Understanding the Atonement - 5-30-11

I always wanted that spirtual high mission. We have got a lot of finds lately, me playing the guitar and singing. hahaha so things are doing better. I have lost all sorts of awkwardness with people. I just walk up to people, or next to them, and just go for it. hahaha im going way outside of me lately. hahaha
oh yeah, i had a 2 hour long convo with a lady that thought that only by faith are we saved, the claim and save christian. She couldnt ever answer the faith without works it dead thing. Repentance is not one and done. I found out that the reason they think like that is because they really dont have a close relationship with our heavenly father, they think that he is just a puppet master, and that we spend the rest of our lives glorifying him and not actually progressing. I told her we can become like him. She called me a blasphemer. I said that the pharasies and scribes called Christ the same thing. She never answered why the apostles were given the priesthood. I think i am getting a small taste of what God feels, when His children dont accept it, even though he is all powerful. I can expain this gospel. Its all their choice. Its hard to deal with. Thats my biggest issue. Doesnt matter. Here they have choice. I can only invite them. But i want to be so convincing that they have no other choice but to believe like Ammon, thats what i want. i will never speak this language perfectly, sometimes people wont understand me.
I think the coolest thing about a mission is that its such an amazing opportunity for self purification. And understanding the Atonement, self purification isnt a sad thing like i thought it was before my mission. i kinda had a weird view before my mission. I think elders are sent here to be used, and humbled haha. I look around in the mission, these missionaries are kids with talent upon talent. I kinda get this feeling that we have to be a little bit more than the normal missionary, we have to play more roles, deal with more stuff, and use more of ourselves than most places. maybe thats just me. I hope in the end the Lord will be pleased with what i have done.

Thanks so much, you help me out soo much. You are amazing. i hope the snow melts??? WEIRD. I love you a lot. Thanks for everything. you are the best.

Love
Elder hansen

Being Blessed - 5-23-11

I am being blessed, my knowledge, my eyes are opened up wider every day. But i want to help other people. My mission means helping other people. Im not gonna lie, it doesnt quite mean everything yet. My mission exists for me to help others come closer to Christ through Baptism. Thats what MY mission means.
Hey i gotta go. Send DVD, send kool aid. Ok thanks. Thanks for helping me out. I gotta get going. Im just sitting here. doing nothing. I gotta go. I love you so much. You mean everything to me. Thanks for loving me too.

Hungarian Names in Manti Temple - 5-16-2011

Richard got a random call to go with the YM/YW to do baptisms for the dead in the Manti Temple. He was a witness as they began the baptisms. The names of the people seemed to have a lot of c's, z's, an s's. When they got through with that section Richard asked the officiator, "These sound like they could be Hungarian names?" The officiator said, "They are Hungarian." Bishop O'Donnal said, "He has a son on a mission in Hungary." The bishop also said this is really special thing that there is a connection with these people and having Trevor in Hungary and Richard just happened to be called to help. We wrote to Trev to tell him what had happened...

Trev's Response: "THAT IS SOO COOL! I got huge cold chills reading that! were there names like Zsuzsana, Zsolt, Istvan, Janos, Lajos, Gabor? those are pretty common names. thats soo cool!!!! They must be SUPER old names, thats the old way of spelling, i know that people who found those names! haha they do it in Pest. Vaczy is a common last name."

Family Skyping Hansen Elder - May 7, 2011

Blood of Israel... May 2, 2011

This (Buda) is a self sustained ward, it runs really good without the help of the missionaries. In Kaposvar, we played a bigger role. I live in Budapest. I live 200 yards away from the mission home. and i teach our programs in the mission home.
im glad tristen is doing scouts, that will be way good for him. when i get back im taking the boys out on a camp. Thats funny to hear about Kaia, haha wow, i cant believe its almost been a year since i have seen them.
Oh yeah, dad, remember when you told me to find the blood of Israel? i found one. hahahaha he is from Venezuela??? He actually kind of speaks Hungarian too, thats pretty rare. We have a program with him this week. im excited hahahahaha
i would love to have a Hungarian companion. hahaha hopefully i get one. I want to think in hungarian, i do sometimes, but i just want to be drowned in it. It would be exhausting at first but i would love it.
Well i love you sooo much, you help me soo much, you have no idea.
Love Elder Hansen

