MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well this week has been unforgettable. My last Christmas in Hungary. I have no words to describe how much I loved being here and I would not have wanted to be anywhere else. I will start from the beginning.

This week we started the week off by going caroling to church members, which was so much fun. We went to this one really old woman’s house and I about started crying when I saw her face as she opened the door. Pure joy. It was so cute and I was so happy that we could bring some happiness into her Christmas spirit.

Then the next day was Christmas Zone conference which was so much fun and so funny. We had a talent show that we had to do in front of the whole zone and I seriously died. Ours was so awful it wasn’t even funny; we tried to make a remix of tracting in a winter wonderland. WOW it was awful, yaaaa never again will I try something like that haha. It was great though. Still had a whole lot of fun. Sister Szabadkai fed us and she made us fruit soup and this chicken and rice type of thing. It was incredible. I loved it.

Then we were able to watch a movie. It was the same movie I watched last year when I got into the country just this time it was in English, which was kind of lame because now I can actually speak Hungarian to a point where I would have understood it haha. If you have not seen the movie the little prince go watch it. It has a lot of cool symbolism and is a really great movie! We then got to have Santa come which is actually just one of the AP’s dressed up as him but we still got to sit on his lap and got a super cool pen with our named carved into it. So it was a really cool day!! 

Then when we came back from the zone conference we went to this one old lady’s house where we helped her move. This is the lady that gave us coffee and this time she gave us a candy doll of Satan... which was really weird. I think she is up to something but who knows haha. So we took it home. Tried it. It was like fake chocolate and then broke it and threw it away. It was pretty creepy.

Then for Christmas Eve we decided to make a ton of cookies and go visiting and give out our cookies. It worked really well, either we are really cute and they like us, or we make super good cookies. Probably both. haha just kidding it was the spirit touching there heart to let us in. maybe all three??? Who knows haha. That was really fun and we were able to meet with a lot of people!

This week we have been riding bikes everywhere and so on Christmas Eve and Christmas we rode bikes all over the place. So we started the day by going to church and yep... the road was frozen so I ate it super hard and crashed on my bike. I was fine and I didn’t get hurt but it was a great way to start Christmas! With a BANG!

Going back to Christmas Eve we got to have dinner with a member and it was really good. She fed us a traditional Hungary meal for Christmas... fish soup. I actually didn’t die because I usually hate fish but it was actually super good. Missions will change you. haha We also had stuffed cabbage which is like my favorite. So it was a really great Christmas Eve.

Then on Christmas after church we had planned to go to a church member’s house for lunch but their son got chicken pox the day before and so we couldn’t go over there so instead we made a couple more cookie runs and went tracting. During tracting, a man in a mansion let us in and we got to teach this really cool lesson. We sat down and he started to tell us about how he is searching for the truth and wants to know who God is. We had the chance to teach him the restoration and gave him a Book Of Mormon. It was really amazing to see that people are looking for the truth. We set up a follow up appointment and are going to go back and visit him soon. I know that God is preparing people for the Gospel we just have to do hard things like tracting on Christmas.

After that, we went to Bences house and skyped, which was so great it was so good to talk to you all!! I loved skyping at their house and I am so happy I was able to be with them on Christmas. Bence gave me a really cool picture frame with pictures of us in the last couple months. It was a really cool way to end Christmas! The best part was that I didn’t know Bence was going to be there because Ise told me he had to work but he got it off and then surprised us!! It was so cool! 

I want to finish with a little thing that happened this week. A member let us in and I was asked to give a blessing of comfort to her and in the blessing I talked about her strengthening her relationship with her Heavenly Father and coming closer to Him. I want to make this a goal in my own life. I want to make my study of the scriptures more personal, to pray with more heart and to grow closer to my Father in Heaven. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Happy New Year!!

Elder Ure

I love my Savior and I love Christmas

This week has been super sad but super great at the same time. I was able to say goodbye to Elder Howard and send him on his way to the homeland... it was really sad haha. I will miss him lots but this week was also super great because I got my old companion back Elder Gentry. We had a great first half week and I think it will be a really great transfer. 

Before I get ahead of myself I forgot to write something in my letter last week about something we did! We were able to go to Bences house and watch the first presidency’s broadcast! All us guys sat down on the couch and cuddled and listened to the apostles. It was so great! I loved it! ha-ha. 

