August 6, 2012
Dear Family and
Friends,
There are some people
who don't count their MTC companion as an actual companion I have heard, but I
am totally counting mine because I loved being companions with Elder Beaucannon
and we spent 12 weeks together in the MTC. Then I was given my trainer, Elder
Abram, and had him for 6 weeks. He helped me understand the ins and outs of
being in the field. Now I have Elder Headrick, who is already a fantastic
companion! Let's see if I can explain what I know so far about him. His name is
Stephen Headrick and is from Champion, Ohio, which is a small little town but
has a big reputation with its name. He is a little taller than I am, has brown
hair, hazel eyes and a desire to work every day. He has been on is mission
since October of last year and is in his 6th transfer in the country. He has
served in Kecskemét, Nagykanizsa, Szombathely and now is here in Pest. He has
been telling me how much he was wanted to come to the city since his first
transfer. He says it's because there's a lot more people here and more opportunities
to street and find in the big city rather than the outer cities. Doesn't he
sound awesome already?
We already love our companionship together and have already been working hard these first few days. First off, our companionship is really young. I am only in my 2nd transfer and Elder Headrick is in his 6th. But because we are both so young we still have our "Greenie Fires", and since we still have our Greenie Fires we will be able to keep them burning and continue to have that desire to work our hardest every day, and since we both have our Greenie Fires and our desire to work we will be able to learn from each other every day! What a perfect set up, right? Our area is in definite need of this and we both feel that as we continue to work every day that we will be able to pick up our area and keep it thriving. So let me give you the heads up of what's been happening so far.
Wednesday was transfer day and I was given my new companion around 10:30 in the morning at the train station. We took his stuff back home then headed back to the Mission Home to say goodbye to everyone and for Elder Headrick to have his DL (District Leader) training. During all this, Elder Abram was getting all of his bags into a car to be taken to the Mission Home where he can transfer his luggage into another car that would be headed to Miskolc. But somewhere along the way, one of Elder Abram's bags went missing and he thought that someone might have forgotten to have picked it up for him and he wanted to go back to the train station to see if his bag may have still been there. His new companion was in a meeting that would take a while, so we had my new companion go on splits with Elder Abrams new companion while he and I went back to the train station. We got there and everything had been taken away and nothing was there. We tried the lost and found and they said that nothing had been brought to them. Elder Abram said that there wasn't really anything too important in the bag, but it's still a bummer to lose a bunch of stuff. When we got back to the Mission Home, we saw on the table his bag that had been missing. Apparently another car of missionaries picked it up and took it with them back to the Mission Home. Some people might just say he got lucky, but I say that it's a small miracle. After my companion had his DL training, we said goodbye to our previous companions and all the other missionaries that were going out, went to lunch, came back home, went out shopping for food, came back and updated on our investigators and went to bed. We both were really excited to be companions and we looked forward to our first full day of work.
Thursday: We had two programs set up, but one called us in the morning during studies and told us that he would have to move today's program to next week. We were kind of bummed, but we also looked at it as a good time to street and find people. After lunch, we streeted for 2 hours with no success. We then got a text from our other program of the day saying that he wouldn't be able to meet today either and wasn't going to be in town for 2 weeks. So my companion and I just looked at each other and said "Alright, lets tract." We tracted half-way through an apartment building, before realizing that it had already been tracted by the sisters not too long ago. So, we finished half-way and went to an area of houses where Elder Abram and I had been tracting. I looked down the street of houses and thought "This is going to be a long one." Funny thing that I would say that to myself, because the first house that we came to was a let-in. My first one!! It was so awesome!! The woman we found had gone to our church once before when it was first built back in the 90's and she had been going to different religions to see which one was the right one for her. The missionaries didn't approach her when she went, but when we found her we definitely felt that it was the Lord's way of saying "Here is one that I have prepared for you." We taught her half way through the Restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so surprised that we would give her the book for free and thanked us so much for it. We are hoping to meet with her again this week. Elder Headrick and I discussed how if it wasn't for our dropped programs that we wouldn't have been able to find this woman. It was such an adrenaline rush! Actually, it was more like a Holy Ghost rush.
