Note to Mom: Our teacher told us that Hungarians love seeing pictures of us and our family. They are very family oriented and showing them family also helps us become more real to them or something like that. I love the frame with all of the family pictures in it but what he suggested is having a little 4x6 flip book with some pictures of family and maybe us before the mission so that we can show people in Hungary. I would really appreciate having this.
This week, yesterday, we got another District of Hungarians. 12 awesome new misisonaries getting ready to serve in Hungary. My district has been very excited to have these missionaries come and I think we all feel motivated to work harder and be better so we can set a good example for the new Hungarian missionaries.
At the West Campus MTC (where I am) we get to go to Brigham's Landing on our PDays. (Brighams Landing is a place just down from West Campus MTC, theres a couple resturaunts there). So, since our PDay is Thursdays and last Thursday was the 4th of July, my district went over and had Burgers and Smoothies. It was pretty awesome. They had Sports Center playing on the TVs in the resturaunt though and so at first it was hard not to watch TV. Later in the day the whole MTC watched 17 miracles together and then got to go out and watch the stadium fireworks. We like to say that that night we watched 18 miracles instead of 17 miracles though, because at the end of the day Elder Depallens (in my district) recieved a miracle answer to many prayers. That was the best part of the day. It even beat the BBQ, bacon, and onion ring cheeseburger with fries.
Here is a quote from my journal on 7/5/13: " Once again I prayed to God and He answered in a miraculous way."
Here is a quote from my journal on 7/6/13: "God exists. He loves us. He hears our prayers."
7/8/13: "God has blessed me so much."
One of the days this last week I felt the Spirit more than I have in probably any other lesson. The lesson was on the difference between Grace and Mercy. Mercy is a gift, grace is more of a power. Grace is the enabling power of the Atonement. We all recieve mercy from Jesus Christ. No matter what you do or who you are, He loves you and shows you his mercy. Grace, though, is reliant on our faith. The Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us through grace. It enables us to change, to repent and move on. It enables us to always become better. Better friends, better family members, better people. It enables us to progress, central to the Plan of Salvation, the Plan of Happiness.
It can be easy to fall behind planning lessons. One of the days this last week my companion and I were teaching a lesson the next morning (it was night) and we still didn't have a plan. I was pretty worried because we didn't have much time left in the day and we didn't have any more scheduled time to plan the lesson. I was worried. But once again, my prayer was answered. We had talked during the day about different things we wanted to talk about in the lesson. I was grateful to my companion for us finishing planning quickly and taking just a few minutes to plan what we could. As we wrote down the different ideas we had had or were having, the lessson seemed to just form itself and after only a few minutes we had a solid lesson plan that I felt good about, and that I felt we could give that next morning.
I hope you all are well. I love you all and miss you all much. I appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and any emails/letters. I'm sorry I don't have as much time as would be nice to write all of you every week but I've been trying to take a little time and hopefully you'll all get a letter from me before I leave the MTC (in less than 3 weeks!!!). I know in all of your strugles that God will hear yours prayers. The Book of Mormon is a very useful tool to go to in all things as well, it is true.
Have a great week!
Love, Elder Shoop
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