News From Hungary! vol. 27

Well, the wedding dress is finished and delivered. Yay for me! The wedding is in two weeks, though, so I'm still pretty busy. But I can take the time to post Brandon's letter this morning. So, here it is:


Fish

Me on a bridge in Budapest; you can see the Parliament building in the background.

So I will explain the title to this email when I write about the events of Saturday. And since I have little to say I guess I will get right to it.

Sunday
Elder Hess got sick, so we just stayed in the apartment all day. He got a fever of 103. And he looked and sounded like he was dying. But he seems to be better now. So that is good. *1

Saturday
Kirándulás! I don't know what the word for that is in English, I learned it in Hungarian. I guess it would probably be something like "Outing". But I am not sure. Anyway, this outing was a Branch activity and it was a super good opportunity for us to get to know the members better and build up their trust with us missionaries. (Yes they have had trust issues with the missionaries in the past) We cooked food in a big cauldron over a fire, sang songs, played games, danced, and went fishing! It was a blast and we even got some potential investigators from it. There were some part member families there and we are going to be meeting with them and teaching them. I caught the biggest fish there, it was just a carp, and it was super ugly and slimy, but it was still cool and I think that when I go home I might have to get a fishing licence because it is fun. *2

Me trying to show you this field of really pretty flowers. They were an amazing blue color.

A really pretty part of the area around that lake. This is an island that is in the lake.

It was super hard to take pictures of these butterflies, but I got a few that were ok I think.

Friday,
This might have been the least productive Friday of my whole mission. Well not actually, it was just a really boring one. We did weekly planning, and even finished it on time, which is something that I struggle with. But then because of a zone conference that we had Thursday we had to go and have district meeting, which is in another city. So the whole day was pretty much taken up by that. The only other things that we did were help the Office couple close down an apartment out here in Debrecen, and afterwards they bought us dinner.

Me with an Italian Soda, when the office couple bought us dinner.

Thursday
We spent the whole day in Zone Conference, or traveling. It was not my favorite Zone Conference, but we got a pretty good, though brief training on how to better work with the members. I honestly don't really remember what else was talked about.

Train ride selfie, I hate riding trains now. I have spent too much of my life riding trains.

Wednesday
We visited one of our investigators József. He is really progressing, and we are going to ask him to consider Baptism if he has kept his commitments. Honestly we still might ask him to consider baptism, because he has been doing really well with the last commitments that we gave him.

Tuesday
We went and did service at an inactive members house. She was really nice, and her son is awesome. I hope that we are able to get her back into activity, and begin teaching her son so that he can be baptised. I say son, but he is actually her grandson.

Alrighty, umm, I can't think of anything else to say, but I have pictures that I will be including in a separate email. *3

Love you!
Brandon.

Mom's Notes:

1. Not the kind of thing a missionary mom wants to hear...
Should I tag Elder Hess's mom when I post this to facebook?

2. I wonder if Brandon did any dancing... Probably. And I guess we will have to look into getting him a fishing license. And gear. For Christmas, maybe?

3. Hooray for pictures!

4. Yesterday I realized that this is Brandon's second-to-last transfer (I believe transfers are nine weeks in his mission). Wow! We will be seeing him in just a few months. :-)

News From Hungary! vol. 26

Still working on that wedding dress (the wedding is in less than three weeks!) But here is yesterday's news: 

The Last Week

The Below is what I sent to my mission President, it is probably the most detailed letter I have written about the area that I am in, and it is definitely the best description that I have ever given of the work that I am doing.

This last week was a pretty good one. I can see how many things can and will fall in place to make great things happen here in Debrecen. As it is, some pretty amazing things are already happening out here and I think that things are only going to get better.

First things first. We have found three new investigators in the last week, two of them are more solid than the others, and the best part is that they aren't going to disappear on us to go on vacation. Beyond that we have gotten to work with the members and things are already looking up from how they were. Or at least from how people have said that they were.

So, we have found an investigator by the name of Márika, she is a really old woman but she is ready to listen to all people of all faiths, we were able to pray with her, teach about the Restoration, and we left with the commitment to read and pray about what we had shared.

