Let the Holy Spirit guide.

Kellemes jó napot kívánok!

To be completely honest this week was pretty weird but it was full of a tonne of miracles. I guess Elder Hughes and I have really been applying that training that we gave on using the spirit...

  On tuesday after playing a bit of ultimate frisbee as a district, it came time for us to head out and do some tracting. We felt prompted to go to a specific street which we thought was interesting because it was a little far out and we didn't have a lot of time. After feeling that we needed to change buildings twice we ended up tracting a nearby building on the street and about half way through the building someone let us in without saying anything. When we went up and saw the name on the door we honestly laughed a little because it was the name of an investigator that we had met with last transfer and we couldn't get back into contact with because he wouldn't answer his phone. We were able to set up and meet with him later in the week, where he really opened up and now is willing to meet with us almost every single day for at least a short time so we can read scriptures with him and those sorts of things.

  On wendesday we headed over to Szolnok to do exchanges with the Elders there. The trains were messed up so we got there super late after having to spend 3 hours changing between trains and buses but it was a really great exchange. One of their investigators dogged the lesson that we had set up and we ended up having two unexpected lessons instead, they were both pretty miraculous. Then when we came out, it was POURING with rain, it was insane and so even though I was sick I just grabbed my bag and basically sprinted for like 10 minutes in a huge lightning storm, it was pretty crazy.

  On Friday we had exchanges with the assistants. We had some great lessons that went a lot better than we thought they were going to and then we had tracting miracles too. We went out tracting at like 8 at night, which sometimes doesn't get the greatest responses, but we ended up getting 3 potential investigators out of it and a really cool guy let us and wants to meet with us more, it was super crazy. 

  Saturday and Sunday we were able to have stake conference, whcih was super good even though the broadcast wasn't the smoothest. After stake conference on Sunday we got to go to a members house where she invited a random old man that she met a week or so earlier to come talk to us. He was interesting but not too interested in the gospel. Our super serious investigator who asked us for a break also said he wants to meet again after we felt like we should text him.

It really was crazy to be able to see the hand of the Lord in our work this week, miracles definitely do happen every day.

This upcoming week is going to be fantastic, Elder Kearon (who just got called into the presidency of the seventy) is coming to visit our mission and so we get to have a big conference with him, I'm super excited!

Jó hetet kívánok!

--

McKim Elder

Already this much comp unity?

Üdvözlök!

Well this week hasn't been the most exciting week, but it's still been a really great time and a great start to another wonderful transfer here in Szeged.

  For what would be Elder Sharps last P-day here in Szeged and one of the only times we get to have non-monday P-days, we decided to go up the tower of the Dóm Templom, which is a really old catholic church in the centre of the city here. We had a good time and took some pictures looking out over the whole city.

  Wednesday was transfer day but because Elder Hughes and I stayed together that meant we had to stay here in Szeged rather than going up to Budapest. But that was fine by us because that meant that we got to visit the disabled home again and this time they were carrying out the Hungarian tradition of "Locsolkodás" where basically the men say a little poem and then spray the girls with perfume and the girl must respond with either a red egg or a kiss on the cheek. It was super cute and really wonderful. That night we also got to meet up with the sisters and go see a performance of Handels "Messiah" being put on by the Szeged Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Super great and now we've been singing the songs all week.

  Thursday was nothing too crazy, I just had to give an improptu district meeting because our actual district leader is still in Budapest then we also taught english class.

  Friday we had to head up to Budapest for the first of our 8 Budapest trips this transfer so we could take part in Mission Leadership Council. But it was really good we talked about the spirit and how we can positively influence the culture of our mission. Our train home ended up sitting in another city for an hour though and so we ended up getting home super late.

  Saturday we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Hungary being dedicated by President Nelson for the preaching of the gospel. It's great to see the ways that the church has improved here in what really is a pretty short time, it's still small but this really is a blessed country. 

