April 8th, 2014

Crazy, it seems like just yesterday it was last conference in like Nov. I had had C Dif. and conference was the first thing I could go to outside of my appartment after getting sick. Anyways, awesome week! Loved conference!

So one thing I did this conference was try to get revelation for a specific talk to refer to each of my siblings and parents. So im gonna try to email each of you so this might be shorter, Im also a bit crunched on time today sorry.

Anyways awesome week. Wow, is Szeged gorgeous. So many flowers and such. Our focus of the week for me and E. Giacalone was member presents. We had a bunch last week. Wow there are so many awesome members here.

Im gonna tell you all about some of them.

Dio. Super cool, gives us free hair cuts, super good hair cutter, owns a hair shop, Ive totally forgotten what those are called in english. Anyways, both her parents are out of the picture, alcoholics. Converted and has no family in her life, served a mission in Finland, has stomach problems but is super happy and loves how the gospel helps us be happy, super strong testimony and helped us talk to Atti about baptism in our last lesson with him. Super awesome. Super funny, when she very first started investigating she somehow got ahold of a Sunday School manual. she got a friend and together drank a keg of beer while reading the manual to learn more about the church. Well, shes changed a lot. Says this is a new life.

Eveline. Went to a program with Ákos, super awesome help. She had to change a lot in her life in order to become a member too. Not going to go into details but she had a huge difficulty, its incredible what these people have done to change their lives, and how much happier they are for it. How much they dont regret it at all.

Szücs Elnök (branch president): Branch president is a 27 year old single guy. HEY EVERYBODY, go read April 2013 Ensign or Liahona. Or search "Hungary Szeged" at lds.org. There is an article about him in there. Youll read it and be amazed, its totally true. He is one of the most amazing people I have met, very, very humble. He never talks about Kiayaking, ever. He is a great example.

Viki: Potentially the nicest person in the world. Not kidding. Great help with Bernadette.

Toth Zoltán: Potentially the perfect YM president. Also single  and like 30, but dating someone investigating with a bap date. Just great, great man, knows how talk to other people. We took him to a really challenging program and he was just awesome, didnt even skip a beat.

Ok, Mom said she wants an update on Abraham and Bernadette, so heres some info on investigators:

Abraham. The American guy at med school. actually has tests every day this week so were not meeting this week, but called him yesterday to say hi and wish him best on his tests. He appreciated the call and said the night before he hadnt gone to sleep studying, intense.

Bernadette: Super awesome lesson. It had actually be a rougher day and the lessons just really brought the Spirit. we were teaching teh Restoration with Viki. It was really nice, I know I appreaciated the lesson, I hope she did too. Were going to teach her again in a few minutes!

Spencer: The other American, I think it went really well, we talked about BOM and prayer answered some questions.

running short on time. We table alot at the széchény tér, a gorgeous square with Tons of flowers and statues and just awesome, I love it, tons of people but not too many. i love Szeged.

Well Im emailing all of you siblings the talk I thought of for you. But another quick one, check out Alma 30. I believe that God exists and that Christ is our Savior, I get to see its true everyday, and feel it when I pray and here from the prophet.

My love from Szeged, keep it up!

Sok szeretettel!
Elder Shoop

March 31st, 2014

Well, hey, it was seriously an awesome week for us over here in Szeged. Im really excited to tell you all about it. But first, everyone say hi to the new person on the email list, my old companion who recently finished his mission, (Elder) Blake Magda!

Everyone: Hi Blake!

Blake: Hi!

Cool. Its really wierd calling him Blake. He was such a good companion, we had a lot of good times together in Eger.

Vital importance is having a testimony. Is this all true or not? I really believe it is, thats how I can teach people about the gospel and bear testimony of it, because I really have a testimony that it is true. That we have a God, that He is our Heavenly Father, that He hears our Prayer, that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, and that the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in these days through Joseph Smith.

Something that Matthew, Máté, was asking a lot about this last week was how we can know. How do I know, how does Elder Giacalone know, how can he know, what is true? I found 1 Ne. 15:11

"Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said? -If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believeing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." We need to be open to getting an answer and changing based on that, we need to believe we can get an answer, and we need to follow His commandments. If we do these things our Heavenly Father will help us know the truth. Sounds simple, and it is, but sometimes those things are hard.

Hey, conference is coming up! Im super excited, hopefully this time around I will understand a lot more. With that, as of tomorrow, with summer on its way, we dont need to wear our suit coats everyday, just Sundays. Its been super nice and sunny here recently, super awesome. 

Anyways so Elder Giacalone and me had an incredible week. Writing a miracle of the day wasnt challening, one day I wrote 5 and probably couldve kept going for a bit. So, it was a super fun week. Thats what Ive found during my mission, the funnest weeks are the weeks we work the hardest and get the most good work done. Its an awesome work so its super fun being part of it.

There are 2 bridges here, one of which we now call the miracle bridge. I think we have found a totall of like 10 people who were open to meeting and gave us their numbers by streeting on the bridge. One night we decided to try it out after doing a ton of finding all day with little success. Going accross and back we found 4 people, the next day we went for it again and got another 5. Super intence. Its right next to a college so theyre all like college students, super cool.

Story time! Girl named Bernadette lived in Szolnok while Elder Giacalone served in Szolnok. She met with the missionaries in Szolnok (including Elder Giacalone) but when her Mom died she moved to Szeged and lost contact with the missionaries. Jump forward like 6 months, boom! Elder Giacalone comes to Szeged, knows about here, gets her number, sets up with her, and now she is one of our new investigators. Super awesome. Apparently in Szolnok she was very interested and almost had a baptism date.

Next, also concerning Elder Giacalone. He found someone from America named Spencer while serving in Kecskemét, but never met with her because she lives in...yep you guessed it, Szeged. Streeting on the miracle bridge, boom, guess who we found? Spencer. Awesome.

