It was a special experience and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it

April 23, 2019

Jó reggelt kívánok!  (Good morning)

This past week we were gone a lot from our area because we went to a new missionary training in Budapest and we also had exchanges in Győr.

Gyõr, Hungary

In Győr I was with Elder Spencer, and we had a very special experience. They day before the exchange Elder Spencer and his companion met with a woman that was scared to go into her apartment because she told him there was an evil spirit that dwelt there. Then she agreed for them to visit her in her apartment the next day. We went to her apartment that is on the top floor of a tall apartment building. There was a strange feeling in the apartment. She showed us around, and wouldn't even go into the living room because she was so scared. After we checked the apartment out for a bit, we talked with her and her 2 kids in the bedroom. She said that for about 50 days they have heard the doors slam shut and open, strange sounds coming from the room, something rubbing the carpet, and other stuff. After speaking with her, we were able to use our priesthood to cast out any evil spirit that was in the apartment, and afterwards we said a prayer to dedicate the home. The spirit of the apartment felt a lot better afterwards. Then a bunch of her family members came, who had also witnessed the same sort of stuff in the apartment.  Previously they had obtained holy water from a Catholic priest and had put it around the apartment. But it didn’t stop the strange occurrences. We were able to teach them all about priesthood authority and the restoration of the gospel. 6 of the people from that family came to church on Sunday in Győr, and they said they hadn't had any problems in the apartment since we were there. It was a special experience, and I am glad I was able to be a part of it.

What is the Priesthood? Click here

An experience of a young man who used his Priesthood power 

Next week we will be starting an English class in Pápa. It is called English Connect, a program the church created to make English classes more structured. It seems really good, and it teaches people conversational English. After the 24-week program, the participants will receive a certificate of completion from LDS Business College. The class will be 90 minutes long --60 minutes devoted to English learning and then 30 minutes devoted to teaching self-reliance principles. We printed out a bunch of flyers and hopefully we can get a lot of people there next week. 

We also have been teaching a lot of people this past week about Christ’s atonement and resurrection, by using scriptures form the Bible and Book of Mormon. It was a great way to introduce the Book of Mormon to people as we talked about the atonement and resurrection. 

Yesterday we watched a lot of church history films on our little DVD player since it was a holiday, everything was closed, and there was nothing else to do. Since this will be the last week of the transfer, p-day will be on Tuesday next week. We don't know when we will be getting our new smart phones exactly, but we were told that during zone conference next transfer we will get a lot more information. 

-Elder Udy

This past week was great!

April 15, 2019

Jó Reggelt!

Elders Udy and Bridges at the Györ zoo

This past week was great! We had two investigators in Church.  One of our investigators is a man from Mongolia. He first came to church in Pápa a few weeks ago and we were finally able to meet with him a couple of times last week. He is about 50 years old, and he has a wife and kids in Mongolia. He knows the church very well. He has attended church and met with missionaries in both Mongolia and Budapest. He moved to Pápa about a month ago with a group of Mongolians that work in a factory, and he is the interpreter for them since he speaks fluent Hungarian.  He is fluent because he lived in Hungary during his youth. We set a baptismal date for later this month. He is a really cool guy, and we are excited for him to get baptized.

We had Zone Conference and Interviews this past week.

Elders Gardner and Udy waiting for interviews

A member in the Budapest Stake Presidency was in our zone conference for a Q&A about how to do missionary work with the church members in Hungary. It was very insightful, and he stressed the importance of being excited about the work when around members so the same excitement can spread. 

Members here are very excited about the temple. It took everyone by surprise except President Hettinger. He shared with us an experience-- Ever since the Friday before general conference, he knew that there was going to be a temple announced in Budapest during general conference because he received a spiritual impression and on Sunday when they announced the temple, it was a spiritual confirmation to him. I have heard that the Church bought a sight for the temple a few years ago, and it is in a very noticeable and accessible location in Budapest. But we don't know where it is, not even the Budapest Stake President knows where the temple sight is.

We were able to teach the single mom I mentioned last week, and we taught her about the restoration of the gospel. She didn't come to church which was sad, but we will be going back to visit her this week so maybe next week she will come. This will be the last week of the transfer so next p-day will be on Tuesday. My guess is that we will both stay here in Pápa.

- Elder Udy  

The big announcement...a temple in Budapest, Hungary!

April 8, 2019

Jó Reggelt! (Good Morning)

This past week we met with some of our investigators to help them prepare for general conference. We had a couple come and watch one session with us and others said they will watch it later.. We watched two of the sessions in Hungarian and the other two in English. We didn't watch the Sunday afternoon session because of the time change, so we didn't hear the big announcement until this morning that the church will build a temple in Budapest, Hungary. I was not expecting that, and I thought a temple in Hungary would be a long way down the road, but the Lord has blessed the people of Hungary and will continue to bless them as they build and receive one of the houses of the Lord on the Earth. Maybe I will come back when it is completed in 5 years or so. It probably will serve the people of Hungary and also the surrounding countries like Romania and all the countries in south eastern Europe. Learn more about temples here
Watch 2 apostles lead a tour of the recently built and dedicated Rome, Italy temple...

