2017. augusztus 29-e

Sziasztok!
Once again, we had another exciting week!
Tuesday we had a zone day! President Szabadkai has a challenge for each zone to have a certain number of baptisms and the reward is a zone day. Our entire zone came together in Dunaúváros and we spent most of the day together. We got to know each other better and we played a lot of sports and what not. It was a great time. We also got to watch Moana, or Vaiana. I'm still not sure what the acutal name is. It was a pretty good movie, fun to watch. After the zone day, we cleaned up, sent everyone off, and Elder Mckim and I tracted a bit in the evening.

Wednesday, we had apartment inspections. That was fun, our apartment passed, thankfully. We had a pretty normal day, and in the evening we visited Zoli and his family with their home teachers. It was pretty good, we talked about a lot of gospel related topics. Other than that, we spent most of the day finding.

Thursday we had district meeting and service, which was a lot of fun. After that we spent most of the day tracting. It was an interesting day, because I've been doing service in the Jószolgálati otthon for over 6 months now, and after we left, I realized that it was probably the last time I would go there.

Friday we had exchanges with the Pécs elders. It was a rough week for them. Elder Sharp has been really sick for a while, and then on Tuesday they took a bus to the zone day (it's a three hour bus ride), and they took a bus back that evening. Then on friday they came up again, and their bus broke down, so they actually had a 4 hour bus ride. Elder Sharp and I worked together, we had language study together, and then we got dogged 3 times and accidentally ended up helping some members clean the branch house. We'd set up the lessons to be in the branch house at the same time as some members were cleaning, so when the people didn't come, we waited and cleaned at the same time. And then the people never came.... But we had a great time together.

Saturday we said goodbye to the Pécs elders and had weekly planning. In the evening we met with Zoli and his family again, it was a pretty good lesson. Zoli is slowly prepping for the Melchezedik priesthood, so we talked about the priesthood for the lesson.

Sunday was a good day, but it was also pretty sad too. We had to let the members know about the transfer coming up, and since I have been in Dunaújváros for 6 months now, a lot of them said goodbye. I am not a fan of goodbyes, so it was a pretty sad day. The members here are really amazing. After church we spent some time finding, and then we got numbers from the zone in the evening.

Monday was black monday, since it wasn't P-day. We didn't have anything planned for the day, so we spent most of the day tracting. Then a néni took us out for dinner. Last transfer elder Aardema and I found her, and she's not really interested in the gospel at all, so we never really met with her, but she still really likes the missionaries and wanted to say goodbye. It was a really nice dinner, Elder McKim and I barely finished our meals. Izabella (the néni) also gave us some random presents.

Today we got our transfer calls. I will be leaving Dunaújváros and heading up to Budapest. I'm going to be serving the Pest district, which will be a lot of fun. My new companion will be Elder Leavitt, which is going to be great. We're from the same MTC group, so we are going to have a lot of great times together. I started packing already, and after emailing we'll head back home so I can finish.

Being in Dunaújváros has been a great blessing. I love this city so much, and I'm so grateful that I could serve here. It is truly amazing to be a missionary. I'm excited to work in Pest, but Dunaújváros is an awesome city.

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

2017. augusztus 21-e

Sziasztok!
We had a great week, and I hope that you all did too!
Monday we went to Budapest to turn over the car. And then we went shopping in Budapest, which was not as fun as it sounds. It was pretty good, we got some new clothes, but it was a reminder of how much I hate shopping. But we survived, and then we tracted in the evening.

Tuesday, we didn't have any lessons planned until the evening, so we spent most of the day finding, with some fun times. We talked to a lot of people, and we tracted quite a bit. It was a fun day. That evening we visited Zoli and his family. It was a crazy lesson. We had planned to discuss baptism with them and see where they stand with it. When we walked in, they had some anti-mormon video on the computer. Elder McKim had already seen it, so he explained the things that where in it that were wrong. We ended talking about temples and baptisms for the dead, and then after we showed that it was in the Bible too, Gyöngy said that she wanted to be baptized. It was a crazy moment, Elder McKim and I were stunned. So was everyone else too. Missionaries have been teaching that family for over a year now, and they had kinda stopped progressing a bit, and then Gyöngyi decided that she wanted to be baptized. it was a big moment, and a great way to end the day.

Wednesday, we had interviews with President Szabadkai. It was a good time, interviews are usually pretty fun. Other than that, we didn't have anything planned, so we spent most of the day tracting. We found some fun buildings to tract in.

Thursday we had District meeting, which was fun. Afterwards we went to the Jószolgálati otthon, which was fun. We chatted with the people there for a while. After that, we met with a former investigator, which went okay. Then we went home teaching with a member and visited a couple people.

