Monday, July 16, 2012

There are Leprechauns in Hungary!


July 16, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, has it already been a week? It felt like last week’s P-Day was just yesterday and I was on the computer typing about my experiences. It's way weird, I must say. The phrase missionaries say a lot "Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days" is definitely true, because the days this week have been really long but this week went by super-fast.

So some things that have happened to me this week....We have 4 progressing investigators and have met with each one once this week. One of them, Aniko, who is 21, is really close to being baptized. We've asked her what her concerns may be and if she would like to discuss them with us, but she has said that it's something that she just has to get over and we keep praying for her and continue going over the chapters she is reading in the Book of Mormon, which she loves. She has really taken a liking for the Book of Mormon and she has found that Heavenly Father has helped her a lot through reading the Book of Mormon. It's another reason why we are kind of stumped with why she isn't progressing as fast as she could be, because she loves the Book of Mormon and believes that it is true, but she still isn't sure about the baptism thing. She also comes to church and loves being with the people there. Abram Elder and I were talking about her situation last night for Weekly Planning and we think that as she continues to meet with us, read and discuss the Book of Mormon and goes to church and feels the power of the Holy Ghost around the members that those problems or concerns will start to disappear. We are going to try and set up a baptismal date this next program and we pray that the Holy Ghost will guide us with what to say.

Another investigator, Justin, is originally from China and has been meeting with the missionaries for a while. He was first meeting with the Sisters in Buda for a few weeks, but they had to give him to us because where he lives is technically in the Pest area. At first, he didn't believe that there was a God at all, and that's because China taught that there wasn't a God and that religion is bad. But now he believes in Christ and has faith in him and has really felt a change in his life since he has been meeting with us! It's been so amazing to see his progression and his love for Christ grow. It reminds me of the Sons of Mosiah going to teach the Lamanites, a people who believed in other God's, or didn't believe in a God at all, and converted thousands. THOUSANDS! How is this possible? How could these people be converted to the gospel when they had no familiarity with God or the gospel at all? It's because the power of the Holy Ghost is stronger than anything in this world, including the grasps of Satan, and we have seen that with Justin, a man who had no belief in God, but now has a strong faith in Christ and the gospel. This week we are also going to invite him to be baptized. We were going to last week, but some concerns came up about some other things and we felt not to give the invitation until next time. 

Our other investigators are progressively moving forward, but very slowly. Because we only have 2 strong investigators and 2 slower ones, we've been trying to find more investigators to teach and it's been going so-so with the finding part. We called the people we found last week while tabling, but all of them either didn't pick up the phone or wanted us to call back in a couple of weeks (which is probably a sly way of saying no, ha ha). The miracle guy I found didn't answer the phone when we called, so we are going to call him either today or tomorrow and I hope that he picks up and wants to learn more because he seemed to like what we were talking about when I found him. Also, this was the highlight of the week, we went tabling again this last Wednesday. People have said "Hungarians are generally kind people." Well, we found one who did not fit in that category. We called him "Leprechaun-Man-Who-Has-The-Face-of-Elder-D.-Todd-Christoferson". Literally, that's the best way we could name him. We was like 4 and a half feet tall, had white hair, the face of the Apostle Christoferson, and looked like he was in his 60's. He walked up to our table, stared straight at me and started yelling at us in English about how Mormons were little devils and that we didn't know who God was and he did because he was a Born Again Christian. We all just looked at him and didn't say anything because we knew whatever we would say would just make it worse. So he continued to yell at us for a few minutes, then left, but realized that he didn't get a reaction out of us, so he came back and started yelling at us again. He did this 3-4 times, trying to get us to take our table and go home to America where we belong. Of course, we just continued to stare at him with our straight faces and didn't give him a reaction. I think he was shocked that he wasn't scaring us or something because he wouldn't stop coming back and yelling at us. He came up to one of the sisters, because she made a laugh slip, and said "I'm not talking to you Satan, I’m talking to Elder Satan!" and looked straight back at me. I'm pretty sure is eyes were on me 80 percent of the time. After about 10 minutes or so, he picked up a Book of Mormon and threw it on the ground telling us that it was crap (in swear form). I picked it up, looked up and he was already walking across the cross-walk. He was afraid, and we all saw that he was, because he was shaking while he was yelling at us and he booked it out of there when he threw the Book of Mormon. What he tried to do was to scare us away and inform everyone not to come to the table because we were all little devils, but he actually did the opposite. We were there for another hour and the people who were watching the little Leprechaun man yell and scream came up to us and asked us more about what was going on and we taught them about the gospel and how it has blessed our lives. They couldn't understand why he got mad with us because we weren't doing anything wrong and they said that we were too kind of people to be yelled at. I felt bad for the Leprechaun man because he just didn't understand and wouldn't allow himself to understand because his heart was hardened. I prayed for him that night, asking Heavenly Father if he could help that man in softening his heart. Some people might ask, "Why would you do that for such a person who yelled at you like he did?" My answer is that God has asked us to love our enemies with all of our heart and pray for those who offend us. My love for the Hungarian people increases every day and I can't help myself from praying for them. So why wouldn't I pray for him? One it's a commandment from the Lord to do so, and two, I love this people and want God to bless them.

