/7/12
Yesterday was so wonderful! Our meetings took place in the state center in Pest. (Remember that Buda is on one side of the Blue Danube River, and is where the mission home is, and Pest is on the other side of the river.) It is a small stake house, but you will be glad to know that the cultural hall has a full basketball court.
The meeting was to start at 2:00, and so they had everyone seated about 10 minutes before the hour. After a few minutes, they asked us not to visit, but to just listen to the prelude. We waited about another 20 minutes, with the anticipation mounting, and then we all stood as Elder Christofferson and his wife, President and Sister Kopiscke (who is the Area Representative) and Elder and Sister Schutze ( ) arrived. After the opening hymn and prayer, the first thing that Elder Christofferson wanted to do is meet every missionary; so they all lined up and we got to go tell them our name and where we were from. It took a long time and since we were the first ones to go up, because of where we were sitting; I got to sit and watch him attend to each of missionary in the room, and have the Spirit whisper to me that as individuals, we are all important.
Here are the main impressions I got from the talks:
President Kopiscke asked us to wake up one minute ealier every day and picture a young man, dressed in white, standing by the baptisimal font; and then picture a family, kneeing around the alter in the temple. Then through the day- look for that young man and that family. In every prayer, pray for Hungarian laborers. He pointed out that South America exploded in membership numbers when natives started serving missions. He had all the Hungarian missionaries in the room stand, and there were only four. He said that membership will not increase until the labor force became more self-sustaining. So when you are praying for us, will you please pray for Hungrian laborers to increase? He also asked us to baptise our replacement. I thought of this as I visited with a Senior missionary Sister and she told me that she had been serving as the Young Women's President, with a Hungarian sister serving as secretary; but that this woman was just put in as Young Woman's president. Hurray!
He also talked about prophets and how in the days of old, when the people rejected them, they stoned them. That isn't done any more with real rocks; but that the stones we use now are called, "Selection, Indifference and Rejection". When I watch this upcoming conference, I want to write those words on the top of my notes to note any thoughts I may have about the talks that would fall under those categories. I think my main stone is probably Selection. I can't ever remember thinking thoughts of rejection, but I have thought, plenty of times, that I will do that another time. Or that this doctrine applied better to someone else.
Sister Kopiscke was very perky and enthusiastic. She talked about the need to be prayerful in choosing and asking a branch member to be present at the discussions and for the need of accountability when asking members. She told of a time when she had been asked to invite an investigator to church and she found herself having to go out of town with her husband. She called the missionaries and told them that she was on the road and could they have someone else do it that could visit her and ask her face to face? They said that they really wanted her to do it and would she call the investigator. They told her that they would call her back and find out how the invitation went. She told about how nervous she was, but that she did it. The investigator told her that she had a hard time coming to church because her life was so hard and then they had a heart to heart talk over the phone. When the missionaries called her back, she reported and then told them to call her and let her know if this sister came or not. Great accountability!
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