Hungarian holiday

I This most recent Hungarian Holiday was the celebration of a Hungarian revolution that resulted in a whoppin 8 HOURS of freedom. It doesnt sound like much but you better act like its something EVERYTIME an néni or bacsi tells you about it every 3 minutes. They are so proud of their history its great. As far as I could tell they celebrate by buying lots of chocolate and alcohol then drinking way too much. And a new discovery I made is that when people are drunk they are not as kind to you when you knock on their doors and bear your testimony in broken Hungarian hah! We had people yelling out of 10 stories telling us to go away which was awkward at fist but we zoned it out after a while. However its probably easier for me to be yelled at cause I cant understand anything theyre saying. Oh one time a bácsi on the 8th or 9th story threw his lighter at us while we were csengőing (ringing doorbells to try to get let into the building) but its really windy and cold here so it ended up shattering 10 meters away. Obsitcle avoided.

Highlight of the week was Zone conference with Elder Limar of the 70. It was fantastic, motivating, and inspiring. The west and southwest zones traveled to Budapest thursday and Elder Limar answered questions, taught us how to improve our finding and shared some missionary secrets. Its weird but it felt better than a Christmas. One of the biggest things he emphasized was something that I have heard a lot of people say" the Holy Ghost is the missionaries best tool/asset." Elder Limar immediately stood up after that was said by someone and said "We do not, we cannot use the Holy Ghost as a 'tool'. The Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead. He is a God. You will never use a God. But when you testify of pure doctrine you have a personal testimony of the Holy Ghost will use YOU as a tool/vessel to carry the truth to the heart of the listener!" He is pretty amazing and he challeged us to be more bold at every door we knock at and to testify of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith at everydoor possible.

After we implemented his teachings into our tracting and began to testify at every door we had more of I guess you could say the "extremes." We were able to find people that were genuinely intested in our message and people that were passionately not interested... yet! And its fine I love all these Hungarian the same. One particular miracle this week was yesterday when we were able to teach Zsuzsanna a 'less active' who we tracted into that hasnt been to church in 12 years and doesnt remember anything really. Which has been a miracle cause we have been able to teach her like an investigator from the begenning. She has two children and desperately wants them on a good path-- and the Gospel is the perfect path for families. We were able to help her feel comfortable enough to pray for the first time in who knows how many years and it was such an amazing prayer. The spirit was so strong she was crying when she finished and so of course I cried a tiny too mostly because of the cat though. ALSO she made us delicous cake! A Win Win lesson.

I love the Hungarians. They are a passionate people who have been through so much and they are some of the most loyal people I have ever met. This branch here in Szombathely is just a big family and its so nice to see people support and love each other instead of gossiping and excluding others. Ill share a quote from my favorite talk in conference Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence by Elder Jorg Klebingat "Become really, really good at forgiving. “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:10). Forgive everyone, everything, all the time, or at least strive to do so, thus allowing forgiveness into your own life. Don’t hold grudges, don’t be easily offended, forgive and forget quickly, and don’t ever think that you are exempt from this commandment. Spiritual confidence increases when you know that the Lord knows that you bear no ill feelings toward another soul."

The Savior died so that we and others could repent. Support others as they try to repent and make it easier for them by forgiving them quickly.

I love you all and pray for you lots.

Be bold. Be forgiving.

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Hughes

1 is a picture of győr my favorite city Ive seen so far in hungary.

2 is Elder heaps and I with Sister Szabadkai (the best) and Elder Ribar (who was my trainers last companion) at zone conference in the mission home!