Morgan Elder in Magyarország

Hi! This week the Cherry trees are producing fruit and its really fun to pick off the fruit while we are walking a long. On Friday we went to a small town called Felsőgöd, it is a 30 minute train ride north of Pest. We went there to look up an lady investigator and to have diner with the Farkasék; and the best part was just eating cherries all along the way. The Farkasék have been members a really long time, Orsi, the mom, has been a member since the 90s and she was one of the main translators for the Book of Mormon into Hungarian, as well as the other standard works and manuals for the church. She joined the church in the United States while she was working as a nanny for a family in upstate New York. After she joined the family she was working for fired her and she went back to Hungary, but later she came back to the States for school. She is the mother of six and is super awesome! Last P-day we went to the "House of Terror" which is where the offices for the ...

Horse Sausage Yup, I bought horse sausage today! Welcome to Hungary. We did get food poisoning this week, but not from the horse sausage. We were poisoned after eating a meal we ate at a new members home this week. Fun times! It’s all part of missionary work. We ran out of food yesterday, so I dipped into my food supply from my care package and we made the Bear Creek Jambalaya from my last care package and we LOVED it. We definitely want more of that kind of thing in the next care package. I'm doing good, but it's been a crazy week, we have been just working and talking to people like crazy. It's been a little frustrating because tones of people have been "dogging" our appointments but its okay because it's just part of missionary work! Speaking of a missionary work... What's in a Missionary's Life? Here's a fun description of a day in the life of a Mormon Missionary, from my companion Elder Fales: https://drive.google....

I'm really glad that I got to see you all in our video chat yesterday! I hope I didn't look uncomfortable. I don't know why but its kind of weird to call home. I like it but it feels a little strange. I'm glad that I got a tour of the house, it looks nice, the dog looks healthy too. It's just good to know that things are going good at home. I love you all very much. I love you Mom. Well, there's nothing really new since our video chat yesterday. The big highlights of the week were p-day, transfers, and a new companion (Elder Fales, he is from Las Vegas, and he came to Hungary 2 months before me), and lots of good work. Everywhere we went this week we streeted and talked to everyone on the buses, trains, and on the streets. We walked to "Kingdom Come" and back. We made tons of contacts. It was great. On the first full day of the 4th transfer and the entire zone went to the heivital to register in our new apartments and afterward we went with ...

I'm MOVING again! Well, I got a HUGE surprise this morning. They are closing the companionship in Kispest, and so they are giving up the lease on our apartment. The Kispest sisters (Huhtala and Christiansen) are staying together. I will be sent up north to Pest, it's really not that far away. It's the same zone. I'll be serving with Elder Fail, he is in the group who arrived in the mission before mine, so he has been out only 2 months longer. We will also have the Zone leaders in our district. So, with this transfer, we have to pack up and clean everything in the apartment tonight!! Crazy! I'm kind of sad that I'm leaving Kispest, but hopefully, President Szabadkai will let me go to Budai Zoltáns Baptism on Sunday. My supper cool French MCM leader, Sébastien This Week in Kispest: We went on an adventure, all the way to Érd. We got to drive into the countryside and see it when it was all green, and it was really beautiful. It really wasn’t that far, but we...

April 30th is six months since I landed in Hungary, I landed in Hungary on October 31st, so I've been in Hungary six months now! Which is six months in Hungary and eight months as a missionary. Which is just crazy, it doesn't feel like it's been eight months at all!! Time flies! It's been a good week, this week we had splits with the Zone Leaders in Pest. I went to pest with Elder Durney. Elder Durney has been here in Hungary for a year and a half, he is from Colorado. We did a lot of tracting but we found a building with a lot of really cool potential investigators.  We also taught a mother and her 3 teenage daughters about the Book of Mormon, and testimony. (This mother has 7 teen aged children! an 18 year old son, 17 year old, 16 year old twins, 15 year old daughter, and 12 year old twin daughters). We gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon and they were all so excited and had so many questions. It was really cool. We also taught Piroska néni (...

It didn't add up in my cerebrals that zone conference would push back p-day, but it did. So happy Tuesday P-day! This past week was also pretty good. p-day last the 16th we went to this labyrinths underneath Buda castle. The Buda Castle is in a walled part of the city, under it is a labyrinth, which are natural caves that were linked by tunnels that in the medieval times it was used as torture chambers and prisons. During World War II they hid in the tunnels and caves. It was pretty cool. According to the people who commercialize this place, another claim to fame is that Dracula (Vlad the Impaler to his friends) was imprisoned there for a year. It was a nice cool, damp, tuberculosis filled maze. Pretty fun! Elder Gabel on cried twice.  We also walked around Szent Matthias cathedral, and fisherman's bastion, it was cool to go back because the only other time I went was my first night in Hungary. It was a really pretty walk in the spring. I took lots of pictures. ...

