The End of The World...As Well As My Stay at The MTC
SZIAAAAAAAA AAGGGGGGGGGIEEEEEESSSS!
Good luck to my Aggies as they take on Alabama on the road. And congratulations to BYU for winning ON THE ROAD against #6 in the nation Wisconsin, that is such a special occasion and I am happy for all those who enjoyed that success!
Well, this week literally blinked by, it was just last wednesday and now here I am, typing out my last email to y'all before I enter the mission field of Hungary....I am just in shock at how fast time flies and how many good friends you make in the MTC, leaving in 5 days is going to be way harder than I thought it would be. Every day this week is a last for me, I have already started packing.....its wild. But I did receive my flight plans! Got them late friday night, and I'm leaving monday at 10:15am and the flight from SLC to Amsterdam is 12 hours, and I get there at 9:15am, layover for about 3 hours, then another 3 hour flight to Hungary, get there about 1 pm their time, I am so excited! I just learned by experience that "Perfect love casteth out all fear" and I am just so excited now and not scared to serve! I promise as a representative of Jesus Christ to y'all as you reach out to others in love and to serve them and to do as the Savior Jesus Christ would, you will find that the things that are scary to you, the things that are hard, the things that are weighing down your minds and hearts because of the troubling things that can transpire in life, all these things will be wiped away by the Savior's merciful Atonement that allows us to become better and more like Him. Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles said once that
"STRENGTH FROM HIS GRACE GIVES US POWER TO BECOME"
I just love that. It is so true, through his grace and Atonement we are able to BECOME. Become better, become more loving, caring, patient, meek, humble, submissive, selfless, and ultimately more like He is. that is the mission statement of the MTC: "Become as He is". I know this to be true, and that as we study Christ's teachings and doctrines in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible, we will come to understand Him more and will inherently come closer to Him, and as I was saying earlier, all the worries and strifes of life will be wiped away as we come to love others and love the Savior. "Perfect love casteth out ALL FEAR." Not just a little, ALL. Such a powerful promise from our Loving Heavenly Father.
Alright, so I know y'all read the title above and you are probably wondering why I said the end of the world. Well, as of the beginning of last week, a massive, MASSIVE fire was started in Payson Canyon. HUGE. Since then, it has been blowing 40-50 miles an hour consistently driving it further into populated areas and other parts of the mountains. Some of the Noverek (Hungarian sisters) have family in Salem and Elk Ridge and have pictures of the bright orange flames literally in their back yard as they are evacuating their house. It is a humbling picture. On day we were walking outside doing an SYL walk (Speak your language practice) we could see the red flames from the MTC twenty miles away from Payson Canyon. I'll attcah pictures but it is a humbling sight to see. It literally feels like Vesuvius went off and we are getting rained down on by ash. Because saturday we did. We were outside and even inside it smelled like SMOKE. It looked like smoke, and the rooms inside even smelled bad. and it was snowing ash from 20 miles away. and to make matters worse, the Payson Canyon fire AND a second fire converged to make a big one, which as of saturday was only 4% contained. Well everyone was praying and fasting that I knew of, and we get outside sunday and there is NO SMOKE. None, I was baffled. It was all gone. I then hear that saturday night was Miracle Sunday morning, becuase the trenches the Fire Fighters were digging to keep it back, even with 50 mph winds, the line held and it didn't move, and though the forecast showed no rain, a rainstorm came in onto the flames and helped make it smaller. Literally one of the coolest things to hear about and to know that Heavenly Father gives us these things, natural disasters, trials, so that we can see His hand in our lives and to be grateful for His love, and to just know He is there. It was a raw experience.
Also, Neil L Andersen came yesterday to talk to us about an odd subject, but he talked about the temple. And he said a lot of stuff that is not appropriate to share on a mass email due to the sacredness of it, but one promise he made to us missionaries is one I would like to convey to y'all, because it is a promise from an Apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ, and is from God to His children, he said "If you will go to the temple in a spirit of humility and a spirit of searching, and love for the temple, you will come to have a surety of the knowledge that there is indeed life after death, and that this is not the end, but a small part of the Plan of Salvation, God's Plan of Happiness to His children. It will not all come at once, but as you are patient with yourself and willing to learn, you WILL come to know this to be true." What a promise! I loved that. And he made the point that you cannot compare you physical or temporal learning and progression to your spiritual progression. They are intertwined and important yes but everyone learns temporally and spiritually very differently. Patience with ourselves and with God when learning of things that are spiritual which are Eternal, is one of the greatest attributes to have, and I would invite y'all to work on being patient with yourself and God as you go through you life, to really just trust in Him, and His timing. Another Andersen quote, "You don't know everything, but you know ENOUGH." I know this to be true.
