#6 Pest: Breathtaking Views from Esztergom
Heysztok! This week was alright, we had a lot of people cancel on us again, but you can't let that get you down, summer break for people here just started so lots of ward members and investigators are going on vacation.
I did the coolest thing I’ve ever done for a P-day activity. We got permission from our mission president to travel outside our boundaries. We took an hour train ride northwest to a little town called Esztergom on the Danube. The train ride from Budapest to Esztergom was super pretty, you go through country side and little towns, and it’s on the Buda side so it’s really hilly. There’s hills all around with the river going through and it’s super cool. On the other side of the river is Slovakia, so I’ve seen Slovakia.
Esztergom the seat of the Holy Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. They have a cathedral there that is the tallest building in Hungary. Hungary doesn’t have sky scrapers, but even so, this cathedral is impressive… it’s gargantuan inside. There has been a cathedral there since the 1400’s but the one we went too today was build in the 1800’s. It looks a lot like St. Paul’s Cathedral. We took these spiral staircases in the walls of the cathedral to the top and at the very very top… I haven’t seen a view that cool in a very very long time. You can walk around the whole top of the dome, so you get a 360 view of the hills, the river, the city, and Slovakia on the other side. It was a super cool experience. I definitely want to go back after my mission.
We also had splits this past week, I was with elder Surdu again, and we worked on better using the scriptures while teaching. Elder Surdu and I did some good planning for our potential investigator, Michelle from South Dakota. We tried some look-ups, those are former persons that were taught in the area book but whom we haven’t met with. We did some tracting (knocking on doors) and some streeting (talking to people in the street) on the edge of the Danube. As we were tracting we found out that our lesson with Michelle was canceled. That was a bummer, but then we found some trampolines and we bounced on them right there on the edge of Danube, kind of cool. We tracted a little more, but no one was really interested, but as we were about to finish up and leave, some guys stopped us and said, “Hey are you guys the Mormons, are you guys the ones who have been knocking on doors!!.” At first, I was scared, as I thought, “oh no, here we go again,” expecting to get yelled at, but then they said, “We LOVE the Mormons! We want to meet with you.” They talked to us for a little while and were super interested in what we were sharing. They gave us their phone numbers and asked to meet with us again. See miracles happen when you’re tracting.
Elder Surdu and I traveled out to a hospice about an hour away on the opposite side of Budapest in a beautiful location to do a service project. We made some IKEA flatpack furniture, putting together cabinets. We saw some fantastic views, maybe some of the most beautiful views I’ve seen on my mission.
We did a lot of tracting, but while we tracted we ate lots of cherries and plums, because plums are becoming ripe. We had dinner and a lesson with one of the English families in the ward. She’s an English teacher and his job is in English. Their oldest is 15 and he is going to be living in the U.S. this next year with some family or friends. Our lesson was about Elder Nelson’s youth devotional. I got a copy from the Bishop. It’s really good! I love the focus on the “gathering of Israel,” which of course is about missionary work.
Tracting is really hard, especially in apartment buildings, people don’t like having their doors knocked on; but we do it because sometimes we get miracles. We did get to meet with Zoli and he had a family friend over who talked too. Then we had a lesson with his wife. They are an awesome family. I really hope we can help them.
This Sunday, there were fewer people at church because quite a few members of the ward were in Friberg at the temple, but the Corwin’s bore their testimonies. They are an American family who have been here for a couple months. Brother Corwin is a professor at BYU who teaches neuroscience and brain studies. He’s here for a research project, but they will be going home soon. It’s that time of the year when lots of Americans leave and go home and new ones come. So that is another reason there were so few people at church. In Priesthood the Elder’s quorum president was out of town, and Brother Glenn taught, he’s an American that works at the embassy. He is a return missionary from Hungary, so he speaks Hungarian, and of course he speaks it really well… but Brother Wagner, the one who is Hungary working on a movie with Will Smith, doesn’t speak Hungarian and Brother Glenn asked me to translate for Brother Wagner. I’ve never translated before. It was easier than I thought it was going to be. When Brother Glenn was speaking I could give a word for word translation because he talked slow, probably to help me out, but when class members spoke they spoke so fast I was only able to give a summary of what they said. It was really cool though. It was a good experience.
We were going to go over to the Volletta’s, another American family – Brother Volletta works at the embassy, he’s active duty and he’s a member of the diplomatic security. His job is to monitor political situation and if things get crazy he’s supposed to report to the President. – The plan was we were going to go over to their house for lunch and found out that he had invited two co-workers to come, so we went with Brother Volletta to pick them up. His co-workers were really cool, but we were super squished in his BMW. It was funny to have the whole car full of American soldiers talking about Hungary and politics in their super cool American accents, it was crazy fun. I realized I really miss American English. We went to house in the Buda Hills, a beautiful house with a beautiful view of the city. We had chicken burritos with American Tostitos chips and American soda, it was amazing!! There’s only been a few times on my mission when I didn’t feel like I was in Hungary, and that was one of them. At the end we shared a spiritual thought. The bible video, “Feed My Sheep.” We invited the co-workers to take the discussions, but they declined. It was still a great time.
I love you all, hope this week goes amazing, I cant wait to hear about where Joey goes on his mission. Be safe.
Love, Elder Morgan.
