My Dear Family,

Well another week has gone by. Time is flying so fast. Sometimes I look back and wonder where it has gone. Surely it is the most valuable resource that we have on the earth. No one can buy more of it, no one knows how much of it they have, you just have to live the time that you have to the fullest each and every day. Because who knows what will happen tomorrow? Those have been the thoughts that I have been thinking about a lot this week. Let me explain why.

This week marks the end of the transfer. I found out that after living and serving here for six months, I am leaving Chernivtsi. It was a bitter sweet thing to here. On one side bitter knowing that I have to leave, and sweet knowing that it happened and seeing all the people that I have come to know and love. Well, I am sure you are wondering where I am going now. I am going to serve in Khmelnitski. And I got called to be district leader there. It is a little more east and a lot more north than where I am right now. It will be six elders and two sisters. I am not really sure about what the branch is like there, but I will tell you all about that next week!

This week was a lot of fun! Let´s see... where to start?

The whole week we spent preparing for Sunday since we had a huge branch lunch and also during sacrament meeting all the missionaries did a musical number. We sang the EFY melody, where you mix ¨As sisters in Zion,¨ and ¨We´ll bring the world His truth.¨ It was very powerful.

As far as the branch lunch goes, we went with one of the members to help them buy food for it at a local market since it was a lot of food and there was no way they were going to be able to carry all the food home by themselves. I ended up carrying a fifteen kilogram bag of potatoes for a little less them two miles. My back hurt so bad the next morning. On Saturday we went back to the members house and helped peel all the potatoes, great (like with cheese, I am not sure how) them, and make little has brown patties with them. We were in the kitchen for like four hours straight. But the food turned out way good, and on Sunday everyone loved it. Either that or they were just really hungry since none of it was left over.

I got to go on exchanges this week. My companion from the MTC and from Uzhhorod both came down to Chernivtsi (they are serving together). It was really fun, elder Sweeten and I talked a lot about the amazing times we had in Uzhhorod and about the miracles that have happened since. It was really fun.

Mom, I really liked that story you shared with me, I think I have heard it before. It is very comforting to know that Christ will not let the challenges in our life get to bad to where they will ruin us, only to the point where they will refine us and make us more like Him. I think that was something that I really needed this week!

I have such a great family! What a blessing to me! Your letters are always just what I need to hear, and they always help me feel your love for me. Until next week,

Love,

Elder Hadfield

Hello Family! 

This week we took our trip to L'viv. We were there for one day for a conference and then we came home. We didn't really have a chance to do much while we were there since we got in late one night, and got on the train the very next day right after the conference to come home. We got pretty lucky as far as getting on the train since we walked on the train right as it was pulling out of the station on the way home.

On Sunday I had a chance to give a talk on "The worth of souls." It went well. One of the people who was supposed to talk after me did not show up, so our terrific Branch President gave a great talk on self worth! He is so great. I have learned a lot from him. He came over to me on Sunday, sat down and then said "Elder Hadfield, people would go to work day after day and sit in on meetings with their boss saying 'yes boss, yes boss,' they would do whatever it takes because that is where their money comes from. But when God asks them to come to church for three hours once a week, they have a hard time doing it, what they don't realize is that God is the source of all their blessings." Words of wisdom!

It is getting a lot colder here, so that means less people on the streets and more people in their homes. So this week we went knocking on doors for the first time in a long time. During the middle of the summer there is really no point since everyone is outside and they stay outside all the way until we have to be home since it is bright late into the night hours. I really like knocking doors. You are never really sure who will open the door, but you are always ready to share your testimony with them.

I miss you all so much. It is hard to be so far away from you, but I know what I am doing is important. Thank you for your love and support.

Love,

Elder Hadfield

My Dear Family,

Things picked up a bit this week! I am not sure if I told you last week, but this week I will be in L'viv for a conference.Well, only two days out of this week.

Mom, that sounds fun to hand out with the missionaries on their preparation day. I am sure they were very happy to have such a cool member like you show them the sites. Your story reminded me of when I was first in Uzhhorod and it was like two weeks after going down there, so I still did not know the area very well, and the zone leaders came down to go on exchanges. I pretended that I knew my way around really well and we got really lost. But I didn't want to say that we were lost, so I said a little prayer and then we somehow found our way to where we were going, and I didn't have to admit I had no clue where I was haha.

What happened this week? Well this is a funny little story but it will help explain the picture that I sent along with my email. So were were walking down the street when we saw this tiny cute cat. So what the heck, I thought to myself "What would Amanda do?" And then I bent over to pet it. I ended up picking it up for a second to take a picture with it. At the same time as I did this a little girl (about 7ish or so) stopped to talk with us. She was like "Is that your kitty?" We told her no and that we had just found it on the side of the road. She looked at us with the biggest puppy dog eyes and said "Please take him home with you!" It was really hard to try and explain to the cute little girl that we were not allowed to have pets in our apartment. She was really sad, so she picked up the cat to see if she could keep it at school! I hoped that worked out for her.