Then there is József, he lives in a small town near Debrecen. He is... actually I don't remember what faith he is but it really doesn't matter because he said that he is really just seeking the truth from all sources he can get. He does go to church and from the sound of it he really loves his Church. József was really glad to hear about us, as well as to "meet young faithful people", and he accepted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the truthfulness of the Restoration.

Finally we met a woman, I don't know her name, right now to me she is just the "Woman with a Green House", but she did say that we could go back sometime to meet and talk about our church with her. She asked us for a Book of Mormon and we gave it to her. Hopefully that means that she wants to read it, because I have no other idea why on earth you might want a book of any sort if you weren't going to read it.

Work with the Branch is growing, I was actually going to say going great, but I suppose that growing is also an accurate way of describing it. We have had our first MCM meeting of the transfer and it was really productive. Because of our meeting Elder Hess and I have gotten some really good ideas on how to move the work forward out here. Our MCM leader is really quite helpful, although busy. I was also able to speak to the members about visiting them sometime to get to know them better, as well as seeing when they might be available to come to lessons. And that brings me to the biggest point in my efforts in working with the members. I want them to feel like we are really pandering to them, and making the work as easy and convenient to them, so that they can feel super free and available to help us out. This is our greatest point of interest and difficulty, but I believe that as we work patiently with them, they will begin to open up and feel more ready to help us when we need it.

This coming week is going to be amazing and I can't wait to see how it goes.

I myself am doing pretty well, I am going to study President Nelson's talk on personal revelation again. You are now the second person to bring it up with me in a weeks time and I think I will get on that now before I have to be told a third time. Beyond that I can't think of anything to say... Perhaps maybe that my diet hasn't exactly been amazing for the last one and a half weeks, but I am planning on fixing that today, and keeping it fixed for the rest of the transfer. Hopefully I look just as good if not better in about a month's time.

So, this last
Sunday
I had my first MCM meeting of this transfer, it was miraculous according to Elder Hess, because in the entire previous nine weeks that he has spent here in Debrecen he has only had one MCM meeting, and they are supposed to be held weekly. Our MCM leader is very busy and that is why it is held infrequently, but I hope that we can work closely with Lászlo (the MCM leader) through out the next couple of weeks. Also, Lászlo had some really good insights on how we could be helping the branch out here and so this week is looking really good so far.

Saturday
Umm. Actually the library is closing and I have to go now. Write the rest later.  *1

Love you!
Brandon.

Mom's Notes:

1.When I read this yesterday, I thought that "later" meant next week and, because of the sewing project, I didn't look at my email again after 5:00 a.m. yesterday. But today (Tuesday) I saw the second email that he must have also sent yesterday. So here's the rest of the news:

Continuing Onward

Is that how you spell "continuing"?

Hey, I believe that I left off not telling you all about- 

Saturday
Well, nothing really happened Saturday so I guess we will move on to-

Friday
So I went to a little town called Hortobagy and did a lot of tracting. This resulted in us finding a new investigator. "Lady with a Green House" from my other email. Then we caught a train back home and it was like 9:30 when we got back, but it was worth it. Probably try to get back earlier in the future though.

Thursday
After district meeting we went to another Falu, or "town". It is called Hajduhadház, this means Hajdu War House. I don't know if Hajdu means anything or not but it is kind of a cool name. Anyway there we found this really cool man by the name of József. József was really open to the gospel and now is a new investigator. We are hoping that he will really progress and from the sound of it he will. There is also a member who lives really close whom we are planning on bringing to lessons with us, so I think that it will be really good for both of them.

Wednesday
We did a ton of tracting. One of the buildings that we tracted was 14 stories tall, and made entirely of apartments. There were over 100 apartments there. We will take a break for a funny story. Well kind of funny.