  On Sunday I had to give a talk in church, it was only meant to be like 10 minutes long but I ended up talking for like 15 and cutting out a ton of it because I forgot that talking in Hungarian takes a lot longer for me than speaking in English, but it still went well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and enjoys ANZAC day tomorrow!

Szervusztok!

- McKim Elder

                                                                    The wonderful city of Szeged

Finally on time to something

Sok szeretettel köszöntelek!

It's been a slightly longer than usual week, filled with wonderful adventures as always.

  We got to go on a bit of an adventure on Tuesday with the Howells, the senior couple in this area. We went out into some little villages to visit some people, ate some vegetables straight out of the ground, and shared a whole bunch of messages. It was a pretty fun day.

  On wednesday we had our zone training. It went pretty well and finally we were actually pretty early for one instead of running from a train or tram because we're super late. We taught about the spirit and how we need to be constantly looking for its promptings in our life.

  Then we had splits with the other Elders and I got to work with Elder Römer, the swiss elder from my MTC group. It was a good time, we met with an old man who is really catholic and gave flowers to some old women as we tracted.

  The rest of our week was basically just filled with our normal meeting with people. We got some delicious food, talked a lot about the gospel, it was a really good and rewarding couple of days. We did miss a bus and have to walk all the way out to a village though, but it was worth it. 

  Monday was labour day here in Hungary. I'm not sure if we celebrate that back home, but even if we do it's nothing like the Hungarians do it. Unfortunately we couldn't go but they had huge parties everywhere, including one that had apperantly almost half of Szeged there. We ended up just avoiding it all by heading out to a city just outside of Szeged where we found a wonderful canola field.

My companion came up with the idea this week of a spiritual thought from Jacob 4:5-6, which we have described as the recipe to our daily bread. So if you want give it a look and try and work out what we've been sharing with all the members here this week.

Have a great week!

- McKim Elder

                          While I was walking out my companion took this hipster picture of me in the canola field

Back to back

Sziasztok!

Well it's that time again where every 9 weeks or so we get the most nerve-racking phone call ever. We were very happy though to receive the call that not only am I staying here in Szeged for another transfer but Elder Hughes will be staying with me! So we get to spend another whole 10 weeks together in this wonderful city. It's not too common here for anyone to stay together for 2 transfers so it's pretty cool that I'll get to experience it at least once and if I'm lucky this might mean that I get to spend 6 months in this fantastic city.

  Our week as what seems like normal now, started with splits with the other elders here in Szeged, which would also be our last splits for the whole transfer. We had a good time although our most serious investigator texted us in the middle of it saying that he wanted to take a break, so that was really sad, but we had some great times nonetheless.

  We got to head out to a couple little cities this week to look some people up. One was out to a tiny little village thing called Szatymaz just outside of Szeged where we looked up a less active man and his wife, so we could share the easter message with them. The other was to a not so small city called Hódmezővásárhely (yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful). There we met with one of the sister's investigators while they're gone as well an inactive family who were seriously just one of the cutest families of all time, it was so wonderful.

  On friday we got permission to go attend a musical that a couple of the members of the branch here were participating in called Evita. It was actually really well done and really cool, although it was in Hungarian so we had hardly any idea what was going on, but it was a fun experience and the theatre was absolutely beautiful.

  Elder Hughes had thought he was leaving all the way up until this morning so we had to say goodbye to a lot of the members this week. One thing we did was make Chimichangas (I have no idea how to spell that) with a few of the members here. It was a super fun day and they're some of the coolest members that I've met so far here. We also had an easter picnic on monday with most of the branch, so there were a lot of sad goodbyes for the other elders but also delicious food and some fun games, so it was fun.

It's been a wonderful time this transfer and I'm looking forward to even more crazy stories to share with you all in the upcoming one.

Sok szeretettel,

- McKim Elder

                                                   Cool picture that I took of our branch house the other night.

                                    Kitti and Timi, some of our wonderful Szeged members

Came across Kenguru (Kangaroo) köz, which intersected with Hiúz (Bobcat but pronounced the same way as Hughes) utca, which intersected with Szabadkai út. This city is a goldmine.