Hello all!
How's it going? This week was good. We
didn't teach a ton of lessons, but it was still pretty fun. The other
elders' here in Kraków had a baptism on Saturday, so that was super
cool. It's been awesome to see how fast the work is progressing here in
just 6 short months. It's great. We had a lesson with one of our
recent converts this week, and that was pretty good. We're going to try to
meet with the recent converts more often in the next couple weeks. We
also got two online referrals, one of them wanted a Book of Mormon but
specifically asked for no missionaries to come to his apartment, so we just
went there and slipped a Book of Mormon into his mailbox with our number.
Hopefully we can get in contact with him soon. We called the other
referral and invited him to church, and he ended up coming and staying for all
three hours! So that was pretty sweet. He asked a lot of questions
and seemed super interested. He seems super promising. We gave him
a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet, and he's coming to English class on Tuesday and staying for the spiritual thought
afterwards. We'll set up on a formal meeting with him then. Super
good though. Pretty excited to see what he's all about. We are
having a lesson with our only investigator at the moment on Tuesday,
and we are going to read 2 Nephi 33 with her and astonish her. Hopefully
it goes well.
President Turek will also probably be at our district
meeting on
Tuesday, so that will be super cool. He's
awesome. We also have transfers coming up in two
weeks, which is hard to believe. Time here just all
blends together. We get our transfer calls next Saturday,
so we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's good. So this week while
I read the Book of Mormon, I went through the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi.
And they are super enlightening. I read them along with the corresponding
chapters from Isaiah. And there was a part I found really
interesting where Nephi does a great job of clarifying what Isaiah says.
It's in Isaiah 29:
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year
to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and
sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
3 And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege
against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the
ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as
of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall
whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small
dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth
away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and
with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of
devouring fire.
Now what
on earth does that mean? Luckily, Nephi explains exactly what it means in
2 Nephi 26:
15 After my seed and
the seed of my brethren shall
have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea,
after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have
laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after
they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet
the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful
shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be
forgotten.
16 For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of
the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice
shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto
him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the
ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust.
17 For thus saith the Lord God: They shall write the things which
shall be done among them, and they shall be written and sealed up in a book,
and those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not have them, for they seek to
destroy the things of God.
Thanks to
this passage, we know Isaiah was prophesying in part about the Nephites and
Lamanites in ancient America. As we see at the end of the Book of Mormon,
this prophecy was fulfilled and the apostasy began. Luckily, we do not
dwindle in unbelief, so we have the words of this book (the Book of Mormon) and
we hear the words of the Nephites whispering from the dust, telling us how to
live and playing the role of the iron rod that leads us to Jesus Christ.
I know that I talk about the Book of Mormon all the time in these emails, but
that’s because it has brought me peace, safety, and joy in my life. I
know that through sincere study of the Book of Mormon, we all will come to feel
God’s love in our lives and we invite the Spirit of the Lord to guide us.
I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that it was given to help guide us
through the last days we now live in. I love you all, and hope you have a
great week!
-Elder Hadfield
