This last week I read a fair amount from
Jesus the Christ and there was one specific thing I thought was really neat
concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. If you all think about the standard
Christmas nativity that we are all familiar with, there are generally shepherds
and wise men. When Christ was born, angles appeared to lowly shepherds near
where Christ was born. Wise men came from far away, following a Star, bearning
nice gifts, first stopping asking the king where the real king was. Here is a
quote from Jesus the Christ (its actually quoting a different source, see Jesus
the Christ, page 108) "So that indeed God raised up witnesses for Himself to
meet all classes and conditions of men - the testimony of angels for the poor
and lowly; the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and proud priests of
Judea."
I love this thought. Nothing God does is a coincidence. Its not a
coincidence that the two groups of witnesses were completely different. The
shepherds for the poor and lowly, the wise men for the rich, and noble. And this
so much applies directly to all of us. Its no coincidence that we have the
experiences we do. Its no coincidence that our families are what and who they
are, or that we have been blessed with the testimonies we have. As in Christs
birth, God has blessed us all to have the spiritual witness that we have, so
that we can touch the people around us, wheather it be kings or the poor and
lowly. I am so greatful that I was called to serve here in Hungary, but I know
where ever we are there will be people we can help.
Favorite scripture of the week: 2 Ne 10: 25, Im not gonna quote it, go look
it up and read it though :) I like this verse because I like how it states how
the atonement and ressurection work. Through the ressurection we can all gain
bodies again. Through the atonement we can be saved from spiritual death (it
uses the term "everlasting death" instead of spiritual death.) if we act on our
faith. How our faith is required is somewhat hard to find within the verse but
the end of the verse uses the term "through grace." Grace requires faith on our
part, so the verse really does say that we need faith.
My week. This last week was exciting. I went on splits twice, once with
Elder Nabrozky and once with Elder Beaucanon. Elder Nabrozky and myself are very
similair so that was fun to get to serve with him and serving with Elder
Beaucanon was great too. However, at the end of this last week I got sick. Low
energy, stomach upset, slight temperature, type thing. Mom, please don't worry,
Im feeling great now and everything was fine while I was sick. However, it did
slow the work up a bit.
Lili, the person with a baptism date, is doing well, we taught her about
tithing last week and she came to church for a second time this last sunday. We
will teach her next on Thursday and we hope her son will listen to the lesson
with her. Also, we hope to meet with a man named Gábor again this next week.
There is, of course, lots of other investigators we meet with but not to
overwhelm you all Ill stick with these two. Gábor is an awesome person who is
progressing and has had a few lessons and seems somewhat prepared. He also has
an awesome teddy bear collection which is really cool. But thats not where Mr.
Ruggles came from.
Mr. Ruggles is our Eger mascot. We love him and take him a lot of places.
When the other companionship here in Eger tables, they put Mr. Ruggles on the
table sometimes. Its great. We love playing with Mr. Ruggles.
Anyways, One lastish thing, there was a family history program on Saturday
here in Eger that was pretty neat. It was really cool to be at this family
history program in a country where so many of our past relatives our from, it
ended up being a really special experience for me.
Bullet points!
- Hopefully I answered all Mr. Ruggles questions, let me know if there are more.
- School Here started this past Monday. Best wishes to all of you nieces and nephews starting school!
- What is my day like now? I wake up at 6:30, pray, excercize, eat, get ready (shower, ect.), by 8 its personal study time, 9 is companion study time, 10 is a second hour of comp study because Im still new (its an extra hour for 12 weeks) then 11 is lunch usually, then 12 is language study for an hour. By 1 we go out to work, usually we have something like 3 or so scheduled "programs" or lessons. Hopefully none of them cancel. When we dont have a lesson, we tract through a 10 story appartment, dinner is at 5. Home by 9 or if teaching a lesson 9:30
- Lili's son. His name is Bálint, and I think if he spoke english or if all of you nephews spoke Hungarian, that you would all be good friends, he is a cool kid and likes watching cartoons. He is starting school just like all of you. He is Hungarian, but he is just a normal kid.
- In Hungary, stop lights turn yellow before turning green.
- In Hungary its normal for shower heads to not be attached to the wall, just hoses or something.
- They like open faced sandwiches here, no top piece of bread. One regular is Bread, tons of margarin, and then slices of pepper.
I love you all and miss you all so much. Best wishes!
Sok szeretettel
Elder Shoop
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