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 

Well sadly this week I am getting ripped away from my trainer Elder Murdock. An Emergency Transfer came and some other Elder in a different town needed a companion so he is leaving me Wednesday. Sad I know but he will do great. 

Anyway, this week has been great! So much has happened! First things first; a funny tracting experiance. So we are tracting this building and this lady opens the door and invites us in right off the bat... this never happens. So we were surprised and walked in and when we got in she realized that she didn’t know us and kinda freaked out. She thought Elder Murdock was someone she knew but actually didn’t. So we calm her down and ask if we can share a message and she agreed. She ended up listening and opening up to us about her life. She started to cry and it was really sad but we are going to come back and visit her again soon and try to help her. The funny part is apparently during our message she said that we are all so cute but turned to me, but said but him, his hair and eyes and smile is just gorgeous..... So it is good to know that super old Hungarian women think I am attractive. hahah. 

This week we had a missionary broadcast that was really great. It was hard to understand because it would freeze because the connection was bad but I was still able to get some great things from it! 

This week we went on splits to Miskolc! It was a fun train ride looking out the window and then sleeping over at the Zone leader’s apartments. I was able to go tracting and get let in by this guy that loved football. I pretty much got let in because I suck at Hungarian and he wanted to teach me and said he didn’t want to hear anything about our church but just wanted to talk. So we go in there and end up talking all about our church. Pretty cool how that works. I was able to talk pretty much the whole time. I have never spoke that well in my mission yet and it was such a great experience. I taught him about the plan of salvation and missions and the Book of Mormon. It was so cool to feel the spirit in the room and see it touch his heart. The Gift of Tongues is real. It is an amazing thing.

I also got some glasses while there and we look like the companionship from the Best Two years! haha. 

On the way home, I sat next to a girl and tried to talk to her and sometimes this goes well and sometimes it goes bad. This was a time it went bad. She was very awkward and I didn’t speak Hungarian and it was a very long train ride. I still was able to tell her what I believe but it was super weird and even worse me not knowing the language very well. haha it was a growing experience. 

We were able to meet with an investigator this week and he pretty much taught us. He knows and believes everything we teach him and is the coolest guy ever. He for sure needs to get dunked. I feel the spirit so strong when we meet with him and just know that he was put in place for me to be able to help. I love him and hope God can guide him and me to say the things that will guide him to the Gospel. 

I will end with a funny story and then a spiritual thought. This week a drunk guy started talking to us and was just laughing and all over the place so we started to try to see how many pass along cards we could get into his pocket without him noticing. I was able to put two in without and disturbance. Missionary work can even be done to drunk people. haha

This week I shared 2 Nephi 22:2 with an investigator and I wanted to testify of its truth. Please go look it up its a really good one. I know that this scripture is true. If we trust in God there is no need to be afraid. I know that everyone goes through times in their life were we have no idea how we are even going to survive. I know that God can strengthen us and that he is our salvation. I would not be able to keep going if I was not strengthened every day by My Savior. I can’t learn Hungarian alone but with Him I can. I know we can go through anything with the help of God. I love you all and I hope you have a great week and don’t forget that you are never alone.

Szeretlek titeket

Elder Ure  

The Squad

Gross food

Gross food we hated eating 

He loves white tigers

big Lions

Monkeys!

train ride

Miskolc

sharks at the zoo?

zoo day

which elder am I? from The Best Two Years...

P-day

Jan. 18, 2016

well... This week has been insane. haha. 

So I will start this email with the crazy stories of this week and the funny ones and then be more spiritual. 

So this week I was able to experience many lovely meals of Hungary. The first was when we got invited over for Breakfast at the same house as the guy that fed us salmon. So we sit down and he brings out this plate of sausages. One of them was completely black and he said we had to try it. This is called blood sausage. It is made by pretty much blood of the pig... random gross parts of the pig that normal people don’t eat, put into a sausage. So I put it into my mouth and about died. Tasted like iron and just nastiness. It was so gross. Look it up on the Internet because wow is it nasty. 

