2018 július 10

Sziasztok!

Well.... this is my last email home, which is super bittersweet. We had a pretty exciting last week, topped of with Tomi's baptism (which went well despite more than a few bumps). But hey, it all worked out, he's a member now, and he and his older sister are doing great. Hopefully the missionaries after us will be able to work with the whole family.

Oh yeah, Elder Phillips is also leaving Kecskemét, we're being replaced by sisters.... It's alright though. We finally met President Hettinger this week, and he is awesome. I'm actually super jealous that I can't stay longer and serve with him. He's amazing. I'm really excited for the direction the mission is going to go. Things are going to be so great in Hungary. And Romania too I guess.

Also true to form, I took almost no pictures this week. Fortunately Elder Phillips has a bunch of pictures so I'll send those home.

We also had a 4th of July party which was fun. The Bishop and his wife made some Sticky Fingers (apparently you can get them at Wingers?). It was a good time.

This last week was a good one, I'll tell you all about it later in person.

The last two years (plus a little extra) have been a great experience, I've learned a lot, and I've been blessed to see the gospel change people's lives. I know that this is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the next. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and I've seen it help others as they study it and live according to it's teachings. I know that God loves us and takes care of us.

I love you all! See you soon!

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Only picture I took this week: Benedek noticed a dead pigeon on the lawn one day, then before the baptism he told me to come see this window in the Primary room. And well, we found the outline of a pigeon on the window.

Picture of our last MCM: Us, the Sisters, and Benedek

Tomi's family at the baptism

Us with Tomi and János (The man baptizing him.) and Enikő, Tomi's older sister

Encsi, the Bishops wife, with the Sticky fingers thingy

The Sticky fingers thingy

2018. július 2 - Welcome to the Hungary Romania Budapest mission

Sziasztok!

Our mission has officially been combined with the Romania mission! But not that much has actually changed. We got some policy changes (mostly about speaking Hungarian with Sister Missionaries, and how we do the numbers phone calls every week), but the work is still the same. 

For those of you wondering, no we haven't met President Hettinger yet. There's going to be a meet the president thingy on Wednesday, so we'll see him then. Also, last week the Szabadkais called everyone to say goodbye which was kinda sad. It's sad to see them go, but the wheel of time turns and ages come and pass.

Also we've got pretty much everything set up for Tomi's baptism on Thursday. It's gonna be a lot of fun, I'm really excited for it. He's a good kid. We had lessons with him Saturday and Sunday, they went well. He's all ready. He's made some great progress these months.

Last P-day we saw a lady pooping/peeing. And we were in the Belváros, in front of a bank, which is an interesting choice for a bathroom.

Well, this week is the start of my last full week, the next time I email will be right before I go home. Which is a really weird thought. Shopping today was weird, I bought a ton of Hungarian candy because you can't get a lot of it in America. And yesterday some members randomly started talking about marriage after church with Elder Phillips and I, and after a few minutes I was like "Wait a minute, why are we even talking about this?" to which the members responded, "Because you're going home soon!"  Gug.

Also, this week I finished reading the Book of Mormon, and afterwards I took a moment to follow Moroni's promise. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I'm really grateful that God provided us with this scripture. It's changed me and my life, and I've seen the impact it's had on other people's lives. I'm grateful that God will tell any of us that the Book of Mormon is true. He's answered me every time I've asked.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

PICTURES:

Here's a picture in our apartment. When the announcement was made about the mission change, the Kaposvár district made this picture and sent it out to the whole mission. And now the change is official.

There are some statues. 3 men hunched over.

Also we went tracting on a random street. Then we looked at the sign and I said "Elder Phillips, do you know where we are? This is RAINBOW ROAD!" And then we mario kart-ed off into the sunset. Not really, but Szivárvány utca means Rainbow road.

And the sisters were late to MCM, and while we were waiting Benedek wrote a scriptural passage about us waiting. 

And those are the pictures. Enjoy!

2018. június 25

Sziasztok!

Well, first of all last P-day we visited Sanyi bácsi in the evening. He's 94 years old, and he's a pretty solid member. I used to talk to him when I was a new missionary, but I couldn't understand anything he was saying. Now I can mostly understand what he's saying, and he's actually pretty funny. We had a fun time visiting with him. And afterward he kept calling us at random times throughout the week. Which was kinda fun, although he called us at 5:30 in the morning twice. Anyways, I've attached a picture of Sanyi bácsi.

