#1 Nyíregyháza: A Slower Pace of Life
Wow, my life is going so fast! This week has been a crazy blur!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like Nyíregyháza. It's a smaller city, so the pace is different than that of Budapest. Missionary work in the country is slower, becuase life in the country is slower, but I'll adjust. It's bigger than Kecskemét though, and I think it is prettier, but that could just be because it is summer. Next week I'll have more pictures of Nyíregyháza. I just didn't have time this week. My companion Elder Gilson, is really cool!! He is my first companion from Utah. He is awesome! It's going to be a good, but short, transfer (5 weeks instead of 9). Also, my new apartment is the old sister training leader apartment, and it is the nicest apartment I have had. It's amazing, super modern and updated and the sister missionaries kept it really nice, because they're sisters, so one of our goals this transfer is to keep the apartment really nice and make sure we keep it clean.
Wednesday was crazy, we had to move all of my stuff, my companion's stuff, and Edler Thomson's stuff 205 km (half-way across the country). Elder Thomson's companion is Elder Garrett, who was my zone leader when I came to Hungary, it’s fun to be his district leader now. I had my first district meeting as the district leader and it went well, it was mostly about transfer goals. This transfer is only 5 weeks but in that time we have a Zone conference in Buda, an interview in Miskolc, a split in Pest, and 4 other splits with the other companionships, it's going to be super crazy!!
Also, white washing (coming into a new area with two new missionaries, neither who served in the area before) into a city is less fun than I imagined, this week we have mostly just been getting to know the city, and our area, figuring out where stuff is. Hope fully all of our appointments with the investigators go well, hopefully we won't get dropped because we are elders (and not sisters, because people like sister missionaries better then elders:)).
The highlight of the week was that there was a Miskolc district activity (the church district includes: Eger, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen) We took the train two hours to Eger and the countryside was beautiful, on the trip we passed through Miskolc which is a really nice city. Then we took a bus from Eger to a small town called Felsőtarkány, which is north of Eger. The activity was in a camping park. We played soccer and other games and the food was really great too. It was a good opportunity to get to know the members. We missed our train on the way home and there were lots of delays, the train in Eger was 50 minute delayed. We didn't get home till super super late, but during our delays we got to see some cool stuff. I took some pictures of the Basilica in Eger, so the pictures are not from Nyíregyháza. Eger is a super pretty little city.
On Sunday we had about 34 people. The branch building is very nice, it's a building the church renovated and so it looks like a chapel the church would build. We got to see some of the people we had met at the activity. The thing about the branch that was strange was that that in this branch there are no children or youth. It's kind of sad.
When we were tracting Sunday evening we had this really kind older lady let us in. When we were talking to her outside she said, "I have one of your bibles," and we said, "The Book of Mormon?" and she said, "Yeah, let me go get it." She went inside and brought back the Book of Mormon and we sat on the doorstep for a little while and talked to her about the book. Then she said, "You guys are just so kind... I have these grandaughters who are so pretty and you need to come in and I will show you pictures of my pretty grandaughters." So we got a let in! Yay! -- It may sound funny, but it happens a lot in Hungary that old ladies want to set you up with their grandaughters. We got to sit down and talk about the gospel and her life. We learned that she has met with lots of missionaries because she says there is something about the Mormon missionaries that she just feels like she can trust them, but the Jehovah's witnesses scare her. We shared a thought and a prayer and we have a return appointment. We'll see if she wants to learn or just wants missionary friends.
All in all I'm doing good, today we played basketball and tennis, which was fun.
Also, I have some how lost about 20 pounds since I left the MTC, I hadn't really weighed myself since then, so that was a surprise!
Love you all, Morgan elder.
From Elder Gilson's Email:
Sziasztok!!
This past week was a good one with so much that happen. We arrived here safely in Nyíregyháza (after white washing in!) and I am super happy to be able to be here right now. Our first few days here were spent doing some finding as well and going through the area book and setting up with investigators and finding some past investigators we could hopefully meet with some time. We were able to get a few lessons set up for the coming week. We also found some pretty cool potential investigators and hope to continue our interactions with them.
I like Nyíregyháza. It's a smaller city, so the pace is different than that of Budapest. Missionary work in the country is slower, becuase life in the country is slower, but I'll adjust. It's bigger than Kecskemét though, and I think it is prettier, but that could just be because it is summer. Next week I'll have more pictures of Nyíregyháza. I just didn't have time this week. My companion Elder Gilson, is really cool!! He is my first companion from Utah. He is awesome! It's going to be a good, but short, transfer (5 weeks instead of 9). Also, my new apartment is the old sister training leader apartment, and it is the nicest apartment I have had. It's amazing, super modern and updated and the sister missionaries kept it really nice, because they're sisters, so one of our goals this transfer is to keep the apartment really nice and make sure we keep it clean.
Wednesday was crazy, we had to move all of my stuff, my companion's stuff, and Edler Thomson's stuff 205 km (half-way across the country). Elder Thomson's companion is Elder Garrett, who was my zone leader when I came to Hungary, it’s fun to be his district leader now. I had my first district meeting as the district leader and it went well, it was mostly about transfer goals. This transfer is only 5 weeks but in that time we have a Zone conference in Buda, an interview in Miskolc, a split in Pest, and 4 other splits with the other companionships, it's going to be super crazy!!
