December 27, 2016

Hello,
Well, we had an interesting week. First of all, we are down to a duo. Elder Nanto had to go home, so now it's just me and Elder Pulsipher.

We had splits with the zone leaders, which was crazy. Elder Hughes served here a transfer ago, so he knows the area and the people really well. We looked up a bunch of people and tracted and whatnot and ended up getting 3 lessons that day, which was a lot of fun. It was a crazy day.

We also had Christmas Zone Conference. It was a ton of fun. We had a talent show and watched the Little Prince and Mr. Krueger's christmas. It was a fun time.
Then we had Christmas!! That was super fun. It was my first time skyping home, which was a little stressful, but it all worked out in the end and was a lot of fun.

We also had a lot of meals with the members. It was cool to have some time to visit with them and get to know them better and help them out. It was a really good experience. Christmas is awesome.
Now we're just getting back to normal work, sort of. Between Christmas and new years things are kinda shut down, but we've got some fun stuffs planned this week. It's gonna be great.

I don't have too much to say. We had some fun stuff with food. We went to 4 members and 3 of them sent us the same food, which I don't think my body likes very much. My appetite has been gone for 2 days. But oh well, it was nice to be fed.

Anyways, I love you very much and I hope all is going well. I just don't have much to say after skyping. Happy new year! Next time I email, it'll be 2017!


Sok Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

Christmas Conference with Santa

Elder Pulsipher's family sent him with 12 Days of Christmas (He brought the stuff with him from the MTC)

Elders Pulsipher and Terry with Benny

Merry Christmas!  (Most of that is Pulsipher's stuff)

Reading the Christmas story by candlelight in the apartment

Matching ties! And lots of other stuff.

And his family shirt 

December 19, 2016

Hello,
It has been an interesting time since transfers. Szolnok is different from Kecskemét, but I like it here. It's a fun place and the branch here is super awesome.
We had a Christmas party on Saturday and that was a lot of fun. The branch did some fun stuff and then we played games. It was cool to spend some time with the members.
We had church yesterday and that was fun too. The branch here is pretty small, but I like it. It's really close knit. Plus I already knew one of the counselors here because he lives in Kecskemét and helped us with teachings. He's cool.
Other than that, I got to know the district and my companions. Elder Nanto is from a town near Boston and he's cool. He really likes Massachusetts. Elder Pulsipher is from Cedar hills (I think, somewhere near AF). They are both fun and really good missionaries. I'm looking forward to working with them more.

It's been fun trying to get used to the area and figure out what's going on. We've had a fun time.
From his email to me: Elder Pulsipher has been in Szolnok, Elder Nanto was in Veszprém. Work here in Szolnok has been struggling and Veszprém sounds like they had one or two lessons a week.  He's been participating in the Mormon.org Advent Calendar and said "The Advent stuff is super fun and I love the video. I'm sad that we don't have a way to watch it all the time (I may have found a way to do it. hehehehe)".  Christmas can be crazy, but it's the best. Make sure you focus on Christ. He's the lenyeg (main idea/point).

Sok Szeretettel,

Terry Elder

Pictures from Cegléd

Elder Pulsipher, Sis. Gordon, Sis. Schoendorfer, Elder Terry, Elder Nanto

Elder Terry in Cegléd

The District:

Kecskemét:

Elder Stephens in Kecskemét

December 12, 2016

Elder Terry wrote 8 emails this week! This entry might feel a little disjointed and that's why.