After that we had a pretty busy week. We had exchanges in Szeged, and it was an adventure getting there. Not really, but we did end up missing the train because they changed the train times. So we walked into the train station thinking we had 20 minutes before our train left only to discover that our train was leaving right then. So we had to wait for a while. But we ended up talking to an American who's wife is from Kecskemét. This guy knew some Mormons from college, one of his good friends had served a mission, so we chatted for a while. 

We had a good exchange too. Elder Willes and I taught one of their investigators, and it was a really cool experience. We taught the restoration, and after we explained the apostasy the investigator said, "So that's why you call it a restoration, because the priesthood and everything was lost. And then it was restored through Joseph Smith right?" Once elder Willes and I recovered from shock, we told him that was exactly what happened. Really cool experience. Good times.

Other fun news, Tomi passed his baptismal interview yesterday. Later today his mom's going to give us written permission for the baptism, and then we'll get everything organized for the baptism. His baptism will be July 5th, before his mom goes back to work in Switzerland. So that's going to be a lot of fun to prepare for.

Also, our mission officially gets combined with the Romania mission this week, the Szabadkais go home. So we've got exciting stuff happening this week.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

2018. június 18 - 2 Years down

Sziasztok!!

As you might guess from the title of my email, this week I hit my two year mark. And I think that means I'm on overtime now, which I hope means I get paid time and a half in blessings. But jokes aside, it's super weird that I was in the MTC two years ago, that feels like an eternity away. Lots of fun stuff has happened since then.

This week we had some good times. We taught Tomi, our bap. date near a playground, and then we played around a little bit (Elder Phillips took some pictures). Things are going well, everything seems to be set. His mom is coming home this week, and if she gives written permission for him to get baptized we'll move forward with everything. Tomi has been doing good, we finally got him a copy of the real Book of Mormon, and he's been reading from it. Yesterday we went over the baptismal interview questions and it went pretty well. The member with us, Attila, was a great help, I was so grateful for him.

Other than that, some people dogged us, and we ended up dropping one of the investigators we started meeting with (he only wanted to meet for English). Also, one of our investigators, Zoltán, lost his job. Well, he's technically still getting paid, but he needs new work. We'll try to help him out, we'll see what happens. 

We met with some of the members this week too. We visited a cool family, the Bognárék, and had a good time with them. It ended up being a bit of a family gathering, which was fun because their son, Bence, came down from Budapest. Bence was here when I was a new missionary, then he was in Pest when I served there, and then we met again on Saturday. He's really cool and it was fun to talk to him again. So that was a lot of fun.

And that was our week. Good times all around, I asked a néni if we could vacuum her apartment (she said no... :( but we did have a nice conversation.) This week will be busy with Exchanges and district meeting in Szeged, and whatnot.

Also this week we were at a funeral for a less active member's mom, and the Bishop here spoke and he talked a lot about Christ and the resurrection. He shared a quote from President Monson, and I don't remember exactly what he said, but I remember that I felt the spirit really strongly bearing testimony that what he said was true. I know that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, He died for our sins, and was resurrected, and because he was resurrected, we all will be too. It's so important for us to remember the times when we felt the spirit because those memories help us later when we're having a harder time.

This was a really cool experience, just figured I'd share it with you all.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Pictures:

Playground with Tomi

District Meeting

Elder Cushing and me

City sign that says Kecskemét in Rovásírás - I took it because my first transfer I had my trainer take a picture of me near a sign for Kecskemét. I thought it'd be fun to compare the 2.

Elder Terry now

Elder Terry then

2018. június 11

Sziasztok!!!

Well, we've got a pretty solid week behind us, even though we were only able to work in Kecskemét for about 3 days. It was a pretty solid three days though.

 

Elder Phillips' birthday was this week, and I think he had a pretty solid birthday. Granted, I didn't contribute much to it, but the sisters in our district took care of him. We had MCM, and they brought a chocolate cake and sang to him, and afterward we played Settlers of Catan with some members. Elder Phillips' really likes Catan, he's played it a lot. We had a good time.

We also had exchanges with Elder Cushing and Elder Willes, we had some good times with them in Szeged. We took Elder Phillips out for a birthday dinner (unfortunately we couldn't get the people working at the restaurant to sing to him) and afterwards we got Kürtöskalács ice cream, which sounded like a great idea, because Kürtöskalács is delicious and so is ice cream, but it actually ended up not being that great. It was a good experience though.

