Budapest week

Well week has been crazy to be honest. All that has happened and the new changes. I feel like I am on another planet. 

Saying goodbye to Bence and his family was for sure one of the hardest things that I have done so far on my mission. It was super rough but I will see him again I think while I am here and I will for sure be coming back to visit him. 

Well, Elder Veres and I are already homies. From the first moment we already are super good friends. It was like we got put right back into the mtc and we are just back serving together and not knowing Hungarian... but we do know Hungarian and we are in the middle of Budapest. It is awesome! haha. We are going to work out super hard this transfer because at our church building, which is the stake center in Hungary, there is a basketball court like 3 minutes from our house so it is going to be super awesome. 

This week not a lot happened because we had to get settled in and we didn’t have anything set up so it was a pretty normal week and we just worked and tracted and streeted. It was really funny. We went out to the boonies because our area is massive and so we were in the middle of nowhere. It will be really cool to serve here because we have the city aspect but we also have the hills and the little towns outside of Pest. Tracting is super fun with Elder Veres because we joke around and make it fun. I think it will be really good. I have already had one time were I broke out laughing mid conversation because I couldn’t hold it in while we were talking to someone. They laughed and were like “wow you are both super happy”. So that was cool. 

The ward here is huge and the weirdest part is that it is in English. This is the international ward so there are a ton of Americans that live here so they translate mid sacrament and we are able to talk to Americans and it is really weird. It’s like I am almost back in America. It is super weird... I also am going to get a block of American cheese because one of them said that he could bring me one. I haven’t had cheddar cheese in daaayyysss. So that will take some time to get used to but it will be really good I think. 

I am getting used to the new life well and I think and I have a crazy story. This week we got a call and it was from the assistants and they asked if we could set up a teaching for Sunday night because an area 70 will be in Pest for a meeting and he wants to come teaching with us after his meeting. It was crazy... we were like wait, what. So we set up a teaching for Sunday night and an hour before we call the guy and he got super sick and canceled so in like a half hour we set up another teaching with someone else that isn’t that serious and we met with him with an area of the seventy... it was so scary but also super awesome. It wasn’t super long but still went well and I can now say I went teaching with a 70. ha-ha.

I want to finish with another story that happened this week. It was really cool. We went over to visit a woman that is really sick with cancer and she asked for us to give her a blessing and this was the first time I have ever met the woman. She was really nice and we got along right of the bat. She asked me to give her the blessing so I did. During the blessing I said things that I didn’t even know. I said things about this woman and about her life that I could never have known because I had only met the woman 30 minutes before this. It was really cool blessing and the words just came. I didn’t even have to think and I think it was the best Hungarian I have ever spoken. After the blessing the woman turned to me and asked me how I knew to say those things and that it was exactly what she needed to hear right now in her life. It was a really cool experienence for me and I have never had something like that happen to me. I knew God was speaking through me and it was one of the coolest things that I have ever done. I know that God can speak to us today through the priesthood and that his power is on the earth again today. He loves us and is watching over us we just need to turn to him and put him first in our lives.

I love you all have a great week!!

Elder Ure

New Suit shopping

Ripped out pants

Eight months left!!

TRANSFERS and someone's life will forever be changed...

Well the news is in! I am leaving Győr and my new city will be in the heart of Hungary! I will be going to Pest and will be a Zone leader there!! I am super excited because I will be in the big city and I think that will be a cool thing to experience and I will be able to see all the amazing things of Budapest! I will also be serving with one of my very old comps... even back to the beginning. Elder Veres! He was my Companion in the mtc and I am so stoked to be serving with him again! It is going to be so great! I can’t wait! 

This week was super awesome. It was super hard knowing that I will be leaving and saying goodbye to everyone but it was a really great week to end on and I am very grateful for the time I have spent here! 

At the beginning of the week, we went on splits with the assistants’ and we had a super good time ha-ha. We worked super hard but I have to tell you what we did after we came in for the night. So one of the elders had waxing strips so of course we all had to wax something ha-ha. So we spent the night ripping each other’s hair out and punching each other because of the pain... ha-ha It was a very testosterone filled night. It was good to be a couple of guys messing around for a little. We also worked hard and had great success. We got let in to a very nice old ladies house and we didn’t stay long but the only reason was because she was scared... so they are going to go back and meet with her when someone else is home. It was a great split.

