2017. szeptember 25-e

Sziasztok!
We have a great week behind us! We had a lot of fun things happen, and I hope all of you had a great time too.

Monday after emailing we went to a place called "Erzsébet Kilátó" or Elizabeth View. It's a little tower towards the western edge of Budapest. We went with the sisters, had a good time there. The view is amazing, I took a ton of pictures. It was really pretty and it was a good time. After that we went tracting and set up with a couple of people.

Tuesday morning we used a White Board to set up a street display. It was a lot of fun. We wrote up "What is the purpose of Life? Why should we do good?" and then Elder Leavitt drew a little stick man who was pondering. It was fun to use, but unfortunately it was raining, so not very many people wanted to talk to us. We had a good time though. We found one or two PI's and I talked to an older lady for a while that was really nice, unfortunately, she wasn't super interested. After that we got dogged, and did some tracting. That was most of our day, then we made some calls and had language study.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun, we learned about a lot of things. We taught about learning the language from PMG 7, the Sister Training Leaders talked about the same thing. Then we learned about self-reliance from a senior couple. We are going to be doing some self-reliance stuff each week, which will be a lot of fun. After that we learned about technology use. We were hoping to be able to use Facebook, but there were some problems, but now we can use the computers in the branch house for 30 minutes a day to keep in contact with investigators via email and look at church stuff online. That'll be a lot of fun. After that we met with Alex, who is doing good. He still asks a ton of questions, but it went well. Then we tracted.

Thursday we had district meeting in the morning, had a good time there. Then we spent some time finding and then we had a lesson with Veronika. She is a lot of fun, she used to meet with missionaries in Debrecen. We're hoping that things will go well with her and that we'll be able to give her a bap. date soon. After that we had English Class and a game night.

Friday was weekly planning, which was a good time. Then we met up with the Buda Elders and Elder Shepherd came back with me for exchanges. We had a good time. We met with Ági and the lesson went well. She's really excited for her baptism on Saturday. It'll be a lot of fun. She's super ready. She randomly opened to Mosiah 18 this week and it made her really excited for baptism.

Saturday morning Elder Shepherd and I meet with Erika. She's a less active who moved from another sister  (does he mean city?) a few years ago. She didn't know anyone in Budapest and couldn't find the church, so she went inactive, but then a few weeks ago she ran into the missionaries, got our number and called us up. We met with her and it went really well. She really wants to relearn a lot of stuff. She was also excited to come to church, but then she got sick and couldn't come. After that Elder Leavitt and I were reunited and we met with some recent converts, Attila and Dora. They are really cool people. They were really busy during the summer, but now they should be more free and we can meet with them.

Sunday was a lot of fun. We had a missionary farewell, which was good and then one of the counsellors in the bishopric spoke about not being offended. It was good. Then we spent some time tracting and met with an investigator, Márta. It was pretty good. Then we came home and had numbers and dinner.


All in all, it was a good week. We have interviews with President Szabadkai today, which will be a lot of fun.

Szeretettel,
Terry elder

Pictures of Elizabeth View:

Leavitt Elder

Elders Terry and Leavitt

Elder Leavitt's man pondering why he is on the Earth.Whiteboard display in a rainstorm :)

2017. szeptember 18-a

Sziasztok!

We had a busy week with lots of good times.

Monday we had a good time cleaning the apartment. Always gotta have clean apartments. We also got dogged in the evening, so we spent some time tracting. We found a few old people, but other than that, it was pretty normal.

Tuesday we met with a recent convert, Bogi, and it went really well. We had to meet outside because we couldn't get a male member, and Bogi got sick, but other than that it went great. She was baptized 3 months ago, and she understands the gospel really well. She helps the other companionships out in lessons all the time, which is cool. After that we started an exchange with the other elders in our district. I was with elder Jameson, he's a new missionary and we had a great time together. The exchange went well, and we had some fun times finding. Elder Jameson is a fun person so it went well.

