Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm now in Debrecen, the second biggest city in Hungary right behind Budapest. We live right next to a beautiful university, so we run into a lot of students from different countries. Most of them speak English, and trying to talk to people in English has been surprisingly difficult. It feels much more natural in Hungarian, and I feel like the freedom of speaking in my native language also gives me the freedom to get off track more easily. It'll take a little bit of practice :)

Christmas in Hungary spans 3 days, starting on Christmas Eve and ending the day after Christmas. Traditional Christmas foods include fish soup, pig jello, stuffed cabbage, szalon cukor (a kind of jelly candy in chocolate) and Christmas bread called beigli. Yesterday we baked cookies and delivered them to members, part member families, and returning members, and we almost came home with more sweets than we gave! Such are the Hungarians! Beigli is kinda gross, and there are only 2 flavors: walnut and poppy seed. The members of the branch have been so kind, and we've been fed so many meals this week! We probably have enough leftovers to last us through the transfer and enough beigli to last us until next year!

^ The local college

^ The branch building

The Elders from Nyiregyháza, Elder Hudson (whom I trained) and Elder Proctor (whom Elder Hudson is training), came to Debrecen this morning and we're spending the day with them and the Ockeys, the senior couple serving here. Sister Ockey is an incredible cook, and we've already been so spoiled by a huge brunch and will continue to be spoiled with a turkey dinner! Can you tell that life is good here?

There is just too much to write about, so I'll just do some bullet points:

-I got to take the departing Romanians out for the day before they left. We spent our p-day together sight-seeing and running various errands. It was a lot of fun, since I worked with all of them doing travel stuff. They gave me the nickname "The People's Champion" because they liked working with me so much :)

-I got to go pick up the new missionaries from the airport with the AP's, President and Sister Hettinger since I didn't have much work to do in the Office (Elder Morgan was there to take over, and I had finished my training with him). I then got to take some of the new missionaries out for their first experience contacting. The two that I took out were so brave! We were walking down the street and I was pumping them up and getting them ready when we saw an adult couple making out in the middle of the path. One of the new missionaries so innocently asked, "Do you think that they want to hear our message?" I looked at him, smiled, and said, "Yes, I think that they do! Go get 'em!" Ahhhhh, it was priceless! They got the couple's attention and explained what they were doing and why they had interrupted. I jumped in and we were able to have a pretty good conversation with them. I was so impressed by our new missionaries and their bravery. We really have such a good group of new missionaries!

-That same day, I got to take two Elders to their first lesson. The lesson was with a man from Jordan, who spoke English and Arabic. You'll never believe this, but one of the new missionaries whom I took with me to the lesson (at random, by the way) studied Arabic and was able to speak with the man in his native language! It was AWESOME. God is in the details of everything, it never ceases to amaze me.

-We had MLC in Budapest, the first one in months that I haven't been banished from haha

-We had a branch Christmas party and it was great! The members here are so nice!

-We got let into a 20 story, which is the tallest building I've been in so far on my mission.

I'm looking forward to Skyping with my family today. This will be my first and only Christmas Skype as a missionary! It's crazy how quickly the time is going by. I feel like just yesterday I was walking down the dusty roads of Szombathely in the 100 degree heat, and now here I am on the other side of the country in the snow. I've been thinking lately about heroes. I am grateful for the example of so many heroes in the Book of Mormon, the example of my great parents and siblings, the example of my ancestors, and so many others who really are heroes to me. I am grateful for a merciful God, who gave us the perfect Hero, our Savior, Jesus Christ. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for our Him to give us that great gift, but I am so grateful that He did! During this Christmas season, we remember the day when God gave us the greatest gift possible: a perfect Example, a Savior, and a Hero!

We are blessed beyond our realization by this great Gift.

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

It's transfer time! Drumroll please......

I'm going to go to Debrecen with Elder Seeley! I'm beyond excited! I loved my time in the office; I really learned a lot, but I'm excited for this next assignment.