This week on Wednesday we went up to Budapest and I was able to say goodbye to a lot of my companions. I said goodbye to Elder Lee and Elder Howard. They are the only companions that are older than me in the mission that I had, and now I am one of the oldest! It’s really weird. I found out that 2/3 of my mission is under their half way mark which means we are a really, really young mission. We have third transfer missionaries training! It’s awesome!

I am feeling really old now a days because everyone in my district is super young. It’s kind of weird ha-ha. We had our first district meeting and it went really well! It was a lot of fun to get to know the new missionaries and make some new friends.

Also, this week we went up to Budapest and we are going to be having a new focus as a mission. In the leadership meeting we talked about ways we can help inactive members come back to the church and for this transfer we will be making a bigger effort to bring them back and to look them up! 

One really funny thing that happened this week was when I got the sisters and us lost in the middle of nowhere on our way to our ward mission leaders house. I thought we were supposed to get of the bus but we got off way too early and ended up walking in the middle of no where ha-ha. It was actually really fun and totally worth it so I am happy about it to be honest ha-ha. We walked and then after a while he came and got us with his car. Even the missionaries need saving sometime ha-ha.

Yesterday in church I was able to give a mini talk about the new push that we will be doing to help the inactive members come back to church and to find their testimonies again and it went... ehhh. I wish it went better but I had no time to prepare because they asked me during sacrament pretty much. So that was really exciting and I just explained it and then bore my testimony about the work and that’s about it. 

This week has been crazy and has flown by and I wasn’t able to even write in my journal sometimes because I would be up late making calls to all the missionaries until it was time to go to bed so it has been a crazy week and I am hoping I will be able to write more next week.

Our work is going well. We have a couple people that will hopefully be progressing in the upcoming weeks and that we will be able to help come unto baptism. I hope they will make the decision to follow their savior.

I would like to finish with a little Christmas message. At this time of year I find myself thinking a lot about my Savior. It’s a given because this is why we are celebrating Christmas but I usually think of it in a different way. Whenever my mind thinks of Christmas I think of the reason why my Savior came to the earth and all he has done for me and I think about the Atonement. I remember 2 years ago, the last Christmas I had with my family, I had an overwhelming spiritual experience while thinking of my Savior and having the feeling come over me that he died for me personally and how grateful I really am for what he did for me. I am so grateful and I would not be here with out Jesus Christ and the baby that was born in Bethlehem. I love my Savior and I love Christmas. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I hope it is merry and bright. Remember your Savior this week because He loves you.

Love,

Elder Ure

The license says "mom" "28" ( His football #)  

ONE-YEAR IN COUNTRY

Well this week has been crazy! The transfer is over and we are already starting a new one. It is so crazy. I don’t even think it is real. 

This week I was able to see my trainer Elder Murdock and it was so fun! We were able to hang out for a little and the even better part was when we were in the mall and out of no where bence and his whole family came up to us and I was able to introduce Murdock and we got a picture together! IT was so fun and made me feel like I was back in Nyiregyháza as a greenie!

This week I had some really fun stuff happen. First off, we helped a lady move one day and it was really easy. She had us move a couch and that was about it and in return she said she wanted to make us hot chocolate and was like it’s not coffee I promise... Well she brings it out and it is the exact smell and look as coffee and Elder Howard and I just look at each other and are like uhhhh… Well what do we do? So Elder Howard takes one for the team and tried it and I can tell right when he tastes it that it is pure coffee. I don’t drink any and just hold it... well minutes go by and we don’t know what we are going to do because she is right in front of me... but the window was open to my left... sooo ha-ha no I did not throw it out the window. Trust me I thought about it a million times but I didn’t. Luckily she just took it back and said sorry that we didn’t like it, I felt bad but we just explained that we don’t drink coffee and that we thought it had some in it. Kind of awkward. 

This story I am about to tell you is one of the scariest, sad, hilarious, and down right awful things I have had happen out here. We were walking on the street after a teaching and I saw a really old women in a wheel chair going up over the bridge and making her way down on the slopped part, so I said we should help her, so when she got close we asked if we could help her, well this made her distracted and she stopped holding onto the wheels to make her not move so she took off down the bridge... So I start running after her for the life of me and I see her headed straight for an electric box... well I got there right after she made contact with the box and I hurried and pulled her away but she already hit it.... So we turn her around and she has a huge smile on her face and is totally fine... she says, “Well I can’t forget about that”, laughs and then rolls away. She stopped herself and was totally fine. We turned around in pure just confusion and couldn’t help but laugh. It was so funny but so scary, so when helping old people make sure they cant go anywhere! 