Friday: We tabled with the sisters in our area and were able to give out a total of 15 Books of Mormon! Super awesome, right? We do think that half of them might have been given to homeless people who probably might go out and try to sell them for money, but the other half we believe are legitimate people who could possibly be investigators. After tabling, my companion wanted to get familiarized with the area, since it's pretty big. So we took 3-4 hours exploring all around Pest. We handed out English Class flyers here for the last few hours to have said that we did some work while exploring. We then had a program with Tamas at the end of the day. I don't know if I've told you about Tamas, but he is a really awesome investigator. He's 18 and absolutely loves the gospel already. The Buda Sisters found him first then past him down to the Buda Elders then past him down to us because he lives in our area. We taught him the first three lessons and he accepted them and believes everything that we teach him is true. He has even finished the Book of Mormon and is already reading it again. He also speaks like a roadrunner and it's so hard to understand what he says. I already have trouble understanding from people who speak at a normal pace and when he speaks it is even harder. Ha ha, but it's good training for me. We taught him the 10 commandments and extended a Bap Date for the 8th of September and he accepted it without hesitation. We are super excited for him and we are really hoping that he will continue to go through with his commitment.
Saturday: We had a service project in the morning and worked through the afternoon. We did a lot of yard work and some other small things here and there as well. We then came back and got cleaned up and headed out for two programs that we had scheduled. Both are English speakers, so we were confident that we would have good lessons. Our first one dodged, but interestingly enough, some guy showed up to the building and asked if we could teach him English one on one because he wouldn't be able to make it for the regular time we teach on Thursdays. We said yes and scheduled to meet with him on Sunday. Even though our investigator appointment fell through we had this new one—what a blessing. We then studied Hungarian while we waited for our next program with Justin who is from China. This Program was so awesome! We planned to teach him about faith and how it is through our faith that we can receive miracles because he was having doubts about being baptized and then having to back to China to live with his family where there is no church except for in Hong Kong. He said that it would almost be impossible for him to keep all the commandments if that happened. So we planned this lesson on faith and miracles for him, but before we started we answered some of his questions from the Book of Mormon. This is when it got really interesting, because his last questions was, "It says here that God is a God of miracles. Have you seen any miracles in your life?" This question led perfectly into our lesson. Elder Headrick told him as story about his older brother having surgery as a baby and surviving after being told that he wouldn't be able to and I shared my story about my wisdom teeth and how we had no money to pay for the surgery. We prayed and prayed for a way to pay for it and, somehow, the Lord provided for us and I was able to get my wisdom teeth out. We then asked if he had seen any miracles in his life and he said "I never really thought about that." We then went into our lesson and shared with him 1 Nephi 7:12, James 1:5-6 and Alma 37:37. We explained that we can council with the Lord and it is through our counseling and our faith that we can receive miracles. He said something about how he was expecting something to happen as he would develop faith. Right then, Elder Headrick felt prompted to share Ether 12:6 which says that miracles don't come until after the trial of our faith. After he read that, Justin said "I feel like that verse was meant for me." We committed him then to pray for faith and to council with the Lord about his problems. He said he definitely will do that and we pray and hope that next time he will have the faith to step closer to Christ by accepting a bap date. It was one of the most amazing lessons I have ever had. I hope that I will have the same thing in Hungarian sometime in the future.
I'm almost out of time so I will just say that Sunday was a really awesome day and we gave a blessing in Hungarian to a member in the church and had 2 programs that were very productive. One thing I would like to say before I finish this is, do you remember Sister Mackay? Something interesting that we both found out is that we were both homeschooled our entire lives! And she took TJYC! And she went to George Wythe University and SVU! And she knows Cameron Leavitt! We were super surprised to find out how small this world is and that there are two TJYCers in Hungary. Cool fact, huh?
