Week 75 (October 14-28, 2013)

Hát, az kínos... Rosszul betűztem a "tojás" szót múlt héten. De mindegy.

Are You the Guys from the TV!?: So the APs and a few other missionaries had a story done about them that was shown on a Hungarian TV show a couple weeks ago. Since then, a lot of people have recognized that we are from that same organization. Oh, you'd like to see it? Well, here it is!!
http://www.rtlklub.hu/musorok/fokuszplusz/videok/223011

It's called "What is possible to know about the Mormons?" Watch it! 

Stake Conference: So we had Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday. My word, it was great. We had a Scottish 70 there. His name sadly escapes me. Nonetheless, he was so great. It was super rad to see all my old friends. I got to see people I knew from Kecskemét, Pécs, Szombathely, and obviously from Kispest. It was a real treat to see all of those wonderful people again. They announced that 4 of the branches will now be added to the stake!! That was really exciting news for everyone! This new addition is just a preparation for organizing another stake here in Hungary!! Awesomeness!!

If That's What God Wants, Then That's What I'll Do: I'm having a blast teaching one of our investigators with a baptismal date. She has changed a lot since we started meeting with her. We taught the Word of Wisdom to her this week and she replied with, "well, I sometimes drink coffee... but if this is what God wants, then I won't drink it anymore." Then we taught her about keeping the Sabbath Day holy a couple of days ago and she replied with, "well I usually work on Sundays... but if this is what God wants, then I won't work anymore on Sundays." Wow, talk about a lot of faith, right?

Forgetting Your Keys = A Blessing??: We walked into an apartment complex this week to have a program with one of our investigators and we noticed that a key ring was left in one of the mail boxes. No one was around so we took the keys and went to the corresponding apartment to return them safely. No one was home. We wrote a little note explaining that we had the keys and stuck it to the mail box. After our program, the owner of the keys called us and we arranged to meet in the branch house so they could get them from us. While in the branch house, they asked all sorts of questions about us and the Church, so right then and there we set up a time to meet with them and they were pretty excited about it. We gave them a copy of The Book of Mormon and sent them on their way. We met with this person this morning actually and he had been reading--and he had lots of questions. Great questions.

Bus Route to Healing: On the way home last night, we had a half hour bus ride from our program back into the main city. A quiet lady sat in front of us. About five minutes into the trip, she turned around and asked if what church we were from. We said from the Church of Jesus Christ. Without delay, she randomly started to tell us about her health problems and about how she struggles with depression and some other mental hardships. She said, "sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you guys this." and I replied with, "no, no, don't worry! I studied Psychology in America before I came here to be a missionary." and she was shocked and said, "so you know a little bit about psychology!?" and I said, "well, yea, I'd like to think so." and she replied with, "I've actually been praying for God to help me find a Christian Psychologist to help me with my problems--I don't want to visit anymore doctors. I want to strengthen my faith and be healed through Christ." 

"...You chose the right bus to ride tonight! We can help you with exactly that!"

And then she started crying, gave us her phone number, and the rest will be a story soon to come.

Well, time is once again crunched. I guess it's good that I have so much to say, right? I thank you all for all of your love, support, and prayers.

.nomroM fo kooB ehT daer dna won thgir oG

.esaelP

Sok Szeretettel,
Alldredge Elder

We got free balloons from someone on the street.

Week 74 (October 14-22, 2013)

Hűha. Nincs időm.

Transfer Update: As we suspected, there was no change within our companionship for this 'mini transfer' which means another 3 weeks with my favorite Hungarian companion. :) Ábrók a király!!

Family Day: This week for English Class, we had family day!! Everyone had to bring pictures of their family and practice introducing them in the beloved language of English. They all really enjoyed it. Besides people always telling me how similar Brookie and Momma are to each other, I usually get mixed responses about Jordi and myself. Sometimes they say I look like Dad, sometimes like Momma, sometimes a mix. It's always a mystery. On this particular occasion they told me that I'm the "kakukk toljás" which is like "the black sheep" or "the odd one out". Interesting, no?

LOOK! I MADE THIS!: I love to write. This week I wrote a poem. It's about one of my favorite stories about the sun and the wind. It goes like this:

One day long ago, in Spring I recall,
The wind told the sun, "I'm the strongest of all!"
The sun didn't agrue, nor did he agree

The wind sensed his doubt and said, "come verse me, you'll see."