Friday was a long day. We had weekly planning and some lessons planned in the evening. We also were planning on some elders coming for exchanges, but then they couldn't because one of them was sick. So we ended up being in our apartment until aboout 4 in the afternoon, which was a really long time. Afterwards, we went to Eszter's, and she is doing great. She loved her baptism and she is still going strong. She's a great lady. After that we got dogged, tracted a bit, and then we had MCM in the evening.

Saturday, we had a lot of time for finding, and another lesson with Zoli's family in the evening. We had another great lesson with them. We discussed the baptismal interview questions, and Gyöngyi decided to throw out her coffee. Honestly, coffee has been holding her back for such a long time, so it was a really big step for her to just throw it out. So that was great.
After the lesson we had to go to the Sisters' aparment. One of the sisters is really sick, and she asked for a blessing, so we went by and gave her one.

Sunday.... Well, because the sisters couldn't come because of sickness, I ended up playing the piano for sacrament meeting. It wasn't a complete diaster though. I could only play the hymns with my right hand, but it was better than nothing. After that, we had pretty normal church meetings. After church we met with a new investigator, and delievered something for the ward, and then we had numbers and dinner in the evening.

All in all, it was a pretty great week. We had a great time. It's crazy how quickly time has gone by, there is only 1 full week left this transfer! P-day will be on Tuesday next week, and we'll find out what is going to happen for the next transfer.


Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Elder Mckim next to this random thing on a bulletin board. We tracted the building and as we were leaving we noticed it.

Super cute kitten. We found it one Tuesday while tracting, and then on Sunday we were tracting in the same area and it showed up again. It was great. I love that little kitten.

Elder Terry and the kitten

Zone Conference--McKim and Terry

2017. augusztus 14-e

Sziasztok!!!
We had a great week, filled with lots of great times.

On Monday, after emailing, we went to the Duna (danube in English) and skipped some rocks. Good times. We also did random stuff, and Elder McKim bought a fancy Hungarian Bible. We met with János and Ildikó and discussed the baptism and how it will go. It was really good, we mostly just encouraged them. Then we tracted.

Tuesday we had the weekly phone call with president, which was fun. We learned a great new hungarian word "megtáltosodik." It takes a long to time explain what it means. It's a fun word though. After the phone call we went to Veszprém for exchanges. I was with Elder Biesinger, and we had a little reunion. We haven't really seen each other that much since the MTC, so it was fun to work with him in the field. We had some good times, and we accidently tracted into a member family, which was really funny. They played a trick on us and pretended that they weren't members, which worked on me, since I had no idea who they were, but Elder Biesinger recognized them. We talked with them for a little bit which was fun.

Wednesday we wrapped up the exchange, picked up baptismal clothes from Veszprém, and came back to Dunaújváros. Once we got back we got dogged, and then we went to Eszter's. We talked about the baptism with her too, and we also discussed enduring to the end. It was a good time.

Thursday we had district meeting which was fun. Afterward we went and did service in the Jószolgálati otthon. It was a lot of fun, we talked with the people there and played games with them. It was a good time. Then we organized some stuff for the baptism and got dogged again. We did some tracting too.

Friday we had weekly planning, and afterward we went and cleaned the Branch house. It was fun, we cleaned with Erzsébet and Gyula, who are some great members here. Afterwards we met with János and Ildikó, talked about the baptism and enduring to the end. Then we had some craziness. We'd planned on visiting Eszter, and after that we would've visited Zoli's family, who was our member present for the lessons, but Eszter had some guests randomly show up, so we visited Zoli's family early and the went to Eszter's. All of the lessons were good, the lesson with Zoli's family was really off topic because they like to bring up the bible and random stuff sometimes, but it was good.

Saturday was a pretty exciting day. We went to the branch house early to start the water, and then we waited for people to show up for the baptism. The baptism went great, the talks were really good. Zoli baptized Eszter (he had to repeat it once), and then János baptized Ildikó (he also had to repeat it once). Also, President and Sister Szabadkai showed up, it was fun to see them. After the baptism we had a lot of finding, tracting and whatnot. It was a really good day.

Yesterday Eszter and Ildikó were confirmed in Sacrament meeting. It was a really cool experience. Kápolnási elnök confirmed Ildikó, and then Károly confirmed Eszter. It was a fun experience, and now Eszter and Ildikó have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will help them a lot. After sacrament meeting we learned a lot in sunday school and priesthood. After church Elder McKim had a baptismal interview with one of the sisters' investigators. He failed, unfortunately, but the sisters will keep helping him. After that we tracted, and made a lot of phone calls.

