Week 30: Little Miracles

Üdvözlöm benneteket!

I can't believe the weeks are flying past so quickly, this past week marked 7 months since I left home and today is 5 months since I entered this wondeful little country, I don't know how I've already used up so much of the short time that I have.

So this week wasn't anything too crazy, but as indicated by the subject of this email, it was filled with a bunch of little miracles which is always great.

We started our wondeful week with a bit of a P-day adventure to one of the biggest malls in Budapest, where we found one of the only Pizza Huts in this entire country. We eat a lot of pizza as missionaries here in Hungary, but that pizza was worth every forint I paid for it. We then took a little expedition out to see the Opera house because my companion hadn't seen it yet and took some cool pictures, all round pretty solid day.

Wednesday we headed out to a small city just outside of Budapest called Budaörs, where we met with a super cool member, did some tracting, then we found out they had an Ikea and so naturally we had to stop in for a nice Swedish meatball dinner.

We had a really cool experience on Friday, where we had just finished making some calls to previous investigators from the Area book and the time had come that we had set for tracting. My companion was feeling a little down due to the lack of success we had from the calls, but I encouraged him that we should still go tract anyway because I have experienced that the greatest blessings I've seen in tracting have come from the days when I went and did it even though I didn't necessarily want to. As soon as we started at the building a nice lady let us into the building and wished us luck, so we headed up to the top. We were able to give out 2 Book of Mormons in that building and bear strong testimonies to at least 4-5 people, probably more than we have had in any other day that we've been together. Super cool little miracle that we saw from just being doing the work.

Saturday we got to do some service for a member in the ward who was moving to another city, which was super fun, then he ordered us 2 of the best pizzas I've ever had in Hungary to our apartment to thank us. They were super good, but it was kind of ruined by the fact that we came back to find that we had no water at all in our apartment, so that kind of sucks when two sweaty guys come home from helping someone move.

Then we just finished the week with a nice fast sunday, we had a super good testimony meeting and my companion and I decided to close our fast with a nice fancy asian noodle meal from some bag. Solid day.

Hope you all have a wondeful week!

- McKim Elder

PICS FINALLY!!!

                                                          Majestically looking into the Duna River

                                            Majestically sitting on the steps of an art museum

               The government has been putting up anti-immigration ads everywhere so someone
                      started putting up these to make fun of them. It says "Life is beautiful".

Temples and Teachings

Szervusztok!

Well it's been another crazy week full of adventures in the wonderful city of Budapest.

On Monday we spent our P-day in a little Falu a bit outside of Budapest where we went bowling in what the other Elders made sound like a bowling alley, but it just turned out to be this big shed with two bowling lanes in it, still super fun though. Then we begun our exchanges with our zone leaders where despite tracting at 8:30 at night, we found some of the nicest people that I've met in Hungary so far.

Tuesday continued our exchange where we had one of probably the most successful finding days that I've had, we just met so many cool people who were willing to talk to us and Elder Roberts even gave a Book of Mormon to a lady while she was working in a money changing booth, super cool day.

Wednesday gave us our first real lesson of the transfer and it was a little hard for Elder Stringham and I with our limited Hungarian, but we got a lot of help from the member we brought with us so in the end it went pretty well, I think.

Thursdays are pretty hectic because we have to head out to another city called Érd in the morning for district meeting, come back to work and to go to our missionary meeting, then head back out to Érd so that we can teach English class out there, so things are super crazy but also pretty fun.

Friday we had another set of exchanges but this time with the Elders in Érd, which meant that we had to down there once again. But I was able to spend the day working with Elder Robinson who was my MTC companion, so it was kind of crazy actually getting to do real missionary work in the field together, but we worked together really well and we were able to have a really solid finding day.

Saturday we got to watch the kulturális ünnepség (or cultural celebration) for the rededication of the Freiberg temple because we're in that temple district, so that was super cool but it was all in German so not the easiest to understand but they had a few Hungarian things in there which was cool. They even had all the youth from Hungary go to Germany to participate.

