Hungary Budapest Mission

Hungary Budapest Mission

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

February 23, 2015

Dear Family,

Well this week was pretty crazy, but overall pretty good. So last week we had interviews with president and he gave us a lot of ideas for finding, so this week we decided to apply what he talked about into our finding, and it was actually super cool because we actually had quite a bit of success. We found some people who are okay with us coming back next week; most of them aren’t super interested, but there is one really cool couple that seems interested, so I’m way stoked to go and meet with them. We also went streeting kinda late at night which really stunk and was pretty hard, but we kept going and it was super awesome because we met this lady who was SUPER interested and had a ton of questions, so she invited us into a little coffee shop to go and talk. She was super nice and ordered us some hot chocolate and we had an entire first program with her, which was super awesome! But we couldn’t get her phone number because she said she would just call us when she wanted to meet. But it was still super awesome, especially since we were dead tired.

This week was still hard because once again we couldn’t meet with a lot of people because they either got sick or they were super busy. But the programs we did have were pretty good; not too much change really, but overall good programs. We ‘re really hoping that this week will be better for meeting.

Yea, I think the ENTIRE mission knows about sister Moffat and Elder Ekstrom getting engaged, because we were just soooo shocked and did NOT see that coming!

Hope you guys are doing awesome!!

Sok Szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder

Tuesday, February 17, 2015


February 17, 2015
Dear Family,




So this week was pretty intense for many reasons, one being valentine’s day, the other is that we had to go up to zone training in Miskolc and later on Sunday and Monday we had to go up to Budapest for "new Missionary training" so Winegar could go to the most wonderful place on earth . . The Hivatal. It was super fun though because we got to spend the night for a while with the other trainers and just talk for hours and then Elder G. (another trainer who is also half Hungarian) and I went to the Secretaries house to spend the night which was super fun, because I already served with B. and C. Elders… We just ate palincsintas and played some board games. Overall it was super fun, but the train rides were super tiring, but Elder W. is a beast and on the ride back he would just start talking to people on the train in Hungarian and ask if he could practice Hungarian because he was new and he would practice and hold conversations for like more than half an hour. THAT’S MY BOY!! He’s really starting to learn the language now, it’s super hard to teach him, just because I want to teach him everything at once, but he has such a drive to learn this language, he’s going to be an awesome missionary.

Meeting with people was pretty hard this week just because like everybody cancelled :( but on the bright side we did meet with some new people and we had some success tabling too! my comp and I felt like tabling so we head out for 2 hours and during it D. and H. (the B's granddaughter) came up and chatted with us for a while, then left. I thought it was noteworthy because it was valentine’s day and D. has a girlfriend who he wasn’t with and instead was hanging out with another girl, LOL. Then our land lady comes and starts talking to us and so does this super old néni who is like 70 and she pointed to a Joseph Smith pamphlet talking about how she read it and asked when he is coming to Hungary . . . whelp, I told her he passed away, but then I likened it unto the modern prophet and our landlady was also talking us up and was like telling the lady to take some pamphlets and we gave her a BoM; she also talked about her daughter who is also looking for the truth. Super awesome!
Also Valentine’s Day was a bit hard just because literally everybody was in couples and not super willing to listen; but we did see a dog who was WALKING ITSELF!! In America you walk the dog, but in Hungary, the dog walks himself! He seriously had his own leash in his mouth. LOL gotta enjoy the little weird things.

Also we met with another band of nénis from the area book, which was super funny because as we got to know them they had a BILLION questions about missionaries and what we do and what we can and can’t do. Super funny, and later the one wants to take us to go shopping for some old time kézimunka (Hungarian traditional dresses) that Elder W. wants to get for his mom because his mom is Hungarian; she was born in America and speaks very simple Hungarian. It was a really fun program.
Also church was super good, we had a church leader from the district who gave a talk and then Priesthood was super awesome!! we talked about making good decisions and later shared a video by Jeffery R Holland which was the super awesome one where he talks about getting in our faces a bit with just enough heat to singe our eyebrows, just like a coach does towards the end of the game; and the spirit was just so strong, and we asked our inv. and a young member if they liked it, and they really did and so then we asked why they liked it . . . and you could tell that they felt the spirit and even our one inv. said that he just couldn’t describe it and at the time there was also a super cool leader in the stake that was there and he talked to them about serving a mission and our inv. asked about what they need to do and we just testified and it was super amazing.

