April 16: Sweater Weather!!

Hello everyone! 

So this week was pretty good. We met with a lot of people. Some of them were drunk, others were not , while others were enraged by the results of the political elections that took place last week. It was over all an interesting week. 

On Monday after emailing we went and played soccer for a couple hours while we waited for the sisters to finish up, then we went to the belváros cause the sisters wanted to take pictures with a tree that was blossoming. I will admit that the tree was pretty, but it was quickly shown up when I turned and saw a lamborghini (specifically a Aventador 2018) Blew the tree out of the water! Super nice car. But yeah.... That was pretty much everything on Monday. The rest of the days we didn't do a lot besides finding people and teaching. 

On Thursday we did a lot of service for a néni. We hoed her graden in the lovely hot weather. IT was really good. 

On Saturday we went to Kecskemét! I held a baptismal interview with a man getting baptized there! It was a really cool experience. He has made a bunch of hard changes in his life but he said that it was worth it! Super cool

Sunday was the last day of "suit season" which is when we always have to wear suits. We are super excited!!! Then the weather got a lot cooler so know it is sweater weather! The best weather ever! So the week ended on a good note! 

Sorry that I don't have a lot to say this week :S 

Have a great week!! 

Biesinger elder 

April 9: Miracles!!

Hey everyone!! 

This week was really good. Highlights: 

On Sunday our investigator received the gift of the Holy Ghost! She was sick but said that this was more important so she came anyway and stayed for sacrament meeting to that she could get it, and then went home so she wouldn't get anyone else sick! Super cool. 

On Tuesday we met with another part member family. The father is a member and his son wants to get baptized. We have met with them twice. Because of my large family I have experience explaining things to younger kids but in Hungarian I am can't do crap! It doesn't help that the first words I learned were words like "the great apostasy" and "atonement". I never got to learn how Hungarian kids learn their words cause I started with these kinds of words... who knows! But it was really good! The members that come with us are really cool and they usually can catch when our investigator isn't understanding. 

The rest of our week was pretty normal. I have been re-listening to some General Conference talks and stuff and it has been really good! 

I think that is all that happened this week! Next week hopefully there will be more! 

Have a great week!! 

Biesinger elder 

April 3: Sorry

Hey, 

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time to email today! This week has been great! We had a baptism on Saturday!!!! It is really cool. I think I have already explained about it. It was a less active members wife. Last transfer we looked him up and we started meeting with them. This last week was her baptism. It was a really cool to see their family come together! 

We had General Conference this last week. It was really cool! Lots of interesting news! 

We played soccer on Saturday and it was a lot of fun! Nobody died! 

Have a great week!!! 

Biesinger elder 

March 26: oh boy....

Hello everyone! 

So this week has been CRAZY!! Last week involved a lot of traveling and meetings as leaders, but this week was packed with teachings. We averaged about 4 teachings a day. Then we have to go get my companion legal, go hold a baptism interview in Békéscsaba, and get back to meet the APs so they can hold an interview with our investigator. 

So on Tuesday we left at 9 in the morning, and got back home at about 9:15 PM (minus a 15 minute dinner break). It was insane. In the evening we also went to a symphony. That was really pretty, and long. We met with a man and we were talking about the Book of Mormon and the relation it has to the Indians. We told him that God made the Lamanites skin a little darker so that there was a difference. Our investigator threw up his hands and said "you sir, are very racist!"... well... I didn't know how to take that. He then started laughing really hard and said that he was also racist and went on for a little bit about different racist things. We stopped him and explained that it wasn't being racist and that racism isn't good... well... he took that alright. There is also something in the Hungarian language call formalizing. It is a special way of conjugating verbs and stuff that you do with people who are older than you or that you don't really know (pretty much) and after you meet with someone they usually start just talking normally to you. Well.... The man is still formalizing us after two meetings and it is driving us crazy. It isn't really hard to formalize, just different and kind of annoying sometimes cause we don't want to slip and insult him and stuff.

Wednesday we left at 10 and got back at 8:30. We had a little more time to do studies that day. 

