MTC Third week: Take You Above

 Szia!!                                                                         

Sadly I cannot report on how the sauna went this week. We were not able to have time to make it with the crazy busy schedule that we always have. We will try again this week though! 

So this week we had new missionaries come into our zone. Two of them are from the U.K. So the way it worked was that one of them got there in the middle of the night and was sleeping in our room. So I had to wake up and open the door for the guy. Anyway, my comps and I were going to pretend we were from different places. Elder Dixon was going to be Austrailian. Elder Veres was going to a Hungarian that didn’t even speak English and we were going to translate, and I was going to take on the biggest challenge of all, be British to a British person. So long story short, I woke up in the middle of the night to let him in and tell him where to sleep and all that and totally forgot about trying to be British! So I kinda blew it, but the other guys were able to make him believe it for a full day! It was super funny. Elder Dixons accent was so awful, which made it even more funny that he believed it. 

One night we got the whole zone together and I don’t know if any of you will recognize this song from this movie, but we started to sing/rap the "gotta dig them holes" song from the movie holes. I think that’s the name of the song I am not sure. But we all joined in singing and had a good time it was awesome. 

The highlight of the week was we got to have a devotional from Elder Anderson of the 12 Apostles. He gave a really amazing talk about sacrifice and a lot of other things. I will share some quotes at the end! The best part was I have been in the MTC choir every week and it is probably my favorite part of the MTC. Singing and just being able to feel God’s love while I sing is a truly amazing thing. When you add singing to a member of the 12 it makes it even better. The best part was when he walked in though. We all stood up and right when I saw him I got overwhelmed with the spirit. I got the strongest witness that he was a man of God. It was really amazing. 

So an update of the Serbian sister in my district: This week she told me and my companions that we were all terrorists. I was kinda taken back, because I thought she was joking but she was serious!! She thinks America is the real terrorists. Crazy right?? She’s funny and awesome but sometimes I am just blown away. haha. 

So Sunday night we had a devotional about being disappointed about mission calls and disappointment and things like that. So the speaker has people that were sad about where they were going stand up. (I for sure did not stand up! who could be disappointed in Hungary??) Anyway he had one elder come up and share where he was going and why he was disappointed. The elder came up and said he was going to California. The speaker went on to talking and at the end of his talk shared his mission call opening experience. He went to open his letter and saw where he was going and was devastated. He was going to the exact same mission as where the elder that came up was called and shared he was going. Coolest thing ever right??  So he went on to talk about how we are supposed to be where we are and that we all have a plan for this life. 

I am going to end by sharing two really amazing quotes that I heard this week. The first is "To change into someone that you aren’t yet is always going to bring opposition."  This is so true. It takes a lot of hard work and trust in the Lord that we can do it. I know we can all become the people we want to be though. 

The second is "He will not take your pain from you, He will take you above it." I love this. We all are going to go through very hard times. We all are going to have times when we feel as though we can’t keep going but I know that if we believe in him and use his atoning sacrifice we can be raised above our trials. 

I love you all very much. Have an amazing week. 

Elder Ure

       

MTC Second Week - Come to the Edge.

Well this week has been amazing and also very challenging. Hungarian has become even harder. which i didn't even think was possible but hey why not. we are learning conjugations and all this crazy stuff and i am still trying to get basic words memorized. 

the schedudle is the same pretty much everyday so nothing new really happens. we wake up. go to breakfasst. go to class til lunch. go to class. then have gym for and hour, and then dinner and back to class. the classes we have are usually just personal study, companion study and then language study. then we have a teacher come and teach us. they only teach in hungarian so I dont hear much english which is a good but awful thing. 

We found a hungarian elder that is in the mtc and we got to talk to him for a while at dinner once and her was way cool and told us all about hungary and spoke hungarian to us. i understood a little but he was going pretty easy on us. 

today we are going to make a steam room in the showers by ducktaping blankets to the opening so no heat can go out. I will give you and update on how that goes next week. 

We have our first "home teaching lesson" today where we teach active memeber of the church and just get to know them and then share a quick message but the interesting part is it's all in hungarian so we will see how that goes. I am excited though. 

We had a devotional and chad lewis spoke and it was so cool. he gave a great messsage. The coolest part though was out of no where he started talking about Taysom Hill, the quaterback for BYU and asked if he would come up and bear his testimony!!!  he was there! he came up and gave a really amazing testimony and it was really cool to hear from him. 

this will come as a surprise to some but every gym me and elder verse go ball out at the basketball courts. i am awful at basketball but the last two days i have been raining. I drain a couple three's every game. who would of thought i could summon my inner Steph Curry in the mtc. it is super fun!! 

anyways that is all that has happend this week. i would like to end by sharinga quick qoute.

"Come to the edge he said, No I will fall, come to the edge he said, no i will fall, come to the edge!!! so I came, and he pushed me, and I flew." I really like this. sometimes we are afraid of what is in front of us. the task at hand, or the scary leap of faith that we have to take. I know that if we follow heavenly father and Jesus Christ he will push us and make us fly. I love this gospel. 

Love, Elder Ure 

FIRST EMAIL

Hello everyone! 

The first week of the mtc has ended. It has been a long one that is for sure. I got unlucky and had my p-day on Thursday so i had to wait a whole week to write home! 

the first day in the Missionary training Center was rough. i missed home a lot and was just trying to get used to it, it didnt help that i pretty much had the flu and my teacher was only talking to me in Hungarian so that was a struggle, but hey i made it to week two and i love it here! 

the second day was straight hungarian and i just sat there understanding nothing. It was bad but i have got so much better. it has been so cool. the mtc is a truly amazing place that's for sure. 

My district is mainly sisters and there are 6 of them. One is from serbia and yells at us in serbian sometimes. she is kinda crazy. I am in a companionship with two Elders, both from California.

We taught our first lesson in straight Hungarian and i said a total of like two words and the rest was awkward silence because we had no idea how to say anything. it was bad. but is getting better slowly. The food at the mtc is super gross but i eat it and am still alive. I just have become not picky at all. 

everyone said make it past Sunday and you are home free and that really is true. i feel so much better and am doing great now . time flys by here, but also can be so slow. it's kinda like i am in the movie the maze runner at times. Its kinda weird. 

I'd like to share acouple thoughts with you that i have learned. 

We listened to a talk and it was about if the glass is half full or half empty in our lives. Then it talked about if we even have a glass at all. we need to be grateful for all the things in our life that we have and not complain beacuse some have nothing. We can apply this to the gospel too. Some people have not heard of the church of jesus christ and what i am doing is giving them a glass. and trying to help them put something in it. but it is their choice to fill it. i liked that alot. 

I would like to end by a quote i heard. This applies to everyone. "church is not a showcase for saints, but a hospital for sinners." no matter where you think you are in your life you can go to the church of Jesus Christ and be healed. God's love is the healing power. He can change our lives and i know he has changed mine. 

I love you all so much and miss you all like crazy. have a great weekend. 

Love, Elder Ure