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| Elder Hadfield, S, Elder Carr |
This is the
shortened up version of S's road to baptism and to conversion in the gospel and
the church of Jesus Christ. It has been a miracle filled road, which you will
see, and it has been incredible to experience all these little miracles and
observe the changes she has made firsthand.
The story
actually begins long before we knocked on S's door. In fact, it begins far
before where I will begin from, but for times sake, I'll tell it from my
side.
One of my first
weeks in Munich, we had a Zone Conference where we talked about working better
with members and the tactics we could use to improve our statistics and the
overall enthusiasm of the members to help us achieve our goals and give the
work a new dimension. So Elder Croft and I came home from that and said to each
other, "Well, our ward is one of the more difficult ones to work with
because everyone is either a brand new family which is extremely busy, or an
old lady who we aren't allowed to visit alone with anyway." We discussed
and analyzed the situation from a few different sides, and prayed about it
together, and we came up with the answer that we needed to incorporate Preach
My Gospel a little more with the members. So we made plans to do it. We
called a family named the Habermann's, who was the high councilor for Passau
when I was there. So I already knew him a little bit. We asked to come over and
share something out of PMG. They said that was fine. We went over the next
night, and they were so happy to see missionaries. It had been quite a few
years since they had missionaries in their home. It was quite nice getting to
know them, and looking back now, it was probably a little awkward from our
side. But we talked about PMG and what it meant to us as missionaries, and
invited them to read Ch. 1 together and to think about it. We left that night
with such a good feeling it was hard to describe. We weren't really sure why at
the time, but it's obvious looking back on it. We came back about 2 weeks later
and followed up with them and talked about their trip to the Church History
sites 20 years earlier and saw all their pictures and talked about what the
gospel really meant to them. It was a very special appointment. We left after
that without a return appointment, but felt yet again very good.
The
following Sunday, October 11, our bishop gave us names of supposed members that had moved in
and we were to go by on them and invite them to church. The first person didn't
actually live there and the second wasn't home. We found ourselves in a corner
of our area we had never been in before, and we had about 15 minutes before we
had to catch a bus to our next appointment. So we started dooring the apartment
buildings. We got done with about 15 doors and we were ready to leave, but
walking back, we both kind of stopped right in the middle of the courtyard and
looked at the row of apartment buildings across from us. Numbers 2, 4, 6, 8,
and 10. Elder Croft said, 'Which house do we need to do?' Without much
hesitation, I said, "Number 8." I don't know why it was number 8, but
that's just what flowed out of my mouth. We rang the first doorbell there and
got a door slammed in our faces. At this point, I think we were both thinking
the same thing. We were ready to walk out and go teach our appointment. But we
both kept walking up the stairs to the next door. We rang and out popped S. We
told her we had a video to show about Christ and His life, and she said, 'Oh,
you have it easy with me, I'm already Christian.' We watched the video and she
loved it. We talked really shortly about the restoration with her, and left her
with tears in her eyes, and a Book of Mormon in her hands, with a return
appointment for later that week. We weren't extremely sure if anything would
come from it, but we both really hoped something would.
The time came for
our return appointment, and we could not get a hold of her. She wasn't
answering her phones and we just thought she was ignoring us. Which would sadly
be a common occurrence here. So we were stacked with appointments and deemed it
a waste of time to drive all the way out to her if she wasn't going to be home.
So we didn't go.
The following
week I was on Austausch with Elder Jensen who now lives in the office. He and I
had been contacting in the rain all day and had no success. We had an
appointment with a new guy who lived a couple miles from S and when we went out
there, the appointment fell out. We were both kind of ready to go home, and it
was time to go home, but I felt that tug. The tug that says, 'No, there's
another reason I sent you
here.' So I
followed it to S's front door. She answered and told us that sadly her phone
hadn't been working. She had waited for us the week before and we just hadn't
come. I was so bummed. I felt so bad. She told us she had been reading but not
fully understanding. So we set a return appointment and left for the night. We
almost let her slip through the cracks, but caught her in time. Thank heavens.
So we came to
this appointment with our GML, Jonathan Brons, and taught her about the
Restoration which went great. She really understood it and that solid
understanding of where the Book of Mormon comes from helped her to want to read
more. She had some great insights to the first vision, because one time she had
a motorcycle accident and had the whole life flash before eyes, bright white
light, see that her life wasn't finished on earth, get thrown back experience.
She said it was for sure possible that it could have happened. Great
appointment, so we set up a new one and left.
The second
appointment, we had the feeling to call Br. Habermann, the guy whom we had met
with. So we tried him but he couldn't make it, and was quite abrupt with us on
the phone. We called a YSA/RM and had him come with us. It was a great lesson.
We taught what we call our TRIPOD lesson, which is just the 3 things we do to
receive answers and build our testimonies (Read, Pray, Go to Church). It was
great yet again. So we set another appointment up to come later that week.
This time, we
both felt again to call Br. Habermann. So we did, and he seemed a little
hesitant, but told us he would come. (We learned later that he had canceled a
family gathering to come with us that night). He came, and we had the most
beautiful lesson that we could have had. To this day, S can't stop talking
about the Plan of Salvation and it's because of this lesson. It was actually
the first lesson we had after I had had a very crappy week and was stressed out
and wondering why I was experiencing so much adversity. In this lesson, we were
talking about the first half of the plan, up to our life on earth, and Br.
Habermann asked if he could tell a story. He told the one about the missionary
who had this dream of himself in the preexistence, where he had this friend who
said, 'Find me', while he was on earth and then found him. S welled up with
tears in her eyes, and said, 'It's been so long since someone cared for me, or
was ever there for me.' Then I just felt it. Like a dagger. A total reminder
of, 'This is why you're here, and is this is what the Savior would be doing if
He was here.' That's when I was overwhelmed by emotions and we just sat there crying together.
She slowly began
to understand why she was experiencing what she was experiencing. She came to
Stake Conference, which I'm sure wasn't easy, and loved Sister Kohler's
testimony about sending a son out on a mission. She understood exactly what we
were doing and why we happened to knock on her door. She wanted with all her
heart to be baptized before Christmas. She gave up coffee even though it seemed hard to her. She went
cold turkey with coffee. (: She kept coming to church, and her last hump was to
talk to her children and family about changing churches and being baptized. She
did a very good job of it, and it all worked out in the end.
The confirmation
was yesterday, and she asked
me to perform it. I don't remember the last time I laid hands on someone's head
and the words came so clearly. It will be an experience to remember my whole
life.
There is the
story of S. She's been marvelous, and the Lord really does work 'in small and
simple ways, that confound the wise.' It confounds me for sure every time. He
is able to do His own work, I'm sure of that. He just gives me the blessing of
helping, which I'm sure is frustrating for Him sometimes. I have not put life
on pause for 2 years to serve the Lord. I am living the dream right now. I love
being a part of this work, and would do it forever. (:
Thanks for all of
your support. I love you all. Have a very Merry Christmas!! It's all true!
Elder Hadfield
Elder Sam
Hadfield
Lommelstraße 7
81479 München
Deutschland
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| (mother of Sister Smith who went home with Elder Croft, touring the mission with their daughter and in Munich on Sunday sent this to me bright & early!): "my. He's amazing. After playing the hymns he gave a newly baptized sister the Holy Ghost. I didn't understand the blessing but the spirit was very very strong. He's a great missionary. He then played the piano for the primary kids to sing their Christmas song...And his companion is helping translate. Awesome elders!" |
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| Christmas with the District 12/21/15 |