This week has been a fun one. Elder Stanley and I worked super hard. We had some fun times tracting. We tracted in the building where Rozália lives and set up one return appointment, got someone's phone number, and another potential investigator. It was a super good tracting session, which was really cool.
Also I have pictures and stuff to send, but the library we are emailing at is béna, so I'm not even going to try. Next week I'll send lots of stuff.
We meet with Sándor and his family on sunday, and Sándor came to church. It was the primary program and his daughter was in it, so it was really cool that he was there. We shared the Christmas message and it was really good times.
The big news is that I am being transferred to Szolnok. It's in the same zone as Kecskemét, I think it's to the north east (I'm not really sure). I'll be in a trio, and both of my companions are a group younger than me (they've been in Hungary for 8 weeks!) So I'll be finishing their training. Apparently. I don't know anything about them yet. So we'll see what happens.
The mission is super young. There has been a lot of big groups coming in, so lots of crazy stuff is going on. Elder Stanley is training, and staying in Kecskemét.
Basically, things have been going well, and next transfer is going to be a fun one. It'll be a 10 week transfer and we're going to party for days!

Also, I was reading Some Alma scriptures this week and I had a cool thought. In Alma 34:15 it talks about the atonement, and it says that we can have faith because of the Atonement. The atonement is so great. Without it, we couldn't do anything. Because of it, we can do everything!

Also, I forgot to add this to the general email:

We also had a zone day this week. We went to Szeged again and played some games and had a fun time. It was really fun. We also watched Zootopia (or whatever it's called). That was fun. The main thing was that it was fun to spend some time with other missionaries and get to know them better.

Also, we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional last night at the Kozmaék. There are a fun family. It was fun to watch the devotional in Hungarian. I really liked it. Afterwards we talked to the Kozmaék and had some good times.

Sok Szeretettel,

Terry Elder

This next part is from his email to me (the mom).  It gives a better picture of why he was in such a hurry when he was emailing.  Lots of little letters because he wasn't sure when he was going to run out of time.

Dear Momma!
Things are crazy. I'm going to Szolnok with 2 missionaries younger than me. I may or may not be flipping out just a bit. It'll be fun. I'll also be the district leader there. I feel like this is way to soon, but hey, I must be doing something right. I just hope everyone will survive.
For the Advent Calendar we were supposed to find 3 scriptures that represent us. Mine are: Alma 53:20, D and C 121:33, and Alma 60:36. Basically, I like these scriptures/ I want to be like the people they talk about. I thought about sending Alma 54:24 (I am a bold Lamanite), but I decided against it. I'm super excited for next transfer. I hope we survive and that I don't die. Hopefully all will go well.

Elder Terry didn't say what these pictures are of so I'm guessing:

Elder Terry in the fog of Kecskemet

Elder Stanley

December 5, 2016

​​​​Hello!!!
It's december so the Light the World Advent calendar has started!!! It's been fun to try to do all of the things on those (except the ones we can't do like call our parents). There are some really good ideas for helping us light the world. I hope you're all doing the challenges and lighting the world in a new way every day!
We had a great week. We were on splits in Szeged with the Zone leaders, and we're going on district splits tonight. It's gonna be a crazy week.
We've had some interesting times with some of our investigators telling us not to come back. And Sándor had to work, so we weren't able to meet with him. That was said.
The big news is that we have some really awesome Christmas pass along cards that are super fun to use. It's been fun to give those to everyone we can. We've given out a lot of them already.
We've got a super busy week planned. It's gonna be awesome. And Transfers are next week, so P-day will be Tuesday.
Also, we tried to make a gingerbread house, but you have to actually make the gingerbread, which was really hard. So we made a Gingerbread lean-to. It was kinda lame, which is why I wrote "Béna" on it. Good times.

Love,
Elder Terry

November 28, 2016

Hello!

