October 7, 2013

Hello family and family,

This week was fast, but good. On monday, a member took us over to a mini amusement park, and we rode some crazy bob sled rollercoaster ride. Apparently, it's "the fastest forest bob sled ride in Hungary." Then we spent the rest of our Pday to hang out at a little playground and crack a traditional Hungarian whip.

That was the beginning of a very fast week that ended on Friday. I woke up and knew it would be a very slow "weekend." For example, I got really excited that night, that like 6 baptisms had happened in one of my old areas... "I'm so glad that it's Saturday the 12th today!" I thought. Right before I called my old companion, however, I remembered that it was really Friday the 4th...
 It was pretty slow until General Conference. We basically missed the first and last sessions, but the rest of it we got to see in English! Yeah!! Very uplifting.

Also, early on in the week, I found a cool, real 4 leaf clover in a plastic keychain, and ever since then, I've felt about as lucky as I have the rest of my life. But I still carry it around with me wherever I go.

Well, I really have no other news, except that I'm still alive and safe, so I guess all of your prayers are still being answered! Haha.

The Church is true! 

Love,
mitch

September 30, 2013

My beloved readers,

This week was definitely way exciting! It really flew by!

Well, pretty much none of our investigators were able to meet this week, so we had a great week of looking for more people, and meeting with less active members. But on one day, when we did have two programs back-to-back, they both fed us to the brim. Also, I always tell people that I like to cook, and then they feed us. Then they invite us over for dinner another time to teach me how to make the food, so I guess I've got the system figured out.

The other day, after a ward activity, one member girl asked me and my companion for a blessing because she has been really sick. Right after the blessing, she said that she was feeling better, and the next day she was completely better!

Also, we teach a 10 year old boy and his mom. My first program with them, the mom told us that she didn't want to meet anymore, but the son kept coming to church every week by himself, so she would let us come visit him. Well, things have been getting progressively better. Last night, the mom told us about a question she had been thinking about, and she opened the Book of Mormon that morning to a short chapter that answered her question exactly! What more, by the end of the lesson, we extended a baptismal  challenge to both of them, and they accepted! Woo hoo!

Yeah, that's about the whole week. Yeah! So great! Today, we are going to some kind of adventure park with a member and the other elders to start off a great week! Woo!

Yup,

love,

mitch

1.) On splits. My temporary companion teaching someone German while I mess around with little kids.

September 16, 2013

Well, this week has been pretty good for us. Not too eventful or anything though. Our washing machine doesn't work. Last week, we had to take the laundry to the other elders apartment, but this week, we decided to try handwashing it in the tub. It's a pretty annoying chore! 

As for teaching, it seems like we've been meeting with an amazing amount of super old people. One super old lady offered us some watermelon, but wouldn't take no for an answer. Then, because she wasn't able to pick her watermelon off the floor, I had to take it to the kitchen for her. She asked how much we wanted. I said, "I just ate, so I don't want very much, but Elder McCurdy is very, very hungry, so he wants a looot of watermelon," and thus, Elder McCurdy had to eat lots and lots of watermelon, haha.

Last week, McCurdy set up with a lady who used to be an investigator like a year ago, but I had forgotten, so I also called her a few days later and tried to set up, and she was like, "Well, I already set up with you guys to meet at your building at 3 on Tuesday."

"Hmmm..." I said. "Couldn't have been us, we already have a program at 3 on Tuesday. Maybe the other elders set up with you. I guess we'll just find out on Tuesday..." Once I heard McCurdy's laughs, I realized how dumb I was. And I think the lady thought I was pretty dumb too, because she definitely did not show up at 3, haha.

One other lady we taught was pretty crazy. We were trying to teach her the Plan of Salvation, and she kept trying to change the subject to her conspiracy theories that Jews rule the world. Sometimes, I just want to yell at people like that, especially when it has exactly nothing to do with the lesson, haha. Yikes!

Other than that, we do have some cool investigators. There is Dani, who is a 10 year old kid. He lives with his single, bedridden mother, and comes to church by himself from the other side of town. He loves us and told me that he will come to church every week, and to activities, too. So he's pretty cool. It's hard to be able to teach him, but hopefully we will be able to help him be baptized sometime!

We also teach a super legit lady who accepted a baptismal date for the 2nd of November!

