Majdnem egy evig!!!

How is it going my awesome family! I hope that you have had a great week! This email is going to be a bit shorter but I will include the highlights. We were able to go on an exchange this last week with the elders from Szeged here in Buda. It went super great and I was able to work with Elder Hughes (his parents just got called to be the mission Presidents in the Philippines, not sure what mission but it could be Kyle Taylor's which would be cool). We were able to work on having the prayer of faith and also being the message (something that we are really focusing on in our mission right now, because we can send a message to people without even saying one word, it is just written on our face and our countenance). We were able to discuss how many times, the promptings we receive, come unnoticed to us but they come because we have prayed with faith and we are out working as hard as we can. Many times after we see the miracle then we realize that the Holy Ghost was guiding us along the way, however, many times I have seen that if we show the Lord our willingness to serve as hard as we can, then he will literally just lead and guide us if we have a constant prayer of faith. We were able to see many miracles on the course of the exchange, including one person calling us and asking us to meet right then and there (after trying to set up with this person for about 2 months). It was a great exchange.

We were able to meet with many of our investigators this past week who, for the most part, seem to be progressing and doing well. One of our biggest focuses right now is getting these people to come to church. Usually we have 2 in church per week, however, many more people commit to come throughout the week but just do not end up coming. We are focusing our efforts on really striving to increase contact with these people throughout the course of the week in order to ensure that when Sunday comes around they are planning on coming to church. We were able to bake some cookies on Saturday night and take them to a few families and the next day some of them were able to come to church!

Some of the things we discussed with investigators this week included how the natural man is an enemy to God. One man told us that one of the main reasons that he smokes is because he gets angry very quickly and that he does it as an outlet. We told him that both anger and this smoking addiction are natural man tendencies and that the best option is to rely on Christ and on His Infinite Atonement. He seemed to accept it really well and came to church this past Sunday. With another investigator we were able to tell him that the only way that he is going to know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is to read, pray, and sincerely want to know if it is true. He still wants to keep learning and meeting with us, however, I think we are going to less frequent our teachings with him coming up in the future, in order to get him to start to learning this is true on his own. Our plan with him right now is to give him the book Our Search for Happiness (one of my favorites) and read it alongside with him! We also had a really great teaching with another of our new investigators. She is Catholic and really wants to turn her life around. She asked us about baptism and we were able to explain authority and the Restoration and she told us that she would like to be baptized into the church. She told us that she has a smoking problem that she needs to quit, but that she wants to stop. We are excited to keep meeting with her. With another individual we talked about the commandments and how if we obey them, then God will immediately bless us (like King Benjamin says). We taught about the Word of Wisdom and about true repentance. He also has a very serious smoking addiction but he agreed that with God's help he can overcome it!

I was reading in the Conference Liahona about the Light of Christ and how every human being that is born upon the face of the earth is born with the light of Christ. In this talk, it was mentioned that all life forms are naturally drawn to light and opposed to darkness. I have come to see that so much over the course of my mission. When I feast upon the words of Christ and I give the opportunity to others to come and partake of the fruits of the gospel I feel this amazing light and come to feel the Holy Ghost. The gospel is so amazing and the joy and the peace I feel from it surpasses understanding. I am so grateful for the chance I have to live and love this gospel day to day and for the chance that I have to share it with others. I have found that when we do our best and pray with faith, then the Lord will always provide! I hope that you all have an amazing week!!

Love,

Gentry Elder