DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY

July 25 

This week has been really good! We have had a hard time meeting with our investigators but we have still been able to find some people to meet with and get a lot of work done! 

I have talked to a ton of Americans this week. There is a air force base in a city close to mine so there a ton of air force guys walking around the city and they are all from Colorado. I keep seeing Broncos shirts all over the place so I just go up and talk to them and it is so nice to talk to some Americans once and a while. 

This week we met with a lady that wants to learn German but is also interested in the gospel so I was able to sit and listen to a half hour of German while my comp taught her and I day dreamed. Just kidding I made some calls and some other things but we were able to then teach her about the Book of Mormon at the end and she said she would like to meet again so that was really cool. I am going to come home knowing German too after this transfer! haha

This week was zone training in Budapest and it was so awesome. We had a training from the sister training leaders that was about how we can think about why we are here. They asked us questions about our goals as missionaries and why we are here and it made me think a lot and I am going to do missionary work totally differently from now on! It was really good to be up in Budapest and be able to talk to other missionaries and learn from each other. 

This week we have done a lot of Bookwork and a miracle came out of it. It was really amazing. We had called this lady that was on one of the papers three times and we were about to give up and put her paper in the back of the book but we decided to go look her up where she lived... which was really far away and we walked the whole way, but we got there and we didn’t know what door hers was so we just started at the top of the building and started knocking on doors to find her. We came to one and she opened the door and said hello elders! And we were like... this must be her but we asked how she knew us and she ended up letting us in and we got talking. She had met with the missionaries a year ago and they taught her kids and her. She just stopped meeting with them because the elders left and she fell between the cracks and was lost. So we shared a scripture and she said we could come back another time. She kept saying she didn’t want her boys to be Mormon because it would be to hard on her if they went on missions. hahah. 

A really funny thing that happened this week was when we had district meeting. We had it in the room we call the icebox in the church because it has the air conditioner and it is always super cold. The thing we didn’t know is that the door was broken and if it shuts, you can’t get out. So yes we shut the door and when we went to get out the door wouldn’t open and we couldn’t get out. So we had to call a ton of people to see if someone could come to the church and open the door from the outside for us. It was super funny and we finally got someone to come.

This week we found a girl that was really interested in the Book of Mormon and is trying to quit smoking. We rang her bell and she looked out her window and just stared at us and we tried to talk to her but she wouldn’t say anything so we moved on but then she yelled after and said she was coming out. So we waited and she came out and we ended up teaching her all about the Book of Mormon and we are going to go back next week and hopefully teach her and husband! It was such a miracle and was really cool. 

This week in church we had two Swiss people come so of course my companion went and talked to them and sat by them. They wanted him to translate for them but he is still pretty young in the mission so sacrament was pretty hard for him. So the second hour comes and we find a Hungarian that also speaks German and he translated for both of them, but the problem was that it was a male so when the third hour came along we needed someone to go into relief society for the women... so yes elder Romer and I went. It ended up working out that I would translate it into English and then he would say it to her in German. It was super funny and kind of fun. It was also really hard haha. Translating a relief society president that talks so fast and uses big fancy words is a task but it was super fun and I loved it.

We finished off the week with tracting and people were super mean and a guy showed me a specific figure within the first 2 seconds of seeing me... no it was not a thumbs up. The cool part is how it ended. We were walking and I had to report numbers of the week so elder Romer went and talked to people on the street. He stopped a girl and they got talking. When I came over they had already talked about the Book or Mormon and I was able to speak probably the best Hungarian I ever have. I bore a really strong testimony of it because the words just came and it felt so natural. It was so cool. We ended up giving her the book but she didn’t want it. We told her she should read Alma 32 and if she didn’t like it she could bring it back to us tomorrow morning. Well this morning she did not come back and give it back to us. It was really cool to see how much the Book of Mormon can do. 

I want to finish with saying that happiness is a decision. Some days are awful and are going to be rough but when we decided to be happy and no matter what happens to find the good in things, you will be happy. Of course there are exceptions but I believe everyone can find happiness in all situations with the Help of our heavenly father.

I love you all! 

Don’t worry, be happy.

Ure Elder

July 18

Well this week was really fast and not a lot has been going on. We had some pretty amazing experiences this week but other than that I feel like last Monday was yesterday. 

I will start this week’s email with a really funny thing that happened tracting. Elder Romer asked me what are the odds that I start my tracting approach using a magazine that was on the ground. It had some crazy looking girl with weird eye make up so it was interesting. So I said one out of ten and he counted sown and we both said 4.... so yes I had to knock on the door and start talking to this lady about eye make up. So what I did was I started telling her we are talking about this magazine and she just started laughing so I said just kidding we are talking about the Book of Mormon and she started laughing even more. The funny part is she ended up talking to us so maybe the way the get Hungarians to talk to us is joke with them about really bad make up jobs ha-ha.

This week we also got randomly invited to lunch by one of the super cool members. He walked past us on the street and he talked to us for a little and then kept walking. Two minutes later we get a call from him and he asks us if we have ate lunch yet and we say no so he says great I will be there in 2 minutes we are going out. So he took us to eat and get ice cream. It was super nice and we were able to become better friends and make a better relationship with him. 

This week we also had a very sketchy experience with a néni. We were tracting and she opened the door and just told us to come in. this never happens and she seems kinda off but us being happy missionaries of course went in. So we walk in and she closes the door behind us and locks it... So that was super weird and we start trying to talk to her and she wont talk to us. Not even one word... so that makes it even more scary. and then the phone rings. She starts talking to someone and tells them to come up so we start to freak out and tell her to unlock the door and that we need to leave, so she does and we leave but we didnt need to freak out because it was just the mail man but it was still super weird and kinda freaky.

Also this week we met with a new investigator and he was crazy but really wants the gospel. It was probably the craziest teachign ever but he wants to be baptized and have us teach his girlfriend too. He talked a lot about Satan and how he thinks Satan has control of him and that when ever he tries to find Jesus people start to be super mean to him and they fight with him and stuff like that. So of course we talked about Joseph Smith with him and he loved that. He wants to learn more and is reading the Book of Mormon but wow was he open about his life and things he has done that he wants to forget about. There are some crazy people out her but he is super cool and a really solid person. The Coolest part was when we were talking about the first vision. He stopped me after and said... now I know these things are true. I can see that you have God in you and you are honest men. I know that this is true and what you are telling me is right. It was super cool!!! He then stopped me again a little bit later and said the same thing! So maybe soon we will be having another baptism!! 

Then this week we messed with a Néni and I kinda feel bad about it but not really because she was really mean and it didn’t hurt her or anyone else. We were tracting and she yelled at us from her window for us to go away and that no one wants to hear what we have to say. So I yell back that okay but we are still going to try. She yells something back that I didn’t hear but we ended up getting let into the building and as we are walking up the stairs we hear the old lady talking to her friend saying that we are in the building and that she told us to leave and that she was going to come and find us and kick us out. So as we hear her coming this young kid walks by and goes up the stairs and she asks him if two men are down on the next floor and the kid says yes, so we creep down the stairs to the next floor and she gets to the floor that we were on and is so confused and starts coming down to the next one and so we go down one more. We go all the way to the bottom and then we just decided to leave because we didn’t want to make trouble but we took a old lady on a walk today. It was pretty funny to be honest. haha 

This week I have gained more love for the Book of Mormon. I love the Book Of Mormon with my whole heart and I am so thankful for it. It gives me strength and I am so happy I can share it with others. 

Love you all!

Elder Ure