2017. október 24-e

Sziasztok! 

Elder Leavitt and I had another crazy week. We had three exchanges and it was crazy.

Last Monday we went to Margit Sziget, which is an island in the Danube. It was really pretty and we had a good time. The island is crazy beautiful and I found another sign/monument that says, "I believe in the resurrection of Hungary."

Tuesday we had the weekly phone call with President Szabadkai, had a good time, then we used computers to proselyte. That was fun, we got to use Facebook a bit too, which was really weird. Then we had an exchange with the Buda elders, Elder Shepherd and Elder Saito. I was with elder Saito and I stayed in Pest. We had a good time, Elder Saito is fun. He's from Brazil and he was an exchange student in Hungary about a year before his mission. We had two lessons together, one was with Andrea. She was really nice, she's a really happy lady even though her life has been really hard. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and it was a cool experience to bear testimony that Christ can help her, no matter what happens. Later we met with Alex and talked with him about how to get answers from God. The lesson went well, but he didn't end up coming to church, which was sad.

Wednesday Elder Saito and I tried white boarding in the morning, but it didn't go very well. Later the exchange ended and Elder Leavitt and I spent most of the day finding. Then in the evening, we helped Ágoston move into his new apartment. It was a lot of fun, Ágoston is a really nice guy and it was good to help him.

Thursday we had district meeting, then we had a lesson with Veronika. We invited a recent convert, Dezső to be the member present, but the sisters wanted to have a lesson with him. Long story short, we ended up bring Attila, another recent convert and we had a good lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well, and Veronika came to church. Later we had angolóra, and after that we visited Krisztina and her family. They are in a really hard situation, so we tried to help them out with the Gospel. Good times.

Friday we had weekly planning, and we had an exchange with the other elders here in Pest. I was with Elder Harris in his area and we had a good time. We spent some time tracting, and then we met with a less active member in the branch house. The member we brought was Gergő, and he was really great. He did a good job of helping us out and he helped the less active member out too.

Saturday was a little crazy. We finished our exchange and Elder Leavitt and I got dogged right away, so we went tracting in the 17th district. We found this way out of the way place and had a good time there. Then we went to a harvest party in the Branch house. It was fun. Then Elder Aardema and Elder Katics came from Szombathely, because they are going to be in a church video. After they showed up, we went home, had dinner, and Elder Katics taught us Hungarian for our language study. It was a lot of fun to chat with Elder Aardema again, I haven't really seen him that much since we were companions.

On Sunday they filmed church a bit, elder Leavitt gave a really good talk at church and Veronika, Krisztina and Péter all came to church. They had a good time, later we visited Attila and Dora, some recent converts, and Elder Aardema and Elder Katics taught them a bit for the church video. Then was had a fun Sunday, said goodbye to Elder Aardema and Elder Katics, and in the evening we had an exchange with the assistants.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Elder Gentry. October 23rd is a holiday in Hungary, they celebrate a revolution that happened in 1956.  We had a good time. It was kinda cold and rainy, but we found a coat for me (I left mine in Pest). We had a lesson in the morning and then we spent most of the day finding. Elder Gentry is a champ and finding all the time, so we had a great exchange together. Plus we ate lunch and dinner at the same Chinese fast food restaurant. It was fun.

And that was our week. We had a lot of crazy stuff happen, it was a good time.

Also, our self-reliance topic for the week was Handling Money Well. It was kinda fun, Elder Leavitt and I have been keeping track of our much money we spend so that we don't run out of MSF (the money the church gives us every month to live on). The principle is pretty simple, it boils down to spending less money than you earn and trying to make as much money as possible. I've been trying to budget money a bit as a missionary since we get MSF every month and it's always the same amount. Anyways, I just wanted to encourage everyone to try to handle money better. It's a simple practice, but a powerful one.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Elders Terry and Leavitt