Transfer 13, Week 6 the zoo!

Hi everyone!

alright, so this week was nuts.....Elder Miller and I were told by President Baughman that Elder Conklin would be coming in to replace me. So, we talked to Elder Conklin Tuesday night and scheduled him to come in the following night. So, the next day, we picked him up and brought him back to the mission home, just in time for dinner (they do the weekly dinner thing after Institute on Wednesdays instead of on Mondays for Family Home Evening. They're trying to get more people to Institute. anyways, he got to meet a lot of the youth, there're a few who already knew him from when he served in Pest, so they were excited to see him. After that, we went home, he got unpacked a bit, i packed a bit more (i had started and just about finished on Tuesday night), talked a bit, then went to bed. Thursday morning was pretty chill.....I kind of ran through all the stuff we do with him, got him familiar with most of the stuff, then pretty much just let him take over. I'm pretty much just there if he asks questions, otherwise i just study and take care of other stuff...oh, book recommendation! Gordon B. Hinckley's Standing for Something. Pretty much amazing. I never really realized how meticulous he was with his choice of words, he has such a great knack for putting things exactly how he wants to convey them. There is no mistaking his meaning, and the things he conveys are so needed and necessary! i love it so much, i'm reading it for the second time now. definitely a must-read. So, on Friday things went pretty well...we met with Dávid and Kristof again......they seem to be doing good, just really having trouble with having a faith-promoting experience, which is what they really want.....hm.....we'll see. i hope they are able to keep meeting with Miller and Conklin, and hopefully they in turn will let me know what happens with them. So, Friday was good...the Williams came up from Szolnok to give a fireside on dating. It was interesting, more on dating etiquette than anything else. pretty good. And, Elder Williams gave his whole first part in Hungarian, it was quite impressive. After that, on Saturday, Elder Conklin went with the APs and Elder Miller and I went with a member to the zoo. It was pretty fun, we got there early so we walked around a bit and got a few pictures of the George Washington statue (yes, there is a statue of George Washington in Hungary). Then we went to the zoo and saw all the animals. It's fairly small, but still pretty good sized. They had a lot of places where you could go in and the animals were just running around or able to come right up to you. it was pretty fun, except that most of the animals were sleeping. We did get to see a pretty cool show by the seals. it was a scorching hot day, but luckily they had a bunch of mist sprinklers set up so people could walk under them and cool off. that was nice. After the zoo, we went and had lunch with the Bagozzis and Sister Smith and Sister Chase kind of as a goodbye for me. then, we went home and got ready for the concert in Buda. That was way cool, Sister Bodily played the piano, a member played the organ, three other members sang (two of them are professional opera singers, so that was way cool, the other was one of the first twos' daughter), and Elder Turley and Sister Roderick sang. It was really cool, and the whole message of it was just way inspiring. so, that was our week, pretty much. i've basically just been training Elder Conklin and wondering where i'm going...there are a few places i would really like to go, but i don't think i can think of any where i absolutely definitely would not want to go. I think i'm just going to be excited for anything (though i may be more excited for some things than others :). I'll be sure to let you all know next Monday how everything turns out. Until then, have a great week!

Elder Murray

ps the Rollingsons were a senior couple that served here in Hungary and just recently went home, but they sent a little surprise the other day...if you go to their blog (http://normandheather.blogspot.com/), look at the second picture (unless they've added more, in which case i don't know which one it would be). I was, needless to say, pretty surprised. It was way cool though, i never would have thought that people i knew from Hungary would meet people i know from home, let alone my family! so yeah, that was the surprise for the week. :)

Transfer 13, Week 4

Hi everyone

Oh gosh, I'm really sorry that I've been so bad with emailing lately...we didn't have internet last week, and then we were swamped yesterday so we didn't have any time....it's been a pretty crazy week, altogether.

So, I'll try and explain what has been going on:

Monday: the workers come and take everything out of President's and the APs' offices, rip out the carpet and put down a thin layer of cement (which, by the way, has a headache-inducing smell.....fun). Then they talked to us and said that they would need us to clean off the shelves and everything in ours and the Bagozzis' offices so they could do the same for us. Something must have gotten lost in translation because on

Tuesday: we packed everything out of both rooms, got everything completely out, it looked wonderful. Meanwhile, they were laying the carpet down in the two offices they had done the day before, then moved everything back in. it looks great, I like this new carpet a lot better (yes, I am commenting on the carpet...it's what I do nowadays :). So, at the end of the day, it was discovered that they needed our stuff moved out so they can start tomorrow. We were pretty bummed out. Oh, and the phone was unplugged, and then refused to turn on, which kind of drove everyone into a panic since that is the phone that everyone calls on. Crazy.

