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.

December 30th, 2013

I hope the holiday season has been awesome for all of you, its been absolutely the best for me.

Not too much time today so I'll try and write fast. First off, I have been reading from Our Heritage recently, about the start of the church and pioneers and such. A quick thought from that. There's a part where it talks about some sacrifices Brigham Young made when he was still a new member. It quotes him saying how he literally had nothing. His boots were even borrowed. But he followed the words of the Prophet none the less. I also read about Zions camp. Zions camp was a march of a military group put together of about 230 people. It was ultimately unsuccessful in its purpose, but from the experience, just a few months later, 79 of the 82 positions filled in the quarom of the 12 and the 70 were filled by men who were tested and grew through the zions camp march.

I have found that sometimes we need to experience our own personal zions camps before we see the success in our lives. Here's a quick story I shared with my mission president:

"I want to share a quick experience first. One of the first weeks here in Szolnok Elder Shuck and I were re-opening the companionship and ended up doing some "prayer finding" where we would pray and then try to follow the Spirit for where to go. One of these times we came across someone who was nice to us but who basically said she didn't want anything to do with religion because her parents disowned her for not joining their religion (Jehova's Witness)."

Just a few days ago we went through that building again and ended up at her door again. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes at her door and she invited us back the next day so that we could give her our stop smoking program. Well, that program fell through because she was at the doctors but we have contacted her since and are still planning on meeting with her."

I don't know if she will ever accept the gospel, but what gets me about this story is that when we first contacted her I probably had no idea that just a short time later (about 2 months) she would open up in some way. It is truly incredible how the Lord works and it is so true, I believe, that miracles are happening every day, whether we realize it or not."

My Christmas was totally amazing here in Hungary, and I thank all of you for the awesome gifts you picked out. I loved them all. They're all just great. Presents arent needed to have a good Christmas, but all these gifts definitely made it seem like I was having Christmas at home. Thank you all so much for your wonderful ideas.

Just this morning me and my companion had two AWESOME programs. Completely. The first was with a 15 year old boy (he seems like 17 though Id say, super mature) Anyways, his Mom is a member but lives in England, he started meeting with missionaries when she lived here and has only met a few times since she left, he is awesome and reads from the BOM, and believes it to be true. His name is Ákos.

The next program was with a really sweet, fun family we just found yesterday. Incredible family. Today we met with Gyöngy (mom), daugther Elizabeth, 19 yr. old, and daughter whos name I forgot, 6 years old. It was incredible, we taught the restoration and they seemed very open. At the end we said a closing prayer and the Mom was just amazed she kept saying how good she felt and that she really felt a real peaceful feeling and just kept talking about how she felt. Its so awesome that God gave us prayer. Its so real. People, not just these people, but lots of people can really feel a difference when we pray. Its so true, God hears our prayers. I know it. And He answers them too.

I was sad not to get to talk with those who weren't there, but I send my love to all of you from Hungary for the Holidays. Ill be at a ward party tomorrow night from 7-9 for new years eve building a gingerbread temple.

Much love
Elder Shoop