Thursday we had district meeting. After we had district meeting we went over to a members house to paint. While we were there she pointed to a section of the wall that a repair man had done a really bad job mudding (vakolni) it and she was sad cause she would have to get someone else to do it. Well. Thanks to my dad having us mud a lot in our house right before my mission I told her that I had a lot of experience doing it and could do it for her, but that it wouldn't be super professional and stuff. Well, it was a lot of fun and she was grateful for the help. Then we had Angol óra. Oké, I can speak English, but teaching english is totally different. They are asking questions about different tenses that  I didn't even know existed! They ask questions and I'm like "Im sorry, I just speak english, I don't know it". It is pretty rough. But we did get a paper and learned how to teach english a little better. 

Friday and Saturday we were in Békéscsaba. Their investigator decided that he needed to wait a little longer and so there was no interview. On Saturday our investigator had her interview and she passed!! The baptism is planned for next saturday! It is so cool to see that changes that have come into her life since she has been living the principles of the gospel! 

Sunday we had the self reliance missionaries come to instruct our branch about the program and last minute (5 minutes before it started) they came over and asked me to translate. The dear senior couple are relatively new and they haven't really learned how to talk so that it is easier to translate, so it was a party! Good practice and insentive to learn the language better! 

I think that is about everything.... This week it snowed again.......................... oh well. I will send a couple pictures later! Have a great week! And have a great time listening to General Conference! 

Biesinger elder 

March 19: Weather is the bane of my existence

Szervusztok! 

This week has been pretty crazy. On Tuesday we did a lot of tracting and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! We were going around in just suits and even then it was a little hot! Perfect weather. 

One Thursday we went up to Budapest for Zone conference. We got up at 345 in the morning to catch a train. President Johnson was there from the Area presidency. It was incredible! Learned some amazing things. He talked a lot about learning styles and teaching styles. For example, if you want to teach someone some kind of fact then you would have flash cards, have them repeatedly go over them... that kind of thing. He conected this with spiritual learning how we can't learn spiritual things like we would learn about history and stuff. He shared 1 Cor 2:9-12. He shared some super cool insights about it and it was really uplifting. 

On Friday we woke up at 3:45 again because we are the zone leaders and had to go to a Leadership training in Budapest. That was equally uplifting and was similarly themed! On our way back we talked to a really cool guy on the train who practically quoted the Book of Mormon, it was really cool. He was super excited to talk with us and wants to learn our message so that he can become closer to God! Super neat experience! 

Saturday we played soccer for a while. It was really fun! We were really sore still from last week but it was still really fun. There are all sorts of interesting personalities playing and it was really fun. Although I have never really played soccer except for when we lived in Hungary before this, I am slowly picking it up. This week my companion and I worked on curving the ball which is really fun to do. I am mostly goalie cause I am taller than my companion and have faster reflexes than most of the people that play with us. It is a party! 

I think that that is about it! This week was a lot of fun and full of cool experiences.

Oh... reason for the subject line... IT IS SNOWING IN SZEGED!!!!! We were seriously about to need to take of our suit coats last week! And then it snows! I am fine with the snow, it would just be nice to make up its mind...

So... with the pictures. Don't judge. We were going through some bags of clothes that previous missionaries left and found some interesting things. My companion and I picked out an outfit each that we are going to wear on splits! We are gonna be the classyest (probably not a word) zone leaders in the mission! It is going to be awesome! 

I hope all of you have a great week! There should be more pictures coming next week! 

Sok szeretettel:

Biesinger elder 

March 6: "Your voice makes me want to kill myself"....

Hello everyone! 

So this week was really good. Today we found out what is going to happen in the next transfer! I am staying here in Szeged and getting elder Willes! I served around him my second transfer and his first transfer and we got a long pretty well when we were on splits and stuff. The transfer will be really good. He is like a foot shorter than me but height doesn't matter right? Sports will be a lot of fun! 

Subject line. So I forgot to write about this last week. During our meeting with our ward missionary leader I said something and he turned to me and said, in english, "your voice makes me want to kill myself".... Completely out of the blue. Everyone was just quiet for like 5 seconds. We all have a really good relationship with him and all of us got a good laugh out of it! I can't say that I have ever heard that from anyone before.... 

Last week was pretty cold! We got about 6-7 inches of snow here in Szeged and had a party! Luckily on Tuesday we had to go up to Budapest for interviews with the mission president and on Wednesday and Thursday we were traveling a lot for splits and all of our other days here in Szeged were packed with teachings so we didn't have to spend to much time out in the cold! 