We started the week out with Zone Conferences, which were awesome! One of the perks of serving in the Office is that we get to eat lunch at each of the Zone Conferences. One of the downsides (which is minor) is that lunch was the same for each Zone Conference, so we had chicken cordon bleu for 3 days in a row (it was delicious and we're blessed to be fed so much, so I'm not even upset). We also got flu shots, and I didn't even cry :)

During Zone Conference, we had a non member who was being taught by some of the missionaries in Kispest come and we each took turns teaching him the Plan of Salvation. Beforehand, Elder Udy and I were joking that if we went last, we would give him a baptismal date. Well, guess who were the last to teach him! We were! The Spirit in the room was so sweet and everyone was feeling it. The teaching had gone wonderfully, so we went for it and gave him a baptismal challenge. He was surprised, but excitedly accepted! It was such a good experience for everyone.

On Wednesday, Elder Morgan joined us to take my place. We've been working hard to get him trained up and ready to take over here in the office.

On Sunday we sang in the choir for a Christmas concert, which was really fun. We invited tons of people and a few of them showed up! There was a ward lunch right before the concert, and we got an entire fridge of leftovers given to us. We're pretty spoiled :)

The departing Romanians came to Hungary yesterday and I got to spend some time with them. I've done tons of work with all of their travel and things, so I know them all by name, but it was nice to finally put names to faces. We've got a busy schedule with missionaries leaving tomorrow morning, new missionaries coming in today, and MLC tomorrow. Elder Seeley and I have to lead a discussion in MLC and the first time we see each other in person will be at the meeting, so that should be fun to plan.

There are lots of things to look forward to! I'm excited to have more time to dedicate to proselyting and teaching and I know we're going to see miracles in the East!

Boldog Karácsonyt! (Merry Christmas!)

Elder Burnett

Playing ring toss with inflatable reindeer antlers

The Péter Chronicles Part 3

We met with Péter again and well... it didn't go the way we thought it would. He basically told us that the Book of Mormon is awesome and that he really likes it, but he just doesn't want to change and he's going to stick with the Catholic church. He's still interested in coming to Church sometime, so we're not giving up hope. I'm obviously disappointed, but at the same time I feel peaceful about the whole thing. We respect his agency, and only sincerely want to help in any way that we can. If he needs time, then he needs time. I'll let you all know if anything else develops but for now, it seems like this is the last chapter in that book.

In Hungary, Mikulás (Santa Claus) comes on December 6th. The children leave their boots outside and he leaves gifts for the good children and sticks for the bad children. Since everyone is naturally a "little bit bad", everybody gets a stick or two in their boot. Sometimes, he is accompanied by Krampusz (the Anti-Santa, who comes from German folklore), who pesters people who have misbehaved throughout the year.

Mikulás didn't leave any candy in our boots, but we got our fair share of chocolate from members and friends! I'm happy to report that I didn't get a single stick (yet) :)

In order to Light the World, we made gift boxes for children in a local hospital, and we went with the Budapest YSA to sing to people in a retirement home. It was super fun and it was a great opportunity for us to light our community!

The highlight of our week was probably exchanges in Dunaújváros. We left at 5 in the morning in order to get a full 24 hour exchange in before our meeting with Péter on Wednesday. When we got there, we had breakfast and then went straight out to work. Elder Jameson and I had 2 lessons planned, but they both fell through, leaving us with an 8 hour window of nothing. So, we went hard and just talked with everybody in our path for 8 hours straight. We tracted at least 10 5 story's and had at least a dozen really great conversations and a couple dozen less great interactions haha.

At the end of the day between both of our companionships, we had scheduled meetings with 8 new people for the upcoming week! It was one of the most exhausting days of my life, but it made flopping into bed at the end of the day a glorious moment.

