I am going to be a secretary in the mission office

Sziasztok mindenkinek, 

This week has probably been the craziest week of my mission.  On Tuesday morning we got a call from President Hettinger saying we were going to be in a trio with another missionary from Békéscsaba because his companion finished his mission and was going home midway through the transfer. And he said that we have to cover both Békéscsaba and Szeged until the end of the transfer. Since Békéscsaba has a missionary serving as the branch president, Elder Smith is assigned to be the branch president there and President told me that I am going to be a secretary in the mission office.  I think I will mainly be dealing with immigration for the missionaries. I go up to Buda tomorrow and start my 1- week training before the start of the next transfer.  

So this past week has mostly just consisted of a bunch of travel and a bunch of branch activities. We have traveled from Békéscsaba to Szeged 3 times already for various reasons, but it is really unfortunate because they are working on the railroad so we have to take a bus halfway and then get on a train. So the travel is a little over 2 hours going one way. Also public transportation in Békéscsaba is really bad, and there are only 2 bikes for 3 people so we have to walk everywhere which takes forever because it's a 40 minute walk from the apartment to the train station.

Besides all of the traveling we went to a bunch of activities such as Young Women's, a self-reliance program, English class, and also a branch party. The Békéscsaba branch is unique because it consists of almost all women, there are even enough women to have a Young Women's program and a Young women's presidency. The problem is that there are no active Melchizedek priesthood holders so a missionary has to run the branch. Also there wasn't anyone assigned to give talks during church this past Sunday so all 3 of us missionaries spoke. I was introduced as a guest speaker because I was only there for one week. It was cool to give a talk and see how I was able to give a 20-minute talk in Hungarian with just a few notes. 

That is a brief summary of the past week. Then tomorrow I go to Buda to the mission home where I will continue my mission as a secretary and learn about immigration.  I don't really know what I'll be doing, but I will learn a lot more about it this week. It will be interesting trying to balance all the office work and missionary work.  We'll see how it goes.  Since I'll be in the mission home a lot, hopefully, I will get fed by the Hettingers and some of the senior couples. That would be great. That is all for this week. I lost my SD card reader so the pictures are going to have to wait. And I think my p-days as a secretary will be on Saturday, so I will email again this Saturday.

Sok szeretettel, 

Udy Elder      

It will be cool to see the entire family together in the Gospel

Sept 10, 2018

Jó reggelt mindenkinek!

This week we were super busy again. We had Zone Conference and learned a bunch of stuff about Personal, companionship, and language study. We gave a training on language study and it went well. After Zone Conference we got a really huge banner that is like 8 feet tall that looks really good that advertises the 21 Day Book of Mormon Challenge.  We had two with us since we went on splits after Zone Conference so we put them up on both sides of the street. But the wind was starting to blow them down so we had to tie them to a pole to keep them upright. 

On Saturday a senior couple came to meet the landlord of the other apartment. Sadly nothing was signed yet because the landlord wants all of the beds and tables out of there because they are going to sell the apartment. So this week we have to figure out how to get rid of all of our furniture. It doesn't help that the apartment is on the 5th floor without an elevator. We will probably just take a crowbar and a sledgehammer and just destroy it all. 

Last p-day we went to the zoo in Szeged. I went with super low expectations and surprisingly it was pretty decent. They had a bunch of different kinds of animals like tigers, lions, penguins, elephants, zebras, and a lot more. 

One of our investigators, who is a 9-year boy, has accepted a baptismal date for October 6th. His step-dad has been a member for over 20 years I think, and earlier this year his mom and his older sister were baptized. So it will be really cool to see the entire family together in the Gospel. 

   

- Elder Udy

This week was super busy

Jó reggelt fivéreim és nőtestvéreim, 

This week was super busy again. We didn't have a lot of finding time. We met with a lot of people, and we finished cleaning the other apartment because on Saturday there was a senior couple who came by to check the apartment and make sure we did a good job clearing everything out and cleaning it.

The work here can be a little frustrating at times because the people we teach who are ready for baptism don't want to accept a date, and the ones who aren't ready for baptism yet are super willing to be baptized on any date. But the work is progressing here, and I am excited to see what the future brings.

