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
Shoop Elder
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