Last P-day we went to up to the Erzsébet kilátó (Elizabeth look out point) which is a little castle on top of one of the really big hills in Buda, you could see the whole city from the top, and the walk through the woods up to it was pretty. Spring in Budapest is really beautiful. We also had interviews with President Szabadkai on Monday, and I love interviews with him.  I also got my package from home, thank you so much, the plan of salvation teaching set is wonderful! I love the seasonings, I've already used the old bay and taco seasonings. This week has been one of the best yet. we went to the middle school and talked about Denmark (because my companion is Danish) with the kids in English.  On Friday we were asked by President Szabadkai to go to a service project that was organized by the senior couple (Russel elder and nővér) who are over the YSA (Young Single Adults) in the stake. We went down to Csepel which is this big island in the Danube, and we ...

Howdy y'all, Things are good our here in Magyarország. Last P-day we went to the Hungarian national museum "Magyar Nemzeti Muzeum," because P-day was on Tuesday we had a lot more options because the big museums are closed on Monday's here. It was really cool, they have 3 big exhibits, one about the Hungary from 5000 BCE to 1000 CE and then from 1000 CE to 1600 CE and then from 1600 CE to 1990 CE. it was a wild ride, cavemen to Celts to Romans, to barbarians to franks to Magyars and then all of the crazy with the Turks and the Austrians, revolutions, 2 world wars, communism, and then freedom, it was quite the trip. I am just blown away every day how pretty European cities are. Spring is here, and the trees this week have been making leaves and some have been blossoming. It's really pretty. one week left of suit season! (We can wear slacks and short sleeve dress shirts during the spring and summer) We had some really good lessons this week about The law of ...

This week was certainly a good one. This week we had the opportunity of teaching quite a few lessons. We have been helping our progressing investigator quit smoking and he has been making really great progress. We also did service again in a near by school, and taught the kids about the water cycle and other water related topics in English, it was a lot of fun. Budapest is infiltrated by Scots. The Scottish soccer team is playing Hungary so there are loads of drunk Scots in kilts everywhere! We had a funny encounter with some Scott's and their bagpipes on the subway, but that's all I'm going to say about that. I also had the opportunity to go on a split with Elder Graham, who is one of the zone leaders in Pest. I went up there and his companion elder Durney went to Kispest with Elder Gabel. It was a good split, we taught a mother and daughter who just recently joined the church and we taught a couple about spiritual experiences. Also, I think more people would wan...

Jó napot! Remélem hogy minden jó veletek. Döntettem hogy magyarul egy annyira nehéz nyelv és érezem sokszor hogy, lehetetlen lesz. The work: This week we taught 9 lessons which is pretty good for here in Hungary. The most I've ever taught in one week is 11, but in an the average week it's about 6 lessons per week; so with tracting, meetings, traveling the city, and our lessons, and other activities, it was a busy and fast paced week, and honestly it flew by. We had an interesting experience while tracking. Most of the people we met some pretty hostile, but at one building we went to the man who answered the intercom was gruff with us, but after asking “WHAT DO YOU WANT,” we explained that we were missionaries and what we were there for and he said, “Well everyone’s downstairs right now on the first floor, you can come in and talk to us all at one time.” We came in and there were a dozen and a half people because they were having a building meeting and so we talk...

Well its winter again, but I look forward to return of the spring (catch my Starwars reference) I'm doing good. It's been a busy week and good first full week is Kispest. On P-day we went to the Basilica, which are really big Catholic Cathedral, it was really ornate on the inside. In a case in an ornate box is the hand of St. Stephen, the first Christian King of Hungary, he was born in the late 900’s AD. It is sacred to Catholics. We went to the very top of the Basilica to see a view of the city. It was beautiful! We went to the Parliament building but we didn’t go inside because it’s expensive to go inside. The outside was super beautiful. The walking path around it goes by the Danube and into a place called Freedom Square. In freedom square they have a statue of Ronald Reagan, Hungarians love Ronald Reagan and Americans. One reason they often talk about it because sometime at the end of World War II and before the Soviets had complete control of Hungary, the Ame...

I'm writing this email from a library built in the French Renaissance style in the middle of Budapest. This place is so cool!! On the Monday before transfers, our last full day of missionary work in Kecskemét we had some interesting experiences while streeting with the sisters. We were in the town square getting ready to go steeting and then there was a guy walking by playing music on his phone, which was nothing unusual, and all of the sudden I got this strange butter-flies in my stomach feeling and I looked at Sister Jensen and she looked at me and said, “Do you feel that?” – And in an instant of glances between the sisters and my companion we all knew we all felt it and then without hesitation we instantly knew that we needed to walk away and find another spot, and we acted immediately upon the impression. We don’t know what happened or if anything would have happened, but we all knew that the spirit gave each of us the exact same immediate impression to leave that area and ...