Jó napot kívánok!
Hey everybody! This week was pretty good. Oh, I need to clarify some stuff I said last week. First, I have been on my mission, not in the country, for nearly six months. And when I said that nothing exciting happened, I totally lied! I forgot that last Tuesday was Zone Conference and we went to the ZOO! It was really fun. We had some cool trainings and talks and then we went to the zoo in Budapest and saw all the animals there. It was a ton of fun. I took a bunch of pictures so maybe later they might end up on the blog.
We had a few good programs with members this week. Teaching with members is the best. The language is coming slowly, but surely. They didn’t say that Hungarian is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn for nothing!
Yesterday we hung out with a few of the members a little bit. We went hiking in a pretty place outside of Komló that has a lot of little lakes. It was intense hearing so much Hungarian straight.
Oh! I forgot! Last week we totally got caught in a rainstorm! We didn’t think that it was going to rain so we didn’t take our umbrellas when we left the apartment. We were walking to a program and all of a sudden it just starts pouring like crazy and we got completely soaked. I took some videos. Haha. The thunder here is awesome. Whenever it rains there is a ton of thunder that you can sometimes actually feel.
Well I have to go now. Our bus leaves soon. Thanks for all the love and support!
~Anderson elder
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Staying in Komló (Yeah!)
Sziasztok!
Last week I said that my blog entry was going to be short, but it wasn’t. This week it will be for sure. My email mailbox is almost full and I need to spend some time archiving it or I won’t be able to receive any new emails.
Today is the beginning of transfer number three! Crazy! I can’t believe that I’ve been on my mission for almost six months already! Both Christensen elder and I are staying here in Komló. So no packing for at least six more weeks!
Nothing really exciting happened this week. Church was really neat as usual. The members are so awesome here! I love them!
Well I know that this gospel is true and real. And I am glad to be serving the people of Hungary. I love all of you and appreciate your support!
~Anderson elder
Last week I said that my blog entry was going to be short, but it wasn’t. This week it will be for sure. My email mailbox is almost full and I need to spend some time archiving it or I won’t be able to receive any new emails.
Today is the beginning of transfer number three! Crazy! I can’t believe that I’ve been on my mission for almost six months already! Both Christensen elder and I are staying here in Komló. So no packing for at least six more weeks!
Nothing really exciting happened this week. Church was really neat as usual. The members are so awesome here! I love them!
Well I know that this gospel is true and real. And I am glad to be serving the people of Hungary. I love all of you and appreciate your support!
~Anderson elder
Monday, June 15, 2009
SpongyaBob Kockanadrág
Sziasztok!
Sorry, this blog entry is going to be short. We have a ton of things that we want to do today in Pécs and no time to do them. Oh! Guess what I did last week?!?! I bought a SpongyaBob Kockanadrág DVD for 990ft ($5)!!! SpongeBob Squarepants! Haha! I can't watch it for two years, but thats okay. The DVD has English and Hungarian audio so anyone can watch it! I think it was a pretty good waste of five bucks.
I came across a cool scripture yesterday. It is 2 Chronicles 20:1-18. (http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_chr/20). I was really surprised by these scriptures. They teach some good doctrine pretty clearly—doctrine like praying, fasting, going to the temple, and having faith that the Lord will help you. Pretty cool.
A few days ago we were running in the morning and as we ran past a group of people they called out to us, “Fuss Forrest!” It was completely unexpected. “Fuss” means “run”. So people here in Hungary quote the movie Forrest Gump just like we do when someone is running! So funny.
The Church really makes the world very small. There are three missionaries here in Hungary who know some of my relatives. They are Elders Webb and Lilenquist who know my cousins from Burley, ID. (I am in the same zone as Elder Lilenquist right now.) And Sister Eskelson—I think I spelled her name correctly—knows my cousins from Blackfoot, ID. It's a small, small world.
One day we streeted (met on the street) a lady and she said to come talk to her some other time at her work because she was in a hurry. She said that she worked at the Rose Garden. So the next day we found the place and its full name is the Rose Garden Bar. Haha! We were a little hesitant about going in, but since we’d promised her, we did. We had a nice chat for a little bit. It was a pretty funny and really surprising experience.
