Feasting in Hungary: December 2017

Sziasztok!

We had an exciting week! Lots of crazy stuff happened, and yesterday we had Christmas conference. It was a great week.

Last Monday we went to the big market in the Belváros of Budapest. We bought a couple suvoniers (I can't spell that word). Anyways, we ended up finishing early, and we had a lot of time. We had to go to the mission home to practice for a concert we were going to sing in (the concert ended up getting canceled). Since we had a lot of time, we decided to walk from the market to the mission home. It took a while, but we saw a lot of cool things. I'll send pictures if they get uploaded in time.
After the choir practice, we had two lessons that were a lot of fun. We met with some recent converts, Attila and Dóra. They are super nice, and after that we ran to another lesson. We were a little late leaving Attila and Dóra's so we had to run to make it to the other lesson. The lesson was with Ádám, a really cool investigator we found last week. He's super nice and really fun to talk to. He offered us Pálinka (a hungarian alcoholic drink), but other than that it was a pretty normal lesson.

Tuesday we had exchanges with Elder Bloomer and Elder Fisher, the office elders. Elder Bloomer was a little sick, and we ended up spending most of the time in the office. We did have one lesson, and it was a lot of fun. We didn't end up following our lesson plan at all, but it went well. After that we had dinner, and then we spent the rest of the day resting.

Wednesday our exchange with the office elders ended, and right after it we had an exchange with the other elders here in Pest. I was with elder Willes in our area, and we had a good time. We spent most of the day finding, and then in the evening we had a lesson with Katalin. It was a good lesson, Katalin came to church last Sunday, so we talked about that a bit. It was a good time, and after the lesson we caught a bus and ended up running home to make it home by 9:30.

Thursday we had district meeting. It was a lot of fun, after that Elder Murphy and I started working together again for the first time in 2 days. We had a good time. We had a lesson with Veronika, afterwards we had English class. It was good to work with Elder Murphy again.

Friday we had MLC in the Mission home. It was a lot of fun, it's good to see old companions when we have meetings. After that we spent some time finding, doing studies, and in the evening we met with Zsolt. The lesson with Zsolt was so great, we planned on asking him to be baptized, so we spent some time reviewing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we asked him to be baptized. He was a little surprised, and he didn't really say yes, or no. He promised to pray about it and when we meet with him this week we'll talk about it more, and hopefully pick a date. It's super exciting. Zsolt is awesome, and he's changed a lot since we started meeting with him. He seems happier and more friendly.

Saturday morning we had our weekly planning, and after that we had a very interesting "lesson." We visited Márta, one of our investigators that we've been having a hard time meeting with regularly. Her kids were there too, which hasn't happened before. For most of the time we were there, her daughter Fruzsi made a kinda of slime-thingy. It was really weird, and it made it hard to keep the lesson on topic. We did the best we could, and the member present, Gérgő, was a good help. After that we went to the ward Christmas party, which was a lot of fun. That took the rest of the day.

Sunday we had church, and afterward we helped the ward deliver some packages that we put together at the Christmas party. The ward made care packages and we gave them to a home for moms and their children. That took a while, but it was a lot of fun. We sang Christmas songs in the home and then we spent some time talking to people. After that we had a rather uneventful Sunday.

Yesterday was Christmas conference. It was a lot of fun, and it pretty much took the entire day. Afterwards we had a lesson with Alex and came home. It was a fun day.

We finished the self-reliance course this week. The last topic was focusing on the things that matter most, one of those things being going to the temple and being worthy. It was a really great topic, and it was fun to do the whole self-reliance course. I learned a lot and it was really fun to do.

And that was our week.

Boldog Karácsonyt!

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

He didn't explain these pictures so I'll have to ask him about them when we talk on Monday!

Sziasztok!!
Well, we had a really busy week. The first few days started out kinda slow, but after that, things picked up a lot.
Monday we had interviews with President Szabadkai, which was a lot of fun. It's always fun to have some time to chat with him, and I learned some great new things. So that was great. Afterwards we visited the belváros of Budapest. We went and saw Parliament, Saint Stephen's Basilika, and the Christmas markets. It was fun, and I spent way too much money, but it was worth it. After that we spent some time finding, and that was our entire day.

