December 5: First one down, 10 more to go!!

Hi everyone!

I apologize now for all of my spelling errors. The computer is being disfunctional and says that every English word I type is wrong. So I will not be able to notice unless, I look at every word, if I made an error. 

Reason for the subject line. Every transfer we have interviews with the Mission President. For first and second transfers he starts in Hungarian but when they stop understanding he just switches into English for the rest of the interview. Well....... I had my second interview COMPLETELY in Hungarian. I didn't catch what he said sometimes and when I asked him to repeat it he repeated it in Hungarian, not English, and I was able to do all of the interview in a foreign language! I felt so happy afterwards! But the only downside is that we have a lot of new missionaries coming in, and not very many leaving. We are now an extremely young mission with well over half of the missionaries being in Hungary for less than a year. Since the more experience missionaries are needed to fill the leadership roles, if you are able to survive with the Hungarian you know, you will be training in the next group! So all of you need to pray for me not to train next transfer!!! Just kidding. Don't do that!! It would probably turn out worse and things would get messy!

Thursday night we had pancakes with the American family for dinner. They were super unhealthy and incredibly good!! And the scariest things is, is that she was planning on making dessert to, but she ran out of eggs!! Phew, dodged that 50-days-worth-of-fat-burning-exercise bullet! But it was super yummy. They are a fun family, just really inactive and sometimes, sadly, kind of lazy about living the gospel. Oh well... We can only try!!

On Tuesday we had splits with Tatabanya in Pápa. I went with first transfer missionary. It was really good! We only got kicked out of one building... well... we weren't even in the building. We were ringing the bells and the man came down adn said that no one was interested in the building. I told him that our message was very important and we would like to continue ringing the bells trying to talk to people, just to make sure. Well... He didn't like that and told us to get out of there. So we left... for 5 minutes. And then we came back and finished the building! We had a great time! 

Well... That was our week in a short email!! I will be sending pictures next week that are now on my companions camera that he forgot to bring!!

Love you all!!

Elder Biesinger

1:So we didn't get a lot of pies... So I needed to make the most out of the pie I did eat

2:Went falu blasting. that is where you go into a village and just tract there all day cause you will never go back because it takes so much time, unless you find someone to teach. This was just a pretty sunset that we saw

3-4:This is a puzzle that I have been working on for a little over two weeks. I have only used the free time that I have, so no one freak out cause it seems like I am not doing missionary work! I promise it was all between 9:30 and 10:30 at night! Very exhausting and VERY annoying. There are 12 missing pieces. And when I was finished with this one and was looking at another one I was startled to find 4 of the missing pieces in a different puzzle! I was very upset with the missionary who did it!! But it was pretty funny and brilliant how he did it!

November 28: I Am Going Vegetarian

Hi everyone!

Ignore the subject line, I would die if I did that. But... the reason for the title is that on the only meal that you really have to have some kind of meat... I didn't. We had a district meeting on Thanksgiving (just coincidence) and so everyone brought some food. One person brought mashed potatoes, another orange loaf, another apple crumb bread, another cheap Spar (a small cheap store here) rolls (don't ever do that). My companion brought Banana bread and I brought a couple pies and some stuffing. In all.... Besides that apples in the pie and the potatoes we only had flavored bread for THANKSGIVING. Good thing that holiday isn't just about the food! We had a good discussion on what we were thankful for. A lot of it was things about America and sports... Actually, it was family and friends...

Luckily we got invited to go to the NATO base here in Pápa by an inactive American family. So we got all the papers signed and we were permitted to go onto the base. If you were to picture a communistic base, this would be it!! But he zoomed us around the base and was able to take us up to the HUGE plane that he flies on. It was super cool. 

