Take a Leap of Faith and doing something Scary...

So I am going to start off with a story from last week for this email. Last week it was one of the a Sister’s Birthdays in our district so we planned to go to the woods and have a picnic with her and to just explore. So on the way out,  it starts pouring rain, and I mean drenching everything. So we decided that we still wanted to go and make it even more of an adventure. So as we are standing at a bus stop, (us four missionaries) This lady starts talking to us and just loves how happy we are and how goofy and fun we were being. So we start talking to her and telling her why we are here and she sees that I am in shorts and no Umbrella soooo she decided to give me her umbrella... I told her I didn’t need it because I had a water proof jacket but the Sisters didn’t, so she gave it to them. So in return we gave her a Book of Mormon of course, and started talking to her about her beliefs. She ended up leaving but I could tell we just changed her day around and made her happy. A lot can be said just through a simple smile and being happy, which the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings.

This week I got my first haircut by myself with no help from my companions! It went well and the lady didn’t buzz my hair all the way off, I don’t think I look too bad so whatever I said in Hungarian must have been right.

This week we went to Miskolc and had zone conference which was really amazing! I loved it. We talked a lot about prayer and how to pray effectively. We learned that in our prayers we should express true gratitude and talk about our day. Things that happened, Review, and thank God for just small things that happened.

After we went on splits with the Zone leaders and saw some great success. I went with another Elder went tracting and Knocked on a door and got let in by a younger lady with a sick child at home. Nothing special happened but we found out that she would not have been home on any other day or at any other time and we were able to teach her and she wanted to know more. It is amazing to see the Lords hand in our lives.

Another great experience but also kinda weird thing happened. We had a 17 year old let us in and we talked to him about God. He believed in God just doesn’t know anything. Which is perfect for us to help him. The weird thing was is he had two young siblings that were killing the spirit as we talked. One of them was a 13 year old girl that really was into my freshly cut hair. She tried to touch it and it was just super weird but we were able to talk to the kid and give him a Book of Mormon and they are going to come back and teach him.

On the way home on the train, we sat by two old ladies and started talking to them. I was able to actually talk a little and they said I spoke really well for learning the langauge for just 2 months or so. So that was a boost to my week but we talked to them and they were super cute and nice and Loved my pictures of my family and me playing football. I was able to give them a Book of Mormon and I just love seeing how different people look after just talking about the gospel. It’s like they get a Book Of Mormon in their hand and they become brighter. It is really cool and I love being able to see it. It was a great experience for me and I love to testify of the book and telling them what I know and believe in. 

Also we had a mission wide fast this week which was really cool but also super hard. It was the most hungry I have ever been during fasting. I fasted with so much intent I think I prayed for a solid 30 minutes but I saw help and it was really amazing. We all were fasting for new investigators and were able to find some (we think) so that will be really cool.

I want to finish with my testimony of faith. When we can’t see things it is hard to believe in them. I can’t see my future but I know it will be amazing because I am doing what God wants me to do. I know that if we pray, fast, read, do anything with faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, our prayers will be answered.

I love you all so much and hope you can have faith to do something in your life that you are scared to do. Take a leap of faith and do it. You will be amazed what can happen.

Love,

Elder Ure 

I am going to start this email off by talking about a very crazy old lady that is a member here in Nyiregyhaza. She is the best but she can throw one crazy party. This week we went to her house and the sisters came and we just thought we were going to have dinner and share a message. Not even close to what happened. She walks out and has all these animal masks and costumes and party supplies and tells us to put them on. So I obviously get the snow leopard because that is my favorite animal. So we all have these masks on and we are all laughing and eating cake. She then puts on Mama Mia or at least I think that’s the name of the song and she wanted us to dance to of course we did. Hungarian old women are a lot crazier then you think they would be! haha.

Shout out to my Dad because he is really into biking, your missionary son has also got really into biking because he has to.... even when it is pouring rain. It has been very rainy here this week and we have been out in it all week long. It has been fun but also very wet and is starting to get annoying. I still can’t get over how much I look like the missionaries from The Best Two Years. 

