Week 35: Going to....TATABANYA

I am living the big city to Tatabanya!!!

I will also be getting a new companion and his name is Elder North and he is going to be in his second transfer! I heard he is great! I am super stoked to see what happens next transfer! 

Not a lot happened this past week except transfer calls but Sunday was super awesome! It was perhaps one of my most favorite sacrament meetings! The spirit was strong and Szilmari Laszlo came to church! He looked like he was thinking about the messages that were given and the spirit felt! Unfortunately I won't be able to meet with him this week but I hope he continues to progress! 

Marton Laszlo had a fever when we met with him so he was not able to come to church but he said he really liked church last week and would like to come again! Luca and Lili are both doing super well! Both are active and going to church! 

On P-day we got to go to Buda and to check out the sights there! Super pretty! I am super grateful to have been able to serve in Kispest! I pray and hope our investigators will continue to progress towards baptism and I am grateful to have been able to teach them and help them! 

Most of my studies have been on Jesus Christ and his life and it has really been helping me appreciate His love and sacrifice a lot more! My faith in him is increasing and I am continually grateful for Him! 

Thank you for all the prayers and emails and I hope you all had a fantastic Easter!

Szivélyes Üdvözlettel,

Elder Ballard

You gotta get a Vegas kid with that sign!

The Easter market

SQUAD: I wasn't ready!

The sky showing it's colors!

Week 34: Kellemes Húsvéti Ünnepeket kivánok!

Happy upcoming Easter everyone!

AND, Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister Allyse who is turning the big 18 on Saturday! Super excited!! She is now legal! That is crazy! 

This week we had interviews on Monday so we didn't really do anything on P-day besides go to West End and buy some shoes for Elder Biesinger! Besides that this week was awesome! Luca got confirmed yesterday and there was a TON of people at church because of the Hungarian EFY but it was cool to have Luca confirmed and to have felt the spirit there! What was super awesome was that Marton Laszlo CAME TO CHURCH!!!! He called us after ward council and said he was across the street! So we went over there and walked to him and he stayed throughout all of sacrament meeting! He said it was great but we didn't have a lot of time to talk about it but we are meeting with him this week!

We also met with Luca's family and they are the funniest family! Luca is the oldest and she has all younger brothers! We hope her mom will be able to let them come to church at least once because they are so funny!

My spiritual thought comes from a story that happened yesterday! Yesterday we were doing look-ups and we went to this one area a little north of Kispest. The look-up was at this ghetto looking European apartment building. We walked around the building, windows smashed, trash everywhere, and we spoke to some people asking where the person was. We got into the building and it literally looked like an abandoned zombie building with broken doors. We knocked on this person's door and he was sitting there with his family! 

He remembered us and told us that he and his family had been praying for us to return because missionaries stopped going to their house for some weird reason! He talked a lot but we shared a spiritual thought about the power of the Book of Mormon and Eternal life! They are now investigating and we are meeting with them on Friday! 

I love this gospel and I love this church and I am super blessed and happy to be here! Thank you for all your prayers on my behalf and I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Ballard

Week 33: Luca's Baptism

We had a baptism!!!! Luca was baptized and it was a day I will surely remember for the rest of my life! Everything was perfect! The Young Women did a special musical number and it was super good! I played the piano and bishop baptized her! After the baptism Luca pulled all six of us (missionaries) aside and started crying and expressed the love she had for us for helping her! It was truly a touching moment! Although me and Elder Biesinger taught her, all six of us really helped her get to know the ward and make friends! After her baptism we all watched conference!

On P-day we got to go to an escape room! It was my first and we ended up beating it with 18 seconds remaining! It was so intense but super fun! 

General Conference was super awesome! My favorite talk was Elder Ronald A Rasband's talk about the spirit! I truly felt the spirit as he gave that talk and I know that this gospel is true and that this church is true! I am happy to serve here in Hungary and I love the people!

I hope you all have a fantastic and safe week and remember to apply the things you learned in conference into your daily lives for I know the Lord will bless you!

Lots of love,

Elder Ballard

Week 32: A Trip to the Castle on the Hill

Hi!

So.... on P-day we went to the coolest place ever... Visegrád!! There is a castle up on like this mountain that we hiked up and it was super cool! Super cool view and just a sweet European town north of Budapest! Super cool artifacts and everything! We went across the Danube to get there so it was a super cool adventure!

This week we helped prepare Luca for baptism! She said she wants to serve a mission which is super cool!! We talked about missionary work and service and she is super stoked! 

