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.