An Amazing Conversion Story

This week was a busy week!

On Tuesday we went up to Budapest for quarterly interviews with the mission president. I feels so crazy that I have already been here for almost six months!! Budapest is always so pretty! Of course, we never see much of it in the bus or subway ride in between the train station and the mission home, but what we do see is amazing.

On Thursday we had Zone training in Miskolc. The zone leaders, Elder Dellenbach and Elder Raymond, talked about learning on teaching and finding with the Spirit. Everyone left with a desire to seek out the Spirit at all times and in all places in order to better help the people of Hungary.

The highlight of the week was having dinner in an apartment where two ladies lived. They were baptised almost 25 years ago, when the church officially came into Hungary and opened up a mission. They fed us paprikás csirke, probably the best I've tasted, and some Hungarian-stlye pudding, served on a graham-cracker stlye crust and topped with strawberries, but the best part was their conversion story. Zsoka and Valéria lived together in the same apartment to save rent money, and they had a strong friendship and a love for the Bible. However, neither of them ever went to any specific church, even though they knew that it would be good to go to church from their study of the scriptures. Valéria said it was kind of like the feelings that Joseph Smith had, not knowing if any of the churches were true. One day Zsoka was in the bélvaros (downtown) doing some shopping. It was raining a little and she was in a little bit of a bad mood. She saw the missionaries across the square with a table set up with fliers and such. She walked briskly to avoid them, and came out a few minutes later with her shopping. By now she had forgotten the missionaries and was thinking about other things, when one of the missionaries stuck out a copy of Selections from the Book of Mormon in front of her and asked her "Ismered ezt a könyvét?" (or "are you familiar with this book?). She said that she wasn't familiar with the book, but then her eye caught the phrase "egy másik tanúbizonyság Jézus Krisztusról" (or "another testament of Jesus Christ) on the cover and said that she was, however, familiar with Jesus Christ. By the end of the conversation she invited the missionaries over to talk more about their message. As Zsoka and Valéria read the Book of Mormon (or the translated selections from it), they said so many of their questions were answered. They said that the missionaries had trouble keeping the lessons focused on the gospel discussions because of all the questions that they had for the missionaries. Eventually they were baptized, and became the first two Hungarian members of the Debrecen branch. Apparently, the mission president was thinking about closing the Debrecen area down, because it had been the only area in Hungary since the mission had been opened that had had no success. After they were baptized, the missionaries were able to find a lot more investigators in Debrecen, and the proselyting area in Debrecen remained open.

I hope you all have a great week!!!!!

Sok szeretettel,

Bunker Elder

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello everybody!!

The highlight of this week was MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!! It was so awesome to talk to my family!!! 

Church was great yesterday! Another less active member that we have been meeting with came to church! It was nice to see him and talk with him!

The weather is sooooo nice here right now! And all the flowers are in bloom, too! There are these fields of little yellow flowers that look really cool! I am going to have to try to get a picture of them some time!

We have recently been holding English class on Saturdays as well as Thursdays. Of course, it was a bit slow at first, but lucky for us three people came this last Saturday, so we actually were able to have English class.

We have also been meeting with this lady in the branch here who is in a wheelchair and can't use her hands. (I don't know if I have already mentioned her). She make paintings by painting with the paintbrush in her mouth! It is super cool!

I hope everyone has a greaaaat week!!!

Bunker Elder

Pig's feet and tail

This morning for P-day we went to Hortobagy! (This is a national Park in Hungary)



We went there, and looked at different whips, and then Elder Ady and a member here, both got whips. My companion and I  then went to a field and went whipping. I am starting to be able to whip with two whips at once.

This week we visited some less active members out in some smaller towns with the Broadheads, the senior couple here. One guy we visited was really happy. He didn't come to church for very long after he was baptized, because he lived a long distance out and his wife doesn't really like the church, but he still read the Book of Mormon and he liked the Liahona that we gave him. We shared a story from the Liahona with him and then talked about following the Holy Ghost, and then before we left we gave him a blessing. Another guy we visited lived in a little house on a dirt road in the outskirts of another falu. He had an accident a couple of months ago that has made it harder for him to come to church, but we saw him last Sunday, which was awesome.

Another man who we've been visiting came to church with his family on Sunday! It was fast and testimony meeting, and it was really great, and the Primary also sang a couple of songs for Mother's day -- (Mother's day was last Sunday here).

