News From Hungary! vol. 31

Why was 6 afraid of 7?


Cause 7, 8, 9.
So yeah, the lengths of my transfers have changed. I don't really know why because the missionaries in the MTC still have to be there for nine weeks, and the reason for nine week transfers was so that the new missionaries would be arriving in Field at the same time that everyone got new areas and companions, but now the transfers are different. I think it is all so that they line up with the Romanian transfers but I really don't know why they are doing that either. But there is probably a reason. So, last transfer was 5 weeks, this transfer is 7 weeks, and next transfer will be 6 weeks. From then on the transfers should only be 6 weeks, but I am going to be home by then so I guess I won't get to see. *1

On a different topic, Chimney cakes are usually cooked over hot coals and usually don't have much of a filling. But I have had them both filled with ice cream, and with pudding. They are often coated with cinnamon sugar, but I have also had coconut, walnut, and something else, I forget what it was.  *2

"My Fresh European haircut"  *3

Sunday
We did a lot of tracting and found two pretty cool potential investigators. We intend to go back sometime and see if they will become new investigators.
I gave a talk in Church. I talked about love and Service. I spent all week thinking about that talk, and I said what I felt I needed to. It was a good talk, but afterwards there were so many more things that I wish I had thought of to say.

Saturday
I was on splits again out in Szolnok. It was kind of an unplanned split because we were traveling between Budapest and Debrecen, but the trains were running so late that we would have arrived home at 2:30 in the morning. So we stopped in Szolnok and stayed there for the night and most of Saturday. I got to see a baptism while there, and that was cool. Then we went home where I took a shower because I don't know if I have smelled worse in my lifetime.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Friday
We had a doctor's appointment for Elder Hess in Budapest, It was Scheduled for 7:00, but we didn't know that until we got their. We had previously thought that it was at 5:00 so we spent a lot more time in Budapest then we thought we would. On top of that we had to go to Szolnok for district meeting that day. So we ended up spending all of our time on a train or in Szolnok.

"Waiting for Elder Hess at the Clinic"

Thursday
We had weekly planning because we have been instructed to do weekly plannings on Thursdays now and to have District meeting on Fridays. So after weekly planning we went and met with some less active members. Both of them gave us some referrals! That is the first time ever that I have received a member referral! *4

Wednesday
This is the day when I emailed last. Umm, so after emailing we went and bought Elder Hess a new camera, then we actually had a game night here in Debrecen, we got two new investigators from it so that was pretty awesome.

Parliament Building

I don't know what else to say,
I will be sending some pictures. But in a separate email.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. It's coming up quick! I am excited for him to come home!

2. I found a recipe for chimney cakes last week and asked him about it.

3. I did ask him why he didn't send pics of the new haircut last week. Maybe it's because he looks kind of...  ?

4. Hooray!

News From Hungary! vol. 30

It occurs to me that if I'd been doing this all along we'd be up to volume 91, or something like that. But, in my defense, his emails before I started doing this weren't all that informative...

*1

Anyway: 

Woweee!

I am pooped. But that is because I have had a wonderful past few days that have made my last week just a fantastic experience. *2

The hardest day of the past week was really this Monday. St. Stephens day was really a huge pain in the butt for missionary work. And the worst part was that I really didn't get to participate in the Huge Nationwide Festival. There was music, and dancing, and a parade, light shows, firework shows, awesome food, and the list goes on. I was working every day of the Festival which lasted a week, and at the climax of the Festival, which was last Monday, no one wanted to talk to me at all. No one was at home, and everyone on the streets was too busy enjoying the Festival to really give us any attention. Thinking about it now I am actually really bummed out. Although at the time I was really just frustrated that I couldn't find anyone who wanted to hear about the gospel. It all looked like so much fun. I have to come back to this country next year so that I can participate next time. *3

Tuesday, Yesterday.
I met with my MCM Leader, and I had two lessons. The lessons were really good and I am super happy for the investigators out here. They are really progressing that it is quite amazing to see how the gospel has been affecting their lives. In fact, one of the investigators is a new investigator and he really only started meeting so that he could improve his English. We let him know that we use English classes for teaching English and we use private meetings for teaching about the gospel. So he decided to hear about the Gospel, and we talked a lot about families. Now he is super excited about family history work and we are going to use this as a lead into the Plan of Salvation.

