Chapter 52.

And so, Elder Burnett returned from his banishment, having gained new wisdom, stories, and a pretty good sunburn.

Tatabánya was incredible! I had so much fun. We met Elder Peery and Elder Emang at the South train station and then the journey began. Elder Peery and I jumped straight into planning, and we decided to go to a little village outside of Tatabánya to go tracting. When we got into T-bánya, we had just enough time to order some palacsinták (crepes) and then it was back on the train, 20 minutes later. We didn't stop by the apartment, so I had my shoulder bag and my backpack, which were both stuffed to the brim with my clothes, books, and other supplies for the whole day. We tracted up and down the dusty roads for hours. After a being in the heat for so long, we really needed water. All of the stores were closed because it was Saint Stephen's day, so we just asked for water when we tracted haha. This super nice néni gave us a 2 liter bottle of cold water for free! Such a blessing! While we were knocking doors, we ran into a woman who said, "My son goes to your church! His name is _____ (I forgot what his name was)." As we were walking away, Elder Peery told me that this guy had just recently gone inactive, so it was cool that we tracted into his mom.

Parker's friend Sora Colt - he got sent to do splits with Elder Peery in another city, so his comp took a pic with Sora Colt when she was at the office.

After more tracting, we took a break to do our studies in the courtyard of the local cathedral. About 10 minutes in, we saw a man ride by on a bike and it just so happened to be the guy whose mom we had just tracted into! We called him over to us and had a lengthy discussion about why he was leaving the church. We bore testimony and encouraged him to seek the truth through study and prayer, and promised that as he did so, he would find that the truth really is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was powerful! I know that God sent us to that village that day, up and down those dusty roads, just so that we could find that man and minister to the one.

We had a lesson that night with some members, and they fed us a dinner of tűros tészta. It was basically just noodles with cottage cheese type stuff. Simple, yet surprisingly delicious! We had sweet cinnamon and chocolate rice for dessert.

We fell asleep that night to the sound of fireworks and the local festival that was going on in celebration of Saint Stephen's day. This is the holiday where they parade the hand of St. István around the city. I think I've talked about it before. I was in Pest last year when this happened, and we had a great view of the fireworks back then.

The next day was fairly simple. We had a lesson in the morning and some more tracting in the heat. As we were studying in a public park, a man came up and just stopped and stared at us. I looked up, smiled, and asked, "How are you today?" And he said, "I'm just dumbfounded looking at you two. Here you are, no jobs, no work. Just sitting here. Unbelievable." Shocked by this, I replied with, "I beg your pardon?" He then said, "Why are you here? You're thieves. That's all you are. Thieves!" I asked, "What have we stolen?" and he said, "You're stealing my time and you're here to steal our money!" I replied with, "Actually, I worked very hard for several years so that I would have enough money to serve a mission. I paid for this. We don't receive any money for our service." Then he said, "You call yourselves missionaries! You have no idea what you're talking about! If you were really missionaries, you would go to Africa where they need it! Get out of our country! Go home! Stop stealing from us and go home!" 

I explained what we were doing there, what we believe in, and why our church was special. I talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon and why it's important, and finished by saying that we believe that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he has a plan for our salvation. The man replied, "That's another thing that you've stolen! You've stolen our doctrine! That belief came from the Catholic church!" He finished by accusing us of being paid by a wealthy Jew in America, and then walked away as if he had done the country a favor. As soon as he left, we said a prayer for him and continued studying.

At least one day, he'll know what we know now!

Anyways, I'm completely out of time to email for the week, so here's a quick bullet list.

-Someone made a 30,000 USD purchase on one of our credit cards by accident (we got it all sorted out, it was an honest mistake made by... well, I have no idea who but the point is it's all good hahaha)

-We found a new investigator this week! Her name is Monika and she has accepted a Book of Mormon and a return appointment

-Elder Suggs and I are roadtripping to the West side of Hungary today to see Robi's baptism and to close down some apartments on that side of the country.

-I can't think of anything else. I know there's more, but I really don't have time! Sorry!

I love the Gospel and I love being here in Hungary preaching to the people. It's such a special experience and I wouldn't trade these things for anything. I'm so grateful to have a loving Father in Heaven who knows me personally, and who has sent me here to learn and to grow. I'm grateful for this wonderful life! 

Have a great week! Talk to you soon.

Szeretettel,

Burnett Elder

Hungarian word of the week is "te$$o" (pronounced teshow, and yes... spelled with dollar signs) . It's short for testvér which means brother/sibling. It's like their version of bro and it's hilarious.