Wednesday morning elder Jameson and I met with a woman named Zsóka. She's an older lady, but she's really nice and the lesson went well. She's had some cool experiences that she shared with us about times that God has helped her. So that was fun. Then Elder Leavitt came back from his exchange and we had some good times. We did some finding and did fun stuff.

Thursday we had of stuff happen. We had district meeting, the highlight of the week. Elder Harris does a good job of helping us in our work. After that we had some finding, and then we met with a woman named Veronika. She was actually a media referral, but she has a fun story. A few years ago she met with the Missionaries in Debrecen and they taught her for a while. Later she moved to Budapest and her connection with the missionaries kinda died, but Elder Brown, a missionary who served here 4 years ago, kept in contact with her and referred her to us a week ago. So we met with her and it went well. She was really nice. After that we had English class and a game night, which went well. Then we spent some time finding.

Friday we had weekly planning and then I went to Kispest for an exchange with Elder Norris. He's been in Hungary for almost 18 months now, and we had some good times talking. We spent a lot of time finding, and it was pretty good.

Saturday was Ági's baptismal interview, and she passed! Other than that, our exchange ended and Elder Leavitt and I spent the rest of the day finding. It went pretty well, we talked with some nice people.

Sunday they had the primary program in Church which was super cute. The kids did a really good job, they even had kids "translate" for each other, which was good. The ward here is really good about dealing with the language barrier that happens a lot. After church we had a lesson with a woman named Erika. She told us a lot of her life story, she's had a hard time, but she has very strong faith. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with her more in the future. After that we had some finding, dinner and numbers and we planned our zone training this week.

One of the pictures is of Elder Jameson, and the rest are of a monument to "Big Hungary." A lot of Hungarians are sad that Hungary isn't the size it used to be, so they have monuments. This one says, "I believe. This is the way it was, and it will be this way again."

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

2017. szeptember 11-e

Sziasztok! 

Elder Leavitt and I had a great week, and it went buy super fast.

Monday after emailing we played pingpong and did some random stuff in the branch house, then we had dinner, got dogged by a potential investigator and met up with the secretaries to have an exchange with them. I was with elder Bloomer and we had a pretty good time. Monday evening we streeted a bit and had a good time.

Tuesday morning we had the weekly phone call with president Szabadkai. that was fun because Elder Leavitt and I were in different apartments because of exchanges, but other that that it was a pretty good conversation. Then elder Bloomer and I went to the mission office, he did his secretary stuff and I tried to help update a computer to windows 10. It didn't really work out, but from what I've heard they have windows 10 now, which is exciting. Afterwards we had some studies and dinner. Then we were dogged and streeted for a bit before meeting up with Elder Leavitt and elder Ballard.

Wednesday we had a great morning, we got all of our studies in and then we headed out and tracted/streeted in an area close to our apartment. It went pretty well, and then we went to a lesson and got dogged, but after that we went to a teaching and didn't get dogged, which was fun. We met with a new investigator named Alex, he's really nice and in his mid 30's. The lesson with him went pretty well, he listened and asked some good questions and then we set up to meet with him this week, which will be fun. After that we met with László and his wife, an couple that we met last Wednesday. It went well and they gave us some food, which was nice. Unfortunately, they have some stuff coming up, so we won't be meeting with them for the next 4 weeks. After that we came home and made a lot of phone calls.

Thursday we had a lot of meetings. We had district meeting in the morning and that went well. We set some district goals and had a good time. After that we went to MLC where all of the Zone leaders and Sister training leaders in the mission get together. It went well, we discussed Chapter 7 of PMG, and later some stake leaders joined in and we discussed how to work better with the stake units. It went really well, hopefully we'll be able to help the missionary work in the country improve. These meetings took most of the day, in the evening we did some language study and streeted/tracted.

Friday we had weekly planning which was fun. I actually really like weekly planning it's always a fun time. After that we got dogged by one of our investigators, but then we met with Ági, our investigator on bap. date. The lesson went really well, Ági is great and we are going to have her baptismal interview this week. Hopefully everything goes well. The member who came with us is amazing, he teaches really well and was a great help. He told us about how he invited one of his coworkers to meet with the missionaries, and he got the response that she doesn't believe in God, and he told her, "No worries, you will after you've met with them." He's great.