Kaposvár Stole My Heart... (email 4-26-11)

Ok, well.... yes, i dont want to leave kapos, the place that was so hard, has stolen my heart, i could stay here for the rest of my mission! We have Brownies and peanut butter cookies for the english class students..... Hungarians worship our desserts. hahahahaha especially brownies. ha. My new comp is an elder from Holland. We will be serving in Budapest, it will be an interesting transfer. He speaks english fine, his parents are almost english speakers. Im gonna try and turn both of our focuses on the work and the people.
Medveczky Elder, is the Hungarian who is going to Ogden. He is still in the MTC, will be for a while, he really cant quite speak english that well yet so they will keep him there till he passes.
Doin ok,. my legs are dead tired, from biking, hiking, (i have pictures just not today, remind me next week) My back is good no pain, but my left back strap is still huge, and tight all the way up my back. but doin good really.
Here, Easter is Sunday and Monday, EVERYTHING closes. We rode bikes in the evening, and the morning went on a hike with an eternal with who i am pretty good friends. It was the best P day ever!

Really, Really Cool Sunday... (email 4-18-11)

Hey Mom & Dad,
We are just getting ready to go to a program at 9.
We had a good Sunday, a really good Sunday. We had a baptism with the other Elders. Now we are a Tri-panionship because the Hungarian went to America (he will be in Ogden). So that went really good, he is a really good guy, got baptized really fast, a guy who just really, really cares about it. He will be a really good priesthood holder for us. We had a really good Sunday, we had 24 people there including missionaries there so it was a really, really, cool Sunday. We didn’t have too many at his baptism but we had a lot of people like investigators one eternal investigators who came. It was really good to see everything.
I also wanted to share something that was a huge revelation for me.... The reason the Law of Moses existed was to create equality. An eye for an eye. etc. if you killed, you got killed. it was fair. it was the only way to make their lives fair. to make up for their losses until someone came to take the inequalities of life upon him. Now he takes the pain more than we understand, and thats how our lives are fair now. it still makes me spin but i was reading in the old testament and it hit me. Thats why it was so "barbaric" that was the only was to make life fair. Now we forgive, he takes our sorrows, we share the burden, and now through him all losses will be made up in this life or the next.... this still blows my mind, but thats the exact reason. this life is meant to be joyful, but with inequalities, its impossible so there had to be a revenge, or now, a mediation.
I met with a really cool guy from English class. I called him up and said “We often meet with people separately and tell them why we are here, can we meet?” He said, (something in Hungarian?) “Naturally, like of course.” I was confused and wondered if he had like met with the elders like a bizillion times and just likes meeting with us? So we met with him and he is a doctor and we talk and he complimented me on my Hungarian which helped since I haven’t been feeling so well on it lately. He specifically complimented me on my grammar. He said if I could ever speak English as well as you speak Hungarian I would be fine. He said it is a miracle that you guys can learn Hungarian. He asked about our families and what you like to do. Then he came to the point, why did you want to meet with me? I said we like to help you with your English and wanted to talk to you about why we are here. He said, “Okay, alright, because your religion interests me, seriously. I’ve got a friend who lives in Australia and his wife is Mormon. This really interests me but you need to tell me how long we need to meet so we can do this right.” He has two little girls and a wife and he is super legit or “rendesh”. He has a job, he listens, he reads… That was really really nice. To me that was someone who cares.
We painted eggs at family home evening. (I think this was a branch activity…I could be wrong.)
Thanks for caring and listening, i miss you guys a lot, it’s hard being here especially with this, without anyone close to lean on. Thanks for your prayers. I got your letter Mom. Take care, i love you very much, ne felejtsétek el!