Also, from Pápa, my 2nd area, a total of 5 people are being baptized that I either found or taught the whole time I was there, and they are all being baptized on the same day-- October 12!

Yup, that's all I have.

Love,

mitch

PS. We have a cactus

September 9, 2013

Dear everyone who receives this message,

I am currently in a new city, called Miskolc (Meesh colts). My companion is Elder McCurdy, a good friend of mine from the MTC, which means that I am no longer a little junior companion!!! The language is coming, slowly but surely, and I have seen a lot of progress in just the last couple of weeks, which is pretty comforting. McCurdy is a super cool guy too, so we have a lot of fun together. Nothing really too exciting has happened though.

But I did realize that I have a reputation throughout the mission now. I am the guy "from Nebraska who likes bagels." When I meet new people, they're like, "Oh! You're the bagel guy!!!" Sometimes people know me as the guy "who gets három csibe (3 chicken burgers) every time he goes to McDonald's" too, but it's not as common. I'm so glad that everyone knows who I am now.

2 people I taught, a mother and daughter, are set to be baptized this Saturday! Then another guy I taught is getting baptized the following week!!! Wow! Things are happening!

That's it. Write/email or something.

Love,

Mitch

September 3, 2013

Looking back at the past week, it's hard to believe that it was only one week! Haha. The days are all long, but eventful.

Well, we were able to find a few good people to teach, and continue to keep teaching others.

 It wasn't too exciting of a week or anything though. Not really anything interesting happened, except one crazy tracting experience.

One day, while going door-to-door like usual, we saw a man approaching us from a house we knocked on like 10 minutes before. He was extremely angry, and yelled many things at us, including how he knows that we can't be servants of God because if we were, God wouldn't have allowed us to wake up his child and ruin their family's afternoon. He also knows we we worship Satan, because he's been to our church before, and there are no crosses.

He eventually left, but returned a couple minutes later (while we were having a conversation with someone else) with a Cross in one hand and a bottle of Holy Water in the other. He again loudly explained why we aren't Christians and why we are going to hell. Then he said, "Are you guys like the Jehova's Witnesses, who are afraid of Catholic Holy Water?!"

"No."

"Hmm... lucky for you... this time." Then he just stormed back home.

Follow up to the story: We saw this same man in the library where we are currently emailing! He was a lot more pleasant this time around... haha.

Yup, that was my week. I have no more time though, so I have to go.

But, I am getting transferred!! I'm going to a city called Miskolc in the NE corner of the country, with one of my buddies from the MTC!!! 10 week tranfer!!! It will be good!

K, great.

Love you!!!

Mitch

August 19, 2013

BOLDOG SZÜLI NAPOT, ANYUKA!!! Hope you are having a good birthday!! And hopefully you have a good cruise this week!!! Don't get attacked by pirates!

Well, it's really crazy to hear about everyone growing up. Poor Jason can't go to priests quorum, and is going off to BYU. And Clare is going back to Seminary where the rules are super strict!! And Jon's back and everyone else is on their mission or married. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Well, over here, nothing really crazy has happened. Each day I just kind of roll out of bed, go tracting, and come home to sleep. Sometimes I eat during the day, too, but I think that's it.

 I did go on splits on Wednesday, with a brand new missionary, and it was my first time being the "senior companion" for the day, so that was really fun! It was really weird when I would talk to someone on the street for like 15 minutes, and realize that I was the only missionary talking, haha. Pretty nuts!

 One day, while tracting, I was having a hard day, but we tracted into one guy and talked to him for like 10 minutes at the door. He wasn't interested at all, but his neighbor had the window open while watching Indiana Jones, so I got to hear the Indiana Jones theme music the whole time we spoke to the guy. Tender mercies!

 The other elder companionship in our city had a baptism, and at the baptism, some guy named Vince found out that I'm related to "Brimgah Yőng." He was so excited! He he gave me a biiiig hug, and on Sunday he brought his Book of Mormon, and asked me to "dedicate" it. I didn't know what that meant, so I just wrote, "To Vince: Elder Young. 2013. 08. 18." He was so happy! Haha.

 Also on Sunday, we met with this old lady who claims to have died once. Her dad accidentally threw a knife through her stomach. She also tried to make me drink wine. She is an interesting person, that is for sure.