Well, that was pretty much all of it. Have a spectacular week

sok szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder
VEMS

Sunday, February 15, 2015

February 9, 2015

Dear Family,


This week was quite the adventure; we had quite a few programs that went super well. Really quite a bit happened this week… We met with Teddy Bear G. who is super awesome and we gave a 3 pillars lesson where we talked about the importance of reading out of the scriptures every day, praying and attending church. It was super good and at the end of the program we decided that next time getting into detail on faith would be a perfect lesson for him, twas a sweet program. Then we met with C. which was a super good, because she had a bap date and I asked her about it and she was like… "well we talked about it being march 10th but that's impossible" so we just talked it through with her and tried to give her hope and I shared the story of one investigator in Kispest that was doing everything possible to know if the church is true; and after more than a year of working hard he said that he asked some very specific questions and got very specific answers. The story really seemed to kind of shock her and she also really wants to get some specific answers, so next time we will be talking about that quite a bit. . . I’m super excited to meet with them again.

We also decided to do some area book work because literally finding hasn't been going super well lately, so we set up with this one family and another lady so we will see how it goes with the lady. On Saturday we met with the family and... they were amazing!!! Their super religious; the dad has already read the book of Mormon a few times and frequently reads the Liahona. They have 2 super cute little kids and another on the way. The dad is a doctor and the wife was a politician of some sort and speaks super good English… and they’re just a super rendes family.

Also on Saturday we had a family history program which really made me want to do some family history work, so that is something that I would like to get more into when I get back home. Also on Sunday I had to translate for two speakers during sacrament which was super hard... at least for the first talk because she quoted like 5 prophets and they use... such… high... vocabulary. But the 2nd one was a bit easier, which was nice. Then afterwards I had to translate this interview for an hour and then and for the third hour had to teach priesthood, so I was kinda dying, but it was a really good experience.

So, today a lady asked me how I like Hungary and I told her how much I love it; especially the language. Then I realized that during my setting apart it talked about how I would love learning the language… and now I really do; even though throughout much of my mission it frustrated me a ton!! Super cool realization though!
Also some drunk guy came up to us speaking German and Hungarian and he hated my hat and was like "what the heck is this thing on your head!?" then later "you look like a dog! Get this stupid thing off!" and then takes my hat off and puts it in my hand, then later he also gave me a 
super weird hug and kissed my hand... my comp thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Anyway, hope yall are doing fantastic.

Loves,
Elder Waldvogel
VEMS
February 2, 2015

Dear family,

Well this week was pretty sweet; going to Budapest was pretty weird, because there were a couple things that were already different. Then the "sorting hat" meeting was super crazy and nerve racking, because they put us in the same room with the new missionaries and gave us both training together, so I couldn’t focus at all, because I just couldn’t wait. Good lesson in patience I guess.

Anyway, my new companion and also my son, is . . . Elder W, he is from Murrieta, California and he’s pretty sweet. He’s super funny and he is really into learning the language. He will ask me questions all the time, and I love it, because I love talking about the language and the culture; and funny things I’ve learned throughout my entire mission.

I've really been trying to show him all kinds of finding that we do, so he can figure out which kind he likes the best, so we did a lot of tractin, streetin and tablin. We didn’t have a whole lot of success, but we did meet one cool guy who has a relative that is Mormon and he actually sometimes reads out of the Book of Mormon which is awesome! So we got his number and hopefully we can meet up with him soon.

We also gave out some Book or Mormons while tracting which was good. Then while streeting we didn’t have a ton of success for like 2 entire hours until the very last person we talked to who as we were heading home and we were on our street, we start talking to this lady who turns out to be an English teacher and speaks English super well and has met with the missionaries in the past. It was super cool and she isn’t super interesting in the church, but she was really nice and hopefully will come to English class.

Also super random/funny streeting experience, we are just walking along and then I see the fountain of "healing waters" and I’m like "oh we so gotta go and drink from it" because it’s soo Hungarian! So we go and I first take a drink and go sit on a bench to take a quick break as my comp also gets a drink... next thing I know I feel a slight splash and my companion walks over to me and is like "that guy just splashed me with water “… we were so confused and just walked away still wondering why my companion was partially soaked. Super funny!

Training so far has been pretty fun, it’s been nice to show my comp the Hungarian culture, especially with food like madár tej, pillows, milka, etc.

Other than that we weren’t able to meet with too many people this last week, so hopefully this week will be much better, as far as programs go.

Anywho hope you all have a fantastical week full of amazing stories of splendor.

