News From Hungary! vol. 22

Yesterday was Brandon's email day, but Bruce and I had to make a long, all-day trip. Our washing machine broke down last week and, after a week of wearing dirty clothes while we tried to repair it, we finally decided it was time to throw in the towel and buy a "new" one. (Which, for us, means buying a used machine from someone else.) All the used machines we were interested in were somewhere along the Wasatch Front, which meant a three-hour drive, so we figured we'd do a little extra driving and go to Ephraim, too, so I could do a final fitting for Adreanna's bodice pattern (wedding dress!).

We were successful on both counts: The bodice fits perfectly, and we got our washing machine.

Anyway, all of this meant that I didn't get to see Brandon's emails until this morning (instead of yesterday). So here's what he has to say:

  

Facing the World

I have spent a lot of time reflecting this last week. This is largely due to spending roughly three hours traveling each day, but that is okay, I have to do the travel anyway. I have been spending the last two weeks wondering why God wanted me to have to deal with some kind of Parasite. (Side note, not just bed bugs, not just fleas, but both! *1) And there have been a lot of things for me to do while I have been doing nothing. I didn't realize it before, but I have been facing my mission, and perhaps even my life, as if I have to stand alone against The Whole World. (I feel this is the best way to describe it.) I have realized through all of this time that there are other people, and of course God is with me every step of the way, but I often have lost sight of that and have given the challenges I face in life a stony face with my chin set at defiance. I have pressed forward feeling as if each step was a blow delivered to some unseen enemy. I know that there have been times where I would use my actions to fight against my own negativity and claw my way forward. But now I think that I have been forgetting the help so freely offered to me. The scriptures teach that it is Meekness, Kindness, Longsuffering, Patience, and above all, Faith, Hope, and Charity, that will bring the blessings of God. Only upon the foundation of these things can miracles be brought to pass.

I can't say that I haven't worked to be these things, but I can say that I have been blind to the times when I have had these attributes in my life. I can't really remember when I have had these actively guiding my actions. I feel that when I hear of a problem, mine or someone else's, I instead of searching for the gospel, go to prove that the problem is not insurmountable. That isn't even true. It is kind of true. I don't really know what I am trying to say, but perhaps this.

I feel as if I have given everything. I feel like I work hard and pray harder. And yet I still have not received the blessing that I would like, and that is to see some kind of active result to the effort that I have put in. I cannot say that there have not been results. I have even finally heard of one of my old investigators deciding to be baptised. But I feel as if none of it has happened because of anything that I have done. 
But then I suppose that it isn't about me. *2

Love you!
Brandon.



Oh, if I weren't a missionary, I wonder what I'd be...

For if I weren't a Missionary, a hobo I would be.
I just couldn't think of what on earth I might be, but it did occur to me that right now in a foreign country I might not be able to get a job, so I might in fact be homeless if I weren't a missionary.

Well,
Sunday
We live in Kaposvar now and will be staying there for a while so I traveled early in the morning to get to church. Then I was the pianist for Sacrament meeting. I felt like I was a terrible pianist. But all of the members (who have been without a pianist for the last 7 weeks) let me know that they loved having someone finally play the piano, and that they would like me to keep practicing and playing for them. I don't think that it will be necessary, because the Szabadkai's are coming to an end of their mission and will be here in Pécs, so one of them will be able to play the piano. I hear that their daughter can play pretty well. *3
Then we went tracting and met this néni who let us in and listened to the whole lesson about the Restoration. She liked it so much (or liked us so much) that she said that she knew the Book of Mormon was True without even reading it. But even with that she promised to read the whole book anyway. She then told us to refer to her as Vilona néni (this is kind of like calling her grandma, but also a common title for old women) and bring our white shirts next time that we are over so that she can wash them for us. It kind of sounds like she might not ever be too busy for the missionaries. *4

Saturday
Weekend Schedule for the Bus. We didn't realize that the bus schedule changed for the long distance buses, and missed our bus. So I had to buy Train tickets to Kaposvár and now I am out of money. Hopefully I will get another allotted amount soon from the Missionary Savings Fund. but I don't know. Right now I think I have about 8-9 dollars total. And I have no idea about my own personal bank account.
Oh yeah, I also had to literally run to catch that train. It was going to leave in 10 minutes at the time that I heard about it. Thank you to President Szabadkai for saving our tails. I don't know what we would have done had we missed that train.

