Thursday, November 26, 2015

Cibakháza on Saturday

This week was awesome! We had several programs with different investigators every day! One of our investigators hasn't really started reading out of the Book of Mormon yet so our goal this week was to really get her started on reading it. Our lesson we taught was focused on the Book of Mormon and it's importance of gaining a personal testimony, and then we talked about one of our favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18, and asked her to just read this chapter and pray about it, and told her that we would make a follow-up call on Sunday, and then bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. This time, she didn't give any of her usual excuses (not enough time, too hard to read, etc.), and she is now reading the Book of Mormon! Of course, there are a lot of different investigators that read the Book of Mormon in different amounts, sometimes a lot and sometimes not at all, but this experience was pretty special for us!!!!


This upcoming week is going to be pretty busy! There is going to be zone conference in Szeged on Wednesday, we are going to Cibakháza on Saturday, and Sunday we will be going to Budapest for Stake Conference. There is going to be a couple members of the Area Presidency from the Seventy there, so everyone is excited for that!


Also, 6 investigators came to church yesterday! It was really exciting to see everyone there! 


I hope that everyone has a great week!
Bunker Elder

Jó hálaadást kívánok!

This week was great!


The highlight was stake conference yesterday! The talks were awesome! The stake president, Southwick Elnök, spoke, as well as the stake relief Society president, Vasváry Nővér, from Veszprém(! :) ) spoke as well as the mission president and his wife, and two members of the seventy and their wives, as well as this woman who bore a testimony in German... I couldn't figure out where she was from. Everyone felt the Spirit there, and it was also amazing to talk with people that I got to know in Veszprém and Győr (Debrecen isn't in the stake boundaries, but in the Miskolc district). Before we went home, we also stopped by and visited a less active member that Chambers knew when he served here, on the way to the train station.


I have also started reading the Book of Mormon from start to finish in Hungarian, but this time if there is any sort of word or grammar thing that I'm not 100% familiar with, I look it up, and it has helped so much with the language! I already feel like I can always participate in most conversations, but I've even so I can tell the difference a ton this way!!!


This week there was also a broadcast to the Europe area from Elder Ballard, which was awesome, and we also had a zone training in Szeged, which was great. Along with all of our travels, we went to Cibakháza again on Saturday! It felt like we traveled half of Hungary in a week!!!


Well, I wish you all the best!
Happy thanksgiving!
Jó hálaadást kívánok!
Sok szeretettel!
Bunker Elder 

Monday, November 2, 2015

Minden Szentek Napja

So, we had an amazing week this week! The highlight was probably the Halloween party! We worked in the cellar of the church, and made a graveyard. One of the activities at the party was where everyone split up into groups and each group went down and had to find all the paper maché bones to get out of the cellar. While the groups of people were downstairs, we had lots of Halloweeny games put together that were really fun for everyone! The biggest success was all the people that came -- not only did a lot of branch members come, but a lot of them brought their friends! There were 5 less active members there and 6 investigators there total, which in our eyes was a big success! 

October 31 and November 1 are Minden Szentek Napja in Hungary, or all-saints day. We went to the big cemetery here in Szolnok (it is a HUGE cemetery) three times this week. Once was with an older investigator of ours who wanted help getting to the cemetery, and when we were there we helped clean the grave and put flowers on it. We also went with our branch mission leader and his wife and mother-in-law and went to all the graves of their relatives and put on candles and flowers on all those graves. Finally, we went as a missionary district and put on candles graves we found without any. It was a really cool sight at night, seeing all of the graves going on forever all lit up with candles!
Image from Mindenszentek | varkapu.infovarkapu.info675 × 375Search by imageKék hírek Közbiztonsági javaslatok Halottak Napja és Mindenszentek alkalmával

I hope that everyone has a great week --
Szép November Kívánok!!!
Bunker Elder

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Boldog Halloweent Kívánok!

Hello everyone!
Yesterday at church was really great! There were over 30 people, which is quite a few more than usual, we usually average in the low 20s, and it was amazing to see everyone! Most of the active members are just couples or single here in Szolnok. I've been here in Szolnok for awhile, so I was able to say hi to everyone and talk with them.
We also went to Cibakháza again on Friday to meet with all the members there. This was Chamber Elders first time going. There are just two families there but they both feed us so much, with such delicious food, that I always skip breakfast when we go there so I have enough room for everything! At the first house we had stuffed cabbage, which was delicious, and at the second we had húsleves, a Hungarian soup with vegetables and noodles, and then pörkölt with nokedli, which was also delicious! On the bus ride back we rode with one of them, who was going to visit with some members who actually live right across the street from us!
We also have been helping to plan the Halloween party with some of the members, so we can help with some of our American Halloween expertise!
Along with the music night we are also going to do a clothes drive with the branch -- there are tons of old clothes in the branch house from an old branch drive, and we have a ton of old missionary clothes in our apartment and the sisters' apartment that we can use. We're hoping it will be a great oppurtunity to also invite less-active members and investigators to help us sort through the clothes.
Also, the sisters got a third member for their companionship last week! Csolity Nővér came from Debrecen to start her mission. I knew her when I served in Debrecen, she is a member from there, and she is now going to the Mesa Arizona mission, but she is waiting for her visa to go to the United states, so she joined the sisters as Sister Whittaker's second zöldi (greenie)!
Boldog Halloweent Kívánok!
Bunker Elder