. I sure did take for granted living around so many temples. I miss the temple a lot. We got home afterwards and ate lunch and did studies. It's been raining for a while now, I just love it. That was pretty much the day.  I also figured you would all enjoy a few pictures from lately.

Elder Albrecht's Birthday

Ludwigsburg - Week 8

Hey all, Thanks for the birthday wishes, it was a great day. We had tons of fun.

 

Montag 6 Juli 2015

Today we had P-Day. We started out the day by having studies. Then we went to Ludwigsburg with the S-Bahn. We got a bus with a member and went to a Chinese Buffet with a member for the heck of it. It was so good. We had a great time too. I get along with this member really well. He and I had a great conversation for about 2 hours. Afterwards I emailed all of you and that was pretty much the day.

Dienstag 7 Juli 2015

Today we had a great district meeting. It was run really well and people really did great with their assignments. We got to talk about the Zone Goal and get moving forward with it. I'm excited for that. After district meeting, the Ehepaar had made a cake. Turns out Sister Bishop and I share our birthday on 7/11. Jawohl!!! It was awesome of them. Then, we came back to our apartment with Pforzheim elders and did language study, then we went and taught a lady together who is moving into our area soon and wants us to help her find a house near the church. Little did you know, I'm not really a missionary, just a real estate agent. We see this allll the time. She's excited about the church though. So that's good. We'll see where it leads. We rode a Bahn afterwards for 40 minutes over to another appointment. A less active named S from Greece. I really enjoy the Greek people I've met. There would be a nice vacation spot. Note to self. He's the one having problems with his liver. He played professional soccer and was a big weight lifter. Kinda what I've been settling into lately so we have some fun talks. He was missing his book in Greek so we got him a new one and he was really grateful. He's leaving to Hamburg tomorrow for therapy. He'll be gone for a week or so, we'll have to keep in contact with him this week. When we got done there he drove us back to Asperg Bahnhof and we rode home from there. We got a text from a member about a tornado warning and the sky got super dark and it has been hailing golf balls and pouring. There was a super cool looking funnel cloud, but it hasn't touched down and I don't think it will. That would be fun though! Crazy. We really needed the rain. We've been absolutely dying in this 100 degree weather. Super happy. Prayers get answered.

Mittwoch 8 Juli 2015

It was nice and chilly 60 degrees today. What a blessing! Turns out there was a tornado in Heidelberg about an hour away from us. About 100 houses destroyed and a few hurt. Scary! That does explain the weather though. We went to Landratsamt this morning and now I'm officially a licensed German driver, woooo. I had a couple problems with it because Offenburg (my last area) lost the original Utah license, which ended up in Berlin somehow. Berlin destroyed my license, and they told me I was out of luck, but I talked with somebody different and he was really nice, so I got it! Yay. Afterwards, we had lunch with the Rohrers! I love them. She can really cook I tell you. We had mushroom soup to start out. Then salad. Then, she brought in noodles with potatoes, frikadelli, which is like German meatballs... I don't know how to describe them, and vegetables, specifically peppers and zucchini. It was unreal. Then for dessert, we had Quark, which is illegal in America because of the high bacteria count in it. But it's good. (: we went straight after to the W’s to teach L, but they had tons of family over, it was a madhouse. We couldn't pull L away from her cousin haha. But R, L's mom, who has been less active for years, was really happy to sit down and talk with us for a while. It was nice to meet her. She's down for L's baptism, so we need to start moving forward. After that, we went and visited R. She's doing well. Really happy. Then we went to the church to prepare our spiel for Gemeinderat, ward council. We had a wonderful Gemeinderat, I really enjoy our Bishop and the leadership of the ward. We worked through a few names and got the members on board to help us. It was a great day!

