Transfer week

Well this week was transfer week!!! This week has been all over the place and we have been running all over the place. We went up to Budapest this week to get our new companions so I met Elder Howard. He is from Sandy Utah but he was actually born in Russia and lived there until he was 8 years old so he speaks Russian also!! It’s pretty cool! We came back and got everything settled in and the next day went back up to Budapest for a Mission leader meeting and that was pretty cool also. I was asked to give a spiritual thought and these meetings are usually always all in Hungarian so I gave it in Hungarian and it went pretty well. I was a little nervous but it came out all right haha. We sat and talked about all the people in our zones and the goals that we will be having for them in the up coming weeks. 

The weird part about me serving with Elder Howard is he is going home after this transfer which means I will be staying in my city for 8 months... that is a really long time but at the same time I would never want to serve for this long anywhere else so I am excited about it!

This week has been really boring to be honest because we have been planning on who we will be going on splits with and what we will be talking about at Zone conference and things like that so not much has happened. 

One thing that is cool is this week will be the big “meet the Mormons week” here in Hungary. We gave a big training about it in church yesterday and talked to all the members about it. All over Hungary in every city we gave a Book of Mormon to all the members and they are supposed to give those books to someone during the week then this Saturday we will be having a “meet the Mormons day” where they can come and watch the movie and talk to the missionaries! It will be a really amazing chance to break world records for the amount of books given out in one week… so keep the prayers coming so that we can have a successful week!! 

This week there was a really cool miracle that happened. It was small but was still cool. We were planning what to talk about during a presentation we were giving in Sunday school, but we could not think of a scripture talking about lifting burdens in the way we wanted it to. So out of nowhere a sister called and I told the sister who was answering the phone to ask her for the first scripture that comes to her head. So she said mosiah 24:14. I think that is right I can’t remember for sure, but I think it was that one and it was seriously perfect. It talks about what the savior went through and how we can be helped and comforted through him. It was so cool that the one scripture she said was perfect. So miracles do happen sometimes. They are just smaller. 

Sorry this was a smaller and not as exciting email this week! I love you all so much and I know that God’s work is moving forward here. We are working hard and are excited to see the blessings in store. I love you all so much! Have an amazing week! 

Elder Ure

Transfers & Trials

It has been a crazy week but has gone by so fast I seriously don’t know where the time has gone! I will be staying in my city again and will be getting a new companion named Elder Howard! We will be Zone Leaders. It is going to be a lot of fun and I think we will get along just great!

This email will be a little shorter just because of transfer day and we have a lot to get done today! This week we had some crazy experiences to finish off our transfer together. One day we were tracting and out of nowhere we found one of our investigators, and where he lived!! He came out and we had a long conversation with him. He still did not want to meet but he was willing to talk for a little bit. Then later on Sunday he showed up at church and came to me and said he needed to talk to someone about his sins so I said I can introduce him to the Bishop and he said no I just want to talk to you no one else, and alone... So I said well I can't do that but I would love to help you and you can talk to someone that can make these things go away. He did not want to talk to anyone but me and I can't talk to people about past sins so he left and was not willing to get help. It was sad but hopefully he will come back and realize that there are people here that can help him get rid of the burden he is feeling. That’s the amazing part about the gospel and atonement; Everything can just go away. 

This week we walked one of our investigators to church. His name is Roland and he is twelve years old and is the coolest kid ever I love him. Him and his mom came to church and they really enjoyed it. I will talk about church later. This week we taught him the Word of Wisdom and we were talking about tea and how we cannot drink black or green tea and he thought we were saying the word for milk..., which are very similar. So he got super sad and said he drinks milk every morning and was so confused why we can't drink milk... so we quickly explained that and he was then happy haha. So that was funny.

Also this week I said goodbye to a lot of people thinking that I would be leaving and so in church I was getting really tender with everyone and it was sad because they were sad that I was probably going to leave and now I am ending up staying.... so that is also funny. Nothing else crazy happened this week. It was awesome though. Bence planned on having us over for a goodbye party because everyone thought I was leaving so he planned it for today and his worked called him and said that he needed to work right when we planned to meet and there was no other time to meet.... so Bence tells his work that he is not coming in and he can't because he has something very important and they say... well why we need you and he said... well I am not coming in so either I don’t have to work or I will be quitting right now.... I lost my mind. That’s how much it meant to him to say goodbye to me... Lucky they said okay fine you don’t have to work but still it was crazy! He is the coolest kid I know!