OH! I can't forget this. One day we were walking on this road on the way home through tons of apartment houses on both sides of the street when we came upon a bunch of six-to-ten year old kids playing outside. When they saw us, they all raced to us and pretty much attacked us. Haha. One kid bopped us on the head and spanked us a few times with a badminton racket, another kept on jumping on us and a few others were actually kicking us and hitting us. Hahaha. They were really young so it didn't hurt of course, but it was quite annoying and kind of embarrassing too. After like a minute or two we escaped into one of the apartment buildings and closed the door on them. They got bored and left. So that was it. Or so we thought! The next day, yesterday, we went back to check up on a few investigators and we saw them again. And more importantly, they saw us too! They all ran over to us again and swarmed around us while an older teenage girl tried, in vain, to tell them to calm down. Hahaha. But they were nicer this time and just jumped all over us. One little boy kept on jumping on my back and I would reach around and tickle him which made him drop, but he was persistent and kept jumping on my back. Haha. We went into another apartment, and they left, but it was the wrong one, so we had to sneak out the back and sneak away from the kids. Hahaha. Pretty funny. I wish I had a video of them.
Oh and really quick. Apparently, there was a crazy plane crash in the ocean a few weeks ago and no one knows why it crashed. It was coming from Brazil and just exploded or crashed in the ocean. Well here is the really crazy part: one of my English class students told me that one of the victims was a ten year old boy from Komló! I live in Komló right now! He knows the little boy's parents. That is really crazy and sad.
Well I have to go now. Thank you for everything! I love you all and I love the Lord. The Gospel is true, I know it!
~Anderson elder
Sorry, this blog entry is going to be short. We have a ton of things that we want to do today in Pécs and no time to do them. Oh! Guess what I did last week?!?! I bought a SpongyaBob Kockanadrág DVD for 990ft ($5)!!! SpongeBob Squarepants! Haha! I can't watch it for two years, but thats okay. The DVD has English and Hungarian audio so anyone can watch it! I think it was a pretty good waste of five bucks.
I came across a cool scripture yesterday. It is 2 Chronicles 20:1-18. (http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_chr/20). I was really surprised by these scriptures. They teach some good doctrine pretty clearly—doctrine like praying, fasting, going to the temple, and having faith that the Lord will help you. Pretty cool.
A few days ago we were running in the morning and as we ran past a group of people they called out to us, “Fuss Forrest!” It was completely unexpected. “Fuss” means “run”. So people here in Hungary quote the movie Forrest Gump just like we do when someone is running! So funny.
The Church really makes the world very small. There are three missionaries here in Hungary who know some of my relatives. They are Elders Webb and Lilenquist who know my cousins from Burley, ID. (I am in the same zone as Elder Lilenquist right now.) And Sister Eskelson—I think I spelled her name correctly—knows my cousins from Blackfoot, ID. It's a small, small world.
One day we streeted (met on the street) a lady and she said to come talk to her some other time at her work because she was in a hurry. She said that she worked at the Rose Garden. So the next day we found the place and its full name is the Rose Garden Bar. Haha! We were a little hesitant about going in, but since we’d promised her, we did. We had a nice chat for a little bit. It was a pretty funny and really surprising experience.
OH! I can't forget this. One day we were walking on this road on the way home through tons of apartment houses on both sides of the street when we came upon a bunch of six-to-ten year old kids playing outside. When they saw us, they all raced to us and pretty much attacked us. Haha. One kid bopped us on the head and spanked us a few times with a badminton racket, another kept on jumping on us and a few others were actually kicking us and hitting us. Hahaha. They were really young so it didn't hurt of course, but it was quite annoying and kind of embarrassing too. After like a minute or two we escaped into one of the apartment buildings and closed the door on them. They got bored and left. So that was it. Or so we thought! The next day, yesterday, we went back to check up on a few investigators and we saw them again. And more importantly, they saw us too! They all ran over to us again and swarmed around us while an older teenage girl tried, in vain, to tell them to calm down. Hahaha. But they were nicer this time and just jumped all over us. One little boy kept on jumping on my back and I would reach around and tickle him which made him drop, but he was persistent and kept jumping on my back. Haha. We went into another apartment, and they left, but it was the wrong one, so we had to sneak out the back and sneak away from the kids. Hahaha. Pretty funny. I wish I had a video of them.
Oh and really quick. Apparently, there was a crazy plane crash in the ocean a few weeks ago and no one knows why it crashed. It was coming from Brazil and just exploded or crashed in the ocean. Well here is the really crazy part: one of my English class students told me that one of the victims was a ten year old boy from Komló! I live in Komló right now! He knows the little boy's parents. That is really crazy and sad.
