Awesome transfers, because me and Elder Shuck get to stay together here in Szolnok for another transfer! Additionally, 10 or so missionaries are dying (going home) this transfer. We are getting a bunch of new missionaries next transfer but this transfer none, because of this, the other Elder companionship here in Szolnok is getting temporarily shut down. SO, Elder Shuck and I are inheriting all of the other companionship's investigators, which is way awesome.
This last week was virtue. Well, to be perfectly honest, I didnt focus to much on virtue. Virtue is awesome and super important, but I honestly didnt study it like I could have. Instead, I learned a lot about repentance. I found it in Mosiah Ch. 4:2-3. Just 2 verses, but I read those 2 and thought about them, and talked about them a lot. Its awesome to me how much meaning can come from the scriptures when we really study them and when we come to love them and know the story and people. I encourage you all to read these verses.
I had an incredible opportunity to get to attend a baptism this last weekend for Sipós Gyúla. I wish you all could have seen him and his wife and felt the spirit there. It really was a special feeling being there, an Istentöl érzés as I would say in Hungarian (feeling from God). The wife was so excited, so incredibley excited and more than that, happy and I would say filled with joy. The family members had slowly joined the church, to my knowledge, one at a time, as they each gained individual testimonies, he is the 8th in the family to get baptized, I believe his grandson was the first one years ago that got baptized. He was not baptized when his wife was, to my understanding, because he didnt yet know for himself that this was the restored church. It was such a happy and awesome occation, tons of Branch members were present, it was great. Thinking of this, here is a related verse:
Mos. 3:17 "And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."
While standing there at the font I had the thought come to me "Ezert itt vagyok." Which is embarasing because its gramatically incorect in Hungarian, the gramatically correct form "Ezert vagyok itt" would mean, "this is why I am here."
It has taken a few weeks but I really have come to love Szolnok so much. There are so many great branch members and Elder Shuck and I have recently been meeting with some awesome people who are investigating. It is so awesome to get to be inheriting a bunch of new investigators because I am so excited to get to meet and really love all these new people.
I want to share an experience, Ill try to keep it short. One specific day a few weeks ago we prayed to know where to go. After tracting in this inspired area for awhile and finding little success we decided to do someting else, stopping part way down the street we were on. Yesterday we tracted into someone who initially told us to come back tomorrow but then re-opened the door and invited us in. After we met for awhile she then called her mother (the grandmother) and the grandmother invited us over, so the son walked with us over and showed us where the (grandmother) lived. The grandmother lived at the end of the street that we stopped half way down a few weeks earlier. I am not sure what would have happened if we had kept going down that street a few weeks ago, neither do I know whether or not the son, mother, or grandmother will ever accept the restored gospel, but what I do believe is that the Lord has prepared specific people to find the gosple and that dispite our weeknesses He directs this work.
I could tell you everything I do in these emails but it wouldnt be enough, to know what my life is like you need to get to meet these peole, talk with them, their lives, who they are, they are so wonderful, and its there lives that I get to be a part of. These people are amazing, I wish you could meet any of them. Yes the work is hard. But its worth it because of the people. I wish you all the best throughout your struggles this next week, despite them all, just remember who you are struggling for.
Sok szeretettel
Elder Shoop
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