Week 68: "Leave the event with God, who holdeth all things in His hands."

January 09, 2023

Week 68: "Leave the event with God, who holdeth all things in His hands."

Ah what an awesome week of just pure missionary work! We didn't have to travel to Budapest or Miskolc or have a ton of member meetings so this left us with lots of time to find and teach!!

-On Tuesday we got to meet with the three girls again! "D", "E" and "D." This is my companion's first time meeting "D" because they have been so busy since the holidays. We went to a magical Cafe with vines along the walls and drank hot chocolate. I pulled out my peppermint spoons that I got for Christmas and we all had a good time catching up. We had planned to review the Plan of Salvation, but it was difficult to just whip it out unannounced in our conversation especially because this wasn't like our normal meetings with them at the church. Eventually I asked about new years goals and resolutions and they all got a little more serious talking about their struggles. So many personal things they are struggling with that I never would have guessed, but I admire their hope and confidence. "E" told us that since meeting with us she has felt so much closer to God. We gave the girls advice on going forward this year how to find comfort and hope through relying on God. I was initially disappointed by our meeting because we wanted to teach an exact lesson plan, but I know that we really are bringing them closer to Christ by sharing where we turn in hard times in our personal lives.

-The next day we texted "E" just to see how she was doing. She told us she was so glad we wrote to her and asked if we could come to her house. We spent some time walking around a little pond and talking more about our lives as missionaries. When we got to her house she shared with us some fruit soup (which is a Hungarian classic) and some home made meatballs from her grandma. Their family is the best! After that, we ended up teaching "E" the whole plan of salvation at her house and she had many many questions. It is so interesting to see how even though she has grown up in a very religious home, many terms are unfamiliar that we used. And I am so grateful for the gospel knowledge that I have. We explained words like atonement and resurrection and salvation.

We also met with "N" this week and traveled he her house in Átány. She is really loving the Book of mormon and consistently reads from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She told us she is really confused why more people don't read the Book of Mormon! We invited her to church but she actually rolled her ankle and can't really walk... so next week!

We met with "K" again who we dropped a while ago because she wasn't progressing. The meeting went well because we were very bold with her and told her she needed to trust in God this week. To just try in her prayers to tell God that she trusted him completely! She agreed to try and she even said she would come to church. Did she? No but she told us she would also try to come next week.....small steps.

Pictures of our beautiful city! (Eger, Hungary)

Our lesson with "A" canceled this week. She is the one who would like to be baptized in the spring and she has canceled for the last couple of weeks. We were disappointed but do you know what we did instead? We played language Jenga with our lesson plan. I said a sentence in Hungarian to teach a point of the lesson and then got to pull a block then we switched. It was so fun. I really think it was God helping us out. Sometimes when plans fall through you just have to say...hmm OK well what can we do now? It was one of my favorite days.

We did a lot of outside street contacting with week. We met our fair share of rejections but we also had some amazing miracles. I'll share a quick one.

I stopped a girl and turns out she speaks pretty good English. She told us she would love to practice English with us and attended our English class because her boyfriend who is Israeli lives far away. She was really grateful we talked to her.

Another English class miracle happened Saturday night. We were practicing the piano and a girl showed up at the door. We let her in a talked for a bit.. turns out she started coming to English class when she was just 8 years old. Her parents had been stopped by missionaries and informed about the class about 15 years ago! She attended almost every week for 10 years!!! She even attended church and spent a lot of time with missionaries in the past. Her English was amazing and not to brag our English teaching skills, but she told us she had never once attended an English class aside from the one we taught! It was a big moment for me to realize how much good we are doing here. She told us this English class really helped her family out because other courses were really expensive and they didn't have the money for it. She even asked if she could pray at the end and it was a beautiful prayer.

Final story for this week has to do with contacting referrals. We called and old number that had been in area book for a while and it was a sweet old woman who wanted a Book of Mormon. We delivered it to her door and she came out to get it, soo greatful. The other referral we got was a woman who we thought might just be lonely and want to talk. She lived about 40 minutes away and we were apprehensive about how it would go. Turns out she is a member who's contact got lost when she moved. We reviewed the restoration and her friend even sat in to listen. We have been meeting with her on Sundays and are working on getting her back to church.

It was truly a week of bringing joy to others. I love missionary work and I am trying to soak up every second of it. I am currently reading "Saints" and I am so inspired the the sacrifice made by so many early church members. I am also awed by the trust they had in God. I loved this quote by Joseph Smith. "I am determined to lift up my voice,” he wrote Emma, “and leave the event with God, who holdeth all things in His hands.” I think we can all do the same. Lift up our voices and stand for truth, and leave the rest up to God!