We had the chance to bike with him to church

July 1, 2019

Jó Reggelt Mindenkinek, (Good morning everyone)

Last week was really good. We are starting to see more progress in the work here. The woman we have been teaching and her 9 year old daughter came to church again this week which was really good. We had a really good lesson with her this past week. She likes how the people in our church live what they preach every day of the week. She really enjoyed our church services, and we are excited to help her learn more. 

Also a returning member came to church this past week. He hasn't been to church in years, so a lot of members were surprised to see him. We had the chance to bike with him to church to help motivate him.  In the past he has held a lot of callings in the church. We plan on helping him repent and return to full activity in the church. 

We are also continuing to meet with a couple members every week to help encourage them to do missionary work and especially to invite their friends to the special sacrament meeting on June 21st. We are excited to see what can result from the missionary work of these members. 

Our church building in Dunaüjváros

We also did a district finding activity this past week, in Budapest. We were in Kálvin square which is a really busy place in Pest. We had a ukulele, sang some songs, and used a couple of Book of Mormon banners. 

This week we started our English Connect class. We had a pretty good turnout, about 12 people.  Hopefully there will be more in the coming weeks. Quite a few church members came which was good. The Branch President and his wife came since they don't know English, and their son is going to marry someone from Malaysia so they want to be able to talk to her. 

Also this past week I got a smartphone. I never thought the day would come, but I finally got one on my mission. Since I go home soon I don't have to buy one and the mission gave me one to use until I go home.

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

This past week we had exchanges in Budapest

Jó reggelt! (Good morning!)

This past week we had exchanges in Budapest. We were there for p-day, and we went to some labyrinths were Dracula was kept at some point. I had already been there one time, but the others hadn't.

Budapest, Hungary

During the exchange we met with a returning member who is also an artist. His childhood friend is Rubik Érnő (The man who invented the Rubik's cube). He showed us a picture of them a few years back when they were sitting together and told us what he was like as a kid. 

This week we were able to meet with more investigators which was awesome.  We had a mom and her 6-year old daughter come to church. She had met with sister missionaries over 10 years ago in Székesfehérvár, but this was the first contact she had with the church in Dunaújváros when we talked to her on the street.

We had a really good lesson with a part-member family.  Only the parents are members, but they are also inactive for the time being.  We met with two of the daughters and the boyfriend of one of the daughters. They are all in their early 20s.  This could really be a good opportunity to do some good returning member-work and missionary work as we try and unite the entire family in the gospel.  They said they believe that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but hey said that laziness holds them back from coming to church. We will try to help them overcome that concern.  

This Saturday we will be starting English Connect classes.  We will get the word out as much as we can so, we can have a big turnout.  

The birthday card wasn't there last week, but I will hopefully get it this week. We will be having district meeting at the mission home this Friday, so hopefully it will be there.

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

I came to Hungary when I was 19 and now I am 21

July 17, 2019

Book of Mormon 21 day challenge banner

Sziasztok mindenkinek, (Hi everyone)

We have been meeting with some returning members and recent converts in the branch. We had a good lesson with a man who was baptized in 1993. He is in his early 40's. We talked about faith and forgiveness of sins. The member who was present said he was a lot more open this time. He also has an 18 year old son that isn't baptized so it would be really good if we could work with him too. Hopefully we can help him get back to church in the coming weeks.

This past week we had Missionary Leadership Council and we were able to make some good Zone goals. In the Zone we are pushing for every unit to hold a special sacrament meeting that members can invite their friends to. In Dunaújváros and a couple other places in the zone there is already a set date for the sacrament meeting. There will be a special musical number, good talks, and a lunch afterwards. Ours will be on July 21. Our plan is that when we meet with members we will help them make plans to invite someone to the sacrament meeting.

Today we are In Budapest for my birthday, and we will be having exchanges. I came to Hungary when I was 19 years old and I am now 21 years old which is a little weird to think about. The time really flies by. I am glad I am here. I will be sure to cherish the remaining time I have left.

Üdvözlettel: (Best regards)

Udy Elder

I was made district leader and zone leader

June 10, 2019

Jó Reggelt!  (Good Morning!)

This past week we got to know our new area Dunaújváros. The translation of the city means New Danube City since it is on the Danube. There are a lot of communist era concrete buildings because this city used to be called Stalin's city and was built from the ground up during communism. It doesn't seem that there are any progressing investigators close to baptism here. But we successfully set up a handful of appointments for this week with people we found and with people that were being taught before. There are a few recent converts in our area that we are working with which is good. We met with 1 out of the 3 recent converts so far. We will actually be going with him to visit another recent convert this week which should be good. The third recent convert is studying right now in Budapest, so we don't know too much about her situation. 

I got the short end of the stick and got made district leader as well as zone leader. In our district there are 3 sister companionships and us, so since we are the only elders, one of us has to be district leader. There are 3 zones in Hungary right now and we are over the Budapest Zone. 

People in the mission are just starting to buy smart phones. Since I go home soon I don't need to buy one. The mission might be giving me one, but I still don't know. My companion has one, and I thought I would never see the day that they are finally here. People on the street are a lot more willing to give their Facebook information than give their phone number, so we have been messaging people on Facebook, and we will even have a lesson through Facebook messenger with someone tonight that lives outside of Dunaújváros.  It is also cool because we can share videos in lessons and have a lot better contact with investigators. 

