I feel like I spent half of my week on a train.... We went to Győr and Pest this week, so we spent a lot of time and money on getting around. Tuesday was our p-day last week because of Pentecost and on Wednesday, we had a zone day/interviews in Pest. It was so fun to go back to my birth-city! It's been almost a year since I've been there and it's the same, good ol' Pest I know and love! It was fun to be there with Elder Harris, who was my companion this time last year in Pest. So many memories and laughs!

For our zone day, we played games and watched "One Good Man" and had our final interviews with President Szabadkai. At the end, we had a testimony meeting that was very powerful. It's always a lot of fun to get with the other missionaries and to hear their experiences and testimonies.

Here's an LDS chapel in Hungary:

While we were on splits, I set a goal to pray more sincerely for my investigators, and more specifically for their needs. I prayed for the Hajnál family and asked God to help them have a desire to make it to church on Sunday. Guess who walked in right as we finished singing the opening hymn! If you guessed the Hajnál family, you guessed correct! It was super good to have them at church. I know that God hears and answers our prayers and that He wants to help us to achieve our righteous desires!

One other fun thing we did this week was go on a kirándulás (excursion, but we don't really use that word very often in English...) with the Szombathely branch. We went out to this little village near the Austrian border and played soccer, basketball, pingpong, and other games together and then went on a beautiful hike. At the top, there is a giant lookout tower thing that's made of wood. I'm kind of scared of heights (it's my 3rd biggest fear), and while we were standing at the top, one of the members started to rock back and forth and the whole structure started to wobble! I said, "Stop that, or we're going to die!" and he replied, with a smile, "Well if we die, we will be resurrected, so it's not a problem!"

Eh, he's not wrong, but I still have a few things to live for, personally!

Anyways, the whole thing was a ton of fun and it was really cool to see that part of the country. You could even see Austria and some Austrian villages from the lookout!

Did you know that the Church has been in Hungary for almost exactly 1 year longer than McDonald's has? The Church celebrated its 30th anniversary last April, and Mackies, as some Hungarians call it, is celebrating its 30th anniversary now.

Now you know!

You know I know? I know that God lives, and that He loves me. He loves each and every one of us! He loves us so much, that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from sin and death. Lots of people don't know that.... I can't imagine getting through this life without that knowledge and without the purpose and meaning that it brings into my life. Because God loves me, I have a place on this earth, I have a path to follow, I have a direction to go, and I have peace and joy in this life that can't come from any other source. I'm so grateful to be here and to share this wonderful news with everyone!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Word of the week is "szivacs" (see-vach), which means "sponge". I thought it meant "eraser" because they use sponges as erasers in the Branch House and that's what they were calling them, but it turns out, it means "sponge". Who knew?

p.s. My release date is now August 8th, just in case you were wondering!

It was a super rainy week here in Szombathely, but that didn't stop us from working hard and seeing some awesome blessings! 

Last Monday, we had a lesson with the Hajnál family, which consists of Veronika (the mom), Bogi (the 8 year old girl), and Viola (the 3 year old girl). We brought the Elder's quorum president with us and the lesson went so well! We mostly teach the children because Veronika isn't super interested, but she wants her girls to be raised with good standards and she loves to have us over. We brought our little picture Book of Mormon over and read the story of the Brother of Jared and the stones of light. Veronika had a friend over, who brought her two kids, Jasmine (8) and Robi (3). They also sat in on our lesson and they loved it! It was so awesome because Bogi already knew the story before we even shared it, because she had read it by herself in her picture Book of Mormon! She and Jasmine had a great time and participated a ton. My favorite part of the lesson was talking about the tower of Babel and why the Jaredites were leaving in the first place. I started speaking English and asked the girls if they would stand up. They laughed and obviously didn't stand up. Then I said "stand up!" in Hungarian and they stood up. We then talked about how the Lord mixed up the language of the people as a punishment for their wickendness. 

I had a ton of fun in that lesson! It felt like teaching a primary class. We're hoping that we can find someone who will give Bogi a ride to church each week so that maybe she could get baptized. It's a tough situation because she really wants to be baptized, but every other week she is with her dad, who hates the Church and doesn't want Bogi to have anything to do with us. Maybe over time, his heart will be softened.

We also had splits with the Győr elders, which were super fun! We tracted and streeted and white boarded and did all that we could to find people to teach. We call ourselves Johny Appleseed missionaries, because sometimes, all we do is plant seeds. There's nothing wrong with that! We spoke to a lot of people, bore testimony of Christ, and offered our help to everyone we saw. It's really cool to see how people's facial expressions change when we start talking about the Savior. We spoke with one bácsi who claimed to be an anti-Christ and I had one of my boldest moments of my whole mission! The man said that we can't know that God exists because we can't see Him or feel His presence.

That's when the Spirit took over and I just started talking. I said, "You know what, you may not be able to see God, but you can absolutely feel His love! We are his ordained representatives on the Earth and we can promise you that He loves you and knows you. He sent us here, from America and Australia (my comp at the time was from Australia) just so that we could tell you that He loves you. We are learning Hungarian just so that God can tell you and show you that He loves you." The man looked down at his feet, and then back at us and then back at his feet. He told us that he already had a Book of Mormon from some missionaries who came to him a long time ago, and that he had read it many times but never felt anything. Then he told us that he would read whatever we gave to him, so we gave him a pass along card with our information and told him to read Alma 30 and he told us he would gladly do it. It was a super cool experience and who knows where that 15 minute conversation will lead that man.