Oh and this week we had to go to pick up the sisters in the morning and so we thought "lets run to the train station" and we get there a lot faster then we thought. So we had to wait for like 30 minutes and then they got in. So we took their stuff and got in to a taxi to go to their apartment and then we ran home to our apartment and my companion lost the keys to our apartment. So we had to run back to the train station to see if the keys fell while he was siting down, but we didn't find them so we went to a little restaurant by the station for breakfast since we were way hungry and we didn't have any way to get at our food in our apartment.  Then we tried to see if maybe the keys had feel out in the taxi, so we checked if the same taxi came back to the station, but we didn't find him. 

So by now its like 10 am and we had an audit at the church to do, so we go there and did the audit. Keep in mind that we were still in our running clothes. Then we called the land lady and tell her what happened. She was way understanding, which was a miracle, and told us that her husband would come to help us out. We decided to run some errands since we really could not do much else. Then went to meet our land lord and he didn't have the key so he called a lock smith and he said he would come by at 6pm to break us into our house. Our kind neighbor gave us some apples and I cleaned up the leaves on our porch. Then we helped an old man carry like 20 pounds of onions to his apartment, since he was old and could not do it himself. Then finally the lock smith came and took out the lock. I was surprised at how easy it was for him! After we got in the house we were understandably hungry so we got dinner and then got ready to go over to our neighbors house. He invited us over to talk to get to know each other. Then we had a little meeting with our neighbor.

Something pretty cool happened yesterday at church. One of my recent converts who got the priesthood a few weeks ago blessed the sacrament! It made me very happy to be able to watch that!

Well that is all from my end this week! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hadfield

Me as Nephi with the Gold Plates

Hello, 

We spent all day Yesterday settling on the apartment with the land lady and the realtors. Then we moved ourselves out of our apartment, and then we helped the sisters move into the apartment that we were in. A little miracle happened though in the whole process. One of the realtors became very interested in the Book of Mormon. While we were signing contracts and things of that nature I managed to explain a little about the book and she even read the introduction. As time went on she kept asking more questions about what we believe, what we thought about the Bible, and about different traditions in our church. Then at the end before she left we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to come to church. She seemed pretty enthusiastic about coming.

My companion and I get along really good, and have a great time doing missionary work. That is what it is all about. Being happy, so others will see you, and wonder where the happiness in you came from.

This week we had a party to kick of institute and seminary at the church. The teachers of both classes asked us for our help. We dressed up like Nephi (me), and Lehi (Elder Bailey|), and locked ourselves in the closet. The students then had to go on a treasure hunt to find us. There were clues all over the church that were hidden. When they found us, we came out with the "gold plates" and bore our testimony of the Book of Mormon and how important it is to us. The we had a bunch of really tasty sloppy joes!

Oh, our recent convert got the priesthood on Sunday!

Just a little scripture that I like that I wanted to share: This is when Lehi is talking to Nephi about Laman and Lemuel.

"1Nephi 3:5 And now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord."

A lot of times I feel like what my leaders ask me to do is a "hard thing." But when I take a second to think about it, it is not really my leaders who are asking me to do these things but it is my God. When I have that knowledge it is easier for me to do them!

I love you all so much! Mom, your son is doing great, he loves you!

I can't wait to talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Hadfield

Hello,

On Wednesday I was in L'viv to pick my new companion. He has two transfers left on his mission before he goes home.  Now in L'viv the missionaries are not allowed to preach, wear name tags, or carry books. Something with the government a little upset about the creation of a new mission there. So it has been pretty hard for the missionaries there to do much other than meet with members and teach English. Anyway, while I was there I got to eat at McDonalds for breakfast. It was ok, a little expensive.

I have a little miracle to share with you. So, the other night we were at the train station to pick up the three sisters coming into Chernivtsi at about eleven at night. We were asked by our district leader to go and help them with their bags so they would not have to lift them all by themselves. We went and helped them, got in a taxi and took them to their apartment. We then paid the taxi driver, and unloaded the bags from the back of the truck. Then the taxi drove away. We had forgot to ask him to wait so that he could take us from the sisters apartment back to our apartment. at this point it was about midnight and it was pitch black. We called a different taxi company to come and get us, but we were told they did not have any free taxis. 

So I turned to my companion and he asked "are we running?" I told him yes. We then proceeded to sprint for 25 minutes until we reached our apartment. It was not until the next day however, that we realized how blessed we actually were. The next day we walked back down the same path that we had ran the night before. However, in the light of day we were able to see how bad the road really was. There were so many holes, big rocks, uneven steps, drop offs, and debris that we should have tripped, fallen, gotten hurt, or even noticed the rough ground as we ran. As we talked about it, we both felt like the run had been very smooth, and it was hard for us to believe that the same road we were looking at was the one we had ran the night before. We both felt like we were blessed and that God had been watching out for us.

On Saturday was Ukraine's independence day. So to celebrate we had to be at home by six. So me and my companion just turned on church DVD's and worked out a lot. If you are wondering, that is what the benching pictures are from. My companion has some weights, so its super good since he lets me use them.

On Sunday I was able to give our recent convert the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was a little nervous, had trouble pronouncing his full name, and I may or may not have repeated myself a few times, but over all it was a very uplifting experience.

What else to say? That's about all from my end.

I love you all so much!

Until next week, Love,

Elder Hadfield