YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS TRAIN
July 30, 2012
HEY Everyone!!!!
Oh goodness... This week has been so fun! It's already a new transfer! This morning we received our transfer calls, and...................... drum roll please................... Sister Fox and I are staying together here in Duna! :) YAY!!!!! We were hoping we would be able to stay together one more. There are so many cool things beginning to happen in this city- I'm really excited that I'll get to stay a little longer to see some of it happen.
Okay, so many awesome things to update you on!- First, I sent a couple pictures. The first is of a member family in the ward. They are awesome!! The mom is taking the picture, so she's not in this one- but Károly is the dad and their son is named Máté. They have been members for about 20 years now. They are such a fun family. We had dinner with them on Friday night. I also sent a picture of their dog. haha he's a little crazy looking. He's the first dog I've seen with actual dreads. haha He was really cute.. but a little smelly. We also met with this new lady Etelka this week. She was a little old, but so sweet. We just had to take a picture with her, she had all sorts of interesting things all over her small house. We met her on the street a few weeks ago. She already had 2 Book of Mormons- and knew a little about our church. We aren't sure how much she really understands about the importance of the restoration, but she wants to come to church, and has a couple grand kids that live here in the city who maybe we'll get to meet with also. :) The last picture is with Mária. We still continue to meet with her each week. She's a super sweet lady- but for some reason Hungarians don't usually smile in pictures.. but she smiles a lot in person. :) She has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and told us that she enjoyed church on Sunday- just that it was just much different from what she is use to at the catholic church. She keeps saying that she is so grateful that we came to her door and helped her come closer to God. I'm not sure though that she realizes that the things she is learning are what are helping her to come closer to him. She is willing to keep reading and praying and learning from us, but I just really pray that her heart is open and softened enough to accept the restoration and the Book of Mormon into her life. She seems a little hesitant about all these new things. I think because during her life she has become so familiar with the catholic churches' teachings.
We met with a couple new investigators this week as well! They seem so awesome! The first is named Tamás. He is somewhere in his mid 20's and SUPER TALL. I would guess about 6'9". He had to duck when he walked through the door to the branch house. haha He plays basketball for a team in Budapest and had heard a little about our church. We had a member come with us- Doug. He was a big help during our lesson. Tamás seems really interested though!- and even said the closing prayer! :) We are hoping to meet with him again on Saturday. We also met a young girl named Flóra. She is 16, and was so excited to meet with us. I prepared a special Book of Mormon for her with my testimony and a few scriptures I thought that might really be good for a young girl looking for answers from the gospel. She seems really open to everything as well, and asked if next time she could bring a friend with her! :) She'll be out of town this week, but we set up again for 2 weeks from now.
We also met with Péti and Adri! They are such a fun family! We talked this time about covenants, and shared with them the story about the 2,000 stripling warriors. We felt like it was a perfect story for a mother and son. :) We brought up more about baptism. They don't feel like they are ready yet, but Peti said that this week he will pray about the Book of Mormon. We told him more about the spirit and how we can get answers. I really am praying that they will accept the gospel eventually! I just know it would bless their lives so much, and they would be such a strong addition to the branch here. They are on vacation at the Balaton this week, so we won't get to meet with them till next week.
Oh ya! We are also still meeting with Attila! He is awesome! We had a "movie" night after English class on Tuesday, where we showed the movie "Finding Faith in Christ", and he came!! He seemed to really enjoy it too. He told us he tried to bring his son, but his son wasn't all too interested. Maybe he will be some day. :) We met with him again though on Saturday and taught "The Gospel of Jesus Christ." :) The lesson went so well, and he even agreed to a soft bap. challenge! He can't come to church this Sunday, but said he will definitely be there the Sunday after.
Wow, ya, a lot is happening. I'm trying to keep it all straight. But I love this city! I love the people here. And even though some days are hard, I have great hope for this place. They haven't seen a baptism here in over a year- but we are going to make one happen! It's going to be awesome!- The Lord is going to make one happen through us! I'm so excited to see what awesome things will take place this transfer. :) I love you all so much! Thanks for all your emails and letters and prayers of support. I really couldn't do this without you. Have a wonderful week!!
Much Love,
Johnson Nővér
July 23, 2012
SZERVUSZ CSALÁDOM!!