So there I am with Elder Hess as we finish tracting the 14th floor, and we go down one flight of stairs to a landing. The landing is pretty dark so we begin looking for a light switch. Elder Hess, seeing a button, decides to push it, thinking that it is the lightswitch (is lightswitch one word or two?) and nothing happens (in Hungary most lightswitches are buttons). I hear the click of the button and look over to see what it is that Elder Hess is doing. As I do so I see him push the button again, this time holding it down, and as he does so we hear an extremely loud BANG!. The first thing I did was drop down as fast as I could and I honestly don't remember what Elder Hess did. 
I was honestly a bit terrified, I thought that we had just been shot at. Upon discovering that we did not have any bullet wounds, and seeing that we building was evidently fine, we sat down for a moment before continuing to tract the rest of the building.
So we found an investigator in that Building, and we will go back there sometime this week to see what they think of the Book of Mormon. *2

Tuesday
I really don't remember what happened Tuesday, but I believe that I have shared all of the important details of my life and of the work out here in Debrecen.

Well I love you all, keep doing good things.

Sincerely,
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

2. I wonder what the loud noise was.  ??

And now, back to sewing...

News From Hungary! vol. 25

I missed posting last week because I have been working all day, every day, on a wedding dress. But here is last week's news:

Debrecen
Holy Wow! This might be tough. *1
So Debrecen has recieved a bad reputation. I intend to change it, but my companion has spent the last nine weeks trying and he is pretty discouraged in regards to working with the Branch out here. I however had a very warm welcome in Church and got to know a few of the members. It wasn't so bad and Elder Hess told me that it was the nicest that he has ever seen the members be. I hope that it can be like some kind of magical spell where my presence has broken the ice and started the process of putting things back into a good light.

Sunday
I had a great experience in Church, I was warmly welcomed by the branch and got the opportunity to know a couple of the members. I was also invited to play at least one of the Hymns in Sacrament meeting next week because the pianist will be gone for the weekend. I am honestly not too excited about that because I felt like the last time I played the piano it was a train wreck. However the members did appreciate it the last time I played the piano even if it wasn't very good.

Saturday
We did a lot of street contacting. Outside of that we decided to try and bake something for the members. But we did not realize that we have nothing really, Just sugar, flour, oil, and a couple other things too. Now due to an incedent of not paying attention once while I was cooking, I made something that was roughly the texture of cake, so I said to Elder Hess. "I mean, I might be able to make a cake." That lead to me actually trying to make a cake without actually having ever made cake before. I think it turned out well though so that was pretty good. It did take a lot of time though. I won't be doing that again. Probably.

Friday
I had the longest weekly planning session of my life. We went through our entire Area Book and discussed everyone in there, it was good, and there was a lot of dejunking that happened. The story of it is that we are going to be doing a lot of finding. It is pretty tough to meet even with our most progressing investigators but we do what we can. One of them is actually really close to being baptised so we are really trying to work with her. I hope it really happens because I think it will be really good for the Branch out here to see a baptism actually happen.

Thursday
Umm, we had to go to Nyiregyháza for district meeting. It was good and I really like the district, it is a district of entirely Elders, so things are a bit different in District meeting, also I feel like it is really easy for young men to start acting really dumb when there are no women present. Of course it might just be a different kind of dumb. Regardless of this we are still able to invite the spirit and have a good productive district meeting so I am not too worried about having a ton of goons in the district. Other than this we just had a lot of street contacting.

Wednesday
This was the day of the transfer! Pretty much all I did was ride a train from Pécs to Budapest, and from Budapest to Debrecen. It was a total of someting like 7 hours of travel, then we had to get our lives in order once (my life in order *unpack) we made it to Debrecen and it took a while to say the least, anyway that was my Wednesday.

And you all got my email last Tuesday so, I will now answer some questions.

My favorite Hungarian food is probably Rakott Krümpli, but I also really like Töltött Kaposzta.
Oh but if you are curious about sweet foods then my favorite is 100% fruit soup, especially Megyes Leves.

I do usually cook my own meals and usually they are pretty plain, but my companions would tell you otherwise. I have honestly been missing just about anything that we would cook back at home. And I would say that I really miss not cooking everything. It is really nice to just have something tasty that I didn't have to prepare for myself, and it is even better when I don't have to wash the dishes too.

