Transfer 17, Week 1 (hehehehe)

Hi everyone!

So, this is my last email home from Hungary.....This last week was pretty uneventful.....well, maybe that's just because of Wednesday...our landlord scheduled someone to come over and check something, but couldn't give us a specific time, so we stayed in the apartment all day...kind of ridiculous, but I got some stuff ready for packing. The rest of the week was pretty normal...we went with the other elders to verpelét to visit a family...they are way cool, we had a paraszt dinner, which means that they brought out a ton of bread, chopped up vegetables, cheese and meats, and we each had a knife, so you just kind of stabbed whatever you wanted, threw it on your bread and ate it. It was super fun, and the kolbász was actually theirs, homemade, and it was sooooo good! We also whipped a bit becuase the dad is learning how to make whips, so that was pretty fun.

That's about it for last week. Not too much out of the ordinary....this coming week should be interesting, we'll just be hanging out today, tomorrow i'll be packing, we have a program in the evening at 5, then thanksgiving dinner at the Scott's apartment at 7:00 with a gentleman from english class and his wife. That should be really cool. then, on Wednesday, Elder Pendleton and I will be going to Budapest, he will get Elder Allen (not the one i served with, a younger one), and I will stay in Budapest. I'll just kind of piddle around for a while, make a pie :) then have a round table discussion with President, departing interviews, departing dinner, departing testimonies, then one last drive around Budapest. Then, we'll fly out thursday morning. I think Elder Miller and I are going to have a long wait at the airport, our flight is 2 hours later than the sisters', but i think we still have to be there when they are....ah! and then I'll be home on Thursday, not quite sure what all's on the schedule for Friday and Saturday, but I believe on Sunday Elder Miller and I are speaking, followed by a youth fireside that evening, if I understand correctly.....so yeah, that should be our week.

I hope you all have a blast, and I'll be seeing you soon! It's been an amazing two years!

Elder Murray

Transfer 16, Week 6 Nov 14, 2011

OH boy

So, this past week was pretty much same old same old. Well, on Monday, we went to Budapest to get Elder Pendleton registered. Our train was supposed to get to Budapest at around 8:00, but arrived closer to 9 because of an accident. we got to the mission home super late, the group had already left, so we drove out to the hivatal, dropped him off, then came back to the mission home. Then, i went with sister bagozzi and Sister Johnson to the nagy piac to buy some souvenirs and stuff, then we met up with Sister Smith for lunch. After that, we went to Szent István's basillica, which is a huge catholic cathedral in Pest. it was way cool . in the back, they have the chapel of the holy right hand, and inside is the hand of Szent István, the first christian king of a somewhat united Hungary. Kind of cool. kind of nasty (it's about 1100 years old. or something like that).

After that, we came back, and on Tuesday we had splits with the APs. It was super fun, we went tabling and gave out a ton of Book of Mormons. Elder Pendleton and I got super into it, so the rest of the week was pretty much all just tabling. It was a lot of work, but we saw quite a bit of success from it. super fun.

That's really about it. On Sunday, three of us missionaries gave talks. Elder Pendleton was first, and he did a really great job, I was pretty impressed with him. Then was Elder Clavel and he did a really good job too. I was last, i kind of got confused with the time, so i ended five or ten minutes too early, but Elder Scott got up to bear his testimony at the end, so it was all good. My talk was pretty much just about my mission, which was cool, because I think that a lot of lessons we learn in life aren't actually learned and cemented in our minds until we actually look back and reflect on our experiences. It was a way cool opportunity.

so, that's about it. I guess I'll talk to you all next week!

Elder Murray

ps i don't know how weather is back home, but it's interesting here. We have had sun all year round, starting from January. From March to September, it was pretty warm. It is now still the same look, no clouds in the sky, but we've been getting down to freezing pretty consistently. Kind of ridiculous. so yeah, just thought i'd throw that in.

Transfer 16, Week 5 - Nov 8, 2011

Hi everyone
Oh my gosh, not even going to talk about the thing that just popped into my head as I was typing that subject line.
Things are going well here in Eger. We don't have much time today because we just dropped in to email real quick, so I'll give a quick recap of our week.
Monday was really long. We spent most of it with the Scotts looking up inactive members, but we had no success except one of them told us to come back next week. So, we'll see with that.
Tuesday was super awesome - we had a super P-Day, we just stayed at the branch house, watched a few movies and played a board game. It was a very relaxing day, and it was nice to just be able to all get together and have fun.
Wednesday was good. We went in to Budapest for zone conference, which, looking back, seems like it was only a few minutes long. It was just a normal zone conference, I got to introduce Elder Pendleton (did a terrible job of it too, hope he doesn't hold it against me :) and then at the end Elder Miller, Elder Diamond, Sister Wright and I all gave our departing testimonies. Elder Diamond actually goes home next transfer, but it's before the zone conference, so he gave his during this one. Yeah, it was pretty much one of my saddest moments on my mission, just looking out at people I have served with and thinking back on my mission and the things I have learned. that last part was actually happy, and I'm grateful for the things i've learned. but, i'm so sad that i won't see so many of the good friends i have made, even though it'll just be for 21 months or so at the longest. It's just hard to imagine life without so many of these people. It was difficult. Afterwards, Elder Clavel and I rode the train home (Elder Hommes and Elder Pendleton went home early with the Scotts to make it in time for English class). It was a long day. Other than that, kind of an average week. I had been signed up to speak in church the Sunday before I go home, but it got moved up a week, so i'll be speaking this Sunday on the most memorable moments/experiences of my mission. I hope i can keep it together for the whole duration. yeah. During church, president and Sister Baughman actually ended up coming, so i translated the testimonies for them. then, afterwards, president held a few interviews with some people who would like to get a patriarchal blessing, so i had to translate in those as well. It was fun, i always enjoy translating. then afterwards, President and I had a little chat and just talked a bit about my mission. It was good, just once again kind of sad to think that it's almost over.
Yesterday was possibly the longest day of my mission. we got up at 4 so we could catch the train at 5:30 so we could get to budapest at 8 in time for Elder Pendleton to go get registered for his residency permit. well, there was something wrong about 10 minutes away from the last stop, so our trian sat there for 45 minutes or so......but, everything worked out and we were still able to get Elder Pendleton down to the hivatal and registered and everything. as for me, I went to the nagy piac and bought a few things, then Sister Smith and Sister Bagozzi took us out for lunch at a cool little rétesház....afterwards, we went to Szent István's basillica, which was pretty amazing. I got a picture of King István's holy right hand.....kind of intense. the whole building is just massive and so ornate, it's incredible. then, we got back to the mission home in time for my meeting which lasted about 10 minutes. it was good, we talked about how everyone was doing and how to improve and stuff. then, Elder Pendleton and I, as well as Sister Johnson and Sister Galliand got on a train at 6 in the evening. that was a pretty fun train ride, we ended up singin Day-o (from Beetlejuice.... :) because i just happened to have the lyrics on me... hehehehehe) and telling about our most traumatic bone-breaking experiences at home....I say 'we' and i actually mean Sister Johnson and Elder Pendleton, becuase neither Sister Galliand nor I have every broken a bone. so yeah, that was fun. then, we got back to Eger, and the APs were there to go on splits with us. they spent the night, and then they just left at 3:30 today. it was really fun.
So, that was our week. I've got to head out soon, so i hope you all have a great time, and we'll talk to you all next week!
Elder Murray