We had a great time that night! I don't think there was a single person speaking Hungarian there except for the Hungarian ambassador. We had super good food and MEAT!! Being vegetarian is definitely not a bad thing, I just like meat and I like it on Thanksgiving day. I inhaled one huge plate and finished of one of the American families kids plate (It was in a cafeteria type of thing and so we would have to wait in lines to get our food). We left  the party with two extra pies in our possession that the Mother of the family got for us! When we got back we received three heaping bags of goodies from the American family who had gone to an American base in Italy and had shopped at an American goods store there. It din't have everything but it had some amazing treats in it!!!

Last Tuesday we had splits with the Elders from Győr. It was super fun. The Elder that I was with this time was one of the best Hungarian speakers to have been in the mission for a while. He was almost a native (that is what the natives said). He didn't have an accent and he had amazing word order! I have found my goal!

So some people have been asking me about my schedule.

6:30- wake up and exercise 

7-8 - B-fast and getting ready

8.- personal study,

9- companionship study

10- go out and tract or street (find)

12-lunch

1- Find

5-6 -dinner

6- finding 

8- language study

9- nightly planning and relax until lights out at 10:30   

That is my schedule with fluctuation in the finding hours. That is when we travel and teach lessons. It is a blast! Sometimes we have to tract at 8 instead and people are not happy. Cause guess what?' Hungarians all go to sleep at 7... Isn't that interesting. Not really!! It is super weird and annoying!! Silly Hungarians. It doesn't help missionaries very much that it gets dark at like 5:30 here now.

Well... I don't think we did much else this week! We are missing American Football and Christmas music. We don't have anything to play it on so we celebrate this new season in silence!

Well... I wish you all well in your various endeavors!!

Elder Biesinger 

November 22: Crazy Week

Hi everyone!

This week has been kind of crazy. We had a training in Budapest on Tuesday so we had to tract at 8 in the morning so we could get everything done because of how late we would be getting home. Luckily no one was getting mad at us and we were able to talk to a couple people. 

Thursday we had splits in another city called "Tatabánya". I was companions with a new missionary (we don't call them greenies anymore). It went better than I thought it would. We were able to talk to people and I was able to understand most of what they were saying and I could speak back to them. But it was a stressful couple days because neither of us spoke Hungarian! 

We had 5 member presents this week. That means that we had 5 meetings with an investigator and that a member was there. In Pápa we usually get 1 or 2. This week has been insane with work!! 

On Sunday we had district conference (because we are not in a stake). We left at 7 and got back at 5. Long day! But I really enjoy those kinds of days!

My companion and I have been cooking a lot more. This week we made Egg strada/ breakfast strada. It turned out AMAZING!! It was super good. But this upcoming week we are going to be filling all of our free time up with cooking, cause it is thanksgiving and we are having a district meeting feast because it is scheduled on the same day!! Should be super good! There is also a NATO base in Pápa (weird, I know!) and there is a American family that are members , so we got invited to go to the celebration for a little while on Friday. They will be having real american things shipped in so we can have a taste of home... Kind of.

This morning my comp and I were throwing a Frisbee in the alley by our apartment. The Frisbee accidentally got stuck on top of a ledge. I offered to let my comp stand on my shoulders and just grab it, but he didn't want to "break my back" and so he taped some stuff together and tried to get it down. After a while it finally worked. But I got some good pictures and a fun video showing what he did!

Pictures: cool Hungarian embroidery, The picture of a family we are teaching (father is strong catholic, son wants to be baptized but wants to have his fathers blessing, mother is a member), one of the nénis we teach binds books and she is working on this bible that was printed in 1918... that is a little older than me!!

Well... Besides getting a haircut I think that that is all that I did this week!!

Good luck everyone with everything in your lives!!

November 7: Short Week

Szervusztok,

So this week is kind of really short. 

I cooked some super yummy chili and choco chip cookies today!  

We went on splits last Friday and Saturday. My splits companion wouldn't stop talking about politics which drove me crazy! First of all, we aren't even supposed to talk politics at ALL as a missionary, second, his "huge expanse of knowledge" about politics is mostly just about who will give him the most guns and who is against abortion. While I agree with some of his points I rarely agreed with them for the reasons he did. I am sorry to say that I broke once on the split. We were in the apartment and his lecture was getting long and I kind of exploded into him and told him more of what politics is really like and stuff, I don't know a lot about politics, but I attacked his logic and felt horrible afterwards. Now I see why we aren't allowed to talk about them. But don't y'all worry, I repented!

