Transfer 5, week 4

Hi everyone!So, not too much going on this week....We did have a really amazing little miracle though....there's a 21-year old young woman who has been coming to angolóra for the past week or two, and she has stayed for the spiritual message and made friends with László Csaba who is going to the kezdő class. We invited her to church, and she actually came! and then, she stayed for all three hours--she really liked sacrament meeting--the Szamosfalvi family spoke, so it was really good; and then in sunday school, we watched Legacy--she said she would like to set up a meeting sometime so we can finish that with her; then Sis. Crosley took her to Relief Society, and all of the women there were so welcoming to her and invited her back. Then the sisters called to report numbers that evening and said that they had walked with her for most of the way to the train station (she lives in a falu) and had a really great talk with her. She said the thing that she liked the most was how nobody was really the "big boss" of the whole thing--everyone had an opportunity to teach and share their opinion. She seems to be really interested, and we are really looking forward to our next meeting with her--we will probably let the sisters continue teaching her after the next meeting, but i am just really glad that we could see this start, it is really encouraging to see the seed of faith starting within her.On Thursday, we went on splits to Nyíregyháza....that was really fun, in the morning we went tabling, and then in the afternoon i split with Elder Hiencze (i have no idea how to spell his name...). That was pretty fun. Haha, so, the elders in Nyíregyháza made up a game....it's called "claim your territory"....in the summer, it's really hot, so all the bácsis (older guys) roll up their shirts and kind of just walk around with their belly hanging out....the elders say that they're 'claiming their territory'...so, there's not much to the game, pretty much just people-watching....For dinner, we all went to this little Mexican restaurant...there are very few mexican restuarants in Hungary, so that was quite a nice little treat for us. So, other than that, not too much......ooh! it rained on Sunday! and today is completely overcast! I was so happy! haha, kind of the opposite of what most people feel on those kind of days, huh? It had just been a really long time (for me at least) since i had seen rain, and i was getting quite fed up with the blistering hot weather.....so that was nice. Not much else to report on.....hope you're all having a great time! Talk to you next week!Elder Murray

Transfer 5, Week 3

Hello Everyone!
So, week three......yeah. So, I actually kind of started this email about 2 hours ago, but the internet went down, so we went to another mall, wandered around for a bit, and then came back. (it's working now :)
So, things are going a little slower here in Miskolc--the weather is definitely not helping, haha. The heat is turning everyone into little walking sweatboxes who don't really like to stop and talk.... This week has also been a little discouraging, we had one of our investigators skip three appointments without calling, and another potential investigator not show up to our first meeting (although, I should be honest, I think we are partly to blame for that one--we set up the appointment last Monday for this Sunday--yesterday--so, it is very likely that he just forgot about it). But, there is always a bright side to everything--one of our investigators came to church finally! He's actually been a lot of times in the past with his wife, who is a member, but this was the first time he's been to church since I have been here. It was great to see him there, and all the members were really friendly to him. Which reminds me, the members here just seem to be getting more and more friendly, both to the missionaries, and to those we invite to church. It has been extremely encouraging to see the change in them, even though it is an extremely slight one. They all just seem to be slowly becoming a big warm family where everyone is welcome!
So, other than that.....not much going on.....last week we went to the Avas Kilátás (lookout), and then the Diosgyöri Vár (castle)...those were pretty fun....took some pictures.....fried in the heat.....yeah. Throughout the week, not too much going on...went to Budapest for zone leader council....that was pretty good...oh, and we found out that for zone council, after the trainings and everything, we're going on a city tour of Budapest! It sounds pretty fun, I actually haven't seen too much of Budapest, just the same road over and over again that we drive on to get from Miskolc to the Mission Home--it'll be nice to see some more of the city :)
Um.....yeah.....not much going on right now......we're just pretty much dying in the heat....or, at least Sister Crosley and I are......Elder Cheney is from Atlanta, so he said he's pretty much used to this weather, whereas Sister Crosley is from Canada, and I'm from Washington.....it doesn't usually get too hot there......or, maybe I just never went around in the summer wearing dark pants and a button-up shirt......yeah, I'm pretty sure that would make any place seem really hot. But, it's bearable.
So, yeah, not too much to report on......oh! pres. Baughman sent us a cool article....I'll try forwarding it....it was really cool, and kind of subtly emphasizes the benefits of serving a mission.
So, I think I'll stop rambling now.........I hope you're all doing great! Talk to you all next week!
Elder Murray

