News From Hungary! vol. 4

Oh, well, I intended to post last week, but I got busy sewing costumes for Uintah High's musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (Buy tickets here, and put Kaylie's name in when it asks you who to credit—she needs to sell $400 worth of tickets!)

Anyway, I will give you Brandon's highlights from last week (Feb. 5-11), and I'll post this week's news (Feb. 12-18) in a separate post. So, last week:


I have to say, first: A mission is hard. The work is easy, but the mission is hard. Those of you who have served missions all know what I am talking about. That said. Serving my mission has been one of the best experiences that I have ever had. In fact, as far as experiences go, it is the best one. I will however say that it is not the most pleasant one. That is likely greatly due to the fact that I am not a perfect missionary. That conveys a message that I don't mean. I guess I mean I am not perfect, far from it, and having imperfections removed can be painful sometimes. What makes a mission so good for me, is I get to be 100% devoted to trying to bring others to the gospel. That is what makes it worth it. And nothing really makes me happier. I would even venture to say that nothing will make any of you happier. Bringing people closer to the gospel is a wonderful thing. And when it works it is even more amazing.

Last Monday, we went to the Balaton. It is a super pretty lake in Hungary and it is huge. We hiked around an Island, well more of a peninsula, in the lake and my companion got some super cool pictures.

I am going to Go backwards now because it helps me Remember.

Sunday 
Just a bunch....Oh wait, I was going to say tracting but we actually had an investigator come to church. Her name is Ica, and she is super sweet and depressed at the same time. Nothing makes her happier than being visited by us missionaries it seems, and nothing makes her sadder than her own family who has divorced from her and denounced her. But she was super happy in church and we missionaries have been working with the ward to make her as happy as possible. When we met with her in her home last week I felt impressed to ask her if she would be baptised. She was confused as to why she would need to be baptised since she has been baptised Catholic, but after we explained it she was increadibly happy. I had never seen her so happy. Interestingly she didn't accept, but she did say that she would think about it. We also visited Mohamed who we didn't expect to actually see because his daughter is sick and in the hospital, but we did meet him and we were able to give him a get better card for his daughter. We also prayed with him and that was nice. Earlier before that we met with a former investigator and he Is now a new investigator again! Yayy! Oh yeah, when we went to the Balaton we went with a member, and we wouldn't have been able to go if it weren't for him. So the sisters made a thank you card and I made brownies for him.

Saturday
I don't remember what we did on Saturday. Wait yeah I do. We were invited to a birthday party of one of the members. We went and brought a birthday card. At the party we were able to meet a lot of the members friends which got us the idea of starting a game night to get the youth interested in investigating. We also got to meet with one of our former investigators and that was cool.

Friday
Weekly planning. We have been challenged to read and do every point in the weekly planning session that you find in Preach My Gospel. It takes forever, for the last two weeks it has taken six hours. I honestly don't even remember what else we did on Friday.

Thursday
District meeting, English Class. These were good, no one really payed attention in English Class this last week though. We with one of our investigators. Niki, super good meeting, we had a good member present. Hütter Olivér. He helped a lot.

Wednesday
We made brownies and delivered them to some investigators, well potiential investigators. I am really hoping that this will be a good effort in getting them interested in investigating.

Tuesday
Umm, Oh, we met With Ica. She is the depressed investigator that I was talking about, We brought her some flowers and taught her about the Restoration. She was super happy afterwards.

Well, I think that that is everything.
Love you all!
Brandon.

News From Hungary! vol. 3

Well, here's what Brandon had to say today. Luckily for me, Elder Gilson takes lots of great pictures, so I have some to show you. (Brandon's camera was stolen just before Christmas. I'm hoping to send him a new one in a few weeks.)

Lots of thanks to Elder Gilson for all the awesome pics!

Here's the latest:

Bumm!

If you think that says "Bum" then you are wrong, at least in the language I speak, It actually says "Boom!"

So, Last Monday
Uhh, I don't think that I really did anything all that special. Elder Gilson finished making a "I'm a Mormon" video.

What??

Tuesday
Zone Conference, it was pretty good. I had to pick up more books of Mormon so that we can teach with them, and carrying them all the way back to the train station was pretty tough. Or at least it would have been if Elder Gilson didn't carry it the whole time. I offered to take it from him but he declined. Ah well. We also had this super long training about Weekly Planning. Actually the training was pretty quick, but now we are going to be doing weekly planning for a lot longer.

zone conference

Wednesday
Umm...We went tracting and streeting, it was pretty boring. I mean, I actually enjoy it, but nothing happened. And yes that really is all that happened that day.

