Week 31

Hello all!!! I have had the opportunity to be a part of one of the greatest weeks I think that has ever happened! And so have you! We have just had the chance to hear from some of the most amazing people in the church, and in the world! Conference was amazing, what else can I say. I loved it, but the best part about it... well it is hard to decide what exactly was the best part about it. But we had investigators come and watch and they absolutely loved it! Let me tell you about my experiences last week a little more in detail:)

     Monday: After we emailed home and stuff, we ended up hurrying home to change and going to meet with E, one of our half English, half gospel people. She told us that she is not wanting to change religions and stay her own. We understood, and we told her we just wanted to share the happiness and peace that has come from this message, and the church. She accepted and still meets with us:) Then we went to the American Restaurant with the sisters and other elders. That was really fun and I loved being able to talk to sister Chamberlain(who is finishing her mission tomorrow) about what I can do to be a better missionary. What she has found that has made the work and the language just go better. It was a great talk. I am grateful for her and her example and I wish her the best of luck when she goes home and onto college.

     Tuesday:Today is one of the most dreaded days in the life of a missionary. Cleaning checks... EWW!!! So we deep cleaned our apartment waiting for Sister Smith and Sister Bagozzi to come and check our apartment. It went well, and after they gave us some advice, shared a spiritual message and said a prayer with us, they gave us Oreos!!! Wahoo!!! What a treat that was to have American food! We then met with Z, and the funny thing was, we had just sat down in the lesson and were about to start when out of no where one of the members from the branch comes in and sits down with us. It was a little interesting. So I saw where that person was coming from, "wanting to help" and be there to do all that they can:) So we used that person in the lesson. It was a little awkward to get started because Z speaks like fluent English but we told him that we would like to talk and practice our Hungarian that lesson. It was a good lesson, and the member shared many points about the gospel which led to Z having many questions. Then we went over to N's house and met with her sister and her mom. We made American brownies with them! It was super good! (Mom, do not worry. Yours are by far the best;) Then we sat down and talked with N about the church. After talking a while, she asked the question. "why are you Mormon?" This is the question we had been wanting to hear from her. We were able to share our experiences and reasoning and bear testimony to her about the church and the happiness inside of this gospel.

     Wednesday: We met with a new man named G. He is a super nice guy and he was a referral from the lady that Cutler rowed for that one day. That lady said that this man needed God in his life. So that is what we went into the lesson knowing. We met him at the branch house, then he said "let's go get some food!" So we went to Chinese and sat down and talked about the Book Of Mormon with him and asked him if it was believable. He said maybe ha. So we challenged him to read from it. Later, we went to G's house, the member who feeds us. We were there with the elders and sisters and she had prepared a ton of delicious food! What a great member.

     Thursday: We met with G again, but this time we stayed in the branch house. We talked about the restoration and why it was important and asked him to come to general conference and see and hear the prophet.  After this meeting, we went to the library because we needed English class fliers. I was trying to figure how to print those out for like an hour! That was the hardest thing I have ever done. Hungarian computers and printing. EWW!!! But it finally worked. Afterwards we went tabling to give out a lot of the fliers we had. Turns out, there was a guy who yelled at us in English and told us we are destroying the world with religion! ha, we told him we are spreading happiness and he did not agree with that. All well. Later, I decided to try and cook palacsintas(Hungarian pancakes) and they were super good! Especially with Peanut Butter!

     Friday: We had the awesome chance of meeting this awesome guy named R. One day during weekly planning, I decided to call some people from the phone (some old investigators) and see if they would like to meet again. This man answered and said yes. We met with him in the park where he said he would like to meet. He is a young guy who is in college studying to be an architect. He is super smart and wants to help us with the language! He also said that now, he feels ready to investigate the church more seriously. I am excited to meet with him again later. Then we met with Z again, and we talked a lot about Resurrection and what it will be like and what happens. We also told him about General conference and invited him to come and there it would be a great chance for him to learn more about the church. He committed to coming. Then we met with S. He was a little late this time, but we met with him for 20 minutes. We briefly went over the gospel of Jesus Christ with him and then set another time to go over it further. We went on splits after that meeting and Elder Cox came and joined me in our apartment. He is in the group just above me.

     Saturday: Cox and I made breakfast burritos together after studies for lunch:) It was super good! Then we decided to go streeting and service looking. So we took a bus that took us as far away as possible and then got off and walked back to the city. We streeted every person that we came in contact with and offered to help wherever we could. We then went to conference and watched the first session of conference live with all of you! Z came to the English session with us and I was a little nervous because he speaks and understand English well, but I did not know about the big gospel words. Turns out at the end of conference he turned to me and said "I feel like that last talk was meant for me." What a blessing. As Cox and I were walking back to his apartment where I would get Elder Cutler back, he told me this. "Nichols, you are a great missionary. Hang in there even when times are hard and do not worry what others think of you. You are someone I look up to." I was so blessed to hear that from him. I think of him like an older brother and I too look up to him. He is one of the few missionaries I really want to serve with! I was blessed to have one day with him and learn from him.

     Sunday: We went to conference again today. Wow. I had no idea that it would be that amazing again! E came to 2 sessions because she liked the first one so much! S came to the last one and said time just flew by! Z came to two  more sessions, he said he went home and hung out with friends, and then watched the last session live! That is like at 10:00 at night here folks! He watched it on LDs.org! He told me after conference that he had a happy feeling, and he could not put a finger on what it was. We setup to meet with him and E as soon as possible.

     Monday: We met with E and discussed conference. She asked for the most recent liahonas(ensigns) in Hungarian and English and wants to read them! She said she has some doubts that she would like to talk about with the branch president here, so we made a program with them for later this week. We then met with Z and he had some good questions about conference. He was very open to it all, and right at the end of the lesson, he said "what if it is true." I hope he continues to receive personal revelation and ponder on what he has heard from conference. He quoted conference many times in our lesson with him. I love this man to death. I feel like we are friends who were lost and now we have found each other. Then we met with E again and this time she brought her friend M. We went over the book of Mormon with them both again. I am happy to meet with them again. We then went over to the other elders and made some rakott krumpli(hungarian dish) and it was super good!

     Now. That is what my week has been like. Full of excitement and happiness! I cannot believe how powerful 2 hours of our leaders speaking truly is! What a blessing it is, to have the time to hear from them every 6 months. I think of it almost as a spiritual uplifter! After 6 months, I am begging to hear general conference again! I loved it and received many answers. I hope you all felt the same way about it as I did. This morning, I received a phone call that said all 4 of us elders here in Pécs are staying! But.. the sister's companionship is being closed down here in Pécs. So we have to take on all of their work and that is no small task. That will be an interesting addition to our week. Ha. I also want to say Happy Birthday to Rachel this week!!!! And a Happy Anniversary to my parents!!! Wahoo! I love you all and you have all influenced my life so much. Have a good week!
 

Nichols Elder

Here is what the outside of our apartment looks like. We are the bottom floor... ya, the one with the window :) 

This is where we watched conference, on that little computer with the Angel Moronic. It wasn't so roomy, but it was a blessing that we got to see it in English. So I am not complaining.