Transfer 5, Week 2

Hello everyone!Not much to say about this week......interesting with transfers and everything, but i think we're all getting settled in.Transfers was kind of stressful, helping elder Lynn pack and then getting up early to get to Budapest on time, and then getting back to Miskolc and getting adjusted to a new companion.....i managed to keep my sanity though, and things are going really great now with Elder Cheney. He's from Atlanta Georgia, and this is actually his last transfer....wierd. He's having a great time here in Miskolc, maybe the only thing he's struggling a little bit with is the whole zone leader thing--but, he seems to be doing okay in that department too, so we're just looking forward to ending his mission with a bang! haha. Not much new with investigators....we didn't have much time to meet with them this week, with transfers and some other activities. we should be meeting with a lot of them this week, as well as possibly getting some new ones! exciting! Other than that....We managed to meet with the branch leader here before church on Sunday, and the advice we got from him to strengthen the missionary work was to reactivate the less- or in-actives here in Miskolc. That's pretty much common council throughout the country, but it really seemed like he was very determined to see more of the members return to full activity. He gave us a new list of members, with certain names hilighted in three different colors, so we can easily see who is less-active, who is inactive, and who doesn't want to be visited (luckily, there's only one of those...). It was really a great meeting, he gave us all a chance to voice our opinions/questions/comments, and the list was absolutely great. We're really looking forward to using it and to bringing more members back to church. We are certain that when the active members see more and more people returning to activity, they will become more involved in the missionary work. We are really looking forward to giving a little more focus to RCLAs this transfer. We actually have one that we have already been working with for a while--she came to church for the second time this Sunday, and she brought her daughter, who isn't a member. It's been really cool to see the change in her as we've been meeting with her and she's started to return to church. The active members are all great too, making her feel at home once again.Friday was absolutely wonderful with the Szvoboda family's fireside (although, it was very wierd to see Elders and Sister Szvoboda as non-missionaries). We had an amazing turnout, and a pretty impressive amount of investigators as well. Everybody absolutely loved it, and it was such a great experience--the Spirit was so powerful during the whole thing, and it was just so great to be there!So, that's about all the news for this week....Elder Cheney and I are doing pretty well, we're getting off to a pretty good start this transfer. He seems really excited to be here--maybe having a little bit of a struggle being a zone leader, but he seems to be handling that just fine as well.So, that's our transfer so far in a nutshell.....we're looking forward to this week and we're excited to see what we can accomplish here.I hope you all are having a great time, and know that i frequently think about you all!Elder Murray