We also had Zone Conference, which was my last. That was kinda sad. We had a lot of people giving their "dying testimonies" (3 sisters, 2 elders, the Szabadkais, and a senior couple). It was a pretty good conference though. We talked a lot about working with members, which will be a great thing to apply.

We also met with Tomi twice this week, he's doing good. A boy from the ward who's his age came and walked him to church with us, which was pretty good. He's progressing a lot and it's fun to work with him. It's hard to teach kids sometimes, but he's not too bad.

Anyways, that was pretty much our week. We did some good work, and Elder Phillips isn't dying of the plague anymore (he wasn't actually that sick, but he's doing better now).

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Finally got a selfie of the two of us. Enjoy!

2018. június 4

Sziasztok!

So this week we helped a bunch of people move and Elder Phillips was dying of the plague, he's mostly better now, but later today we're going to the doctor in Budapest. So we had some great times. Also yesterday there was a broadcast conference for all of Europe that we got to watch, which was a lot of fun. Before it started the Stake President here gave a talk about making the temple a part of our lives and building it in our hearts. It was really good because a lot of members don't like the fact that there isn't a temple in Hungary, and President Southwick talked about how we need to be living the gospel so that the Lord can put a temple in Hungary. It was a really great talk.

We tracted on Saturday in Hetényegyháza (a falu outside of Kecskemét) and the first door we knocked on let us in. We had a pretty great lesson with Robert, the man who let us in. He was really nice and we were able to share most of the restoration. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with him again this week. After that we visited our friend László, and we had a great lesson with him about the restoration. He's super solid, he really pays attention and it's fun to meet with him.

We helped two families move this week, and it was a lot of fun to help out. Some members are moving from Kecskemét to Budapest, so we helped out a bit, and Saturday we helped Csilla, a member's coworker, and her family move. It was a fun time, we chatted with Csilla. She's really cool, and she's got a lot of potential.

Yesterday we had a walking lesson with an investigator named Nick. He's cool, 19 years old, and when we showed up for the lesson, he came down, explained that he's tutoring some people in his apartment, but that he can take a little break. Then he said, "Let's take a walk, like the Greeks did." So we walked around, answered his questions and talked about the Book of Mormon. It actually ended up being a pretty good lesson.

Tomi, our investigator on bap. date, didn't come to church yesterday, but afterward we visited him with our Ward Mission Leader Benedek. At first Tomi was being a dingus, but we ended up having a pretty good lesson with him. Benedek was a great help, he's super solid. If everything goes well, we'll meet Tomi more often to help him get ready. He's a great kid, but he likes to be a little rebellious sometimes.

And that was pretty much our week. The highlight was definitely the conference yesterday. We got to hear talks from Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Kearon, and they were both really good.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

2018. május 28

Sziasztok!!!

We had some fun things happen this week like: A zone day in Budapest, an investigator accepted a baptismal date, and we were able to meet with a bunch of people.

Let me talk about the most important things first. We got to have a zone day!! Our zone (made up of Kecskemét, Szeged, Szolnok, Békéscsaba, and Debrecen) all got together in Tihány Tér (in Pest) and had a fun time. There were about 20 missionaries there. Basically, it was our last time having interviews with President Szabadkai, and he decided to have everyone have a zone day too. Good times. We did fun things like: Throw a football around, play Settlers of Catan with Sister Szabadkai (she won, unfortunately), and watching a movie called One Good Man. I had a great time hanging out with our zone, it was a lot of fun.

Also, one of our investigators, an 11 year old named Tamás, accepted a bap. date for July 7th! He's been meeting with the missionaries for a while and his older sister Enikő is a recent convert. Hopefully everything works out. He's a smart kid, although sometimes he doesn't really answer questions. It reminds me of when I was a primary teacher and I'd ask the kids who Alma was. The answer: A person. But once you get past the silly answers, he's a pretty good kid.

Other than that we were able to meet with some former investigators, and some of them want to investigate again, which is cool. Unfortunately no one came to church this week, but we still had a really great time. We got a new ward mission leader, he's a cool recent convert, and I'm really excited to work with him. 