We've got a lot of work coming up this week! Transfers, Zone Conference, Christmas, a choir concert, and a new campaign starting on Facebook are all upon us. There seems to be a never ending list of projects and deadlines, but through it all, we are happily and peacefully trucking along. The chaos and constant busy work in the office has made me really appreciate the peaceful morning hours, when I can prepare for the day through study and prayer. I have found so much strength in the stories found within the scriptures! I'm currently reading about Captain Moroni fortifying the cities in preparation for battle against the Lamanites. He built up walls and towers around the weakest points of each city, strategically posted his men to make the most of what man-power they had, and most importantly, he paid attention to and sought the Lord and His guidance. When the Lamanites came, they were disappointed and frustrated when they found that the Nephites were so prepared for them.

Much like Captain Moroni, we too can (and must) fortify ourselves against our enemies. We can build spiritual fortifications and defenses each day as we read and study the scriptures, attend and participate in church meetings, and actively and happily serve others. When the armies of the adversary arrive at our cities, they will be disappointed to see that we are well defended, and their efforts will be thwarted. They will move on, knowing that any attempt to siege such a citadel would be futile.

Go and build up your walls this week and you'll be blessed with a special shield of protection from the temptations and distractions of the world!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett elder

It's getting super cold. We saw snow this week! It was pretty pitiful, but it was still snow. I'll take it over the rain!

Remember Péter? Things got crazy with him - in a good way. We were surprised to see a message from him on Facebook, which said, "Hey Elders! I simply can't free myself from the Book of Mormon. I tried going back to the Catholic church, but it's not really going... What should I do?" Dumbfounded, we asked, "Do you think that God is trying to tell you that the Book of Mormon is true?" He responded, "I believe that there is truth in the book and that God can speak to me through it." Long story short, he's giving it another chance and we're meeting on Wednesday. What an impressive display of the converting power of the Book of Mormon, partnered with the Holy Ghost!

Christmas is a great time to share the Gospel. We went caroling door to door last week, and were invited to come back by a family! We shared the story of the birth of the Savior, and they loved it. They're super duper religious, and very faithful to their Church, so they didn't want to meet with us further, but we left them with a copy of the Book of Mormon and a light the world calendar, and definitely a good impression. The family had 3 young children between the ages of 6 and 12 and they were seriously the cutest, most well behaved kids ever. I'm sure they'll remember the time two American missionaries came to their house to share the Christmas story with them, and maybe in the future this will lead to something later. Who knows?  

Other highlights:

-We got a new shower installed. It was honestly put in pretty terribly, and our house was left a mess... and to top it all off, the new shower leaks.... but thank goodness we got a "new" shower! Hahaha

-The Assistants' apartment is being painted, so they're staying in our apartment while we're on exchanges in Dunaújváros this week

-We got lost in a super sketchy little farm village. Long story, but an awesome adventure!

-We got sushi from some new sushi place. Unfortunately, we won't be doing that again haha

Not much else to report. Things are good!

Have a wonderful week!

Szeretettel,

Burnett elder

It's raining, it's pouring....

It started raining last Monday and I haven't seen a blue sky since then. Luckily, I love rainy weather! Not so luckily... rainy days are harder because nobody wants to talk to us on the streets, and nobody will let us in because they think they'll get sick if they let us in, ha.

Last Monday, we went to Memento Park, where they keep a bunch of statues of communist leaders. Supposedly you're encouraged to disrespect them, since they're communists, so we got some good pictures playing with the statues.

One cold, rainy evening, Péter was scrolling through Facebook, when he saw a post about the Book of Mormon. He became interested and found out about the Gospel Library App. He downloaded it and read some things. At first he thought, "This is nonsense!" but as he continued reading, his curiosity grew and his heart started to change. He was so intrigued that he looked for more information online. He found himself on mormon.org/hu, where he saw a prompt that said, "Talk with local missionaries using our chat function!" He typed out a message and sent it off.

