January 16: Wow....

Hi everyone,

This week has been kind of crazy (as usual). We had 2 investigators drop us. Our Bap date dropped the day and admitted that he had lied to us for a while about some things, and my companion committed to only streeting (stopping and talking to people on the street) hot girls. Which is easy for him because all he has to say is "Hi", and then I am the one who has to try and talk to these people. Lovin Life!! (seriously)

So, further explanation on Balázs (bap date). We invited this member who I think is like the coolest person ever and I was always scared to invite him to teachings because I didn't want to have something weird happen and him not want to help us/ think less of us. Well... I invited him to this teaching with Balázs because all we were doing was organizing his baptism. Well... as we were getting into it Balázs, out of the blue, says that he doesn't want to do it anymore. Well, I think it was a miracle that we had invited this members. Instead of it being weird, he puts away all the baptism stuff and he and Balázs talk for 45 minutes about the gospel and just amaying stuff that I would have tried to say if I had spoken Hungarian. It was truly a blessing to have the member there. We scheduled a time to meet again and our member was like "great! I will come too!". After that we talked with our members for like 20 minutes about what we could talk about and our member said that he would look up some talks and prepare to talk to Balázs, and that he thought it would be good to meet with Balázs twice a week and that he would make time to come to both of the teachings. SUPER CRAZY!!

Well we had two other member present lessons with investigators and the investigators told us that they didn't want to meet anymore, in front of the members. This is a missionaries nightmare, at least for me. I know that the member is taking time out of their day to meet with other the missionaries and other people, and I want it to be a good lesson. But after these lessons, and the one with Balázs, the members were optimistic and told us to invite them again to any lessons. We are truly being blessed here in Pápa. 

So... With my companions new goal... I am kind of scared because the only people that we have talked to on the street are two old men, a woman that was like 45 and kept touching my arm while we were talking, and a scary guy. I am starting to wonder what my companions definition of a "hot girl" is, because we have not talked to any girls yet. Scary scary...

This week when we were meeting with one of our investigators we were eating lunch at her house. It was super good and so when she offered to send some leftovers home with us we were excited. That is until she gave me the container to hold while she spooned it in. The container had a mixed layer of eyelashes, hair, and some weird powder that smelled (or if you are my dad "smelt") weird. Needless to say, once we left the house I turned to my companion and told him that I was not going to touch the container, much less eat the food that was in it. He later took the top of the food of and ate the none hairy part. Super scary!!

This week has had good and bad. But I have LOVED it!

Have a great week,

Elder Biesinger

Pictures...

1-this is a underpass that every missionary in Pápa has to get a picture with. 

2- Same (courtesy of Biesingerediting and co. for the sick edits)

3- This couple was hugging for 20 minutes off of the train. When we got tired of looking at it we started taking pictures and this néni sitting on the other side of the train started chewing us out and telling us to stop being stupid. "These young people have found the undying, eternal love. We should be happy for them. Most people are stuck with the night life, which isn't bad if you live in Pápa". That was a complete quote from her. She later expounded one this "undying love". Lesson: Don't taking pictures of people who have found "the eternal love" when a Néni is by you. Bad idea and kind of weird.

4- this is what happened to Balázs's day in my planner, we also burned his record that was filled our from the interview and did some other things that might not be mentioned. It was a very hard day. 

Enjoy the pics!!

:(

January 9: My companion is twitterpated

Hi everyone,

This week has been lots of fun and work has been booming here in the thriving metropolis of Pápa. We have found 5 new investigators in the last two weeks, had an investigator except a baptismal date and have a successful interview, and neither of us have died.

To explain the subject line. My companion has a huge weakness for redheads... We have a couple redheads in our mission. At Christmas time we all got a CD with a slide show with a bunch of pictures of the mission in the year 2016. Well... When we were watching that my companion found a picture with two sisters that he says are absolutely gorgeous. He now will pause the video and just leave the picture on the screen so he can see it. It is pretty great. He isn't really serious about it, well, he likes the sisters, but he isn't letting it distract him. He is a super dedicated missionary.

This week we were going to a man that said we could come back. He lives about a 30 minutes bike ride away, and it was below freezing and the wind was blowing super hard, at 6PM. So we called him at about 4 to see if he was still good with meeting. He said yes. So we rode our bikes all the way down there. He lives in a apartment building and so we have to ring a bell to get in. Well we rang his bell and he didn't answer. Scared that we had come all this way for nothing I got the phone out and called him. As we were one the phone a family was going into the building and they let us in. The man on the phone was talking about how far away he was and how it wouldn't work to meet that night. I told him that we were already there. He told us that he wasn't home and that he was far away still. As he was saying all of this I was hearing a weird echo with everything he said. At first I thought that it was a problem with the phone, cause that happens a lot, but as I was talking  I realized that I was hearing the voice of this man coming through his neighbors door. I realized the false excuses he was giving me and reassured him that we would just try back another time and that we could just continue on to his neighbors door (the one I was standing outside of) I hung up and heard him yell for someone to answer the door and tell us that he wasn't there. Well, they did, and we left. Since we were already down there, and frozen, we decided to tract a little bit. As we were tracting a young wife let us in and very excitedly let us in and almost pleaded for a Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see that when we were willing to sacrifice our comfort to come and try to share the gospel, God trusts us to share the gospel with other people. After we got home my companion and I were limping around our apartment for 30 minutes because our feet were so cold. Our scarfs, which we had wrapped around our faces, were frozen where our breath had gone through. Super fun memorable experience!!

