26 May 2015
Hello all! Boldog Kedd!
So this week was one of miracles,
Tuesday-
I had my six month as a missionary mark and we had lunch at Anikos, the
most amazing member. Last transfer we had lunch with her basically
every week but she has been feeling sick lately and has been visiting
her son with cancer a lot so its been a really hard time for her. This
whole transfer, almost every single day we make sure to pray for her and
we have fasted for her to be feeling comforted and happier and this
sunday she came up to us in church and said that she has been feeling a
little better and wanted us to come and visit her so on tuesday we went
with the elders to have lunch with her. We ended up visiting her almost
the whole afternoon but I didn't feel bad about it. She has been going
through a really hard time and she shouldn't be left alone. We talked a
lot about her family and she showed us pictures of all the missionaries
that have served here and she told us stories about them. Then she
showed us her cherry trees in her back yard and we played with her dog,
Jáki a bit. It was really good to help her and we want to try and go
back this week to walk her dog for her or something as an excuse to
check up on her and make sure she is okay.
On tuesday we also
met this awesome guy on the street that spoke perfect english! His name
was ben and he said he learned it in school but we ended up talking
about different religions and buddhism and such and it was awesome. He
told us a ton of cool places we could visit around Érd so that was cool.
We are going to try and meet with him sometime soon.
Wednesday-
We met with the And_ and told them the news about how it is free to
get married on weekdays. They were super surprised and are going to
figure out how it all works this week. It was a super great lesson. We
read a talk about faith and trials and how we need hope with them and it
went well. They just freaking need to come to church already! But we
are meeting with them tomorrow with János, a member. Later that
afternoon we did some look ups and we met with Ágoston and Mária again!!
They were curious about where sister sellers had gone to and Sholly got
to know them. We had thought it would be just a quick stop by and visit
but it ended up being an hour that we talked and they are just so
wonderful. Ágoston picked some fresh strawberries from his garden and
they said we could come back sometime. So we had planned on it only
being a few minute visit but since it ended up being an hour we had to
literally run from one end of Érd to the other to make it to the branch
house in time for our program with Imre. It is normally about an hour
walk from where our tracting area is to the branch house and we had five
minutes to try and run to get there. It was a freaking humid and hot
day too so we ended up booking it about half way and it was already ten
minutes into our program and we were both about to die, running in
skirts and such. We found a bus stop and hurried and asked a lady
standing there when the bus came and she pointed and said, "thats it
right there" and goodness does God ever love us. We got on the bus and
only ended up being 15 minutes late for our program instead of the half
hour we probably would have been if we had had to run all the way there.
It ended up being a good program. We talked about faith and started the
Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson.
Thursday- Thursday was sister sholly and elder wilcox's year mark
so after district meeting we had lunch and it was good. Besides that not
too much exciting stuff happened.
Friday- We
looked up a less active member, Papp Márgit. My first program I ever had
in the country was with her and we haven't gotten to meet with her
since then so it was super cool to see how much I have improved since
the first time I met with her. I remember when I first met with her I
could barely understand a thing she said and I was struggling to stay
awake because of jet lag, but it was cool to see how this time I could
follow the conversation and I could really bare my testimony to her
about Joseph Smith.
After meeting with Márgit we met with
Orsi at the branch house. Orsi is a master genealogist and Sister
Sholly's great grandfather was from hungary so they have been wanting to
figure out where in hungary she is from and so that evening they found
out that Sholly is from Szeged and Miskolc! It was super cool to see how
it really was not accident that Sholly was sent to hungary and to serve
in Érd so Orsi could help her find her family. Next week we are going
to try and visit the family history center with Orsi to see if we can
find any of Sholly's relatives that are still in hungary!
Saturday-
Saturday morning we met with Imre again and taught him the Gospel of
Jesus Christ lesson. It went really well. He understood the fact that
baptism is the gate and that we have to keep the commandments and endure
to reach our end goal of eternal life with Heavenly Father. He asked us
what the commandments were and how we could keep them and we told him
we would teach him that later. It was interesting because in our first
program with him he told us that he would probably wait til he was about
50 to be baptized but after this lesson he told us that he wanted to be
baptized after he came back from working on the cruise ship. We were
both super excited but he then said he wanted to be baptized into the
catholic church so we ended up talking to him again about the proper
authority and how it is important that the person who baptizes you has
the power of the priesthood. He sat a few minutes thinking about it and
then asked us how we were baptized and if it was in this church. And we
told him and he asked us where we are baptized so we explained it a bit.
It ended well and he had a lot to think about.
