The Latest News From Hungary!

Well Brandon's been sending awesome emails, so this might become a regular feature on my blog for the next eleven months. :-)

photo taken by President Szabadkai (I believe) at mission interviews. I don't know who the sister missionaries are.
Maybe the pair that are in Brandon's district? 

Here's what he had to say today (and *Mom's notes at the end):

So apparently my email last week was super good. Hang on while I check out what I even said...Oh, so that is what I did last week, that is good to know. It honestly is a really good format because it really helps me remember what on earth I have done throughout a week. *1

So on Sunday
I didn't really do a whole lot, I went tracting and found a bunch of cool and really nice people, but none of them were interested in learning about the gospel. One of them was this really nice young dude who was Catholic, but he loved talking to us. I have spent so much time getting rejected by people that I have realized that I don't even know what to say to someone once they are interested in listening. I have done all kinds of things, to try but it doesn't really seem to grab their attention. The first one is telling them the Restoration story, another one is talking about the Prophet and apostles, and explaining about how the Church is organized the same as when Christ established it. But it doesn't really seem to work all that well. Beyond that I have had this realization that has been dawning on me throughout the course of this last week and that is that I need to be doing more to love these people. There is the song from "Enchanted" that goes "How does she know You love her? How does she know she's yours?" And while I am not trying to woo any girls, I am trying to get the people here to know that I care about them beyond trying to get them to be baptised. So, I am starting all kinds of little missionary projects to let the people know that the missionaries care about them, and hopefully in effect they will know that God cares about them.

Saturday
We Finished a split with the Zone leaders. I am a district leader which means that I get to go on splits with the Zone Leaders twice a transfer. It was actually super fun, and they have a lot of confidence in me and my ability to help improve the work in Veszprém.(If you want to spell it correctly then there it is. V-E-S-Z-P-R-É-M, It is okay if you can't get the accent mark over the "e" I have a Hungarian keyboard and that is how I do it. I made breakfast for them, Hashbrowns and Eggs, and they loved it. I have more to say about cooking but I will write it for Friday. Saturday was cold and windy, and that was no, fun. But I made this super nice note for one of our investigators who was sick. I drew this pretty rose on it and told her that Elder Gilson and I care about her; and that God loves her. Which reminds me. She came to Church on Sunday. She said that she wouldn't but she did. And she said it was all because we gave her that note! (Maybe I should write this in order starting with Monday and going forwards. ah-well. Next time)

a selfie
It makes me happy that while Brandon is camera-less his companion takes lots of pictures and his mother posts them for me to see and steal. I wonder where they got the matching ties?

Friday
We started the split with the Zone leaders. But before that Elder Gilson and I went streeting and met a couple of really cool people. One was this dude who wasn't super interested and the other was this Girl who was super interested. She told us that she is trying to find God in her life and that she wanted to look through the Book Of Mormon. But didn't take the one that we offered to let her keep. She did take one of our pass along cards though, and that is good because it has the Church Website in Hungarian and it has our phone number. So hopefully she will be giving us a call sometime. The split was really cool. I spent the 24 hours that it lasted with Elder Neumiller. Super cool man. But my favorite part was cooking. I love cooking for other people, in part for the praise when I cook a good meal, but also it gives me an excuse to make something especially nice, and then I get to eat something nice too. I made what other Elders have called "Pizza Man Pockets" But what I will call a Fried Pizza. Roll out your dough, make it like a pizza, then fold it in half, and fry it. It is actually really tasty but a lot of work. I barely had time to make it. *2

Thursday
Had District meeting. This is where my profound thoughts about loving the people more completely really started. Aside from that we had MCM and English Class. Really tame day. Oh, I guess that we also did weekly planning. *3

English class

more of the English class

Wednesday
We met with a new investigator named Dávid. Really cool guy, really nice, but super Athiest. He doesn't want to continue learning about the Church, but I think that if we can love him then he will change his mind. His only reason for not believing in God is that neither of his parents believed, and he hasn't seen any signs that God exists. (for some reason religion and missionaries and you name it doesn't count as a signs) We also met with the Vasvary family that day. Super cool people. Which reminds me that we, Elder Gilson and I, also really want to include the members in our trying to love the people as best as we can. So we are going to, if we have time, drop in and share a quick message or ask if we can help, every time we are in the area. Just so that our members out here can feel like the missionaries care about them too.

