Ismerd meg a temetőt! - A visit to the cemetery

Üdvözlöm benneteket!

So first of all this has been a really long week, not because anything hard happened, just because it was 9 days long. Basically Hungary had this holiday yesterday called "Mindenszentek napja" (All saints day or Day of the Dead) where everyone goes to cemetaries and lays candles and remembers the dead, so they closed everything for monday and tuesday.

  This week has been really cool. On monday we headed over to the Duna as a district and showed our new missionaries some of the great sights of this wonderful city. We also went to the big market (that is a literal translation of its name) which was cool. After that we got to meet with a super cool family for Family Home Evening, who gave us Elder Allred's first real Hungarian meal, paprikás csirke.

  Tuesday we also got to meet with a really cool family who had a bunch of young kids, the had SO MUCH ENERGY! It was so insane, but it was a lot of fun, even got some drawings and a little handbook in Hungarian about how to keep fish from it.

  Wednesday we had splits, which was super weird because it was my first time being a senior companion on splits, nothing that interesting happened but it was good fun.

  Thursday was Zone trainging, where we talked about the importance of Baptism and confirmation and how to work more effectively to those as goals for our investigators.

  Friday we were going to have our one teaching with an investigator for the week, but she cancelled 20 minutes before the lesson, szegény, but what can you do, there's always next week.

  Saturday was a day that we had been getting hyped up for for weeks now, we were having our "Ismerd meg a mormonokat" este (meet the mormons night), where all the members were meant to be trying to bring a friend to watch the moving and then have some food afterwards. Unfortunately only one member actually brought a friend, but it was still a really good night and the food was way good!

  Sunday and monday were pretty average days, but tuesday is where it got interesting. Firstly we went to visit János, the man who we weren't sure if we were going to keep teaching, but we actually had a really solid teaching with him and it seems like he wants to progress, so that's way cool. Then we got to go to a cemetary so we could see the "celebrations" for the day of the dead thing. It was really cool and actually a really spiritual experience, it made me really grateful to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and my ability to live my love ones again eternally after this life.

This week is going to be short but jam packed so I'm excited and hope you will all enjoy yours as much as I will mine. :)

- McKim Elder

                                                            Elder Allred and I at Parliament

                                           
                                           
             Some crazy dragon statue in the cemetery with a whole bunch of candles around it

                                                Elder Robinson and I on Szabadsâg hid

A child is born.

Sziasztok kedves barátaim!

"For unto [me] a child is born, unto [me] a son is given: ... And his name shall be called Elder Allred"

So another transfer day has gone and past and this time I was given the opportunity to spend this transfer with Elder Allred who is straight out of the MTC and ready to work! He's super cool, he's from Colorado and just loving it being here in Hungary.

  So on tuesday after we emailed, Elder Stringham and I had the opportunity to take all the brand new missionaries on their first streeting adventure in Hungary. It was way fun, they were all super pumped to use as much of the Hungarian that they learned in the MTC as they could and they had plenty of interesting experiences with the random Hungarians on the street.

  On Wednesday I got to transfers bright and early to be there ready for the meeting where we would be getting assigned our new missionaries, which was super fun but also way hectic. We then went out tracting for Elder Allred's first time ever, we had a super cool experience that wasn't quite a 4th floor last door situation like President Uchtdorf spoke about, rather a second 10 story building last floor situation. We were just tracting in some 10 stories and we had been having a lot of people either not pick up or not want to listen to what we said, then finally someone let us into the building on the very last floor after Elder Allred asked if we could share a message in his best MTC Hungarian. We were able to share the message of the restoration with them and then testify to another person of their ability to live eternally with their family and we're hoping to return to them some time and share more about the gospel. I have a testimony that new missionary miracles are definitely a real thing.

  Thursday was our normal super hectic day with district meeting, MCM and english class, but we were able to have a super fun time at district meeting and it gave us an opportunity to learn more about each other. We also had a fun time out tracting in the pouring rain, luckily Elder Allred's coat has a hood, but unfortunately mine does not, so yeah.

  Friday and Saturday were really good working days and we've got some people now that we should be able to meet with in the coming weeks, so that'll be nice to actually have some investigators in Elder Allred's first transfer.

  Sunday we got to take Elder Allred to church for the first time, which also included ward council, it just reminded me of my first sunday when I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I actually had the opportunity to translate for the first time too, it's super crazy to think that only 6 or so months ago I was in Elder Allred's situation and now I'm able to translate for someone else. We're also doing a country wide book of mormon challenge this week, where all the members are meant to give out a book of mormon to someone and invite them to a meet the mormons night that we're having on saturday, so we got to role play with a bunch of members to practice that too which was fun.

Well life is definitely crazier once you become a senior companion but I'm still loving every minute of it!

All the best!

- McKim Elder

PICS!

Haven't actually taken any with Elder Allred yet, but sometime, so sorry.

                                                                    Last comp pic with Elder Stringham

                                                                                    Budapest skyline

Elder Stringham and I's last meal before transfer call. 

I'm going to be a dad?

Sziasztok!