Last P-day we went to a museum here in Szeged. There was no particular theme to the museum, but it had a bunch of stuff on dinosaurs. But since there aren't a lot of dinosaur fossils in Europe, almost all the fossils came from Utah and Arizona. It also had displays on paprika and slippers because those are a couple of things that Szeged is known for. Some of the best paprika in the world comes from Szeged.

On Saturday we went with members of the elders quorum presidency to visit church members in a town called Hódmezővásárhely. The literal translation is Beaver Field Market Place. There actually used to be a missionary companionship in the city some years back. It was nice to go there, and then afterwards they took us out for dinner.

On Sunday we gave the members fresh copies of the Book of Mormon with the “21 day Book of Mormon Challenge Initiative” with the hope that they can give it to a friend and read it with them.  Click for link to 21 day Book of Mormon Initiative

Last week I hit my 1-year mark on my mission. I didn't burn a shirt yet, but hopefully this week I'll get to do that. I have really loved my time and service on my mission and the chance I have to bring the gospel to the Hungarian people. 

The Land Lady came over and almost got rid of the hornet problem but it is still there. 

Sok szeretettel,

Udy Elder

The Book of Mormon 21 day challenge

August 27, 2018

Szervusztok mindenkinek,

The church in Europe has a Book of Mormon initiative called the “Book of Mormon 21 day challenge.”  Each day has a question like “Is there a god?” or “How can I be a better person?” or “How does God communicate with us today?” and then along with each question there are scripture references from the Book of Mormon that help answer the question. To help better implement this into our missionary work, we made a Zone plan to give a Book of Mormon to every family or individual member at church along with the 21-day calendar. And then it is their challenge to give the Book of Mormon to one of their friends or neighbors and read it with them. Also next Sunday during fast Sunday we will fast and pray as a congregation for opportunities to share the gospel with those around us. We are really looking forward to this, and we can't wait to see the blessings and the miracles that can come from reading the Book of Mormon.  To learn more about the Book of Mormon and obtain your free copy click here

We still have been super busy with cleaning the other apartment and being the only companionship in Szeged.  On top of that, I just moved into an apartment where we have killed a couple of hundred hornets since I've moved in. Somehow there is a hornets’ nest in the door frame of the front door and there is a hole where they can escape, but we have used a ton of spray to kill them and it always seems that more dead hornets show up on the ground. Hopefully we can get it fixed this week. 

Also we had a really cool experience at church with one of our investigators. This past week during the lesson he said that he will be baptized and he knows this is the right way, but it is very difficult to commit him to a date. After sacrament meeting and Sunday school one of the members had the impression to talk to him and ask him why he isn't a member yet. They ended up talking for and hour and our investigator received a blessing from the member to help him receive his answer about baptism. And he committed to pray sincerely about baptism and when he should be baptized. It was really cool to see the Spirit work through the member and then he acted based on the prompting he received.  

Also you probably already know but whips are a very big thing here in Hungary.  They are just like bull whips and I have tried it out a couple times.  I was wondering if I were to purchase one would you two be willing to chip in? 

Szeretettel ölel, 

Udy Elder

I come home one year from today

August 22, 2018

Sziasztok, 

This week has been really busy. My new companion is Elder Smith. He is from Utah and has been on his mission 2 months longer than me, so a little bit over a year.

Smith and Udy Elders

Since there is only 1 companionship is Szeged, we are super busy because the apartment I was in last transfer needs to be closed down. It is on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator and we have to take almost everything out, and after being a missionary apartment for many years there is a lot of junk that needs to be thrown out. Also we have to clean it really good. On top of that we have a ton of investigators now since there is just one companionship in Szeged, and we have to find time to meet with all of them. 

Also this week we had Missionary Leadership Council in Budapest. All of the missionary leaders from Romania attended, and they flew into Budapest for it. 

Missionary Leadership Council

Lunch at MLC meeting

The meeting was on Tuesday, but on Monday we went to Budapest and we just got to walk around Budapest doing a scavenger hunt. We saw all the cool sites. I'll attach some pictures. 