I would like to finish with a talk that was given this Sunday actually by Bence. He gave his first talk in church and I am pretty sure he had everyone crying. It was one of the best talks I have ever heard in my life. He talked about how hard his life was when he lived with his father and the change that he has seen from then until now. He talked about the most dark and hard times of his life, and that they have been the most helpful because he learned the lesson of being grateful for hardships. He went on to say that if he had not experienced the things he had he would not be the person he is today. He would not be as strong as he is, or as sensitive. It was truly an amazing talk and the message is so true. We all have gone through things in our life that have been the most awful and dark places that we never want to even think about, but when we look back and are able to say, wow! I am thankful for that because now, I am strong. Now I know my Father in Heaven and now I can take on the next trial with faith that I will grow. I know this to be true. I have experienced in my own life. I love you all so much and I will have lots to write about next week!!

Love Elder Ure 

A woman's beautiful Hungarian prayer

Well this was the week. I have now been a missionary for a full year and I don’t even know how to feel about that ha-ha It’s a really cool feeling but also like wow I have never lived another life. Its great!!

Well this week winter came early. It is once again freezing here and I am not prepared for it in any form of the word. It was a surprise for everyone here.

This week we have found so many people to teach and I know it is not because of us. We found multiple people just through knocking on doors and walking on the street. We have found a little boy named Roland that goes to church by himself every Sunday and is really humble but is in a hard situation where he has to go to a certain church because of the school he goes to but he wants to be baptized so we will be working with that this week! Also we found a couple that is going to pray about the book of Mormon and see if it is true. 

Sadly this week we had one of our investigators drop us. We taught him the word of wisdom and he was not willing to follow it and we tried to set up a time with him to talk about it and see if he can work it out but he does not want us to call him anymore so that was a hard part of this week sadly. 

This week we were successful in getting the actual police called on us. I don’t say that as a good thing I just say it as a funny thing. We were tracting at night and an old lady called the police because she thought we were trying to rob people so they pulled up and were super nice when they saw who we were but I called my mission President and he talked to them and we ended up just having to go home which was lame but yes I can now say that I have had the cops called on me. woohoo haha.

This week we had one of the craziest things happen to me in my whole mission. We were walking on the street and I said hello to a girl walking by because I say hello to pretty much everyone and we keep walking and she calls after us and so we stop and start talking to her and she is acting super weird but she says she wants help spiritually and for us to help her find peace and forgiveness and we had a super long conversation with her but after a while I started putting the pieces together of what she was saying and who she was and why she was walking the streets at night... yes I was talking to that type of girl on the street. I realized this after I had given her a Book of Mormon and heard her life story. It was so sad and I really wanted to help her so once I figured it out who she was I just testified of the Book of Mormon and that it can really help her life if she really wanted to change but wow was it a crazy experience... I walked away in just awe. 

This week I also hit my year mark and to celebrate I spray painted one year onto my shirt and lit it on fire!! It was awesome and that is a tradition here. I went to Bences and he helped me with everything it was so great!! I love that kid and if I leave I will be super sad to say goodbye to him. 

He has a certificate hung in his room now saying he is an aronic priesthood holder and it has my name on it for the person that gave him it and it was so cool to see that and that it will be there forever. It was the coolest feeling ever!!

I would like to finish my email with one of the coolest things that has happened on my mission. At the beginning of this transfer we found an old woman that took a book and then called two weeks later and wanted to meet just did not have time until this Monday. We met with her and she was the cutest little old lady and she loved the gospel and accepted everything we taught. It seemed like she was already Mormon. We taught the restoration and she wanted to hear more and more and was just loving every word we said. She loved why we were here, and she just kept saying that it was true because she could see it on our faces. So we come to the end of the teaching and I start talking about prayer and how we can pray to God to know if the things we have taught are true and if Joseph Smith was a true Prophet. I told her we pray with our own words and just ask God what we want to know. So she was like I love that! When can I say one? I was like uhhh well of course right now. If you can remember back to my farewell talk I talked about an experience where I would hear an older woman pray and I would be able to understand every single word. I got the strongest impression that I would be able to learn Hungarian and I would not need to worry. Well, this woman started to pray and it was the most beautiful Hungarian prayer I have ever heard and I understood every word. The spirit ran over me and I almost was brought to tears. I knew that God had given me my answer and that revelation had come true. God knew that I would learn this language and that this woman’s prayer was an amazing blessing to my life. I know prayer is real and I know God knows what we need in our lives. I love you all so much. Have an amazing day! 