Next, Abraham, this time Im in the story. Talked to him tabling awhile ago before Elder Giacalone was here. He is also from America, "Jersey", studying at Szeged university. Szeged University, by the way, is a very good university, and a well known medical university, the man that discovered the properties of Calcium C went there and so like the medical department is named after him, they have a really nice library. Anyways, back to Abraham, studying to be a pharmasist. Born in Egypt I think, his family is definitely from Egypt. Served in the USA army in Afganastan, now his family like deserted him or something, he moved to Hungary and is studying. Used to be Christian, 2 years ago decided to stop believing, recnetly realized that its true or something and recently started looking for God again in his life. Thats when he ran into us tabling.  He asked us for an English Bible, which I would have gladly given him, but we dont have any english bibles I could have given him.

So fast forward to Thursday, coming off of the miracle bridge, guess who we run into? Yep, Abraham. We set up and met with him on Saturday. I dont know how, but we somehow had some English copies of the Book of Mormon here and we gave him one, he said hed read from it and took it greatfully. He said that we made his day and really I think felt that God wanted us to meet. Super awesome.

I could keep going all day :) Next: Viktor. Super aweosme guy. Seriously really neet. Actually from Serbia. Quick history story!

Hungary used to be really really big, after being on the losing side of both world war 1 and 2, now its about a third of what it used to be. From this, there are some cities in different countries that are still very Hungarian, cities where lots of people speak Hungarian. Viktor comes from one of these cities, and is very Hungarian. Viktor actually considers people like himself more Hungarian than people born in Hungary, because he has to choose to be Hungarian, whereas Hungarians are just born Hungarian.

Anyways back to Viktor. Hes like 30 and taught us a lot about history and Hungary and such. Speaks really good English in addition to fluent Serbian and Hungarian, and I think another language. He seems to be very interested in our church and wants to learn more about it.

Next, Jakab Szilardné. After like an hour and a half of tracting with little success we decided to street our way back to the branch house because we had a lesson we were going to or something, I dont remember. Anyways, so like the first person I spot is this lady. Super awesome! She had heard about us, and before we could offer asked us if we met with people and taught about our church. Yep, we do that :)

Tibor! Also a super cool new person. Younger guy, probably like 20ish. Doesnt really believe in anything right now but seems very open and I think he is searching for something in his life right now, answers or something. We asked if we could do anything to help after the program and he said something like, that if he finds out this is true it will help, or something.

It was Elder Giacalone's birthday too! I got him a dohnut and put a candle in it for his birthday in the morning, then made Hungarian pancakes. Went to BurgerKing for lunch, and then threw a surprise party with the 6 of us missionaries at night during our dinner hour. I told him it was a program we were going to and the others brought a cake and stuff. God provided lots of cool miracles to make it a sweet day. (Sweet, get it, cake, donuts, sweet day, wow, my sense of humor)

Anyways, it was just an awesome week. Busy, but good and spiritual. It is so neet to see this gospel make a difference in many lives. We also met with other people I didnt talk about. Atti (the one that recorded the guitar video) is doing aweome, met with him twice and his girl friend once, they are just super awesome people, very good spiritual lessons too.

So ya, thats me in a nut shell this week. It was great. Hope you all are aweome, thanks for any emails, your support, prayers, and love.

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

March 24th, 2014

So I had an experience this week that has had me thinking a lot about humility. Its vital for us to always try to become more Christ like, if we arent humble then we wont be willing to make the changes we need to. Sometimes we learn from positive experiences, this is an experience where my  imperfectness helped me realize I need to be more humble. Some good quotes from Preach My Gospel 

"When you humbly trust Him and acknowledge His power and mercy, you can have the assurance that His commandments are for your good. You are confident that you can do whatever the Lord requires of you if you rely on Him. You are also willing to trust His chosen servant and follow their counsel."

"To be prideful means to put greater trust in oneself than in God or in His servants. It also means to put the things of the world above the things of God."

So why do I spend time in my emails writing a spiritual thought or two? Because generally the spiritual thoughts in my emails have a place in my week. They were a part of my week and helped me in the week and so maybe they can help you all with your week.

So back to the pictures and video Mom said you all enjoyed them, Im glad to hear it :) One thing I want to comment on is the seriousness, they arent completely serious are they. And I think in part thats good, hopefully there was some more normal serious pictures, but in gernall some of the pics (and the video) sent home have been somewhat goofy. Please dont let that take away from what this work is. I really am sorry though if any of you feel that any of them are too un-serious.

I can testify that this work really is lead by God. That his Holy Spirit leads and directs this work, that  a member of the Godhead truly does guide us and give us direction. Just a few days ago we had a lesson with a man named Zoltán. Super cool story about how we found him. We were streeting our way back to the branch house and had just reached the path to the branch house from the road. We were about to head down it when I noticed a couple just a little bit past the path, just a bit in front of us. I told my companion (Elder Cutler at the time) that I wanted to pass the path and street them. They were super cool, and like I already said, we ended up meeting with one of them a few days ago.

And stuff like that is an every day thing, every day miracles happen, I recently started to write a miracle of the day in my journal every day, its so neat seeing the hand of God in this work and in my life. How much He really does love us. 

So we had transfers this last week! Exciting stuff, unfortunately Im not serving with Elder Cutler any more, fortunately Im serving with Elder Giacalone! Im just super glad I get to stay in Szeged. Apparently Pres. Smith sent an email about being senior companion, Mom asked about that since Elder Giacalone is older than me. Well, hes a senior companion too, we are "co-seniors." In this mission if two missionaries who have been out almost the same time serve together they are considered co-senior even if one is a little bit older. So we are coseniors, and Elder Giacalone speaks better than me so he is a big help and a very awesome companion, he is also the District leader. He is also a super fun companion and works very hard and is very willing to be obedient which I love. Thats what I love.

Honestly, as a missionary I have no idea how to do this work the best. We have the book "Preach  My Gospel" and thats what we are doing, preaching His gospel. And if its His gospel He for sure knows how to preach it the best. If I am obedient to the things He has asked me to do then I can be open to recieve His inspiration for how to best bless His children. So whether Im tracting, streeting, tabling, teaching a lesson, at church, or wherever I can find who He has prepared.

