Wednesday, October 29, 2014

October 27, 2014


Dear People, 

This last week  was good, but it was pretty hard for us. We had new missionary training on monday, so we basically missed out on our pday except emailing and shopping, and we got sick at the end of the week. Elder Beaumont's got it worse than I do, but we both have a bad cough and fever.

   Other than that, we were only able to meet with like 3 investigators this week, but they were all doing really well! One lady has a baptismal date although she doesn't progress very well. One day, we went to visit her, and she had to go, so we stayed and talked to her 16 year old son- he likes the Book of Mormon and read what we gave him, and he wants to come to church. It was also very reassuring, because he told us that since we have been coming, he's seen a lot of positive changes in his mom. I was glad to hear that, because she doesn't seem to progress at all, I guess she just has to go at her own pace. 
   There was also a lady we met on the street a couple weeks ago, and she said that she and her son used to meet with the missionaries like 15 years ago. She was pretty busy so we couldn't meet with her much since then, but this week she called us, "Hey, I'm in the area of your branch house. Do you want to show me where it is and maybe we can talk more." So on the way, she stops into a store to introduce us to her friend, then we walked into the branch house during institute, so we sat in and listened, gave her a tour, and talked about the BoM. On the way home, she was talking to a stranger on the bus, "See these elders? I just went to their new branch house, and I'm going to church with them on Sunday at 9." 
Then she came to church for the first time, and loved it!
   Another cool one was a referral from my last ward. A member there has a good friend who moved to the Veszprém area. He is a member, but his wife is not, but they both wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and they want to meet. And they came to church on Sunday! The other elders met the guy and were super jealous that we are meeting with them. The guy is super cool and wants to come back. His wife also loved church and really wants to meet with us! 

On Wednesday, we 4 elders went to a family for dinner. My comp and I gave the spiritual thought on the Atonement. We used another elder here as the volunteer. The family has a little girl. As part of the lesson, we gave her some chocolate. Then we said that because we offered her chocolate, Elder Mellor has to do 10 push ups. She caught on and decided not to take the candy, so we said that because we offered her chocolate, Elder Mellor has to do 10 pushups anyways. Then my companion, Elder Mellor's companion, and I each took some chocolate (nobody in the family wanted any), then we offered some to Mellor too, haha. By the end, he had done like 90 pushups, and the little girl was in the corner almost crying, and saying, "Let me do push ups too! I want to help him! It's hurting him." I think it was a pretty good lesson, and Elder M. was a good sport about the whole thing. 
I even told Elder Beaumont that if we leads that whole lesson on his own with another family, then I'll do the push ups, haha. It will be good motivation for language study! 

K, that's about all. My 2 year mark is on Friday. I think we might make pumpkin pie. It's goign to be so grand.

Love,
Elder Young

October 21, 2014

Dear Family,

We had the most wonderful week this week. We were pretty busy and have been able to work with our ward pretty well this week! 
One thing we've been doing is looking up inactive people to invite them to our new branch building open house! They gave us the addresses of people who haven't come in years, so it's always an adventure to see who actually opens the door, and then ask them if they happen to be a member. Usually they say something like, "Oh, yeah, think they moved away like 15 years ago..." but then it becomes a finding opportunity because we can just invite that person instead! ... and we're already inside the apartment building... 
We also got a bunch of members to come tracting with us around the area of the branch house. It blows my mind how much better native members can connect with the people. 

One night, we were going to make french toast with the other elders, so we ran to the store to buy a loaf of bread. On the way back, we saw a homeless guy digging through the trash can. My companion is such a good guy! He walked up to the guy and just asked, "Are you hungry? Here's some bread." It was also really funny when we went back to the same cashier lady with the same kind of bread, haha. 

We have some cool investigators who are starting to progress. One lady recently lost a son, and has been going through a terribly hard time. We have been teaching her the Plan of Salvation, and she accepted a baptismal date for December 13th
Another guy in our own building is pretty interested! We brought a really strong member in and they got along really well. He likes what we teach and wants to improve his life. The Holy Ghost was super strong in the lesson, and Elder Beaumont was able to be involved a lot too!

A couple people also stopped us on the street and told us that they used to meet with the missionaries and want to meet again! Which is good, because all the people who we stop on the street either ignore us or give us fake phone numbers, which is soo dumb! Haha. 

