Sunday, August 18, 2013

Family!

So here is the run down on what we will be happening with me this next week: On Sunday after church we are having a little lunch with the branch and then we are all going to a near by hotel where our investigator Tolik is going to get baptized. That night at 11 my companion has a train to L'viv, where he will spend his last preparation day before he goes home. It is still unknown if I will or will not be on the train with him, as we still have not received information on who will be serving where next transfer. We will find out this Saturday where we will be serving, so I will have to let you know next Monday.

This coming week we also have a really fun activity planned with the branches from Chernivtsi and the neighboring branch of Ivano. On Saturday morning the branch is all getting in a rented bus to go up to the mountains in between the Chernivtsi and Ivano oblasts on the border. There the two branches are going to hang out all day, have a big lunch together, and have a lot of fun, and then later on in the day get back on the buses and go back to the cities that they came from. We are allowed to go if we have investigators who are going, which is nice since Elder Dorius and I have about three who are going to go. It will be really nice for them to get to meet a lot of members and have fun with them. Plus I think there is going to be a spiritual thought there and everything like that.

This week was pretty good. I don't have a whole lot to say. For three days I was on exchanges with other elders and on those days we couldn't seem to schedule a meeting with anyone so we were just out on the street talking to people about the gospel all day. Those three days just happened to be the hottest three days of the whole week. Funny how that works. But I still had the sun screen that mom gave me when I left so I made sure to use it and I didn't get burned at all. Way to go mom!

I love you all so much, and I can't wait to hear from you next week and tell you all that is going on with me and where I will be serving from now on. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Your Son/Brother

Elder Hadfield

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Hey family,

A cool little experience that I had yesterday: We were walking out on the street and I was super hungry. I was thinking to myself "wow, it would be nice if I had some fruit to eat right now." Then some old lady called us over to her, so we went. And she told us "hey boys, I just wanted to give you some apples." She then took six apples out of her bag, gave them to us and left. It was a very sweet tender mercy!

We had a really scenic river baptism this week, where two people were baptized. The weather was perfect, there was a lot of support from the branch members, and we even had a lot of non members come! To start off the service all the missionaries sand "Come thou Fount." It was very powerful!

The only hard thing was that the water was not very deep, and the rocks on the bottom of the river really hurt to walk on, on the way back to the shore after the baptism, I slipped and fell on some rocks a few times and got all wet in the river. I am not going to lie, it felt super good. Who said you can't go swim on your mission?

My companion baptized our investigator. He had to get baptized three times before he went all the way under, but I am sure he didn't mind since he thought the water felt really good.

The sisters made a really good lunch and after the baptism we all had a little picnic on the river bank.
Then on Sunday we were able to confirm our new members and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost. What a spiritually packed week.

I love serving in Chernivtsi! It is such a pretty city, and the members are awesome. I am finding much joy in serving others.By the way I am taking so many pictures and my flash card is filling up fast, it will be fun when I come home to sit down and go through the thousands of pictures and videos that I have and show them to you and tell you the stories behind them! Oh and you will be happy to know that I am getting way better at writing in my journal too! Ever since I got the new one my entries have been way longer.

I love you and miss you so much! I hope you have fun on the rest of your trip,

Love,

Elder Hadfield