December
17, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,
This week was sure a fun one, at
least in the trackting sense. There are other things that happened this week,
which I will let you know about, but I have to let you know some of my
trackting experiences this week. So Elder Becker and I had quite a bit of time
this week to go out and find and with the current weather condition, pretty
darn cold and, sometimes, either raining or snowing, streeting and tabling are
pretty much out of the question because no one wants to talk to people on the
street when they too are cold and just want to keep moving to their
destination. We can do it if we really wanted to, but it's just really
ineffective. That means we revert to trackting, which, in my personal opinion,
is more effective anyways. You can have fun in either way of finding, but I
also have found in my experiences that trackting is WAY more fun.
In the past, I have just been
trackting with the approach of offering them a message about our church or
something along the lines of that and, most of the time; they reply 'Nem
erdekel!' (I'm not interested!) and slam their door *slam*. But this week Elder
Becker wanted to try a different approach, which he said has really worked for
him in the past and is also really fun, and that is approaching with a survey
with questions that lead to the Plan of Salvation or the Gospel in some way.
So, we trackted and we had some really fun and interesting experiences. One of
our first let-ins was by this college student who looked our age. We told him
we had a survey and he welcomed us in. Both Elder Becker and I were SUPER
excited because this was our first let-in. He lead us to his living room where
there were 10 more college students. They all looked at us and the guy who
opened the door said 'Hey, these guys want to give us a survey' which came with
quite a few snickers. Elder Becker leans over to me and whispers 'You got
this.' So I asked some of the questions with some answers that were really
interesting and some that were just jokestery. At the end I just gave them a
brief explanation why we did the survey and gave them a plan of salvation
pamphlet and our number if any of them ever have questions. Unfortunately we
have yet to get a call from them.
Another cool story we had: It was our
last house of the day and we said to ourselves that we were going to give him a
Book of Mormon. We knocked on the door and an older man opens it with a really
kind presence about him. He accepted our survey and we gave him all of the
questions and he gave us all really good answers. After the questions we talked
to him about it and we said that we can find all of the answers to these
questions from the Book of Mormon. He said he had heard about our church but
only good things and he has wanted to get a Book of Mormon for a while. Both of
us were thrilled and we asked if he would accept one and he said 'Sure, but can
I give you a book in exchange.' We were like 'Sure, why not.' He then walked up
to us stairs to get these books while we were waiting at his door, looking at
ourselves with puzzlement because we had no idea what kind of book he would
give us. He finally comes down and gives us these two HUGE books about
Criminology, in Hungarian, and said 'Alright, let’s switch.' So we switched and
we gave him a quick testimony of the Book of Mormon, our number and then left.
We tried to get his number but he said that he would just call us if he had any
questions. It was kind of a bummer, but Elder Becker, as we were walking away,
said 'Hey, at least we got two huge books about Criminology!' I couldn't help
but start cracking up. We laughed almost all the way to our next appointment
(I'm pretty sure we were super tired).
I wish I could keep going on and on
about the experiences that we had, but I don't have much time, so I hope you
enjoyed these trackting stories. Some other things that happened this week, all
of our investigators that are going to be baptized this Saturday have been
interviewed and passed with flying colors. I was so excited when I heard the
news that I felt like I could do a triple backflip or something, ha ha. But
really, the feeling you get when someone is on their way to making a covenant
with God is the greatest feeling! I just can't wait for Saturday! We also have
a Zone Conference this Wednesday in Budapest and we are all super excited for
it. And, by the way, I did get your package while I was up there. Thank you so
much for all everything! My companion also says thank you for the half that was
his. He was super surprised when he found out that half was his. Thank you so
much! :D
I'm so glad to hear about the family
who was baptized this past Saturday! That must have been so awesome, especially
their whole story of finding the church. See, everyone is a missionary! Not
just the missionaries who wear nametags. We have been talking about it a lot
with our branch here and the responsibility of the members and that they too
are missionaries. Yes, we can go out and find people all we want and teach the
gospel to everyone, but the work goes much faster and with greater effect when
the members are involved in the work. Don't ever forget that! We are all
missionaries of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and are a part of moving forward the
work.
Sounds like a lot of things are
happening at home and I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Christmas
season. Tell Ryan that I wish him a happy wedding for me and tell Sister Coen
that I appreciate all the she is does and that her prayers have not gone in
vain, for I truly have seen an improvement in my language skills, especially
this transfer, and that my companions and I have been finding great success in
our efforts. I thank all of those who are praying for me and for all the
missionaries around the world. It is your prayers that change the outcome of
the missionaries. We can see the miracles in our work and we know that your
prayers have an effect on them.
I hope that everyone continues to
have a wonderful Christmas Holiday! Merry Christmas and continue to have the Savior
in your thoughts during this Christmas season. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Magda Elder
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