March 18, 2013

Well, it seems like everything is getting very exciting at home for Lesa's homecoming! That's so crazy that she is already coming home!! I hope everything goes well for the homecoming and all that!! Hopefully everyone can make it over safely! Is the weather getting better? 

Well, this week has been pretty good! I've been able to speak more and we got fed almost every day this week!! 

So in our branch, there is an American family, with 10 kids!! The dad served his mission here 20 years ago, so he knows the language and everything. Well, last Monday night, we went to their house for dinner, and then taught them a lesson on the Armor of God, complete with a costume we brought for them (this is the 3rd time I've given this lesson to young families, haha). The kids were very excited to put on the Armor of God and we got to talk about what each thing meant. It was really fun!! I'll include a picture of it! 

On Friday, there was a big Hungarian holiday, so all the missionaries had an extended Pday. I had planned with my district to go up to a place called Esztergom, which is supposedly really cool. But there was a freak snowstorm that day, so we all just stayed in the mission home and played board games all day long! It was a little bit less exciting, but still pretty relaxing. Then I got to watch How to Train Your Dragon with some members of the district!

At church on Sunday, the Branch President asked me to become the new Young Men's teacher! But probably because the only Young Man in the branch is from that American family, and neither of us understands much of priesthood meeting anyway. But I wasn't completely sure where or when I was supposed to teach him, so during priesthood meeting, I was listening waaay harder than I normally ever would, and I understood almost the whole opening exercises until they kicked us out! Haha. 

And today, we were going to teach a man named Zoli, and Elder Judd told me to plan, prepare, and lead the whole lesson, which I hadn't done too much of since getting here. It was pretty exciting, and it was definitely good practice! And we committed him to start reading from the Book of Mormon a little bit each day, as well as attend a baptism. 

Well, there hasn't been too much excitement other than that! This is our last week of my 2nd transfer, so maybe I will be moving to a new area! It's possible, and I'm getting kind of excited if I do. I think I'm ready to move to a new area with lots of new people! We will see what happens! 

Yup, have a good week! 

Love, 

Elder Young

PS. And I guess when I messed up in that prayer last week, I actually said a pretty bad word... oops... the lady told me it meant "bottom." Haha. 

1. Armor of God lesson!

2. Snow storm

3. Double high jenga tower, on super pday!

1.Einstein Lego statue.

2.Just me

3. Judd with a giraffe lego statue 

1. I LOVE PMG!!!

2. Nice Hungarian field.

3. Darth Vader Lego

1. Rakott Krumpli

2. Eating szendvicsek

3. ...

March 11, 2013

Dear Family and whoever else you are,

Another week has gone by here in Hungary, therefore, 7 days have passed since my last email. This week hasn't been overly exciting or anything, but I definitely experienced some ups and downs ezen a héten. I met with the Mission President this week, and I also experienced my first real kind of embarrassing mistakes with the language. And, we only got on the wrong train once this week.

Well, to be specific- I had an interview with President Smith a few days ago, and had a few of the rules cleared up for me, and I found out that we are allowed to listen to any music that we want, as long as we feel that it doesn't take away from the Spirit. Also, we are allowed to watch 1 real movie (as in any movie) per transfer, which blew my mind! Haha. But we aren't supposed to email non-family members. The rules here are super strange, if you ask me, haha. 

Well, I do have 2 funny stories for you.

1. We were in a program with this guy, and were talking to him about prayer, and how it helps us through things we struggle with. At one point, I was asked to give an example from my life, so I decided to talk about the difficulty of the language. Then I tried to say that sometimes, I see other people learning faster than me, and compare myself to them, and feel like I'm behind or that I'm not progressing with the language. Then the investigator, Laci, kept asking me questions, and I kept trying to answer him, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. When I thought he was asking me who I compare myself to, I told him about a ton of elders who I know have been learning very quickly, like Elder Bracken (my trainer), Elder Judd (my current companion), etc.   