We also went to another smaller town to look up another less active member. The door was answered by her dad. We asked if she was home, and then she came to the door and talked to us for a little bit. It turns out that she actually lives in Debrecen and that she was just visiting her family at her family's place, which is the address that is on the records, right when we came to look her up! She said that we would be able to meet with her later!!

I forgot to tell you all that I had pig's feet! And tail! It was at a member's house in Veszprém. It tasted just like normal meat, as far as it goes, and was cooked in some sort of paprika gravy. It was really tasty. The tail had to be eaten kind of like corn on the cob, and it was tricky getting all the meat off of the feet, though!





We still have a really small pool of investigators! Finding people is especially hard, because most people that we've talked to have already seen us around here or there, and don't really want to meet. But we have been trying to come up with new ways to get people interested! One day we sat outside that branch house for a couple of hours singings hymns to the ukulele. We have also tracted a TON.

Have a great week, everyone!!
Bunker Elder

The Golden Bull

Hello everyone! Great week this week!

So we have a new investigator. He was born in the Translyvania part of Romania, which is Hungarian speaking -- fun fact!! He lives a little outside of Debrecen. The background story is he visited Salt Lake City once, and he loved temple square and church and everything. So he came to the church building a couple of times, but no one was there. Then he came the other day. The other elders were translating for another meeting, and we were at home eating lunch. Elder Ady called us saying that there is someone who wanted to meet, so we came right over. We had a great introductory program with him. He is a singer, and he really loves the church. He says that he wants to be baptized, which is amazing, and that he wants to be an active member. We then called him up on Saturday, and he came to church, and to all 3 hours on his first time, too!

For P-day today we have lots of things planned, but I don't know how much it will accomplish! We split our emailing into two, so that Flake Elder could email a question home and get a response later today. We are also going to go whipping. Elder Flake has two Hungarian whips. You can go into a field and spin them around your head and then if you extend your arm with the right timing the whip makes a sound like a gunshot. No kidding! I am getting pretty good at it! There is a place within a p-day's drive from here called Hortobagy. There, it is possible to buy Hungarian whips. Maybe we will go and get one in a couple of weeks!

This past couple of days, a ward member who is actually a student from Taiwan, had a video game buddy from Germany over to visit. Today we all had lunch with them at the Golden Bull, an all you can eat here for a very great price!!!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!

Bunker Elder

The Whistling Elder

Hello everyone!

So we have been doing quite a bit of tracting. Our area is the southwest corner of Debrecen, and there is a huge block of ten-stories there. One day when we were tracting, we were on a floor and we had just rang all the doorbells, and no one was coming out, so while we were walking to the stairwell I was showing Elder Flake a song I could do while whistling with my hands. Right then a door opened up, and a guy started laughing because it looked kind of funny. He said that he had never talked to missionaries before, but he would be cool with us coming back some time. So that worked out!

Picture of some 10 Stories in the background (Image from stanandsharonmiller.blogspot.com)

The other elders came over the other night for dinner, and when they left, we gave them the keys so that they could let themselves out and then throw them up to our porch (the keys are required to get out of the building and through a gate to the street). Of course we missed the catch, and the keys bounced off a pole and into the neighbor's porch. We were stuck! And of course the neighbors weren't home, so we had no way of getting out of our apartment!!! So the next morning we just had extra studies intermitted with knocking on our neighbors door every 30-60 minutes. Our neighbor finally came home, and we finally got the keys! It was so nice to be able to get out of the apartment!!! Freedom!!

The weather here is really heating up!! Starting April 15th, we don't need to wear jackets anymore... So excited for that!!!!

There is going to be a zone conference this week in Miskolc! I'm sure it will be great! Unlike Veszprém, the cities in this zone are all, if I have heard correct connected by train. When we were in Veszprém we would sometimes have to take two bus rides (Veszprém to Székesfehérvár and from Székesfehérvár to Dunaújváros) to get to Dunaújváros. Using a train is a lot easier and a little cheaper, too! 

Hungarian Train (from Random Google Image Search)

Sok Szeretettel!

Bunker Elder

First Transfer

Hello all!

Soooooo transfers were last week. We are now in Debrecen, which is the second biggest city in Hungary, population 200,000, second to Budapest, which is like population like five million. There are four elders, two sisters, and a senior couple here, so that's exciting, since in my last area there were just like four elders. I've only met a couple members from the Debrecen branch, but they all seem really nice! Last transfer, this companionship was just opened, so we don't really have anyone to meet with yet, and we also have a pretty empty area book -- So we spend lot's of time finding! A long time ago, there were three proselyting companionships here, but one was closed down, and the one I'm in was just opened up again. Five of the six missionaries in this District are new here, the only one remaining from last transfer is my companion!