Transfer 5, Week 1 - July 5, 2010

Hello Everyone!Happy Fourth of July! Happy Canada Day! haha, so, we had zone interviews on Canada Day (July 1st), so everyone was saying happy canada day......Sister Crosley is Canadian, so she was talking about it the whole way to Budapest in the car. she even sang us the Canadian national anthem! pretty cool stuff....haha, and then she called us sunday night to sing the American national anthem with us, and we got her to recite the pledge of allegiance with us.....we're slowly turning her into an American..... :)So, this week.....Monday was really fun, we went to Lillafüred on a little train. The train ride was about 15 minutes long, and at Lillafüred there's a really cool waterfall and a lake and a castle-turned-hotel. It was a really fun day, we all had a great time just kind of wandering around. On Thursday, we went to Budapest for zone interviews (and to celebrate Canada day...hehehe). those were really great, we got to see a lot of missionaries, and the APs gave a really good training. They taught about talking with people on the street, so at the end, we all got to go outside for 10 minutes and try to apply what they taught. It was really fun, and a really great training, because we all immediately got to apply it, so hopefully we'll be able to internalize it and apply it for a long time and not just forget it. After interviews, we went on splits--i went to Nyíregyháza with elders Davis, Pinkston, and Nikolov, and Elder Kubricky went back to Miskolc with elder Lynn. wow, train rides get really boring after three hours. but, we finally got there, and i had a really good time there. I was with Elder Davis for Friday, and then on Saturday I was with Elder Nikolov. They were both really great, and i had a great time and learned a lot from both of them. So, little story for the week....we have one really good investigator who we're meeting with right now who is progressing pretty well. She said that she had been having a hard time this week, so we just had a lesson with her about the scriptures and prayer, and the strength we can gain from those. She was really willing to do the things that we asked her, and she seemed like she was excited to try them out and see improvements in her life. And, then we got a referral from Budapest, and when we called her to confirm the lesson that we had already set up with her, she said that that time wouldn't work, but she can meet later this week, and she wanted to know if she could bring a friend as well who is also interested! It was a very exciting phone call, I'm really excited to meet with them. Both experiences were really great, we're excited to see the gospel start changing their lives for the better. haha, so i just about sent this without saying anything about transfers! haha. So, Elder Lynn is going to Szolnok to be the branch leader there, and his new companion is going to be....Elder Miller! kind of wierd, because they were just companions a few transfers ago...but, he's really excited to be going there and to work there. My new companion is Elder Cheney...i've seen him a few times in Budapest,--i don't really know a whole lot about him, but he seems like a great guy....i guess we'll see....haha, and he doesn't have his driver's license yet, so it looks like i'm going to be doing a lot of driving in the near future.....yay....haha, yeah, so, that's the news for this week. not much else. a lot of interesting things going on with transfers.....oh, and my trainer is going home this week! gosh, that is so wierd to think about.....i can't believe that so much time has gone by since i got here.....Hungary is going to be really wierd without Elder Huggard here.....i guess we'll survive somehow....haha. well, i hope you all have a rad-tacular week! I'll talk to you all next week!Elder Murray

Transfer 4, week 5

Hello Everyone!Wow, pretty intense week.....we had zone conference on Wednesday, and Elder Causse was there (i have no idea if i spelled that right......he's a member of the 70, and i believe he gave a talk in general conference once.....). It was really good, he had a lot of great advice for us to help us improve ourselves and become better missionaries and better people. Then, we had to rush back to Miskolc for Angolóra...we were starting it over, so we were expecting a lot of people, but there wasn't really a whole lot of new people....oh well. Then, on Thursday (yes, the next day) we had to drive back to Budapest for Zone Leader Council. That was really good too, we really cleared up a lot of mission policies, and Elder Causse had a lot of really great ways that we can improve the mission. Plus, i got to see Elder Lundeen, Elder Brockman, and Elder Huggard. It's super wierd to think that Elder Huggard is going home in just a few weeks, and then Elder Brockman goes home 6 weeks after that. Other than that, our week has been going really great. We have a few really good investigators...one of them is having his baptismal interview this Saturday, and then right after that, one of the sisters' investigators is getting baptized. We actually have this one investigator who's really fun. She's about 45 maybe, and she has two jobs as a chef, so it's kind of hard to schedule with her, but she always makes us something when we come over, and she loves talking with us. We always have a fun time with her. We tried to visit her once, but they didn't hear the doorbell or something, so we came back another day. She was kind of pretending to be mad at us, and in the middle of a little rant she just kind of stopped real quick to say --sziasztok, örülök, hogy itt vagytok--("hi, i'm glad you're here") and then started her little rant again. . It was just really funny because she just threw it in there, and then we just laughing for the rest of her rant. She's a lot of fun, because she's always laughing with us, but then we start the lesson, she really pays attention and seems to be really applying what we're teaching. it's really cool to see the difference, because you can tell when the lesson starts that the Holy Ghost is there, and that she's learning to recognize it and to learn from it. We're really excited to continue teaching her.haha, and then we were meeting with an older woman (she's so rad, she watches handball religiously) and she said she was never coming to church again because someone mentioned something about all the women should be wearing skirts (hers was getting washed or something). Then Elder Lynn told her that when he got to church and looked where she usually sits, he didn't see her, so something was missing from his entire day....after that, she said "jó, csilagom, ott leszek jövő Vasárnap" (ok, my star/dear, i'll be there next week). She always call us "csillagom", it's so adorable.So, let's see....other than that, not too much going on....we're starting splits tonite, so i'll be in Debrecen with Elder Marceil (he was in the group above me at the MTC...i'm really excited to see him again). yeah, so, that's about it. I hope you're all having a great week, and i guess i'll talk to you all next week.
Elder Murray