I'm also still very terrible at taking pictures. I only took one this week, and it's of Máriahegy, a place on the outskirts of Kecskemét where one of our newer investigators lives. It's really interesting, because you leave Kecskemét where there are a lot of 10 story apartment buildings, and then you see this place with dirt roads and small houses. It has a completely different feeling.

Anyways, we had a great time, and this next week promises to be a good one.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

One of our new investigators a bácsi named Ferenc has a horse and a giant dog. Here are some pictures.

2018. május 22

Sziasztok!!

Well. We had a pretty exciting week, filled with an exchange, a trip to the doctors, and some good work. Good times all around.

We seem to have made it a habit to go to Budapest every week. We had another doctors appointment on Thursday because Elder Phillips has been having a rough time with allergies and whatnot. Everything went well, and on the train ride home we got to talk to someone for a while (our train got stuck and it took forever to get home.) We actually didn't end up getting home until around 10:30 because of how late our train was. But we had a good time.

We also found a cool new investigator this week, his name is László, and he's friends with some of the members here. The missionaries streeted him a few weeks ago, and then we called him up and set up a meeting. He's super nice and seems pretty interested. He's 24 years old, and he's finishing up college. We had a great time talking with him, we shared our experiences with the Church and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. It went really well, and I'm excited to visit him again this week.

We also had the zone leaders here on exchanges, and I was with Elder Cushing. We had a great time, it was fun to work with him. He's a total hooligan, and we were able to get a lot of work done and still have a great time. During the exchange, he decided to try giving cards to drivers waiting at a stop light. He gave one to the first driver, and then we were kinda expecting the other drivers to avoid looking at us or something, but they actually rolled down the window so they could talk to us. It was really funny.

We went to a family night activity yesterday, which was a lot of fun. It's really cool that the ward holds these activities because when I was here at the start of my mission they had almost no ward activities. Now there are a lot more, and we were able to spend some time with some awesome members. The members (especially the youth) here are so involved in the work and it's a lot of fun.

Elder Phillips and I have been having a great time, we've had some deep discussions about our favorite video games. Things are going really well, and our work is pretty solid too. 

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

2018. május 14

Sziasztok!

"What's it like being in Kecskemét again?" - I have gotten this question at least 5 times a day since coming back. It's super weird being back in my first city, but it's a lot of fun too. The ward has changed a bit, there are a lot of really cool recent converts, and it's fun to talk to the members now that I can actually communicate.

We've been super busy taking care of things after transfer- We had to go the immigration office, we had district meeting in Szeged (Districts in the mission have been made bigger, so we're going to have to travel more), and Saturday we did some service at a member's home. It was a lot of fun, we had some great times.

Also, the ward here is was funnier now that I understand most of the jokes they're making. For example yesterday in elders quorum the president decided to have us all explain priesthood ordinances, so he handed out a bunch of slips with the ordinances written on it. Then one of the members makes a joke about turning it into charades, a different one says "I'll start!" and then acts like he's passing the sacrament. Long story short, I appreciate the humor a lot more.

Elder Phillips and I are doing great together. He's from Florida, but apparently his family has moved around a lot. He's going home the transfer after I do, so we are a really old companionship. He's super nerdy (we've already visited at least 2 video game stores). I think we're going to get along well. :)

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Pictures: Me and the Mosers last P-day in Miskolc

Here are some Pictures elder Phillips took of me.

3 are at a Cathedral in Szeged after District meeting.

Then 2 are at service on Saturday. We had to pull that whole tree out of the ground, it took so long. Benedek (a recent convert here) referenced Lord of the Rings, when the orcs are cutting the trees of Fangorn Forest (I think that's the name), and they say to Saruman "The trees are old, their roots go deep" and Saruman replies "Cut them down" or something like that. Anyways, service was an adventure, we had a good time, and I got to bond with the members here.

2018. május 5

Sziasztok!

Well, we got our transfer calls this morning, and Elder Neumiller is staying in Miskolc. I'm going back to Kecskemét. I'm not going to be in the same area I was my first 2 transfers (because it's a sisters area now), but it's crazy that I'm going to be back in my first city. My new companion is Elder Phllips, he's a group younger than me. Wow, it's crazy that I'm going back to Kecskemét for my last transfer.

Other than that, we had a solid week. We had 2 exchanges with the other Elders, which was a lot of fun. I had a great time with them, and Elder Cushing is going to be my zone leader next transfer. It'll be great to keep working with him.

