Easter is such a beautiful time to be a missionary. The trees are blossoming, the flowers are blooming, there are spiders flying around on webs, bugs invading our homes, and the pollen in the air has been relentlessly assaulting my eyes and nostrils all week hahahaha. It's a wonderful, miserable time :-^)

I think it's perfect that Easter comes at the start of the Spring season. We celebrate the Atonement and resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ, at a time when everything around us seems to wake up with new life and energy. While this does mean pollen and bugs, I appreciate the symbolism and reminder of my Savior and everything that He did for me. Because of Him, we have fresh starts and new beginnings, just like the flowers and bugs do.

We had an amazing week and were able to share these feelings of excitement, gratitude, and reverence with so many people. We met with and shared an Easter message with 18 of our returning member friends and several other non-member friends, not to mention countless people on the streets. 

I can't even tell you how many little miracles we experienced this week... it would take quite a while to write out the details, so I'll just tell you that I know without a doubt that God is so very aware of me and every one of His children. We had several "perfect timing" moments, so many tender lessons, and just felt a lot of love from God and for His sheep here in Miskolc.

Sorry I'm pretty much awful at summarizing my weeks, but really all I can say is that God is real, Christ lives, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's kingdom on the earth. Things are great. I love Miskolc, I love my companions, and I love missionary work!

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

Okay okay, first of all let me just calm all of your nerves.... I'm PRETTY SURE I won't be getting deported hahaha. I guess the immigration office rejected my application for a new residence permit, but after a lot of phone calls and a lot of stress, it's all figured out (hopefully). The Sisters in Debrecen got a letter in the mail notifying them that my card (I think?) is ready to be picked up. Anyway, we're taking a quick trip to Debrecen to pick up hopefully my new residence permit. Wish us luck!

We had a packed week. Last Monday, we met with a man named Gábor, who was mostly interested in English. We had agreed to teach him English for 30 minutes and then have a Gospel conversation for 30 minutes. Honestly, it was awesome because he just asked us questions about the Church the whole time! It was great. Just before that lesson, we got a call from one of our friends who is in a really tough position. Well, turns out that Gábor is totally qualified to help her with her problem so we asked him if he would be willing to talk with her and he said, "Yeah of course! Just give me her number and I'll see what I can do!" What an awesome guy (and a huge miracle!)

The next day we headed up to Budapest to pick up ELDER PEERY! That ended up being quite an adventure, seeing as there was a miscommunication about the flight information... We were under the impression that he would be arriving at 1:30, but it turns out he was actually getting in at 5:30.... We were worried that maybe he got to the airport and didn't realize that he was meant to take a taxi... But then we realized that it's Elder Peery and he would definitely figure things out himself hahaha. To our relief, we were right and he took a taxi and made it to the Mission Home safe and sound! He even taught the taxi driver and got his contact information to hand off to the Office Elders hahaha. The boy can't be stopped!

After we were reunited, we had about... 3 hours to plan our Zone Conference training. No big deal, except for the fact that Zone Conference was the next day. We did our best to get some ideas put together and it all came together pretty nicely. We spent the night with the Assistants and neither Elder Peery nor I slept at all, so we just talked. It was good. The next day we had an amazing Zone Conference and our training went great! There were so many powerful testimonies shared and lessons learned. I'm grateful for the lift and the boost that comes from gathering together as missionaries and feel so honored to be serving with such an incredible group of people. We are God's army and it feels so good to say that!

Had exchanges with Elder Proctor this week. He's hilarious and we had a ton of fun together, especially as we hunted down the best graffiti in Miskolc. I think the winner was "Michel Jákson" hahahaha. Idk why but we died laughing hahaha. Classic...

Being in a trio is a dream, man. We just work so well together and have been getting a lot done. We made a list of people we want to visit this week to share an Easter message with and then went through the list calling everyone and their dog. Now, we have a full week! It's going to be incredible!

We also had an amazing lesson with a returning member family, in which we taught an Easter Lesson adapted to focus on the Sacrament and Church attendance. Toward the end, Elder Peery said, "You know we love you. God commanded us to come to Church each week and partake of the sacrament, and that's a commandment you are not keeping. You need to repent. Will you come with us to Church this Sunday and partake of the Sacrament?" Our returning member friend took the invitation PERFECTLY and said, "Of course. I realize that I need too. Even though things have happened in the past, I can't let my eternal salvation hang on that offense. I'll come and I'll bring the kids, because it's my responsibility to take them to Church. If I don't come, they won't come either! We'll be there." 

What a powerful and amazing experience. We really pushed the border on boldness, but because of the atmosphere of love and the power of the Spirit, it was well received and ended with great results.

We had District Conference yesterday and I got to see a ton of my friends from Debrecen! I got to translate for President and Sister Hettinger, so my brain was f.r.i.e.d. by the end hahaha. The Magyar is hard, lemme tell ya. But it's also the best, so I can't complain!

This morning we went to Lila Füred, which is like this super pretty wooded hilly area and we went on a crazy hike! I'm burnt but it was worth it. Got a lot of good pictures of the place and made some fun memories. On our way back, we talked with a néni named Gizi hahaha. She was super funny and made me try on her glasses so that I could "see why she had a hard time seeing her dog" hahaha. We got a selfie with her and she yelled "Cheese!" So funny.

Life is good. I love being a missionary and I love missionary work!