Later in the week, we went on splits again with the Sopron Elders and I was very impressed with the elder that I served with. It is only his second transfer and he has memorized 5000 words and is a beast at the language already. He is a stud. His name is elder Lowe and he is a great missionary and we had a really cool thing happen during our split. I told him that I wanted him to decided where we should go tracting; one because I have almost tracted the whole city of Győr and two because I knew he had the faith to find someone that would be ready for our message. So we went to a street that I had been on but the houses didn’t look familiar so we started to tract and we knocked on this old man’s house and he let us in and we were able to talk for 5 or 10 minutes and then... he asked us to leave. It was actually really weird, he just changed all of a sudden and was like okay we are done here and showed us to the door... so we left and we just kinda laughed about it and kept going. A couple minutes later we knocked on another door and a man opened the door and we saw into the house and it was a family having dinner. So we introduce our message and ourselves and he let us in! As we walked in his wife peeked around the corner and turned to her husband and was like are you serious...? He laughed and brought us in and started talking to us. THE FAMILY WAS SO NICE. The wife warmed up to us and even offered to feed us dinner on the spot. We said we just ate which was true and we were able to share the message we brought about the Book Of Mormon and they were super interested. The father said he was going to read the book and the whole rest of the family too. I am so excited to hear what comes from it because I think it will be super cool. It was a miracle and super super cool. 

Also this week we had a cool lesson with a member family that is having their young girl prepare to be baptized and they invited us over to make it "real." So we went and taught the restoration to her and treated her like she was an investigator. We taught it by making a puzzle and it was about Jesus Christ gospel and what Jesus did on the earth, we then talked about when he died and the truth was lost... so we ripped up the peace of paper into pieces and taught her that Joseph smith was the one that put it all together again. I think it clicked for her and was super cool. They are the best family ever and I love them. They will for sure be missed. I will send pictures next week hopefully because this week I can’t send pictures where we are emailing from! 

This week was also super hard. Saying goodbye to everyone was rough and I think that was the hardest part about staying here for so long. I will miss these people so much. I said goodbye to Roland last night and it was so sad. I love that kid so much and it was really cool to see how much we have changed each other’s lives. I will miss him and how weird he is. He is such a funny kid. I just laugh every time I think about him. It was hard saying goodbye but it will be a good change. It was really cool to see that Roland’s life will never be the same and I was a part of that. Elder Gentry and I found him and now I am leaving and he is going to be different forever. It is really cool.

This week I shared my last spiritual message in English class from Alma 36:21 I talked about why it was my favorite scripture and what it meant to me. This verse talks about when Alma saw the contrast of when he was righteous and when he was wicked and I love this because I can apply it straight to my life. I have been in the same place that Alma was and I know what it is like to live without the help that we can receive from God and I have also lived with the help from God and there is a huge difference. I am so grateful for the help that God gives us and the pure joy that comes from the gospel. I feel like it is worth a shot trying to live righteous and with God for a little because I know all that will happen in your life will get better. I love this work and I love you all. I hope you have a great week and I am excited to tell you all about the city life!!! 

Ure Elder 

This mission has changed my life...

Feb. 13, 2017

Well this week was super awesome. I had some pretty life changing experiences that I feel like I will remember for the rest of my life. 

I will start at the beginning of the week with splits. On Tuesday we went to Tatabánya for splits and I got to serve with Elder Leavitt again. He is super cool and I like serving with him a lot. He is a genius and always teaches me random facts that just blow your mind. It was one of the best splits I have ever been on. Before we left that morning I prayed that we would be able to find someone that would be baptized in the future during our split. I really wanted to try and bring a miracle with me to the elders there and all I thought to do was to pray for it so I did. While I was there we were able to get let into a home and teach an amazing restoration lesson to a young man that is very open to religion and I was able to teach from a bean bag on the floor so that’s a cool experience that I will never forget. I am preaching the gospel in comfort that’s for sure. It was great. Then while we were walking on the street we decided to stop a man and we had a really great conversation with him about our church and we found out that he had met with missionaries a long time ago but the relationship was somehow lost and he wanted to find the missionaries so bad that he almost got on a plane and flew to Utah to find the Mormons. When I heard this I about lost my mind and was just stunned. We got his phone number and I hope those elders will be meeting with him soon. It was a really great split and I am very grateful for the miracles that I was able to see and for the power of a prayer. It was super, super cool.

After that we had interviews with President Szabadkai, which was super great. I always like talking to him and just being able to hear the advice and help that he can give. It was a good interview. Sadly he didn’t drop any hints if I will be leaving or not but I think I will be. I have been here for a super long time but we will see next Tuesday! 

