Read the Book of Mormon...

This week I will start with a funny experience. So while we were tracting, we got let in to a big building and did all the apartments and on our way out we forgot to hit the button that opens the gate so we walked out and the door locked behind us and the gate was locked in front of us. So what did I do? I hopped the fence. Right as I am jumping over the fence one of the old ladies opens the door and hits the button to open the gate and just looks at me and starts laughing. So I got an old lady to laugh by being a stupid American and jumping a fence. 1 ponit for me. haha

Actually I will share two funny stories. One day this week, we were sitting in the city center watching a street performer juggle a soccer ball and this girl was sitting across from me and we both were watching the guy. So the guy ends up messing up and kicks the soccer ball super hard and it flies all the way across the road and me and this girl make eye contact and I just shrug and start laughing and she starts laughing too. So she gets up and comes and talks to us and ends up offering us jobs... We didn’t accept, but all I had to do in Hungary was start laughing and I got a job offer. It was interesting and we gave her a card so it ended up being great, but I just thought it was funny that it was that easy for me to get a job in Hungary! haha 

This week was Nyiregyhaza days! It was only one day but it was like strawberry days back home. There are singers and all these people come, it was super fun and we got to listen to a Hungarian band jam out and watch fire twirlers so I was happy. We didn’t stick around too long but it was cool to see happy Hungarian haha.

This week during a program we were asked to give a recent convert a blessing on the spot. This is always nerve racking because you have to say everything in Hungarian perfectly. So I was the one to anoint the oil and it was super cool. I have done this a couple times now and every time I just feel the difference in the room. The priesthood is truly Gods power and I am so happy that I can hold it and use it in my life. 

Another funny tracting story that was great this week was when we almost got the Cops called on us. We knocked on this door and this guy came out and we said who we are and all he said was goodbye pretty much and we asked if he knew us and he just started screaming that he was going to call the Cops on us so we left but it was hard not to laugh that he almost called the cops on the Jesus Kids.

A quick two stories about things I ate this week. This week I had one really really really yummy thing and one well...the opposite. So we went to a member’s house and helped him dig in his yard and then he gave us home-made fruit leather. Best thing I have ever hard. It was so sweet and it was 100 percent healthy. It was incredible. Then later we went back to a person that we tracted into the other day and they let us in and sat us down and asked if we had already had breakfast. We said yes but they forced us to eat. So this lady puts potatoes and some type of really fatty looking meat in front of us so we start going at it. I am eating and I see little hairs on the fatty pieces and I just put those and bread in my mouth and swallowed them... It was pretty gross. Come to find out it was pig leg! Never had that before but it wasn’t good so if you ever have the opportunity to eat pig leg I advise not to. Haha  In the end we had a really great program with this family and talked a ton about the Book Of Mormon. We taught all about it and they said that they are going to read it and that we can meet with them again! So that was a huge blessing for me and I would eat pig leg any day for that type of teaching to happen. 

This week I went in to buy bread at our normal bakery and the bread lady knows me so well that she had the bread I always get in a bag before I even said anything. That’s how long I have been here. It was super funny haha.

Also this week’s sport update… On Saturday we played soccer again and I was running up to one of the sisters and I did a rainbow kick over the top of her head. You put the ball in between your legs and kinda roll it up your leg and then kick it over your head. It was perfect and I have never done something cooler with a soccer ball. I was pretty proud of myself because I am awful at soccer. 

Now I would like to share a couple of experiences about the Book of Mormon that I had this week. The first was with a young girl that we meet with and you never thought that someone this young would ever want to read The book of Mormon but we committed her to read the whole book and she wanted to, and even said she would pray about it. Her name is Mellita and she is super cool. Keep her in your prayers! The second was an old lady that we found tracting two weeks ago and gave a book to her. When we went back she had already read 56 pages of it and had a ton of questions. It was so cool. We talked to her for a long time about it and at the end I went to help her up because she is really old and she grabbed onto my arm and pulled me and then grabbed Elder lee and gave us both the biggest hug. I know hugs aren’t allowed but this was from the sweetest old lady so I accepted it. It was so cute, but we plan on teaching her more this week!

