Why I'm Learning Hungarian
Sziasztok család és barátok! (Hello family and friends!)
Week 2 at the MTC was even better than the first! I've had so many wonderful spiritual experiences.
First of all, Hungarian is the most mind-blowing thing I've ever learned/done. We just finished the present tense. You'd think that this would be pretty straight forward. Nope. Each verb must be conjugated according to person, plurality, whether it is acting on a definite or indefinite object, whether the object is in the 2nd person, and vowel harmony (a weird Hungarian nuance that makes the language SUPER beautiful but VERY tricky). In French, to say "I like", you just take the verb stem and add the 1st person singular ending. In Hungarian, to say, "I like", you have to choose between 6 different endings depending on how you're using it in the sentence. Then to say "You like", you have to choose between 6 different verb endings. Then to say "He likes"..., etc. etc. We all have little pink grammar sheets full of present and past tense verb endings that we carry around with us everywhere because they are so hard to memorize. Our teacher, Rupard Nover, said that to learn an average foreign language, you have to make about 40,000 mistakes before you are fluent, but when you're learning Hungarian, you have to make around 80,000. Yikes. I feel like I've already made about one million mistakes and progress is about as quick and easy as passing a kidney stone.
So last week Fuchs Elder and I (along with all the other Hungarian learners) taught a woman 4 lessons about the gospel in tarzan Hungarian (we missionaries, God love you, Book of Mormon - read it?) Her name is Edít and we just assumed that she was a Hungarian living in Provo who decided to help out at the MTC. After our last lesson, our teacher dropped us off in a big room and said that she would go get our new teacher. And who do you think walked in? Edít!! Except it was not Edít, it was Sister Feil from West Valley, Utah who served a mission in Hungary and would now be teaching us! We were all sooo surprised. One of the Sisters in our zone almost fainted. We got undercover bossed so hard.
One of our teachers, Sellers Nővér, wrote on the board, "Why are you learning Hungarian? As many of you know, I was originally called to serve speaking Russian. I was so excited when I learned that. I was already interested in Russian, and I was so excited to see how Russian would help me in my professional career, after my mission. I remember joking to a few people, "I'm so excited to learn Russian, I'm kind of forgetting the fact that I'll be teaching people about the Gospel in it." I realize now that I should've had the exact opposite mindset.
Sellers Nővér said about learning Hungarian, "You're going to a tiny country. You're learning to speak one of the hardest languages that isn't going to help you at all after your mission. No one looks for Hungarian on a job application. You're probably never going to use it again after you're mission. So if you're not using it to better yourself, why are you learning it?"
I realized at that moment that I am learning Hungarian exclusively to serve God's children. It isn't a language like Russian that would open so many doors later on in an international career (as long as Putin keeps on being an absolute goon). I was looking entirely inward and acting selfishly when I was only excited about learning Russian because of how it would advance me. I'm so glad that my Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity to put my interests aside, to bury my self-promotion, and to dedicate these two years entirely to others. Serving God's children, becoming the Man of Christ, these are both things that demand 100% humility and looking outward. That's why I'm learning Hungarian.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I feel them all the time. Every day, I feel more and more empowered and enabled by Christ who has gone before us all and has dedicated 100% of His life and His time to you and me.
I love you all,
Martin Elder
Week 2 at the MTC was even better than the first! I've had so many wonderful spiritual experiences.
First of all, Hungarian is the most mind-blowing thing I've ever learned/done. We just finished the present tense. You'd think that this would be pretty straight forward. Nope. Each verb must be conjugated according to person, plurality, whether it is acting on a definite or indefinite object, whether the object is in the 2nd person, and vowel harmony (a weird Hungarian nuance that makes the language SUPER beautiful but VERY tricky). In French, to say "I like", you just take the verb stem and add the 1st person singular ending. In Hungarian, to say, "I like", you have to choose between 6 different endings depending on how you're using it in the sentence. Then to say "You like", you have to choose between 6 different verb endings. Then to say "He likes"..., etc. etc. We all have little pink grammar sheets full of present and past tense verb endings that we carry around with us everywhere because they are so hard to memorize. Our teacher, Rupard Nover, said that to learn an average foreign language, you have to make about 40,000 mistakes before you are fluent, but when you're learning Hungarian, you have to make around 80,000. Yikes. I feel like I've already made about one million mistakes and progress is about as quick and easy as passing a kidney stone.
So last week Fuchs Elder and I (along with all the other Hungarian learners) taught a woman 4 lessons about the gospel in tarzan Hungarian (we missionaries, God love you, Book of Mormon - read it?) Her name is Edít and we just assumed that she was a Hungarian living in Provo who decided to help out at the MTC. After our last lesson, our teacher dropped us off in a big room and said that she would go get our new teacher. And who do you think walked in? Edít!! Except it was not Edít, it was Sister Feil from West Valley, Utah who served a mission in Hungary and would now be teaching us! We were all sooo surprised. One of the Sisters in our zone almost fainted. We got undercover bossed so hard.
One of our teachers, Sellers Nővér, wrote on the board, "Why are you learning Hungarian? As many of you know, I was originally called to serve speaking Russian. I was so excited when I learned that. I was already interested in Russian, and I was so excited to see how Russian would help me in my professional career, after my mission. I remember joking to a few people, "I'm so excited to learn Russian, I'm kind of forgetting the fact that I'll be teaching people about the Gospel in it." I realize now that I should've had the exact opposite mindset.
Sellers Nővér said about learning Hungarian, "You're going to a tiny country. You're learning to speak one of the hardest languages that isn't going to help you at all after your mission. No one looks for Hungarian on a job application. You're probably never going to use it again after you're mission. So if you're not using it to better yourself, why are you learning it?"
I realized at that moment that I am learning Hungarian exclusively to serve God's children. It isn't a language like Russian that would open so many doors later on in an international career (as long as Putin keeps on being an absolute goon). I was looking entirely inward and acting selfishly when I was only excited about learning Russian because of how it would advance me. I'm so glad that my Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity to put my interests aside, to bury my self-promotion, and to dedicate these two years entirely to others. Serving God's children, becoming the Man of Christ, these are both things that demand 100% humility and looking outward. That's why I'm learning Hungarian.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I feel them all the time. Every day, I feel more and more empowered and enabled by Christ who has gone before us all and has dedicated 100% of His life and His time to you and me.
Martin Elder
What is the idea behind the title "Elder"?
ReplyDeleteCharlotte - Elder is an office of the Priesthood. Men in our church are given this office when they go on a mission. The authority to act in the name of God is called the priesthood. Some mistakenly think it gives one the power to tell other people what to do. What it actually means is that a person can act in God’s name in behalf of His church—like when we give someone power of attorney so they can act in their behalf. Here's a video to help explain the Priesthood https://youtu.be/X5U6EfH4zYg.
ReplyDelete