I love you all so much! Missionary work is the best thing ever! Sister Fox and I have been finding like crazy, and meeting with all sorts of new people each week. Luckily though, from all of our searching, some of our investigators are really beginning to progress!! :) It's so exciting to see. This week in church we had 3 of our investigators come! Peti, Adri, and Mária. Peti and Adri are the mother and son who I sent a picture of a few weeks ago. They are so incredible! Peti loves the Book of Mormon, and is really starting to gain his own testimony. This was his 3rd time at church, and in our last lesson he committed to a soft bap. challenge!! I'm so exciting he's beginning to see it for himself! He showed us his Book of Mormon yesterday at church and it is all marked up with comments and thoughts and references everywhere! He's been studying topics from the topical guide, and looking up the scriptures from them! How cool is that! His mom said that he was up late the night before last just reading the Book of Mormon. :) He was so prepared for the gospel before we even met him. I'm so happy for him! I hope he continues to come to church, and we are praying that he will make the decision to be baptized. I just know he would be such a powerful contribution to the church here in Hungary. We need more young priesthood holders here. His mom is so amazing as well! They both stayed for all 3 hours at church yesterday. :) I just love them both so much!- and I'm so excited that their hearts are so open to the truths that we are teaching them.
Mária is also one of our new investigators. I wrote about here briefly in my last email. But we tracted her, and at first she seemed really hesitant about meeting with us, and kind of hard against all the things we were teaching her. She had a lot of questions and concerns, but she has such a great desire to find the truth- which is why I really feel that her heart is being softened each time we meet with her. :) We met with her twice this week, and her lessons were so good!! One thing that is so great about Mária is that she is so sensitive to the spirit. It is there in our lessons, and you can just tell that she feels it!! :) I have such a great love for her, I just can tell that this is everything she's been looking for- she just needs to open her heart enough to accept it, and then act on that small amount of faith that she has. And that's what she did!!- she came to church! The best past about it, was her and Adri became really great friends! They sat by each other through all 3 meetings, and really supported and encouraged each other to stay. I think they helped each other to feel more comfortable being there, since it was a new experience for them both. :) I hope they all come again next week.
Dad and Holly came to visit on Saturday. It was really great to see them, only a little strange considering I hadn't seen any of my family in almost a year. haha We were able to show them around our branch house, walk all the streets that we walk everyday (even up the 160 flights of stairs up to where we live) haha. We ate lunch together and visited with one of the member families here in Dunaújváros- Fanzi and Judit. They are hilarious, and one of my favorite families here. I think the visit was a success. Yesterday in church Judit told me that it was so great having them over, and that they were such nice people it felt as if they had known each other already for 20 years or longer. :) I said that maybe we all new each other in the preexistence. ;) It was so fun seeing both of you though! And thanks so much for the peanut butter!!! I had forgotten how delicious that stuff was. :) Also, Dad- just so you know we still made Super Standard this week. :)
Oh ya, Granny B- you asked me what tabling is. It's different from tracting. Tabling is basically when we go out on the streets somewhere and set up a table with signs, fliers, pamphlets, and Book of Mormons- and we go out and talk to people. It's basically just like streeting, only we have an actual table we can bring them up to to talk more about our church and what we do and what we believe. It's what we tried in that picture I sent where I am playing the guitar. We thought that might be a good way to get more people coming up to the table. :) It worked alright- but I think I like more just getting out and talking to them.
Hmm.. what else. We met with a couple new families this week. Mariann and János. They live right next to the church!- So if we could get them coming it would be pretty easy from them to get there every Sunday! Also, there's an older woman we met with on the bus, and her granddaughters. Our lesson with them was so great!! We said up to meet with them again in 2 weeks. Transfer calls are next week, but I am really praying that I will stay here. When Sister Fox came we basically started fresh with this city, now the work here is really starting to expand! It's so cool to see! I hope that I will get to stay a little longer to see some of the success that happens here. :)
Well, anyways, that's about all for this week. I love you all so much and hope that you are doing well! Thanks for all your support and prayers. Tell Mandy and Elenia congratulations for me!! I'm not exactly sure when their weddings are, but I'm still waiting to get their invitations in the mail! :) haha Talk to you next week!
Lots of Love,
Sister Tiffany Johnson
P.S. Friday is my year mark!! How crazy is that!? Time flies.
July 16, 2012
I love you all so much! Mom I hope you had a wonderful birthday!! :) This week we went to Budapest twice! Once on Monday for Sister Fox's greeny training, and once on Friday for our Zone Conference. The new President is really great! I'm really excited about him. He really cares about the missionaries and the people here in Hungary. I think he is going to do a lot of really great things. :)
Péter's baptism didn't end up going through this week for a couple complicated reasons. He is awesome though and still planning on being baptized- but for now, the date has been pushed back a bit.
