We did a ton of traveling this week! A trip to Berhida and two trips to Dunaújváros with some stops in Székesfehérvár along the way can really do a number on you! I just want to say, I love this country. It's so beautiful and living here is such a unique and wonderful experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be here among the Hungarians.

Last p-day, we went to Erzsi néni's house for lunch (and dinner... and honestly, breakfast the next day. You just can't leave her house without being painfully, but happily, stuffed!). We were outside playing soccer while we waited for the food to cook, when Erzsi came out and told us she had clothes that we could wear so that we wouldn't get our proselyting clothes dirty. She told us that her son had worn these clothes when he was our age so we would fit in them. The only problem was that her son was our age like 40 years ago... We looked...FANTASTIC honestly hahaha. I was actually really thrilled about my shants that reached the perfect mid-calf range, very tight, s-medium shirt that probably would have fit me better when I was 15, and the flipflop-tube sock combo that just screamed "White dad at a barbecue". Rarely in my life have I ever felt so stylish, honestly!

During lunch, Erzsi gave us this huge peppers, which I thought were bell peppers. I bit a little off the end to make sure before eating the rest of the pepper. Turns out, the end isn't all that spicy compared to the rest of the pepper. I took a huge bite, which was immediately followed by shock and a realization that the pepper that I had just eaten was not the mere bell pepper that I had thought it was. Long story short, I had heartburn for several hours afterward and we laughed really hard about it. 

After being stuffed at Erzsi nénis, we had to run for our bus back to Veszprém. It was more of a waddle. A slow, painful waddle full of grumbling and complaining about how full we were and how incapable we were of reaching any speed above 3 miles per hour. When we finally arrived at the bus station, we realized that our bus didn't actually get there for another 15 minutes. Such is life sometimes!

We also got to go to Duna for splits! I was with Elder Thomas, one of our wonderful zone leaders, and we decided to work on talking with everybody. We wondered about what Preach My Gospel meant when it said, "Talk with everybody!" We reasoned that certainly toddlers wouldn't be very receptive to our message, so they couldn't possibly mean "everybody". We then set out on a quest to determine what defined "Talking with everybody". We set a split goal to talk with every Asian person we saw, no matter what, just to add a little fun to our street contacting and finding. It was actually super awesome! We did most of our street contacting outside of the local college because many of the students are from China and speak English rather than Hungarian. Our little game led to us finding several potential investigators and many really awesome English conversations! It was a blast!

We ran into some missionaries of another faith on the bus. They were a British couple who represented a very small Christian denomination called "Christadelphians". They have 2 members here in Veszprém, with larger groups in England. I think that the man told us that their total membership was around 13,000 people worldwide. I had never heard of them before, but according to this man, they believe in the Bible and encourage people to study it. We didn't really learn much else about them, but they were very nice and very respectful! They looked up to the LDS church and our missionary program a lot and had nothing but nice things to say to us. It was a very pleasant encounter.

A highlight from our week was shaking hands with Elder Ballard of the quorum of the 12 apostles. He gave a fireside which was broadcasted throughout Europe and at the end he told everyone to stand up, no matter where they were. Then we stood up and he stuck out his hand and started shaking it. It was really funny and the fireside was actually really good! Of course, I didn't understand all of it, as it was in Hungarian, but I felt the Spirit and I caught the main points.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord's true Church on the earth. I have gained this knowledge through the quiet, yet piercing whispers of the Holy Ghost. I am reminded time and time again that Heavenly Father has a plan for me. Sometimes that plan goes in the exact opposite direction that we expect. Just remember, "We are all part of something MUCH bigger than ourselves." We have nothing to fear. The Lord is with us and will guide us through life always.

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian word of the week is "pupilla" which means "pupil". It just sounds really funny and made me laugh super hard when I heard it this week because it's pronounced like poopy-la. I know, I know, I'm about as mature as a 10 year old. Sorry about it! Have a great week!

From splits in Székesfehérvár to stepping up my chef game with fruit soup and chicken hearts, this week was full of good times and lasting memories. There are only 2 weeks left in this transfer if you can believe it! Just a heads up, the next two pdays will be on Tuesdays, due to a Hungarian national holiday and transfers.

I've tried to mix up my cooking a little bit, because dino nuggets, sandwiches, and various forms of noodles can only sustain a growing 19 year old boy for so long. This week I tried cooking chicken hearts, which turned out... okay. I guess there's a reason why regular chicken is more popular hahaha. But I did make up my own fruit soup recipe and it was delicious! It tasted like apple pie and icecream. Call me Elder Ramsey.

We went on splits in Székesfehérvár with the other elders in our district and had a blast. For dinner, we went to KFC and we each got our own bucket of chicken. It was a disgusting amount of chicken, but we all had to manifest our manliness in some way. I also got a pumpkin spice shake because my inner white-girl was calling out for it. 'Tis the season for pumpkin spice everything, and I am NOT complaining.