Did you have a spiritual experience today? You should write it down, really. I went through my journal the other day and was just so grateful first of all that I wrote those things down and second of all for the fact that God has been so merciful to me. When we count our blessings, it really is surprising how much God loves us.

Go do it!

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

p.s. learned a super funny Hungarian saying: "Egy fennékel nem lehet két lovat megülni" which means "You can't sit on two horses with one butt" hahaha. Basically, you gotta pick a side and stick to it 100%. You can't half do two jobs, you just have to whole do one job. I'm working on whole-doing this missionary thing, and it's changed my life.

Alright, what's new.....hmmmmm

-I turned 21 (weeeeeeee!)

-My drivers license expired

-We had exchanges with the Szolnok Elders here in Miskolc and Elder Fales and I laughed way too hard at getting rejected (6 times in 30 seconds? LOL, we'll get 'em next time!)

-Went up to Buda to have exchanges with the Assistants. I love those two. We had so much fun in my old stomping grounds!

-Oh yeah, speaking of Budapest, announcements were made for a temple to be built here! Words just aren't adequate to describe the impact that this will have on the people of Hungary. This is exactly what the people need and marks a turning point in the history of this country and of the Church of Jesus Christ here. What unexpected, but exciting news! The Lord really is hastening His work. It's go time!

Besides all of that, we've been blessed to have incredible people to meet with here in Miskolc. Huge things are happening here. Our woodpile is getting stacked and there is so much potential. Miracles are going to continue happening and they're going to get bigger and bigger, just mark my words! I love missionary work and I love being a missionary. I've met some of the coolest people ever. 

This week's cool person is Gergő. I don't remember if I've said anything about him, but basically he's incredible, teaches math, and loves God. He's currently scheduled to be baptized soon and we're all super excited! Anyway, Gergő came to watch General Conference with us and it was just perfect. He even adjusted his schedule so that he could come to another session too! Super huge step for him and a real miracle that he was able to clear his busy schedule to make time for Conference. We know he'll be blessed for his efforts to make time for the Lord!

A few of our other friends came as well and it was so cool to see them all listening to the words of the Apostles, the Prophet, and other Church leaders.

Huge miracle of the week comes from Elder Hough and Elder McCann. They contacted a young couple from Poland in the park and had like a 45 minute conversation with them about the Gospel and invited them to come to YSA night. Well, guess who showed up! (it was them!) The kicker is that there was another YSA there from Poland, so they were super pumped to talk with each other and it was just a huge amazing culmination of a lot of tiny dominoes being stacked up and knocked over. God is in the details.

Oh, also I might get deported. But I'll tell you more about that here in a minute when I know what's going on :) Long story short, I have a residence permit that is valid until the 17th of April. Originally, I would have been long gone by now, but because of the 6 month extension my legality expires before my missionary service! We're working on that. I applied for another permit a month or two ago and it was denied soooo... It's gonna be an adventure :)

Don't let that worry you to much. The Lord is at the helm and what ever happens will obviously be part of His plan. Can't wait to see what that means... hahahaha.

Have an awesome week! What are you going to do differently because of what you learned at Conference? Did you have questions answered? Write things down! You'll never think, "Dang it, I wish I didn't write down that impression I had during Conference!" 

Just saying.

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett

I'm too tired to think of an April fool's joke so let's just acknowledge the fact that it's April fool's day and move forward. The fact that I'm letting this opportunity slide is the real April fool's twist.

We got to go on exchanges in Eger this week. Eger is really a beautiful city! On top of the beautiful sights to see, there was some sort of car rally going on throughout the city. There were rally cars (I think?) of all makes driving around on display all day. They were noisy and smelly but it really was a cool experience.

We had a couple of really long days this week. Sometimes you just have an empty day with no planned programs. Those are the days when I like to go on big adventures. This week, we had two big adventure days in which we pretty much tracted and streeted the whole day away. Luckily, we had some cool areas to go and visit and our days were filled with some awesome conversations and great experiences helping others come closer to Christ. Seriously, we meet cool new people every day.

One such cool person was Robi. We were tracting in this community outside of the Avas and we saw Robi working on his car outside. We approached him and introduced ourselves and he was really open and interested in our message. He invited us to come back that same day, which is a mission first for me. We went out and tracted for a bit and came back at the specified time and Robi came out with his sisters (they're all probably in their late 20's early 30's). One of his sisters asked, "Have you come to teach us? Come in! Come in!" 

So we gathered around the table and taught Robi, his sisters and some of their kids, and his mother. The Spirit was very strong throughout the lesson and we had a great conversation. Unfortunately, they weren't quite ready to make any solid commitments, but they agreed to have us back and they loved the lesson. I know that God led us there that day, as He always does. It never ceases to amaze me. I've noticed that as I actively seek God's hand in my life, I can notice His gentle guidance and support both retrospectively and throughout the day. Little promptings throughout the day lead us to miracles and incredible experiences, like the one we had with Robi and his family. 

How has the Lord guided you lately? When was the last time you followed a prompting from the Spirit? What blessings have you seen as you followed a prompting? These are questions that we may benefit from asking ourselves. You may find that you are guided much more than you before realized. Conversely, you also may realize that you might need to change some things in order to allow God to guide you a bit more. Small habits and practices make the biggest differences, really, and the practice of self evaluation coupled with prayer and seeking the Lord's will can help us to become who God wants us to become. 

Go and seek the Lord's will and accomplish something great this week! Feel free to share with someone too. You never know how that might help! :)

Szeretettel,

Elder Burnett