A fairly normal week.

Kellemes Pünkösdöt kívánok!

Well here we are, another week flown on by. For anyone who was wondering, I emailed today because yesterday was the holiday of Pünkösd (Pentecost) here in Hungary. I honestly didn't know that anyone celebrated it, but apparantly we do here, so there you go.

  Our week was pretty full of finding, which meant plenty of time out in the crazy heat of what is now Hungarian summer (it's still going to get hotter...). We had some exchanges this week though to make finding just that little bit more interesting, firstly with the elders from Szolnok and then another with the other Szeged elders. They were both really good, I've really come to enjoy doing exchanges all the time because I learn a lot from the other elders, they are very tiring though haha.

  Our work is kind of struggling a little at the moment, Márk basically officially dropped us at this point and a few of our investigators ended up in the hospital in this last week. But we're still seeing cool things happen everyday and we're excited for a few new people who we should be able to start teaching.

  We had a cool kind of miracle yesterday. We had finished doing some tracting and went over to meet with a man who told us to come back at 3, but after ringing his bell it turned out that he wasn't home. We were going to visit the husband of one of our investigators in the hospital after that at around 4:30 but in the end we both felt that we should go right away and get there a little early. After a few things happening with the public transport we arrived at the hospital at 3:59 to find our investigator waiting for us. She then proceeded to tell us how much of a blessing it was for us to come right at that moment. It was just a testimony to us of Heavenly Father watching over his children even in the little things. We thought nothing of that 30 minutes but to our investigator it meant a lot and Heavenly Father was aware of that.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sok szeretettel,

McKim Elder

Prison cookie drop offs.

Üdvözlöm!

Well the weeks are coming and going so fast these days that I feel like I have less and less to write about each week, but life is still fun.

  We were able to meet with Márk again a couple of times this week and we officially finished teaching him everything that he needs to know before his baptism and he's been doing really well in keeping the Word of Wisdom too which is super cool. He has cancelled our last two teachings now, but hopefully it won't be a problem.

  We were also able to teach that couple from last week again and then they both came to church again this week and stayed for all three hours! It was super cool, István really loved being back there and it's just a super cool experience to see somebody coming back to activity in the church.

  We also headed over to Békéscsaba this week to do some exchanges with the Elders there. It was a great time, their apartment makes it feel like you're living in a tree house so it's an adventure. I wish I had taken some pictures of it, but oh well, maybe next time. Working with Elder Veres was great though, he's not scared of anyone, so we had plenty of great conversations in situations that you don't often find yourself in if you stick to the easier people to talk to. It also started raining... a lot... and I had no coat or umbrella... so I got a little wet. For some reason this always happens when we go to other cities.

  We also had someone try and recruit us to go preach in the prison here in Szeged for mainly murderers and rapists and although I know they need the gospel, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little glad that President shut that idea down pretty quick.

  We made a lot of cookies this week. We gave most of them out, but we also ate a lot of cookies. No regrets...

Have a wonderful week and if anyone wants a delicious cookie recipe I now have one...

- McKim Elder

Unfortunately I can't plug in my thing for pictures this week...

Happy times...

Hellosztok!

This week has just flown by super quick and it's crazy that it's already time to send another email, we had a really good week though with a lot of cool little miracles happening.

  So basically Márk is just one of my favourite people to teach in the entire world, he's just such a pleasure. He's progressing super well and he just loves everything that we teach him. We really only had the commandments left to teach him before his baptism, so this week meant my first real times teaching both the law of tithing and chastity. He seriously loved both of them though and he's super excited. He's also becoming such good friends will all the members here and he loves them all, it's so great. For those of you who will be at my Home coming talk I hope you are excited to hear about Márk because he's seriously been such a huge blessing to us and so he's probably going to be half of my talk.

  We had two sets of exchanges this week, one with the elders from Kecskemét and another with the elders here. There were some good fun meeting with a few crazy people, walking out in the sun, almost getting stung by the HUGEST wasp I've ever seen in my life (seriously this thing was like 2 inches long, it died on the floor next to us for like an hour, it was so gross) and catching up with some old friends.

