Well, this week was pretty interesting, to say the least.
We
had Zone Interviews this past week. It was President and Sister
Baughman's last. They gave some really good trainings. I really
appreciated Sister Baughman's training about perfection. She talked
about how perfectionism can sometimes be a tool of Statan. He knows
that most of us won't be willfully disobedient, but he can get the lots
of the same results (examples including guilt, unhappiness, selfishness,
etc.) from perfectionism, so he'll use that. I found that so
interesting-- I had never thought about perfectionism that way before
but it really can be a destructive attitude. Not to say that we
shouldn't try our best and that we shouldn't always be trying to be
better, but it is important that we accept our limitations and work with
God towards His goals. This zone meeting was also Sister Papritz's
last Zone Conference/Interview thing, so she gave her departing
testimony. It was really great :) She talked about how a mission was
never originally part of her life plans, but how she is so grateful she
has done it. She talked about how the mission has really helped her
realize her potential and to better align her with eternal goals. She
held up a whole LONG list of blessings and reasons she is on a mission.
I can honestly say I already have a long list of reasons for myself and
it is constantly growing. I, too, am so grateful I chose to serve a
mission!
After zone conference, Sister Papritz and I actually
drove back to Budapest with the Baughmans and APs. President Baughman
gave us permission to switch our P-Days and go into Budapest for a
couple of big events. First, we went and saw an opera (Madame
Butterfly) starring one of Sister Papritz's old investigators, who was
baptized about a year ago :) The opera was absolutely amazing! (I am
developing a slight obsession, I think, haha) Afterwards, we were able
to talk to her investigator in front of the historic opera house. He is
super sweet (and has the world's most AMAZING voice-- singing and
speaking. Imagine a bear.... with a honey-fied voice... or something
like that haha.) We slept over at the mission home and the next day we
went to the wedding of one of my old Kispest family. Westsik Lila
married her sweetheart last Thursday and Friday (first here in Hungary
by the state law, and then the next day in the London temple.). I met
with the Westsik family about once a week for 6 months-- they were
always so supportive of our missionary work, welcoming us and our
investigators into their home. Lila and I became really good friends
and so it was really special for me to go to her wedding. Like I said,
their family is very supportive of missionaries and we were actually
able to take a photo of missionaries surrounding the bride and her
husband (who is French and actually served a mission here about a year
ago). So it was a really neat experience! I am so happy for her and
her husband! Other than that, Sister Papritz and I ate at our favorite
Budapesti restaurant (Trofea's-- it is a Hungarian buffet) and did some
souvenir shopping, as she is going home in A WEEK AND A HALF.
Craziness.
This past week was also the end of our 6x6 goal.
And, to be honest, it ended a little differently than we anticipated.
We had started this week with four new investigators planned, knowing
that our week was crazy busy, but thinking we would easily achieve our
goals. However, one by one, each new investigator fell through. We had
a much shortened work week, but we still went went to work looking for
new investigators. We tracted our little hearts (and tired feet) out.
But we didn't find the two new investigators we needed to achieve
standard! We still found a lot of success-- we ended up with one let
in, giving away a lot of "Book of Mormon"s, and meeting a lot of cool
people. But no standard. However, sometimes God has bigger plans for
us than we have for ourselves. God decided to bless us with a different
miracle this week-- a baptismal date instead of a new investigator!
And THAT is a pretty big miracle :) After church yesterday, this
really cool girl (her name is Nik-- I have been to her ice gala and
graduation here) who has been an investigator for over a year and a half came
into the room Sister Papritz and I were planning in, shut the door, and
stood before us with her hands clasped nervously. She told us that she
had something to say... and then announced to Sister Papritz and I that
she had decided she wants to be baptized! We honestly were SHOCKED!
Lots of missionaries have worked with her- Sister Papritz has been
working with her for 6 months, I have for my whole time in Szeged, and
we love this girl to death and have been trying and trying to help her
take this step. However, after everything we tried to do, finally, the
decision came out of the blue from her!! We think it all pretty great
:) It IS totally crazy, though, because she decided she wants to be
baptized in TWO weeks!! So, needless to say, we have a lot to do to get
everything ready :) But I am so grateful! She is an amazing girl and I
am so glad she finally feels it is time for her to take this step that
will bless her life forever. Little did Sister Papritz and I know when
we started this goal that we weren't working to get standard for six
weeks; rather, we were working to see the different miracle of someone
who wants to get baptized!!!
I just want you all to know that miracles do happen,
wherever and whoever you are!!! (I am including another miracle story,
which I had a small part in, for your reading pleasure after my email.
It is from one of my best friends (Sarah Kemp, also a sister missionary
right now, but in Alabama) that I just recieved today that really was
just more testament about how much God cares about each and every single
one of us.) Look for the miracles in your life! I know they are
there, if you just take the time to look :) 2 Nephi 27:23
I love you all!
Kramer Nővér aka McKenna
Hermana Kemp's email:
There
are many good things happening in the work. A few months ago while we
were tracting in an apartment complex that is completely 99.9% filled
with Spanish speaking people, we found the 0.1% that wasn't. He is
actually Hungarian. He told us a little about his life and we talked
to him about the Plan of Salvation. He had a bit of a hard time
understanding us, but he seemed interested in having missionaries
come back so we gave the referral to the English elders. They passed
by and he wasn't as interested as we had originally thought, so they
didn't start teaching him as an investigator, but they shared a
message with him.
This
last transfer, we gave this area to the other sisters to work in.
They decided to retract all of the apartments because you can always
find someone new. And so they ran into the same person and shared
with him and invited him to church. And he came! While at church he
told the sisters that he felt like crying and he didn't know why and
they explained to him about the spirit. He was always full of
questions and always called up the sisters to ask them what certain
words meant in the pamphlets because he only had them in English. He
didn't understand everything, but he loved all of it.
Last
Tuesday, we happened to be in Birmingham, which never ever happens
because we live 2 hours away in Huntsville. We only go down for
transfers meetings if we are being transferred. But whenever we go
down there, we are always excited to check our mail. So we did and I
didn't have any letters :( But as we were leaving the mail just
arrived and in it was a package from Kramer Nover (Sister Kramer)
filled with Hungarian materials for this investigator! It was so
exciting. He already had a Book of Mormon in Hungarian, but Sister
Kramer and her companion and other members sent a Book of Mormon with
their testimonies in it. He has never heard someone's testimony
in his own language so I would imagine that it was pretty
powerful. So we got back and we gave it to the elders who are
teaching him. They gave it to him and he read all of it and loved it.
On Sunday, yesterday, they went back and taught him again and set a
baptismal date for the 23rd of this month! It's so exciting to see
him happy and coming to church. His family still lives in Hungary and
he is going to give them as a referral for the missionaries to go
visit.
I'm
so grateful that Sister Kramer sent that package and that Heavenly
Father put us in Birmingham that day to get it!
This
week, I learned something really cool from the Book of Mormon-we
study and learn from the scriptures everyday, but this one really
stuck with me. In Nephi 18 is the story about Nephi building a boat
to go to the promised land. In verse 2, he says that he didn't build
the boat according to the knowledge of man, but by the knowledge of
God. That reminded me of missionary work. If the world saw the things
that missionaries do, the schedule they keep, the miles they ride on
bikes, and all the things they do all to invite others to come unto
Christ, they would probably think they are crazy. Because what
missionaries do is not "after the manner which is learned by
man." We do missionary work "after the manner which the
Lord [has] shown unto [us]."
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