Huha! This week was all over the place. If I didn't have to ride a train for the rest of my mission, I wouldn't complain.

People say that the Disney theme parks are the happiest places on earth, but I beg to differ. I can say, from experience, that the happiest place on earth is in fact the Hungarian immigration office.

On Monday, we had to go back to the Hivatal (immigration office), but they turned us away because we aren't members of the EU and they only serve members of the EU after 12 on Mondays (on Wednesdays, they serve members outside of the EU after 12, which is why we went at that time. Who knew that the times were flipped on those days? Not me!). Anyways, we spent our p-day in Győr playing soccer with the other elders and some random kids we met at the soccer field. It was a ton of fun! We didn't bring athletic clothes, so we borrowed some from the other elders. I ended up playing in some nice sandals hahaha.

We went back to the Hivatal on Wednesday and got everything squared away, finally. Had some good conversations with some people in the waiting room, so that was cool.

We were originally supposed to have zone conference on Wednesday, but we had to go back to the Hivatal (it's only open on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Wednesday was the last possible day for us to go before there would be potential legal consequences), so we ended up going to zone conference on Friday with a different zone.

To get to zone conference, we had to wake up at 4 in the morning, bike down to the train station and get on a train at 4:40. We got into Budapest around 9, had zone conference from 10 to 3, then it was back on a train from 3:50 to 8. 

The zone training was so good that it was worth it. We received training from President and Sister Hettinger, the Assistants, the Zone Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders (including Sister Smith, one of my friends from high school!).

We had another awesome lesson with Robi! Taught him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, two of the bigger obstacles for people wanting to get baptized, and he had zero problems with either. He's just incredible!

Things are going super well. I'm happy and we're working hard. It's getting super hot, which is basically the worst, but that doesn't stop us from feeling the Spirit and getting out! I feel like every week of my mission has had its own unique theme. This weeks theme was love. I was thinking about John 14:15 earlier in the week, which says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Everything that we do, we do because we love God and we love Jesus Christ and we love Their teachings and we love the life that They have given us. Everything hangs on the great commandment to love thy God with all thy heart, might, mind, and strength. Everything we do is about love! 

What's really awesome is that Sister Hettinger's training was about that exact same thing. Everything we do is about love. She taught us to stop and ask, "what does this have to do with love?" She called the white handbook "The Book of Love". When we love the Lord with all our heart, might, might, and strength, we will keep His commandments, we will be obedient, and we will be blessed for it. I know that this is true because I've felt it in my life. Guess what! You can feel it too! Think about what you're doing and how it has to do with love. Are you at work because you need money, or are you at work because you love your family and want to provide for them? Are you holding family home evening so that you can check it off of a list, or are you doing it because you love your family and want to raise them to be spiritually strong? Are you ministering because you were asked to, or are you doing it because you love those to whom you minister?

If you're not doing it for the right reason, I encourage you to do it because of love. If anything, do it because you love the Savior and you want to show Him that you love Him. You'll be happier if you do!

Szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian of the week is just something I love about the Hungarian culture. The Hungarian equivalent of Wal-Mart is a place called Tesco. This week, as we were out tracting, we found a Tesco sprinter van, which is a free shuttle service that will take you to and from Tesco. Imagine having Wal-Mart buses that had the singular purpose of taking people to and from Wal-Mart. That's what Tesco does! I think it's a hilarious concept.

Buckle up, it was another crazy week!

Brief list of events worth mentioning, but not necessarily explaining:

-Got to go to Győr and spend the day at the immigration office (super not fun)
-Got yelled at by a weird English Speaking guy who told us to go back to America, called us criminals, and told everyone we just wanted their property (not true btw)
-Got to walk Déva (gross dog in our neighborhood)
-Pretty sure there's a lot that I'm missing, but that's okay

List of things I forgot to mention in previous emails:

-Elder Gilson and I found some shoes in an Chinese outlet that were 500 forint (~2 USD). Naturally, we bought two pairs each. It cost us less than a big mac for both pairs combined, so we were joking that even if they last us a day, they'll be worth it. I've actually gotten compliments from several people on the street and they're always shocked when I tell them the price. They're also still holding up, even 2 weeks later! Hahahaha

 -Idk there's gotta be something else, but maybe I'll remember it next week.

We had a fantastic lesson with one of our investigators, Robi. He was found by the sisters last transfer and he comes to Church every week and stays for both hours (church starts at 10 here in Sopron and it's only 2 hours). We had planned to teach him the Plan of Salvation (which up to this point, hadn't been taught to him). We went through the lesson, and he said, "You know, it's funny... Everything you've said, I feel like I have always known. It all has a familiar ring to it, like I learned it in a dream sometime or something." My mouth just dropped and I could have sworn there was a camera crew right there, ready to film a new episode of The District!