On Saturday morning, I get a call from the mission president something to this effect: "Good morning Elder Young. You have the highest phone bill in the mission- it's 18,000 Forint (75 dollars) over your limit. Why is that?" I was really, really confused, since there was no reason for me to go over the limit at all. Then I called one of my old companions to tell him about it, and he informed me that Elder Driggs, my greenie from January, has to go home because of an injury. So it was a lot of crazy news right at once, haha. 

On Sunday night, we went up to Budapest for greenie training. We stayed in the "Celestial room" where I slept my first night in the country. One of my favorite companions from last year was there, as well as my old greenie, my current greenie, and like 5 other greenies. We all stayed in the same place, and it was weird- like a big summary of my whole mission in one place, haha. 
Monday morning, Elder Driggs left for the airport, and all the greenies had an important meeting, so Elder Olsen and I were reunited in Buda again, haha. We had like 6 hours to just explore the city and stuff.

K, you're great. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Young

1. Some greenies.

2. My sons!

3. The Duna!

4. Elder Olsen


5. The Olympic rings!

October 13, 2014

We've had a pretty hard week, I must admit. The work here is sooo sloooow! For us, planning is decided when we should take breaks from tracting and talk to people on the street instead. We also try to visit members all the time so that Elder B. has a chance to teach.  

We had a couple cool experiences this week though... we were able to go visit one of our investigators with an RM guy, and we had a really good meeting. Bringing members is awesome because the member can get along so much better with the investigator, especially since they each understand exactly what the other is saying... 
Later that day, we made calls to old investigators who we've never met. I spent a lot of time calling as many people as I could, 
 retracted our building. The first door that opened was a young family who told us to come back later in the week (we actually never were able to) and they seemed really excited to meet. Now that I think about it, they're probably Jdubs out to prove us wrong. Oh, well. 
Then the second door opened up, and this guy was not interested at all. But he talked for like 2 minutes about something... then let us in! It was the last thing I would've expected, haha. But we ended up talking to him for 45 minutes and setting up another meeting! 

Other than that, we met with a few cool members and taught english class and stuff (my class is nowhere near as exciting as Jason's). You know... doing missionary things... 

On Saturday, we went back up to Győr, my last area, to see a baptism! Two sisters got baptized, one 8, one 14, so it was awesome! My last 3 companions were all there with their companions, with a few other members! It was sooo awesome! 
Afterward, we had to run onto the train home. The trains are so confusing here- they put multiple trains on one track, and don't put up enough signs. So if someone were to... I don't know... be unaware that 3 different trains were on one track, it's possible that they could get on the wrong one. 
So when the ticket checker guy comes up and looks at the ticket that says, "Veszprém," and drops his head, it's not a good sign. 
So when that happened to us, we were in quite a pickle! "Good thing we don't have any investigators to have to cancel on today!" I thought.  
We called the other elders to let them know, and found out that the phone had low battery. So we were able to make one last call to a member, who told us when our next train would be to take us home. After that, our phone died, and the choo choo chugged on into the abyss. 

We had to take that train to the end stop, called Celldömölk, and we had to wait there for almost 2 hours till the next train, so we looked for a place to eat, and found a free concert going on in the main square. We got on the train, later had to get off in another city to a bus, and made it home at 11 pm, and died. 

On Sunday, I went up to bear my testimony by telling that story and trying to compare it to the Gospel somehow. Everyone thought it was funny, and they probly figured out by now that I'm an idiot, haha. 
We had a teenager investigator come to church for the first time, too! He really enjoyed it, but had to run out like 45 minutes in. Hopefully he learned something that will help him out. 

My companion is such an awesome missionary! Yesterday afternoon, as we walked around on the streets talking to people, I made my comp stop someone and do the whole approach by himself. He walks up to someone and says, "Hi, excuse me! I love my family. I love my family very much. And I love the gospel because it helps my family. The gospel helped me, so I know it will help you in your life. Can we trade phone numbers?" And the just stood there listening, and then says, "Sure, why not?!" We talked to him a little more, and he is actually really interested! I think that if I would have stopped him, he probably would not have listened. My companion is super good at just throwing himself in front of people and bearing his testimony to them as best as he can! 

So we are hanging in here with everything. I'm kind of tired all the time, but everything is good. The Church is true! 

Love,
Elder Young

1. Elder B. fixing something with the soldering gun he found in the apartment.


2. "Tracting."