Thats one thing Ive found. I can work all day long, all week long, all transfer, but if Im just doing it to do it, if I just want to get a few working hours in its not going to do much. But If I do it with faith and with real intent this work progresses, and maybe not in the way I thought.

I dont think Ive said it recently. I love this work. I love getting to be a part of it, and I love this gospel. Its such a blessing to get to be a missionary. Its not easy. If its easy than Im doing something wrong. Its hard, but its supposed to be hard because this is the work of the salvation of  Souls and its worth hard work. Ive had some of the most challenging times, but also some of the best.

We got to go to Budapest for transfers, super fun. Train rides are pretty normal to me now, super cool, I love trains. I remember when the nephews were younger they loved Thomas the Train, dont be surprized if when I get home in about a year I get out their old train toys and start playing with them :) Except the 4 hour delay on the train, that was an adventure. Apparently there was a break in the track or an accident or something, I never found out all the details, but we did just barely miss the earlier train by a few minutes and we missed it because of a silly mistake we made getting to the station that I still dont know how we made. So I dont know if there was a problem with the earlier train or something but maybe we were protected from getting on it or something.

Anyways wow, I forgot to mention at the end of last transer, so  last week a cool member named Géza had us over. Amongst missionaries Szeged is known partially for Gézas meals he feeds us at the end of the transfer. It was a real, super good, super delicious, Hungarian feast. First the soups. First dish was a delicious soup with pork, noodles, orange and white carrots, maybe other stuff, super good.Next dish was fruit soup! Fruit soup is an incredible Hungarian dish, Ive had it before but this was by far the best. Everyone just wants to keep eating this stuff all day long. Next dish is delicous baked tender chicken with mash potatoes, then then king of the meal is the last dish, pörkult. Just the most amazing Hungarian dish, super super good, I dont even know how to describe it. There are lots of Hungarian things about eating and what to do, but in general the main rule of thumb is to just eat as much as you can to show that you love it.

Well I should get going but I hope you all have a great week. Keep smiling and keep being awesome! Thanks like always for the love, thoughts and prayers, right back at you!

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

March 18th, 2014

Transfers! Excitement! Guess what! Im staying in Szeged! Im super happy about it too, I love this city and the people so much! But, Elder Cutler is going :( Fortunately, Elder Giacolne is coming! I loved getting to learn from Elder Cutler, he is a great missionary who helped show me the importance of really loving the people. Elder Giacolne was in the MTC with me! He wasnt in my MTC district, but instead is 6 weeks ahead of me, so I got to know him for my first 3 weeks (his last 3 weeks) in the MTC. He is seriously a super aweome missionary and we have a lot in common, itll be super great getting to serve with him. Its also a sign that Im getting older! How long have I been here? I dont know, but alot longer than it feels like, either way, my future companion has only been been here 6 more weeks than me, alright Hungarian language, here we go. Oh  ya! and Elder Magda leaves tomorrow! I loved serving with him and he will always be a great friend.

I honestly dont have my english scriptures with me right now, I could quote stuff from Hungarian scriptures but that would only make sence to two people on this email list. We talked about faith and about repentance with Tekla this week (see below) for repentance we talked about the experience of King Lamoni's father, the king of all the Lamanites. After learning about God and the plan of happiness, he said he was willing to give all he had to know the truth of these things, in responce, Aaron said that he needed to give up all his sins. So he prayed to God and offered up all his sins to come to know God. His prayer was answered and became a great force for good among the lamanites. This is what we need to do, be willing to give up all our sins. We need to pray and ask for forgiveness everyday, or atleast I know I do. And I am so greatful for this great opporutinity. See Alma 22, and also Mosiah. 4:9,10,12

Super awesome week. Last Monday night we helped a member move, super fun, it totally reminded me of all the times helping people move back at home. 

 We also met with 2 new people, Attila, and Ákos. Ákos met with the missionaries a while ago we called him up and he wanted to meet again. Super cool guy, 22 years old, really really good guitarist. Attila went to jail awhile ago but since has been changed by faith in Jesus Christ, really cool man.

Also met more with Tekla, Atti's girlfriend (not the Attila above, a different one, the one with guages Ive talked about before). Theyre going to send some pictures and maybe a video to Mom, between meeting with the two of them we spend a lot of time with them. Tekla is doing awesome and reads a lot from the Book of Mormon, Atti comes to church every week.

Thursday we went to Budapest for a conference! It was super fun and really inspiring. Elder and Sister Dyches visited our mission and spoke to us, in addition to our Budapest stake stake President (a Hungarian) and Pres. and Sis. Smith. It was very uplifting, I always enjoy these conferences where I honestly get to get a lot of great direction and insipiration. Love Budapest too.

We watched a great bible video, I think called, Even so have ye done it unto me, or something like that, I strongly suggest everyone watch it, maybe if someone sent a link to it for everyone or something.

Friday, Mexican Night! Wow, what a party! Like 70 people were there. About 30 id say werent members, it was temple night (we didnt know that when we planned it) so that probably took some members away from it, but awesome turn out! Us 6 missionaries pretty much planned and did most of it, with some very great and appreciated help from branch members. I got some great pictures hopefully youll get them soon. We had burritos (took forever to cook tortillas and meat/beans for everyone), spiritual thought, mustache face painting, doughnut eating contest (Homemade hungarian doughnuts), two pinatas (hand made by us missionaries), dance instructions by a member whos a dancer, musical chairs, limbo, dance at the end. It was super fun! Robi and Miriam came with their baby (who turns 1 today!) and Atti came too. Great party, great turn out.

But maybe my favorite part of that day wasnt the party. We also met with Nandor (depressed and diabetic) before the party during the day. He had read around 100 pages from the BoM in a week! He had an allergic reaction to meds and was upset about that and has an opportation comming up hes worried about. But, I really think I can tell he is changing with this gospel. As we left and were saying goodbye we saw him smile. That was the favorite piont of the day perhaps. Seeing Nándor smile, stuff like that I hope I always remember and makes everything all worth it.

Thank you all for your love and support, I hope you all know it comes right back at you. Love you all, keep smiling!