Monday
It was Szent István napja (St. Stephens day) and no one wanted to talk to us. And we missed out on all of the fun, and the firework show kept us from sleeping until something like 12 o'clock.

Sunday
We had an investigator in Church. His name is Ádám and he is really one of our coolest investigators. He is also one of our newest investigators. He has been really prepared by other missionaries, actually in London, and he already prays and he has said that he will read the Book of Mormon. He has been coming to church for a while now, and I really think that he could be baptized really quickly, but we will see. We met with him today and we will be meeting with him again tomorrow.

Saturday
We finished doing a split in another city called Szolnok. It was pretty good and I helped the elders there to find and teach a new investigator.

Friday
We started our split in Szolnok, and I got to help teach a different investigator who is being baptised this Saturday.

Thursday
Just a lot of tracting. And I got a new haircut. I would have gotten it on Tuesday, but the hair place that we went to was a place where you need to make an appointment and the day was already filled out. But they did a really good job, and I have a European style hairdo now. *4

Wednesday
We met with one of our most progressing investigators. This man has come from a background that is really skeptical of religion, but since investigating he has said that he wants to make scripture study a regular part of his life, as well as prayer. He has even said that he would like to come to church sometime.

And last Tuesday was when I last emailed you all. Whew.

The hardest part of life right now is helping the Branch out here to pull their act together. There are some pretty scary things going on with them and I am doing all that I know how to to bring it to a halt and make this city a Zion in Hungary. I think that it can happen, and so while it is hard I refuse to give up.
Now I think that there were some questions asked so I will look at those. I do however remember that I was asked if I have had Chimney Cake, the answer is yes, and it is really good. I have had more than one kind as well. I don't know that I can say that it is my favorite dessert food out here, but it is among my favorites. *5

Helyes, yes, Boldog Szent István Napja is correct Hungarian. *6
I am indeed still serving with Elder Hess. This means that For about a fourth of my mission I will have been serving with him.
St. Stephen's Day is basically the Hungarian 4th of July. It is a huge holliday, and everything shuts down for it. Not a single store is open. The only businesses are food stands, restaurants, and Ice cream stands.

*7

I think that that is all for now. If I remember anything I will see if I can tell you about it.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. This picture has nothing to do with this email; it is from June of last year. But it's one I'd never seen before yesterday. I was searching google drive for something else, and found a few pics from Brandon!

2.I'm glad it's been a good week! Prayer works. :-)

3. When he goes back next year, I hope he takes me with him!

4. Seriously? He tells us all about his new haircut and doesn't send a single picture?!

5. I don't know why, but I chanced to come across a recipe for Hungarian Chimney Cakes last week, so I asked him about it. Now I'll have to try to make some.

6. Bruce sends him little lines in Hungarian, translated from English by google. So far they've all been OK. (But when I first glanced over "Helyes" it looked like Brandon had said something inappropriate! Actually helyes just means "correct." According to google translate. And, in case you're wondering, "Boldog Szent István Napja" means Happy St. Stephens Day.)

7. Another picture I'd never seen before, that has nothing to do with this email, from last January. I'm glad I found these!

News From Hungary! vol. 29

Let's just get right into it, shall we?

A wooden mole, which we found in this big nature park called, "A Nagy Érdő" Which translated would be, The Big forest.

Hú Ha *1

I am tired. But the work out here is going great.
Don't really know what to say but here is my week.

Monday
I went chalking again, we made a really simple thing this time, not like the hopscotch we made last time, but it was still pretty good. Then afterwards we went to a town called Hajduszoboszló, our goal was to find an inactive member, but we weren't able to contact them, but we did find their house.