Love Elder Ure 

The week of persecution

This week was CRAZYYYYY. 

It was an awesome week but I will start with talking about something I left out last week. Last week we had one of the sisters’ Baptisms. It was really beautiful and she was so happy. This was the woman that I was able to do her baptismal interview. She was so happy and I just love to see the change in people after that have made the choice to follow the Savior. 

This week on P-day we went to this monastery close by our city and it was the coolest thing ever. I will send a ton of pictures but the best part is that we have someone in our English class that used to work there so she got us in for free and gave us a free tour and taught us all the cool facts about it. It is called pananhalma if you would like to look it up. I hope I spelt it right. 

This week we had zone conference and at zone conference President Szabadkai walked up to me with a mission call. I freaked out because I thought I was going to some other mission or something but once I read it, it was for one of the guys in our ward that is serving a mission. So we got to take the letter back to him that night and he opened it and has been called to the England South mission! We are super excited for him. 

Also on the way to zone conference, this super cool thing happened. I sat next to this girl and I started a conversation with her and we talked all the way to Budapest. She was really nice and had so many questions about my life and me. So I told her about our daily schedule and how we read from the Book of Mormon every day and she got super interested and wanted to know more about it. So I gave her one and she took it and was so happy. All I did to start the conversation was ask her if I could practice Hungarian and it ended up being really cool!

We taught a really cool lesson this week to a ward family and I wanted to tell you about it. It’s really good for family home evening with little kids. This family has three super cute little kids. So I told one of them that I wanted to have an arm wrestle with him. So he said okay and then I said imagine that I am the devil. So he was like I am going to crush you ha-ha super cute kid. Anyways we arm-wrestled and I crushed him. I then said why did you lose? Where is your power? And he said I have none compared to you. So I then said okay well then lets add elder gentry which was scripture reading, and then the dad of the family which was our Heavenly Father, and then the mom which was prayer and the brother which was church and so on until it was all of them against me. Yes I wish I could say I was that strong but I lost. So I know that when we have all of those things strengthening us we are strong enough to over come Satan.

So this week was full of honestly just people being mean and just some pretty crazy stuff. I felt like I was back in the old days when people just got yelled at and all that stuff. 

The first one happened after zone conference and it was really late so I understand why he was mad but we had to because this is what we are here to do. So we were ringing doorbells and this one person let us in ad we were like hey look at that we got lucky.... NOPE. The guy meets us half way as we are going up the stairs and just starts digging into us using some super colorful language. He even got to the point where we switched to English and I was surprised at his crude language knowledge in English also... so we got kicked out of the building. The next place we went to we got the cops called on us but when they drove up they just looked at us and kept driving ha-ha.

The next was the following night and we seriously got a whole building to come out on their balcony and to look at us and hear our conversation with this jolly old fellow. He was screaming and woke up the whole neighborhood. ha-ha it was insane he was going of on us about why we are here and told us to go back home, so we left and went somewhere else to work. It was like tracting at the great and spacious building. ha-ha don’t do it.

The next was a lesson we had. We found this lady in our area book and set up a time to meet with her. We got there and it just went down hill. Her beliefs were very different which is not a bad thing she just really hated our beliefs and did not agree with the things that we were trying to teach... 

The next one, I promise I am almost done ha-ha.