Székes is a beautiful city with tons of churches. You can see 7 church spires from the window of the elders' kitchen! I was with Elder Phillips, who was my trainer's companion in the MTC. When we were deciding what to do for the day, we felt impressed to visit an active member, a bácsi named Emil, and talk about General Conference. We went over there at about 6:00 and asked him if we could share a quick spiritual message with him and he let us in. After talking for a few minutes, we found out that he was feeling pretty bummed out about life. He said that his time on earth was going quickly and he was afraid of the future. He also expressed concern over his declining health and inability to sleep at night. My heart broke as he explained his feelings of abandonment from God. He was frustrated because despite trying his best, reading scriptures every day, praying constantly, going to church, and keeping the commandments, he still felt lost and hopeless. I asked him if he had ever asked for a priesthood blessing. He said that he hadn't thought about it, but that he would love to have one. We called the branch president, since he speaks Hungarian a bit better than we do (and by a bit I mean we're like 5 year olds and he speaks perfectly). The branch president just so happened to be a 2 minute walk away. Within 5 minutes, his hands were on this faithful member's head and he was using his priesthood to administer a beautiful blessing. After the blessing, Emil explained that he knew that God would help him out. He said that he knew that God had a plan for him. He knew that despite tests of faith, blessings would come and everything would work out. It was beautiful.

I learned a few things from this experience that I hope to always remember. The first thing I learned was that as holders of the priesthood, we must always be ready to respond to the calls we receive. Like the faithful branch preisdent, we must always be willing to drop what we're doing to help another soul along the path. It was a simple act of service, which took no more than 15 minutes, but it made a great difference in the life of Emil.

The second thing I learned is that God will use us in our weakness to help others. I was worried about this teaching because I was feelin inadequately prepared and nervous about the language. As I listened to Emil describing his concerns, I didn't have to worry about what to say. I felt the Holy Ghost speaking through me. Words just came and I found myself shocked at what I was saying. I wasn't just fluently using words I had never used before, but I felt like my mind was quickened and my ability to speak more fluidly and clearly was greatly amplified. It was the gift of tongues being manifest through me, and it was a powerful demonstration of the promise made by President Uchtdorf in General Conference just recently. He said that no matter what our weaknesses are, God will use us if we are willing. I felt a confirmation that God was using me to do His work in that moment.

The last thing I learned was that sometimes our faith really is tested. Like Emil, sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we never thought we would be put in. We may feel lost, abandoned, and hopeless. We may feel like we are trapped in a whirlwind, unable to find relief or a way to escape the seemingly unbearable waves and trials surrounding us. Sometimes, all we can do is put one foot in front of the next and act in faith.

We recently studied faith in Jesus Christ as it applies to self reliance. Elder David A. Bednar said this about faith:

"Taking action is the exercise of faith. The children of Israel are carrying the ark of the covenant. They come to the River Jordan. The promise is they will cross over on dry land. When does the water part? When their feet are wet. They walk into the river—act. Power follows—the water parts. We oftentimes believe, “Okay, I’m going to have this perfect understanding, and then I’m going to transform that into what I do.” I would suggest that we have enough to get started. We have a sense of the right direction. Faith is a principle—the principle—of action and of power. True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to action."

As we push through the trials that seem at times overwhelming and unbearable, we must always put our faith in Jesus Christ. When does the water part? After OUR feet are wet.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't let Satan discourage you. Press forward with faith in Christ and let nothing waver!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian word of the week: "Csirkeszív" which means "chicken heart". If that doesn't quite tickle your fancy, you might try "gyümölcs leves" which is "fruit soup". 

We met with two new investigators, Ica and Erika, this week and they're both really sweet nénis (grandmas, I think). Ica has been coming to church every week since we had our Plan of Salvation fireside last month, but we haven't been able to meet with her due to conflicting schedules. She's amazing and just one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She already gets along so well with everyone in the branch and she says she feels like she's home when she's there. She's been through a lot in her life, but she has smiled through it all! She's had a lot of health challenges and says that God must have a pretty good reason for keeping her going.

Erika was found by the sisters, who streeted into her. Since she lives in our area, we get to teach her, despite the fact that the sisters are the ones who found her. She is really accepting and loves the Book of Mormon. She told us she really wants to learn more, which is always a great thing to hear from an investigator! While we were meeting with her, she said, "So they call the girl missionaries 'Nővér', what do they call the boys?" and Elder Biesinger said, "Elder." and then Erika was like, "No, like, what do they CALL them?" and he again said, "Elder." then she was like, "No, you don't understand. I mean what do they call them that means that they're missionaries?" and I butted in with, "Elder is a title that they use which means that we're missionaries." Then she was like, "Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh I understand now."

Aren't language barriers fun?

We were able to go to Tihany, which is a little village on the lake Balaton (I think, I might be completely wrong. You should always take my information as a grain of salt to be honest haha) with some of our investigators, Udit and János. They are super nice and saw that the weather was nice and invited us to spend our pday with them sightseeing. It was beautiful! We went on a really pretty hike through some thick woods and up to a lookout tower that overlooks the lake Balaton and the surrounding villages. My camera really doesn't do the scene justice. It was really quite a sight! We passed a church which was over 600 years old! Some of it had been restored, but the bottom half of it was original. We also got to see some of the old fashioned Hungarian houses and markets with thatch roofs. There's a lot of history and beautiful sights here.

