MTC 7: Backup singers and bucket lists!

Hey everyone!

So this week has been a lot of fun! Last night I was in a backup singers group for the Nashville Tribute Band. It was a lot of fun! They shared some cool spiritual songs and showed a different way of testifying than the norm! They were a lot of fun and were pretty funny. While we were waiting for them to set up the Elders got really bored. There are two big hug screens in the gym that we hold our firesides in. On the screen there is a white square that bounces up and down, from the top of the screen to the bottom. Whenever it would hit the top or bottom we would clap. Once the band realized what we were doing they would start to use the clapping as a beat and do some pretty cool impromptu songs! We got some pretty good music going!!

I played Volleyball every day this week. I have gotten better at spiking it! I went up against another Elder who is pretty good and spiked it. It hit him in the face and.... knocked his contact out :S opps :D I also hit my companion several times while we would play! It is a good way to get rid of all bad feelings towards companions!! Just kidding! I love my companions, they are great!

We watched a really cool devotional recording from Bednars "How to recognize the spirit". It was awesome! He is hilarious and has so many cool experiences! 

There is an elder in our zone who really likes lemonade and usually buys all the lemonade in the vending machines before the MTC can restock it. My companions and I decided to have some fun. We found out when they restock (like once every other week) and we went in before he could get one and bought all of them! He was upset!! It was really fun! But he was easy going and we gave him the lemonade after the initial humor had gone down! It was really funny! 

Right now I am taking a challenge our teacher gave us. I am reading the Book of Mormon and looking for who Christ is to me! It has made scripture reading so much better! I have found so much and have really felt the spirit! 

Up to this point I have met no one I know in the MTC. In the past day I have seen: Elder Hunsaker, Elder Brenchley and Elder Robinson. I haven't seen elder Robinson since I was like 12 and it was really weird to see him!

Last weeks Tuesday devotional was funny! It was by Elder Clarke. To start of with he called all of the leaders in the MTC to come up to the stand one at a time. When they would get there he would make them kiss in front of all the Missionaries, including the MTC mission president! When the Mission President kind of hesitated Elder Clarke said "You said I was presiding at this meeting right? That means I am in charge right". The whole atmosphere was light and awesome so no one was offended. He and the MTC President are good friends so it was just super funny watching everyone awkwardly kiss their spouse at the podium!!

The food is still good which is really good! Last Sunday we had a different schedule for meals. We had lunch at 1:10 PM and since we were going to choir practice our District was scheduled to eat dinner at 3:30. That is less than two hours after lunch!! And then we didn't get fed for the rest of the night! It was pretty bad! But the Band made time go by faster! 

So Hungarian has a million different cases (you can look up what those are), but they have 36 main ones that we will use. One of the Elders in my zone (who is also Hungarian speaking) got a picture of someone in his district and made a meme out of it (possible link here). It gives all missionaries, that see it, a good laugh! And it is sooo true!! ​

MTC 6: What the heck... Greeters don't talk first!!??

Hi everyone!!

So this week was pretty amazingly awesome!! We had a group of 23 Dutch speaking missionaries come in! They are a blast and add so much spunk to our used-to-be-small zone! We are also receiving 21 new Albanian speaking missionaries this upcoming week! It will be so much fun!

The gym was closed all this last week and most of the week before for redoing the floor. So we were stuck outside for and hour each day playing in the blazing sun! We played a lot of beach volleyball! It was so fun! When I came to the MTC I was horrible at volleyball, now I can somewhat consistently hit it over the net, even when I do flying dives! On Friday I had sand all through my hair even after  I showered. I guess that is just an indication of how much I got into it!

So our devotional on Sunday was fun! We usually have a live speaker talk from 6:45-8 and then a missionary approved movie or a past recorded devotional. One of the movies that is always showing each Sunday is "The Character of Christ" by David A Bednar. It is highly suggested/required for new missionaries to watch that on their first week. The MTC presidency announced that as a gift for the new missionaries they would, instead of a live speaker, show "The Character of Christ" for the Sunday devotional. It is an incredible talk so I wasn't really bugged about it. After the recording ended we, the missionaries, were getting ready to sing our closing him and when all of the sudden, who should come through the door. ELDER BEDNAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the flesh!! Everyone, after a few dazed moments, shot to their feet! We spent the next hour and a half having a Q & A session with a quorum of the twelve and his wife about the video we just watched. It was amazing. The spirit was there strongly when the video was playing, but when he got there it shot up. It was an amazing experience. When he testified to us I can now see how some people in the scriptures would become dumbfounded when an apostle or prophet of Christ testifies. 

