Monday, August 31, 2015

August 31, 2015



Hey!


Not much time, had a crazy fast day today and no time to do anything but hurry around places haha. I'll be living in Kispest now! Got moved from Buda this morning, and we've been trying to get settled into the area and started with the work here today.


Not too much else to tell, that's for sure the biggest thing that happened this week.

Love you all lots! 
Kinnon






Found a running track here in Buda and was able to 
do a great workout with Elders Mellor and Dietrich! :)




















Last picture with Dietrich and Mellor....


















New area... Kispest!





Monday, August 24, 2015

August 24, 2015



So obviously, still not much time to email, and I didn't even get a chance to record a file for you all today, because we've been pretty busy this week. But hopefully the pictures I sent this week will help to show some of the cool things that we've seen this week!

We've had a great week of meeting with our friends here in Buda and helping them to become happier in their lives. We actually met a man on the train the other day, ran into him at another location on the metro, and then once more in a different location in town. He thought it was crazy that he'd seen us three times in one day because he was just in town for a few days for the holiday weekend, so he thought he'd take a little bit of time to check us out at church on Sunday. Turns out, he'd already met with the missionaries in Kaposvár, but never been to church there or done anything but learn in English class with them. He loved church and is now going to try to make it to church every week because he felt like it helped his week go better. Pretty cool how we meet some of the people that we do. :)

We had a MASSIVE storm come through Budapest earlier this week, and it was cloudy and rainy for the first half of the week or so. It's warmer and sunny again now, but umbrellas and raincoats were definitely used for a few days straight. There was so much rain that a massive sinkhole opened up on the Pest side that shut down the power to all of the metros in Budapest... Thousands of people were stuck where they were in the city until they could get that problem worked out. Pretty crazy.

That's the main news for the week so far. Other than that, just the normal missionary life here in Budapest! We've been having lots of fun working out every morning, we found a track close by our apartment where we've been doing some cool workouts. The other day, I clocked my half-mile at a 2:02, which is pretty okay considering I'm on a mission living on a college student's budget and with very little time to work out haha. That's fun:)

Hope y'all have a great week! Be happy and smile lots, go have some good adventures this week and find someone to help along the way. Talk to you more next week! :)










Szabadság Híd (Freedom Bridge)















At the top of the Gellért Hegy (Gellért's Mountain)

















View of Budapest from the top of Gellért Hegy

















View of Budapest from the Citadel fortress















Visited the small village of Szentendre for p-day
a few weeks ago, pretty little town outside of Budapest!















Took a random picture of the parliament while we were
out streeting, because we live in a pretty cool place













Remember that place called Gellért Mountain? 
This is the same place, taken from farther away













Sunset on the Duna River on August 20th, the largest holiday in Hungary. It's Szent Istven Napja, Saint Stephen's Day, when they celebrate the unification of Hungary. They set off some awesome fireworks over the city from Gellért Hegy, the Freedom Bridge, the Chain Bridge, the Buda Castle, and a few other places around the rivershore. We watched the fireworks with some really cool members on another bridge closer to our house. The following are also pictures of fireworks.















Wednesday, August 19, 2015

August 17, 2015

This week, Elder Priest didn't have time to email us, so he recorded a few short updates and sent them instead.

Elder Priest and his companion experienced a small miracle this week. They misplaced their cell phone on the train at some point and didn't know where to find it. After searching for a few hours, a good Samaritan on the train contacted them and delivered the phone back to the Elders, safe and sound. Elder Priest and his companion were able to use this opportunity to hand out a Book of Mormon with their handwritten testimonies inside to the man that returned the phone.

David, a new investigator in Buda, contacted Elder Priest and his companion and is currently interested in learning more about the Church. David has studied theology extensively and is fluent in 6 languages. Elder Priest and his companion have enjoyed the opportunity they've had to teach David more about the Gospel.

The missionaries took a break during the month of August from teaching English classes to investigators. It's been a little difficult, since this was one of the missionaries' main ways of finding people to teach, but it's allowed them to focus on finding others in the area that they wouldn't have found otherwise.

Kinnon accidentally ran over a cat this week with his bike, but fortunately both survived the incident.





Tuesday, August 11, 2015

August 10, 2015



Hey!

