Monday, September 27, 2010

Transfer 7, Week 1

Oh my goodness. I'm in transfer 7........ah!

Hi everyone!
Sorry for that little random thought.....just super wierd to think that I'm in transfer 7 already....didn't I just get out here a few months ago? What is going on here?
So, this last week was pretty good....on Monday, we went to Hortobágy.....super fun, of course.....and, the Szolnok elders were there too, so I got to see Lynn again.....and, I bought another whip..........yeah. After Hortobágy, we went to a member's house for dinner.......super tasty......and, Elder Bird and I whipped for quite a while....super fun....we were sore for the next few days though, hehe. It was super fun though! He totally got obsessed with whipping!
After that..........Elder Bird and I wanted to keep the momentum going that we had during consecration week, so we set a goal for 30 finding and teaching hours....we managed to get 28, which is actually more that we usually got in the weeks before, so that was super awesome......We met with a few people, not too much out of the ordinary.......Sunday was probably the best day........Church was good, there were a lot of good things said, then afterwards, we met with one of our investigators. We actually kind of combined with the sisters and a recent convert, and we watched a session of last October's general conference, the one by Elder Holland (I think it's called "Safety for the Soul"....super good). So, that went well, I think we're all super excited for general conference now......which, it's super wierd to think about, because the last time I watched general conference, I was still with Elder Huggard.....it's already been 6 months since then! gah! So, yeah.......that lesson went well. Then, we made some soup at the branch house because we didn't have time to go home for lunch.....we had another lesson right after lunch with an old investigator, which kind of turned into him just asking us about America......so, not too effective gospel-wise.........we'll see where that goes. After that, we met with one of our investigators at his house...his wife is a member, and she was there too, so that was great. She even gave us lunch, which was super tasty, just kind of hard to find room for it. After that, we taught them about eternal families, hoping to get the husband more interested in learning more.......hm.....Then we drove up to the Avas for a program with a lady who we tracted into. We ended up teaching her and her mom (well, the mom was there.........she is just kind of super old, and she kind of kept interrupting and going off on tangents...). That went really well, the lady seemed to understand everything we said, but she still had questions, so that was a super awesome program. There was a lot of back and forth conversation, and she seemed very interested in everything we were saying. I'm super excited for the elders to meet with her again!
So, transfers.........yes, I'm finally leaving Miskolc......ha, kind of wierd, becuase Elder Bird has "killed" me out of both of my areas so far. He was my last comp in Székes, and he is my last comp in Miskolc.....huh......They are re-instituting the dual-zone leaders, so Elder Bird is being joined by his MTC ősi, Elder Egan. Elder Egan was Elder Lynn's favorite companion, so hopefully he has a good time here. And as for the rest of the district, both of the sisters are staying.....I'm the only one leaving. I'm going to Érd. I really don't know too much about it. It's just southwest of Budapest, actually really close to Székesfehérvár.....and, I don't really know too much about my companion.....he's going into his second, so I'm going to be senior companion....gah! hopefully I don't destroy the place..... :) But, I believe that he was Elder Anderson's greenie, so that will be kind of cool. And, Tóth Nővér was a mini missionary here in Miskolc for about 2 weeks with Sister Crosley, and she lives in Érd, so I'll at least know 1 person.
So, yeah, that's pretty much all the juicy news for this week.............pretty exciting! I'm super nervous to be going senior, but then again, there's another elder going senior in his 5th transfer, and whitewashing (both companions are new to the area)....so, I think I can handle this..........ah, we'll see......
I hope you all have a great week! I'll talk to you next monday!
Elder Murray