This is a funny thing he said. "When a Sister does 10 things, she is perfect in 9 and makes a tiny tiny mistake on the 10th one. She frets and stresses about the mistake she made. When an Elder does 10 things, he fails at 9 and is barely passable at the 10th one. While the sister would be in a coma from that mistake, the Elder hits his chest and says 'that is how it is done!'" Elder Bednar is hilarious! And if any of you watch the face2face with Bednar he kind of called his wife old and not as beautiful as earlier years. Well.... She is still getting back at him. When he had her answer a question she totally threw him under the bus!! It was hilarious! I could listen to Elder and Sister Bednar talk all day!!

So... We have Sacrament meeting Sunday mornings at 8-ish/8:30-ish. I was the greeter for the first time. Besides being a greeter I have no other calling in the Branch. One of my jobs is to open and close the doors before the Sacrament. I was also asked to pass the sacrament.... As I was closing the doors in the back I was half listening to the Branch President announcing the rest of the meeting. I was having a nice day, feeling confident about future things, when the worst sentence I heard ripped my out of my thoughts "following Sister Wester's talk we will be blessed to hear from Elder Biesinger.....". WHAT??!?!?!?!??! We have always had the Zone and Sister training leaders give talks the first Sunday after they were assigned!! This was NOT supposed to happen. But I, being an Eagle Scout and just an all around cool person, still had a talk prepared. I gave my talk in Hungarian and, yeah.... Hence the subject "Greeters don't talk first". I think that that phrase needs to be taught to all of the Branch Presidents! It wasn't that bad :D Just very unexpected. I also taught in priesthood and district meeting (the other two scheduled class times on Sunday!) Very busy day! By the district meeting (at about 5 in the evening.) I was exhausted and brain dead from language study. During the evaluation that one of the Branch presidency leads after our district meeting, one of the "things to do better on" was "have Elder Biesinger talk more, he didn't really talk." Hmmm..... I wonder why :D

We found out this week that, instead of teaching Hungarian speaking members who volunteer in the MTC, we are going to by skyping members from Hungarian next week!! YEAH!!!! It is going to be awesome!! 

So some of the Sisters in my Zone have a quote wall where they put things that need to be remembered forever. The order of them goes like this:

Elder Biesinger

Sister....

Elder...

Elder Biesinger

Elder Biesinger

SIs...

Elder Biesinger

Needless to say. I will not be forgotten in this Hungarian district for a while. The quotes get passed on to the new Hungarians that come after we leave, so I may always be known as the weird Hungarian Elder! Not the worst thing I have been know for! ;D

It is so fun to read emails and get letters from some of you! It is so nice! You never know how awesome letters are until you go on a mission, well at least I didn't! 

Life is great and the Gospel is always true!!

Love you all!

Elder Biesinger!

MTC 5: Pics

 So these are some of the pictures of the peeps that are leaving us this week and of my companion and all of the Sisters, both in my district and the whole zone!! Super sad! Love these people to death, even though I haven't known them for that long. Truly some amazing missionaries!

 The pic with the glasses case is of my companion. Not me!!

This picture was with another Hungarian elder who isn't in my district, but we get a long pretty well. He is from Canada and sang the Canadian National Anthem to us on Canada day! It was pretty amazing! He had all of the percussion in it and everything!

MTC 5: Sadness and Despair with some fun somewhere in there....

July 11, 2016
Howdy y'all!

So.. This week has it's happy parts and it's sad parts. All of our zone left to go to the field. So the Dutch Turks and Albanians. They have been the coolest people ever and I am going to miss them! One of the Turks isn't allowed to leave for another week so he may be in our companionship this week! 

We did a TRC (where the missionaries teach members that speak Hungarian) and we had an actual Hungarian! It was super crazy. He spoke at, like, a million miles an hour and when I walked out of the room my room was fried from trying to focus and translate what he was saying! So something funny. As we were walking into the room (I was first into the room) I shook his hand and he said "Szia", which just means "Hello", but then he said something I didn't understand because he said it so fast, I was curious. So I listened hard while he shook my other companions hands. I realized that he was saying his name. So we sat down. And the first question that my companion asks was "what is your name?".... I guess we need to work on listening better to people instead of just asking questions. It was a pretty great lesson. From what I could understand he was a pretty great guy! 

I am getting better at volleyball! It is a very big sport here in the MTC! I love playing outside in the sand when the sand isn't trying to burn the skin off of my body! 