Good news!- We met with a couple new people this week! One of them, Attila I met while tabling. We had an awesome lesson with him during the week with one of our members, and then yesterday he came to church and stayed through all 3 hours! :) He told us he's never been very religious, but seems open and willing to try all these things we are committing him to do. I'm really excited to meet with him again this week. Peti, the son of Adri who we met on the street a couple weeks ago, came to church again yesterday! :) Him and his mom are so great! We also met with a new lady this week Mária, who we tracted into a few weeks ago. She has a lot of questions and a great desire to find answers to all of them. I am sure the gospel is what she needs and what she is looking for, it's just a matter now of whether her heart is open enough to receive it. We are meeting with her again this Thursday. :) Also, Jorge from Cuba is meeting with us again tonight! I should have practiced my Spanish a little better before coming here- but luckily he speaks Hungarian too. He seems really interested. We are hoping he will come with us to church this Sunday. :)
We have a lot of really great new investigators, I am hoping some of them are prepared enough to accept our message. :) I will keep you updated on them all. Also, other good news!!- Our miracle guitar/cookie finding day turned out to be a success!! István has been coming back to church and meeting with us every week!! He's been coming about the last 4 weeks now! :) I love seeing inactives come back! :) Oh one other thing!- The Kispest Sisters told me today that Adrian went to church!! :) I'm soo excited! I wish I could have been there. He is so awesome. I am really praying that one day he will accept the gospel. :)
Well, that's about all I have for this week. My piano playing is going a lot better in Sacrament Meeting! I'm learning to sight read! They even surprised me with needing me to play a song in Sunday school and it worked out okay! :) I will be in Carnagie Hall by the time I get home probably. ;)
Anyways, I love you tons! Hope you all have a wonderful week! Tell Mandy and Elenia Congratulations for me and I love them!!
Sok Szeretettel,
Johnson Nővér
July 9, 2012
Hey family!
Today was greeny training in Budapest, and so I don't have a ton of time to email. But I wanted to send a quick hello and let you all know that things are going really great! :) Sister Fox and I got Super Standard this week! We are working so hard, and have found a lot of really great new people. Adri came to church yesterday! I think she really enjoyed it! Dad!- we have a new Spanish speaking investigator from Cuba! His name is Jorge. He speaks Spanish and Hungarian, but no English. We joked that I will teach him English if he will teach me Spanish- except i will learn through Hungarian. haha He seems really interested though! He met with the missionaries quite a few years ago, and seems pretty accepting of everything. We are meeting with him again tomorrow. :)
Friday, one of our investigators from Kispest is getting baptized!- Péter. Sister Fox and I received permission to go! :) I'm so excited for him! He is going to be such an awesome addition to the ward there.
We had lots of fun tracting experiences this week! We were let in 3 times! :) Tracting is always a good time. You meet all sorts of interesting people. :) Well, that 's about all i have for this week. Things are beginning to look up for us here in Duna. The secret to great missionary work, I have learned, is finding. Luckily, we've been finding a ton of new people- so I am praying that some of them are open and ready for our message.
I love you all tons!! Michael!- I got your package!! Thank you so much! I am so grateful that you take the time to think of me and send me such nice things. It really means a lot, and always makes my day! :)
Take care!! I will talk to you all soon!
Sok Szeretettel,
Johnson Nővér
Sisters in Training...
