September 12: Death of a Friend

Hi everyone!

So this week one of my beast friends died.... My dear fan couldn't withstand the difference in volts from the USA to Hungary and shorted out never to come back again :( I guess life is full of trial and sorrow, I just wish I didn't need to experience some of it on my mission! Oh well.... I guess life can't always be a walk in the park.

Speaking of walking... My companion and I were going to "falu blast" a small falu (village) outside of Pápa where an inactive member lived. That means that we were going to finish our studies, pack a lunch, and go spend the day tracting and trying to find people in the falu. Well... We looked up our inactive and then received a phone call from a member asking if we could do some service for him. Of course we agreed. Then he told us he was going to pick us up at three at our apartment. Thinking it wasn't a problem we went to the train station and had a very nice talk with the conductor about life and religion, and then she left. We were just sitting there, wondering why our train was late, adn she comes out and asks if she knows what time our train leaves. We told her no. She said that it left at 3:45.... Well that doesn't work, and we where on the opposite side of our area from where the member we were serving lived. We did the math and found that it was a 6.5 mile walk to get back to our apartment and we had about an hour and forty-five minutes to get back to our apartment before three. Well... We started walking... and walking... and walking. We got picked up by the scariest car I have seen in my life. It is about half the size of a normal car in the US and was about a million years old  driven my some pretty scary looking people. Being tired, exhausted, and dehydrated (we didn't bring water because we were just going to pick some up in the falu we were tracting) we accepted and got in, I was pretty much kneeing myself in the face, but it was nicer then walking in the blazing. Once we picked up our bikes from the station in Pápa(that is where we were dropped off) we were driving back and my comp had the brilliant idea to call while riding his bike to tell another missionary friend what had happened. First of all.... Talking on your phone while on a bike is dumb. Second... We are only allowed to call for missionary purposes, not to tell stories. Well... God must have been tired of him breaking that rule. While we were going back there is a hill that has some loose gravel on the bottom and we have to make a sharp turn while on the gravel to get onto the trail. Well, with a phone in one hand and God's anger over him my comp went down the hill and BAM... bike slide out he slide on elbows and hands/face to a stop while our phone skidded away in several pieces. God works in mysterious ways!! Our phone was fine, and my comp is still alive, but he still won't tell people that he was on the phone when it happened :D 

We went on splits this week and my comp wanted to go with the senior comp and go to the American families house with him. So it was me and the other Junior and we totally wasted Pápa! Both of us where ok with doing everything and didn't have any fears because of our ignorance. We talked to so many people and had some cool experiences! So many people say that missions are never like the best two years... Well I have an experience to prove them wrong! So that part in the best two years when the newbie is in the park and he goes up to the american. Well... This is my experience. On splits (so I was with mister newbie right?) we stopped someone on the street and my comp said one of our tracting approaches. The lady said, in english, "sorry, I don't speak dutch" and elder szuch (my comp) was like "neither do I! I speak English". Now, for almost two sentences it was almost word for word what happened in the best two years! If you want your mission to be fun like the best two years all you need to do is change your attitude and make it like the best two years! It can be filled with fun and amazing experiences! 

Well... I think that that was what fun happened this week! Love you all! God bless you!

Elder Biesinger

P.S. Thank you for the updates from home and things I have been receiving, they have been awesome!

August 29, 2016: "hit by a car-o, a korhazba jarok!! (If you say it right then there is a little rhythm)"

Hi everyone!!!

This week has been great! 

We went to Budapest for a zone conference and did cool tracting practice! My companion and I tied for the best score and got some good stuff for a reward. 

On Friday we went to Szombathely for splits with the zone leaders. They were really fun! I went with Elder Fritzgerald and had a blast talking to people!

A  cool experience. On Saturday, when we were doing splits with the zone leaders, Elder Fritzgerald and I had a spiritual planning session the night before. We both felt that we could place two copies of the Book of Mormon. Well we went throughout the day tracting and talking to people. By the time it was time for us to got back to Pápa I still had not place and copies of the Book of Mormon and was somewhat disappointed . Once we got home we were going to swing by the bank to get my money from my Missionary Funds card but instead we thought that it would be better to drop our stuff off and just walk to the bank instead of riding our bikes. On the way there a homeless man, that we had met before (the  one who just walked into the church and wasn't to nice smelling), came up to us and started talking to us. To be honest, Smith Elder and I aren't very fond of this man and usually try to avoid him. But he brought us over to sit down next to some men who he said that he knew, but from their looks you could totally tell that they had no idea who he was. The homeless man turned to us and asked for a Book of Mormon. We gave him one and he turned and gave it to one of the men sitting by us. We saw that his other friend was looking over and so we offered him a Book of Mormon also. We talked with the first man that had received a Book of Mormon for a while. We were able to set up an appointment for a return visit and he seemed honestly interested in hearing our message. We placed those two copies of the Book of Mormon that the spirit told me we could place! But guess what? As we were asking for his address we heard the words we never want to hear..."I'm from Győr". Győr is a bigger city that is in a different Elders area. While it is amazing that we where able to be led to him by God, it was a little sad, because we have, like, zero investigators right now...

So... now for the story about the subject line. I'll be honest, I lied, a little. I was actually the one that ran into the car. I was coming home from the store with my companion and we were going down a hill. I had a big heavy bag on my handlebars so I was going pretty slow while my companion zoomed down the street. Well... apparently I wasn't going slow enough and when the car pulled out in front of me  I couldn't stop on time. I hit his hood and landed on top!! It was pretty great! As you can see in the pictures below, there is a little dent in the car. He was pretty upset, and I didn't speak Hungarian. So I told him our phone number, cause my comp had kept going and had still not come back (even though our house was just around the corner like a hundred yards from where I was at), and my comp didn't answer. So we sat there for like 5 minutes waiting for him to come back. Evidently he doesn't love me very much. He never came. So I asked the man if we could go to my apartment and find my companion. He agreed and we got the whole situation resolved. Actually, we called the mission president and he got it resolved. I am all well and fine, no bruises or anything! And I have a really cool story to tell people now!!

 

At the store I bought some fruit syrup so  I could put it in my drink. That is the super cool looking bottle!!

 

The picture of the gate is a super cute dog which also had words under it that said it was a biting dog!! Well, we weren't very scared.

 

So while on the splits we ordered pizza. I ordered "The first date" which means the cook makes whatever pizza he wants and gives it to you. Mine was great (It is the light cheesebased one)! I can't say as much for Elder Fritzgerald. He got the other one with the egg cracked in it... it looked alright, except for where the egg and onion mixed. When that happened it looked all moldy and nasty!

 

Well.... I think thats all for now folks!

Sok szeretettel,

Elder Biesinger