This week we had District meeting and Elder Roberts and I decided to take a big speaker to the branch house, blast Enya and play ping-pong right when the sisters walked in. It was super funny and way fun. Making good memories like that is always fun and I will never forget them.

We had some really cool but also funny things happen this week. We had a program out a little far away so we got on a bus and went out there... a little into the bus ride we realized it was the wrong bus and saw that it was taking us all the way out into the forest which was a problem. So we go to the bus driver and ask when he will be turning around back towards the city and we figured it out that if we stayed on the bus it would take us back. So we are waiting on the bus and I see this old lady carrying two heavy looking bags running to catch the bus so we run and tell the bus driver and we get out and go take her bags and help her on the bus. When we get on the bus the whole bus is just silent and looking at us. The bus driver then asks the old lady how often you see to young men going to help someone like that and she said never. He then went on to say that we had to not be Hungarian. So we told him yes we are American. By now the whole bus is listening and the bus driver shouts out... You must be Mormons! Haha!! So the whole bus was just amazed at us helping this lady, she was even amazed. We were able to talk to the bus driver and give him our number and as we were getting off the bus, a woman gave us her number and told us to talk to contact her. It is amazing how such a small act of service can change a situation so much. I have realized that service is such a big part of missionary work and helps people to open up their hearts. 

I will finish by saying how much bearing a testimony of my Savior makes me happy. No matter how hard it is to say, no matter how hard the day was, no matter how mean the people are, when I get out that I know my Savoir lives and loves me I feel peace and love every time. I know that Jesus Christ died for us all. He can help us through any hard ship in our life and if we open our hearts to him and give him our weaknesses he will take us above them. I would not be able to learn Hungarian, get rejected every day, leave my family and the ones I love for two years without Jesus Christ. He knows how we feel when we are at our lowest. No matter how hard it is we can do it with Jesus Christ. I am learning this lesson currently. I love you all so much and I hope that you can keep Jesus Christ as close to you as you can every minute of everyday. 

Love Elder Ure 

the sun came out...

our crappy bikes

ping-pong warriors

Feb. 9

Well this week I have been able to understand the language a little and then nothing the next day so it is a rollercoaster that isn’t very fun to ride. Kinda like the ones that you always go on because they look fun but when you get off your head just hurts. haha 

I am going to talk a little about last week because I couldn’t say a lot in my last email. We cleaned the church this week and our church has no carpet so we put water on the floor and were sliding all over the place it was fun. I took a video I will show you in 2 years hahah. After that we had wet feet so we ran home in bare feet and Hungarians freak out when you even don’t have a coat on so everyone was yelling at us as we ran by and laughing. It was 3 C so that was painful but fun. haha. 

We also got super shut down last week tracting. I think I went 20 doors with no one wanting to talk and then 7 straight doors with them slamming it in my face without even saying a word. It was a party and we just started laughing after a while. 

We met with a couple  and they have a super cool dog and we had a great plan of salvation lesson with them and hope that we can go back and meet with them again.

We rode bikes for the first time this week and I wore the helmet and everything. It was a great humility check. haha. Totally Mormon missionary look straight from the movies. It’s awesome. 

This week I had a very scary experience that I survived. Don’t worry mom I am fine. We were tracting and this guy with no pants on opened the door and right away invited us in. when this happens it usually ends bad. So we go in and it smells like so much smoke and I get so dizzy right away. We start talking to him and find out he is a chiropractor. This is a lie it had to have been. Anyways we keep talking to him and out of nowhere he stands up and tells me to lean my head back. I am like uhhh why like no thanks, I am not letting you touch me. He insisted though so I finally did it but was ready at any moment to punch the guy and run. He comes over and puts his hands on my head and closes his eyes and just stands there and I am sitting there just having no idea what is happening. He then says for me to close my eyes and I am like um nope that’s not happening so I only close one half way. He then moves his hands and just stands there. Finally he goes and sits down and says, “I was giving you energy. You have an aura around you.” I felt so sick and just was like we need to leave so we got up and left and went home and said a prayer and I immediately felt better. It was crazy though. Hungary is crazy! haha.