Out here restaurants are almost never fast food. Also fast food is among the more pricy food, probably because it is all american. American things out here are expensive. 

The shops and stores are basically modeled after Wallmart, and the ones that aren't don't get a lot of buisness.

The Hungarian Dentists are really good, and compared to the prices in other Countries they are also super cheap. But, if you are Hungarian it is still just as expensive as ever and many Hungarians forgo dental care almost entirely.

The Summer heat around here has been in the high 80's and mid 90's. It actually isn't so bad when it hasn't rained, but when it rains it is really awfull. It feels like you are breathing water and it is evenly hot absolutely everywhere you go. Also, in general the Hungarians think that Air conditioning will make you get sick and die, and the same holds true for everything that is cold, except for icecream. Don't know why that is but if it isn't icecream then you'd better watch out because you might get the common cold and die from it.

The Hungarians only really care about the people that they know, if they don't know you then they likely won't do much to help you. But then again I have had complete strangers give me help when I didn't ask for it so maybe I have it wrong on that account. I do know that they are more prone to complaining and gossiping about bad things than actually doing anything about it. But usually that is with specific people.... Hmm, I can't really say about how much people here care for one another. But I do know that these people are generally good, and warmhearted.

I don't usually hear about my old areas, but I have heard that a woman whom I had started teaching around Christmas time is getting baptised soon. Other than that I haven't really heard about my other areas.

President Hettinger is awesome. I am already glad to be working with him and I can't wait to see what kind of work we can do together. These next few months out here are going to be exciting.

That is all for now. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Brandon


Mom's Note:

1. I think the "Holy Wow!" was because he had told us to ask questions, and so we did. A lot of them.

An Epistle to My Family:

I feel safe posting this here since maybe only three people ever actually read my blog, and they are all family. (You will notice that I didn't not link this post to facebook. You're welcome.)

Yesterday, while you read, looked at electronic devices, slept, and/or went to the library, I spent nine hours on my feet, sewing. As I've been doing every day for about a week now. After the sewing, I went to the store to get some things for dinner (on my feet, except for the car ride), I made dinner (also on my feet), and before I went to bed I did the dishes (yeah, on my feet). This morning I got up at 6:00 and cleaned the entire kitchen; it took me an hour-and-a-half—on my feet—to unload the dishwasher, reload it, wash the sinks, wash the remaining dishes by hand, wash the counters, take out the trash, and sweep and mop the floor. And now I will spend the rest of the day on my feet, sewing. By the end of the day my feet and ankles will be swollen and retaining water; the swelling goes down a lot by morning (although not completely) which is why I am able to spend each day on my feet again.

Anyway, this is ridiculous. The whole "messy house until Mom takes care of it" thing. You are all big enough and have plenty of time to do it. So, like it or not, let me tell you how it was when I was your age. This may sound like Grandpa's "I walked to school four hours in knee-deep snow every day—even in the summer—and it was uphill there and back" stories, but this story is actually true:

When I was eight years old my mom took a full time job. I didn’t worry about it too much then, but I’ve thought about it a lot since I’ve grown up.

My sister Melanie (who was thirteen at the time) says that my parents gathered all us kids together for a family council, and Dad told us that now that Mom was going to be away from home so much we needed to be more helpful in the house. I don’t remember this and neither, apparently, did most of my other siblings. Melanie took up the slack of the housework and when I was old enough to be willing—between nine and eleven—I worked with her. Melanie taught me how to take care of a house.

*Every day we did the dishes. This meant we washed them by hand for a few years until my parents could afford the exciting luxury of a dishwasher. It meant we scoured the sink before and after the dishes were washed; it meant we searched the house for dishes so we wouldn’t miss any; it meant we washed all the pans; it meant that we dried and put away any dishes that would create a precariously high stack in the dish-rack; it meant that when the rest of the dishes were clean and drying we wiped down the counters, the stove and the table. And then we swept the floor and mopped it (often on our hands and knees).

