September 3rd

Transfer week! So exciting! And sad. As I said last week, Elder Quinton will be leaving tomorrow and taking his place will be... Elder Magda! Elder Magda has been in Hungary one transfer longer than Elder Quinton, is 50% Hungarian (from America), and before this tranfer was one of the two mission secretaries. Should be fun serving with him.

This last week I read a fair amount from Jesus the Christ and there was one specific thing I thought was really neat concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. If you all think about the standard Christmas nativity that we are all familiar with, there are generally shepherds and wise men. When Christ was born, angles appeared to lowly shepherds near where Christ was born. Wise men came from far away, following a Star, bearning nice gifts, first stopping asking the king where the real king was. Here is a quote from Jesus the Christ (its actually quoting a different source, see Jesus the Christ, page 108) "So that indeed God raised up witnesses for Himself  to meet all classes and conditions  of men - the testimony of angels for the poor and lowly;  the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and proud priests of Judea."

I love this thought. Nothing God does is a coincidence. Its not a coincidence that the two groups of witnesses were completely different. The shepherds for the poor and lowly, the wise men for the rich, and noble. And this so much applies directly to all of us. Its no coincidence that we have the experiences we do. Its no coincidence that our families are what and who they are, or that we have been blessed with the testimonies we have. As in Christs birth, God has blessed us all to have the spiritual witness that we have, so that we can touch the people around us, wheather it be kings or the poor and lowly. I am so greatful that I was called to serve here in Hungary, but I know where ever we are there will be people we can help.

Favorite scripture of the week: 2 Ne 10: 25, Im not gonna quote it, go look it up and read it though :) I like this verse because I like how it states how the atonement and ressurection work. Through the ressurection we can all gain bodies again. Through the atonement we can be saved from spiritual death (it uses the term "everlasting death" instead of spiritual death.) if we act on our faith. How our faith is required is somewhat hard to find within the verse but the end of the verse uses the term "through grace." Grace requires faith on our part, so the verse really does say that we need faith.

My week. This last week was exciting. I went on splits twice, once with Elder Nabrozky and once with Elder Beaucanon. Elder Nabrozky and myself are very similair so that was fun to get to serve with him and serving with Elder Beaucanon was great too. However, at the end of this last week I got sick. Low energy, stomach upset, slight temperature, type thing. Mom, please don't worry, Im feeling great now and everything was fine while I was sick. However, it did slow the work up a bit.

Lili, the person with a baptism date, is doing well, we taught her about tithing last week and she came to church for a second time this last sunday. We will teach her next on Thursday and we hope her son will listen to the lesson with her. Also, we hope to meet with a man named Gábor again this next week. There is, of course, lots of other investigators we meet with but not to overwhelm you all Ill stick with these two. Gábor is an awesome person who is progressing and has had a few lessons and seems somewhat prepared. He also has an awesome teddy bear collection which is really cool. But thats not where Mr. Ruggles came from.

Mr. Ruggles is our Eger mascot. We love him and take him a lot of places. When the other companionship here in Eger tables, they put Mr. Ruggles on the table sometimes. Its great. We love playing with Mr. Ruggles.

Anyways, One lastish thing, there was a family history program on Saturday here in Eger that was pretty neat. It was really cool to be at this family history program in a country where so many of our past relatives our from, it ended up being a really special experience for me.

Bullet points!

• Hopefully I answered all Mr. Ruggles questions, let me know if there are more.
• School Here started this past Monday. Best wishes to all of you nieces and nephews starting school!
• What is my day like now? I wake up at 6:30, pray, excercize, eat, get ready (shower, ect.), by 8 its personal study time, 9 is companion study time, 10 is a second hour of comp study because Im still new (its an extra hour for 12 weeks) then 11 is lunch usually, then 12 is language study for an hour. By 1 we go out to work, usually we have something like 3 or so scheduled "programs" or lessons. Hopefully none of them cancel. When we dont have a lesson, we tract through a 10 story appartment, dinner is at 5. Home by 9 or if teaching a lesson 9:30
• Lili's son. His name is Bálint, and I think if he spoke english or if all of you nephews spoke Hungarian, that you would all be good friends, he is a cool kid and likes watching cartoons. He is starting school just like all of you. He is Hungarian, but he is just a normal kid.
• In Hungary, stop lights turn yellow before turning green.
• In Hungary its normal for shower heads to not be attached to the wall, just hoses or something.
• They like open faced sandwiches here, no top piece of bread. One regular is Bread, tons of margarin, and then slices of pepper.

I love you all and miss you all so much. Best wishes!