If there is one thing I could end with, that has been impressed upon my mind to share with y'all that has really helped me through the MTC, that has really helped me to have a change of heart and a coming closer to Christ in my time here, is this: God, our Eternal Father, the most magnificent Being in the universe, love each of us individually. He could be doing anything he wants to, yet, He loves us on an individual level because we are His spirit children, so much so that He gave us the opportunity to come to Earth, to receive a body. to gain experience and to really feel snippets and pieces of what it is like to be Him. He gave us families, which enables us to have and to experience the joy of bringing spirits to this world, and to be a parents as He is, and He knew that in all this joy and happiness that we experience because of life, there would be harder times. We would have doubts. Fears. worries. Insecurities. Physical Ailments. Afflictions. Temptations. But Heavenly Father loves you, and me, and the people of Hungary and the World so much, that He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to Atone for the fears, worries, insecurities, physical ailments, afflictions, and temptations of all who have lived, live now, and will yet live on this Earth. He took upon Him all that so that we could turn to Him, and ask Him for strength, comfort, peace, guidance, and forgiveness through that infinite Atonement. And because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I am able to make mistakes, and to feel down, and to experience these things, so that I may be able to know the joy and peace that comes from Christ. And you are too. Heavenly Father also loves us so much that he gave us a record of His children in Ancient America, that holds the fulness of His Gospel or teachings that will enable us to return to live in His indescribably magnificent presence as we live by His gospel. The Book of Mormon, the record I mentioned previous, is true, and it has POWER in it. the stories and experiences of those people and prophets of old are for ME AND YOU to come closer to Christ. without that book, I would be lost on the waves of the world, with no sense of direction and purpose. But becuase of it, I have a compass in my life to tell me which way to sail safely the seas of life. I know this to be true. I implore each of you who reads this, and promise you, that if you read this book-whether for the first time or the 25th time-if you read it with an intent and a desire to come closer to Christ and to know what you must do to return to our Heavenly Father's presence And if you pray on your knees, and ask, plead with Heavenly Father if what you read was true, and I promise when you do, you will feel the love of God stronger than ever testify to you that what you read was true. The joy I have from this Gospel is real, I cannot deny it, I would die rather than deny what I know to be true. I am humbled and boggled that my Father in Heaven trusts ME, a 18 year old boy, still unsure of many things, to teach this beautiful message of Eternal Happiness and Salvation to His Hungarian children. I am honored and sunk to my knees every night in gratitude for this opportunity. I love y'all, I love the Hungarians, and I love my God. I cannot imagine what Hungary will be like, but I know they need this message. And only I can take it to them in my broken Hungarian. May God be y support over these next months. I turn to what the prophet Nephi says at the end of his message to his people in the Book of Mormon: "The Lord has commanded me, and I must obey."
isten áldja meg a magyarokat és mindannyian! Jézus Krisztus evangéliuma igaz! Ő él!
Sok sok szeretettel!
Hough Elder
District Selfie with Sharp Nover (their third teacher--she led the missionaries through the pre-MTC program/experience as well before they even arrived in Provo.)
As I was getting this post ready to send out, I received this picture below in my email. It wasn't from Jake, but from friends of our family--taken today. The guy in the middle in the red shirt was JARED'S MTC companion, Shane Johnson, 25 years ago. He and his wife, Brandi, were dropping off their son and first missionary, Trey, for his report day. I don't know where they were or what they were doing, but Trey said, "Mom, look. I think that's Jake." (I'm impressed Trey would recognize Jake--the kids don't know each other that well.) So Brandi called out, "Is that Elder Hough?" When Jake saw them, he ran over and gave them all hugs. Brandi said it was such a tender mercy for them as they were saying their goodbyes to Trey. It was a tender mercy for me, too. So glad another dad and mom could give Jake a hug when I couldn't!
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