I did the coolest thing I’ve ever done for a P-day activity. We got permission from our mission president to travel outside our boundaries. We took an hour train ride northwest to a little town called Esztergom on the Danube. The train ride from Budapest to Esztergom was super pretty, you go through country side and little towns, and it’s on the Buda side so it’s really hilly. There’s hills all around with the river going through and it’s super cool. On the other side of the river is Slovakia, so I’ve seen Slovakia.
Esztergom the seat of the Holy Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. They have a cathedral there that is the tallest building in Hungary. Hungary doesn’t have sky scrapers, but even so, this cathedral is impressive… it’s gargantuan inside. There has been a cathedral there since the 1400’s but the one we went too today was build in the 1800’s. It looks a lot like St. Paul’s Cathedral. We took these spiral staircases in the walls of the cathedral to the top and at the very very top… I haven’t seen a view that cool in a very very long time. You can walk around the whole top of the dome, so you get a 360 view of the hills, the river, the city, and Slovakia on the other side. It was a super cool experience. I definitely want to go back after my mission.
We also had splits this past week, I was with elder Surdu again, and we worked on better using the scriptures while teaching. Elder Surdu and I did some good planning for our potential investigator, Michelle from South Dakota. We tried some look-ups, those are former persons that were taught in the area book but whom we haven’t met with. We did some tracting (knocking on doors) and some streeting (talking to people in the street) on the edge of the Danube. As we were tracting we found out that our lesson with Michelle was canceled. That was a bummer, but then we found some trampolines and we bounced on them right there on the edge of Danube, kind of cool. We tracted a little more, but no one was really interested, but as we were about to finish up and leave, some guys stopped us and said, “Hey are you guys the Mormons, are you guys the ones who have been knocking on doors!!.” At first, I was scared, as I thought, “oh no, here we go again,” expecting to get yelled at, but then they said, “We LOVE the Mormons! We want to meet with you.” They talked to us for a little while and were super interested in what we were sharing. They gave us their phone numbers and asked to meet with us again. See miracles happen when you’re tracting.
Elder Surdu and I traveled out to a hospice about an hour away on the opposite side of Budapest in a beautiful location to do a service project. We made some IKEA flatpack furniture, putting together cabinets. We saw some fantastic views, maybe some of the most beautiful views I’ve seen on my mission.
We did a lot of tracting, but while we tracted we ate lots of cherries and plums, because plums are becoming ripe. We had dinner and a lesson with one of the English families in the ward. She’s an English teacher and his job is in English. Their oldest is 15 and he is going to be living in the U.S. this next year with some family or friends. Our lesson was about Elder Nelson’s youth devotional. I got a copy from the Bishop. It’s really good! I love the focus on the “gathering of Israel,” which of course is about missionary work.
Tracting is really hard, especially in apartment buildings, people don’t like having their doors knocked on; but we do it because sometimes we get miracles. We did get to meet with Zoli and he had a family friend over who talked too. Then we had a lesson with his wife. They are an awesome family. I really hope we can help them.
This Sunday, there were fewer people at church because quite a few members of the ward were in Friberg at the temple, but the Corwin’s bore their testimonies. They are an American family who have been here for a couple months. Brother Corwin is a professor at BYU who teaches neuroscience and brain studies. He’s here for a research project, but they will be going home soon. It’s that time of the year when lots of Americans leave and go home and new ones come. So that is another reason there were so few people at church. In Priesthood the Elder’s quorum president was out of town, and Brother Glenn taught, he’s an American that works at the embassy. He is a return missionary from Hungary, so he speaks Hungarian, and of course he speaks it really well… but Brother Wagner, the one who is Hungary working on a movie with Will Smith, doesn’t speak Hungarian and Brother Glenn asked me to translate for Brother Wagner. I’ve never translated before. It was easier than I thought it was going to be. When Brother Glenn was speaking I could give a word for word translation because he talked slow, probably to help me out, but when class members spoke they spoke so fast I was only able to give a summary of what they said. It was really cool though. It was a good experience.
We were going to go over to the Volletta’s, another American family – Brother Volletta works at the embassy, he’s active duty and he’s a member of the diplomatic security. His job is to monitor political situation and if things get crazy he’s supposed to report to the President. – The plan was we were going to go over to their house for lunch and found out that he had invited two co-workers to come, so we went with Brother Volletta to pick them up. His co-workers were really cool, but we were super squished in his BMW. It was funny to have the whole car full of American soldiers talking about Hungary and politics in their super cool American accents, it was crazy fun. I realized I really miss American English. We went to house in the Buda Hills, a beautiful house with a beautiful view of the city. We had chicken burritos with American Tostitos chips and American soda, it was amazing!! There’s only been a few times on my mission when I didn’t feel like I was in Hungary, and that was one of them. At the end we shared a spiritual thought. The bible video, “Feed My Sheep.” We invited the co-workers to take the discussions, but they declined. It was still a great time.
My Inspiration Thought for Today:
I really like this verse from Nephi about how important it is to apply the scriptures to ourselves.
"And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1Nefi 19:23.
"And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1Nefi 19:23.
I love you all, hope this week goes amazing, I cant wait to hear about where Joey goes on his mission. Be safe.
Love, Elder Morgan.
Are you in need of a loan? Do you want to pay off your bills? Do you want to be financially stable? All you have to do is to contact us for more information on how to get started and get the loan you desire. This offer is open to all that will be able to repay back in due time. Note-that repayment time frame is negotiable and at interest rate of 3% just email us (creditloan11@gmail.com)
ReplyDelete