...Trainer and Trainee but both are Learners
July 3, 2012
Dear Family,
This was a tough week. But in a good way. I made sure at the beginning of the week to have lots of programs set up, so that Sister Fox would have a great experience her first official week in the field. I was so excited about all the programs I had called and set up with people last Sunday afternoon- But throughout the week one by one- almost all of our programs fell through. By the end of the week, we counted 13 programs that had either dogged or cancelled on us. But we decided we would still try and aim for "Standard." We worked really hard to set up more programs to make up for the ones that had dropped, and spent a lot of time on the street finding new people to teach. Sister Fox is fearless! It is so awesome! She is willing to stop and talk to as many people as she can. I love streeting! So I'm so glad she is starting to really like it too. We did a ton of streeting, tracting, and even tabling this week- so we got a bunch of new numbers from some people who seem really cool! By Sunday we only needed one more "other lesson" and one "member present" to reach our goal. We already had our member present lesson scheduled, but we still needed to find one last person to teach. After church, we were exhausted from our crazy week, and tired from it being fast Sunday-but decided to go out and try some tracting to find the last lesson we needed. After a few hours of no success, only had 30 min. left before we had to leave for our last member present program of the night. We decided to say another prayer together and ask the lord to help us find whoever it was that needed to hear our message. We went back out to work, and finally at the last possible moment- we found a really nice lady- Zsuzsanna, who opened her door and invited us in. We told her about our church and talked to her about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. She invited us to come back again this Wednesday! So, with the Lord's help, we ended up achieving our goals, and finding an awesome new investigator to teach!! :)
It's hard when the people you are teaching stop meeting with you, or stop keeping commitments. But some of these people we have found this week seem really prepared by the Lord. So we are hoping that we see something come from it. We met an awesome mother and son last week on the street, and had an awesome first lesson with them the other day. They seem really accepting of everything, and Peti (the son) even came to church this Sunday! We are meeting with them again on Thursday! I really think they could be ready to accept our message. :) Duna is a pretty tough city, and the Lord definitely did not give me an easy first week as trainer- but it was great! I know that the greatest joys and successes in missionary work come from being diligent and obedient. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us. I have felt His help everyday of my mission, and I know that I have received an extra amount of strength from Him this week in my new calling as a trainer. I felt a little overwhelmed at first with all the new responsibilities, but I have come to really love being a trainer and being able to show my companion all the joys and struggles and successes that come from serving on the Lord's errand.
I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!! Talk to you next week!!
Sok Szeretettel,
Tiffany
"The Lord definitely did not give me an easy first week as trainer- but it was great!" Tiffany said and continues with these words of wisdom, "I know that the greatest joys and successes in missionary work come from being diligent and obedient."
June 25, 2012
Dear Family,
Wow.. this week has been full of all sorts of new adventures. Being a trainer is... well I guess it's about what I thought it would be. But it's different when you actually experience it. haha Sister Fox (my new greeny) is great! She is full of fire and ready to work. We spent a lot of time out on the streets this week, getting her broken into streeting and tracting. I think she really enjoyed it. We ended up getting 9 phone numbers just on our first day together! She is still working on getting the language down obviously, but she is willing to get out there and say what she can and talk to people- which is awesome! It's definitely a new experience being the one doing most of the work and setting the example- but I mostly just try and do the things that I have been taught my whole mission, and set a good example by following the promptings from the spirit and relying on the Lord.
We still are working to find some solid investigators. But we are seeing a lot of miracles happening with the less-actives here! Péter still hasn't missed a week since we showed up at his door!- which is amazing! He told us in his last lesson that he wants to prepare for the temple again! Another one of the less actives that we found on our miracle day- István, came to church with us yesterday!! He hasn't been in years. We told him we would walk with him to church. When we showed up at his door, I wasn't sure if he would be ready. But he answered all dressed up in his suit and tie and ready to go! I think he had a really good experience too. :) He stayed for all 3 hours, and the members were all really welcoming.
Oh ya!- AND... if the stress of being a new trainer isn't enough- haha on top of it all I have been called to be the new ward pianist! The two missionaries who used to play left last transfer, and now absolutely no one knows how to even pluck out the notes. So... yesterday I played the hymns in church for my first time ever! I used the simplified hymnbook since I didn't have a lot of time to practice. But with a lot of silent praying during the whole meeting, somehow I was able to play the hymns and keep up with the congregation. :) Now i just have about 5 more weeks to go. Hopefully the next new missionary will know how to play.
Well, I don't have a ton of time. But next week we have TONS of new programs set up- so it should be AWESOME! Hopefully I'll have lots of great stories to tell next week. :) I love you all lots and hope things are well. Take Care!!
Sok Szeretettel,
Sister Tiffany Johnson
Fox Nővér just arriving for her new adventure
with her new Trainer, Johnson Nővér
with her new Trainer, Johnson Nővér
June 18, 2012
That day has finally come... I'm going to be a trainer! This is craziness!! haha I received the call from President this morning, he said that I will be getting a greeny on Wednesday and I'm going to have to show her the ropes. I feel like I'm still trying to get a grasp on everything!- and now I'm going to have to show a brand new missionary how to do the work. It's pretty intimidating to think about, I almost feel like I have no idea what i'm doing, but President assures me that the change will come naturally and that I will be a great example to this new missionary. I'm not sure what her name is yet. They will have a "sorting hat" meeting on Wednesday (Kindof like in Harry Potter- only for greenies and their new trainers and areas) haha there are 2 new Sisters coming in- So I will be training one, and my old companion Sister Kramer will get the other. Wish us luck! Please pray for me!... a lot. haha It'll be great though. I really think the Lord will help shape me through this experience. I had a really great trainer to look up to, so I know that I will be able to think back on what she taught me and how she did things to help me with this new calling. And luckily the Lord will help support me in areas I may be lacking.
