Hi everyone!
Well, here´s my first email from Hungary! Sorry it doesn´t look foreign or something...haha So, my training area is in Székesfehérvár (the literal translation is Chairly White Castle--I think it used to be the capital a LONG time ago....cool, huh?) It´s pretty cool here, the branch has about 20 (?) members.....I guess I was expecting that many, just because that´s about how many our teachers told us there would probably be, but I was still kind of surprised.....ha, when I introduced myself in church, it was extremely short--I said my name, that it was my 6th day in Hungary, and that I was happy to be there......that was it. Nice, huh?
Ok, so, I pretty much can´t understand anybody....in case you´re wondering, that´s not fun. at all. I can speak a little bit, but I need to expand my vocabulary, otherwise I´ll be stuck with missionary topics for a while.....I know that I´ll be able to understand people as I hear the language more, but I am just very impatient with myself, so I feel like there´s something that I´m doing wrong that is keeping me from understanding people.....hm.
Yeah, but Pres. Baughman and Sister Baughman are way awesome! I totally love them, they are so personable and caring. After they picked us up from the airport, we got to take a nap to help get over the jet lag...the branch house is way cool, by the way. Before our nap, I had to teach a program to a new member, because two people showed up for a companionship, and they needed us to go on splits with them. It was pretty fun. The next day, we went streeting in the morning....I was able to get a few people to stop, but Sister Steck was totally rocking it! She placed 4 or 5 Book of Mormons (I know, the s is in the wrong place--deal with it :) ), and she was having conversations with everyone! Yeah, so that was fun.....oh, and all the food I´ve had here is amazing! I love it!
Oh, I forgot to mention, my trainer is Huggard Elder. He´s pretty cool--I think he was taught by Sister Snow.....? He goes home in 6 months. One thing though, I feel like he likes to spend a lot of time in the apartment....I think we´re getting out on time, I just get really antsy to get outside, and he seems like he purposefully gets distracted by something else...
Yeah, so this is definitely not anything like what I had expected from the MTC....i was expecting it to be difficult, but I am still just blown away by the intense opposition i seem to be facing right now.....something just keeps moving my mind back to home- and MTC-life, so I get pretty homesick sometimes.....that´s only in the apartment though, when we´re outside, I´m just excited to do missionary work! Hopefully I´ll be able to understand people soon, so I´ll be able to actually respond to what they´re telling me...
Ah, one funny story before I go....my first full day in Székesfehérvár (Thursday...) we locked ourselves out of the apartment. Huggard Elder had made some pasta for lunch, and he thought that we should run and by some cheese while it was cooling off....so, we didn´t have our bags or anything (luckily we both had our coats), and we went outside and shut the door. we got down maybe one flight of stairs before we asked each other if either of us had the key......nope. So, he called the landlord, who came about 5 hours later (he doesn´t live in the city)....meanwhile, we just kind of streeted.....fun.....
Yeah, so that´s my first interesting (?) story from Hungary...hopefully it´s not going to set the tone for the rest of my mission..... :) Well, I love you all and miss you so much! Ah, it´s happening again! I need to go outside or something!
Talk to you all later!
Murray Elder
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Jan 13, 2010 last P-Day in the MTC!!!!!!
Hi everyone!
So, today is my last P-Day in the MTC! AH! I cannot believe how fast this time has gone by....it seems like just yesterday it was Christmas, and the day before that that I got here......crazy.......if my mission is anywhere near this fast, it's going to be over so soon...I'm going to be using every minute!
OK, so I'll be sending my Hungary address in a letter too, but I wanted to put it in here just in case anyone got antsy and wanted to send a letter soon...:)
Elder Kyle Murray
Hungary Budapest Mission
Budapest
Hajnoczy Jozsef Utca 14
1122
Hungary
OK, so both of the o's have dashes over them (in Hajnoczy and Jozsef) Yeah, so, I'll probably be writing a bunch of letters on the plane....I'll have TONS of time, so they may be longer than they have been.....don't be expecting all of them to be that long though :)
Ah! So, I forgot to mention this, but we actually got our flight plans on Thursday! A whole day earlier than we were expecting them! Ah, we were SOOOOO excited! It was so unexpected, but we were so happy! It's totally official now...we're going to Hungary!