Wednesday: they finally come in and take out the desks and filing cabinets and everything. Then the carpet. Then lay down cement. huzzah! we're getting new carpet! oh wait.........they're going to paint in our office, right? because, right now, there's a lovely black line around the wall where the desks were.......so..........are they going to paint before they lay down the carpet on

Thursday: the workers come and finish some rooms downstairs. President is trying to get ahold of the people in charge to see if they can paint in our offices. so, the workers just kind of leave... like, for the day. Nobody working. Just quiet. All day. Finally we get the news that they will be painting. Yay! but we have to wait for

Friday: the workers come back and paint our offices. Oh happy day! it looks great! Some paint got on the floor, but who cares, they're just going to lay carpet down on top of it. Which they then proceeded to do. and then put our stuff back in. hooooray! it looks great. Now we can go help at the Friday night activity! movie night! yay! okay, let's get everything set up...oh no, the computer's not working....somebody bring in the dvd player....ok, how does this connect here, what do i plug it in to, where's the volume knob.......ok, everything's good, start the movie! wow, i like the first minute or so of this movie, i can't wait for the rest...oh, somebody left their coat at the stake center and need to catch a bus home.........ok, i guess we'll drive him.....i mean, i've seen the movie before and we'll only miss the first half.......ok, drive to the stake center, get the coat, oh, here's the sisters! hi........oh, someone needs a belt or smaller pants for their baptism? ok, well, we're dropping someone off at the bus station, i guess we can hop on over to the mall and see if we can find anything.......first store, nothing, second store, unbelievably expensive, too short, too flashy, who puts this kind of stuff on a belt? i guess we'll just go and buy the pants.......enter first store again.....there's the pants........oh, but here's more belts.......a white one! and it's long enough! yay! ok, drive back to the stake center now (after paying for it, of course).......we got the belt! oh, wait, someone is just bringing a jumpsuit? so, the belt is completely superfluous? well, not completely...we can use it for future baptisms......alright, we'll mozy on back to the mission home...oh boy, i love the last two minutes of this movie almost as good as the first few! and that was it. pretty awesome, right? nothing happens unless it all happens at once. it was a pretty fun night. :)

Saturday: we got up and ran over to Moszkva Tér (i guess it's Széll Kálmán Tér now), bought some tickets, rode the 61 villamos all the way to the end where a member picked us up and drove us to his house. we had gotten a call Friday night asking if we could help them move. It was pretty fun, they're just moving about a minute away from where they were living, so we spent a few hours packing stuff into their van, driving it down the road, unpacking it all, driving back, and repeat. pretty fun stuff. afterwards, a member drove us back to the mission home where we started putting stuff back into the office. then, the zone leader from Dunaújváros (Elder Rowland, he came up for the play) came over and drove us to the mall so we could do our shopping. then they went on to the stake center and we took the metro back to the mission home. we got ready for the play, packed some stuff out of the chapel, realized we hadn't had a legit meal all day, so we ran over to McDonald's (can't get a more legit meal than that, right?) and came back to meet the other people going to the play. we were kind of worried as to whether the weather would hold out because it had been raining off and on all day, but it was a beautiful night, we didn't get wet at all. The play was in an open amphitheater, so it was pretty cool out, but people had brought rain ponchos in case it rained, so they whipped those out and put them on...apparently they were pretty warm (I had brought my coat, so i missed out on that one :) . The play we went to see was super amazing, probably my favorite, just because of all the symbolism and motifs and themes in it..........plus, the music is just amazing. It was kind of hard to understand the hungarian (it seemed like they were singing super fast, but it was probably just because it was in a foreign language and the songs are so intricate), but all in all, super awesome. It was Les Miserables.