Friday
I had a bunch of meetings basically. There was weekly planning which took three hours, then MCM, a little bit of tracting, and finally three hours of travel.

Thursday
Travel to District meeting with the Kaposvár Elders, then District Meeting, followed by Looking people up who said we could come by to teach them. They told us that they are not interested in investigating the gospel after all. Sad. Ah well. Then we had Angol Óra and a long ride to Kaposvár.

Wednesday
The exterminator came by to kill all of our nasty bugs. Unfortunately this meant that we had to go live in Kaposvár for two weeks. Our solution, buying two 100 dollar bus passes that would let us travel between both Pécs and Kaposvár each day. The worst part of this being that I had to pay for it since Elder Fisher will be leaving and won't be able to reimburse that money at the mission office. The result, I get to have no money instead, I don't really see how this solves the problem at all, but I suppose that I will be able to reimburse both his and mine which means that next transfer I will have roughly two months of money to live off of. I will probably still only use one month's worth of money. *5

Tuesday
Did a lot of talking to people on the street, then we had a lesson with an investigator named Éva. She is super old, no problem with that, except all of the old people out here are really lonely and just want to talk to you. Often they want to talk to you even if they would rather that you weren't there. I don't know how to explain that but it happens.

And I guess this is all. I Hiked to the top of this old TV broadcast tower on Monday, and it was super cool. And super windy, I would send pictures but I forgot my devices that would allow me to upload them from my camera. So it will have to be next week. *6

Happy Birthday to my sisters!
Good luck with the Laundry machine.
Good Luck with the wedding preparations.

I love you all. You don't even know how much.
Sincerely,
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Poor Brandon (and Elder Fisher)! I got my feet eaten by fleas in a motel once (I'm guessing someone had let their dog in—which was against the rules in that room). It itches forever! And it's kind of depressing and frustrating to get eaten alive by bugs.

2. How often do all of us feel like it's us against the world? I'm sorry that he has felt this way, but I'm glad and proud to hear that he has reflected on this, and on his own attitude, and on what he could do to change and be better. How great that he can begin learning this now, while he is so young, instead of looking back on thirty, forty, fifty, seventy years and wondering how things could have been better. I am proud of Brandon!

3. I am a horrible mom who plays the piano, but didn't really teach her kids to play. We tried, but they never wanted to practice, and we all would postpone the lesson time, and put it off for later, and maybe after dinner...  But I'm glad to see that enough of it stuck that Brandon can play hymns in his mission! Maybe he will keep working on learning more when he gets home.

4. A little old lady who wants company and wants to take care of them a little doesn't sound like a bad thing. They can talk to her and give her lessons when they visit. And maybe she will think about what they say and want to keep learning more. But at least they are planting seeds.

5. Is that how it works? (The reimbursement thing. How is it that he'd get his and Fisher's reimbursement—that would surprise me. I will have to re-read carefully to see if I'm misunderstanding this.) I will have to see if I can get a message to him about how much money is in his personal account—and add a little more to it.

6. Hopefully there will be pictures next week!

And that's it for today's mission news. :-)

Rest in Pieces

Flask of golden-green

Eighteen years in my kitchen

Dispensing goodness

This is not my decanter,
but a soulless picture I found on the internet.

When we bought our first house in 2000, I found a beautiful bottle of extra virgin olive oil. A clear, round beauty, with a narrow neck, stopped by a cork. My mom has always said that when you move into a house you should be greeted by salt and oil in the kitchen, and I was happy to have this beautiful decanter there for our welcome home.

As the years passed I refilled this bottle many, many times—always with extra-virgin olive oil; the cork disintegrated and was replaced by another; bottles of vinegar joined it on its Lazy-Susan home next to my stove, but it was always there. I even drew its portrait to include in my cookbook. 