Change Scene

Elder Burnett, the referral secretary for the Hungary/România Mission, had just finished up a major assignment in the office, and decided to take a look at the referral manager. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw a message from a man named Péter, asking about the Book of Mormon and the people who read it. Unfortunately, Péter sent his message late last night, when nobody was in the office. Elder Burnett sent an email, explaining a bit about the Book of Mormon and the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and asked what sparked Péter's interest about the Church and offered to meet up sometime to gift him a copy of the book.

A response from Péter quickly followed. Péter explained how he found out about the Book of Mormon and asked to meet ASAP. Unfortunately, Péter lived in a village about 20 kilometers outside of Budapest. The two parties agreed to meet using Facebook video-chat and set a time.

Hahaha I don't have enough time to keep writing in that style, so I'm going to just tell you all what happened. Péter met with us through video-chat and we had an awesome discussion. He was so excited about what we talked about, that he wanted to meet the next morning as well, but in person! The next day, he took a train to Buda just to meet with us. We had yet another amazing discussion, gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and by the end he had agreed to come co Church, read the book and pray about it. After he left, we were just dumbfounded and the seemingly perfect person with whom we just met. He seemed so prepared and we were so certain that he would progress and be baptized within weeks!

The next day, we logged into Facebook to do our online proselyting (Elder Udy and I have been assigned as Facebook missionaries- we proselyte online for an hour each day and manage the official page for the Church in Hungary) and I saw a response from Péter.

"I got my answer. The Book of Mormon is a wonderful book, and it has opened a lot of opportunities before me, but none of those are within your church."

Heart=broken

I tried everything that I could to hang onto him. I sent him links, bore testimony, made promises, and shared personal experiences to try to convince Péter to keep searching for the truth and to keep talking with us. He replied simply with, "Best of luck. Thank you for everything."

I was just filled with confusion. What did Péter read, see or do that convinced him to spin a 180 on us like that? What did we do wrong? What more could we have done? If he really read and prayed about it, why didn't Moroni's promise come to fruition? These questions have pestered me all week.

Everyone has agency. Everyone is in a different place in their own personal mortal journey. I'm still looking for answers to those questions, but I think that the thing that has brought me the most peace is knowing that God has a plan for each and every one of us and He is perfectly aware of each of our personal situations. He knows where each and every one of us are in our journey. We just don't have that knowledge. We can't see the whole picture like He can. Sometimes things don't work out the way that we expect, but that doesn't make God unfair. That doesn't make him unaware or unjust or unkind. He just simply knows what we need better than we do. I think that maybe I needed to have this experience with Péter in order to understand this better.

A combination of the weather and disappointments like these caused me to feel a bit blue this week, and that feeling blue lead me to really reflect on some important things. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and I think that it came at just the right time for me this year. In the midst of my confusion and blues, I couldn't help but think about how blessed I am. A year ago on the 22nd, I had my surgery. I'm blessed to be back in Hungary serving as a missionary again. I'm blessed to have a family who loves and supports me. I'm blessed to know what I know about God and about Jesus Christ and about the Holy Ghost and about life in general. I have direction, I have peace, I have help from the Savior. I have running water, I have adequate clothing to keep me warm, I have a bed that I can sleep in at night. I could go on forever, really. Thinking about how blessed I am, rather than how disappointed I was, made such a difference this week.

Count your blessings and you really will be surprised!

Other highlights of the week:

-Elder McCann gave me a haircut and did a great job!

-We Had a beautifully prepared, delicious Thanksgiving meal with the Russells. I felt like I was home!

-We went Christmas caroling and saw a lot of great success with that, despite the fact that it's still November

-We found a new restaurant that's super cheap, super close, and super Hungarian

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Think about your blessings, especially during this season. As we prepare for Christmas, we will feel more gratitude as we focus on the Savior and all that He has given to us. His atoning sacrifice for us is the greatest gift ever given.

Have a great week!