Elder Shoop

March 10th, 2014

So after a long email to Mom and Dad very little time left for this, Ill try to write fast on this terrible kyeyboard.

First, spiritual though! Alma and the sons of mosiah, alma stayed in nephi land and got put in prison and escaped with the power of God destroying the prison. Sons of Mosiah, went to Lamanite land. Many of the sons of mosiah were stuck in prison but were saved by Ammon with king lamoni. Whats the difference? Is Almas story better or more miracle related because God caused the prison to crumble? No. With the sons of Mosiah there was no prison crashing, but think about all the miracles that happened so that Ammon and Lamoni would free them, theres tons of them. Sometimes in life we are blessed by God in ways that can be seen as natural, but are instead great miracles.

Who to talk about first? Máté. Hadnt met with him in a few weeks, actually since talking to him about baptism. Well we met and it was an awesome program, we really talked about him and where he is at, what he believes, and what he can do to get the faith that he sees in the members of the branch here. It was great.

Party! We are planning a huge branch party, a Mexican night, with games and burritos and all that good stuff. Expecting tons of non members, itll be awesome, itll be this week.

Hajdu Zoltan. His kids were sick with chicken pox, but we met at his "garden" a small piece of land they own they bought because they live in an appartment like most people. Anyways he said he has seen how the gosple is a blessing in his life and that he wasnt to see it bless his families life, that he wasnts his kids to grow up living according to the gospel.

Ill talk about our english class a bit. There are 3 levels, beginner, intermed, and pro. I teach the intermed. class right now with another missionary. For this calss we start with a few questions to get the class talking and practicing english, many people arent too bad but just shy about using the enlish they know. After that we teach a more challengig, advanced grammar principe, sometimes we have time for a game and we always close with a like 5 min spiritual though. I taught beg. in Eger and Szolnok and for that there is a 10 week program that goes through basic English grammar very well in 10 weeks, in pro its just chatting in english pretty much so fluent people can practice with native speakers.

I also had a really cool experience this week that again showed me how much our Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers and does help us and answer them. 

Sorry its shorter but Mom and Dad come first, have a great week everyone! Much love to you all, I think of you often and pray for you.

Elder Shoop

March 3rd, 2014

Happy March! Wow isnt it fun how fast time goes by? I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful week. My week was was very exciting plus, I wasnt sick! Thats always a good thing.

My spiritual though for today comes from 3 Ne. chapter 14. I hope none of you just skip the spiritual thought part of my letters. Then my letter would be holey! Hahaha, get it, holey, holy, oh I know Im not funny, oh well. :) 

So its verses 7-14 in chapter 14, go read it! Awesome verses from Christ talking to the people. Anyways, wow its powerful stuff. A lot of people reading this letter are parents. If one of your kids asked you for bread would you give them bread? Or instead a stone? Ya, probably bread. Its just like that with Heavenly Father.

Which brings up another great point, He is indead our Heavenly Father. He is not some mysterious being, he is our Father, all knowing, all powerful. He knows us each, individually, and by name, and loves each of us. Maybe this sounds basic but its so important, I could study about it every day and not know enough. Our Heavenly Father wants to help us get on and stay on the straight and narrow path. He will if we try.

During fast testimony meeting in church this last week, many of the testimonies in my branch were simple but powerful testimonies that God truly does exist and knows us, loves us and wants to help us. It was so fitting I thought because Hajdu Zoltan was there for the first time in probably years.

Im super excited and happy for Zoltan, married with 3 kids, he stopped going to church a few years ago, and recently realized that his life was happier when he was an active member. We have met twice and he is an awesome man, I dont think the rest of his family are members but maybe they will desire to join as well in the future when they see the difference it makes in Zoltans life. He also says that he has had some neat experiences with prayer.

Illona and Csilla were found! We lost contact with them when they missed a program and we didnt have their address or phone number. Well they showed up at the church this last week and our branch pres was there and set up a program for us. Yay! Im really happy about that. We watched the restoration film and I think it really helped the Mom, Illona, I think she really felt the Spirit watching it. After she said that it was true, super cool. The Lord is doing this work, we just get to be his instruments.

Robi and Miriam! Super cool couple we found like 2 weeks ago. Robi is super fun, like 28 and just a fun guy. He is part of a minority here that gets treated poorly, I feel bad for him, its rough to find work I think as this minority. But super fun, cool couple, said they wanted to meet every week I think. Tought them the plan of salvation. They love dogs and have some like world class dogs, showed us some books with picuters of their dogs in them. Super small appartment though. Small kitchen, small bathroom, and then one room for everything else. They have an 11 month old baby too.

I havent talked too much about English class, we teach english once a week for the community for free, there are 3 classes (levels) and like 45 people come in total. There are 4 like 17 or 18 year old girls in the class I teach and they wanted to meet so they set up. We were figuring they maybe just wanted to chat in english or something, but they all seemed really interested and when we asked they said that they really just wanted to learn more about our church. One asked an awesome question, if in the bible angles and God appeared to people why doesnt it happen anymore today? Great quesiton and they really all seemed very interested inthe restoration lesson we taught.

We met with Nora again and taught the plan of salvation it went well, but I thought the cool part was that she prayed at the end! It was super cool and I thought a special moment.

We have a new branch misison president, Robi, he is great and really wants to do a good job, really dedicated great guy. He has only been a member for like a year or so now.

We also continued to meet with Atti, and met with his girl friend a few times too. That is going well, they both seemed to like 2 Ne chapter 2 which we read together and talked about.

We are looking forward to having lots of lessons this next week, it should be super fun. 

Also, I went on splits with one of the zone leaders, Elder Bebel. Super awesome missionary. He taught me a ton about how to be natural as a missionary and to be an obedient missionary while at the same time being an individual of a missionary and how to apply my personality and who I am to missionary work to make it flow better and be more natural, realy cool.

I hope you all are looking for opportunities to be misisonaries in your lives. There have been some cool experiences in my branch recently I think, where someone prayed for a missionary opportunity and then it came. 

I love you all and appreciate all of your support and prayers and hope you know I pray for you as well. If there is anything any of you would like me to write about or answer in my letters just let me know. I love Hungary and the culture and everything so much, its such an incredible place!

