#8 Buda: God is Always Bigger

The Mission Work:

The work is coming along! We had a lot of lessons this week, which felt really good. We had two really good ones. One was with a new investigator named Viktor. He is from Peru, but has lived in Hungary for more than 30 years, is married to a Hungarian, so we taught him in Hungarian. He has an interesting story. He's a physicist who went to school in Switzerland. While in school there he met up with a bunch of Colombian students who invited him to go to Prague for a weekend vacation, he went with them and then his new "friends" left him stranded in Prague with no money and he got stuck behind the Iron Curtain and eventually he ended up in Moscow going to school and then he was expelled because they found out he wasn't a Soviet citizen and so he went to Hungary. Interesting guy, and a faithful man. He was Catholic but he has many problems with the Catholic doctrine, church and history. We had a really good lesson with Viktor about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. He was very positive and excepting of our message. He even explained to us the Great Apostasy, it was supper cool. We look forward to meeting with him again.

We also met with Lajos again and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. We read with him "God’s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon" by Elder Callister. It really touched him and helped him really get a sense of what the Book of Mormon clams to be. He has said before that the Book of Mormon is a good book and a interesting story but he doesn't see its importance to him. After reading this with him he wanted to know if what the Book of Mormon claims to be, if it is true. It helped us get pass a stumbling block with him, and now we can move forward. I'm grateful for General Conference and all the teachings of our church leaders.

We met with a Romanian woman over Skype, she's been working with some sister missionaries in Romania but her native language is Hungarian, so we have begun meeting with her electronically and teaching her in Hungarian. There is a sizable Hungarian population in Romania and she doesn't speak Romanian very well, and taking the lessons with the sisters in Romanian has been hard for her. She responded really well to the lessons with us in her own language. That was another really nice teaching experience this week.

In addition to these wonderful lessons, we had two others with members who helped us teach our lessons to our investigators. Their help is so important. We had a recent convert from Eger who has become inactive since he moved to Budapest just show up on our door on Friday. He brought a friend with him and we're going to teach her. She wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and together they came to church (and with her baby). We're not sure if they are living together or not, but we suspect that they are; so that will be something we will have to address at some point. It was great to teach young people. We are always looking for young people to share the gospel with.

On Saturday we went to Páty (a small town about a half hour out of Budapest) with the Skow's to do  service for a young couple who bought a new house that needs updating. We spent spent 6 hours removing wall paper in their house. I've learned that wall paper is a really really really bad idea; now I know that if my future wife ever says, "Hey, let's put wall paper up." I will say "NO, WALL PAPERS BAD!!" -- Anyway, it was crazy... but, it was good service.

Church was special this week. The stake YSA had a trip to the Rome Temple open house this week and so several of them bore their testimonies during church on Sunday and the stake President Southwick talked about how important it is to have a temple nearby and what the members need to do in their own lives to prepare for a temple. He shared 1 Nephi 22:17 "Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire."

It was a great week when it came to the mission work.

The Office Work:

When I was in middle school I took one of those aptitude tests for career placement, and at the time I thought it was really dumb. The test said that my number one career match on the test was logistics management, and I thought that was pretty stupid at the time, mostly because I had no idea was it was. I'm starting to realize that my whole job in the office is logistical management. For example, this week President Hettinger says to me, "We are having a week of various conferences with the area President and we need you to get every missionary there and back in the most efficient, orderly, and timely manner within this budget." So basically in the course of three day I make this super complex plan of people moving around on trains, buses and airplanes... booking all the tickets across international boarders with three different currencies. So basically I do logistics. I organize schedules, move missionaries, manage large budgets, and put together complex plans for hundreds of people.

In My Personal Study:

On the subject of Missionary Work and how it is God's work, I've been pondering about how people come to know the truth. I've been thinking about how different people respond to our message. Some have no interest at all but others are very thoughtful about it and even show interest but don't accept the invitation to learn more. I've learned that even though that is sad in the moment, it takes time for people to accept the gospel, especially when they are having spiritual impressions and feelings, they might not recognize them at first. I've been thinking about how many contacts with the teachings of the gospel that it takes for them to really grasp onto it and begin to accept invitation to learn and join the church. I was reading my dad's conversion story and saw that there were four different contacts with church related things before he began actively learning the gospel. So, every good experience we give somebody is one experience closer to baptism.

Elder Smith and Elder Burnett had an experience in Debrecen had an experience where they met a pastor of a bible study group and then she invited them to come to their church worship services on Sunday and they went and the bible study pastor invited them to teach the congregation about what they believe, and many of the people wanted a Book of Mormon after that. That's super cool. I wish something cool like that could happen to me but I have been blessed to be planting seeds and God knows if these seeds are miracles in the making.

This week I read in the Book of Mormon one of my favorite parts, Helaman 5 and 6. I just want to be Nephi and Lehi when I grow up. Its just so awesome. All I can really comment about it is, sometimes when it looks like all is lost, like the Gadianton robbers and Lamanites are going to kill everyone, God sends his miracles and in the last moment, everything is okay. Being on God's side is the best, because you have the most powerful being in the universe, the "biggest arms" and "deepest pockets" on your side, cheering for you. That is what it means to not fear what man can do. "What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty ..." God is always bigger.

Thank you for sending me pictures and emails, it means a lot. I love you all and I hope everything goes well this week.

With love from Eastern Europe,

Sok szeretettel, Elder Morgan