Szervusztok kedves barátaim!
This week was a really busy week, and went really well! Monday
night we met with a new investigator, Valeria, who is actually someone
we met through English class last week! She is a really sweet lady, has a
catholic background, and is very open to learning
about other religions. She said in the past she used to attend English
class quite frequently, but surprisingly she had still never heard about
the Book of Mormon. We were able to introduce her to it, and bear our
testimonies about it can help her, and she
said that she was really excited to read it!
We
are planning on visiting her tonight, so we are excited to see how that
goes, and want to talk about the Restoration and baptism!
On Tuesday we went to Veszprém to do exchanges with Sister Swenson
and Evans.It was so great being back there, I miss it so much! Luckily i
got to see my favorite people though ( minus Erzsi Néni) It was really
neat being able to work with Sister Evans
again, after having trained her. She is an amazing missionary, so bold
and ready to work, and her language is coming along extremely well, she
is definitely going to be able to help a lot of people here in Hungary!
The work in Veszprém is still kind of slow,
but we were able to visit a less active member that we have been working
with for a while, and her daughter was there, and so we talked to her
about the church in general and then I asked if she would like to be
baptized, and she said yes! So they are going
to start meeting with her regularly, which is really exciting for them!
Wednesday we had planned to meet with our investigator Emmanuel,
but unfortunately he had to cancel, so that was a bummer. But we went
over to Berenyi Zsuzsa's house and had a lesson with her and it went
really well. We read out of Moroni 7: 13-16 about
how we can recognize the spirit, and how to tell if something is true or
not. She was still having a hard time understanding, so we stopped and
read 1 Nefi 1 with her, and stopped every few verses to talk about how
those specific versus invite us and entice
us to do good and Believe in Christ. It went really well! We gave her an assignment to read a chapter everyday, and when I called her Friday to
check up on her reading, she said that she had read it, so that was
really neat!
Thursday was just a fantastic day! In district meeting we did it a
little bit thanksgiving themed at the end, and Elder Heaps had us go
around in a circle and each bear our testimony about why we are thankful
to be serving a mission. It was really neat
to be able to hear everybody's individual testimony and see the growth
that they have made while serving here in Hungary. It was a great time
to reflect on all the things that I have learned on My mission. It is
crazy that it is starting to wind down to a close,
but there is seriously nothing that I am more grateful for, or anything
that I have ever learned more from than my mission! I am excited for the
things I am going to continue to learn in these last 12 weeks as I
finish strong to the end!
After district meeting we had a nice little thanksgiving lunch with
the district! Half of them aren't even American, but we made them
celebrate with us anyways! It was a great celebration, and we finished
it off with a little Christmas photo shoot! I will
send a few pics, but if you want one of the good ones, you will have to
send your address, and you will get it by way of postcard :)
That night, before English class, we met with a lady named Dora.
Its actually a pretty crazy story. I found her number in my phone and
decided to text her and ask if she would be interested in meeting. She
said yes, and so we decided on Thursday! Only
problem is that i forgot to write it in my planner... So we are out
tracting Thursday night when i get a text that says "I'm here.I read the
text to Sister Withers, and we both looked at each other, and just took
off running to the tram stop! Unfortunately
we were still a good 30 minutes away from the branch house, so that was
awkward! But I called her, and she said that she would just be waiting
for us. So we show up 30 minutes late and meet with her, and turns out
she had met with elders a few years back, and
she told us that she believes our church is the most true church of any
on the earth. She also has already read the whole book of Mormon and
knows that it is true! I kept on having this feeling that I needed to
ask her to be baptized, but I wasn't sure if Sister
Withers and I were on the same page, so I was kind of scared. And then
Sister Withers started talking to her a little bit about prayer and
shared a scripture with her, and I just kept feeling like I needed to
ask her to be baptized, but I wasn't sure, because
now they were in a discussion about prayer. I couldn't deny the feeling
though, so I just opened my mouth and the spirit just put the words in
my mouth and I was somehow able to make a transition from prayer and counseling with God, to following the example
of Christ, and then just openly asking her to be baptized. I can
honestly say that I have never done that before in a first lesson, other
than last week with Emmanuel in English, and as I heard the words come
out of my mouth, I was kind of scared. But I waited
a while and then came her response, "I would love to! But I dont want to
rush it, maybe in a month or two!" It was amazing! Apparently she wasn't
too mad about us being 30 minutes late! All kidding aside, this was
seriously a miracle though! This whole transfer,
well actually my whole mission, I have just been praying to find that
person who the Lord has prepared, and I truly feel like she was an
answer to our prayers! We are going to be meeting with her Tomorrow
night (we will be on time this time) and extending January
14th to her as her baptismal date to start working towards! I am so
excited for her!
On Friday we were supposed to meet with one of our potential
investigators, Kornél, but he called us and said that he had to cancel,
unfortunately. He was very sincere about it though, and he really does
seem interested, so he told us that he would call
us as soon as he knows his work schedule so that we can meet! I am
really looking forward to that, because he seems so ready, and he is
married with a few young kids! We really want to be able to meet with
the whole family and be able to share with them our
knowledge about how they can live together forever!
This week, we studied hope for the Christlike attribute! This is
honestly my favorite subject ever! I could go off on it forever, but I
will spare you! So I thought I would just share this one scripture that I hadn't ever read before this week, but that
summarizes the concept of hope really well in my mind. It is from Psalms
33: 21-22.
"For our hearts shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in
His holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope
in thee."
I love this for so many reasons! One, Christmas is coming up, and
its my favorite time of the year, because we truly get to remember his
life and all he did for us, and our hearts are full with rejoicing in
him! And then second, it correlates really
well with the scripture in Moroni 7:41 that asks what is it that we can
hope in, and then answers with we can hope in Christs Atonement and resurrection, knowing that because of him we can be lifted to life
eternal! And I love the way that psalms wraps it up,
that his mercy will be upon us according to our hope in Him! My mission
has taught me that we cannot place our hope in people or in things,
because that hope will fail us, But I know that if we have hope in
Christ and in his atonement, then we will truly be
able to inherit eternal life through his love and grace! And I cant
think of a single better message than that!
Well, that is all I have for this week, thank you guys for all your
support, never forget how much I love you, and have a great week!
Sok Szeretettel,
LeBaron Nővér
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| This cabbage actually cost 2 cents. If I did the math right 😬 |
