Dear Family,

I miss you all so much! It is great to be able to hear from you every week. It brings me much comfort to know that you are all doing so well and being really good member missionaries. I know that as you look for missionary moments in your life, you will find them and you will be able to share the gospel with those whom the Lord has prepared for you! I know I am receiving so many blessings on my mission in Ukraine for all of the strides you are making to share the gospel back at home.

So on Friday we were blessed in Chernivtsi to have the first baptism of the L'viv Ukraine Mission! The lady who I told you about got baptized and I had the great honor of being able to baptize her. It is really cool to see how happy she is with the gospel in her life. It is night and day. She has always been a strong woman of faith, but the knowledge that the restored gospel brings has given her a whole hope about life.

She shared with us a very cool experience she had a few days before the baptism that I would like to share with you. Remember the son that I told you about last week that she had who died in a really tragic manner? Well, she said that he came to her in a dream and told her that she needed to join this church and then he left and she woke up. She was very calm and confident in her decision and she knows the Book of Mormon is from God.

She is just an amazing lady and I feel very blessed to have found her. She loves us and she takes good care of us. She had a garden and she gives us lots of berries and fruit. Oh, and she makes some really good natural tea from boiling leaves from a certain type of tree.

For the 4th of July we had a party with all the people who have been coming to our English classes, and all the members who wanted to come and bring their friends. It was a lot of fun. My companion and I made a lot of really good treats that people liked. Ukrainians don't really know what brownies are, because they don't really make them here, but they loved the ones we made!

On Saturday we were in L'viv for the first mission conference as the L'viv mission. President Latin and his wife sister Latin were there and it was really great to get to hear from them. They are awesome people and I feel very blessed to have them here. We didn't get a whole lot of time to talk with them on a 1 on 1 basis, but that's ok, because they are doing a mission tour this week to do a fire side with each branch. On Thursday we have a lunch with President and his wife, and then we have interviews with him, and then at seven at night he is putting on a fire side for the branch, so it should be a pretty fun week!

Oh, I almost forgot, transfers are this week and I am staying in Chernivtsi. I love it here very much, so I am super excited to be able to stay! Well I have to go, Я вас люблю:) I hope you have a fun week! Keep looking for opportunities to share the gospel with the people around you! I am very proud of you!

Your son/brother,

Elder Mitchell Hadfield

2 July 2103

Ummm, Ummm, Good!

Dear Family,

If you are all gathered around the computer anxiously awaiting my thoughts of the first presidency broadcast then I am sorry to disappoint you. Did I get to watch the broadcast? Why yes, I sure did! Did I get to watch it in a language that I understand? Why no, I did not. Now I know what you are thinking. "You have been studying Ukrainian for nine months now, you should understand it!" Well that is all true. But knowing Ukrainian does not help very much when you watch the broadcast in Russian. It does help a little because a lot of words are similar, so I understood a lot of words, but as far as complete understanding goes, I didn't get most of the broadcast. No worries though, tomorrow for district meeting we are going to watch it in our native tongue! I admit it was a really cool experience to watch it in Russian because rather than paying to much attention to what was being said I got to take the chance to listen to what the Spirit was trying to tell me. I can't really describe it, but it was very neat.

So this week we set a baptismal date with our investigator named Violetta. She is about 55 years old and lives with her husband very close by to the church. We go over to her house to teach her and loves meeting with us! She had an unfortunate situations with one of her two sons many years ago where he died, I don't want to go into many details, but she really misses him. The plan of salvation really hits home for her. Plus she thinks I look a lot like her son that passed away, and he was tall like me, so Violetta really likes me. We will be holding a baptismal service for her on Friday morning this week! I am super excited! Then after the service we have a train to L'viv where we have a conference to meet our new mission president, which is going to be great!

I almost forgot Happy early Independence Day! We are still not sure what we are going to do to celebrate yet, but we will think of something! Oh, now I remember, we are going to sing patriotic hymns for companion study! Sounds fun huh?

That's all from me for this week. I love you all so much!

Elder Hadfield

Me and President Klebingat at my last meeting in the Kyiv Mission

Dear Family,

So this week we had a zone conference in L'viv with all the missionaries who will be in the L'viv mission. I got to see a little more of L'viv this trip because we did not arrive in the middle of the night like last time. The city is very beautiful and I hope I have a chance by the end of my mission to serve there.

We left of for L'viv on Friday afternoon by train. Trains are fun... but when it is really hot and the train has no air conditioning it can be a little miserable. But I had a lot of fun anyway. There was a little old man who was selling little carved pen whistles. I asked to buy one, so he blew into it to test it... then he gave it to me haha. It was pretty funny. Then he asked if we understood Ukrainian well, and we told him yes. So then he started to sing some Ukrainian songs for us. It was really sweet. Then he recited some Ukrainian poetry. I got some of it on camera. The man was very nice. After he finished I got to talking with him, and he found out we were missionaries. He started listing of all the different churches that there are in the world. Then I asked him a question. "Why do you think there are so many different churches in the world?" He looked at me for a bit and then he told me that I gave a very smart question and then declined to answer saying that he did not have any idea. He then asked me the same question. I boldly but humbly answered by telling him that while most churches have a lot of good things, Satan does not want God's children to find the true church of God with the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. The man was a little shocked. I told him about the Book of Mormon, gave him a copy, and he agreed to come to church. It was a really great experience.