We already love our companionship together and have already been working hard these first few days. First off, our companionship is really young. I am only in my 2nd transfer and Elder Headrick is in his 6th. But because we are both so young we still have our "Greenie Fires", and since we still have our Greenie Fires we will be able to keep them burning and continue to have that desire to work our hardest every day, and since we both have our Greenie Fires and our desire to work we will be able to learn from each other every day! What a perfect set up, right? Our area is in definite need of this and we both feel that as we continue to work every day that we will be able to pick up our area and keep it thriving. So let me give you the heads up of what's been happening so far.
Wednesday was transfer day and I was given my new companion around 10:30 in the morning at the train station. We took his stuff back home then headed back to the Mission Home to say goodbye to everyone and for Elder Headrick to have his DL (District Leader) training. During all this, Elder Abram was getting all of his bags into a car to be taken to the Mission Home where he can transfer his luggage into another car that would be headed to Miskolc. But somewhere along the way, one of Elder Abram's bags went missing and he thought that someone might have forgotten to have picked it up for him and he wanted to go back to the train station to see if his bag may have still been there. His new companion was in a meeting that would take a while, so we had my new companion go on splits with Elder Abrams new companion while he and I went back to the train station. We got there and everything had been taken away and nothing was there. We tried the lost and found and they said that nothing had been brought to them. Elder Abram said that there wasn't really anything too important in the bag, but it's still a bummer to lose a bunch of stuff. When we got back to the Mission Home, we saw on the table his bag that had been missing. Apparently another car of missionaries picked it up and took it with them back to the Mission Home. Some people might just say he got lucky, but I say that it's a small miracle. After my companion had his DL training, we said goodbye to our previous companions and all the other missionaries that were going out, went to lunch, came back home, went out shopping for food, came back and updated on our investigators and went to bed. We both were really excited to be companions and we looked forward to our first full day of work.
Thursday: We had two programs set up, but one called us in the morning during studies and told us that he would have to move today's program to next week. We were kind of bummed, but we also looked at it as a good time to street and find people. After lunch, we streeted for 2 hours with no success. We then got a text from our other program of the day saying that he wouldn't be able to meet today either and wasn't going to be in town for 2 weeks. So my companion and I just looked at each other and said "Alright, lets tract." We tracted half-way through an apartment building, before realizing that it had already been tracted by the sisters not too long ago. So, we finished half-way and went to an area of houses where Elder Abram and I had been tracting. I looked down the street of houses and thought "This is going to be a long one." Funny thing that I would say that to myself, because the first house that we came to was a let-in. My first one!! It was so awesome!! The woman we found had gone to our church once before when it was first built back in the 90's and she had been going to different religions to see which one was the right one for her. The missionaries didn't approach her when she went, but when we found her we definitely felt that it was the Lord's way of saying "Here is one that I have prepared for you." We taught her half way through the Restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so surprised that we would give her the book for free and thanked us so much for it. We are hoping to meet with her again this week. Elder Headrick and I discussed how if it wasn't for our dropped programs that we wouldn't have been able to find this woman. It was such an adrenaline rush! Actually, it was more like a Holy Ghost rush.
Friday: We tabled with the sisters in our area and were able to give out a total of 15 Books of Mormon! Super awesome, right? We do think that half of them might have been given to homeless people who probably might go out and try to sell them for money, but the other half we believe are legitimate people who could possibly be investigators. After tabling, my companion wanted to get familiarized with the area, since it's pretty big. So we took 3-4 hours exploring all around Pest. We handed out English Class flyers here for the last few hours to have said that we did some work while exploring. We then had a program with Tamas at the end of the day. I don't know if I've told you about Tamas, but he is a really awesome investigator. He's 18 and absolutely loves the gospel already. The Buda Sisters found him first then past him down to the Buda Elders then past him down to us because he lives in our area. We taught him the first three lessons and he accepted them and believes everything that we teach him is true. He has even finished the Book of Mormon and is already reading it again. He also speaks like a roadrunner and it's so hard to understand what he says. I already have trouble understanding from people who speak at a normal pace and when he speaks it is even harder. Ha ha, but it's good training for me. We taught him the 10 commandments and extended a Bap Date for the 8th of September and he accepted it without hesitation. We are super excited for him and we are really hoping that he will continue to go through with his commitment.
