It's raining, it's pouring....

It started raining last Monday and I haven't seen a blue sky since then. Luckily, I love rainy weather! Not so luckily... rainy days are harder because nobody wants to talk to us on the streets, and nobody will let us in because they think they'll get sick if they let us in, ha.

Last Monday, we went to Memento Park, where they keep a bunch of statues of communist leaders. Supposedly you're encouraged to disrespect them, since they're communists, so we got some good pictures playing with the statues.

One cold, rainy evening, Péter was scrolling through Facebook, when he saw a post about the Book of Mormon. He became interested and found out about the Gospel Library App. He downloaded it and read some things. At first he thought, "This is nonsense!" but as he continued reading, his curiosity grew and his heart started to change. He was so intrigued that he looked for more information online. He found himself on mormon.org/hu, where he saw a prompt that said, "Talk with local missionaries using our chat function!" He typed out a message and sent it off.

Change Scene

Elder Burnett, the referral secretary for the Hungary/România Mission, had just finished up a major assignment in the office, and decided to take a look at the referral manager. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw a message from a man named Péter, asking about the Book of Mormon and the people who read it. Unfortunately, Péter sent his message late last night, when nobody was in the office. Elder Burnett sent an email, explaining a bit about the Book of Mormon and the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and asked what sparked Péter's interest about the Church and offered to meet up sometime to gift him a copy of the book.

A response from Péter quickly followed. Péter explained how he found out about the Book of Mormon and asked to meet ASAP. Unfortunately, Péter lived in a village about 20 kilometers outside of Budapest. The two parties agreed to meet using Facebook video-chat and set a time.

Hahaha I don't have enough time to keep writing in that style, so I'm going to just tell you all what happened. Péter met with us through video-chat and we had an awesome discussion. He was so excited about what we talked about, that he wanted to meet the next morning as well, but in person! The next day, he took a train to Buda just to meet with us. We had yet another amazing discussion, gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and by the end he had agreed to come co Church, read the book and pray about it. After he left, we were just dumbfounded and the seemingly perfect person with whom we just met. He seemed so prepared and we were so certain that he would progress and be baptized within weeks!

The next day, we logged into Facebook to do our online proselyting (Elder Udy and I have been assigned as Facebook missionaries- we proselyte online for an hour each day and manage the official page for the Church in Hungary) and I saw a response from Péter.

"I got my answer. The Book of Mormon is a wonderful book, and it has opened a lot of opportunities before me, but none of those are within your church."

Heart=broken

I tried everything that I could to hang onto him. I sent him links, bore testimony, made promises, and shared personal experiences to try to convince Péter to keep searching for the truth and to keep talking with us. He replied simply with, "Best of luck. Thank you for everything."

I was just filled with confusion. What did Péter read, see or do that convinced him to spin a 180 on us like that? What did we do wrong? What more could we have done? If he really read and prayed about it, why didn't Moroni's promise come to fruition? These questions have pestered me all week.

Everyone has agency. Everyone is in a different place in their own personal mortal journey. I'm still looking for answers to those questions, but I think that the thing that has brought me the most peace is knowing that God has a plan for each and every one of us and He is perfectly aware of each of our personal situations. He knows where each and every one of us are in our journey. We just don't have that knowledge. We can't see the whole picture like He can. Sometimes things don't work out the way that we expect, but that doesn't make God unfair. That doesn't make him unaware or unjust or unkind. He just simply knows what we need better than we do. I think that maybe I needed to have this experience with Péter in order to understand this better.

A combination of the weather and disappointments like these caused me to feel a bit blue this week, and that feeling blue lead me to really reflect on some important things. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and I think that it came at just the right time for me this year. In the midst of my confusion and blues, I couldn't help but think about how blessed I am. A year ago on the 22nd, I had my surgery. I'm blessed to be back in Hungary serving as a missionary again. I'm blessed to have a family who loves and supports me. I'm blessed to know what I know about God and about Jesus Christ and about the Holy Ghost and about life in general. I have direction, I have peace, I have help from the Savior. I have running water, I have adequate clothing to keep me warm, I have a bed that I can sleep in at night. I could go on forever, really. Thinking about how blessed I am, rather than how disappointed I was, made such a difference this week.

Count your blessings and you really will be surprised!

Other highlights of the week:

-Elder McCann gave me a haircut and did a great job!

-We Had a beautifully prepared, delicious Thanksgiving meal with the Russells. I felt like I was home!

-We went Christmas caroling and saw a lot of great success with that, despite the fact that it's still November

-We found a new restaurant that's super cheap, super close, and super Hungarian

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Think about your blessings, especially during this season. As we prepare for Christmas, we will feel more gratitude as we focus on the Savior and all that He has given to us. His atoning sacrifice for us is the greatest gift ever given.

Have a great week!

Elder Burnett