Thursday
District meeting happened. Oh, and after District meeting the sisters brought some pancakes and we ate pancakes for lunch which was super good. I also made some kind of  fried thing. I don't know what to call it but it was super good too. Roll out some bread dough. Put diced apple slices onto it, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and orange zest. Wrap it all together and pinch it to seal it closed. Fry it like a scone and eat it warm! Other than that we had a lesson and got a new investigator. Her name is Balogh Niki. She investigated last year but when she learned that we missionaries don't date or get girlfriends out here on the mission, she decided that she was done. (Sorry ladies, I don't have time for love.) She asked a bunch of questions about that in our meeting and still wanted to investigate after we affirmed that we don't date as missionaries, so I am feeling pretty good about having her as an investigator. She has even started reading the Book of Mormon. So we will see where this goes.

I don't know what church this is, but it's beautiful.

Friday
We did weekly planning for six hours. Then we went tracting.


Saturday
We went home teaching with Vilmos or "Vili" we just call him "Vili"  Super cool guy, he is going on a mission after he finishes High School. We Met with Páli Bácsi and he is super cool, he speaks with a different Hungarian accent so he is pretty hard for me to understand. After all of this we went Tracting and found a whole bunch of super nice people. None of them wanted to investigate, but I feel like I should keep on inviting them. So I will be finding ways that I can try and get them interested. If any of you who have served missions before think that this is a bad idea then let me know. Otherwise I will let you all know how it goes once I have figured out what I am going to do, and have done it.

Sunday
Singing Tracting approaches. Elder Gilson and I just sang songs for people and we got a let in! The Néni (old lady) who let us in is Roman Catholic and she told us something like 50 times that she won't change. I assured her that we as missionaries (or that we of ourselves, which is really what I meant) could not in any way convince her to give up her religion. And honestly we don't want that, we just want to give her more than what she already has and understands. We might go back there and try talking to her again sometime.

in the Balaton area

Today!
I went to the Balaton. It is the largest shallow water lake in all of Eastern Europe. It was super Pretty and made me wish that I could go swimming. Although to do so now would be freezing cold. The other missionaries took lots of pictures so I will try and get those for you all, but that might not be until next week.

The kind ward member on the left offered to take the missionaries on this outing today - I love the kindness shown to our missionaries. 

Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton

Elder Gilson at Lake Balaton.
His mom says he misses swimming, too. :-)

I love you all!
Sincerely,
Brandon.

The Latest News From Hungary!

Well Brandon's been sending awesome emails, so this might become a regular feature on my blog for the next eleven months. :-)

photo taken by President Szabadkai (I believe) at mission interviews. I don't know who the sister missionaries are.
Maybe the pair that are in Brandon's district? 

Here's what he had to say today (and *Mom's notes at the end):

So apparently my email last week was super good. Hang on while I check out what I even said...Oh, so that is what I did last week, that is good to know. It honestly is a really good format because it really helps me remember what on earth I have done throughout a week. *1

So on Sunday
I didn't really do a whole lot, I went tracting and found a bunch of cool and really nice people, but none of them were interested in learning about the gospel. One of them was this really nice young dude who was Catholic, but he loved talking to us. I have spent so much time getting rejected by people that I have realized that I don't even know what to say to someone once they are interested in listening. I have done all kinds of things, to try but it doesn't really seem to grab their attention. The first one is telling them the Restoration story, another one is talking about the Prophet and apostles, and explaining about how the Church is organized the same as when Christ established it. But it doesn't really seem to work all that well. Beyond that I have had this realization that has been dawning on me throughout the course of this last week and that is that I need to be doing more to love these people. There is the song from "Enchanted" that goes "How does she know You love her? How does she know she's yours?" And while I am not trying to woo any girls, I am trying to get the people here to know that I care about them beyond trying to get them to be baptised. So, I am starting all kinds of little missionary projects to let the people know that the missionaries care about them, and hopefully in effect they will know that God cares about them.

