BUDAPEST

Posted by Jacquelyn Lois April 24, 2017

BUDAPEST

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

This week we went on exchanges again with the Zone Leaders in Miskolc. We drove there with the Senior couple, the Mosers, who currently are working on a charity project in Miskolc. The drive was gorgeous - first we drove through lots of farm land, and then reached the mountains where Miskolc is located. It kind of reminded me of driving from the eastern side of Colorado toward the western side with the rockies, except Europe edition (these mountains were a lot smaller). Hungarian terrain reminds me a lot of the midwest; I get a lot of Iowan, Oklahoman, and Nebraskan vibes when we travel. It was my turn to work with Elder Seamons who is seriously one of the best missionaries I know. He is so brave in talking to EVERYBODY. We also found four new investigators in just one day together! We had a beautiful discussion with three Muslims from Pakistan (who currently attend the university of Miskolc), in which we established a lot the similarties between Islam and Christianity. One of the most striking things I remember them explaining were 4 pillars of Islam: prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgramage. I thought about how to us, prayer is one of, if not the most important way through which we can strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Charity, as Paul and Moroni describe, is the greatest of all virtues. Through fasting, we sacrifice our mortal desires in exchange for a stronger spiritual connection to God and our surroundings. And though we don't have an official pilgrammage in the Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, many all around the world make sacrifices to travel to various temples in order to be sealed to their familes for time and all eternity.

We got our transfer calls this morning! Typically (about 60% of the time), missionaries stay in any particular city for two transfers. I've currently been in Nyíregyháza for about 4 months, and with the upcoming transfer calls, I've been anxious to know where I'm headed next (I was pretty positive that I would be leaving). So the assistants called and Norris elder is staying in Nyíregyháza, while I am headed to KISPEST (keesh-pesht), the 19th district of BUDAPEST! I've heard that it's an incredibly beautiful section of the city from other missionaries. Getting transfer calls is like Christmas morning; it's really riviting to anticipate where you'll be serving for the next potential 18 weeks.

This past transfer really blew by, which goes to show how great of a companion Norris elder was! Our whole district got really close and it's going to be sad to say goodbye to all of them. But we're all excited for what lies ahead.

Easter (Húsvét) was peaceful and sunny. So in Hungary, similar to the United States, Easter isn't widely regarded as an important holiday, but Hungarians do look forward to it for the work break they'll get, for lack of anything else. Most people stopped working around the Thursday before Easter and started again today (Tuesday). In Hungary, Easter lasts two days, Sunday and Monday. Sunday is when the religious attend their various religious services, and on Monday, boys go around and spray girls in the hair with perfume in exchange for a kiss (in the past, they used to dump buckets of ice water on the girls - I am sorry for them). I've also observed that Monday when most people have a big Easter lunch with the extended family (I'm assuming this because we tracted into about 20 yesterday).

I gave a talk at church on Sunday about Christ's Resurrection. I was really excited to receive this assignment, because 1) recently I have been running across the power and impact of the Resurrection a ton in the scriptures and 2) I was a good occasion to say goodbye to the branch and to thank them for their support. Since the branches are pretty small here (in most cities in Hungary), it's easy for the members and missionaries to get close to each other. Below are some pictures of some really cool members that I've had the privilege of getting to know.

So because of Easter, I have been reading from James E. Talmage's Jesus the Christ about the events surrounding His death and resurrection. Their was one part in particular that stood out to me, when Talmage talked about the physical cause of Christ's death. I don't really know how to explain it, so I'm just going to put it in here and let you read and process it for yourselves.

While, as stated in the text, the yielding up of life was voluntary on the part of Jesus Christ, for He had life in Himself and no man could take His

life except as He willed to allow it to be taken, there was of necessity a direct physical cause of dissolution. As stated also the crucified sometimes lived for days upon the cross, and death resulted, not from the infliction of mortal wounds, but from internal congestion, inflammations, organic disturbances, and consequent exhaustion of vital energy. Jesus, though weakened by long torture during the preceding night and early morning, by the shock of the crucifixion itself, as also by intense mental agony, and particularly through spiritual suffering such as no other man has ever endured, manifested surprising vigor, both of mind and body, to the last. The strong, loud utterance, immediately following which He bowed His head and “gave up the ghost,” when considered in connection with other recorded details, points to a physical rupture of the heart as the direct cause of death. If the soldier’s spear was thrust into the left side of the Lord’s body and actually penetrated the heart, the outrush of“blood and water” observed by John is further evidence of a cardiac rupture; for it is known that inthe rare instances of death resulting from a breaking of any part of the wall of the heart, blood accumulates within the pericardium, and there undergoes a change by which the corpuscles separate as a partially clotted mass from the almost colorless, watery serum... Great mental stress, poignant emotion either of grief or joy, and intense spiritual struggle are among the recognized causes of heart rupture.

The present writer believes that the Lord Jesus died of a broken heart. The psalmist sang in dolorous measure according to his inspired prevision of the Lord’s passion: “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalm 69:20, 21; see also 22:14.)

This not only changed my entire perspective on the extend of Christ's suffering, but also on the power of the resurrection. I know that the details are pretty graphic, but I think that those just go to show that God really does love us beyond our comprehension. I love the doctrine of the resurrection. It gives me so much hope in such a troubled world, hope that one day I can actually, literally be perfect in Christ. I'm still a long way from that, but I'm happy to be able to dedicate all my time to Him and to sharing this glorious message with God's children.

Lots of love, Adam