The last happened yesterday, and was a huge miracle. We went tracting and walked everywhere to find a place to knock. After a while we found a building and I rang the bell and the first guy let us in and we went and talked to him at his door and he ended up actually letting us into his house and we had a really amazing conversation about the Book of Mormon with him. He said that he was going to read it and wants us to come back. His name is Sandor. He is a really cool guy. I would like to finish with how much I know that The Book Of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Joseph Smith translated it and it is here as a different testimony of Jesus Christ and I know that if anyone prays about it and asks with their whole heart if it is the word of God, they will receive an answer. I know that we can all receive answers and strength from it and we can be led in our lives. I love you all have a great week.

Love Elder Ure

God puts things in our life to make us better

Well this week’s email is also going to be kinda lame again because not a lot happened this week and once again I didn’t bring my note pad of stuff to write about. sorryyyyy.

This week was transfers!!! We went to Budapest and I got my new companion! He is from California and his name is Elder Lee. No he is not Asian everyone asks that here. haha. He is a super great guy and plays the sax! We are getting along great and it will be a great transfer I think. 

When we got our new companions, Elder Lee and I went and walked around Budapest for the day because I had to wait for a doctor’s appointment that night so we got to go see a lot of Budapest. It was amazing! I loved it! I went to the doctor for my back and he said to go swimming.... So he didn’t really help. That’s Hungarian doctors for ya.

The next day we had a long train ride back home and got there late in the day and had to get Elder Lee set up in his new home! I will be staying 6 months in Nyiregyhaza! A fourth of my mission! I guess I am supposed to be here or something because I have been here for DAYS haha. I love this city but I am also excited to see something new!

This week I have had to speak more Hungarian than ever before because I have to lead everything because Elder Lee is new! I have seen a massive jump in my language abilities in the last week. It has been super cool to just be having a conversation with someone and then realize that I am not even speaking English. Coolest feeling ever. I am nowhere close to knowing this language but there are times where i see that i am starting to get a hang on it! It has been great and a super great help too.... well just my happiness in general haha.

On Saturday we had a karaoke party again and it was super fun! All the missionaries sang our hearts out and it was a good time. Elder Lee and I sang “Carry on my wayward” son and killed it. It was awesome! haha-. We have pipes of angels!!

A really cool thing that happened this week was with a girl that we teach English. We are only supposed to teach English once a week in our English class but this girl asked if we could give her some help and we said yes but only once or twice and after everytime we wanted to share a spiritual message. So this week was the second time we taught her and I had to tell her that we couldn’t meet anymore unless she was wanting to meet to talk about the Gospel. I bore my testimony of why we are here and how The Book of Mormon really can change her life and she decided she wants to learn more and it’s fine to just meet and talk about the Gospel. It was an amazing experience to see that you really can be blunt with people if you have the spirit ready and if they are prepared they will accept our message.

We also went over and helped a member work in his yard and we had to split to massive tree stumps with a sledge hammer and a wedge. I got blisters on my hands from it but we split the wood like men. It was legit. Giving service to people here usually means they use you for lifting, cutting, or digging things haha. Luckily I am used to that from what I did last summer! 

I would like to finish with a quick message. I have been reading In alma recently and I have learned a lot about just having faith in God and knowing that we will be delivered or that we will be saved or even just strengthened so that we can Endure our trials. Recently I have been thinking a lot about my life and the plan that God has for me. I have been thinking, “Why do I have to stay here for 6 months of my mission?” or “why do people not want to hear our message?” or just things like that. I have learned a lot about how God puts things in our lives to make us better. Some things are extremely hard and we don’t even know what to do when they come around, or others are just people in our life that put us on the right track. All I know is that no matter what is happening in life, if we turn to God and have faith we will be on the right path. We might not understand some things or we might be frustrated that we are not getting it our way. None of that matters if we are faced towards our Savior. We will never fall because if we do, Jesus Christ will carry us until we can stand on our own feet again. I know that God has a plan for me and has a plan for my mission and who he wants me to become. I know God has a plan for everyone. All we have to do is choose to follow him and he will do the rest. I love this Gospel. I would die for my Savior because I know that he died for me. I am who I am because of Him. I know Jesus Christ lives. He is Our Savior and Redeemer. All it takes is faith to be saved.

