Monday, September 10, 2012

I'm a 3 Transfer Man!



September 10, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,

Guess what? I'm a 3 transfer man! It's already been six weeks since I got Elder Headrick as my companion. Because it's another transfer, things have been shifted around, elders going to different places and all that jazz. Ready to hear what's happening to me? I am.........staying right where I am again in Pest with Elder Headrick! I'm so excited and I just can't hide it! Elder Headrick and I have been really wanting to stay together again for another transfer. We've picked up the work, love serving with each other and LOVE the city and we wanted to have one more transfer to really get the work going in Pest and keep it steady. We have been super nervous for the past few days, thinking that we possibly may be transferred. We had a strong feeling that we would probably stay together, but sometimes the President can get a prompting from the Spirit the day before and switch things up, but I guess he really likes us together and wanted us to stay for one more together. Other things have been happening to missionaries around us and we are the only ones in the city who aren't being changed. We're glad though, because we love what's going on here with us.

So this email may be short as well, unfortunately, because I'm using a keyboard that's being kind of dumb, so I'll try to put in some good stuff before it poops out on me or something (heh heh, I used the word poop in a sentence :P). So our goal for this week was to get standard as the last week of the transfer. I don't know how standard is in other missions, but here is pretty hard to get. A description of what standard means: Standard is a set of numbers in certain categories, for example the standard here in Hungary for members present in a lesson is 3 and for other lessons is 7. They are numbers set by the mission president that are achievable for missionaries to get. They are goals that help us to achieve our purpose and to keep the area that we are in going. My explanation is probably hard to understand, but you can go to one of the missionaries at home and ask them what standard is also and they'll tell you and probably use their planner as visual aid which is what I would like to do but I'm in another country far away and I can't do that for you. Anyways, we made that our goal for the week and we got it!! We looked at the beginning of our week and said to each other we can get it easily, but as the week went through, we began getting calls canceling appointments and setting up for another day or another week and other things started to fall through also, but we continued to push through and work hard and in the end we were able to get it.

Now getting standard is really good, and getting super standard is even better, but this is my belief about numbers and how it determines how good of a missionary you are: if an elder is all about getting the numbers and getting standard and stuff  then that's great, but that's not our purpose. Our purpose is not to 'get the best numbers in the mission' but to 'bring others unto Christ' or in Hungarian 'Masokat Krisztushoz hivunk azáltal'. One missionary can have a bunch of baptisms and another have maybe 1 or 0. Does that mean that the missionary with 1 is a bad missionary? Of course not! That missionary was probably working everyday with all of his heart and trying to help others come to Christ, just the same as someone who has many baptisms. That's like saying that Abinidai was a bad missionary, which is obviously wrong. The numbers are to help us be better missionaries, but it does not necessarily mean that whoever has the highest numbers is the best missionary in the mission. The best missionary is one who is working with all of his heart, might, mind and strength. So if there are any missionaries who think 'Oh, I have no baptisms and I'm almost finished with my mission, I don't know if I was a good missionary', just remember the story of the stone cutter, you worked as hard as you could and put all your effort in bringing someone towards the straight and narrow and they did not accept it, just like the stone cutter who hit the stone over a 100 times and it did not budge. But, someone else finds this same person months or years later and brings them to the water of baptism, who represents as the man who switches with the stone cutter and strikes the stone once and the stone budges. Does that mean that the man who hit the stone 100 times did his work all in vain? Of course not! He prepared the stone for the other man.

Unfortunately my letter comes to end, but this is my testimony to all of you, there is no other place that I would rather be than here in Hungary. I love this people and I love this language so much. I am finally beginning to understand people when they speak and I've only been here for almost 3 months in Hungary. That is already a miracle to me and is a testimony that the Lord is helping me to speak this language. Someone came up to me the other day and asked me how long I've been in the country and I said almost 3 months and he said that he can't believe that I am learning this language so fast. There is no other explanation than that it is the power of the Holy Ghost helping me. This gospel is true and it stands as a witness that God loves all of His children. This has been on my mind this week and I will just quote it for all those TJYCers out there. "We are awakening our sense of personal mission, igniting our passion to pay the price and increasing our moral power to affect forms, through pure knowledge and without hypocrisy, carrying forth the banner of liberty!" May this ring true to all of our hearts our whole lives. Let us know what our mission is and stand for what is true and carry that banner of liberty, the banner of the Atonement, to everyone.

Sok Szeretettel,
Magda Elder

P.S. The Niners defeated the Packers?! Awesoooommmeeee!! Hopefully they keep on moving forward! They got rid of the Tri Nations? That's kind of sad, but I hope this new tournament is still cool. GO SPRINGBOKS!!! I know that Shawn will be an amazing missionary, no doubt in my mind. Thank you for the pictures!!

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