As for Duna, the work is moving along. It's sometimes hard though to feel like you are working so hard and not seeing as much success as you hope for. I know that success from missions doesn't necessarily come just from baptizing, but there are a lot of seeds planted, and a lot of hearts changed- lots of times we don't even get to see what type of impact we are making during our time here. Lencse Péter is still coming to church each week. Last Sunday he even payed his tithing! It's really exciting to see him come back after so many years of inactivity. :) There are a lot of inactives we are hoping to see the same outcome for here. :) Some of them may just take time.
I have a feeling we are going to be doing a lot of finding this next transfer- I hope my greeny likes to street and tract!! :) Because we really need to find some new people to teach. We found a few last transfer that seemed promising, a couple of them still meet with us- but there are a lot of skeptics here in Dunaújváros, and I think it's going to take a lot of faith and prayer to find the ones that the Lord has all ready prepared. Good news is!- There's a new bap. date in Kispest for one of the investigators we taught in there! His name is also Péter. haha He should be getting baptized at the end of next month, so hopefully I'll get to go up to Budapest to be there for it. :)
Well, I can't really think of much else to say. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! I hope it was a great one. Hope you all are doing well! Next week I'll send a few pictures from Sister Roney and my adventure last P-day in Budapest. We got permission from president to go there since sister Roney had never really seen much of the city. Now she's leaving to serve in Pest so I'm sure she'll get to see a lot of it. I've had a really fun time serving with her! We've become really good friends and had a lot of great laughs and experiences from this past transfer together. We thought for sure we would serve one more together, so this was a really big surprise for me to find out I will be training. Well anyways, I love you all lots and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!
Sok Sok Szeretettel,
Johnson Nővér
June 11, 2012
Dear Family,
The miracle day of the week: Thursday, the 7th or June 2012
Parts of following are quoted directly from my nightly journal entry... :)
TODAY WAS FILLED WITH MIRACLES!!! It was amazing! A couple rough days of seemingly no success at all, and then... WAHBAMM!!- the lord just showers us with blessings. :) So cool.
So, we started off the day with the idea that we would go on a "less-active member" hunt- armed with my guitar and chocolate chip cookies we had made. The first look up we attempted was István. Turns out he doesn't live there anymore at the address we had- but his mom does! She invited us in for a few minutes for something to drink. We talked to her for a bit about her family and what she knew about the church. She pulled out and old Book of Mormon she had received from the missionaries years ago. Apparently her and her husband were never baptized. She gave us her son's new address- which was just across the street a ways, and told us we could come back sometime to talk more about the Book of Mormon with them! :) Well, now that we were inside the building, we decided to look up the other inactive who lived there- Edit. We had tried her a few weeks before- but she told her son to tell us she wasn't home- even though we could obviously hear her in the background. haha But missionaries.. we never give up.. so we tried her door this time. Her oldest son Imre answered the door, we told him who we were and asked if he knew about our church. He told us to wait one second, and then came back with about 7 different copies of the Book of Mormon. All were different translations, I think one was even in Japanese. haha He invited us to come inside, but no one else was home so we told him that we wouldn't be able to come in. Just then, Edit came walking out of the elevator into the house! You could tell right away that she recognized who we were, and I don't think that she was too excited to see us. But somehow with our magic cookies and our musical abilities we worked our way into their house, and sang a few hymns for them. We shared a scripture and said a prayer, and by the end- Edit was smiling and laughing with us. She gave us their number so that we could set up a time to come by again. :)
...Well, after that we went over to the address István's mom gave us. We snuck into the building as someone else was walking in and went right up to his door. (There is less of chance for them to be able to deny us when we are right at their door). We knocked and waited a few minutes with no answer. It seemed like someone was home, but we decided to leave a note with the cookies and try back again later. As we were writing the note- István came out of the door! He was heading somewhere, but we got to talk to him for a few minutes and he was actually really nice! We ended up setting up a time to come by this week with a member and got his phone number! yeah! :)
After that we walked over towards some of the other apartment building with less actives (there are a lot here in Dunaújváros). We planned to meet with a less active- Margit and her daughter Judit (who isn't a member). Just as we were walking up towards their apartment building we saw Judit come out of the door. We called her name really loudly to try and get her to stop, on about the 4th time she finally heard us and turned around. haha. We caught up to her and asked how she was doing. We gave her the cookies we had made and told her we had hoped to sing a few songs to her and her mom. She told us her mom wasn't home, but if we wanted to go back up she was free for a few minutes to meet with us. :) We said SURE!! We sand a few fun songs in English and then had a really great lesson with her about faith and prayer. Turns out her sister- Brigi is actually a member i knew back in Kispest! But for some reason or another Judit hasn't decided to be baptized yet. It was a really great program though, and we ended by singing "How Great Thou Art" in Hungarian. She said that she would try praying this week. :)