I love you all. You are loved by Your Heavenly Father. He wants you to turn to him.

Love 

Elder Ure 

April, 12,2016

This week I had a flash back to my summer of working in yards and digging holes and stuff like that! We helped this guy that came back to Hungary from England dig holes and fill them with dirt and it was kinda fun. He had the radio going so I secretly was able to listen to music and it was the “best day ever”... 

Also this week, one of our cool investigators that fixed our bikes for free said the coolest thing to us. We tried to pay him for all he did with our bikes but he wouldn’t let us because we gave him a Book of Mormon. He said that the Book is worth so much more and that!  It was the least he could do. It was the coolest thing ever and I am so excited to keep teaching him! 

The coolest part of this week was I got a call from an Elder serving in a city called Miskolc where I have gone on splits before. He told me that one of the kids that I tracted into when I was with him is getting baptized!!! So I found a kid, introduced the gospel to this kid, and now he is going to be baptized!!! I didn’t teach him but it is still such a cool thing for me! It is awesome! 

This week I was also able to teach my first full Restoration in Hungarian. I saw and felt the Gift of tongues as I spoke and it was a really amazing experience. I was able to teach pretty much everything and it was all in Hungarian. Who would of thought that I would actually be able to do that one day??? 

Also I am getting a New companion! His name is Elder Lee! I will miss Elder Roberts a ton. He is such a good missionary and he has taught me so much. He will do great things in his new city! 

Sorry this email has been so short and lame but I will make a crazy long one next week I just ran out of time this week and forgot my notes so I didn’t have anything to write about. 

I know that this Gospel is true and anyone that doesn’t know this can find out for themselves if they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Just try it. God will answer your prayers and hears all our prayers. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Ure

April 4, 2016

Well I will start this email off by explaining the picture. The lemur picture was from the zoo today. I got to go into the lemur cage and feed them!! They climbed all over me and yes.... one did pee all over my leg if you can see in the picture on my shorts in the front. But it was totally worth it. It was so cool and the reason we got to do it was because we knew some lady that works in the zoo! It was awesome.

This week has been kinda boring so sorry if it’s not as great of an email. The work In Nyiregyhaza has been suffering and we are having a hard time finding people to teach. 

This week one of the sisters asked me to give her a blessing because she was not feeling so well and it was a really great experience. I was able to feel the spirit and the power of the Priesthood work through me. I was able to just say how I felt and the words that came to my head. The Priesthood is so real and I am so grateful to be able to hold it. 

This we WE were taught the restoration by some crazy guy... We set up to meet with a girl that we found tracting and when we walked up to the building her dad was standing there and took us up to her apartment and sat us down and started talking to us. The girl didn’t even come into the Teaching. He knew some stuff about the Mormons but was just going off about stuff that was just craziness. He started to talk about Joseph Smith and called him Roberta. He said that when he saw the pillar of light it was the big white pillar in Washington DC. But he just went off about crazy stuff. The most insane things I have ever heard. He was talking about the 4th and 5th dimension... so we quickly left. There are some crazy people here haha. 

A really fun thing happened this week too.... I got dropped by one of our own investigators. Getting dropped means that the person doesn’t want to meet with you anymore. So how it happened was I called her on the phone and said that we needed to meet again because it had been a really long time since the last time we had met, and all she said was “Actually I don’t want to meet anymore. thank you, you boys are great but I am not interested.....” all I got out after that was for her to call us if there was anything we could help her with and then she hung up on me... so that was rough but I lived to see another day!

This week I got a taste of what it would be like to serve somewhere warm or wherever this happens… We played soccer on a dirt field on Saturday and had all these kids come play with us. The youngest was no older then 5. He was so cute and was so good at soccer. I ate it and cut up my elbow and hip but wow was it fun. We ran around a ton and it was warm and it just felt so good and was just awesome. 