So wouldn't ya know it, I tried to use the new handy-dandy voice recorder to send more stuff in less time... and the file size is too big. Guess I'll have to split the recordings into separate files so that it's easier to send through email... guess most of the news will have to wait one more week... :P

But for the most part, other than that, we had an awesome week! Being in one small, old, broken apartment with three guys is a little bit intense, and we have a pretty long commute to get to the place where we do most of our missionary work, but I guess that's just the way that life generally works when you live in a big city like Budapest haha. Elder Mellor and Elder Dietrich are both awesome, and they've been super nice and willing to do running and training in the mornings for a little bit of time before we shower and get ready for the day. We've gone running, played basketball, American football, and lots of soccer (Hungary). We even found a little running track across the street from where we live! It's not a perfect oval, there's a few random turns in it. It's not a regulation 400m either, and there's only the one lane, but it's so much better than nothing! Pretty stoked about that! Tried it out with some new running shoes here and it was a good morning. :)

Church on Sunday was CRAZY. Buda is a fully functioning ward, so different than almost every other city in Hungary. There were probably about 100-120 of us at church on Sunday, and the building was packed. Unlike Nyíregyháza or Érd where we waited and waited for someone to want to learn about us, there were people coming to church curious about what our religion is. Such a different atmosphere, but that was cool to see.

Today for p-day, we went to see Gellért Hegy with the rest of our district here in Buda. The view from the top is the very best in the whole city, and it's a nice little fifteen minute hike to get to the statue at the peak. Lots of fun.

Elder Gonzalez, my trainer, is currently one of the secretaries of the mission right now, meaning that he works a lot with President Szabadkai and everyone else in the mission office. As a little joke this week, we found a printing shop and had them make a stamp that looks like those old-fashioned ones that you might find in an old courthouse somewhere or something... you know, the wooden ones that have a separate stamp pad and all? Anyways, we made him one that says "Secretary Gonzalez Approved" and stamped some papers with it in the office this week as a little prank for him. Then we gave him the stamp, and I think he liked it. It was fun. :)

Everyone that we've met with so far here in Buda has been really nice and friendly. Some of the people that we meet with live far away, and the transportation in Budapest is kind of a mess sometimes. Regardless, they're all really cool and they come from far away to meet with us and learn about the cool things that we believe in. Super awesome. :)

Oh, and I'm 19! Whoo hoo!! Not a little kid anymore!;) We had pretty much a regular day on Thursday, but we came home and I made homemade spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and basil that we found in the vegetable market here in town, and had some really good tortellini noodles with spaghetti sauce at home. Then, we celebrated with some sparkling cider (kind of like Martinelli's), and shared some Chick-o-sticks from America and traumatically scared our German friend, Dietrich, with a candy called "Cow Tails." He thought they were real for a second. :)

Other than that, the week was awesome! Hope you're all doing great still and that you're happy, healthy, and loving life. Have a great week, talk to you again soon!

Priest Elder



Wednesday, August 5, 2015

August 4, 2015

Hey, everyone!

Once again, not much time to email everything that happened this week, but hopefully that will get better soon as I try to get this new emailing thing situated out. Anyways, hope that some of the pictures that I sent and the captions that describe them can give y'all a little window into what's going on every day here.

We emailed today on Tuesday since tomorrow we have transfers again! I've got some packing to do tonight, as I'll be moving to Buda first thing tomorrow morning! Very sad to be leaving Érd already (this place is seriously the best), but I'm very excited to be moving into the big city! It'll be interesting living in a densely populated city of millions coming from the very small, outskirt town of Érd. That'll for sure be a change.

On top of that, I'll be serving with Elder Dietrich from my MTC group! It'll be so much fun since he's such a good kid and we get along super well. He's the missionary who came from Germany, so maybe we'll share some Spanish/German language lessons. It will also be interesting because we have a third elder, Elder Mallore, who will be serving with us as well! I've never met him before, but I'm sure that'll be great as well.

We had great, cool weather this week, which has been nice enough that Elder Roberts and I have gone running almost every morning this week. He usually rides his bike next to me while I run, which is so much fun because I get to run as fast as I want and he's able to keep right up. :)

Well, not a ton of time left on the clock, so we've gotta go. But I hope you all have a great week and that everything's going well for all of you back in Arizona or wherever in the US or abroad. Be good, be happy, and have an awesome week.:)


Priest Elder










It started to rain, the road got slippery. 
I tried to do a trick, and I fell on my butt.
















Found a dog who walks around carrying a
basket of dog food in its mouth! Super clever














Sport nap!















Papp Laci! Gonna miss him, he's such a nice guy. 
Always texts us the weather forecast for the 
day and wants to help us in any way possible.
















One last district photo before the transfers!
















Our awesome mission correlator here in Erd, Attila!















Poses














Memento Park
















Visited a garden today (Memento Park) full of old Russian statues from when Hungary was under communist rule... they've almost all been rounded up and positioned in one little garden, and we went to go take some pictures with the statues! Always running! ;)

















These things are huge