THE BEST TWO YEARS

As I start this email I have to tell you that I don’t even know the feelings that are inside of me right now. I feel like I am feeling everything at once and I have no idea how to wrap my head around it. I am so happy. So excited. Seriously can’t wait and then I realize… Wait. I can’t leave. I love this county. I never want to go home, but the day has come and I have put in my time. 

I will start with saything that this last week has been amazing. It has been a perfect finish and I would not have wanted to end in any other way. We were able to see miracles and have some really amazing experiences. I was able to go on splits in Nyiregyhaza my first city for the last time and had an amazing time. We worked so hard and it felt so good to just give it everything I had. To speak Hungarian and to show Nyiregyhaza what I have become. 

Later in the week, I also went on splits with Elder Gentry. (My missionary that I trained.) It was a really cool experience. We both just looked at each other and were like... where did the time go? We worked all day long. We didn’t meet with anyone and usually those are the worst days ever. But once again it felt so good to just tract a little more in my totally broken and destroyed shoes. I love him and I am going to miss him. 

The last really amazing thing that happened was we were able to give another one of our investigators a baptismal date. Her name is Edit and she is really amazing. She wants to learn and it was such a cool feeling to have her accept her date on my last full working day as a missionary. It was a cherry on top. We found her this transfer on a train and now she is going to be baptized. Seriously so cool!

The rest of the week consisted of a lot of goodbyes and a lot of feelings that I don’t quite get. I’m going home? I didn’t even think this day would come. It was hard to say goodbye to all the people I have come to love her, especially Sára. She is such an amazing person and I am so excited for her to be baptized and feel the amazing power of the Gospel that I have come to know so well over my mission. It was hard saying goodbye but it will be a good reunion when I come back.  

I thought about what I wanted to write for my last email and a couple thoughts came to mind. 

Over my mission I have become a totally different person. 2 years ago if I saw myself I probably wouldn’t even recognize who I was. My mission has changed my life and I can’t write in words how grateful I am for these years in this crazy place.

I wanted to talk a little about the things that I have learned over my mission.

I have learned to be patient. With companions, investigators, people that are rude, rules, and with myself. 

I have learned how to be obedient and to follow God and his leaders that He has called. It was hard but I now know that obedience is the key to receiving God’s blessings.

I have learned how to be dedicated to something. This is for the language, the work, anything. I now can look at a problem and tackle it without thinking... ehh this is hard, can I actually do this? Yes, Yes I can. I just gotta do it.

I have learned how to have a good attitude even when life is pretty sucky and you pretty much have nothing around you that would make you happy. Life is great. You just have to make the decision. Missionary work is hard, but you just have to learn to love it.

I have learned to endure hardship. I have learned the Hungarian language from rock bottom. I have learned how to work all the way until the end. I have learned how to endure and love a companion. Enduring to the end is one of the sweetest feelings ever.

I have learned that choosing the right is always better. The right will always make you happy so why choose the wrong? which doesn’t make you happy. We all just have to see the bigger picture.

I have learned what true happiness is. Its not the happiness that is there just for a little and is a little burst of joy. It’s a constant state of mind. The gospel makes us happy and if life is hard, dive deeper into the Gospel, serve, be happy... and then you will wake up one day and say wow... I really am happy.

I have learned and am still learning to be humble. I am not perfect in anything but I am trying to be, and because of Jesus Christ, one day I can be perfect. That’s the key to it all, as long as you are trying. It’s working; you are growing and it will come. I have spent many days thinking about myself and those were the hard days and now I have learned to catch myself, and say hey… Stop thinking about yourself and go do something for someone else. Like I said I am not perfect but I am working towards it. 

I have learned how to be grateful. It’s hard to always count your blessings but when you take the time to do so... your eyes are opened to how merciful God really is. 