The sun simple chuckled and replied with, "okay."

Right then an old man passed them by on the way,
The wind said, "I'll take his coat right from his skin!
Then I'll be the strongest, I know I will win!"

The sun knew the wind would get really loud,

So he hid himself nicely behind a soft cloud.

The wind started to blow and made quite a raquet.

Which made the man clentch even more to his jacket.

He held on much tighter as the wind pushed and fought.

The wind finally gave up and said, "let's see what you've got."

All the sun did was come out and smile.
He made the air warm within a short while.
The man soon wiped drops of sweat from his head

And continued his walk in his T-shirt instead.

Gentle, patient, and kind was the sun.

He didn't get prideful although he had won.

He didn't laugh at the wind, nor make a mean face.
He just went down to rest and let the moon take his place.

Camera Cord: Yea, I forgot it...

Parkinson's: We tracted into a lady with Parkinson's disease. She could barely walk and move at all. She couldn't even zip up her own jacket. She rejected us at first but aswe walked away she opened the door again and invited us inside. She said, "I don't usually let people into my apartment, but I felt like I should let you two boys in." 

We began to explain why we are here and what we were doing. We began to talk about Christ and the Holy Ghost. During the first few minutes of our talking she was shaking uncontrolably. She couldn't function normally. It was really sad BUT to our great surprise, as we continued to talk about Christ and his Atonement, she completely stopped shaking. It got to the point where she sat there normally with no problems at all! She looked down at her hands and noticed she was still. She then asked us, "how did you two perform this miracle?! LOOK! I am still!! I can move normaly!! How is this possible??" We went on to explain more about God's love and the Holy Ghost. She functioned completely normal the rest of the meeting and she was absolutely amazed! I was too. It was an incredible testimony, heck a physical testimony about how the Spirit works as we teach. Wow!

I don't have a lot of time left on the computer. I wrote a lot longer "personal" emails than I usually do. I will save the rest of my stories for next week.

Read the BEST kind of stories and live according to them. You will never go wrong. Where are those stories found you ask? Well, no place else but The Book of Mormon.

Sok Szeretettel,
Alldredge Elder

Week 73 (October 7-14, 2013)

Jaj de szépek a szinek ősszel, nem?

Vacak: Next week I will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday. Transfers have gotten a lot more complicated as of late. Missionaries don't go home the same time that new ones come in so we will be having these "mini transfers" for the next while. I'm pretty sure nothing will change within my companionship...but you can never be too sure about this whole transfer thing. I'm hoping all will stay the same.

Fixing of the Roof: We have an investigator whose husband isn't the biggest fan of the Church. She really wants to get baptized, her little daughter too, but the father won't allow it. SO, we set up with our investigator to help her husband fix their roof. It worked out that we were able to meet him and help him this last Thursday! We were able to talk with the guy for a good 4 hours while we took down all of his shingles and set them up again. We had a great discussion, yet his standpoint on the Church and allowing his family to be baptized has not changed. That's okay though. Things can only get better right? How much more rewarding will it be when they do get baptized and we are able to know that we had enough faith that the father would change his mind? That's right--so much more rewarding.

Zone Training: We had a super stellar zone training this week. Everyone was really engaged and seemed to really enjoy it. We talked a lot about fears--the kinds, why they are there, and how to overcome them. I relayed my story about how I struggle with my extreme and irrational fear of bees and then entwined it with a story from the book of Mosiah. For role plays we sent everyone out on the street and their assignment was to talk to a stranger on the street, teach them about prayer, then ask the person right then and there if they would pray with them. Talk about challenging, huh? But heck, if someone can do that, doing it in a program will be easy.

New Baptismal Candidate: We've been meeting with a lady who spent our whole first meeting just crying about how sad she was that she lost her husband who died over a year ago. When we first found her, she was a mess. So sad. We've meet with her often since that first time and the change has been dramatic. She told us the other day, "ever since you boys started coming and teaching me about God's plan, I only cry once a day!! I feel so much more comfort in my life and I feel so great when I meet with you boys." Needless to say, we explained the role of the Holy Ghost and told her that she can always feel that way if she keeps the commandments and makes a promise with God through baptism. She gladly accepted.

