Week 34 - Krakow

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