Happy new year

This has been one of my favorite Christmas' I can remember. But not for the same reasons. I already did my best of explaining how amazing the Bednars devotional was to you all. I really didnt do it justice though and Im not gonna try again hah. It was by far the most spiritual church related meeting I have ever been in. The moment Elder and Sister Bednar walked in the door with their grandchildren, you could literally feel the room fill up with I assume the spirit maybe angels.. ye never know hah! After I called you we watched a pretty weird Christmas Carol played by only 2 people but they had enough thespian spirit it made up for the lack of cast. Then David Archuleta came and sang a bunch of Christmas songs with that little frozen girl I think her name is Lexi Walker but I could be wrong. It was really good and the sisters were only a little bit out of control. It was amazing a ton else happened but my fingers are sore from four square so I wont be explaining anymore.

THE snow SOUNDS amazing. Dont send me pictures of it. Beans keeps telling me about how the snow in Maryland is better and how Maryland in and of itself is better the finale point usually being that they have fireflys and we dont. I enjoy the debates though. There is an elder in our district from arizona who really hates utah. Everything about it. But the cold especially. I have not seen him without thermals on at all. not once. He puts them on in the shower and takes them off when he goes to shower. So hungary should be really fun for him hah! The Albanians left Monday morning which was good but sad. We inherited all of their STAMPS which was exciting and are second in line for the worshiped fan which the Finns took. 

We lost over 600 missionaries monday and tuesday and they are dissolving almost 40 branches here. Including ours which is being reorganized to include the Huns, the Turks, the Dutch, and the Albanians. We luckily get to keep our same branch presidency though.

Fantastic devotionals this week in addition to the Bednars we had Amy and Christopher Randall who talked about how important how we see people is and about the importance of learning from your companions and it was really funny. We also had Elder mervyn? arnold and his wife of the Seventy who gave inspired messages on accessing the atonement daily. Taking responsability for our actions, and how important it is that we "Increase in Christ, and decrease in ourselves." and what that means John 3:30.

Yesterday we hosted and it was the best. I couldnt help but laugh while parents cried actually sobbed as their kids walked off with me hah. Now all the people I hosted think Im heartless hah. It was fun to think about when i got dropped off but I honestly cant remember any of it ive been so busy ever since. Hungarian is a pretty ugly language but pretty in its own eastern european way I guess. We (the huns) continue to dominate in Four Square and im pretty sure the Poles think were completely insane. Which makes perfect sense I guess.

I love you all. I pray for you all every day. Im so grateful for your support and testimonies. And I hope you have a fantastic begennning to the new year. Enjoy the snow for me. Heres a little part of my favorite talk I almost have completely memorized. I am so grateful for Christ for his example, his obedience in performing the atonement for Heveanly Father and for all of us. He loves us and know us on such a personal level we cannot fully comprehend it I love you all.

"Because the Atonement of Jesus Christ is very practical, you should apply it generously 24/7, for it never runs out. Embrace the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance as things that are to be welcomed and applied daily according to the Great Physician’s orders.Establish an attitude of ongoing, happy, joyful repentance by making it your lifestyle of choice. In doing so, beware of the temptation to procrastinate,and don’t expect the world to cheer you on. Keeping your eyes on the Savior, care more about what He thinks of you, and let the consequences follow. Spiritual confidence increases when you voluntarily and joyfully repent of sins, both small and great, in real time by applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ." -Elder Jorg Klebingat

-- 

Szeretettel,

Hughes Elder

this is the only picture anyone sent me and I look insane I thought it was our funny face picture but apparently not... My companions are the two in white t shirts. This was taken after a 5 hour block of language study and my eyes were stuck like that. its easy to go insane while studying hungarian.

Sok Seretettel.

Hughes Elder

boldog karácsonyt (merry christmas)

My advice to missionaries coming to the provo MTC: dont bother using the shallow bowls here for cereal-- instead use the cups they can fit way more cereal covered in chocolate milk. And eliminate a few trips back and forth from the cereal dispenser in result! Dont worry mom Im not obese or diabetic yet. + I have ran 3-5 miles every day Ive been here besides the two sundays, so it cancels out in my mind. After I run I go down and play four square which is super intense with our zone. Everyone plays and it gets pretty crazy haha... Ive gotten a lot better since I last played in fourth grade!

