This past week has been probably one of the absolute best of my mission. On Monday I found out that my brother is going to serve in the Tulsa, Oklahoma mission starting in the fall. I am so excited and so proud of him. I also got a really good email from my dad encouraging me to pray to know where to go when we go tracting. My companion and I decided to try it. We prayed together and afterwards we both felt that we should go to a certain place in our area. So we went there and it was a really good experience. The people were nice to us and we were able to talk to so many more people than usual. Two people told us we could come back to give them copies of the Book of Mormon. The next day we went back to keep working there and an older lady let us right in. We had a little lesson with her and she said that we could come back. It was great! Early in the week we went back to a street that we had tracted a few weeks before because it had been on my mind a lot and I felt like we should go try the doors that didn't answer. We went back and ended up talking to a man who was out working on his car. He told us that he had been a soldier and didn't believe and he wouldn't take our card or anything, but he was really nice. As we finished talking, the idea popped into my head to ask him if we could pray with him. I was too chicken to do it so I mouthed it to my companion when he wasn't looking and she asked him. She did a great job of explaining how we pray (I always forget to do that) and then she prayed. I remember thinking "I really hope she prays for his car to work" and then it was really cool because she did. After the prayer, he had tears in his eyes, which was funny because he was a super "tough-guy" soldier kind. It's amazing how much prayer can touch people. Later, as we worked down the street, we saw him drive by in his car, which he had apparently been able to fix. We just smiled and waved. We will probably go back sometime and see how he is doing. On that same street we ended up having a lesson with a lady who used to meet with the missionaries. She was really happy to see us but did the whole "I'll call you" thing (but we ended up calling her later and we are going to visit her today. Woohoo!). The next day we split with the senior sisters which we were dreading because it is difficult for both of us due to language. But it ended up being a really positive experience. So many people answered, which, although many said no, is still way better than nobody answering at all. And a few people said we could come back! We also talked with a man on the street about English class (thanks to one of the senior sisters who talks to everybody!) and he said he would come. Thursday was a frustrating day but the man from the day before actually came to English class and seemed really open when we gave the spiritual message. Then Friday we got to go to Buda for Zone Conference and it was so fun! My companion and I are both pretty social and we had been looking forward to it forever. It is super neat to be around so many missionaries and feel like you are part of a big team. One of the missionaries shared an experience about how when he was a new missionary he had been really scared to street and everything and then he talked about how he was too scared to street somebody one time but his companion made them turn around and street the person and it ended up being a huge miracle because the young man ended up getting baptized. The coolest part of the story was that the young man had first heard about the church from a friend who took the missionary lessons in a city that eventually got closed for missionary work. The friend never got baptized, and those missionaries probably thought that they had failed, but really they didn't because their example really affected the young man and helped prepare him to accept the missionaries when they streeted him that day however many months or years later. Super cool.
After the conference I was talking to some missionaries when I looked up and saw my favorite member from Kispest (Kriszti) standing in the doorway and smiling at me. I practically ran over to her and gave her a big hug and I was able to talk to her and another member I love from Kispest in Hungarian! It was so great to not feel completely choked up and scared to talk to them. I can finally hold conversations. It is getting easier all the time and I have been sooo blessed to be able to serve with Sister Kovács. And her English is getting better too so we are both improving together.
Saturday we got to go to a baptism of a girl in our branch. It was really nice. When we got home we were eating dinner when we started looking at our numbers for the week and realized that we might be able to get Standard of Excellence because one of our investigators said he would come to church. We decided to call the man from English class to invite him to church too and he said he would come as well! So then we realized that we might be able to get Super Standard, which I have never gotten on my mission. We knew it would be a stretch, but we thought it just might be possible. On Sunday, miracle of miracles, they both came! The English class man stayed the whole 3 hours and then some to have a lesson with us afterwards. And he said he would read and pray! I couldn't believe it. Then when we went home we made a lot of phone calls and Heavenly Father blessed us so much. People we had called or talked to before who weren't that interested suddenly were open and said we could meet so we got some new investigators. But then we still needed more lessons so we asked the senior sisters to split with us and we went our separate ways. My job was to have a lesson with a less-active member and a normal lesson. We had called tons of less-active members and none of them could meet. Even one in particular that I felt like we should meet with couldn't meet. So Sister Scherrer and I just set out. We talked to some people on the street but then we decided to pray to know where to go. We said a prayer and then right after I thought of a house that I had noticed a couple of times. We headed there and as we approached the house, a little dog came running out to us before we had crossed the street. We greeted the dog and then got it to cross the street with us. At the same time the owner (from the house we were going to) came out towards us and we met in the middle. I asked her if we could ask some questions and talk and we ended up having a lesson. I was sad because she wouldn't let us come back but we were at least able to achieve our goal. After that we prayed again and felt like we should head to a less-active that Sister Scherrer had met once before. We headed in that direction, and as we crossed the city square, we ran into the less-active that I had wanted to meet with in the first place! He was really receptive and we talked and had a lesson right there in the middle of the square--prayer and everything (I was inspired by the way Ashlyn has lessons on the street in Mexico haha). I have no idea how it all worked out but it did. We went from having tons of zero's in the first few weeks to acheiving Super Standard in a week where we didn't have as much time to work because of conference and the baptism. You also have to understand that it is extra special because we are new missionaries in a very small town and when we were sent here all the missionaries said we would have no work and there is a little bit- not too bad, but a little bit of a negative attitude about Pápa. So it really gave us a lot of hope. I know for a fact that somebody, if not tons of people were praying for us this week. We did not do it by ourselves. We worked hard, but there is a no way it could have happened without all the little miracles. I still don't quite believe it. Thank you all so much for your prayers or fasting or whatever you did because it worked. We really want to keep up the good work and help Pápa grow and blossom and become a place where the work is growing strong. So maybe Heavenly Father gave us this gift to help motivate us to keep going after it has been kind of hard for a while.
I hope you are all having a super great start to your summer and that you are reading your scriptures and saying your prayers. Heavenly Father answers prayers when we have faith.
All My Love!
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