Elder Quentin L. Cook is coming

Elder Quentin L. Cook

October 16, 2018

Jó reggelt! (Good morning)

I forgot to tell you last week that Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles is coming to visit Hungary and Romania next week. He will first go to Romania and meet with people on Monday, and then on Tuesday he will be in Hungary. Tuesday morning he will meet with the missionaries in Hungary. It will be a super special experience for us to hear from an Apostle of the Lord, and maybe since I'm in the office, I will be able to spend a little extra time with him-- we'll see. 

As usual we were super busy with office stuff. I have been trying to get the Romanian immigration paperwork ready, but apparently they passed some new law or something and we have to fill out a different form for our health insurance. However, the form is only in Romanian, so I have to somehow figure out how to fill it out. We also took the mission president's car to get an oil change and an inspection this past week.

We also went on splits to Dunaújváros. It was a good time. I was with Elder McCann who is from Australia. We went to a village to teach a married couple,  the husband is French and doesn't know Hungarian or English, and the wife is Hungarian. So we taught in Hungarian and then the wife would translate everything into French so the husband could understand. They were super Catholic, but they were interested in our message, so it was good.

This past week the Buda ward had a concert, and we sang in the choir. It always seems that the women outnumber the men in these kinds of choirs, so they dragged us missionaries into it. But it was really cool to participate, and there were a lot of good singers. 

Also, President Hettinger got rid of the 6-month suit season, which was very good because now I don't have to wear out my suits anymore and I don’t have to where a suit even though it may be hot outside. 

Tisztelettel,  (Sincerely)

Kedves Udy Elder Úr (Kind Mr. Elder Udy) 

(This is how a lot of landlords address me when I e-mail them.) 

We were able to watch General Conference

October 8, 2018

Szervustok mindenkinek,

This past week we have been busy doing office work, but we were able to get out of the office by 2:00 a couple of days which was nice. The missionary work in our area has been pretty slow for a while so Elder Burnett and I have been trying to revive the work here. This past week when we were using our big Book of Mormon street banner, we talked to a bunch of people and were able to teach some people on Saturday about the restoration. One of them seemed pretty promising and was really willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  

One afternoon we were at a stoplight and this lady asks us if we want free sandwiches.  She was a worker from KFC. So we said yes and walked into KFC. And it turned out they were doing product research and wanted random people's opinions on the sandwiches. So we each sat down at a table and were asked a ton of questions about 2 experimental KFC sandwiches for free food. 

Also this weekend we were able to watch General Conference. We were able to watch 3 of the 4 sessions. We haven't watched the Sunday afternoon one yet, but we will watch it sometime this week. Because of the time difference we watched the Saturday and Sunday Morning sessions at 6:00 pm, but it was cool because we were still able to watch live. 

Below are the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the church's 188th semiannual general conference...

I liked Elder's Uchtdorf's talk (Saturday afternoon session) when he talked about the three things we need to do as disciples of Jesus Christ: Believe, Love, Do. It is a pretty simple formula but sometimes learning to love and act just based on our belief in the Savior can be hard at times, But if we often reflect our thoughts to the Savior and our love for Him, then it is easier for us to love and serve others. Also it was interesting to hear President Nelson be so straightforward concerning the terminology we use for the name of the church and it's members. Just a few years ago the church embraced the term "Mormon" and had an entire campaign on it. But as missionaries and official representative of the church, it is especially important we follow the prophet's counsel on this, and refer to the church as its correct name, so others can start identifying us by the correct name.

That’s cool that Puerto Rico is getting a temple. Maybe at the dedication you guys can go so Dad can finally re-visit his mission. The google translate in dad's letter was pretty good. He called me a titkár (secretary) and the thing at the end says (to work hard and to play hard) but it was pretty close. This would be the most correct translation "dolgozz keményen. játssz keményen." 

Here are some pictures of a hike we went on last week.

Elders Burnett, Udy, Spencer, and Martin

Tisztelettel,

Udy Elder 

We were made editors on the official Hungarian Facebook page for the church

October 1, 2018

Sziasztok, 

This past week we were super busy and we had to spend a lot of time in the office. It was transfer week so I had to get everyone's immigration papers ready. Earlier I got power of attorney, from the guy who is the official representative of the church in Hungary, so I can sign my name in place of his name on a bunch of immigration documents. Also this week the Romanian APs (Assistant to the mission President) came to Budapest.  We got to pick them up from the airport at 9:30 at night, and they stayed with us for 2 nights. They are really cool, one is from Sweden and the other one is from Finland. Since there is no mission office in Romania, they have to dump all of the Romanian stuff on us. So they taught us a little bit about how things work in Romania. Also a guy from Germany came who does finances for the church, and we shifted some of the responsibilities around in the office. Now some of the senior couple's finance responsibilities are on me. I have to prepare expense reports and have the mission president sign off on them now. 