I have learned how to control my emotions. I have been put in situations where 2 years ago I would have FLIPPED... or done something stupid or acted like a child and thrown a hissy fit... I am not saying I don’t make mistakes and am now this totally calm and reserved person. It’s still hard, but I have learned to be calm. Talk things out and just be straight up with people. I have also learned to overcome sadness, stress, and others. This is one is still in the process like most of these but it’s getting there. 

I have learned how to pray and how to have a true relationship with my Heavenly Father.

My testimony has become rock solid. I would never be able to deny the truthfulness of the Gospel. 

I have become stronger against temptation by learning what I need to do to strengthen my walls so nothing can tempt me to make a bad choice. 

I have learned how to do hard things with the help of the Lord. I can rely on him and I know that I can do all things through him. 

The last thing that I would like to talk about it how I learned to be grateful for my trials. It is not easy to look a trial in the face and say “hey thanks you’re the best”, but it is what helps you grow. It is the key to progression and I can say that I would not be the person I am today without going through the trials of a mission. 

I would like to finish with a poem that my mom sent me a long time ago that I put on the back of my planner for this transfer. 

To some there comes a call to love a people

A nation, a land or race that is not their own.

The pages of two calendars will measure 

The lives they have touched and if they have really grown.

And more than one has come and gone unnoticed.

They find it hard to love a strangers land.

They some how lost the vision they arrived with

When others built on rock, they built on sand.

But those who learned to give, and then keep on giving.

And take their worst’s and turn them into best,

Are those who learned that life’s most sacred treasures 

Are won by those who have learned to serve the rest.

If you have been called

You better know the reason.

Without that knowledge your time is useless there.

The Master knows the answers and questions,

He will help you,

But the cross is yours to bear

To some there comes a call

To love a people 

A nation, a land or race that’s not their own.

And when it’s done with eyes of tears

They will tell you

This Nations mine.

This land has become my HOME. 

 I have loved my mission. I can’t believe its over. I love you all so much. Thank you for your support and thank you for all you have done for me the past two years.

I will see you all soon.

Sok Szeretettel,

Ure Elder 

WE MET AGAIN....

This week has been amazing. 

To start off the week, we went cooking with this cute little old lady named Kati néni. She’s the best and she taught me how to make some yummy stuff to cook when I get back. It was a lot of fun. 

This week we had three splits so the week just flew; it went by so fast. I am freaking out on the inside but it’s okay. Haha. On one of the splits we found this really cool couple that later invited us over to their house and they are both lawyers.... NICEST house I have ever been in, in Hungary. Seriously so pretty and gorgeous and it just blew me away. They fed us and we talked about who we were. They asked a million questions and we gave them the Book of Mormon and then in return they told us to pick a book of theirs that we could have and keep... I was like uhh what? So they both gave us free books. I got this cool like fantasy book. No idea what the book is but it was awesome. 

Also, during that split we had a miracle find. It was so cool. We were walking down the street and I stopped this girl and started talking to her and out of nowhere the missionary that I was with just walked away and ran after this kid. He stopped the kid and he freaked out and they hugged each other. It turns out that they new each other from a different city and this kid almost got baptized when this missionary was there and now he is in Miskolc for college... Crazy. Such a miracle that we found him and how God puts us right where we need to be. 

Later I went on splits with Elder miller. One of my best friends in the mission and we had a really good time. We had such an amazing split. It was honestly incredible. We grew so much closer and just talked and were able to help each other and just worked hard and seriously had a really cool thing happen. We met with Norbert our investigator that stopped meeting with us because he is having a hard time but Elder Miller taught him so we were able to set up a lesson. So we went over there and had a really cool teaching. At the end we asked him if he would accept a blessing for his sickness that is making it hard for him to want to do anything, it’s a type of depression I think and he accepted it. I was the one to give the blessing. Once again, it was such an amazing experience. We both felt the rush of power right as I started to talk and how the words just came and how there is no better feeling than being a tool in God’s hand. It was honestly such a cool feeling. The priesthood is real and I know it without a doubt.

