2 wonderful years!!!

The last one....

These last 2 years have been absolutely incredible and life changing!  I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve the people of this amazing country and am so incredibly honored to have been a tool in Heavenly Father's hands over the course of these last two years!  This work is truly so amazing!  

It was a good last week in Hungary!  On Tuesday we went up to Budapest for a, "Meet the President," meeting.  President and Sister Hettinger are remarkable people that are full of energy and are truly called of God to be leading us at this time.  They have already incorporated some new things that we have been applying and have truly been seeing miracles from.  Although I really miss the Szabadkais, I fully support and sustain the Hettingers as the new mission presidents of the Hungary Romania, Budapest mission.  

We were able to see a miracle on Tuesday night as we felt promoted to go and tract on a street not too far away from our apartment.  We were able to tract into a woman named Barbi, who at 1st was hesitant, but after bearing testimony of the doctrine of Christ, let us into her yard where we taught her and two other families (who had come from Romania, but spoke Hungarian) the message of the Restoration.  We set up for a couple days later and when we returned, we brought our branch mission leader, Brother Füredi, who has known Barbi since childhood!  We were able to teach her and one of the other families about the Plan of Salvation.  

The investigators are doing well.  János was able to read from the Book of Mormon as well as Alajos and Endre.  We were able to have Mária in church and were also able to have Tamás from our part member family we have been teaching.   We also had a potential investigator come to church by the name of József, who we will be meeting with tonight, he seems prepared.   I was able to speak in church this past Sunday!  I spoke about the need to follow the prophet in these the latter days and how if we live according to the gospel we can truly be happy.  I spoke about how President Nelson is really emphasizing 1. The Book of Mormon 2. Temple and family history work (making time for it) 3. Receiving personal revelation 4. The importance of ministering.  

We were able to take part in a huge miracle yesterday (more than one actually).  We were doing companionship study in a local park and I saw this girl walk by and felt impressed to speak with her.  She invited us over that very day and we met with her, her dad, and her little brother.  The girls name in Dorina although it did not really interest her dad and bro, it really interested her and we set up to meet again.  After that, we got a let in to a man named László who lost his wife.  We testified of God and His plan and set up again.  We found an additional 10 potential investigators and were able to help a member put together a cabinet for his sister in law who is not a member but might want to start investigating, we did not plan it, but the Lord lead us to them.

I know with all of my heart that this is the work of Almighty God.  He is truly at the helm and if we turn to Him constantly and live according to His commandments and His Gospel He will ALWAYS provide and we will experience pure joy!  I know that my Redeemer lives and I know that through his grace weak things can be made strengths and that we can stand spotless before Him at the last day.   The Book of Mormon is true and is truly the most correct of ANY book on earth, and this is truly the church of Jesus Christ restored in these the Latter Days!   I love this work so much! I love you all so much and am so grateful for you! 

See you soon, 

Gentry elder 

Miracles, miracles, miracles!

We were able to have a lot of miracles take place this past week as my title implies!  We had a really amazing start to the week, as we had President and Sister Szabadkai make the trip down to Pápa on Tuesday, in order to take us out to lunch and say an official goodbye.  I truly do love them so much and I am so honored to have been able to serve with and learn from them!  They are truly wonderful!  

We were able to go on a really amazing daily exchange with our district leader Elder Jameson and his companion, Elder Seeley.  The exchange took place here in Pápa and it was a really an exchange full of miracles. I was with Elder Jameson and I felt an impression to go and tract a nearby 2 to 3 story building (mind you that I listened to President Uchtdorf's talk about the 4th floor last door that very morning). We started to tract and no one was really  interested. On the last door we knocked on, however, a miracle happened.  We were let into by  two young parents to 2 really adorable young children.  We were able to teach and testify of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and it was really a good experience!  These people are SO prepared and one of them had just weeks before had a conversation with an LDS man in, I think, Italy.  We are going back tomorrow. In that very building we met a man who told us we could come back the following morning.  We came back and were able to meet with him and his wife.  They are the parents of two really cute little boys.  We testified of the Book of Mormon and how the Gospel truly blesses families.  They really seemed to like it and we set up again.

We were also able to have a miracle take place as we were meeting with another woman.  She is going through some hard times in her life and we were able to bring the Elder's quorum president.  He worked with her for a long time at the same work place and they got along great (we did not know that beforehand). We were also able to find another new investigator.  We met twice with her and after the second meeting, we tracted into her aunt and found out that just earlier that day she had been telling her about the church, so amazing! 

We were able to have an investigator in church once again and the Lord keeps honoring us so much!  I love you all so much, have a great week!! 

Gentry elder

  

It was a great week! Post Date June 25, 2018

We were able to have a wonderful exchange this past week with the Zone Leaders from Győr.  I was able to serve with Elder Pulsipher and we were able to get some really great work done.  We were able to have a few teachings (members helped in every one) and we were able to get let in to a nice family.  We were able to also find some good potential investigators as well.  

We were able to find a couple of new investigators this past week! One was a sister that we found through tracting.  She is a single mother of two and she met with the missionaries about 20 years ago as a teenage girl!  We were able to meet with her the following day after we met her and we brought the district president, President Szür.  The lesson went well and we spoke about the Plan of Salvation and bore testimony about how much these things have helped us in our lives!  We were going to meet tonight, but she cancelled, hopefully we can meet soon!  We also met a new family, first with the father.  We spoke about many of the fundamentals of the gospel.  We spoke outside his door, but then he let us in to meet his girlfriend/wife (not sure) and there 5 month old baby.  They are soldiers and are very kind.  