The Sad thing was I had to watch conference all in Hungarian and the words and type of talking they use is impossible to understand. It was super cool to hear and listen to for the first time on my mission but I wish I could have understood something. The thing I want to talk about from conference was a song that they played. “Come thou fount of every blessing”. I have always loved this song and it has truly changed my life. When I hear this song, it fills me with the spirit and I get so emotional. I was sitting in the session and I heard that they where going to sing it and I was so excited. Right when they started to sing I felt the spirit stronger than almost ever before. Hearing this song as a missionary all the way across the world made me so grateful and I felt God wrap his arms around me. I knew that a lot of people at home where listening to the same song and I knew my dad was. Ever since my dad played this song on the piano at home before church, or just at night when we all where relaxing, I have loved it. I am so thankful to be able to have the spirit with me and to be able to feel the love of God whenever that song is played. I know that This Gospel is true and I know that God is our Heavenly Father. Whenever I hear that song it reminds me of the Atonement and how we all can be saved by Jesus Christ. I was. You can be too. Don’t wait to be saved. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Elder Ure 

P.s. I loved when President Monson kissed that ladies hand as he walked out of conference. It was the Cutest thing ever and he is just awesome. 

Easter Week 2016

Well for the start of this email I will tell you about how my companion got a self-portrait this week. He seriously got painted. A member invited us over so that her daughter that is an artist could paint someone. So we went; and she sat down Elder Roberts and he had to sit there for and hour and a half without much movement. It was honestly hilarious I just sat and talked to the younger brother and he drew a picture of me. It’s awesome. She ended up doing a really good job and Elder Robi looked great. So that was the first adventure of the week.

This week I was sick for a couple days but it went away fast and was just a runny nose and a cough but I am doing good now! 

This week we went to an inactive members house that had this massive army truck that we helped him fix and start up again. I got to ride around in it and it was super cool. For sure would be my car of choice in a zombie apocalypse (which the world isn’t far from apparently) so don’t worry I am safe. The guy that has the army truck loves milk and always gives us a liter of milk while we are there and wants us to drink the whole thing in the hour we are there. He drinks 1 liter of milk just for breakfast. He’s awesome haha. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon by June 1 and he said he would do it so we hope that will help him on his way back to church. The Book of Mormon truly can build anyone’s faith in this Gospel no matter how far you have drifted.

We also visited another inactive family this week and that was a miracle. It was really cool and we usually have been meeting with inactives because the work here right now is pretty rough. The sisters have been trying to meet with these people for the past month and they have been really rude and haven’t wanted to so we just went to their house and rang the bell and out of nowhere they let us in and talked to us. They were so nice and opened up to us immediately about their life and problems and we were able to help them. It is such a miracle that God can soften hearts in just a short amount of time. 

We have had a lot of teaching where we just preach the Good word to people and hope they don’t hate us after. We have to be super blunt with people here so we pretty much just have to tell them that what they are doing is wrong and to repent. We seriously are just wrecking people with the Spirit! It is awesome! We have had some really cool programs when we just tell them that they need Jesus Christ in their lives.

We tracted in the rain and came home drenched but it was totally worth is because near the end we found a lady with a small kid that let us in right before we were about to go in. It was a small miracle but it meant a lot to me! 

It was so cool. We rang the bell and this mom came running out with this 1 and a half year old running after her. It was so cute and made me think of Abby. Anyways she ended up letting us in and we taught a short restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was hard with the little one around but man was it fun. Near the end, the little kid chucked his juice box on the floor and it blew up everywhere and so I grabbed the kid while the mom cleaned it up but missionaries aren’t supposed to hold children so I was caught in the really awkward position with this kid. It probably looked like I had never held a baby before. In the end the kid went over to where the floor was still wet and slipped all over the place and was having a ton of fun. It was hilarious. 

We had a crazy experience with a lady that said she saw Jesus when we talked to her and that is the only reason she invited us to meet with her. So I don’t know weather to think that is super cool or she is just kinda crazy. She said she talks to Jesus all the time so we are a little skeptical. 

The rude comment of the week is when I asked this old guy if I could help him and all he yelled back at me was “ya! give me some money”. So that was rude but you never know what has happened in his life so it made me feel bad for him. We are trying to love the people.

Easter wasn’t awesome but I am so glad I can remember my Savoir. We didn’t meet with anyone because no one wanted to which was hard but we ate dinner with the sisters in our stair well because they can’t come in our house. So that was super funny and will be a good memory. But other than that we just tried to talk to people and they didn’t really want to talk so it was a hard Easter but still great because of what it meant!

