Saturday, February 27, 2016

Tovább menjünk tovább - "Go GO GO"

It was a fun week this week, we spent a lot of time tracting and streeting, we got dropped by the only investigator of ours that I have met with so far, the others have been hard to set up with. So we went finding. It was great, after being stuck inside a little last week it was great to spend all our time outside working, the weather was great too, and Buda is beautiful, our tracting area is up in the hills of Buda, with a full view of the city, castle, river, and Parliment down below. There are also a ton of embassies in the area, so we have to be carefull not to knock on those ones. We accidentaly tracted into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on Tuesday, fulfilling our call to preach the gospel to all nations. In our defence we didn't see the sign and just thought it was just a really nice house. 

We also found a pair of beautiful Newfoundlands at one house that I was able to make friends with while we waited for the owner to show up. There were a couple of people we were able to share copies of the Book of Mormon with, so we'll see what happens with that. On of them was a lady we started talking to by asking if we could help her fill in a hole in her driveway she was filling in. She said no, but we started talking. She told us that whenever she needs help in her life it always comes from books that she finds and give her advice. We couldn't ask for a better introduction. So we gave her a book that will hopefully give her advice as well.

Also, at church last week I ran into Jeffery Lewis from Minnesota. That was super cool. There were a bunch of Americans that showed up for church and we were trying to figure out the translation for them when I looked over and thought, oh my I know that man. A bit of a suprise. He was suprised too. It was super cool though, and then he and one of his buisness partners took us out to dinner on Wednesday and we got to talk a little. It's good to know there are still great people in the world.

We are planning on going for a hike up in the hills today, so that should be a blast.

Also, I'm not sure if Tom is going home this week or next week, but whenever it is have a nice reunion. Somebody bring 2 chipotle burritoes with avacado to the airport. He deserves them.

Have a great week!
Parkinson Elder

Jeffrey Lewis and Parkinson Elder


Sharing a meal in Budapest

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Feasting

This week started off a bit slow, Elder Priest got sick, so he had to take some rest time. Then one of the secretaries got pretty sick as well (tip, only buy sushi at legit sushi places) so I spent one or two days basically on splits full time with the other secretary while they stayed at home or went to the doctors. On that note, I realize I always forget to give companion info so before anyone reminds me I forgot I will. His name is Elder Priest, he is from Mesa, Arizona, has been here in Hungary a little over a year. He is a cross country runner, so he used to run 20 miles every morning back home. He is super nice and outgoing. At first it was a little weird because most of my companions for the past year have been quieter like me, so it was strange to have someone talking all the time. We get a long super well though.

We had 2 more missionaries go home this week, so we got another delicious dinner with the Szabadkai's.

We were able to meet with a couple of people and have some lessons, but with the sickness and other stuff going on we didn't get to do a ton of missionary work this week. On Wednesday I was going through hard core I haven't been tracting in 3 days withdrawels, so maybe it will be a good thing to get straight back to BYU when I go back, because I probably will go crazy if nothing is going on. I was able to get a lot of studying in though, which is a plus. I read through Our Heritage (getting close to my goal of finishing the missionary library), it was really good, nice to see all of church history lined up next to each other. What especially stuck out to me was the incredible work of the early church members as they established the church. eventually in Utah. And then the statement by President Kimball that we must lengthen out stride. We must not let our contributions and efforts be any less then that of those early saints.

Also, a continuous theme I have been running into and studying over the past few months is the House of Israel. I had a really good talk with Elder Priest the other day about Jews, and it changed my outlook a lot. In the past when I have met someone that is Jewish I haven't really known what to say, but now I might say something like, "Hey my brother from Judah! I'm Elder Parkinson from Ephraim, the Lord's promises towards our people are beginning to be fulfilled. We have a message and a book written for your people announcing that as long promised God is once more gathering the scattered House of Israel and restoring them as his covenant people." The hope of the gathering after many years of being scattered is one of the central messages in the scriptures, and especially in those pertaining to the last days. This is now being fulfilled.

