September 23,
2013
Hey
Everyone!
Well
this week sure has been interesting. But for everyone who is wondering, my
companion has returned! Though he has lost around 10 pounds (yikes!) he still
has that same smile that he left with. Apparently the doctors blasted the stone
with the Kidney stone-blaster-mabob-izé and he is, right now, just filtering it
out now. I'm sure that's not the thing you want to hear, but it's better than
saying that he has to go home and have to recover, ha ha. He's still kind of
recovering and we have been taking it easy these past few days so that he will
be back to full 100% for the rest of the week. So far so good!
 |
| Elder Sterri and Elder Magda |
As
I informed you all last week, I was in a threesome with the other elders here
in Eger while Elder Shoop was in Budapest. And, yes, one of them was Elder
Sterri from Rocklin. He is such an awesome guy! We get a long super well and it
was a blast being in his companionship for the past few days. His companion, elder
Vanderpool, is actually one of my Kicsi from the MTC (part of the group that
came in while I was already there) and he is super funny. It almost felt like
it was a party every day together, of course, in the good missionary way. We
had some kewl things happen that I think many of you will enjoy reading.
First
off, one of their investigators that we met with twice this week gave us some
interesting things in each of the programs. The first program was actually an
invitation to where he lives. He said 'Do you guys like goats? The knowledge of
goats is very important. I can take you to the pasture lands and you can see my
goats some time.' So far we haven’t scheduled a day to go visit his goats, but
we are sure looking forward to that day when it comes. The other time he had
brought a bag of stuff with him into the program. We were curious as to what
was in it, then, in-between the program he says, 'I did not come empty handed.
I am very good at cracking hard nuts. Do you like nuts?' He then put the bag onto
the table, pulled out from within it a few walnuts and a nut cracker and began
to crack some open and gave them to us, saying 'They are very healthy. Try
them.' At the end of the program, he gave us the entire bag of walnuts saying
'They are very good, aren't they.' What a gift from an investigator! We could
not help but smile during the entire program after that.
For
some funny tracting stories, one day we went out to visit one of my
companionships new investigators and see if we can have a program with him.
After knocking on the door a few times and without a reply, it was then decided
that we'd tract a little bit till the day was over. The street that we were
tracting on started out paved and nice, than slowly turned into a dirt road and
came to a dead end with a house that looked kind of beat up and battered from
the weather. It was on a hill, and we could hear something going on in the
house, like someone working on some steel or metal of some sort. The gate to
the house was barely standing up, and the gate was hanging open, and looked
like it had been like that for quite a while. The other elders and I looked at
each other, wondering if we should go up to the house, thinking maybe that this
person would come out with a chainsaw or something and start chasing us. We
ruled that possibility out and went through the gate and started walking up to
the house. As we approached it, we found that it wasn't really a house, but
more of a shed and that it was used for a working station. The garage door was
open, so we kind of peered through the door to see where the sound of cutting
metal was coming from. We then saw the man standing at a work bench, and when
he looked at us, I realized that it was the man that we were trying to meet
with earlier! When I said his name and started talking to him, the other elders
were confused as to what was going on, since they hadn't seen him before since
I was with elder Shoop when I first met with him. We talked for a little bit
than agreed that we would come back next week sometime. The story may not sound
so exciting from your guys' end, but it definitely was a funny surprise for me.
The
other story I have from tracting was running into this lady, who was quite old,
and having a small conversation with her. Now, just for you to understand,
people believe that if they say that they already belong to a different
religion that it will just have an instant effect on us and that we will turn
and walk away. Ha! I like to whisper under my breath after they say it 'huh,
fail!' after they try and use this technique of theirs. Anyways, so this woman
tries to use it on us, and says it very slowly, 'I'm sorry boys, I'm a
Catholic'. Short pause.........nodding of heads.....than she repeats 'That's
right, I'm Catholic.' 'Well, that's great ma’am! Then we're the perfect ones to
strengthen your faith in Christ!' Didn't really work, but, it was worth a shot.
Ha ha, old ladies are so funny at times. Gotta love'em!
For
the more uplifting part of the week, we had two awesome programs with our investigators
this week. One of them we taught the 10 commandments and the other the Plan of
Salvation. Both programs were filled with the Spirit and to the one that we
taught the Plan of Salvation I could definitely see the joy in your face as we
taught her how families can be together forever and that this life isn't the
end. She was certainly pleased, and we hope that she will continue to progress
as the weeks go by.
I
also had the opportunity to give a talk on Sunday about Elder Eyring's April
conference talk about coming unto Him. It stuck out to me when I first heard
from the conference session in April when he used D&C 88:63 which starts
'Draw near unto me; and I will draw near unto you...' Ever since I sang this
song for a special choir number for church, this scripture has always been one
of my favorites, and I was grateful to have the opportunity to expound upon it
and of what Elder Eyring taught. It was also great to see the improvement in Hungarian
when I last gave a talk in Békéscsaba in May to now, and I have certainly grown
in my ability to express myself. Still hard, but definitely not as difficult as
it used to be.
Alrighty
then that was my joyous week. Lots of fun with the other elders for 5 days, my
companion being back, having wonderful programs and some great and hilarious
experiences. Gotta love it! I was meant to include some pictures from this week
on the email, but I couldn't find my cord for my camera today. I was in a rush,
so I didn't have much time to look around for it, so hopefully it shows up next
week because the pictures that I have I would love to share with you! Thank you
for the pictures that you sent of your trip to Idaho! Sounds like you guys had
a blast! We'll have to do that some time when I get back. I would love the
adventure. :)
Well,
I'm tired, as I always am. Ha ha, something that seems to never really go away
as a missionary. I guess it's kind of understandable. Thanks for tuning in!
Next week there'll be pictures (hopefully)!
From
your kewl son in the Hungary Budapest Mission, serving in the small city of
Eger,
Magda
Elder
No comments:
Post a Comment