Donnerstag 9 Juli 2015

Today has been a long day. We were out the door at 6:30 am to go help a member move. His name is Bruder H and he's moving to Singapore. Crazy. He's one of our best members. That will be good for his family though. We did some crazy moving though. We had to move a bunch of stuff to storage. But the storage was in an attic with one of those little tiny ladders that comes out from the ceiling. It sucked getting couches and boxes up there! It took us hours and by the time we were finished, my shoulders and arms were on fire. We got done at about 3, and he brought us back home. We got showered and dressed into missionary clothes and studied for a while. Then Bruder W picked us up for GMK at his place. He's our ward mission leader. He was never on a mission, because he's a convert of about 5 years now. He has 4 kids, his wife played on the German national hockey team. He's so busy, but he's an unreal mission leader so far. He definitely puts his calling up high on his priority list. I think with him we are really going to get things going. He's new with the calling too, so we're learning together. I love his family too. They're great. Afterwards, we came home and planned for tomorrow. Basically just with members all day, but it's a nice thing to do to improve your German and your relationships with members! Fun day. 

Freitag 10 Juli 2015

Today was great! We got our weekly planning done for the next week and afterwards we rode the train up to Pforzheim for an Austausch with them. Elder Bates and I went back to Bietigheim and Elder Wahl and Sorensen stayed in Pforzheim. Elder Bates and I got back and did Language Study and then went to a members house. The Steins had invited us over. I love them a lot. They really are awesome. He made us some stir fry and all the family complained about how spicy it was, which is general among Germans. They can't handle any spice. It was really good though. We didn't have any problems eating, trust me. (: We then came home and did the Austausch tradition of trading stories about stuff.... Hahah. It was great. Super fun day, and Elder Bates is a boss! 

Samstag 11 Juli 
Woo, birthday. I never pictured myself this far into my mission. But today was 10 months since I left. Double digits. Insane how time flies.... Somebody give me another year! Today we woke up and studied. Sister Kohler called around 10 to say happy birthday, her little tradition among missionaries. She's like our mom, we love her! After studies, we went out to do Vorbei's. I updated my emails so I could get the Heimlehrer list from our GML, and I had a surprise email from my best friend and that was really great. Shout out to you, you know who you are. So we went out and we accidentally ran into a less active by dooring which is super duper rare. That was nice, we had a lesson with him. He seems interesting. His name is C S. He drinks and smokes and has porn pasted everywhere around his room.... So that will take some work. But he's friendly with the church! There's a starting point yayyy. Afterwards we went by on a couple people and set up appointments. We met Bruder C on the street so we had a lesson with him which was good. Afterwards we went back to Bietigheim and met up with the other elders to Tausch back. Then we all went over to an American restaurant with J, our member. He gave me a birthday present and kind of set up a party. It was great. We had tons of fun, and it was a super birthday. As I was thinking about it, today has also been one year since I received the gift that has shaped my life in the past year, that gift being the Priesthood of God. The Priesthood has blessed my life in so many ways in the past year, and I have received a vision of how it is meant to be used to build my family and help Heavenly Fathers children. I've had the special experience of being called on in a time of need to give a blessing. I remember the first time and how scared I was, and I also remember just shaking as I stood there, and I remember words just flowing out of nowhere and the shock of realizing I was acting in God's name. Imagine that for a moment. The power to act in the name of the creator of the world. What an astounding blessing today in our world. Not many people can say they enjoy that blessing, only a very small percentage of people. I could go on and on I'm sure, but I'll save you the reading. I'm just really ecstatic for the blessing of it and the fact that I have the chance in the future to raise a family based on the principles of the gospel and the power and authority of the priesthood. Cool stuff!

Sonntag 12 Juli 2015

Today we had church and afterwards,we were invited over to a member's house for lunch. The Schlien family, to be exact. We had a blast with them. They lived in Palmyra for 3 years, so they had some cool stories. I enjoyed them a lot. Afterwards, we got home and studied and worked on our plan for the week once more. It was a good productive day. I enjoyed it.

Have a good week, you're all the greatest! 

Elder Sam Hadfield

Stuttgarterstraße 125/1

74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen

Deutschland

Ludwigsburg - Week 7

Hey all!
So I'm going to do more of a journal type thing on here. Just typing my journal each Monday. That way you get more details, I don't have to make up stuff on the spot every Monday, and my mom stops bugging me for more details. (;  So here it goes.