Ok, so here's our flight plan (and if any of you happen to be at any of these airports, they've discouraged meeting family or friends... :( sorry) We leave Salt Lake City at 8:30 AM on the 18th, arrive in Atlanta at 2:13 pm. Then, we leave there at 3:35 pm and arrive in Paris at 6:15 am on the 19th. We stay there until we fly out at 9:40, and then we arrive in Hungary at 11:50 am on January 19th, 2010. We have to report to the travel office here at 5:00 in the morning on the 18th...yay.....but, I'm really glad that we get to leave early in the morning....that's how they used to do it when our teacher went, but the past few years they've been leaving around 1:00 in the afternoon.....this way, we get to Hungary before lunchtime, so we have half a day before we officially get assigned somewhere! Ah, I'm SO excited! It would be really fun to go to Pecs (accented e) because we met this senior couple who were leaving to serve there...we even got to teach with them a few times in the TRC...they're awesome! It would be so fun to serve in the same city as them!
Well, I've got to go....next time you get an email, it's going to be coming from HUNGARY! AH!
Murray Elder
So, today is my last P-Day in the MTC! AH! I cannot believe how fast this time has gone by....it seems like just yesterday it was Christmas, and the day before that that I got here......crazy.......if my mission is anywhere near this fast, it's going to be over so soon...I'm going to be using every minute!
OK, so I'll be sending my Hungary address in a letter too, but I wanted to put it in here just in case anyone got antsy and wanted to send a letter soon...:)
Elder Kyle Murray
Hungary Budapest Mission
Budapest
Hajnoczy Jozsef Utca 14
1122
Hungary
OK, so both of the o's have dashes over them (in Hajnoczy and Jozsef) Yeah, so, I'll probably be writing a bunch of letters on the plane....I'll have TONS of time, so they may be longer than they have been.....don't be expecting all of them to be that long though :)
Ah! So, I forgot to mention this, but we actually got our flight plans on Thursday! A whole day earlier than we were expecting them! Ah, we were SOOOOO excited! It was so unexpected, but we were so happy! It's totally official now...we're going to Hungary!
Ok, so here's our flight plan (and if any of you happen to be at any of these airports, they've discouraged meeting family or friends... :( sorry) We leave Salt Lake City at 8:30 AM on the 18th, arrive in Atlanta at 2:13 pm. Then, we leave there at 3:35 pm and arrive in Paris at 6:15 am on the 19th. We stay there until we fly out at 9:40, and then we arrive in Hungary at 11:50 am on January 19th, 2010. We have to report to the travel office here at 5:00 in the morning on the 18th...yay.....but, I'm really glad that we get to leave early in the morning....that's how they used to do it when our teacher went, but the past few years they've been leaving around 1:00 in the afternoon.....this way, we get to Hungary before lunchtime, so we have half a day before we officially get assigned somewhere! Ah, I'm SO excited! It would be really fun to go to Pecs (accented e) because we met this senior couple who were leaving to serve there...we even got to teach with them a few times in the TRC...they're awesome! It would be so fun to serve in the same city as them!
Well, I've got to go....next time you get an email, it's going to be coming from HUNGARY! AH!
Murray Elder
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Flight plans this week!!!!
Hi everyone!
So, in case you didn't read the subject line for some reason, we should be getting our flight plans this Friday! AH! Which means, we leave in a little over one week! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by here! We were coming back from the temple today, and we saw a bunch of new missionaries coming in, and Miller Elder said it feels like just yesterday when we were the new ones....ha, but he said it in Hungarian, so Lundeen Elder and I took a while to understand it....ah! which brings up another thing! This week is Consecration Week! Starting from when we left the temple today until when we enter the temple next Wednesday, we have committed ourselves to only speaking Hungarian, and to being the best missionaries we can be! aw....one of our goals was going to be to go to the RC more than once a week, but now they're only letting English elders (and some Spanish) help there....so we don't even get the one time a week. Bummer....
So, yesterday was our last day with the Albanian missionaries....they left at about 3:00 this morning.....we are going to miss them SO much....they've been here the entire time that we were here, so it's going to seem really weird without them....we've all got each others emails and adresses though, so we should be able to keep in contact over the next few years....Elder Smith and I were even talking about being roommates at BYU.....He's a rad guy. Yeah, but they are going to have so much fun in Albania....apparently there's only about 40 elders and 3 or 4 sisters, so they should see each other fairly often. Ha, and apparently there's this kid who used to chase the missionaries yelling cuss words at them...one day the missionaries said "Ok, we're going to teach you the worst American swear word, but you have to promise not to say it." So now, the kid chases the missionaries around yelling "Baptize me! Baptize me!" It's a pretty funny story.
