Birthday Week!

Magda Elder in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall

June 22, 2013

To One and For All,

First things first. 

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday deeeeaaaaaarrrr Alishaaaaaaaa (last letter sung on a high note) Haaaapppppyy birthday......to you. Holy cow Alisha you're 17!! My woooorrrrrdddd that is crazy. This whole time thingy is really going by fast. You'll have to tell me next week how your birthday was and what you did. I wanna know! Fill me in on the details! I hope that your 17th birthday was awesome and, just think, next year I'll be home for your next one! Boom baby! By the way................Happy birthday (said in the Neville voice). :D 

Ok, now on to what's been happening here in this lovely Mission Office that is air conditioned. I'm not going to lie, it's probably the best part about being a secretary. Not saying that the other perks that come with it are bad, but it's definitely up there. The weather here has definitely turned itself around since the last storm that I told you about. It's ridiculously hot! Do you remember last year, all those emails I would send you telling you how hot it got? Well, it's back just like before. And for until Thursday there was no air conditioning in the Mission Office. It was a nightmare! We would come in and it felt like we were walking in to a big thick wall of utter heat! But now it's like heaven in here and we are certainly enjoying the time we have here in the office. SO, to answer some questions that you guys have, do I go out and proselyte? Yes. The office is open from 8:30 to 5-5:30 and there always has to be someone in the office during that time. In the office there are us, the elder secretary's, the Carpenters, who are the office couple, and president. The cool thing is that president has given us permission to leave the office around 3 o'clock so that we can go out and proselyte at least for some part of the day so that we can get some missionary work in. Sometimes we stay longer depending on how much office work we have to get in, but most of the time we can leave a little early and go out and work. And to another question, so far only elders are the only missionaries that can be secretaries. I've heard rumors that sisters may be able to become secretaries, but, those are only rumors. I am actually the guy who is in charge of mail. So, I will be the first one to get whatever you guys send me! Kewl, huh? The things that my position is in charge of, if I haven’t already said this last week, is that I make all of the temporary visas for the new elders and sisters that are coming into the country. For example, I have been working on Heather's visa packet so that she can be a legal person in the country. It's intense stuff! If ever I am to get a secretary job back at home, I will definitely have a little bit of experience. 

Speaking about Heather, she is finally here! It has been the kewlest reunion. I was able to get permission from president to give her a hug and when she walked into the mission home, both our faces lit up and we gave each other a huge hug. It was so kewl! Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of such a moment, but I promise that the next time I see her I will get one for you all. So her first day she was introduced to the Mission Home and she was taken with her group by the Assistants to see Gellért Hegy and Heroes Square. 

The next day she received her trainer, who is Sister Perkins! Do you remember her? She was a greeny in Pest when I was there in my 3rd. And now she's training! I'm getting so old in the mission! It's crazy! She will be serving in Debrecen, which is in the East of Hungary and is the second biggest city. I've only heard good things about it and I know for sure that she will love it. Two funny things that happened that day: First, before the new missionaries received their trainers, they were able to rest for a little bit while their trainers were being debriefed and their new roles as trainers. The elders in Heather's group were really chatty and we were able to talk to them for quite a while and get to know them. But Heather and the other two sisters from her group took a room, closed the door, laid down for a nap and they were OUT. Ha ha, they were absolutely exhausted with the jet lag and all. They slept for at least an hour and when president called them in to be given their new trainers, Heather walked out with her hair lookin’ all crazy and I told her 'Well don't you look perky' and she replied with 'Shhhhhh. Use your quiet voice. I'm still recovering.' She is still Heather, ha ha. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have her here. She's going to be tremendous. Oh, the second funny thing that happened. This one is for Ashleigh. Do you remember the EFY we went to in Logan, Utah? Do you remember the red haired guy? Guess what, he's serving here, too! He is in Heather's group and when I saw him I kept scratching my head trying to figure out where I know him from. I finally started asking him a few questions and he said that he was from Brigham City which led us to remembering that we were both at the same EFY and then I asked him if he knew you and he was like 'Yeah I do! You're her brother?' Small world, right? He is actually being trained by Elder Becker, my first junior companion. 

Lots of fun things are happening here in the beautiful country of Hungary. I actually have a really awesome story about a guy we found on Thursday. Elder Loveday and I had been streeting for a little bit and we had had no real success. We talked to a few people, but no one really wanted to give us their number or set up with us. After streeting for a while we headed back to the branch house for a program. I felt kind of bummed, because I had prayed that morning asking Heavenly Father to help us find one person that we could teach that day and I was really diligent in looking for someone new while we were streeting, but with no success. We got to the branch house and waited for our program when we got a call from them saying that they weren't going to be able to make it today: another little downer on our parade. But we figured that we could use that time to go out and find. As we were walking out the door of the branch house, a guy, around mid 20's, came up to us and said that he heard that there was an English class that we held and he wanted to know if he could join today. We told him that we did have one, but this week there would be a break. He immediately asked if he could meet with us personally and we responded with 'of course!' So we helped him with English for about a half hour and then we started talking to him a little bit about the Gospel. He said that he had heard about us and that he was interested in learning more about us and what we believe in. Throughout the whole program I could feel the Spirit confirming to me that this was the guy that the Lord had prepared for us and was the answer to my prayer. It was incredible! Also in bearing testimony of the Gospel, I felt the Spirit bear witness through me of the truthfulness of the Gospel. We were able to set up with him again for next week and both Elder Loveday and I were filled! We both knew that this was no coincidence. Prayer truly does work! The Lord does answer our prayers, even if we may see the request to be lofty. He has told us numerous amounts of times that all we have to do is ask in faith with sincerity of heart and he will answer. It's real! 

Alrighty, I am off to go do some fun! Thank you for the birthday wishes! This old man here is going out to play some basketball and probably break some sort of bone because of how old and frail I am (Don't worry mom, I won't break anything, I was just kidding :P). 

I love you all! And tell the puppies that I love them too! 

Sincerely, 

a legkirályabb/legtök jóbb  (The coolest/the rightest)

Magda Elder 

Hey, so we just got back from going to a museum here in Budapest called the House of Terror, which is a museum about Hungary during the Nazi and Communist reign. It was frightening! To learn and see some of the things that happened during the reign of these two totalitarian governments was quite the scare. But while I was there I got to take a few pictures of me in front of a chunk of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. 

Magda Elder and the Iron Curtain