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.