Our companionship has taught eight lessons since weve been here and last week our first investigator who was supposed to become our teacher after we were done teaching her came to talk to us and told us she was moving that day. I know it sounds silly but everyone in our district was super sad we all felt like we were best friends with her even though none of us had even talked to her in english. But we had spent several hours each day the past week and a half preparing short simple messages that didnt make sense, super simple testimonies, and tons of prayers. As she left she bore her testimony in ENGLISH it was so powerful and made us all almost cry hah-- she talked about making the most of our missions, how its our choice to let the Lord change us. It was inspiring and what I needed to hear in that moment. It made me so excited to think about the love Ill feel for an actual investigator I can share this gospel of happiness and peace with.

Sundays are a 'spiritually' exhausting day we begin by writing our talks for sacrament that morning then we watched Music and the Spoken ward, had a fantastic devotional by President and Sister Burgess who are incredible. Sister Burgess reminds me of mom she is so kind and makes time to talk to us a lot even though shes super busy (shes currently trying to memorize how to say Thank you in every language taught there-- its quite the feat). After the devotional we do a temple walk where we spend time with our branch presidency up next to the temple. We then have sacrament meeting and the spirit was again so strong as we sang the opening hymn in finnish, hungarian, albanian, indonesian, and english. Im sure it sounded terrible to anyone not singing but the spirit was too strong to notice it while we sang. Afterwards we had priesthood and a fantastic district discussion. Then we had choir practice where we sang He Sent his Son which was requested by the Brent Nielson of the seventy who gave a great   talk tuesday night. Exhausting but a different kind of  exhausting than the usual language days.

The rest of the week went well. It is obviously hard to get along with people 24/7 but I know that God hears prayers because he has answered so many of mine this week. Hungarian is complicated but I have held onto D&C 31:3 with my life and am exercising faith. I still love the MTC my district and most of my zone. Theyre great.

We had a great lesson monday we finally got one of our investigators to feel comfortable enough to say the closing prayer!! The spirit was there and probably felt it the strongest I have this entire two weeks here. We also got to practice steet contacting in hungarian in the snow yesterday so that was fun and super weird to have regular conversations in hungarian then quickly lead in to the gospel.

Ryan Eggett the choir director is amazing. Hes my favorite person here and has a story that gives meaning to every song we sing he is also super funny like Brian Regan which makes for a good break. Ive seen Ellis a ton this week I cant take pictures because I still dont have a charger for the camera but if youll send it Ill start sending some! I also saw President Facer Brother Dowling, Senora Petrie from third grade, and way too many other kids from high school hah.

I love you all a lot. I miss you but Im so grateful to represent Jesus Christ for 2 years. Ive been waiting for this my entire life and am trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God that God knows and LOVES each one of us and is waiting anxiously to send us love and comfort which is so real. Ive felt it a lot this week.

Sok Seretettel,

Hughes Elder

P.S Favorite piece of advice from our Hun teachers this week "If it sounds weird you're saying it right."

also tell dominik hi. I hope he didnt show up on the porch in a box again i would be so sad to have missed that.

December 17, 2015'

There's nothing more satisfying than laying down in my teeny tiny bunk bed in the MTC after working hard for 14 hours. A normal day starts at 6:30 at the latest. we shower and get ready then go to breakfast. I don't know why people complain about the mtc food they're clearly crazy. The MTC has a chocolate milk dispenser and tons of cereal so I think ill be fine for 9 weeks ha ha. Don't worry mom I don't eat cereal every morning. after breakfast we have staggered classes throughout the day 5 hour sessions usually making up 8-10 hours of language study that is mixed in with gospel study (still feels like language study since I don't speak Hungarian...) Our teachers haven't said one word in English yet and the fact that I can bear a simple testimony in Hungarian, pray, read some scriptures (don't understand what they mean at all but I can pronounce them) and also have memorized the missionary purpose in Hungarian is a MIRACLE! the gift of tongues is real and D&C 31:3 has single handedly got me through this week. 