But after the program, my companion informed me that I pretty much told Laci that all those people compare me to other elders, and they all say that I'm dumb and slow and I'll never learn this language... so I pretty much made my trainer, companion and other friends look like jerks, haha. You know you're having trouble with the language when you can't even effectively explain that you're having trouble with the language... haha

2. I was saying a prayer with an investigator last night. I tried to say, "Köszönjük neked a barátságainkat (we thank you for our friendships)," but I actually said, "barátsegainkat," which kinda-sorta means "friend butts."

Well, that's it. I love you all! Good bye!

Elder Young

March 4, 2013

Well, I'm definitely not fluent, and probably won't be for a while. I've heard that most people figure things out in their 3rd or 4th transfer, and I am halfway through my 2nd. I do study my Hungarian scriptures from time to time, but I don't have any cheat sheets in mine! I'll need to get that from him, haha

So here's what's been happening this week-

Last week, Elder Judd and I went to Tesco (the equivalent to WalMart) and then to a dusty old thrift store, and I have never felt so at home until then! Haha. It was like me and Ian in the good old days.

On Wednesday, we had some free time, so we went tabling, which means we sat at a table covered in Book of Mormons and Free English Class flyers, and waited for people to come talk to us. And of course, only the crazies do! So this drunk guy comes up and looks at our pamphlets with pictures of Jesus on them, and starts to weep. Then he wanted to chat with us about stuff, and we were just waiting for him to bumble off. Then he introduced himself as István the King and explained why he had no crown, haha. Then he left.

An hour later, this same guy comes back, looks at the pictures of Jesus, and starts crying again. Then he took out about 5 dollars worth of Forint and put it on the table. We were all like, "Az nem kell! (Woah, thats not necessary!)" And he said, "Igen! Kell! (Yes! It's necessary!)" Why? "Mert Istvan MONDTA!!!! (Because Istvan SAID!!!)" Then His Highness walked off somewhere.

So we got free juice at the grocery store. The end.

Also, since this was my first full week in the new transfer, we have been able to get things more situated with some time after the awkward changes of getting a new senior companion. My new comp is a really cool guy, but it has also been pretty different adjusting to a different teaching style than Elder Bracken. To be honest, I don't really like the way that Elder Judd teaches, probably because compared to Bracken, he doesn't speak as well, or nearly as completely as I would like him to. I find myself speaking in lessons more, simply because I'm not satisfied with the way that Judd taught. 

One thing that drives me crazy is the fact that when we are speaking with someone who knows English, Judd will only talk in English, which means that I can't really practice, and the other person doesnt necessarily understand anything. But its all good. Today, we were teaching a guy like that, and towards the end, I decided to at least finish off the lesson in Hungarian, so I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and asked him to read every single day, all in Hungarian. It was really cool for me to be able to do that since I haven't been able to teach big segments of lessons very much!

Also, after that lesson and a couple others, a lot of our investigators have been telling me that they can see big improvements in my Hungarian! 

Well, thats about it. Have a good week everybody!!!

Love, 

Elder Young

February 25, 2013

So you say I will do great showing the area... haha... funny story. On Friday, my companion and I wanted to take a train from Budapest to Érd, where we live. We usually take one that goes in the direction of Székesfehérvár, a town about an hour away, and just get off on the Érd stop. But we actually got on the non-stop train, so we were trapped on the train for quite a while! But we did get to have dinner with the elders over there, so it was a pretty fun adventure. I just have no idea how to get anywhere, I guess, haha.

My new companion is a pretty cool guy too. Since my trainer was "promoted" to Zone Leader, I'm now with Elder Judd, who has been here since June or July. I'm pretty excited because he's newer, so I'll probably get more chance to speak and practice my Hungarian a lot more. Of course, its a little lame because on P-days, Bracken would always want to explore places and do cool things, and all Judd wants to do is play basketball! Yuck!

In terms of the missionary work here, things are going pretty well! It's hard since we have a new senior companion, its tough trying to set everything up because I don't speak well enough to plan with members and investigators, and nobody knows my companion yet, haha. We had pretty much all our appointments cancelled last week, and Judd got pretty sick for a couple days, so things have been going pretty slow. But we have been setting up with everyone this week, so hopefully the work will pick back up! I'm feeling optimistic about this transfer! 