Other than that we met with a woman who was taught by missionaries last year. She is a single mother of 5 kids. She works really hard trying to provide for her family and has a lot of faith. She has been to a lot of churches and said that our church or faith is the "purest" that she has come across. Before she gets baptized she wants to learn more. She said she will come to church and bring her 5 kids.

One of the talks I liked from general conference was from Neil A Anderson. He talked about how we can discern truth in a world where we face information overload. He said that "The scriptures, our prayers, our own experiences, modern prophets, and the gift of the Holy Ghost bring us a clear spiritual perspective of truth necessary for our journey here on earth." If we use these things, we can discern eternal truths that can help us in this mortal life.  (You can listen to Elder Anderson's talk below...)

Sok szeretettel,  (Lots of Love)

Udy Elder

We had 2 investigators in church

April 1, 2019

Sziasztok mindenkinek! (Hi everybody!)

This past Sunday we had 2 investigators in church. One of them has a baptismal date, and the other one is a 23 year old female. She was first found by missionaries last year, and we have started to teach her again. She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and we invited her to be baptized. She said she was already baptized Catholic and doesn't feel the need to be baptized again. So of course we explained what it means to know the Book of Mormon is true. We will continue to work with her and maybe watching general conference will help her realize she must be baptized. We had a handful of lessons with new people and a handful of other planned appointments fall through.  That's just how the work goes sometimes. 

This past week we found a 13 year old boy named M. Last year he was living with his Aunt in Miskolc and the missionaries taught them and M was baptized in March, but later he moved back with his mom to Pápa. We visited his house and met his mother. He is the only member of the church in his immediate family, so he will need a lot of support form the missionaries/branch if he is to return and stay in activity. He actually lives on the same street as the meeting house which is very convenient. He has not yet been to church in Pápa, and he has lived here for a while. We are excited to take him to church to meet the branch members. 

Right outside Pápa there is a NATO airbase and about 400 people are stationed there including 150 American air force men. So we run into Americans every once in a while which is always fun. We ran into the chaplain who is stationed at the Air Base.  He is from Montana, and it was fun to talk to him. We gave him our information so he can tell people at the base about our church services.

I forgot to mention but a couple of weeks ago we did a service project in Pápa as a branch, and we picked up up a bunch of trash along the road.  We filled 14 bags. We got to wear the yellow Mormon helping hands or "Mormon Segítő Kezek" yellow vests which was pretty cool. 

  I haven't seen the church's Easter video yet, but I'm sure it will be in Hungarian. There is a little Easter lesson outline prepared for missionaries that we are supposed to use throughout the month. Easter Sunday is emphasized similar to how Christmas was emphasized last year. We are to try and get as many people as possible to church on Easter, and it is supposed to be centered on Christ. That is crazy that Elder Running and I played together in the Folkman's house.

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder

Smart phones are coming!

March 25, 2019

Szép jó reggelt kívánok mindenkinek! ( I wish you all a good morning)

Things are still going great here in Pápa. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach this past week again. As of now we have 14 pre-planned lessons with investigators for this next week. We should be able to set up a few more. That is a really good number of lessons for missionaries here. We are also meeting with a couple of returning members this week. Needless to say, it will be a very exciting and busy week for us. Hopefully we can bring some people to church for the first time and have a big turnout.

On Tuesday this past week we had to take an hour bus ride to Veszprém so we could register at the county immigration office. We showed up at the office and all of the doors were closed. But they were only closed because they moved their offices to the other side of town. Once we finally made it there, we had to wait about 2 hours in line. It is about as bad if not worse than the DMV. 

Throughout my whole mission there have been rumors that we will get smart phones at some point. But now I think it is actually going to happen some time soon. We got a notification saying that our mission was selected to use mobile devices and we were given instructions on how to use/obtain the smartphones. I don't know when we will be getting them, but it will be exciting.

Our district consists of 4 elder companionships which is great. Every Friday we take an hour train ride to Győr to attend district meeting. After district meeting this week Elder Spencer and Elder Running came for exchanges. Elder Running is also a new missionary and he is from Columbia, Maryland. And he knows everybody like the Folkmans, Bryants. and Koncurats.  

Our apartment is really nice. It is the smallest apartment I have lived in, but at the same time it is the most modern. It even has air conditioning. It is my first apartment with air conditioning. I hope I stay here for the summer so I don't have to suffer in the humidity and heat. 