Transfer 4, week 4

Hello everyone!
Wow, things are going way great here in Miskolc! (Well , maybe not as great as they could be going.....but they're still going great! :) We've met twice with a lady named Timi, she's always really happy to have us over and to talk with us, and this last time, her son sat in on the lesson too, and he seemed pretty interested, so hopefully we'll be able to talk with him too in the future. It was really cool though, because we tried visiting her on Saturday, but when we rang the doorbell, apparently nobody heard it, so we left.....we called her on Sunday, and she said she was dissappointed that we didn't get to meet, and wanted to know if we could meet then. She is so great, she always has great questions and is always smiling---plus, she's a chef, so we always get something to eat when we visit her. :)
Other than that, not much going on this week......one of our investigators said that he thought he should probably be baptized, which was amazing in and of itself, and then we said there was a few things he needed to take care of first, and he pretty much committed himself to quitting smoking and drinking. He's a really cool guy--haha, he's about 50 something, and he always says "kiraly!" (it means "king", but they kind of use it like 'cool'.....yeah, he's pretty rad, haha.)
Um.....on Saturday, we were on splits in Eger....that was really fun, i got to split with Elder Mullen, who was in the group above me at the MTC---he's doing great with the language, and is a great missionary. He always shows his personality in everything he does, and the members in Eger that I got to meet all seemed to really like him.
Yeah, so that's pretty much week three of transfer 4 of Elder Murray's mission....haha. oh, one more thing---a couple of you were asking about driving, now that i've got a car. It's definitely interesting.....i have to drive a lot more defensively than i did in America, that's for sure. it's not too difficult, just wierd for me.
well, that's about it.....we've been having a great time together, learning from each other......oh, and we recently tried out this new way of tracting--i can't remember if i talked about it last week or not, so i'll just repeat myself if i did.....feel free to skip this part if it's old news....or if you're bored... :) So, we printed up this little survey of about 5 questions, with our names and numbers at the bottom, and put one in each mailbox in a bunch of apartment buildings. we went back a few days later and talked with people about their opinions. They seem a lot more open and receptive with that, and we've seen some great success with it.
Oh, and i forgot to mention some random trivia about Miskolc that Elder Lynn told me when i first got here---apparently, the walking street here is the longest one in Europe. Also, there's a section of the city called the Avas--it's just tons and tons and tons of 10 story apartment buildings--which has more people living in it than the entire city of Eger. Yeah. So, that's my random little spurt for this week. I guess I'll talk to you all next week!
Elder Murray

