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...