Letter from Pres. Szabadkai

MAGYARORSZÁG BUDAPEST MISSZIÓ1122 Budapest, Hajnóczy József utca 14.Magyarország

23 February 2017

Dear Brother and Sister Terry:

Elder Riker Ammon Terry has been called to serve as a Zone Leader in the Hungary Budapest Mission.

As a Zone Leader, Elder Terry will set an example for the missionaries in his zone through his study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience, hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work. He will continue to carry a full proselyting load in his assigned area. He will supervise, teach and inspire the missionaries in his zone. He will plan and conduct monthly Zone Leader training. He will conduct companion exchanges with missionaries in his zone. He will interview baptismal candidates. He will look after the well-being of the missionaries in his zone. He will fulfill a fundamental role in the success of the mission and of the missionaries.

Elder Terry has been called to this position through inspiration, and because he is a trusted and faithful missionary. He is a proven leader. We commend him for his preparation and for his dedication to missionary work. You can be justifiably pleased with his service.

Sister Szabadkai and I are honored to be able to serve with Elder Terry in this great work. We look forward to his service in this new assignment.


Szeretettel,



Szabadkai József 

Mission President

HUNGARY BUDAPEST MISSION

2017. február 27-e "Danube new city"

Sziasztok!
Well, I made it safely to Dunaújváros or Danube new city. It's a pretty fun place and Elder Aardema and I have been super busy. We have had a lot of very quick meals, which has been a lot of fun. We are actually pretty similar. He likes a lot of the same books and video games that I do, so you can tell that it is going to be a great transfer.
We had a couple lessons this week. One of them was with a family, the Hingyiék, that have been investigating for about a year. They are a lot of fun, and we are really hopeful for them. The father got baptized recent, and he is a lot of fun.
We've had a really good time getting to know each other and working hard. We've had some really busy days, and it looks like we are going to stay pretty busy.
Elder Aardema is in his 7th transfer, which means he has been a missionary for 15 months. He is from the city of North Ogden.
We had MLC on friday, which is the big meeting 2 times a transfer with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders. It was mostly in Hungarian for about a 3rd of it, mostly the begining, and I had to give a mission purpose thought with no warning which was a lot of fun. Being a Zone Leader's companion (that's the joke, that only Elder Aardema is a zone leader. Unfortunately, it is not true, we both are.) is a lot of fun. We have a lot of exchanges to do, and I don't know most of the missionaries in this zone, so I'm going to make a lot of new friends. And work really hard. There are 9 companionships in our zone, including us, making 18 missionaries in our corner of the vineyard.
Dunaújváros is a fun place. We get around by walking, and when the weather is nicer, we'll start biking. So that'll be fun. The apartment is bigger than Szolnok's and it has carpet, which is nice. It is really well placed too, with an Interspar nearby and not too far away from the Branch house.
Church was a lot of fun. Sister Bassett and I had to introduce ourselves. I may have just said two things about my family and then born my testimony for a few minutes. Whoops. Introductions are no fun anyway. The branch here is about twice the size of Szolnok, which was kinda weird, but I like it.
I included a picture of Elder Aardema and I so that my mom wouldn't kill me. I don't have any pictures of our district yet. We have the two of us and then Sisters Greenwood and Bassett. Sister Greenwood is in her last transfer, and Sister Bassett just barely got to the country. That is a lot of fun.


Anyways, we've had some good times.
Sok Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

2017. február 21-e

Sziasztok!
Well, the first big news is transfers. Elder Pulsipher and I are whitewashing out of Szolnok. He's going to Békéscsaba and I am going to be a zone leader in Dunaújváros. I am leaving my zone, which is sad, but I get to have fun with Elder Aardema. I met him once, and I'm excited to work with him.
Elder Pulsipher and I had a great last week. We met with some people, taught some good lessons. Found a new investigator and set up a return appointment with his whole family. All around it was a good time.
Things have been going well. It's kinda sad to be leaving Szolnok already, but it's going to be a lot of fun.
I don't have much to say. So have a great week.

then he had more time so he added this:

Elder Pulsipher and I had a nice valentines dinner. We had leftover spaghetti by candlelight. It was a lot of fun. We've actually had several candlelight dinners since then, they are super relaxing.

That is all.

and then he still had time so he added this:

We had a really good district meeting too. We call it "District conference" and we each gave a talk on whatever we wanted. I talked about grace. I stole a lot of stuff from General Authorities and talked about Enoch. It was a really good time. We were able to do a lot of good stuff and learn a lot. And we held a funereal for Sister Gordon because she is going home.