 And lastly, I found out that Szombathely used to be an old Roman city, and there even used to be a Roman highway that runs right next to my apartment. Also, there is a big holiday (extra p-day for us!) tomorrow, and here, they turn it into a Roman festival! It will be interesting to see what it's like around here.

Yes, that was my week.

Much love,

mitch

PS.

Me climbing through the window when the key broke

View from my apartment

August 12, 2013

Dear Family,

It seems like you guys had a crazy time doing crazy things. Gotta love those crazy trips!

Well, I guess a few interesting things happened this week.

While we were tracting in an apartment building, some lady screamed at us for like 5 minutes, and was still screaming when we left, and we could even hear her screaming complaints to her neighbor on our way out the building. Why must they scream and yell!?! If they tell me to leave, I will leave! Haha. Of course, when we left the building, my companion got mad and rang her number on the machine before we left, just to make the lady mad. I guess neither action was really necessary, haha. It sure was a great start to the week, though!!

On Wednesday, we went on exchanges, and I went with a guy named Elder Vanderpool, and we had a really fun time. We made a game out of talking to people on the street, and we made real American pancakes w/ real maple syrup for dinner! 

Thursday, we had interviews with he mission president. He basically told me that my companion will be someone from my MTC group, but he also told me the same thing like 3 months ago... haha. We'll see, haha.

On Saturday, Moses and I were about to leave the apartment to start the day. We said our leaving prayer, then I turned the key, and... SNAP! Half the key just sorta broke off into the keyhole. We stared at the key, and then I just  laughed until I cried. Elder Moses didn't say anything or show any sort of emotion, which was pretty lame. Then we crawled out the window and started finding people.

Lastly, yesterday, in Sunday school, we had a teacher who had perhaps the biggest mustache I've ever seen. I drew a picture of it in my planner, haha.

Well, we have actually found quite a few people to teach this week!! For this week alone, we already have over 10 lessons set up! Also, at the beginning of the week, it was so hot! I heard that Thursday was the hottest day of the year. Luckily though, we've had a couple little storms, so things have cooled down quite a bit.

The coolest thing is seeing everything from my roof. We have a huge roof/patio thing with a pretty cool view of different big church buildings around. There is also some kind of orchestra house nearby, so at night, we can hear the music really well. Friday night had a really nice thunderstorm with trumpets playing in the background. It was so fantastic.

Yup, that was my week. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Mitch

July 15, 2013

Dear Család and Barátok,

This has been a very good week for us! Everything has been very eventful, but I forgot to bring my planner to the email place, so we'll see if I can remember some good things.

The best thing that happened was that we challenged 2 of our investigators to baptism, and they both accepted! One, the golden guy who had already met the elders in England, is scheduled for August 10th, and the other, a man who just needs to get married (and first needs to find some old divorce papers or something), is set for the 31st of August. Right now, our entire Zone has 5 baptismal dates scheduled, and by next week, if everything goes right, over half of those could be from Pápa, haha. It's kind of sad.

One thing that my companion and I have started doing is waving really big at random strangers just for fun. We will throw our arm way over our head and say hello to them and see their reactions. 

One day, we were on our way home for the night, talking about how fun it is to do things like that, when my companion decided to make one more wave at some lady in her backyard. She thought we knew her or something, so she yelled at us to come in, and we talked to her and everyone at her house for like 45 minutes, haha. They also have a huge concrete fence/wall thingy in their backyard, so I think the next time we go teach them, we will bring sidewalk chalk and draw the Plan of Salvation on it! Haha.

Well, there's my week. I hope you all have a good one yourselves. 

Love,

Mitch

July 1, 2013

Hello everybody,

This has definitely been a very good week here in Pápa! Last week was my first week with my new companion, and much of it was spent tracting and finding some interested people, and this week has been full of actually meeting and teaching many of them! 

One reason why I am so excited for new people to teach is because all the old people are really wearing me down, haha. A few people we have been teaching for a while love to just try and complain to us for an hour and blame everyone else for their problems, as if we can fix them. A lot of those old investigators are really getting on my nerves, and sometimes I just lose my patience!!!! Haha. 

Another problem I've encountered is the impulse to laugh during a lesson when something is funny.

In one program, the member we brought would always change the subject, and just talk and talk and talk about nothing, and whenever I would look at Elder Bebel, we would both crack up. At one point I had to pretend I had a bad cough and get a drink of water, haha. 