Well another nine weeks have passed and that brings us to the end of my third transfer here in Hungary. We got our transfer calls nice and early this morning to tell us of the wonderful news of where we will be spending the next nine weeks and I will be... staying here in Buda, so I'm going to spend my first 8 months here in the beautiful city of Budapest. Though, I did get the slightly terrifying news that I am going to become a Dad, meaning I'm getting a brand new missionary fresh out of the pre-existence (MTC). It's definitely not going to be easy because I'm still pretty young in the mission and my language skills aren't quite where I wanted them to be before I train, but it's going to be an amazing experience. I won't know who I get until tomorrow, but I'll get to meet him today because we get to take all the new missionaries (that arrived maybe 2 hours ago) streeting around the mission home, which will be good fun.

  The week leading up to transfers is always super crazy but we had plenty of fun still this week. On Wednesday we got to have our zone day for reaching the challenge, so we spent the whole day playing some sports and we got to watch the movie Zootropolis together as a zone, it was a super fun day and I highly recommend Zootropolis to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

  Thursday we headed over to the Hivatal early in the morning and luckily got everything done for our residency card stuff without a huge hassle, but it's always a bit of a pain dealing with Government offices. Then when we came back, our landlord was replacing our washing machine which was great because we've had to handwash all of our clothes for the last 3 weeks due to the old one breaking down. Handwashing was especially bad because with it being fairly cold here now, it takes a couple days for anything that gets that wet to dry, so the new washing machine is definitely nice. We then had our final district meeting as well as teaching English class, so it was a pretty packed day.

  Friday we went out to Budaörs and we finally found ourselves a new investigator, so we were able to teach her a really good lesson about the family and a bit about the plan of salvation, she really loved it. Then we were able to head back and start our splits where I got to go with my good friend Elder Robinson again, we didn't really have any crazy miracles this time, but we did get a lot of good work done which is nice.

  The next few days were mainly just spend preparing for the transfer and making sure everything was in order in case we got whitewashed out, but we did go get probably the best burger  that I've had so far in Hungary.

So that was pretty much my week, I'm excited for the things to come in the upcoming transfer, we're coming up to some of the coolest holidays in Hungary so it'll be cool to see Budapest during those times.

Minden jot!

-McKim Elder

Hivatalos hegyek - official mountains

So we're already entering into the final week of another transfer, it's pretty crazy to think about, but next time I email, I'll probably be getting a new companion already (possibly even a new city). President Szabadkai didn't give me any hints in my interview so I guess I still have another week or so before I know if I'll leave the big city at any point in time haha.

  This week was pretty good. We started off with interviews on monday, which were pretty normal, I didn't get any new crazy information or anything, so I don't know whether I should be excited or terrified for the upcoming transfer, but I guess we'll just see what happens.

  We spent a bunch of time this week getting a whole bunch of stuff ready for our residency cards, it's kind of ridiculous how much paper work and stuff we have to do to be able to stay in this country, but we do what has to be done. So we have been getting a bunch of forms and stuff and photocopying heaps of stuff this week which has been fun, but only to prepare us to going to the big scary government building this week, which should be super fun.

  We were able to find some super cool areas while we were out tracting in the cold this week. It's always a nice tender mercy when you get a pretty view of the city after you finish a long street of houses. We had a cool tracting miracle this week though, a man let us in to the building and we went up to the top. The first door we rang a man came out and we bore testimony of the book of mormon to him, he said he wasn't religious but if the book has really helped us in our lives then he would leave to read from it. The next floor down we were able to talk to a woman, who after talking for a while about her beliefs regarding the Bible and prophets, allowed us to share about the Book of Mormon and how we have a living prophet today. She loved everything that we shared with her, especially the promise in Moroni 10, and said she would love to learn more about us and attend church some time.

  Other than that, we met with a guy who was super drunk during our teaching, so we'll see where that one goes in the future I guess. Our zone was also able to meet our zone challenge last week (an average of 7 tracting days and 2 member presents each week per companionship over 4 weeks), so we get to have a zone day on wednesday, where we get to watch a disney movie, have lunch and hang out as a zone, so it should be pretty fun. It also got really cold this week, which means sweaters and coats made a come back, looking forward to that Hungarian winter!

Hope you all have great weeks.

Viszont!

- McKim Elder

                                                                   The Mall right near our apartment

                                                                    #JustTractingViews

Split Miracles

Üdvözlöm titeket!

So another wonderful exciting week is gone and past, with many more stories to share.

Monday we were able to head out to a little town called Budaörs for P-day, where we basically just went to Ikea and did some other shopping, but following that I was able to start exchanges with my old companion Elder Robinson. We had a super cool experience when we decided that although we had finished all the tracting that we needed to do, that we would continue on and do the next floor in the building before we finished. No one was being kind to us, until we knocked on the door of a nice old woman, who after a bit of conversation took, took us down to a little store at the bottom of the building and bought us some delicious drinks. The blessings of diligence!

  Wednesday was pretty crazy because I started the day by going to the doctor. There was the possibility that I had Pneumonia, but as far as the doctors are concerned I'm going to be fine, so that's comforting. We then had 2 different appointments suddenly get set up for that night so we were rushing around a lot, but it went well. I even had the opportunity to give a blessing to one of the members in Hungarian, which was super scary, but God speaks Hungarian and he was speaking through me, so it was fine.