The last thing that happened this week was one of the coolest things that has happened to me so far on my mission.  We have another investigator that is going to be baptized. The even cooler part is that it was the woman that I found this summer on the bus on that really hot day. I remember back and I really didn’t want to talk to her but I got prompted multiple times to talk to her. So this is what happened since then… We met with her and gave her the Book of Mormon and she read all the way to Alma by the time we met again. Then by the third meeting, which was several weeks later, she had read the whole Book of Mormon and had a whole notebook full of questions and was already in Alma again for the second time. So during that teaching we had planned to invite her to be baptized so I asked her if she received her answer that the Book of Mormon was true and would she be baptized?  She kind of paused and was like “well I already know its true. I just assumed...” and we were like... uhhh and she kept talking and said I haven’t got an answer yet, I am praying about it but I already feel like it’s true. So we told her that sometimes that’s how it works and with time your testimony grows and grows until it is a sure knowledge. So I asked her again if she would be baptized on December 2nd and she said yes and was seriously beaming. She couldn’t stop smiling and I couldn’t either. I was about crying to be honest but it was such an amazing feeling and thing to be apart of... then it gets even better she goes on to tell us that ever since the first teaching she had read on the internet about the word of wisdom and so she stopped drinking coffee already. She didn’t drink or smoke or anything like that anyway, but just by herself she stopped drinking coffee and then said... and I think I will be getting a new job so tithing shouldn’t be a problem either.... that’s when I just lost my mind. I almost jumped up and ran around for a second. So we finished the teaching and Elder Durney got out of view and literally ran down the street screaming and jumping up and down and just freaking out. Seriously one of the coolest things that has happened to me to know that another is going to be baptized, that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that she feels the power of the Gospel. Miracles do happen. People are prepared. Even in Europe. I come to the end of my mission and I look back at all the.... ooohh Europe is hard comments and the oohhh that’s a hard language stuff and I’m just amazed at how easy God makes it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a grind and I have never done anything harder in my life, but with God it’s possible. 

I want to finish with my testimony of the restoration. I just finished the Doctrine and Covenants and it was such a cool experience reading it as a missionary. I learned so much and my testimony grew so much. I know that the church has been restored. Over my mission it has gotten to a point where I cannot deny it. I have felt it confirmed multiple times while reading the scriptures or when I use the priesthood. It’s amazing. I love God and I am so grateful He restored the truth in its fullness. I Love you all. Have a good week.

Ure Elder

OVER TIME! GOING HARD!

This week was awesome! It was a grind but we had a lot of really cool stuff happen and I am really happy with how it turned out. We had disappointments and success so it was a normal missionary week. 

First of all, I am healed... Last Monday was crazy. I was way sick but I refused to stay in side... “Nobody got time for that.” So we went out and talked to people and had a really good time actually. Talked to some really cool people. I then went inside. Took about as much Nyquil as I had left and went to bed, woke up the next morning with a way stuffy nose but other than that was healed!! It was awesome. 

We spent this week looking old investigators up. We would walk from house to house and talk to everyone that came in our path. It was good and we talked to a lot of people. 

This week we went out to this little village. It was awesome. It is super small with little clay houses or like cement houses and we looked up some people that we talked to in the city. They said for us to go out there and we had some time so we did and we found them at home. When we walked up to the house the family lost their minds. They were so happy to see us and thought that we were never going to come. They let us in and we talked to them. We are going to go back and hopefully start teaching them because we weren’t really able to teach anything when we were there. They are really cool though. It’s a house consisting of three families and we are going to meet with all of them... GOLD MINE.

We also tried to help these two old ladies find their ancestors on family search... I don’t know a lot about family search. (Which I am repenting about. Haha) But we tried to help them and pretty much could not do anything so we were just like...uh we will call someone and have them come help us on a different day but they were cool about it. It was hard because these people new pretty much nothing about their parents or anyone after them. 

