Monday, November 23, 2015

The Sound of Music

First off, Happy Birthday David! I hope you had a good one.

We had a great week, a lot of it was full with our investigator who is trying to quit alchohol. We met with him almost every day, he gave me a call on Wednesday and told me he had quit, but that only lasted a few days. He is doing better now then he was though. Also, one program we went to the branch house and showed him around before the lesson, he asked us if he could play the organ.So we let him go for it, it turns out he is and incredible organ player. We sung a hymn to start our lesson and at the end he went and played it on the organ with no practice. And he is self taught and was a little drunk at the time.

We also had stake conference yesterday, over half the country was there, it was awesome to see members, missionaries, even some old investigators that showed up. We also had two seventies come and give great talks, and the stake president was incredible as usual. We were all kind of hoping that the seventies would announce a second stake, or build a temple, or something else really big, but I guess great doctrinal instruction will have to cut it.

We also had another great Zone Training on Wednesday, it was about leadership, and about how we are all leaders. I have learned a lot about that on my mission, how the leadership structure of his church is perfectly established, and so if we all do our part, and lift where we stand, his will will get done. And if we don't do our part then his will will get done anyway but we won't get the spiritual growth and added conversion that comes from helping in it. Also, we made a lot of analogies to Captain Moroni and his army, and so we made another title of liberty. We were wondering what President Szabadkai's reaction would be when Elder Anderson ripped his shirt off, he smiled and took a picture. Love that man.

Also, we should be having a baptism next week, a lady the other Elders are teaching. Her son will be coming down from England to baptize her as well, so it should be awesome.

I can't think of much wlse, although I know a lot of stuff happened. We cut some more wood for a lady in the ward. It finally got cold.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Love
Parkinson Elder


Monday, November 16, 2015

Captain Moroni



Dear Family,

This was a long week, I'll try to remember it all. We had a couple of good programs with members at the beginning of the week, one of them was 1.5 hours out by bus and we missed our stop but we made it eventually and they both went great. We were able to share a great thought with them, I highly reccomend it for any missionaries going to a place with kids, especially if they might be going home soon and have extra shirts (Elder Anderson goes back in a few weeks). We read about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty, and as I read Elder Anderson ripped his shirt off (he had another underneath), wrote out the Title of Liberty on it, and tied it to a broomsitck. All the kids loved it. 2 shirts down.

We also had another great MLC on leadership, we watched the Bible video on John 21 as part of it, I liked it a lot, especially thinking of Elder Hollands talk on the subject. I think he gave that talk right when they changed the mission age. I think we are all like Peter in some ways, where we want to stick with our old ways and just go fishing. Christ gives a very simple alternative. Follow thou me.

We had a sweet program yesterday, a family we tracted into last week, the 7 year old cousin was over, his dad is athiest, and so the kid said at the begenning that God doesn't exist. Then Elder Anderson basically had a conversation with him that was almost word for word Ammon and King Lamoni, the kid was so cute, he loved it. And his dad came over at the end, he asked if we came there every week and said he'd bring his kid back next time we're there. And the lesson with the rest of the family went super well too.

We were able to meet again with the man we met with the big drinking and smoking problems. And we talked with him on the phone a lot. He has almost finished the Book of Mormon, loves it, but is still very addicted and the doctors say he could die anytime if he doesn't quit.

Also, word on the street is Hungary just beat Norway twice in a row in soccer to qualify for the world cup. We saw some Norwegians in viking hats last night on the way to the match.

Love
Parkinson Elder

PS  Finally some pictures for you:

​Elder Lawrence and I about a month ago, we went up to little village on P-day.
Thanks for the cake!
​Just in case Hungarian wasn't hard enough, we have old Hungarian. If anyone can correctly translate it I'll be very impressed (yes, that was a challange).

Monday, November 9, 2015

Long Week

Dear Family,

This might have been the week on my mission we the least amount of
actual teaching going on. All of our old investigators (not that we
had a lot) seemed to be not answering their phones or busy, and all of
our new potentials dogged us. We did have an awesome let in yesterday
with a family that we set up with again for next Sunday so if that
goes through it will make up for all of it.

We also got to go on splits with the Érd Elders, I was with Elder
Santander, I think he is the first missionary to ever come to Hungary
from South America, he is from Chile. It was incredible to see his
example, working to learn Hungarian from English, which he is still
working on learning as well. So no more excuses for me to compain
about the language.

We also had the Primary Program this week in chruch. It went super
well, we have a lot of kids here and they were all super cute. Some of
the little talks and testimonies were awesome. One of the little 3
year old girls had a little cheat sheet for her talk, it had four
pictures, Jesus, scriptures, Joseph Smith, and the church. It was a
great talk.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Love
Parkinson Elder

PS  A quick note I thought the bird lovers might enjoy. My birthday
morning we found a pigeon flopping around on our balcony. It looked
like it was freezing to death, possibly had a broken wing. We decided
to try and rescue it (because pigeons are just a subspecies of doves
which represent the Holy Ghost and we had just talked about trying to
follow the spirit better so this seemed symbolic). So we put it in a
box inside with water and some bread. By the time we started comp
study it was dead. We think it snapped it's neck flying into our
window. And according to the pigeon expert in the mission that we
called up he might have been dead the whole time. Pigeons flap around
after death. Which I guess is good because we aren't alowed to have
pets.

Love
Elder Parkinson

Monday, November 2, 2015

Humility and Happy Birthday!

Dear Family,

This was a long week, at the beginning all of our programs with investigators kept canceling, which was a little frustrating, but it worked out in the end. We did have a couple of good programs with a recent convert women and a les active man. One of them worked out especially well, the women has a 2 year old daughter and we brought a member who had two daughters that he brought with him. So they were able to play in the corner while we were able to focus on the lesson (mostly, the two year old has a lot of energy). 

We also had one really cool program yesterday. Sunday after church we got a call from a man we had met streeting a week ago. It had been right after the Halloween party here and we only had 45 minutes before 9 and that late at night we didn't expect much, but we met a man named Victor who said he would be interested, he didn't know his phone number by memory so we gave him ours and hoped he would call. I had given up hope by Sunday (people rarely call us), but Sunday he called and we went and met him at a bus stop. We taught him about the restoration, he has searched many different churches in his life, but never found his place, and right now he is at a very low place in life, he told us he's out of money, addicted to alchohol and smoking. Really wants to change. We have a long way to go with him but he said he believes what we say and wants to get baptized. It reminded be a lot of Alma 32, being in humble circumstances and ready to hear the word.

We also got to go on splits with Pest, I was with Elder Stanley who is now in his second transfer, it was a lot of fun, and I got to see a new side of the city.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned yet but it's really nice having a companion who can cook. Now that it was bad living off of potatoes and pasta, but some variety is nice. I'll have to steal some of Elder Anderson's recipies and make you all some nice Hungarian food when I get back. Keep planting paprika. And buy a pig we can slaughter.

Well I didn't think I had much to say but that ended up being pretty long. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. And Happy birthday to Tom up in Norway!

Love
Parkinson Elder