Today we went to ópusztaszer for P-day. It was pretty fun. There is a huge panoramic painting there about a Hungarian historical legend. It was pretty neat. Then on the way back we had an investigator invite us to lunch, a member invite us to dinner, and on top of all that we already had a dinner appointment set up for this evening. It will be very very interesting! We will see how well my companion and I make it out of this mess :) 

My companion and I had some fun with the snow. He made a mini snowman and stuck a pass-along card in it and then we left it there. Other pictures are of part of the city of Szeged! The door to the building fire escape was open and so we went out and were pretty high up! 

A missionary from my zone asked if he could make my planner so I said yes. He asked what I wanted on it and I said a pioneer girl... After I said that I repeatedly told him not to do that cause I don't really want it. Well... he did it anyway! But he made it pretty good!

I think that is about all that happened this week worth mentioning.... 

Have a great week!! 

Biesinger elder 

So the pancake pictures are a depiction of what happens on fast sundays when a missionary doesn't have enough energy to stand and cook!! I got a good laugh out of going into the kitchen and seeing my companion! 

Then there are some pictures of our investigators and us! It has been a really good transfer! 

March 12: Thanksgiving in March

Hey everyone! 

So this week has been really good. Tuesday, after we emailed, we were able to make all of our appointments. The first one was with our part member family. They asked us to give a priesthood blessing to their little daughter who they think suffers from trauma and really struggles with sleeping. It was a really cool. 

After that we ran over to our next appointment where the man fed us 5 different courses. 2 soups, 2 main courses, and dessert. That isn't including the 3 different salads on the side. It seriously was the thanksgiving of March. It was all really good food as well. One thing I love about Hungary is that the people, once you get to know them, are so welcoming and love to stuff people.

Besides these things the week has been pretty normal. We went up to Budapest for transfers and it was really good! Last week there was still snow on the ground but luckily it warmed up a lot and so now we have beautiful weather and are walking around in suit coats! It has been really nice! 

On Saturday we went and played soccer for a while. It was really fun! Both my companion and I are really sore since then. It has been a party! 

I think that is pretty much all the crazy things from this week! 

I hope you all have an amazing week. Sorry for the short email :)

Biesinger elder 

February 26: Flour is not my medium of choice

Hello everyone! 

So this week was pretty grand! On Tuesday we met with a part-member family. I think that I have talked about them before. The father was a less active member that we decided to start working with and try to help him out. We started teaching his future wife and she has really enjoyed the lesson. Last Tuesday we asked her to be baptized and she accepted! Super awesome! She is going to be baptized March 31 and we are working on helping her husband get ready to baptize her! 

On Wednesday we went to Kecskemét and had some fun splits. In their district they do a weekly photo competition where they have a topic and then they have to take a picture that week and at the end they compare the pictures. This week it was on flowers and so we made a flower in some flour. He roughly outlined a flower but then I had to make it a little more detailed. After the picture was taken we couldn't waste all of the flour.... so we played the flour game. What you do is you compact the flour into a cup and then flip it upside-down and so it is kind of like a sandcaste tower. Then you stick a coin in the top and you take turns cutting the sides of the tower off with a knife. The person who makes the cut when the tower falls over has to get the coin, that fell into the pile of flour, with just their mouth. It is a silly, simple game. 

I think that that is pretty much everything from this week.... Talked to interesting people who believed in demons and stuff. That was an interesting conversation. But yep. All part of missionary life! 

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the pictures! All from splits and stuff! 

Sok szeretettel:

Biesinger elder 

February 19: Threw up again

Hey everyone,

So I recently reflected back on my mission and realized something that is unusual. I have thrown up 3 times on my mission but never once because I was sick... Interesting record huh? The first two times were when I was in Veszprém the land of dreams, and I did the milk challenge twice. The 3 time was this last week when I went on splits and I was with an elder who really likes to exercise and is really good at it. So I told him to prepare something hard and I would do it. So we got up a little early and started to exercise. An hour later I had just finished doing a pretty difficult task when my stomach started hurting really bad... I tried to do the next exercise but my insides started doing some weird things. Ran over to the sink and yeah..... threw up. Well... after someone throws up they always, usually, feel a lot better, so I went back and did the remaining 30 minutes of the workout! It was pretty great! I was only sore for the next 5 days!!! Party. 