Later in the week we were walking on the street again just talking to people and we stopped this guy that was really cool. He started off not really wanting to talk but we asked where he was going and told us to his friends and that his friend was going through a rough time right now in his life and so we were like... well that’s why we are here. Is to make people happy and our message is the key. So he invited us to go with him and we had a really awesome talk. Talked about some crazy theories about God but we taught a lot.  They even told us about this really cool hike that leads to a cave that we are going to do next week... This week we are learning how to cook from a Hungarian Old lady, SO STOKED!!!

I want to finish with a miracle from this week. We were finally able to meet with Sára. She is the woman that I found on the bus and she has read the whole Book of Mormon but just wasn’t able to meet. This week we finally met and she brought this notebook. So we sit down and start talking and I was like well you told me you have a lot questions so just go for it. SO she opens her book and is like well, I have now read the Book of Mormon and I am now reading it for the second time, I have a lot of questions but I really like it. So she just started asking all of her questions and they were so awesome. She understood the Book of Mormon so well. While we were talking it hit me again how important the Book of Mormon is. If someone wants to know why Mormons do what they do, why we are so happy and why we have such strong faith all they need to do is read the Book of Mormon. This woman is reading the Book and I know she will find out that it is true because she is studying it and is looking for the answers. If anyone needs anything in life, guidance, happiness, hope, joy, seriously anything…. The Book of Mormon will bring that into that person's life. I have experienced that in my own life. When I tell people about the Book of Mormon I usually ask them what they have to lose. IF this book is true, all it will do is make their life better. It makes them happy and all they have to do is open it and read it with an open heart, just soft enough, and with just enough intent that the Spirit will tell them that it is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have found it out for myself and that's why I am here. I love it and it has changed my life and I see it changing people’s lives all around me. If you haven’t yet read this book and searched its pages for answers to your life. DO it! You will never be the same. I love you all. Ill see you soon. Overtime baby its time to go hard!!

Ure Elder 

WALK WITH OPEN EYES

This week started with a straight up miracle. That’s what Csoda means just by the way. We went over to Monika’s house; she was the one investigator that came to conference. So we get talking and she tells us about how she felt that whole morning just a huge prompting just like someone was telling her that she needed to go, so she got ready and came to conference and then the whole time she was there she kept having the thought put into her head that she needed to be baptized, so she told us that she wants to be baptized and she feels like she got her answer!! So we are super pumped! I feel like this has happened to me multiple times on my mission. I have a super rough week and get my faith, patience, and love put to the test and then the next day or week comes the miracle. So that was a really cool thing that happened this week. Seriously such a miracle! 

The next day I went on splits with the new missionary here in Miskolc and it was a super good time. I love being around him because of his fire and his new missionary mistakes. It’s great. We had a really cool thing happen. While we were tracting, he was teaching me about different wars in history because he knows everything about history but that has nothing to do with anything. The best way to fill the time while tracting is to have your companion teach about something that he loves and knows a whole ton about, so I was getting educated while tracting. Anyway, this super cute old lady opens the door and I start talking to her and ask if we can come in and share our message, she says yes so we got let in... Score.  Then we sit down and she starts telling us about how she lost her husband and a child and how she is kinda in a hard point in her life... totally ready for the gospel. So we start talking about the Plan Of salvation and I brought out the Book Of Mormon and told her that she can know all that what we said was true if she reads this book. We bore testimony of it and as I was bearing testimony something popped into my head that almost got me crying but I held it together. I realized that I won’t be able to be in this situation for too much longer and how much this book means to me, so I told her with pretty much tears in my eyes that I knew this book would change her life if she read it and I gave it to her. She replies by saying she doesn’t have any money and couldn’t buy it, I told her it was free and she broke down in tears and started hugging the book and over and over kept saying how grateful she was and how she was going to read it. Moments like this are the reason why serving a mission is awesome. I love it.