Saturday
We Finished a split with the Zone leaders. I am a district leader which means that I get to go on splits with the Zone Leaders twice a transfer. It was actually super fun, and they have a lot of confidence in me and my ability to help improve the work in Veszprém.(If you want to spell it correctly then there it is. V-E-S-Z-P-R-É-M, It is okay if you can't get the accent mark over the "e" I have a Hungarian keyboard and that is how I do it. I made breakfast for them, Hashbrowns and Eggs, and they loved it. I have more to say about cooking but I will write it for Friday. Saturday was cold and windy, and that was no, fun. But I made this super nice note for one of our investigators who was sick. I drew this pretty rose on it and told her that Elder Gilson and I care about her; and that God loves her. Which reminds me. She came to Church on Sunday. She said that she wouldn't but she did. And she said it was all because we gave her that note! (Maybe I should write this in order starting with Monday and going forwards. ah-well. Next time)

a selfie
It makes me happy that while Brandon is camera-less his companion takes lots of pictures and his mother posts them for me to see and steal. I wonder where they got the matching ties?

Friday
We started the split with the Zone leaders. But before that Elder Gilson and I went streeting and met a couple of really cool people. One was this dude who wasn't super interested and the other was this Girl who was super interested. She told us that she is trying to find God in her life and that she wanted to look through the Book Of Mormon. But didn't take the one that we offered to let her keep. She did take one of our pass along cards though, and that is good because it has the Church Website in Hungarian and it has our phone number. So hopefully she will be giving us a call sometime. The split was really cool. I spent the 24 hours that it lasted with Elder Neumiller. Super cool man. But my favorite part was cooking. I love cooking for other people, in part for the praise when I cook a good meal, but also it gives me an excuse to make something especially nice, and then I get to eat something nice too. I made what other Elders have called "Pizza Man Pockets" But what I will call a Fried Pizza. Roll out your dough, make it like a pizza, then fold it in half, and fry it. It is actually really tasty but a lot of work. I barely had time to make it. *2

Thursday
Had District meeting. This is where my profound thoughts about loving the people more completely really started. Aside from that we had MCM and English Class. Really tame day. Oh, I guess that we also did weekly planning. *3

English class

more of the English class

Wednesday
We met with a new investigator named Dávid. Really cool guy, really nice, but super Athiest. He doesn't want to continue learning about the Church, but I think that if we can love him then he will change his mind. His only reason for not believing in God is that neither of his parents believed, and he hasn't seen any signs that God exists. (for some reason religion and missionaries and you name it doesn't count as a signs) We also met with the Vasvary family that day. Super cool people. Which reminds me that we, Elder Gilson and I, also really want to include the members in our trying to love the people as best as we can. So we are going to, if we have time, drop in and share a quick message or ask if we can help, every time we are in the area. Just so that our members out here can feel like the missionaries care about them too.

Tuesday
Just a whole bunch of tracting and looking people up. Which makes it a pretty rough day, although it really isn't that hard, just tiring.

Monday
It was last P-day. We went over to the church building and hung out with the youth and began making an "I'm a Mormon" video about Elder Gilson. I also want to do one but I don't know what to say. But I will figure it out. It is possible that I will make a "Draw my Life" Video. Which would allow me to tell more about myself I think. *4

I haven't met with Mohamed again but I have talked to him over the phone. He is super cool and loves us missionaries. And we need to make sure that he knows that we love him. I don't believe that he is the only Muslim in Veszprém, but the Muslim community is so small that he is the only one that I know of. The larges City in Hungary is Budapest, it is perhaps, by way of landmass, the same size as Salt Lake. After that there are two other smaller cities, and the rest are either slightly larger than Vernal or about the same size, and this is population wise.

Well, I think that is all for now.
Love you!
Brandon.

*Mom's notes:

1. I notice that Brandon starts a lot of his communications with "So..."  I do that too. I wonder if he started it, or if I did?

2. All three of my missionary sons now have told me how much the other missionaries liked it when they cook(ed) for them. All of my kids really are pretty good cooks. Moms, teach your kids to cook: it will make them popular later. ;-)

3. I wonder what MCM is?

4. I've learned, from stalking his mother on facebook last week (hoping to find some pictures that have Brandon in them), that Elder Gilson was a dancer before his mission; I wonder if he will talk about that in his video... I don't know what a "Draw my life" video is, but I hope that Brandon makes one!

And that is this week's news from Hungary. Yay!

(Maybe I will get my act in gear and give you some News from Vernal one of these days.)

News From Hungary!

