We're just gonna bullet point this bad boy because I can't think of any creative introduction paragraph :)

-Started the week off with exchanges with the Szeged Elders. I was with Elder De Baun and we had an awesome time together tearing up Debrecen and talking to everyone. We probably walked a good 20 miles (just kidding I have no idea how far we walked, but it was a lot) talking to everyone we crossed paths with.

-We met with some Jehovah's Witnesses and they were actually really respectful and we had a great conversation. Really pleasant experience, honestly!

-Went out of town a few kilometers to a garden center that one of the members' family owns and did service. We got our hands dirty moving hay bales and potted trees and stuff.

-We were doing our studies in the city square on some benches and 3 grown men came up to us and tried really hard to bash us. We were really unimpressed with their arguments and honestly left a bit disappointed in them. We knew that the best way to diffuse them was to bear testimony, so we just shared our experiences with the Book of Mormon, invited them to read it, got up, and left. I'm sure they were disappointed that we didn't argue with them and that we left them without a victory. Maybe they'll have a change of heart someday. Who knows?

-Immediately after the 3 man Bible bash ambush, we went to an appointment with a woman named Adrian. We had called her from the area book the day before and she excitedly said, "I've been thinking about you! I just got a new job as a journalist for a big newspaper. Why don't we meet up sometime to talk?" Of course, we scheduled an appointment without hesitation. Anyway, we went to the meeting expecting to get to know her and understand her experience with the missionaries in the past and hopefully rekindle the fire to investigate, but when we showed up we were sat down in a big office with a professional camera man and a voice recorder! Turns out, she wanted to do an interview to write a piece in the newspaper about us. It was honestly one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. I didn't have to think about anything; we had answers to every question she asked and I could feel that the words coming out of my mouth were not my own. Don't take this the wrong way, but I kind of felt like an Apostle when they talk to the press. Anyway, after the interview, Adrian said in amazement, "I can't believe that I just conducted such a professional interview with two 20 year old boys. You had answers to every question, and you didn't even have to think about it. I have goosebumps!" To that, I just bore testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really live what they believe and try their best to follow Christ's example and because of this, our faith is just a part of who we are and it's no challenge to share that with others. It was an awesome opportunity! Hopefully we can get our hands on a copy of the paper!

-We started meeting with some young students from Pakistan (3 roommates). We taught them the Restoration and brought them a copy of the Book of Mormon in Urdu. They're super cool and we had a blast talking with them! We're meeting with them again on Friday and they want to feed us some traditional food from Pakistan!

-Met a really sweet British man named Ken. He's a very devout Christian and loves the missionaries. We're going to introduce him to the Ockeys and hope that he'll accept the Gospel :)

-We went to the actual middle of nowhere and met with a man named Jozsef. He's a humble man with an incredible story. He reminds me of Alma the younger. He loved our message and wants to be baptized, so we will be working very closely with him to help him make that covenant and change his life even more!

The glowing things are a bunch of cats.

Alright this is already getting pretty long so I'll end it there. I love missionary work and I love being a missionary. It's an incredible experience to be a representative of Jesus Christ in Hungary and I'm honored to have such a job! I have seen hearts touched and lives changed this week and it's such a sweet feeling to be a part of that. I know that the Lord lives and that He loves each and every one of us! He loves the people of Hungary, He loves me, and He loves you! Try to take a moment to think about what that really means. It'll change your life.

Also, life rocks. Just sayin'.

Love,

Elder Burnett

I'm pretty sure I spent more time outside of Debrecen than in Debrecen this week...

Started off the week with exchanges in Nyíregyháza with Elder Proctor. We had a good time working hard and trying to find people to teach. We worked all Wednesday and then Thursday morning we had a 6 am train ride to Budapest for Zone Conference/Gary Sabin Mission Tour meetings. Elder Sabin is my hero, honestly. His General Conference talk "Stand Up Inside and Be All-In" is my favorite talk, so getting to hear from him all day was such a blessing. I couldn't hardly take enough notes because everything he said just made me feel like he was speaking directly to me.

I've had a few questions that I've been thinking about recently and I've prayed and pondered and sought answers for a while now. While at Conference, I realized that God was answering every one of my questions. I received specific impressions about things I need to do and ways that I can improve and it just helped me to realize that God knows each of us so personally. He heard my prayers and he prepared both me and Elder Sabin so that I could receive answers to those prayers in a personal and profound way. The Spirit touched my heart as I listened and took careful notes and I cannot deny the amazing feelings I had. I know that God loves us and cares about each of us. He hears our prayers, and He answers those prayers in His own time! I'm grateful for that knowledge!