Remember how I shared my fear of having a thespian companion at some point in my mission? well every. single. person. in my district is a passionate thespian but because we have shared some of the highest highs and the lowest lows we have grown so close. I love them each individually and like a normal family each person brings something completely new and enlightening to the group. Its made up of 7 elders. I'm in a trio with miller elder a lacrosse enthusiast hahah from Idaho who is fantastic and is on a mission the same reason as me. He has a strong testimony and strives to be exactly obedient. smith elder is my other companion who actually is beans from even stevens. not actually but looks exactly the same its so funny I learn something new about him every day that just makes me laugh usually to the point of tears. Our district is so close and unlike most districts in the MTC we do everything together walk to class, study, eat, and share our testimonies and thoughts every night the spirit is so strong all the time.

our branch presidency is fantastic we have the best president and counselors who come and visit us almost every night during the week to share inspirational messages and just talk. We write a talk every Sunday and 3 people in our zone get called up at random during sacrament to share it. I have 2 more weeks of English talks then ill be expected to write it in Hungarian!! crazy to think about.

The best part of the week was the opportunity that i got to participate in a priesthood blessing with one of my companions for a sister who was struggling a little bit. Im so grateful for the priesthood and the power that comes when you exercise it regularly and worthily. everyone  has told me that i will either hate or love the mtc just depends what you decide to do but at this point I cannot even justify pondering on all the negative things because the spirit is so strong its like studying in a temple at times.

The devotionals are incredible every sunday and tuesday we have one. The mens chorus at byu came and shared experiences and Christmas songs on sunday and again the spirit was so strong I know I sound like a goob saying that everyother sentence but im still in awe at what a special place this is! Our zone takes in the albanians who are nice and funny and the finns which we could probably do without but we love them anyways hah. Our tuesday devotional was by Lynn g Robbins and his wife who shared inspired messages on building spiritual reflexes so that we dont have to think what would christ do all the time and instead can live as he did because the way he led his life is truly the best example/miracle he performed.

Im in choir of course. because the thespian family im in now hah. And it is so great brother egget who worked with the mormon tabernacle choir is our directer and he has stories for every song we sing. Sorry this letter is all over the place but so is my mind so it actually makes perfect sense. I think my brain is slowly pushing out all the information i have taken in the past 18 years of my life to make room for hungarian so right now I cant actually speak english or hungarian fluently.

seretet,

hughes elder

(in hungarian the elder is after I dont know why yet but I really need to find out soon because every missionaries comes up and asks us.

Sorry for the grammer mom you dont have to capitalize the letters if you dont want to this keyboard is the worst part of the MTC!

Love you!

If you ever want to see what its like to speak hungarian instead of making a word plural by using an s try putting a k on. its hard then just throw a bunch of dots above random letters and throw in an unexplainable amount of z's. :)

My testimony has grown so much. I have felt the spirit almost constantly Im so grateful for all you guys support and help getting me where I am today. The church is true and it is so personal for everyone. Read your scriptures and thank your heveanly father for everthing all the time everyday because we have been given so much.

ELDER DALLIN HUGHES

HUN-BUD FEB 8 Box 65

2005 N 900 E

 Provo UT 84604

Dallin in the MTC

more goodbye pictures

Dallin's first letter:

The MTC is fantastic and basically like living in a prison/church. Our instructor hasn't spoken one word of english yet so that is fun. And I said my first prayer in Hungarian today. We just met our branch president and counselors they're fantastic and we had a good night with them. I am in a trio with Miller Elder who is from Idaho and is fantastic and Smith Elder who is from Maryland is one of the greatest I cant stop laughing whenever I see him cause he looks just like beans from Even Stevens.

Love,

Elder Hughes 

Dallin goes into the MTC

Guaranteed to make even the most stoic Hughes sibling cry.