  We had a really cool experience this week with a couple named István and Mónika that we've been meeting with a little. So István is a less active member and is living with his girlfriend Mónika out in a little village just outside of Szeged and we visit them occassionally with the senior couple from Békéscsaba. A few things happened and a lot of little miracles that led up to this but we ended up meeting with them on Wednesday night and had a super good meeting with them. Afterwards Mónika said that she would love to start taking the lessons and learn more about us and then on Sunday they even came to church, Istváns first time in years something that was really hard for him, but the members welcomed them like an old friend and they really enjoyed being there, so hopefully we'll see more progress with them in the future. 

  We also got roped in to helping the branch organise a family night on Saturday and we kind of thought it was only going to be like 10 people that would end up coming but when we got started there ended up being probably around 30ish people including a bunch of non-members, so it went pretty well and it was a lot of fun. I even got to do some stick-pull against Márk.

Hope everything is going fine and dandy in all your lives!

Szervusztok!

- McKim Elder

Pic

I've been terrible at taking pictures recently, but here is a picture of when they shut down the main brigde in Szeged this week to have a huge festival. I ate a HUGE Kürtös kalács (chimney cake) after I took this, it was great.

How can I even describe it?

Boldog Anya napját!

Well this week has honestly just been incredible, I'm not sure how to even put it into words, but I guess I'm going to have to try now, so here it goes...

  Tuesday was the first of many busy days for us this week. We met with a few people but the coolest was meeting again with our investigator Márk. Because he had taken a bit of a break from meeting with us we were a little worried for what might happen, but it went incredibly. He had started praying every single day, he read some from the scriptures and the pamphlets and even found MoTab online and had been listening to it all the time. It was such a beautiful reunion, it made us so happy.

  Wednesday was just incredible. We headed up bright and early to Budapest for mission tour which was basically 5-6 hours of being instructed by Elder Kearon who is the Area President for Europe and soon to be in the Presidency of the Seventy. I wish I could share all the things that I learnt but the biggest lesson that I took from it was just his pure Christ-like love for us and how big of an effect that can have.

  Thursday we had a couple lessons, still super busy but nothing too insane happened, it was just a good solid day of work. We also had our landlord randomly deliver us a new oven at like 9 in the morning because our old one didn't work and Elder Hughes and I had to carry it up 4 flights of stairs. Good thing we've been working out recently.

  Friday was another wonderful day spent being instructed by Elder Kearon. We had our MLC and it was basically just the mission leaders discussing what we learnt from Elder Kearon and how we can help the mission here improve on those things that he shared. It was an incredibly special meeting to be a part of and I am so grateful that I got to take part in it. We also had the surprise of Robinson Testvér (my teacher in the MTC) making a surprise visit to us during MLC, so we got to have a nice catch up with him which was fun. Then when we got home a man came to connect our oven but told us that our entire kitchen was illegal and wouldn't do it, which left us with basically no way to cook any food...

  Until on saturday when a random man who lives in our building came and hooked up our oven! I don't know how legal it was and frankly I don't think I want to know, but we have a working oven now, so that's nice. Saturday was also full of meeting with people including a brand new investigator who turned out to be psychotic (like literally, she lives in a hospital and everything) but she was pretty normal and actually quite cool and also another investigator who we have been trying to meet with for 3 months and they finally set up with us. But the most important of all was Márk, who after a wonderful lesson agreed to be baptised on the 17th of June! Márk really is our miracle here and I just can't express how glad I am for what I've learnt from this experience with him.

  Then Sunday brought the classic mothers day skype with my family, which is always great and we also got to visit with a couple of the members here in the branch. Another wonderful uplifting day.

Well that is the novel of this week. There a thousands of more things that I could have said about things that I learnt or other miracles that we saw, funny stories, etc. but to quote 2 Nephi "nevertheless only these things have I caused to be bwritten, for the things which I have written sufficeth me." Just know that this week has been incredibly wonderful and I loved all of it.

További szép hetet nektek!

-McKim Elder

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