We also were able to have a meeting with our branch president and his family and the Bradshaws, who are the self reliance specialist senior missionaries. We were there to help translate for the Bradshaws, but we really didn't have to do much because President Fehér and his wife, Isabella speak wonderful English! This was a huge surprise to Elder Biesinger and me!

 The self reliance program is truly inspired and I'm so excited to be able to be a part of it. The Bradshaws related a story, or in Sister Bradshaw's words, "A truth", which happened in Romania, just next door. There was a branch which decided to start the 12 week self reliance program and they started out with a group of just 7 people (I'm not sure if they were members or not). They had so much fun together that they started posting about what they were learning and doing on Facebook. Over time, their friends saw what they were doing and wanted to join them. Now they have a group of 200 people participating in the self reliance classes every week! Can you believe that?

In Albania, there was a group of 6 non-members who started taking the classes through this program as well. Before the 12 week program was finished, 5 of them had already been baptized. It's amazing to see the Lord's hand in His work. It surely is being hastened!

The program teaches fundamentals which will help people become self reliant, both spiritually and physically. There really is something for everyone as there are classes which focus on education, finances, starting a business, and finding a better job, each taught with underlying principles and truths which are spiritual and will help others come closer to Jesus Christ and become spiritually self reliant as well.

I am so excited about the work and the sharing of the gospel! I'm grateful for the blessed time in which we all live. Consider how lucky and blessed we are and count your blessings today. You may be surprised at how much you have! Have a wonderful week!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian word of the week is Kukac. They call the "@" symbol a "kukac" which also means worm. 

Also, a quick disclaimer for anyone who has been paying attention to my Hungarian words of the week or for anyone who speaks better than I do: I have realized as I've learned more about the language that some of my previous words of the week have had slightly different meanings and translations than I thought or have said, so forgive me and try not to cringe too hard at my mistakes hahahaha.

Another session of General Conference has already come and gone. Can you believe it? We had a wonderful week, and I hope you did too!

Watching Conference was an amazing spiritual boost, but it was a bit different from how it was back home. We watched the Saturday morning session live at the branch house as a district. The four of us sat around a computer and listened in English while some of the Hungarian members watched the broadcast in Hungarian in the chapel. It was really weird to be watching the Saturday morning session at 6 p.m. I felt a surprisingly powerful sense of unity as the session started, knowing that all around the world, members of our church were gathered together to listen to the words of the leaders of the church. I felt this unity especially as we bowed our heads and listened to the opening prayer. I knew that over 5 thousand miles away, my loved ones were doing the same thing at home. It was such a cool experience!

On Sunday morning, we watched the priesthood session with all of the other priesthood holders in the chapel. It was all in Hungarian, so I'll be honest... I didn't get the most out of it, but we downloaded the audio files for the talks and we are going to listen to them throughout the week. We also had some technical difficulties getting the videos to play smoothly. We were watching it on an ipad since we couldn't get the broadcast working on the computer. The wifi signal was fairly weak so every few minutes, the broadcast would skip back about 15 seconds and play the next 15 seconds on a loop for another minute. The session ended up being quite a bit longer than we had planned... Maybe all of that replaying would be an effective retention tool if you understand it, but it was more of a funny inconvenience for me. The final hymn was nearly 10 minutes long, but we endured it hahaha.

During the breaks between sessions, we did some family history work, played football (American football that is), and ate with the members of our branch.

We didn't get to finish the final talk by Henry B. Eyering because the internet stopped working. This experience has really helped me appreciate how easy it is to watch it in America!

Funny story: As we were locking up the gate to the branch house, I was trying to unlock the huge padlock when I noticed a gargantuan spider crawling across the gate, right next to my hand. I took a step back, processed the situation, and instincively screamed. I'm not even ashamed. That thing was big enough to beat me up and take my wallet! Someone else finished locking up while I recovered from my intense case of heeby jeebies. We all laughed pretty hard about it as we walked to the bus.

We had interivews with President Szabadkai in Dunaújváros on Friday. It was about a 3 hour bus ride. On our way back, we picked up the Duna elders, who are our zone leaders, for splits. I was with Elder McKim from Australia. While on splits, we taught Zsolti about the Restoration, tried to play fetch with a massive dog who brought us his ball and tried to push it through the fence (unsuccessfully) while we were tracting, and we set up a whiteboard in the city center and tried to get people to write what makes them happy on it. It was a great time and a fun week!

I am so grateful for the opportunity that we had to watch General Conference. I loved hearing the talks. I noticed themes of not being overly self-critical, serving others, steady progress, families, and studying the Book of Mormon. We are so blessed to be able to hear from leaders who are called of God to direct the restored church here on earth!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

The Hungarian word of the week will be "általános konferencia" which means general conference.