Sok szeretettel

Elder Shoop

Mr. Ruggles and Tim in a castle

First day as companions picture

August 26th, 2013

One of our investigators, Lili (pronounced lee-lee), has decided to prepare to be baptized on November the 16th. Elder Quinton and myself are very excited for her. We are excited to see the gospel bless her life and her family (which only consists her and her 9 year old son). Elder Quinton has known her longer than me and he says he sees that she is already different, already seems happier.

I want to quote something I read in Jesus The Christ, its a long quote, but I really like it. In the Scriptures there is only 1 sentence (I believe) that talks about Christ's years inbetween when he was 12 to 30 years old. However, I believe this quote helps us better know what he did during these years: "As shown by His public utterances after He had become a man, these years of seclusion were spent in active effort, both physical and mental. Jesus was a close observer of nature and men. He was able to draw illustrations with which to point His teachings from the varied occupations, trades and professions..." I'll stop there because its a really long quote, but it goes on to talk about how he had learned of the ways of the lawyer, physician, scribe, Pharisee, rabbi, poor, rich, shepherd, farmer, vinedresser, and fisherman. It talks about how he had "considered the lilies of the field, and the grass in the meadow and upland" and also the birds, foxes, dogs, vagrant cur, hen, weather, seasons, and "all the phenomena of natural change and order". See Jesus the Christ, page 117, first full paragraph. Im sure these things are only a short, short list of what all he learned in his youth. Yet it is astonishing to think about it all. Yes, we only have one verse about his youth and early adulthood, however, enough has been revealed to us about His perfect character to enable us to be able to place full and complete confidence in Him. Or in otherwords, to have faith through Him.

Additionally, it shows us, I think, how valuable our time is. Even during times when we feel like we are going nowhere, when we feel like there is no purpose in what we do, or whatever your strugle or challenge may be. During the last few years of His life, Christ did basically all that He is know for from his earthly life. He performed the miracles we read of in the scriptures. He gave the sermon on the mount. He called His 12. He suffered and died for us. He did all these things in the last few years of His life. However, if He hadn't lived humbly and perfectly during His youth and early adulthood, the atonement could not have been brought to pass. How important every moment of our lives is!

On Friday and Saturday morning I was on splits with Elder Headrick in Miskolc (my comp is a district leader so he has to go on splits alot). Miskolc is a bit bigger than Eger and Elder Headrick is a very hard worker so that was fun. Also, Elder Headrick lives in the same appartment as the ZLs, who are way awesome so that was cool. One of the ZLs is Elder Nabrotzky, and in my 4 to 5 weeks of being here Ive already become known as being exactly like Elder Nabrotzky. Its really crazy how immensly similair we are, but fun too.

Wednesday we visited Füzesabony for just a few hours. The mental hospital is there and there is a member there we visit once a month with the senior couple. That was actually a pretty neat experience. 

Oh ya! The 20th was an indepence day here! It was way fun! The castle was free to visit so we went to the castle for awhile which was way awesome. Then we made palacsinták (Hungarian pacakes). Then we went to the community concert, a big band jazz band was playing which was cool for me to get to here, then there was a sweet firework show (the fireworks were shot from the top of the castle) and then there was a rock concert afterwards (the mission president said we could be out until 10 that night and that we could attend public concerts).

There is a European underwater hockey tournament going on in Eger right now, sounds like an interesting sport.

Questions/fun facts

• Weather: Seems like Washington but with a lot less rain and more humidity.
• McDonalds exists here?: Yep, its pretty expensive here and a more nicer place to eat
• Pictures?: Yes! Sorry if I dont get to emailing individuals, Im going to try to send some pictures.
• Any Hung. dishes I can cook at home?: Kind of, but we really need Hungarian ingredients. If you can find Kolbasz and or Tejföl anywhere then yes.
• Light switches here are generally alot bigger than at home
• The middle of eggs are orange instead of yellow
• There is a list of names that everyone must be named from when born. The only exception is if you apply for a different name.
• They rarely use ice

Transfers are next week, Im probably going to stay in Eger but my comp is probably going to leave, thats the word on the street. I'll be super sad to see him leave if he does.

Thanks for all the emails this week I love reading how people are. Thanks for the support love and prayers.

Sok Seretettel,

Elder Shoop

August 22nd,

Hi Sister Shoop,

We got to spend some time with Elder Quinton and Elder Shoop this afternoon in Eger, Hungary. Elder Quinton lives in my stake and I have taught seminary with his mom so we told her we would drop something off for him. My daughter Stephanie served in this mission so we are visiting some of her areas.  The Elders are doing great. We went to a famous Palachinta restaurant in Eger. The guys had to get theirs to go because they needed to head off to English class. I told Elder Shoop we would send you a picture and let you know he is doing great. He is excited about the work and will be a great missionary.