I would like to end with a lesson we taught this week about Alma 32 and how we have to nourish the seed every day. I know that when we read the scriptures and are constantly thinking about our Savior, our love will grow for others and our testimony will grow. If we don’t do these things, it will shrivel up and die. I encourage you all to take your scripture study even more serious and for us all to keep nourishing our seed. I love you all and have an amazing week and an awesome conference. I will be listening to conference all in Hungarian and wow is it going to be an experience! I am so excited. I love you all!!

Elder Ure 

March 21, 2016- Faith for a Blessing

Well I emailed on Wednesday(last week) so not a whole lot has happened in the last couple of days but I will try to make it interesting and put some cool stories and info into this email.

This week for English class I had to teach the pro. class alone which is always the worst because they are better at English than I am. They study English in school for years and know the grammar rules and all of that better than I do. So when you try to teach them something it never works. They already know everything or they correct you because you used bad grammar. It is rough. I am no English teacher so that is hard. It can also be very fun at times when you trick them on a word and they don’t get it right. I feel like a fool tricking grown adults but it helps me not feel so dumb haha. At the end of English class we always share a spiritual thought and because the classes where split and Elder Roberts was teaching the beginners, I gave the thought by myself. I talked about the Plan of salvation and how we can live with our families forever and one of the members that speaks great English brought up the three kingdoms of glory which is very hard to explain in just 5 minutes to a bunch of people that don’t even believe in God. So this one lady starts talking about how she can not believe anything that I was saying and starts asking super deep doctrine questions about the after life and I was the only one there to answer them so I just turned to my testimony and told them I new these things were true and ended it. I felt like it was back in the old times when missionaries would stand on boxes and just preach! So that was an interesting experience!

This week we went on splits with the Zone Leaders and it was awesome. I thought it would have been the worst day ever because all we had planned was a 4 hour block of straight tracting, but it was actually probably the best day I have had on my mission yet! We just worked super hard and gave out a ton of Books of Mormon and it just felt like I was doing something so that was a really great day. Nothing special happened just everything we did seemed like a miracle and was super fun.

On Friday I got a call from my branch President that I would be giving a talk in sacrament this Sunday. Meaning yesterday. I also got the call at 9 at night so I had 1 day to prepare a ten minute talk in Hungarian.... So I got to work. I wrote my whole talk based off a Liahona talk and felt pretty good about it. So I went to look for the Hungarian version of the Liahona and found out that we didn’t have one and even worse, it is not translated into Hungarian... So with now just a night to make a talk I restarted... In the morning I finished and just had planned to go up there and just say what comes to my mind. Pretty much go of the spirit. I had some scriptures and a little part in a Liahona to read but other than that I had nothing. So as the meeting goes on and I am going to be the last speaker, with ten minutes left in the meeting the branch president gets up and.... closes the meeting. He forgot about my talk and I ended up not even giving one. I knew I had the right Sunday because after the meeting, Members came up and asked why I didn’t talk and I just said I don’t know so maybe they will re-ask me next week.

I would like to finish with a story from this week. We met with a man we know that asked us for a blessing for his back. He had heard that we could do blessings for that purpose and wanted one. So we explained how it works and how it is based off faith and asked if he had faith and he said he did so we decided to give him one. I was the one to anoint him with the oil and I have never said the prayer for that in Hungarian and it has some really big and hard words to say but I did it and it wasn’t too bad. I also wear oil around my neck on a chain and it has come in handy multiple times already on my mission so I am so grateful that I am always ready and that I am able to always have it with me. Elder Roberts gave the blessing and it was a really great blessing. He did a great job and the spirit was really strong. After, he  got up and said he had never sat for so long without pain in his back and that he has never felt like this before. He said it was very weird and seemed to be so lost in the spirit and was overwhelmed. It was such an amazing experience and I gained such a strong testimony of the priesthood. I know that God has his power on the earth today and it can be used through the Priesthood. I am so grateful that I can be worthy to hold it and that it can and will bless many peoples lives. I know that this church is true and that God is working through Priesthood holders to perform miracles. All we need is faith and then we will see the miracles.

I love you all. Have an amazing week. 