Then the next day we went out to Narnia. Which we call a really small village that is far from town. We have to take a bus and it is out there. Far away. So we meet with the person that we planned to meet with but only 1 bus comes once every so many hours... So I look at my watch and see that our bus leaves in 10 minutes and we are a 15-minute walk from the bus station. So we hurry and end the teaching and start walking... Well, we see the bus drive up to the bus stop and start waiting for people. So I take off and run all the way down this street and we made it onto the bus right before it started. It was fun ha-ha it’s always an adventure with buses. 

Another funny thing that happened this week was when we were tracting on splits. I saw a really small cute little kitten (keep in mind I do not like cats very much) but this little guy was so cute, and I am pretty sure it was freezing. So I walked over to it and it loved me from first touch. I picked it up and put it in my coat and then walked around from house to house tracting with a little cat in my coat. It was great. I would set it down at times but it would just walk behind us and then when we would stop at a house it would run up to me and rub up against my leg. It loved me ha-ha. So that was super funny ha-ha. 

This week was also my ONE-YEAR in Hungary mark and we had a little party because I had two sisters that are from my MTC group in our district meeting this week. So we had cookies and blew up balloons and had some fun! Its crazy I have already been here from a whole year. Time is flying its not even funny. 

This week we had splits twice so I didn’t really work with my own companion for the last week of his mission. It was fun. We had one split, then two hours together, and then went on splits again ha-ha it was really funny. 

We also were able to have a really cool experience and I was able to give a blessing to one of the sister’s investigators! It went well and it was really cool. I love giving blessings. It is just a really cool feeling to be used by God to bless others.

This week the ward threw a Christmas party that was seriously so awesome! I loved it. It’s called Mikulás and it’s their version of Santa. They had all the kids sing songs to him and then he gave them treats. They even made us go up there and do it. It was so great ha-ha. After they had this huge carriage with horses pulling us around the city and the horses had reindeer stuff on them and we sang Christmas songs and yelled Merry Christmas at people ha-ha it was one of the coolest things I have done here!

I would like to finish with a quick thought about Jesus. We are talking a lot about Him this time of year and he really is a big part of everyone’s life. He can bring light into anyone’s life, light that we sometimes didn’t even know could brighten our day. I love my Savior and I know he makes me happy. I love you all have a great week.

Elder Ure

This time of year is about LOVE

Well this week flew by and I don’t even know where it went. We have been going all over the place and it’s super fun but I think it got me sick. Kind of lame. 

This week we had splits with the APs, which was super fun. We were able to meet with one of our investigators and we had a lesson about repentance. We did a magic trick for him with fire and a pen that you can erase and he was freaking out. He loved it and could not figure out how it worked. We wrote things that were bad and sins on the paper and then if you hold a fire below the paper the pen’s ink disappears. It was super cool. He loved it and it’s really true. I love the atonement and am so grateful for its healing power.

This week I had a goal to have more faith. So I made a goal to find the miracle in every situation no matter what it was. So this week we were visiting a family and it was a hard meeting and I walked out of it trying to think of how I can help the family. So I decided to try and find the miracle. I prayed about it and even had the opportunity to talk to my mission president about it during my interview with him. I was able to have a really good talk with him and got some really good ideas from him. I know what I talked about didn’t really make any sense because it’s really hard to explain but the point is, we can always find good in every situation. No matter how good or how bad. It’s always still going to help us learn. 

So I already talked about this a little but this week was interviews for the next transfer. I don’t know what will be happening with me and I am really excited to find out. I am hoping I will stay for Christmas but that would mean I would be serving here for more than 8 months which is fine with me I love this place! So before interviews I was sitting talking to Sister Szabadkai my mission president’s wife and she had to get up and go give President Szabadkais phone to him. I hear them whispering in a different room and then she comes back out with the phone and says its for you! I was like uh.... that’s my mission Presidents phone and whoever is calling him to talk to me must be someone that I should be freaking out to talk to... So I answer the phone and all I hear on the other line is HEY IT’S YOUR DAD!!! ha-ha It was Elder Murdock my trainer! He came to Hungary this week and I am actually going to get to see him in a couple hours! He talked to me for a little bit and it was a huge surprise! I am super excited to see him and it’s going to be so fun. It was super funny though because it was right before my interview and my mission president knew all about it. Other than that nothing crazy happened during my interview, it was pretty normal.

