Monday, March 4, 2019

Elder Jake Hough, 3.4.19--week 32

"2+2=5, and 100% on the free throw line. Put me in coach!"

SZIAAAAAAAAAAASZTOOOOOOK AGGGGGGGGGIEEEESSS!!!

Wow. I just cant help but feel that for some reason these weeks are not actually weeks, but days and that they are just flying. I dont like it. Not one bit! But I cant do much about that, so I might as well get into the frame of mind where its down to the last 30 seconds of the game and every decision counts, it did count before, but this is crunch time. "Bring it on."

honestly, there were some crazy stories from this week, and a lot happened on Saturday when we had our fast. We started it, and we were feeling super legendary and that we could take on the world!! We barely know hungarian and we are going at these communist ten stories like they were cake at a birthday party of 5 year olds! And then the rejections started. It was really tough. no one let us say more than "hi we are missionaries from our church and we would love to share a message about Christ-"

SLAM

And so it began. We went onto a different building, with the goal of finding two more people, and we had 2 hours left in the day, no one on the streets...challenge accepted. Get into this next building and a chick opens the door and goes"na I already know who you are and why you are here to convince us of your church and everything that goes with it, I know who yall are."

"Oh ok, thats awesome! Can I ask you a question?"

"go ahead."

"What do you want in this life, what do you desire?"

"Well, I have some hard things going on in my life, that arent fun."

"And what are those?"..."Well, that is why we are here. Not to convince, not to force anything upon anyone, but to bring the help of God to those that wish to accept it and that want to live in a better way than they already are now, the most happy way. That is why we are here."

She wasnt open to the message, but it was a tender momnet to really realize that we are messengers bearing the good tidings but they have to have the desire to do it as well. Continuing into the opposition, we hit the ground level of this building and this man with no shirt and super burly, and he answers the door and says we dont want this! And we go well we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and the love he has for everyone, and then he started questioning us, about Christ, if he lives, and we stood there answering his questions as if we were on a trial, and we testified of the divinity of the book of mormon to him and that he could know that this was Gods word if he would read and pray, because God wouldnt want it to be hard to receive and answer from him, and he got REALLY csendes or silent in that moment, becasue the spirit was so strong, and then he hardened his heart again and laughed us up and slammed the door...And I have never felt so at peace that I have been despised in the name of Christ, as the apostles of the primitive church were by the jews and Romans. It was an amazing feeling. In spite of the fact that we got yelled at and made fun of.

And with two hours left, we streeted a man who was struggling in his life to find peace and set up to meet with him, and tracted into another in a completely different place after nothing, and received the two people to teach which was the goal for our week. It was an out of body feeling coupled with hunger.

I would like to make two connections to this story that really helped me to take a look into my life as a missionary and desciple. The first is that we set the goal for 6 new people to teach at the beginning of that week, and when we we got to Saturday we had 2 left to find. That is really hard in our area. We were feeling a little like how the heck are we going to do this? But we prayed. We asked for the heavenly help. And we gave it EVERYTHING. We went for it despite of discouragement and doubt, we trusted and we pushed. And the Lord Sanctified our efforts. this is true in anyones life, that if we pour out our souls unto God. and to Christ, that we can achieve a goal in our lives, personally, or within our callings in the church. We will see miracles in our lives and the lives of our loved ones. I know this to be true. 

We also had our most recent investigators come to church and we had a member bring him, it was his first day in church and it was fast and testimony meeting, and he asks me if he can jsut go up and bear his thoughts, and I said yeah so he got up and the members helped him to the stand since he couldnt walk well by himself, and he bore sweet powerful simple testimony, all he had, that he didnt believe that there was a higher power, but because of his recent miracle of health based on gods timing and his obedience to reading and praying, he proclaimed in solemnity that there is a God, and that he is grateful for the love of God in his life. It was glorious. I was crying the spirit was so strong.

I love this mission, the good weather, and the opposition that tells me Im doing good!! I cant wait to share what happens next!

Hough Elder


We had an INCREDIBLE video chat this morning with Jake and Elder Beck as we discussed what it means to be a disciple of Christ from Come Follow Me for individuals and families. It was so uplifting and instructive to hear from these faithful missionaries and to listen to the inspired thoughts from our children. We prayed together and laughed together and talked about what we can do to follow the Savior better! 

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