It snowed!

We got the fist real snow of the year on Wednesday, it felt like the winter was finally starting. It's already all melted though and has started to get warmer, so I think winter might be ending again. I was expecting winters in Hungary to be a bit more harsh.

We had a solid week, a bit disappointing because we were expecting some new investigators to make it to church yesterday but they didn't show up. Good News though, apparently a new law just passed that will make all shops close on Sundays starting in the spring. I don't know the details, but that will be awesome, a lot of people work on Sundays so that will be a huge blessing and help to missionary work.

One of our best programs this week was a bit unplanned, a member showed near the end to come to a program right after, but that program had just canceled so she came in and talked with our investigator a bit, shared her conversion story, and they became great friends. Totally unplanned, but it worked out awesome. Those are the best times in missionary work.

We had a cool find this week, it was right after a man (same from last week's email) had tried to kick us out of the neighborhood. He got mad at us for trying to get into a building so we streeted in a big circle for a couple of minutes and then came back when he was gone. We that got in the building and found a cool man we talked to. Super nice, "Do you speak English (He was pretty much fluent), do you want to come in, let me take your coat, can I get you something to drink? (And he even knew ahead of time we didn't want alcohol)" Super nice, he is really interested in religion and how our church is different. We talked a bit and then set up for Wednesday.

We also had a member quote my favorite scene in the Lion King in a program. What does it mean to have the image of God in our countenance (see Alma 5, read entire chapter)? Consider the advice Rafikki gives to Simba right before Mufassa's ghost appears. Actually consider all of the advice Rafikki ever gives.

Something from General Conference (I got and read it through in December, so I'm a little behind) I've been wanting but forgetting to share. Everyone go read the scriptures more. And if you don't think you have time consider the talk from Elder Scott (I think it was him, I know it was an Apostle) in which he says reading the scriptures is more important than sleep, work, school, etc. So pretty much no one has excuses. The scriptures are awesome. Read them.

Love you all, have a wonderful week.

Parkinson Elder

A New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

This year has been super long and full of growth, looking back to starting my second semester at BYU seems so long ago, so much has happened since then. This year will be special as I will be a missionary for all of it.

We had a super good week here. The highlight of it was Gergő, one of the most incredible people I've ever met. We met at English class and got his number a couple weeks back and met once. He offered to say the opening prayer and said an incredible, humble prayer. We then met last week on Friday and Saturday and he came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday. He was getting along well with the branch members, and kept thanking us for the invitiation. It was an awesome fast and testimony meeting too so that helped. Anyway, he's awesome, I feel like he should be teaching us instead of us him sometimes.

We also had a cool experience where we tracted into a part member family. The kids are both super strong members, the son was the branch mission leader when I moved in, but the parents are not members. We talked with them and should start teaching them again now, hopefully that will work out.

I have started to really appreciate when people are just nice. Sometimes even when people some no if they are nice at the door it helps a lot. We were doing look ups last week of people who said to come back, and when we were trying to get into a building a guy came out and told us to leave. He then started walking down the street and yelling up to people in the buildings that the Jehovah's Witnesses were coming round so to watch out. It was great. Right after that we ran into a super nice man, he told us he was super sorry, he had people over, but can we come back Monday? Those little reminders that the world is full of awesome people, not matter how much it may not seem like it at times.

Lots of Love,

Elder Parkinson

Another Year Gone

It's been a while since my last letter, we didn't email last week because we just skyped instead (which was awesome), and P day is weird this week because of the New Year.

Christmas here is Hungary was awesome. A lot of the past couple weeks have been full of tracting. Most of our investigators told us to call them after the holidays, so we have been doing a lot of finding. It has gone pretty well though. I'm super excited for this next couple of weeks because the work should really get going here, all of our old investigators and a bunch of people that we tracted into and said they didn't have time but to come back after the holidays.

We had a sweet baptism on Saturday. Ádám and his sister Szandi. We teach Ádám, the other Elders teach Szandi. The service went super well, they were both very ready. I love baptisms.

We did a little bit of caroling over the holidays, but not a lot. Caroling isn't super big here and a lot of the songs in the hymnbook are English songs translated so the Hungarians don't know them very well. We had some street caroling before Christmas that went pretty well though.

Christmas was awesome, skyping home was sweet, technology is so awesome. You all looked great, the time went too fast. I'll see you on Mother's Day!

We had another cool experience with the Book of Mormon and prayer this week. We finally committed an investigator to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon. The next program we asked, "Did you pray?" "Yes." "And?" "I felt the spirit super strong. And lots of peace." Yes! It was sweet, the Book of Mormon is true, prayer is awesome! All those moments of seeing the effect the gospel has on people makes all the work worth it. This is the most rewarding job ever.

Happy Birthday to Harriet and a Happy New Year to all of you! May we all commit this near year to try and be more like Christ, and more fully give ourselves to the gospel.

I love you all!

Parkinson Elder

PS  I'll try to get some pictures out, but figuring it out on these computers in Hungarian is difficult. Just have David photoshop me in front of Hungarian landmarks.  Don't worry Dad I'll figure it out.