All is well on my side of the waters. I don't know if I have raved enough about the food here. I. LOVE. HUNGARIAN. FOOD. They came out with a new Turo Rudi (Hungarian thing)... It's the best chocolate to ever hit the face of this earth. Anywho, I love the food here so much.

Hé, ha magyar vagy és ezt a blogot találtad valahogyan, van információ ami neked való:

Istentisztelet:

XIX Budapest, Kossuth Lajos U. 2

Vasárnaponként 10:00-tól

Angol Óra pedig csütörtökönként 18:00-tól

Van kezdő, haladó, és profi.

JÖJJETEK!! 

I love you all!! Please read from The Book of Mormon, it will help you know how to live your life better. And trust me--it's possible.

Sok Szeretettel,

Alldredge Elder

Translated:
Hey, if you are Hungarian and somehow found this blog, there is information for you:
Place of Worship:
XIX Budapest, Kossuth Lajos U. 2
Sundays, 10:00

English classes are on Thursdays from 18:00
There are beginner, advanced and professional.

Come!

we found a hedgehog

Week 72 (September 30-October 7, 2013)

Milyen csodálatos volt a Konferencía??

Poker Sticks: So you know those little poker sticks that the people use in the movies all the time while their outside picking up trash? Yea. We totally used some of those last week. It was empowering. It's a rush to stab trash. I enjoyed myself. Simple mind, simple pleasures.

Conference: I had to watch conference in Hungarian. I was able to understand it all but it's just not the same with a translator. Like when you can tell that President Eyring is tearing up but the translator's voice doesn't get all tender and raspy. Or when Elder Holland is just going at it but the translator is just straight and monotone. It's really just not the same. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and I was thoroughly enlightened. Here's a scary thought: this was my 3/4 Conference for my mission.

Invitations to Conference: I spent a couple of hours making a bunch of little Conference invitations by hand this week. We wanted to give them to as many people as possible. I fancily wrote down all the times, the address, our number--everything. They looked great. We gave a ton of them out and lots of people told us they would come watch it. Well, the one person who came was a little old lady that we happened to meet with yesterday morning before the first session. I had run (ran?) out of the invitations by that time so we just wrote the Sunday times on a little sticky note. She ended up being the only one who came to watch it with us. I'm not going to tell you what I think of this... Rather, let it work within yourselves--interesting situation, isn't it?

4 Little Kittens: As we entered an apartment complex to start tracting the other day, we heard a strange noise. We looked into the "unwanted advertisement box" underneath the mail boxes and found 4 little kittens inside! We let them free and began to tract. When we came back down after we finished the building the little kittens were just running around the groundfloor having a great time. I don't know why I'm typing this story--it doesn't have much of a point. I guess the point is that it was super random. Who leaves 4 baby cats in an "unwanted advertisement box"??

McDonald's Girl: As a district, we all went to eat at McDonald's for lunch after a district meeting. There were a lot of us so we obviously turned some heads. The register girl who took my order was like:

"are you guys from some sort of school?"

And I was like, "no no, we're actually missionaries. We meet with people here and tell them about the Church of Jesus Christ."
And she was like, "oh wow, do you have some sort of book or pamphlet you could give me about your church?"

And I was like, " of course!! after I'm done eating I'll bring some things to you."

And she was like, "kay!"

So after I was done, I got a copy of The Book of Mormon, stuck a card in it with the Pest Elder's number on it (we were in their area), stood in line for a bit, and I gave it to her. Then I was like,

"here you go! This book is really special in our Church. It's like the Bible and it talks about Christ and his dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the American Continent!"

And she was like, "oh wow!! This is so great!! Thank you so much! How much do I have to pay for it?"

And I was like, "No no, it's totally free! But could I maybe get your name and number so that we could set up a time to meet and talk more about it?"

And she was like, "sure! here you go!"
And the rest is history. We'll see what comes of it. She's going to make a great church member though--I'll tell you that much.

Hey, I love you all. I feel great. The work here is great. The zone training we finished planning will be great on Wednesday and I think you are all great as well.

Read from The Book of Mormon. Please. It's great.

Sok Szeretettel,

Alldredge Elder