Thanksgiving in Szombathely

Sziasztok!

The past few weeks have been really neat! Two Sundays ago my companion and I drove one of our investigators home from church and his mom surprised us with a HUGE lunch. Her hospitality was awesome, but we already had planned to eat at a member’s house so it was really difficult to eat that second lunch! Hungarians are so nice! Then we drove to Győr because there was a new missionary who had come to Hungary a few weeks late because of a surgery. The mission office sent him on a train to Győr by himself and then we picked him up and drove him to his first area in Sopron! We then stayed in Sopron and went on splits with the missionaries there.

Monday was really cool because I was able to meet with Marika and Bea whom I helped find and teach when I served in Sopron a year ago! They were baptized the week after I left Sopron and they are still doing great! It was so much fun to be able to meet with them again!

Thanksgiving was great! We drove up to Szombathely and the Haslems, a senior missionary couple, cooked a giant American Thanksgiving dinner for us. It was great! We also watched the movie “The Other Side of Heaven” in Hungarian! That was pretty fun!

Tomorrow is Zone Conference and I have to give a training so wish me luck!

~Anderson elder

Hédi's Baptism

Sziasztok!

Last week was really fun! We had a lot of programs and were able to teach a ton, which is the best. But by far the best part of the week was Hédi's baptism!

Left to right: Elder Murray (who replaced me in Érd), me, Attila (the ward mission leader in Érd — he’s a STUD), Hédi, Elder Saunders (the new elder I trained in Érd — he just moved to Békéscsaba), and Elder Allen (who replaced Elder Saunders in Érd).

So, one of the people that I taught in Érd was baptized on Saturday and I was able to drive down and attend her baptism! First of all, driving in Budapest is CRAZY! Well, at least a lot crazier than in Washington. I made two wrong turns and had to suffer through an hour of traffic in Pest before I figured out how to get to the mission home in Buda. So that was interesting.

It was really great to see the members from Érd again and to visit with them. Hédi was really excited about getting baptized, but was a little nervous too! The service went well and the spirit was really strong! It made me want to stay in Hungary forever! Hédi bore her testimony and it was so cool to see how much she had progressed since I first met her. Missionary work truly is amazing and it brings the best joy ever! This experience is worth more than all the money in the world!

Hédi's baptism is pretty much the only thing that comes to mind about last week so I'll see you all next week!

~Anderson elder

A Strong Testimony

Sziasztok!

Well, a new transfer starts today! Time just keeps on flying by.

Everything is going well over here. Fast and testimony meeting was great yesterday! A super cute little kid, who is about eight to ten years old, bore a wonderful testimony! He told about preparing a talk for a special sacrament meeting a few weeks ago when the kids gave talks and sang songs. He had been having a hard time writing his talk when he remembered that he could pray for help. So he prayed to God that he could write a good talk. After that, he said that the words just came really fast. He really got into writing the talk and it ended up being really good! He said that he knows that God helped him and that his testimony was strengthened a ton! How cool is that?! The Spirit was really strong during that meeting – it was really neat to hear such uplifting testimonies.

I had another interesting experience yesterday. My companion and I were going to meet a member of the church who hasn’t been coming to meetings all that regularly. I wasn’t looking forward to talking to another person I was sure was just going to throw out a bunch of excuses for not coming to church. It’s so easy to assume that less-active members are just using lame excuses to justify not coming to church – so I judged this man pretty harshly. I was really surprised when I actually talked to him and was able to hear and see and feel his testimony. I came to understand his work situation better and see that it really is difficult for him and he really does come whenever possible. He told me that one week he gave a talk in sacrament meeting and taught both the Sunday school lesson and priesthood lesson all on the same day because he didn’t want to turn anyone down since he can’t help out as much as he would like. He said that the lessons went well and he loved it. He is coming to church next week and will be teaching the Sunday school lesson and the priesthood lesson again because people had to cover for him yesterday. That’s real effort. The members here in Hungary are amazing!