To change topics a little bit… I went to Romania this week! I can now say that I have been a missionary in Romania too! The reason I went down there is because I hit my 2 year mark (silently throwing up while writing that) but I had to leave the country because my permission to be here would run out before I am actually going to leave, So the church is a little sneaky and sends us down to the border, we get a stamp and then come right back in and it gives us 90 days before we re-register or leave. So that was fun, we had 7 elders in one van and had a little road trip. I was with elder Veres and elder Miller so it was way fun! 

I also had a really cool thing happen on the drive back. I got a call from the women that I talked to on the bus a long time ago, I have written about her a little bit, but she called and told me that she was sorry for falling of the map but she said she had finished the Book of Mormon and started it over for the second time and has papers of notes and questions for us and she is praying and everything. She just is really hard to meet with... so like talk about miracles! Hopefully we will meet this week. 

I want to finish with a little note that I saw taped to a pole this week. It said, “Walk with open eyes”. I feel like lots of time we walk around with shutters around our eyes and we don’t look around to see what’s going on around us. I want to for sure walk with open eyes. To see what I can do in the world to help others and to see what things I can do with my life. I think walking with open eyes is super important. We will be able to see those that are in need.

Sok szeretettel 

Ure Elder 

MEEK AND LOWLY

Soooo this week has been super rough but I love growing and becoming better so its all good. My companion and I have just been joking about how we have been getting so wrecked for the last couple weeks. 

We have gotten dogged on like a million times. We have set up so many lessons and our investigators just don’t show up. So it’s been a little rough but we will survive. 

One thing that happened last week was super sick. I have always wanted to do this. We were walking on the street and a bunch of kids walk up and so we start talking to them. They were like 13-17 years old and they all played soccer, so we started to talk to them and tell them who we were and they were laughing and making fun of us and I was just like, hey like we are normal kids like you, I played American football and my friend ran tract, and one of the kids was like you ran track?? And he was like “yeah”, so the kid was like well then lets race and my comp did long distance so he was like okay but we would have to run like 10 kilometers and so all the kids friends were like “no” “race the football player…. So I was like okay I will race you but if I win we get to share a message with all of you. So he agreed and we decided how long we would race and it would probably be like 100 yards. So they count down and this kid takes of like a second and a half before they would have said zero so I take off after him and hunt him down and win and I was actually surprised how fast this kid was.... but I still won :) haha I told him good race and was like “you really are fast, well done” and then we went back and taught these kids the restoration and said we might come play soccer with them sometime. It was super cool. This was my little moment of pride for the week. haha

Later in the week we went to Eger for splits and had a really cool split. In the morning we ran to the top of the Eger castle. It was way pretty and we got to look out over the city and see the sun come up and the church’s bells rung. We had a way good split and we are focusing a lot on family history right now and we talked to everyone about that and got like 15 potential investigators. It was way cool so hopefully the Elders will be able to meet with them and get some new investigators. The best Hungarian pizza is in Eger and I had it for the last time and it was amazing! RIP. So good. 

We also were pretty humbled this week. One of our investigators is done learning about the church and doesn’t want to hear more. He gave us back all his books that he has received from us and I will never forget the feeling I had when he put them into my backpack. It just hurt. He is going through a really hard time right now and is not in the mood to learn more which made it even harder because we know that this is the time when he really needs it. So we left that teaching pretty wrecked and with low spirits. It was really sad. I don’t think there is any worse feeling than when someone gives you back something that is more important to you than anything in life. It was rough.

We finished the week on a good note though. Conference was really great. I really enjoyed listening to it in Hungarian one last time. I learned that I need to be more humble... (hence the story about me wrecking some kid in a race... haha, I’m sorry) I am trying but it was cool so I had to share it. For real though I feel like I received personal answers about how I can grow closer to God and I think we all can be better in the meek and lowliness. I want to work on that and I am really grateful for conference.

I love you all! 

Ure elder