Elder Burnett

It got really cold, really fast lemme tell ya, but we still had an awesome week. Here are some highlights:

-We went to the Labyrinth under Buda Castle, which is a giant cave that stretches over a kilometer! There are several rooms and prison cells and other fun things down in the cave. Apparently, they kept Dracula/Vlad the impaler as a prisoner down there back in the day.

 

 

-I got banished to Tatabánya again because a Sister Colt came into town for a leadership meeting. I had an awesome time with the Elders over there, and on the train ride home, someone saw me sitting alone and asked if she could sit by me. Turns out, she was a member from Tatabánya and she was confused as to why I was alone on a train. I explained the situation and we had a lot of fun talking together. She wants us to go and visit her brother, who is a non-member who lives in a little village close to Budapest, around Christmas time.

 

-I had dinner with Sister Berente's grandma

 

-We drove to Romania! In Hungary, you can drive with any valid drivers license for up to a year from the day you entered the country. After that year, you have to get a Hungarian drivers license, which is pretty difficult. In order to cheat the system, we just cross the border and come back and then we can drive again for another year. The assistants and Elder Udy needed to get their passports stamped in order to keep driving. I'm the only one who can drive, since I re-entered the country in May, so I got to drive the boys to Romania. We crossed the border, drove about 20km to the closest turning point and flipped right around.

 

I forgot to mention that last week during Stake Conference, it was announced that Hungary is getting a Patriarch! When President Southwick made the announcement, there was an audible gasp from the audience. I was immediately struck with a feeling I've never felt before. I felt like my spirit recognized the significance of the announcement before my brain could catch up as tears welled up in my eyes. The Hungarians are all so happy for this incredible new opportunity - to receive patriarchal blessings in their own language, from a brother whom many love and know personally. It was an eye-opening experience for me, as I realized how much we may take for granted the fact that we have patriarchs in our stakes at home. We really are so blessed!

Szeretettel,

Burnett elder

My life continues to present to me some of the most interesting and incredible opportunities! This week, that opportunity was a video-chat lesson with a man named Paul. Paul and his wife, Monika, live in Brasov, Romania and have been meeting with the missionaries there for some time now (one of them being my good friend, Sora Colt!). Monika was recently baptized, but Paul wants to know and understand more before he makes a decision. Their mother language is Hungarian, but the missionaries have been teaching them in Romanian. This week, we decided to try a video-chat lesson in Hungarian, and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

Parker's office:






We did our best to answer Paul's questions and explain to him how he can gain a testimony of the truthfulness of these things through the Holy Ghost. We asked Monika to share her experiences as well, and you could just feel a great love and power in the room. We promised Paul that he could find the answers to his questions, and that the Lord would help him to know for himself what is true and good.

After the lesson, the Sisters reported that Paul was speechless. He was finally understanding what the Sisters have been trying to explain to him all this time, and he said that he felt some power as we talked together in his mother language. I know that God is mindful of Paul and Monika, and they may be one of the reasons for Romania and Hungary becoming one mission. The Lord is in every detail. He knows us perfectly and He has put us in each other's paths! It never fails to amaze me!

Other highlights of the week:
-Stake Conference in Pest
-Reorganized the Office
-A new Missionary Office Couple, the Hinckleys, arrived a few days ago
-Transfers! (Surprise, I'm staying in the office!)
-Probably a lot of other stuff that I can't think of right now





The Lord is at the helm! I'm so grateful for all of your love and support, and wish you a wonderful week!

Szeretettel,

Burnett elder

Thank you for your understand (sic).

It's going to be a quick one this week... No time!

