December 30, 2013
Sok
szeretettel, köszöntelek benneteket ezen a blogomon,
(Lots of love, and welcome to my blog)
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| The Eger Christmas Tree |
This
quote may be a tricky one for you, but let's see if any of you can get where
it's from. Hint: it's not from a movie.
'Sir,
do you know that your drinking the new decaffinated coffee crystals?'
'What?'
'You
know, the decaffinated coffe crystals.'
'......Why
you no good son of a butt *word replaced*. You tried to trick me!!!'
*later*
'Sir,
tell us how you feel'
'.....aaaannnggrrryyyyy.'
(His Mom thinks it’s from a SNL skit with Chris Farley.)
I
know it sounds weird this quote, but if you know where it's from, I will be
thoroughly impressed. :)
Blast!
I can't believe it's already the end of the year! It feels like this year just
started for me, no joke. Last year at this time I was serving with Elder Becker
and I was only in my 5th transfer, meaning I only had 8 months done with my
mission. A year later, I'm in my 15th transfer, have been out for almost 21
months and am on the last leg of my mission, having just had my last Skype
session with my family. Holy cow! I never thought that it was going to come
about this fast! There are so many crazy feelings and thoughts about all this.
Let's not think about it for a while and just move on to other stuff.
It
was so nice to see all of you for Christmas! It's weird almost every time to
see how things have changed at home. I feel like this weird foreign kid that
has a long lost family in the states. Ha ha, President Smith actually said in
our weekly email this week 'I hope that your families remembered who you were!'
Kind of chuckled seeing that. I cannot thank our investigators enough for
having us over at their place to use their computer.
They are so kind! They
loved meeting all of you and said that I have a really nice family (Isn't that
cute!). Funny thing is, I didn't even tell you what I did that day for
Christmas before I Skyped you all. So that means everyone else can enjoy it as
well! Yip-skipidee-doo-da-hip-jippity-hooraaayyy!!! Right? Vágod?
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| The awesome family that let us Skype for Christmas! |
Ok,
first off, we went over to the other elders and made waffles. Yes, waffles!
They were so good! By the way, in Hungary they don't have maple syrup (sad,
right?). So we had to make our own with cinnamon to replace the maple extract.
It was still super good! We got super full off of the batch that we had. We
then played some card games and Catan (hopefully all of you know what board
game this is), in which I owned all, showing my more humble side, ha ha.
Afterwards we went to the giant Catholic basillica that's in Eger which had
some awesome artwork and paintings on the ceiling and walls.
We also went to
another Catholic church and toured around in it for a bit and went up to the
castle and took some pictures around it.
It was a super nice day as well! For
the second time in a row it didn't snow on Christmas, neither was it cold. It
was actually between 10-13 degrees celsius outside. We've heard from the
Hungarians that it's going to be an abnormal winter here, warmer than usual,
which means the more wintery part with snow will come later, resulting in a
longer winter. They're not looking forward to it. I'm not to bummed, cause I'll
be in the Californian spring around that time. :) *slaps himself* Enough of
that, back to what I was talking about. The kewlest thing we got to go to on
Christmas was this underground wine-cellar right beneath the basillica. It was
pretty kewl.
We learned a lot about wine and how it's made underneath the
ground and stuff. It may not be the most fascinating thing in the world for
being LDS, but it was still neat to see how people made it back in the day.
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| On top of the castle |
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| View of the Basilica from the top of the castle |
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| Wine cellar below the Catholic Basilica |
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| Wine cellar |
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| The huge taco lunch. |
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| Preview to stomach expansion.... |
On
a more spiritual note, on Christmas Eve we held our weekly District meeting
together. Since transfers 2 weeks ago I've been the new District Leader for our
District, so I decided to do my training on Charity. But before I even got into
my training, I had asked one of the other Elders to give a spiritual thought
before I went into my training a few days before the meeting. He had no idea
what I was going to be giving my training on and he gave a short thought about
Charity! It gave me tingles! Before
he shared the verses and thought that he had he said 'You know, I didn't know
what I should share with you guys today, but I said a small prayer before I
looked in the scriptures for what I wanted and as I read these verses, I felt
like these were what I was supposed to talk about', and these verses were some
of the ones that I was going to be using for my training. His spiritual message
was just an assurance that Charity was what I was meant to talk about, because
I didn't know what I should talk about either. I thought about it and said a
little prayer to myself the days before and looked through my study journal a
little bit and the stuff that I studied about Charity really stuck out to me
and I felt that that was what I was meant to teach. I felt incredibly
enlightened as well from all the info and thoughts that we included from the
other missionaries in the District during the training. I felt like everyone
was supposed to be there at that exact time and was each prepared from their
own personal studies that they had had in the previous weeks for that meeting.
I want to share some of the things that I included in my training because I
feel like it is something that has been helping me to develop Charity in my
life. Mainly, we talked about the blessings that come from Charity, which are a
lot, and why Charity is important (for these parts I hope that you all will
study the topic of Charity and find for yourselves what the blessings are and
the importance of it in each of our lives). But the main topic I talked about
was how to acquire Charity. So I came up with some tips for myself that I
decided to share with the rest of the District. These are the steps I came up
with.