Sheri ***********

 

August 12th, 2013

Another excellent week of missionary work! I honestly find the work very exciting. My companion says I have tons of greeny-fire, but I like to think that I will always be this excited about doing this awesome work!

I read in 2 Nephi chapter 9 this last week and came across a scripture that I thought was very neat, verse 14, but focus on the second half of the verse: "Wherefore, we shall have a ^aperfect ^bknowledge of all our ^cguilt, and our ^duncleanness, and our ^enakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their^frighteousness, being ^gclothed with ^hpurity, yea, even with theⁱrobe of righteousness." I love how the end states that the righteous will have a "perfect knowledge of ...their righteousness". I think sometimes in church we hear people say (not that its a bad thing), how would we feel infront of God knowing all of our sins. That thought is slightly depressing I think, only to think about all the bad things we have done. Yes, we need to repent of our sins through Jesus Christ. But think about it, think of all of the good things you have ever done. Think of them! Its incredible, I know all of you and all of you have done so many awesome, righteous things. Think about how you will feel standing before God knowing all of the the good things you have done, and not needing to worry about the bad things because you had faith in Jesus Christ and repented. What an awesome feeling, how powerful! Standing before God knowing all of the righteous things we ever did. That thought I think, is encouragement to be better, to do better. And I love it because its true, its scripture.

I had a neat experience this last week. Well, I had many neat experiences, but Im going to focus on 1 of them. We were at one of our potential investigators houses (not potential any more) and we introduced the Book of Mormon to her. She asked us if we chose to be here or if we were here becaues our families were Mormon and we had to. We were able to tell her that we chose to be here, it was our decision and that we wanted to be. She, holding the Book of Mormon, then looked at me and asked me if I really believed it was true. I am so greatful, that I was able to look back at her and tell her, that I did believe it. I told her I had prayed about it and felt the peace and answer that it was true. I also think I told her how my life and my families life had been blessed by it. I was so greatful that I could tell her that truthfully, that I did believe the Book of Mormon.

I do believe the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I have read from it much, and a little bit in Hungarian, and I have pondered its words. I have prayed about it. I have truly seen in my life how it has answered questions, questions that so many people out in this world wonder about. It has given me strength and peace during hard times. I have really seen it bless my life and others. I have felt the peace, the hope, and the power it offers as I read about it. And I have prayed about it, in English and Hungarian, and felt the Spirit testify to me.

I love getting questions, feel free to send many, Im going to try to answer alot of them, briefly here, Im super sorry if I miss some:

• How many roomates- Just my companion
• Where do I live- Our appartment is actually in the downtown area of Eger very near the main downtown area with shops and resturaunts and stuff. The main downtown area is primarily walking only, too, which is fun.
• Where do I shop? There is a big shopping center call the Tesco where we shop every Monday. The Tesco very similair to a large Walmart except basically everything is in Hungarian and the food is a bit different.
• How do I cook- The kitchen in our apartment has a lot of the essentials. My comp knows a lot about cooking which is super useful. No crock pot but basically every thing else.
• What do I eat for the different meals- Breakfast: Generally just a bowl of cereal. One interesting cereal here which is actually pretty cheap is called Pillows. Its a crunchy chocolate crust covering over some sort of filling, chocolate hazelnut, strawberry, vanilla, coconut, are different fillings. Those are good but theres also a cheaper cereal, small cornflakes that are cheaper. Also a roll with jam is good. Lunch: I generally do some soft of sandwich, be it cheese, lettuce, and meat on a roll or jam or chocolate hazelnut spread (cheaper nutell). But also just eating leftovers from dinner is good. Dinner, I explain the dish I had last week, it was super good and after my comp made it for me I made it again myself. This week Im trying stuffed peppers, which no offence Mom, are better in Hungary, different peppers and such. 
• Whats my address- Im not sure, sorry, maybe next week. But I hear its best to  send packages to the mission home which is probably the best bet anyways.
• Am I settled in- Pretty much I think. I think Im finally getting used to the in-field routine and that I have finally pretty well adjusted to the timezone and new culture. Good question!
• Is the language easier- Well, Im sure Im getting better everyday but I think its a slow process. The important part is that Im improving.
• Do I dream in Hungarian yet- I dont think so, but one night I might have a little. One day!
• Dan made a comment that there is more than 1 way of learning going on. This is a very very good point. Its so intresting to be learning the language, the gospel, the culture, different peoples lives, a new way of living and eating and cooking, how to help the Branch (missinoaries play a big part in a branch where theres only 30 or so members at church every week and the branch president is a senior missionary who doesnt really speak much Hungarian.)
• Do they live like us- Actually, yes. That is one thing that has been a bit of a shock to me. How normal it all is compared to what Im used to. Slightly different but I think very similair.
• Do they live in houses or apartments? Like in America, both. Me and my companion have been focussing on apartments recently though.
• Do they have toys like barbies- Im not sure if I have seen any barbies, but yes they have toys that they like to play with Im sure. It seems that a lot of people here have less money than I think we are used to though, so they might not have as many toys.
• Can I understand the language when people talk- That is the really hard part. If they are talking about something in a missionary lesson then I think I can usually follow it kind of because that is what I have learned the most. Out side of that understanding people is very hard.