The Romanian Assistants and the ones going home are here with us in Budapest today and tomorrow. They flew in this morning and we got to go and pick them up at the airport. We're excited to get to work with them today and tomorrow before they leave :)

I got to plan all of the travel for the Romanian transfer which will take place this week. By that, I mean that I got a list of where everyone needs to go, and from there I planned each step of their travel from start to finish, making sure that they always had a companion and that they could meet up with their new companions before continuing to their end city. It's a big puzzle, but it's kind of fun. The only real problem with it is that it's so time consuming and there are big deadlines. After I planned the travel, I purchased all of the train and flight tickets and then mailed them to the missionaries.

A Jewish synagogue in Pest:

 

Despite being busy in the office, we also had some awesome lessons this week. We're teaching two people who live in Romania, but who speak Hungarian, over Skype. It's pretty awesome.

We have big things coming up in the next few weeks! The Hinckleys will be coming to the office to work with us (Sister Hettinger's sister and brother-in-law) and hopefully take some of the burden off of our shoulders. I spent some time this week installing new computers for them to use and we're going to be rearranging the whole office later in the week. There's also a transfer next week in Hungary. None of the Hungarians know what's happening yet, so I won't say anything. (We know what's happening because guess what! We get to plan the travel for that too! At least for this one, I have help.)

This week as we were meeting with different people, I had several experiences when the person with whom we were meeting raised a very difficult question, and I had no idea how we were going to answer. In each of those moments without fail, the Spirit took the wheel and words just poured out of our mouths and hearts. It's a feeling that's impossible to describe... You open your mouth and words just come out and you have no idea what you're saying, but you're just spitting out truth and testimony and you just know that it's not coming from you. God is keenly aware of every one of us. He knows what we need and He knows what we need to hear. Sometimes, we have difficult questions - questions that we don't have answers to. When those questions arise, we have to remember the things that we do have questions for. We know that God lives. We know that Christ lives. We know that the Book of Mormon is true, and if that's true, then everything else has to be true. We can still find answers to our questions, but when doubts seem to crowd our minds, we need to cling to those moments in which we felt the Spirit whisper to us that it is all true. I felt that testimony during these lessons, and during those moments in which the Spirit spoke through us.

I testify that it is all true. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who shows me that He cares in many ways throughout the week. Look for the ways that He shows you that He cares! Write them down, share them with a friend, think about them as you try to sleep! If you do, you'll be humbled and grateful that you have a Father in Heaven who knows you and cares for you.

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett elder

Hungarian of the week: The electrical outlets here in Europe are different from the ones in America. They are circular with 2 dots where the prongs stick in. Someone told us this week that a slang term for an outlet is "malacorr" (maw-lots-ore) which means "pig nose".

Parker goes to this spot each week and said the pic below is when the Nazis occupied Hungary during WWII.

This week started off with Elder Cook, Elder Sabin and their wives coming to visit and it was incredible. Elder Sabin has a special place in my heart, because his talk "Stand Up Inside and Be All In"  from April, 2017 is one of my all-time favorites. They shared stories and insights that really changed the way I have thought about my life and about my mission.

There were several meetings; first, they visited the missionaries in Romania. After that, they came to Hungary and spoke to the missionaries here. Finally, they addressed the Hungarians in a big Stake Conference like meeting.

I'll paraphrase a few of my favorite parts.

Elder Sabin: 

-"You can't sit at a fireplace and say 'Give me fire and I'll give you wood!' You have to first pay the price. So it is with gaining a testimony and creating a relationship with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ."

-"Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere."

-One of the Apostles was addressing a congregation in a foreign country, and on the podium he noticed a note that said "Speak slowly! You are being translated!" He looked up into the sky and said, "Well, it isn't working! I'm still here!"

-"We don't know when the Second Coming will be, but it's one day closer today that it was yesterday!"

-"We are professors of happiness!"

-"We are recalled to our missions every day."

Elder Cook:

-Advised us to pay special attention to Elder Ballard's most recent talk. Said it may be one of the most important talks given in recent history.

-Promised that if we would get people to Sacrament meeting, we would see greater success and more lives changed.

-He blessed us to realize that our service will bless everybody whom we love.