Haven't had Conference Yet...April 4

I know I will have a lot of emails about conference. Just so you know we will be lucky to see conference by next week. We are hoping we get the tapes soon and I am also hoping I will be able to download it from the internet to my Archos to use for study.
I got some bad news that one of our investigators is checking out another church. Tithing might be something that has her thinking twice, she is not in the best of financial situations. Another of our investigators is doing great and we plan to set a baptism date with him soon. Our Sportsnap this week did not work. We do not know if it is because they figured it would rain or what.

Sportsnap (Sports Day) - March 28, 2010

Saturday, March 26, 2011
We decided to do a bunch of flyers for a Sportsnap inviting people to come to play basketball, soccer and it says Come play with a couple of American players. We had only put up about 10 flyers before one of our investigators called and wanted to meet. We also told a few kids that we were going to start having a Sportsnap and to bring all their friends. Today we went and bought a soccer ball because we already had a couple of basketballs. We went there early today to make sure that people wouldn’t get there and leave. There was this one kid playing in the court next to us he reminded me a lot of Brock almost identical, the freckles , eyes and hair and he had his Toronto jersey on, really jazzed up, they really don’t do that here a lot. Then another person came then another person, then the other Elders came …then we had just groups of 2, 3, 4, here and there come. We ended up having 35 people come to this! We had 4 teams of 4 for basketball and they had a big soccer game going too. It is probably the most spectacular thing I have seen on my mission. I am just really really happy right now. I just called President to tell him how it went and I can just say he was excited and absolutely shocked that we had 35 people come to Sportsnap and we only talked to 4 people about this. I am in awe, I have never seen anything like this. I feel good, my back feels good. We are getting bikes sometime this week. I played pretty good and I threw the ball down 3 or 4 times…where the heck was this stuff when I was in high school? I have acquired a way to just get myself around and finish it. We have a basketball game to go to tonight. I love you guys a lot. Talk to you later.
Sunday night
We went to the basketball game and a lot of the kids who were at the Sportsnap. We actually taught a lesson to their coach and his wife when I first got here to Kaposvar. The little kids came over and sat by me, it was really cool to have some friends, we may just be planting seeds right now but whatever. We were there in our suits.
The doctor called me last night and encouraged me to work out…back lifts, work out, then back lifts again. My back feels pretty good, just sore muscles. No worries there.
I just got Allie’s letter. The mission office came to speak today in church and brought it. It was great to hear from her.
My comp is really awesome. He reminds me a lot of my cousin Ryan. He is just a really funny, really cool kid. We have our entire transfer written out on our window with dry erase markers. You can keep track of what we are doing. We are hoping to get into the schools and teach some English, get in touch with the mayor and have a service project that our branch can take part in and also get some tabling permission so that people will come up to us. It is impossible to street because people are in groups and just won’t talk to us. I hope these programs get things going, it would be really good. We have Zone Conference on Tuesday in Budapest.
I heard BYU lost. In fact, we talked to one of the basketball players, the one who’s a member and he told us what happened. Then the doctor that called me last night he wanted to talk to me about it… Did you hear about what happened to BYU, Jimmer Fredett and everything. BYU got a bad call and they were passing it in and the ref put it up at 4 seconds instead of 5 and that lost the game for them. I don’t know for sure. He called when I was asleep because of the time difference and I didn’t know what was happening, I was pretty out of it. He told me to start bending forward and backwards.
How’s the family? Jared, Jeff. Tyler how is he doing coming out of the rut. Angie? I keep expecting you to answer back, I feel like Jocelyn.
Love Ya!

March 21, 2011

National Holiday disrupts email day... 3-11-11

Koncert in Kaposvar .... March 6, 2011

A quick glimpse of beating the pavement advertising for an LDS Koncert. :) ...and it's not quite e-mail day without a snapshot of Trev at the McDonald's Cyber Cafe!

