November 11th

So, ya. I'm being transferred to Szolnok. Which is way exciting and awesome, but wow, I'm really going to miss Eger. Its what I've come to know here in Hungary. I love the place, I love the people, I love the branch members, the investigators. I think its time to move onto a new adventure though.

This last week has been absolutely, crazilly awesome. Just tons of great work. Continuing to meet with people who are growing closer to Christ, and finding more. Fun stuff. The highlight would probably be Gábor (aka, Teddy Bear man) who decided to follow Christ and be baptized, the date set is Jan. 4th. Its way exciting! He is the first person that I have found that has gotten a baptism date, the other two, Lili, and Dori, were both found before I got here to Eger. Gábor is way cool and has a sweet teddy bear collection, yes its true. In the picture I sent I'm holding my favorite one of his. He actually used to have tons and tons and tons of teddy bears and almost set the Guiness world record for largest teddy bear collection, but then gave away a ton. He's not weird or anything, that might make him sound really strange, but he is a normal person, a way cool normal person who likes teddy bears. And who is also going to get baptized. He said he wants to see faith in Christ and its effects more in his life.

Its so much joy being a missionary. Doing good, and seeing how what we get to teach and do blesses others. I want to quote something from Our Search for Happiness which I have been reading recently."Many of our missionaries begin their missions thinking they are going to repay Heavenly Father for His goodness toward them by serving Him for 18 months or two years." The author then talks about how we can never repay our Heavenly Father and how immensly blessed missionaries and their families are for their service. Which is true, but this quote made me think about something else. How, as a missionary, ya Im serving the Lord, but really, at the bottom of it, I dont view it as serving so much as having the incredible opportunity to get to be a part of all of this. Heavenly Father has given me this awesome opportunity to do all that I am able to be doing, to see how the gospel blesses others. Myself, I cant really help these people. I cant confidently walk into the house of a man whose wife committed suicide. I cant help a couple who seem perfectly happy to find more. I cant help people change their lives for the best, or bless people with peace and true joy. I cant give people eternal answers. But the power of the Holy Ghost and the gospel can, and I get to be an instrument for that. Its a blessing.

2 Ne. 28: 30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." Both parts are really good, I think we hear the first part a lot, but the second part is important too and makes me think of Christ's parable of the talents. 

Just some awesome experiences this last week and I don't have time to say them all, so Ill just say, the Book of Mormon answers our questions.

I'm being transferred to Szolnok! Its way exciting and although I love it here, I kind of feel like its time to move on. I will be serving with Elder Shuck! I have heard a little about Elder Shuck and he honestly sounds way cool, I don't know how, but I guess I keep getting awesome companions. We are actually re-opening a new companionship that had been closed down for a short time, so both of us are new. There is another Elder companionship and a Sis. companionship and senior comp. there already, but both of us in our companionship will be new so it'll be a tough and good challenge for us to kind of start from scratch. I hear the branch in Szolnok is way cool though and its actually 3 hours long and to my understanding in the process of trying to turn into a ward.

Puttonék are doing great. And Lili's baptism is this weekend. Which ya, means I'm gonna miss it. BUT, we can probably get permission from Pres. Smith to visit Eger and see the baptism because Elder Smith served in Eger recently and taught her awhile ago, so that'll be way awesome and exciting.

WHICH brings up an important note. IF we get permission to travel to Eger for the baptism then our PDay will be that day, which would be this Saturday, so there's a chance I will email again this coming Sat. and not get to email next Monday, so if you want me to see your emails email me earlier.

 

Best wishes and love to everyone!

Sok szeretettel!
Elder Shoop

 

November 4th

I'm gonna have to send this in two halves probably, but we'll see how far I get. I sent pictures first because pictures are great. Tons of crazy stuff this last week, most of it was awesome. The big thing was our zone conference (multi zone conference) in Budapest with Elder Teixeira (of the 70) and his wife giving the training.

The conference was absolutely awesome. Going into it I wasn't really sure what to expect except for the fact that I knew Id get to see a bunch of my friends from the MTC during the conference. But, it ended up just completely amazing. 