So my companion has yet done another thing to bring laughter to Pápa. We have a long wooden pole in our apartment from a broom that broke. We were about to leave and he picked it up and pretended like he was going to hit me as soon as I got out of the kitchen. Well.... As he was winding up he perfectly placed the point of the pole. It perfectly smashed into one of the light bulbs in our chandelier type thing and COMPLETELY shattered it. There were tiny pieces of glass everywhere!! It was super funny!

This week I accidentally broke the back of a bench while we were tracting. We were tracting into a big apartment building. In Hungary (and other places) you have to ring through an intercom system to get people to let you in. Well... While my companion was ringing in and trying to talk to someone, I was leaning on the side of the bench.... I picked me feet up, for a reason I still don't know, and the back fell out from underneath me. The wood was super super rotten. Well. I was able to wedge it back together. A little later (same building) I noticed that I could do it better. So I kind of knocked it back apart and wedged it a little better. While I was wedging it again a little néni had seen me knock it back apart and came running out with a couple other people she had called and started screaming at us and telling us how new the wood was (How is the new wood rotten then?) and that she saw me break it. We tried to talk with her but she yelled and some of the other people just told us to get out of there. So we left. The annoying part was that she didn't even see me initially break it. She just saw when I was trying to put it back together better! 

Ever since the oreo has come to Hungary they have used it in almost every way they could. The Donut was actually pretty good!

Well... That is about all! Have a great week!!

Elder Biesinger

November 14: Week of nothing...sorta

Sziastok!

This week has been pretty great! I went on splits in Győr, a really pretty city close to Pápa. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot of Hungarian and how to better share the gospel.

We met with an active family this last week that had two adorable little boys! The are like 2 and 4 and they have so much energy!! Super crazy. They would punch my companion every time that they walked past him. It was pretty great! 

Last night we were tracting and we found two adorable kittens. My companion hates cats but we stopped and played with them for a little bit. I guess they liked us too much. When we left they followed us for about 5 minutes and we started to feel guilty for stealing the hearts of someone elses kittens. So we walked back and then turned and ran and so they couldn't follow us! That was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. Oh wait..... IT SNOWED!! Super fun.

Also, we, as missionaries, can't talk about politics with anyone.  Well... thanks to the elections we have spent our week telling people that because we live in Hungary we don't care about our elections. The Hungarians still insist that we talk about it. We then sit there for anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes listening to them rant or rejoice about the direction our country might be going in. Silly Hungarians!!

Pictures  of when it was snowing,

an apple cider my family got when we were living here

and my companion!​​​​​​

the kittens. The one where my companion is like terrified of the cat kind of shows his feelings to them

My companion got bored and made his own music video. It explains him well, he is like one of the best people in the world! 

The picture descriptions are a little out of order so it will be a puzzle for you all!

Thanks for reading!

Elder Biesinger

October 31: Holy COW this is a long week

Hi everyone!

So this week has been longer than usual. We usually have P-days on Monday but due to a Hungary holiday it go moved to Wednesday. Well... On Wednesday the library is closed and so we couldn't email using the library. All of the other internet cafes and whatever were all closed also due to various reasons! So after we walked around for like 2 hours of our precious day we just went back to our apartment and our mission president told us to start working again early yesterday and then take our emailing time today. Our P-days have been insane this transfer so far!! 

