Week 13 - Krakow

Hello everyone!

    Today was another good week.  We are teaching a lot of lessons.  T is still on track to get baptized on Saturday, so that's good.  We are still working with her a bit to make sure she knows what she's getting herself into and stuff, and it's going well.  We are still working with A and D, and we are hoping we can get to the point where they are ready for baptism.  We also got a new investigator this week.  Her name is K.  In our second lesson with her, out of the blue she asked us if she could get baptized.  So we are excited to keep teaching her.  We're going to try to land on a baptismal date this week, and we'll see how that goes.  We're working pretty hard here, and I think it's paying off so far. 

Today for P-day, we decided to go to Auschwitz, the biggest Nazi concentration camp in World War II.  It was a really interesting experience being there.  It was cool.  Something I like that I read out of the Book of Mormon this week is at the end of chapter 33 of Second Nephi.  I specifically liked verses 10 and 11:

 10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

 11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.

The Book of Mormon is all about Jesus Christ.  It is the keystone in our testimony of Him.  If we read the Book of Mormon with real intent, we will gain a testimony of the Savior and the power of His atonement.  I love how in verse 11, Nephi basically tells us that if we aren't sure if the Book of Mormon is the word of God, read it sincerely and we will know by the power of Christ that it is true.  I know that as we all continually read the Book of Mormon with the intent to learn, we will know through the Holy Ghost of its power.  I love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Hadfield

Photographs of Auschwitz:

Photographs of Birkenau:

Week 12 - Krakow

Sunday Dinner 1/22/17 at Elder & Sister Dalton's

Hello everyone!

How's it going?  Hope things are going well back at home.  

hings are going well in Kraków.  We are working hard.  We are still teaching T, and she's progressing well.  We are excited for her baptism on the 28th.  D gets baptized on the 4th.  We have to meet with him quite a bit before then to make it work, but we have hope that it will work out good.  And we are still making progress with A.  

In our English class this Tuesday, we talked a lot about our religion, and we have 2 or 3 people that want to meet with us and discuss it more.  That will be cool to do.  Things are going really well here.  I'm still working hard on the Polish, but it's coming along okay.  That's about all I can think of for this week.  

Just a heads up, next week I will probably be in Warsaw on Monday, so my P-day will be on the Tuesday.  So that's when you will probably be getting an email from me.  Just so you know.  Well I hope everything keeps going well back at home, because stuff is definitely going well here.  Love you all, and have an amazing week!
-

Starszy Jacob R. Hadfield

Bandurskiego 54 Apartment 2
Kraków, Poland

Week 11 - Krakow

Hey y'all!

How's it going?  Hope everyone is doing well.  This week has been pretty good.  Poland is awesome. 

We are outside quite a bit doing tracting and stuff, but luckily we have 3 new investigators that we are teaching lessons to, so we don't have to be out in the cold as much as we otherwise would have. 

One of them is named T.  She is progressing well and has a batismal date on the 28th.   We have high hopes that she will make it. 

Then we have D.  D a pretty cool guy that we have been teaching.  I'm not sure exactly when his baptismal date is, but we are working hard to help him out so he can make it.  We have high hopes for him as well. 

Then we have A.  We found her this week as a result of English class and have had one lesson with her with a couple more scheduled for this week.  She is Catholic and promised to read the Book of Mormon, so it sounds good so far.  So things are going well.  We are definitely busy and plan on staying that way. 

I can't believe that it has already been almost two weeks here in Poland.  Time is continuing to fly by.  Our district gets a long super well and stuff. The senior couple feeds us every Sunday with some members and stuff, and that's good. We make spaghetti and chicken and rice and kajobasa and pierogi.  It's pretty good.  I don't really know how to describe our apartment because I've never lived in one before.  It's nice I guess. 

Starszy Pettit has been in Poland for almost 5 months now.  His Polish is pretty impressive. 

On Wednesday, we were sweeping snow (they use brooms here for the most part apparently.  I bet you can imagine how well that goes) and I was using a broken broom.  Events transpired, and it ended up slicing part of my hand open.  We went to the doctor and they cleaned it out and stuff.  I was worried I might need some stitches or something, but it has sealed up nice and is healing good, so that's a good sign. 

But stuff is definitely going well over here.  Hope things are going well back at home too.  I love you all, and hope you have a great week!
-

Elder Hadfield

Elder Pettit and Elder Hadfield

Week 10 - Krakow

Hello everyone!

How are things going?  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  I'm am officially now in Poland.  It's crazy how different it is than the states.  My first area will be Kraków, which I've heard is one of the best areas, so that's good. 

This week was pretty crazy though.  Our flights to get here were pretty long, and I'm still recovering from the jet-lag.  We stayed at the mission home with President Turek and his family.  Then, on Thursday morning, we got our area assignments and trainers.  I am training with Starszy Pettit.  He is from Missouri, but lived in Utah for the past two years.  He seems pretty cool, and we are getting along pretty well so far.  We had a two and a half hour train ride to Kraków, and that was nice because I was able to sleep for most of it.  But things are going pretty well here.

On Saturday, one of the other two companionships in our district had a baptism with someone named Michał.  He super cool and he loves the missionaries.  We were able to go to that, and that was super cool.  It was New Year's Eve, and so that night we had dinner at a member's house.  His name is Lukas, and he's pretty cool.  His family is from Argentina, and they don't speak any Polish, just English.  It was delicious though.  He made us some South American food. 

On Sunday, I went to church for my first time in Poland.  That was definitely a culture shock.  There were about 15 members there, and 6 of us were missionaries, so it's really small.  It was good though.  That night, we went and had dinner with the senior couple in our area.  That was also pretty nice.  Our branch is pretty close, and that is cool.  But things are going well in Poland.  I hope they are going well wherever you guys are too. 

 If you have time, you can shoot me a quick email and I should have time to respond next week.  I'd love to hear from you.  Well hope you all have a sick week.  Love you all!

Starszy Hadfield