2017. július 24-e

Sziasztok!
Well, we had another busy week.
Monday we met with János and Ildikó and taught some more commandments. We met with them 3 times this week, and they are doing great. We also visited the Hingyi family and shared the Living Christ with them. It was pretty good, and it went well.

Tuesday we had the usual phone call with President Szabadkai, that was fun. Afterwards we went to Pécs for exchanges. It was pretty good, but there is no where to park in that city. It took us 45 minutes to find a place to park and it cost 3500 ft to park for 24 hours. I have no idea what 3500 forint is, sorry. I was with Elder Willes for exchanges and we had some good times finding. We even talked to a nice lady on the bus. I used the classic, "I don't speak Hungarian and I have a question" approach. Unfortunately, the question I asked was csúnya. (It was ugly or dirty. I'm not really sure how to translate it.) Anyways, I asked about a phrase I'd heard from someone, and it was not a good phrase. But we got to talk about why we were there as missionaries, so it all worked out. After the bus ride we did some tracting, and it was good.

Wednesday we had some more finding in Pécs and then we left to come home. Once we got home, we met with János and Ildikó again, this time we talked about the ten commandments. It was a good time.

Thursday we had district meeting on planning, went well. During lunch we finally got a district picture (attached). They are kinda weird. Anyways, after district meeting we went to the Service place, had a good time. We played some card games and chatted with people. It was fun. Then we tracted and got dogged by some people.

Friday we had weekly planning, home taught a recent convert, Gyula, met with János and Ildikó again and discussed the baptismal interview (It'll be this friday). Then we home taught the Kápolnásiék. 

Saturday we had a baptism. A family from Dunaújváros that moved to England a while back came back to baptize their 8 year old daughter. The baptism went really well, Eszter came to it, which was good. Then we had MCM, some studies, and then we went out to the Kápolnásiék. They had a little party there for the branch so we showed up, ate some food, and left because we had a lesson. We met with Eszter, taught the Law of Chastity and reviewed the baptismal interview questions. her interview will also be on friday. Then we taught the Hingyiék again about keeping the sabbath day holy.

Sunday we had some good times. János and Ildikó were there before us (and we have branch council at 8), and the Hingyiék came in just after Sacrament started. So we had a good number of investigators there. After church we had the usual sundaywith some finding, lots of phone calls, and working a lot.


This week's spiritual thought comes from D&C 84:49-51. I read this during personal study on saturday and I really liked it.
"49 And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin.
50 And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me.
51 For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin."

The reason Iiked this is because I've noticed a lot of people in bondage. So many people are in captivity and they don't even realize it, but as it says, those that do not come unto Christ are under the bondage of sin. Everything that holds us back from coming to Christ leads us to bondage. So my invitation to you all this week is to come unto Christ and get out of bondage (if you are in it. If you aren't, then stay out of it).


Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Terry and McKim at interviews with the President

2017. július 17-e

Sziasztok!
Well, we once again had a pretty busy week full of fun times and hard work.

Monday, after emailing we played some pretty exciting card games in the branch house with the sisters. We had a good time. The game is called Cockroach poker. It was kinda weird. After all the fun, we cleaned, had a delicious dinner, and tracted. Good times.

Tuesday morning we had interviews, which was a great time. I love being able to talk with President Szabadkai, it's always a great experience and I learn a lot. After interviews we had a exchange with the Veszprém elders, Elder Rohner (the only other austrialian in the mission other than elder Mckim) and Elder Biesinger. It was a lot of fun to see Elder Biesinger again, we haven't had a lot of interaction since the MTC. Good times. Elder Rohner and I got dogged and tracted a lot. We had a good time and did good work. Elder McKim and Elder Biesinger visited Eszter and taught her the law of tithing. They said she asked why she couldn't get baptized early so she could start paying earlier. :)

Wednesday we had studies and said goodbye to the Veszprém elders, and then we tracted, and visited János and Ildikó with the Elders quorum president, Misi. It went really well, we taught them about Tithing and Fast offerings. They understood it really well, and Misi helped a lot. He is such a fun member. After that we had another delicious dinner and visited Zoli and Gyöngyi and their daughters. It was pretty good, we went with their home teachers. Zoli and Gyöngyi used to be Jehova's witnesses, and it is really hard for Gyöngyi to understand that Jehova isn't God the Father, but Jesus.