We also stopped at another Judit's house. (one we had looked up and been let into a few weeks ago). She answered to door and invited us in for a few minutes. She had curlers in her hair and seemed in a bit of a hurry, but she accepted our cookies and was really friendly to us. As we left she asked us what time church started on Sunday!- She didn't end up coming this week... but it means she's thinking about it!! :)
So the guitar and cookies turned out to be a success! I guess that is the way into people's hearts... Music and delicious goodies. :)
You would think with all these amazing miracles today the Lord would be done blessing us... But He wasn't. We had an awesome lesson with Róbert. He seems really interested and we ended up talking about baptism and showed him our baptismal font! We asked if when he found out these things were true if he would be baptized, he said there is still a lot he needs to learn, but if he comes to feel like that is the right choice then yes!! :) He is going to be visiting his family this weekend, but said he wants to come to church next week.
Around 5pm we were suppose to meet with a new investigator- Anita. We got to the branch house and waited for her to show up... but she never came. :P We tried her phone and there was no answer. Great... dogged again. I turned to Sister Roney and asked what we were going to do to find another new investigator for the week. As we sat and thought about it, I looked out the window and saw two ladies walking up towards the door of the branch house. Neither sister Roney or I had any idea who they were, but they walked in and said they were looking for our free English class. We told them our English class in on Tuesday's, but we also meet with people to practice English and talk about the gospel personally if they had time... well, right then! haha they said sure and we ended up talking to them the whole hour about the restoration. There was an older lady-Éva about 60, and a younger girl named Szilvi who was around 32. Éva was pretty bitter and cold against religions, but she was willing to hear us out. She had a lot of questions that can all be answered through the restored gospel, but she seemed a little to hard to hear them. They both listened though as we told the story of Joseph Smith and talked about the Book of Mormon. Szilvi was really quiet the whole lesson, but then asked us where she could get one of those books. We gave her the copy we had and set up a time to meet again. Sister Roney gave her a pass-along card with our number and a flier with our English class information. She sid that it was a different flier and a different number that she had called? Weird... somehow the Lord led them to us just at the right time. Szilvi seems really open and interested. I am excited to meet with her again.
And that was our awesome day of miracles! The Lord put us at in the right places just at the right times!! It was awesome! God is so cool!! This work is amazing. I love being a missionary. I know that our message is true and that it can bless and change peoples lives. I know that the joy i feel comes from my knowledge of the gospel, and the peace I find through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so blessed to be a missionary. Not all of our days here are this awesome- some days can be really hard. But it is days like this that keep us going. I know that the Lord's hand is in this work, and I know that He can lead us to find those He has prepared for our message. :)
Péter came to church again on Sunday!! That's 3 weeks in a row now! He says he wants to come again next week, and is reading out of the Book of Mormon again! :) There is a noticeable difference in him already! It's so cool to see him come back! Thank you for all your prayers and support! I love you all SOOO much and pray for you as well.
Happy Father's day on Sunday!! Dad- I got the letter you sent me about your mission stories! THanks so much! I can't wait to read them!! Hope you all are doing well! Talk to you next week!!
Lots of Love,
Sister Tiffany Johnson
Elder Weston and Sister Johnson
new approach to spreading the Gospel
June 4, 2012
SZIASZTOK!!!
Mi újság veletek!? WOw... I have been waiting all week for p-day! It's been a crazy week as always, but so many cool things are happening! First!- Lencse Péter came to church again this sunday!! We met with him again on saturdayand brought another member. Our lesson was so good! He really enjoyed coming to church. Last week he only stayed for sacrament meeting, but this time he stayed for all 3 hours! Everyone in the ward is really welcoming to him. I think a lot of the members were suprised to see him back at church after so long, but I think he is beginning to fit right back in. :) He now has an up-to-date translation of the Book of Mormon and D&C. He is really excited about everything. There is such a difference in him already from the first day we met him when we looked him up. I am so excited and happy that he is starting to come back to church! Who would've thought that after 17 years he'd come back. :) I hope we can help him become fully active again.
