Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm now in Debrecen, the second biggest city in Hungary right behind Budapest. We live right next to a beautiful university, so we run into a lot of students from different countries. Most of them speak English, and trying to talk to people in English has been surprisingly difficult. It feels much more natural in Hungarian, and I feel like the freedom of speaking in my native language also gives me the freedom to get off track more easily. It'll take a little bit of practice :)

Christmas in Hungary spans 3 days, starting on Christmas Eve and ending the day after Christmas. Traditional Christmas foods include fish soup, pig jello, stuffed cabbage, szalon cukor (a kind of jelly candy in chocolate) and Christmas bread called beigli. Yesterday we baked cookies and delivered them to members, part member families, and returning members, and we almost came home with more sweets than we gave! Such are the Hungarians! Beigli is kinda gross, and there are only 2 flavors: walnut and poppy seed. The members of the branch have been so kind, and we've been fed so many meals this week! We probably have enough leftovers to last us through the transfer and enough beigli to last us until next year!

^ The local college

^ The branch building

The Elders from Nyiregyháza, Elder Hudson (whom I trained) and Elder Proctor (whom Elder Hudson is training), came to Debrecen this morning and we're spending the day with them and the Ockeys, the senior couple serving here. Sister Ockey is an incredible cook, and we've already been so spoiled by a huge brunch and will continue to be spoiled with a turkey dinner! Can you tell that life is good here?

There is just too much to write about, so I'll just do some bullet points:

-I got to take the departing Romanians out for the day before they left. We spent our p-day together sight-seeing and running various errands. It was a lot of fun, since I worked with all of them doing travel stuff. They gave me the nickname "The People's Champion" because they liked working with me so much :)

-I got to go pick up the new missionaries from the airport with the AP's, President and Sister Hettinger since I didn't have much work to do in the Office (Elder Morgan was there to take over, and I had finished my training with him). I then got to take some of the new missionaries out for their first experience contacting. The two that I took out were so brave! We were walking down the street and I was pumping them up and getting them ready when we saw an adult couple making out in the middle of the path. One of the new missionaries so innocently asked, "Do you think that they want to hear our message?" I looked at him, smiled, and said, "Yes, I think that they do! Go get 'em!" Ahhhhh, it was priceless! They got the couple's attention and explained what they were doing and why they had interrupted. I jumped in and we were able to have a pretty good conversation with them. I was so impressed by our new missionaries and their bravery. We really have such a good group of new missionaries!

-That same day, I got to take two Elders to their first lesson. The lesson was with a man from Jordan, who spoke English and Arabic. You'll never believe this, but one of the new missionaries whom I took with me to the lesson (at random, by the way) studied Arabic and was able to speak with the man in his native language! It was AWESOME. God is in the details of everything, it never ceases to amaze me.

-We had MLC in Budapest, the first one in months that I haven't been banished from haha

-We had a branch Christmas party and it was great! The members here are so nice!

-We got let into a 20 story, which is the tallest building I've been in so far on my mission.

I'm looking forward to Skyping with my family today. This will be my first and only Christmas Skype as a missionary! It's crazy how quickly the time is going by. I feel like just yesterday I was walking down the dusty roads of Szombathely in the 100 degree heat, and now here I am on the other side of the country in the snow. I've been thinking lately about heroes. I am grateful for the example of so many heroes in the Book of Mormon, the example of my great parents and siblings, the example of my ancestors, and so many others who really are heroes to me. I am grateful for a merciful God, who gave us the perfect Hero, our Savior, Jesus Christ. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for our Him to give us that great gift, but I am so grateful that He did! During this Christmas season, we remember the day when God gave us the greatest gift possible: a perfect Example, a Savior, and a Hero!

We are blessed beyond our realization by this great Gift.

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Burnett