Moving on to Pécs!

Yeah, it’s transfer week and I am going to be leaving my first city. It was super sad to say goodbye to a lot of people, and I am going to miss it a lot, but I am going to one of the coolest places in the mission! It’s a city called Pécs and it is just about the most beautiful city in Hungary. Seriously, look up pictures of it. It’s amazing. I’m actually opening a companionship with Elder Barbour, so we are going to have our work ahead of us, but I am way excited about it!!! Sad about leaving, but excited about the new opportunities ahead!!!

So this past week was great though. We had a ton of work, and things are really going awesome over here. First off, we met with the most amazing  person I have ever met. I can’t even describe it here, and I won’t try to, but basically he taught us for an hour. I dont think I’ve ever met someone with so much faith. It was undescribable, so I won’t.  So this is one of the biggest reasons that I am sad about leaving, is because we met one of the coolest people ever. His name is Roland. We got a call from a member in Pest the other day, and said there was this guy who wanted help turning his life around and coming back to the church (he is already a member). So this guy has been through it all. Seriously, he’s had more crap in his life than anyone I’ve met. He is 21 and lived in America for 15 years, so he speaks English better than he does Hungarian, which is nice. But he got into a lot of stuff that we don’t have to get into, but bottom line he was sent to prison in America. He was potentially facing 41 years in prison. He ended up moving around all the time, and spent about 2 years, and then got deported back to Hungary. He’s been living here for two years and he says his life is still down the toilet. So we have been meeting with him a lot this week and he’s seriously the coolest man I’ve ever met.  I've only known this fool for less than a week, but I swear he’s already like a brother. He is trying to quick smoking right now, and clean up his life so he can get a job and make something for himself. He’s also way talented at everything. Plays the piano ridiculously well, plays base guitar, draws, good at sports, smart and just an awesome dude. He’s working so hard to change his life and it’s seriously so amazing to see and help him. We’re gonna start him on a quit smoking program this week, so any prayers would be appreciated. This is why I love my mission, that I can make a difference in people lives like this. 
I also went on splits this week with one of my friends from the MTC, Elder Ady, so that was super fun. We’re both young here, so we actually had no idea what was happening or what people were talking about, but we had a lot of fun together.
I love this work and I love these people. Hope everything is great back home. Have a good week, if you’re in Maine, stay safe in the snow, and GO PATS!!!

Elder Dalton

Last week in Buda

Although I’m way out here in Hungary where football is practically unheard of, still gotta love the Patriots doing work and going to the Superbowl! We actually went and visited a part member family yesterday, and one of their boys watches American football, so we were talking to him a lot about the playoffs and stuff like that. Unfortunately, I won’t get to watch it, but will definitely be there in spirit!  I hope that the Pats win!!! I’d rather miss a championship season than a loosing one!!


So along with that, we had a super great week. We were totally packed with programs and work to do, we barely had time the whole week. It was super great though and things are going really well. Unfortunately, this upcoming week is potentially my last week in Buda, but that’s OK because the rest of the country is super beautiful and I would be excited to experience something new! The one thing is that in some other places, they have a different accent than in Budapest. So if it’s hard enough to understand people here, it is near impossible around the rest of the countryside. 

     Anyway, things are super awesome!!! We have a lot of great people that are doing well, and probably one of the best highlights of the week is with one of our recent converts, Molnár Balázs (I think I’ve talked about him before). So we have been visiting his family (his mom and her boyfriend) every week now and it is going super well ow! We go out there every Saturday and they absolutely love us. And last Saturday we went out, and had a big discussion with them about the gospel and they were really interested in it. Even Laci (the boyfriend) was asking tons of questions and he normally had said that he doesn’t foglalkozni (like, deal with) religious stuff. It was so great, and we talked for a long time, and the mom said that she will probably get baptized at some point, she just isn’t sure when yet. And Laci was super interested and we are so excited about them. We told them to pray about it this week so hopefully they will! Balázs is super excited about it too. The one down side is that I am going to have to leave soon, but hopefully they can keep progressing!!!

Other than that we’ve just been going hard. We also visited the Bishops family and had a great lesson with his non member daughter there and she actually listened! So we’re also way excited about all that! Today, we don’t really have any plans. Probably hang out with the other missionaries a little bit, have some programs later and we will see how things go. Excited/sad for my last week here in Buda! Hope it can be a good one! Love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Dalton Elder

Here is a video that Joey Erickson made of all the missionaries serving around the world  from the Bangor Maine Stake   https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204890264723753&set=vb.1453958441&type=2&theater

Week 25!

