News From Hungary! vol. 38

It was good to hear from Brandon this morning—better than usual, and it's usually pretty good. But his email was a good pick-me-up today.

Sitting at our best table in the apartment, just for this picture.

Well!

There was a baptism! And it was awesome! I actually didn't get to be there because it was super far away. I would have had to travel for eight hours. Four hours there, and then four hours back, and then in addition it there would have been all of the time that I actually spent doing things. But in spite of the not getting to go to the baptism, I got to talk to my friend. (Andrea who I taught last transfer) and she was so happy, I am so glad to know that my efforts helped her to come to the decision to be baptized.  

I did a ton of tracting and streeting. I have four people whom I teach, and I have actually only met one of them once in a total of three weeks. But in spite of that I am happy, I have a great companion, we are working hard, and I have felt the spirit as we have worked together. I know that God has seen and accepted our efforts thus far, and I intend to continue to give my best efforts through the end.  *1

That's right, I am a rebel.

Sunday
We did a ton of streeting and tracting. Both of which were seemingly unfruitful, but then we found one person who said that we could come back on Tuesday this week to teach them. So I am excited for that. 

Posing for the camera.

Saturday
Andrea got baptized, and I had the opportunity to help a member move the furniture in her mother's apartment so that it could be painted. In doing so I got to meet with the member's non member husband Zsolt. He is such a good guy, really nice and respectful. But he isn't too interested in learning about the gospel right now.

Friday
Once again lots of streeting and tracting. We had our district meeting which was good, and that is really all.

Posing again for the camera.

Thursday
We did our weekly planning, and then streeted for the larger portion of the day, once the streets began to be more empty we went to do some tracting instead.

Wednesday
We did a lot of tracting, that is really all.

Tuesday
We just did a ton of streeting. That is all.

A map that I have been drawing my whole mission basically. You can see my companion's feet there at the top.

Rusz Elder  *2

Wow, what a boring week. But don't worry, I am doing great. Even with a less eventful week. And all of that work is going to pay off I'm sure. We already have some people who we are going to go back to to teach. And in the middle of this week we have a Zone conference. So I believe that this week will be one of the better ones in the transfer. 

The streets out here in the midst of the houses is quite different. Especially in the evening hours. The air is thick with smoke from peoples fires, and the air is chilly. The lamps out here are all a yellow orange, and the light shining through the smoke gives everything a surreal medieval feeling. There are a lot of black or other dark colored cats out here and they are always prowling around at this time of night. The only things that really ruin the effect are the cars parked everywhere, the electric lamps, and the sound of the nearby highways which are just audible in the dead silent that takes place on those streets after sundown. *3

Well that is all. I will send pictures in a separate email.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. I really think that Brandon has grown a lot. This makes me happy.

2. Brandon did not take this picture; I swiped it from the facebook mission page. I'm also happy to hear about his "awesome companion." Brandon has liked all of his companions, I think. That makes me happy too.

3. You could almost paint a picture from this description. :-)

News From Hungary! vol. 37

A good, good email today! :-)

The moon rising over one of the Churches out here.
It looked even better in real life.

Flying High

And as long as I don't get too close to the Sun then I think that I should be fine. *1

This last week was really awesome. I went on splits in Győr, that alone was super cool. I have only ever been to Győr on splits, but that was almost two years ago now. I honestly never thought that I would ever see that city again on my mission. And then the split itself was really good, it gave me a really good boost and extra motivation to really make this transfer be the best one of my mission. That energy has only gone up due to the awesome work that we have been doing, and also because of General Conference. Actually, after General Conference, I found myself wishing that I could have another year or two for my mission, just to see how these revelations in the church will change things. But I guess that I will just have to be happy with the amount of time that I have been given. Also, there is a lot that I will have to do when I go home. I guess that being a full time missionary just isn't meant for my whole life. *2

Now, Here is my week.

Sunday
I watched conference almost all day, we went streeting between some of the sessions, but mostly we just watched conference. We had one investigator who was able to watch one of the sessions, and we were able to meet with and teach one other investigator. Other than that it was just really good to be able to watch and listen to the prophet. I must say that the things that President Nelson has said and taught have had a greater effect on me than anything said or taught by any of the other apostles in the past year. I know that he is The Prophet of God. And I fully support and sustain him in that calling. My favorite talk was the one about the name of the Church. I still haven't seen, heard, or read the Sunday Afternoon, and I have no clear idea about the Saturday morning session (it was in Hungarian and they talk too darn fast for me).

I Just really love the way these lamps look, they are only in a couple of places, but they are super cool
and I love them.

Saturday
We did a lot of tracting and streeting before Conference. I have to watch the morning session in the afternoon so those were the activities we did to prepare to listen to the prophet. I generally understood what was spoken about, but I couldn't take notes because the effort of writing something down was enough to distract me from what was being said, and then I was completely lost for the next couple of seconds. So I don't really know too much about it all. But I did catch onto the shorter Church on Sunday.