We made baptism a big point of focus, and afterwards, I asked him if he would read and pray about what we taught him. He said, "I actually pray after every lesson, and I feel like what you guys teach is really awesome. I love the Book of Mormon and its teachings, and I think everyone should read it!" Then I said, "So if I understand correctly, you already believe what we teach?" To which he replied, "Yes." 

"And you believe that the Book of Mormon is true?"

"Yes."

"And that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is Christ's restored church on the earth?"

"Yes!"

Then I looked at Elder Hudson and whispered, "Do it!"

Elder Hudson asked him if he would be baptized and Robi smiled and said, "Yes, I would like that very much!"

We set a date for August 18th and he was super excited about it. The guy is just amazing. We saw him at church the next day and he seemed a little tired, so I asked "Did you sleep well last night?" To which he replied, "No, I was up reading all night. You sent me that scripture in a text after our lesson, and I read it, but I wanted more, so I read the rest of the chapter too. Then I wanted to learn more, so I just kept reading and reading and reading and before I knew it, it was late into the night."

I'm sorry, is this a Liahona story or something? It was so exciting and I'm so grateful to be able to work with Robi and see him learn and grow. He even said the prayer in Sunday School at church.

Things are going super well here in good ol' Sopron. There are tons of nice people, and tons of not so nice people. I think I already mentioned it last week, but we're pretty much friends with every drunk homeless person and every néni on our side of the city. It's great. We can't even go out once without seeing at least one of our friends!

I'm working on bravery and talking with everyone. Fear is a tool of the devil. Even though I know that, when a super buff dude with tattoos, long hair, and maybe a nose gauge (yeah, those exist) walks past me, sometimes I am a little apprehensive about talking with them. I sometimes think, "You know what, he doesn't really look like he's in the mood to talk with us right now. Maybe next time we'll catch him in a better mood." 

I know, I know... it's not my place to decide for him whether or not he wants to talk with us. My job is to just get out there and go for it. In the classroom of my high school math class, there was a poster that I often quote (usually after I tell a joke that doesn't land). It says, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

I hate to say it, but that poster is right! Our job is to just go out and shoot! (don't take that quote out of context, for my sake). You never know which of your shots will land. For example, Elder Jones and I were out tracting one time my first transfer, and we were walking past this guy who looked like Hungarian Hulk Hogan, but if he had joined the Hell's Angels. We decided to try to talk to him, despite the aura of intimidation that surrounded him, and he ended up being super cool! We occasionally ran into him at the grocery store and he would always make an effort to say hi to us.

I just know that God loves each and every one of His children, and He is directing our lives so that we can achieve our ultimate potential if we just trust in Him and follow His plan for us. I'm so grateful for the Gospel and all of the blessings that come from it. The knowledge that we have as members of Christ's true church is valuable beyond compare. How lucky we are that we have such knowledge, as well as the privilege of sharing it with others! Even the ones who we think might not accept it. Go out and shoot! You never know which shot will land!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian of the week: "örömtűz"  means "bonfire" but literally translates to "joy fire". I think it's fitting.

Hi, I'm Elder Burnett. Welcome to my weekly update!

I probably say this every week, but I'm going to say it again: This week was INSANE! First of all, we had to pack all of Elder Gilson's and my stuff up and move out of Szombathely. Luckily, last p-day, we were able to take all of my stuff to Sopron so that we wouldn't really have to whitewash out. Good thing we did, because my good friend, Elder Gilson, had 7 bags we had to haul all the way to Budapest! Also, I was up until midnight cleaning the apartment to try and get it ready for the sisters who would be moving in the next day and we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to catch a bus that would take us to the train station, where we would take a train to BP. Our train was also over an hour late, so that was lovely. It was a long adventure hahahaha.

I got to see a lot of my mission friends at transfers and after socializing for a bit, I went to a meeting for the trainers to get trained on how to train. Lets just say, I'm learning a lot as well! After that, we had the "sorting hat meeting" (as the missionaries call it) where the new missionaries come in, watch a brief video about Hungary and the mission, and then get assigned to a trainer! My companion is Elder Hudson from Canada. He's super cool and we're having so much fun together. I'm impressed with him, he already has the metric system down! I've been here for almost a year and I don't even get it! (that was a joke, he's from Canada... also I do get the metric system...mostly...).