During another lesson (with a 22 year old member, teaching a 30 year old guy), I was not following the conversation, so I kind of spaced off for a few seconds. Then Bebel asked me to read "the verse," and I said, "Sure... which verse?" and everyone just busted up laughing for a good 10 minutes, and the investigator would have little random giggle fits every 2 minutes or so until we left, haha.

One really cool program we had was with one of our investigators, who loves the Baptist congregation here, and has been thinking of being baptized Baptist soon. So, while reading General Conference talks, just before we met with her this week, she had an extremely strong feeling that she needed to go to church, but didn't know WHICH church, haha. We had already planned on teaching her how to receive a testimony, and church attendance was the last thing she hadn't done already! She still wasn't sure if she would, but she actually ended up coming to Sacrament meeting this week (but left right at the end)! We will meet with her tomorrow and learn more about how the experience was for her.

And during sunday school, the Branch President gave a really cool lesson about missionary work, and made a raffle for all the members of the branch. Then he drew all the names, so one person was to have us over each week (he and his wife are the first 2 weeks... haha) and be prepared to give referrals to us (and possibly feed us)! 

He also gave us a branch roster, and we reviewed all the less active members and how we could help them back into activity. 

I think that the work in Pápa will be going really well in the near future! 

Either way, I'm definitely dead after this last week, haha.

Well, during the week, we've also had a lot of random little stories that I can't really fit here. Also, my camera works fine, but the computer can't recognize any files, so I can't send any pictures... :( 

Hopefully everyone has a good time at the family reunion! I hope it goes well! Safe travels!

Also, happy 4th of July! 

Love, 

Mitch

June 24, 2013

Dear family,

We had an awesome week this week!

On Tuesday, right after emailing, Elder Hatfield and I went on our bike ride to a mountain called Somló. It's super cool because this entire area of the country is and entirely flat farming country, then there's this random mountain in the middle of nowhere. 

Well, the mountain is about 25 km away, and we had some sketchy directions, so to make a long story short, we ended up spending half our trip there biking straight through a forest and some farmer's fields, as well as up the mountain itself. By the time we reached the castle ruins at the top, I was too dead to be able to enjoy it, so I just laid on the ground for most of it while my companion explored and had the time of his life! Haha.

We won't even talk about the trip home... in all, the excursion lasted about 7 hours, a few longer than we thought it would, haha. 

Wednesday was transfers, so I got my new companion, Elder Bebel. He came from Budapest, so he was used to having lessons all day and hardly having to actually go find people, and so I can just imagine how excited he was for several days of tracting this week.

  

Thursday, we started tracting, and the first two doors we knocked on gave us their numbers and asked us to come back and teach them next week. We had several more good experiences, and a few really funny ones, too. At our English class, a new couple came in and were more interested in learning about the Church than learning English. 

Friday was the same. In just a few hours of tracting, Bebel and I had more success finding than Hatfield and I had in the last 6 weeks! Haha. 

  

Saturday didn't bring the same success tracting, but we met with our "golden investigator" from England for a real lesson, and he is doing really well. I think we are going to challenge him to baptism when we meet him this week.  

Sunday was probably the most interesting day of the week. During church, one of our investigators had some kind of nervous breakdown during Elders Quorum, and began to argue and yell at everyone. He's fine now though.

  

  The most interesting part of the day though, was when we visited family of the guy who stole a car last week and wanted us to teach them the Word of God. They are very poor (they live in a tiny little shanty-town area) and they have a large yard full of junk everywhere, and their car is definitely hot-wired. They also have 5 little kids, all probably under the age of 9. (One thing we noticed, was that the only kid wearing shoes, also had no pants). It was really sad, but they are a really cool family. They liked what we taught them, and wanted us to come back, so maybe they can go somewhere! 

Yup, we had a very awesome, and very interesting week! Elder Bebel and I are getting along really well, and so things are all going well here! There was a lot of funny stuff that also happened that I can't fit here but we had a way good last few days. The computers also don't work very well here, so I will try to get pictures in, but no promises! Love you all! Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Young 

June 18, 2013

This has been a pretty momentous week. 