Then today the unthinkable happened. As I was pan-cooking some pita breads for dinner, my elbow crashed into my beautiful olive oil bottle. My hands were full of flatbread, and I could feel, rather than see, the vessel falling, tumbling over and over in slow motion, until finally it shattered on the floor by my feet. (I am sorry to confess my sorrow for the decanter was tainted by the inconvenience of trying to finish cooking while standing in a puddle of about two cups of olive oil, and the fear of stepping barefoot on glass or slipping and falling in it. Alas!)

Unfortunately this is the only picture we have of my beloved bottle.
How could we have known the cruel fate that would befall it? 

Bruce happened to be walking into the kitchen just as this horrible accident occurred. "Oh, You," he regretfully said, "your bottle!" He swept the floor around me, saving my bare feet from broken glass even as he mourned the loss of my golden flask. This act of kindness did spread a little more oil over a lot more floor, but he was working on another ox in the mire, and I sent him to finish that task. When the pitas were finally all cooked and covered, I turned to the task of cleaning oil from my tile floor. 

But before I could start, Kaylie called from the park where my girls were playing with friends; they needed a ride home. Intending to explain that I had to clean the floor before I went to get them, I said, "My olive oil bottle fell down and shattered, so I..." 

Kaylie interrupted, "Ohh. That's sad!" Yes, it is sad. 

I shuffled the floor with a wet rag under my feet until I could no longer see a pool of oil. Then I squirted dish soap straight onto the floor, and did the Mopping Shuffle again, this time with a new, wet rag. I rinsed all the soap from that rag, wet it again, and shuffled my way around the kitchen a third time. Then I used my mop with some hot water to get remaining the soap off of the floor. At last I changed the mop-head and did one last scrub with hot water. As I cleaned the floor I contemplated the loss of my long-time friend, now swept unceremoniously into the kitchen trash, and soon on its way to an ignominious burial in the landfill.

Ryan got home from work and saw me shuffling around the floor instead of cooking dinner. I said, "My olive oil bottle fell down." He said, "Oh. That's sad; that was a really nice bottle." 

I sent Ryan to get the kids while I finished my task. Lindsey walked in; I told her the olive oil bottle broke. "Oh," she mourned, "that's sad." And when Michael heard the news a little later his response was as remorseful as the others. Yes, this bottle of olive oil was a friend to our whole family, living in our home for as long as my children could remember. Alas!

There's one more bottle in heaven ¯...

Gone, and lost to us;

Lazy Susan will pine for you.

Nothing left but cork.

News From Hungary! vol. 20 and 21

Well, I was pretty busy last week (making wedding dress samples), and I forgot to post Brandon's email. So I will make up for it today by posting last week's and today's emails right now.

This is today's selfie (June 18).

Vol. 20

Feeling Spotty
Wednesday, June 13, 2018

I was considering calling this one something like Chemical Burn or Acid Burn, but I feel that "Feeling Spotty" more accurately describes my life right now.

Last Monday
So once upon a time I went frolicking through a forest. And when I get home I see some strange red dots on my skin. "That's not right." I think, but I figure that it will go away, So...

:-(

Tuesday
I wake up and the spots are still there, only now they have gotten really ugly. But I can't do anything about it, so I go to Budapest for a Zone Conference. It was a pretty good Zone Conference and we spoke about unity and how we as a mission can be closer together in purpose with God as well as helping the ward members be included in the missionary work. That and Traveling took almost the entire day, but we were able to get in a lesson with two girls from Iran. It was a super good lesson. Because we did know what their native language was we took a couple likely languages of the Book of Mormon with us, One Arabic, and Two Persian. I was like. "I hope they read in Persian 'cause we only got one Arabic book." Then when we were finally (I totally thought that they would read Arabic) giving them the Book of Mormon I pulled out the two languages and said. "I don't know which language is better for you, so we brought both just in case." and miracle, they both read Persian. We only had two Persian books in our apartment and absolutely no way of being able to get more before that lesson. Also they really liked it and promised to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.
Yayyy! Then I got sick, and it has been hard to keep in contact with them.

Wednesday
We went to one last lesson before I finally decided it was time to visit a Doctor. We called Sister Szabadkai and told her before going. The Doctor Said that it was Vasculitis and that I needed to lay down for 5-6 days. 🙁 

Thursday
Lying down

Friday
Laying down

Saturday
Prone on a bed

Sunday
Went to Sacrament Meeting in spite of what I was told. Met an investigator whom I have not met before, went home and lay down again.

