We had a police car pull us over

April 23, 2018

Szervusztok mindenkinek,

This past week I got to enjoy the warm weather by not having to wear a suit coat finally, but since it is getting hot and humid I have started to get sweaty through out the day. 

This past week we met with someone who we have been trying to set up an appointment with for over a month. When we met with her, she brought her whole family and had looked up stuff about the church on the internet. She really liked what she read, and we answered a bunch of their questions.  They came to church too which was great because that is always the hardest thing to do here is get people to come to church. And they are coming next week too. 

Yesterday while tracting we had a fun experience. Since there are a ton of 10 story apartment buildings here, we often go tracting to the 10 story apartment buildings. And occasionally people get really mad at us because they don’t know how we get into the building. But if someone lets us in we are allowed to go door to door. One person called the police on us, but that didn’t concern me because I've had the police called on me a handful of times while on my mission, but they have never come because the only thing they can tell the police is there’s 2 Mormon boys going from door to door. But once we got out of the apartment building, we had a police car pull us over. We showed them our documents and we were good to go. I was just surprised they actually came, because from my experience, they never actually come. 

We also got our apartment cleaning check done this week by a senior couple which was nice because that meant we were given some nice cinnamon rolls. Anytime I'm given food and don’t have to cook, it is always a plus.

Udy Elder and Howard Elder

We still teach English class every week. Since there is only one companionship here, it makes English class a little bit harder because we can’t split people up into beginners and proficient’s, so we have to tailor the class to try and fit everyone. I don’t really know what I want for my birthday, hopefully I'll know by Mother's day--maybe a tie or something. Since Mother's day is in two weeks, I think, do you guys have a time preference for Skyping?

Sok Szeretettel,

 Udy Elder

Baptists, Muslims, and a Mormon baptism

April 16, 2018

Sziasztok,

  First things first, we had another baptism this past week. It was Lakatos Zita who is the younger sister of Lakatos Eszter who was our previous baptism. It was on her 9th birthday because she wanted to get baptized on her birthday which meant it was just barley a missionary convert baptism. She was baptized at the same place as her sister, at a local pool because we don’t have a baptismal font. 

Also this week an American Baptist minster, who lives here and is married to a Hungarian, saw us and decided to try and convince us of his ways. According to him salvation comes by grace alone and he said that he could murder someone and he would still be saved because he has faith in Jesus Christ and has accepted him as his Savior. We tried to show him that someone who has faith in Christ would strive to follow him and live by his teachings, and that faith is more than just a passive thing. A person who professes faith in Jesus Christ would not murder anyone, but rather manifest their faith by following his teachings and loving others. It was an interesting conversation to say the least. He also couldn't believe that we speak to people in Hungarian about the gospel every day because he has lived here and has been married to a Hungarian for 5 years and hardly can speak the language. 

Also this week we went on splits again in Dunaújváros. And we ran into the Muslim guys, and just a few hours before I was reading an article or essay in a Church Magazine about the Muslim faith. It was weird because it was the first time I have talked to Muslims here, and I was able to tell them the 5 pillars of the Muslim faith and a bunch of similarities between Mormons and Muslims. 

We also had interviews with President Szabadkai which is always good, and also the Stake President, President Southwick, visited our Branch again. It’s funny because both times the Stake President has visited our branch we have had a confirmation in Church. Maybe he needs to come more often. Now since it is past April 15^th, we no longer have to wear suit coats. In our mission from October 15th to April 15th we have to wear a suit coat everyday, but now I can roll around in just a nice flexible white button up shirt. It reminds me of my MTC days cause that was the last time I didn’t have to wear a suit coat.  

Howard, Udy, and ?

I got my wallet back too which was good. We had to go up to a city called Tata for our p-day and there I got my wallet back. If there are any less active members that come to Church, we always try and talk to them and get acquainted with them especially if they are a part-member family. But it’s hard to focus on reactivation because there is no branch mission plan and there is no branch council where we can talk to the Branch President about our work, but we try and make it work. We checked our chalk drawings the next day and it was mostly faded, but it did look good when it was up. That is good that everyone has realized that Noah gets his good looks from me-- I am honored. 😃 I don’t have any pictures this week but next week I should have them.