On Halloween we were tracting really late at night and we were walking past this bike shop and this HUGE dog slams up against the gate and I almost died! But I didn't jump very badly. My companion on the other hand could have joined the US Olympic team because he jumped so high! He felt so embarrassed about it later that he went into our room and sat by himself. When I went in there the window was wide open and the screen was up. I thought that he might of just gone out and then went around to the front door so I left the room and went and unlocked the front door and looked out. He wasn't there. While I was wondering where he was I heard him call our from our room. I went in and saw where he had been. Since he had felt bad he wanted to scare me (also because it was halloween and he is just a goofy person) and he crawled into my bed (our beds have like storage area beneath them and the mattress folds up to reveal the area.) and had sat there for 30 minutes waiting for me to come into the room! 30 minutes!!! Sadly it didn't work...

I made lasagna this week for the first time! It was incredible!! I have tried to cook a couple different things without success so far on my mission. I was really hoping that this would turn out! Well... I really like it, and my companion also says it is good!

We were going into the government building where we change our addresses on our residency cards that all missionaries get. Every transfer, if we move, we have to go and change where we are living. Well... when we were there the lady who was helping us got really concerned and was like "why are you moving so much! That is impossible to move this much!". Well.... sorry to tell you lady but as missionaries we kind of move around a little...

This week I bought a wire whisk and some measuring cups. I now have like 9 different kitchen appliances that I have bought here! I am the  moving kitchen!!

So. Pictures 1. super cool mug I got from my parents that I think my friend made! 2. Homemade madartej. Oh... so the whole bird milk thing a couple of emails ago is just a weird Hungarian thing. It is actually usually like eggnog or sweet vanilla pudding. But the place we got it did a really good job! That is also my companion 3. I am holding a beet that one of the members in our ward had gotten from his garden. He had like 3 of them!!! And they have this huge monster tomato plant that is growing out of a crack in their sidewalk! 4.We were throwing a party for a super rendes person in our ward and my companion was a table dancer! 5. This is a picture of a rose (not my companion). The person who drew it drew it in like 5 seconds. I am not even kidding. It was ridiculous!!

...

I wasn't done and I accidentally sent it. 6. My companion and I are making one Hungarian food a week and we made paprikás csirke this week! It turned out really well! the pictures on this email now. 1. There is an Aldis here in Hungary!! There is one in Medina (where I lived in NY) Super weird!! 2. My companion was cutting onions and he got so tired of crying he struggled to get saran wrap stuck to his face to protect himself! 3. And awesome apron that I got from someone in my family!! It says "You can call me elder Cook" Love it!!!! 

KK I am done now!! I wish you all a good week!!

Elder Biesinger

October 25: Crazy, Crazy

This week has been kind of crazy. We had transfers and yeah..... it has been awesome. I love my new companion. He is kind of crazy and insane, but super funny and chill. He is also very obedient which is one of his more admirable attributes! We have had some fun, we like to banter and tease in good nature. He is also healthy which is helping me to be healthy also. I haven't eaten any bread this week and very little meet. Lots of produce though!! We are also going to start running every morning now, super excited.

So awkward moment. We were tracting (my new comp and I) and we were ringing bells to get into a big apartment building, cause you have to do that here, and this lady let us in. As we were walking up, on the first floor there was a lady outside of her door. We stopped her and asked if we could talk. She said no and we went on our way. The lady who let us in wasn't interested and so we knocked on all of the rest of the doors in the building since we were already in there. Well... towards the end my companion started telling me a funny story,as he was telling me the story I look down the stairs and see the door to get out, I look at the door that I just knocked on and started to piece things together. Before I could finish a lady answered the door. It clicked.... WE HAD TRACTED INTO HER 5 MINUTES AFTER SHE SAID NO!!!!! Super awkward!!

This week has been full of great things. I am running out of time to email so this is all I am sending!

Have a great week!!

Elder Biesinger

P.S. I didn't take any pictures this week.... sorry!!

October 18: Bananas Heal Heart Disease

Hi People!

So we were walking out of the Spar (Grocery store here) and I had a bag with some Bananas in it. A man that was sitting around the corner came up to me and told us that he had a hear disease and needed my Bananas.... Who knew that Bananas were all you need for a heart disease!

