#4 Debrecen: Press Forward

It's been a harder week but ilyen az élet (such is life). We keep moving forward!! Sadly, our difficult week was reflected in our numbers this week. It was a bit discouraging but we hope to make this next one amazing. 

Zone conference went well. We drove to Budapest with the Oakey's, and hit some traffic and got there late. We talked about creating an environment that makes it easier for the people we are teaching to feel the Spirit. The Spirit was strong in our meeting and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I had my interview with the Mission President. Sounds like next transfer, they will have to find another AP because Elder Martin will be going home, so I may have to train a new zone leader next transfer. We spent some time helping the secretaries, Elder Burnett and Elder Udy, and afterward we went to a Thai restaurant with the Oakey's and another senior couple.

We had the opportunity to hold a companionship exchange here in Debrecen with the Nyíregyháza elders. Elder Wrathall and I worked on humility and using the Book of Mormon to help people grow closer to Heavenly Father. Elder Wrathall is really cool. He is one of the few missionaries in our mission that is from England. His dad is a professor of philosophy at Oxford. He speaks Russian! And after his mission he will go to school in Moscow. He taught me a little Russian, made me intersted in learning Russian after my mission. We had a fantastic lesson with our favorite new member Andrea. We discussed the purpose of the sacrament and how new member lessons work. She is very excited to keep moving on the covenant path and strengthen her faith. I was a really good split. 

We had a let in with a former investigator, and to be honest it was the most awkward let in of my mission. They welcomed us in, invited us to sit down, and then brought us a large bowl of boiled eggs and asked us to eat them all... and when we left they sent boiled eggs with us. After we left I was feeding dogs eggs. It was strange.

The biggest upset of the week was that we got a call right in the middle of weekly planing from the police and they said that they had found our "Graffiti" that we left all over the big city park and over by the stadium. While I was with Elder Wrathall, Elder Surdu and Gilson did some streeting and chalking. I've done this in every city I've been in and missionaries do it everywhere. The officer on the phone said we had 4 hours to clean it up or he would sue us and the church, so we spent 3 hours cleaning up our sidewalk chalk everywhere. So I guess that is another creative finding activity that is completely illegal in Debrecen. We are trying to figure out what we can do to be more effective because our finding opportunities are more limited. Debrecen isn't the easiest city to proselytize. It's frustrating.

On Saturday we also met with 3 or 4 member families. We made cookies and went and delivered them to members in the branch to get to know them better. We hope we can improve our relationship with them and that will help us when we seek referrals from them becuase in my experience people who get baptised are mostly those who began learning about the gospel because of their contact with a member. We also took cookies to Katalin, who we are hoping to teach more seriously.

I had the opportunity to translate all of the Sunday meetings and classes for the senior couple this last week at church. Live translating is very difficult, mainly because I understand lots of words and concepts in Hungarian that I don't really know how to say in English or don't know the words for. It's also hard to speak and think and listen all at the same time, and during Sunday school I needed some help from my companion. It was to hard to live translate verses from the book of proverbs. I hope as I do it more that it will get easier, I've not had many opportunities on my mission, but if I want I can have it every Sunday, it will help me I hope.

My spiritual thought this week is about the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love the prophet of the Restoration and I look to him as an example and role model in my life. He was not a perfect man but he was called by God, and through trials and faith became a more perfect man step by step. I love section 135 in the Doctrine and Covenants. 

"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it... He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood."

One of my favorite quotes from the Prophet Joseph smith is: 

"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." 

As missionaries we are continuing on that work, the work of Jesus Christ in the last days that was started by Joseph smith in a grove of trees with a simple prayer. I feel so fortunate that I can serve my Heavenly Father and participate in this work.

I love you all, stay safe and happy. Isten veletek míg újra látlak titeket!

Sok szeretettel és törödéssel, Morgan elder.