I also found this pearl in Psalms 106:19-20 : They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

Don't be an ox. Don't eat grass. We have way better options.

We also had a run in with a con man. Long story. Another one to ask me about when I get home.

Have a great week!
Love
Parkinson Elder

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Long time no write

So the fun thing about having 2 P-days within 4 days of each other is that not a lot of new stuff happens to write about.

Kispest ended on a good note, we got to have a really good last teaching with V. after a couple of crazy days beforehand, so that was a relief. It was weird not having to travel far again for transfers. After taking trains across the country for most of my mission I haven't traveled anywhere far for a long time. Anyway, we got to have the new missionary training which was fun, and dinner with the Szabadkai's and a departing missionary. Sister Szabadkai is a really great cook.

We had MLC on Friday which was fun. We had some guy from the area come down and talk to us about the churches 12 step program for quitting addictions, and how to use that. It's a good idea for implementation, because of lot of people here have addictions of some kind. I guess that's true for most of the world.

Also, this computer has spell check in English on. Really helpful. Spelling is hard.

I can't really think of anything else to write, really not a lot has happened since Tuesday. I'll write more next Saturday.

Have a great week!
Parkinson Elder

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Moving Right Along...

Transfers again this week. I will be out of Kispest, but staying in the big city, going back to my old area of Buda. So the same ward I was in earlier (although I was only there for a transfer so don't know them super well).  This time I will also be serving as one of the assistants to President Szabadkai. So we'll see what happens with that. I think I will probably be emailing on Saturdays in the future because of that, just a heads up.
It was a fun week to end in KisPest, we found out a less active member we were working with was helping a friend with a move, so we got to help with that. That was a ton of fun.  It is nice to do some good physical labor.  Honestly it was also nice to do some work and be able to see direct results of it. We carry a bunch of stuff up stairs, now the cellar is empty. In missionary work it takes a lot of faith a lot of times to believe that our efforts are doing something, especially on some of those days when they really don't seem to be. So yeah, that was nice. We also got to try and break into a safe.
On that note, we had some good results to our missionary work as well. We had a good lesson last Monday with a new investigator we had met tracting right after she lost her job. She prayed for God to send help and we knocked about 30 minutes later. She couldn't meet then but we finally met Monday, had a good first lesson, she was Catholic and at first as we talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon she seemed pretty passive in regards to it, then the three of us (us and a member) took turns bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it has helped us, and her countanence changed. We haven't been able to coordinate another meeting since but hopefully she will read and pray.
We had a little bit of a rollar coaster again with V. he is signed up to give the spiritual thought this week after English class so that will be good for him. Hopefully we should be meeting with him tonight and I'll get to say goodbye. It's been quite a journey with him, I've learned at least as much from him as he ever learned from us.
I also had an interesting thought this week. Whenever life is getting rough just imagine your life as if you were in a muppet movie. It makes it way better.

Love
Parkinson Elder

Monday, February 1, 2016

Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd

Dear Family,

Long week. But most if it is probably to long and complicated for this email so ask me when I get back.

Stuff that did happen- We were able to meet with a couple of solid less active members, they all went really well, none of them ended up making it to church which was a dissapointment, but hopefully this next week will be better.

We had another experience of being kicked out of one building and then getting let in twice in the next one. And to be fair I don't really blame the one guy for kicking us out, he was the first on the list as we were ringing in, said no, the next person let us in the building, we guessed the building layout wrong and were looking for door number 9 on the top floor, there were only 5 doors, so we ended up in some wierd area with the boiler room. When we came out the guy opened his door, and asked us what we were doing back there. We tried to explain but he told us to leave. Maybe if I had a more colorful tie on it would have looked less sketchy. 

Transfers will be next week, so I'll be writing on Tuesday.

This was kind of a lame email, I'll try to write a better one next week.

Love
Parkinson Elder