"Shooting Up Prayers..." Feb. 28, 2011

im better now that i know allie is doing better. Ive been kinda wiped out maybe because I've been fasting and I don't know... ive been pretty worried for LeBaron too. but if he feels she will be okay, she will be. im sure jameson is shooting up prayers in his togolic language, the hungarian tongue has added voice to our pleas. (Trev's district, MP and Sister Baughman have all been praying) And He is listening, and is answering. I just hope everything turns out okay with Allie, it's been on my mind like crazy and I've been really down since I found out. President called and said if you need to talk to someone just give me a call. I don't usually let someone call home for something like this but it seems that she is really close to you and your family. and she really is like my second mom growing up. I hope Trevor (Elder LeBaron)is comforted. We're praying for her, Hungarians are praying for her and people around the world are praying for her.
Marina Orme will be coming in at the next transfer, March 15 or 16. Oh ya, I forgot to tell you that last week we taught on the exact same thing on the exact same day. It was on Service, I taught on service and you (mom)taught on service. Pretty cool, however thousands of miles apart we are.
My companion has been sick. So I was just calling and inviting people to the activity. I had called everyone so I thought who else should i call? Started calling our contact list. There was this one guy we lost track of and I kept wondering, what the heck, why can't we get a hold of him. So I had this feeling that I should call him and that he would pick up. And I kept thinking to myself this is just going to bet one of those cool missionary stories, but sure enough I called him and he picked right up. He said, when are you coming my way, you coming today, you come tomorrow? I was just like, my companion is sick, tomorrow is not good but we can come on Monday. He said, alright! I was afraid he had dropped off the face of the earth. I guess he had just been working a lot and we had been calling at bad times. One of our ladies is still sick with an acute migraine... If you have any way to help with or fix that...? (sounds like she could use our prayers too!) The light and noise pounds her head. Our 20 something year old kid is really cool and going pretty good still. I've been cleaning ...it has been pretty boring with my comp sick. I started writing a song just randomly, the words just came to me, I have about 70% of the song on paper right now, it's about learning to depend on others for help. When it gets done I will send you a recording.
i think i gotta get going, i love you guys, im glad allie is doing good.

Very Blessed...It's a Gift - 2-21-11

its absolutely amazing. i am just loving my mission now. we dont get 35 people baptisms like jamer but i was talking to Dr Simenson, he asked how the work was going, he asked if there are any missionaries that dont get at least 1 baptism. he said that half the missionaries where he had just served a senior mission go home without getting a baptism. That was in england. we are doing alright according to me. Things are moving and i have been very very blessed to see this happen lately, its a gift, and nothing else. We have several investigators, they are all humble and will bless this ward in great ways.

The back thing is in my mind resolved, for real! the most simple thing that has been the greatest break-though in back pain treatment. I have been talking with the world's best, no lie, the number one, haha this is what it is. This solves it.

Thank You .... 2-14-11

Trev has been connected to a back doctor, Dr. Simonson, who was just finishing the end of his mission in Europe.
From Trev: Yeah, this doc knows whats up, 1 in 10 in the world. hahaha pretty lucky.... its just to push the disc back, it wont be this intense all the time
I had a cool experience while sitting at the sacrament table. I had the opportunity to thank Heavenly Father for the sacrifice of his son.
So i have a cool story, so today, we had a program at 11 so we did some work and took those hours earlier in the day so we could relax the rest of the day. so we went to our program before we got there we were waiting at the door of the building, a lady came by delivering food, its common here, take out delivery lunches, then she went in a minute later we did also, we pushed the elevator button, it came down, she was in it, it had pulled her back down on her way up. about a half an hour there. hit the elevator button. that same lady was on her way down. got her number, told her this wasnt an accident. Perfect timing. cool huh?along with that. the lady maybe wasn't that interested but there was a younger kid that took interest. hopefully we will meet with him later. yeah, the kid took an interest in the Book. i can see him changing, which doesnt seem apparent if you look at him, but i felt like he gave a crap haha if you know what i mean. some people are just like yeah, god.... great. i think the book called to him
we shopped for food already, most of our night will be making tortillas and stuff, thats right i can make homemade tortillas. and everything else. hahahaha you are gonna be pretty surprised when i get home what i can do., hahahaha we call that ÜGYES here... haha skilled/skillfull
Mom said, "We plan to have you feed us for the first month after you get home ... until you get a job, we will have you WorK for your KeeP! ;) So it sounds like Heavenly Father is still helping me by sending you good feelings and letting you know I love you... does he still let you feel it....? My Love to you?
Trevor said:I have felt it more lately than ever. I feel so close to you, and am so grateful for who you are. I have been blessed to see how blessed i am because of you. I love you too. Im on my way. I hope to bring more honor to you through the work i can do here. I dont want to be anywhere else in the world right now. I have to get going.