Saturday: We had a service project in the morning and worked through the afternoon. We did a lot of yard work and some other small things here and there as well. We then came back and got cleaned up and headed out for two programs that we had scheduled. Both are English speakers, so we were confident that we would have good lessons. Our first one dodged, but interestingly enough, some guy showed up to the building and asked if we could teach him English one on one because he wouldn't be able to make it for the regular time we teach on Thursdays. We said yes and scheduled to meet with him on Sunday. Even though our investigator appointment fell through we had this new one—what a blessing. We then studied Hungarian while we waited for our next program with Justin who is from China. This Program was so awesome! We planned to teach him about faith and how it is through our faith that we can receive miracles because he was having doubts about being baptized and then having to back to China to live with his family where there is no church except for in Hong Kong. He said that it would almost be impossible for him to keep all the commandments if that happened. So we planned this lesson on faith and miracles for him, but before we started we answered some of his questions from the Book of Mormon. This is when it got really interesting, because his last questions was, "It says here that God is a God of miracles. Have you seen any miracles in your life?" This question led perfectly into our lesson. Elder Headrick told him as story about his older brother having surgery as a baby and surviving after being told that he wouldn't be able to and I shared my story about my wisdom teeth and how we had no money to pay for the surgery. We prayed and prayed for a way to pay for it and, somehow, the Lord provided for us and I was able to get my wisdom teeth out. We then asked if he had seen any miracles in his life and he said "I never really thought about that." We then went into our lesson and shared with him 1 Nephi 7:12, James 1:5-6 and Alma 37:37. We explained that we can council with the Lord and it is through our counseling and our faith that we can receive miracles. He said something about how he was expecting something to happen as he would develop faith. Right then, Elder Headrick felt prompted to share Ether 12:6 which says that miracles don't come until after the trial of our faith. After he read that, Justin said "I feel like that verse was meant for me." We committed him then to pray for faith and to council with the Lord about his problems. He said he definitely will do that and we pray and hope that next time he will have the faith to step closer to Christ by accepting a bap date. It was one of the most amazing lessons I have ever had. I hope that I will have the same thing in Hungarian sometime in the future.
I'm almost out of time so I will just say that Sunday was a really awesome day and we gave a blessing in Hungarian to a member in the church and had 2 programs that were very productive. One thing I would like to say before I finish this is, do you remember Sister Mackay? Something interesting that we both found out is that we were both homeschooled our entire lives! And she took TJYC! And she went to George Wythe University and SVU! And she knows Cameron Leavitt! We were super surprised to find out how small this world is and that there are two TJYCers in Hungary. Cool fact, huh?
Reading about the
Chick-fil-a thing sounds crazy! That would have been super cool to be a part
of. I'm glad you had fun. Alisha just keeps getting sick. It sounds like she is
just prone to getting sick this summer. Hopefully her immune system buff's up
and will hold strong for the winter and I hope that she is able to go to girl’s
camp also. I'm glad that Ashleigh is finding small blessings even though it's
hard to find jobs.
I think it would be
fine to send snippets of the Olympics. That would be great to see how things
are doing. We have been seeing some sports on the TVs as we go to eat somewhere
or shop in stores. It's in Hungarian also, so my companion can understand what
they're saying but it's still super hard for me. I hope I can be as great as my
companion who is only in his 6th transfer and is speaking and understanding
like a pro. I'm studying my brains out to get this language down. It seems like
ages before I will understand this language, ha ha! But I know through the
Lord, anything is possible. Today we are going to a Communist Statue park for P-Day. After
the fall of communism they took all of the communist statues and put them in
this park where anyone can climb up on them and take pictures and stuff. I
think it's a way to mock the statues, so I have heard. But being a TJYCer who
studied communism in and out to defend it, this is something really cool for
me. I'm super excited. :)
I'm glad to hear that this week went well and I hope that this week brings many blessings also.
Love, your missionary,
-Magda Elder
I'm glad to hear that this week went well and I hope that this week brings many blessings also.
Love, your missionary,
-Magda Elder
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