We played bean boozled with the Győr elders and let me tell you... spoiled milk jelly beans are from the devil himself!

We also got to see the baptism of Ana and János this week! They are the ones who got married last week. They were super excited to be baptized and they both bore their testimony after the baptism and it was super powerful. So many people came to support them that we barely had room for everyone to squeeze into the room to witness the baptism!

Sister Colt also had a baptism that day next door in Romania, and the girl's name is also Ana!

Alright well, this update is getting super long, so I'll wrap up here in a second. I wish I could just write everything, but so much happens in a week that it's literally impossible to share it all. Here are some quick bullet points of things I wanted to share:

-I ate a nutella pizza yesterday and it was exactly what it sounds like

-I saw a huge beetle that was as big as my nametag (got a picture of it too, so don't worry!)

-I also saw a wasp that was as big and as thick as half of my pinky (in other words it was huge)

-In Hungary, they used to force students to write with their right hands

-I'm still getting used to riding a bike and I'm still super saddle sore

-We have an ant problem in our apartment

-I am very sunburnt

-I love being a missionary!

It's so good to be here! I love misisonary work and I'm having so much fun! It's hard, but it's seriously the best. I'm so grateful for this opportunity and I'm so grateful to know what I know. As members of the Church, we have the most important information that there is to have! We know that God lives, that He loves us, that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from sin and from death, and we know that someday, we can return to live with Them and eventually become like Them! We have a long way to go, but we know that as we strive each day to improve and follow Jesus Christ's example, then everything is going to work out in the end.

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

p.s. Here's a fun Hungarian sentence I used this week to memorize some words:

"Fogadok, hogy fogkefét fog használni mialatt a fogházban van!" Which means "I bet he'll use a toothbrush while he's in prison!"

Hey everybody, long time no blog update! (That's kind of cringeworthy, but I can't think of anything better...)

I'm back in Hungary and it's still just as beautiful and fun as ever! Getting here was pretty interesting. I flew from Boise to Salt Lake by myself and then met up with the missionaries coming from the MTC in SLC. There are 4 sisters and 1 elder in their group. We had a lot of fun talking about the culture, the language, and what they were about to experience! We then flew to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam we flew to Budapest. I left my house at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 7th and arrived in Budapest at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8th. I was pretty tired, but I've made that trip 3 times now, so it wasn't so bad.

It's much more humid here than I remember. When I first came into the country, it was April of 2017 and it snowed the first night. This time, we were a month further into the springtime and you can definitely feel it! It's probably around 80 degrees. I don't know about how humid it is, but trust me when I say it's humid!

The first day in the country went exactly as I had expected. We did everything the exact same as we did the first time I came into the country, a little over a year ago. It was like total deja vu! We even had the same dinner!

At transfers, I got to see all of my old mission friends! It was so much fun to see everybody, and there was a lot of hugging and excited high fives hahaha. 

I'm serving in Szombathely (pronounced sombot hey) with Elder Gilson. He was still being trained when I went home, and now he is a full transfer ahead of me. I feel like I never left, honestly. It feels like I just woke up one day and suddenly everyone around me blinked forward 6 months. It's hard to describe exactly how I feel, but the important thing is that I'm so happy!

Getting back into missionary life was surprisingly easy. Like I said, it feels like I never left! The language is still there, too!

I got to experience a Hungarian wedding this week and it was one of the most interesting experiences of my entire life. At 3:00 on Friday, I found myself in a beautiful room in the Szombathely city hall. There were maybe 10 other people there with me. I was sitting next to Sister Wise, who is serving in Szombathely, and our companions were standing behind us, acting as escourts to the bride and groom. After a ring ceremony, the bride and groom kissed, they signed some papers, and it was over. At 3:09, we were walking away feeling a little bit confused. I had just witnessed a 9 minute Hungarian wedding for two people I had never met before. It was awesome!

They actually are super cool people. Ana and János have been taking the discussions and have wanted to be baptized for quite a while now, but they weren't married, so they couldn't. This week, they were finally able to be married, and next week they will be baptized! They're all ready to go and it should be great.

There are so many more stories to share, but this email is getting long so I'll wrap it up with a thought.

Our water heater as been broken since I got into Szombathely, which means that we've been taking freezing cold showers every night. At first, it's so freezing and awful, but if you just go for it and get it over with, it's not so bad. 

We've been trying so hard to talk with everybody, and sometimes that can be difficult. Especially when neither of us really speak the language. There have been a few times where the thought of the cold shower has popped into my head, and I just went for it. Once you start talking, you warm up to the people, and the conversation becomes friendly and it's not so bad! We have found some really cool potential investigators just by putting ourselves out there and talking with everyone. One girl even took a selfie with us because she was so excited that we stopped to talk to her!

Another big miracle is that my pain has almost completely gone away. I was in pain on the flight over here, but ever since then, I've been totally fine! This is a serious miracle, considering the fact that I've been feeling pain for over a year now. It is a huge burden lifted from my shoulders and I know that it's a blessing from the Lord!

I have felt so happy this last week and I know it's because I'm trying to follow Jesus Christ to the best of my ability. As we keep the commandments, strive to improve each day, and follow Jesus Christ, we will see blessings in our lives! I'm so grateful to be here and so grateful to be feeling good. 

Have a wonderful week! 

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

p.s. This week I learned that Hungarians shoot off fireworks whenever their team scores a goal in soccer. Soccer games are every Saturday night, and they shoot off fireworks until past midnight!