Sunday
We only had a Sacrament meeting because there is some kind of construction going on with the Church Building. After Sacrament meeting we participated in the self-reliance program. And afterwards we went and did a lot of area book work. We spent hours trying to find out where the members in the Branch live, and then planning on how we will work with them to both find investigators, and to help them be more active.

Saturday
We did a lot of Tracting, and found a new investigator. Her name is Éva. She is an older woman who seems to live on her own. She wasn't going to talk to us all that much, but when we offered her service even going as far as to say that we would cook dinner for her, she laughed and let us in. (And yes, we are going to bring her dinner) Éva hurt her arm really badly a while ago and ever since she has been pretty handicapped in most daily activities, it will get better though, but in the meantime she can't really do a whole lot, and the health care out here is really bad, and even dangerous, so all she can do is set her arm in a sling and hope that it will all turn out right. It looks pretty bad, and as far as she knows nothing is too broken, or so bad that it won't heal. But it is pretty bad. Anyway we had a long conversation with her, and we were able to teach a bit about the gospel.

The Dinner I made a couple of nights ago.
(I'm pretty sure this is what he made for himself
and Elder Hess, not Éva.)

Friday
We did our weekly planning, and then did some look ups. That is really all that happened there.

Thursday
We had District meeting here in Debrecen this time, rather than going to Nyíregyháza, it was good. I was glad that I did not need to travel a whole lot this last week, at least for district meeting anyway.

Wednesday
I finished splits in Nyíregyháza, then I went to Miskolc for interviews with President Hettinger. The interview was awesome, and I am very glad to be working with him as my mission President. He has been a huge help to me, especially as far as the member missionary work here in Debrecen goes.

Tuesday
We started our split in Nyíregyháza, I served with Elder Gilson for the duration of the Split, for those of you who don't know, Elder Gilson was my companion forever ago in Veszprém, I love that man to death, (same for all of my companions really) and getting to serve with him again now was really special.

There was a transfer. But, I am staying here with Elder Hess. Same City, Same Companion. Please pray for us as the work here in Debrecen is really big and hard. Elder Hess and I have been pretty discouraged, and without fresh eyes on the situation I feel that we are going to need your love and support more than ever. *3

I love you all!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Hú Ha translates to "Wow"

2. Haha! He is his mother's child!
I think this must be the famous "Man Log" that I've heard about from Brandon, and from the moms of a couple of his companions. This one looks like a man, man-log. Or a woman? It kind of looks like a clown to me. :-)

3. Please remember to pray for Brandon and Elder Hess. Even better, send them a note of encouragement!

Elder Brandon North

Budapest

Hajnóczy u. 14.

1122

HUNGARY

Or at least email him at:   brandon.north@myldsmail.net

Our First Wedding!

Well, not Bruce's or my first wedding, but the first of our kids to get married! Jason and Adreanna's wedding was on August 10, 2018. Yay!

Jason and Adreanna got engaged on May 28, and then all the fun started...

Clear back when I finished school I told my kids that I would make their (or their fiancee's) wedding dresses. So the offer was open to Adreanna. She and Jason were here in Vernal when he proposed, so I measured her that weekend. It only took two trips to Gunnison (about 460 miles, for each round-trip) to decide that I'd made a pattern that fit, and had a design that Adreanna liked. The real work of the dress started almost as soon as we got home from the second trip on June 25, and her dress was finished by July 28 (when we would all meet up again for a bridal shower). And... it fit as if it had been made just for her! Whew!

Most of the lace (about 90%, I'd guess) was sewn on by hand.
You have no idea how happy and relieved I was that the fit was so perfect.

While the dress was in process we were also trying to figure out a guest list and plan two separate receptions. Fortunately, the Judds planned all of the Gunnison reception, and we only had to plan the open-house in West Valley. Jason and I decided to have a bread bar (homemade bread, jams, and butter) for refreshments at the open-house, so every morning before I started on the dress I'd mix up a batch of bread, and then freeze the dough/loaves to be cooked later. And I begged my neighbors for apricots and made some apricot jam in my "down-time". ;-)

It was a pretty hectic time, but exciting, too!

bridal shower...What's that she got?