Wherefore didst thou fear... 2-7-11

We had a meeting with this one guy who asked us about receiving answers/inspiration. i told him about the time i gave amber a blessing. What i said and not even knowing the situation. I almost started to cry right there in the coffee shop, he was moved...
we could tell. he commended us for being such spiritual people at such a young age. he is a potential priesthood holder. potential branch President. no lie.this is a guy we have been meeting with lately.
i sure am. i talked with president friday on the phone. i felt down, i felt like the biggest burden with everything that had happened with me... and that were happening. he said i have no right to fear. and it took me right back to the MTC. i heard those exact words. its crazy how things work. i wrote in my journal that night, i do have purpose for being here. The Lord needs me to do something. And now the phrase "Wherefore didst thou fear" ring in my ears loud and clear. i am supposed to be here. for 2 years.
Paul is like one of my all time favorites. He knows how to throw down. Corinthians. Dang.
Hey! can you read more of Grandpas history to me?? I loved listening to that, i listened to it again last night... i really like just hearing about him. I wear his ties on the tough days, yours too, the ones you bought for me.
yeah, i actually just talked to a guy from Montana today at mcdonalds haha he was with a guy from Australia they were watching this horse riding bow shooting thing i talked to them about hunting and stuff cause they were in camo haha i told him i lived in utah, the montana guy said thats your problem.... haha anything happen with the population management yet??
yes i will be fine haha thanks mom, i love you so much, take care! enjoy DC!

The way the Lord needs it to be... 1-31-11

hey im staying. same comp. i have some
news... you will hear about it on my recording,
its about my back.... here we go again. Love ya,
elder Hansen

From the recording: Trev and his companion were teaching a guy and after as he stood up to leave the guy said to him… “Hey, look at me. I think your spine is crooked.” So he felt his spine and it is. His alignment is off. It was apparent to the guy so much that he could see it in Trev’s face. This made sense to Trev because he has felt that his recent back problem is different from what was going on in the MTC.

He wrote: Things are going okay here in Kaposvar we met with a few really cool people here lately. Nothing way exciting but things are starting to move and we got a really good referral which is extremely rare here in Hungary and to get a referral which actually goes somewhere, very rare. That lady is so ready she just needs some calm time and she is just in a really hard time in her life and she lives with her mom and daughter. Elder Swagger baptized the mom while he was there.
I would love to hear from the fam, nieces and nephews, Devin and Brett.
Everything will work out the way the Lord needs it to.
Love you guys!

