Humility

Szervusztok!

Hey! Another week has flown by. First I want to thank everybody for all of the letters that I have received, I really appreciate them! But at the same time I need to apologize because I don't have very much time on Wednesday to write back, so it might take a while for me to write back, if at all. Sorry!

So my goal of only speaking Hungarian this week fell through, but I have spoken a lot more than usual, which is still great. I'm going to keep on trying and at least one week here I am only going to speak Hungarian. I need the practice.

Oh, Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us yesterday at the devotional. It was really cool. He is such a humble man. At the end he told his conversion story in Japan and you could really feel the love that he had for us. His father was killed in World War II by an American submarine while he was on a commercial fishing boat and because of that his family fell into deep poverty. He hated Americans for that. But a few years later two American missionaries from our Church told him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he knew in his heart that what they were teaching was true. And so now he can stand in front of a crowd of mostly Americans and tell us that he loved us and it didn't matter so much as what he said, but what we felt. We knew that he was sincere. All that hate that he had is gone and has been replaced with Christ-like love. I hope that I can achieve that level of humility and love someday. It is a testament to me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives and improves lives and brings true, lasting happiness into the lives of those who earnestly follow His commandments.

In an effort to become more humble and kind and loving I have been studying 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Nephi is such a great example to us of how to become humble and loving. His brothers hated him many times and made his life very difficult, but Nephi didn't allow their hatred to bring him down. He truly loved them and cared for them and wanted them to choose the right and be happy. He didn't get angry at them or belittle them, he tried his best to be a good example and to lift them up and help them to follow Jesus Christ's teachings. He just wanted them to be happy. Many times when it would have been so easy to get angry at his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, when it would have been so easy to give up on them and give them "a taste of their own medicine" Nephi chose to follow the perfect example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and he was "grieved" in his heart because of their wickedness and tried to help his brothers with love and kindness and not with an attitude that he was better than them.

If we follow Nephi's example and, more importantly, Jesus Christ's example in our lives I know that we will be blessed. Being with my companion 24/7 has proven this to me. During the first few weeks we argued a lot over a lot of things, important and not important, and it was not fun at all. After I finally stopped being contentious and was more loving and kind to my companion things got way better. I am still trying, and will always be trying, to improve. Trying to get rid of the attitude that I am right and others are wrong is the best thing that I have done!

I love you all! Thanks for your love and support! I have to go now! Sziasztok!

~Anderson Elder