But we didn’t stop with the dishes; we took care of the entire house, at least upstairs—which included the kitchen, dining room, living room, den, and two bathrooms—daily. This meant that we had to figure out where to put everyone’s stuff—often to be yelled at later by our siblings if they couldn’t find their things. It meant that we dusted all the furniture, vacuumed the carpets, and swept and mopped the floors. It meant we cleared and washed counters and tables. It meant we scrubbed two toilets, washed sinks, counters, bathtubs and showers, washed mirrors, and scrubbed two bathroom floors. It meant we cleaned our own bedrooms. Every. Day. It also meant we washed our own laundry, and did the community laundry, like towels and dishrags. We also cooked dinner two to four times a week. I reiterate: we did this work every day.*

Sometimes we deep-cleaned. This meant taking all the books off of the shelves (and there were lots of books!), dusting the shelves and putting the (dusted) books back in their places. It meant taking everything out of closets and reorganizing them. It meant cleaning the common area of the basement—a space as big as the living room, kitchen and one bedroom. It meant washing windows. It meant scrubbing walls or degreasing kitchen cabinets. It meant shampooing carpets. It meant waxing and polishing wooden floors. Other times we canned apricots and tomatoes (which we only learned how to do because we'd seen Grandma do it every year when we were little; nobody "taught" me to can fruit).

As teenagers Melanie and I did the *regular housework* every day. My parents didn’t ask us or remind us, or always thank us for doing it. (In fact, I have a clear memory of having cleaned the entire house except for the den, getting dinner started, and standing at the sink washing dishes when my mom got home from work. She walked through the house, past me, without saying a word until she got to the den, and then she complained about what a mess the den was). Melanie and I didn’t complain about the housework—not even to each other. It wasn't something to complain about; we did simply because it needed to be done. We worked together until Melanie got married, when I was fifteen years old. And then I did it by myself until I got married and moved out at twenty-two.

For a while, recently, I would think about all this and, knowing how long it takes me to clean the house now, I would wonder if I was just making myself out to be more wonderful than I really was. How could I possibly have gone to the dance studio every night from 4:00 or 5:00 until 10:00, and had piano lessons once a week, and practiced piano every day, and done all this housework? I even talked to Melanie (and Dad, who saw some of this before we got married) about it. Was my memory faulty?

Nope. Because it works like this: Since we did these things EVERY. DAY, it didn't take long to get them all done. Maybe an hour (and that includes hand-mopping the floors). And that was with only one or two of us working. And doing the minimum on the weekends.

So, here's the deal: I expect YOU to take care of the house—especially when I am working on this big sewing project. Plain and simple. We've talked and talked and talked about how to divide the work, when to do it, why it has to be done, etc., etc., etc., until I'm sick of hearing about it. I've made up sheets of what needs to be done in each room. I've showed you how to do it; I've written up papers on how to do it. Enough.

You have lists, and you have brains. All those little house-cleaning jobs need to be done every day. In the morning would be best. The first day might take a couple of hours with all of you working. You will need to brush up the kitchen after every meal; this might take 30 minutes with two or three of you working. And then you need to keep doing those things every. single. day. After the first day, if all of you work together, it will probably take you thirty to forty-five minutes each day to clean the entire house. We are not talking about this any more. I'm not asking for your input on how, when, or why.

These are my expectations:
1. One person will not do ALL the work by themselves. Believe me, after thirty-five years of it, I know the unfairness and resentment that go with that. You will ALL work on the house together, at the same time.
2. Every job on the lists will be done to my standards every day. (You should all know what that means by now.)

JUST DO IT!!

Love, Mom

p.s. All of your electronics are now confiscated until I see some results.