As I was thinking about this experience, it popped into my head that if I choose medicine as a career I too will probably have to miss church a few times because of circumstances that are out of my hands. So I learned a good lesson about judging people because I completely misjudged this awesome member. Improving and becoming more Christlike is a long and hard but wonderful process! So let’s all do a little self-examination right now and commit ourselves to be more forgiving, loving, kind, humble, and Christlike! Changing bad habits is always worth the effort!

~Anderson elder

The Best Email

Helló!

I just got THE BEST email of my entire life! In Érd I knew a really cool investigator, Nora, who was doing really well but then she moved to France and I haven’t really heard from her since. But I just got an email from her and she said that she was baptized on October 30th in France!!!!! I am SO HAPPY right now!!!!! She’s the girl who a homeless person streeted for Elder Saunders and me. He told her to come and talk to us and she did! And now she has been baptized! I’m so happy for her!!!!!!

Also, another investigator from English class in Érd is getting baptized next Saturday!!! I couldn’t be happier!!!! I’m in Budapest right now and our train leaves really soon so I have to go. But God lives and He is definitely a God of miracles!!!! He loves us! Being a missionary is awesome.

~Anderson elder

More Red Sludge Cleanup

Helló!

Hey everybody! Things are going well here in Hungary. Elder Caviness and I went to Devecser again on Saturday. Everything is still red. I spent the day working with a few firefighters from Zalaegerszeg, a city southwest of the Balaton. There were about seven of us at this one house. We had a front loader with which we worked on the front yard all day long. After one full day of hard work we were able to get most of the sludge out of the front yard and a small part out of the back yard. But the homeowners have a pretty big garden that we didn’t even have time to touch.

Hungarian officials have extended the state of emergency to December 31st, so we have plenty of work to do! But most of the people in the affected areas have already moved away and no one wants to move back, which is pretty understandable. We are all wondering what the long-term consequences are going to be for the ground, rivers, plants, and people who live here and for the people who have helped with the cleanup.

The missionary work in Pápa is going pretty smoothly. The situation in Devecser has really distracted us, though. And since Elder Caviness and I are zone leaders, we have to try to help resolve any conflicts or contention among the missionaries in our zone. That is as hard, if not harder, than shoveling sludge all day long! So our focus on our own area has taken a hit and we need to work on that a bit. All in all things, are going well.

Thanks for all of your support and love!

~Anderson elder

Toxic Sludge Cleanup

Sziastok!

Last week was really crazy! We went to Devecser to shovel toxic sludge on Monday and on Saturday! It has been a really interesting experience. An especially cool thing is that people in other cities have actually come up to the missionaries on the street and thanked them for our help in Devecser! So hopefully this event will let people see that we are actually normal, kind people.

On Saturday we had a small group of about fifteen people – which was perfect because we could stay in one group – and we were sent to an auto repair shop to work. There were about ten firefighters and ten other people from another group that were there too. We worked for seven hours straight! The shop owner’s house was right next to the shop. The family was pretty wealthy so they had LOTS of stuff. They had a storage garage that was completely full of furniture and clothes and we had to throw EVERYTHING away. Anything that you can imagine that could be in a house was covered in sludge. We just threw everything into piles so that a bulldozer could come and put it into a large container.

Helping with the cleanup is actually really fun work, kind of like playing in mud – but you don’t want the mud to touch you. It’s fun, that is, until you remember that everything you see and touch and throw away used to be a part of someone’s life and now it is ALL gone. It is a really weird, humbling, and sad feeling to go through someone’s belongings and throw everything away.

I have so many pictures and videos – I’ve already filled up a brand new 4 GB SD card! The only problem is that I forgot my camera at home so I can’t post any new pictures today!

I am really grateful that I have had this opportunity to help these people physically and spiritually. Being a missionary is amazing!

~Anderson elder

Vörösiszap

Helló!