Book of Mormons

It was a busy week. We had a lot of good programs, the work here in Miskolc is super good. We also met some new cool people. We had a couple of Néni's who told us to come back and they made us some paprikás csirke, and we then gave them both Books of Mormon.

We had a dinner at the senior couple's here last Monday, us, the other 2 Elders, and some church members. it was a lot of fun, we spent a lot of time translating back and forth between the senior couple and the 2 church members who didn't speak English (the other 2 speak pretty well). Translating is always fun.

We also had a Book of Mormon challenge this week in the mission to give out double digit Book of Mormon's. We got it on Sunday, it was a struggle though. We had one time where we gave one to a man and then while waiting at the next door his wife came out and returned it. It worked in the end though. It was a good reminder of how important the Book of Mormon is in our work, we need to focus more on that.

Some other people we met this week that made me smile - We were tracting and were having trouble even getting into the building, an old man pokes his head out the window and says, "You want to come in, I'll let you in, hit number 5". He didn't answer his door but we were gratefull to get inside. Another old lady said she wasn't interested, but did offer us some water, she said it was spring water. Super nice, we chatted a little and went on our way.

We also tracted into members here, my first time doing that. They let us right in, fed us, and then we gave a spiritual thought. It was awesome,

Merry Christmas! Make someone else smile.

Parkinson Elder

Santa Came!

Christmas is already going strong out here in Hungary. Santa comes on the 6th here bringing candy to all the good children (and sticks to the bad ones), on the 25th Christ comes bringing the real gifts. So if you weren't sure how Santa gets to all the houses in one night it's because he comes to Hungary early.

Because of the Christmas season we have been trying to focus more on Christ in our missionary work. Part of the big He is the Gift innitiative the church is doing. It's hard because a lot of people tell us they already have a Bible and already know Christ, they don't need any more. It's difficult to help them see what they are missing. That's why the Spirit is so important, I'm so greatful for the gift of the Spirit as a missionary.

We pretty much know all of our investigators now, there are some really great people here in the city. I'm excited to see where it goes. If all goes well we should have a baptism on the 20th. We've also been doing a lot more work here with RCLAs then in Tatabánya, a new part of missionary work.

Also, we finally got the Conference Liahona, so I have been able to start reading through all the Conference talks. Super good. It'll take me some time to get through them put I'm loving them all already. A lot of stuff that I didn't get the first time through.

I also got my first chance to translate here. We have a Senior couple in Miskolc, and so I translated for them for Sunday School. It's definetely a mental work out, speaking in English while trying to keep proccessing what is being said. I liked it a lot though.

Also, an investigator told us Plato's allegory of the cave the other day. I was super excited that I got the reference. Less excited that he is a bit too philosiphical, and not very open to what we have to say.

Merry Christmas!

Parkinson Elder

Miskolc!

I'm loving my second city. My companion, Elder Loveland, and I are both new so it was difficult at first but we are getting the hang of things pretty fast. Elder Loveland is awesome, he's from Virginia and been out for a year, works super well.

We have a lot of investigators that the old Elders left us, so the work here is going great. One really cool guy scheduled to be baptized on the 13th. He is incredibly accepting of everything we teach, and always teaches us a lot as weel, super cool. A lot of other people with good potential, but we still don't know that well, and a lot of people we still haven't met with. I'm looking forward to the transfer.

It is also wonderful to have a decent sized branch, about 60 people in church each week. We have some really great young people, the Elder's Quorum President and the Branch Mission Leader are both about 20, both super strong. And in Priesthood we actually had some decent singing going on. The only hard part will be learning everybody's names, I have a decent memory for most things but names and faces are not one of them.

We found some mashed potato mix and frozen veggies in our new appartment so made ourselves a nice little Thanksgiving dinner. That was about it, it's pretty much and American holiday.

Love you all, have a wonderfull week!

Parkinson Elder

Moving Onward

First off, happy birthday to David and happy homecoming to Hannah! I realized Thursday night that I can no longer tell people there are 3 of us out on missions.

Transfer calls this week! Thus the weekly email coming out on Tuesday. I'm leaving Tatabánya, heading off to Miskolc! It's a big city in the northeast, but I don't know much about it. I'm looking forward too it. I've loved my time here in Tatabánya, I loved the people here. It will be hard to say goodbye, but they will be in good hands with the next missionaries.

We had an awesome baptism on Saturday. The other Elders have been telling us how great József was for 3 months, he pretty much found himself, he bap challenged himself, he's incredible. We had a full member program for the baptism, great branch support on that. Baptisms are awesome.

Fun story of the week, I went on splits with Elder Luke from my MTC group again this week. In the morning we did some look-ups and tracting, about 10 minutes after getting out the door we had a lady call the cops on us. Two women (undercover) walked up and pulled out their badges on us. They examined our passports and made sure we knew our birthdays, apparently we scare people because of how well dressed we are. It all turned out fine, we just moved our tracting area a couple blocks down and hopefully we won't have anymore problems.

I can't think of much else, I have loved serving here and I look forward to moving on to Miskolc.

With lots of love,

Parkinson Elder