Tuesday
Just a whole bunch of tracting and looking people up. Which makes it a pretty rough day, although it really isn't that hard, just tiring.

Monday
It was last P-day. We went over to the church building and hung out with the youth and began making an "I'm a Mormon" video about Elder Gilson. I also want to do one but I don't know what to say. But I will figure it out. It is possible that I will make a "Draw my Life" Video. Which would allow me to tell more about myself I think. *4

I haven't met with Mohamed again but I have talked to him over the phone. He is super cool and loves us missionaries. And we need to make sure that he knows that we love him. I don't believe that he is the only Muslim in Veszprém, but the Muslim community is so small that he is the only one that I know of. The larges City in Hungary is Budapest, it is perhaps, by way of landmass, the same size as Salt Lake. After that there are two other smaller cities, and the rest are either slightly larger than Vernal or about the same size, and this is population wise.

Well, I think that is all for now.
Love you!
Brandon.

*Mom's notes:

1. I notice that Brandon starts a lot of his communications with "So..."  I do that too. I wonder if he started it, or if I did?

2. All three of my missionary sons now have told me how much the other missionaries liked it when they cook(ed) for them. All of my kids really are pretty good cooks. Moms, teach your kids to cook: it will make them popular later. ;-)

3. I wonder what MCM is?

4. I've learned, from stalking his mother on facebook last week (hoping to find some pictures that have Brandon in them), that Elder Gilson was a dancer before his mission; I wonder if he will talk about that in his video... I don't know what a "Draw my life" video is, but I hope that Brandon makes one!

And that is this week's news from Hungary. Yay!

(Maybe I will get my act in gear and give you some News from Vernal one of these days.)

News From Hungary!

I haven't written much lately, but here is something worth reading. I got a great email from Brandon this morning. This time he actually told us  a lot about what he's been doing. Yay! So I will copy his letter here, and add some *notes of my own at the end.

This is the most recent picture we've gotten of Brandon,
on his last transfer day. (Jan. 2018)
I don't know who the two sister missionaries are. 
*1.

Here's what Brandon had to say today:


So going in order backwards the things that have happened this last week are: *2. 

Sunday I was asked to play the piano...In Priesthood not Sacrament meeting thank goodness. I also was invited over to a members house for dinner and that was super nice. The member's family name is Belovics. Super cool people, and their home teachers were there too, so we got to participate in that lesson with them. On top of that we looked up a man whom we were able to teach about the restoration at the time we weren't able to set up a return appointment. But this time when we looked him up we were able to plan that return appointment and now he counts as an investigator. His name is Dávid, and I am hoping that all will go well with him.

Saturday we met with another of our new investigators and it was a super cool lesson but it was also really hard. His name is Mohamed, and he is Muslim. His native language is Arabic and so it is hard to communicate clearly with him. But we got him and Arabic Book of Mormon and he was super grateful for that. So hopefully now he is going to read it. He said that he would but right now he is reading a lot of other things and working a lot so it might be a while before he really starts reading it. Mohamed told us that he accepts all of the prophets and only believes that Christ was a prophet and not actually the son of God. It was clear to see how dear to him his religion is, and I suspect that out here in Hungary where he is perhaps the only one, at least in Veszprém, who practices the muslim religion, that he would want to try all the harder to hold onto what he now believes and accepts as truth. 

President and Sister Szabadkai

Friday we had interviews with President Szabadkai. It was good, I often find that I have nothing to tell him. I write about all important details of the week and send that to him weekly so...I dunno.

Thursday, nothing amazing happened. We had district meeting and were able to watch the First Presidency address which was cool. And after that we taught an English class.