Well, I’m sure that everyone is really curious about the vörösiszap. (Literally: “red sludge,” but I guess everyone in America is calling it the toxic spill). Last week was intense to say the least. Since Elder Caviness and I are the closest missionaries to the towns that were affected, and since we are also Zone Leaders with a car, the responsibility to organize and coordinate a relief effort sort of fell onto our shoulders! So we spent about two days straight calling the Stake Presidency, missionaries, branch presidents, and bishops to figure out how many people could participate and how many supplies we had to buy.

It all started last Monday when we were with an investigator and she told us that something crazy had happened in a nearby town called Kolontár. She said that there was some sort of toxic sludge spill. We drove to the area from the east through a city called Ajka, but the police had closed the road and we couldn’t get in. We drove around for a while and tried to go into Devecser, but the entrance to the city was closed – there were cars lined up along the road and no one was getting let it. The road into the town was completely red.

A few days later we learned that people were being let into Devecser to help, so we talked to our mission president about putting together a relief effort. Friday morning we drove back to Devecser. There were police everywhere with protective masks, and they even had automatic machine guns too! (I assume that the guns were to make sure that no one did anything stupid because of panic.) It was really surreal to walk and drive through the town. I felt like I was in a war zone. Everything was red and destroyed.

We went to city hall and talked to the people in charge of the relief efforts. They said that they would love to have a group of people come and help. We then talked to our mission president who told us that the church would be sending tons of money to help with the cleanup. He also told us that we were in charge for the time being. That’s when things got really hectic.

We had our own relief plan, and then we found out that other branches and the stake all had their own plans too, so we had to coordinate them all and try to group them together. We had a small group planned for Saturday (okt. 9) with people from Veszprém and a few from Győr. Then on Monday (okt. 11) we would have a big official group from Szombathely, Győr, Pápa, Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, and Budapest.

We drove to Tatabánya and met the senior missionary couple who work in the mission office and they gave us almost $2,000 and a small van so we could purchase and transport supplies for the groups. This was the stressful part because we had to buy boots, gloves, masks, and glasses for about 40 people and we only had about 24 hours to do it and there were only a few stores that sold those things with the quality and in the quantity we needed. Also, everyone else wanted to buy those things too. So we drove all over the place trying to get what we needed. In the end we were able to get almost all of the needed supplies.

On Saturday we went to Devecser to work with the members from Veszprém. The security was more relaxed by then; none of the police had machine guns. We spent the day shoveling sludge from people’s yards into giant containers. As soon as we filled one container, someone would take it away and bring in a new one. People were still living in Devecser and it was crazy to hear and see them cleaning their houses and talking about what happened. Pretty much everyone wants to move since their houses and yards and belongings have all been destroyed. The worst part is that all of the land is probably going to die and no one will be able to grow anything – it will be extremely dead and devoid of green vegetation, so even if people could clean their houses the area would be miserable to live in. Kolontár is the little town right next to where the waste was stored and everyone is calling it a dead town. No one will be able to live there for a very, very long time.

Monday was the big day and it was really cool to see about 45 members from all over the northwestern part of Hungary come to help. We were split into two groups and the group that I was in went to the post office in Devescer. We pretty much stayed there the whole day getting furniture out and shoveling sludge. But we were also able to remove a lot of destroyed furniture and stuff from a nearby house. And since we came in such a big group we got to wear the yellow Mormon Segítő Kézek (Mormon Helping Hands) vests! It was actually a lot of fun.

Many are probably curious about how dangerous the sludge is. When it came out of the storage area it had a pH level of 13 out of 14 and so it was burning holes in people’s skin, but now after it rained twice the pH level has dropped down to 11 in many areas. So we can get it on our skin and not have any problems if we scrub it off with soap and water within about 24 hours. And now since the weather is a bit nicer, the problem is that the sludge is drying and the dust will cause cancer if you breath enough of it. But if we wear good quality masks, which we did, then we shouldn’t have any problems.

Another big group is probably going back to help again this Saturday and my companion and I will be helping out every p-day until there is nothing left to do. Also the church is donating A LOT of money to the relief efforts. I don’t want to give an exact number because I’m not completely sure, but it is very generous. And very much appreciated.

Please keep the people affected by this disaster in your prayers. They really need it.

~Anderson elder