It's all about love... January 24, 2011

How’s the snow doing? Is it melting now? Cause Coach Bowring rubbed it in pretty hard… Ya, so tell Devin to go get on my snowmobile or I will come home and it will blow up.
I guess I will give you a run down on what the branch is like here. We have like 7 people here. It is really small. We are trying to create unity and in order to do that we need to do fun activities so this is where your part comes in mom, because you are the activity master… the tevékenységek master. So you need to write me with some ideas something like we can do. Our situation is pretty limited. I am thinking of crafts or little hobbies like we could bring and have like a craft night. We could create Family Picture frames and do that and they could decorate it and stuff and take it home for their family, just stuff like that. We don’t have a gym obviously. But like any activity mom, just something that brings people together if you could help me out on that. The importance of coming to church is to take the Sacrament and to show Christ that you are thankful for the atonement. I talked about Love today in Sacrament Meeting… and it is the reason we do what we do. I talked about the thing that motivates us to do anything, our biggest motivation and our biggest motivation is our want. Ultimately everything is all about want. Everything we do and everything there is and nothing else can compare to our wants. That is why we do what we do. But on top of that there are things that govern our wants. I read a bunch of scriptures hoping that they would understand what my point was. And I read I Corinthians 13 the entire thing in Hungarian in their Bible which is almost an entirely different language. When the bible was translated here it was a different type of language so I would say 40% is completely different than the Language now. They use different conjugations, different verbs, verb buildings…constructions so like, Hungarians have a hard time understanding it because it has changed a lot over the years and I read that all by myself. But it was aimed that Love is our ultimate motivation. Love changes our want and love changes everything. We can want this and we can want that, is why we do stuff but if we love then it changes what we want. Ultimately love is just a want of everything that is good for me, for you, for everybody that is what true love is that is what true charity is. I have been thinking about that a lot. If you are doing something out of love then the spirit isn’t going to leave you. It is that simple, I have learned a lot. This whole transfer has been all about love for me like figuring out what love is. What it really is and how it really profits us. That is what I have learned so far especially this transfer. I am obedient, I do the things that are in the white handbook. Like I do my best to do my studies, I do this, I do that, but without love it doesn’t do a thing. Love first then everything else comes after that and that is basically what my Pres. told me. He basically said the only thing we are here to do is to love. And through that love we want their happiness and through that want for their happiness we preach the gospel and in order to preach the gospel better we need to stay closer to the spirit. And in order to stay closer to the spirit we have to follow these rules. And we have to do those things that will keep our minds focused on it. But above all, it is all about love. Love first and then everything else comes after that. And that is what I have really really learned and I am really thankful that I had the chance to learn that. And it has really impacted my life a lot. I just wanted to say I love you guys. I am really grateful for everything you do for me and all the prayers. I am so grateful for all the memories I have with you, especially up at the cabin. Enjoying those times, building it with you guys... that is a really fun place for our family and the memories we have and the memories we will make when I get back. Just don’t build too much I have got to be able to work on it. I think everything is a dream, I still think this whole mission thing is like a dream for me. It feels really surreal. I am going to let you get going. I love you a lot. Keep filling me in on what is happening there. Send me a picture of you guys on the snowmobile up at the cabin. That would be fun and let me know how that goes. Love you guys!

January 17, 2010 Email

Nothing real new. I did have a cool experience with this guy who is not our investigator but the other elders. He hunts, we see him on the street all the time. i showed him a bunch of hunting pictures and told him how our entire family is gung ho mighty hunter. he was all sorts of excited, hes like hey lets go eat, we gotta talk more hahaha but i came to email instead, and he came to english class, and started talking to me, and was like hey.... you wanna shoot something? i was like huh? haha he said yeah, the fox hunt is on right now, you wanna go huntin? hahahahah i explained to him that after, i would haha and that i really wanted to but yeah. hahahahey can you send me some good american recipes? a member wants a bunch.... recipes... desserts... just send whatever.... haha cakes, cookies especially, stuff like that. brownies, coconut bars, things of that nature.
Oh can you send me a picture of what our house used to look like. When it was blue?
Sunday was so great, i dont know why. Nothing special, out of the ordinary happened, it was just a happy day. Went to church. Me and another elder helped with primary, Pres gave us permission or even a commandment, that we help with the kids, take them out of sacrament whatever, haha and then, we went to a members house because this week was a special consecration week, where we just met with members, strengthened them, dug for referrals, and i held the lesson, it was just an awesome day. I was happy beyond anything i have ever been, i felt so lucky to be here with these people in that program, i still feel happy, just annoyed at my health.
we are gonna get going now. I love you soo much. thanks for putting up with me. things will go the way the Lord needs them to. im doing my best to help my back. so yeah, not much else i can do...
Take a few pictures for me. tell the bros and sis to write me! Tristen and Colby!!! do they exist?