After that, we went on splits for the rest of the week and I went with an Elder named Elder Szuch. He is a really cool kid and we talked a ton about going home and hanging out together because we both like sports and stuff like that. It was a really fun split but nothing crazy happened during the split to report about. 

Sorry this email was kind of lame. This week wasn’t that crazy but this upcoming week should be supper great with my companion going home and he will want to say goodbye to lots of people so we should have a lot of people to meet with! 

I want to finish with a quick thought about loving those that annoy you. This is really hard and I have had to learn to do this throughout my mission. This time of year I feel like love is really important so I hope you are all loving because I love you all. It’s hard to love those people that we don’t get along with or those we don’t agree with but in the long run, if we love, we will be blessed. Have a great week!

Elder Ure

just do what's right

Well this week was a crazy adventure of not even working in my own city- haha. This week we went on splits in two other cities so we were not home very much!

We went to Pápa this week to go on splits and it was super fun! I was able to work with Elder Hughes and we had a super good time! The best part was Elder Hughes got a package and was kind enough to share the contents which just happened to be fluff.... if you don’t know what fluff is… it’s only on the east coast and it is like nutella’s best friend. So we made peanut butter and fluff sandwiches and it was the best thing ever. Also during that split we went and visited a really cute family and they had this really really shy girl that was like 4 years old or so and we were all talking and they were talking about how they were just going to give her to the elders because she has been grumpy and naughty recently and so I said okay we will take her home! ... The girls’ face went pail and she slowly started to frown and then just broke out bawling... I was like no I am kidding it was just a joke. It was really sad but also cute and funny at the same time. Don’t worry- I didn’t take any baby home. Also in Pápa we went tracting and it was a crazy tracting experience. We talked to this lady and I guess we were super nice because she went back into her house and brought out this arts and craft thing. It was a Christmas tree made out of newspaper. It was actually really cool. She wanted nothing to do with the gospel but she gave us a cool Christmas tree. After that we tracted into this cute old lady and she let us in to talk to her. She was really lonely and could not be happier that she had two American boys in her house to talk to her. I was walking up her stairs and she had a carpet over her stairs and I stepped wrong and started to slip off and fall backwards and she reached out and caught me and pulled me really close.... way to close for comfort and wouldn’t let go.. haha super weird and all I could do was laugh so here I am getting hugged by this 84 year old woman and she won’t let go and I am just laughing haha. It was great. It was a full split in Pápa.

After that we went home from Pápa and a really nice family had us over for thanksgiving dinner Hungarian style, No they do not celebrate it here but some people still like to be grateful so they have a nice dinner and they invited us! It was really good and we were super happy about that! That was on Wednesday though so for actual thanksgiving we had a district meeting with the people in our district and had our own little thanksgiving. We all brought something- so we brought mashed potatoes.... and everyone else brought some type of bread it was super funny. No meat or anything. One elder did make apple pie that was seriously so good. I loved it. So that was fun to celebrate together a little bit! After that, thanksgiving kind of went down hill because we had a couple of teaching set up and everyone that we planned on teaching was not home or did not show up and then to make it even worse one of our investigators called us and said she did not want to meet anymore so that was really hard and sad but I am still grateful and it was a great thanksgiving.

Then on Friday we left to go to Sopron to go on splits with the elders there. It was really fun and we actually had a really cool experience come out of it! We were able to go look up someone that requested a Book of Mormon and they let us in and we had a great teaching about where the Book came from and the importance of it. They will be going back this week and I know that God prepared this person for The Gospel. She was very interested and had a lot of questions. It was really cool!

Once we came back from Sopron we planned on cleaning the church with a member and when we walked in,  the whole ward was there and they had thrown us a huge thanksgiving party! It was super nice of them and we had such a good time laughing and just relaxing a little bit. 

It was a good week this week and I am sorry there isn’t more to tell about our work and the people we are teaching. Our main job is just going all over the place and helping other missionaries, which is super fun. One thing that happened this week is one of our investigators came to church without us even talking to him. It was so great. 