So, that was our week. super fun, super boring, not too much in between, i guess in one word, memorable. haha, i forgot to mention, on Wednesday, President still wanted the office to be running, so we packed up our computers and moved downstairs.....to the nursery room. it was funny, they just had the little nursery room tables, so we set up on those (don't worry, i took pictures :) towards the evening we figured out that the APs' office was finished, so we moved HQ up to there. fun stuff. and then on Thursday, Elder Lundeen was reapplying for BYU, and was super nervous about pushing the button to finish it, but he finally did it....we documented that a little bit too.

so yeah, i think that's everything. i'm sure Elder Miller and I have lost several years off our lives from the fumes we've been breathing all week (not really, just whenever we walk past the rooms they were working on). I hope you all have a great week, and i'll talk to you next week!

Elder Murray

Transfer 13, Week 2

Üdvözöllek benneteket!

Gondoltam, hogy mindent írok magyarul........kellene nekem a gyakorlás, mivel oly kevés lehetőségem van itt....csak viccelek, mostantól angolul írok, hogy megértsétek.

Hi everyone

Just so you know, this is not a translation of the above message..........i just got finished writing an email to someone else in Hungarian, so i thought i'd throw some in for you all. :) Maybe i'll throw in the translation next week...if i remember :)

alright......we had a pretty normal week........not too much out of the ordinary........still got renovations going on, so we're working around that..........we did have a lot of lessons this week though, it was pretty cool. It felt good to be teaching so much. On Tuesday evening (or wednesday, i can't remember....the days all got super scrambled this week for me) we went streeting for 30 minutes, seriously just around the block, and we recieved phone numbers from about 5 people. It was quite a miraculous experience. On Friday, we went to the stake center for a fireside that the BYU dance team...that was really cool, they sang a few songs, had some of the group bear their testimonies on various topics, played some music......it was a really neat program. Let's see....on Saturday.........not really anything....we met with one of our investigators and he brought two of his friends - which is super awesome, that he wants to share this with them, but they all were asking questions the whole time and the program was all over the place, and i don't know how seriously they were taking it. Kind of a disaster....we'll see how things turn out next week, they'll be on vacation until Saturday, so hopefully we'll be able to catch them then.

Other than that, not much going on over here. We're finally getting some clouds, it's been completely overcast today (hallelujah!) and even rained one day sometime last week or the week before.

I hope you're all doing great!

Elder Murray

Transfer 13, Week 1 (June 12, 2011)

hi all!

ok, so, we'll start with the big question....transfers was this last wednesday, and both Miller and I stayed here. That's the big news. :) We're both excited to get to serve together again, and there's even more - the new AP is Elder Lundeen, so it's our whole MTC group back together in the office (well, not counting sister Steck, but her mission ended on wednesday, so she doesn't count anymore.....that was super weird, going to her farewell dinner/testimony meeting. so yeah, that's the biggest news for this week. Not too much else happening, pretty much same old stuff. We have met with Dávid a few times, and he came to church today. He really liked it, and he's actually coming back at around 4 this afternoon so we can meet/teach his friend. I'm super excited, it would be super awesome for him if his friends also started getting interested in this.

Ok, so, i can't believe i almost forgot this.....so, Saturdays are usually our pdays, but tomorrow is a super pday, so we wouldn't have had yesterday as a pday anyway, but what we ended up doing was helping with something all day. The BYU folk dancing team was invited by the Hungarian state to come and participate in a festival going on this next week. They arrived Friday, and then they came to the Stake Center to perform after the seminary/institute graduation. We had to meet them at their hotel at 9:00, get all their equipment and take it to the stake center (the APs took them on a little tour through the city center). They arrived at the stake center around 12:00 and started setting up and playing some music to get warmed up. It was super fun. Then, we waited for the graduation to get over (i saw Bakos by the way! (from miskolc) I was so happy, it seems like forever since i've seen her. so yeah, that was exciting. I also saw István and his mom and Brigi from Székesfehérvár. It was a pretty super awesome and amazing time. Then we had pizza for lunch, and then the dance team performed for us. pretty much super awesome. that's really all i can say about it. they did all american dances (when they're abroad they do american, and when they're in the states they do european and other). super cool. i'll have to send my memory card home soon so you can all see some of them. super cool. then after they had done each dance, they each got a partner from the crowd and taught them some of the steps. It was so much fun. we didn't get to dance, but it was so fun to see the hungarians all mixed in there with them and trying to learn these dances. after that, they had everyone split up into about 10 groups and played some games. after that was dinner, and then we took all their stuff back to the hotel, took them around castle hill, then came home. kind of an exhausting day, but so super awesome! i had such a great time. I was talking to Csaba today, and he said it was the best day of his life. pretty cool.

so, that's about it for this week.....i hope you all have a great week, and i'll catch you next week!

