We started off our week with a trip to the immigration office to report our address change. Debrecen is different, because it's the only immigration office that requires a pre-scheduled appointment. You would think that by scheduling an appointment, you would ensure that you are serviced at the time of your appointment....The key is that you would think that....Turns out, it's just the same as any other immigration office. 

Step 1: Walk in

Step 2: Wait in line

Step 3: Get a number 

Step 4: Repeat Step 2

Step 5: Hope that all of your paperwork is correct

Step 6: Profit

The only difference is that you can't get past step 2 without a reservation in Debrecen. 

Somewhere between steps 1 and 2 we met a student from Seoul, Korea named Ma. He was there to pick up a residency permit, but didn't schedule an appointment. There was a woman who was relentlessly turning people away and honestly being a jerk. When she got to Ma, she tore him apart for thinking he could just walk in willy-nilly and "quickly pick up his permit" and told him that they're so incredibly busy that they can't just squeeze in new appointments whenever they feel like it. Despite her condescending tone and rudeness, Ma just very calmly said, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I'll make a reservation and try again another time. Thank you!" We chatted for a little bit and he took off. I was super bummed that I didn't get any contact info from him.

About a half hour later, we overheard the cranky woman saying (in Hungarian) "This is a joke...You've got to be kidding me" We turned around to see Ma with a huge grin on his face, proudly showing the appointment he had scheduled on his phone hahahaha. He said, "You wanted an appointment, so I scheduled one!" 

I got his contact info this time and we had a good laugh about his witty work around. What a legend!

(Side note: I asked him what he does in his free time and he's like, "My free time? I GAME dude!" hahahaha. Turns out, he's Master Tier in League of Legends, or in other words ridiculously good... We had a good time talking about that)

The next day we had Zone Conference which was super awesome! We gave a training about making loving corrections of disobedience issues and speaking Hungarian at all opportunities. Elder Hess and I played a duet on guitar for a song we had never practiced together and it went pretty well, considering the circumstances. Now that Zone Conference is over, I feel like a pretty big burden has been lifted off of my shoulders.

Elder Seeley and I saw some awesome miracles this week. We received a referral for a man who lives in a little village just outside of Debrecen. We went to deliver a copy of the Book of Mormon to him, hoping to share the message of the Restoration with him and his family, but unfortunately he wasn't home. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission, it is that the Lord is constantly leading us, no matter what and no matter where we are. So long as we're trying our best, we will always be in the right place at the right time. We saw this first hand as we decided to go and tract some buildings around our referral. After some rejection, a man covered in tattoos answered his door. Before we could even get a sentence out, he goes, "Joseph Smith? Come in, come in!" This man's name is Zoltán. He had heard about the Church from some documentaries and books, but never had the opportunity to really learn about it. We taught him the Restoration and the Spirit that was present was incredible. Zoltán happily accepted the Book of Mormon as well as a commitment to read and pray about it. We are meeting with him again in 2 weeks (he will be out of town) and are very excited about it. I know that we were led to him!

It doesn't end there! We were burning with the Spirit after that lesson, which is the perfect time to keep going, so we pressed forward and tracted the next building over. Almost everyone was pretty rude to us, except for the last door. An older woman answered and we talked with her, bearing testimony and teaching simple truths. She was not religious, and looked physically uncomfortable throughout the conversation. She didn't close the door though, so we kept going. Eventually, we asked if she would be interested in learning more about God's plan for us through the Book of Mormon. She agreed and let us in! We talked with her, her husband, and her son and are meeting with them again next week.

Other Highlights:

-We met a stray dog who was actually really cute and nice. We named him Menyhért.

-It snowed again

-Went on exchanges again in Nyíregyháza and I met with Tár Tibor again (the guy who wants to start a band). I got really serious with him about his not coming to Church. We'll see if he decides to make changes in his life.

-We went to a Ukranian market that was one of the most interesting things I've ever seen. I felt like we were in a movie. Tons of clothes, knives, candies, bizarre foods, tools, electronics, and everything in between were on display. I felt like we were walking through a city made of iron sheds and tents. I tried to get a some pictures of some of the less crowded places (I didn't want to walk around taking pictures of random people and the goods that they're selling) so maybe you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

The market with no people...

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

If I had a dollar for every time I went to Buda this week, I could buy 2 things off of the dollar menu (which doesn't exist here) at Meki's (McDonald's)! My companion has had a pretty bad ingrown toenail that he was able to get fixed this week and then we had to go to Buda a second time for a follow-up appointment. We had exchanges with the Assistants the following day, so we all drove to Debrecen together where we held the exchange.

It snowed several times this week. Elder Fales and I decided to try and do some service and we went and shoveled side walks for people. I was amazed by how many people let us help! I've always had a hard time finding service opportunities in Hungary, because most people don't accept when you offer to help, but when it came to shoveling snow, everyone was so happy to get help. We had a lot of really good conversations and practically made friends with an entire neighborhood of people. As I was shoveling one walk belonging to someone who wasn't home, their neighbor peeked his head over the fence and commented, "They are going to be so pleasantly surprised when they come home to find their walk cleared!" Then I talked with that man and his wife for a bit and they were just amazed that two young kids were out shoveling for people. It was an awesome little service activity. Plus, Sister Ockey fed us dinner right after and it was amaaaaaaaazing.... We're so spoiled... From the moment we sat down to the moment we were out the door again, our dinner was 18 minutes. Not only was it delicious, but it was fast and effective!

Other Highlights of the Week:

-We met a man named John from New York who lives down the street from us. He heard that we used to play baseball in the church yard, so we might put a little sports night together and invite him.