Elder Ure

Rough but Spiritual

This week has been rough, amazing, spiritual, and back to rough.

This week we worked really hard and no one wanted to be our friend. It was rough. We had so many programs set up but all the people ended up not being able to meet or don’t even want to talk to us anymore. 

This week, the lady that we found on the street and then it was a miracle that we found her again tracting, decided that she didn’t want to meet with us and pretty much have nothing to do with us. She said we could say hi to her if we see her on the street but other than that she doesn’t want anything to do with us so that was super hard because she was perfect!

Something cool that did happen while we were streeting. What has been happening recently is Elder Roberts bails on me and just tells me to go talk to people so I can learn and practice haha. His trainer did it to him so he is doing it to me. Its not a bad thing because that is how you learn the language is by just talking and if I am by myself he can’t help me. So he walks away and goes and talks to someone else and I am forced to find someone to talk to. This is the worst because I don’t speak this language yet and if some random person came up to you and wanted to talk and they don’t even speak your language? ya it doesn’t go well. Anyways I got shut down a ton but then I saw a girl sitting on a bench listening to music so I went over and started a conversation. We talked for like 20 minutes. I still don’t even know how I did it but we just talked about everything. I asked her what her favorite music was and favorite color and all of the above. Just super random stuff and when I didn’t know how to say something I pretty much did a dance to try to explain it. It’s the worst because you just feel like a fool but it was a great experience because I actually talked to someone. Sadly that was the only time this week. I got shut down all other times.

This week we got new cards to give out for Easter and they have a link to a video. The video is really short and super awesome. Everyone should go look it up! It’s on mormon.org. Anyway, we give these cards out to everyone we see pretty much and people wouldn’t even take those... So yes it was a hard week of finding people to talk to us. 

Okay enough lame stuff. Now, onto the amazing things that happened and the miracles. 

First, we planted a tree in our suits this week. It was super random but a guy in the branch asked for our help so we went and helped him. He said when we come back we can get free fruit from the tree so that will be cool one day.

So this week we went up to Budapest and met with a 70. He talked to us and it was the coolest meeting I have ever been in. He started the meeting off and he was teaching his plan that he had taught all week but then people started asking questions and it changed the whole meeting. We found out after that he put his whole lesson plan in the trash and taught something completely new off the top of his head. It was amazing and super impressive. Everyone got super personal an started asking questions about faith and how hard the mission field really is and how it is hard to see miracles and the 70’s replies were always perfect. One thing that I would like to share is how he talked about when we meet our Heavenly Father again and how we will know if we are worthy. Even when we feel like we aren’t or we feel like we have messed up to many times. The thing he taught was that when we are at the judgment bar and Jesus Christ is testifying for us to the Father he will literally put his arm around us and that is when we become perfect and are able to enter. The way we can have this happen is if we truly tried our best on this earth and did everything we could do follow him. No matter if we are only .0000000000001 % with Jesus Christ we can be made whole and 100%. It was such a cool lesson for me and I had never thought about it in that way before. I learned so much from him and it was really cool.

The next day I had to plan a lesson for one of the members of the branch. She is he coolest lady ever and I love meeting with her. She wanted me to teach the lesson so I planned to teach what I learned from the day before. I taught about doing our best and how Jesus will help us and after I was done she started to tear up and told me that what I just told her was an answer to her prayers and that she needs to try to work harder to do her best. It was super cool and I loved being able to help someone. 

We had a baptism this week!!!! Sadly it wasn’t one of ours but it was still super cool. It was one of the sisters’ investigators but Elder Roberts Baptized her and he did a great job. My Companion is a stud with the language and made it look easy. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had yet on my mission. I was able to see someone become perfect through baptism and it was so amazing. She came out of the water and was glowing and was just so happy and as I looked at her, I just saw the amazing power of the atonement and how much Jesus Christ loves his children. It was really amazing. The next day we got to see her get the Holy Ghost in Sacrament and it was such a strong spirit and was so comforting to know what blessing and help she was receiving. I cannot wait until I will be able to act in the name of Jesus Christ and baptize someone. It was a really great experience. 

I love this gospel and I am grateful to be a missionary. I love you all and hope that all is well. 

Love Elder Ure