Hungary Week 81

WOW,

I was blindsided again by transfers!  I am leaving Dunaújváros and moving to a smaller city right outside of Budapest called Érd.  I am going there to get to know the area for a month, so I can get a new mission in mid March.  The only hard thing is that this is just like when I left Szeged, we went from pretty slow work, to 12 baptismal dates and I left right before many baptisms.  Here, as of the weekend, we have 13 baptismal dates and we are planning on having 4-6 baptisms on the 15th of March.  It is just hard to leave right before seeing their miracle of baptism and the results of all the hard work.  I am sure the Lord has a plan for me though.

This last week, we had stellar experiences.  Our days were full of adventure, plannings for zone training, zone trainings in Székesfehérvár and Pécs, a lot of programs, baptismal dates, miracles and joy.

In our zone trainings, we were able to focus mainly on two points:
1. What a successful missionary is
2. How to invite people to make one of the biggest changes in their lives, BAPTISM

We were able to use the experiences of all the people I have been able to split within the past couple weeks because with Elders Ralph, McCurdy and Brown, we set someone on baptismal date!  Elder Ralph just found the person who is on baptismal date, but we were challenging baptism the whole time we were together.  It was awesome to get the missionaries involved and have them share their experiences changing the lives of those they teach.  They all just seemed to glow!

At the end of the training, we challenged two things:
1. Watch the German baptismal challenge everyday for a week (a little clip from the Preach My Gospel DVDs)
2. To follow the 1-2-3 steps to conversion (1st program-contact the person and get to know them, 2nd program-soft baptismal challenge, 3rd program-baptismal date (Latest))

Miracles will come from this!

I also split with Elder McCurdy, the district leader in Pécs.  We were able to talk about EVERYTHING (goals, dreams, challenges, life, etc.).  It was just amazing because we were able to be EXTREMELY effective, set a baptismal date, have a bunch of programs and find some amazing people.

We met this HILARIOUS woman while tracting.  I told her that we brought some questions to ask everyone and asked a couple.  We talked about her religious background and what makes her happy and then she saw our name tags.  She flipped out and asked if we weren't Hungarian.  I broke into to English and asked, "Do you speak English?"  She just started flipping out with excitement, then went off on how she lived in Canada.  She asked if we could help her practice English and then she said, "There isn't much difference between Canadian and American English right?"  I then said, "Not too big of a difference, eh (Like a Canadian)."  She then laughed and said, "YEAH! F**king eh!"  Elder McCurdy and I couldn't help but burst out in laughter.  I haven't heard someone properly pronounce an English cuss word in a LONG TIME.  She was amazing though and we are going back to meet her family soon!

The work is just going fantastically.  People are excited to get baptized and we are seeing miracles on top of miracles.  I am going to miss Dunaújváros, but I know that it is going to be a great last weekend for Elder Jones.  His last weekend as a missionary will be a weekend full of baptisms and miracles; I hope I can come back for it.

I LOVE MY MISSION

Elder Jake Nelson