It was another great week here in the sunny city of Szeged. I'm
not trying to be corny or anything, that is actually Szeged's
nickname 'The Sunshine City'! Cool, right?! It was SO hot last week,
like 80's for a few days straight...I cannot believe that it's
already summer again! It reminds me of sweating, losing weight, and
more sweating. So good. :)
Lots of fun things this week!
For one, after English Class last week we went and tried to
look-up someone we had tracted into the week before. She wasn't
home. Cool. So, we decided to just try tracting out the neighboring
building. We came to one door, I knocked, and a man answered it. I
thought at first it was a little strange, because the unoffical rule
of ettiquet here in Hungary is to yell from the other side of the
door 'WHO IS IT?!", instead, this guy just swung open his door
and invited us in. Oh, and it was in English. Cool. He's from Spain,
and he's totally an English teacher. So it's a Spaniard...teaching
english...in Hungary...I have no idea why... Anyway, we're going
back in a few hours and we totally found a Spanish BOM in our
apartment. Heck. Yes.
But, it was funny :)
Another fun thing! I got a haircut today! #euroclass
Random moments that were awesome:
In the same building in which we found our Spanish friend, I had
Elder Mellor knock a door. An older woman answered the door and was
really curious in what we were doing. My companion was doing so
well...until she started asking him what was his favorite
translation of the Bible was! Poor kid. He just looked at me and was
like "it's all you!". So, I chat it up with this old lady
for a bit. She wasn't interested in our message, which was a bummer,
but she then asked me about my life: what I wanted to do with it. I
said, sort of jokingly, that when I get home I don't know what to
do, I just don't want to make my parents mad! I laughed a little
bit, but this sweet old lady took my arm, looked me dead in the eye,
and said "My small son (this is a normal thing to say here so
don't freak out), you follow your dreams. You are doing God's work
right now, so don't worry! Do what you want!" When she
finished, I was just staring at her. Literally speechless. I had
actually been thinking about what I want to do after my mission that
week, and been praying a bit. Little did I know that my prayer would
be answered through an old lady in a dingy, old ten-story building.
Crazy.
I've also tried a lot more lately to be more "engaged"
in the work, that is, love my investigators more and try to serve
them as Christ would. I prayed for it a LOT this past week, and I
had an experience in one program that was an answer to my prayers.
One of our investigators is in a rough spot with his family and
relations with the branch here. As he talked, he kind of just
spilled his heart out to us. In the past, this would usually trouble
me and maybe I'd squirm a bit in my seat. This time, however, my
heart literally broke. Like, pain. Feelable sorrow. Tears came to my
eyes. Things got very, very real. As I turned to translate for my
companion, he was all like "um...Elder Giacalone...are you
ok?" haha poor kid! I then turned to our investigator and bore
testimony of the power of the Atonement, and that it can help
him.
So, then Sunday comes around and that same investigator BEARS HIS
TESTIMONY in church of the power of missionaries and bawled. There
was a former missionary there visiting with his family, and I
thought it was directed at him. Then, our investigator, while
talking, just does a shout-out to me over the pulpit. The whole
branch just kind of swiveled in my direction and had tears in their
eyes and smiled at me. Insane.
I don't know why that happened, and why I have been so blessed
lately, maybe it's because I have a new missionary, but I literally
had the most emotional week of my mission last week. My testimony
has grown by leaps and bounds. Our work is kind of slowing down with
all the students going home for the summer, but it is giving me time
to think of where I am at in my mission and what I want to do these
next ten months. I love where I am at, though.
Missions are literally the coolest things. And that's fact!
I love you all! Have a great week! Miracles are real, and if you
love others, crazy awesome things will happen :)
Sok Szeretettel,
Elder Giacalone
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