#10 Kecskemét: A New Companion

This week was the end of my first transfer in Hungary, and the beginning of my second.

**Usually LDS missionaries get transferred, moved or paired with new companions, every 6 weeks throughout their missions, but in the Hungarian mission we are transferred every 9 weeks to coincide with the 9 week MTC (mission training center) training schedule.

Wednesday, we went up to the mission home in Budapest to go to the transfer meeting. It was cool to see almost all of the missionaries in the mission all in one place. I got to meet Elder Stringham who was my trainers trainer, meaning Elder Martin's trainer. Elder Stringham is my grandfather, which is the funny mission way of saying my trainers trainer. Elder Stringham returned home after transfers this week, so he is home now and I hope he is doing well.

Elder Stringham and Me

I met up with my new companion Elder Phillips, and Sister Jensen, who has been serving with us in Kecskemét this last transfer found her new companion Sister Hughes. We all carted suitcases and headed back home to good old Kecskemét.

Elder Philips has been in Hungary for over a year now, he is from Florida. He is tall, about 6'1", he is very kind and has a big heart. I'm worried it will be a more difficult transfer, but I know the Lord will help me be a better missionary and grow and we will do good work. I just don't know what I'm doing because I just got done with my training and now I have to help Elder Philips be a missionary here in Kecskemét and get familiar with everything going on in our area, and I don't know if I can do it, but I will try.

On Thursday, the day after transfer meeting in Budapest, we went to the branch house to do Facebook (we are a Facebook mission, we use Facebook to reach out to people in our area) and I watched President Monson's video obituary. I'm sure most of you have heard that President Thomas S. Monson passed away on Wednesday (also the day of transfers). I remember when President Monson was called 10 years ago when President Hinckley passed away. His life was one marked by service. I hope the Lord blesses his family, and that we will remember President Monson's example and strive to care for the people God places in our paths.

We had district meeting and talked about goals for the transfer. The new Sister, Sister Hughes is really nice, kind of country, and she is very helpful with Hungarian; I think I may need to rely on her help this transfer. We also had our weekly English class with our usual group, I led the discussion and the lesson and it was really fun, we taught them the name of body parts.

One of our transfer goals we have set is to organize the area book, and look up potential investigators and reach out to former investigators. The area book is a record of past contacts missionaries in the area have made. It's kind of a different approach to missionary work compared to last transfer when Elder Martin and I focused a lot on finding new investigators through tracking and talking to people on the street. We will see how it goes.

Because Elder Philips wasn't here last week it fell to me to talk about each individual person we are working with during our district meeting. It was good because it wasn't something I was able to do before but magically I was able to say the things I needed to say in Hungarian and be understood and that's totally a moment of having the gift of tongues through the Spirit. I'm not really good at Hungarian but when the gift of tongues comes upon me, much like the feeling of having the spirit come over you, I'm able to talk and understand better but then it turns off. I really want to get that more in my life and in my work.

This week was marked with getting Elder Phillips settled in, and looking up potential investigators. We had a lesson with an investigator who we have not met with for a while, her name is Erzsi. We reviewed with her the restoration of the gospel, and tried to see what things we need to do in the future to help her progress.

In my personal study this week I began reading the biography of Joseph Smith by his mother Lucy Mack Smith. I think it's going to be really good. During study at the branch house, I read conference talks from last conference. I read Elder Holland's talk about being perfect eventually, Elder Rasband's talk about how our Heavenly Father is directly in our lives, and a member of the quorum of the seventy, Elder Pingree, who talked about how the Lord has a mission for each of our lives and blesses us accordingly. Then I read the talk by Sister Bingham's talk, the General Relief Society President, she talked about finding happiness in unhappy situations. She talked about the choice we make when we face adversity. When we face adversity in life we can choose to be happy or choose to be sad and I think that is really important. On missions and in life it's all about the attitude we have. It was a very good message.

A funny thing that happened this week happened during our district meet-up at the branch building. We wanted to take pictures as a district out side the branch building on Saturday because it was warm and sunny out, but we all went outside to take pictures and then realized that we all left our phones and keys in the Branch house and we were locked out, so we had to walk over to the bishops house and luckily he was home and walked back with us to let us back in. A little embarrassing, but it was funny.

We went with the Sisters and sang in the town square. Sister Hughes wants to do singing finding each week this transfer. That will be fun.

On Sunday, János, who was baptized last week, bore his testimony, I still don't understand Hungarian very well but the spirit was strong and he looked so happy, it is so awesome to see his testimony grow. Today in church I bore my testimony too. Another amazing thing happened at Sunday. I made appointments with people to meet this week. Members and such. It was really cool. I think it was cool that I was able to do that. I didn't know I was equipped with that ability but I was able to struggled through asking people what time was good for us to meet with them.

I love you all.

-- Elder Morgan