Have a wonderful week,

Sok seretettel!

Elder Shoop

Feb. 24, 2014

Hello! I hope everyone had a super week, Im sure it was great. Here in Szeged I was sick, oh well, hey, Im better now! And we still got to have a great week and experience the power of the work going on.

As always, a thought to start it all off: Alma 13:13 "And now, my brethren, I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest."

I dont know about all of you, but when I hear the words "fruit meet for repentance" I think 'Apple, Steak, Repentace.' So right off the bat it doesnt really work in my brain. Bible dictionary to the rescue! Meet: "Fitting, proper, qualified, suitable." We need to humble ourselves and act in such a way that the results of our actions are fitting to one who is repentant. I think that is a good question to live by, are the fruits of my actions suitable to repentance?

Guess who we met with this week? Guess, Guess, guess???

No guesses? Well, fine then. Probably none of you know him anyways :)

Hajdu Zoltan! Awesome guy,awesome family. We got a call from Szolnok Elders a few weeks ago and they gave us some info for a member whos records are in Szolnok but who lives here in Szeged. We actually didnt know what door he was in the building so we tracted through the building and found him. He set up and when we went for the appt. he didnt answer. We were pretty bummed but he called later and said he thought it was the next week (which was this last week).

So, this last Saturday we went over and they were waiting for us! It was super great, we shared a thought about scirpture study and read from Alma 37, how just like the Liahona guided Lehi and his family through the wilderness, the scriptures can guide us in our life. Afterwards, he told us that he realized that when he was active was when he was happiest in his life. His wife isnt a member but she listened in with us. During the program their fun kids were playing with us too, 3 year old twins and a 1.5 year old, super fun, really nice kids. After the program he drove us over to the branch soccer activity and played soccer with us. Sunday he was out of town but he said next week hed go to church.

Mission President came to Szeged this last Thursday and had interviews with Elder Cutler and myself. Just normal interviews we arent in trouble or anything :) It was really good and I got some good counsel and insight.

We had something super awesome happen yesterday. Monika was someone we met with awhile ago just once. She seemed super interested and we thought it was a good program, but she dogged the next program and we couldnt get ahold of her. We finally got a hold of her yesterday,turns out she was sick and re set up with us to meet this week!

We met with a neat older man last week, Dr. Laszlo. He is actually a successful tennis teacher and invited us to give us a free tennis lesson if we talked to him in English during the lesson.So we set up with him to do it this Pday, it should be way fun. My comp went to state in tennis in high school so he is pretty excited, itll be cool.

We found a neat couple, named Robi and Mariam. Mariam works at a hospital and invited us to go do service there some time. They have an almost 1 yr.old son. They also have 2 world class  dogs, but live in one of the smallest appartments Ive seen. Neat couple, gladly invited us back, I think the wife is pretty interested in our message.

We also had a branch going away party for one of the members here going on a mission. He used to be the branch mission pres.cool guy,well miss him. He left to go to England, I dont remember exactly which mission. We will be a great missionary.

Fun note: We dont really use dish washers or clothes dryers here in Hungary. Some of the wealthier or more modern places might have one or both of those but Id say most dont. BUT, I happen to have currently one of the 2 or 3 appartments that has a clothes dryer, super nice.

Please email me any questions or if you want to know anything about Hungary or investigators or anything. 

I hope you all have an awesome week,

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

February 18th, 2014

It just feels really strange to be saying that I am staying in Szeged, because it feels like just recently I got here. But, wow, its already been over a month and Szeged feels like a home away from my home away from home. Well, its been an awesome week so Ill get to the details.

First off, a quote, Im reading in Alma right now, Heres a part of chapter 12:37: 

"but let us enter into the rest of God, which is prepared according to his word."

So how do we do that, how do we enter into the rest of God? He says it earlier in the same verse:

"And now, my brethren, seeing we know these things, and they are true, let us repent, and harden not our hearts,..."

We need to change for the better (repent) and be humble to the will of God(harden not our hears). I really love this verse because as I was reading it more slowly in Hungarian, what caught my attention was that he switches how he talks. In the previous verses, Alma is talking to the people, for example, "I say unto you." He is talking directly to the people, at the people. But in this last verse of the chapter, he switches it and instead of saying, 'but you should enter into the rest of God' he uses the words "let us." Its an invitation, and he recognizes his own imperfection as a prophet in the midst of these people who have been very rude to him, accusing him, spiting at him, and after this, try to kill him. So, how I see it, he says to these people, I, like you am unperfect. Let us walk this road together. It is simple, and His burnden is light. Yes there will be strugles and adversity along the way, but it will be worth it, for the rest of God is the light of Eternal Life.

Last Monday we met for a second time with someone named Orsi. We found her tracting and she was very open and interested to learn more. She asked some great questions and it was a good program. We invited her, and she came to church this last Sunday! It was really cool, we actually dont have a future lesson planned with her, but hopefully in future she will want to meet and keep learning.

Atti and Máté also came to church as normal. In my time in Hungary it has been unusuall if we dont have any investigator in church with us, here in Szeged all 3 companionships have atleast a few normally. Out of the like 70 or so people in church every week its not unusual for like 15 or so to be investigators. Super fun.

Talking about Máté, guess what? He has chosen April 12 as a day to work toward baptism! We are very happy for him and what he has been able to gain from this gospel. As far as his health goes he is feeling a little bit better too. It was a really neat program where we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. A local member here who actually served a mission here in Hungary (as a native Hungarian) a few years ago was present and a huge help.

I got a hair cut. And the day after that a member here offered free hair cuts. She is super awesome a recent return missionary from Finland. She went to the MTC in Provo hardly speaking any English, not really understanding anything, and tried to learn Finnish while being taught in English, which she was also trying to learn because she didnt speak English. Super incredible. She now speaks Hungarian, Finnish, and English. She was also sick for a good month or so during her mission.

We met with our friend Nándor again who is the one that is depressed and diabetic. He is actually doing much better and was much more gospel oriented when we talked and met with him.