Love ya. Keep being awesome!!!

Elder Hansen

ps there is a letter on its way with your names on it....

Confirmation... Jan. 10, 2011 email

hey mom and dad, i heard the snow
pounded the state? igaz? the baptism was
good, the confirmation was the spiritual part,
really cool. send pictures. LOVE YA!!!
(we received a package of letters in the mail, there was also a mini marathon program which Twila snatched right up and gave it her best to pronounce and read aloud…so I recorded it and we sent it to Trev)
wow.... nice try Twilla.... hahahahahahahahahahahahah i have actually heard that hungarian is thee hardest. but whatev. Hahahaha
The confirmation was the cool thing. me my comp, the branch pres, and his 1st couns, when he said, receive the Holy Ghost, its was crazy spiritual. wow. it was so cool. and Pres and Sis. Baughman happened to be talking in our branch that Sunday so it was way cool.
Ya i read Coach Bs letter.... why does it snow exactly when im not there????!?!?!?!!! Hahaha No snow here! Apparently we are having a quarrel or disagreement of sorts, but i can get it to come back! haha
I got your letter mom, thanks:) i needed it that day.... I finally made my cake last night hahaha i made snowmobile tracks in it :P hahaha Yeah, cakes bake amazing here though, the middle went so high up it almost touched the heating coil.... hahaha
haha you didnt get to see my new, hair cut. short as its ever been..... hahahahaha i cut most of it. we just use buzzers on the highest length haha and then another elder finished my sides and stufff. But right now, i dont have to worry about it.
hey send me some pics! haha yeah. so im just gonna go ahead and say, dont expect those packages i sent.... what do i do? rebuy somethings to send you?
ok, i just bought some wayy cool stuff in a hunting store a sweet forest poem on a slice of tree haha so ya hahaha i think i need to come home with a true hungarian hunting outfit hahahahaha Hunter green everything, robinhood hat, and yeah, you get the picture hahahaha, how is the basketball team doing???
Oh wait, jeffs stuff will get there, but i sent you guys' stuff when i was in Budapest, including the nieces and nephews bracelets... theyre gone. but jeffs is coming....
Has anyone else used the sled??? They better have with all the snow!
Umm i actually have a deal with an elder who just went home that when i get home we are going up there haha my comp is from washington state. oh yeah, me and elder nielson have a lot of plans for sledding and cabin and hunting trips.
hahaha im gonna get going and workout... that is if we have hot water.... hahaha having some trouble last night lost hot water, and the sink is leaking, but its a good thing i was raised the way i was, the shower has had problems forever with water leaking out so i went to a hardware store, bought silicone, sealed it up, used a hanger to smooth it out. slick. hahahaha
i love you guys so much, keep being awesome.