Then sunday was the actual rededication of the Freiberg temple. I never really thought that I'd witness a temple dedication on my mission, but it turns out I get to see two. It was really good though, even though it was in Hungarian and so not super easy to understand it was really cool to be a part of and to see how much this temple means not only to the German people but also to the Hungarians for who it's their closest and most accessible temple. It made it even cooler to get to see Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar speaking in German too.

So that was basically my week, full of a bit of everything I guess.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Szeretlek benneteket!

-McKim Elder

Sorry, my camera still doesn't work here :(

Splits and service

Üdvözölöm benneteket!

So my first full week has passed in the wonderful area of Buda and it was just full of wonderful surprises.

  So last monday we headed over to Érd to meet up with the rest of our district to play some games and get some Lángos (don't even know how to describe this one), which was all well and great at the time. Then the next morning is when the consequences hit, all 4 of us in the district ended up getting food poisoning from the Lángos, which wouldn't have been that bad, if we didn't have zone training that morning. So we had to brave the food poisoning and head out to zone training (which luckily isn't too far because we're already in Buda), which actually ended up being super good and none of us were sick at the training which was a bonus.

  Thursday, firstly we had district meeting up in Érd which was super good, then we went out proselyting and for the first time since we got here to Buda, someone actually wanted to talk to us, so in the best Hungarian that my companion and I could muster together, we tried to teach her about the restoration and answer all her questions, but she didn't even take a Book of Mormon, but we did all we could so that's what's important.

  Friday, we started with doing some service for a family that is moving to Turkey, so we got to move a whole bunch of furniture and boxes from their apartment, so that was cool, they gave us some stuff from the bakery as well, so that's always good. Then after that we got a call from the Assistants saying that we need to do emergency splits because one of them broke their tooth, so I had to head out to some teachings with one of the assistants, but it was super good, everything went super well, I felt pretty confident talking to people and he gave me a lot of advice for how to work in this strange situation that we're in, so all round pretty good day.

  Saturday we once again got the opportunity to do some service, this time we headed out to a little town about 20km outside of Budapest and we got to dig some trenches and shovel some stones for a family out there. They also fed us some paprikás krumpli for lunch which was super delicious.

  Finally Sunday, we had our normal church meetings which was nothing too crazy and then we got to have lunch with the senior couple who serves in the office, so they fed us some nice American food and we got to have some super cool conversations with them. 

This week was honestly nothing too crazy, but it was pretty solid, we'll see if the crazy experiences pick up in the next couple weeks.

Have a wonderful week!

-McKim Elder

Living the Buda life...

Szervusztok kedves barátaim!

  So this week started with a nice rainy transfer wednesday, where I finally got to meet my new companion Elder Stringham, who I had actually heard a lot about already because he served with my last companion 2 transfers ago. We had a nice little adventure trying to find our new apartment even though it was only like 20 minutes from the mission home, but when you both don't really know this area at all and you don't have a map it can be a little hard.

  Thursday had our first district meeting with our new district, but it's strange because even though we're in Buda, we're not in the Buda district and instead we have to take a train out to this other city just outside of Budapest called Érd. But it's super cool because now I get to be in a district with my MTC companion Elder Robinson and his companion who are both super cool, so I'm not complaining. 

  Friday we got to help one of the member families pack up and move all their stuff because they're moving to Turkey in a couple weeks and we also got a new phone.