Tamás! We met Tamás on the street a few weeks ago and got his phone number. I think we tried to contact him then and it didnt work or something. Last Sunday I was going through our numbers and saw his and figured I would try it again. I almost didnt because it was from so long ago, but I figured I could try. He set up! He said we would meet infront of a big, gorgeous Catholic building here. Well we showed up, and after almost 20 minutes gave up and left. But he called us after another 10 and said he was just running late. So we met with him and walked to the branch house together while chatting. The whole time he was very interested and had lots of super awesome questions, questions this gospel has answers to. It was so awesome, Im looking forward to meeting with him again. And Im greatful for the inspiration to call that phone number.

Its like that, I have found so many times that I will have this feeling or thought to do or say something. Sometimes I follow that inspiration, and sometimes I dont, maybe because it seems like a strange idea. Whenever I dont I always end up regretting it.

We also had zone training, that was super fun, I got to see some good friends. When Máté went on bap. date I called one of my good friends, Elder Flake who served here in Szeged before I got here. He along with my comp. Elder Cutler found Máté, so i figured Id tell him the neat news. I called expecting to send him good news, but it was one of the best conversations I have ever had.

Elder Flake is serving in Eger right now, where I started my mission. I told him about Máté, and then he proceeded to tell me how some of the people I love in Eger are doing. Do you all remember Lili? She got baptized the weeked after I left Eger, her son will be getting baptized soon! And remember Zsuzsi? I talked about her on Christmas and emailed about her awhile ago. She met with missionaries a long time ago and when I was in Eger she was one of the miracles that we found. Zsuzsi has a strong testimony of the restored gospel now and the only thing holding her back from baptism is that she had an opperation recently and needs to wait just a little longer until doctors approve her to go under water. She wants to get baptized! This work really is super fun, I was litterally jumping up and down talking to Elder Flake.

I went on splits with Elder Smith, one of the Zone leaders. I got some really neat ideas about studying the language and am looking forward to working harder on that and getting better at the language.

Well, hey it was an awesome week for me and I hope you all are doing well. Much love to you all. Thanks for your emails, love, and continued support. Sorry if I dont email too much personally, times the limit here.

Sok szeretettel!
Shoop Elder

February 3rd, 2014

"It's a work that's worth it"
I thought for a bit about the title so I hope you all like it. I think its a pretty good sum of the week. It was an awesome week. It wasn't easy, but it was great.

Something on my mind recently is obedience. Its something I will have to work on throughout my entire life. Elder Cutler (awesome companion!) and myself met with a recent convert last night, besides him feeding us some delicious desserts, we talked about Gods love for us and commandments in relation to that. My companion put up a great question (thats how we say it in hungarian, we dont "ask" questions, we "put up" questions, felteszunk egy kérdéset, which litterally means, "we put up a question") anyways, he asked, "Why does God give us commandments?"

So ya, why does he give us commandments? The first thing that Pál (Paul, the recent member we met with) said as a joke at first, "to make us suffer!" he said it as a joke, but that might be my first reaction too, to just say to myself "well I know he doesnt give them to us to make us suffer, theyre important, thats the most important thing." But really, why?

Simple answer, He loves us. And its super true. His ways are better than mine and his thoughts really are much higher than mine. And so, because He loves us perfectly, He knows what we need to progress. Throughout my mission, and recently, there have been rules we have as missionaries that are hard to follow because it would be easier to, as an example, sleep in past 6:30. But I have found that I do try to be obedient and do my best, because God wants be to be obedient, as I prayerfully ask for His help, He helps me be obedient. Ive had a lot of experiences with this and Im greatful to know that, yes, Im not perfect, but that God always wants to help.

Alright on to my week. First off soccer. We play soccer on Saturdays and Mondays (Sat. as a branch activity, Mon. because its our pday). Its always super fun. Unfortunately Im not the greatest soccer player, but its super fun. A guy in the branch named Géza always comes, hes super awesome and a great soccer player too. Always very kind to us.

We are meeting with a Mom named Illona and her daughter named Csilla right now. We found them tabling. Really neat pair. They also want to learn english so for the first part we teach them english, but I think they really believe religion is important. The Mom is just incredible nice and seems like she constantly thinks of others and serving them. The Mom is also trying to provide the best future possible for her daughter as possible, she works really hard to help her daughter learn and grow.

Ive talked about Matthew before, or Máté in Hungarian. The one thats sick. He says sometimes that he wouldnt be surpirzed if he died soon, its super sad. But, he also has really embraced the gospel and through it seems to have changed a lot. We started to go through the plan of salvation and it ended up being a super long program, but super awesome too, one of my favorites, if I can pick favorites. Super spiritual, and incredible. Any one of these people makes a mission worth it.

Kept meeting with Ati too, talked about him last week too, the kid with gauges. We kept reading though the Book of Mormon with him and talked about the tree of life and what it meant. We are going  to try to help him progress more this week. Both him and Máté came to church this week.

Ok skipping ahead to a program Im really excited to talk about, infact super neat experience this last week, the type of experience that shows me why we do all this. Elder Cutler and I streeted and tabled for a fair amount of time our first 2 weeks together and a fair amount of success came from it, but also a lot of the contacts we got fell through as well. There was someone that we streeted and scheduled a meeting with for this last Saturday.

I called her in the morning on Saturday and she didnt answer, so to be honest I wasnt completely sure if she would even show up to the program. She did, and much more than that, she was searching for the truth. That was one of the first things she said, seeming a bit distraught she said that there are just so many churchs and if there is only one Lord, then where is the truth? 

Wow! It was awesome, so we told here about Joseph Smith and how he asked the same question. She said that if she came to believe this was true she would get baptized. Isnt this work worth it! Some days as a missionary are hard, some weeks are challenging, but the people make it all worth it. Im glad that we could find this daughter of God and that both Elder Cutler and myself came on a mission and did the work necessary to find her.