On Friday I had the privilege of participating in a combined Missionary Leadership Council with the Romanian missionaries. I always love it when they come because after working in the office for several months, I've gotten to know a few of them and it's a ton of fun to interact in person. I always feel loved when they come and it's just awesome that I've been able to make such good friends on my mission.

I'm also so grateful that because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be friends with people for eternity. That's AWESOME!

So you're probably dying for news about our little congregation we met with last week. We met with them again this week and they were just as loving and just as friendly and excited about what we were telling them. They've each committed to come to our Church services on March 10th, when I will be speaking in Sacrament meeting. No pressure ;) It'll be awesome. We gave each of them a copy of the Book of Mormon with our testimonies written in them. I am praying every night that they read from it and feel its power! That book changed my life completely and I just love the teachings it contains. I feel the Spirit each time I open its covers and each time I tell someone about it.

We're meeting with an awesome young woman named Angelic. She's here as a student, originally from Africa, and we had such a powerful meeting with her. I love teaching in English! She had great questions and was very interested in our unique message.

We finished off the week with a dinner appointment with the Ockeys and a part member family. The food was delicious, but the Hungarians thought it was a little odd hahaha. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, biscuit things, and cupcakes. The kids hesitant to try most of it, but Lajos and his wife thought it was delicious. Sister Ockey is a very talented lady (and we are very spoiled!)

Being a missionary is the coolest thing ever, just saying.

Also I got accepted to BYU Provo so that was great news! I'm looking forward to attending in the Fall of 2019.

It's crazy to think that over 2 years ago I entered the MTC. I'm loving my mission and every day is just another adventure filled with miracles and life-changing experiences.

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

p.s. President didn't call us and roast us about Skyping early, though we did wake up early to Skype. I hadn't considered the fact that p-day technically starts at 8 am and ends at 6 pm! We woke up early to email all the time in the MTC, and they wake up early to work in the Riciardi letter so I just thought we were being effective ;) President Hettinger clarified in an email that p-day, including communication with family, should happen after 8 am, so consider the lesson learned :)

Things aren't slowing down here in Debrecen, and they definitely aren't going to any time soon. We had a packed week, and next week will be even busier! Last week, Elder Rohner went home which makes me the "oldest" missionary in the mission (kinda... as far as time served, I'm not quite the oldest, but I started my mission longer ago than anyone else). Now, the mission roster is 100% different from what it was when I came into the country; even the Mission President is different! I feel kind of like Coriantumr, the last Jaredite hahaha. The 15th of February marks 2 years since I went into the MTC. Time really does fly, doesn't it?



Let's get to the good stuff.

The other day we streeted a woman who turned out to be a priestess for her church. As we were talking, we asked if she would be interested in learning more about God and His plan for us together and she said she would love to. She invited us to go to her church service, which was held at her apartment at 10, but we explained that we had our own church meetings that we would like to attend at that time. Then she said, "Okay, well you can come over at 12 and we'll talk." So yesterday, we went over there at 12 to find a small congregation of 5 people who met in this apartment. They had waited for us before starting their church services and tailored the whole thing around the fact that we were going to be there (by including an introduction to their beliefs, postponing the whole meeting, setting chairs for us etc.) They treated us with the greatest respect and were all very, very sweet. The service itself was interesting, but we felt very good and everything that they talked about and believed in was solid and a piece of the truth that we believe in as well.

After the service, which lasted about a half an hour, they started asking us questions about who we were and why were here. This lead perfectly into teaching the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. The point that astonished them all the most was that we believe in a living prophet and apostles. One woman said, "You mean to tell me that there is a living prophet on the earth today and we know who he is?? We know his name? That's incredible!" As we were talking about the Book of Mormon, they all loved what we were saying. One of them said, "When can I get a copy of this book? I want one today! I can hardly wait another minute!" and then everyone in the room started saying similar things. We only had 2 copies on us, but we explained that we could bring more sometime and everyone wanted their own personal copy. Then they asked us when our church services are and they said that they are going to come in 2 weeks, when I will be giving a talk in Sacrament meeting.

So long story short, Elder Smith and I were lead to a little congregation of sweet, prepared people who loved our message and accepted it with joy and excitement. Who knows where this could lead? This could change the Branch here in Debrecen. And if nothing comes from it, at least we bore testimony of Jesus Christ and helped others grow closer to him.

Another great success was that all 3 members on our 3 member plan attended Sacrament meeting this week. Huge success, all thanks to the combined efforts of the Branch members and the missionaries (including the Ockeys of course!)

Other Highlights:
-I got to go on exchanges with Elder Hudson again, which was a ton of fun!
-We went to the park on Saturday and saw at least 8 different wiener-dogs

-We started our new English Class format and had a great turnout of 17 people. 16 of them stayed for the self-reliance discussion afterward as well.