I want to finish by telling you all about the “Light the World campaign” that is going on and to encourage all of you to do it and go watch the video on lds.org it is super cool and super pretty and that is what we are going to be doing for the next month!

Also I have been reading in Jacob 5 and wanted to share what I learned or more of what I felt. This chapter is all about The Lords vineyard and is a little harder to understand unless you dig deep and find out all the meanings behind things. So this week I dug deep and I wanted to share something I felt. God truly was sorrowful about the thought of throwing out and burning the branches that were not producing good fruit. This is all of us. When we are weak and make mistakes God is truly sad and wants us to do what is right. He later on gives the branches another chance... he spares us a little longer. I know he is merciful and loves us all and he wants us to be happy. Just do what’s right :)

I love you all

Elder Ure 

I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON

Well, I will try to get it all in this email is going to be a doozy so buckle up.

Last week was super good. We had a lot of cool stuff happen and we were going all over the place, which means I don’t really have time to even think... haha It’s great I love it. I feel like last P-day was yesterday

Last week we went on splits and the one super funny thing that I want to share from those splits was the fact that we got there on time and the other elders where not home, they got let in tracting and could not answer their phone so we ended up tracting also with all of our stuff to stay the night. It was great. We would ring a doorbell and have to hide all our stuff and hope that if we got let in no one -- it was great.

We go all over the place nowadays and there are not enough beds usually for us so we usually end up sleeping on the floor which is honestly a great experience, I kind of am having the Africa mission experience right now mixed with Europe haha. Its fun!

Last week we had a visit by our mission president right at our apartment door. Yes just like the best two years. It was super funny and kind of scary at the same time because he came in and complimented us on how clean our apartment was and then he sat on my bed and had interviews with us to see how the work was going. Just go watch the best two years and it was exactly like that. We were running around trying to clean stuff and get ready for him!

We also went on another split last week that was really fun but to be honest I can’t remember a lot about it! Before that we had a missionary leadership meeting in Budapest and we were able to hear from Elder Leimer! He talked to us about how to get the missionaries excited and committed us to work even harder! I was able to talk to him personally after the meeting because last year at this time he met with my trainer and talked to him about my trainer’s story and me so we had a really cool conversation about my mission and then he gave me a hug. It was great. I like hugs haha.

Also it has become freezing once again and I am not super happy about it but I have decided that it is better than summer so I am excited about it. One cool thing that happened while Elder Leimer was talking is he said that missionaries are matched to their mission president not to the place or to the language. I thought this was really interesting and makes me think about why I was called here!

Now to this week, sorry I can’t remember a ton from last week.

This week we gave training to our Zone in Budapest and it went super well! We had the sister training leaders do a game with everyone about courage. They all gave everyone two jellybeans. They told them to eat one and say it was good or bad... yes there were gross flavored jellybeans. I think I got earwax it was rough. But then they said eat the second. That one was good luckily... my mission president got two dog food jellybeans it was rough, it was hilarious. They went on to talk about courage when talking to people. You never know if it will be good or bad but you just have to because that’s what we are called to do as missionaries. It was great. Then we went on to talk about commitments and how to give effective commitments. We used the story of the Blind man the Jesus healed by telling him to go wash at the water. He committed the blind man to do something and then it was up to the blind man to either do it or not. It was a great training I think, and went really well.

This week we once again went on splits and had some super funny stuff happen. One was when we went to look up an old investigator and came to the address and it seriously looked like and abandoned house that had been haunted for years but there were lights on the inside so we went inside... got inside a couple steps turned to each other and we both new that this place was not where we were supposed to be. So we went back out on the street and as we walked out two of the most massive dogs walk past us. Both were bigger than me by far. Not kidding they were lions. I was blown away. That was just a random thing that happened but they were really big I promise haha. We decided to say a prayer if we were supposed to go into the building and after the prayer we felt okay about it so we went back in and the door was locked but it was still a cool experience because I know the spirit warns us and you never know what would have happened if we kept going the first time!

This week we made a weird Christmas picture for our mission President and his wife. I don’t really know how the picture came out the way it did but it was really funny to make and just... tis the season.

This week we did have a little miracle because Roland came to church all by himself! He is 11 years old and walked by himself at 8 in the morning for 30 minutes to come to church, he’s the best and an example to me that is for sure. 