As missionaries, every day we are supposed to be trying to do the best we can, we study Preach my Gospel, we get trainings during district meetings and zone meetings, we learn a ton from our companions and personal experiences, and we learned a ton in the MTC. I will be honest, I was looking forward to a good spiritually uplifting experience, but I wasn't altogether too certain what all we could be taught outside of what we had already learned concerning missionary work. Now, I really was open to learning whatever they tough us, I just wasn't expecting the awesomeness that it ended up being. 

Leaving the conference I felt spiritually motivated to work with an eye single to Gods glory and I had multiple concrete things that I knew I could do to work on that. I learned a ton. And I had a good time and never felt like falling asleep during the whole conference.

Here is one small thing that I thought was neat. Fleas. Fleas like to jump, in fact all they do is jump. They jump and jump and jump. If you put a flea in a jar and screw the lid shut and then listen very closely, you can hear the flea jump into the top of the jar a few times, and then, silence. The flea has assimilated how high it jumps so that it doesn't run into the top of the lid. It jumps just high enough to barely not hit the lid. Then, if you carefully unscrew the lid, the flea will continue to jump at the same height. The flea is captive inside of an open jar. Don't live below your means! Don't put the jar lid over yourself and tell yourself you're not good enough. And don't ever keep yourself captive inside of an open jar.

On a related note, or unrelated, which ever you like, I read from some more Isaiah chapters in the BOM this week. But Ill talk about those and more stuff after our member present lesson with Lili.

 

Lesson with Lili was awesome! Talked about prophets and scripture reading, Lili is about to finish Mosiah and is flying through the Book of Mormon, way awesome. She also recognizes the spirit in her life, we gave her a blessing and she said she felt the spirit and she also said she feels the spirit when she reads from the Book of Mormon. I think she's gonna be super ready by the 16th for baptism.

Alright, back to where I left off, Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon:

So, I'm reading thru the BoM right now and I'm in the latter part of 2Ne where its still Isaiah chapters. Not gonna lie, I think there is some stuff that is hard to get/understand. But, I think I've still been able to gain a lot. One thing I noticed in the past few chapters I read, it repeatedly and repeatedly says "but his hand is stretched out still."

These Isaiah chapters are, to my understanding, speaking to the covenant people, the house of Israel (which we should remember also applies to us). At this time the people had been saved so many times by God, going back to when they were freed from Egypt, through many wars and much time. The people had continually been blessed and then after time ceased following Christ. Yet, always, His hand is stretched out. 

Throughout our whole lives, Christ will be there with us. Waiting patiently for us. He is always there with His hand outstretched. Whether it be through times of extreme grief and pain, of times of disbelief and doubt, for us or for other. Christ suffered for us, He just asks that we follow him and take his Hand and let Him guide us through this life.

I have had the opportunity recently to experience some incredible things. Its scary really, how real Satan is and how much he can influence. But, the important thing to know is that if we reach out to Christ he will lift us through it all.

In Hungary they celebrate Day of the Dead on the 1st of November. Its a really reverent and respectful thing, not like Halloween. Everyone goes to graves at night and lights candles on the grave stones and puts tons of flowers on them, its super impressive. But, as missionaries we had a rough day. Ended up with 7.5 hrs of finding time, not one lesson, just finding. I think that might be my first day like that so far on my mission. But we did work and pushed through and by the end of the week we had 7 new awesome investigators (This in a week where we were gone all day one day for zone conference and another day was Day of the Dead, and another day we spent a few hours at the Branch halloween party).

Another way awesome thing, there is a recent convert family here called the Puttonék. They're super awesome and we love visiting with them, they call me Snoopy. My whole 3 months here in Eger have been spent trying to get them to come back to church because they were offended pretty soon after they were baptized and quit coming to church. Well, Yesterday, for my first time in Eger, the Puttonék came to church! It was way awesome and exciting for them because they have a goal to go to the temple. They plan on continuing going to church, way awesome.

As you can see in the pictures, the branch halloween party was way awesome.