First of all, transfers are tomorrow, so we got our calls this morning. Elder Hatfield is leaving, and my new companion will be Elder Bebel, who is in the same group as Hatfield. Elder Hatfield is also going to Érd, where I just came from! Things are exciting!

I am now in my 5th transfer! Also, this last Friday marks one year since I got my mission call! 

Well, I few pretty cool things have happened this week. 

On Wednesday, we were biking home on a pretty narrow road, and a truck turned pretty quickly into our direction. My comp swerved out of the way, but the truck and I both had to slam our brakes when we saw each other, and I'm pretty sure I almost died. Then a bum that we see every day yelled at me from across the street. I only caught a few words. "Hey you...!! Accident....!!! Bycicle...!!!" 

On Thursday, we found ourselves in the ghetto part of town, so you know how nice everything must have been there. After some time, we headed back to the real town, and a very full little car pulled up next to us. The driver was a man, then there were 2 kids in the front seat, and his wife and like 3 more kids in the back seat.

"Hey, are you guys preaching the word of God?!" he asked.

"Why, yes we are." 

"Well, you should come over to our place sometime and teach us. I think it would be good for our family." After exchanging numbers, we were about to leave, when the guy gleefully exclaimed, "I just stole this car! Look!" and showed us that he had just hot-wired the car, before driving off into the sunset.
Maybe they do need the Gospel in their lives, haha. 

Saturday was the highlight of the week, I think. We biked over to a little village and went tracting for a few hours there. Eventually, we got to a nice little road at the end of the town, and found a nice little house with no doorbell, and the gate was locked. After joking about the person's dog being dead (normally all dogs come barking at the gate when we get there, but this one just layed there in the grass), we kept going. 

Getting to the other side of the street, we met a guy who was not interested, but said that his neighbor had just gotten back from England, and had met with the Mormons there. So he took us to the house and hollered at the guy, since there was no doorbell, and they took us in. Apparently our new friend doesn't even speak much English, so he didn't understand much from the elders, but had gone to church there, and at least had a Hungarian BoM (and is already halfway through).
We found out that this guy, Ferenc, just got back 2 days before we got there, and we were planning on tracting that street like a week before! Also, our branch is pretty low on priesthood holders, so that has been a focus of our prayers and fasting, to find potential priesthood holders. In this house, there lives Ferenc, who is 30, his 2 teenage brothers, and his dad. Hopefully something will come out of this miracle! 

And, by the way, Ferenc's dog is actually not dead. 

On Sunday, we made Paprikás Csirke, and it was delicious! 

And finally, today, we are going to bike to and maybe climb this random mountain, that may or may not have a castle on top. It will take over an hour to bike there and back, so hopefully it is worth all the effort!! 

I love you all! Thanks for all your love and support! 

Love,

Elder Young

June 10, 2013

Dear family, 

So this week has felt like a million years long. Tuesday was pretty rough. We challenged an investigator to baptism, and she got really uncomfortable, and it was much more awkward of a lesson than it should have been. Then we had another investigator just getting really excited about her questions, and was basically yelling at us, haha. We basically told her we can't feel the spirit when she does that, so we told her we'd talk next time, haha. 

On Wednesday, we had splits, so I missed out on an investigator teaching us how to make Paprikás Csirke!!! But I went to another town called Győr, and on the street, we saw a drunk guy with an inappropriate shirt on, a pacifier in his mouth, a big bottle of beer in one hand, and a really colorful bra in the other hand. He was hugging a big ice cream cone statue, then started dancing in the town square, before walking across the street, thriough the traffic, unharmed. It was probably one of the craziest sights I've seen yet, haha. 

Friday, one of our investigators said he'd be late, so we took advantage of our time and got some much needed ice cream. On the way back to the Branch House, we ran into a member who hadn't been to church in a long time (neither of us knew who he was), and he said he wanted to come back to church. How did we know? Indigestion? No... inspiration!

Other than that, we just went tracting this week. We meet a lot of funny people out there. 

"What's the most important thing in your life?" 

  "Health."

 "Hmmm... what about family?"

   "You can't enjoy your family if you're not healthy! And I'll never be healthy, so I'm just suffering and waiting to die now." 

Life here must be the greatest. 

Love you all! Thanks so much for the prayers and support! 