The next experience will be told to my children and they will tell it to theirs’ and so on. We went to a family’s house this week to pick up our phone that they had and they invited us to come in and sit down so we did. When we got to the table, we saw a patty like looking thing of meat. Like all kinds of meet made into a hamburger looking thing. So we sit down and they offer us some and we say no but of course they force us to have some. As I am sitting there my companions at what it is and I couldn’t understand but their reactions told me all I needed to know. What I was about to eat was Pig head. It had pig tongue, Ear, and everything else on a pig’s head. So we had to eat it so I put it into my mouth and was so close to throwing up... multiple times. It was gooey and hard and tendon-y and just the nastiest thing I have ever had in my life. I barely got it down. It was awful. That wasn’t the end of it though. After that the dad of the family said he had a surprise for us and ran out the door... We knew we were done for. He comes back with two cans. One was Octopus and the other was oysters... in a can.... bought at night.... in the middle of Hungary... ya no thanks... So what we did being clever missionaries is made a deal with him. He said he never will come to church but we said if we eat both of these cans, you have to come to church. He agreed and we dug in. We finished them both with much pain and suffering but we did it. Did he come to church..... well no he didn’t. So sadly it was all for nothing but maybe he will come this week. It was an awful experience but will never be forgotten. 

Then this week after English class, one of the guys wanted to show us his car so we got in and he had a full on karaoke set up in his car. So we start going crazy to “We are the Champions haha. It was a good time. We got some weird looks from passing people though that is for sure. 

We also went to a funeral this week. It was a very interesting and sad experience. The person performing it was a women Priest and she wouldn’t even look at us. It was super rude. It gives me a testimony that there is life after death just by going to a funereal not put on by my religion. It was a cool thing to experience that’s for sure. 

I had the most humbling experience this week besides every week with the language. Which is still impossible if you were wondering...

Anyway, this week I bought new shoes. I love them and they are super cool. I threw the bag they gave me to carry my shoes in away in a dumpster outside our apartment not thinking anything of it. The next morning we walk out of our apartment and see an older women and a really young girl looking through the garbage. This is normal and I see it all the time here so I wasn’t thinking anything of it until the mom pulled out my shoe bag and handed it to her daughter. They turned and walked away and I just watched them. It hit me so hard to see such a young girl walking away with some of my trash and made me so grateful for what I have. So many people have nothing and it is so sad. I just hurt seeing it and wanted to help so bad. It is very different when you see people looking through the trash and they pull something out that used to be yours. It taught me so much and made me so much more grateful. 

This week’s sport update is a pretty great one too. We played football in the snow and it was super fun sliding around and catching balls and all that. After we went and played basketball and I made proabally the best shot ever. So Elder Murdock tried to pass it behind the back to me and it went to far so I ran after it and it was a little past half court when I caught it. Right when I got there, I picked it up with one hand turned and just chucked it with one arm from almost 3\4 of the court away.... drain it. goes right in and everyone lost there mind. I was running around yelling and screaming and going crazy haha. It was so awesome. Ball is life.

Anyway, now onto more spiritual things. 

This week we found someone that I feel like I was meant to find. We found him in a cafe we usually go to email. He is the coolest guy ever and needs to be Mormon I am serious. He believes in everything we say and wants to know more. Coolest miracle ever. I showed him pictures of my family and talked about them and just became super good friends. The best part is he speaks English so we can actually talk. When I was showing him pictures of my family all he said is you guys are all smiling so big. I like that. It was so cool to see that he can notice how happy my family is even just by smiles. He also said that about the picture of when I was going into the MTC which we all were a wreck in but that’s not the point. The point is that he can notice a family in the gospel and it really amazed me. He is all about goals and wants to go somewhere in life and said something I will never forget. He said that we all have 24 hours. It made me think. There are so many successful people in the world and they all have the same amount of day to work. It's how hard we works. I love that a lot. 

