Great Experiences

Sziasztok!

Last week was really good! On Wednesday we had a really interesting program. We had set up a program with a couple that we had met on the street. We went to the address and it turned out to be some sort of home for people just over eighteen years old who don’t have a place to live. Running the house was an older lady who is their “mom”. The couple we had talked to on the street couldn’t find a place to live together so they moved into this house. I forgot the older lady’s name, she was really kind and wanted us to share our message with all of the kids—there were like six or seven of them. Unfortunately, the girl that we had talked to on the street came late in the program, but the older lady really seemed interested. The kids were just kind of curious. Haha.

And then we had an interesting English class. After the first hour, a bunch of members come to the branch house where we teach. We had refreshments and our students just chatted with the members and then went a little tour of our branch house. It was really neat!

On Saturday we had a really cool program with one of our newer investigators. She called us in the morning and said that she had some time to see us right then. We got ready really quickly and went to the branch house where we met her. She told us that she was really, really busy but that she didn’t want to miss meeting with us because she had promised and her conscience would have bothered her if she hadn’t met with us. So that was way awesome to see a newer investigator follow the promptings of the Spirit even when it was hard for her! We are way excited for her to continue to learn about the gospel!

I love being a missionary! It’s awesome! Have a great week!

~Anderson elder

A Miracle Day

Helló!

Last week was pretty cool! On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference in Budapest and President Gérald Caussé, who is in our Area Presidency, came and trained us. He is an awesome man! He taught us a lot and the Spirit was really strong. It was a really good experience.

The day after Zone Conference was a miracle day! My companion and I started streeting in the morning and by the end of the first hour we had found three or four people who were interested in meeting with us! Sometimes that doesn’t even happen after five hours! It was really exciting. So we had a really quick lunch and went back out on the streets. (Well, Érd is pretty small so when I say streets I mean the two or three roads on which we can talk to people on. Haha) After lunch we experienced even more miracles! By the end of the day we had talked to ten people or families who were interested in meeting with us! By comparison, during the previous three weeks we found only twelve people! Crazy. And this time we didn’t really do anything different. It just goes to show that the Lord is in charge of this work and only He can make it work.

Those were the main highlights of last week. A bunch of people called about English class so it seems like our advertising worked. We hope that lots of people come! Well I have to go now. I love serving the Hungarian people! See ya next week!

~Anderson elder

Help from the Homeless

Sziasztok!

Right now the weather is crazy! Last week was pretty cool, but then it was really hot yesterday, and today it is pouring rain! My companion and I went into Budapest early this morning to play soccer with a bunch of other missionaries – and it was a blast – but we were totally unprepared for the rain. It’s pouring rain and I’m in a short sleeve shirt! There is no such thing as a boring day on a mission!

Last week we had some interesting experiences. On Wednesday we had a program scheduled at 2 PM but the contact dogged us so we decided to go tabling instead. The place where we usually go tabling is a little square located between two small train stations. We try to talk to people who are going back and forth between them. Unfortunately, people are often in a rush trying to get to a train and don’t have any time for us, but it is the only place available. When trains aren’t coming we pretty much just bake in the sun while waiting for people to appear. Haha. I’m getting a really bad farmer’s tan on my arms and a really bad tan line on my neck! But anyway, there is a bar right next to the square where we table which always gives us some interesting people to talk to. For instance, on Wednesday a homeless guy came out of the bar and started talking to us. He wasn’t drunk, just really nice, even a little too nice. He said that he really respects us and that he was going to help us out! I tried to dissuade him. I told him no, that he didn’t have to help us, but he was really determined! So he turns around and starts walking towards the nearest person, who is a girl about 20 or so years old. Of course, I am super embarrassed by this time. Haha. So he stops this girl and tells her that she needs to come over and talk to us. So she actually came over, I think because of the crazy awkwardness of the whole thing. I was super embarrassed, so I started to talk to her about the English classes we teach hoping that she would speak English so the homeless man wouldn’t be able to help us out anymore. Luckily, she did speak English! So I apologized and we talked for a little bit. She said that she was interested in hearing more about the Gospel! So basically, we went tabling for two and a half hours and we found two people who are interested and a homeless man streeted one of them for us! God really does work in mysterious ways!

Then on Thursday we had a sweet program with someone from our English class who is really interested in the Gospel. She told us that a few months ago she wanted to start learning English. She prayed for the opportunity and then a few days later she got one of our fliers about our English classes! Sweet, huh? She really feels that God led her to us! So hopefully we’ll be able to teach her a lot.

Yesterday was a little interesting too. We missed three trains! It was intense. After church one of our investigators walked with us to the train station. We were waiting in line for our tickets but the people in front of us were taking forever and our train came and went without us. So we had to wait for the next one which was only 15 minutes later. We bought our tickets and were talking to our investigator when the train pulled up on the other track. We realized that we were on the wrong side of the stop so we took off running to the other side, but of course we didn’t make it! Eventually we got on a train to Budafok – just 30 minutes from Érd – where we had a good program. On the way back we went to the train station and looked at the schedule to see when the train left only to turn around and watched it go by! It had stopped farther down the track and then left before we even saw it! So that was a bummer, but not entirely. We got to teach a short lesson and give a Book of Mormon to the one other guy who was waiting at the train station with us! So I guess it was actually a blessing in disguise!

I love being a missionary and teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It’s super fun and it is great to help spread happiness among the Hungarian people! Have a great week everyone!

~Anderson elder

The Castle District

Sziasztok!

I totally forgot to tell you about my sightseeing trip around Budapest last week, so I’ll give a little summary today. Elder Taylor had to get his permit to live here in Hungary, so a few other missionaries and I followed Elder McRae (who finished his mission just the week before) and his parents to the Castle District in Budapest. On our way there we met Elder Wilson (who finished his mission last December) and his parents and his fiancee. So we saw the Buda Castle, a big church, and this really cool public square with a vantage point that overlooks the Duna River (that’s what Hungarians call the Danube) across from which you can see the Parliament building. The trip was really fun!

Last week was really hard! Elder Taylor and I went finding for 16 hours, which is a lot, but we didn’t see much success from it. We are going to work on using our time more effectively and hopefully in the future we’ll actually be able to find people when we go finding. We did find one really cool family last week. They have so much potential, but right now they are a little more interested in learning English than in studying the gospel. But I have faith that things will go great with them.

Another cool thing was that one of our awesome investigators Gábor came to church and enjoyed it! The experience was a lot different, of course, but he liked it. Right after church we had a really good program with him and our mission leader, Attila. So that was really cool. Gábor is a super smart guy, he’s 27 and finishing his PhD in geothermal engineering! Whoa! So it is a ton of fun meeting with him.

The weather was crazy last week. For the first few days it rained a lot and it was kind of chilly and then on Wednesday or Thursday the sun came out and it was about 85 degrees! Now it is really hot and humid and gross. Haha.

Well that’s what happened last week. I hope that everyone is doing well. Read your scriptures and pray everyday! The basics help out so much! I love you all!

~Anderson elder