August 19, 2013

Hello everybody! sorry about not mailing last week and excuse me if there aren't spaces on some words this spacebar is really bad. yes i had new missionary training so I went to budapest and saw some missionaries from my old district. the language is still extremely challenging, theres people who have lived here for around 6 years and still cant speak the language very well. but i have faith that the lord will help; me, and i am starting to understand a bit better, but its still SUPER hard just to understand them.

These last two weeks have gone by super fast and we have streeted sooo many people, just this last week we had like 20 finds contacted, but only a few want to actually meet. We streeted this one young man named T and he was super cool and pretty interested because when we streeted him he was actually thinking about the meaning of life and we started talking to him just about that, we havent met with him yet but we hope to this saturday. also that same day this really huge guy on a bike actually streeted us which was pretty funny and he spoke english super well, his name is Imi and he lived in Australia for 6 years or so, and he loves the missionaries and loves talking and just learning from them, and he already knows a ton, im suprised he hasnt been baptized he knows so much. but we met with him I. and his wife just to get to know him better and what he was expecting, so next week we will meet with them again and teach them a lesson.

We've just been working really hard trying to find people and so far its going pretty good, oh yea we also ran into this super drunk guy who had no shirt on but was wearing a jumpsuit and he was super hard to understand cuz he was drunk and had no teeth but we were just talking with him and he danced like an Indian and asked us where god lived and my companion said next to kolob and he was like "koolloob" then he saw christ on my companions name tag and thought he was jesus then he got on his knees and did the whole cross thing then went and prayed by a tree and then kissed my companion on his forehead then his nametag and then his hand then did the same to me. it was reeeaaaaly funny.

Surprisingly theres actually a lot of homeless people and we sometimes talk to them. the saddest one was a man who talked about how all his friends died and all these terrible things happen to him and that there was no point to life it was super sad and depressing, i just wanted to help him but he wasnt really interested. sometimes we even go and buy food for them, because were not allowed to give them money, but we can give them food, and my companion says that we represent christ so we always try to do as much service as possible.

We play soccer on saturdays with some hungarians and they are super ridiculously good, like this little 14 or 15 year old is better than anybody ive every played against, its crazy how good they are all, and even the kids teamwork is beyond insane for how old they are its hilarous watching these little kids just own these 20 year old americans *including me.

Anyways im still loving it here, walking around just streeting its like im just walking around disneyland except for all the cigarette buds. tomorrow is actually hungary's independence day so theres going to be like nobody to really street or tract but we will try anyways! woowhoo. oh yea I also just bought a cool looking blue tisza bag, its like a European handbag but better i think, you should try looking it up if u can, because u can only get them, in hungary.

I also tried whipping for the first time which didnt go over to well as i couldnt get it to crack, but i want to try some more because its soo sweet just watching my compaion crack it back and forth its super cool. i really want to get one if i ever go east.

It sounds like everything is going good with all of you, i thought that its cool that you are trying to learn spanish mom and dad. that camp trip seems like it was way fun and inspirational. Its the hardest thing to see other people going through these extremely tough trials and not being able to really help them or solve their problems, sometimes the only thing we can do is to pray with a sincere heart for them to be comforted and for strength to overcome their trials.

I actually havent given a talk yet i probably will in around 2 weeks, which will be interesting. but so far i have learned so much especially with pronunciation because apparently i was saying almost every single vowel wrong, but as the hungarians say "ilyen az élet"

My first hungarian meal... They normally feed you 3 courses but in this one we had 5! Yea, I was stuffed afterwards and it took like 2 hours just to get through the entire meal. The Hungarians love peppers or paprika. They put it in everything they eat almost. They also love soup and never eat salads so I really love it here. The only problem with the peppers is they are super hot, and they dont drink water during meals (they normally drink it afterwards) so we actually never got to drink any. I had this one pepper that just scorched my throat like crazy and the only thing I had was hot soup which DID NOT HELP! DONT DRINK HOT SOUP AFTER EATING A HOT PEPPER. JUST DONT DO IT! But afterwards we had this fruit soup which was ammaaaazzzinnggg. Then we had stuffed peppers . . yea they stuff peppers, not potatoes but peppers, with meat and it is delicious. then we had this pasta with soup and pork that we poured over it. then for desert we had watermelon which i couldnt eat which is terrible because hiungarians love watermelon and their watermelon is supposed to be amazing!! but im allergic so i cant really but all is well. I did have some ice cream that was super good, and had madartej which is like birdmilk and its amazing.

Until next week,

sok szeretettel,
Waldvogel Elder
E.M.S.V.