Monday
It didn't work. So I went to Budapest for a Different Doctor who said that it is "Scabies" and that I needed to use Nova Scabin to kill the little parasites where they were living-- In my skin is where they made their home. eww. Also that treatment burned really badly. I didn't get to sleep until late because of it. *1

Tuesday
Waiting until all of the bugs are dead.

Wednesday
Back at the doctors where they let me know that it is actually bed bugs. and now we are going to go through a long hassle to kill them all. *Sigh
I just want this to be over now. 

Well that is all with me. Love you. Please pray for me! Also do family history work. *2

Sincerely,
Brandon.

Mom's Notes:

1. We got an email from the mission president's wife, last Monday, telling us that Elder North and Elder Fisher couldn't email us until Wednesday because they were going to the doctor on Monday. Surprisingly, I didn't feel terribly worried about it; maybe she made it sound like it wasn't so bad. (I'll have to read her email again.) But I do feel bad for Brandon and Elder Fisher.

2. I should have posted this last week so that everyone who read it could pray for Brandon, as he asked. But it's not too late—you still can!

And now, on to Vol. 21

Whoopee!
Monday, June 18, 2018

I am actually not all that excited. But I had to say something for the subject line there.

Sunday
I did a lot of tracting. Umm, we had one investigator in Church, his name is Bálint, I am hoping that he too will decide to be baptised, I actually haven't taught him once. He is an older investigator who only stopped investigating because he got very busy with school and his final exams. Which from what I understand are a lot harder out here in Europe than they are out in the USA. But anyway he is pretty cool, he has been taught everything, and actually because he was actually met with within the last nine weeks that means that he (according to our mission rules) never stopped being an investigator and we can just pick up where we left off. I think that we will run over all of the lessons anyway, but in the mean time we are planning to ask him if he will be baptised at the earliest possible date. Wich will be roughly two weeks from the time that we ask him. I don't know when we will be able to ask him about that though because we will be going to Kaposvár while the exterminator does his job. The exterminator is coming this Wednesday.

Saturday
We did a lot of tracting. Somehow we found three people who were all interested, and were all named Klara. It was pretty strange. Other than that we had a lesson with an investigator whom we had to tell that we would be meeting with less often for a bit. We are hoping that they will be willing to do more in a couple of weeks. But we will see.

Friday
We had a weekly planning session, it took something like three hours, and we aren't sure how we are going to do it now, becaues at the time we didn't know that we had to go live in a different city for a good while.

Thursday
We had our district meeting and for me it was finally good to officially be free to not be confined to my apartment. Then we went and had to basicaly wash everybit of fabric in our apartment to kill any potential bed bugs that could be hiding there. Apparently they just hide everywhere.

Last Wednesday
This would be the day that I emailed you all last time, I think. Nothing new has happened, I will try and send you all some pictures, I don't know that I have any, but I got a haircut so I will probably have Elder Fisher take a picture of that, and my smiling face. So, yeah.

Love you all!
Brandon.

News From Hungary! vol. 19

Uh-oh! Brandon is getting tired, and still five months left to go! I'm sure letters, emails, and pictures would be very much appreciated (treats too, if you can afford the international shipping)!

His mailing address is:

Elder Brandon North

Budapest

Hajnóczy u. 14.

1122

HUNGARY

You would make both Elder North and his mom very happy if you'd send him a letter...

Here is this week's news:

Fanning the Flames

Sometimes you start feeling a little burned out. "But whatever you do just don't let the fire die." -Owl City, Embers.

So I am feeling a little bit burned out, but I have to say that last week was excellent. So without further ado and going in the usuall backwards order.

Sunday
We had Stake Conference, but it was broadcast to us here in Pécs and I didn't get to see anything for an hour. Unfortunately during that hour of nothing going on I fell asleep and was drowsy for the whole conference. I don't really remember or know what was talked about. I am actually pretty upset about that because It wasn't just a Stake Conference but actually a Europe Stake Conference, and so Elder Uchdorf was speaking, and I missed pretty much all of it. I remember taking a couple of notes however, so at least I got a little bit out of it. After that we did a lot of tracting and found three people who said that we could come back later during the week. One of them said that we could talk to them tonight at six o'clock. So that is exciting.