  Saturday was crazy, firstly there just happened to be a baptism of an American girl who is here for a little while, so we got to go to that, which was pretty fun, we don't get to see baptisms very often here in Hungary. Saturday was August 20th, which is a huge holiday here in Hungary, so that didn't help our proselyting, but we did get permission to go watch the huge fireworks display that they have on the Duna at night. So we were trying to meet up with the secretaries to watch it with them, but when we got on the bus it turned out it was heading in the complete wrong direction and we had almost completely left Budapest by the time we had worked it out. So we got off and waited for the bus that was meant to get us back to Budapest, but it was meant to take 35 minutes and it was already 8:30 meaning we were probably going to miss the fireworks that started at 9, but then some sketchy looking bus that wasn't even meant to stop there comes and picks us up and takes us back to the city in 7 minutes, meaning we ended up making it to the river with 15 minutes to spare. Super crazy, and the fireworks were pretty cool.

  Also had my first Sunday here in Buda and it was pretty different than Pest, it was actually the first time that I had to go to Hungarian sunday school because we always had to go the English one in Pest and no other branches have one, so I guess I'll just have to get used to it. But we all had to introduce ourselves in Sacrament meeting and it was probably the first time I've ever had to speak in Hungarian in front of a whole bunch of people and I wasn't scared, so that was cool.

Not sure how cool this upcoming week is going to be, probably just a bunch of proselyting because this area is brand new, but let's hope it's cool.

- McKim Elder

P.S. sorry no pics again, email places aren't great in Hungary :(

Week 26: Transfer call Tuesday...

Jó napot barátaim!

So what a crazy week this was. I guess I'll start with this morning because it's really the most interesting. So today is transfer call tuesday and after 4 months here in wonderful Pest, I'm finally getting transfered, but I just have to hop over to the other side of the Duna river because I'll be serving in Buda. So I still won't get to leave the big city, but it's going to be a fun adventure. I'll be serving with Elder Stringham from Utah, who only came in one transfer before me and we're opening up the companionship, so it's going to be a crazy transfer full of adventures. Buda is also going to be interesting because it's the centre of the mission, so we'll be serving around the AP's and STL's and going to church with President Szabadkai, it'll be a super fun experience.

So, the rest of the week. Monday was super fun, we went to the Budapest zoo as a district. They had a whole section on Australian animals so I got to show all my district our wildlife, I even got to pat an emu. Then we went over to Hero square and got a sweet district picture, because it'll probably be our last.

Most of the rest of our week was pretty chill, just doing normal missionary work and getting ready for transfers and stuff, until Saturday. Saturday we headed out to Vác to visit a few people, the first was a guy who we met with at the start of last transfer but were never able to meet with him again. So we couldn't quite find his house and a nice néni started helping us, then she told us that we could come teach her as well if we would like. So we called the guy we were trying to meet with and he said about an hour later would be good, so we just had a super good teaching with this lady, who feels like she has received a calling to share christianity with people and she was super excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon. Then we met with the guy from before, he basically just told us that he read the entire Book of Mormon and Jesus taught people on mountains and stuff so he'd rather learn like that then going to church. So my companion just said "well you don't really know what our church is like, so how can you say it's not good?" and so now he's coming to church next week. Finally we went to visit our friend Mihaly who lives in the tallest building in Vác and he used to be the person who looked after the building, so he took us up onto the roof so that we could take pictures of the whole city, then we went and had a super good lesson about temples. Way cool day, I also bought a fly winter jacket.

On Sunday I had to speak in Church for the first time since I've got here. I got given the topic of fasting, which is already kinda hard to talk about in english, but Hungarian was just another whole level, it was super hard. But I think it went okay in end, it felt super weird to have something I say get translated back into english though haha.

Then Monday was just black monday, so we got some lunch with a member and then went tracting with them before going and meeting with our super cool friend Greg. Black mondays are always just super strange days but it was still kinda fun.

So yeah, new area, new comp, same city. It's going to be a great transfer ahead.

Have a great week!

-McKim Elder

                                                                          A Lemur that I touched at the Zoo

                                                           
                                                                         Picture I took from Mihaly's roof

                                              Pretty much the most interesting guy in the world, Greg Hughes

So normal it was strange...

Szervusztok!

Well another week has passed here in wonderful Hungary and strangely enough it was pretty much a normal missionary week. It was honestly a nice change of pace from the crazy weeks we've been having.