We really did have great week. Unfortunately, we didn't have any investigators at church, which makes it an entire transfer with no investigators at church. However, we did have the Stake President at Church which was a lot of fun. He came from Budapest and he was really great. He's a returned missionary who served in this mission and ended up coming back and now he is the Stake President. He did a great job of building up the branch and encouraging everyone.
He made a really good point during his talk that I wanted to share with you all. He talked about how when he was a missionary here he was scared of talking to people and saying things weird in Hungarian. He also mentioned that when he went to college he was scared of correcting people when they talked negatively about the church. I thought a lot about this, and I've learned that there are a lot of times in my life when I allowed fear to hold me back from doing what is right. As I have learned more about God and how He works, I have come to know for a fact that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear that keeps us from sharing the gospel and spreading joy is never from God. It is from Satan. Satan wants to make us miserable and he knows that if we are afraid we have a harder time sharing the gospel. So what we need to do is get rid of Satan. He only has power over us if we give it to him. So don't give it to him. You can decide now not to fear, and act according to that. Although you will still have to work and overcome difficulties, you can trust that you are doing what God would have you do.

Sok Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

Elder Terry didn't give information about these pictures and I tried to figure out what it was using Google Translate and Wikipedia and the best I could come up with is that this might be the aviation museum that is in Szolnok.  I will ask for more details next week.  Also, his new area is right off the Danube river and its name is translated to "new city on the Danube".  

2017. február 13-a

Sziasztok!
This week has been a super busy one. As far as lessons go, this was the busiest week of my mission. That was a lot of fun. It's been really great to teach people the gospel. We had a lot of new investigators and had a really good time.
Most of the people we met with we've only met 1 or 2 times. One of the was Érnő. He's in his 50's and he's had a lot of health problems, but he has got a ton of faith. He's been being taught for about 6 months, but his health has been preventing us from meeting with him. Because of that, we've only met with him 3 times this transfer, but we taught him the Word of Wisdom on Sunday. After we told him what it was and what it prohibited, he told us, "I have to stop drinking coffee then." He didn't try to get around it. Once he know what God had asked him to do, he decided to do it. I'm excited to work with him again, but unfortunately, it'll be a few weeks because of his work.
Other than that, we had a lot of good times and the members helped us a lot. We had a little branch party for Farsang (some kind of holiday) and half of the people there were non-members. That was really cool.
This is the last full week of the transfer, so next week, I'll be emailing on Tuesday. It's gonna be a great week!


Sok Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

2017. február 6-a

Hello!!

This week was a pretty good one. We met with some former investigators that we called from the Area book. That was fun. We taught the restoration a lot this week. We also have some former investigators set up for this week, so it's gonna be another great week.
Tomorrow we are going to Kecskemét for interviews. I'm actually super excited to go back, even if it is only for a few hours. It's pretty good.
We met with some other folks this week. Mária is doing okay, but she got Joseph Smith's answer that there aren't any true churches on earth. So that wasn't fun.
We had some good times this week, but I don't have much to say.
Also, I learned the word for Lightsaber in Hungarian. It's literally light sword, which is a little boring, but now I know. Also, I learned how to say "May the force be with you."
Things are going good. Elder Pulsipher and I are working hard, doing our best.
We went to a falu (town) called Újszász. It was pretty fun. We had a miracle because we had no idea where we were, and we were looking for the address of a church headquarters referral. We picked a direction, walked, took a turn and found the right street and house really quickly. That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the referral wasn't home but we got a better phone number for him. Sort of...
Anyways, we had some good times.
The members here are really awesome. They really love helping us, which is a lot of fun.
In conclusion, Things are going well. We've got some good times coming.

One of my favorite scriptures is D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not, fear not." I've thought about this a lot recently because sometimes being a missionary can be scary, but I know that as we focus on Christ, there won't be any room for doubt or fear. We will be able to do what He would have us do. So stay focused on Christ!

Sok Szeretettel,
Terry Elder


P.S. this picture is of a church in Újszász. Enjoy.

2017 január 30-a

Hello!!!
The sad news this week is that I finally slipped and fell on the ice. I fell. And Elder Pulsipher just laughed at me. We were walking in a parking lot and I just stepped and some really slippery ice and didn't even have time to catch myself. I just slipped and then I was laying on the ground.
In other news, we met with Mária this week, with the branch president. It went really well, and she read from the Book of Mormon. And then at the end she told us she'd prayed about coming to church and heard a voice say, "Don't go among them." So for the time being, she won't come to church. We're going to keep working with her though and help her get a new answer.
Other than that, we had a worldwide broadcast for missionaries this week, and it was really good. They changed key indicators and the missionary schedule. So that is a lot of fun.
We had a good week. and this next week will be a fun one.

The Spiritual thought for this week comes from my personal study today. I was reading D&C 123 and the last verse really stuck out to me. It says, "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
I've learned that it is really important for us to do whatever we can, and then stop and stand still and see God take over. There are a lot of things that each of us can do, but we can't take away people's agency. We have to do what we can, cheerfully, and then turn the rest over to God.

Sok szeretettel,
Terry Elder

We cut wood at a members house with the branch president. Good times.