Baptism... Jan. 3, 2011 ...Kaposvar

well we had 2 super p day for new years so today is a work day except for email and shopping..... and just got done with lunch
Things are going good, we had a program with a lady that is getting baptized saturday. She set her bap date the first day i was here, its been a little less than a month that she has been an investigator, good lady, desires salvation.
Comp is good, i talked with him this morning, about my question, i still just keep asking myself involuntarily, i read in PMG about what the prophets have said about it, and the things i have heard just keep bugging me for some reason... if everyone gets a chance, why now? what IF someone rejects the gospel because of me, will they get another chance?
The "now" question, we have to do the things here on this earth, baptism, temple work, that is plain in the scriptures.
I honestly dont ask, or go looking for these questions... i just need to realize that this life plays a bigger role than we think, i have kinda thought, well, this life gets over, and when we look back it will be short, but we are here to be happy, and i thought, well, everyone can grind it out and deal with it, and so what , it doesnt matter in the big picture, but it does, we have to be happy, to us still, this life is long, but for some reason my view keeps looking at the bigger picture, missing the details that there is a here and a now and a reason for both. and thats just how it is.... after i searched and pondered this morning, i read my patriarichal blessing, this work has great eternal importance, we just cant comprehend how everything works exactly. and my patriarichal blessing kinda helped me feel what i needed to feel, there is a reason, to do this work, its all about love. and looking on this life as such a small thing is the opposite of what we should do... it has huge importance, much of which we are not able to see, but its there.
And ive also thought that maybe He gave me this question for something to be revealed to me. who knows? and at sometimes, i get scared that worrying about it or studying about it will be like "looking beyond the mark" But either way, i feel happy doing this, and i feel the spirit testify through me when i teach about the Gospel... There is something for me to learn, whatever it is.... im doing my best....
this is my little niche here, but at the same time i do kinda miss home, just being able to talk to you face to face and not be limited by letters and numbers in expressing myself... and yes, when i read my blessing, i felt the confirmation. Everything in it was something i wanted here on this earth and it made me realize that there is point to time here, like family, and friends. And moving on, the Gospel. We may not know the meaning of all things, but thats why we have faith, and the Holy Ghost
Pic explanation.... Me, on a train, from Budapest to Pécs.
some weird tree carving i saw when streeting.....
A 1950 chevy pick up. Like dads, only older and not blue.
me and the sweet shirt i bought plus my tag fits right on the pocket.... hahaha
I love you all, i have to get going, keep sending me pictures, and a voice recording would be awesome if at all possible.... i love you, thanks for all that you do and for the strength you are to me in my life and my mission....

Going to Kaposvár... Dec. 20, 2010

Well, Im going to Kaposvár its in the south west, with Elder Miller, i dont really know him but yeah. i am pretty excited actually about my new comp i know that he is a pretty straight kid... follows the rules, and is a really humble kid.... I think it (Kaposvár) is a little bit smaller town. We have to find some people who will stay strong to influence those around them.... that way, it can slowly spread.... but for now, we just gotta do some work, and do what we can.... This mission is an awesome place, i feel like its my own little mission that no one will ever experience, im excited....
It’s kinda like i tried to explain to one of our investigators... just because we are in the church doesnt guarantee simplicity, it doesnt always change the situation the way we want it to... it changes our perspective.... and even though its hard, there is this unexplainable joy that we receive from this knowledge even when we are outwardly unhappy..... nothing in life is easy, in fact nothing in life really is not hard.... but its all worth it, and you feel better when youre on the right path, even though your back hurts and you have to pack up for the 3rd time in 3 months. Nothing in life worth having or gaining is easy to get. Its like your just wandering in a dark world, no aim no goal. With this you still have the darkness and you fall but you get to see that light up ahead that you know that eventually, if you keep going on the path, the Savior will meet you and get you there with path He trod.
I get this picture, a mountian, we are at the bottom, Christ is at the top, He has already walked from where you were, we begin to walk forward, he begins walking down, sometimes the path gets a little tricky, we cant see Him, so we call out for help, we hear His voice, and continue, sometimes we fall, we get lost, He tells us how to get out of it, He's been there and sometimes we sit, but we get back up and we walk towards Him. Eventually, we meet, tired, worn and ready to collapse. He picks us up, he carries us like a lamb upon his shoulders bearing all that we are, with us, and takes us to the top. And we see it all, we look funny at the trials or the bushes that we tried to walk through, and we watch Him again start the journey to gather the rest.
Some good progress was made this last week... we got let in for the first time in Pest, we decided to try tracting, which is wayyyy hard in pest, and this kid talked and had a good program with him.... and streeted a guy who said he knew it wasnt by chance that we met.... it was cool to hear. i also got to partake in a blessing so yeah but that was cool haha
How is it there: Snow? what?

I will be back to Budapest on the 23rd for zone conference to get the packages to... have you got anything from me yet???! i have sent everything, and i have a few things left to send, but the bulk is out, (We asked him if there was anything he would like for Christmas or his birthday.) i havent thought of anything, oh a new spine.... my back has been killing me lately..... i still speak better than i understand though hahaha which is usually backwards... hahaha