This one was the best one of the week. In one building a woman opened and just yelled at us and said she was going to call the police so we went to the next door, she opened the door again and yelled at us and told us to leave, so we went to the next door down, she once again opened the door and did the same, all of these door opening ending in a big slam ha-ha. So we left that building and went to the next one. Here we don’t even get into the building but this guy comes down and tells us to leave, we were not even in the building so I ask him why we have to leave and say that we are doing nothing wrong. This made him really not happy and so I kept ringing people. He stood there and told me to leave again and said he was calling to police and got his phone out and took a picture of me... so I gave him a big old smile and a thumbs up. Of course we were respectful and after we finished left and told him to have a good day but he was really not happy. 

I do not tell you all of these to talk badly about Hungarians. I love this people and there are these types of people all around the world. I tell you this because of the miracle that came out of it after. 

Before conference we decided that we would tract because we would not have time any other time in the day and it was pretty early in the morning... We knowing how our week had gone prepared for warfare and went out. We knocked on a door and a very nice lady invited us in. She told us that she got a book of Mormon 15 years ago and remembered the missionaries’ and that’s why she let us in. We taught the restoration and she really liked it and wants to hear more so we are going back tomorrow. It was a huge miracle ad I knew it was because we showed God we were willing to put it on the line for the people out here. 

I would like to finish with one of my favorite parts of conference. It was a talk from Elder Nelson I think. He talked about Joy. He told us all to focus on the Joy of life. There is so much joy around us and so many reasons to be happy. I just want to add my thoughts to that and really say that if we focus on the joy and not the bad our whole perspective is changed. There is joy in every situation. I love you all so much have an amazing week.

Sok Szeretettel,

Ure Elder 

The Atonement has changed my life...

Well this week was super interesting. We started the week off pretty crazy with a practice drill as a mission just in case the world continues to increase in scariness. It went well and we are all safe and we have a great plan for all missionaries to be safe here so there is no need to worry and I don’t think Hungary is really on the popular scale. 

This week the American soldiers that are here hooked us up and they took us out to eat twice. I love talking to them just because they are American and it makes me be able to feel like I am home for an hour. Just being able to understand everything and talk easily is really nice. They also fill us in on the football scores and other cool stuff like that haha. 

This week we were walking on the street and we stopped this one woman and she stopped and started talking to us. We found out that she is a member but she is just inactive. She had some pretty crazy excuses for not coming any more but it was a cool opportunity to talk to her and bear testimony that it can help her. We tried everything but she still didn’t want to meet or come back. So it was kind of sad but you never know what she will remember about what we said in the future.

This week I had a super funny experience. We were tracting and when we tract, we press little buttons and then people can answer a phone in their apartment and talk to you before you even get let into the building. So I was doing that and this lady answered the phone and her dog was going crazy like seriously I was like “what is happening” to that dog so of course I spit out the first thing that’s on my mind and out of real curiosity I asked if that dog was okay hahah. She did not like me asking that and asked who I was and I told her and she didn’t like that even more and hung up. I don’t know if this will be funny to anyone else but it was seriously so funny. 

This week I had the chance to call my mission President like 5 times in a row... which if you didn’t know is ONE, terrifying, TWO, super hard because he is Hungarian so we speak Hungarian with him, and THREE, you forget all the language information you know right when he answers the phone. So I had a jolly good time making a fool of myself asking for help and permission for setting a broadcast. We were asked for help from the members but we had to ask first and it ended up being us talking a lot which is a good thing. He is just intimidating, because he pretty much owns me. He is awesome though I love him.

This week we had a really cool experience. We had worked all day and had set a goal to give out three Book Of Mormons. It was late and we were about to go in but we had one left to give out so we said a prayer for where we should go and then started walking. We saw this guy walking his dog on the other side of the street so we crossed the street and then he crossed the street to where we just were. So we crossed again... for sure not letting him run away from us haha. So I stopped him and right when I started talking his dog just goes of barking and he just lets it. So I couldn’t even hear myself talk so I crouch down and start petting this dog. OF course it loves me because I have magic hands and dogs love me haha but it stops barking and I continue to talk to him. So if you can imagine it I am down there almost sitting on the street talking up to this guy about the Book of Mormon while I am being a dog whisperer. It ends up happening that he wanted a book and took the last one of the night. So it was crazy and super weird but sometimes you just have to teach a dog about the Book of Mormon and have its owner listen and then they will take one haha. It was fun.