So with the transfers coming up, that meant that last monday would be our interviews with President Szabadkai, everything was going great and normal until the very end of my interview when he said "We have a lot of new missionaries coming in so I can say that you're going to be training very soon, make sure you prepare for that", so I don't know if that means that upcoming transfers I will train or just in the future, but I'm a little terrified. It would be kind of hard to train a greenie when I barely speak Hungarian myself, but I'm sure I'd get through if that's what happens.

Later in the week we were able to meet with our investigator Dávid twice, which was super cool. One time we just answered a few of his questions and then watched "Meet the Mormons" with him and the other we talked about service. It went super good and he's super excited to be getting baptised.

Somehow our entire district got sick this week except for Elder Winkel and I, so not really sure how that happened but we dodged a bullet apparently, so that was good. Well for us, not really for the rest of our district.

We also got to do service and help our American friend Greg to move all of his furniture and stuff in his apartment so that he can get some painting done, so that was cool, he bought us some pizza as well which is always sweet.

But yeah nothing really crazy happened this week, just preparing myself to say goodbye to everyone because I'll probably be leaving to a smaller city in a week and a half.

Hope you all have a great week. All the best!

- McKim Elder

PICS!

Trio pics that I wanted to send last week but they didn't work

                                                                              Keleti train station

                                                           Hero Square (Hôsōk Tere)

                                                                    Parliament

We got a QUAD!

Üdvözlöm titeket a heti emailnek!

So as seems to be the usual with these emails, this week was just full of curveballs.

  So we started by getting just our first new comp for the week, my good friend Elder Murphy from the MTC. We had a cool experience that night though where Elder Murphy and I had to go out tracting together because Elder Winkel went on splits with the zone leaders, so we had two missionaries who had only come into the country a bit over three months ago trying to speak the very little Hungarian that we have to share a message about the gospel. But by some miracle a man let us in, and then told us that he was just studying about Christianity and that he had seen us walking around before and wondered when we would come knock on his door. So I had to share a message about the Book of Mormon with him and he loved it, took a book and said that we could come back. Super scary but super sweet experience.

  Tuesday we received a fourth member to our companionship, but we got to head over to the parliament building to pick him up, so that was super sweet. If anyone tried to blame us for anything or saying that something couldn't happen this week we've pretty much just been responding with "We got a QUAD!", it was pretty crazy. Then after we dropped him back off there later in the day, we went in our trio to Hero Square to try and talk to people. The only issue was that nobody that we tried to talk to spoke English or Hungarian, so not very successful but still good fun.

  Wednesday was really cool, we got to meet with our investigator Dávid as a trio and just discussed callings with him, he's really pumped to be able to help out the church when he gets baptised, he's so solid. Then we had international night and I got a bunch of Hungarians to try Vegemite, strangely enough none of them actually hated it and one of them even loved it, it was way different from when all the Americans tried it.

  Thursday, our lovely three days of being in a trio/quad came to end with a very complicated drop off of our friend Elder Murphy to his new companion. But it was pretty cool because we got to go over to the Keleti train station, which is a super cool station. Unfortunately though that day just decided to start having a huge storm and so we all got completely soaked on our way over there, but it was still way fun.

  Friday we got to have a movie night with the ward where we watched the movie Legacy about the pioneers. Fun time and our investigator loved it so it was pretty good all round.

  Saturday we found out that the member that we had set up to come with us to both of our teachings that day actually dogged us to go fishing in some tiny little city that's like 2 and a half hours away, so that didn't help our programs but the one that we still did went really well and we had district meeting that day so it was still a pretty good day all round.

  Sunday was just a classic missionary sunday, we taught sunday school, talked to a bunch of people and then we went and visited a family and had a solid lesson with them, so it was still a good day all round.

Well missionary life is crazy, hope you all also have interesting weeks.

- McKim Elder