The last thing I want to say is a story about us streeting. We were walking the streets and I went up and talked to these two random ladies on the street. They were cute little old Hungarian ladies and I asked if I could practice with them and just talk. They said yes so I sat down and started to talk to one by myself. It was a struggle but I ended up telling her all about my family, about my life and then taught her the restoration and gave her a Book Of Mormon. I only got a little help when I didn’t know the words. I don’t know this language but I was able to use my hands and describe things and I saw the gift of tongues for the first time in my life. It was soo cool. I know that God really does answer Prayers and that he is with all of us. If we pray and ask for help we can be helped. I am so grateful to be a missionary and I love it. I have never done anything harder but this week it was all worth it. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Love 

Elder Ure 

Dec. 28, 2015 - Jan. 11, 2016

January 11, 2016

This is going to be a short one this week Sorry!! This week has been a hard week. I found out that the US army ranked Hungarian as the Number 1 hardest language to speak in the world so that’s comforting. haha. 

I had a very cool experience this week though. I was at a meeting and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony about how I found out the Book of Mormon is a true book. I was able to share how I went on Origination and how I read the whole book in two weeks. I shared how I didn’t receive an answer until after during the testimony meeting. I shared how strongly it was conformed to me that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. After I shared this in my broken Hungarian a handicap kid in our ward came up and said to me that while I was talking he could see the spirit in me. It was a really amazing thing to hear. It made all the hard parts of my mission worth it. It made my week. I really do know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and if you read it, you can know that also. I challenge you to read it. It will change your life. 

A funny thing that happened this week was during sport day when I was playing basketball. We invited the football to come and some guys came. One of the guys is seriously hulk and a lumberjack put together. He is a monster. Such a big human being. Anyway, I was going in for a layup and well... hulk punched me in the face and I about went down. Made my chin all bruised. haha. He felt so bad but I just laughed and said it was fine. He is a really good guy. It was funny. We are hopefully going to try to meet with him soon. 

This week was not very exciting but I am learning everyday. Hungarian is super hard and I am trying super hard. I love it here. Have a great week I love you all!! 

Elder Ure 

 DECEMBER 28, 2015

Sziasztok

Well I have a ton to write about this week because last week I didn’t have a computer to use. sorry. I will try to fit it all in. 

So Christmas was so awesome. Christmas eve nothing special happened besides me climbing on the statue. haha that was fun and I got a cool picture from it too. haha Then for my Christmas eve feast I had noodles and cream. I didn’t have any sauce so I just used some cream... haha I guess I have had better before. Then on Christmas we woke up and just kinda hung out. It was like a normal day to me.  We then went and skyped home and it was the best. I loved seeing you all. All day we just hung out at the branch house and played ping pong while people skyped. For dinner I had the left overs of the night before soooo once again I have had better haha. I have two weeks of football updates so the first week we played like ultimante frizbee football and it was super weird. It was so cold and I couldn’t feel anything. By the end of it I was all wet and covered in dirt but it was still super fun. I was able to kinda talk to one of the guys on the team using the Hungarian I know and just explain  some stuff about what I believe and our church. It was really cool. 

  I found out a cool thing in Hungarian today. The word sacrament in Hungarain translates to Lords dinner. I really like that. It is just something kinda cool to think about. 

So last we were tracting and tracted into a Roman Catholic and it went a little crazy.  At the end Elder Roberts through me under the bus and asked me to pray... so me not knowing how to pray for anything other than things in our church, I start to pray and this guy comes out of no where and starts doing this Catholic prayer... like a memorized thing... and then stops and says for me to continue so I go again and he cuts in again... and then at the end all he says is thank you and for us to leave. Most insane experience I have had yet. Until this week but I will get to that. 

So later in the week I was going around practicing Hungarian and asking people whose tie was the best looking out of all three of us and it was super fun and we ended up meeting this super cool guy and taught him some stuff but never heard from him again. It was still really cool though. 