News From Hungary! vol. 24

Well, lots of  fun pictures today! *1

I think this is the best missionary name tag picture I have ever seen. :-) 

And here's what Brandon has to say:

Another Transfer

And this one is Earlier than I expected. I will be going to Debrecen, and I will be serving with Elder Hess! He is one of my favorite companions! I hear that the work out there in Debrecen is kind of tough, but my mission has only been tough thus far and I don't expect that a rumored "Tough Area" is going to change anything about what I expect from the people that I meet and teach. I have been seeing more and more that everything is really just about attitude. Well, more or less. But a mean person is really super kind when looked at the right way. Not to say that their actions might not actually be pretty mean, but our way of treating and loving that person is entirely up to us.

??

Monday
Yesterday we had a Zone day. It was in fact the best Zone day that I have had. We Separated into groups and did a picture scavenger hunt all across Budapest, and in the meantime we also had to try and talk to as many people as possible. It was a blast and we talked to some interesting people.  *2

the missionaries pay tribute to the King of Pop

O!

Sunday,
After Church we met with a member family. The Dad in this family is a recent convert and will have the opportunity to baptise his Daughter sometime in the near Future. They were really wonderfull people and I am sad that I won't get to work with them any further. 

Elder Fisher give a Book of Mormon to ... Ronald Reagan?

Saturday
I was in Kaposvár for the entire day, we did a lot of tracting. Also there is a new challenge/rule where we as missionaries are strongly encouraged to spend all of our time outside of our apartments from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM. We tried it out and I would say that it worked out pretty well. I liked it and intend to continue doing it as often as possible. Also the skin on my arms is like two shades darker now.

What is this?

Friday
I met with one of our investigators and brought one of the members along. It was a really good lesson. Éva, our investigator, is really progressing. I think that if asked then she would happily accept a Baptismal date. I don't know why we didn't ask, it seems like things keep pulling us away from doing it. I just don't want these people to slip away just because I didn't ask them to be baptised.

Thursday
There was District meeting, and then later Sport Nap (sport day), which we decided to start in Pécs because we are doing a Summer Break for the English Class. This is about all that happened though. *3

doing the "Slav Squat" in a fountain

Wednesday
The Exterminator Came again! And I thought that that would be the end of it, then I learned that I would in fact have to wait another week. So officially the last time that I slept in that apartment was about 3 weeks ago. And now I will be going clear to the other side of the country. I am honestly pretty excited for it though. *4

George Washington? In Hungary?

Tuesday
I went up to Budapest to meet my new Mission President for the first time. President Hettinger is a pretty amazing man from what I have seen of him thus far and I am really looking forward to serving with him.

Well that is all from me I guess. I heard that there is a pretty crazy wild fire out there Near Strawberry. I hope that it does rain out there and that they can get it all under control. I myself have been getting tons of Rain. This is officially the rainiest summer that I have ever experienced. I think, because come to think of it last summer was pretty rainy as well. I remember a thunderstorm happening almost every night. Hmm. Maybe Last summer was the Rainiest. Ah well. Happy late 4th of July. Enjoy the wild fire! *5

Love you all. You should ask me more questions, it really helps me to remember things that have happened.

Sincerely,
Brandon.

This picture he did tell me about:"This is the cover of a Planner that I was making for one of the sisters. It took many evenings to do this. But it was hilarious and I really enjoyed it."

Mom's Notes:

1. Unfortunately, he didn't tell us about any of the pics—except for one. So I will just make up the captions myself.

2. I'm guessing that most of the pics are from this Zone Day scavenger hunt.

3. I forgot that it's called a Sport Nap. That sounds very different from what it really is. :-)

4. I was hoping that he'd get transferred after the bedbug incident. What a bummer if they didn't all get killed, or they came back! (the bedbugs). Of course, I guess there's no guarantee that he won't run into more bugs in his new apartment, but it's pretty unlikely.

5. I sent Brandon a few pics of the Dollar Ridge fire, which is about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live. In fact, for a few days our only—well our best route out of Vernal was closed. But we have been unaffected by the fire here, except for some smoke. Pray for rain! Lots of it!

And that's it for this week.

News From Hungary! vol. 23

New Beginnings

So, I have a new Mission President. I wrote my email to him in English which was super weird. Usually I write to my mission president in Hungarian, but now my Mission President doesn't even know Hungarian. 