We were able to meet with another investigator (an older woman) and it went really well.  She was able to come to church again and stayed for Sunday school.  We had a great meeting with another investigator/part member family.    We spoke about the Book of Mormon and the member that helped bore really powerful testimony.  They are doing well!  The Lord is honoring us so much and I am so glad to be a missionary!  I love you all and will finish strong!  

Gentry elder 

It was a good week in the city of Pápa!

So as the title says, it was a good week this past week!  It was able to rain a lot this past week which is totally fine by me, it really cooled things down which was really awesome.  We were able to work despite the rain and the Lord honored us for it!  

So with regards to Rómeó, we have good news and bad news as well.  The good news is that we were able to meet with him.  He is doing really well, just a bit overwhelmed with his deployment to Afghanistan coming up. He told us in our meeting that he still had the goal of getting baptized before he went out, which he originally thought was going to be late July or August.  He called us, however, on Friday night and informed us that he is actually going to be heading out this Friday.  We were pretty bummed but we know that he is going to be baptized, just going to have to wait until he comes back from his trip.  

We were able to have 4 investigators in church which was really awesome to see.  We were able to have our investigator family there.  It looked as though they enjoyed it, they just stayed for sacrament meeting, and the best part was that the members were able to fellowship them.  We will be visiting with them on Tuesday.  We were able to have another investigator there who is a very nice older woman that we have now met with twice.  She really seemed to enjoy it, and we met with her the day before with the branch president, President Bauer. He was also Catholic and was a big help in the lesson.  We were also able to have another of our investigators there with his mom who is a member. We met with them yesterday night and were able to speak about the Book of Mormon, we also read with them from 1 Nephi as they had not really been able to read much.  In church, I translated for a senior missionary named Elder Ommen, as he gave his talk in sacrament meeting.  After church, we had two other senior missionaries there who had a presentation on the new audit system for the church.  I was able to translate in that meeting as well, the gift of tongues is real!  

We were able to find 2 new investigators this past week.  One is named TODD!!  I KNOW RIGHT! Our meeting with him was really great, we were able get let into his home on a rainy night.  He works for the US military here in Hungary and lives here with his girl friend.  We also met with Éva, the girlfriend of our investigator János.  We spoke of the plan of Salvation and she told us that from the time we started meeting with János, there is a different feeling in their home, we testified it was the spirit, who leads us to find the truth! 

We also were able to meet with our investigators Ferenc and Vere, they don't really want to meet anymore though, and we also were able to meet with our investigator Zsuzsi and her son Dávid, our branch president also helped us with those.  The spirit was so strong in the 1st meeting with Zsuszi as we spoke about the 1st vision.  They were not able to come to church but we hope this week they will come.

This work is amazing the Lord is honoring us daily! I love this work and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Gentry elder

It was a solid week! Post from June 11

Hello my absolutely amazing family.  As the title of the email says, it was a pretty good week!  We were able to have Zone Conference this past week, which was really spectacular!  We were able speak about how to work with the members and how to get them more involved in missionary work.  We were also able to speak about unity and president did a really amazing job speaking about that, he spoke about how if we are successful in living the gospel, then naturally we will develop skills that help us with worldly pursuits as well.  We also spoke about one of my favorite topics, that being obedience, and how obedience brings so many blessings! I was also able to give my departing testimony and hear the Szabadkais give theirs as well! 

With regards to Rómeó, he had to travel this week to Germany which means that we are having to postpone his baptism.  He is going to be a great member, I really know that, it is just going to have to be a bit more in the future.  We were able to run into him on the street yesterday and it was good to be able to catch up.  

We were able to find 4 new investigators this past week!  On Monday night, we were able to tract into this man named János.  He is not incredibly religious but he really has tried to do what is good but has felt like he has only gotten bad in return.  We were able to testify of the Plan of Salvation and that according to this plan, we can obtain perspective and every thing that happens can be for our gain.  We testified that this was the joy he was looking for and that this would bring him happiness.  We returned and met with his mom who was also interested in hearing more, it seems like they have potential.  We also tracted into a man named József and his girl friend Kati.  We testified of the Restoration and how truth had been brought back to the earth again.  They seemed to really like it, we are going to be returning tomorrow.  

We were able to speak about the Plan of Salvation with our investigators named Endre, Anna, and András.  The Lessons went well, however, none of them were able to come to church.  We were able to have our investigator Tamás in church.  He is 14 and is from a part member family, he has not been to church for 3 months up to this point.  We felt as prompting to stop by their home and we spoke about the Restoration with him, went really well.   

The Lord is honoring us so much, I love this work and I love my Savior, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  Love you all so much and have a great week! 

Gentry elder

Amazing Week!

So I would definitely have to say that the highlight of this week is Romeo!  Romeo was found by the sisters but was given over to us when we found out that he lives in our area.   He is a soldier for the U.S. army (he is Hungarian) and he loves our country so so so much!  He has fallen in love with the gospel.  Romeo is one of the most goal oriented people that I have met and he really loves how we are so into living such a high law of righteousness in our church.  He is literally so amazing and the most amazing part is that he is going to be getting baptized on the 16th of June.  This is absolutely so amazing and one of the biggest miracles of my mission.  The Lord keeps placing these people in our path who are so ready! 

We were able to do some good finding this week and were able to find 7 new investigators!  The Lord has been honoring us so much and we have been talking to as many people as we can and have been striving to really really effectively use our time!  One of these new investigators is a woman by the name of Gizella.  I actually heard her talking on a train (we were some of the only people on the car) and I felt like should talk to her.  She was not interested then, but we later tracted into her and set up to come back, there are not coincidences in the work of Almighty God.  

I read this week in Helaman about the stripling warriors and how their mom's taught them to not doubt because God would deliver them.  I know that to be true and it reminded me of what my mom always teaches me! I love you all so much and have a wonderful week! 

Gentry elder