Monday, September 3, 2012

3 September 2012 Letter (Szombathely)

This week I don’t have any pictures to attach.  Sorry!

Tuesday, 28 August
We met with A today.  We helped her a little with a talk she has to give in two weeks; read part of D&C 20 together; and talked about the many priesthood offices and duties.  A has been in the hospital a lot recently.  Things are going well between her and B.  We hope to be able to meet with her in the future.

Wednesday, 29 August
Today we had three to four hours to street.  We finally made it on and around the island.  While streeting I had a tragedy.  Because we were out so long in the heat of the day, we stopped to get ice cream.  I got a nice chocolate covered one on a stick.  Three minutes later, tragedy struck.  Within two to three minutes, both the chocolate layer and the ice cream melted enough that the stick slid right up through it.  What a tragedy.  I lost half my 45 cent ice cream bar to the pavement.  Oh, what a terrible tragedy!  While streeting we had both a lot, and not too much success.  We successfully obtained eight different names and numbers.  However, only three actually live in Szombathely, so we had to pass off the information of the other five to other missionaries.  During Angolora tonight two new people came.  Lastly, a miracle: I have three new cousins.

Thursday, 30 August (One Year Mark in Hungary)
It’s been exactly one year since I first arrived in the country.  That is the miracle of today.  Today I was on splits with Elder Haws.  We met with K again.  Once again we were fed lunch.  The lesson completely fell through with her saying none of this is new or unfamiliar, and with her not wanting to talk about or watch the Restoration Film.  She, her parents, and her daughter are all practicing Catholics.  She believes that the main cores of our churches are the same.  She fails to see any importance in proper authority, but instead feels that Christ overcame everything and that faith and commitment in following Him is all we need. I’m afraid and fearful that we’re going to lose her.  I’m really hoping that a knowledge of the nature of the Godhead and importance of a living Prophet can reach her.  That’s my hardest struggle with the Catholic Church: some people only claim connection to it because of tradition, and then use that excuse to try to get out of everything; but also, on the other end, there are those who are Catholic, who truly desire to follow Christ and have His presence in their life, so they do what they can, and, to a degree, they receive some of the light of Christ in their life.  However, when you are already in the light it becomes harder to see additional brighter light than if you were just in darkness.  We also had one dog and two cancellations which gave me and Elder Haws plenty of time to street and tract.

Friday, 31 August
Today started out with District Meeting.  I lead a training on “The Warrior Part 2: The Armor of God.”  The Zone Leaders were also here and went on splits with the other companionship.  It rained all of today.  We had one cancellation, and spent the rest of our day working on and out of our Area Book.  A half-miracle today is I learned that between streeting, tracting, and tabling, I’ve gotten 41 names and numbers.  Only one have I met with twice (and then, they too stopped).  K, Z, and Z are the only ones I’ve met more than twice; all three were found by past missionaries.  I was just the one to look them back up and follow-up with them.  I hope and pray that out of the 41 and counting I’ve found and collected while here, some will be sought out by, and meet with, missionaries in the future.

Saturday, 1 September
It’s still raining.  We went to Zalaegerszeg today.  When we arrived, we found many stands along the main road for the “Egerszeg Festival.”  However, it wasn’t even a fraction of the size of the Savaria Carnival.  We met with Z for almost two hours.  The first part was around English, but the bulk of the time was on the Plan of Salvation and following up.  She had read out of the Book of Mormon a little bit each week, read the Restoration Pamphlet, prays daily, and prayed about Joseph Smith as well as the Book of Mormon.  She gets a good feeling and feels the Holy Ghost each time she prays, reads, and meets with us.  She feels she may have gotten her answer.  We talked about everything from the Pre-Mortal to Spirit World, and she committed to baptism, acknowledging that it’s necessary.  We can’t set a date yet due to how infrequent our visits have been.  I’m excited though.  In the evening we went tracting for a couple hours.  My miracle today is the Young Women’s’ program.  It has some really uplifting parts in it.

Sunday, 2 September
Fast Sunday today.  We had a good fast and testimony meeting.  The S’s daughter returned from her mission.  My miracle was a good fast and prayer.

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