Me, Edina, and Sister Orme at Mives (Tibor's cafe)
My hot chocolate (73% chocolate with raspberries! yum!)
Me and Marika néni with her kézi munka (handiwork)
Us, trying to find people in the little village of storage units!
Tibor, Me, Edina, and Sister Orme in Mives (Tibor's place)
Dearest Everyone,
How is everyone?!?! I hope you are all just doing wonderfully :)
Yes, our church is now officially recognized in Hungary!!! I actually didn't know before that it wasn't.... how did I miss that? But yeah, this is really an incredible thing :) There used to be only 14 different churches recognized in Hungary, but they recently added 18 more churches to the list, us being one of them. So now there are 32 authorized churches here :) What a blessing that we are recognized now! And it is really neat that Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming this week to meet with the embassy people and so on. I look forward to seeing how this helps the church grow here :)
Things are going great here in Miskolc :) The work is still having a rough start, but it is moving. My companion and I actually picked up our very first 2 investigators together, that we, ourselves, found :) That is exciting. We have been teaching investigators that other missionaries found, but now we have some we found! The mission standard is to get 2 new investigators every week, so we hope to continue doing that and maybe even get Super Standard one of these weeks! So yeah, the work is coming slowly but surely :) We typically go out streeting and knocking on doors for at least 2 hours every day. This week, we have plans to go "tabling" and targeting families. So we will set up a table on the main walking street somewhere for a few hours and have Books of Mormon, The Family proclamation, pass-along cards that talk about families, and so on, and we will just talk to as many families as possible! Then since we are taking a little break from teaching English, we are going to go out and "flier" like crazy to advertise our English class. We will hopefully get a lot of young adults to come. The youth and young adults here really want to learn English because it helps them with getting jobs. So yeah, we have some nice plans for this week and the week to come :)
Here is just a little something that I sent to my mission president that you might like to read too (it is just part of my weekly email to him):
"It has been a rough few weeks in Miskolc as we have been trying to get things rolling (find people to teach and getting the ward involved in the missionary work). But I have been grateful for my companion and her desire to just keep pushing forward and not losing hope. We have been a great team as we have been striving to find people and be good examples to the branch members. In the last few weeks, we have been blessed to develope some great relationships with branch members, including the branch president. Yesterday we saw the most people in church than we have seen since being here! Almost all of the seats in Relief Society were filled, and we went into over time in Fast and Testimony meeting because so many people wanted to share their testimonies. It was incredible. While we are still working hard to find people to teach, I am grateful for the time I have right now to really focus on the relationships we have with the branch members. I believe that what it states in our mission purpose is true. It is two fold. We are not here just for the investigators or just for the wards and branches. The are both connect so strongly! I know that the Lord has something great in store for Miskolc. We may not know what it is now, but as we continue to work hard and not lose hope, the work will indeed start rolling. It is like the story of the the man and the rock. (I don't really know this story, but I will give it a try.)
God came to a man and gave him instruction to go push on a big rock/boulder with all of his might. The man faithfully went out to the boulder that had been shown to him, and he began pushing. He pushed with all of his might, from sun-up to sun-down, and then returned to his home to rest for the night. He did this again and again for a few days. When he felt that all of his strength was spent and he noticed that the boulder hadn't budged even the slightest, he cried unto the Lord, wondering why he couldn't fulfill this task. The Lord then told him, "I never told you to move the rock, I just told you to push it. And now you are stronger. The muscles in your arms, back, and legs have been made more firm and strong for pushing on the rock. You have done what I asked you to do."
Okay, so that probably isn't really how the story goes, but I like it. I feel that my companion and I are being made stronger as we continue to work hard here in Miskolc. And I like to think that one day, the Lord will help us move the rock (he's already helping us, little by little), and the work will start rolling here. I am grateful to be here, and again, I am grateful to have a companion that is full of hope and faith and is there right along side me as we do this work together."
There are definately funny that happen to us as missionaries, haha. For example, the other day, we were out knocking on doors trying to find someone to share our message with. We eventually ended up on hill, and we were surrounded by all of these cute little homes. It was very quiet, and we didn't really see anyone. But we still knocked on a few doors. Eventually we did see someone at their home, way up on the hill! We tried to share our message with him, but he didn't have time. But then we found out that all of the little homes were actually storage units! It was so funny, haha. No wonder no one was answering the door, haha :)
There was a neat experience this week as we were meeting with one of our investigators. She has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, and we have been praying to figure out what her needs are to help her get on track for baptism. She has already had all of the lessons! Well, this last week, we felt prompted to give her the "First Lesson" about the restoration of the church. Just as we were getting into the lesson, talking about dispensations and Christ's ministry, she confided in us that she doesn't have a testimony of Jesus Christ! What a major break through! Before meeting with the missionaries, she had never read the Bible. Now she soaks the Bible up and prays fervently and has developed a good relationship with Heavenly Father. Yet, she has missed the importance of having Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. We are still pushing to get her to read the Book of Mormon as much as she does the Bible (if not more). So anyway, the Lord really blessed us as we came to learn of her need. She is on the first step in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End). Now we are praying that we can do all we can to help her develop this testimony and faith in Jesus Christ.
Last little spiritual note: I was reading this week in Alma about the counsel that he is gives to his sons. Multiple times, he refers back to his experience with the angel and then being born again through Christ. I love that story! I remember reading it a week ago in Mosiah, but there is just something about reading it from his own point of view as he is speaking with his sons that just hit me with the Spirit. We all need to have this personal experience of being born again---- spiritually being born again. We won't all see angels and go through the exact same thing Alma experienced, and for some it takes a lot longer to have this change of heart. I am so grateful to be on this mission in Hungary. As I am focusing on others and try to do what I can to help them, I know that the Lord is chipping away at those parts of me that need to be done away with it.
I wish all of you a fabulous week! Go make someone smile :)
Love,
Kimball nővér
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