Week 21: Another Week Passing By 💗

 

What even happened this week? Not sure but it went by very quickly. We have a friend who works at a museum here in Pápa. She told us to come visit her sometime and she'd give us a tour! We switched around some if our Pday hours so that we could go to it this past Wednesday. Before going into the exhibit, we ate at this little café. 

I heard these two girls talking sitting at a table next to us. I heard a couple English words but mostly a conversation in a language I could not identify. I really wanted to talk to them. As we went up to pay, I asked them if they spoke English. They said yes and that they were from the Netherlands! They were sooo cool and explained how their husbands were in the military so they would be living in Pápa for the next four years! (there is a small air force base here in Pápa.) I asked them if they were learning the language and said no because they didn't have a huge reason to and it was really hard. But they were so impressed that we were learning it! I got to talk to them about why we are here as missionaries and it was so cool. We got their Facebook address so hopefully we can keep in touch with them! 

We headed to the museum and the lady told us that our friend did indeed not work there. We found out after that we'd gone to the wrong museum! But it was still a super cool experience! The tour guide that helped us only spoke a couple words in English. You could tell she knew so much history but couldn't fully explain it. I told her that she could try to explain it in Hungarian and even though we were still learning, we'd try to understand. She was so excited and proceeded to give us an entire personal tour! It was awesome because this museum had a mummy in it! We were also able to see a super old reformist temple that is still in use today, even though the upper half is used for a museum. She is also reformist, so she got to explain to us all the history and traditions that run so strongly into Pápa's history. I discovered that there is a large population of reformist here in Pápa. It was so interesting to see the history and it provided a cool missionary opportunity as well! We got to explain to her what we do as missionaries and she was very impressed. What an incredible experience and way to connect with the community here. The people are so kind and hard working and there is so much fascinating history here!

There had been a big push in our mission to involve the members in the missionary work, and it's been awesome. Sometimes, missionaries can only do so much. Members are like gold! Having a member in a lesson who is willing to bear testimony and explain principles that we can't quite explain makes all the difference. They also speak their language perfectly so that definitely helps. I'm so grateful for the strong members here in our small city. 

We gave a book of Mormon to a guy who reached out to us on Facebook! Apparently an elder who served here a while ago had knocked on their door and given them a Book of Mormon. He had lost it during a move, so he sent me a message on Facebook and asked if he could have another one! We met him in a park and explained about the Book and about Joseph Smith and how it came to be. We also got to read a verse or two with him! Hopefully he wants to continue learning! 

This week I was reading from "Jesus the Christ" by James E Talmage and I was feeling so grateful for my Savior! Near the beginning of the book I love how it talks about the great plan of Heaven. Jesus Christ was to come down to earth and "live among men as their exemplar and teacher." He was to "observe the sanctity of man's agency but teach them to use aright their diving heritage." He took on a mortal body, lived among us and taught us. He didn't just sit far away in the heavens and force us to come back to Heavenly Father. He came as a teacher! And gave us a choice to follow his example. I think that shows so much more genuine love. God loves us enough to give us our agency. He sent his son knowing that'd he would be rejected, but giving us the opportunity and choice to follow him. Agency makes life harder, but a whole lot more worth it! 

For Pday today our friend showed us around a Jewish Synagog. Here are some photos.