Sok Szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder
VEMS
January 27, 2015

Dear family,

Some exciting news... IM STAYING IN EGER AND TRAINING!!! Woot, we will see next week who I get, but I’m super stoked though. I’ve always wanted to train. 


Anywho, this week was pretty fun, sadly we didn’t have a ton of success finding, except a referral we got from a member who she set up with to meet and also this lady who just walked up to us and asked if we had her phone number and gave it to us… pretty cool.

But we did have some super good programs. We met with this one less active woman and we had a super good program with her. She kinda realized how inactive she was and how long it’s been since they have prayed as a family and read scriptures together. The spirit was just super strong and it was way great, kinda sad, but she and her family came to church Sunday which was way awesome!!! We also had a super good program with this other guy named G, who has a lot of teddy bears around his house. We talked a bit about temples and it was a really short program but the spirit was super strong and I feel like he is really ready for baptism, he just works a TON.

Also there was a baptism and the wonderful Elder P. did the honors of baptizing her, pretty cool. We also met with that super cool family again and they have the flipping funniest kid ever, he was so sarcastic, and he is only like 6 or 7!! The dad asked him to turn the TV volume off since we were going to pray an then afterwards he was like "you can turn it back up a bit but only to 6" and his son was like "okay 100 it is" and he was just making tons a jokes. The program itself was good, we watched the restoration with them and the dad now seems to be a bit more interested.

After teaching B. the 13 year old I got into a burp contest with him for like 5 minutes, we also went streeting with him which was super funny. Then at church we had to teach the young men, there was 2 of them, the one was like 11 and the other 13 so we played a little game where they had to answer some questions in order to move forward in the game. The one was just telling me a ton of Chuck Norris jokes in Hungarian... so flippin funny! They are so much funnier in Hungarian. LOL.

The overall lesson of the week was, to enjoy the little things. Have a great week and be grateful for the small tender mercies!

Love,
Elder Waldvogel 
VEMS
January 19, 2015

Dear Family,

It’s weird that I didn’t get to see Hailee’s farewell or Homecoming :( But all well, ilyen az élet. This week was pretty interesting, it was hard, but at the same time it was super fun.

We met with a lot of less active members which was really fun and interesting. One lives in a mental hospital because she has Alzheimer’s. It was a pretty fun visit with her cuz we sang a lot, super funny old néni. We also visited another guy who lives super far away. He is partially blind and has been going through some procedure to try to fix his eyes; so we met with him and he talked a ton about the communist era and why he is so thankful to America... it was super funny and pretty cool. It was a bit difficult because we went with the B's and I had to translate the entire time, so after 2 hours my brain was dead because he just non-stop talked… and in addition, earlier that day we had a super intense meeting that I had to translate for where I kinda had to be a bit bold with some members, while Translating, so it was super hard but a good experience ...  translating skills LVL UP!!! Then we gave him a blessing for his eyes, so hopefully his eyes slowly get better.

We will be meeting with that super cool family later today, so hopefully that will go good. Also we met with B. again (the 13 year old) and in order to get him interested we always end up playing some type of game, like Mario on the board in order to get him to answer questions and it was super funny. My comp is very creative. There’s even this place here where you can custom make shirts so he made a drawing and we turned it into a comp item shirt!! Its super sick, I’ll show a pic of it.

We also met this super cool investigator whose children are members, let’s just call him Joe. He also makes whips and is one of the best in Hungary; but one must first put in an order and then he will get it a few months, so I wanted to ask dad if he wanted a whip. I was assuming that he would so I was planning on getting one for him, but I wanted to ask you for sure if you want one Dad? They cost around 60 to 65 bucks, but they are pretty legit. My comp just got one and they are handmade by a skilled Hungarian craftsman who is also super cool, a bus driver and he is so proud of it!!!

We also got a let in while tracting by this super cool néni who met with the missionaries in the past and loves talking about religion. She had a ton of questions and it was awesome because they ALL were about the plan of Salvation and I just loved sitting on her couch explaining the plan to this old néni. She wants to come to church so hopefully next week we can get her to come. All in all it was a good program.

Other than that, nothing tooo spectacular, just a lot of missionary work, finding, meeting with people, wooot!!

Hope you are all doing AWESOME!!

sok szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder
VEMS

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

January 5, 2015

Dear Family,

Well I emailed not tooo long ago, so not much has changed, but I did get to meet a lot of the members here in Eger, and there are some super cool people here. It’s a bit colder which kinda stanks. Also I’m serving around the Browns again!!! And he is the branch President, so I have to do a ton of translating which is challenging, especially when Elder Brown sometimes uses ridiculous words that I can’t even understand in English. Ex: percolate . . . ugh. I took AP lit and still don’t understand this.