Scary moment this week. So some Hungarians give "puszi" kisses. It is just the traditional cheek ones. Well... In Hungary you go right to left when you are giving them. Well... I was exhausted one day and we got a let in! (My first one) The lady was kind of crazy and spoke with a really weird accent. At the end she was giving us puszi and she was very enthusiastic about it with my companion and so I was kind of laughing and getting scared at the same time for my turn. Well, I botched the right left thing and went to the left and she almost just fullout kissed me! Luckily I have amazing reflexes and dodged to the right for a regular puszi! Super scary!

This week we had a hilarious District meeting. Our district leader was on splits with the Zone leaders and so we also had the Zone leaders there. We were working on tracting approaches on each other. It was great! But the best one was when Elder one was tracting into the two zone leaders (Elder 2 and 3). Elder 2 was playing the part of a grumpy middle aged man and Elder 3 was playing the part of his grandma who made him stay at the door. At the end Elder two was getting tired of the missionary and when his mom said that they would listen he turned to her and said "anya! öreg vagy. Azért buta vagy!" (Kind of like "Mom, you are old, therefore you are dumb!"), and Elder 3 ,perfect old lady imitation, turns to Elder two and says "Én vagok az anyad!". Now... Unless you know a Hungarian you may not get the crudeness of this phrase. I cannot tell you because was bad but if you want to email my dad, unless the term got slagy after he left, he may tell you what was said. But all of the missionaries laughed and Elder 3 promptly went back home and prayed for repentance! (Sorry if no one finds this funny, it was mostly a journal entry for me to look back on)

This week we had cleaning inspections and we wanted to see how could we could get our apartment before the couple came to check it. We  got it to about 60 degrees F plus wind chill. The couple was in and out in 10 minutes AND served us lunch! But we got Godly wrath on our heads! (The intent was not actually to get them in and out faster, it was just a joke thing. Our apartment was just super nice and clean so everything went fast) Our water heater wouldn't work!! So it stayed super cold for a while and our shower and faucet would't give us any hot water! Well... at 11:30 that night (Lost track of time) I finally found what was wrong with the water heater and fixed it (duh)! It was super easy once I found out what was wrong, which is super nice because I heard that it goes out once every transferish. And now that we don't have to call the Land Lord every time it will be easier!

Well. We got our transfer calls today. I am staying in Pápa and I am getting a companion named "Elder Hughes!. I have heard only good things about him so this next transfer should be a blast!

K. First pic A smile faced pastry that was cheap but kind of gross!

2nd. Did you know that you could milk birds? madar is bird and tej is milk! Hence the ice cream is bird milk flavor!

3rd A new members son loves to use our cameras! He took that without us knowing and I was wondering why I had the picture on here!

4th This is a farewell phrase from an elder who "died" (lost enthusiasm) right after he left the MTC. And he left having served the whole time. The picture goes along with his departing words above it. His actual departing words was the entire Bilbo Baggins quote about Butter being spread over  too much toast and about the journey. It was a sad farewell quote! But kind of funny, he was clever, just not enthusiastic. 

5th the phrase on this wall says (while you are reading this I am picking your pocket"... I read it and nothing happened! He must have been on lunch break!

6th The hole and dent on the box full of copies of the book of Mormon were caused by my little toe and the one next to it when I accidentally kicked the box. Needless to say it hurt!

7th This was the most vivid rainbow I have seen! It was perfectly clear. You could see every single color. And later it turned into an almost perfect double rainbow! It was pretty spectacular!

Well... That is all from the thriving city of Pápa! Talk to you all next Monday!

Elder Biesinger 

October 10: méhekének and elder néni

Szervusztok,

So, explanation... When people struggle with my name (because in Hungary every letter has a sound that is made so the "Bie" in my name is weird) he tells them that my name is "mehekenek" which is one translation meaning "Bee singer" in Hungarian. So before I explain the other title of honor I will explain some culture. In Hungary you call the older ladies "Néni" and the older men "Bácsi". A young boy in our ward (funnies kid EVER!) calls me "Elder Néni", I have no idea why... And he calls my companion "Elder Bácsi".