We met up with the other elders who will be serving in Sopron, took care of some business in the office, and then we were off! Traveling to Sopron was crazy because we had so many bags. You should have seen the 4 of us sitting in our little train cabin! We so many bags that Elder Millett and I had to sit with our legs up on the bags the whole time (I think I have a picture).

Anyways, we finally ended up in our new apartment, which happens to be the smallest in the mission! I'll take pictures next week. Luckily, it was super clean and the sisters left us a lot of food!

Sopron is a great city. The Hungarians call it the city of loyalty because when Austria and Hungary split, Sopron was given the choice of which country to join. Obviously, they ended up choosing Hungary! Tons of people here speak German, so the little German I remember from high school has actually been put to use on several occasions. For example, someone asked us if they needed to pay to park somewhere and I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Ich weiss nicht!" (I don't know!) hahaha.

From what I've seen so far, Sopron is a much bigger city, as far as population goes, than Veszprém, but it's not as populated as Pest. I would say its a combination of those two cities. There are huge Roman ruins all around, which we will definitely be exploring shortly. Our branch house is in a building that is shared with a bank and a hotel, and there is a senior missionary couple who live on the top floor. It's pretty different from anything I've ever experienced before. There were 19 people in church yesterday and 3 of them were investigators (yay!).

We've been making friends every single day, mostly with drunk homeless people and the neighborhood nénis. So many people know us because they knew the sisters, and most of them are super friendly. There are several different groups of people who stop us to talk every time we see them, and we see them often. It's really nice actually.

Not everyone is nice though. We got yelled at by a woman while we were tracting because we were disturbing people on the Sabbath. I just patiently waited for her to finish yelling, smiled, and said, "I'm sorry we bothered you. Do you know anybody who would be interested in hearing our message?" Gotta get those referrals, right?

I'd like to finish with a miracle we saw this week. We had just finished a long day of tracting, and we were in our building, going into the hallway that leads to our door. When we pushed on the hallway door, we found out that it was locked! Unfortunately, the key to that door happens to be broken... We were locked out! So, I looked at Elder Hudson and said, "We're going to pray and wait for a miracle!" We said a quick prayer right there in the stairwell, and sure enough, the second I finished our prayer, someone was on their way up the stairs. He just "happened" to be our neighbor, and happily let us into the hallway. The Lord definitely planned that so that we could be given an opportunity to see a miracle based on our faith.

What a wonderful opportunity it is to serve the Lord! It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but I've also never felt more purpose in my life. I've never hit my pillow so tired, but I've also never hit the pillow more grateful. I've never felt so far from home, but I've also never felt closer to my heavenly home! I'm happy to be here doing what I know is right.

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian word of the week: Vasmacska literally means "iron cat" but it's also another word for "anchor".

It's already July? This transfer is already over?? I have a new mission president???

Things are insane, let me tell ya. Insane is good though. It keeps things busy and interesting.

This week, we met the Hettingers! They're seriously fantastic. I can't wait to work more with them over the course of my mission. President Hettinger is certainly the man called and set apart to lead the combined Hungary/Romania mission at this time, and he's doing a great job of it so far. I especially love his sense of humor! He's hilarious!

Another 4th of July has come and gone as well. Last year, I had probably my most ironic celebration ever because I spent the 4th in a Hungarian immigration office in Budapest, and we celebrated by eating hot dogs at a Swedish furniture store.

This year, we decided to continue the tradition by eating hot dogs and drinking sparkling cider. Funny story really quickly: The cider is more like, alcohol free champagne, and I'm not super familiar with champagne or how it behaves....You'll understand what I mean in a second... Anyways, there's like this little metal frame thing that holds the cork in the bottle, right? I took that thing off and then we started saying a blessing on our food, and as we were praying, the cork exploded off of the bottle! It was super loud and scared me to death!

There was a special musical fireside this week at our branch house and tons of people, including one of our investigators, Krisztina, came! There is this woman who has a beautiful voice and she sings a lot of church songs in Hungarian. Anyways, she's been travelling around Hungary doing these little musical firesides and it was awesome! The Spirit was so strong, and I'm so grateful that Krisztina was able to get more aquainted with the members in the branch, as well as have her testimony in the Savior strengthened in a really special way.

We got our transfer calls this morning! Ready for the big news? Drum roll!

I'm whitewashing out of Szombathely (that means both my companion and I are moving out), and I'm whitewashing into Sopron as a trainer and district leader! I'm sad to be leaving a place as wonderful as Szombathely so soon, but I'm also so excited for the next adventure! Can't wait! Also fun fact: I'll be in the city that is as far away from Romania as possible.