We also saw a crazy miracle in our own work too this week. This week we received a call from a man that has been learning about us ever since he saw us on the street one day and he decided to give us a call so we could meet and so that he could learn more. This never happens so we were super excited to meet this guy so we set up to meet before English class and we were able to meet with him and taught one of the best lessons we have ever been able to teach. It was amazing and the spirit was there and we just went through the restoration and just had a really good talk and answered his questions. We will be meeting with him again this week and I think he has some serious potential. We are super excited!

This week I was humbled a ton and I was able to look inside myself and realize that there are some things that I need to work on before I can try to help others work on themselves. We met with an investigator that has a really hard situation and it was always hard for me to go to his house because of how the house smelt and looked and just the atmosphere. When we went this time we talked to him and he really opened up and told us about his life and how if he cleans and does the things that it would take to make himself and his house cleaner he and his son would starve because they do not have the money to clean to the point they would like to. They were really sensitive about it and I could tell they wished they could invite us into a big very clean house but they just don’t have the money. I for sure repented super hard because I felt super bad after. The things you learn on a mission I feel like you can’t learn anywhere else. I am really grateful for that experience and I am going to try to be better to not judge and to love more.

This week we were able to also meet with our old lady investigator that is just the cutest. I love her. She just won’t do anything, which is the hard part.... so we are working on that. She promised she would read the Book of Mormon everyday and try to see the difference in her life and then she is going to come to church this week so I am excited. I once again had to dodge her when she tried to kiss me on the cheek. Ha-ha I was talking about how I new I would understand a older woman’s prayer before I came on my mission and I told her that she was that woman and she flipped! She was so happy she just couldn’t help but come after me with her bright pink lip-sticked lips ha-ha. It was a good time. 

This week was the awesome week of Roland’s baptism!! It was really great and went super super well. Elder Gentry did a really great job when he baptized him and then on Sunday when he gave him the spirit. It was super cool because I trained him and now he is speaking Hungarian and doing all this cool stuff I am just proud of him. It was really cool to see. The baptism went really well and I was able to give a talk about the spirit, which went super well I think. I talked way longer than I meant to...  I think I went for like 25 minutes or something I didn’t even realize it. I think it went all right and I was happy about it. Roland was super happy and he is making friends with kids in the ward so I think he is on the right track. 

I would like to finish with a really cool and but kind of sad story. This week we were streeting and started talking to this guy on the street. It was super awesome because he was black and he immediately started talking in English and come to find out he speaks no Hungarian at all but has now lived here for a year. He was a super cool guy and even invited us to go clubbing with him... had to turn that down! But we had a really good talk and got his phone number. The next day we called him and he said we could come over and talk to him. So we went over to his house and we got to know him... I was so humbled hearing about his life and anything that I thought was hard about my life flew out the window. This guy has been through it all. He lost his parents when he was a kid and his older brother and the last thing his mom told him to do was to just run, to leave where he lived and to just go and make a new life. So he ran away and made his way to Hungary and started a life here. He is Muslim but doesn’t really practice his religion obviously because it would be hard to do that here in Hungary. We talked to him about the plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon and at the end of the conversation we asked him to pray to know if it was true. He bowed his head after we explained how we usually pray and he just sat in silence. We waited and when he looked up he seemed so light and just smiled and said.. It’s good. It was really cool and made me realize that. The gospel is good. Life is good. We have so many reasons to be happy we just need to be the people to decide that. It was a really life changing experience for me and I am so grateful for it. I know that anyone can find happiness through the gospel and I know that life is hard but for some, it’s way harder, so we need to be super grateful because you never know what the person next to you is going through.

I love serving here. It has changed my life. 

Elder Ure

Feb. 6, 2017

This week is snowed again and it was a blessing from above. I was so happy.

Last p-day we met with Roland and his mom. It was the second time that we have been able to meet with his mom and we were able to bring Mecséri Oliver and his son. They are like the coolest people in the ward and they helped a ton to teach him more about baptism. We talked about the baptismal covenant and she was really interested. She said that we could continue to talk to her about the gospel. Roland is doing really well and he is ready for his baptism. He is a very amazing person and I am so grateful to have been able to teach him. He will be the first person that God has put on my path and I have been able to find that I will be able to see be baptized. I am so grateful that I have been given this opportunity and have been able to teach him the gospel. The only problem is that Roland has started to learn words from the internet and he only decided to learn swear words in English so we will be teaching and he will spit out swear words... so we are working on that. Ha-ha 