I haven't written much lately, but here is something worth reading. I got a great email from Brandon this morning. This time he actually told us  a lot about what he's been doing. Yay! So I will copy his letter here, and add some *notes of my own at the end.

This is the most recent picture we've gotten of Brandon,
on his last transfer day. (Jan. 2018)
I don't know who the two sister missionaries are. 
*1.

Here's what Brandon had to say today:


So going in order backwards the things that have happened this last week are: *2. 

Sunday I was asked to play the piano...In Priesthood not Sacrament meeting thank goodness. I also was invited over to a members house for dinner and that was super nice. The member's family name is Belovics. Super cool people, and their home teachers were there too, so we got to participate in that lesson with them. On top of that we looked up a man whom we were able to teach about the restoration at the time we weren't able to set up a return appointment. But this time when we looked him up we were able to plan that return appointment and now he counts as an investigator. His name is Dávid, and I am hoping that all will go well with him.

Saturday we met with another of our new investigators and it was a super cool lesson but it was also really hard. His name is Mohamed, and he is Muslim. His native language is Arabic and so it is hard to communicate clearly with him. But we got him and Arabic Book of Mormon and he was super grateful for that. So hopefully now he is going to read it. He said that he would but right now he is reading a lot of other things and working a lot so it might be a while before he really starts reading it. Mohamed told us that he accepts all of the prophets and only believes that Christ was a prophet and not actually the son of God. It was clear to see how dear to him his religion is, and I suspect that out here in Hungary where he is perhaps the only one, at least in Veszprém, who practices the muslim religion, that he would want to try all the harder to hold onto what he now believes and accepts as truth. 

President and Sister Szabadkai

Friday we had interviews with President Szabadkai. It was good, I often find that I have nothing to tell him. I write about all important details of the week and send that to him weekly so...I dunno.

Thursday, nothing amazing happened. We had district meeting and were able to watch the First Presidency address which was cool. And after that we taught an English class.

Wednesday we went to visit Érzsi Néni who is a member that lives in a tiny town outside of Veszprém. We accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop and had to walk what felt like a milk and a half. And then she fed us a small lunch, we gave a brief lesson, but it was more a lesson to give her someone to talk to because she lives all alone and about thirty minutes away from Veszprém. She after the lesson made it known to us that the "lunch" she gave us was more of an appetizer, and honestly she never did say that the sandwiches that she gave us were lunch. So she then gave us a ton of spaghetti which was good but it was too much food. Then we missed our bus so we just had to make phone calls for an hour and a half because the whole town had been tracted just a couple days before.

Tuesday this was our most boring day. I can't think of anything that happened on Tuesday.

Elder Gilson (Brandon's current companion)
and Elder Norris (one of his former companions—
it looks like Gilson and Norris were also companions at one time.)

Monday was P-day. It was pretty good. Elder Gilson and I decided to go running every Monday morning. It hurts a lot. But I actually enjoy it. It is satisfying to do something hard and a little bit painful so long as it helps you improve and do better.

On the topic of my shoes, they are beginning to wear thin through the bottom. I am actually on the second pair of shoes that I brought on my mission. The first wore out the beginning of last summer. The ones that I am wearing are doing pretty well, but the stopped being 100% waterproof. So sometimes my feet get a little bit wet but it isn't often. *3.

I love Veszprém. It is actually really pretty out here even though it is winter and everything is dead. The people are the nicest that I have ever met in Hungary and I have a super cool companion and District. Funny thing, I am in the same district as Sister Eddy, she went to Snow College and she and Jason know each other. I love my companion, he fills in the holes to the way I serve my mission and really just makes me better. Also he has been on his mission shorter than I have been but he knows more Hungarian words than I do, are at leaste more different ones than I do, so I will hopefully learn from him how to speak better. I did get all of the music you sent to me, thank you so much! I am really happy to get to hear my choir music again. It is also pretty good for some background noise while I am studying. *4. *5.

I have served in Tatabánya, Érd, Kispest, and Now I am in Veszprém. I liked all of these areas but my favorite was Érd. But perhaps Veszprém will change that. I don't know why but since serving in Veszprém I have gained a greater appreciation for pickles, this is good though because people keep feeding us pickles. I don't know what to say about my previous areas but the only one that I really didn't like was Kispest, but now looking back I would happily go there again. It was a super cool area. *6.

That is all for now. I might write more later though.