Love,

Elder Young

June 3, 2013

Dear family and friends,

Another week came and went. Nothing really exciting happened until Thursday, when we took a trip up to Budapest for interviews with the mission president! We started off our trip by spending the whole 2 hour train ride behind a huge group of loud, obnoxious Germans, which was really fun to listen to. 

The actual interviews were really good though, and President basically told me that since the mission is getting so much younger soon (a lot of older elders are going home, and we're getting about 30 new ones this summer), I will probably have to start serving with elders from my own group in the next month or 2. It will be exciting!  

I also got Jason's graduation invitation, which was pretty cool! I guess I missed the actual party though... darn...

On Friday, we met with an investigator who is reading through the Book of Mormon. He is in 2nd Nephi, and had expressed concerns that it was very hard to understand, and must not be a good translation. I explained to him that it's actually just as hard to understand in English, then I told him the joke about the guy who had a BoM in his shirt pocket and got shot, but was fine because the bullet never made it past 2nd Nephi, haha. I think it made him feel better.

Saturday, we taught the Plan of Salvation to one of our investigators. She thought it was really interesting, but could not get herself to even imagine that there could be a pre-existance. It made me really glad to have that kind of knowledge available to me since I was very little, because I never really thought of it as something that would be impossible! Hopefully she will be able to think and pray more about it and accept it! 

That night, we also ran into a guy who used to meet with the missionaries. He was a really big guy, wearing a shirt that said, "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll!" and he was pretty drunk. It was a pretty interesting, because most drunk people we meet are like 60, but he was our age, so we could actually talk about music and movies and other pop-culture things that the kids are into these days. For example, he asked if we liked Justin Bieber, and when we said no, he threw his hands in the air and yelled, "Yes! There is a god!" It was a fun little end to our day.

Well, Happy Birthday, Jason! I hope you got my letter! 

That's all I got this week. 

Love, 

Elder Young

May 27, 2013

Dear family and etc, 

This has been a good week, but it has been pretty short, since we just had P-day last Tuesday, on account of a holiday here last Monday. 

On Wednesday, we were Tabling at a bench on the sidewalk, and some police officers came up and asked us to leave, since apparently we need a permit to do that. They were really nice about it, but it's been kind of a hassle, since now we have to spend our entire days tracting, which is just the greatest! 

So, while tracting the next day, we knocked into this super duper old guy and his wife, and they let us in and so we tried talking to them. I'm pretty sure he was almost deaf, and he mumbled a lot so nobody could really understand each other, haha, but we asked if we could help them in any way, and he took us out into his huge garden and had us help him pick strawberries.

"This isn't for us, right?" "Neeeeeeem, of course not!" 

And then we went back inside, and he bagged the strawberries, and gave them  to us as a gift! Hurray! 

Speaking of food, we also have an investigator who is going to teach us how to make Pörkölt/Paprikás Csirke this week, so we are really excited for that! We also bought Rakott Krumpli ingredients, so we will make a big pan of that today as well. Not to mention, we got fed real Hungarian meals twice yesterday and it was amazing. We love our Hungarian food, and we'll be eating a lot of it this week! 

Other than that, we will go on splits with the Zone leaders, have interviews with President Smith (in Budapest!!!), and lots and lots of tracting this week! Hopefully the work will start to pick up more here in Pápa with all the finding time we get! Haha.

Well, I love you all! Have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Young

The old Strawberry man in his garden

The internet isnt working so well, so I dont think I'll be able to send my other pictures today, haha. 

May 7, 2013

This has been one heck of a week! Very busy and super long, but it has also been really good! 

Last Monday was my 6 month mark, so I may or may not have burned a tie on our balcony, which was pretty fun. 

On Tuesday last week, we met with a guy named Nándor from our English Class for the first time. I had given him a Book of Mormon almost a month ago, and so it was really cool when he agreed to meet with us. We started to teach him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and he had already looked up a bunch of stuff about the church on the internet, and so he pretty much knew the whole Restoration story pretty accurately, and had read some of his BoM too. After talking to him for a bit, we showed him Moroni 10:4,5 and asked if he would be baptized if he knew it was true. To our surprise, he told us that he already believed it and would like to be baptized! So we set the date for the beginning of July! It was an awesome lesson, and he came to stake conference with us on Sunday, too! 

Also, on Sunday night, we invited Nándor and Ricsi, our other investigator w/ a baptismal date, to make some Rakott Krumpli with us at the branch house. It was an awesome program, and the food was also very delicous! We have some really cool investigators! 