Thursday we had District meeting, which went well. Elder Mckim taught us about teaching the restoration, and we practiced teaching it in 5 minutes, 3 minutes, and then 1 minute. It's really important to always be ready to teach restored truth. It can be hard to say it really quickly though. After that we went to the Jószolgálati otthon (Good service home), which was a lot of fun. We met some youths that were also volunteering there, and had a good conversation with them. One of the people there gave me a cute rock (picture attached). Afterwards we met with János and Ildikó. They were still doing good. Then we met Eszter. She's also doing good. We rearranged the bap. dates a bit, since we need more time to teach Ildikó and Eszter will be ready a bit earlier. So we are planning on both of them getting baptized on August 12th. It'll be good. After we visited Eszter, we visited a Recent Convert of about 9 months, Gyula. He's doing good, we are going to home teach him with another member this week.

Friday we had weekly planning and MCM. Brother Plesz is still doing good and getting used to his new calling. After MCM we went to Budapest and we had a nice little miracle. We were going to Budapest right after MCM and so we drove to MCM. We saw a little message on the Console. Code 16.... Which it turns out means that one of the brake lamps wasn't working. We were worried about whether it would be legal to drive to Budapest with a dead brake light, and so we were trying to find a place to get it fixed quickly. We talked to Brother Plesz, and we gave us some advice. But then when we got in the Car to go somewhere, all of the brake lights were working again. That was a nice little miracle that smoothed out our day.
Anyways, we had an exchange with the Assistants, I was with Elder Gentry, and we had a great time. We taught 2 lessons, and one of them was to this really prepared Ukrainian man. His life has been pretty rough lately (His family is still in Ukraine, he can't afford to bring them here, can't afford to go back to Ukraine). We were able to bear testimony of how God loves him and will help him. Then we set up with him for the next day. Juri (that's his name) said that he wants to meet at least 3 times a week.

Saturday - We met with Juri again, taught him parts from the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration. Then we went tracting/finding. Elder Gentry is a champ at finding on public transportation. He has no fear, and that was really cool to see. It fired me up a bit, but we don't really use public transit much in Dunaújváros. After all of this stuff, we came back to Dunaújváros and met with Ildikó and János. We taught them the law of chastity and it went really well.

Yesterday we had church, and some great times. János became a priest, so now he is worthy to baptize Ildikó. The branch here is super on top of helping us in our work and fellowshipping investigators. After church we set up a lot of stuff and tracted. Then we had the usual sunday evening of dinner, getting numbers from the zone, passing the numbers on to the Assistants. Good times.

And that was our week. We are doing good and having some great times.

The spiritual thought for this week is D&C 59:9-10
9 And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
10 For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;

Keeping the sabbath day holy is a crucial part of keeping ourselves clean, and a key part of that is the ordinance of the Sacrament. I just want to encourage everyone to prepare for the Sabbath, so that you can all find a way to make the Sabbath a delight

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Pictures:
Some pidgeons on a light pole right outside our apartment and the rock a lady gave me in the Jószolgálati otthon.

2017 július 10-e

Sziasztok!!
We had a pretty fun week with lots of good stuff happening. Here is a day-by-day summary of last week.

Monday- we went bowling with the Sisters and I won. It was pretty fun. We also got dogged in the evening and got some pretty weird phone calls. And tracted a bit.

Tuesday - We had our weekly phone call with President Szabadkai, which is always fun. Then we has service on the Jó szolgálati otthon (a home for disabled peoples). It was a lot of fun. It was also the 4th of July and one of the workers there asked us to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Elder McKim even joined in, so we had a great time there. After that we met with János and Ildikó, and they are doing pretty good. Then we met with Eszter, who now is on bap. date again for August 19th. We may have to reschedule Ildikó's baptism, so we might have 2 baptisms on the same day, we'll see. In the evening we tracted on our street and talked to some nice people.

