Hungary Week 53

Hey everyone!

Life is good, life is good.  I am already loving this new transfer!  I met my companion in the MTC, so I already knew we would get along great!  The work is going great and I am happy as can be! 

To start the week!

Monday- The would be P-day, turned into a work day

Mondays are usually P-day, but for transfer week, it is just a regular work day.  This day is always crazy!  We aren't sure if we are leaving and we want to visit all those people we met with just in case of transfers and there is the BIG obstacle, packing. 

Our Monday turned out well though!  We were able to meet with some of the greatest families.  We are working with this really cool 11 year old kid on being baptized right now and it is going great.  Miracles miracles.

Tuesday- The big call

We were so excited for this day!  The plan was to get our transfer call from 7-10am, but things didn't go as planned.  To keep ourselves busy, we started off the day with a good game of basketball.  It was really fun.  After that, we headed home for some studies and waiting.

9am rolled by and we began wondering where the call was because we had a program at 10.  At 9:55am, we decided to take off anyways.  It wasn't until 11:30 that we heard the news, not from the assistants, but the Sisters in our city!  Elder Bracken received the news that he was heading to Dunaújváros and getting a new zone leader and I got the news that Elder Miller, a new zone leader, was coming to the paradise of Szeged with me.  That was some important news, so we had to call the assistants and give them a hard time.

We had a great lunch with an awesome member named Géza and a great program with our investigator in a nearby village.  Elder Bracken got packed and we got our rest for the new transfer!

Wednesday- To Budapest we went!

We had to play some tetris getting all of the luggage in the car, but with the sisters we arrived in Budapest in safety.  I met up with Elder Miller and he took his little driving test around Budapest with the office couple.  It was so adorable; it was like me 6 weeks ago being scared to death to drive for the first time in a year, in one of the busiest cities in the world.  The best part of the story, we survived.

 

We headed home and got to work!  We had a meeting that night and were able to get some tracting in.  Someone let us in and started us off on the right foot.  I have some good feelings about this transfer!

Thursday- Finding

Well, today was our one free day, so we hit the pavement.  We went tracting in a small suburban neighborhood and the people were so nice!  People were letting us in their homes left and right.  Although all of them weren't interested, we had some good experiences and some interesting ones.  You have to love the mission.

We had English class that night and the new missionary, Elder Waldvogel, was awesome and gave a great spiritual message in Hungarian!  He did great.

That night we went on priesthood splits with some of the priesthood holders in the branch due to the amount of our programs.  I was able to go with the Sr. missionary, Elder Hulbert.  We taught a family and we had the most amazing experience.  This man who has only read out of the Bible to worship god drew the plan of salvation FOR US!  It was so amazing.  I just sat there in "Aw" as I saw this amazingly prepared man.  Really amazing experience.
We also had another really cool experience.  We are currently meeting with a man who is having a hard time.  From your first glance, you would guess that he is homeless, but if you take the time to hear his story, there is so much more to it.  From the first week we met him, it has been a miracle story, until he disappeared a few weeks ago.  We were lucky enough to meet with him a couple weeks ago, but it seemed like his hardships overwhelmed him and he disappeared once again.
He didn't show up to church and we weren't sure what to do.  Transfer day rolled around and Elder Bracken and I were disappointed that we didn't get the opportunity to meet one last time.
The miracle came on Thursday morning.  Elder Miller and I decided to go running.  After running for 45 minutes, we started heading home when we "coincidentally" ran into our friend!  The man needed our help at that time and we were able to stop and teach him then and there at 6:45 in the morning.

The Lord must REALLY love this man.

Friday- Hódmezővásárhely day

This was the village day!  We headed out to a city that was opened to missionaries before now and met with some of the members and investigators out there.  There is such a special feeling out there.  The people just accept you and love you TO DEATH.

That night, we brought a really awesome girl to institute.  She has never been too religious, but it was great to see her interact with the youth.  The teacher talked about many deep things causing many questions to surface.  

After institute, we sat down and talked with her.  She opened up about all she had on her mind.  We were able to set a baptismal date with her for October 26.  I am so excited for her!

Saturday- Planning and Sport day

This day was super simple.  We planned for the transfer, hit the street for some finding, went and played soccer with some of the European soccer players in the hot city of Hungary (Szeged) and had two great programs at night.  Things are rolling here in Szeged and we have a lot of baptisms coming up, especially in the middle of next transfer.  

I feel super blessed to be here!

Sunday- What did you say?

We had a lot of people at church!  It was so sweet to see 6 of our amazing investigators at church.  Church went great and the Lord really had his hand in our work.  

After church, we set up all of our programs and went tracting again before our programs at night.  For some reason, it was going a little slower than usual, but then I turned to Elder Miller and promised him that someone will let us in before heading out.  Immediately after, an older woman opened to door and called us right in.

(Warning, you may not want to include this in the weekly email) We were excited until I noticed how strangely this 51 year old woman was staring at me after the prayer.  As Elder Miller was talking, she winked at me and asked, "Do you understand?"  Elder Miller didn't hear her whisper and kept going.  Then, she did it again.  At that moment, I knew we had to get out, especially when she all of the sudden blurted out, "You know what that means!  Can you handle this?"

We got out of there so fast!  That was the weirdest moment of my life!  I can't help but laugh though.

Either way, there is miracles coming our way!  I am so excited for the transfer. 

Until next week!

Elder Jake Nelson