The best part of the whole thing was when Elder Cook bore his special witness of Jesus Christ to us. Toward the end of the meeting, he got very serious. The whole room fell into complete silence, and I thought, "Oh boy, he's about to say something that's going to change my life!"

He then said, "I know that we must protect our sacred experiences, and only share them when appropriate. I feel like with you all, I need to be direct and clear. Pay close attention to my words. I know Jesus Christ's voice. I know Jesus Christ's face. I am a special witness that He lives." When he said that, EVERYONE in the room felt that what he was saying was true. There is absolutely no doubt about it. His words pierced my heart in a way that I've never felt before. It was powerful, and it was life changing.

I'm so grateful that the Lord is mindful of His people, no matter where they are in the world. I am grateful that He loves us and that He has paved the road for us to come back to Him. I know that He lives and I know that He loves us! This is our joyous message to the world! We are so blessed to have this knowledge.

We also saw plenty of other miracles this week. For example, we met a woman a few weeks ago named Marianna. She and her husband, Philip, are religious, but don't know which church to go to. We have been trying, unsuccessfully, to meet with them for the past 2 weeks. Finally, we decided to just go and show up and their house. I looked up their address on our map, and charted our course. When we went out, somehow (it's because I'm directionally challenged) we got completely lost. After asking someone for directions, we finally found their block. The next challenge was that we had no idea which csengő was theirs! I had written down that it was number 5, but there was no indication of which bell was to which door. We rang the first bell, and a young man came out and let us into the complex. The next challenge was that we had no idea which door was theirs, so we started knocking. The first door belonged to the young man who let us in, and the second door was answered by a dark skinned man. We introduced ourselves and he interrupted, asking, "Do you speak English?" We then explained that we were missionaries, and that we were looking for Marianna. Then, he yelled, "Marianna! Someone is here to see you!" She responded, "It's those two young men! They're here to see YOU! Tell them to come in!"

We had an incredible conversation with them that was totally led by the Spirit. The biggest miracle was that because of their work schedules, they are very rarely at home at the same time. Marianna explained that we came at the perfect time and that had we come just 15 minutes earlier, we would have missed them.

We are never lost. Only guided (albeit, unknowingly at times!) Okay just kidding, sometimes we're definitely lost haha. But as you can see, the Lord weaves our weaknesses into His perfect plan and makes things work out. Amazing.

The second big miracle was getting Ibolya to Sacrament Meeting. She is a pretty closed off person, and keeps to herself for the most part. We met with her this week and focused on inviting her to Church. At first, she said, "No, no. It's not something I'm interested in." After that, I had no idea what to say.... so I just started bearing testimony and shared with her what a blessing it is to attend Church and remember the Savior. Elder Udy backed me up with his own testimony and a promise that if she would come, she would find her way and feel peace in her life.

She gave us a solid maybe, but I knew she felt the Spirit. At the end of the meeting, as we were parting ways, I said, "Okay, we'll see you Sunday morning!" And she said, "We'll see!"

Long story short (but still pretty long, sorry) she came to Church! The members were awesome and made her feel welcome, and one of the members even sat next to her and answered questions that she had.

 

One last, very important story:

Some Krishna guys stole our favorite contacting spot in Széll Kálmán tér and one of them stopped us and talked about their book. Afterward, he gave us his card and Facebook info and a little cookie in a bag that he was giving out to people (genius). Now we know what it feels like hahaha. The guy's name was Dávid and he was super nice. Later that same day, we went back to Széll Kálmán tér with the 21 Day BOM Challenge banner, and Dávid and his friends were still out preaching the word. We set up our banner and started talking with people. Then, some actors came and did a recreation of a call to action to Hungarian laborers in the 1950's. They were dressed in old timey clothes and they got up on a box and started shouting "He who is Hungarian, joins with us!" They were waving papers in the air that said, "Free Hungary!" or something like that. On top of that, there was a drunk homeless guy throwing bags of seeds around the square, yelling at nobody in particular. 