Another awesome tracting experiance this week was when we were walking down the street and smelt the most amazing cookie smell I have ever smelt in my life and we right then went into that building to teach the gospel to whoever was making the Suti. Which is like Hungarian baked goods. So we start knocking doors and the last door we knocked on this lady open it and the smell hits us like a wave of happiness. Sadly she almost slammed the door in our face but Elder Roberts was a champion and stopped her and I don’t know what he said but he got her to give us some and we traded for it with a Book of Mormon. It was the best tasting thing I have ate yet on my mission. It was so good. Such a funny experience! haha. 

This week we had a Palacsinta Est which is like a pancake night I guess. Everyone brought toppings and we shared a thought and had a lot of fun.

This week I felt a missionary Heartbreak for the first time. We had an amazing lesson with a members’ family and taught so strongly and it was so cool. After we asked if they would like to know more and if we could teach them more and all they said was no. When you start to love someone and get attached to them and they say this, it hurts and I wasn’t used to it. It is really sad and sucked but I did my part and I hope they can accept the gospel one day.

We also got kicked out of a building this week by this old lady that thought what we were doing was a joke... haha it was super funny and we all just laughed about it. 

My last story I want to share this week was such an amazing experience. I am so grateful for it and I saw the Lord’s hand in our work. This week we saw a miracle while tracting. We started off and no one would talk to us. Everyone was being mean and just rude and so we decided to go do a look up of an old investigator. We get to the building she lives in and we can’t remember which door she lives in so we ask someone if they can tell us where she lives and they end up knowing someone by the same name we asked for. It ended up being the wrong person but we were able to get a referral from them. So we go there and right when they open the door they invite us in. We were obviously very surprised and went into the room. On the walls were pictures of Jesus and we even found pictures of Joseph Smith and a temple. So we start talking to them and find out they are members with a very sad story. We had never met them or even heard of them but they recently had a death in the family and need us to be there to help them. Just that morning we had planned a lesson for the Plan of Salvation and were able to really help them. It is amazing to be able to see the hand of the Lord in this work and was such a great experience. I know that I am here for a reason no matter how many people don’t want to talk to me. Finding these people this week was such a testimony to me that I know my Heavenly Father is guiding this work. I love being a missionary no matter what crazy stuff happens to me. I love representing my Savior and know that Jesus Christ lives. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week. 

Love Elder Ure 

P.S. I will be in Nziregyhaza for two more months with Elder Roberts so nothing new from tranfers. I love you all have a good week. 

This seamstress made him a suit

This week was very interesting. We went to the zoo on Monday and that was super fun. The tigers were going crazy... partly because we were making them mad by running around but still it was awesome. 

Then on Tuesday I started the morning off rough. I was making myself eggs and go to flip the pan and the pan brakes and the handle falls to the ground and everything goes everywhere. So I go to pick up the pieces not thinking that they might be hot, and pick up one of them and it burns my thumb and pointer finger right off. haha. I hurried and dropped it and put my hand under cold water but the damage was already done. I now have a part on my fingers with no finger print. haha It hurt super bad but I just laughed because of how stupid I was so I have been nursing my fingers back to health this week.

This week we saw even more so that Hungarians love Americans. We were on a bus and started talking to all these high schoolers that had just got on and we told them that we where from America and they all freaked out and started asking questions. So we answer all of them and when we get off the bus two of them ask to get a picture with us.... just because we are American. How crazy is that!

We also went to a museum this week.... super boring I will be honest. I am sorry if you like museums but this one was like pulling teeth. We went because a less active member works there so it was worth it I guess. The museum was just paintings and old Hungarian stuff…sooo not super exciting. 

This week in English class I taught alone because we only had two of us and there are two classes. So I go in there and its going fine and then out of nowhere this girl asks me a question about English that I didn’t even know the answer to IN English. So that was super awkward and embarrassing. 

I don’t have much time this week because the place we are emailing is closing so I will have to tell more about this week next week but I just want to share that I said the Sacrament Prayer in Hungarian for the first time this week and I was able to feel the Spirit so strongly. I love the Sacrament and it is so special to me. I know my Savoir died for me and I know this church is true. I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week. 

Love Elder Ure