Monday, September 20, 2010

Transfer 6, Week 6

Hey everyone! So, we just finished up consecration week! The goal was to get 30 total finding and teaching hours....we managed to get exactly 30 hours, so we were really excited. We had a really excellent week, we met with a ton of new people, and a lot of them really liked the message we shared, so hopefully we'll be going back soon.....that would be excellent! But yeah, so, the week went pretty good...not much happened on Monday, we decided to devote most of that to working so we could be sure to get the 30 hours.......Tuesday was pretty good, we actually had a cool little experience that night. Elder Bird and I were just kind of streeting around, walking around some back streets and stuff. We passed one street, and I noticed someone just kind of sitting on a railing. I kind of thought, "You know, we should go talk to her" but, she was the only person over there and I kind of thought that it would be awkward, so we just kept going. But, I still felt like we should go talk to her. I asked Elder Bird, and he agreed, so we went back with an angolóra flier. We went up to her, and she was actually crying, so I kind of felt super more awkward, but we talked to her anyways....we talked for a while, gave her an angolóra flier, asked if she wanted to hear about the gospel, then left. She wasn't really interested, but as we were walking down the street we were originally walking on, she followed us and then talked with us for a while as we walked, until we got to where she lived. It was kind of cool, because I didn't really think too much about it, but later Elder Bird was just saying how glad he was that we went back to talk to her. Yeah, she wasn't interested in the gospel, but when we started talking to her, she was crying, and by the time we left, she was laughing. I don't know, it just helped me see that yes, we are here to share the gospel, but why do we want to do that? Because it makes us happy. We offer that source of happiness to people, but if they don't accept it, that doesn't mean that we can't try to leave them happier than when we found them. So, that was just a cool little moment this week. Kind of one of those moments that's a mix between a duh moment and when the lightbulb turns on with the angels singing in the background. So, that was cool.Other than that, we met with a ton of people this week. We went on splits with Nyíiregyháza, so I got to come back to Miskolc with Elder Miller...that was a pretty cool split, we got some finds and even got let in once while tracting. Fun stuff. Then, later in the week, we met with an older lady from angolóra...that was super awesome because her husband and grandson were there too, and they all seemed super interested in the gospel. After we left, Elder Bird kept saying how it felt like just talking with your grandparents. They were just super nice and kept feeding us stuff, haha. We're excited to keep meeting with them, that should be really fun. Other than that....church was good this week...the Folsters came from Eger to speak in sacrament meeting...they're the senior couple there. All in all, a very good consecration week....the only bummer was, we just barely missed standard. None of our investigators came to church, so we missed that this week....dang. But, we got our thirty hours, so that was super awesome! I'm still super excited about that. :)so, that's about it.......we're going to Hortobágy today, so that should be pretty awesome....the missionaries from Szolnok and Eger are going to be there too, so there's going to be a whole crowd of us.....and I'll get to see Lynn again! yay! haha. Not much else......I'll let you all know next monday whether I'm staying or going, so be waiting for that! I hope you all have a great week! talk to you all next Monday! Elder Murray

Monday, September 13, 2010

Transfer 6, Week 5

Hello Everyone! Wow, we had a pretty fun week! So, on Tuesday, we went to Eger for district meeting....that was really fun, the Elders there are so awesome, and the senior couple are great as well. We had a good district meeting; Elder Bird gave a great training on motivation, vision, and goals. After that, he stayed in Eger with Elder Peugnet, and I came back to Miskolc with his greenie, Elder Jackson. We had a pretty good time together, we got a lot of finding time in and actually quite a few people gave us their phone numbers, so that was really encouraging for the both of us. It was his first time tracting, so it was really good that we could have so much success. On Wednesday morning, we took the sisters with us to split back with the elders in Eger, then we drove straight from there to Debrecen for another district meeting. That was good as well, then afterwards, the senior couple there fed us lunch (it was super good), and Sister Johnson stayed there with Sister Breithaupt, Sister Jordan came back with Sister Crosley, Elder Bird stayed there with Elder Hosch, and Elder Johnson came back with me. We had a pretty good split, we tried looking up some inactive members (without too much success...:( Then, the next morning we split back. It was a ton of driving. Definitely not the highlight of my week. The splits were absolutely great...the driving, not so much.....but, it was worth it. We all had a great time and learned a lot from each other......it was interesting for me because I was with junior companions both times--one is in his second transfer, the other in his first. So, I had to talk a lot more than I usually do---I guess that was good for me. :) The rest of the week was fairly good....on Friday, we had a Film Est (movie night) and we watched The Testaments (it just came out in Hungarian, so we were all really excited). Everyone absolutely loved it, it was so great to have everyone together to watch it and to just feel the spirit in the room.....it was pretty much amazing. Then, on Sunday, we had a district conference here in Miskolc, so the members from the branches in Debrecen, Eger, and Nyíregyháza all came to that, as well as the missionaries and the mission president. That was super awesome, it was so cool to see the chapel completely full, and the talks were all absolutely great. Three young women gave talks that were amazing--two of them had served mini missions, and they talked about the importance of member missionary work. They were super awesome, and it's so great to see the youth getting so involved with missionary work. Other than that, it was just super awesome to see all the missionaries from the zone and to get to know a lot of members. It was a pretty super awesome conference. After that, we went home for lunch, then went out to work. We started at 2:30 and pretty much worked straight until 8:00.....it was a long afternoon.......not too much happened with that....we managed to get a phone number from a family that we streeted, so we're looking forward to meeting with them. Other than that, not too much.......after we were done, we came home for dinner, which consisted of a baguette from tesco (actually quite tasty), popcorn (we have a few bags leftover from the movie night) and palacsintas. Yeah, maybe not the most healthy dinner, but it was fun. Oh, and we had herbal tea. That was good, it's been a super long time since I've had tea.
So, there's this film festival taking place at the arts house (I have no idea how to say it in English...in Hungarian, it's Művészeti Ház) which is seriously about a 10 second walk from the front of the building where we live. Apparently, along with that, they're doing nightly concerts, which, along with being really loud, have a stage right where we usually drive to get to our parking area. Luckily, they have provided a little ramp on a side road so we can make it home every day, but the thing is, it's still pretty close to the concert. So, we got home kind of later one day, and ended up driving right through the middle of it.....hehehehe.....we were kind of laughing the whole time..."hehe, we pooped the party....hehehe." so, yeah, we're nerds. but we enjoy it. :)
So, this week.......we're hoping to set up a lot of programs with angolóra students, so hopefully we'll have a lot of people to meet with. We're also going on one split to Nyíregyháza. And, it's consecration week, and the focus is on getting 30 total finding and teaching hours. We managed to get 25 this week, so hopefully we should be able to get the 30,,,,especially since we only have one split to worry about. It should be a great week. and, we're planning on going to hortóbágy next monday, so we'll let you know how that goes.......hopefully we'll have time to email, but if we don't, I'm giving a heads-up right now, just so nobody worries. :)Well, that's about it.......I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you on Monday!Elder Murray