Going back to Wednesday, it was the Hungarian Labor Day, so Judd and I just made some cookies for our English classes (he teaches beginner and I teach intermediate) and we just had a fun day, which was super awesome! Haha. Allayna sent me some Reese's Pieces, so I made them with the cookies. 

It was kind of sad this week though, knowing that I would leave to another city, so all my programs this week were goodbye programs! I got pictures with a lot of our investigators and members (some for the 2nd time since I thought I'd leave last transfer too, haha). 

Today, I got my transfer call to move to a town called Pápa, in the West. My new companion is Elder Hatfield, who's been here since last August. I've heard he is a super cool guy and the area is really good, so I'm very excited! This will be a good transfer! 

It seems like things are going well at home! I'm glad the school year is finally getting over with for Clare, and Jason especially! And it sounds like there is a lot of music and scouts stuff going on! Dang! Jason better get that Eagle done quick, or he'll end up like me and Brent. I'm glad he is working on it, though. You go, Jason! 

That's crazy that Matt is already home! I remember when he was my AP for a week! Haha. I wish him good luck with adjusting to normal life and everything!

Well, that's all I have! Have a good week! 

Sok szeretet nélkül,

Elder Mitchell Young

April 29, 2013

Dear family and friends, 

Not too much exciting this week. I went on exchanges for a day to a place called Kis Pest, with a guy named Elder Peterson. We had a full day of lessons planned to teach, but they all fell through, and we just ended up tracting the whole day! It was great! We also went on the roofs of 10 story apartment buildings and explored, so it was pretty exciting! 

Then we went home, and burned some fries, so the whole apartment was filled with smoke!! 

On Tuesday, Elder Judd and I started to work out with Insanity again. I haven't done any exercise in a few months, so I have been pretty sore and tired every day.

Also, last week, I bought some new socks with all the days of the week on them. Now I will never forget! 

Lastly, the weather has finally been consistently warm every day, so everything is turning green and it always feels good outside!! 

That's all. Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Young in Hungary

April 22, 2013

Dear family,      

This has been a really good week. 

Last Monday, about 10 missionaries and I went up to a castle on a mountain called János Hegy, and it might be the highest point in Budapest. You could see forever around and it was pretty awesome! 

On Wednesday, I had an interview with the mission president. He told me that we doesn't want me in my greenie area anymore, because people who only know me as a greenie will slow my progress, because they will always think of me as the brand new kid who doesn't speak (which is very true, and really annoying sometimes). So I'm basically guaranteed to move to my 2nd area in 2 weeks! Yeah! 

On Thursday, we had a lesson that we wanted to watch the Restoration movie in, so we ran to the Branch House before hand and grabbed it really quick. It was a 15 language version... with no Hungarian, haha. I have no idea why it was there, but it just made for a funny start to the lesson, haha.

So there is an investigator family that we do a half english with the dad, then half gospel, and we meet with them twice a week. On Friday, we saw them, and the dad spent the whole English part talking about scifi books, and ancient Hungarian warriors, haha. He showed us book after book and explained all the history of Hungarian wars and stuff, haha. 

Then on Saturday, he took us over to a park and brought his huge traditional Hungarian bow and arrows, and we shot arrows in the woods, haha. It was super cool!! 

On Sunday, an investigator had us over to cook bacon and sausage over the fire. It was super delicious! You let the bacon fat drip onto bread until it becomes soggy and delicous. Man, it was the tastiest heart attack I've ever had!  

Then, after the appointment (at like 7) all the trains to Érd were super late, so after waiting like an hour and a half, we took a tram to Budapest to find a better train, only to discover that all trains to take us home were cancelled for no reason! There was literally no way to get home before 1am (it was about 10:30 by this time), and I didn't want to take like 4 buses to get all the way to Érd, haha! We were cold and exhausted, so we found some elders in Buda and crashed at their place last night and then took the train home this morning. It was ridiculous! 

Today, we didn't really do too much. We came back up to Pest to play basketball until everyone was starving, and then went to a delicous buffet and ate our hearts out! Now I am sleepy and emailing!

Well, that has been my week. Nothing too new or exciting, but very busy and fun! I'll try and send pictures. 

Love, 

Mitch