Lastly, I wanted to talk a little about a miracle we had this week that was really cool. We went to look up this woman that we found last transfer that said we could come back, so we went back and she was home and we started to talk to her, we must have smiled a lot because she let us in and we ended up teaching her! She had met with the missionaries when she was a little girl almost 20 years ago and she even was able to find her super old Book of Mormon from back in the day. She was so nice and we talked about her thoughts on religion and I ended up sharing my story about how I gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I talked about praying about it and not getting and answer but with time the answer did come. She committed to read out of the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we will be going back this week!

I know the Book of Mormon has power. I am currently reading it again and I can feel it every time I read from it. It is a simple book that teaches about Christ and I know that if someone wants to know their savior all they have to do is read the book of Mormon and pray about it and they will receive an answer. I love the Book of Mormon.

I love you all have a great week and thanks for reading this beast of an Email!!!

Ure Elder 

trust and stormy seas (two weeks worth)

November 7, 2016

Well you heard from me on Wednesday so this will be a little bit shorter.

This week on P-day we went to the Zoo and it was super fun. Not as fun as the zoo in Nyiregyháza but it was still so much fun. Also on Monday, we met with our investigator Roland. He is doing really well. He is just so young that he is having a hard time grasping everything we think. It was a really cool miracle though because we went to his house and we started talking. Roland’s older brother and two of his friends also live in this house and the girl was doing dishes right as we walked in. So Roland did the missionary work for us and invited her to stay while we taught him. She asked if it was bothering us and we of course said no and made space for her to sit down. Then Roland took it to the next level and turned straight to Vikki (that is her name) and said “okay great you say the prayer...” it kind of went quiet and she said I don’t know how to pray, so Roland once again stepping in to teach tells her all about prayer and how we pray and what we say and how we do it. So she said okay I will say the first one but you say the last. So he agreed and then she said the opening prayer!! It was crazy! Super cool. So we ended up teaching the whole lesson to Vikki because we were re-teaching the restoration and Roland just helped during the teaching it was great. At the end of the teaching he was like okay your turn to pray and so she was like what no way you said you would say the closing prayer, and just before this we had talked about Roland coming to church, so she said if you say the closing prayer I will go to church with you... we both just had our jaws drop. Roland was doing all our work for us. Sadly they did not come because their alarm didn’t go off but hopefully next week. 

Something funny happened this week too. We had district meeting and we wanted to order pizza for everyone so I called the pizza place and started ordering pizzas. We didn’t know which one to get so I just told them a random number on the list, it ended up being pretty good, but that’s not the funny part. The best part was when she asked where we live and I told her the address of the church building and she was like yea you guys are the mormons... “ was like yea, we are the Mormons”. So I was laughing joking around with her and she knew that it was us because the way I spoke and where we were in the city. So now she thinks Mormons aren’t super weird hopefully. 

We also went on splits wit the Buda Elders this week. I was able to be in Budapest for two days and it was gorgeous I loved it. It was super fun! We also had a cool little miracle happen!  I was able to see a small miracle while I was with Elder Heaps. We decided to go tracting instead of meeting with one of their investigators because we could not find a male member to go with us and we just had the feeling we needed to go tracting. So we said a prayer and went out on the streets. We talked to a lot of people and some said that we could come back but while we were tracting Elder Heaps called the woman we would have met with and told her that we would not be coming. She was very sad to hear this because she had spent along time cooking for us. We said we were very sorry and continued to tract. A couple minutes later we got a call from this investigator saying that she had invited her boyfriend over and that we would now be able to meet with her. Her boyfriend was against the church and was mad that we were meeting with her so this was a really big miracle that he agreed to join the teaching. We shared a great message and it went really well. It was great to have to spirit there and to teach this gospel to someone that is prepared!

So that was a really cool miracle and it was really fun to be up in Budapest for a while. 

This week was also stake conference. We got to be there for the Saturday priesthood session and adult session because we were there in Budapest and then on Sunday we got to see the broadcast! We had a member of the 70 come and give a really great couple of talks to us. He gave a great talk to the missionaries about learning the language and how to be successful. After I was able to have a good conversation with him and he even gave me a hug. It was awesome. Not just because he was a 70, but also because I got a hug haha.

I would like to finish with a quote that I found somewhere I can’t remember. I think it was in a talk. It goes like this "Calm winds don’t carry ships to promised lands, stormy seas do." I love this quote because it is so true. We so often think of our trials or our hardships as bad things and that life would be so much better if it was just smooth sailing. I know for a fact that if I did not have hardships I would not be the person I am today and I would not be in the direction of the promised land. I think it is important to be grateful for hard times because that’s when we grow the most.

