Hello Happy: Prayer is such a powerful thing!

Brooke’s email - brooke.gertsch@myldsmail.net

Week of 10/24 - 10/30

Sziasztok everybody!!

Busy week. We were in Budapest the beginning of the week for Zone Training and splits with the Sister Training Leaders. LOVED spending time with other fellow missionaries and learned a lot from them. While on splits, I got to teach the Plan of Salvation in a donut shop. Haha. Doesn’t get any cooler than that!

^^ In Budapest for Zone Training

^^ Happy Birthday to my favorite - Mason Nővér

We had this movie night, where we watched “Meet the Mormons” at the branch house and guess who showed up. GÁBOR! We were so happy he came and I love that movie so much and Gábor told me he felt something special while watching it. So that is a step in the right direction! Meeting with him again at the end of the week.

Also, thought I would share a quick though I had from my personal study this week:

The grace of God is and always has been pretty hard for me to completely understand. How is it that time after time, we make mistakes and fall short, yet in the end, God is always willing and there to pick us back up? It really just comes to show how unconditional His love is for us. The actual definition of grace is - "the divine means of help or strength and enables those who receive it to do and be what they cannot do and cannot be on their own." And that is SO applicable for me right now. Here I am, just a 20 year old American girl, trying to speak Hungarian and talking to random strangers about this blue book (Book of Mormon) But each morning, I wake up with a new-found motivation and when the hard moments come, I am given so much strength and comfort. I know for certain that I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for God’s hand, His grace, helping me every step of the way.

ETHER 12:27

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will i make weak things become strong unto them.”

^^Brooke in front of her apartment building

Sorry for the short email and delay. P-day was a little different due to some holidays here. More stories to follow next week! I will be writing again in a couple of days!

Have a great week, sending you all my love!

Sok Szeretettel,

Gertsch Nővér

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November 7th

^^The caption Brooke sent me for this photo is “HAPPY!!”

Well, first and foremost - PRAYER IS SUCH A POWERFUL THING! There had been so many slow weeks for my companion and I. Lots of doors knocked on, lots of people not interested. Through it all, I prayed for strength to keep going. To keep finding. To not lose hope! God definitely answered that specific prayer and I have made it to where I am today thanks to Him. Our friend Gábor was also another answered prayer as well. Like I said in my last email, Gábor came to our movie night for “Meet the Mormons” and totally loved it. We were worried before that he could possibly not be super serious because is always so busy. But he made time to come to that and called us, asking to meet this week again. So we met with him on Thursday and taught him the Plan of Salvation - my favorite! And everything went so well and he really was so accepting of it all. I could go on and on for days about the lesson, but all in all, he definitely feels like one of those people who has been prepared to hear the Gospel. He just wants something to believe in and a reason for why he is here. And lucky for us, we can share the gospel with him and help him find the answers he is looking for.

^^ The Plan of Salvation

Being a missionary is SO cool, I cannot even begin to tell you. The answers to prayers doesn’t stop there. A member in the branch had a friend they referred to the missionaries and it is their sweet young girl in her 20’s and she lives in our area, so we are going to start teaching her as well! Within a WEEK our work has picked up and I am so very thankful! God is Good! No… He’s not good, He’s the BEST!!!

^^and this is what I mean whenever I talk about "csengő's” haha

Also… I was back in Budapest this weekend for Stake Conference and it was a lot of fun and a whole lot of Hungarian, haha! I love this language. And I love these people. I love this chance I have to be serving and am growing in more ways than I thought possible.