We're looking forward to Zone Conference and MLC in Budapest next week, as well as another exchange with the Nyíregyháza Elders. It should be a good one!

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

I just have to start this one out by saying that I love my mission so much. I've learned so many incredibly valuable life lessons as  I've put my life to the side and done all that I can to serve the Lord here in Hungary. We just saw miracles every single day this week!

I'm kinda short on time this week so I'm going to pray for lightning fingers and bust this thing out!

On Tuesday we met with Tóth Lájos who was baptized about a year ago. He's recently been coming back to Church and he's seriously awesome.

Elder Seeley got called to serve in Sopron so we took a train to Szolnok on Wednesday. I rode with Seeley until Szolnok, where I got off and met Elder Smith, while Seeley continued to Budapest. I got talking with a bácsi who was sitting next to me on the train and forgot to get the second phone from Elder Seeley before jumping off the train. As soon as I jumped off, I realized that I hadn't gotten the phone from him, so I called him and yelled, "Flush it down the toilet! Throw it out the window! Anything!" Don't worry, we didn't actually do it, but it would've been a funny story. (Elder Seeley gave the phone to the Ockeys who were in Budapest and they got it to us, so now we have 2 phones.)

Elder Smith and I got off to a running start together and had an awesome day tracting. We got let in by a funny old couple. The woman let us in and we walked in to find the man watching the soccer game on TV. Without even looking at us, he goes, "You here to convert us?" to which we replied, "We sure are!" then he said, "Can't be done. Go ahead and try." We taught the Restoration and the man, György, kept interrupting and talking about super random politics. His wife was getting frustrated because she was genuinely interested in what we had to say and she said, "Do you want me to get the broom, man? You know I don't like it when you interrupt!" We were trying super hard not to laugh hahaha. Anyway, we're meeting with them again next week and we're excited to see how it goes.

That same day we were knocking doors and this fat guy who was just wearing his underwear answered the door and immediately let us in. He was cooking bread in fat on his stove and we had a really funny conversation with him while he just cooked in his skivvies. It was very clear that he lived alone, but he was super nice and funny. Not interested, but he gave us some of his fat bread and we were on our way hahaha.

We had apartment checks with the Russells and afterward, they took us to McDonald's. As we were driving over there, we got rear-ended. Luckily nothing happened and it wasn't too bad. The guy got out and was like, "The only reason it was loud is because of the license plate banging on the car! Don't worry, nothing happened!" Well, to all of our luck, nothing happened. That's my first car accident!

We visited Jozsef and Erzsi (the family that we found in Balmazújváros) and our 3rd lesson with them was extremely awkward. They don't really want to meet with us again, but we might swing by next time we're in the neighborhood visiting Zoltán (the guy with tattoos who was super cool). We were going to meet with Zoltán and he was super down but at the last minute, he sent us a text and said that unfortunately his son broke out in hives because of some food allergy they didn't know about and they had to take him to the hospital. We'll try again later.

The highlight of our week was probably yesterday when we had a dinner with the Ockeys, Andrea and her son, Erik. We just had such an awesome conversation with them after a fabulous dinner and they both committed to come to Church on Sunday! It was one of the best experiences I've had on my mission.

I love being here and I love missionary work! I don't know what else to say haha. I love Elder Smith and I love Debrecen and things are just awesome. Hope you all have a super awesome week!

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

It's hard to believe that it's time for transfers again... I'm staying in Debrecen and getting Elder Smith. I'm super excited! It'll be a great transfer for sure.

We finished off this transfer with a super solid week! We got to meet with some awesome people this week including several part member and less active families. 

-Valéria is Hungarian and her husband, Muhammed is from Iraq. They recently moved back to Debrecen from Qatar and we had a good time getting to know them and their son, Gábor. Valéria is the only member.

-We met with a man named Tóth Lájos, who is the only member in his family and a recent convert of about a year. He has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, but family obligations make it hard for him to come to church sometimes. We are going to help him and his family start the Come Follow Me program, since it's based on the New Testament and would be perfect for him and his family, who are not all of the same faith.

-We were invited over for dinner by two of the sweetest nénis in the world, Valcsi and Érszi. Érzsi taught us how to make fruit soup the Hungarian way, so now we're pros ;) Valcsi helped translate the Doctrine and Covenants into Hungarian and they have been members for almost 30 years! True Pioneers!

-We trudged through a crazy blizzard for about a half hour searching for another less active family. We met with them, had a great lesson, and they came to church this week!