Wish me luck!

Burnett Elder

I can't remember what I talked about in my last weekly email, but I think I at least mentioned our lesson with Terézia. If not, here's a really brief overview of what happened, and why I'm bringing it up again:

Terézia is a sick, old, néni who LOVES the missionaries, but is having a hard time accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture. Last week when we went over to her house, she invited us to meet with her neighbor as well. As we were with Terézia, waiting to go over to her neighbor's apartment, she asked us some very difficult questions, and wouldn't accept any of our answers. It felt like playing ping-pong with a brick wall!

Anyways, we walked over to her neighbor's apartment with Terézia feeling as if her questions were left unanswered, and with us feeling a little worn out and uncertain about what was to come. We ended up having a fantastic lesson with her neighbor, and I challenged him to be baptized at the end of the lesson. He said he would, if he got the answer that the things we talked about are true.

Okay, so now that you're caught up with the story, here's why I'm even mentioning it! We were feeling really bad about Terézia, because she's so sincere and really does want to find the answers to her questions, but we felt like we had done all that we could do. We had to leave it up to the Spirit to change her heart, and that was hard for me, because I really wanted to do something to help! Earlier in our week, Terézia emailed us saying that as we met with her neighbor, and as we testified of the Restoration and of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, our words really spoke to her and touched her heart. She said that she felt a power, that told her to try searching for answers again, and to try to listen more carefully and with a more open mind. Then she invited us to come back! 

The Spirit truly is the teacher, and can have such a powerful effect on the hearts of people! What would we do without it's influence? I'm so grateful to know that I can have the Spirit as a constant companion, so long as I remain worthy of that gift.

Someone requested that I talk a little bit about what going to church is like here in Hungary. The church buildings are all very beautiful. They are similar in style throughout the country (much like they are at home), and they are much smaller than the buildings we're used to in America. Some of the church buildings are actually in business offices, which are rented out. For example, the Sopron branch house is on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building, right above some sort of business. You can take the elevator, and the floors are labelled "Some business, some other business, Mormon Church, etc." It's pretty different from home!

In Szombathely, we have a beautiful meeting house with a baptismal font, chapel, classrooms, kitchen, and a huge yard with a basketball hoop in the parking lot.

Each week, we have on average 30 to 40 people who attend sacrament meeting. Most of the members ride bikes, or take the bus, so our parking lot usually only has 3 or 4 cars in it. Meetings are the same as they are in America, and the lesson manuals are the same as well.

Church can be overwhelming when you only understand half of what is said at all times, but I always leave feeling happy and ready for another week of work! I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be in this interesting, and beautiful, country!

We had an interesting experience yesterday while tracting. We were just going around tracting, and around 8:30, we decided to start making our way home, streeting people as we went. "For some reason" I felt like we should go a different route. About 10 seconds into our journey home, I started talking to a bácsi on the street, and he asked, "How are we doing?" I was super confused at his question, and he repeated it, "How are we doing?" He was referring to his team in the world cup... Hahahaha. He then went on to talk about his favorite team in the world cup, and.. well, really everything else about his life. He invited us into his courtyard, and we went in, hoping to share a message. He then asked us if we wanted to see his "pincer" which is like a storage area underneath the buildings here (most places have one. They're like... literal dungeons made of stone and people use them for storage), and we agreed to go in.

Long story short, this man was a blacksmith and a carpenter, and he did most of his work in this pincer. I wish so badly that I would have taken pictures, but my camera was dead. It was a real life dungeon, with all sorts of crazy tools and things on the walls! Definitely one of the moments where I stepped back and thought, "Well, I'm in Europe!"

The guy ended up talking for 50 minutes straight before releasing us. Hopefully this interaction will serve a greater purpose in this man's future. For now, it's an interesting story for us!

President and Sister Szabadkai have been released and now President and Sister Hettinger are living in Budapest, serving as our new leaders! We are so excited to have them! We're going to Buda tomorrow for a "meet the President" meeting where we'll learn about the new changes and things. It should be good!

I'm grateful for this crazy journey and for all of the lessons I'm learning. I've been focusing on looking for a miracle each day, and so far, there hasn't been a single day that didn't have a miracle of some sort! I would encourage you all to do the same. You'll be surprised to see how involved the Lord really is with your life!

Sok szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian of the week: One of my favorite sayings is "Két legyet, egy csapásra" which literally means "Two flies with one slap". I feel like this saying makes much more sense than its English equivalent, "Two birds with one stone". I've found myself slapping flies far more frequently than I've found myself stoning birds!