Saturday
We had three lessons in different parts of the City, so we spent pretty much the entire day traveling from one place to another with about 40 minute lessons in between. The lessons went really well, and we even got a potiential investigator to become a new investigator. In fact that very same investigator said that she started reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it. She even said that it answers her questions better than we do. (ouch?) That is honestly wonderfull, if only all of our investigators felt that way about the Book of Mormon. So we will see how that goes, I think that she might be one of the next baptisms in Pécs, especially if things keep going the way that they are. We met with many three other people, and one person let us in to talk while we were tracting, but Éva really is the most exciting one of them all. The next two most exciting from that day being Dorina age 17, and her foster mother Marcsi age much older. They were happy to get a Book of Mormon, and they agreed to let us teach them more and give them another Book of Mormon so that they each can have their own. I feel that Marcsi will investigate like anyone else, but I really hope that Dori (short for Dorina) will also seriously investigate.

Friday
We met with the Stepper Family, It went really well. They have begun to quit smoking, it is tough for them, but they are already doing a lot better than they have before. They just need to stop now, we have encouraged them to discontinue buying cigarettes. In addition we have regular daily contact with them to ask how they are doing with quitting. The Stepper family is great. Oh, we also, on Friday, gave them the commitment to get baptised on the 30th of June. They accepted and so we are aiming for that date and doing our best to help them get ready for such a big step in their lives. After that we went to a Falu (small town) called Harkány, and helped an investigator in his orchard. We picked Cherries for forever, but it was a huge help to him. Hopefully we will be able to one day do more than help him in his Orchard. But it was good, and it really helped to give some perspective to Jakob 5. as well as all of the other scriptures that compare missionary work to working in a vinyard, or garden of some sort. *1

Thursday
We Finished Splits with the Elders in Kaposvár. It was really good but really the entire split happened on Wednesday so I will talk about it later. Other than that we had district meeting and we taught English Class. Between the two activities we were in Harkány once again helping Nándor pick his cherries.

Wednesday
We went to Kaposvár for splits with the Elders there. I was serving with Elder Rusz. He is Hungarian so he naturally speaks better than I do. But anyway it was really good. Elder Rusz is a good guy. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any new investigators for them during the split, and I had a Jehovas Witness argue with me for about an hour before I realized that they were just trying to pick a fight. It was pretty frustrating, but aslo really sad. They didn't say it directly, but in an essence the person that I spoke with said that their religion did not bring them any happiness. Why would you stick to something that doesn't make you happy? Let alone argue in favor of it? Ah well. Other than that it was great. It is nice to be around the other elders in our District.

Tuesday
We went to visit a member in Komlo, it was alright, but I had a pretty nasty blister on my foot that made life miserable. But it is better now. Umm, oh yeah, the member made us some sort of drink made of mint and walnut leaves. It was pretty horrible, but she then gave us some cherry cake to replace the flavor. So that was good. I am sorry, but there are some things that you should just never make into a drink, and that was one of them. I spent something like seven hours riding buses this week, and one hour riding a train. Now tomorrow I have a three hour train ride to Budapest and a three hour ride back. I am about sick of traveling.

Monday
I already told you all about what happened, I think, but I will mention it again. I got to use a scythe, yep definitely wrote that before. *2 Anyway it was pretty awesome. So Yeah.

I don't know what else to say. I love you, I am so glad that I get to hear from you all each week emailing. Please don't forget to write! *3

So I did not manage to get a whole lot of pictures of me, but I took these two last Monday as I was leaving the library where I was emailing. I think that I would like to have some real stormtrooper armor, but for now this will do.

Love you!
Brandon.



Mom's Notes:

1. Jakob. Instead of Jacob. Gotta be Hungarian; I love it!

2. Actually, he told me that he did some gardening last week, but definitely did not tell me that he got to use a scythe. That is pretty awesome!

3. Write to him!!!

Elder Brandon North

Budapest

Hajnóczy u. 14.

1122

HUNGARY

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