Last Monday, we had a lesson with the Hajnál family, which consists of Veronika (the mom), Bogi (the 8 year old girl), and Viola (the 3 year old girl). We brought the Elder's quorum president with us and the lesson went so well! We mostly teach the children because Veronika isn't super interested, but she wants her girls to be raised with good standards and she loves to have us over. We brought our little picture Book of Mormon over and read the story of the Brother of Jared and the stones of light. Veronika had a friend over, who brought her two kids, Jasmine (8) and Robi (3). They also sat in on our lesson and they loved it! It was so awesome because Bogi already knew the story before we even shared it, because she had read it by herself in her picture Book of Mormon! She and Jasmine had a great time and participated a ton. My favorite part of the lesson was talking about the tower of Babel and why the Jaredites were leaving in the first place. I started speaking English and asked the girls if they would stand up. They laughed and obviously didn't stand up. Then I said "stand up!" in Hungarian and they stood up. We then talked about how the Lord mixed up the language of the people as a punishment for their wickendness.
I had a ton of fun in that lesson! It felt like teaching a primary class. We're hoping that we can find someone who will give Bogi a ride to church each week so that maybe she could get baptized. It's a tough situation because she really wants to be baptized, but every other week she is with her dad, who hates the Church and doesn't want Bogi to have anything to do with us. Maybe over time, his heart will be softened.
We also had splits with the Győr elders, which were super fun! We tracted and streeted and white boarded and did all that we could to find people to teach. We call ourselves Johny Appleseed missionaries, because sometimes, all we do is plant seeds. There's nothing wrong with that! We spoke to a lot of people, bore testimony of Christ, and offered our help to everyone we saw. It's really cool to see how people's facial expressions change when we start talking about the Savior. We spoke with one bácsi who claimed to be an anti-Christ and I had one of my boldest moments of my whole mission! The man said that we can't know that God exists because we can't see Him or feel His presence.
That's when the Spirit took over and I just started talking. I said, "You know what, you may not be able to see God, but you can absolutely feel His love! We are his ordained representatives on the Earth and we can promise you that He loves you and knows you. He sent us here, from America and Australia (my comp at the time was from Australia) just so that we could tell you that He loves you. We are learning Hungarian just so that God can tell you and show you that He loves you." The man looked down at his feet, and then back at us and then back at his feet. He told us that he already had a Book of Mormon from some missionaries who came to him a long time ago, and that he had read it many times but never felt anything. Then he told us that he would read whatever we gave to him, so we gave him a pass along card with our information and told him to read Alma 30 and he told us he would gladly do it. It was a super cool experience and who knows where that 15 minute conversation will lead that man.
We played bean boozled with the Győr elders and let me tell you... spoiled milk jelly beans are from the devil himself!
We also got to see the baptism of Ana and János this week! They are the ones who got married last week. They were super excited to be baptized and they both bore their testimony after the baptism and it was super powerful. So many people came to support them that we barely had room for everyone to squeeze into the room to witness the baptism!
Sister Colt also had a baptism that day next door in Romania, and the girl's name is also Ana!
Alright well, this update is getting super long, so I'll wrap up here in a second. I wish I could just write everything, but so much happens in a week that it's literally impossible to share it all. Here are some quick bullet points of things I wanted to share:
-I ate a nutella pizza yesterday and it was exactly what it sounds like
-I saw a huge beetle that was as big as my nametag (got a picture of it too, so don't worry!)
-I also saw a wasp that was as big and as thick as half of my pinky (in other words it was huge)
-In Hungary, they used to force students to write with their right hands
-I'm still getting used to riding a bike and I'm still super saddle sore
-We have an ant problem in our apartment
-I am very sunburnt
-I love being a missionary!
It's so good to be here! I love misisonary work and I'm having so much fun! It's hard, but it's seriously the best. I'm so grateful for this opportunity and I'm so grateful to know what I know. As members of the Church, we have the most important information that there is to have! We know that God lives, that He loves us, that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from sin and from death, and we know that someday, we can return to live with Them and eventually become like Them! We have a long way to go, but we know that as we strive each day to improve and follow Jesus Christ's example, then everything is going to work out in the end.
Sok szeretettel,
Burnett Elder
p.s. Here's a fun Hungarian sentence I used this week to memorize some words:
"Fogadok, hogy fogkefét fog használni mialatt a fogházban van!" Which means "I bet he'll use a toothbrush while he's in prison!"
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