Love you all!
Brandon.

Veszprém
(this is from a Google search; Brandon did not take this picture. )

*Mom's notes on all of this:

1. Apparently when they do transfers, all the missionaries go to the mission office before they move. Some wonderful person took pictures of all the missionaries who showed up that day and posted them on the secret Hungary Mission facebook group.  I was a happy mom that day!
(Brandon's camera got stolen right around Christmas time, so I'd seen fewer pictures than even before.)

2. Brandon started right in on telling us about his week; no salutation. :-) (Sometimes I do that too.)

3. Last week I had a nightmare that I had to take Jason to the doctor because his feet were hurting him. As we were walking out the door I saw that his right foot was terribly deformed (in a way that, actually, he would have had to been born with, but you know how dreams are). I found out the reason his foot looked so awful was because his shoes had gotten so worn out on his mission that all the walking ruined his foot. So I asked Brandon how his shoes were holding up.

4. I think Brandon has really liked all of his companions, but the one he has told us the most about is Elder Gilson. I'm glad they are doing so well together.

5. I asked Brandon if the SD card that I tried to put good mission-appropriate music on (including the music he performed with the school choir last year) actually had any music on it. I forgot to check it before I mailed it off to him.

6. I would have thought that the area he liked the least was his first area, Tatabánya. I thought he was the most homesick while he was there, and he was also accused of driving a person to suicide while he was there. (The missionaries were the last people known to speak to this man before he killed himself. There was a big investigation and everything, and they had an emergency transfer as soon as the questioning was all done.)

So that's the news from Hungary today. It makes my heart happy to hear such a newsy, cheerful letter from Brandon. Y

Sickening.

I could cry. At least if I weren't feeling almost in shock I could cry.

In May of 2014, after four years of college life; learning to drape and/or draft a pattern, sew it, do a fitting and re-sew it if necessary—all in one week or less; learning to tailor a coat, construct a bra, build a corset, design and make formal-wear; learning to illustrate fashion figures; re-learning how much I hate algebra; re-learning how much I like to write... It was a big four years...

one of my illustrations

Anyway, in May of 2014 I finished four years of college and earned two degrees from the Fashion Institute of Salt Lake; one in design, and one in technical apparel. My final, final project, the culmination of an entire school-year's work, was to participate in the Fashion Institute's fashion show. I designed, drafted patterns for, went to L.A. to purchase fabrics for, and sewed like a maniac for months, to create a ten-piece line of formal dresses, suitable for wearing to the symphony or the opera. I called my line Pianoforte.

my models receiving last-minute instructions

Fast-forward to today. As I was trying to find places to stash things in our new house, I unpacked the Pianoforte dresses. So, instead of doing the work I'd planned for today, I had Lindsey try them all on and model them for us. I have to say, they are quite stunning (I like them much better now than I did immediately after all the hours and all-nighters I spent making them—and I liked them pretty well even then).

But one dress was missing. In fact the dress that, in my mind, is the icon of my Pianoforte line is missing. I remember it was separate from the other dresses; it needed a small repair, and so I'd had it wrapped in a blue sheet in my bedroom, waiting until I could get to it—it had been stored with some rolls of fabric that were wrapped in that pellon-type half-paper-half-fabric that furniture sometimes is wrapped in for delivery. I remember the fabrics and the gown were among the very first things brought into our new house; they were put on my bedroom floor long before my bedroom furniture showed up. I remember unwrapping the fabrics later with Jessica so I could put them away. I remember telling her that the pellon-type fabric could and should be thrown away. I remember finding a place to stash my rolls of fabric, and Jessica throwing the pellon away.

And now, four weeks later, I finally remembered my dress and I can't find it. I've been over every inch of this house a zillion times over the last four weeks, trying to arrange and put things away, and I haven't seen it anywhere. I have a horrible, wrenching feeling that my baby was thrown out with the bath water. Did my beautiful gown get tossed out with the awful pellon? Has it been buried in the landfill for the last three weeks?

The dress.
Is it gone forever?
If it is, I will have to re-make it.

It makes me sick—almost literally—just to think of it, but I'm 90% sure, and 99% afraid that that is exactly what happened. My only pathetic hope is that somehow it got put into the garage with all the other stuff that's waiting to be gone through. But it is a tiny hope; I know that if it was in the house I wouldn't have put it into the dirty garage.

I could just die.