3. Eating at a cooool family's house.


4. Same.


5. Sindy and Goldy.


6. Me and Sindy.


7. A cool family I taught who finally came to something (the baptism).


8. Riding the train in the day.


9. Still on the train.


10. Still on the train.


11. Concert.


12. Exploring.


13. Eating lecsó with the other elders.


14. I was the victim of a pumpkin pie food fight. 


September 29, 2014

Hello, this is the last first week of the transfer ever! And I'm
writing this email in a cake/ice cream shop... so if I don't end up
writing this time, it means that I just spent the whole time looking
at cakes. Man, it smells good in here...

So last week, I got the call that I am to go to a city called Veszprém
to train.
So the next morning, we went up to get on the train, and they were
doing construction by the train station entrance, and there was a
little tiny opening where one or 2 people could go at a time, and we
found a croud of maybe 2 or 300 people there waiting to get through.
By the time we squeezed through the peoples, the train should have
left, but somehow they didn't leave until about 3.4 seconds after we
hopped on the train, and they let us buy our tickets on board. What a
miracle!

Then we had the "sorting hat meeting" and I got a new companion named
Elder Beaumont! He's fresh out of high school and is super excited to
be here!
After our meeting, we coordinated to meet with the other elders going
to our new area (both my companion and I are going to a new area...
which means lot of luggage), but the walk to the train station took
longer than expected, and we could hear the whistles going as we ran
to the train! We made the 2nd train of the day about 2.9 seconds
before departure! Another miracle! I think Someone really wanted us to
make it to Veszprém on Wednesday...

Despite the fact that 3 of the 4 elders in our city are new, and the
other one has only been here for 3 weeks, we have been getting
adjusted to our city really well! The other elders here are really
cool! The city is beautiful, and the members are awesome! They really
want to help the missionary work go well here, and so they offer their
help, and give us lots of things to do, too. Everyone is also really
excited because we got a really nice new chapel here a couple weeks
ago, and the open house will be in about a month, so the ward is
hustling and bustling to prepare for it!
We have only met with one investigator so far, but our meeting went
super well, and it looks like our other investigators are really cool,
too!

Nothing too crazy or awesome happened this week. We have been trying
to get Elder B. to experience all kinds of missionary work- streeting,
tracting, tabling, teaching. We've only taught one person so far...
oops. But it was awesome. He doesn't know exactly what the people are
saying, but he can express himself fine, so during the lesson (we
taught a 1st), I lead up to Joseph Smith, then asked him, "What
happened to Joseph Smith?" and he could tell his whole story, the 1st
Vision, everything. Then when he would lose track, I could just ask
him a question, "What does the BoM mean to you?" and he can bear his
testimony really well! And the lady really felt the Spirit and
promised to read from the BoM (she's been meeting for 3 weeks and
hadn't read anything).
Tracting has worked pretty well for us so far. Maybe it was the fact
that we don't know the city, maybe just our laziness, but we did tract
our own 10 story apartment building out. It's awesome because we can
say, "Hi, we're your neighbors! Have you ever seen boys like us with
ties and shirts on? Can we come in sometime, get to know you, and tell
you why we're here?" It worked out really positive! And people love to
hear Elder B. try really hard to talk to them, haha.

I really love this city and I'm excited to work here till the end of
my mission! I could not have asked for a better place to be! I'm
excited to work with Elder Beaumont and show him the ways of the
Misszionárius. Hopefully I'll be a good trainer this time around...
haha.

Sorry, no pictures. I hope that I'll be able to send pictures at some
point this transfer, but judging at the quality of computers we have
in Veszprém... no promises... :)

Love,
Elder Young

September 23, 2014

Ohhh, my gosh.
So today I woke up waiting for my last transfer call ever, the one that decides where and with whom I will be till the end. Actually, I woke up at 3am because a member asked us to call him last night, before leaving the country, but we never got ahold of each other, so he called right before leaving. I was really confused, and don't really remember what we talked about, but my companion says that I talked to him for like 45 seconds and asked, "Okay... wanna talk to Elder H., too?" and he talked to him for a while in the middle of the night. Haha. 
So, anyways, I got my call. My companion is staying here in Győr. I am actually leaving to a city called Veszprém, and I will be training again! I get to spend my last 2 months with a new kid, so hopefully he will keep me in line... haha. 
This week was craziness! 
We have been super glad because over the last few days, some our investigators have started to become super legit! But unfortunately, in our zeal to visit people who seem to live in every corner of the city, we still have no car! And since this companionship usually has one (and public transportation is no good here), we are stuck to travelling on foot. Ughhhh. But we carry on. 
This week, we went on splits with the other elders here, and it was really good! Except for the fact that my temporary companion got me sick!
 
