Week 24 - Krakow

Hello y'all!

    How are things going?  Hope they are just dandy for all of you.  This week was good.  It was also really busy.  I went to Warsaw on Wednesday and Thursday for legal work, Katowice on Sunday for District Conference, Katowice again on Monday for Zone Conference, then Zakopane today to hike.  It was fun.  I'm learning so much.  With it being Easter this Sunday, I'd encourage you all to visit mormon.org.  The church has done a great job making a video showing the power the Savior has to heal us in our inadequacies and our infirmities.  I know that this is true, and I know that through Christ's power, we can feel comfort and peace in our lives in circumstances where it would be otherwise impossible.  I never feel more worthy of my call as a missionary than when I testify of the Savior.  I wouldn't be out here in Poland, so far from home, working as hard as I am right now if I didn't believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and through Him we can feel peace.  I love you all, and have an amazing week!

-Elder Hadfield

Katowice Zone Conference:

Zakopane Hike:

Wawel:

Week 23 - Krakow

Hello all!

    How's everything going?  Hope it's good for you all.  This was a good week.  We've been able to work on Family History a little bit with some members, and it's been going really well.  We've done quite a bit of Book of Mormon contacting this past week, and that has gone really well.  We're hoping something comes out of that soon. 

General Conference was great this past week.  I love having the opportunity to listen from our inspired leaders twice a year.  There were many great talks given.  I want to share my thoughts from President Monson's message on Sunday Morning.  He spoke of the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives. He said that we, as members of the church, have a "critical need...to study, ponder, and apply it's teachings in our lives", then challenged us to read the Book of Mormon daily.  This is something that I have full belief in.  The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, and as we read, we center our lives in the gospel and become stronger spiritually.  In April of 2009, Elder Holland gave a talk titled "Safety for the Soul" (basically my favorite conference talk, if you haven't seen it, make some time to watch it this week because it is amazing and it will make you want to read the Book of Mormon). 

He declares that "God always provides safety for the soul, and with the Book of Mormon, He has again done that in our time. Remember this declaration by Jesus Himself:  'Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived'—and in the last days neither your heart nor your faith will fail you." 

I add my witness to the prophets and apostles that I know the Book of Mormon is true.  It is the word of God, and I know that as we read it, we call down power from heaven to help us in our lives.  I promise that as we read the Book of Mormon, we will feel the Spirit of the Lord in our lives, and we will come closer to our Savior and align our will to His. 

I love you all, and have a legendary week!

-Elder Hadfield

Here's the link to the Elder Holland's talk so you don't even have to search for it: https://goo.gl/B8x6c4

Week 22 - Krakow

Katowice Zone Training - March 2017

Hello there everyone!

     How are things going?  Hope it's well for all of you wherever you are. 

This week was pretty good.  We have had a lot of lessons recently, which is the way we like it.  We're working hard with members and have like 3 members left to visit before we have visited all of them this transfer, so that's pretty cool.  We'll try to get a couple more meetings this upcoming week.  

We had a meeting with a couple from India for the first time on Wednesday, and we taught them about the Restoration.  It went pretty well.  They committed to baptism, so that's super exciting.  We'll see where it goes from here and we'll have a lesson or two this week and try to make some progress with them. 

We weren't able to get back to Nowy Sącz this week, but we're tentatively planning on Wednesday to return and teach C again.  Hopefully we can make that happen.  We had a lesson with A on Tuesday, and we talked with her about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  We committed her to read and pray about it, then we asked her if she received the answer that the Book of Mormon is true if she would get baptized, and she said probably not, at least not yet.  We're hoping her heart is a little softened as she reads and finds out of it's truthfulness. 

We are also working with some of our recent converts on Family History.  It's been going really well.  I really didn't know much about Family History before my mission, but I've learned quite a bit about it here.  It's super cool.  I encourage all of ya'll to take a look at it. 

With the language, I'm able to understand other missionaries almost 100%, with native Poles it's still about 30% depending on what they are talking about, and President Turek is somewhere in between.  It's gotten a lot better though, and hopefully it will keep improving.  

The weather in Kraków doesn't quite know what to do with itself.  Sometimes it will be a pretty warm day, then others will be a little chilly.  It's nothing like winter though, and we're hoping that consistent spring weather is just around the corner.  

With our apartment, we have a kitchen, a laundry room (with a washer and a couple of shelves), a bathroom (toilet, sink, and shower) a study room, a bed room, and another room that's kind of just a room where we hang laundry.  It's a fairly good-sized apartment.  It's heated fairly well.  We'll see how it gets once it starts to get warmer here.  

For P-days, the last few we've just kind of hung out at the chapel and watched mormon messages (super boring, but it's also super relaxing and it saves money).  Today, we will play some frisbee, so that should be fun.  We'll see how it goes.  We usually do laundry on just any day of the week.  Pop those clothes in before bed, time it to go off at 7 or so in the morning, then hang it up to dry before planning.  It's convenient.  I ironed one shirt the morning after I got in Poland, and that's it.  The shirts I got are super good at straightening out.  

This week should be a good week as well.  We have some more lessons set up, and we might take another trek out to Nowy Sącz.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm looking forward to it.  Well I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week!

-Elder Hadfield

Week 21 - Krakow

Hey everyone!

 Hope things are going well for all of you wherever you are.  Things are going well in Poland still.  It was a busy week. 

We had zone training on Thursday in Katowice.  We took a bus for an hour and a half to get there.  It was good.  There was a large focus on working with the members, which I think is key no matter where we are in the world.  It was really good though.  

On Friday, took a two hour bus ride to go to a nearby village named Nowy Sącz to visit a couple members and have a lesson with an investigator from Nigeria. It was super pretty. We also have a return appointment with A this week, so we'll see how it goes. Every Sunday, we also have dinner at the senior couple's place (the Dalton's) with the members of the branch.  That's super awesome every week.  They go home in less than a month though, which is pretty crazy. 

But yea it was a good week.  We'll try to build off of it this week too.  I just have a thought I had this week while reading Doctrine and Covenants.  Many of the sections end with the Lord saying, "Behold, I come quickly".  I was reminded about how soon the Lord will come again, and how we need to always be ready.  As the hymn 'Hope of Israel' puts it, we must always "watch and pray", and I think that is the best way for us to be prepared to meet the Lord at the Second Coming.  As we continually watch and pray, I know we will progress to the point where we can look forward to the coming of the Lord with joy.  I love you all, and have a great week!

-Elder Hadfield