Friday
I don't think that you all know about this, but a while back President Hettinger made some standards of  Excellence for the mission. Those are

• Speak the mission Language at all times outside of your apartment.
• Have at least one meaningful member contact daily.
• Contact all of your Friends/people you teach daily.
• Find two new friends/people to teach daily.
• Have 10 meaningful conversations daily.

And Elder Rusz and I did it, not only did we do it, but we exceeded it. This was largely due to the great effort and care of my amazing companion, but I did my best to help us achieve this goal, and you know what? I think that I am going to Keep on Striving to Be Excellent.
Oh, and we had a District meeting that day. *3

Thursday
We did our weekly planning, then we met with and taught a recent convert, and then had another meeting with a potential friend (is that right?). And afterwards we taught an English Class, and it was all awesome. Between each of our activities we did some streeting.

I don't know if I ever told you all, but Elder Hess really loves cars, and even built a really nice car of his own. But anyway, I saw this chained and locked to this fence, and I just had to take a picture.  *4

Wednesday
The whole day was spent in Győr. Well almost, I went with one of my Zone Leaders to teach a lesson to someone in a Falu (small town (like really small, we're talking like 20-30 houses)) It was a great lesson and the Zone leaders will be going back to that person to teach them more about the gospel. Otherwise we streeted the whole time.

This is a Crypt, I didn't know that I was standing over an ancient mass grave when I took this picture.

Tuesday
We basically just streeted for a long time before we needed to catch a bus for a 2 hour bus ride into Győr. 

And that was my week last week. Hmm, I feel like there was something else that I wanted to say. But I guess it will have to wait until next week. We'll see if I remember it.

Love you!

Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Icarus

2. This paragraph makes me happy because he sounds so happy. I'm glad he won't be on a mission in Hungary for his whole life.

3. Yep. Just makes me happy. Also, "we had a District meeting" is only an afterthought. Hehe.

4. What is this?

He will be home in five weeks, three days, and about six hours...not that I'm counting or anything. ;-)

News From Hungary! vol. 36

Well, sometimes Brandon forgets to tell me about the little things...

at an Italian restaurant

The Things I Forgot

The big thing I forgot was to tell you all that I left Debrecen. I am now in Székesfehérvár, I think that I forgot the other things that I forgot. *1

"Leaving behind my best friend in the mission, Elder Hess. (I only just now realized that I am not wearing my glasses in the picture.)"

I am now serving with Elder Rusz. He is actually Hungarian, which means that as far as doing things in this country goes, he actually knows what he is doing. I miss Elder Hess, I will admit that after spending so much time with him I was starting to think that maybe I was getting tired of him, but now that he is gone I kind of wish that I had him back.

So my investigator who was getting Baptized. There was a lot of discussion about that over all of last week, and after much consideration it was decided to move it to the 13th of October. But she is still getting baptized. I don't think that I will be able to be there because that would be something like 8 hours of travel for me to go to Debrecen and come back again, and there will also be a baptism here in Székesfehérvár on the 13th. Kind of a bittersweet thing there. *2


Here is my week,

Sunday
We had church, and then we went and did a ton of tracting, it was a sad tracting session, with many interruptions because I am a district leader again, and that means that half of Sunday is taken by phone calls with various people. Oh! In church we had Neli (Kornelia) who is the one that is getting baptized on October 13th! I am super excited for her, I have pretty much taught her nothing, but I will have taught more by that time. And then in the world of numbers I can say that I participated in the teaching of two souls who then got baptized. I have taught her one lesson, about missionary work and service, and that was Sunday evening. *3

Saturday
I did a lot of tracting, this was the day where I started to realize that with 10 different churches out here in a city of 100,000 people, it is pretty unappealing when someone comes to your door and says, "Hi, my friend and I brought a spiritual message-" that is about all that you can get out because as soon as they realize that you are a missionary of some kind, they immediately start closing the door. (We are going to figure something out though.)

"The Lasagna I ate at the Italian restaurant.
It was really good, but not as good as what you make at home mom." *4

Friday
Well, more of the same old Tracting and Streeting. Streeting is a little better than tracting, but I think that it is just because people don't feel like they can be as rude in public as they can be in private. But on a different note, we have bikes here in Fehérvár (the nickname of this city) which means that I regularly get to ride a bike. We also had a District meeting. My district consists of, Sisers Grames, Aros, Shepherd, and Reynolds. And my companion and I are the only Elders.

Thursday
Weekly planning! Tracting! Streeting! That is all.

Wednesday
Super long train rides, moving lots of heavy bags, getting moved into my apartment here in Fehérvár.

And that is really all.

Elder Rusz  *5

Elder Rusz is an amazing artist. I really don't know what more to say than that. Maybe I will take a picture of his work and send it to you. Speaking of pictures, I took some this week, I will send them in a separate email.

Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Little things, like he's not in the same city any more...

2. It's too bad he couldn't be there for Andrea's baptism...

3. but it's nice that he will get to be part of Neli's baptism.

4. :-) Well, that makes me happy!
Brandon hasn't sent me home very many food pictures, but when he has, none of it has been Hungarian food! A photo of him eating at an American restaurant, an onion, and now lasagna from an Italian restaurant... Funny kid!

5. If I understand the Hungarian language at all, then you pronounce his name "Roosh." Rusz Elder.

That's it for today!

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...

News From Hungary! vol.34

Great letter from Brandon today! (No new pics, though.)

What day is it?

I will be home in Eight weeks! Wow! I try not to count because that makes it slower, but that is pretty exciting. *1

Well, I don't know what to say so I guess I will get right into it.

Monday
It was a pretty Hectic day. I spent all morning traveling, then I had an interview with President Hettinger, then I spent all evening traveling and those were some of the longest train rides ever. But I made it back to my apartment and it all worked out well. *2

Sunday
It was also pretty hectic. I had to translate in church because our Branch is too small to have a designated translator, and beside that there currently is not a lot of people who are in need of translation. But we had a senior couple who was there this week and they will be moving into Debrecen pretty soon. So that means there will be a lot more translating in the future. After Church we had an apartment check and it was concluded that we will be getting a new apartment out here in Debrecen. So that is really nice, although that means that we will have to move a lot of stuff to the new apartment when it is found. After the apartment check we left for Szolnok because we needed to travel early in the morning the next day, which would have meant something like getting up around three or four so that we could take something like a four and a half hour train ride to another city where we would have our interviews.

Saturday
It was also a busy day. We had a couple of lessons planned, one of them fell through, but we did have our other lesson.
Afterwards we met up with the Ockies (the senior couple who is coming to Debrecen) and they took us to dinner. Beyond all of that we did a lot of tracting and streeting.
Oh yeah! Hey Jason, did you know an Elder Ockey on your mission? *3

Friday
Was super busy *4, we had District meeting, then we came right back and hopped on another train to go to a falu called Hajdúhadház. And there we met with an investigator who we have not been able to meet with for about a month, but we finally got back to him and he is still just as interested. I hope that we will now be able to continue meeing with him. Especially since I feel bad for not being able to really talk to him for about a month.

Thursday
We met with our most Progressing investigator, Ádám. He said that he would like to be baptised! So now we just need to figure out when. I am pretty excited for him and I think that he could be baptised soon. I really hope it happens. *5 Other than that we had our weekly planning and we taught our first English class for this Fall.

Wednesday
We did a lot of streeting and tracting. In between it all we met with a less active member, she... Well, we are working with her.  We finished our day with a game night that we have been doing for a little while now. And it has been fairly successful. I am looking forward to the people that we can meet through that.

Tuesday
We met with a great investigator named László. He has come a long way. He used to be athiest and believe that all churches were some kind of money grabbing scheme. But he really likes our church and is willing to say that there is a god. László even prays and reads the Book of Mormon now. In fact he has even said that he might be baptized. So we will see how things will go with him.

So, I can't think of a lot of things that I can tell you about Hungary. But. The buildings are beautiful and built in this super cool old style. You can almost feel like you are walking through a fairy tale in some parts of the country. There are cobbled streets everywhere, and while some of them are really bumpy, they are all super neat looking. I really love the way this country is built. You likely wouldn't know it, but a lot of old stories and fairy tales actually were written with Hungarian things in mind. It keeps getting easier and easier for me to see that. *6

It is pretty.

The Pékség *7 out here is superb. I really love all of the baked goods and I will miss being able to buy my own mini pizza, or a stuffed croissant for a dollar when I go home.
There are fresh fruit stands all over the place out here, and you can just walk up and buy a kilogram of almost anything for roughly five dollars.

I hope that helps satisfy your curiosity about this country for now, but there is so much more.
Love you!
Brandon.


Mom's Notes:

1. Eight weeks! That is pretty exciting!

2. I think Brandon will never want to ride a train again.

3. Jason served in British Columbia, Vancouver a few years ago (he got home in October 2015). Did he serve with an  Elder Ockey? Or know (of) him?

4. Do you get the impression that missionaries are always super busy?

5. It would be pretty exciting for Brandon (and Elder Hess) if Ádám did get baptised soon. :-)

6. There's a big difference between the beginning of a mission and the end...thank goodness! I think home sickness and trepidation color the beginning of the mission. (" I arrived in Hungary and instead of the green beautiful country that I had seen pictures of it was and still is, brown, dirty, stinky, and smoky.") It makes me happy that he sees the beauty of it now.

This is the first picture he ever sent us. It is rainy, but still looks pretty beautiful to me. (In fairness, he probably sent this because he thought it was pretty, or awesome, or...)

7. Pékség = bakery. I wish I could try it out myself! Maybe one day.