This week my companion and I got matching suits. They were super cheap and he needed a new one anyway so we got them (pictures below). The first thing he said as we were walking away from the store was " You can call us the febreeze brothers, cause we are looking so fresh!". I love my companion, he is such a goof ball.

Today we were at a nénis house and she had a card with our number on it and our name. On the card it said "az elderek" (the elders) and then had a smile after it and in Hungarian there is a letter that looks like this  "Ü" So when she was reading it she thought that it was that letter, not a smile. So for everyone who may be writing something on a card to a Hungarian, don't use smiles, it only confuses them and makes them say weird things!

Things are going great here in Pápa. The cold is a great tool to get other people to let us in! I love it!!

Thank you all for your emails and everything else!!

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Biesinger

Pics. There is a picture of my companion putting his scarf over his head and looking like a deadly néni.

Other ones, first snow, our new suits, in the background is the picture of the sisters that he thinks are cute. Life is good!

January 3: Crazy week!!

Hello everyone, 

This email will also be a little shorter than usual! We were only able to email at the library for 30 minutes before it closed... So we got to email for an hour today!

This week we found 3 new investigators. Two are a married couple who let us in because it was so cold outside and they felt bad for us, and they agreed to let us come back. They also already had a book of mormon. I think that everyone in Pápa has a book of mormon. Almost everyone that we tract into, and that let us in, say that they already have a book of mormon. Weird...

The holidays have been a pain. We don't really get any extra things on holidays. On Christmas we were allowed to have all of our study time (usually personal study and language were kicked out because of church) but besides that and skyping our families and opening present, we were missionaries. It was hard because the holiday just gave everyone another excuse to use... but we got a bunch of numbers and we called them today and set up with 3 people for this week! It should be really great!

This last week we were walking through our main square and we walked past these boys who were goofing off, not boys rather teenagers, and they started saying the dumb things that teenagers always say to us. So we kept walking and when we were about halfway across the square and this ice ball comes sailing past our heads and shatters all over the place. Well... I am glad they didn't have good aim!

We cooked some killer paprikás csirke this week! I think it would be so fun to start a Hungarian restaurant in the US later on in life!! They have such good food here!!

Well... I think that is about all! Sorry to everyone who I wasn't able to write to! I have read all of the emails and love them!!

Happy late new year and Merry Christmas!!

The cool Hungarian whips!!! (And traditional clothing, also very cool...)

December 27: Hi Everyone

Hey,

So I don't have long. We had Christmas and it was great. Skyped my family. In Pápa the holidays are streched out way to long and so our usual places are closed (for emailing). That is why I am ignoring logic and reasoning and just shooting out the basics. M

My Mission President (this was all in Hungarian) said that we could just use the branch house computer for 30 minutes, including his email, and since we talked to our families at Christmas time. 

Pápa is a lot of fun and I will write more in a week or two. Depending on what happens next week, cause the usual places are closed till next Tuesday and that is not our Pday next week.

Love you all!! Merry Grand Holidays!!

Elder Biesinger.

Okay, personal note...wish it was me getting that hug right now!

Oh, those back Hungarian roads.  Love it.

Good thing there is not dog behind that fence...not like the Hungarian dogs I remember!

Now, THAT, is Hungarian pizza.

December 13: Y'all Didn't Pray Hard Enough...

Hi everyone!

Well this week was filled with excitement! A large reason for that excitement is because it is transfers week!! What a great time period for all missionaries. Lots of stress!! Well... I will explain what happened. We wake up at 6:30, awake in an instant. The ringtone we are fearing is the special tone of our mission president. He usually starts his calls at 7 so we wait in dread for the call. If it  is later and our usual ringtone then that means that we will just be a normal missionary next transfer ( not a zone leader, trainer, or AP because those are reserved to the presidents call). Well it is 7:10 and we start to relax. We make a casual joke about how we are now safe from harm. No sooner did that joke leave our mouths and we heard the dreaded tone. My comp answered because he is the senior companion. Now we both know that one of us will be in the "different" group. I here that he is going to Szeged, a city where there is a Zone Leader spot open. I start to relax. I get the phone. "Szia Biesinger Elder. (after formalities) Egy Tréner leszel..." I almost cried. He just told me, a 3rd transfer, that I was training with a language far beyond my pay grade. I was shaking for like 3 hours afterwards from the shock! Next transfer will be great!! And none of those prayers that I asked for worked.... That is ok.

This week we had my first person yell at us and tell us that they were going to call the cops on us if we didn't leave the area. My companion casually told them to go for it! Well... No cops came and we kept tracting. It was great!

This week we did a small tradition that elder Hughes introduce. It is sajt night! It is super good. All you do is make cheese sticks, bread them, and deep fry them. It is super good but super bad for the body!! 

Pics.

Sajt night,

Nice sunset,

missionary tackiness. on splits they had to use a garbage bag to put their no-bake cookies on because they didn't have anything else!

some yummy desserts my comp and I got for our black monday (the long monday before the Tuesday that we get transfer calls!

Family we are teaching (inactive.)

I think that that is about it! I will let you know how next week is!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Biesinger