Wednesday, June 29, 2016

~6/27/16~ "The Power of Love"

As Celine Dion once put it "Sometimes I am frightened, but I am ready to learn of the power of love." This week we had our Zone Conferences up in Buda, and the focus was Christ-like Attributes. While there are many different attributes that we should all be trying to emulate better, the most important one is Charity. Sometimes we too often think that charity simply just means serving others, which it does, but the service itself is not charity, but rather blossoms from the Christ-like love we are striving to feel for all of those around us. 

When I started my mission, I would say that I was a pretty reserved person. I liked to do my own thing, and be my own person, and that meant not feeling the need to open up to other people. I had my family and my friends and I didn't need to love anybody else, I didn't need to open up to anybody else and let them love me. I don't like to feel vulnerable, I don't think anybody really does, but that is exactly what love does to us; it makes us vulnerable. And that is something that scared me. Being here in Hungary and representing the Lord has changed that though. I have come to realize that there is no such thing as missionary work, if there is no love. All of us here on missions can all tie our motivation back to one thing: love. We love our Savior and because of that, we chose to come half way across the world, leaving others that we love behind, to share the message with others that He lives! That the man he perfectly loves each and every single one of us is resurrected and lives on, and that we, through Him, can also! My time here in Hungary has taught me that you cant serve somebody if you don't first love them. You might be able to go through the motions, but the intent and the blessings will not be there! We met with an investigator, and had a lesson with him in which we informed him why we are here and asked him whether we can help him or if we are just wasting his time, as he refuses to keep any commitments or take any steps of faith. I realized that the whole time he has not been progressing because he was too scared of being vulnerable and finding out if there really is a God that loves him. I in the same way, have been missing out on all the progression and blessings because I have been scared of loving people and truly letting others love me back. When I was able to accept this, my mission changed! I wasn't trying to make our numbers look good so that the Mission President would recognize our efforts,I was no longer working hard to try and get leadership positions, I was no longer having to motivate myself to go and tract for hours on end. Why? Because I found my motivation! Choosing to love all of our investigators, the members, and even just the people on the streets has changed me. It has reminded me why I am here, and it has allowed me to do things that I didn't know I was capable of doing and reach the hearts of people that seemed completely gone. I'm still not perfect at loving everybody, but as I have done my best, I have seen the change it has made in my life these past few weeks! Even though it may be "frightening" at times, I'm ready to learn of the power it has and see the furthered blessings it will bring in this work! 

In addition to Zone conference, we were able to meet with a family this week. They parents were baptized over 10 years ago while living in California for a few years, but have been inactive ever since returning to Hungary! We were able to get a hold of them and set up to meet with the whole family! They have three kids, and the oldest son is a swimmer! We spent the evening just getting to know them and at the end shared a short Mormon message about the Family. It went really well and they said they might be able to come to church sometime! It was really neat! He even called us later to tell us that he had emailed his Mormon friend in California and told him all about our visit! We are really excited to be working with their family, they are such great people!

Working with Sister Dorny has been a blast! I am so lucky to have her as my greenie, she is such a great person! For Pday we had a fun little adventure at Postelek, which involved climbing in the castle ruins, me slipping down a muddy hill into a pile of nettle and getting my bum muddy, and me falling off the teeter totter! Clearly I am a skilled person! At least it provides entertainment for the rest of the district haha! There will be a lot of photos to follow! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Sok Szeretettel,
 LeBaron Nővér

Doing "THE BUNKER ELDER"



Doing some exploring!

      



Nettle is not my friend :(
 
 

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