 So far we haven’t met with a ton of investigators because of the Christmas holiday, literally everybody was busy, but we did get to meet with the S. family and they are way awesome. I got along with them pretty fast; they have 3 boys and the oldest speaks super good English. He is like a genius and is hilarious. The dad loves to talk about what he has seen on TV and about history and stuff, super funny and the mom is just straight up cool. Other than that we have yet to meet with anyone.

Also it was raining the other day but yet it was still freezing cold, so literally all the streets were frozen over with ice, so we just went place to place sliding around. Kinda like a kid in his socks sliding all over the tile floor. That was fun.

Not much else happened this past couple days other than a lot of finding and freezing…

Anyways hope you guys all have an awesome fantastical week full of surprises at every turn!

Sok Szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder 
VEMS 

Monday, February 2, 2015

January 1, 2015

Dear Family,

Sorry I haven't been able to email for a long time, with Christmas, New Years and transfers everything was crazzzzy! But first off, E`s baptism was perfect!! And it was the best feeling ever having the opportunity to baptize her! It’s just super sad now because I left Buda and I won’t see her for quite a long time. She also said that now M. also wants to be baptized and I won’t be there for it as well. Seriously the coolest thing ever to see their progression, in just a couple of months, I have been able to see such a big change in her and she is so much happier; it’s amazing to be out here bringing these people such happiness.

So far Eger is an awesome place and my companion is hilarious. His name is Elder P, and he was trained by the one and only Elder O. (who I flippin love), so I was pretty stoked. Also on Saturday the new secretary came up and it was Elder C!! He is the Irish Elder who I served around in Sopron. We were in a tri-ship for a couple days so that I could train him how to be a successful secretary and it was the funnest thing ever! The office actually became a cool place. We also had quite a bit of success finding too, which was funny because it was at the most random times; like shopping at the nagy piac on P-day we met this cool lady who we talked to for 30min. and she wanted us to come back sometime. Then at Burger King I met this super girl named "K" who surprised me when I ordered in Hungarian and she answered back in fluent American English. We talked to her for a while, but she was working so we just gave her our number and later she called us and we met with her, and she is super cool.

Anyways Eger is flippin tiny compared to all my other cities, especially compared to Budapest. I haven't left Budapest since May; I lived there for around 8 months. At first, I really wanted to leave, but as I got to the train station, I really didn't want to go... I really fell in love with Budapest. I’m even thinking about going back for a semester abroad or something. But Eger is super pretty and a really nice town. We actually went to the basilica here which is huge and it turned out that they were having mass. . . it was very interesting, a ton different than our church, but it was super cool to see!

Anyways hope every bodies New Year was spectacular!!
Love


Elder Waldvogel


VEMS
December 13, 2014

Dear family,

That’s super sweet that you’re going to pick up Hailee... tell her I said "... Hey… Lee", I really hope that you have a good time. I can’t wait to Skype all of you!!! It’s been forever since I have seen Hailee! I’m super stoked. Also I don’t know exactly when we will Skype but we are planning around 3 or 4ish here which is like 10 or 11PM there in Singapore on the 25th, which is kinda late, for you guys.

Well this week was interesting, we went to the hivatal a couple of times which was a pretty good, made the horrible mistake of going to gringos amigos again as a district after district meeting and we all got sick with some wicked diarrhea. Then we had to go to the hivatal while we still had the runs which was pretty flippin funny now that I look back on it. But my tummy was very upset for a while. But now my stomach is good and my ankle is super nice now, I don’t have to wear my brace any longer!! WOOOOT!

We also had to organize a ton of liahonas for each and every city that has a branch or ward and it was pretty boring so we decided to spice it up and just made a pyramid of liahonas and also took a ton of pictures with them which actually made it pretty fun. LOL

We also met with E. which was super awesome; she will be having her baptismal interview next week, so we are super excited for that. we also met with K. a few times which was sweet, but a bit difficult because we almost get nowhere with our meetings, but he is still progressing, just very slowly, but now he really wants to start coming to church more which is Awesome!!!

Other than this stuff, not a lot new happened… we went caroling once which was pretty fun. So anyways hope yall are doing awesome!!!

sok szeretettel
Waldvogel Elder
VEMS