Go West, Elder Anderson

Helló!

I have interesting news! I’m being transferred to Pápa! My new companion will be Elder Caviness who is just one transfer older than me. We spent time together in the MTC! It’ll be a blast, especially since we can both speak Hungarian pretty decently! I’m kind of sad to leave Érd because I have grown to love the people and members here, but I know that they’ll be in good hands. Especially because Elder Murray from Stanwood will be taking my place in Érd! He’ll have a great time.

Last Saturday we had a branch party in a park north of Budapest and it was really neat. The son of one of the members of the branch presidency has a kung-fu camp there and that is where we went. He came to the activity and brought a few of his students, and they did a really cool presentation for us. He is SUPER talented. He has won three kung-fu world championships and one Thai boxing world championship too. Through a bunch of interesting connections he was able to travel to China and study and practice with kung-fu masters for five years at a place called Shaolin Temple which has been around for 1500 years! So basically I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side. After he and his students did their presentation, he told some really cool stories about when he was training in China and what he had to do. Then we played soccer and had a lot of fun together. One of our investigators came to the activity and she had a really good time hanging out with the members. It was a big success!

Our investigators are doing really well and one was finally able to come to church! She was struggling for a while because she is so busy, but she came this week and she really enjoyed it. When I asked her how it was she said that it was all igaz which means true! I’m super excited for her.

I have a firm and solid belief that Jesus is the Christ, our Redeemer and our Savior, and that He has restored His complete gospel to the earth. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to share with others the faith that has blessed my family and me so much! Missionary work is awesome!

~Anderson elder

‘Flyering’

Sziasztok!

Last week was pretty good. Fall is definitely here. The weather is getting colder, and that means that ‘streeting’ and ‘tabling’ are getting less effective. Elder Saunders and I printed a ton (1,800) fliers to advertize our English class. So now we go ‘flyering’ when no one is on the street and no one feels like talking to us in their houses.

We made some really nice looking posters for our table and were really excited to go tabling this week. I was especially interested to see how Elder Saunders would like the experience. He said that it was the most awkward thing he’s ever done! Haha. And he’s right: it is pretty awkward. But that’s missionary work! I’ve heard missionaries say that a mission is a two-year awkward moment! Hahaha. That really is true, especially for missionaries who are bold. So tabling went well with Elder Saunders, but we didn’t have much success. The location where we set up our table is really bad, but it’s the only place where we have permission from the city to table.

On Saturday we have a really cool branch activity planned! We’re going to a park where we’ll play soccer and volleyball and have fun. At least one of our investigators is coming with us, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it to go. Things are going well with investigators, but we definitely need more people to teach! But all in all things are going really well here in Érd!

As usual, I’m in a hurry and have to go now! I love you all!

~Anderson elder

Sweetest picture ever of tracting!!!

Inspirational Training

Sziasztok!

Last week was really fun! And the three-day training was really, really cool. We didn’t learn anything new; the lessons were just to help us teach to people’s needs instead of just saying the same thing to everyone.

One of the most powerful lessons was about love and missionary work. This lesson taught us that genuine love and concern for other people need to be our main motivation. We need to find investigators because we love and care about people. We need to teach people because we are concerned for them, not just because it what we’re supposed to do. And we need to make sure that people understand and feel that we care about them, that we’re not meeting with them just because it’s our “job.” That was the overall theme of the entire training. It was really inspirational.

It was also fun because after about an hour of training we would role-play and practice what we had just learned for another hour and a half. At the end of each day, my companion and I got to sleep in the mission home, which was a real treat because it is super nice and the beds are very comfy!

Well, as usual I’m in a hurry. Elder Saunders and I are going to visit the Parliament building and we need to leave now. I love you all and will write again next week!

~Anderson elder

Lovin’ Life in Hungary

Sziasztok!

Last week was really fun and we had some good success. Unfortunately, I don’t have any time to tell you about it. I have to go right now because the really cool training I mentioned two weeks ago is going to start in half an hour and I haven’t even read all my email yet. I just want to say that I’m alive, that I’m well, that our investigators are doing fine, and that I’m lovin’ life in Hungary! Love you all!

~Anderson elder