I'm kinda sad that I'm leaving Miskolc, but going to Kecskemét will be a lot of fun. This last week was fun, it's kinda sad to say goodbye to people though.

This last week Elder Neumiller and I have been having a fun time finding, and we've been asking people wearing camo if they're soldiers. It's kinda hilarious to see people's reactions, some people think it's hilarious, but sometimes we have to ask multiple times for them to realize what we're asking. It's been kinda funny.

We did some great work this week. I love Miskolc, it'll be sad to say goodbye.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

2018. május 2

Sziasztok!

Well, we had a pretty exciting (and long) week, it feels like it's been forever since our last P-day. Yesterday was Labor day here in Hungary, so our P-day got bumped to today. Also, next week is transfers, so P-day will be on Tuesday.

Some fun things happened this week. We had a zone training on Chapter 2 of Preach my Gospel, Elder Neumiller and I talked a lot about how to have an effective personal study and receive revelation. It was a lot of fun. The training went well.

We also had 3 exchanges in the past week and a half, which was fun, time has flown by. While we were on exchanges we visited the Naárék, and they are doing amazing. It's crazy to see their progress. We spent half of the lesson talking about how to help less actives come back, and the Naárék are super passionate about helping others. It's great to see how much the gospel has blessed them.

We also met with János, our other recent convert. That was a lot of fun. He's also doing great, lessons with him are fun. He's a really funny man, and he has some interesting habits. For example, sometimes he starts to talk really loud (almost yelling), and he says he does it because he worked in a factory for a few years, and you had to yell to make sure that other people could hear you. It was a lot of fun to teach him. When he comes to church this Sunday he'll probably pass the sacrament for the first time, which will be a really cool experience.

Other than that, we were blessed to find some new investigators. Klári and Józsi live with a less active member who can't come to church because of her health. This member has a great testimony though, and she taught Klári and Józsi a lot about the gospel. Last week we met them for the first time, and we ended up talking a lot about the Law of Chastity and Eternal Marriage because they aren't married, but they've been together for about 14 years. We hadn't planned to talk about this, but it ended up working out alright, and we're going to visit them again in the next few days.

Elder Neumiller and I spent a lot of time outside tracting and streeting, it was fun to have a lot of time to find, and the weather was super nice. We've been having a great time, and this next week is going to fly by so fast.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

We took district pictures at Erzsébet tér. The order is Elder Cushing, me, Elder Neumiller, and Elder Emang.

2018. április 23

Sziasztok!

We have another great week behind us. We had a lot of exciting things going on. The recent converts are doing well, Csaba helped pass the sacrament yesterday (he did a great job, by the way), and he and his wife, Zsuzsa both got callings in the branch. It's been a lot of fun to work with them and see them become a part of the branch here. They are doing great, and the other recent convert, János got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday. The branch is doing a great job taking care of them.

We had a lesson with Kingsley, our Nigerian friend yesterday. We brought the Senior couple, and Elder Moser did a great job connecting with him. It was great to see how good he is at teaching the gospel, I guess it comes with a lot of practice. The lesson went great, Kingsley is really interested. It'll be fun to keep meeting with him, although it's weird to teach in English sometimes.

Other than that, we had a fun time teaching the recent converts. We found a new investigator on Monday, Kata, but then she dogged us on Tuesday and we haven't been able to get in contact with her. We had exchanges in Budapest this week, it was fun to go back there and work there, although it was in a different area. We also had exchanges with the other Elders, Elder Cushing and I were together. It went really well, I love Elder Cushing. He's hilarious and sometimes he's a hooligan. We were walking in the Avas Friday afternoon, and some kids yelled at us from their apartment, so we went to the building and the kids shouted their apartment code. We talked to them for a little bit, they were all partying, but it turned out that Elder Cushing had talked to them before.

Anyways, we had a great week, and this next week will be a lot of fun. We have a zone conference in Budapest, and a few exchanges planned.

Pictures:

Last p-day we visited a tower above the Avas, and there is a great view of the city there.

There's a few pictures of our district, our city, and a church that we visited. And a monkey that someone painted on a building.

PLUS...I added pictures that Sister Moser and Pres. Szabadkai posted on facebook.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Pictures of District Activity at the Mosers:

Pictures from interviews with the President:

Neumiller and Terry