  Thursday I got to go on exchanges with another of my old companions, Elder Winkel. We were also given some gifts from a nice old woman, but this time it was Old Testament study cards in Hungarian and some strange books, might come in handy some day. We were also able to meet a man named Robi, who was super excited to hear about the gospel and wants to meet with us, but we're not sure if he's in our area or not, so we'll see what happens there. We also had zone conference which was super good, it was all about learning the language and how we can improve our language studies. Super helpful.

 Then finally this weekend we had the opportunity to watch the first 4 sessions of General conference. Luckily I was able to watch all but one talk in English, so it was a really great opportunity to hear the inspired words of our church leaders. I loved them all, I don't know if I could really pick a favourite to recommend to everyone, so just watch them all I guess haha.

Today is interview day, so next week we'll see if I have any clues about what I'll be doing at transfers.

Sok szeretettel,

McKim Elder

                                     Elder Robinson and I with our drinks that we got from the Néni

Stringham, we need to Go, Now!

Sziasztok kedves barátaim!

So first of all, I don't know how big of news this actually made, but there was an explosion here in Budapest on Saturday night from a person setting off a homemade explosive device. It really wasn't a big deal, there were a couple of police officers injured in the blast but it was late at night so all of us missionaries are fine and it really wasn't that close to us at all. We just have to follow the security guidelines and avoid a few really popular areas, but we'll be fine.

  Monday was fun, first we had a nice little district lunch at a cool milk bar just around the corner from where I live and then we headed over to Hero Square, but it started raining so we kind of all just got wet instead, but it was still super fun.

  Tuesday was absolutely terrifying. So for a couple weeks we've been being told to review the safety guidelines and emergency procedures, which I was doing on Tuesday morning. So at breakfast I was discussing with Elder Stringham why I am not prepared for an emergency, only to then go check the phone and see a message telling us to pack and prepare to evacuate the city. So within 90 minutes we had the entire apartment packed to then receive another message telling us to get to the closest branch house immediately (hence the subject of this email). When we arrived we were then told that it was actually a drill just to see how prepared we would be and what we could change for a real situation. So that was pretty insane and we had a fun time unpacking everything again later on in the day.

  Friday we headed over to our favourite little town of Budaörs, nothing too crazy happened there but we did get to tract a super cool street up to the top of this hill and we got a super cool view of the whole city. We also got to have Ikea for dinner which is always nice haha.

 Saturday we had a teaching with our one and only investigator, János. The only problem was that when we arrived he was acting really strange and we're pretty sure that he was high on some sort of drug, so we got a lot of really strange questions such as "What's in Australia?" or "what kind of fish do you have in Australia?" even "If there was a spider on your tie and it climbed up and bit your nose what would you do?". So, yeah, it was a very strange teaching.

  Sunday, was pretty normal, just church and the whole stuff with the explosion, but it was good still.

  Oh yeah, I also managed to find an "Australian" football in a random store this week. I'm pretty sure it was just a leather rugby ball and Hungarians aren't great at making footballs, so it ended up being basically an Australian football. It was used and kind of dirty, but I still bought it, no regrets, it's the closest thing I've got.

Hope you all are having a great time back home!

Szeretlek bennetek! 

- McKim Elder

                                                                                           Milk Bar

                                                 View from the street while tracting

                       Dog that kind of looked like a small bear, Hungarian breed called Puli (Pool-y).

Baptisms

Szervusztok!

Before you all get too excited, I didn't actually have a baptism this week, but I did get to go to two of them so that was pretty cool at least. The first was for a woman named Erika who is super super solid, she was taught by the assistants but I did get to go to a teaching with her one time so that was cool to get to see her baptised. She was so ready that when I was able to teach her, we hadn't taught about prophets yet and when we brought it up she said "The current prophet is Thomas S. Monson isn't it? He just turned 89 this week!" I honestly had no idea of that so yeah, she was pretty prepared. The other was for a man named Lászlo who was being rebaptised by the Érd elders, it was super cool to see how happy he was to be able to become a member again and to see how happy all the leadership were to see him return, really cool experience.

Other than that this was a pretty normal week, on monday we went over to the Bazilika and Parliament as a district and took some cool photos. Elder Stringham and I also went to the American store which was super fun.

We went on splits this week with the elders from Érd and Elder Stanley was really craving Sushi while we were together, so naturally we just cooked up some Sushi, it was super good, it turned out much better than we had expected to be honest.

We technically got a new investigator this week, but he's been dropped by missionaries a couple times before, so we'll see what happens with him, but maybe this time around he'll be ready to accept the gospel.

Nothing else exciting happened this week sadly, but I did find a foot massager in our apartment yesterday, so that was a nice way to relax on a sunday night.

Hope everyone has fantastic weeks and does plenty of fun stuff.

Sok szeretettel

McKim Elder

                                                                     The sushi we made on splits

                                                   Me and Elder Stringham at Parliament