On Wednesday, we visited the family with the 2 girls who are getting baptized soon and we tried a cool object lesson that Mom sent. We had those cool beads that soak in water and become invisible. We somehow turned that into a lesson on faith. 
The next day, we helped the Humanitarian service senior couple. They did a project at an old folks home, and we translated for them. Afterwards, they gave us a ride to a member who we went to visit. The member fed us a HUGE, delicious lunch, then we did the same lesson and she loved it! 
We also have an investigator who suddenly started getting really interested in everything a lot more. He had to go to the hospital, so we popped in to visit him, and he had already read over half of the Book of Mormon! He has since finished reading it, and loves it. We are talking to him about how to apply what he reads and how to get his answer that it is true! He really wants to know that it's true! 
Saturday was the craaaziest day ever! We ran all over the place, and met with a ton of people pretty much on accident! Haha. We met with several new people, a few less new people, and members! I even ran into an investigator from Buda walking by the train station. 
It was just a crazy day. 

On Sunday, we met with a guy who has been inactive for about a year, and wants to come back! He is a really cool guy and it's so cool to see him willing to come back and change his life again!! 
We also got with a member that day and made pumpkin pie from scratch and it was amazing.
Highlight of monday- we were walking down the street and some girl stopped us. "How about a FREE HUG??!!" My comp and I were like, ehhhhh hmmmm.... and so she just grabbed both of us in a big hug and kissed both our cheeks like 15x. Then with a "Have a great day!" she left us. Haha. 
And this morning we went to a beautiful place called Pannonhalma with a member. We alked around the abbey/monastery/library and went to a bunch of other cool stuff. Yup. Super cool! 
So my comp and I are really good friends, and there are a ton of cool people here, so I am kind of bummed that I couldn't stay here (or at least go where Tamás lives). But I've heard good things about Veszprém too, and it is excited to know where I'll be till the end! YIKES!

As you can guess, I don't have much time, so that's about it. Here's whatever pictures I can load in 5 minutes. 
 Love,
elderrr mitch young
 




 1. Me and Goldy



2. Bucket of jelly bead things.




3. Us with some guy who let us in. He is super funny and likes to talk about conspiracy theories.



4. Hungarian statues are cool


5. Me and my comp at a place.



6. Where's Waldo?


September 15, 2014

Welll...............
We've had our fair share of 1. Interesting people, 2. Interesting missionary meetings, and 3. Interesting food.
Here are the weird and cool people we met this week:
Last week, we had splits, and the other 2 elders met some random teenage girl dancing like a maniac under a streetlight, and found out that she's actually super cool and knows a member! So we met with her in a park this week, and she really is pretty cool! While sitting in a park and talking, a little 6 year old kid came up to my companion. "Are you a security guard? Why are you here?" The answer wasn't good enough, so he changes the subject. "My dad has the exact same shoes as you... hmmm... yours are dirty and wrinkly." Then walked away. And that was that. 
The same day, a little 7 year old kid stopped us. "Who are you? My dad is a priest for ____ church (the kind that does fake miracles for money). He is really rich. Once I opened the glove compartment in his car and it was full of money." Then his dad rolls up in what looked like our old Honda, if you folks have ever seen that... we weren't sure what to believe.  Hmmmm....
The next day, a shirtless man with a pitchfork was standing on the street corner, asking everyone who walked by what time it was. When our turn came, it was about1:05. 
Also this week we were able to visit a really cool family who owns a delicious ice cream shop (you can just imagine how they got to know us so well). We had a super good program, and they fed us delicious food! And we are going baaaack this week too! 
Oh, speaking of food.... On Saturday and Sunday, we made a ton of food. Green eggs and ham is very good. It's like normal eggs and ham, with a little more salt and a smidgen of magic. Sunday morrning, we got up extra early and made a toooon of pancakes, because we made a pancake breakfast for investigators coming to church! It was super good, because we got some flakey people to come when they probably wouldn't have, and we fed some hungry church members as well. 
My friend Balázs also came from Buda for the day, so he got to join in as well! So the peaunt butter and syrup mix stuff was definitely put to good use! 
Later that day, we made lunch with Balázs, then right after lunch, we went to a members house to make dinner. It's something called Pörkölt, or I guess... a stew of sorts. I started cooking the chicken but apparently everything I did was wrong, so these Hungarians just laughed at my cooking. Ha. I wasn't so amused. 