So something I have loved in the MTC is the choir. They let anybody who wants to go in and practice. It is so cool when we are reaching the end and everybody is singing out loud. You can feel the spirit so strongly! The MTC truly is an amazing spiritual place! For July 24 we are having the a Nashville Christian Rock band come to the MTC and preform! For choir we are practicing some songs so we can be a huge backup singing group to some of the bands songs. They are a pretty nasty piece of harmony to learn! But it is really fun! Our choir director (Brother Eggett) is hilarious!! He is also super spiritual. He will learn the story behind every song he has us sing and as we are practicing he will talk about the amazing the happened to the writer of the song. He has a huge testimony but he mingles it with funny humor that keeps the atmosphere really awesome! 

My companions are good. I get a long well with one of them. We have had a bunch of similar things happen pre-mission. So when it is just he and I we talk a lot. I get along alright with my other one. He picks up on languages pretty quick. But we don't like talking about the same things which can be rough ;D

We (my zone) are getting 24 new missionaries going to Dutch speaking missions and 2 weeks later we are getting 21 Albanian going missionaries and then the week after we are getting 2 Turks. We are going to have over 50 people in our district! It is super crazy! And our small Hungarian districts are going to be the only experienced people.

As everyone is leaving our branch is losing all of the people that were doing the assignment... So I, a quieter person than normal, was assigned to be the door greeter where I will have to talk with everyone coming in and help them feel accepted! Sweet!! *sigh* I guess the Lord knows where we need to be to best grow!! 

I hope all of you are having amazing lives!!

Elder Biesinger

MTC 4.5: Pics

​​​​So these are some pics of the missionaries in my zone! The fourth one is of one of the greatest missionaries I have met! He is from New Zealand and he is going to Albania! He is always happy and loves everyone! ​​​​I love his pulled up pants! It summarizes his personality very well!

MTC 4: Ruling the world and stitching my leg!

Hello Everyone!

This week has been quite similar to last week! I still have not seen any General Authorities which is annoying because they were all here last week and everyone else in my Zone saw, like, two different ones. But I guess that means my companions and I just have strong enough testimonies we don't need confirmations. Right?

We celebrated the Fourth of July on Saturday, because that is when they did the Stadium of Fire at BYU. The MTC piled all of the missionaries in a parking lot and we all had to stand and watch the show. We were allowed to stay up an hour later than our normal curfew, but we still had to wake up at 6:30, so it was miserable the day after! Our companion got called to the front desk at like 11:40 so we had to go with him, so we took small naps on Sunday. I took mine during a study session. One of my companions kept falling asleep during one of the devotionals and would drop his notebook whenever he did, so it was pretty hilarious!

So our hour of exercise has been so fun! It is nice to de-stressify for an hour each day. One of the days we were throwing a softball. The mitts weren't very good and my hand was starting to sweat,, so I took off the glove and continued to catch it with my bare hands. One of my companions , Gajdos Elder, threw a high lob to me, when I tried to catch it the ball went right through my hands and smashed into the side of me knee. It was pretty painful! I had a huge bruise and stitch marks from the ball almost immediately afterwards! It was pretty cool! 

This week we had a lesson every day in our language with an "investigator". She was our teacher, so she knew everything we should know... Needless to say, the first lesson was really bad! We were nervous and would forget things, then our teacher would graciously ask us hard questions that we weren't really prepared for. It was pretty bad! The rest of the lessons were really good though! We felt the spirit in all of them and were able to answer all of her questions!

We hosted a new batch of missionaries this week, and will be doing it again this upcoming Wednesday! It is so cool to be the Elders/Sisters first view of the MTC! It is crazy awesome to be able to continue the favor of comforting the new people! It is cool to see that, as you continue to talk and direct them, their worry and nervousness kind of starts to leave their body and they start to talk more! It is so cool!

So each Sunday we have the opportunity to watch either a movie or a recorded, past, devotional. Yesterday we watched "The Testaments", and let me tell you! It is a very different experience when you are watching it with a room full of missionaries! Especially during the love scenes where he either kisses the girl or asks her to marry him. It is very funny! The missionaries all start "freaking out" and there is a buzz of conversation for the next, like, five minutes! It is so great!