Yup, nothing really too new has been going on here. I did cut my own hair for the first time, and my comp taught be how to make Rakott Krumpli, which might be the most delicious food of all time! So you can all be proud of me now. 

Well, I'm pretty much out of information to give and ask from you. Everything is going really well, and we're working hard! I'll add some pictures too.

Love,

Elder Young

1. There was a Farsang (like Halloween) party, and so Elder Judd and I went as each other.

2. Judd reading a large Valentine card

3. Chelsea Gehring sent me a Tie shaped letter, so I wore it

A weeks worth of milk, haha.

Martonvásár castle!

Beethoven statue

English class 

February 19, 2013

Hello. 

Sorry to freak anyone out by not emailing yesterday. This week is transfer week, so they wanted to change P-day to Tuesday just for this week. Speaking of transfers, my companion is being transferred, and will be a zone leader in Szeged! I'm worried because now I'm supposed to know all of our investigators better, and I'll have to know the way around everywhere! Haha. It will be fun! My new comp will be Elder Judd. I've heard he's cool, haha. We do the transfers tomorrow!

This week has been pretty good for me though. On Monday night, we invited one of our investigators to be baptized and he said yes! His baptism is scheduled for July 13! It's awesome, because the next day, this guy taught the lesson in the Institute class that we run! It's pretty exciting! 

Also, I had a whole conversation completely in Hungarian without Elder Bracken! It was really awesome! haha.

Another cool experience this week! One night, we decided to both pray and figure out a good place to spend a whole day tracting, and both came up with a town called Budaörs, where one of our favori... progressingest investigators lives. On the day we went, we went in a 10 story apartment building, and found like 4 interested people on the first floor we went to. Then a few hours later, I was really hungry, and wanted to go home to eat dinner, so Bracken elder promised me that we would do one more floor. But at the end of the floor, he said that he had a really good feeling about the next floor, so I reluctantly agreed to do one more floor. On this last level, we met a lady who wasnt too interested, but referred us to her friend downstairs, who, we found out, had met with the missionaries a long time ago and wanted to start meeting again! It was awesome!

Then like 2 days later, we found out the Budaörs isn't actually in our area, so we had to give up all those contacts, and Noémi, our awesome investigator! It was really sad. :(

Well, I have no more time. I'm doing well. I'm still alive. We have a lesson right now. Love you all! Bye!!

February 11, 2013

Hello!

I've been having a pretty good week here. Not too much has happened. This week, we held Érd's first Institute! I wouldn't know, but Bracken elder said that it went really well! We had 2 members and 2 investigators there, and there was some really good discussion going on with them, and they fed me chocolate, so I was cool with it.

We also started a second English class in another town, it has been exciting to have more people to teach! I have to teach my own class in our other one, so its nice to have a break from teaching alone! Haha

Also, I tried some of that famous cold cherry soup! It was really good!! And yesterday, I had some Rakott Krumpli for the first time, which was pretty dang good too!! Pretty much all the food here has been really good! 

One interesting thing did happen this week. We were tracting in a 10-story apartment building, meeting angry people, as usual. Then one lady out of nowhere invited us in to talk about religion. She was a very interesting person! I guess that she calls herself a ˝Spirit Warrior˝ and she has 2 angels at her command, and she goes about doing good in the world! It was a very interesting experience. I am excited to see how she reacts to the Gospel!

And today, we went to a place called Martonvásár, where there is a castle. It was really just a very large mansion, and it made me think of the Pemberly Estate in Pride and Prejudice, so you know it's pretty nice. You should probably google it. Also, there was a park on the grounds, with a Beethoven (pronounced Beeth-Oven) memorial, complete with a creepy statue of the man. We had quite the adventure today! 

Yes, that has been my week. Very, very exciting! Everything is pretty good, nothing too crazy has been happening... I still stink at the language... haha

Love you all!

Mitch