We also met Nándor this week. We were tracting in one of the many communist 10 story buildings and came across a man who didnt seem to happy. I think Elder Cutler and I both felt something different when talking to him at the door, because at first he didnt really want to talk to us, but for some reason he just kept standing there and so Elder Cutler and I just kept saying what we felt we should say. After a little bit he asked us to come in so we could talk. As it turns out, this man is very depressed, in a really rough state. Diabetes, super depressed, doesnt really leave his tiny appartment where he lives alone, and to my understanding his family doesnt really visit him too much. As we talked I think we were able to give him some hope in his life through the gospel. When we talked to him a few days later to talk about when we could come back he really seemed to have more hope in his voice. Im looking forward to going back.

Well here in Szeged we had like 8 inches of snow on the ground for like a week, but today it has really started to melt and I wouldnt be surprised if it was all gone by tomorrow, itll be nice if things warm up for good. Either way, this is great. I just love being a missionary, and I really love Hungary.

Thanks for all of your messages, I love hearing from everyone. I tried to send more in this email, hope its good. Love you all and wish you all the best in your strugles this week. Have fun!

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

January 27th, 2014

Wow! This week I hit 8 months on my mission, its going too fast!!! I love all of the experience and everyday of it, the hard the easy, the fun, the serious, the sad and happy. Im in Hungary as a missionary, its the best.

Scripture reading and prayer. Thats my subject this week. We have an investigator named Ati, cool kid. Has a gauge in his ear and looks all cool, in his heart he is a super good person, super kind, and has a testimony. He doesnt like reading at all though. Not just the Book of Mormon, but anything, doesnt like to read at all. So we started with him. We are going to be meeting like every other day or so and reading a chapter with him. The days we dont meet he is still supposed to read a chapter. Its super awesome and has given me a new look at reading the Book of Mormon. He wants to want to read I think, he is super willing, but appreciates our help in helping him understand who people are and what he is reading. It helps me appreciate scriptures more. Im sure Ati will get baptized sometime soon.

Prayer. John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." When we pray sincerely, with real intent, God hears and answers. I testify of that. I have experienced it time and time again on my misision. I dont want to give specifics but one day I prayed for one specific thing that seemed really hard for it to happen. I really prayed and I prayed with real intent. And, God answered and blessed me. Its not because Im a missionary, its because Im one of His children.

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow. I still remember as a kid playing in the snow, getting all of the clothes soaking wet, running it, getting something warm to eat, then putting on a new change of dry clothes and hoping those lasted until the first coat and pants were dry. Good times.

As a district yesterday we met at the branch house and brought ingredients for peanut butter cookies, a rarity. Well, after making the dough we talked about the fact that we werent allowed to cook things at the branch house. We decided to be obedient and just eat the raw cookie dough. Super delicious. Sorry Mom.

One of our finding techniques here is tabling. We have a table we carry to a main part of the downtown area and it has a sign or two advertising the church and the free english class. Flyers and pamphlets and Book of Mormons are on the table and one of us stands at the table while the other goes out and stops people and talks to people. Its actually been pretty productive for us. One fun experience recently was when we started tabling while it was starting to snow, cold, but way fun :)

Met with a cool guy named Imi, hes moving to Austria, has a really cool story about how he got citizenship there. Anyways he is way cool and has referred a numebr of people to the missionaries. He gave us his info so he can meet with missionaries there. He is actually a pretty successfull leader, neat guy.

Ati and Matthew are our two main investigators right now, I already talked about Ati, Matthew, Mate, in Hungarian, is like 20 but realized the importance of all of this because he recently got really sick which made him think about things of real importance.

I absolutely love Szeged and my time learning from and with Elder Cutler, he is truly an awesome guy and companion. I hope you all have a wonderful new week, I know I will.

Sok Szeretettel!

Elder Shoop

January 20th, 2014

Hello Everyone! So in addition to my family and a few friends from home, Csaba (pronounced Chaba) from Szolnok has been added to the email list.

Everyone: "Hi Chaba!"

Csaba: "Hi everyone!"

Now proper introductions have been made. I miss Szolnok, what a great place. I really loved the people there, the members were amazing, the investigators were incredible, and the city was great. Csaba was one of those amazing members there, he is preparing to serve a full time mission right now, but has already done great missionary work and has a powerful testimony.

Talking about powerful testimonies, Ive been reading from the last general conference recently. Its been really good for me and has made a difference in my life. I encourage all of you to do the same.

I read a talk that referenced Isaiah 52:7 and 8, and then read a verse in the Book of Mormon very similair to it. The though expressed in these verse is intriguing and inspiring to me, but reading forward Is. 52:9 really caught my attention as well "Break for into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem." Does it sometime feel like you are in a waste place? I think we can all feel that way sometimes. And yes, there are hard time, but despite it all we can have joy and recieve comfort, for our Savior Jesus Christ suffered everything for us so that we could come off conquerer in the end.

I want to take time to mention just a few of the great people I left behind in Szolnok:

• I already mentioned Csaba, hes great.
• Biro Elnok, the branch president. Super solid foundation for us in Szolnok. Always helping and supporting and being incredible for the members, missionaries, and investigators.
• Csaba's family: His Mom, grandparents, and siblings were all way great.
• Ircsi: Super fun chior director, often found smiling.
• Laci: 30 yr.old investigator Ive talked about before. He really changed through the gospel in my time knowing him.
• Ildiko: Way cool mom who was very effected by the gospel, specifically when she found out who she was, she said that finding out that she was a daughter of God was huge for her.
• Akos: Cool water polo player, mother is a member in England, reads BOM with her over skype.
• Strojan Jozsef: Neat investigator who we werent sure if we wanted go back to for some reasons, but when we went back it went much better than it previously.
• Elder Shuck: Wonderful companion and great friend. Ill miss him

Theres more, but moving on, because, hey Im in Szeged now, not Szolnok. Elder Cutler is a great companion, very supportive, understanding, and patient. We have some way cook people we are meeting with. One is Mati, who used to be pretty strong and buff but has lost like 20 to 30 pounds because he was sick. Just got out of the hospital, he was in there for 2 weeks almost. They didnt find anything big and hope he will start getting better. Said the sickness has helped him think about some things and although has only met with missionaries like 3 times, came to church this last week and would have the week before too if it wasnt for being the hospital. Super neat guy, 20 yr old.

