New Companion!

This week was really great!!!! As you already all know, Elder Haws is my new companion! We have been doing great so far, we are hoping to really help the missionary work move forward here in Szolnok!

We weren't able to meet with a ton of people this week, but we have so far set up a lot of meetings for next week, so that's going to be great! We are also really excited for Christmas!!!

Also, one of our investigators has finally started reading out of the Book of Mormon, we are so happy for her!

I hope everyone has a great week!!!!

Sok szeretettel!

Bunker Elder

TRANSFERZ

Hello everyone! So we got transfer calls today! Elder Chambers is going to Erd, for a week before his departure date with another Elder from his dying Group, and I am getting his greenie, Elder Haws, that he just trained in Miskolc!!! It's going to be awesome! Sister Withers is staying here and getting Sister Smith, from our mutual greenie city, Veszprém, Sister Csolity is going to Szeged, and Sister Whittaker just finished her mission strong and is going home. So, by the time I leave Szolnok I will have been here for at least 7 months! It's so exciting to be able to serve in a place that I love, and with awesome members and progressing investigators. I've seen the work get better and better since I've gotten here, and hopefully it will keep going up.

Last week was really busy! President Szabakai has interviews with all the missionaries once a transfer now, which is a really good idea, I think, which ended up leading to a really busy Saturday! We went to Kecskemét in the morning, for a baptism, and then after that we traveled to Budapest for interviews, and then we got back home to Szolnok at night!

We also had splits in Szeged, which were great! We were able to enjoy some really good fish soup at this one restaurant that the zone leaders took us to, it was really tasty! It was catfish soup, to be specific, and there was live traditional Hungarian music there, too! Apparently there isn't always music there, so we got lucky!

There is this one guy who comes to church who is technically an investigator and we haven't really ever been able to set up with him ever, but we finally got his name and address last Sunday, and he said that he wants to start meeting with us and seemed pretty excited about it!!!!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas season!!!!

Sok szeretettel!

Bunker Elder

Jó napot kívánok

Jó napot kívánok!!!!

This week was great! We made Thanksgiving dinner together as a district. We made chicken (it was easier than a turkey), stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, and apple pie. I was yummy!

We also had the music night. I helped some of the members prepare piano music, and we visited a lot of members asking them to invite a friend, and the turnout was great! There were ten people who were there that weren't members, and we are planning on meeting with some of them, including someone that knew Sister Csolity, the Hungarian missionary here, from college!

Speaking of programs, this week is planned to be really busy! We are hoping that everything works out -- we are going to Szeged for splits on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Saturday there will be the baptism in Kecskemét -- since there is an actual big new ward building there with a baptismal font, and since it was available the baptism was moved to there instead -- and also Budapest right after that for transferly interviews!

I hope that everyone has a great week!!!!!

Sok szeretettel!

Bunker Elder

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 

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!

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Kék hírek Közbiztonsági javaslatok Halottak Napja és Mindenszentek alkalmával

I hope that everyone has a great week --

Szép November Kívánok!!!

Bunker Elder

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