-We met with a recent convert, Andrea, and were able to introduce the Gospel to her 16 year old son, who was super cool and very open. She also has 3 really funny cats and a rabbit.

Two crazy stories from this week (kinda long, but worth the read I think):

We were tracting in a neighborhood near Érzsi and Valcsi and generally, people were pretty rude to us over the csengő. After we finished one building, we went next door and found that the door was unlocked. Hooray! So we pranced in and went up to the top of the building. The first door we knocked on was answered by a middle aged woman who said, "Oh, you were here about two weeks ago. Well, not you, but two older women who looked just like you." So in other words, the Jehovah's Witnesses were there 2 weeks earlier hahaha. We explained that we weren't the Jehovah's Witnesses, and she said, "Well you should come back sometime then! I'm really busy right now, but I'd love to talk. Maybe next week?" So we scheduled an appointment with her. Top floor first door... You never hear about that happening, right? Anyway, although we had had success with the first door, we felt uneasy about tracting the rest of the building knowing it was recently visited by the Jehovah's Witnesses just 2 weeks earlier, so we went to a different building.

Which was a good move, by the way.

In the next building, we had great conversations door after door after door. We almost averaged a return appointment per floor! On the 2nd floor (which is actually the 3rd floor in America), we spoke with a man who was on his way out the door. He was kind, but not interested. He had his faith and wished us all the best. We rang the next bell and a woman came out and as we were talking, she seemed pretty disinterested. Then, we started talking about the Book of Mormon and bearing testimony of how it can help us and she started to ask questions. Then, she said, "My son just barely left, but he would love to hear about this! You guys should wait here for him to come back!" We explained that we already talked to him, but she said, "No, no, you need to wait and talk to him again!" So we waiting and sure enough, the same man whom we already talked to came back. She said, "We should let these boys in, don't you think? Let's do it!" So they invited us in and we had one of the most incredible conversations ever. Without getting into too much detail, Balázs, this guy, really opened up to us about how he feels kind of alone in his search for God. He can't really find which Church believes in God the way he does. He is tied to the Lutheran church by tradition, but feels better amongst Baptists. He also explained some very personal frustrations with mental illness, which I was able to really relate to. In the end, we had given him a copy of the Book of Mormon and links to resources where he could find more information. It was incredible. Like I said last week, God is always guiding us. Think of the dominoes that were set up to get us to meet with Balázs!

The next miraculous day came when we were revisiting some of the people we found last week in Balmazújváros. We went back to that one family I wrote about last week, the ones who were the last door after we had the awesome lesson with Zoltán. Anyway, we came back, kind of expecting them to turn us away at the door, saying, "We didn't think you would actually come back!" but they were home and let us in and we taught probably the most powerful Restoration lesson I've ever been a part of. The Spirit bore witness of the message we shared, and József and his mother Erzsébet humbly agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

We also found another woman in Balmazújváros who recognized us because she read an article in a women's health magazine about us. I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but while I was in the office the Assistants were interviewed and followed around by a camera crew for a day and they were featured in the women's health magazine "Meglepetés" (Surprise) hahaha. The article was just about missionaries and missionary work and what we believe etc. and turns out it was a really good missionary investment of time. 

Okay I know this is long, but I'm going to finish off with a funny story. Elder Proctor and Elder Hudson came to Debrecen for exchanges earlier this week and Elder Proctor and I were headed to our lesson with Andrea. We were standing at the tram stop, which is a little concrete island which splits two lanes of traffic, waiting for our tram when suddenly I felt a heavy pressure all up and down the backside of my body. I was so confused by the sensation, but quickly realized what had happened when I saw a tidal wave of brown slush splash all the way into the other lane of traffic. Someone had seen us standing at the tram stop and purposely drove through the slush which had built up near the stop and completely splattered us with muck! I would have quickly labelled this as a persecution, but we weren't the only victims! Also caught in the blast were two young women in their 20's who were just chatting next to us. Their reaction really surprised me. I was outraged and couldn't believe that someone really could be so cold hearted and cruel as to pull such a stunt, but the two women couldn't stop laughing. They were just as dumbfounded at the act as I was, but they decided to brush themselves off and laugh about it. I thought that was an important lesson. We choose how we react! I could have let that ruin my day, but instead I couldn't help but join in with the laughter. Other people started gathering at the stop well after the drive-by splashing and they also couldn't help but join in on the laughter. Oh man...

Sometimes we just have to brush off the slush and smile! (Even if some of it gets in our bags and destroys our books!) When we press forward, we see miracles. We found 11 new people to teach this week, visited 4 families, and had an investigator, that investigator's grandfather, and 5 returning members come to Church this week. Don't let the slush get you down!

Szeretettel,

Burnett elder