Wednesday- We home taught Erzsébet with Plesz testvér, our ward mission leader. It went well, and Erzsébet really likes it when we visit. She loves the church and comes to a lot of lessons. Then we went home teaching with the Mészárosék, visited Ági, a not-so-recent convert. She's really cool, and she talks with a really intense accent which is fun to hear. She's been going on a tour of branches and wards in Hungary, so we don't see her that much. Then in the evening we met with the Hingyiék. It went well, but then we got sidetracked. They used to be Jehova's witnesses, and they asked who Jehova is, so we explained for a while that Jehova is Jesus and used some scriptures. It went well, they are a super great family.

Thursday - we had district meeting, met with János and Ildikó again. The lesson accidently got really long because we talked a lot, then the member we brought talked a lot, and then their son Bálint pulled a plant off of a shelf, so we had to clean that up. It went pretty well though, we taught the Word of Wisdom and they didn't really have any problems.

Friday - we had weekly planning and then we drove to Kaposvár for exchanges. It was a fun drive, it took 2 1/2 hours, but by train it's closer to 4 hours. We saved a lot of time. I was with Elder Huber again (we had exchanges in Kaposvár about 3 weeks ago) and we had some good times. Tracted a bit.

Saturday - still on exchanges, we did some tracting and got a let in. It was great. The lady was super nice and we taught her the restoration, she said she'd read and pray. The kaposvári elderek are going to meet with her again in 2 weeks. So that was fun. Then we drove back home, got home at 8:45 p.m. So that day was almost all in kaposvár.

Sunday - We had branch council and church. Eszter came to church, the Hingyiék slept in and Bálint got sick, so János and Ildikó couldn't come. Church was pretty great, afterwards we did some tracting and dropped by the Hingyiék. Then we had the regular sunday evening, with dinner (I made some palacsintas for desert) and getting numbers from the zone.

So that was our week. We also got haircuts today, so now elder Mckim looks really good.
The spiritual thought comes from Plesz testvér. Recently, he's been a big fan of the 3rd article of faith, which reads, "3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
Well, I just noticed that the thing that I wanted to point out isn't in the enlish one. Well, the Hungarian translation reads: "3 Hisszük, hogy Krisztus Engesztelése által az egész emberiség megszabadulhat, ha engedelmeskednek az Evangélium törvényeinek és szertartásainak."
Basically, it says "We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind can be saved, if the people obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel"
Plesz testvér really emphasises the "IF" when he says it, because we can only be saved if we obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel. There is no other way, and that is why it is so important to share the gospel with everyone. So, share the gospel today!

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

2017. július 3-a

Sziasztok!
It is hard to believe that it is already July and a new transfer has started. We've been pretty busy the last few days.
We met with Kápolnási elnök to talk about the transfer and stuff. It was a good meeting, although it kinda just turned into Kápolnási elnök and I talking to each other. But it all worked out.
We also met with Ildikó and János. They are doing great and so far everything is on track for the bap. date. They came to church and stayed for 2 hours, which was great. They have a really active 1 1 1/2 year old son Bálint, so they have had to leave to take him home a few times. They had a really great time.
We also met with the Hingyiék. They came to church and are doing good. We kinda accidently had a lesson on tithing, but it was really good. They are a great family and the dad is still as awesome as ever.
Eszter is doing good. She's had some problems, but she came to church, which is good. She's been coming to church more regularly.
As far as other stuff goes, we are doing good. Elder McKim and I have been getting a long great and the Sisters are doing good as well. Sister Bassett stayed and got Sister Schrad from Missiouri. She's really cool, she's a convert of a year and a half.
Anyways, we have had some fun times, and this is going to be a great transfer.
I spent an hour cleaning our refridgerator this morning. That was fun. Now it is super clean.
I don't really have too much else to write. Things have been good.

Szeretettel,
Terry elder


Attached is a picture of elder Mckim and I. Enjoy

(Elder McKim is 20 years old.  He's 26 days older than Riker.  He is from Adelaide, Australia)

Pictures

Pictures I pulled off the mission Facebook page:


Apartment Checks June 2017

Zone Conference June 2017