Stuttgart Zone gets their iPads!

Montag 29 Juni 2015
Today was of course P-Day. I emailed all of you today, so it feels weird to be writing this right now. For P-Day, we didn't do too much. We got studies done, and went shopping, cleaned around the apartment a little bit because we have inspection on Wednesday. Then we went to Ludwigsburg with the S-Bahn, about a 10 minute ride. We looked around the shops there and got ice cream. I updated my emails there and kinda started freaking out because I didn't get an email from someone really important, who I wanted to get an email from. So we went to the Church afterwards for emails. I got what I was waiting on don't worry. After emails, I wasn't feeling too well, probably because I hadn't eaten anything all day. But we had appointments to get to. Both our appointments fell out, so we tried to do a Vorbei, or what would you even call it in English? We tried to go by on a former investigator. Turns out he doesn't live there anymore. So we're on our way back to the bus stop and I contact this Latin American looking lady on the street. Turns out she's a member and has been looking for the missionaries. Woo! Don't you love it when that happens? It was cool. Afterwards, we came home, and had noodles and sausage for dinner.... Don't ask. That was kind of our day today.
Dienstag 30 Juni 2015
Man, today has been great! I had an Austausch with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Hunt. He and I got to just contact for about 4 hours and it was so much fun. We taught our new convert R, and got her to help us with her friend T who has had some tragedy in her family lately. I talked to a really nice guy on the bus. He was telling me about the Ludwigsburg castle and what not. I also talked to a cool guy on the train coming home from work. He works for the government in weapon defense and such. Super cool conversation. I love being to just sit across from people 1 on 1 and have a heart to heart conversation. We found about 4 potentials today I believe. It's sad to say, but it's nice once in a while to get away from the greenie, and work for a day with a missionary who really knows what he's doing. It's been really enjoyable. Elder Hunt talked about high school sports tonight, he played golf and lacrosse at Alta. He's a good guy! I've actually set up a 4 some for when we come home. Elder Hunt, Elder Killpack, Elder Albrecht and I are going to go hit the course. Haha super cool plan right? Great day!
Mittwoch 1 Juli 2015
Today was pretty cool. Can't believe it's July. For all you people emailing me about how hot it is in Utah, I'll give you President Uchtdorf's advice: Stop It. Today was 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit) with 100% humidity. You would not believe how hot it was. We started out our day with an apartment inspection. It went really well. We keep the apartment pretty clean. Afterwards, Elder Hunt and I went out finding. We taught a guy on the street named Ali about prophets and God's relationship with them. We found a couple more people, then we ran into M. He's AWESOME. He was a JW for 17 years, but took a deep look within and realized there was problems. He knows that there is some translating issues with the Bible. He hadn't heard of the Book of Mormon, so we gave him one, talked about the Restoration on the street with him for an hour, then got his number. He agreed with everything we said, and I'm excited to see where that goes. Afterwards, we had 3 lessons scheduled. We switched companionships back and went to go teach T. On the way, I talked to a guy on the bus from Syria. He is Evangelisch and is pretty much a German. He was very friendly. He gave me his number and accepted an invite to church. So with T, she is doing really well, still working through some deaths in the family. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. She wants to be baptized on her Birthday, September 9. That will be awesome. On the way back, I talked with a girl on the bus that looks just like a really good friend from back home. I've been really working on my public transportation contacting lately. I never was in an area with a lot of public transportation, then I got here, and there's S-Bahns, Buses, and Trains that we're on all the time. It's important to work on it, because public transportation contacting is HUGE. I've gotten to the point where I try to sit down, and start talking right there. No thinking about what I want to say, just starting to talk. It's working, but I still might not be there with teenage girls yet.... Hahaha, but it was a good conversation though, she wants to know more as well, so we'll see where that leads. Our other 2 appointments fell out today, but we've rescheduled and it gave us a chance to do some things we needed to get done. Overall, fabulous day!
Donnerstag 2 Juli 2015
Well it's early in the morning right now. I just need to throw a note in here. I finished the Book of Mormon again in my personal study today. I sure do love the Book of Mormon. I had kind of a cool experience this time around. I listen to music super softly during my study, because it helps me focus. So I was reading Moroni's promise, and I turned the page to the last page of the Book of Mormon, and I just felt something overwhelmingly powerful. I felt the Spirit so strong, and then Praise to the Man came on. Just as I was reading one of my favorite verses, verse 32, which tells us to "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him," and just as I read the last verse, I heard the words,