Transfer 4, week 3

Hi everyone!
Wow, this week was pretty interesting. First of all, Elder Lynn and I made it into the 20 Lessons Club (for missionaries who teach 20 or more lessons each week), so we were really excited about that. And, we had an absolutely amazing day of tracting, so we should be getting some new investigators from that. It was really fun too, we tried an idea Elder Lynn got from one of his companions. We made a small survey and put it in every mailbox, and then we went back and asked everyone what their opinions were. (Most) everyone was really friendly, and in one building, we got 4 phone numbers, 3 people let us in to teach a lesson, and we gave away three Books of Mormon (copies of the Book of Mormon...whatever...). It was super exciting, and we had a really fun time doing it. We had kind of an upsetting start to the week though--one of our investigators is on bap. date, and is absolutely phenomenal--but his school is pretty much kicking him out if he gets baptized. Kind of upsetting, but a bunch of us had a fast for him, so things should be getting better soon. :)
Other news......we have had a ton of rain lately, and as a result, there's been a ton of flooding. We've been asking all of the members and investigators here, and they can't really remember another time when it was this bad......kind of exciting, but at the same time, really annoying. But, we have nice, sunny, warm weather now, so that is absolutely great!
So last week we went to the castle--that was pretty fun. It wasn't too big or anything, but it was still fun. haha, Sister Crosley was pointing at some suit of armor or something and set off an alarm--twice! haha, that had us laughing for a while.
yeah, so, that was about our week....not a whole lot happening throughout the week, but definitely some memorable days in there. That one day of tracting was really inspiring, mostly because i really hadn't seen any success at all with tracting in Székesfehérvár. So, this was a nice relief and a reminder that it does still work. :) Other than that though, not much going on.....we have a pretty good week ahead of us....we're possibly going on splits in Eger this Saturday, so that should be pretty fun.
Well, I guess I'll talk to you all next week! I hope you're all doing great!
Elder Murray

Transfer 4, Week 2

Hi everyone!
so, this is the first email from Miskolc! woohoo! I hope everyone's as excited as i am! haha. Actually, it was kind of hard the first few days, just because I hadn't really met with any of the members yet, and I was thinking A LOT about Székesfehérvár. I really got to love that place and the people there, so it was kind of hard to leave. But, I met a lot of the members on Sunday at church, so that made it a lot easier to get started fitting in here.
So, i actually don't have my own phone...kind of a relief, becuase i am realizing more and more that I am completely awful on the phone. It is really wierd being in a car too, because we go all over the place. Elder Lynn still wants to use the villamos sometime, just because he misses the ones in Budapest. The branch here is really strong, they all seem to be pretty excited to be doing missionary work--we taught a class on Sunday about it, and everyone was really involved, so hopefully we'll be able to see a lot more of that in the future. The branch house here is way nice too. And, we have sister missionaries in the city--something completely new for me, but it's pretty fun at the same time. We don't see each other much, but it's always fun to see them at church or Angolóra.
So, Miskolc.....definitely a lot different than Székes. It's actually got hills! I was so excited when we got here and saw that there was actually elevation changes! haha. It's a fairly big city though, apparently about 3 times as big as Székes. We can see a castle out of one of our windows--and a factory out the other. We're actually going to the castle today, so i'll let you all know how that is next week. I don't know why, but the people here seem different than in Székes. I can't put my finger on it, but there's definitely something different about them. I haven't really had much of an opportunity to see what they're like with streeting or tracting--we have a lot of people that we meet with. The city itself is pretty cool. I think Székes had prettier buildings and everything, but i really like how this city is laid out--and the little mountains help too. :) the new apartment.......let's just say that i liked my old one better. haha. the new one's actually not that bad. It's pretty big and everything, and i really like the views out of the windows.
My new companion is Elder Lynn---he's way cool. he's super excited to be out here still, and he really wants to stay in Miskolc. It's been fun getting to know him.

yes dad, i remember how to drive--i still need to take a little drive with Elder Garner (one of the senior couple that are serving in the office) so he can okay me to drive a mission car. we'll see how that goes--apparently it's in budapest, so i guess if i can drive there, i can drive anywhere! haha.
yeah, well, that's about our week....oh, one last thing with transfers....it was kind of funny, because Elder Miller, Elder Lundeen and I all just kind of switched companions. Lundeen is serving with my trainer, Miller's serving with one of Lundeen's companions, and I'm serving with Elder Lynn, who served with Elder Miller a few transfers ago.
well, that's about it for this week.......i'm still kind of getting settled in, so not much else to say......talk to you all next week!
Elder Murray