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!
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