Today we are emailing and then we are going up to Budapest to return the car. Wednesday will be the end of my first year in Hungary, so I won't be able to drive after Wednesday.

This week's spiritual thought comes from 2 Nephi 31:20
"20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

We shared this scripture a lot this week, because Eszter and Ildikó were both baptized. By being baptized, they stepped onto the strait and narrow path, and now they just need to endure to the end. It's really important that we always keep our attention focused on the goal, and so we shared this scripture to help lift Eszter's and Ildikós attention off of baptism (which is really important) and onto enduring to the end.

We all need to remember what our goal is in life. We need to stay on the gospel path and endure to the end in order to recieve the promise of Eternal life.


Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Elders Terry and McKim

skipping rocks on the Duna

view of the Duna

Zoli, Eszter, Ildikó, and János, Ildikó's husband

Zoli, Eszter, Ildikó, and János, Ildikó's husband. And then Elder McKim and I

2017. augusztus 7-e

Sziasztok!!!
We have a great week behind us. We got a lot of stuff done, and this week is going to fly by!
Monday we got fed by a néni and chatted with her. She's not really that interested, which is why we met with her on P-day. She's really nice and always tries to give us food. She also sends weather information to us sometimes. In the evening we tracted/did some finding, which was fun.

Tuesday we went to Budapest for Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun. Elder McKim and I taught about Faith in Jesus Christ from chapter 6 of PMG, it was fun to teach. We also learned a lot from the assistents and President Szabadkai about having the Holy Ghost lead us, and finding all the time. We also started a fun challenge in our zone, "I spy, testify!" The idea is to bear your testimony to everyone that you see, so that it pushes us to find more and testify (which kindles faith see the BD on faith). It's been fun to do the last few days, Elder McKim are working on doing it even more.
Also, Tuesday the Kaposvár elders, Elder Stringham and Elder Huber came from Exchanges. I was with elder Stringham and we had a great time. We met with János and Ildikó (who are doing great) and the Hingyi family. It was a good time. We also streeted two men that were both named Gábor and a nice lady who gave us her phone number

Wednesday we had a peaceful morning and then we headed out to go Finding! We went tracting and found a really cool PI that we are going to try to set up with. He already knew who the missionaries were, so we talked with him for a little bit and then he gave us his phone number. We've called him a few times, but he didn't answer, then he called back, and we couldn't answer. So we ended up playing phone tag, and the game is still going. After the exchange ended, Elder McKim and I met with Eszter and had a good lesson with her on Eternal marriage.

Thursday we had district meeting, and a member showed up, gave us food, and left. It was fun, and the food was delicious. Elder McKim gave us a great district meeting, shared a good story about always remembering who you are. It was very uplifting. After the meeting we went to the Jószolgálati otthon, and then we met with János and Ildikó again. We shared a scripture story with them from 1 Nephi 17 #BoatBoatBoat. It was really good. Afterwards we had dinner and went tracting.


Friday.... Goodness gracious we were in the apartment for soooooo long. We had personal study, then weekly planning, then a lunch break, then more weekly planning. Weekly planning went a little long, and afterward we had comp. study, and we planned the baptism. Then we were waiting for the assistents to come for exchanges, but they were late, so we called people out of the area book. When the assistents got here, we had some language study and dinner with them, which resulted in us not leaving the Apartment until 6:00 p.m. Goodness, it was awful. But then Elder Fitzgerald and I visited Eszter, it was a good time. We did some tracting too. Good times.

Saturday we had some studies in the morning, then Elder Fitzgerald and I looked up some people he'd taught (He served in Dunaúváros before I did... I replaced him when I came here), and then we had MCM. After MCM we home taught a member which was fun. Her name is Erzsébet and she loves the missionaries a ton. So it was fun for Elder Fitzgerald to visit her. Erszébet loved it.
Then we tracted, the assistents left, and Elder McKim and I started fasting. Then we tracted.

Sunday we discussed a lot of things for the baptism in branch council, had a great 3 hours of church. It looks like everything is all set for the baptism, we just need to get another set of Baptismal clothes when we go on exchanges this week. After church we went to a member's house and got fed, it was super delicious. They grilled some food, so we had hotdog type things, some ribs and lots of good salad. It was awesome. then we went tracting, got numbers and had some dinner (but we didn't really eat much because we were still full from lunch).

The weather was super hot this week, but a crazy storm came in last night and now it is really nice and cool.

As a spiritual thought this week, I would like to quote Mosiah 17:20
"20 And now, when Abinadi had said these words, he fell, having suffered death by fire; yea, having been put to death because he would not deny the commandments of God, having sealed the truth of his words by his death."