The Hungarian is coming along mostly great! I found a more simple Hungarian book that I brought with me that I am going to use to get the basics! I have to learn a whole different English to understand our normal grammar book! It is a pretty miserable read!! I am learning some pretty awesome phrases. We where working on our sentence making skills and this is one that I did that made the teacher laugh pretty hard (cause she was the only one that understood it!) "The young men walked into the grave yard and sacrificed the monkey!" It is a pretty important phase to know! But hey, sometimes you need somethings to unwind! And a good laugh always works! There are approx. 30 commonly used cases in Hungarian, and we have to memorize all of them! It is super crazy and annoying!!

My Zone leader interviewed me last week, cause I was the District leader, and he shared a scripture with me. It is Hebrews 12. It talks about how God gives us challenges because he loves us. It is a really really good chapter that I would recommend to anyone! 

I think that sums up my week! If you have any specific questions feel free to ask! Love y'all!!

Elder Biesinger

*******************************

Oh I forgot. Last Monday we helped rip up seating and carpet in the temple so that they could rotate everything out! It was a lot of fun!! We have a BYU lineman in our zone and he was a beast! He could run across and area of carpet we were working on ripping up, and grab a corner and just rip the whole hunk of faster than 2 or 3 of the other elders, together, could! It was pretty impressive!

MTC 3: Sooooo Tired!

So I told you guys how tired I was... well I was tired enough to fall asleep during a study time last Sunday and not notice anything! It was pretty great!! And my goofy comp is tryin to pick my nose :D

MTC 2.5: Pics!

These are some of the pictures that my companion took. I don't have my camera on me so I don't have any from myself. But this was easier than getting my own camera!

This is what my companion sent me when I asked for them!

Dear Narcissitic Companion,

Here are your pictures. Enjoy looking at yourself.

-Terry Elder

For those of you who know me you all know that I would hate to look at these pictures! But I will sacrifice and send it to you, despite it being at the end of a long day and looking dreadful!!

Biesinger Elder

Biesinger Elder

Gajdos Elder

Hungarian Missionary Purpose

The Handsome Elders

More Handsome Elders

The Handsome Elders 2.0

The Sisters

We're still handsome

MTC 2: Beans are cool and Cuteness is awkward!

Hey everyone!

SO this last week in the MTC has been hectic! We had 6 investigator lessons this week. Outside of our classes, service, and meal times, we only had 1-2 hours to figure out what we were teaching, translate it, and try to memorize as much vocab as we could! The lessons were really good! We got her to "commit" to being baptized in August.

Before I left for my mission I was getting an average of 5 hours of sleep a night, so I though "7 hours! That will be plenty of time to sleep! I will always be awake and alert!!".... How wrong I was. I have be exhausted each day! It is a good exhaustion cause it means I am doing lots of work! But I fell asleep during study time last night right before the devotional! 

So, something weird I found out. My teachers parents taught my dad in the MTC! And then our "investigator" heard of/knew my dad! They both say that he is very popular in Hungary and a lot of people know about him! 

This week we were evicted from our usual cafeteria because that was remodeled to make a nice place for the General Authorities who were there to train the Mission Presidents. There were guards everywhere and M1 (the building they had stolen :D) Was completely shut down! The escort people who work at the MTC were told that if they went out of the one room they were supposed to be in, they would be fired and have to leave the MTC grounds immediately! It was kind of crazy! Everyone in my District and Zone saw one or two General Authorities... Except for me and my unfortunate buddies! Oh well... We still have 7 1/2 weeks to see one!  

We had room inspections at a time when we weren't in our residents and they docked us points for not making a bed that no one was using!!! Ugh!!! My tripanionship was kinda annoyed! ;D But now we know better right!

So we (my district) are hosting the new missionaries this week! Usually they wait till after our third full week but this is just the middle of our second! So I guess we are just super mature and smart for missionaries ;S We are also cleaning the temple. It is closed for the next 2-3 weeks for remodeling! So we get to help clean it each Monday instead of doing temple work! What a blessing!

MY companions are still pretty cool! One of them is like 50% Hungarian. His Grandma ran away from Hungary during the revolution against the Russians. She married a Hungary and so his father is 100% Hungarian! He is very proud of his heritage and the fact that he is able to serve in Hungary.

We have had fast food for every single meal since last Tuesday because the MTC workers don't have their stoves and stuff. So we ate some very fattening things. I feel like a bunch of mashed up preservatives!! It was pretty good, but once you have that for 4 days you feel like you want to die! ;D 

I have been memorized my purpose, the first vision, and the baptism commitment invitation in Hungarian! It has been super crazy! Our teacher knows how to get us mentally exhausted! It has felt great!! My district is hilarious! We just have one other tripanionship of sisters, but we all love to laugh and have fun when we aren't studying! Our teacher is very easy-going and is pretty lacks  when it is okay to be!

