Week 56 (June 11-18, 2013)

Jaj nekem... Sok mindent le kell írnom.

Wow, so yesterday ended one of the most incredible weeks ever. We started the week planning on having 4 baptisms and confirmations... We ended with 5. All on top of reaching our goal of doubling super standard in every category. We ended the week with 70 working hours and a total of 59 programs. Needless to say, it was absolutely amazing.

First things first. Dear Elder Cox is sadly leaving me. His parents are coming to pick him up so I'll get the chance to see him one more time next week before he heads back to the good ol' USA. I will obviously be staying in Miskolc and my new companion is Elder Nabrotzky!! He's Canadian and I've actually served around him in the same district or zone for the last 6 transfers! We've been on splits numerous times and I know we already work famously together. I'm stoked! I'll have more information about him next week. I know he used to work in a cardboard factory. If that's not rad, I don't know what is.

Jajaj ha ezt olvasod most, tudom, hogy ki vagy. Folytass.

Anywho, we were meeting with a lady on Tuesday and she seemed really depressed. When we asked her about it, she just said, "I really don't want to talk about it." We went back the next day and she was acting completely different. We started to say, "can we open with a prayer?" and she interrupted and said, "I want to say it!!! Is that okay?" This took us completely by surprise because in our past programs she was extremely opposed to praying in front of us. She said an incredible prayer and we just looked at her in shock until she explained that she was really upset with a lot of things the day before and she was actually going to tell us never to come back. But she decided to read the chapter I gave her to read. She read it and decided she needed to pray. She prayed personally for the first time in her life and she said she felt absolutely incredible. Later that day, all of the problems she was having blew over and she was loving life. She then told us that she felt like she needed to say the prayer the next time she met with us and she had been praying up until then for strength to do so. It was such a neat experience. You gotta love the power of prayer.

More about prayer, one of the families that were set to be baptized were having a really hard time leading up to the baptism. It's really annoying how much the adversary works against people preparing to be baptized. We actually had a program where we explained that such things are not rare, and they could be tempted a lot before the baptism because that's the absolute last thing Satan wants to have happen. It came down to the afternoon of the baptism and things got so bad that the mother called the family in for a prayer and they later told us how incredible it was to pray as a family without the missionaries just based on their own deep desire for assistance from our Heavenly Father. They all felt immediate peace and comfort and the baptism went smooth for them.

So, Wednesday morning, we met with that one guy who told us that "we won" in church a few weeks ago. As soon as we got to his apartment, he sat us down and said, "I need to ask a big favor from you guys." We said, "yea, sure! What is it?" He then said the following: "I need to be baptized this Saturday. I don't care what I have to do, or where I need to go to get interviewed, I'm going to be baptized this Saturday." Within five minutes, President was called and we had his interview set up with one of the APs for Friday, the day before the baptism. The thing I love about his conversion story is the first time I met him he told me that he likes meeting with the missionaries but he "will never be Mormon." In the end, everything worked out perfect... well almost perfect. With the rush of everything, we sorta kinda forgot to tell him to bring a change of underwear to the baptism. Quite the baptism to remember, right?

Okay, let's just skip to Saturday!! It was beyond words of description. We had a 39 year-old mother and her 15 year-old son with another mother who is 43 with her 12 year-old son, along with the 21 year-old who jumped in at the last minute.

I was able to baptize the 39 year-old mother. She is the mother of the "Miracle Family." It was my first time to ever baptize someone. She was really worried that I wouldn't be able to pull her back up out of the water. "He's just a little guy!" is what she kept saying. Yet she insisted that I be the one to baptize her, I'll tell you all why later. So the font was actually pretty dang cold. I went, "aaaeeee!!" when I stepped in. (Embarrassing.) I thought fonts were always nice and warm!? Something to know is that this lady is absolutely terrified of water. She stood next to me clenching both sides of the font just scared to death. I don't think my arm has ever been squeezed so hard. As soon as she came up out of the water she just started bawling. She couldn't move so she just hugged me in the font crying and crying for a good 20 seconds. In.Cre.Di.Ble.

So there are obviously a lot of reason why I've called them the "Miracle Family." But I think the biggest reason was because I had a dream while I served in Pécs. In this dream, this mother that I baptized came up to me and said, "please, find me, and find my family." I thought I had failed when I was leaving Pécs. I thought that since that's where I was serving when I had the dream, that's where she'd be. Nope. As soon as Elder Cox left her house the first time we tracted into her, I turned to him and said, "you'll never believe this, but I've had a dream about that lady... She told me to come find her." Sure enough, we found her with the guidance of the Spirit and now she's enjoying all the blessings of being baptized in Christ's true church.

After the baptism, I turned to her daughter and said, "you're next. I'm baptizing you before I leave this place." I can be a pill sometimes. :)

President Smith and his wife even came down for the event. They also spoke in church the next day. The 21 year-old asked President if he would be the one to confirm him a member. It was such a neat experience. I myself was given the opportunity to give the 12 year-old boy the Gift of the Holy Ghost and confirm him. It was quite the day.

I could go on and on for ages about how great the whole week was. I love being here in Hungary. I love being here in Miskolc. There's absolutely not a single other place I'd rather be. I love these people.

These 5 new members are thrilled about reading from The Book of Mormon everyday. Are you? I hope so.

Sok Sok Szeretettel,
Alldredge Elder

Five newest members of the church. With Elder Cox and I.

Miskolci Missionaries with President and Sister Smith.