Well I have to go now. Thank you for everything! I love you all and I love the Lord. The Gospel is true, I know it!
~Anderson elder
Monday, June 8, 2009
A Crazy Week
Szervusztok mindenki!Hey everybody! This week has been pretty cool. The weather is really weird in Hungary. It was hot in May and then since the end of May random rainstorms have come and dumped a ton of rain on us. Some days it’s cool and cloudy and other days it’s really hot. The random storms are supposed to last through June. When a rainstorm comes we can hear lots and lots of loud thunder, which is awesome, but we can’t usually see the lightning. By the way, the bread is really good here!
Friday was intense. We had three programs set up and they all dogged us. That was a real bummer. Instead we had two ridiculous conversations with drunk people. It wasn’t even funny, it was just incredibly annoying. On the other hand, we did manage to find a lot of people who were interested in meeting again, which was nice. One of those people was a lady who spoke English and had an awesome story to tell us. She was a refugee a long time ago and an LDS family took her in—she lived in America with an LDS family! She doesn’t believe in the gospel, but she loves Mormons. Her son is a member and he is coming to visit her soon! We are going to teach her with him. Crazy. But that’s the way the whole day went. We met a ton of awesome, drunk, mean, and nice people that day. We were exhausted mentally.
Another cool experience on Friday was that we taught a 16 year old kid named Sani about the Restoration. Meeting someone who is immediately willing to hear about the restoration rarely happens. He actually seemed interested, which was even more surprising. Then, on Saturday we were in a completely different part of the city when we tracted into Sani’s parents who were visiting his grandpa! His grandpa was about to close the door on us, then Sani’s parents recognized us from Sani’s description and let us in. They said that Sani told them about us and that he is reading from The Book of Mormon! His mom said that it is a miracle because Sani hates reading and studying. So we taught them too and we are going to meet with the whole family this week. Crazy. I don’t know what’s going to happen to them, but I know that the Lord has a plan for them.
Something I read during egyéni tanulás (personal gospel study) one day has really made an impression on me. Jacob 6:7 says, “For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire?” What I think this means is that after we “have been nourished by the good word of God” from church, or General Conference, or from reading the scriptures, we need to apply what we have learned into our lives. We need to set goals to improve ourselves and then strive to achieve those goals. Of course it is much easier said than done, but I know that if we walk away from a meeting or from church determined to change something, big or small, in our lives that the Lord will bless us and help us to become better and happier people.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is true; I can see that in my life and in the lives of the members here in Komló and Pécs. Investigators, too. We have an awesome investigator who is progressing slowly, but surely, and I can see his life improve because he is trying to follow Jesus Christ too.
Thank you for all of your support and love. I appreciate it very much!
~Anderson elder
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
An Old Man
Szervusztok!
This week went by pretty fast. On Thursday we had a conference and interviews with President Gasser in Budapest. That was kind of sad because it was our last interview with him. President Gasser is really awesome. Next transfer we get a new mission president. I'm sure that he will be great too. President and Sister Gasser both gave really good talks at the conference. Sister Gasser spoke about when we study the scriptures we should take one scripture that sticks out or that we like a lot and simplify or summarize it into one sentence. Then we should try really hard to remember it and apply it throughout the day. That is a pretty cool idea and I'm trying to do it.
I had an interesting experience recently. My companion and I were tracting an apartment building and at one apartment a really, really old man opened the door and instantly told us to come in. We were a little hesitant at first since that never happens, but I shook his hand and he kind of just pulled me into his apartment. Haha. So he started to talk to us a lot and I was barely understanding anything he was saying, but I could understand a little. He was talking about how he loved Americans and British and Germans and Canadians and he kept on saying that he loved us and would give us group hugs. Haha. He was awesome. But we had to go to another program so we kept on telling him that we had to leave, but he just kept on saying that he still had something to tell us. Then he closed the door and almost locked it. Haha. But eventually Christensen elder slowly scooted to the door and opened it and I'm scooting along with him all the while the older man is still talking to us and telling us how he loves American soldiers and stuff. So we finally managed to escape from his apartment, but we felt pretty rude since we pretty much walked out while he was still talking, but it had to be done.