This has been another great week. Good times for everyone.
Elder Stanley and I have been setting up with a lot of less active members. We're meeting most of them this week, so we're going to have some fun times doing that.
We had exchanges this week, and I was with Elder Jones, who is Elder Stephens' trainee. I was worried going into the exchange, because neither of us has been here that long. But it went pretty well. We had some good times streeting and tracting.
Elder Stanley met with Sándor while we were on exchanges. He's been quitting smoking and he's doing a good job. He smokes a lot less than he did. So that's progress.
We got some good times coming.
The pictures are of some fun stuff. One is an ad of a lady holding a chicken. 2 are of our Christmas decorations. 1 is of a sign in hungarian. It's a good sign.
Also, Thanksgiving was this week. It was a pretty normal day for work. We visited a member which was fun. I had some turkey on my sandwiches instead of ham. That's pretty much all we did. I bought a journal to write stuff I'm grateful for in. That was fun.
All around good times.
Random stuff:
We found a member who's name translates to Mary Christmas.
Also, I was reading the Book of Mormon today, and In Alma 46:40 we learn that some people died from fevers, but not that many because they had good plant medicine.
For a more spiritual Book of Mormon thought, I've been reading it looking for the Character of Christ, and a lot of the time what I find is that He helps us a lot of ways that we don't really notice. So I encourage you all to pay attention to how Christ has been helping you everyday.
Love,
Elder Terry

Loosely translated per google translate:  Pedestrian traffic on the other side!

Elder Terry after his haircut!

November 21, 2016

It's been a good week in Kecskemét/Budapest. We went to Budapest 3 times this week. It was a party on the train.
We had zone training this week. We talked about commitments and using time wisely. It was a really good training, and a good reminder that we only get so much time to serve the Lord with all of our time and efforts. This is an awesome time, and we need to use it as much as we can.
Other than that, this week was interesting. One of our investigators told us that he's not really interested in meeting anymore. He doesn't want to get baptized or become a member. That was not a very fun day. But we had some good times on the Other days of the week. We found a new investigator, Tibor, while tracting, and we taught him the restoration. It was a really good lesson and we'll be going back to him sometime this week.
We met with Sándor and he's doing okay. He hurt his back pretty bad last sunday, so he couldn't come to church. That was kinda sad, but he's getting better. We'll keep working with him and helping him come closer to Christ.
Other than that, I learned some cool stuff this week. Studies were really good. I've been reading in Alma, and Alma 37:44 it says that it's easy to follow the words of Christ. I've been thinking about that a lot because things are not always easy. I realized that as long as we follow Christ, we don't have to worry about other things. He knows best, so we can trust in Him.
Also, we had pancakes for a meal this week. It was really good. I really like pancakes.
Love,
Elder Terry

Pictures

These pictures are from Zone Training Nov. 16-17

Stanley and Terry

Nov. 14, 2016

Hello,
This has been a great week. Things are going well and Elder Stanley and I are working hard.
We had some good times. One of our investigators, Laci, came to church. That was really good for him. It's really annoying sometimes because 4 people promised us they'd come to church, but only one of them come. But I was so happy Laci came. It shows that he really wants to learn and that's awesome. We're working with him and he's progressing nicely.

Elder Stanley and I taught Sunday school in Hungarian with absolutely no advance warning. It was pretty interesting. We taught the youth about how they can make their own decisions. There was a funny moment when I asked how we should read the scriptures and one of the youth said, "We study them" and I asked "What does that mean?" (Az mit jelent?) and Elder Stanley said, "It means to study." It was pretty funny just because of the language joke by changing languages.
It's probably not as funny over email. Oh, well.

Other than that, we had some fun times finding. We talked to a lot of people. Today, when we went into the usual pékség (bakery thingy) to buy bread, the lady asked us if we had a moment and asked some questions about the church and what we are doing in Hungary. It was really cool.

Elder Stephens and I went on splits this week. That was a lot of fun. He's awesome. He was here last transfer and it was fun to be able to joke with him about stuff that happened last transfer. It was really cool. He's a great missionary and he helped me a lot.

The pictures are of how foggy it was one morning. It's super foggy sometimes, it's crazy. And one of Elder Stanley and I emailing. I took it about 5 minutes ago. The lady that watches the library photobombed. Sort of.

Anyways, Kecskemét is the best. We've got some good people that we are working with. Good times are ahead.


Love,
Elder Terry