On Saturday we went running with president in the morning followed by our conference. Don't worry, we had time to shower and change in between! At the conference President gave us all the advice that he usually gives in his departing missionary interviews since that was our last time to get to be with him. Then he and his wife shared their conversion stories which were incredible and then following they told us about how they met and their story together which was pretty cool as well.

Then we got back in a train a headed back to Chernivtsi. We found out that we will have another conference in L'viv on the 6th of July, except this one will be with our new mission president. I am excited to meet him, and learn from him.

I hope you enjoyed all the pictures! I love you all so much! Until Next week,

Elder Hadfield

The beds are a bit small on the train.

My Companion and I on the way to L'viv.

Picking Cherries for the Primary Children

My Family,

This week was a lot of fun, on Saturday we had a big activity at the church that we had been planing for a while. We had been planing to show slide shows of our lives and then have some games, but as the week went along we still could not get a hold of a projector so we just had the activity without slide shows and played a lot of games and made more food instead. Elder Dorius and I played an apple game against two members of the branch. You have to feed your partner an apple while he or she is feeding you one. The fist team that has both apples eaten first wins. As you would have guessed... we won, and the losing duo said it was unfair because they are girls and we have bigger mouths. We had a lot of members and non-members come to the activity. Early this week we met a man in a taxi who had just moved to Chernivtsi from Russia. We invited him to come to the activity, and he came with his wife and his daughter. He told us it was a miracle because his daughter did not have any friends yet since they were very new to the area, but she mad friends with some of the primary girls in our branch.

On Sunday my companion was teaching elders quorum when little Susanna (The branch president's daughter) runs up and tugs on my suit coat. "Elder Hadfield... come here... we need you." So I got one of the other Elders and I went with her. She took my be the hand and led me outside where the primary was. They go out there after their lessons sometimes to keep the kids from making the church building too loud. Susanna led me over to a cherry tree where the kids were trying to climb to reach the cherries. With my outstretched hand, I was able to reach the cherries and give them to the kids. It was really fun! The Sister who is in charge of Primary is Sister Figel. She is so awesome. She served a mission in Russia about 12 years ago, and is one of the many amazing members here in Chernivtsi!

I have been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon lately and wanted to share something I read this morning during study! It is by M. Russell Ballard from the book "Our Search for Happiness"
"But the prospect of sharing my beliefs with a group of ministers was intriguing, so I
chose to accept this invitation. On the appointed day I traveled to the School of
Theology in Toronto and met with about forty-five ministers, who were all seated
around a large table. I was given forty-five minutes to explain the basic teachings of
the Church, then the ministers were free to ask questions.

The first comment, issued in the form of a challenge, was, "Mr. Ballard, if you could
just place the Gold Plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated on this
table so all of us could handle them, then we would know that what you are telling
us is the truth."

I felt prompted to respond by looking the questioner in the eye and saying, "You are
a minister, and you know that no truth has ever come into the heart of man except
by the Holy Ghost. You could hold the Gold Plates in your hands, and you would
not know any more about whether this Church is true than before. May I ask, have
you read the Book of Mormon?"

He answered that he had not.

I replied, "Don't you believe it would be wise to read the Book of Mormon, and then
ponder and pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon is true?""

You would be surprised at how many people ask us if we have the original plates still or where they can be located, when we have a copy of the knowledge the plates contained in our hands in these peoples native language right in front of them. It hurts to see the people that you love deny themselves the opportunity to come to know their Savior because they won't give the Book of Mormon a chance. I am so glad for the Book of Mormon in my life and the knowledge and comfort that come through reading. I have prayed about the Book of Mormon and I know it is true and of God. And the cool thing is that God will give anyone who asks him in faith, and answer about the truthfulness of the Book

I love you all so much! I love being on a mission and serving the Lord with all my heart! Thank you for all your love and support,

Elder Hadfield

Family,

Teaching is going great, we are finding a lot of humble people who want to know more about their Heavenly Father. We have set three baptismal dates in the last three weeks, but none of them have gone through like we planned, but we are still working with these people to help them progress in the gospel.

This week we had a seminary graduation of our own, youth from two near by cities came to Chernivtsi and we have a very nice night for them. The picture I attached is the group photo that we took at the end of the graduation.

On P-days there are some things we have to do, like buy food, send emails, and study, which end up taking more time than you would think. Then with whatever time we have left, we take naps:), some times we do extra work outs, or go look around the city. Today we went a worked out with one of our investigators at his garage. It was a lot of fun. His name is Tolya and he is a pretty strong guy.

