köszönöm szépen imádokat.
So here in Eger there is a small building that has been
rented out and that is call the "gyülekezeti ház". Just a branch
house. We have a few familes that come which make up of about 25 people. There
are [YM/YW and Primary] programs, but they really aren´t that huge or as supported as other
places. The biggest challenge I would say is to get the members proactive in
their callings. People sit back and wait for things to happen. I don´t blame
them though. I think it is still an affect from communism where they were just
told what to do and how to do it all the time. Therefore people are
still stuck to tradition, and to doing things the same way. The most
frustrating rejection, szerintem, is when they say, katolikus vagyok.. I am
Catholic. A lot of times they just say it just to say, and they don´t really
know what it means rather than their father´s father was once a "true catholic".
But truly overall, people are kind and listen, and show some kind of interest. . .
Then Tuesday came. It was a cool day, but nothing too
significant happened. We got dogged, met with a new/old investigator. He is
this kid named Bertold who is a son of an already member. He was meeting with
the other elders here for a while, but then he said he didn´t want to meet with
them anymore, so I convinced him to meet with us, and now we are working with
him. Other cool thing is we met with the Katona family. They are probably the
strongest member family here. They have a daughter named Olivia who is now
preparing to go on a mission since that announcement happened. They fed us a
little then we had a message that was followed up with us talking to them about
how we can use them to reactivate a family, and get a person interested in the
church. Some good potential came out of it.
Wednesday was splits. I stayed in Eger with a ZL named Abram
elder. He was pretty cool. We basically did finding all day. It was cool
because we actually got a new investigator that day because we went to Ostoros
to go to a program, but we got dogged so I decided we should go try a house of
which a lady had let us in while tracting, but since that point we had lost
contact with here. Well she was there, and she let us in again, and we gave her
the first lesson, and now she wants to continue meeting with us. She has been
waiting for "an answer" for a while. Her name is Piroska, and she is
super nice! This day was also awesome because Gábor passed his interview! The
baptism is so on.
Friday I finally had my first really authentic Hungarian
food. It started with this soup, then this weird rice puff thingys with kolbász
in it, and also there were spicy/pickled peppers, and cauliflower. It was way
good. I have no idea what it was called. We got this from this lady named
Mamici. Super sweet, old, non-member lady. With us there was also her daughter
and grandson, both also non-members. It was awesome, and we gave them a
message. Problem is the Elders before us didn´t generally give messages. We are
planning on dropping them as well, because they like to do is feed elders. Oh
well.
Saturday was tracting day! Four hours of it. It was awesome
though. We got two let-ins though. One was with this lady and family that we
ended up giving a lesson to, and teaching here about prayer. She gave us a
number and said to come back. The other were this young couple with young kids.
They were interesting, because at first they wanted nothing to do with us, and
then all of a sudden they let us in and offered us coffee, water, and süti. Of
course we didn´t take the coffee, but we sat and talked with them for a while
abou the gospel and about us. They were szuper rendes, and super nice. . . Also that day I tracted a man with no teeth, and I
accidentally streeted someone who was from Thailand. Also last week I
accidentally streeted a deaf person. I always try to street or tract
interesting people. My next goal is to stop a nun . . .
Today has been crazy. 6:30 this morning we played B-ball to
wait for transfer calls. Turns out I am actually being transferred. This was
actually a surprise. So unfortunately I won´t be here for Gábor´s baptism. But it
is really cool where I am going. I am going to the big city, that´s right,
Budapest! Specifically I will be on the Buda side. My companion will be Birch
elder. I have no idea who he is, but he´s supposed to be cool. So these next
couple days will be packing, and other things. Today we also helped a
less-active carry a 100kg [about 220 pounds] desk from the 8th floor (which means 9th here
because floors start on 0 here) down all the steps to the bottom, and then out
onto a trailer. It took an hour, but we did it. It was a lot fun. After that
Elder Wright and I went to a hotel called "Hotel Saint István" to
reserve a swimming pool for Gábor this week. (We don´t have a font here) It was
a super nice hotel, it seemed pretty amazing. If we come back here after my mission,
that´ll be the hotel to stay in. Everything is cheap here when compared to the
USD, so I am sure it wouldn´t be too expensive. :D
That is basically what my week was like, of course there is
the filler parts, but you get the gist of it. Thank you for your prayers, I
feel them every day. I love Eger now, and I am sad to leave it, especially
when the work just picked up. Work is sure a blessing. If there is one thing I
have learned, it would be that work brings many blessings from God.
This last week I actually taught a lot about baptism,
repentance and the atonement, and I will agree with you mother, that faith has
a ton to do with it. That is why the first thing we teach is the Restoration
with BOM reading and prayer right after that. All we ask the investigator to
do, is to have faith. When an investigator really develops faith, there is a
desire there to become clean and to repent. And when we want to repent, and the
first fruits of repentance, is baptism. No unclean thing can enter into the
kingdom of God! We are not here to convert, but to save. Every soul is precious
in the sight of God. I truly love the work here, and I am very grateful to be
here. One transfer down, fifteen to go :)
I´m going to BUDA!
Love you all and wish you a wonderful week
Szeretlek titeket. jó hétet kivánok
Decker elder
