Monday, August 13, 2012

13 August 2012 Letter (Szombathely)

Monday, 6 August
Our District of four played card games for most of the day.  My miracle today is that as far as Missionaries go, I’ve been very successful, healthy, and creative in my cooking.  Out of my six companions here in the field, only Elder Reese regularly made more than five different meals (counting cereal and bread with cheese).  Elder Alldredge is going to be a tough one to help.  I hope my wife and family appreciate this one day.

Tuesday, 7 August
Two dogs today.  Lots of studies.  I’ve found that I’m spending twice as much money since I got Elder Alldredge.  Our only successful program was with A.  We had dinner with her and shared an object lesson on the Apostasy.  Made a lot of calls today.  The seat on my bike broke.  I had to ride it standing up since this afternoon.  My miracle is that this is the first time I’ve been so excited to go to the Dentist.  I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Wednesday, 8 August
Four different events today.  We met with a new investigator named B.  We met in the Foter (town square) for only about 20-25 minutes.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t too interested and I don’t think we’ll be seeing her again soon.  I got my bike seat fixed, so now I can ride sitting down again.  Finally made it to the Dentist.  They polished and whitened my teeth, took three x-rays, and didn’t find any fractures, cracks, or cavities, or other damage.  And, that was it.  I was a little surprised they didn’t add some sort of cap or filling to my tooth or grind it down a little so it wasn’t so sharp.  Oh well.  At least things weren’t worse.  That was today’s miracle.  At Angolora tonight I had my largest class yet since coming here.  There were five that came, three of which were new.  Elder Alldredge shared a short spiritual thought at the end on the Book of Mormon.

Thursday, 9 August
Today I was on splits with Elder Haws.  In the morning I planned out and put together the schedule and my training for tomorrow’s District Meeting.  Elder Haws and I made it tracting for a while and talked to three people for a decent time and got one let in.  Our only program was with K.  We were there for over two hours.  However, we went with one of her Home Teachers and during that time did home teaching, shared a message of our own, and got her to bear testimony herself for half an hour.  The Zone Leaders are here for a blitz and District Meeting tomorrow.  My miracle today is that Elder Bullock and Elder Alldredge, while on splits found a very interested investigator.  We’re hoping he comes to church on Sunday.

Friday, 10 August
Today I was on splits with Elder Wiborny, who is definitely the oldest Missionary in the Mission.  He has been here longer than any other Missionary, including Senior Missionaries, and our Mission President.  It was great to get to talk and work with him.  This morning we had our District Meeting.  There were ten of us there.  I led the meeting and gave a 45 minute training on the physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual aspects of both missionary work and the gospel.  I then tied it into all the various blessings we can promise investigators which we role-played.  Elders Alldredge, Clevel, Wiborny, and myself split up and went tracting for 4 hours, during which we were only able to get one phone number…ouch.  We also had two cancellations.  At Csaladi Est, two members and one investigator came.  My miracles are that I discovered and explored the Branch House attic and that I am starting to memorize more parts of my quote book.

Saturday, 11 August
There were a couple events today.  We got dogged twice, so we had lots of time to go streeting and tracting.  Also today was the District Talent Show, made up of members form Szombathely, Sopron, and Papa.  Or, at least it would have been except that no one from Papa came and only one from Sopron attended.  My miracle today is that my companion is courageously and aggressively expanding his talents and abilities.  He lit a stove for the first time yesterday, and today was his first time lighting an oven.

Sunday, 12 August
President Smith and his wife attended and spoke in church today.  Even more exciting, Z came.  This is one habit we need to establish for him to be baptized.  After church I made phone calls for 1 ½ hours, but almost no one is able to meet this week.  I also had time to review a few of the Ensigns I’ve read.  There are so many Ensigns!  Each year the Ensigns published are, together, hundreds of pages longer than the Book of Mormon, and we have several years, even a couple decades, of Ensigns.  In the evening we had dinner with the S family.  My miracle is that in Sunday School we talked about talents.  I’m so grateful for the many talents that I have received.

Sok Szeretettel,

Shipp Elder

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