Week 67 - Szczecin

Hey everyone!

          This week was a good one.  We started out on Tuesday going on exchanges with the zone leaders in Gdańsk.  It was a 5 hour train ride there and a 5 hour train ride back the next day.  That was a lot of time sitting on a train.  But the exchange went well.  I was able to teach a first lesson with Elder Mandla to someone from their English class.  I think it went well, and hopefully they will be able to keep working with him and making progress with him.  We also did a lot of contacting and talking with people on the streets on the way from place to place, and that went well.  Elder Lange and I have been working on making goals based off what we did and learned with the zone leaders.  

          On Thursday, we had a meeting with our investigator, K.  Our lesson kind of ended up going like last week's lesson, where he wasn't very accepting.  We're considering dropping him for now, so we'll see what happens. 

          On Saturday, we went to the weekly 'Park Run' 5K, and it was fun.  I'll have you know I shaved a minute and a half off my time. 

          We had a meeting with a less-active, J., on Saturday evening, and he ended up coming to church yesterday!  So that was pretty good.  We also something cool happen on Thursday.  We made some calls to referrals and potentials, and one of them, P., ended up calling back and he wanted to meet and talk about the Book of Mormon!  So we set up for today, and we're excited to see how that meeting goes.  But yea, the work is moving forward here in Szczecin, and we're excited to see how we can continue that this week. 

          Yesterday in church, one of the members here gave a talk about how we can build our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Her talk was really good, and at the end, she challenged everyone to set goals regarding building that relationship with Christ over the next year, and at the end of the year seeing what improvements were made.  So I've decided to take that challenge and really focus on Christ in the work here, in studies, and I've seen some progress in just that short amount of time.  So I'd like to pass on that challenge to you all.  Set some goals to improve your relationship with Him and really come to know Him, and then after a period of time, see what improvements you've made and what you can do better.  I'm excited to see where this little experiment goes.  But yea, hope everything is going well for you all.  Have an awesome week!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 66 - Szczecin

Hello all!

   Hope this last week was a good one for you all.  It was good over here for sure.  We didn't have too much in the way of lessons this week, we just had one meeting with K., our investigator.  We read Alma 32 with him and discussed faith.  He wasn't extremely open to the idea of faith, so we'll have to figure out what to do from here.  He's not progressing at the moment, so we'll have to find a way to help him make that progress and gain a testimony as he reads the scriptures and prays.  Other than that, it was a week full of finding and stuff like that.  

On Thursday, we went to a city about an hour and a half north of Szczecin called Świnoujście to visit referrals.  It's right along the German border, and also pretty close to the Baltic Sea.  Unfortunately, all of the people we tried to visit either didn't live there anymore, or they weren't home.  So that was a little disappointing.  The city was super cool.  We also had a little bit of a snowstorm while we were there, so that made things interesting as well. 

It's kind of funny as far as weather goes.  I was also assuming that it was going to be a lot colder here in Szczecin than either Łódź or Kraków.  But so far here, I think the coldest it has gotten is about -3 Celsius.  So like not even worse than Utah haha.  I'm not really sure why that is, maybe it has something to do with the Baltic Sea or something.  Last year in Kraków, it was consistently in the negative teens, and it got all the way down to -25 Celsius.  So I'm pretty lucky I think.  I keep wondering when it will actually get really cold, we'll see if it does. 

On Saturday, there's a park run of some kind we go to every week as a finding idea, and we went there and I decided to run.  It's a 5K, and that was pretty fun.  I think my time was around 26 minutes, which is probably pretty slow, but I'm out of shape, so yea.  I probably haven't run that much since the golf class and going on those 3 mile runs with the baseball team.  Haha those were good times.  I'm still a little sore from that, so we'll see if I do it again this week.  

Sundays, are pretty good.  We only have two hour of church here, probably because of the lack of members to fill different callings, so that's interesting.  I'm actually lined up to give my second talk in sacrament meeting on my mission in about a month, so we'll see how that goes.  Sister Poff and I switch off weeks for playing the piano in sacrament meeting, so yea I'm still playing.  I still only know I think 22 hymns, so I'll have to keep learning new ones.  It looks like Elder Lange and I will generally bless or pass the sacrament, unless I'm playing the piano, then President Trukszyn (branch president) will help out, because we are generally the only 3 priesthood holders in church regularly.  That was probably my favorite spiritual experience from this week, though, I got to bless the sacrament.  I haven't done that in sacrament meeting since Kraków because the members in Łódź would always take care of it, and I love doing that.  I have a spiritually powerful experience participating in the ordinance of the sacrament.  I miss being able to do that every week as a deacon, teacher, and priest. 

This week will hopefully be a good one.  From Tuesday to Thursday, we'll be in a city called Gdańsk on exchanges with the zone leaders.  So that should be interesting, we'll see how it goes.  Our English class is going pretty well, we have about 7 people every time, and most of them stay for the religious discussion afterwards.  So hopefully we can turn some of those people into investigators here soon. We're looking forward to this week and hoping to accomplish some things.  We'll work hard and see how it goes.  Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 65 - Szczecin

Elder Lange & Elder Hadfield

Elder Hadfield's Study Area

Szczecin Apartment

Hello everyone!

     How are things going for you all?  Hope they are going well and you're all enjoying life.  The past week has been fun.  Last Monday, I got transferred from my area in Łódź to a city up in north-western Poland called Szczecin.  So this will be my third area.  It's a port town, and it's a very pretty city.  I love it here.  The branch is small, it looks like we only have 5ish members come normally, so it'll be a little bit of a change here.  We don't have too many investigators, and we didn't have any meetings this past week, so we're hoping we can change that around this next week.  We'll see how it goes.  This week in the Book of Mormon, I finished off 2 Nephi.  I've had an awesome experience reading from the Book of Mormon on my mission.  I'd like to share a verse that was mentioned in a talk in church here yesterday.  It's found in 1 Nephi 1, verse 12. speaking of Lehi:

12 And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord.

It's a simple verse, but I think it effectively summarizes Moroni's promise that as we read, we will be filled with the Spirit.  In my experiences with reading the Book of Mormon, I know that as I have read and ponder what I read every day, and really try to make my studies a spiritually powerful experience, I have the spirit with me throughout the day.  I'm happier and I'm a more effective missionary.  I know that as we read the scriptures daily, we are blessed with the Spirit of God to guide us through life.  Have a legendary week!

-Elder Hadfield

Ul. Wielka Odrzańska 20/3

Szczecin, Polska

70-535