Sok szeretettel,

    Udy Elder

We decided to draw the plan of salvation with chalk downtown

April 9, 2018

Sziasztok, 

This past week we went on splits in Dunaújváros, and it is probably one of the least attractive cities in Hungary. The city used to be called Sztálinváros or (Stalin City). The town was completely built up during communism so everything looks like big square concrete buildings. 

Dunaújváros, Hungary (picture from internet)

Speaking of politics, we accidentally attended an Orbán Viktor rally in Székesfehérvár. Orbán Viktor is the prime minister of Hungary and he was born in Székesfehérvár, so he made his final campaign speech in downtown Székesfehérvár. We had no idea it was going on. We were supposed to meet someone downtown, and when we showed up there was just a huge mass of people waiting for the Prime Minister to come, haha. And it turns out he won again. 

Also we decided to do “Draw the Plan of Salvation" with chalk downtown, and it took us two hours to do it. People were more interested in it while we were drawing with the chalk than after we finished it. I think it was just a strange site to see two men in suits sitting on the ground drawing with chalk.

Our Plan of Salvation chalk drawings

We also have an upcoming baptism this Saturday so that will be exciting to look forward to. Of the members that are active in our branch, I think maybe half of them live in Székesfehérvár and the other half live outside the city. The inactivity rate in this branch is really high. There are only about 25 people who come to church, but there are about 170 members on the branch list. I did not know the Jazz and the Trailblazers were so good this year, and the Cavs are not that good, keep me updated.  Also I did bad because I forgot my wallet on a bus, and now I think it is in a government office in a different town. I’ve been in contact with them, so hopefully I’ll get it back soon.  

- Udy Elder

Easter is a four-day holiday in Hungary

April 3, 2018

Szervusztok Mindenkinek, (Hello Everyone)

This week was Easter, and here in Hungary it is a four-day holiday from Friday to Monday. The whole city just shuts down for the whole weekend, and there are no stores open. 

(Below is a video from youtube explaining some of the Hungarian Easter traditions.  Eggs are decorated and colored red, and girls are "sprinkled" by boys in exchange for chocolate.)

We also were able to watch general conference this weekend. Since we are 8 hours ahead of mountain time zone, we watched the morning sessions live, 6pm here, but the other sessions we watched after they happened. It was nice because we were able to stand and sustain President Nelson as the new prophet and president of the Church with everyone else in the world. We watched the conference sessions in Hungarian, so I had to really pay attention. But I was able to understand most of it, which was good. 

The LDS General Conference can be watched at the following link...

                                             LDS General Conference April 2018

Also our church meetinghouse is right across the hall from a language tutoring business that charges people a bunch of money to help them learn English. So we put up some “Free English Class with Americans” flyers to attract some of their customers to come to our class. And we were able to get a few new people to come. This one guy came who said he is going to America to work in a couple months, specifically to Warren Pennsylvania. Which is interesting to learn since I used to live close to there.        

We taught a lesson to this young man and his friend this week, and then afterwards they wanted to go do missionary work with us and talk to people on the street with us. It was probably the most fun I’ve had doing missionary work. They were just acting like missionaries and walking up to people they knew on the street and telling them about the Book and Mormon and that they should meet with us.  

In Hungarian there is a really popular women's name "Judit" and it sounds exactly the same as "Udy" except there is a "t" at the end. So whenever I meet people I just tell them my name is Judit without the T and it always makes them laugh.

To answer some of your questions…Inside the mall at the food court there is a KFC, and I have eaten there once so far and it is pretty much the same as an American KFC, they sell fried chicken. I don’t have any pictures this week, but hopefully next week I’ll have some. Its’ always hard to get members involved in missionary work here because the membership is really small and a lot of the members live far away from the church meeting house.  Also the branch here didn't even have a branch mission leader for the longest time until a few weeks ago when we asked for one, and also branch council is always a rare occurrence. 

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of Love)

    Udy Elder