Week 20: GROWTH

February 07, 2022

Week 20: GROWTH

Double Rainbow In Budapest

From "Come Follow Me" this Week
Genesis 9: "This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you....when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud....and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

This week we had return and report in Budapest!! Ah it was amazing. It's so weird to be on the flipped side. I swear I was just there as a trainee and now I went back as a trainer! Return and report is when all the missionaries who are training and being trained gather at the mission home in Budapest and listen to the mission president and his wife, counsel together sing, eat, talk, more counseling, and enjoy each other's company. It was joyfull to see my mtc group again. Also joyful that I got us to Budapest safely!

Last week, I made a goal to have a conversation with two random people every day. I don't know why, but it was really difficult! When we were traveling and in a big city it was a lot easier to find people to start conversations with, be it on the bus, metro, etc. But with the way missionary work is done now, we don't have set apart time for street contacting. So let's just say my "going up to random people and starting conversations" skills are a little rusty. As we traveled to Budapest, we sat across from a lady and I got to ask her where she was from and why she was going to Budapest. She ended up showing us pictures of her family and her daughters. We got to tell her why we were here and ask her a little bit about religion.

Another man I talked to was on the metro in Budapest. He was reading a book and I asked him if he liked to read! He said yes and told me a bit about his book. I asked him if he believed in Jesus and he said, "egyáltalán nem" which means no not at all. I gave him a passalong card anyway. Another woman, we stood next to on the metro, she overhead us talking and in english, kindly told us we were going the wrong way. We thanked her, talked, and I gave her a pass along card as well! She smiled and said thank you When we got back to our small city after return and report, we took about 30 minutes to go find people to talk to in the main square. I saw an old lady walking very slowly and thought, hey this could be easy. I went up to her, asked her how her day was, and asked her what made her happy. She just looked and me confused and swatted her hand at me, then walked away.

Train Station

Another older couple, iI smiled at and said good day to them. They turned back and asked, "Do we know each other?" I said no and tried to explain that we were missionaries, but before I could get out another sentence they also walked away. I sat on the beach feeling very discouraged. Many ups and downs with goal I made for myself. I could look back at this week and call it a failure. Did I get contacts of everyone I talked to and set up lessons with them all? Nope! Some days I didn’t even make my goal. But did learn a lot about what NOT to say to people? YES! And that gave me experience. Doing things that scare us give us experience, even if they aren't quite as success as we'd like them to be.

D & C 122:7 "know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

I love this scripture, and it's so true!!

Drawing I created about Growth

As far as our friends go, we're still working towards baptism with our friend B. We got to visit more members this week, as well as teach our English class, meet with some of our other progressing friends and with Z! We had a super cool conversation with her about how much God loves her and she said to us, "you guys are like... Jesus!!" That made my week. I'm so grateful to be a missionary, even when it's hard. Growing is so uncomfortable but I want to keep trying to make goals that stretch me! I drew this little picture to express how growth feels sometimes. Have a great week everyone!!