Another crazy thing like that happened this week. We were walking streeting again and we stopped this lady and she was in a rush so I asked if she had 30 seconds to talk and she said okay go for it. So I just start going off on this lady about the Book of Mormon and how it helps us learn more about Jesus Christ and that there is a promise in it and she can know that it’s true if she prays about it, I finish and she is like okay you are out of time but I want one so I gave her it she said goodbye and ran off.... I was just like “what the?” It must have been some type of record or something like the whole conversation was under a minute I am pretty sure. It was great haha. It was really cool to see that God is really preparing people we just have to be fast enough to act on it. 

Then last night we were tracting and found a woman that had met with missionaries 10 years before this and had a Book of Mormon but has just been so busy that she stopped reading it. She was so nice and we ended up setting up a time for this week to go back and visit her again. At the en, she said she wanted to give us the reason why she has been so busy so she pulls out this book and it’s all about how to feel good and she wrote it. It looked super professional and gave us one for free. It was awesome. Haha crazy stuff happens on a mission. 

I would like to finish with my testimony on the Atonement this week.

The atonement has changed my life in more ways then I can ever put into words. It saved me from the ignorant young boy I was and all the stupid and selfish decisions I made and then has strengthened me to the point where I can be the man I have grown into. The Atonement has changed me forever and I will always be so grateful for it and I would never be able to say that my Savior did not live, that he did not suffer for me, and that he is not The Christ. This week I saw something I have never seen before. I saw someone that was truly going through hell and I can not imagine what his life was like at this point. He was having some serious trials and I saw it on his face and soul in what he said, but the amazing thing he said was, that is why we have the atonement. Not because this man was a bad person or did anything wrong, but because it was giving him strength to keep going. To never give up and to truly rely on his Savior. Because I know there are times in life that we cannot physically stand and we have to be carried and this is possible because of the Atonement. IF it is too hard, turn to him that saves; The one that is all powerful the Redeemer of the world. I love Him. He loves you.

Love Elder Ure

Let HIM guide you...

This week was a good week! We worked hard and a little of the same and a little of the crazy.

Last week I forgot to write about it but we went and had a fire with a new investigator (hopefully!!) He invited us to go into the woods and cook bacon and sausage over the fire... Did it make me miss camping? You know it did. I loved it. So we went out there and as we cooked stuff over the fire we talked all about the gospel and taught the restoration and about the BOM to him and it were really cool. I was able to tell him my story about the BOM and bare really hard testimony. It was great!

Also this week I was asked to give a blessing to pretty much the only person we meet with. He was really sick and he asked me if I could give him a blessing because he heard about them. So like always I explained what it was and how it works and then gave him one. It was amazing. I love giving blessings because they always make me just warm and fill me with this power that I can’t even explain. Its not even power, it is just the spirit that is a power but hey you get what I mean.

This week we went to Bences house and it was so awesome, we taught him and then he made us palacsintas pretty much crepes and then gave us both ties. It was like Christmas. He got the ties from where he works because he works at a movie theater and they are awesome haha.

Then we ended up missing our bus and had to sit for an hour but the bus came twenty minutes before it was supposed to... woo-hoo Hungary haha. It was okay though because we just sat with Bence and talked and I had Elder Gentry practice Hungarian with him and it was just so funny because Bence pretended to be a mean Hungary and he did it spot on just like everyone we talk to. It was super funny. 

Then one morning we get a knock on our door and I open it and it was two government workers checking our house because we went to get Elder gentry registered. It was super weird. They just walked around was like okay everything is good have a great day... super weird.

Then I had a crazy experience on the street when this drunk guy came up to me and had a sausage in his hand and wanted to give it to me and was telling me how yummy it was and he made me smell it. I almost punched him because I thought he was going to force feed me but he just wanted me to take a whiff. It did smell pretty good but I for sure did not want it.

Then later we went and gave service and moved 60, 60-70 pound planks into some guy’s attic. They must have heard we play football or something because it was seriously work for someone else, not a year old missionary that has almost 0 muscle anymore. It was super hard but I felt awesome after. It was like an old workout I would do and it felt good to be sore again. 