In a lesson this week we where teaching one of our investigators that has a Baptism date and he had a ton of questions. He had a question about a scripture and right when I heard the scripture I realized that it was exactly what I read that morning in my own studies. I was able to teach and tell him what I knew about the scripture and it was really great testimony to me that God really is watching over me and putting me in places to help people’s lives. It was awesome. 

Now onto the super funny stories of this week. hahaha I am laughing as I am typing this. So in one of our programs I pulled out my picture book and showed it to the father of the house. He is this crazy guy that high fives us every five seconds and just loves us haha. So he starts going through my picture book and comes to the picture of me and the fam in Costa Rica and gets this crazy face on him. This picture was right after football season when I was in super good shape so he turns to me and probably one of the very few English words he knows says.... Juice. Like asking if I use steroids.... Dylan and I just bust up laughing haha. It was so funny. I told him no of course and he was still just like wow. haha. 

So for news years we didn’t do much haha. During the day one of the kids from the football team called us and wanted to have us teach him some football stuff so we met with him and I was able to teach this kid how to throw the football with good form and all that in the middle of Hungary... Like what.  It was crazy cool. He is this little kid and just loves it and it made me so happy. After, we shared a message with him and then went home and got ready for the night. 

For new years we went to a party. hahah like a bunch of old people haha. We got there and just talked with people and I found a massage chair and sat in that for like an hour. Then they busted out the karaoke and put on 1D... so you know I was all over that. I sung my heart out and had fun but then we had to leave and go home because we had to be inside so we went back home. We got home and we live on the top floor of our apartment so there is this little door to the roof of the building so we pushed it open and we can get on the roof from there we found out so we got up there and just looked at the stars and fire works. It was so cool. I felt like it was a scene straight out of the Saratov approach. I always wanted to do it and I did and it was so cool. I will take pictures next time. 

We also went to my Branch Pres. Dance performance.... He is the coolest guy ever and is such a good dancer. He teaches dance for his job. Mom would have loved it because it was like dancing with the stars Hungarian style haha. 

Then this weeks’ football practice was sickkkkkkkk. I balled out haha. This week the coach asked us to put the team through some drills so we had them do foot work and all that stuff and then did two on twos with a corner and a safety. The last play Dylan and I go on offense and he runs a post and I run a corner and the QB throws the ball late to me so the defense catches up with me by the time the ball gets to me because I was gone before then... anyways haha I end up catching the ball over the corner and coming down with it to finish the practice. Everyone went crazy. The down side was that it is so cold here that the ground was frozen so it was like landing on concrete and I wrecked my knee and face. haha. Totally worth it. That was football though. This week we have a ton of guys coming to our sport day thing and we are going to teach them. It is going to be way cool. 

So I will finish with my tracting experience this week. We where knocking doors and knocked on one and these two guys let us in and right of the bat we knew they were gay. They even told us. So we start talking to them and tell them who we are and find out that they are actually way cool guys but it was a very interesting experience. Then the most insane experience I have had on my mission yet. So I walk up to a door and it was my turn to do the door approach of introducing us so I knock and this guy opens the door and he is a big dude. So I start talking and as I am talking I realize what he is wearing... He had on a way too small tee shirt and then a banana Hammock, or a really small speedo... and I got out two things and he invited us in. We where just like oh crap. So we go in and all these drugs are everywhere and we walk in and this other guy comes out and just starts ripping us apart, like saying the bible is lies and all this crazy stuff. So here we are with this crazy guy that hates us, a half naked man, and three Mormon missionaries. So we got out of there really quick. You meet crazy people here that’s for sure! 

I will finish by telling you about something I had conformed to me this week. I know that there is life after death. I realized that doubt is from Satan, and that’s what he wants. He wants us to have no hope of seeing loved ones ever again and I can testify that that is not true. We will live again after this life and we will see the ones that have already passed on. I love this gospel and I know God has a plan for me. Never give up on the one that Frees us from all of life’s trials. Jesus Christ will always be there in hard times. 

Love,

Elder Ure 

7 ft tall guy at our english classes

my Christmas box finally came!

sketchy basement

fun with pink phones

food i made

football field

first snow