This probably seems like a really weird spiritual thought, but stick with me. As a missionary, I have shared Mosiah 18:8-10 a lot of times. I've used Mosiah 18 a lot because a lot of really good things happen in it. Alma teaches about baptism, baptises around 450 people, organizes the church and then they all escape from King Noah. Despite all of th times I have shared this, I had forgotten that the end of Chapter 17 is Abinadi's death. Abinadi never saw the good that came from his work, and Chapter 17 ends on a pretty somber note, but it we move on to Chapter 18, we learn of all of the good that Abinadi did. So the spiritual thought for this week is to remember that we don't always see the fruits of our labor or the fruits of others work. Only God really sees everything, our job is just to do the best we can, do whatever God asks and keep moving on with faith.


Anyways, this is giant email. Enjoy!
Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Elders Terry, McKim, Stringham

Elders Terry, McKim, Strigham and Huber

2017. július 31-e

Sziasztok!!
I hope you all had a great week. Because we sure did!
Monday after emailing we got Ice Cream with the sisters. And then we went to go to a lesson and we had to cross most of Dunaújváros. Unfortunately, it started raining a ton, and we got totally drenched. And when we got to the investigator's house, he said it wasn't good, so we just went home and changed out of our wet clothes. In the evening we tracted a little bit, it was pretty good.


Tuesday we had the weekly phone call with President Szabadkai, it was pretty good, and we set up an exchange is Székesfehérvár for friday. After that, we tracted, went to the Jószolgálati otthon for service which was a lot of fun. I love all of the people there. After service we met with József, the investigator we tried to meet with on Monday. The lesson was pretty good, we gave us some gigantic sections of watermelon to eat which was exciting. He asked a lot of questions and it went pretty well. When we set up a return appointment, he told us he'd be busy until august (which was about a week away, so we weren't too worried). Then we set up for after august 20th, so it'll be a while before we meet him again.
After that we met with János and Ildikó, and Kápolnási elnök came with us. It was really good, we talked about service and prepped Ildikó for her baptismal interview. After that, we had a quick dinner, and got dogged twice, so we got some tracting in.


Wednesday we had the Mission Leadership Council in the morning in Budapest. It went pretty good, we learned a lot and had some good times. After the meeting we had to go to the Post office in Budapest because Elder McKim got a package of garments. Then we came home, met with János and Ildikó again, which was fun. More baptismal prep and we reviewed some stuff about the restoration. Then we got dogged, had dinner and did language study.


Thursday morning we had district meeting, Elder Mckim taught us about commitments. Then Plesz testvér came and we had MCM which was a lot of fun. Plesz testvér is super funny, so we always have a good time with him. Then we had some language study, tracted a bit, and visited Eszter. We prepped her for her baptismal interview, it went well. Then we visited the Hingyiék. They were doing good, but it was really hard to keep them on topic, so the lesson was all over the place. The dad is preparing for the melchizedek priesthood, so we talked about that. He's a little nervous about it. Then we came home and had dinner.


Friday morning was pretty exciting. We met Eszter and walked with her to her baptismal interview, and we met Ildikó there. Then the Assistents and President Szabadkai came to hold the interviews, and they both passed! Now we are working with the branch to get everything planned and do everything we can. After the interviews we gave the Assistents some food and then we left for Székesfehérvár. We had an exchange with the Elders there, I was with Elder Dixon. We did some tracting, looked some people up and got a lesson from that.


Saturday we went to a little workout park for morning exercise, which was fun. Nearby was a little zipline (or a flying fox as they say in Austrialia) and elder Mckim and I had a good time with that. After that we did the morning studies, some finding, lunch, finding, language study, and then Elder Mckim and I came back home to Dunaújváros and did weekly planning.


Yesterday we had church. A lot of people were gone, so the branch council was kinda small, but we got stuff done. The Hingyiék, Eszter, and Ildikó and János came to church. János passed the sacrament and they all had a really good time. Church was a lot of fun that sunday. Then we planned our zone training (we have zone conference on Tuesday/tomorrow) and did some finding. then we had the standard sunday evening, getting numbers and then finding a bit before 9.


All in all, we had a pretty good week, the work is going well, and we've got some good times coming up. Tomorrow we are going to go to Budapest for Zone Conference and it'll be a great time.

This week's spiritual thought is 3 Nephi 11:9-10, which is when Christ first appears to the Nephites.
9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:
10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

This is the first thing that Christ says about Himself when He appears. He testifies of who He is and that the prophets testified of Him. This is our message to the World too. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, we bear testimony of Christ, that He truly came to the earth and did what the prophets testified he would do. This is an amazing message, so take some time this week to really consider what Jesus Christ did for us.

I hope you all have a great week!
Szeretettel,
Terry elder