September Newsletter

Weekly letter to family

Dear Family,

The Avas,  the apartment subdivision
 just up the hill (2 kilometers) from our house! 

I am sorry that I didn’t send a letter last week. We had a lot of distractions and preparations for project approvals and just ran out of time to write to anyone.  

How can I bear being in Hungary when professional football players are knelling at the national anthem or not coming out onto the field until after it is played?

Let’s see, an increase in the number of hurricanes, an almost unheard-of increase in the number of earthquakes, illnesses, wars and rumor of wars and we worry about football players! I would start to worry about what Isaiah, John the Revelator, Nephi, Jacob and Mormon had to say about the last days, just prior to Christ’s second coming! But then again, who needs warnings, God does not exist.

Tonight, I was asked to go with a newly returned missionary from his mission in Italy to go to the hospital to give a blessing to a 93 year old man who is a member of the church. We also took him the sacrament.

This elderly man was “lost” to church members for over 8 months. The story about us finding him again is miraculous. Due to his advanced age and inability to drive himself to church, his family decided that they would going to have him “disappear” as far as the church was concerned. We were told that he moved to a village south of Miskolc, then that he lived in a relative’s house up next to the Ukrainian boarder. No problems a 1.5 hour drive up there we could visit him. But then they didn’t know the address. We said, “no problem, in small villages we will talk to the mayor and they will know who is in town.” Then we were told they really didn’t know where he was living. One day on the main walking street next to the electric streetcars, two elders were passing out pamphlets. A woman stopped and said that her uncle was a member of our church. She gave his name, it was our elderly member! She said that he was living with his daughter in the Avas. The apartment subdivision just up the hill (2 kilometers) from our house! She gave the missionaries the address and telephone number. She said the elder man was pretty upset about not being able to come to church. She said that he was always kind to all people and was interested in going to church.

We made contact and have people picking him up for church. We have a wheelchair at the church so he can come and go very easily! With a city of 160,000, the possibility of a relative of this man seeing the missionaries and stopping and saying, “Hey, my uncle can be found at this address and here is the cell number of my cousin who is keeping him” is quite surprising.

Last week, he entered the hospital. He will come out in a week, but may only have less than six months to live. He got very emotional when we came into the room. One of the first things he said was that he didn’t want to die. But added, he had nothing to fear. He then bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it changed his life and its messages had prepared him for death.

In today’s world where the big news of the day is what the President has tweeted, how Hollywood has reacted, how government can’t do anything, yet here is a man getting ready to pass from this earth to life eternal and his thoughts are on the important aspects of life. No tweets, no death bed repentance, just a little apprehension about dying, but not one of fear. Hope, in the trilogy of Faith, Hope and Charity has been replaced with knowledge. Knowledge that God lives. Knowledge that Jesus Christ’s atonement is for all people, knowledge that there is life eternal. His joy, being reunited with his wife who passed 30 years ago. 

We went thinking that our visit would be an opportunity to lift the spirit of this gentle man. However, we were the ones that came away from the meeting being uplifted. We were the ones that on this Sabbath night were reminded “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2. To Brother Istvan Jozeph Peri I say, “Thank you. Thank you for reminding me why we are here on earth and what in truly important in life.”

It is my prayer today that each of us stop for a moment and think what are we doing that is not bringing us closer to being more Christ-like. Then stop and do an act of kindness to a neighbor or to a stranger. I bet you walk away feeling the same thing I did last night.

Dad

Elder Jonathan A Moser

Family Letter

Dear Family,

Scott and Riley after a day of
helping flood victims

            First of all, Happy Birthday to Scott.  You spent it the way you wanted to, helping others!  I know your heart was full at the end of the day.

            This past week has been very eventful for our family.  It has made me stop and reflect upon why we are here on earth.  In time of tragedy, the question is always asked, “Why did God allow this to happen?”  A great question for those who have forgotten or never learned why we are here on earth. 

            Spencer W. Kimball wrote in his book, Faith Precedes the Miracle, about this question.  He wrote, “Could the Lord have prevented these tragedies? The answer is, Yes. The Lord is omnipotent, with all power to control our lives, save us pain, prevent all accidents, drive all planes and cars, feed us, protect us, save us from labor, effort, sickness, even from death, if he will. But he will not.” 

            He followed up with, “We should be able to understand this, because we can realize how unwise it would be for us to shield our children from all effort, from disappointments, temptations, sorrows, and suffering.  The basic gospel law is free agency and eternal development. To force us to be careful or righteous would be to nullify that fundamental law and make growth impossible.”

            Grandma Moser was 11 years old, the oldest of five children, the youngest just born, when her father died from the results of injuries after being kicked in the stomach by a horse.  That single incident in her life has played a major role in not only forming her life and how she has reacted to other tragedies in her life, but has taught her children and grandchildren how to also react to tragedy.  Taking that single incident out of her life, would she be the woman she is today?  I will go one step further, “Would she still be alive today?”  Tragedy has forged this woman into a strong woman of steel.  Does God know what he is doing?  I don’t have to answer that question, just look the number of people her life has benefitted!

            Many people both in America and here in Hungary ask why we are here on a mission.  They ask, don’t you worry about your family?  Initially we did.  Then we learned that one of the blessing of being on a mission was that the Lord was looking after our family for us.  We see that they are great examples of King Benjamin’s statement, “When ye are in the service of your fellow men, ye are only in the service of your God.”  All four couples have far exceeded that which their parents did at this stage in their lives.  We are in great awe at what each couple do for their friends, neighbors and strangers.  Service to others is the best way to describe our children.  The great thing is that each provides service in an entirely different manner than their siblings. If it sounds as if I am boasting of our children, I am not, just thankful for who they are and what they are accomplishing.  We are grateful for whom they emulate, our Savior Jesus Christ.

            In a world where too many are protesting against one thing or another.  In a world where we are so quick to point out the faults of one group and ignore the faults of our group.  In a world where protesting and spending so much time using speech that is so foreign to the tone that the Savior used, I just find it refreshing to see people willing to look outside their own life and see others in need, willing to spend their time helping instead of in front of a TV or espousing verbiage on Facebook in protest of something.  To my children and to the thousands of others who each day try to treat people the way Christ has taught, I say thank you.

Dad