The coolest part of this week was that I was able to give a baptism interview to one of the sister’s investigator. I was able to see her conversion and ask her about her testimony. It was so strong and so uplifting to see someone accepting the message and their life totally changing. It was amazing to be able to do that for her and I seriously spoke the best Hungarian I have yet so it was super cool.

I want to finish with one of the coolest experiences on my mission. This week we stopped someone on the street and I started talking to them. I was able to get a really good conversation going and they asked a lot of questions. Elder Gentry did awesome to put comments in and bare testimony. They asked me the question of what the difference between Good and correct is. I didn’t really know how to answer but the words just came out. I didn’t know how I was doing it or how I was even speaking the Hungarian I was. I knew without a doubt in my mind that My Heavenly Father was talking. Not me. I was just the tool. I don’t remember much but the people said thank you. You just gave us our answer. I was blown away ad just walked away after giving them a Book with my head spinning and a heart full of thanks. I have never felt so much love and been able to have something like that happen. I know my heavenly father loves me and is watching out for all of us. He helped me and he can help you if you just turn to him and ask. I love you all so much have an amazing week and Let HIM guide.

Love Elder Ure 

Endure

Well this week has seriously gone by so fast. I do not know where the time has gone!!!

This week we have worked harder then ever before. We had no programs and officially are at 0 investigators.... so it’s a rough one here. But hey it’s okay because we still are going beast mode every day. I have never been so tired. This week we spent the whole week finding. We would go tracting and then streeting, and then go streeting and then tracting and then sometimes go tabling. So we just talked to a million people this week it was nuts. We even tracted into to two people that don’t speak Hungarian or English, one was Chinese, and the other was from some South American place. It was awesome practicing my sign language.

One of the highlights of this week was one night we were streeting and these guys walk up to us and smack us on the shoulders and say ELDERS!! They were Mormons!!!!! from Utah in Hungary. Like what. This has never happened on my mission so I was pumped. They took us out for ice cream and we had a great talk about America and football ha-ha. So I was super pumped. Later that week one of them even came to church and I spent all of church translating for him. The reason they are here is because they are working here in the army base. They will be here for a couple weeks and we might go out to dinner with them this week!! The one that came to church was a black hawk helicopter flyer.... like what. It was so cool. 

  

This week while we have been doing a lot of finding we were able to get let in a couple of times by a few people. One of the times we got let in and it was the hottest room I have ever been in. We stood and taught the restoration and my Companion and I were just sweating as we taught. It was great because hey a let in is a let in even if it’s so hot.  It went super well and we will be going back hopefully this week.

Something really interesting happened this week also. I learned a ton from it too. We were tracting and we talked to this girl that did not believe in God. The conversation quickly became personal when she opened up about her life and her family. So I opened up to her and told her all about how much my religion and God has helped me in my life and that through the BOM I have received so much strength and love from my Heavenly Father. So I just bore super hard testimony and poured my heart out to her and said, to “give it one last chance to find God” and she still said no and that she didn’t want a Book. So I said okay here’s a card if you change your mind call us. So we left and I was pretty beat up about it because I could see she needed these things in her life. Then a realized that I knew that even when I bore testimony and did all I could people would still reject it. So I had to accept it and move on. I did all I could and that I have dibs on teaching her in the spirit world.

This week we took bence tracting with us and it was seriously the best tracting time ever. I had so much fun because we were just laughing and having a ton of fun. I tried to get him to talk to people but he did not want to and was just being so funny. He is seriously my best friend.

The coolest part of this week was at church when my companion was asked to give a blessing of healing... I forgot how you actually say it in English sorry. A woman walked up to him and said I would like a blessing from you... he didn’t understand so I told him and he just went pail. So we go into the other room and I ask her what for and if she would like it in Hungarian or English and she said it doesn’t matter to me, so I said yes the words are not important it is according to your faith. So I asked my companion which he would like to do and he said he wanted to try Hungarian. So I did the anointing and then he gave the blessing and did a really amazing job for how young he is in the mission. It was pretty cool.

So this week has been really crazy but I would just like to finish with a quick thought about Enduring. Sometimes enduring is just putting your head down, saying a prayer, then keeping your head down and just going to work. Just let the rest go and just do it.

I love you all have a great week!!

Elder Ure