Monday, August 3, 2015

Another week of miracles here in Érd

 2 June 2015

hello all, its been another week of miracles here in Érd.

Wednesday- We met with the sweet old néni named Érzsébet that came to church last sunday. She is a less active that lives in Budafok but is basically only a less active because she is so old and has a hard time getting around. We visited with her for a while and she told us conversion story and about her missionaries. The branch president visits her frequently and the elders visit her but she doesn't really have family close by so it was mostly visiting her and talking and just spending time with her. She is your stereotypical hungarinan néni, just super sweet and loves to talk. She also has this ancient dog. He is something...
 
That evening  we met with the Andrásék with János, the first counselor in the branch presidency. It was an interesting program. It was good but I think they have a ways to go before baptism. 
After that though we had Angol óra and they came to it too. In Angol óra one of our students Érnő, made us CDs as a "memory" of hungary. It was super funny. 
our angol óra class (érnő, imre, me, judit, and a church member évi)

saying goodbye to Éva
After angol óra we had a tere fere or linger longer. It was super great because usually its only one or two people that stay after but this week we had seven people stay not including János who stayed for angol óra after our program with the andrásék. But that wasn't even the most amazing part of the night. So Anita, the less active who speaks english, came again after angol óra and wanted help for stuff with her class. After we helped her she came into the chapel where we were all talking with János. Anita plays piano really well and when she was active she was the ward pianist. She even helped translate some of the hymns into hungarian. Sister sholly and I have been wanting to ask her if she could play piano for a musical number but hadn't had the chance yet. After a few minutes of chatting she asked János if he wanted her to play something for us and János being the star he is said that actually the sisters had a question for her. So we asked her if she could play piano for a musical number on sunday. We thought it would be really hard to convince her but she was like, sure! which one? She even agreed to play piano for the hymns too!! it was seriously a miracle. 
Anita when she came to play for us
Thursday- Thursday was pretty uneventful, we went tracting all day in budatétény and had angol óra that evening.

Friday- We had district meeting in the morning which was good. Then that afternoon we went and played soccer with the Gyönygiék. Their dog is super cute and catches the soccer ball and takes it back to you. Gyönygi made us these really good plum and peach jam filled potato balls. They tasted really good and I couldn't tell that they were potato until she told us. We got the recipe so after I work on translating that I'll send it home so you can try to make it! 
 
That evening we had planned to meet with Brigi and her father Sándor but they canceled so we ended up tracting instead. We tracted into this man named György, who recognized us as the missionaries right as he opened the door. We ended up talking to him at his gate for a long time. He is evangelical and told us that he has heard about our church because they talk about us in his church. He then started complaining about how the bible is all messed up and how people all interpret it differently. We agreed with him that the bible has been changed over the years and that it depends on the translation of it. He tried telling us that Adam had a wife before Éve and that Noah brought more than two of every animal. It was super interesting. We basically were like, I don't know what the hungarian bible says but the english bible doesn't have that and kept bearing our testimonies. The whole time he kept looking over at me weird and sort of laughing to himself. It was super strange. But basically we bore our testimonies to him super strongly and sister sholly told him about the restoration. It was super interesting as sister sholly was telling him about the restoration we could tell he was starting to get uncomfortable. The spirit was super strong and I kept making direct eye contact with him. Sholly paused for a second and he jumped on that chance to change the subject. He asked me if I ever went to the library. I said that we went sometimes and he said he has seen me there. It was creepy. Then he started to go off about the bible again and we brought up the book of mormon. He recognized the book and I bore my testimony of it super strong and after he didn't know what to say. I told him if he read it and really prayed about it with an open heart he could know if what we said is true or not. He took the book and sort of half halfheartedly said he would read it. It was super interesting because as he came out of his door to talk to us he had this smirk on his face and as he was talking about the bible, his words just didn't seem to come out and after we bore our testimonies to him he seemed uneasy, but curious. And it was crazy because we never told him what he believed was wrong we simply listened and then bore our testimonies of what we knew. It was really fascinating to see how much power the spirit has because even he could feel that what we were saying was true. As we were walking away from his house sister sholly and I just felt all tingly because of the spirit.  