Super good news: Marton László is walking and standing!!!! The doctors took out his catheter and he is walking. We were going to meet with him on Friday and he lives in this community area. There were like 5 cop cars there and we called him to see what was up but he said everything was okay and he said to come in and as we were walking to the gate of this area to his house, he comes up to the gate walking towards us!!!! Me and Elder Biesinger were super shocked but super happy for him! Just last Monday he said his whole family was sick and everything was just horrible. We were praying for him throughout the whole week and now he is doing awesome!! The power of prayer is real!

On Saturday the missionaries in Buda held a Hip Hop night and it was super fun! We invited Luca and she came and we had Szilmari's son come too! He really loved it and now his is another new investigator! 

I love this experience as a missionary and I am so grateful for it! I love you all and thank you for everything!

Love, 

Elder Josh Ballard

Week 31: Luca is Getting Baptized!

Luca is the most prepared person everrrrrr!! We taught her everything in a matter of a week and she accepts it all! She has a ton of faith and she wants to be baptized on April first except this will not be an April fools joke...at least I hope. She is super awesome and a great example to me about faith! She had her baptismal interview on Saturday and we will be meeting with her for two more weeks before her baptism!

Szilmari Laszlo is also doing super well! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he accepted it super well! He said he will stop smoking and he asked if he needs to stop smoking in order to get baptized! So he is thinking about baptism, we just need to get him to church because he takes care of his mom. But if there is a will there is a way so we will be giving him a bap date this week.

On P-day we didn't do much because Parliament was closed so we went sight seeing at the downtown part of Pest. 

We also went on splits on Friday and I was with Elder Harris who was also at BYU when I was there so it was super fun! We went to Cspel which is this large island in the south part of Budapest. We were supposed to have a meeting with a Less Active but our member present was late so we went tracting. We were tracting and this guy in his 20s came up and we introduced ourselves and he was super interested in us, why we are here, and the gospel. We got his number and the other elders are meeting with him so that was super cool! The lesson that we had with the less active was super great! The spirit was super strong and Elder Harris assigned a scripture that previous missionaries assigned her a couple of months ago. We all thought it was super funny! There are no coincidences in the gospel! #splitmiracles

Anyways this week was super great and my faith in finding has increased! Thank you all so much and have a fantastic week!

Love, 

Elder Ballard

I thought this new 5000 forint bill was cool

Lunch Selfi

Pictures near Parliament

Splits with Elder Harris/the light bender.

Week 30: Our Now Golden Investigator

Soooooooo,

We met with Luca yesterday and she did something that I consider to be a major miracle: she asked us when she could be baptized!!! Me and Elder Biesinger were totally blown away! She has been doing stuff with the church that ACTIVE members don't usually do! She is super awesome and we are super blessed to help her to baptism! We told her to pray about a date when she would like to be baptized but it will definitely be this transfer! 

Our other investigators are doing super well! Veéskán János came to church yesterday and got to know some of the members and he expressed his desire to be baptized! We are meeting with him with Szabadkai elnök to determine a date and to see if he is able to be taught everything since he is a little mentally handicapped. Szilmari László is super awesome! He is super serious about deciding which church to join since he is meeting with the JW's and likes Buddhism but he agrees what we say and asks really good questions! I feel he will know soon! 

Marton László is struggling right now. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity but he has a problem with smoking so we have to help him with that. We are praying that he will be healthier and have the faith to overcome his addiction.

On P-day we went shopping because a lot of the museums were closed so that explains a lack of pics but ne félj! I will get some this week! Thank you for the prayers and I know the gospel is true and our Savior's atonement! I love you all and have a fantabulous week!!!!

Szeretettel,

Elder Ballard

When Elder Lowe likes to work out in Pros shoes!

Elder Blesinger LOVES the Area Book!

Making weird faces!

Week 29: The Golden Non-investigator (Yet)

So I will explain the title in just a bit but this past week was super fun!

We went to the Basilika on Monday with the other Elders and we had a blast! We got to see St. Istváns hand which looked gross but very interesting. They carry it around Budapest on one of the holidays I forgot. Apparently tomorrow is Nőnap (womens day) so that will be interesting but besides that we got to tour all of the Basilika and it was super cool seeing the super ancient architecture and traditions of different churches. The view on top was spectacular! I love serving in Budapest!

We have met with all our investigators this week! Marton László is still recovering from his surgery but we made some Snickerdoodles and told them it was American baked goods and they seemed to like that. He really wants to come to church but physically cannot so we will talk with some of the members to see if we can bring him the sacrament!

Luca is the golden non-investigator so the story is that she came to English class. We invited her to church and she has been to church for the past three times! She has done the indexing challenge and she is reading the Book of Mormon without us saying anything! We needed to have her sign a paper before we started meeting so that is why we haven't met with her yet. We will on Wednesday!

So I ran out of time but I love you all and thank you for the prayers!

Elder Josh Ballard