Speaking of stories, Bro. Sorensen was telling us about when he bought his whip in Hungary.....he tried it out and managed to make a little *snap* so then, this little old neni (the e has an accent; those are little old ladies--a bacsi (accented a) is a little old man) picked up a whip, swung it, and got a huge *CRACK* then she looked over at Bro. Sorensen and just kind of cackled at him. Ha, I love all of our teachers' stories....they make me SO excited to get to Hungary! And I'm actually going to be leaving in 12 days! AAAHHHH!!! I can hardly wait, I am getting so excited to get there! (not the 15+ hour trip....i could do without that). Apparently, on your first day, they let you street for a while just around the mission home (ah, that should be so much fun! not that I'll be able to understand the people I'm streeting....but still!) and then they take you up onto this hill that overlooks Budapest. There's a cool statue up there with a poem on it (which, apparently you have no idea what it says because you still can't read), and you just get to sit and look out over the city. Bro. Sorensen said they take you there on your last day too, and it's really cool because you can actually understand the poem then, and you just get to look out at Budapest and look back on a job well done. ah, I'm so excited! I don't think I can say that enough times to fully describe just how excited I am......
Well, I hope you all had a great holiday and are having a great New Year! I love you all, and am looking forward to hearing from you in Hungary! Postage sounds way expensive, so feel free to email me if you don't want to send a letter.
Sziasztok!
Murray Elder
So, in case you didn't read the subject line for some reason, we should be getting our flight plans this Friday! AH! Which means, we leave in a little over one week! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by here! We were coming back from the temple today, and we saw a bunch of new missionaries coming in, and Miller Elder said it feels like just yesterday when we were the new ones....ha, but he said it in Hungarian, so Lundeen Elder and I took a while to understand it....ah! which brings up another thing! This week is Consecration Week! Starting from when we left the temple today until when we enter the temple next Wednesday, we have committed ourselves to only speaking Hungarian, and to being the best missionaries we can be! aw....one of our goals was going to be to go to the RC more than once a week, but now they're only letting English elders (and some Spanish) help there....so we don't even get the one time a week. Bummer....
So, yesterday was our last day with the Albanian missionaries....they left at about 3:00 this morning.....we are going to miss them SO much....they've been here the entire time that we were here, so it's going to seem really weird without them....we've all got each others emails and adresses though, so we should be able to keep in contact over the next few years....Elder Smith and I were even talking about being roommates at BYU.....He's a rad guy. Yeah, but they are going to have so much fun in Albania....apparently there's only about 40 elders and 3 or 4 sisters, so they should see each other fairly often. Ha, and apparently there's this kid who used to chase the missionaries yelling cuss words at them...one day the missionaries said "Ok, we're going to teach you the worst American swear word, but you have to promise not to say it." So now, the kid chases the missionaries around yelling "Baptize me! Baptize me!" It's a pretty funny story.
Speaking of stories, Bro. Sorensen was telling us about when he bought his whip in Hungary.....he tried it out and managed to make a little *snap* so then, this little old neni (the e has an accent; those are little old ladies--a bacsi (accented a) is a little old man) picked up a whip, swung it, and got a huge *CRACK* then she looked over at Bro. Sorensen and just kind of cackled at him. Ha, I love all of our teachers' stories....they make me SO excited to get to Hungary! And I'm actually going to be leaving in 12 days! AAAHHHH!!! I can hardly wait, I am getting so excited to get there! (not the 15+ hour trip....i could do without that). Apparently, on your first day, they let you street for a while just around the mission home (ah, that should be so much fun! not that I'll be able to understand the people I'm streeting....but still!) and then they take you up onto this hill that overlooks Budapest. There's a cool statue up there with a poem on it (which, apparently you have no idea what it says because you still can't read), and you just get to sit and look out over the city. Bro. Sorensen said they take you there on your last day too, and it's really cool because you can actually understand the poem then, and you just get to look out at Budapest and look back on a job well done. ah, I'm so excited! I don't think I can say that enough times to fully describe just how excited I am......
Well, I hope you all had a great holiday and are having a great New Year! I love you all, and am looking forward to hearing from you in Hungary! Postage sounds way expensive, so feel free to email me if you don't want to send a letter.
Sziasztok!
Murray Elder
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