I love you all!! If you have any questions or if you are curious about random things here like in Hungary let me know I would love to answer some random questions because I feel like all I do is write about my week and there is a lot of interesting things about this place that I leave out! 

I love you all!

Ure Elder 

November 2, 2016

Well this week was crazy!!! This was the first week of all the new things that I am doing! We gave training on baptism this week to all the elders and sisters in our zone and it was really great! It was exciting to be able to teach everyone and be able to prepare for this transfer! 

Then this week we also had our first split with other elders. We went on splits with elders from Sopron. I was able to go with Elder gabel. He is a super cool guy and he is actually from Denmark but has lived in America almost his whole life. It was super funny because he came to our city and the first time here he was able to experience how kind people are. We got yelled at and kicked out of a building and both of us just started laughing ha-ha. This guy was crazy and I was asking him why we had to leave and I said just out of curiosity what are we doing wrong and he said I am curiosity and told us to leave again.... so what ever that means hah it was great. We also made a tradition to cook something yummy on every split so we made banana bread with the elders. It was super fun and really good actually. 

We also taught a really cool lesson this week to a member family. We used a friction erase marker and if you hold a lighter below the paper enough for the heat to touch it the writing disappears. So we taught about repentance and the atonement. If we are marked up wih sins, we can always us the atonement and our sins will disappear and look white as snow. It was really cool and fun!!

While we were teaching that family the cutest thing happened. We were saying the opening prayer and we always kneel at their house so I was kneeling and mid-prayer their youngest kid gets up and turns around and gives me the biggest hug around my neck and just stayed there until the prayer ended. It was the cutest things I have ever had happen. I guess he just new I needed a hug. He then would not leave my side the whole lesson so I now have a new best friend.

This week was the meet the Mormons showing where anyone could come and bring their friends to meet the missionaries. It was really cool but sadly not a lot of people came. A couple members brought their friends and that was great but other than that it was just a free meet the Mormons movie for us in Hungarian. It was a nice break. 

This Sunday I was asked to give a less active member a blessing because the sisters have been meeting with her and she has been fighting smoking for a really long time and she wanted a blessing to get over the hump and to just give it up. It was a really cool blessing and I just love giving blessings in Hungarian and just giving them in general. I was able to say a lot of cool things that once again did not come from me. I think that’s why I like it so much because its like God is talking through me and that’s a super cool feeling. 

One crazy thing that happened this week is we looked up a less active member and found out that she actually died three years before, but her family wanted to meet with us. So they let us in and wow was it crazy... very interesting people with a very interesting smell.... I will not say more but I love fresh air. We met with them and they were super nice and we are hoping to visit them again but it was one of those times where someone lets us in and it feels like we walked into a totally different dimension. It was nuts.

For Halloween we didn’t do anything... They don’t celebrate here so it was kind of lame and it was even lamer that our p-day was on Wednesday but its okay! We did end up having lunch with a member and we grilled cheese... just pure cheese. I feel like I have clogged arteries now but wow was it good. Other than that we just worked the whole day... Celebrations don’t really happen as a missionary, just felt like a normal day! 

The last hilarious thing that happened was we met with one of our investigators that are progressing really well and we brought Bence. She offered us tomato juice, something kind of like V8. I said yes and Bence also said yes. So she poured it and Bence saw that it was spicy... so I drink it and it was actually really good. I loved it. So I look over at him and I see him drink it and he starts dying... He was like gagging and his face was so funny. All of this was in silence and so I am trying not to laugh but he is being so funny that I had to bite my tongue and cover my mouth because I almost started laughing so hard. It was so funny.

I would like to finish with a hymn that I heard in church on Sunday. I can’t remember which one it was, it was just one line that stuck out to me. It said "I trust my life with him" It hits me really hard. I do trust my life with him. I have a huge testimony that we are here and the things we do are for a reason. Everything happens because our

Heavenly Father is leading and guiding us. I know everything will work out because I truly trust my life with him. That’s why I am here. That’s why I knock those doors and why I walk the streets because I know He is the guide. In this life there is no need to fear, no need to worry, not need to stress. Love God. Keep his commandments. And trust him enough to give your life to him. I love you all. 

Ure Elder