So, last Thursday, after making about five check-lists to be sure we didn't forget to take anything (bread dough, jams, butter, honey, stuff to make the cake, decorations, clothes, shoes, etc....), we packed up the van and drove down to Salt Lake. I had originally thought that we'd spend Thursday relaxing in Salt Lake before we drove to Payson for the ceremony, but actually we ran around doing last-minute stuff all day. Luckily for me, my sweet sister-in-law, Becky, brought us dinner that evening.

Now, when we left Vernal the van seemed all right—barring our sad, sad lack of air-conditioning. But by Thursday afternoon it was giving us a really, really shaky ride at freeway speeds—shaky like I truly thought the tires were going to fly off. Since we had to drive 59 miles to Payson, and then another 68 to Gunnison (and back to Salt Lake from there—125 miles) on Friday, this was rather worrisome. But by the time we got back home (to my father-in-law's house, where we were spending the night), we were so worn out that we forgot to check the tires.

Friday morning, the 10th of August arrived. We packed our wedding clothes and a picnic lunch into the van, and by 8:00 a.m. we were headed off for Payson. This would get us there, windblown and sweaty, by 9:00, where we would stop at my cousin Wendy's house to shower and get all dressed up. But the best-laid plans, and all that...

In addition to the wild roller-coaster-car feel of the van (which we didn't dare drive faster than 55 mph), we got caught in a HUGE traffic-jam about 30 minutes away from our destination. There was an accident (a trailer had tipped over), and road construction up ahead. Instead of getting to Wendy's house at 9 a.m., we got there at 10:05. I still managed to get a quick shower and be ready to go by 10:35. I thought we were supposed to be at the temple by 10:30, and we didn't get there until 10:45, but it all turned out OK because we were there in plenty of time. 

This trip might have been less stressful for me if I'd actually read the invitation. Or we could have started an hour later, and it would have been just as stressful...although the freeway accident might have been cleaned up by then.

The Payson Temple is magnificent. Jason and Adreanna were married in one of the big rooms up-top, with the curved wall full of stained-glass windows. Beautiful!

The temple ceremony was lovely. We were in a beautiful room, the officiator was kind, and the bride and groom were happy. And I didn't cry. Although I think Jason teared up a little. :-)

Then outside to the temple grounds for lots of picture-taking.

Of course we, the brilliant slightly overwhelmed parents, left our camera in back Salt Lake City when we came home. But Becky took lots of pictures...  (she followed the photographer around and got us lots of great pics in advance. It will be fun to see the official pics later!) ...so I  have a few to post today. 

After pictures we had a picnic at a park called Temple View Park...which makes you think you could see the temple from there, but really we could only see the spire of the temple. Still, it was close-by, we had a nice, shady pavilion to sit in, and tables to sit at, and we had a nice family lunch together.

We were supposed to be in Gunnison by 4:30 for more pics, but Bruce thought we'd better get our tires looked at. He was right. He left the kids and me at Wendy's house to nap in her lovely air-conditioning while he went to a tire shop. The back rear tire was almost split in two. (How did we not see that?!) So we got a new tire, had some tires rotated, and all of them balanced. We left Payson a little after 4:30 and got to the church in Gunnison just before 6:00, when the reception was supposed to start. The boys had stayed in their nice clothes, but the girls and I had to run into a bathroom to wash the sweat off of ourselves (after a one-hour drive in 100 degree weather, with no A/C) and get back into our dresses.

The reception was really nice. I don't have pictures of that (although Becky probably has some to send me), but it was decorated so prettily! All vintagey, and old doors and windows, glass bottles and old books. You will just have to trust me on this: it was very nice. We met a lot of Adreanna's friends and family; they all assured us that Jason got the best girl in town! It was very enjoyable.

Then back to Salt Lake, where we arrived at midnight.

Saturday wasn't quite so hectic; we didn't have to travel hours and hours (although the newlyweds and the Judds did...). I spent the day decorating the cake, baking and slicing bread, and getting the church in West Valley all decorated for the open-house—with LOTS of help from Melanie, Brad and Becky, and Bruce. Becky had printed several of the pictures she took of Jason and Adreanna, and those made up the majority of the decorating there.

