Terézia is a sick, old, néni who LOVES the missionaries, but is having a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture. Last week when we went over to her house, she invited us to meet with her neighbor as well. As we were with Terézia, waiting to go over to her neighbor's apartment, she asked us some very difficult questions, and wouldn't accept any of our answers. It felt like playing ping-pong with a brick wall!
Anyways, we walked over to her neighbor's apartment with Terézia feeling as if her questions were left unanswered, and with us feeling a little worn out and uncertain about what was to come. We ended up having a fantastic lesson with her neighbor, and I challenged him to be baptized at the end of the lesson. He said he would, if he got the answer that the things we talked about are true.
Okay, so now that you're caught up with the story, here's why I'm even mentioning it! We were feeling really bad about Terézia, because she's so sincere and really does want to find the answers to her questions, but we felt like we had done all that we could do. We had to leave it up to the Spirit to change her heart, and that was hard for me, because I really wanted to do something to help! Earlier in our week, Terézia emailed us saying that as we met with her neighbor, and as we testified of the Restoration and of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, our words really spoke to her and touched her heart. She said that she felt a power, that told her to try searching for answers again, and to try to listen more carefully and with a more open mind. Then she invited us to come back!
The Spirit truly is the teacher, and can have such a powerful effect on the hearts of people! What would we do without it's influence? I'm so grateful to know that I can have the Spirit as a constant companion, so long as I remain worthy of that gift.
Someone requested that I talk a little bit about what going to church is like here in Hungary. The church buildings are all very beautiful. They are similar in style throughout the country (much like they are at home), and they are much smaller than the buildings we're used to in America. Some of the church buildings are actually in business offices, which are rented out. For example, the Sopron branch house is on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building, right above some sort of business. You can take the elevator, and the floors are labelled "Some business, some other business, Mormon Church, etc." It's pretty different from home!
In Szombathely, we have a beautiful meeting house with a baptismal font, chapel, classrooms, kitchen, and a huge yard with a basketball hoop in the parking lot.
Each week, we have on average 30 to 40 people who attend sacrament meeting. Most of the members ride bikes, or take the bus, so our parking lot usually only has 3 or 4 cars in it. Meetings are the same as they are in America, and the lesson manuals are the same as well.
Church can be overwhelming when you only understand half of what is said at all times, but I always leave feeling happy and ready for another week of work! I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be in this interesting, and beautiful, country!
We had an interesting experience yesterday while tracting. We were just going around tracting, and around 8:30, we decided to start making our way home, streeting people as we went. "For some reason" I felt like we should go a different route. About 10 seconds into our journey home, I started talking to a bácsi on the street, and he asked, "How are we doing?" I was super confused at his question, and he repeated it, "How are we doing?" He was referring to his team in the world cup... Hahahaha. He then went on to talk about his favorite team in the world cup, and.. well, really everything else about his life. He invited us into his courtyard, and we went in, hoping to share a message. He then asked us if we wanted to see his "pincer" which is like a storage area underneath the buildings here (most places have one. They're like... literal dungeons made of stone and people use them for storage), and we agreed to go in.
Long story short, this man was a blacksmith and a carpenter, and he did most of his work in this pincer. I wish so badly that I would have taken pictures, but my camera was dead. It was a real life dungeon, with all sorts of crazy tools and things on the walls! Definitely one of the moments where I stepped back and thought, "Well, I'm in Europe!"
The guy ended up talking for 50 minutes straight before releasing us. Hopefully this interaction will serve a greater purpose in this man's future. For now, it's an interesting story for us!
President and Sister Szabadkai have been released and now President and Sister Hettinger are living in Budapest, serving as our new leaders! We are so excited to have them! We're going to Buda tomorrow for a "meet the President" meeting where we'll learn about the new changes and things. It should be good!
I'm grateful for this crazy journey and for all of the lessons I'm learning. I've been focusing on looking for a miracle each day, and so far, there hasn't been a single day that didn't have a miracle of some sort! I would encourage you all to do the same. You'll be surprised to see how involved the Lord really is with your life!
Sok szeretettel,
Burnett Elder
Hungarian of the week: One of my favorite sayings is "Két legyet, egy csapásra" which literally means "Two flies with one slap". I feel like this saying makes much more sense than its English equivalent, "Two birds with one stone". I've found myself slapping flies far more frequently than I've found myself stoning birds!
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