I finally arrived in Magyarorszag (Hungary to Americans)

November 6, 2017

Sziasztok Családom és Barátaim, (Hello my friends and my family)

    I finally arrived in Magyarország (Hungary). It took us a while to first get here because our plane in Salt Lake got delayed 5 hours because the fuel pump was broken or something. So they first tried to fix it and decided that it was beyond repair, and they had to get a different plane for us to fly on. But during that time we were able to talk with a woman from Hungary who was on the same flight was us. It was a long 10 hour flight in which I slept most the way. Then we had a 2 hour flight from Amsterdam to Budapest. When we got to the baggage claim there was a surprise for us. No Bags. Somehow the airline lost our luggage. So I went up to one of the desks and explained that we lost our bags, and he was only speaking in Hungarian so I had no idea what he was saying. It was at that moment I knew what Elder Calhoun felt like in the movie "The Best Two Years” when he said, "That's not the language they taught me in the MTC." But he pointed to the direction of the lost baggage desk. And with their little English and our little Hungarian we were able to fill out paperwork for our lost suitcases. 

Our MTC district at the Budapest airport with Szabadkai Elnok and his wife

We then went to the Mission Home and met with Szabadkai Elnök (Mission President), he is the first native Hungarian mission president and is a funny guy to talk to. They fed us a fruit soup with ice cream

Fruit soup with ice cream

and then some rice and chicken with some tasty sauce and an oreo type dessert.After that the APs (assistants to the mission president) took us to a cool Cathedral where we could look out onto the city of Budapest and see the Parliament building. We stayed in a Hotel that night, and I still did not have either of my suitcases. 

Cathedral in Budapest

Parliament building in Budapest

The next day we were able to get most of our suitcases back, but I was still missing the one with all my clothes in it. Also, we found out where we will be serving in our first area and who our companions will be. I am serving in Kaposvár with Cushing Elder.

Udy Elder and Cushing Elder pointing to Kaposvar, Hungary

Cushing Elder has been out for a little over a year and I am the second missionary he has trained. He also trained a missionary in Kaposvár last transfer. He is from Kansas and studied two years at West Point before going on his mission. It took about 2 and a half hours to get to Kaposvár by train from Budapest. Kaposvár is a city in the southwest of Hungary with about 50,000 people living in it. My first night there was “All Saints Day” or “Day of the Dead” so we went to the cemetery to talkwith some people and it looked really cool with a bunch of candles lit up.

Cemetery during "All Saints Day"--Nov 1st

Cemetery celebrating "All Saints Day" --Nov 1st

There are only about 35 people who come to church eachSunday, but the work here is slowly moving along. In Kaposvár there are two sets of missionaries. We cover the west side of the city and the other companionship covers the east side. We have one investigator named "A" who has a baptism date for November 24th. The other companionship had a baptism on Friday so we were able to take "A" with us to that. Since there is no baptismal font in the branch house, we had to do the baptism at a Hotel which was interesting. 

Baptism

On Saturday I went on splits, over on the east side of Kaposvár, with Fuchs Elder. Fuchs Elder is from Germany and has been out for about a year. We went tracting (knocking on doors) and were let into two different homes to teach lessons. The first home we were let into Fuchs Elder had me take the lead in teaching the Restoration lesson. It was a bit of a struggle but I managed and the guy said we could come back. Also President Szabadkai drove down to deliver me my suitcase and pay Kaposvár a visit which was nice.

Kaposvar Cathedral--Cushing Elder and Udy Elder

Since I can't understand too much, I am the piano player in church and it is a good way to get involved. My duties consist of choosing the hymns and pressing the play button on the piano and listening to the programmed hymn. I hope to master this duty by the time I leave Kaposvár. 

Church Halloween Party--Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin Carving

Later on Sunday Cushing Elder and I decided to do some tracting in a smaller city that was in our area. It was about a 30 minute bus ride away. We were tracting for about 2 hours and then this car pulls up next to us. He said he was the Mayor and that we were not allowed to be here. My guess is someone we tracted into called him and said we were there and then he came looking for us. We asked if we were breaking any law and he said that if we didn't leave he would call the police and have them arrest us. We decided it's probably best not to get arrested, so we walked back to the bus station and the whole time he was following us in his car. After one week I already have been kicked out of a town by the mayor and was threatened with arrest. Who knows what these next two years have in store for me. 😀

Sok Szertettel, (Lots of Love)

     Udy Elder​