Between us, the Krishna missionaries, the actors and the hobo, there was quite a bit of commotion in the square. We still had some great conversations and saw some success.

Also, the drunk guy eventually came over to us, as they always do, and we started chatting. I don't know what I said, but out of nowhere he said, "I love you, man. You're a good guy." Then he took my hand and kissed it hahahaha.

I am so grateful for the experiences that I'm having here in Hungary. I really never imagined that I would do anything like this. I spent all day yesterday translating a Hungarian rental agreement into English for crying out loud. If you told me 2 years ago that someday I would be doing that, I wouldn't have believed it. But here I am, being blessed so abundantly by a loving Father in Heaven, who is patiently guiding us through this crazy adventure.

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett elder

We've had another incredibly busy week and I'm loving every minute of it. Elder Cook and Elder Sabin are in Romania today, and will be coming to Budapest tomorrow. We're all very excited! They will be speaking to the missionaries that morning, and then addressing the Hungarians in the evening. We have done all that we can to invite people to this amazing event. I described it to one person as being "just as exciting as it would be if Peter, James, or John came to speak to us!" and it is! An Apostle of the Lord will come to tell the Hungarians exactly what the Lord wants them to hear.

I'm always amazed by the small ways the Lord manifests to me that He is aware of me and that He loves me. This week, His love was manifest to me as I testified to a family of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. As I spoke to them, the Spirit witnessed to me that what I was saying was true, and it also witnessed to me that the words which were coming out of my mouth were not my own, but that they were given to me from God. I expressed God's love for this family, and I could see the affect of the Spirit on them. It was a very joyous meeting, and one that I am grateful to have taken part in.

I am also consistently amazed by the ways that the Lord guides and directs us. 

We were out ringing a csengő and there were some people sitting on their balcony chatting. They listened to us ring for about 10 minutes, and finally asked, "Who are you looking for?" We told them who we are and what we do, and they told us that they weren't interested. I could just feel that they were irritated with us and was worrying that at any second they were going to come down and let us have it.

We kept ringing, despite the awkward feeling and right as we finished ringing the last bell, two people walked passed us and they were speaking English. We kind of chased them down, and I said, "Excuse me, I heard you speaking English and I'm wondering where you're from." One of them was from China and the other was a Hungarian news reporter. They were just talking about how nice the American people are and how hospitable they were when the reporter visited America.

This led to a really wonderful conversation, in English, as we walked up the street together. As we were walking back down the street, someone called out to us in English, saying, "Hey guys! Thanks for coming on your missions!" We then had another awesome conversation with him. 

Just think about the dominoes that were being set up and knocked down in this situation. It's amazing to me! I always love to think about the dominoes. "If this hadn't happened in exactly this way, then this wouldn't have happened either!"

Recognize the dominoes that are being set up and knocked over in your life and you too will be amazed by how involved the Lord is in your life.

Szeretettel,

Burnett elder

I've described this before, but I'll do it again for those of you who aren't familiar with tracting in Hungary. Most people live in 5 or 10 story buildings, and a lot of these are surrounded by a big metal fence. At the gate, there is a little box, called a csengő (bell), that has a keypad on it. Next to the keypad is a list of names and codes. You enter the code that's next to the name, and then a phone inside of the house will ring for about 30 seconds. When someone answers, you have a conversation over the phone and they either hang up, or they let you in by pressing a button that unlocks the gate (or sometimes the front door). Once you get into the front door, you then may have to ring a second bell at the corridor to the apartment you want to get into. It's a really painful process, especially because the phones can be heard all throughout the entire building. When we sit and ring the csengő, people tend to get upset after about 15 minutes of constant ringing (understandable). Sometimes they'll come down and yell at us and tell us nobody wants to hear our message and that we should go to France (that's a Hungarian swear).