Speaking of Nénis.... There was one that we met yesterday that would put the dirtiest mouth in America! She said every swear word in every different way. She was a super sweet lady, but her mouth was a very very..... Yeah... I'm not sure how to describe it. I am also convinced that if all of the youth were to leave, and young adults, and Hungary was invaded, the invading army would be destroyed by a couple of these Hungarian Nénis!! The are 89 years old and they will be riding their bikes around, raking HUGE piles of foliage with their rakes in their gardens. It is ridiculous how tough these ladies are. We were at the store today and I saw a lady with, like, a 24 pack of beer in her hand. She was like a million years old!! Crazy people here in Pápa!

There is a cool missionary here from Switzerland who speaks perfect English and has a lot of pride for hsi hari . He was in the army and drives tanks. He was bantering back and forth with Elder Szuch (who has a six-pack) and said "If a girl would walk through the door all she would see was a man in a white shirt starting to bald (Elder Szuch) and then she would see a similarly dressed man with gorgeous hair Elder Römer). She wouldn't even think twice about your hidden six-pack!" Flawless logic! Who needs a six-pack when you have hair!

This transfer I have been taking apart a mechanism in my suitcase because it broke on the way here. I bought some super glue to fix some of the plastic pieces. When I was trying to open the glue (it had glued the cap on) it burst open and I got super super glue all over my hands! It was great! I had to hurry and rip my fingers and hands apart and wait till the glue dried! Super fun.

After district meeting and during our lunch our in Tatabánya we went to a cultural competition that one of the Branch members from Tatabánya was in. It was like folk dancing and stuff like that and they would compete! I am kind of embarrassed to say that I would hands down rather learn, and watch, this rather than Ballroom and Cabaret. It was incredible to watch!! Just how coordinated they were and how they made craziness look orderly was amazing!

So... Sad moment from this week. We were looking up a less active and we got into their house and all they did was talk about how much they hated the church. So many of their reasons were dumb! You could tell that the members involved were trying to help them feel included, and the less active members chose to become bitter and hate because of it. They gave us a paper requesting that their names be removed and we left. I haven't felt worse after an event in my life than that one. I seriously felt sick to my stomach after feeling the hate in that house. But oh well... Sad stuff happen! I am truly glad that I was brought up in the church and I have been able to see the difference of happiness between those who keep God's commandments and those who choose to deliberately fight them. It is crazy the difference! 

So the first picture is a road we walked down to see if there were any houses. There weren't. But it was a super cool road. And it was raining a lot and wet!

Second is my companion and I with my second cone in Hungary. And guess what? It was absolutely FREEZING outside and raining and we couldn't find anyone to talk to. The girl at the ice cream place was sitting in the back and she didn't see us come, and when she saw us she started laughing because "Who the heck gets ice cream in freezing weather?". Well... Mormon Elders do! They aren't the most normal of people!

Third picture. Only stoplight in Pápa.

Fourth. I have been trying to learn more words, so if we are talking for a while to somebody and I see something that I want to know the word for, I ask. We were talking to a man with a great beard and mustache. I asked him how to say it. He drew a picture for me and everything! If you can't tell what it is, it is a man with a beard and a curly mustache! Super awesome

Fifth. It is the friend issue from the month I was born! April 1998! We found several boxes in the branch house full of English Ensigns! Super awesome, a true treasure trove for missionaries

Sixth and Seventh. We moved this much wood from the front to the back in 50 minutes! In the last picture my companion helps you see how big it is! I was pretty impressed with our massive moving skills!

Well... Sorry for the huge email! 

If ny of you have a favorite recipe, feel free to send it over! I am trying to broaden my horizons. I will not tell you my diet last week for fear that my mother will come over here and give me a spanking :D!

I hope you all are well and healthy! If not.... I pray that you will be! Love you all!!

Elder Biesigner