Let's see... what else has happened this week...
Monday we met again with István (Steve) from tabling. He has so many questions! He really has no direction in his life, because he doesn't know right now if he believes in God or not, and doesn't really see what the purpose of our lives are. He came to the right place though!- because luckily we have the answers to all those questions. :) He started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and already has read tons of it. He has a lot of really interesting thoughts and questions. He is pretty skeptic about believing in God. I think he's afraid to convince himself that something is true that might not be real. We talked a lot about prayer, and how God hears and answers us when we pray. He commited to try praying this week. He wants to read the whole Book of Mormon too. He said he would right down all his questions and give us a list next time of things we can look up and study for answers... so that should be fun. :) haha
Tuesday Sister Roney got her hair cut, and we spent the whole hour talking to the hair dresser about our church. Later a man walked in for an appointment and joined in our conversation. They both seemed surprised that we don't get paid for serving missions. It was fun talking with them more about our church, neither of them had really heard much about it before. We had a few other RCLA programs during the day, and then that night after english class we had a small music concert! There was only a small group of maybe 20 there, but each of us played a few different hymns and read some scriptures that went along with the songs we had chose. I played "How Great thou Art" on my guitar, Elder Weston and Sister Roney played some hymns on the piano, and we sang a few together. Overall I think it went really well. :) Everyone who was there seemed to really enjoy it, and it gave us the chance to share the gospel with people through music. :)
We met with one of our most promising new investigators on Wednesday- Róbert. We met him the same week we met István while tabling. (I think i wrote about him a few weeks ago). I invited him to come to our english class and he came that night! He said that he had never heard anything about our church before, so he agreed to set up a time to meet with us so we could talk to him more about our beliefs. Our lesson with him on wednesday was our 2nd time meeting with him, last time we taught the restoration and gave him a book of mormon. He had read from the Book of Mormon and really liked it! He had so many questions, we ended up talking about everything!- Word of wisdom, law of chastity, what we do at church, prophets, the priesthood, baptism, eternal families, fasting.. you name it. It was so great too because he was so accepting of everything! He really thought they were all great things. Sister Roney asked him towards the end of our lesson, if he believes all these things we are teaching him are true. He said yes! :) We told him to pray about it, and promised that he could recieve a confirmation from God. He said the closing prayer for the first time. It was so great! That is one really speacial thing about being a missionary- being able to hear people pray for the first time. When they do it sinceerly from their heart, there is nothing else like it. He asked us what he should read for next time, and told us he want to come to church next week! :)
Thursday we went tabling with the elders, and this time we tried a new approach- we brought my guitar! haha Sister Roney and I sang some songs to serenade people into coming towards our table... it kinda worked. haha We ended up giving out a few Book of Mormons and got some numbers. Elder Weston even did some beat boxing while I sang "Somewhere over the Rainbow" haha it was pretty awesome. If anything we got lots of people smiling and brightened their day- which the Hungarians really need. Most people here don't really walk around smiling all the time like us, so I think it's kind of a unique thing for them to see. lol
Friday we had zone interviews in Buda. It's strange to think that could be the last time that I will see President and Sister Baughman for a while. Next transfer we are getting a new mission president. And if Sister Roney and I stay together one more, we probably won't be at transfers to see them. Crazy. I love the Baughmans! it will be a tough transition- but hopefully the new president and his wife will be just as cool. :) That night we had a ward party. It's weird because back home I don't really remember seeing the missionaries much in our ward.. but here we are a big part of the ward, and help out a lot with the activities. For the party we did iceblocking!! No- it is not a normal hungarian tradition. But we got to show them how we do fun in America. haha I think they really liked it.
Saturday, we had our lesson with Péter and attempted to look up some more inactives without much success. One of the houses that we rang- a little girl answered the speaker and we asked if her mom ("so-and-so") was home. She told us one second, then yelled "MOM!!" really loud. We could hear their whole conversation after that, the other voice asked who it was, and the little girl then asked who we were, we of course said we were the missionaries and that we had brought a Liahona and a message we wanted to give her. After a few seconds, and a conversation back and forth, the little girl came back on and said "my mom's not home." haha That's how much people love us here. Oh well. Can't win'em all. We left the Liahona in her mailbox. Maybe we'll try back another time just for fun.
Well that was basically our week. Of course we had lots of other exciting lessons and funny moments, I wish I could fill you in on them all, but sadly time is a precious commodity here, so we probably better get going. But I love you all TONS!! :) Thanks for all your emails, letters, prayers, and support. Talk to you next week!!