OH! I successfully ordered pizza on the phone! That was pretty awesome. But I can't brag too much because the pizza lady only said two words. Haha. I told her what we wanted on the pizza and she just kept on saying “igen” which means “yes/ok” and then she said “hova” which means “where to”. I gave her our address and that was it. But, the important thing is that I called and the pizza came. Haha.
On Saturday we went to a small village about 15 minutes north of Komló called Kisbatyán to try to set up an appointment with some people we had met earlier. But they weren't home so we just decided to tract the street—there was only one street in the entire village—and the first house was awesome! A really cool lady named Szilvia lives there and she is great. She speaks English very well and doesn't have a Hungarian accent, but a British one. I understood everything and was able to teach her well. Her goal in life right now is to find God and she doesn't trust a lot of the Christian religions so she is trying to search for Him through science. I loved how she said that it is impossible for anyone to understand God intellectually, but we can emotionally. She used to work at the university in Pécs so she is really smart. We taught her about the Restoration and she was fascinated with the Book of Mormon. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her a lot more. I think we will.
Oh and on Sunday a young couple from America showed up at Sacrament Meeting in Pécs. That was really cool. They graduated from BYU a year ago and now they are on a two month long bike trip in Europe. They started in Amsterdam, Holland and are trying to get to Rome, Italy! They are riding about 45-80 miles a day! Crazy.
I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once more and we can know that for ourselves through the Book of Mormon and personal revelation from God. Thanks for everything! I love you all!
~Anderson elder
This week went by pretty fast. On Thursday we had a conference and interviews with President Gasser in Budapest. That was kind of sad because it was our last interview with him. President Gasser is really awesome. Next transfer we get a new mission president. I'm sure that he will be great too. President and Sister Gasser both gave really good talks at the conference. Sister Gasser spoke about when we study the scriptures we should take one scripture that sticks out or that we like a lot and simplify or summarize it into one sentence. Then we should try really hard to remember it and apply it throughout the day. That is a pretty cool idea and I'm trying to do it.
I had an interesting experience recently. My companion and I were tracting an apartment building and at one apartment a really, really old man opened the door and instantly told us to come in. We were a little hesitant at first since that never happens, but I shook his hand and he kind of just pulled me into his apartment. Haha. So he started to talk to us a lot and I was barely understanding anything he was saying, but I could understand a little. He was talking about how he loved Americans and British and Germans and Canadians and he kept on saying that he loved us and would give us group hugs. Haha. He was awesome. But we had to go to another program so we kept on telling him that we had to leave, but he just kept on saying that he still had something to tell us. Then he closed the door and almost locked it. Haha. But eventually Christensen elder slowly scooted to the door and opened it and I'm scooting along with him all the while the older man is still talking to us and telling us how he loves American soldiers and stuff. So we finally managed to escape from his apartment, but we felt pretty rude since we pretty much walked out while he was still talking, but it had to be done.
OH! I successfully ordered pizza on the phone! That was pretty awesome. But I can't brag too much because the pizza lady only said two words. Haha. I told her what we wanted on the pizza and she just kept on saying “igen” which means “yes/ok” and then she said “hova” which means “where to”. I gave her our address and that was it. But, the important thing is that I called and the pizza came. Haha.
On Saturday we went to a small village about 15 minutes north of Komló called Kisbatyán to try to set up an appointment with some people we had met earlier. But they weren't home so we just decided to tract the street—there was only one street in the entire village—and the first house was awesome! A really cool lady named Szilvia lives there and she is great. She speaks English very well and doesn't have a Hungarian accent, but a British one. I understood everything and was able to teach her well. Her goal in life right now is to find God and she doesn't trust a lot of the Christian religions so she is trying to search for Him through science. I loved how she said that it is impossible for anyone to understand God intellectually, but we can emotionally. She used to work at the university in Pécs so she is really smart. We taught her about the Restoration and she was fascinated with the Book of Mormon. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her a lot more. I think we will.
Oh and on Sunday a young couple from America showed up at Sacrament Meeting in Pécs. That was really cool. They graduated from BYU a year ago and now they are on a two month long bike trip in Europe. They started in Amsterdam, Holland and are trying to get to Rome, Italy! They are riding about 45-80 miles a day! Crazy.
I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once more and we can know that for ourselves through the Book of Mormon and personal revelation from God. Thanks for everything! I love you all!
~Anderson elder
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