Sunday 30 October 2016

Week 6 in Buda

Hi,

Last Saturday, for our P-day, we climbed up Gellért Hill and enjoyed an awesome view of Budapest and the fall colours. Sunday was the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, so there were Hungarian flags all around the city.

We went to a hospital with a member on Wednesday to visit his aunt who had a broken leg. We talked with her and read some verses from the New Testament. It was a good service opportunity. Hospitals in Hungary are definitely much different from hospitals back home and this one was pretty old and low-tech.

Saturday 22 October 2016

Week 5 in Buda

Bonjour tout le monde!

Before I write about this week, I am going to backtrack a bit and give some more details about the choir performance of the Southern Utah Heritage Choir in Budapest that I forgot to write about last time. There were lots of Americans in the audience who were members if the church and after the presentation, they and the performers treated us like heroes. They shook our hands, hugged us, took pictures, and asked us lots of questions. I think that I got more hugs that day, than all the other hugs I have gotten so far on my mission haha.

On Sunday we went to a city southwest of Budapest called Érd to visit my grandma and uncle. It was an awesome visit and it was great to see them.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Week 4 in Buda

Hi all,

In the office I continued the usual office duties like preparing welcome packets for incoming missionaries or letters for missionaries going home, baptismal records, managing referrals, talking with landlords, translating for the Simkins (senior missionary couple), and doing miscellaneous small tasks.

District meeting went well. We talked about charity and love, the Book of Mormon, and did role plays. We also gave RM (returned missionary) advice to Elder Evans which was fun and had pizza afterwards.

Sunday 9 October 2016

Week 3 in Buda

 Hi,

This week was business as usual in the office. I mainly worked on making the packets for the incoming and departing missionaries. I also updated a ton of media referrals and called missionaries up who weren’t contacting theirs.

I really enjoyed General Conference. Before conference I wrote down a couple of questions and it was really neat when I received answers. My favourite talks were the ones given by President Nelson and Elder Yamashita. I liked how the messages were really direct and plain with a big focus on Jesus Christ. For district meeting our topic was conference and we did some role plays about prophets and apostles, and then had a discussion about what we liked in general conference.

Other than that, not too much happened. Here in the office, we don’t often go on wild adventures. But I do like it here. Monday will be Canadian Thanksgiving: we have nothing planned for that but I am sure we will eat something delicious that day.

All the best,

Elder Gonzalez

Saturday 1 October 2016

Week 2 in Buda

 Hello!

It was another busy week at the office. We had zone training, so for three days every missionary in Hungary came up to Budapest. Elder Nordberg gave an excellent presentation about our work in the office. There will be a Book of Mormon challenge for the members in Hungary. This will help the missionary efforts in the country a lot. There is a member here in the Buda ward who is a great example to all. He always carries a copy of the Book of Mormon so that he can share the message of the Restoration with others.

I met my friend Dallas (aka Elder Leavitt) at the conference and he's doing great. It was really cool to see him. A police officer came to zone training and talked about bicycle safety. He made it a really entertaining presentation, especially when talking about all the exceptions and how Hungarians don't follow the traffic rules.