Saturday we met with a new investigator Mária. She's an older lady, and she is really nice. We taught her the restoration. Fun fact, she has a dog and she calls her dog the boss because her schedule has to conform to the dog. She has to take her out for 3 walks a day at certain times. After that we had some finding and then we met with Katalin. She's been investigating for a few months and we were really hoping she could come to church, but she couldn't. Next week she promised she would. Our member present there was also really great. I actually knew him before I came to Pest because he comes to visit Dunaújváros every now and then. He's a lot of fun and a good member missionary.

Sunday we had church, which was a lot of fun. We had a missionary homecoming, which was fun and after that the other classes were good. After that we had some fun times finding and used a White Board stand to find people. It went okay, but we are working on ways to use it more effectively. After that we got numbers and did some streeting.

Today we met with a man named András. He's been meeting with some other missionaries and he has some kind of weird family connection to Elder Leavitt, so we got permission to visit him. It was a fun time, we chatted with him, he's a really nice person. Then we went to Hősök tere (Heros' square) and that was fun.

This morning I read Jeremiah 1, which was a lot of fun. Verses 5-7 really stood out to me. They read:

"5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordainedthee a prophet unto the nations.

6 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

7 ¶ But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I commandthee thou shalt speak.

8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord."

Jeremiah felt that he was inadequate for the task placed before him, and the later chapters of Jeremiah are really intense, he calls entire nations to repentance. The Lord's promise to him is true for of us when we strive to share the Gospel. God is with us, He will give us what we need to say and be with us to help us and deliver us if needed.

Szeretettel,

Terry elder

Elders Terry and Leavitt

The rest are pictures of Hero's Square.  Riker said he remembered this from when
we were there in 2013.  He also found the hotel we stayed at while we were there.

2017.09.04

Sziasztok!
Well, there have been quite a few changes since the last P-day.
Wednesday we had transfers. It was kinda sad to leave Dunaújváros, but it had to happen at some point. We got up to Budapest, met up with Elder Leavitt, and we had a chance to talk to some of the other missionaries being transfered. After that we headed out to Pest. Our area is probably more than 4x larger than the one we had in Dunaújváros. It has been quite a change, and I'm still kinda getting used to it, but I think I'll have a good time here. Leavitt elder is great, we were in the MTC together, and so far we've had a good time together. Wednesday we got some food for the week, did some finding, met with an old couple, László and his wife. We shared the restoration, and it was a really great lesson.

Thursday we had district meeting. There are three companionships in our district and one of them is a trio, so there are 7 of us. The sisters are Sister Morris, Sister Tischner and Sister Wise (she just got to the country). The other elders are Elder Harris and Elder Jameson. Elder harris is our district leader and Elder Jameson is also a new missionary. This is going to be an exciting transfer because Elder Leavitt and I are the missionaries that have been out the longest. It'll be a good time.

After district meeting we had some finding time. Honestly, I didn't bring my old planner, so I don't remember what happened on which day.

Basically, we spent some time finding, which is always good. We also met with an investigator named Ági, she has a baptismal date for September 30th, and she was awesome. She's an older woman, and she's really nice. We discussed a couple commandments and the plan of salvation. It went really well. Ági also came to church which was fun. Other than that, we did some home teaching with a member which was fun. I'd actually already met the member because he'd been in Dunaújváros before. So we had some good times.

Yesterday was exciting. We had a lot of guests at church. President Southwick (the stake president) was there, as well as President Szabadkai and a Seventy. There was some kinda of meeting after sacrament meeting, so they all joined us for church. The members here in Pest are great, and the ward is really big. It'll be fun getting to know all of the members here.

Other than that, we had a great time, and things are going well so far. I think we are going to have a great transfer. I hope you all have a great week!

Szeretettel,

Terry elder