After Imre we
caught the train to look up a family we found in the area book, the
M_. The are the most rendes (basically means orderly or classy)
people I have ever taught. So we called Ferenc, the father, during
weekly planning last week and we set up for saturday and we were super
excited. That morning while we were planning their lesson I was just
overwhelmed with the strongest feeling of love for them even though I
didn't know them. I seriously felt like I knew them and that they were
like my family. When we got there the mother, Anna, opened the gate and
lead us into their huge house. We walked into the mud room and two of
their kids (anett, 18 and erik, 16) were standing there with perfect
posture waiting to greet us. We had to run from the train station to
make it to the program on time so we were both out of breath and hot and
we felt so silly. Anna gave us slippers to wear and the kids led us up
to the kitchen where anna had made lunch for us, this fancy berry sauce
meat with potatoes . While we were eating we talked to Anna, who speaks
english pretty well, about how they met the missionaries. So I guess 20
years ago, they were living in budapest and the missionaries tracted
into them and they had a really good program with them but the elders
never came back and then 10 years later, the had moved to Budatétény and
a set of elders tracted into them again, they immediately let them in
and started meeting with them regularly. They met with them until their
original elders got transferred out and then they met with the elders
less regularly until they eventually stopped. Anna said that they were
excited when we called them because we were girls. She also said that
she knew it wasn't an accident that we called when we did. They had had a
really hard month last month and when we called it was like a sign from
God that He wanted to help them. She said it was funny that every ten
years or so the missionaries find them and that when we came in she
immediately felt the spirit. By this point she was crying and gosh was
the spirit strong. Ferenc then came in and told us that they were ready
for us in the dining room with dessert. We then went to their living
room/dining room where they had this giant dining room table three
pianos and giant white couches and t.v. We ended up talking with Ferenc a
lot about how the world has changed and about their first missionaries.
It was super great and they asked us a ton about ourselves. It was
super great but my hungarian really struggled, but they were so nice and
patient with us. We then shared with them Elder Bednar's mormon
message about light and revelation and they loved it. They were so surprised
with how modern it was and so we showed them
lds.org
on their computer and how they could watch the most recent conference
and it was super great. They are seriously the nicest and most legit
people ever and I already feel like they are members they already know
so much about the church and love it they just need to start coming
again and get baptized! I just feel like it is too good to be true
teaching them. They invited us back again for the same time this week
and I am so excited to go back.
That evening we had játék est
with the Palmerék kids, Ali and Aston. It was really good. I am going
to be so sad to leave Ali once I am transferred out. Honestly if I
couldn't have done anything here in Érd but helped Ali I will feel like
it is enough. We just talked and played Bang with them. Ali was getting
kind of sad at the end since we were saying how it is going to be one of
the last játék ests before the transfer. It is going to be okay though.
She is just such a trooper and has a strong testimony.
Sunday-
We had a couple of great miracles happen on sunday. So first this sweet
little less active néni randomly showed up and we set up to meet with
her this week. She is seriously so cute and your stereotypical hungarian
néni. Second Papp Márgit and her son came! And third and most amazing
was that Dávid Sándor came! So Sándor is the father of one of our other
young woman, Brigi. He has met with the missionaries for years and was
super close to being baptized but then when his wife died he stopped
meeting with the missionaries. We have been asking Brigi most of the
transfer when we can come visit them but it has never worked out but
this week they both came to church and after Sándor and Brigi came up to
us and asked when they could meet! So we are meeting with them
friday!!
That evening we met with the gyönygiék, it was
really great. We did our little missionary lesson we did with the
kövesyék, with the little missionary name tags and it was great. They
are just the craziest and funniest family.
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| the Gyönygiék (Gyönygi the mom, Eszti, Levente, and little Peti) |
Monday-
We met with Imre again and this time Attila, our ward mission leader,
came. We taught him the plan of salvation and it was really good. He
understood it all and he connected the fact that the things we taught
him in the last lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ are the things
we need to do in this life to make sure we get to the celestial kingdom.
And he prayed in the lesson!! He really loves reading from the book of
mormon and he says he feels peaceful and calm when he reads it so we
told him that it was the spirit!! It was a really great lesson and him
and Attila walked out together and Attila called us that night and told
us that Imre asked him about the priesthood and why it was important
with baptism and so he explained to him why baptism in other churches
are not valid because they don't have the priesthood. And I really think
Imre is going to progress. I just am frustrated because he is leaving
in two weeks to work on the cruise ship but it is all in the Lord's
timing and the Lord knows how it will all work out.
Well,
that was my week. I have seriously seen answers to my prayers and
fasting this week. I truly love Érd. It is a hard city but I have come
to love it. It is amazing to see that love really is the answer and the
motive behind everything of worth. It is God's love that allowed us to
come to earth and gain bodies. It is Christ's love that allows us to be
saved and return to live with God. It is the love of others that allows
us to feel loved and it is our love of others that brings us feelings of
fulfillment and allows us to be filled with charity to all men. I love
being a missionary and it is such a blessing to have the hard times,
they truly make the good times that much more sweet.
I hope you all have a good week and that you can feel God's love for you.
Heath Nővér
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| Napsi (means sunbeam) our neighbor's shih tzu puppy |