Also this week one of the most frustrating things happened and I was so mad... We were going to look up this German guy that said that we could come back and share a message with him so we walk up to his door and this old couple is carrying a bunch of random stuff out of the door so we asked if we could help and they said well actually we don’t need the help here but we need it somewhere else and so I told them that we could go there and they agreed so we rode our bikes over there and we figured out that they were helping move things for a German guy... the guy we were looking for. So we walk in and say hey we are the Mormon missionaries we saw that these old people needed help and we wanted to ask if we could help them move your things... note: this guy spoke n0 Hungarian and only spoke English and German. He turns around and sees that we are missionaries and is like no you are from the church we don’t want anything. And I was like we aren’t trying to give you anything we are trying to help you move your stuff and he was like just go away we don’t want anything to do with your church. So I am like getting heated because I don’t want to make these old people carry this guy’s stuff up 4 flights of stairs and it was a ton of stuff. So I was like okay look we just want to help these old people so they don’t have to walk up and down the stairs with all this heavy stuff and he was like. Leave.... I was like about to explode so I calmed myself down and just walked away and went back to the old lady and told her that he wouldn’t let us help and she was like... well if he wont let you help just help me and you wont have to say you were helping him ha-ha So we carried all the stuff up and just didn’t let him see us. So it was cool because the lady was really happy.

The next day we visited the cutest little family in our ward that has a young boy and two little twins. They fed us dinner, which was such a blessing, and then we shared a message. During the message I was sitting on the couch and the kids started out calm and then the sugar from the dinner hit and they went 0 to 100 so fast. They started jumping all over the place and pretty much used me as a jungle gym... it was great ha-ha I just sat there as these two 1 and a half year olds climbed all over me. One of them stopped and grabbed onto my arm and sat next to me while I talked and just laid her head on my arm... it was so cute I died. 

This week we also found a pretty crazy guy ha-ha. We some how set up a teaching with a random guy and he didn’t live where we thought he did and so we went searching for him and we couldn’t find him. We were standing in the middle of the road in a pretty sketch part of town and these kids walked up to us and started talking to us and one of them was like hey I am who you are looking for and we were like for real? So we start walking with him and he makes up this story that goes along with what we thought and right as we start asking him questions about how we met first he brakes and starts begging for money. So it was super sad but we had to leave and walk away and so we kept trying to find the real person and when we decided to give up we saw him walking across the street and he yelled at us and was like hey I am who you are looking for. So we go to his house and we started talking to him about the gospel and we got into the craziest teaching ever. This guy was getting to pumped up about our message that he would stand up and start singing and saying praises and all this crazy stuff. So he was super happy to hear about the gospel but we are not sure how legit he is because he has lived a crazy life and we don’t know how it will work out because he has done some bad stuff and had been on hardcore drugs so we will see but it was cool because he wanted to change his life around. So we are going back this week. 

Also this week we went on splits in Szombathely and it was super fun I went on splits with an Elder from Germany and it was a super good time. He speaks pretty good English and is a total stud. One of the funniest things happened though while we were tracting. We went into a building because a neni let us in and I was a couple of steps behind this elder and the neni and so they went into the elevator and the doors shut before I got in and it took off... So I was left by myself just laughing because I know this elder is just freaking out because he is a new missionary and he was along with a woman... So when it comes back down the doors open and his face is pure white and he just says.... I am so sorry... I just started laughing and told him it was totally fine but he totally thought he was going to get in a ton of trouble. It was really funny. 

This week in our own work we are still having a hard time meeting with people so we have been finding a lot. We have been doing look ups and calls and trying to get solid investigators that are willing to her our message. This week we had a couple miracles happen. One of them just happened yesterday on Sunday. Earlier in the week while we were tracting we found a younger man that let us into his home and we were able to talk to him about why we were here and shared a message with him and he said we could come back and he would introduce us to his roommates. So yesterday we went back and we were able to meet with 3 of his roommates and all of them wanted to learn more. One of them asked me to write my testimony in The Book of Mormon that I gave her and told us that she is going to read it and pray about it. It was a really amazing experience for me and I saw God’s hand in our work. We were able to set up a return appointment and we will be meeting with all of them next week. I know that God is preparing people for our message; we just have to work hard to find them. It was a super cool experience and I am pumped to meet with them again.

This week is Roland’s baptism and we are so excited. He is ready and it will be really great. All the members are helping a lot so it should turn out really great. 

I would like to finish with something I learned this week. Sometimes in the life we see people and we don’t know what they are going through. We don’t know what happened two minutes before you talked to that person and we don’t know what they have been through and that’s why it is never a good thing to judge someone even if they act in a bad way towards you. I learned to love those that reject you. And to try to understand where they are coming from and to help them from there side. I love you all so much have a great week.

Elder Ure

ps... I hit my 2/3 mark tomorrow.... crazy