This week we met with some really cool people. One of the families that we meet with is a part-member family. The father is a less active member who we looked up. He has had 3 other marriages and is now living with his girlfriend and her children. We looked them up a couple weeks ago and since then they have been coming back to church, bringing their children, and last week they told us that they are getting married next month!! The girlfriend was really excited and told us that one of the main reason they are getting married is so he can worthily use his priesthood again! Really cool! 

Last Monday after we emailed we went to a family night that we organized for our investigator and she cancelled last minute and so we just went and hung out with members! It was pretty fun. 

On Friday we went to a falú called kiskunderozsma. A little information before I continue on with the story. In hungary they right their 1's exactly like that 1. So it isn't just a straight down line but it has a little hook thing on the top. So in Hungary you  have to cross all of your 7's  so that it won't get confused with the 1s. Well... my companion is determined not to pick up that habit on his mission so when he wrote down the address he wrote down 37 when it really was a hungarian written 31. So we travel forever to get to the place, the street doesn't even have a 37, and we do a little tracting and then go home. We get back and then my companion realizes that he is in Hungary and he needs to do numbers differently! Well.... silly companion. 

On Saturday we went and played soccer with a group. One of them is a member and a couple have been investigators! It was really fun. They all have really really dirty mouths, besides the member, but it was still super fun! 

My companion bought some trout from the store last week and decided to cook it up. We didn't have plates that were big enough for the trout so we used some palacsinta pans! It was really good! 

It was also valentines day this week. One of the sisters in our district described it as a slap-in-the-face day for missionaries. We got some heart stationary from a sister and wrote a love letter to one of the members. He loved it! 

I think that is all that happened this week! I hope you all had an amazing week!! 

Sok szeretettel:

Biesinger elder 

P.S. there is also another interesting Hungarian thing. When they start their letters they don't use a comma like we do "dear so and so," but they use and exclamation mark "dear so and so!". and then at the end they don't do a comma again, but rather a ":" mark "sok szeretettel:". I am not sure if that is 100% all the time but a lot of them do it! Interesting little quirks!​

February 12: Farsang party!!

Hi everyone! 

So this week wasn't super eventful. Wednesday we had a quick split with some elders in Szolnok. That went really well. One of the elders is sick and so my companion and he stayed in the apartment the whole time while the other one and I worked. It was a lot of fun. We joined the for district meeting the next day. For lunch we ordered two pizzas, one was 28 centimeters and the other one was 50. This was for 6 missionaries. Well.... an Austrailian ordered the pizza and I guess the people didn't understand him because of his accent (poor guy) and so the pizza was delivered and it was two 28 centimeter pizzas! Cute little tiny ones. It was a party.

On Saturday the branch here had a farsang buli. It is similar to the American halloween. They dress up and have donuts and stuff, but I think the point to it is, is that they are scaring winter away or something like that. It was a lot of fun! Had some fun games and contests! We did some dance lessons (a group came and taught us). It was a line dance but most of the steps were a western variation of cha-cha steps which brought back really interesting memories of dancing! Just 6-ish more months and I can dance again! 

Yesterday we went over to a members house named Magda György and Magda Agnes. My dad confirmed György which György proudly tells everyone (much to my chagrin). But it was really fun. They are an amazing family and super strong in their faith! It was a lot of fun to be there, and the food they gave us was really yummy!

Today before we emailed we went to an escape room here in Szeged. It was a little bit easier than the one that we did  in Kispest but it was still really fun! There were a bunch of good puzzles but none of them were crazy hard. We had 60 minutes to do it and we ended with 20 left. The man said that we were probably the fastest group to have ever have done it without asking for help! After we did that we went and had some Thai icecream that was really good....

I think that that is about all that happened this week. Oh, one other thing. Yesterday was the first Sunday this transfer that we didn't have pancake sunday.... Oh well. But yep! That was the week. My companion took some good pictures and so I am stealing them and adding them to this email! 

Have an amazing week!!! 

