News From Hungary! vol. 35

Brandon and his siblings (some of them) just before we took him away to the MTC. Ryan (the one on the right, who looks like he might actually be a missionary in this picture) will be leaving two weeks after Brandon gets back home.

And so it begins

Well, here I am. This is the big one. The one that is going to make it all. I have been preparing for this moment my whole mission, and now it's time to make some magic happen. (As a side note Elder Hess says "Hi.") *1

This is my last transfer. I will only email home roughly seven more times. I honestly don't know how to feel. Sometimes it is super exciting, other times it is nerve wracking. *2
But right now I honestly just don't know how to feel. Did you know that the keyboards here are not QWERTY But rather QWERTZ? It is pretty weird.

Monday
Well it has finally happened, almost. But I have an investigator who is being Baptised! Her name is Andrea, and she wants to be baptised as soon as possible so it is happening this weekend. yesterday I spent pretty much all day making plans and preparations. We had to hold two interviews with her, and today we have to fill out some paperwork. This is the first, and so far only, baptism that I have been able to make happen. *3

Sunday
At the end of Sacrament meeting Andrea, the one getting baptized, just leaned over to Elder Hess and said. "Meg akarok keresztelkedni." Or in other words "I want to be baptized." And Elder Hess was just like "Wut?" and so she repeated herself only this time adding that she wanted it to happen as soon as possible.  *4 So we spent that day too calling our district leader, and zone leaders, and the mission president trying to figure out just how soon "As soon as possible." is. The answer is this Saturday. Then that was basically our day. 

Saturday
We met with two of our investigators, this required a lot of travel, but it was worth it. The lessons went really well. One of these investigators, József, always starts our meetings with a small speech about how much he appreciates us. And it makes it sound like he is getting ready to tell us that he doesn't want to meet with us anymore, but then we just go on and have a super awesome meeting instead.

Friday
We had a Game night, and before that we also had a District meeting. It was a really good day. I really don't have much more to say about it than this.

Thursday
We had weekly planning and then we did some streeting. After that we went and taught Angol Óra. (English Class) It was super good and we actually got a new investigator.

Wednesday
We met with a less active member. It was pretty good, she loves to talk, and I am just not sure how to get her to regularly attend church. It is a bit of a struggle, but something will work. 

The weather out here is wild. It is much like Utah where it can be sunny one moment and then cloudy the next. Just the other day we had this really big rain storm. That storm is all it took to send the whole country into Autumn. It is significantly colder now. The people are pretty different here. It is actually pretty sad. They don't smile as much.  *5 And they are all pretty quiet. 

Well that is likely all for now.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Transfers were this week, and it would have been Brandon's last transfer! I am assuming, then, that he is staying in Debrecen with Elder Hess. Yay!

2. It is more exciting than nerve-wracking...for me, anyway!

3. I'm glad Brandon will get to see an investigator of his get baptized. I know a lot of missionaries come home without having even one baptism, and I know they are not supposed to keep a tally of how many baptisms they got (or as Brandon said, "make happen"—which is not quite correct, by the way), but it's got to be frustrating to spend two years trying to teach people and not have anyone come through. I'm excited for him and Elder Hess.

4. "Wut?" I love it!

5. I have heard (on the internet, where everything is utterly, 100% reliable) that Europeans think Americans smile too much, or even that they think we are fake, or have some kind of agenda when we smile so much. Whatever. Cultural differences. :-)

And that's it for this week. I will have to ask him for pictures next week...