Another person that we found while tabling was looking at the sign that we had that said "Free Books" (In Hungarian of course) and was looking at it for a while. I came up to him and asked if he would like to have a Book of Mormon. Right after I said that, he made a farting noise with his tongue and just continued walking down the street. I started to bust up laughing! I told my companion and now, during the week, if we would find people while streeting that didn't want to hear about us, we would just make a farting noise in memory of the man who also didn't want to hear more about us. It was so funny! It's hard to explain over email, but I hope you can understand at least a little bit. :P

We have found a few people that wanted to hear more about the Book of Mormon and our church and we hope that they answer their phone when we call them this week. We are also going to try tracting this week also. We'll see how that goes with my language skills, ha ha! :P

That's basically what has been happening with me here in Hungary. Weather has actually been getting colder and we have had some storms come through a few times, including today actually. I like this weather preferably to ridiculously hot weather, ha ha! But I had to let you know about the little Leprechaun man and how funny of an experience that was.

I hope everyone's doing well back at home! Continue pressing forward having faith and a perfect brightness of hope. (2 Nephi 31:20) :)

-Magda Elder

Oh, I forgot to mention some things I wanted to ask about.

First, I found a woman here in Pest, Edit is her name, who works in the family history department at the church building. I gave her some of my family history information but she says that she will need more if she wants to help me with any of it. So I was wondering if you could ask Granddad if he has any more information about our family that he has or that he can find so that I can pursue the search here in Hungary. It's so cool to see find family history here! There are some areas here that are near some of the sites that Granddad pointed out on his maps that he gave me and I hope that I am called to serve in those areas to find them. Also, where in Budapest is the grave site for Granddad's mom/dad/whoever it is that was buried here? I'd like to try and see it if I can on one of my P-Days before I I’m transferred somewhere else.

Second, so I was wondering if there would be any possible way to get a flash drive with music on it from home sent to me here. I'm thinking of getting an iPod out here because we can get them for super cheap (below 60 US dollars for a nice Nano or iPod touch) and I was thinking maybe, possibly, perhaps you and the rest of the family could find some songs to put on a flash drive and send here. The music that is allowed is anything that invites the Spirit. So Mormon Tab, movie soundtracks, Josh Groban and other songs that you would see has uplifting or inviting the Spirit. If this is too much to ask for I completely understand. No worries at all. :) 

Tell Chris and his fiancée that I'm happy to hear that they are ok and that Heavenly Father is watching over them. I hope to hear how the wedding goes this Saturday. :) 

Love you all!
Magda Elder

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