Way nice branch. There were 74 people in church which was like double what im used to the past few months in Szolnok and Eger. It felt a lot more family orriented, there are some way cool kids and families, along with individuals. The branch president is a Hungarian who served a mission here in Hungary when he was younger.

Szeged as a city is much larger than Szolnok or Eger, it also feels a lot more modern. We ride the vilamos a lot, a tram that runs through the city. There is also a new branch house being built currently. We went to a ceremony at it, itll be awhile till we can use it though, like summer or something. There was an article about it in the newspaper I think, way cool. Itll be nice to have a baptismal font! :) The place were using right now is rented.

Sunday a cool member had us over, Pauli, who used to be less active. He fed us a good dinner and then we taught him an inspired lesson, it was way good.

The people in this branch like soccer a lot so we play soccer on saturdays for the branch activity and then again on Pdays because thats when us missionaries can, its way fun.

I wish I could share everything, but I cant. There are so many incredible experiences as a missionary. As we do what we need to, pray , read sciptures, follow commandment, miracles really do and can happen every day. Im greatful to know and experience that we have a loving Heavenly Father who hears our prayers and really does answer them. I testify of that.

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

January 14th, 2014

Im shocked! I was totally not planning on getting transferred this transfer, but its happening. I really have come to love the people here in Szolnok, when it hit me that Im leaving I was sad for a moment. But Im excited to be off to Szeged!

Talking about change, Ill quickly share a thought. Im reading in Mosiah right now where Zeniff leads a group of people to the land of Lehi Nephi. Zeniff and his people are very righteous and are protected by the Lord, but after his death, king Noah became the king. King Noah was very wicked and through that the people became wicked too. But, one man, Abinadi, stood against the evil that took over the people. Abinadi, to my knowledge was THE only person in his life that defended righteousness. He preached against angry crowds and his life was saught out and taken by the evil people, but through that many lives were changed after his death. We can be that one person, we can be the one to stand against the crowds.

Ok, only a little time left because for some reason the internet shop is closing at 11 today and we didnt know that. Szeged. I have been in Szeged before for one night when I went on splits. Its a really nice, very big city. There isnt a ward there yet, but the branch is very large, larger to my understandting, then both the ones I have been in so far. I will be with Elder Cutler!!! I have actually talked wiht before because we were in the same zone when I was in Eger. Elder Cutler is a really really neat missionary. This is so crazy I dont know how I keep getting blessed with really awesome companions.

That being said I am super sad to be leaving Elder Shuck. Elder Shuck and I really enjoyed our time together and got along really well. I especially appreciated Elder Shucks willingness and desire to be obedient and follow the Spirit. Elder Shuck will be a good friend for years to come I believe. He didnt treat me like a young missionary, but like an equal half of the companionship, super nice.

I will be super sad to be leaving the people here. I really love the branch and the investigators. Im sure theyll be in good hands though. The main person on my mind to be sad leaving is Laci. Laci is a 30 man whos life seems to have really changed for the best since I first got here. He really has changed and I think about everyone can tell. Im really excited and happy for him.

Szeged is very far South and interstingly has a southern Hungarian accent, from what I have heard. Apparently in Szeged, they pronounce e's as ö's which I know none of you understand because ö isnt english, but pretty much, its a really low, deep e sound. It should be fun.

Anyways I hope next week Ill get time to email more, sorry its short this week. Best wishes, I love you all.

Sok szeretettel!

Elder Shoop

January 6th, 2014

Its been a great start to an exciting new year. This entire year, for all of 2014 I get to be a missionary.

Every week we have a district meeting. Right now my district is just the missionaries here in Szolnok, consists of Elder Shuck and I, the two Sisters (Maxfield and Moffitt), and the Senior couple, the Smiths. Every week as a district we read a chapter from the scriptures, and then discuss it together at the end of the meeting. This last week we read D and C 84, Its an incredible section that teaches a ton. It talks a lot about the priesthood, gives the oath and covenant of the priesthood, talks about missionary work, and just is awesome. A verse that caught my attention was verse 82 and then the following few, I dont have time to quote it, but I love it and it talks about this in the Bible and Book of Mormon also, it relates into 85 "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up inyour minds coninually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man."

Its so great and so true. As we try to follow Christ the best we can He makes up for our weekness. I also really liked 19 which tells us that in our church today we hold the "key of the knowledge of God." What an awesome thing! We can know the nature of our Eternal Heavenly Father, this fulness of gospel given to us helps us gain knowledge otherwise unobtainable. Im so greatful for it and believe it with my heart and mind.

New Years was way fun. A branch party on the eve we made the future "Szolnok Temple" out of gingerbread, complete with angel Moroni (Gummi Bear) and the writing on everytemple in Hungarian.

New Years Day we also had as a pday and played games at the Senior Couple apparment.

Some stories of the week:

Laci. Honestly, at first I dont know how much I liked Laci. His Hungarian was hard for me to understand and I think I judged him a bit, it seemed to me like he would just investigate and not progress. But Im wrong, and like always, I should never judge. I think I have really gotten to see the gospel change him. He seems to have a lot more peace in his life. He consistently comes to church now and really seem to find peace in this gospel. He took us to a cool house about 30 km away which was completely covered in Christmas lights and decorations, way cool and really nice of him.

The 3 girls I talked about: Well, we gave them to the sisters to teach, we thought it would be best for them. But 2 of them came to church and 1 did her Book of Mormon reading last week. Sweet kids.

Dénes: Super cool. We met this guy along time ago and was probably part of our strugles the first few weeks when it seemed like everyone was dogging us. Well we saw him streeting again and we set up again and actually met. He is way Cool. Works a night shift at a local orphanage type place so that he can be with his kids all day and seems to barely get any sleep. Really kind cool guy.

Running short on time Ill stop there for this week. Anyways this next week is going to be great, lots of programs set up. Much love and best wishes to all of you. And thank you all for your prayers.

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Shoop

PS: If your follloing the CHrist like attribuzte activity last week was diligence and this week isthe least week, obedience.