Hungarian Parliament Building

Statue of Ronald Reagan

Statue of George Washington

Scavenger Hunt team

City Street

It was fun because it was the first time I got to spend a day in Budapest looking at all the sights.  Monday was also a holiday celebrating Hungarian’s independence from the Soviet Union and Communism.  The meeting was good, we are going to try and come up with some goals/initiatives for our Zone this week. 

I also found out that my release date is not actually August 29th but August 22nd. So a year from today my mission ends. They moved it up a week so the people going home wouldn't have any problems with going to school. So if you guys want, you can probably pick me up now. 

Szeretettel ölel, 

Udy Elder

I find joy and happiness in this work

August 14, 2018

Sziasztok, 

Today was transfer call day. I will be staying here in Szeged as a Zone Leader and Elder Willes is going home to California. Elder Smith who is actually already serving here will be my companion. We get along really well, so it should be a fun time. Again the mission got a lot smaller this transfer. 6 Elder companionships  had to be taken out of Hungary and 1 companionship got taken out of Szeged so we will have the entire city to ourselves next transfer, a city of 250,000 people. But hopefully sometime in the future more missionaries come in. 

There is a really old, big Jewish synagogue that is right next to our church meeting house, so on p-day we went and visited it. It is the 2nd largest synagogue in Hungary and actually the 4th largest one in the World so it was pretty cool to see. When we went in they gave us 2 instructions. 1)  Put on a Yamaka 2) Take pictures. So that is what we did. Also there was a little tour so we went on that too. 

Szeged Synagogue

This past week we also translated an article from English to Hungarian about members of the church and playing professionals sports on Sunday, because one of our investigators who is 11 years old doesn't want to get baptized because he said in the future his soccer matches will be on Sunday when he is professional. We went to a little village to deliver the article but there were 3 bus stops in the town and we weren't sure which one to get off at. Of Course we got off at the wrong one and we were a few kilometers away from where we were supposed to be. But luckily Hungarians in the small towns are super nice and we were able to get a ride from a stranger which was nice. Hopefully the article helped him resolve his concern.  I find joy and happiness in this work and I am excited to see what the next transfer brings. 

That fire in Kennewick looks baaaadddd. Good thing we didn't buy that house that got burned down. I remember touring it and liking it, but at least you still have a house that isn't in flames. Also I got the package from Lon and Carleen, and it was good to eat all of those Butterfingers for breakfast. 

Sok szeretettel,     

Udy Elder

We introduced him to the 15-step program to stop smoking

August 7, 2018

Szervusztok,

This past week was another good one. Last week on p-day we went to the Tisza River which runs through Szeged. We did a little fishing but the only problem is that the Tisza is more like a dump than a river. The water was straight brown. I don't think I have ever seen a dirtier river.

Tisza River

On p-day we also went whipping which means that we had a Hungarian whip and we just threw it around and made a lot of really loud noise. 

Yesterday we had our first interviews with President Hettinger. It was weird to talk to the Mission President in English. It felt so much different from the previous interviews I have had with the mission President.  It was really nice to be with him and Sister Hettinger. He is always using slang and cracking jokes and asking for the perspectives of missionaries on topics. He is a really good leader and we are lucky to have him as our mission President. 

The Hettinger's

One of our investigators, who has a baptismal date for September 15^th, smokes a lot--which really isn't a weird thing here. It is a normal thing to see a bunch of young teenagers smoking in this country. So we introduced him to the classic 15- step program to help him quit smoking because he only has 1 month to quit. The program is really good because it combines scientific ways that have been proven to help people stop smoking with faith.  Info on 15 step program to stop smoking

Also again this week Izabela Geambasu came to Szeged. She is a church member from Romania who sings really well and is doing a tour around Hungary. I already saw her once in Székesfehérvár, but I got to see her one more time here in Szeged. To promote the event we went into a bunch of businesses and put fliers up and also passed out a ton of them. 

Izabela Geambasu singing "I Know That My Reedemer Lives"

This is also the last week of the transfer. It has flown by probably because it was only 5 weeks instead of 9. But we'll see what is in store for me and what changes come next week.

Sok szeretettel,

Udy Elder