Saturday- Saturday morning we had a játék reggel with the palmer kids. We went lazer tagging at this old turkish cave in budatétény. It was super fun. The cave was apparently used by the turks when they were here but now it is just this giant cave that they filled with a lazer tag place. 
lazer tag in a cave with the palmers

 
After that we had a program with the Misákék. They are seriously the most amazing people in the history of ever. I just want to teach them forever!! We got to their house and they had a "barbecue" set up with a fire to roast everything on. We had this delicious chicken and mushrooms and then at the end, Anna surprised us with "smores"! She had made this thin cake thing to use as the graham crackers and had marshmallows and chocolate so we roasted marshmallows and were igazi amerikaiak.  It was super fun. We decided to watch the Joseph Smith restoration film with them and so after eating we went into their living room and put the film in. The spirit flooded into the room while we were watching it and Anna was crying by the end. After it ended none of us said anything for a good couple of minutes and we just all sat there in silence basking in the spirit. Sister sholly looked over at me and I started to bear my testimony. I honestly don't remember exactly what I said but it was super simple and about how it all started with a question and how God really answers our prayers. Anna was crying so hard and Ferenc didn't know what to say. We could tell he was overwhelmed. It was truly amazing. He asked us when we found out it was true and he said he wanted to find out for himself. It was really incredible. He said that they were all going to pray about it. I simply can't explain how happy we all were. Anna drove us to the train station and before we got out of the car, she reached her hand back to me and told me that what I said really touched her and that she hoped I would stay but if I was to leave that she knew that it would be where Jesus needed me. We both started crying. I can't even begin to explain how much I love this family. 
That evening we had a program with Imre again. We had planned to talk about the priesthood with him but on the train ride back we decided that it would be good to watch the restoration with him too. So we watched it with him and he loved it. I think it really helped him understand that God answers prayers and that when we put in the time, we get results. It was super great.
 
the misákék
6-2 making smores with the misákék
Sunday- So sunday was my last sunday here in Érd. In our morning meeting the branch presidency thanked me for all my work here and said they were really going to miss me. I just love them all so much. In sacrament meeting Sister Sholly and I sang "be still my soul" with Anita while she played the piano and it was super great. After then everybody flooded over to anita and were talking with her and it was super great to see her recognize how much she is loved in this branch. It was really a good experience for her. After sacrament meeting she said she had to go but she ended up talking with elder wilcox in the hall until the end of sunday school and it was super great because she told him her whole story of why she is inactive and how she fell away. She is just such a wonderful person and I know she still has a testimony she just needs people to be there to love and support her so that is what we are doing. Just being there for her to talk to and letting her know that she is loved, no matter what her path may be. 
 
After sunday school, one of the families in the ward, the mensárosék, invited us over for lunch. It was interesting, kind of last minute because they didn't plan on inviting us over but it was good. We played this bible board game with them and talked a bit about their conversion story which is pretty cool. The dad had a couple of mormon friends and just decided to go to church one day and then later got baptized. It was good, their kids have a ton of energy but it was fun. 
the mensárosék

Monday- So we met with Ágoston and Mária and had a little visit with them. We talked a lot about how missions work and about what church is like. They are just great people and as I was saying goodbye, Ágoston took my hands and was super sweet and said if I ever needed anything that I would always be welcome in their home and that they will never forget their first "angels". Mária started to cry as I was saying the closing prayer and it was bittersweet saying goodbye.
Ágoston and Mária
We then had családi est and after családi est we met with Imre and it was incredible. So last lesson we challenged imre to really pray about the book of mormon. When we started the lesson he was asking us all these questions about how missions work and if he wanted to meet with the missionaries in america before he left on the boat if he could do that so we showed him lds.org and how he could find different phone numbers for people in the area. And then he said "I have news, I prayed." and we were like yeah? and he said that he got an answer!! He said that he prayed to ask if the book of mormon was true and that he was sitting there for a few minutes and he was about to get up and do something but he started to feel it and just stayed there. He said he had this warm feeling in his heart and he just knew it was true. We told him that that was incredible and that he had felt the spirit. It was so interesting thinking after the lesson about our first lessons with him and how much he has grown and changed just in this short period of time. He has this light in his eyes now. We told him how important the book of mormon is and how it is the keystone and how if the book of mormon is true then that has to mean that everything else is true and he said that that made sense so we asked him to pray about it too. We challenged him to read from the book of mormon every day, even when he is working on the boat and to come to church once before he leaves. He said he would and it was just the best lesson with him. I just feel so lucky to be able to teach such amazing people and to be able to be a part of their conversion. I am really going to miss these people. 
Imre!
Well this morning we got our transfer calls and I am going to be transferred to a city called szeged in the south of hungary and I will be in a trio with sister whittaker and sister whitaker. So it will be fun having two comps with the same name. I am really excited and I have heard that it is a super pretty city so we'll see! This afternoon we are having lunch at anikos and then meeting with the misákék this evening so it will be a busy last day. I am super sad to leave Érd but Szeged is going to be really good. 

I hope you all have a good week and that you can recognize the little blessings in your life. I have really learned that this transfer, that little blessings are still blessings. 

sister heath
 
Éva, András and Tibor    

Paprikás csirke
basically the best hungarian food ever. Paprikás csirke

the palmer kids, ali and aston, elder loveland

mensáros dominika


1 comment:

  1. It's a great adventure and she's such an awesome missionary. She looks so happy.

    ReplyDelete