Elder Murray

Transfer 12, Week 6

Hi everyone!

So, this week........kind of crazy....the biggest news is that Elder Miller and I switched desks (i feel like such a nerd, that sounded so much more epic in my mind.... :). It's something that Elder Bagozzi has been wanting us to do for a while now, so we can learn each others' jobs, so when a new person comes in, the person at the other desk can still help him after his trainer is gone (i don't think i could have made that sentence any more unclear.....let's say sec1 gets transferred.....he has about 2 days to train his replacement....then, after he's gone, sec2 will still be able to help the new sec1 because sec2 worked at sec1's desk for a week). So, we'll see how much that helps......although, we won't be able to see for a while now because.....we're both staying. President told us that if one of us was going, we would know by Friday, and Friday has come and gone with no word, so we will both be staying another 6 weeks. i think we're both excited to see how this upcoming transfer is.

So, let's see....in other business, we had one of the most amazing programs ever on Friday. well, it kind of starts on Tuesday. We set up a program with Dávid, our one progressing investigator. We also had Viktor, a member, sit in to help and such. That went pretty good, and then at the end, Viktor asked when we could meet again, so he and Dávid talked it over and picked out a time on Friday (we have time all the time, so it was basically up to them. :). Friday came, and the plan was to talk about the five steps in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had the first 3 written up, but before we could even get there, he asked the question "what exactly does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ?" so we had a little discussion on the importance of having faith specifically in Jesus Christ and what that entails...then, we got to the second step and what precisely is needed to repent.....after that, we got talking about free agency, and where it all started. we talked about what happened before we came to the earth, and after explaining all that, you could almost see the lightbulb above his head as he said ".....this makes so much sense now. everything just fits." Ah, it was such an amazing program, i felt so good afterwards.

So yeah, that was pretty much the highlight of my week. on Friday, we had Gofri Est at the stake center, because of the renovation going on in the mission home. we actually had zsíros kenyér, which is like bread and butter with onions on top, except instead of butter you use......fat. yeah. kind of disgusting of you think about it too much while you're eating it, but not too bad if you just eat it. after that lovely experience, some people played basketball inside while others went outside for soccer, then basketball shifted to volleyball. it was pretty fun.

Yesterday we went to Esztergom, which is a giant catholic cathedral thingy right on the border of Slovakia....i went there last year, so i guess you'll have to refer to those pictures until i can send the memory card home. it was pretty fun, just super hot!

So, that was about it for the week.....this coming Saturday is seminary/institute graduation, so that should be fun. OH! i almost forgot! there's this big festival type thing going on sometime, and Hungary has invited the BYU folk dance team to come and participate, and they have some extra time, so they're going to be at the graduation thing! ah! i'm super excited! they're going to see if they can put on some firesides as well. they're here for two weeks, so it's going to be really exciting to see them all.

Alright, i think that's it....I hope you all have a great week, and i'll talk to you next week!

Elder Murray

Transfer 12, Week 3

Hi everyone

So, not too much going on this week...we had a program set up with one of our investigators, but he wasn't able to make it because one of his classes went a little longer than usual....bummer....hopefully we'll be able to set up sometime next week....then, after English class, I was helping one of the young single adults to talk to Sister Smith...let's just say, the YSA center is nothing but drama! Oh my gosh, I won't miss that aspect...ridiculous....but yeah, that lasted through English class and after, so Elder Miller taught Profi with the new senior sister, Sister Chase (she's really nice, she reminds both of us of Mrs. Redfern), and then he split with Elder Turley to teach another of our investigators, Áron.....he is super amazing, the program sounded absolutely stellar! oh gosh, i can't wait until the next time we meet with him, i'm so excited!