Things are going great out here!!!! Don't have a ton of time right now, but I'm loving it out here and we have been doing some amazing work! After Christmas, we lost a lot of people, but we spent time calling tons of people, and things are picking back up again. I also really like my new comp. We have a ton of fun together, but do a lot of great work too. 

First off, big news for the Hungary Budapest Mission! This week, they announced the new mission president who will be coming in next summer! His name is Szabadkai József and he is a Hungarian!!! This probably doesn't mean much to all of you but this is actually a really big deal. Hungary has never had a Hungarian mission president before, only Americans, but now with one, it means that the church in hungary is becoming more self sustainable. It is growing and it is so great to be a part of the growth. I am super excited to have a Hungarian as a mission president, because that means that almost all of our stuff is going to be in Hungarian. Meetings and interviews and stuff. It's going to be super sweet!!! 

Here's something else:

Quick cool story. So we were going through a huge list of inactives (there are millions out here) and just calling everybody in our area. There was one lady who we found that we felt like we should call, and then we looked on the list and she was on a list of people, who don't want to have any relationship with the church, and asked that people should not try an talk to them. But, we really wanted to call her, so yeah, we kind of ignored that. But it's amazing how people can change!!! We called her, and asked if we could help in anything, and she said that she had been praying for weeks for God to send somebody to her to help her in her life, and that we were the answer to her prayers. It was seriously the best feeling to reach out to someone in a time of need as one in God's service. I can promise you, that if you go about doing good for those around you and people in your life, you can be the answer to someone elses prayer. Even a simple gesture or smile can mean a lot. We don't know people's situations, only God does.

Along with that, things are going great. Still love it out here and love the people. Not any huge plans for the P day-70% off at H&M and a lot of other stores, so we are probably going to hit that up. 

One other thing that I almost forgot, this is for all of you back home in the Ellsworth branch or other members, but the leaders in Europe are doing a Europe wide missionary initiative. All they ask for us is to bring one friend and to find one ancestor. It's really not that hard and I encourage all of you to take this to and try and bring a friend! This gospel has blessed my life so much and I have seen it bless the lives of others. Don't be afraid to share what you believe, and people will respect it. I love you all and miss you lots!

Have a great week!
Elder Dalton

P.S. "The creepers still creepin" -Sis Dinehart

Happy New Year!

     Hey!!! Everything is going great!!! I really love my new companion, he is a super great guy and we've been doing a lot of  good work. He only has 5 months left, but he wants to work really hard to the end of his mission, which is a really great example for me. It is pretty weird having a new companion, and it was fun with Elder Robinson, but my companion is still great, so Im real excited about it!!! He does stuff a little bit differently, but I have already learned a lot from him and the work is going really well again. I could almost guarantee you that I will be moving at the transfer.   It will be super sad, because I love it here in the city, but I am also excited for something new and something different. I will probably end up going to some of the smaller branches and cities in the countryside and I'm actually pretty excited about it. Just hope I can keep getting good companions!!!        So I actually heard from a lot of friends back home, so I don't have time to write a big message to everyone, but I will just let you know a little bit of how things are going: This week has been great! Had the transfers like I said, and love serving with Elder Depallens. One thing that was interesting, is people went CRAZY before the New Years. We went to the grocery store, to try and buy food, and it was packed. We waited in line for about 30 minutes, and then when we were almost there. The cashier told us that everyone behind us, can't buy their stuff, even though the line extended through the whole store. People literally almost revolted, and after us, the cashier just got up and left, and there were probably 50 people in the line. There was almost a riot, I swear it was ridiculous. But also super funny.

For New Years we didn't really do anything exciting. We had the whole day off, so we played some soccer with the other missionaries, did some sight seeing, and then came back for a little New Years party at the ward. Then played some games with the other missionries. Lots of fun, but probably the most low key New Years I've ever had. Still lots of fun. 

Other than that, things are going super well. We're having a lot of fun out here, but it's gotten a lot col

der. The work is going great and Im loving it!  Not too much planned for today, probably just do some shopping and maybe play some basketball or something. Love you all lots! 
Have a great week!!!