As a last thought, we had some good missionary things as well. Zone Training  for one... then we had an apartment cleaning check. I don't get it... you can stay up all night cleaning, then some old person walks in your apartment and says "Gosh elders, you didn't clean anything at all!"
 
But its okay. We also went on splits with the APs, which was jolly good. 
This week, we found a bunch of new people who agreed to meet with us! I am excited to teach people. I love teaching the Gospel. It's better than tracting, which is actually pretty enjoyable nowadays. Hancey is good at making tracting fun, and our work is steadily improving. Or at least I hope so! Yay! 
Well, next week, I will email on Tuesday, and I will know where I will be for the rest of my mission! How trippy is that??? 

Love,
Elder Young
 1. Teaching some cool people.  


2. "Temple Square"




I'd send more but im sooo out of tiiiiimmmmmeeee

September 8, 2014

This was a nice, little week.
It all began with a haircut. My hair was really long, and I sought for someone to slice it off for me. Unfortunately, our investigator who normally does it for free (and well) was consistently unable to render her services. Then, another member offered to help... although she had never cut hair before. 
Seeing that the first thing I heard after she had finished the haircut included the words, "Oh, Elder Young... I'm so sorry!" I knew that this would be a wonderful self-confidence boost for the rest of the week. Let me tell you why. 
Elder H. and I have had a lot of time on our hands to look for people to teach. Now, I will be honest- I hate finding. Even after 22 months of missionary work, I will not get used to stopping people on the street or begging people to let me into their apartments. I realized that it really isn't talking to people that I hate though, but actually that I have just been caring too much about what people think of me. So my comp and I came up with a new motto to say before every person we talked to: "I don't give a (pause) what they think!" And it has worked really well so. So now I'm a weirdo with a shirt, tie, and a bad haircut who doesn't care what anyone thinks! 
One day, while streeting, some lady came and stopped us to tell us that we are doing everything all wrong. Did you know that if someone has a briefcase, two bags, nice clothes, or a child with them, they probably will not appreciate being stopped. But apparently if they are walking around all slowly, eating ice cream, or are chilling in a park, they are free game. Our new friend "has worked for years in every kind of job (except for prostitution) and knows how to deal with people." Before leaving, she wished us good luck because "we really need it." 
Oh well... we know which building she lives in (a friend walked by as we talked and she told her) and so we will go tract her building and visit her... because we don't give a what she thinks!
We had a meeting in Budapest, and once again, we learned what we are doing wrong. The only thing I don't like about all the missionary rules, is that there are always more rules that you don't know about... so when you spend 5000 forint on a gym pass, you know that the next day they're going to tell you that the 5 years ago the area presidency made an official announcement that gyms are a no no for missionaries. Oops. 
But we actually received a lot good instruction, and we will have our Zone Training this Thursday! 
Also, since we were in Budapest, we got our MAIL! Yay! Highlight of the month. I got a ton from Mom, and Dad and some other people, so it was really good! 
And since we don't have a car, Sister Smith was sooo nice and gave us a ride to our area (which means we didn't have to load 32 BoMs and all the mail for the zone onto a train). YES! 
We had a couple miracles this week too! 
There is a member here who is our neighbor, so we see her pretty often. She is working all the time, but also going to school, and has to pay for really expensive training for work as well. We met her at English Class, and afterwards she told us the news that after school and training and bills, she literally had no food for the month. She was scared, but kept saying that, "It will work out somehow." 
Then that night, she got a call from another workplace (she's a judge for rally car competitions sometimes) and there was some mess up in the system from a while ago, so they called her to tell her that she got more money than she thought she was. It was pretty cool!
 
Then on Saturday, we got to go back out to a member's house to cut and move wood. We went there a couple weeks ago with 2 members and the other elders, and there was a looot of work, and we didn't get near to finishing. This time, 10 guys from the elders quorum came with us! It went really well. We teach this lady because she is less- active, so it felt really good to see a service project go through so successfully that we had planned! 
Then on Sunday, we met with another member who challeged us to chess. He creamed me multiple times, so we had a lesson on humility... but it doesn't matter. I don't give a what he thinks. 
That's all the interesting stories I have time for. 

Szeresd 
Elder Young-ot

1. Making Lecsó for a church activity

2. Tracting


3. The mall closed down their dinosaur exhibit last week :(


4. Taking trains to Budapest... like an animal