It seems that the branch here is pretty solid. There were about 40 people at church on Sunday. We meet in an actual church building instead of rented space which is nice.  It seems that Branch council and MCM (mission correlation meeting) are both held weekly. Having served in 6 congregations this will be the first one that holds MCM and branch council on a weekly basis, which will be good to help coordinate our work with members. 

Our apartment is decent. It has cool purple walls. Our apartment is pretty far from the church. It is about a 30 minute walk. Right now there are 4 more elders than sister missionaries in Hungary. There are a lot of sister missionaries in the mission right now and not a lot of elders. Right now I was thinking about visiting Budapest, Szeged, and Székesfehérvár when you come. Going to Lake Balaton sounds fun, and I have never been there before so it would be good. 

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

This was a p-day a couple of weeks ago when we were in Tatabánya. The cave apparently is in a scene in the movie Eragon and the dragon lands in the cave. 

Cave in the movie Eragon

I will be going to Dunaújváros with Elder Brooks who is also from the tri-cities

June 4, 2019
Jó Reggelt!  (Good morning)

This past week we had 2 investigators at church. The older woman with a baptismal date was able to make it which was great! She is really committed to being baptized now. She said that only her neighbor knows that she meets with us, but she is going to go tell her Catholic priest that she is going to join our church and let everybody know. The other person who came to church was the Mongolian man. We lost contact with him for about a month, and weren't able to reach him.  He came to church and even bore his testimony during sacrament meeting on how we knows this is Jesus Christ's true church and also about prayer. It seemed the members were impressed by what he said.

We also met with these two young guys that work for a financial company in downtown Pápa. We taught them about the Restoration and then at the end they tried to negotiate contact information of all the people we know in Pápa- I guess that they help people with personal finances and they struggle finding contacts. But it is sort of an invasion of personal data and information. Hopefully they will read and pray about the Books of Mormon we gave them. 

This morning we received transfer calls and Elder Gardner will be staying in Pápa, and I will be going to Dunaújváros with Elder Brooks as a Zone Leader. We will both be new to the area so it should be fun. Also he is from Richland (Tri-cities Washington) which is pretty crazy to think that our families live in the same city and now we will be living together in Hungary.

Dunaújváros is south of Budapest about 50 miles

It is weird to think the mission is slowly coming to a close and that I will be going to my last area, but I am excited to see what is in store for me in Dunaújváros.

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

Zone conference started at the top of Gillért Hill where Pres. Nelson dedicated Hungary for missionary work

May 27, 2019

Jó reggelt! (Good morning!)

This week was good as we continued our work with some returning members and had some lessons with investigators. We were able to set a baptismal date on July 13^th for the 80-year old woman we are teaching.

We visited a returning member family. This was our second visit. We went with the Elders quorum president. They live in a city called Mihályháza that is 10 km outside of Pápa. There are 4 kids in the family and everyone is baptized except for the youngest who is only 5 years old, the oldest is 15 . The mom's mom also lives with them, and she is not a member. We had a really good lesson with them where we talked about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. There is currently a problem with their car, so they aren’t able to come to church right now, but they will get it fixed and are planning on attending sacrament meeting in a few weeks when the car is fixed.
                                                                                                               
We had zone conference this past week. It started at 7 am which was really early. We stayed the night before in Tatabánya-- a city close to Budapest. In the morning we went to the top of Gillért Hill where President Nelson dedicated Hungary for missionary work. It was a cool experience.

View of Budapest from Gillért Hill

Gillért Hill--Budapest

The rest of zone conference was mainly just talking about smart phones and how we will properly use them. Since I leave soon I won’t have to buy one, but the mission will give me one to use until I go home which will be cool. We will be getting them in about a month I believe.  

This will be the last week of the transfer. P-day will be next Tuesday, and I will find out then if I am leaving or not. 

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

We spent a lot of time out of Pápa this week

May 20, 2019

Sziasztok Mindekinek,  (Hi All)

Last week was super busy. We spent a lot of time out of Pápa. We had an exchange in Győr. We met with a returning member who was baptized in 1990, pretty much right when missionaries came into the country. He was one of the first 4 members form Győr, and they would travel all the way to Budapest to attend church on Sunday. It was good to talk to him. He has a nice family and is a wealthy man. It seemed he hasn't had much contact with the church for years, so we talked about all of the new and exciting things and also the importance of the Book of Mormon. This week we also had interviews which was good. 

Yesterday we were able to have a lesson with one of our investigators that went well. She is an 80-year old woman, and she said she wants to be baptized. We did not set a specific date, but we hope to do so in the next lesson. She is  Catholic and still has a lot of Catholic traditions. She loves reading out of the Book of Mormon. She has been to church a couple of times. She does have some health problems that come with age, so sometimes it can be hard for her to get around. But when she is able, she will come to church. 

Also a few returning members that we have been working with came to church which was great.

Bandit was really old and it is good that he got a state of the art burial.  Also everyone will be getting smart phones next month, but I am not required to since I go home in August. Things are going good here and I am grateful I can be here. Hope you all have a good week.

Üdvözlettel: (Best Regards)

Udy Elder