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven

Earth must atone for the blood of that man,

Wake up the world for the conflict of justice,

Millions shall know Brother Joseph again.
It's such a privilege to be a part of that work, waking up the world to bring them to know Brother Joseph again. The Book of Mormon is TRUE. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is true. The power of those pages has blessed my life so much. So many men sacrificed their lives for us to have it today. The words of Moroni always impress me. "Because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I Moroni, will not deny the Christ." So many prophets in the Book of Mormon could have taken back their words and saved their lives. Abinadi, Moroni, Mormon, and ultimately Joseph Smith. I add my words to theirs. 'I Elder Hadfield, will NOT deny the Christ.' I know He lives, and that the words of the Book of Mormon are a further testimony of Him. I love the Book of Mormon!

So the rest of the day wasn't too great. I got a nasty email from a kid back home telling me some things I really didn't want to know or hear. That soured the day a little. It made it rough to work today. Which is probably why both our appointments fell out. My head just wasn't in it for part of the day. I'm really bad at that. If something throws me out of it, I'm really out of it. I'm not a very good missionary in that sense. That's something I'll work on though! Not a bad day though, still found some new people and had fun.

Freitag 3 Juli 2015

Today was very warm. Another 100 degree day with so much humidity you wouldn't believe. We did studies and Weekly Planning and the Ehepaar came over and brought us a white board and root beer from the American Military Base in Stuttgart. A nice little 4th of July present. We had an appointment fall out today. We went out finding and had some good conversations, but nothing to show for it. We came back tonight and made burgers and fries. It was good.

Samstag 4 Juli 2015

Freedom baby. God bless America. So today was a good day. We were in Stuttgart this morning for a DL meeting with the Zone Leaders. It went well. We set a goal together. The goal comes from Moroni 8:16. Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear. It's going to be a really good theme this good transfer. Working on stepping it up to find that love for the people here. It will be awesome, I look  forward to it a lot. The rest of the day, we were in Marbach dooring and doing vorbei's. We were out for about 7 hours doing that. The heat was really getting to us. It was another 100 degree day. Kinda warm! Tomorrow they've canceled the last 2 hours of church all over Germany because it's hot and there's no such thing as AC here. We find it pretty funny. A good day it was!

Sonntag 5 Juli 2015

Like I said, today was fast Sunday. Church was only one hour long. We had to wear suits. We were dying. Testimony meeting lasted about 90 minutes and everyone was so ready to get out of there. We took a bus with R afterwards back to Freiberg Bahnhof, then an S Bahn to Ludwigsburg, and again an S Bahn back to Bietigheim. Not the best round of public transportation. It takes about an hour to get home from church. When we got home at 12 it was already 100 degrees outside. So we went out to go by on a former investigator named D. We were walking down the road towards his house and this guy with chains and piercings and you name it was walking towards us. For some reason, I really felt the need to talk to this guy. So we approached him. He told us about his love for Jesus and he felt a desire to learn more. So we got the number and asked for his name and he says D. I'm a little bit surprised at this point. So we save the number and go by on where D is supposed to live and he's moved. We came home and I compared the numbers and we found that the numbers were the same. So we found the guy we were looking for because we were willing to talk to the one person on the street out in 100 degree weather. Super cool. So overall, it was a rough week. It's been hot and so many appointments have fallen out, but that's ok. I've learned a lot this week! 

Alright hope it's been good, I love you all. :) have a good week.

Elder Sam Hadfield

Stuttgarterstraße 125/1

74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen

Deutschland

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