2017. június 27-e

Sziasztok!
The first big news is that Elder Aardema is leaving me to go to Pest. I'll be staying in Dunaújváros, and my new companion will be Elder McKim. I've met him a couple times, he's a fun person. Also, he's Australian. That'll be fun. I'll send more information about him later.
We had our crazy week of commuting to and from Budapest. Not fun. I've gotten better at driving, but I'm still not a fan. The plus side is that our apartment is very good looking. It's almost scarily nice. I'm worried we'll ruin the new flooring or something. But it'll be okay.
We did good stuff on the car. One time we got stuck in traffic because there was an accident. But we are all okay, and now we don't have to commute. Although we are going to Budapest tomorrow for transfers. :(
Anyways, we had some good times. The big news is that one of our investigators, Ildikó, has a baptismal date for the end of July. It'll be good. Our lesson with her and her less active husband was really good, and we taught some great things. We're going to do our best and hopefully the baptism will go through.
Lots of the other people we are meeting with are kinda in the same boat. The Hingyiék didn't come to church, but Eszter did. Ildikó and her family did not because it rained. It was a really great rainstorm. Sunday afternoon we were out tracting/looking up people/finding (aka thrusting in our sickle) and this amazing storm came in super fast. We were drenched within a minute and we had to walk around 15-20 minutes to get home in this super intense downpour. The miracle of the week is that we didn't die. There was a lot of lightning and some of it was pretty close, but we managed to survive and get to our apartment safely.
Anywho, we had some good stuff go on this week, I liked it.
We also had some members feed us to say goodbye to Elder Aardema, which was nice. And we are going to hit the ground running in the next transfer. We've already got a lot of good stuff lined up.
The spiritual thought for today is Alma 32:16, one of my favorite verses from this chapter. It says, "16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe." I really like this because it gives a great definition of what it really means to be humble. It means to follow and believe in God willingly and without being forced to know everything. When we aren't stubbornly fighting for what we think is right and acknowledge that God knows what is best, we are being humble.
Well, that is all for this week. Here are some pictures.
The first is of a sign. The reason I took it is because it says, "Nagy feszültség" which means stress or tension. But Eszter always tells us that she is feszült (stressed) because of stuff in her life. So I took a picture of this sign. It's above the train tracks in Kaposvár.
Another is of elder Aardema on the floor in the mission home garage. He went to pick something up (A 50 forint coin, I think) and fell down, so naturally I took a picture instead of helping him. (I helped him afterward)


Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

2017. június 19-e

Sziasztok!
We had a pretty crazy week.
We moved to Budapest. Our apartment is being worked on (repainted, new flooring) so we can't live there. Now we live out of an empty apartment in Budapest and everyday (until the work is done) we are going to commute to Dunaújváros. It's going to be a fun time.

We also had 2 exchanges, one with Elder Rohner who is working in Veszprém right now. The other was with Elder Gentry, who is in my MTC group and is also one of the assistants. So we had some good times. I learned a lot from both of them, and we are going to have some great times working hard this week.

Tomorrow will be Zone Conference, so Elder Aardema and I have been prepping for that. Afterwards we are going to head to Kaposvár for some exchanges!

We got haircuts last week, so we took a selfie. We also went to some random places.
Elder Aardema met with a cool family on exchanges. They are a part member family and we are going to meet them this saturday. They came to church last week, and yesterday the mom and her little son came.

We also had some great times. While Elder Gentry and I were one exchanges, the weather was super windy, so it was kinda hard to hear the people sometimes while we were streeting. At one point, elder Gentry felt like we should talk to a family, so we did. It was windy and kinda hard to hear, but when I opened my mouth to testify about the eternal nature of families the wind died down and it was super quiet. It was a really cool experience, even though the family wasn't really interested.

We had some other good times. Met with some people. Good stuff.
We are going to have a really crazy week, and transfers is next week, so P day is on tuesday.

Szeretettel,
Terry Elder

Haircut selfie

We were driving, so we took a picture.....

 Look at that Stop light! 

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The Buda apartment we live in now

2017. június 12-a

Sziasztok!
Well, it definitely feels like I was emailing just yesterday. Not too much has happened since Wednesday.
We met with a nice person name Sándor. He's a former investigator and he was super nice. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet with him again.
We met with the Hingyiék and Eszter. They are all doing good. Unfortunately no one was able to come to church because of sickness and whatnot, but they all doing better now.
Honestly that is pretty much it.
We have some exciting things coming up soon. This week we have exchanges with the Assistants and the Veszprém elders, and next week they are going to be working on our apartment, so we are going to have to move to Budapest and commute to Dunaújváros every day. That'll be fun.
Also, yesterday they reorganized our branch presidency, so we've got a lot of changes coming up in the branch in the next few weeks.
Other than that we did a lot of the same old good work. We've been having good times and doing what's right, letting the consequences follow.
This week's spiritual thought is D&C 62:3, which says: 3 Nevertheless, ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you.
This is a really great thought because whenever you bear testimony it is recorded. So many angels and people are cheering us on in this work. They aren't just cheering on missionaries, they are cheering on everyone as they strive to do what is right and follow God. The greatest part of this scripture is the statement at the end "Your sins are forgiven you." Being free from sin is the greatest blessing that anyone can receive and as we strive to testify of what is true, we receive that forgiveness.


Szeretettel,
Terry elder

2017. június 07-e

Sziasztok!
It is hard to believe that it is June already. Time is certainly flying by.
We had some good times this week.

Here are some of the Highlights:
We finally found out that Eszter has not been baptized. The branch president said that no one can find records of her anywhere. So that'll be fun. We haven't met with her yet since we found out.
We got a car. We went to budapest by train and I drove back down. It was fun but weird.
We had interviews yesterday. That was fun. I love president Szabadkai.

We had an exchange in Pécs. That was a lot of fun. It's a really pretty city and I was with Elder Sharp, who was in the MTC with me. I haven't really seen him that much since we came to the country, so it was fun to see him again.

Other than that, we just had some all around good times, working hard. We had an investigator at church. It was really good. She had a good time. We are still working with her and her daughters. The dad is a recent convert. They are fun, we'll meet with them tonight.

For a spiritual thought this week: D&C 88:119
119 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

The reason I'm sharing this is because we have been spending quite a bit of time cleaning our apartment because our landlord wants to replace the flooring, so we have to move out for a week. As we've been cleaning, it's been good to see that the spirit is there more strongly when the apartment is clean. That's why we are supposed to have a house of order. So my advice is to clean your rooms so the spirit can be there.

Anyways, that is a pretty good summary of our week. Good stuff is going on. We are working hard and having a good time.

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Here are some pictures.
One is of a statue near where we do service. It looks like the Joseph Smith Cards.
Also, this is a sign in a building we were in. It talks about not letting strangers into the building. I thought it was funny because the only people that are obviously strangers in buildings are us when we are tracting.