1.
Pray for it
'Charity is a gift from God' as quoted in Preach My Gospel. It made me
think, how do we obtain gifts? Normally, at least most of the time, we ask for
them. Of course there are circumstances where people, out of the kindness of
their hearts, give us gifts without us even asking for it. But on most
occasions we usually ask. After just having the Christmas season, I'm sure all
parents have had their kids come up to them and ask 'Mommy, I really want a new
race car!' or 'Daddy, can I get a pony?' I don't know about the pony one,
that's a pretty big gift to give, but the example is what I'm going for. The
point is, gifts are asked for. Moroni 7:48 explains why and how tremendously!
If you break it down sentence by sentence, we see that in order to acquire
Charity in our lives, we have to pray for it. And, if we ask, we shall receive.
But, action needs to take place in order for anything to happen. That's when
the next few steps come in to play.
2.
Choose to Love
It is up to us whether or not we want to be men and women who are trying
to be like the Savior. We have to choose now to be like Him. Just with that, we
need to start loving others. We can't get off our knees after praying for
Charity and just say 'Well, that was a good prayer, hopefully God will give me
Charity.' It doesn't work that way. Just like receiving a Christmas gift, we have
to be doing the right things if we want to receive it. No wonder Santa tells us
'You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout....he knows if
you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake', because he's not going
to give us what we ask for if we aren't doing the right things! So, if we want
to have Charity, we have to start loving others, start being kind and doing
good will towards our fellowman. Also, if we read in the scriptures, we find
that we are commanded, not just asked, to love one another as Christ did. Why
would he make this a commandment? Because it brings blessings! It is a higher
and better way of living! So start now! Don't procrastinate! That is the next
step before we even start acting. We need to know that we want to change and
want to love.
3.
Service
What greater way to express one's love than by serving is fellowman? We
learn from King Benjamin many things about service. One of them being that even
though he was a king, he labored with his people and not for worldly means. He
says 'I say unto you that as I have been suffered to spend my days in your
service, even up to this time, and have not sought gold nor silver nor any
manner of riches of you... And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands
that I might serve you...I have not done these things that I might boast,
neither do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you
these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear conscience before God
this day.' Incredible, right? He did it out of the kindness and love of his
heart. He wanted to serve his fellowman because he loved them—not because he
wanted recognition nor because he wanted to receive wealth, but because he
wanted to say at the end of his life, not boastingly, that he has a clear
conscience. We also learn from the Savior that this way of living is what
brings the most happiness. Even He, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who
could have come to the Earth and have sought glory, came down to serve us, mere
people! We read in Matthew 20 ' But
whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister ; And whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many.' 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.' Why? Why would a King, the God of us all do this? Simply
because He loved us. He served us, and is still serving us, because He loves
each and every one of us.
Some
tips that I gave for service were actually some TNT principles that I learned
while I was a part of the theater troupe. I want to thank TNT and how it has
impacted my life with the principles and attributes I learned. Thank you LaRee, I don't know if you know
it, but you have been teaching each of us how to be charitable people.
Because the rules 'Making your partner look good' and 'Looking Outward and
Upward' have always been the biggest things for me and have helped me greater
understand what love really us. Make
your partner look good! Those who you live with, those who you work around,
make it your goal to make them look good, especially during the times when they
may be making the biggest mistakes. Show your love for them as their
spiritual brother or sister. They need you, even if they don't think it. And
what will make this principle easier is if you are looking outward and upward.
We have the two greatest commandments given to us 'Love God' and 'Love thy
neighbor as thyself' or, in short, looking outwards and upwards. These small,
simple principles are ways that can increase our desire to serve. There is no
better feeling than giving. I love it! I'm going to miss that feeling so much
when I come home. Knowing that every day is dedicated to the Lord as a devout
servant will probably be my greatest sorrow when I return. But that doesn't
mean that I'll stop when I'm home, and I hope that you all know that you don't
need to be missionaries with a name tag to have each day dedicated towards
serving your fellow siblings in this probationary period. Love them! Serve
them! There is no greater thing than this.
And
thus comes the last tip:
4.
Understanding.
'Seek to understand, then to be understood'. Many people will interpret
this as first knowing a subject then teaching it after you understand it. True,
that is one way we can look at it. But, why not think of it as with those whom you’re
are always listening too or talking with. Understanding is crucial! Even though
we can serve others and love all people without having to know all of them, it
is when we do get to know someone that we need to listen and understand. It is
then that we can act accordingly and serve them.
I
would like to talk more about the last tip, but I'm running short on time. No
one needs to apply these things or follow these steps; these are only things
that I have found that have helped me. But, that is why I am sharing them,
because I know that they are things that have blessed my life and can also
bless others. Charity is the most powerful thing in the world, more so than
being the most wealthy man alive or greatest spokesman on the planet, 'if he
hath not charity, he is nothing'. This is the goal, and it is worth
everything.
I
love you all; I hope you have a wonderful New Years and 'Hold to the rod, the
iron rod'. Don't forget to pray!
Sincerely, az egész szívével (With my whole heart)
Magda
Elder
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