"Most of Pecs,  from the top of a very tall tower" *1

Sunday
This was a pretty normal day, we had two investigators in Church. For one of them it was their first time in Church. She seemed to really like it, although she wasn't able to stay for all three hours. But that is okay for now, at least she was there for Sacrament Meeting. All day this Sunday we spoke only in Hungarian, from 10:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night we have been instructed to only speak Hungarian to our companions.
I don't know if anything else happened that was super interesting. I can't think of anything. I am still traveling to Kaposvár each day, but that will be all over come this Friday. Our apartment should be completely bug free.

Saturday,
We did service for a man in a Village called Harkány. He fell over and broke his hand/arm a couple of months ago and it still causes him pain. So we helped him really clean his kitchen, scrubbing the walls, the cabinets and the refrigerator. This isn't the first time that I have done service for this man, and I guess that he was just really super gratefull, because he gave us three bags full of fruit from his orchard, one full of Peaches, one full of some kind of plum, and another full of Nectarines. Nándor (the man I have been talking about) is a rough around the edges kind of guy, and it makes it tiring to listen to him telling us how he wants things done, but he is really kind and I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to serve him.

Friday
I did weekly planning, and afterwards I went tracting. It was pretty good, nothing special happened, but I enjoyed it.

this week's selfie

Thursday
Early in the morning I got up to travel to Pécs so that I wouldn't be late to a lesson, and I made it. I got to teach Pál, he is a very nice man who looks younger than he is. (He's like 70 years old.) He told us the first time that we met him that he doesn't want to change, but I think that he's just saying that. In our last lesson with him the spirit was pretty strong, and it seemed to me that Pál was very touched by what we had to say. I hope so, I think that he has a lot of potential, but I seem to be the only one who really feels that way. Elder Fisher wants him to progress, but Pál doesn't want to do anything we ask him to do, or in other words, doesn't really want to progress. So unfortunately we will have to consider dropping him. I hope that there is a change and that it won't be necessary to drop him. Other than that we found this really cool potential investigator, and we will be meeting him this Friday. He has already read the Restoration Pamphlet, and when we called him he said that he has been thinking about what he read over and over, and he keeps finding new questions about the Gospel. We will probably invite him to be baptised when we meet.

Wednesday
We just did a ton of tracting. It was pretty fun, but we didn't find anyone. Oops, just looked in my planner and we found three people. So I will have to look in my Area Book and see who they were. But don't worry, I won't forget about them, and we will know for sure if they are ready to hear about the Gospel.

Tuesday
In the Morning we met with Éva, a really sweet old lady who came to Church Yesterday, and Later we Met with Viola, another nice old lady whom we met with the first time two Sundays ago while tracting. She has informed us that she will now be our new Grandmother and that we should Call her Viola Néni. (I probably would have anyway) Viola is Baptist, and she loves everything that we have told her about. She already believes everything that we say, and it really helps that the Baptist beliefs really almost line up with our own. Basically we just have to help her keep commitments and feel the spirit and I think that she will happily join the church. I hope so anyway. She said that she is coming to church with us this week so hopefully that all works out.

And there you have it. those are all of the Juicy details of my life for the past week. Last Monday I didn't do much, but I did begin working on a planner cover for a member of my district. I happen to have some pretty funny pictures and I intend to use them to make a fantastic planner cover.

Elder Fisher at "the top of a super tall and windy tower." *2

*3

I still have not met President Hettinger, I don't even know what he looks like, but I will be meeting him tomorrow so by then I will know more about him. 

President and Sister Hettinger (new president) on the left
and President and Sister Szabadkai on the right *4

Well that is all, I will be uploading pictures today and they will be included in a separate email.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Probably the broadcast tower he mentioned last week.

2. I don't know if this picture of Elder Fisher is one of the silly pictures Brandon is talking about, but I'll bet the super tall and windy tower is the same broadcast tower he mentioned last week.

3. I'm positive this is one of the silly pictures.

4. Brandon doesn't know what the Hettingers look like, but I do! ;-)

'Til next time...