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

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

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

Really Wierd Looks

Sziasztok!

This entry will be a little shorter because I don't have much time today. I couldn't write yesterday, which was p-day, because my companion and I had to go to Budapest. I had to get some stuff done with my passport to prove that I can live in Hungary. But Komló is pretty far away and so I spent about eight hours traveling yesterday. Hooha. (Hungarians say that sometimes instead of wow.)

The past couple of days have been pretty rough in terms of meeting with people. From Friday through Sunday we had 11 programs scheduled and of those 11 we only taught two. The rest forgot or couldn't meet. So that was disappointing. But on Sunday we had three people who were investigating come to church! It was great! And they liked the meetings so that was even better.

We're teaching a really cool kid named József and his girlfriend, Eszter. On Saturday I taught József how to tie a tie for church. It was really cool! Except I didn't know any of the words that I needed so I just showed him how. After a few tries he was getting frustrated, so I just tied it for him and he kept it in the knot. Haha.

On Thursday or Friday we talked to an interesting lady on the street. Well, she talked to us. We introduced ourselves and then she just went off on telling us her life story and she wouldn't stop talking. Haha. And then she sang a religious song to us while waving one of her hands in the air. Usually we get weird looks from people because we're two guys in white shirts and ties when it is really hot outside, but as this lady was singing she was getting all the really weird looks from people. When she finished her song, she started telling us about the big problem in her life. She started crying a lot and I didn't know what to do or say. It was awkward and sad and strange all at the same time. Then she told us that she used to be crazy. So that was interesting to say the least.

Well I better get going. I know that this gospel is true and that anyone can know of its truthfulness by reading from and praying about the Book of Mormon. Thanks for everything!

~Anderson elder

Life in Komló

Sziasztok!

So now I am in a place called Komló. It is an interesting town. It is built on a bunch of big hills so each hill has its own little mini-town on it. We are on the biggest hill and in the largest mini-town, but there is just one main road that goes through the main part of town. Komló isn’t as compact as Eger so there are a lot fewer people on the streets. On Saturday and Sunday the streets are almost empty and the stoplights just flash yellow after about 5pm because there is so little traffic. Komló hasn’t been open for missionary work that long and so there are only about six members here. We don’t have our own branchhouse, but have to take a 30-minute bus ride to Pécs for church.

Pécs’s branch is SO AWESOME! There are like 40 active members and they don’t even need help from the missionaries to function! Church is the regular three hour schedule. After church this week we hold a missionary meeting and there are three or four youth and a few older members who are awesome branch missionaries. One kid, Bencen, is saving money to go on a mission soon and a young woman from Pécs is currently serving a mission in Salt Lake City, UT. I actually met her last November. If I stay here for two transfers I will see her when she comes home. That would be really cool.

My new companion, Christensen elder, is pretty cool. Right now, he and I are the only missionaries in Komló. Hopefully we will be able to help some more people from Komló find the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Oh just so you know one of the sister missionaries who is teaching Éva is Nester Növér not Ester. I got her name wrong when I mentioned her before.

Ok, so a kind of funny thing happened to me this week. On transfer days we are always in a huge rush trying to catch trains and buses with luggage. One of my suitcases is the kind that has four little wheels instead of two larger ones. My companion and I were running to the bus stop in a hurry to catch the bus. I’m pulling the four-wheeled suitcase and it is unusually hard. So I stop and check it out—because the bus left when we we’re like 20 feet from it—and one of the wheels got stuck and was just grinding on the pavement. That was bad news, and I couldn’t do anything to fix it and didn't have any time anyway. Needless to say, after traveling from our apartment to the train station in Eger, from a train station in Budapest to the mission home and back, from the train station in Pécs to the bus station, and then from the bus station in Komló to our apartment the wheel that got stuck didn't really exist anymore. Most of it had been ground dust and the bottom part of my suitcase was ripped up from dragging on the ground. The only good news is that I got a nice, hard workout dragging that heavy suitcase all over Hungary! So after one transfer one of my suitcases is dead. I’ll figure something out for the next time I move.

The important thing is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored onto the earth and that we can know if it is real or not by reading the Book of Mormon, praying about it and following what the Lord has told us through it. I know that our lives can and will improve if we live the principles and commandments of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to change our bad habits—and sometimes even harder to change our mediocre habits into good habits—but if we consistently follow the teachings of Jesus Christ life will be more fulfilling, enjoyable, and just better. I love this Gospel and I have a testimony that it is true and that the happiness it brings is worth the effort it requires. Like everyone else, there are a lot of things about me that need changing, but still my testimony stands firm.

Thanks for all of your love, support, emails, and letters. Your emails and letters are appreciated VERY MUCH! I hope I will be able to respond to all of them. It was hard in the MTC to write back and now I have even less time. Maybe I’ll just end up helping you work on the virtue of patience! haha. Just kidding. (Well, sort of.)

~Anderson elder

First Transfer

Sziasztok!

Well this week has been pretty good. Some exciting news is that I am being transferred to a small city called Komló. It is in the southwest near a big city called Pécs. Being transferred is kind of bittersweet actually. I love Eger and I have started to build relationships with some of our investigators and members, so for that reason being transferred is kind of a bummer. Ilyen az élet (such is life). But I know that Komló will be just as awesome.