Later in the week 2 more guys came from Germany to train us on using Facebook in our mission, and again we picked up another Romanian missionary companionship from the airport so they could participate in the training. They also stayed with us for 2 nights. Currently in Hungary there is a missionary Facebook page for every city, but that is going to change.  There will only be a few companionships who are authorized to use Facebook, the office Elders being one of them. They made us editors on the official Hungarian Facebook page for the church which was pretty cool, and then at the end of the training we posted something and paid money to boost it. Our job is pretty much to invite people to like the page, and then when they do we send messages to them and start a conversation. Also we are supposed to respond to both the negative and positive comments we see on the posts. And we will have a budget, and we can choose what posts we want to boost so more people can see it. It will be interesting to see if we can get any good missionary work out of it. 

Elder Burnett, Me, and 2 missionaries serving in Romania

Also the mission office phone is on my desk so I get to answer a lot of fun and interesting phone calls from landlords and immigration offices, and also random people. As a secretary I have been learning all sorts of cool new business and legal words, so hopefully by the end I'll have a vocabulary to be a Hungarian lawyer.  

My desk in the mission office

On Sunday it was the Primary program at church (children’s program), so that was cool to see. It is my first time serving in a ward instead of a branch, and it is weird to have so many people in church. As of now the missionary work in our area in Buda is going really slow, but Elder Burnett and I set some goals and made a vision for this transfer, so hopefully we can see some success down the road.

There are about 120 people that come to church here in Buda. There are 2 companionships that cover the area--the office secretaries and the APs.

Buda

Too bad BYU lost to Washington that would have been really good. But you got to go to the game so that was cool.

Sok szeretettel,

Udy Elder 

The office life has been a little crazy and no day is the same

September 22, 2018

Szervusztok mindenkinek,

It has only been a few days since my last email, but I am now on my 3rd proselytizing area and my 4th companion this transfer.

Two of my companions this transfer

Since the secretaries have to be in the office every day during the week, our p-day is on Saturday instead of Monday. They sent me to Buda one week before transfers, so that I can be trained by the previous immigration secretary, Elder Suggs. So far the office life has been a little crazy and no day is the same. Every day, Monday through Friday, we have to be in the office from 10AM to 2PM. However, depending on the day, sometimes we have to stay still 5PM. But it will be our goal next transfer to be out of the office at 2 PM, hopefully we can do it. So in the office there are 2 missionary secretaries, me and Elder Burnett, who mainly deals with apartments, and an office senior couple. But the office has been busy as of late because the senior couple is fairly new, and they often need help using the computer or reading something that is in Hungarian. Also since the Romanian and Hungarian missions combined, we have to worry about stuff in Romania now too. So this past week I have been studying my 30-page secretary manual because next week will be super busy for me with the new missionaries coming in that need to obtain residency permits in both Hungary and Romania.  Also whenever someone gets transferred and changes their address in Hungary, they need to go to the immigration office to notify them of their new address. So I have a lot of paperwork to sort out next week.  Also, this past week we went to the post office so I could obtain permission to sign for everybody's name in the mission when packages get delivered to the mission office. 

But some of the perks of the office include being able to be in air conditioning.  Also I can show up to the office without a lunch and just hope a senior couple will provide and it usually works, haha. For example, so far I have been provided with enchiladas, cinnamon rolls, and ice cream. And the Mission home/office is located in a 4-story building that is also used for the church of the Buda Ward. The first 2 floors contain the chapel and the classrooms, and the 3rd floor is the office, and the 4th floor is where the mission president and his wife live.

Mission office/home and Buda ward church building

It will be exciting to serve in Buda.  It will be a lot different from my previous areas.  I am looking forward to meeting new people and making new memories. 

Apparently there was a glitch in the computer in Salt Lake. So when the missions combined, they forgot to allocate missionaries to Hungary, so the size of the missionary force in Hungary is almost half the size of what it was when I came in. When I came there were 5 zones, but next transfer there is only going to be 3 zones and Szeged (where I was) will no longer be a zone leader city.  

Below are some pictures I took at a war park I went to a couple weeks ago. 

Sok szeretettel,

Udy Elder

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