We got to visit with lots of our old friends for a couple of hours, and then we sent the tired, tired couple away to start their honeymoon for real.

On Sunday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. We had intended to go to church with our old friends in our old ward, but when we woke up we just wanted to go home. So we did. And when we got there I slept for most of the rest of the day.

But, all in all, it was a pretty fantastic weekend! A lot of busyness, a lot of running around, but also lots of happiness.

Y And now Jason and Adreanna are married! Y 

Yaaayy!!

News From Hungary! vol. 28

The good news is that I finished the wedding dress (about two weeks ago, actually). And I finished the dress I'm going to wear. And the vests are mostly finished, and the alterations on the girls' dress are almost done too. Whew! (The wedding is in two days!) 

So, I'm posting Brandon's email late this week, but here it is:

Sick and Dying *1

So for this entire last week, from Tuesday to Saturday, Elder Hess was really sick. He couldn't eat or drink almost anything for about 2 days and he could only drink a little bit on the third day. So we had to cancel all of our appointments and wait out the sickness. I think that normally you would go to a doctor for something like this, but Sister Hettinger just told us to wait it out. I personally think that that was not the right thing to do, especially since I could hear my companion violently vomiting out all the contents of his stomach. But Elder Hess is fine now, so I guess all is well that ends well right? *2

Sunday
Well, I don't know if I have ever seen someone brag in church about how wonderful they are, but now I have seen about five people do that. It was honestly one of the strangest Fast and Testimony meetings that I have ever attended.  *3
Luckily there were some members who actually bore wonderful testimonies. I am starting to see what people have meant when they said that Debrecen is not a great place, but I still refuse to believe that it is an unsolvable problem. I think that just some praise and focus on the good things and stuff will start pulling into shape. Other wise Sunday was great. We went and looked up some people, and then as we were going I suddenly got really dizzy and all of my senses went really crazy, but we sat down and it all got better. I really hope that that is not something that I should still be worried about. Because I am not worried about it. *4

Saturday
We were on splits with our District leader, mostly so that I could get out of our apartment. We did some really good work and found 4 potiential investigators. So hopefully they will turn into real investigators. We went Chalking. We drew this big Hopscotch across the sidewalk, with each step explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ, It was pretty fun and we got to talk to a good number of people while doing it. Didn't get any new investigators though.

Friday
We started our split with the District leader. It was good and we got to leave the apartment and buy some things so that Elder Hess wouldn't starve to death. (He was only able to eat crackers and drink Poweraide)

Thursday
We left the apartment for district meeting. It was not a great Idea, because Elder Hess still felt pretty sick, and I think that walking around didn't help at all, but he really wanted to get out of there, so we did. Other than that we just stayed in the apartment. He slept while I studied Church materials, and sent some texts to our investigators.

Wednesday 
I Cleaned the whole apartment.

Tuesday
Elder Hess started puking at about lunch time and we went home and called Sister Hettinger.

Debrecen is a really cool city, it is just unfortunately hard to work with the members here.
Hungarian is a hard language. Most people spend the first six months not really understanding or speaking. By about Months five and six you really start understanding enough to get by. I at this point in my mission get along really well language wise, but there are still words that I don't know, and things that just catch me off guard. *5

Ryan will serve in one of these places. Germany, Leon France, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, or Hungary. (Mostly I just think it would be cool if he served here in Hungary) *6


I love you all, and I am going to send picture in a separate email.

Sincerely,
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Dying?

2. Brandon will learn, when he has kids, that sometimes you just have to wait out the violent vomiting. And clean up a lot.

3. Maybe they can butter up these awesome people, letting them know that their talents would be a great help to the missionaries...

4. Uh-oh! I wonder if Brandon is going to come down with Elder Hess's bug? That would be a bummer for both of them.

5. Answers to questions I sent him.

6. Ryan's mission papers were sent in ...not last Sunday, but the one before. Where will he go?


And that's it for this week. Now, back to wedding preparations...