-Honestly I can't really think of anything else. Lots of finding and other little stuff filled our week.

I miss the sun. It was shining for about an hour this morning, but we're back to grey skies and cold wind. I never really believed that the weather could actually affect my mood, but I've noticed a difference in my energy and overall happiness as we've trudged through snow in the cold darkness. I think that a great lesson can be learned from this. If we don't constantly tend to our spiritual matters and give our souls daily "spiritual sunlight" it really does make a difference. It may not be all at once; I certainly didn't notice a difference after just one sunless day; but over time, our spirits really do grow weary and weak when they aren't supported and nourished. Go give your soul some sunlight! Give yourself some sunlight! Seriously, it will make you feel better!

We've got a packed week coming up with Zone Conference, interviews, and of course tons of appointments with all sorts of cool people. It's gonna be awesome.

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

This week was quite a party! 

We started off with an exchange with Elders Inglish (new) and Barton. They came up monday night and we celebrated New Year's together by drinking some sparkling cider. I saw a lot of masks and noise makers for sale on some displays in the town square, so I assume that on Szilveszter there is some sort of masquerade or something. I'm not 100% sure about that though, since we were asked to be inside by 7 pm that day. I think that the celebrations are pretty similar to how we do it in America. There were tons of fireworks at midnight, so we went onto the balcony for about 10 minutes to watch before crawling into bed. The sound of the explosions bouncing off of all of the 10 story buildings was pretty cool.

Hungarian baptismal font

Immediately after that exchange, we left Debrecen and headed to Békéscsaba. Elder Smith got really sick and had to go up to Budapest for a few days, so we took his companion, Elder Dalton (one of the missionaries whom I took out on their first day; he started the conversation with the couple who was making out), to Debrecen to work with us while his companion was recovering. We had a great time in our little trio! Elders De Baun (also new) and Williamson from Szeged also came up  for an exchange that we had planned a few weeks ago so there were 5 of us in our little apartment.

We had some ups and some downs this week, but were able to find some new people to teach and take the new missionaries out to some great teaching appointments.

There's really not a ton of super exciting things to update on. We're very busy, and being a Zone Leader has brought some fun new responsibilities. For example, we participated in a Stake leadership coordination meeting with the Stake and Mission Presidencies, in which we had to report on the units in our Zone and how the missionaries are working with members. It was a cool experience to participate in a meeting like that and see some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on here.

2 hour Church went by so quickly! Here in Hungary there was a mix of meeting times. Some units met for 2 hours and some met for 3. The only place in which I've served where Church meetings were only 2 hours was Sopron. I think that the change to 2 hours will be really nice, especially for those who have to travel up to an hour just to get to Church!

Parker bought a whip!

A few days ago, I read about the Army of Helaman. I love Helaman's affection and love for his "little army". I think that their relationship is touching. I especially love the stalwart exactness of the army! They followed every order with exactness, and because of that they were blessed with great faith, protection, and many victories. A few weeks ago, I talked about fortifying our faith and preparing ourselves for our future battles. As we follow the Prophet and his counsel, the teachings of the Book of Mormon, and keep the commandments with exactness, we can also be blessed with increased access to Heavenly help. Who doesn't need more of that?

Legyen jó hetetek!

Elder Burnett

What a week! We started off by having the Miskolc Elders over for a daily exchange. I was with Elder Peery, who is one of my best friends out here. This was technically our 3rd exchange together, but our first that was official! The other two occasions were when I was banished from Buda. We had a super fun time together tearing up Debrecen.

 

After that we had another exchange, this time in Nyíregyháza with Elder Hudson and Proctor. I got to be with Elder Hudson, which was a throwback to our good old days in Sopron. Also, this was one of the weirdest exchanges of my whole mission... So apparently there's a less-active member in Nyíregyháza who has heard all about me because I can play guitar, and he's been praying that I would come to Nyíregyháza so we could play a little bit haha. When he showed up to the Branch house, he jumped out of his car and his face just lit up and was so excited to talk about guitars with me. I'm afraid I disappointed him, because he's into a completely different style of music than I am and I had never heard of half of the guitarists he talked about, but he was still pretty excited about the whole thing. He kept saying that he hopes that I'll serve in Nyíregyháza someday so that we can start a church band. (I don't wanna be a bummer, but It's probably not happening hahaha).

We then met with József, a recently found person who is interested in the Gospel. József was so open to our message and Elder Hudson and I decided beforehand that we were going to throw it back to our Plan of Salvation lesson with Robi in Sopron (in that lesson, we invited Robi to be baptized). Anyway, we felt the Spirit so strongly, and I knew that it was time to bust out the questions. I asked "Do you believe that God's plan could be the way that we explained it?" to which he replied, "I'm positive that God has a plan for us, and it makes perfect sense the way you boys have described it." Then I asked, "Do you believe that the Book of Mormon is true?" He looked at me and exclaimed "It has to be true, and I know perfectly that Joseph Smith had that vision! It has to be true!" And then I turned to Elder Hudson, and just like we did with Robi, I whispered, "Do it!" So Elder Hudson extended the invitation. József said, "I will, but I need a little bit of time to prepare more. I only met you two weeks ago, but I will come to Church tomorrow and I'll keep praying about it and I will prepare my family. If my family could join me in this journey, it would be so much better, don't you think?"

 

 

I'm excited to hear about how József progresses. It was awesome to meet him and I'm grateful for the experience.

Missionary life is just full of adventures! I'm happy to be here :) Not much time to wrap this up nicely, but I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's celebration! In Hungary, they call New Year's Szilveszter because December 31st is the name day for Szilveszter.

Boldog új évet! (Happy New Year!)

Elder Burnett