Dear Family,
We have now been on our mission for six months! It seems longer than
that, not in the negative connotation. These past six months have been
packed every day with new experiences. The number of events, experiences, joys,
some sadness, successes and some failures that we have had, in our life back in
Scottsdale would have taken four to five years to have the same amount of
experiences, but lacking the joy one gets when providing service to others.
Yesterday your mom and I went on our normal walk (we average about two walks a
week due to our schedules). It used to take us about 50 minutes going up
the stairs and streets to the top of the hill called the “Avas” (“Rancid” great
name for a housing development!) and back. Yesterday it was 28
minutes! Our talk yesterday was around the question posed by your mom,
“What is the greatest thing that you have learned in these past six months?”
My answer after a little thought, “The joy of serving others and the surprising
quick answers we get from prayers when relating to helping others.” Don’t
get me wrong. We do not sit down and “plan” the next week of service to
others. It just happens every day while on our mission in so many
ways. That is just the nature of the mission. I wish I could say we
planned it this way, about the only credit we can take is that we get out of
bed in the morning and strive to begin our work, the service element of our day
just opens up.
Friday is a good example. Thursday night your mom gets a text from one of
the Zone Leaders, “Hey, we were thinking, can we ride with you down to Debrecen
to Zone Interviews with the mission president? We would rather ride with
the two of you than take the train.” The train ride and the car ride are not
that much different in time, but they would rather be cramped in a small car
with us than ride the train (they get reimbursed for the train ride). We
got up early to be out the door by 8 am to get to your mom’s and my interview
at 10:00 am (a 1 ½ hour car ride away!). What did the two missionaries do on
the way down, played a card game together in the back seat, something they
could have done on the train. They wanted adult companionship. (The same
two asked us today after church if we wanted to share their lunch with
them. A member had given them food for Sunday dinner and they shared it
with us at our house.)
On Friday, we get to the branch building in Debrecen for interviews. Mom
has made, what has now become the mission and humanitarian favorite dessert,
“The Maurine Averett Moser’s Chocolate Zucchini bread”. (Two Roma
communities’ favorite, our district and zone’s favorite and now the Mission
President and his wife’s favorite! Thanks Grandma, your famous bread is
now worldwide! We also brought tortilla chips (plain and Barbeque flavor) and a
large bottle of what they call “Mexican Dip”, salsa. We meet each
district’s missionaries as they came in for interviews. I spend time with
the elders and Mom spends time with the sisters. They tell us the
exciting news of new investigators and upcoming baptisms. They love to
tell us about the past month. We get to know each four missionaries in
the four cities in our zone. With the Area Auditor senior missionary
couple in our zone, the missionaries feel blessed to have the attention of the
two couples. We are glorified cheerleaders and that suits us just fine,
even the kidding of being from Snotsdale from one sister missionary from
Fredonia, Arizona!
The other two missionaries from our district showed up at 1:30 pm so what did they need after a 1.5 hour train ride. Lunch, of course. Off to McDonalds with the two hungary missionaries.
After these two missionaries’ interviews, the four of us got into our car and
sped back to Miskolc for a branch activity night. We arrive with 3
minutes to spare, but we had to get a laptop and projector setup for the movie
the members were watching (all in Hungarian, no subtitles). After the
movie began, the four of us went into another room to watch English/Hungarian
Church videos that we will be using in our English classes the next 7
weeks. After the movie was over we loaded everything up and took the two
missionaries to their house and got home in time to cook dinner at 9:00
pm. Service on Friday, started at 8:00 am and ended at 9:00 pm.
Today, Sunday, our day started with a 7:30 am branch presidency meeting.
A new branch presidency, the other two members have never been in a presidency
before. Today, 35 minutes spent teaching the proper way to release people
from callings, then calling people to new positions. We are
replacing almost all leadership, most having been in their callings for over 3
years - the Primary President has been in 7 years! We get out of our
meeting 10 minutes prior to Church starting, only to discover the two Sacrament
speakers are not coming and no bread! Bet that has never happened in
America! Wait, it does all the time! The Church is the same, world
over!
Today per the Mission President’s “request” a combined Sunday School was taught
by me (with the translation help of the elders). Teaching the concept of
proper instruction (not reading directly from the manual and passing it around
the room for each to read a paragraph.) My assignment was to show how to
teach a class.
Yesterday I spent about 4 to 5 hours on this assignment. I’ll use
Hungarian grammar - teaching teaching, what an assignment! I picked the
“fake” lesson “How to give public prayers.” Yes, you guessed it, killing
two birds with one stone! I started by showing pictures of people
praying, arms folded, head bowed and eyes closed! Basic ideas, not in
Hungary!!!! The opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting started out opened
eyed, no head bowed and the statement “Hello Heavenly Father!” and she has been
a member for about 10 years! Too often your mom and I don’t even know
that a prayer is being said because the normal bowed head and closed eyes are
not there including the normal addressing Heavenly Father!
My lesson was taken from Spencer W. Kimball’s quotes from the Priesthood and
Relief Society manual that contained his teachings. He has very good
quotes about shortness of opening and closing prayers in public. I used
the Sacrament prayer on the bread and had class participation. I first
had the other counselor in the branch presidency read the prayer in Hungarian
as fast as he could. What an inspired impression to pick him. He read it
in about 5 second, but pronounced every word! I then asked our Brazilian
missionary who has Hungarian as his third language to read the prayer like he
would in Sacrament Meeting. I then asked which prayer allowed us to hear
the prayer, understand the four acts that we promise we will do this next
week. The “One breathe prayer, Mr. Hungarian” lost the vote. I won
because it made the point, slow down when praying in public.
Why are we here in Hungary? You figure it out. I am too tired and
need a nap!
Dad
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