So I remember kind of a funny story from a few weeks ago. We went to the hospital for the first time to do service and got kind of lost. This one guy who is on the grounds keeping crew, whom we now call Spears—you’ll see why in a minute—helped us to find our way to where we were going to work. He had one of those sticks with a metal tip on it to stab garbage and pick it up and he was pretty good at using it. Well the funny part is when we were on this little dirt road within the hospital complex and a car pulls up behind us really fast and stops really quickly, almost hitting Spears. So this is why we call him Spears: He was obviously quite frustrated from almost being hit by a minivan and to make sure that the people in the car were aware of his frustration he whips out his stabbing stick, or spear, and acts like he is about to throw it through the windshield of the minivan!haha. It was like he was a caveman trying to fight off a fierce lion. Then he just continues to guide us to where we are working, mumbling something in Hungarian. So now we call him Spears and he is one of our favorite guys at the hospital.

Oh and it is just super awkward when we’re tracting apartment complexes and we knock on someone’s door just as their friends come up the stairs and knock too. So we’re all waiting and then the people inside are irritated with us and stuff.

Yesterday I got to talk to my Mom and Dad for an hour or so and that was really cool. It was weird to think that I haven’t talked to them since January. But it was great to talk to them and brag about how awesome Hungary is. My parents are the best in the world. No offense to every other parent, but I’m kind of biased.haha.

On Sunday we went tracting for three straight hours. It was pretty intense, especially since it was super hot. It was kind of weird though because we found two people who are interested in meeting with us and they were almost neighbors. That was really cool and I hope that goes well. I’ve realized that being rejected about a million times everyday really doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure why it doesn’t bother me, but I sure am grateful that it doesn’t.

OH! Ester növér (Sister Ester) in Budapest called me this morning and gave me an update on Éva, the girl that I streeted while chalking and with whom I got to talk in English and teach a little bit too! She is doing really well! She’s met with the missionaries twice and loves everything. She even went to stake conference and loved that too! I’m so excited for her! I’ll continue to share updates about her when I get them.

It is starting to get really, really warm here and I am sweating like crazy and its gross.haha. I wonder what people think about us when we are walking around in the summer in dark pants and a white shirt and tie. Everybody stares at us a lot.lol. It’s a little awkward, but I’m used to it now.

Well I sent my sd cards to my parents so hopefully within a week or two there will be cool pictures of Budapest and Eger on the blog.

I know that Christ lives and that if we follow God’s commandments that our lives will be better, happier and more enjoyable. We have a living prophet on the earth today and he receives revelation from God for the world. I am so grateful that I am a missionary for the Lord and even though it is really hard at times I love it.

Thanks for all of your support and I’ll see ya later! Sok szeretettel.

~Anderson elder

Stolen Flowers

Jó napot kívánok!

This week was pretty good. Especially since I FINALLY got to watch General Conference in English! Well, at least three sessions. We watched the Sunday Morning Session, the Sunday Afternoon Session, and the Priesthood Session. They were really good. I saw one of my old home teachers from BYU-I, Spencer Horner, in the choir for Priesthood session and that was really cool.

So apparently Davie has had some crazy experiences in Mexico. I don’t have anything that can compete with what he has experienced. Everything here is kind of normal. But I remember something kind of funny that happened a few weeks ago. I was on companion exchanges with Daybell elder and we talked to a guy on the street. When we introduced ourselves he said that he had seen “the movie” and that he knew all about the Mormons. (There was a movie here about the Amish that had been translated into Hungarian really badly so a lot of people think that we are Amish. Haha.) He started talking about how we can’t use technology and stuff, so Daybell elder pulled out the cell phone and told him that it was ours. The guy was like, “no you can’t use that, that’s not allowed”. Haha. He refused to believe that we weren’t Amish.

Oh! Something else kind of weird happened recently. There are some planters in front of our branch house that were full of weeds. We bought flowers and planted them before General Conference so the branch house would look nice. But one day someone stole four of our new flowers! I mean come on, they are only 90 forint (like 45 cents) a piece, buy your own! Then a few days ago someone stole another flower and left this weird symbol made of orange electrical tape next to the door. Maybe it was a gang symbol and they were trying to show us how tough they are by slowly stealing our little flowers. Haha. Nevetséges (ridiculous).

Our investigators seem to be örökké való érdeklődők (eternal investigators). They are all awesome, but they don’t have testimonies yet and so they aren’t very committed. Coming to church isn’t as important as other things to them and it is just really hard for them to consistently follow the commandments. Sometimes I just feel like dragging them to church. Haha. Maybe that’s how some parents feel sometimes. Of course we will continue to try to work with them as long as they put forth effort to try to follow the commandments, but I don’t know. So that is difficult.

I just want you all to know that I have a firm testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He knows everything that we go through and will help us if we ask in faith. God really is our Heavenly Father and He wants the best for us. The fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in our day and we can know that for ourselves if we read from and pray about the Book of Mormon. I know that it is scripture from God and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God.

Thanks for everything everybody. Have a great week!

~Anderson elder