Sorry if I missed any questions. Thank you all so much for your support, love, prayers, and testimonies. I say it every week, but I really do mean it because it helps me so much through hard times. I wish you all the best, miss you, and love you all.

- Elder Shoop

August 5th, First Week in Eger!

Sziasztok! (Hello everyone)

Before I start, the Hungarian keyboard is a bit different from the English one.

Im in Hungary!!!!! In Eger!!!!! Eger is a glorious city in North East Hungary of about 50,000. It is, in my mind atleast, very Hungarian. I really want to send pictures but now that I have a bit more time to send pictures, I cant because the computers dont have sd slots, Ill look into and figure out some way to get you all some pics. My new companion is Elder Quinton, who is way awesome. I really like him and we get along very well I think. He is from Seattle and played football and golf in highschool, did a year of BYU before his mission, and has been in Hungary for a year, which might not seem too long, but he speaks great Hungarian I think he has picked it up faster than others.

I want to talk about patience for a bit. I have found patience is a very important Christ Like attribute and it is something I focussed alot on in the MTC. I appreciate all of your testimonies that you sent me so much, theyve really helped me and I want to be able to write about something that can help you all. So I want to bring up patience with ourselves. It is important to be patient with God and other people, but it is also so incredibly important to be patient with ourselves. This is something I need to work on alot, being a new missionary who can hardly speak the language. These past days have been so much fun. So exciting. But so frustrating. So frustrating. I want to help these people and bless them. I know they would be so much more happy with the gospel. And I have a testimony. I have this knowledge that they need. But sometimes I cant express it how I want or alot of times I cant follow the conversation to even know what theyre talking about. 

Thats where patience with ourselves comes in. I think its something we all need, not just me. I know I need to work on it a ton but we all have trials and challenges in our lives. Im sure we all have question and doubts. We all lack faith in some things at times, or strugle in some way. God wants us to be perfect but I dont think we should expect ourselves to be perfect immediately. We can grow, we can learn, we can be happy, but it takes time. We just need to try every day to be just a little bit better.

One family Ive gotten pretty close with since getting here is the Putton family, theyre recent converts and an awesome, way fun family. We were at their house recently and the Dad asked how I could stand being away from family, I told him that I love you all and that I miss you all so much, I gave him a number of reasons (D+C 31:2, I always wanted to be a missionary, it helps me focus, I like serving people) but I also told him that they all were my family. The branch has about 30 members which is pretty small but theyre great and were growing.

My birthday went great, The day before at the branch game night Sister Herd (The Herds are the senior couple that serve here, Elder Herd is the Branch president.) brought a cake and they sang to me in English and then in Hungarian (in Hungarian its a different song). Then on my birthday me and my companion met up with Elder Sterri and Elder Buechannon at a really cool restaurant.

My companion is a great cook and has made some awesome Hungarian dishes, which require Hungarian ingredients to really taste great. My favorite was this one dish where there was a lazer of sliced potatoe, then a layer of sliced hard boilded eggs, then a layer of super good Hungarian meat, then a layer of Tejfö (Hungarian stuff, super good), then a layer of cheese, and then all of those layers again. Then baked. Its delicious. 

Ive found the people here are nice and we have had some success finding. There are these buildings called 10 stories and buildings called 5 stories, theyre super communist, and theyres a ton of them. Basically theyre all just like identicall square apartment complexes. We go door to door in these alot but I really like streeting. We tried tabling (Table with a sign in a public place) but it wasnt too successful, apparently other cities it works ok but not Eger. 

Just a second left for one last thing. We had some neet experiences where one night we got back to the appartment just a bit early. We decided to go back out and work just a little longer. In that short time we found someone who seemed interested and Im really excited about. I think thats so neat that because we worked a little longer we found someone else and Ive seen that happen a few times already.

Thank you all so much for your love and support. I love the birthday testimonies they mean so much to me.

Sok szeretettel (with much love)

Elder Shoop