Sok Sok Szeretettel,
Johnson Tiffany Nővér
Pictures of Dunaújvaros
The Pentele bridge in Dunaújváros, Hungary
May 29, 2012
Hogy vagytok?! This week has been so awesome! Sister Roney and I have been spending a lot of time out on the streets talking to people and our efforts seem to be paying off! :) Last Monday we met with the man- István from tabling. Our lesson went so well and he set up to meet with us again. He speaks and understands English fairly well, so most of our lessons with him are in English. We were surprised with how interested he seemed in the gospel portion of our lesson. We met with him again yesterday. And the beginning of our program he said- "I have a question." we said ok... haha Then he asked, "Why are we here?" "On earth?" we responded. "No. Here today. Why are we meeting?" We told him that was a great question. We then explained to him that our main purpose as missionaries is to teach the gospel, so while we are willing to help people learn English, our main goal is to talk to people about our church. "So.. in other words, we are here to teach you about the gospel," I said. haha He said "ok," and after that our whole lesson was gospel. He had so many questions. Really good questions too. He wanted to know how to recognize the difference between faith in God, fate, or coincidence. He seems to want to believe in God, but wants the evidence before he can believe. We read a lot from the scriptures with him, and talked about faith beginning with a desire. He is really interested in learning more about our beliefs. We set up to meet with him again this Thursday. :)
We also met with 2 other new people- Róbert (who we also met from tabling last week) and Anikó (from streeting). They both seem really interested and were so excited to receive their own copy about the Book of Mormon. Anikó is a mom of 2 kids, she is already very religious and has her life in a good place. She teaches her children to pray and goes to church every Sunday. I think she felt something different as we were teaching her though- she said she would read from the Book of Mormon before our next meeting. Róbert comes to our English class every Tuesday, he believes in God but has never really been active in any church. His parents never attended church much because of when religion was band from the country during the communist times. But I think he is really interested too. He had never even heard of our church before I met him on the street, but he seems to be excited to be learning about it. I'm really excited about all these new people we are meeting with! :) They all seem to be really promising new investigators who really need the gospel in their lives. :)
We had a miracle happen this week! Lencses Péter (the inactive who we visited last week), we met with him again on Saturday. This time we brought a member with us- Krisztán. He was a big help in our lesson. We asked Péter a lot of questions- How he found out about the church, how long he came to church, why he became inactive. We asked if he still had a testimony. or if he read from his scriptures anymore. Péter was active for 5 years a really long time ago. He told us he left the church because he didn't seem to be finding the happiness he was promised from it. He hasn't been to church since 1995- more than 17 years ago now. We read the scripture in Helaman 5:12- about making Christ our solid foundation. We testified to him about how if we make Christ the center of our lives, everything else will fall into place. We invited him to come back to church. He seemed really hesitant, and made up a lot of excuses like lots of investigators and inactives usually do. But then I liked what Krisztán (the member who we brought with us) said to him. He looked at him and said, "Think about it, pray about it, and then come." haha I thought it was the perfect response. We promised Péter that the Lord would bless his life if he made the effort to come to church, and that he would be able to feel the spirit there. After the program I asked Krisztán if he felt like Péter would come to church. He said no.
The next day I sat waiting and praying that he would come in the door, but when sacrament meeting began, he still hadn't showed. About 2 minutes after the first speaker began to talk, I looked over at the door, and in walked Péter!!- all dressed up in his suit and tie. He walked around the back and found a seat next to Krisztán. :) The look on Krisztán's face was priceless, he was so surprised. I couldn't stop smiling for about the next 5 minutes. After 17 years, somehow he had found the courage to wake up, get dressed, and come all the way out to church at 9am. I felt so happy for him, I am sure it wasn't an easy decision to make. I talked to him after sacrament meeting and told him we were so excited he was able to make it. He seemed to have a good experience. Pray that he will decide to come again next week. :)
Well, there are a lot of cool things happening here in Dunaújváros. I am beginning to like this place a lot. Tonight we are having a small music concert after English class. I'm going to play "How Great Thou Art" on the guitar, and a few of the other missionaries are going to do some other musical numbers as well. We've been trying to get the word out about it all week, so hopefully we will have quite a few people show up. :)
Well, I guess that's about all for now. I love you all lots! It's always so great to hear from you and get your emails. Thanks for all of your support and prayers! Talk to you next week!!
Lots of love,
Tiffany Johnson Nővér