I love you all! I hope you are all doing well!

Biesinger Elder!

First Letter from the MTC

Phew.... It has been a crazy 5-6 days since I got to the MTC. The flight in was exciting, my first flight was delayed because of the weather surrounding the other airport (one I was going to)., so I had to run like half a mile (not really) to get to my other flight before it took off. I made it with a couple minutes to spare! Very exciting start to a very big journey! My grandparents met me at the airport and took me to "The Junction", a very yummy pizza restaurant, where we met up with my uncle! The food was amazing! Although... I almost threw up all of it cause I ate to much to fast and the butterflies tried to blow all the food back up with their wings! They almost made it.

The orientation went well! I am part of a tripanionship (as opposed to a companionship). My two companions are awesome! They are both very conscience of the rules and enjoy following them! Which makes it so nice!! 

The first meal I had was... LEFTOVERS!! For those of you who know me I HATE leftovers! There were a whole bunch bars full of food, and out of all of them we went to the leftovers tables cause, surprise surprise,  there was nobody around them! After we had consumed most of our "delicious" sandwiches, a sweet worker came over and informed us that we were eating from the leftovers table! oh well.... Now I know!

The first language lesson was super crazy! Our teacher immerse us in the language. After the first day I was the official translator of the group because I got the jist of pretty much everything she said! And I am very, very, good at charades! There is a word in Hungarian (barat) that means "friend", "boyfriend", or "my friend that is a boy". Our teacher made the mistake of saying that an elder she served with, that one of the sisters in my class knew, was her "Baratom". So now we tease her all the time about it, cause she meant that he was her friend that was a boy, but we took it as being her boyfriend. So we all had a good laugh! Our teacher is very nice!

At the end day we had a meeting with our Branch Presidency. I was made district leader. No, there was no divine revelation in the decision process! It was just because my last name was closest to the letter "A". So I get to be the guinea pig! It's great!

On Friday we had our first investigator lesson in Hungarian. We were able to get our point across (maybe). As we were closing she asked us how to pray. This was NOT something we had prepared for. Between trying to translate a little for my companions, I was able to, very very basically, teach her the order of prayer. We also had to try to explain to her how we knew that the gospel was true which just turned into a big game of Charades where we would keep trying to say something until we heard her say that she understood.

Our first English investigator went well! It was the whole group of missionaries that came when I came, so it was more like a Q&A type of setting. I didn't really say anything for the first two because I didn't know what to say... But on the last one I decided that I had to say something! So I got the mic and started my question. It was AMAZING! The spirit just filled my mind with what to say, and you could tell that she was touched by it and the spirit was super strong in the room. So.. My testimony of the gift of tongues and the language of the spirit are a HUGE part of a missionaries life, as well as normal everyday life!

During our first Zone meeting our Zone leader, he is from New Zealand and has the coolest accent ever!!, gave us a scripture to research and told us to think of "Recognizing that the MTC is a sacred place". Because of his accent I heard "Recognizing the empty seat  is a sacred place". I was very very confused! I had never even heard of that doctrine in the church, and I'm not that ignorant of gospel principles! So... I was in confusion until 5 minutes before the meeting where we would  be sharing it and my companions and I were talking about how to present it, one of the wrote it down and all of the sudden it all made sense!

We had 9 hours of personal/companion/language study on Saturday. That is A LOT of studying outside of all of our classes and service! The language is coming alright. A lot of things are coming back. One of my companions took like 5 years of German and is a huge grammar guy! So he helps a lot with different concepts! 

Last night we watched a past fireside by David A. Bednar. It was called "The Characters of Christ". If you can find it, it is a must watch! It is a totally different side to him than I have ever seen before! It was hilarious! It talked about how we need to turn outward as a missionary, and people, cause no matter how hard we work, if we are focused inwardly then we won't be a successful missionary! It was a very powerful fireside!

This Wednesday we are getting over 700 new missionaries and 340 new Mission Presidents. The MPs are having a training week, so all this next week we are going to have President Thomas S. Monson and a bunch of other General Authorities just walking around the campus! That'll be cool! 

Well... I think this email is long enough to satisfy. Life is going great! The spirit is so strong here and you can feel the love radiating from the other missionaries. As my zone leaders says "The Gospel is true"! I am loving it! 

You're all great!!

Biesinger Elder!