Monday, September 6, 2010

Transfer 6, Week 4

Hello everyone!Ok, this week......well, we started out on Tuesday by going to Budapest.....there was a training there about being better teachers, and it was pretty much amazing.....it actually lasted three days, so we spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at the secretaries' apartment. Everyone had a really awesome time; the west and the east zones were there, so there were quite a few people to talk with. The schedule was pretty much the same every day: we got there, Pres. Baughman gave an hour long training, the APs gave an hour long training, then we had an hour for role-plays (the APs said our zone had the best role plays.....ya, go east zone! :) and then we had an hour for lunch, then repeat twice more. It was way fun, even though we were sitting for a really long time. The trainings were all great, and everyone did really good in the role plays, it's really cool to see how other people teach certain things, I really learned a lot from all of the people I practiced teaching with. So, that was pretty much the schedule for the first two days, then on Thursday, we just had two sessions. We all had a super fun time, and we're really trying to apply the things we learned to our teaching. Awesome! So, after that, we were trying to stay pretty busy for the rest of the week....we taught some programs on Friday, not too much new stuff......oh, although, we did have a program with one of our investigators, whom we haven't met with for about a month--that was super awesome! Then, Saturday......interesting......we had two programs in the morning, both with people from angolóra....the first lady missed a few days of angolóra, so her friend gave her her notes to study, so when we went to meet with her, she pretty much said "Well, I've got all this to study, so it would be pretty much pointless to learn anything else new......how about we talk about your church?" It was pretty awesome. We had a really good program with her. She seems really excited to learn more, so we're looking forward to meeting with her again. Then, we met with a guy who can understand written English pretty much perfectly and actually speaks fairly well, he just wants to improve it a lot. So, we talked with him for a while, got to know him a bit, and talked about the Book of Mormon....he's super interested in it, so we're looking forward to seeing where he goes..... Then, later we wanted to visit an investigator who is in the hospital, but then the sisters called to say they got on the wrong train to Budapest (they were taking a p-day so they could go to a baptism, but it didn't quite work out...) so, we went with them to the hospital (good thing too, I would have totally gotten lost trying to find where the room was...). So, we got to visit with them, and that was fun.....then, Sunday.....we went to church, that was awesome, then we went to visit the less-active members in Putnok and Kazincbarcika....that went pretty well, and then we looked up an inactive in Kazincbarcika....that was really sad, he's a 16 year old kid, and let's just say his life isn't on the best path........super depressing meeting.....and that was pretty much how we ended our day.......yeah.......so, today..........not too much planned, we should just kind of be wandering around to some stores......we have Családi Est tonite (family home evening), so that should be pretty fun....we still need to coordinate with the sisters whatever it is we're planning.....but it should be good! So, that's about it for this week......not too much new stuff going on.....I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you all next Monday! Elder Murray