While tracting this week, we ran into the first baptized members of the church in Pápa. They haven't been active for about 10 years, but they told us all about what the church was like in Hungary in the 1990s which was interesting. They also had a lot of pictures of missionaries from the 90s which was cool. 

We found a video camera so we can do video chat at some time. So if you want we could try for next week 8:00 my time if it works with you.  So far we have been fed once by the Elders quorum president and his wife. He also used to be the district president in the Szombathely district. The branch president said he will invite us over this week for dinner. That is good that Jimmer got back in the NBA. Let me know how he does. 

Üdvözlettel,  (Regards)

Udy Elder

Inside Catholic church in Pápa

I am excited to teach him how to survive in the Hungarian missionary world

March 18, 2019

Jó reggelt! (Good Morning)

It has been great being here in Pápa, the smallest city in the mission, and away from the mission office. On Wednesday we arrived in Pápa, and we had to walk 2 kilometers with all of our suitcases from the train station to our apartment which was a pain.

Train station in Pápa

My companion is Elder Gardner, who just arrived to Hungary last week. He is from San Antonia, Texas. It's been a while since I have been around a new missionary or have been a new missionary, so I sort of forgot what it is like. Being a new missionary can come with a lot of fear since they must try and do a lot of new things that they have never done before. I am excited to relive the new missionary experience through him and teach him how to survive in the Hungarian missionary world. 

Pápa is a lot different from Budapest. It will be 6 or 7 in the evening and if you walk around the town for and hour you will only run into 4 or 5 people to talk to. But so far things have been going great here in Pápa. We hit the ground running as we tried to bring people into our teaching pool. Through area book work, street contacting, and tracting, we were successful in finding a good number of investigators in just a few days. 

We had a great lesson with a former investigator who has been investigating for about 8 years. He previously struggled with the Word of Wisdom.  But last year he was able to quit smoking which was a big step for him.  The only small worries are that he said at times he will drink a cup of coffee and drink with his friends. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and has a desire to be baptized. His baptismal date is set for June 1st.

We had 3 investigators in church, the above mentioned being one of them. The other two were a man and a woman who moved from Mongolia to Pápa two weeks ago. The man lived in Hungary when he was younger, so he speaks Hungarian and translated for the woman during church. They seem very interested and we are excited to start teaching them.

Church was great. There were 30 of us.  I thought I would escape having to translate church since I am now in Pápa, but the Schows were there, a senior couple in the office who come to Pápa about once a month, so I translated all of sacrament meeting and Sunday school for them. The members here are really great and supportive of the missionary work. They were really excited to see us because there hasn't been any missionaries here for a while. In August the elders got pulled out of Pápa and then starting the end of December there were sisters in Pápa for three weeks.

I didn't notice anything special on St. Patrick's day, so I don't think it is anything special here. As of now we probably won't be using google hangout next week. We email in a local library because the meetinghouse only has 1 computer, and I didn't see a video camera.  But we can probably try and get one. 

I am thankful for the opportunity to be here in Pápa serving the Lord, and I am excited to see what the future brings. 

Szent István vértanú templom--Catholic church in Pápa

Friday was a Hungarian holiday celebrating the 1848 Revolution When Hungary tried to obtain independence from the Austrian Empire.

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)

Udy Elder 

Leaving the office and heading to Pápa

March 11, 2019

Szép jó reggelt kívánok!

A picture of the parliament building I took last week

My time to leave the mission office has finally come!!! This past week my replacement came, Elder Barton, and I have been giving him a heavy rundown on all of my duties as an office elder. It makes me feel like a really old missionary now that Elder Barton is my replacement because I was his Zone Leader when he came into the country, and now he is an office elder. On Wednesday I will be heading out with a new missionary to a little town called Pápa (Pápa means "Pope" in English). Pápa is the smallest city in the mission with only 30,000 people, and there hasn't been Elders there since August of last year, so I will be opening it back up again. It will also be my first time serving outside of the Budapest Stake. I will be in one of the Districts within Hungary. I am excited to learn more about the area when I get there, stay tuned for more.

Pápa is West of Budapest

There was a baptism in Buda this past week. A 9 year old was baptized. Her parents are members but they were less-acitve/inactive for a long time, and they have started to become active again which is great. It was actually the first baptism interview on my mission that I have done, since I have only been district leader for 12 weeks throughout my mission. 

With a new transfer there are new Facebook missionaries, and since I am designated as the most knowledgeable facebook missionary, I will be giving a training to the newly called Facebook missionaries today on how to use it in missionary work. 

I am grateful that the Lord has given me this experience to serve in the mission office. It is a good experience that will be useful in my future working experiences. I am excited to see what the future brings in Pápa.

Sok szeretettel,

Udy Elder