Quick note, running low on time, sorry. Next week I will be emailing on Tuesday because we have transfers next wednesday. I hope I'm not leaving Eger.

I think of all of you and appreciate all of your support.

Much love

Elder Shoop

 

October 28th

Lots of exciting news this week. Hopefully I will be able to remember it all. Its just fun. Fun times. Exciting work. Fulfilling work. Work that really brings true joy and also lots of good times.

Yesterday I felt like I should start reading Our Search for Happiness. I haven't finished it yet, but its a good book and I would encourage others to read it. Anyways, while reading it I came across Hel. 5:12 quoted in it. Here it is "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they can not fall."

Wow, its a long verse. But, its a powerful one too. I believe I found that verse for a reason, because we ended up using it in both of the lessons we had yesterday. One being with the man whose wife committed suicide, and one with the less active member we found who I also told you about last week.

I think all that I could say about that verse is clearly stated in it. Who doesn't feel like at times in our lives we have mighty winds, shafts in the whirlwind, hail, and a mighty storm beating against us? Physically and spiritually. I know we all experience times like that. But the question isn't if hard things will come our way, but how we endure it.

And the truth is, a lot of these things we cant endure by ourselves. We need something, someone to carry us through it. And that rock is Christ. If we rely and build ourselves on the foundation of Christ, we can endure the crosses of the world and find true joy not only in this life but also in the life to come. I am so greatful that I have had the opportunity to carry this message of hope to others.

Jumping to a new subject, Dori! I mentioned Dori awhile ago and that we had hope she would decide to be baptized, well, good news, this last week Dori decided to prepare to be baptized on Dec. 28! Its super exciting, and Lilis baptism is coming up on Nov. 16. There is so much for people new to the gospel and church to learn, but Lili has a powerful testimony and has been doing awesome. Recently her son has started to come to church too. We hope he will be baptized too, but it probably wont be when Lili is. Members present in these lessons have made a huge difference too. Its really incredible how much the members help these people who are new to the gospel, they play a very vital role. After Dori commited to baptism our member who was present for the lesson (Kata, who is the relief society president and an incredibly amazing person) said a powerful prayer which was very powerful and touching to Dori.

More exciting news, 4 branches were moved into the Hungary stake. They weren't created but moved from being independent branches to being in the stake. It's a confusing concept I think, and maybe someone at home can explain it to others who might not. But anyways, apparently what it means is that Hungary is getting close (possibly very close) to creating a second stake!

I'm not just saying it because I'm a missionary and because I like this work. The work really is being hastened. The other day a few of us missionaries were discussing about how progress was going around the mission. We realized piece by piece that its not just Eger, but all of Hungary that is experiencing a surge of success and growing interest in the Church and in following Christ. It started out with all of us just casually talking about stuff but it turned into a powerful moment when we realized what it was.

I also performed surgery this last week! I don't think I could be a doctor one day, the surgery wasn't a success, pictures and explanation coming later.

On an unrelated note, we also visited the mental hospital again. We got to visit with a member there, it was my second time. Its always a neat experience. She is so kind and loves to read hymns so we sing some for her.

Sacrament was great, my companionship had 4 investigators which was awesome. After sacrament a member pulled me aside and asked me to translate a story for her to our senior sister missionaries, Sis. Herd. I was worried at first and almost got one of the more experience missionaries like I have done so many times before. But I decided to try and was super excited because I was actually able to translate for her! Progress! And also, what she said was very special and neat, to respect her experience I'm not going to write it, but I felt the spirit strongly as I translated the experience for her.

This next week we are having a huge branch halloween party on the 30th, from 4 until like 7 or 8. Its gonna be awesome a really cool sister in the branch (Sis. Piroska, or in English Sis. Red) was in charge of organizing it. I think we are going to be carving pumpkins with candy and music and costumes, it'll be way good. There is also a big missionary meeting in Budapest this week on Thursday.

I'm gonna send some pictures, sorry no time today to email anyone individually, but I appreciate all the messages.

Much love

Elder Shoop