Biesinger elder   

So these are just some pictures of the party! As are the ones from the other email!

one of these is the delicious Hortobágyi Palacsinta dish that a member made! Suuuuper good.  

January 22: Why I Hate Dogs

Hello everyone! 

So last week was pretty good. I have expanded my list on why I dislike dogs. I loved dogs before my mission but during it my feelings have flipped. Up till now it has been because we would have to stand at a gate for a while waiting for the person to answer the door and while we are waiting there is a dog that wants to kill us on the other side of the gate that wants to kills us. I swear that dogs have a missionary sensor built in. Because when other people walk by some of these dogs, the dog just sits there and doesn't do anything, but as we walk by they start going insane trying to break down the fence and eat us. Another reason why, that I discovered more this last week, is because people always dog us. We had soooo many lessons planned for this week, but we would walk up to the doors and 1) no one would answer or 2) someone would answer and say that the person we were looking for isn't home and that they don't want to listen to us. Then we would just go out and start tracting!!! Yipeee! But it is good. I am enjoying my time here in Szeged immensely. The members are nice, the people are mostly rendes! 

We met with one of our investigators that is living with her boyfriend and not keeping the Law of Chastity and stuff and the missionaries have been trying to get her to get married for a long time. She has been with her partner for 11 years!!! The lesson went well. We talked a lot about it with her and she agreed that by the end of February she would talk with her partner and pick out a marriage date! Little by little she is getting closer. She really wants to be baptized and she is keeping all of the other commandments and stuff, just this one.... 

Yesterday on our way back from tracting there was a man that was waiting for the same busz as us. We quickly learned that he wasn't completely there mentally. He started talking to us and learned that we were from America. He also saw my companions scarf and that had his city's name on it. I guess he wanted a souvenir or something so we told my companion that we had to go with him so that he could grab a scarf from his apartment and trade it. My companion wasn't very willing and didn't really want to give it. We got on the busz with the man and he sat next to use and told us that he had a really good scarf. As we were riding another man got on that new man #1 and man #1 asked man #2 where he was going. Man #2 said that he was going to go get a beer. Man #1 got really excited and jumped out of his seat and, much to the chagrin of Man #2, went with man #2 and sat by him. I guess we can learn from this is that we should appreciate the small miracles in life. We were able to keep my companions scarf and not offend anyone! 

I think that is everything for this week! I didn't take many pictures but there might be some next week!! 

Sok Szeretettel:

Biesinger elder   

This was just us last week at a big church here. They didn't turn out very well. 

And the pizza is a 60 centimeter pizza that my companion and I were crazy and bought. It was pretty good. I could barely eat 2 slices.... 

February 5: Goldfish challenge ismét!

Hello everyone! 

So as many of you probably remember, about a year ago I was peer pressured into swallowing a live goldfish in celebration of my fathers 145th birthday. Well... on of the missionaries that I have been going on splits with, heard about that and also wanted to give it a try. So on Wednesday I was on splits with him here in Szeged. While we were walking around we stumbled upon a littel pet store. We went in and bought two goldfish. I am sure that if the woman, selling us the fish, knew what we were going to do with the fish she wouldn't have sold them to us. Well.... we got back to our apartment and I realized that we were going to also get my companion a fish and make him do the challenge. Well we forgot to do that so I sacrificed my fish and let him do it. It took quiet a while for him to end up doing it. I will be sending another email with the video in it. 

Well.... besides that on Friday we went up to Zone Training where my companion and I instructed our zone and listened to some trainings from our mission president. It was really good. After the training we went on splits with the assistants. It was a lot of fun. The missionary that I was with is really intense and I was able to learn a lot from him! 

It started snowing a little bit in Hungary, but Szeged is known as the "Sunshine city" so the snow never sticks! But that makes it a lot easier to play sports and stuff so that is an upside! 

We didn't do much else this last week. On Monday we had a pancake party at a members house and that was a lot of fun. My companion and I usually have "Palacsinta Sunday". It is a party. We make a bunch of american pancakes and see who can eat the most before we need to start calling the district leaders in our zone. Pretty fun tradition! 

I hope you all have an amazing week! Thank you all so much for the various updates!! 

Biesinger elder 

Enjoy the pictures!! You probably won't be getting very many more :)