One thing I read about this last week was
the story told in Mark 2:1-12 and also Mat 9:2-8. Thiis is the story where four
men are trying to get someone sick with palsy (cant control physical movements)
to Christ so that Christ will heal him. I think I had always thought of this
story as just another neat miracle of Christ. However, reading about it in Jesus
the Christ made me think more about the people carrying the man to Christ.
Christ Himself acknowledges the faith of these people. "When Jesus saw their
faith, ..." (Mark 2:5) or "and Jesus seeing their faith..." (Mat. 9:2) These
phrases make it seem to me that Jesus performed the miracle to the man sick with
palsy because of the faith of the people that carried him.
What was it that these people did that made their faith so visible? The
house Christ was in was crowded with people. Infact, it seems that there was a
multitude of people "And when they could not come nigh unto him for the
press,..." (Mark 2:4) So what did they do? They got on top of the house and
"uncovered the roof where he was." I think I always viewed this as an action of
desperation based on wanting their friend to be better. Instead, I think that a
better way to look at it is a bold act of faith. Christ himself said in their
actions He saw faith. What these people did was such a bold, publicly seen act
in front of lots, potentially a multitude of people, that in my oppinion, they
needed to really have faith that something would come of what they did to carry
it out.
I think this causes us to ask, how in my faith visible. Are we willing to
climb to the top of a house and tear open the roof? In front of multitudes of
people? This gospel is true, it is a gospel of miracles and a gospel of Gods
Love for us. Execize faith, act on faith, and then we can see the hand of God in
our lives.
This last Wednesday I travelled to Budapest to pick up my new companion,
Elder Magda. Elder Magda is lots of fun but a hard worker. We get along really
well I think, this next transfer is going to be way awesome (this next tranfer
is a bit different because its 10 weeks long).
So above I said we had some tough stuff this week. We had 5 programs cancel
on us between getting back Wednesday night with Elder Magda and Thursday. And
then during finding/tracting this last week we had some people who were really
negative to us and rude and we werent having a bunch of success. Between the
cancelled programs and the rough finding it was tough for a little bit and
things seemed to be going in the wrong directing fast.
But light prevails over darkness and things turned way up by yesterday
night. Our last person we tracted yesterday ended up letting us in and we had a
short lesson with him. He seemed to be really interesed in what we said and
seemed to really need the answers we were offering him. We asked and he told us
we could come back in a few days. He totally made all of the rough finding hours
worth it. We found someone, someone who I know this gospel can bless, and who I
think will let it bless him. Im willing to work endless rough tracting hours to
find one individual like that. Also, by the end of Sunday we had a lot of people
reschedule with us and new lessons set up. This next week looks like its going
to be great.
Bullets!
- Sundays: Wake up, pray, eat, get ready, 8-9 personal study. 9-10 Branch presidency meeting (Which is just the senior companionship (Elder Herd is Branch Pres.) and us 4 missionaries). 10-11 is Branch council (Us 6 missionaries and 3 or 4 branch members). 11-12 Sacrament, 12-1 is the sencond and final hour of church. Since there are only 30 or so members we only do 2 hours of church and switch off everyweek doing sunday school or Priesthood/Relief Society/YM/YW.
- We are a branch and branches are part of a district, not a stake. We actually have a district conference in Miskolc this next Sunday, its like a stake conference.
- My understanding is Hungarian dont really celebrate halloween but us missionaries normally make a branch activity night out of it.
- Yes I can and do get fresh fruits and vegtables. Peas, carrots, apples, all that good stuff. :)
- We use cell phones, one per companionship, but as far as technology goes, nothing else except computers for emailing and stuff like that.
- Neat fact: In Hungary street signs with street names on them are super rare. Instead the name of the street is on the building at the corner of the street. It makes finding streets not the easiest thing ever but I think its a way neat cultural thing.
- Food fact: Tejföl. LOVE TEJFÖL. This stuff is different than anything in America, the best way to describe it is its like sour cream, but not, and way better. If you can find any at home let me know. Also, it is possible to find BBQ sauce in normal stores. I bought some last week.
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