So, yesterday we had a special Gofri Est....a Hungarian just got back from her mission in London, so we threw a little party for her. It was pretty fun, putting up the decorations, helping make the waffles, cleaning up...it was all a blast. Lots of fun. :)

Alright, so, Tuesday night, we went to see Phantom.....so, we've been planning this for some time, most of us bought our tickets about a month and a half ago, some bought theirs later, and some were trying to buy theirs last week...it was rather stressful. But, we finally got it worked out. Just one little problem....so, there's the main level in the theater, then the first level, which is just the balcony that runs around the outside, and then the second level, which is another balcony above that. We all were sitting in the very middle of the second level, so, pretty sweet seats....the problem was that one of the tickets we had bought was down on the left side of the first level, so we had to work out who was going to sit there....that was an adventure..so, we finally worked everything out, and we went to the theater...so, we got there about 25 minutes early, and i was waiting out front for some missionaries who were meeting us there because I had to give them their tickets....I was super stressing out, i thought we were going to get locked out.....i think my watch was 5 minutes ahead though, because it showed that the play should be starting, but right then the missionaries got there, and we went in, and it still didn't start for another 3 or 4 minutes......still super stressful....

the play itself though was totally worth it....the actors were all amazing, the singing was stellar, everything was so well done.....granted, the stage may have been a bit small for the play, but they made it work....it's really quite amazing what they were able to do...super cool...now i just need to see it in america so i have something other than the film to compare it to.

so, that was our week...pretty sweet.

I hope you all have a great week! talk to you later!

Elder Murray

Transfer 12, Week 2

Hi everyone

first off, Happy Mother's Day! I kind of started panicking last week, because here, that's when they celebrate mother's day, so it was kind of confusing (i think i went through the same thing last time...). But yeah, Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all had a super awesome day/week (although, I guess those aren't quite over yet...), and I hope you all have a great week coming up! We didn't have too much going on this week, yesterday was Sport Nap, so we went over to the stake center and played some volleyball...i thought i was really bad at it (and i might actually still be) but I thought i was doing pretty good....i mean, I got it over the net 4 out 5 times...you know, when i realized that it was in my area of the court, and then remembered to hit it...but yeah, that was super fun. Before that....our week has actually been really slow....we celebrated Sister Bagozzi's birthday on thursday with some red velvet cake (it actually worked! :) and then on Friday we met with one of our really awesome investigators...he's still looking for his answer, but he said that this last program was really awesome, his favorite one so far...we had started it by asking him if we could pray for any of his friends or family, so we did, and the prayer was super awesome, and he was super grateful that we did that, and he super liked the prayer, he said it addressed some things that he hadn't even mentioned, so that was a really special experience.

So, other than that, not much going on....we're going to see Az Operaház Fantomja on Tuesday (i'm not going to say what the translation of that is...hopefully you can figure it out, if not, that's why they made Google translator), i'm super stoked! alright, so, i'll talk to you all next week! have a super awesome week!

Elder Murray

Transfer 12, Week 1

Hello everyone!

alright, well, not too much to report this week....Monday was fun, we got absolutely stuffed at a member's house, then I got to whip for a while while most of the other missionaries played ultimate frisbee....then, we all got together and had dinner at the mission home as a goodbye for those who got transferred away........Sister Johnson went to Miskolc, and Elder Wanlass went to Szolnok....oh, and Elder Gardenhire went to Tatabánya. they will all be sorely missed, they were all really fun, I'm so glad i got to serve around each one of them. they all went to stellar cities too, i'm so happy for them. After dinner, we watched Toy Story 3......doh, i love that movie....

Alright, on Tuesday......not too much......just kind of getting things put together.......Wednesday was super crazy with transfers and everything (as usual), and then we had the dinner with the departing missionaries...that's always hard, but so good to hear them give their final departing testimonies......basically, i get to see the final product.....what their missions have come to mean to them......it's really a special experience. just super hard to say goodbye. I did get to meet Elder Bird's family though, because they came to pick him up......they're super rad, it was really obvious that they were Bird's family (and not just because i recognized them from the pictures... :) so, that was Thursday.....then......hm........not much at all, really....Saturday was kind of all over the place again....there was another baptism, that was exciting. Her name is Reni, she's been meeting with the APs. She's good friends with one of the members here. It's been really cool, because i think she had started meeting with the missionaries around the time that i got here......it was definitely after i got here that she started.....and it's just been really cool to see her through the whole process.....super awesome!

so, other than that, not too much going on.....today there was a special Sacrament meeting for the single adults, which we didn't attend, but we went to the dinner afterward, which was delicious. so, that was our week. pretty sweet.

alright, i hope you all have a great week, talk to you next week!

Elder Murray