Tuesday we had a fun morning. Our landlady's husband came to fix a couple things in the apartment, so we had to be home for that. Afterwards we met with one of our investigators because she wanted to give us food, and after that we spent the rest of the day finding. As we were walking we saw some people who's car had died and they couldn't get it started again, so we helped them push it out of the way and park it. That was fun. Then we spent some time tracting and looking up former investigators.

Wednesday we went white boarding. It was pretty fun, we used the #LightTheWorld scripture for that day and we talked about that with people. We found some pretty cool people, I'm hoping we'll be able to meet with them soon. After that we had exchanges with Elder Hughes and Elder Gentry. I went to Buda with elder Hughes and we spent some time looking up their investigators and giving them cookies. That was fun.

Thursday morning I almost froze to death. Wednesday night elder Hughes had an impression that we should go running and drop some cookies off at one of their investigators houses. So we went running. I had thought far enough ahead when I packed for the exchange, so I brought clothes to run it, but I forgot to bring warm clothes, so I ran in shorts and a t-shirt and almost died. But I didn't and Johanna was super nice when we gave her the cookies. After that we had district meeting, which I was in Buda for, and we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional, which was really good. After that the exchange ended and Elder Murphy and I went to English class and game night.

Friday was a really busy day. We had weekly planning in the morning, after that we had a lesson with a really cool PI. His name is Ádám, he's from Slovakia and he moved to Budapest about a month and a half ago. He's super nice, and the lesson with him went really well. He mentioned that some of what we said to him at the door when we tracted into him really stuck with him, which was really cool. The Spirit really worked a lot with him, and he seems super prepared. After that we met with Veronika. The lesson was okay, but she doesn't seem too interested in the gospel, just in meeting with us, which is a little weird. After that we met with Zsolt at one of the member's homes. It was a great lesson. Péter, the member present, helped a lot, and Zsolt is really great. We talked about the Word of Wisdom, and Zsolt is going to quit coffee and smoking. It's super fun to work with him because he really wants to learn. He asks great questions and really pays attention. After the lesson, Zsolt took us home.

Saturday was another busy day. We had 4 lessons planned, but two of them cancelled, but we still ended up having a good time. We spent some time tracting in the 17th district of Budapest, the people were not super nice. After that we met with a member, Bence, and we looked up a less active member with him (the less active wasn't home), and then we went to a lesson with Márta. It was really good to met with her again, we've been having a hard time getting male members to come with us, and we had to cancel a few times, so it ended up taking 2 months to meet with her. She's super nice, she teaches yoga. Yoga is really interesting actually, because it's not just body positions and whatnot, but it's actually a religion, sort of. It's really cool, and Márta is super nice. Most of the lesson with her was getting to know her and her religious background. After that Bence took us to our next lesson, and he bought us some food on the way, which was really nice. Then we met with Erika and Attila. The lesson was really great, they really opened up to us. They are super nice people and they are really open. They have really interesting backgrounds, which makes it harder for them to quickly accept the gospel, but they are willing to learn, which is great. After the lesson, Attila took us home, which kinda made me feel like a freeloader because so many people have been giving us rides the last few days.

Sunday was fun. 2 of our investigators came to church, Veronika and Katalin, and Katalin brought one of her coworkers. It was really good to see Katalin at church because she's been promising for months that she would come and then she finally did. They all left after sacrament meeting. After church we practiced a song that we are going to sing at the ward Christmas party, and then we had MCM. It took a while, but it all worked out. After that we went to a lesson, but either the PI gave us the wrong address, or we wrote it down wrong because the address was a business and no one answered. We spent some time tracting in the area, and we met a nice 7th day Adventist man who wants to meet in January. After that we visited the Ward Mission Leader, Krisztián. He's super nice, and his wife is too. They have a little son named Máté, who turns 1 in a few days. It was really fun to visit them. After that we had numbers and dinner and that was the end of our day.

Our self-reliance topic for the week was to learn throughout our lives from a bunch of sources, books, media, the scriptures, and whatnot. It's a really good principle because learning is something that we can always do and it helps us a lot. It's been a lot of fun as a missionary to be able to focus on learning a lot of spiritual things from the scriptures. Learning as much as we can is really important.

Szeretettel,
Terry elder
#LightTheWorld

Statue of Francis II