Elder Flake is awesome!!! We get along really well. This is what we call in the mission his "dying transfer," or in other words, this will be his last transfer in Hungary before he goes home. So we are going to work extra hard to make his dying days in Hungary worth it. Hopefully we can get the work up here! Our goal is two have two baptism dates by the end of the transfer.

So the missionaries here in Debrecen are me, Elder Flake from Arizona, Elder Ady from Canada, Elder Simmons from Virginia, Sister Sellers from Idaho, Sister Geröly (Geh-roy) from Szombathely (soam-baht-hey), Hungary, (I think she is actually the only native missionary in Hungary right now!), and Elder and Sister Broadhead, who are a senior couple here in Hungary who work with Family History hear. The sisters here are Sister Training Leaders, which is really different than in the past, when all the Sister Training Leaders have been just in Buda or Pest.

The belváros, or downtown district, here is dominated by a huge Calvinist cathedral. We get around mostly by using the tram, but there are also buses and apparently trolleys that get you around this city, also. 

Calvinist Cathedral in Debrecen (image from Random Google Search)

The place we are emailing at is at the university library, since all you need to access the computers for free is a library card. This university seems pretty international. Right next to me there is a guy from Iraq talking with a guy from Nigeria.

Debrecen University (image from random Google Search)

Conference was amazing, of course! We were able to watch the sessions in English. We saw all of the sessions but the Sunday afternoon, which we will receive in the Liahona coming out next month. My favorite talk was the one from Elder Holland about the atonement (Link to Elder Holland's Talk). It was really good! 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (image from lds.org)

Sok szeretettel!!

Bunker Elder

Six Months!! (Hat Hónap!!)

Hello all! We had a baptism this week!!! Keresztelő means Baptism, in case y'all didn't brush up your Hungarian vocab!! Say hello to the two newest members of the Veszprém branch!!! 

Here's some answers to some questions:

Do they have any special foods or traditions at the baptisms in Hungary, or is it just like here--a talk on baptism, the baptism, a musical number  or discussion, talk on the Holy Ghost and then a welcome to the ward?

Yeah, It's pretty normal. The whole branch showed up, and then some, so the baptismal font area was really full. Also, the süti (treats and tasty baked goods, pronounced like shewty) were brought by everyone, they just kept on bringing out plates when the ones on the table emptied. And everyone just kept on eating. You can count on having a complete dinner at any sort of ward function here in Veszprém.

Also--how did the open house go?

We handed out like about 3500 fliers. It was well prepared, and there was plenty of süti, but no one really came... It was, however, a great chance to get to know the members better, and everyone had fun, so it was technically a success, right?

I guess the other burning question is did you or your companion get transferred?????

Um, we are getting whitewashed! Because of all the missionaries coming and going this transfer, almost every companionship is affected, and both Dellenbach Elder and I are leaving. *sigh*  I am going to Debrecen, with Flake Elder, and Dellenbach Elder is going to be my Zone Leader in Miskolc with Raymond Elder, who was my Zone Leader a when we was in Dunaújváros. There is another set of Elders there and the a set of Sisters and a Senior couple there. 

So, wait, the first companion you get is your trainer,
right? Is your second companion your trainer too? Or are there any
other special types of companionship's besides a trainer? I really
ought to know this, huh?

About trainers: technically, whoever your companion is the first twelve weeks of your mission is your trainer. However, when missionaries talk about their "trainer" they're probably referring to their first companion. After being a greenie you are a junior companion, and you have a senior companion. After that you cosenior. Co-senioring is when you serve with another missionary from your same MTC group. After that you are pretty much a senior companion the rest of your mission. You could be a district leader, a zone leader, a trainer, a sister training leader, or an assistant to the president. There are also two missionaries in Buda who are secretaries. They help the Mission President write emails and crunch numbers and stuff. When you are a zone leader, a sister training leader (which is like a zone leader but a sister, not an elder), or an assistant to the mission president, both missionaries in that companionship fulfill that duty. The sister missionaries that will be in my district in Debrecen are Sister training leaders. I hope that clears things up!

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So today we are mainly packing and preparing lots of notes and stuff to help the new elders coming in! Pretty busy!! 

Also big news, just realized I've been on my mission for SIX months!! I'm one fourth done with my mission.

Next time I say Hi to all y'all I'll be on the other side of the country! Thanks for the emails!!!

Have a great Week!

Bunker Elder