Also, white washing (coming into a new area with two new missionaries, neither who served in the area before) into a city is less fun than I imagined, this week we have mostly just been getting to know the city, and our area, figuring out where stuff is. Hope fully all of our appointments with the investigators go well, hopefully we won't get dropped because we are elders (and not sisters, because people like sister missionaries better then elders:)).
The highlight of the week was that there was a Miskolc district activity (the church district includes: Eger, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen) We took the train two hours to Eger and the countryside was beautiful, on the trip we passed through Miskolc which is a really nice city. Then we took a bus from Eger to a small town called Felsőtarkány, which is north of Eger. The activity was in a camping park. We played soccer and other games and the food was really great too. It was a good opportunity to get to know the members. We missed our train on the way home and there were lots of delays, the train in Eger was 50 minute delayed. We didn't get home till super super late, but during our delays we got to see some cool stuff. I took some pictures of the Basilica in Eger, so the pictures are not from Nyíregyháza. Eger is a super pretty little city.
On Sunday we had about 34 people. The branch building is very nice, it's a building the church renovated and so it looks like a chapel the church would build. We got to see some of the people we had met at the activity. The thing about the branch that was strange was that that in this branch there are no children or youth. It's kind of sad.
When we were tracting Sunday evening we had this really kind older lady let us in. When we were talking to her outside she said, "I have one of your bibles," and we said, "The Book of Mormon?" and she said, "Yeah, let me go get it." She went inside and brought back the Book of Mormon and we sat on the doorstep for a little while and talked to her about the book. Then she said, "You guys are just so kind... I have these grandaughters who are so pretty and you need to come in and I will show you pictures of my pretty grandaughters." So we got a let in! Yay! -- It may sound funny, but it happens a lot in Hungary that old ladies want to set you up with their grandaughters. We got to sit down and talk about the gospel and her life. We learned that she has met with lots of missionaries because she says there is something about the Mormon missionaries that she just feels like she can trust them, but the Jehovah's witnesses scare her. We shared a thought and a prayer and we have a return appointment. We'll see if she wants to learn or just wants missionary friends.
All in all I'm doing good, today we played basketball and tennis, which was fun.
Also, I have some how lost about 20 pounds since I left the MTC, I hadn't really weighed myself since then, so that was a surprise!
Love you all, Morgan elder.
From Elder Gilson's Email:
Sziasztok!!
This past week was a good one with so much that happen. We arrived here safely in Nyíregyháza (after white washing in!) and I am super happy to be able to be here right now. Our first few days here were spent doing some finding as well and going through the area book and setting up with investigators and finding some past investigators we could hopefully meet with some time. We were able to get a few lessons set up for the coming week. We also found some pretty cool potential investigators and hope to continue our interactions with them.
We did get one new investigator this week. She is and older lady that let us in while we were tracking. She was really nice and already had a copy of the Book of Mormon. We asked her to read the restoration pamphlet and set up to come back next week!
Church was amazing and it was really cool to meet all the members and to feel of their love for us. I am excited to be able to work with them and to serve them in any way that I can.
One thing I learned this week is how important it is to make sure you are on the right path before it is too late. We went out to go tracking/ streeting and had a place in mind of were we wanted to go. We looked at the map and knew which road we needed to take. We started on our journey and after a little bit we stopped and thought we should look at the map again because nothing looked like the place we wanted to go to. Upon looking at the map we realized that there are two roads very close to each other but once you start going they fan out from each other leading in two completely different ways. So we realized that we were in a different place than where we wanted to be and we had to take a different road that would connect us back on to the road we wanted to be on. All this because we failed to make the small correction at the beginning and instead had to make a much bigger correction later. So from that I learned the importance of making the small corrections now in life because if we wait they become much bigger problems we have to deal with. It is easier to take a couple of steps and be on the right path than it is to be a little bit off and go down the wrong path completely. Do the small and simple things and fix the small problems while they are small or they will become bigger and you will have to deal with them later. That is one cool thing I learned this week and will be applying to my life each day.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay safe and happy!!!
Church was amazing and it was really cool to meet all the members and to feel of their love for us. I am excited to be able to work with them and to serve them in any way that I can.
One thing I learned this week is how important it is to make sure you are on the right path before it is too late. We went out to go tracking/ streeting and had a place in mind of were we wanted to go. We looked at the map and knew which road we needed to take. We started on our journey and after a little bit we stopped and thought we should look at the map again because nothing looked like the place we wanted to go to. Upon looking at the map we realized that there are two roads very close to each other but once you start going they fan out from each other leading in two completely different ways. So we realized that we were in a different place than where we wanted to be and we had to take a different road that would connect us back on to the road we wanted to be on. All this because we failed to make the small correction at the beginning and instead had to make a much bigger correction later. So from that I learned the importance of making the small corrections now in life because if we wait they become much bigger problems we have to deal with. It is easier to take a couple of steps and be on the right path than it is to be a little bit off and go down the wrong path completely. Do the small and simple things and fix the small problems while they are small or they will become bigger and you will have to deal with them later. That is one cool thing I learned this week and will be applying to my life each day. I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay safe and happy!!!
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