Yeva called me this week! She told me about all the temple work that she has been doing for he parents and grandparents! She told me about how the church is growing very fast down there in Uzhhorod. It was great to hear from her again, she is such an amazing lady.

This week we made some brownies for a recent convert and tried to bring them to his house after church, he didn't pick up his phone, and he was not in his apartment, so we ended up eating the brownies to cheer us up! That is why we had to work out so hard this morning.

A cool investigator we are teaching is Vitaliy. He's about 22 and if I remember right he recently finished school. He's super nice and came to church this last Sunday. He stayed for all 3 hours like a champ. At the end he said it was a little boring to sit for that long but he agreed to meet. We wanted to make the church a little less boring for him so we invited Oksana, who is a 22 girl getting ready to serve a mission. We thought that having a girl there of about his age he would make it a little less borning for him. She really did a good job of making him feel comfortable and I think she really helped him want to read the Book of Mormon. She has a great testimony. We were grateful for her help and the prompting from the Spirit to invite her. I'll let you know more about Vitaliy as he progresses more towards baptism. He's a good kid, just what this branch needs.

First off, if you have any packages or letters, do not send them until I get you the new mission address, which will be coming in July. Just hold on to whatever you might have written until then since very soon the missions will be splitting and you don't want to risk it not getting here in time before the mission turns into the L'viv mission.

Well I have to be going, I love you all so very much! I hope you enjoy the pictures and the videos, I will do my best to have more for next week!

With love,

Elder Hadfield

Family,

We got transfer information this week and I am going to be staying in Chernevtsi for another six weeks with Elder Dorius! I am very happy about this. I love it here! Elder Dorius is great, and best of all I get to keep sleeping on the best bed in the mission!

 

Just a quick run down on the pictures since I am always really bad at telling you what the pictures are all about. The first one is of a really cool kid from sports day and I. He loves basketball so I played a bit with him. The second picture is of my companion and I. We rapped at district meeting it was pretty fun.

 

A cool story from the week:

 

So Volodimer, the guy who we had set a baptismal date with does not have a cell phone, and we had two meetings set up with him last week. And both times he did not show up. So we got worried and we thought that he didn't want to get baptized and keep learning about the gospel. Yesterday after church, my companion and I had a lot of things to file on the computer and we had a few meeting with people so we ended up staying at the church from nine in the morning to eight at night. Usually we would have been out a lot earlier. Anyway, at 7:45 Volodimer walks in the doors of the church, came up to us (sounding really sick), and told us that he has been in the hospital the last few days. The doctors told him he needed to stay but he told us he left because he knew that he needed to come to the church. He told us he didn't think anyone would be at the church so late but that he had a feeling he needed to come anyway. We talked for about ten minutes, we gave him a priesthood blessing and then he let. We set up another meeting with him for tomorrow. It was a tender mercy in our life. Then we got to go home and eat dinner! It was nice after not eating anything all day!

 

I love you all very much. Until next week,

 

Elder Hadfield

 

Pretty Good Form!

Hello,

Today we went bowling, it was really fun. I was pretty hot and had a couple good rounds in a row. While we were there we heard some music that sounded like it was new that I have never heard before. It was pretty catchy. It made me realize that I have been on my mission for a long time. Well 7 and 1/2 months. I am loving it though. The language is coming along as I am able to understand more and more every day. I am even getting good at being able to talk on the phone. In fact, the lady who I baptized in Uzhhorod gave me a call yesterday. It was so good to hear from her. She told me about how next week she is going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for some of her deceased family members. It was one of the happiest moments on my mission. Oh, the reason I say that is because she told me how impressed she was with how much I have improved speaking Ukrainian. Its is hard for me to tell that I am making progress from day to day, but when I talk to someone that I have not seen in a month it is easy for them to tell I am improving.

So a funny story from last Sunday: My companion and I went to the train station to help a guy from our ward get on a train. He left for his mission to one of the other missions in Ukraine. We were loading his bags onto a train when all of the sudden the train started going with us on it. It was my me and my companion, the soon to be missionary's two siblings and best friend all on the train. Then some conductor lady started yelling at me in Russian (It was a train to Moscow) and to be honest I am pretty sure she spit all over me. I didn't know what she said, but when the train was pulling out of the station I got the hint. We all sprinted down the hall of the train and were forced to jump off of it as it started to speed up. We all got off safe but it was a pretty close call.

I have some good news as far as missionary work goes! We set a baptismal date with a man named Volodimer. He walked into the church the other day and we happened to be there as well. He loves serving people and loved what we had to tell him about the plan of Salvation. He said he feels like it is true and wants to get baptized. He is about 50 years old and very well dressed!

Ok well, love all of you very much! I am so glad that I was able to send you an email today! Take care, be safe, do what is right! I will look forward to talking to you again next week!

Elder Hadfield