You know how when you're driving, bugs sometimes splatter on the windshield? Well it turns out if you ride your bike fast enough, they do the same thing to your nice, white shirts... I can't even tell you how many bugs I've swallowed straight out of the air either! You know, if you don't think about it, that sounds kind of impressive.

Anyways....

Our week was full of miracles! I don't have a ton of time, so I'll get straight into the stories.

One day, we were tracting. It was a particularly difficult tracting session. The people were mean, nobody wanted to talk to us, one néni roasted us for not speaking very good Hungarian, and I had actually just been yelled at by this guy who was kind of just being a jerk. Basically, we weren't feeling too super about the day... but we kept on going anyways. When we got to the end of the street, there was a young boy riding a bike. He was clearly not natively from Hungary. In my head, I thought, "He's too young, it would just be awkward if we tried to talk with him..." and I kept on walking past him. We knocked on a few doors, and I SWEAR I heard him say, in English, "What the heck are they doing?" 

I ignored it and kept tracting...

Then we got to this house where a man answered. I'm pretty sure he was deaf because I honestly didn't understand a single thing that he said and he made a lot of signs with his hands. He was very nice, and kept pointing in the direction of the young boy on the bike. After that encounter, we were kind of wandering, thinking about what to do, when Elder Gilson said, "Do you think we should talk to that boy?" Immediately I said, "Naw, he's too young. It would be so awkward if we tried to talk with him." I took a few steps, stopped, and said, "But awkward is just a word. Let's go talk to him."

I walked up to the boy, who was now standing in front of one of the doors we had already knocked (nobody answered) and I started talking to him. He stopped me mid sentence and asked me if I spoke English. I excitedly replied that yes, I do know English! I explained that we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that we were trying to teach people more about Jesus Christ, our purpose on Earth, and how we can find happiness in this life and forever. He thought about it for a second and then went to get his dad.

His dad came out and I shared basically the same thing. This time, I included the fact that we believe that families can be together forever and that God is our Heavenly Father, who has created a plan for us so that we can live together with Him and our families forever. He looked at the floor for about 5 seconds, looked back up at me, and said, "Would you like to come in and have a glass of water?"

They let us in and we had an absolutely fantastic discussion with the whole family (there are 4 of them. Parents, a daughter and a son who are high school aged)! They have only lived in Sombathely for 2 months and they have no jobs, but they are searching for work. They fled their home country to find a place where their children could be raised in a Christian household and a Christian environment. They described how they left everything behind to come here. They had lives back in their home country. They had good jobs, family, and friends. But they left it all behind in search of something better.

Elder Gilson tied their story in perfectly with the story of Lehi and his family and how they left everything behind in an act of faith, in search of something better. We taught them about the Restoration, we explained how we believe in a living prophet who guides us and receives revelation from God, and we explained the Book of Mormon and how it can help us. When I started talking about Joseph Smith, the wife stopped me and excitedly said, "He must have been one of those living prophets you were talking about!" It was so exciting!

When we finished, I explained that we typically end with a prayer, and I asked the father if he would like to choose someone to say the prayer. He responded with, "You two are the ones bringing the word of God to me and my family... who am I to choose?"

Before the prayer, the wife asked us if we would pray for them, that they could find work and that they could have help in learning the language. The whole experience was just amazing! They don't have a phone, and they don't have regular access to the internet, so we can only communicate through email and only occasionally. Yesterday, we dropped by with some copies of the Book of Mormon in English, with our testimonies written inside, and they happily accepted them.

Could you imagine if I had just continued to ignore that young boy, and the prompting to talk with him? What if we had just kept going on with our day? What if I selfishly decided that they would never accept the Gospel? I am so grateful that I followed that prompting.

And guess what! It happened a second time, just two days ago!

We were in a little town called Köszeg and we decided to do some tracting, after a lesson we had with a potential (that's a whole different story that I wish I could share, but this is already a novel). While tracting, we found ourselves in a very similar situation to the one we were in on Wednesday; hot weather, angry people, you know what I mean.

Well, we had just about finished that street when we came up to the last house. We were outside the gate, looking for the csengő (chen-goo, or doorbell) but there wasn't one. We decided to leave, and as I turned around, I saw a man out of the corner of my eye, sitting at a table on his porch. I ignored it and kept walking.... As we turned the corner, I admitted, "Actually, I saw a guy sitti-...." and before I could finish, Elder Gilson said, "Yeah, I saw him too. Let's go talk to him..."

I was preparing myself to get denied, but without saying a word, the man stood up and pointed to his gate that was on the other side of his yard from where we were standing. My words seemed to just bounce right off of him. We walked over to the other side of the gate, and he let us in without a word. We awkwardly walked in, and then he pointed to some chairs at his table. When we sat, he said, "Alright, NOW we're in a proper environment for me to hear your message. Go ahead!" 

He was SO COOL! We had a wonderful conversation, and he excitedly accepted everything we said. He said that he really wants to come to our Church, because he doesn't associate with any church right now. He believes that most churches have some truth, but that they have twisted doctrine to fit their own desires. (he loved it when we explained the Apostasy!) 

We explained the Book of Mormon, and when Elder Gilson said that 400 years after Christ came, the people became wicked again, and he stopped us and asked "Wait, why would they become wicked if they had seen Christ?" and I said that it was because they had prospered and forgotten about Christ. He then said, "Ahhh, yeah, we can see this in our world today! People live such comfortable lives, they don't really want God because they don't really need him. They only use religion when it's convenient for them!"

Long story short, it was a great lesson and I KNOW that God led us to people this week. God definitely directs this work, and it's our job to boldly follow promptings, no matter how awkward we think it's going to be! Remember, awkward is just a word!

I would invite you to pay special attention to the promptings of the Spirit this week. What does he want you to do? Who does he want you to reach out to? Who can you lift up? Who can you share with?

I love you all and thank you all for your love and support. Sorry this email is long, it was just a great week and I'm pumped up about it!

Szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

p.s. Hungarian word of the week is "rétes" which is basically this super crazy pastry they make here where they roll out dough as big as a table (not kidding, they can be like... 5' x 7' or bigger!) and they fill it with a ton of stuff and then roll it into a giant burrito and bake it! Try and look up a video on YouTube or something, it's pretty cool.