Our district decided to participate in our first "English Fast"

October 5, 2017

Sziasztok, 

Our Hungarian District

On Friday our district decided to participate in our first "English Fast." That means we went the entire day without speaking any English to each other and only spoke in Hungarian. The only exception was when we were talking to other people, we could translate what our companion was saying. I spent most of the day carrying around a dictionary trying to figure out how to say normal day stuff and expand my very gospel-centered vocabulary. Overall it was good because the more we speak the language, the more comfortable we will be with the language. 

This week has been a very important milestone for us. We are now halfway done with our time here at the MTC, and we have been here for over a month now. Every missionary who was in the zone from when we arrived is now gone. So we are now the old guys on the block, which is a little weird to think about. If we were only a 6-week language we would be leaving next week. But I am somewhat grateful that we are a 9-week language because it gives us more time to study the language and feel more confident. This week 18 German missionaries left us. So I continued my duties as the floor Zone Leader/"RA" and woke up at 3:30 AM to make sure their rooms were clean. But today there are 19 more German speaking missionaries coming into the Zone which is exciting. Of the 19 missionaries 15 are sisters and only 4 are elders. It's crazy to think about how many more sisters go on missions these days. So later today we will welcome them and show them around the MTC. 

Also this week we watched General Conference here at the MTC. 

(General conference is our church's worldwide conference held twice a year in Salt Lake City and broadcast throughout the world. At this conference the general authorities of our church speak to spiritually lift us. You can watch the conference at https://www.lds.org/general-conference?cid=HP_SA_23-9-2017_dGC_fBCAST_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng) 

I can honestly say that I have never paid more attention or stayed more awake while watching Conference than while watching it as a Missionary. My favorite talk was Elder Russel M Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon. I liked the story he shared about the Ghana tribal King he talked to. Elder Nelson told the King he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then the King asked him what he could teach him about Jesus Christ. So Elder Nelson read a passage from 3 Nephi with the King, about how Christ ministered in the Americas. And then the King said, "You could have given me diamonds or gold and it would not be worth as much as this knowledge of Jesus Christ you have given me." It was a good reminder to all of us of how valuable the Book of Mormon is. And how it has helped our lives and all the knowledge it has brought to us.

                                                        Watch Elder Nelson's talk here

On Sunday night John Munoa, the producer of the Bible Videos for the Church came and spoke to us. It was refreshing because after watching 10 hours of conference he showed us a bunch of pictures and told us​​​​ about how the filming went.

                                         Click here to see the Bible Videos

To celebrate this big week (one month in the MTC, halfway done with the MTC, and General Conference) I decided to enjoy 3 of the best cans (1 for each milestone) of Mountain Dew the MTC has to offer. One of the missionaries from the previous Hungarian group left a Mountain Dew Cooler, so I of course took it and stocked it with Mountain Dew. Now I will have to re-stock it and wait for the next time there is a cause for celebration. 

My Mountain Dew cooler

My 3 empty cans of Mountain Dew

We have a phone so we can contact the front desk if we need to and the front desk is able to contact us. If there is a missionary in the zone that needs to go to the front desk, they call us and then we let them know. They have had smart phones in some European missions. I think Switzerland has them, the Turkish missionaries get them, and I think the German missionaries will get them soon. But given that missionaries in Hungary don't even have tablets, I highly doubt we will get them-- but you never know.  

Sok Szeretettel,

        Udy Elder