#6 Pest II: Next Stop Debrecen

Some exiting news, I'm moving again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'm going crazy! I'm 6 for 7, I've moved 6 out of my 7 transfers!!!!!! I'm pretty much a lost migratory goose. I'm headed back out east to Nyíregyháza, just kidding, but seriously I'm headed to Debrecen which is right next to Nyíregyháza. Debrecen (which is where Elder Surdu was born!) is the 2nd largest city in Hungary with a whopping 330,000 people. It's going to be a new zone leader city so I'm white washing in again. The other surprise is that, I'm going to be staying with my companion Elder Surdu!! So it will be a new city but same companion, I'm excited! We ship out tomorrow morning. We will be over the east zone which is every city on the east side of the Danube except for Pest and Kispest.

Our Week:

This was a good last week of the transfer. Besides all of the finding we did, I think the highlight was this past week’s MLC. It was very uplifting and on the whole I think it went well. I really hope we can apply what was discussed in this upcoming transfer with our new monster zone.

On P-day Elder Surdu and I decided to do that last thing that neither of us had done, and so we went to the Buda Castle. We saw Hungarian Calvary dressed up in period uniform. We didn't go inside because it cost money to go inside, and it's an art museum, but I took lots of pictures. Later that day we spent a few hours doing family history work. I taught Elder Surdu how to use family search and worked on the Gallagher line and we were able to find a second wife and a few kids which was pretty cool.

BTW: I got a ukulele!

This past week a lot of our investigators fell of the face of the map. We did however meet with Robert, we are frustrated because we don’t know how to help him progress, he likes us, comes to church and reads, but I’m not sure how much real desire he has. We watched the restoration fill with him, and again focused on the role of the Book of Mormon coming to a know if the church is true. We also met with Zoltán and Veronika, both of which are newer investigators. We introduced both of them to the Book of Mormon challenge and they said they would do it and try to come to church, I hope they will progress as the sisters keep meeting with them. We also met with the Valletta family and committed them to do the challenge as well. The ward is all geared up for the Challenge and they will be having a special 5th Sunday meeting all about it next Sunday.

Wednesday was my favorite day of the transfer and the reason it was such a good day was because we didn't have anything to do but missionary work (no zone leader responsibilities), so we did streeting, tracking, and generally talking to people and teaching. We went tracking in the "ghetto" of Pest, the communist district, which is pretty scary but we had a lesson there. The man we are teaching was found by Elder Surdu and Elder Durney. He works as a prison guard to make money to be a fire fighter while he goes to his gun smith school, but he's also into strong man competitions. So, when he's not working as a prison guard he's back in his village lifting 400 lb. weights. When he did a strong man competition ten years ago he was the 11th strongest man in Hungary. He's about 50 but he looks like he's in his thirties. He is such a gentle giant. He is super excited to meet with us. We asked him if he was going to read the Book of Mormon and he said, "YES!" He said that if we came all the way from America and Canada, and you are living here and speaking Hungarian, then this must be really important! We were like, "HE GETS IT!!" He may be the only Hungarian in this country that gets it! He gets the relationship between missionaries who have sacrificed a lot to be here and what we are teaching and he thinks it must be important to bring us all this way. HE IS SUPER COOL and I'm really excited to meet with him in the future.

The church in Hungary is dying by attrition because more members are dying and people are going inactive faster than new converts are baptized or new members are born, because of this President Hettinger is trying to facilitate better stake wide training for ward missionary efforts and member missionary work in cooperation with the missionaries. We attended the new stake missionary correlation meeting which all zone leaders take part in with the stake and ward mission leaders. It was good.

On Thursday we had to clean our apartment for the apartment checks with Elder and Sister Russell, and it was a super in depth check because Sister Hettinger is trying to assess the apartments to decide which ones should be closed down and the missionaries in those areas get newer apartments... because some of our apartments are pretty old and slummy. So we cleaned for hours and it was as clean as we have ever seen it, but it was still pretty dirty... because you can only get it so clean. Sister Russell is the ultimate missionary mom and she was pretty concerned about us when she looked at our slummy apartment and she was determined to close this apartment DOWN!

President Hettinger is changing the way transfers are done. The procedure we've followed thus far on my mission is that on transfer day everyone missionary travels to Budapest, pairs up with their new companion and then the new companionships all travel to their new areas. President Hettinger has created what seems like a more complicated plan to make it possible for missionaries to go directly to their new areas. So, no more mix & mingles in Budapest at each transfer... which I'm a little sad about because I there are some missionaries I may never see again... like Elder Gilson. That would be sad if I don't see him again, but I know that President Hettinger is changing things for good reasons and it will be OK.

My study thought comes this week out of D&C section 50: I was thinking about the concept of ordination. It’s when power or authority from God is given to an individual to do his work. This week we have been doing some finding with relation to priesthood authority and have shared Hebrews 5:4:

“And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” 

As a missionary of the lord Jesus Christ and bearer of his holy priesthood, I’m a special witness of him in my area in Hungary. But the question is to what purpose was I ordained. Well, it’s to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Spirit. 

“Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question—unto what were ye ordained? To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth.” (D&C 50:9-10). 

In this dispensation (*period when the gospel of Christ and the priesthood power to adiminster the ordinances of the atonement is on the earth) we set apart missionaries as Aaron was, by the laying on of hands by the same authority to preach and baptize that Aaron had. That order of the Priesthood was restored by John the Baptist. 

“Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins” (D&C 13). 

I feel very fortunate and humbled to serve into the same order of the priesthood as Aaron and John, but also as a Melkezidek priesthood bearer, to serve in the same order and work as my Savior.

"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews 5:5-6)

Love Ted