Wednesday we went to visit Érzsi Néni who is a member that lives in a tiny town outside of Veszprém. We accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop and had to walk what felt like a milk and a half. And then she fed us a small lunch, we gave a brief lesson, but it was more a lesson to give her someone to talk to because she lives all alone and about thirty minutes away from Veszprém. She after the lesson made it known to us that the "lunch" she gave us was more of an appetizer, and honestly she never did say that the sandwiches that she gave us were lunch. So she then gave us a ton of spaghetti which was good but it was too much food. Then we missed our bus so we just had to make phone calls for an hour and a half because the whole town had been tracted just a couple days before.

Tuesday this was our most boring day. I can't think of anything that happened on Tuesday.

Elder Gilson (Brandon's current companion)
and Elder Norris (one of his former companions—
it looks like Gilson and Norris were also companions at one time.)

Monday was P-day. It was pretty good. Elder Gilson and I decided to go running every Monday morning. It hurts a lot. But I actually enjoy it. It is satisfying to do something hard and a little bit painful so long as it helps you improve and do better.

On the topic of my shoes, they are beginning to wear thin through the bottom. I am actually on the second pair of shoes that I brought on my mission. The first wore out the beginning of last summer. The ones that I am wearing are doing pretty well, but the stopped being 100% waterproof. So sometimes my feet get a little bit wet but it isn't often. *3.

I love Veszprém. It is actually really pretty out here even though it is winter and everything is dead. The people are the nicest that I have ever met in Hungary and I have a super cool companion and District. Funny thing, I am in the same district as Sister Eddy, she went to Snow College and she and Jason know each other. I love my companion, he fills in the holes to the way I serve my mission and really just makes me better. Also he has been on his mission shorter than I have been but he knows more Hungarian words than I do, are at leaste more different ones than I do, so I will hopefully learn from him how to speak better. I did get all of the music you sent to me, thank you so much! I am really happy to get to hear my choir music again. It is also pretty good for some background noise while I am studying. *4. *5.

I have served in Tatabánya, Érd, Kispest, and Now I am in Veszprém. I liked all of these areas but my favorite was Érd. But perhaps Veszprém will change that. I don't know why but since serving in Veszprém I have gained a greater appreciation for pickles, this is good though because people keep feeding us pickles. I don't know what to say about my previous areas but the only one that I really didn't like was Kispest, but now looking back I would happily go there again. It was a super cool area. *6.

That is all for now. I might write more later though.

Love you all!
Brandon.

Veszprém
(this is from a Google search; Brandon did not take this picture. )

*Mom's notes on all of this:

1. Apparently when they do transfers, all the missionaries go to the mission office before they move. Some wonderful person took pictures of all the missionaries who showed up that day and posted them on the secret Hungary Mission facebook group.  I was a happy mom that day!
(Brandon's camera got stolen right around Christmas time, so I'd seen fewer pictures than even before.)

2. Brandon started right in on telling us about his week; no salutation. :-) (Sometimes I do that too.)

3. Last week I had a nightmare that I had to take Jason to the doctor because his feet were hurting him. As we were walking out the door I saw that his right foot was terribly deformed (in a way that, actually, he would have had to been born with, but you know how dreams are). I found out the reason his foot looked so awful was because his shoes had gotten so worn out on his mission that all the walking ruined his foot. So I asked Brandon how his shoes were holding up.

4. I think Brandon has really liked all of his companions, but the one he has told us the most about is Elder Gilson. I'm glad they are doing so well together.

5. I asked Brandon if the SD card that I tried to put good mission-appropriate music on (including the music he performed with the school choir last year) actually had any music on it. I forgot to check it before I mailed it off to him.

6. I would have thought that the area he liked the least was his first area, Tatabánya. I thought he was the most homesick while he was there, and he was also accused of driving a person to suicide while he was there. (The missionaries were the last people known to speak to this man before he killed himself. There was a big investigation and everything, and they had an emergency transfer as soon as the questioning was all done.)

So that's the news from Hungary today. It makes my heart happy to hear such a newsy, cheerful letter from Brandon. Y