December 19: Drunk lessons (Out of order...just found it as a draft)

Hi Everyone,

So this week has been great! I have had so much fun with my new missionary! His name is Elder Cushing and he is from Kansas. He has also been going to west point for the past 2 years! He is super cool and we are having a good time so far. I have been able to get us out of all of the situations we have gotten into, so that is a good sign. 

This week we were tracting at like 8 at night (not a good idea in Hungary, but we had to do it) and we got let in by an old man and his mom. The man was drunk and his mom was a very strong religious person. While the man and I were speed talking back and forth and repeating things over and over again (cause he was drunk) the old lady was talking to my companion about her bible and how beautiful it was and stuff. So during this time I was trying to talk to this old man, and keep an ear on what the lady was saying just in case she asked something. It started getting crazier and crazier to talk and so I resorted to offering a book of Mormon, switching numbers, and getting out of there as fast as we could! It was such a fun experience, especially because it was the first let in for my new missionary. 

The night before transfers we had some time and so at 8:30 we went to this park (this was still with my old companion) and we climbed some trees in the darkness. It was pretty great. We got some fun pictures (which are on his camera and so I will send later).

The first one is a picture of my comp and I before we went climbing trees. This explains him pretty well!

Second is just him.

The rest are when my new missionary and I met for the first time!

I think that is everything. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Elder Biesinger

February 27: Crazy nénis are everywhere

Hi everyone.

So like I said last week, there was a transfer and I am now in Kispest. It is a lot bigger than Pápa. The ward is 4 times bigger on a bad day than Pápa on a good day. 

Um... nothing has really happened. My companion is from the same group as me and we are excited to work together. Our district area includes downtown Budapest and about half of the pest side of Budapest, so every P-day we can go see a lot of cool things. Today we are going to see  "The museum of Terror". It sounds pretty interesting.

We have the coolest ward ever. 3/4 of the people speak almost fluent English, but it is super nice cause most of them said that they wouldn't speak english to us unless we truly didn't understand something. It will be good practice. 

There is a young woman that comes to english class every week and is just now starting to take lessons. She has come to church two weeks in a row, and that is before she even recieved a lesson. She loves it and is excited to take the lessons.

There is a lady that we have been trying to meet with for some time. She called us one night and started talking about random things. When she would say something my companion would say "ok ok ok" just to show that he understood and was following her, but after a while she just blew up and was lik "what is ok? Why do you keep saying ok, it is not ok!!". Well... He explained to her that he was american and he wouldn't do it anymore. We think she was drunk because she would just randomly start laughing and then right after she would break down sobbing. It was a very weird phone call she kept saying she was trying to find the good God and happiniess, which we told her we could help with. We had to go somewhere so we told her we would call her later and ended the conversation. She called back like 2 hours later (still drunk) and told us she figure it all out. She now believes in animals. She said "there is no God, it is all animals". Interesting opinion. She then continued to sing a song and then laugh, and cry, and laugh and cry. It was a very weird interaction. She ended up hangin up on us, but that was after she said we could call back. Well... we called back the next day and she was not drunk. We hada good little talk and we are meeting her next Sunday. 

So a quick update. We now have 2 hours to email. Before, when we had 30 minutes less, I would run out of things to do. So know you all can feel free to email me because I have plenty of time to do everything!! Thank you everyone for the emails that you do send, and for your prayers, the truly do help.

Have an amazing week everyone!!!

Elder Biesinger

P.S. I didn't get any pictures this week because it was crazy. Maybe next week!! 

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!

October 10: méhekének and elder néni

Szervusztok,

So, explanation... When people struggle with my name (because in Hungary every letter has a sound that is made so the "Bie" in my name is weird) he tells them that my name is "mehekenek" which is one translation meaning "Bee singer" in Hungarian. So before I explain the other title of honor I will explain some culture. In Hungary you call the older ladies "Néni" and the older men "Bácsi". A young boy in our ward (funnies kid EVER!) calls me "Elder Néni", I have no idea why... And he calls my companion "Elder Bácsi".

Speaking of Nénis.... There was one that we met yesterday that would put the dirtiest mouth in America! She said every swear word in every different way. She was a super sweet lady, but her mouth was a very very..... Yeah... I'm not sure how to describe it. I am also convinced that if all of the youth were to leave, and young adults, and Hungary was invaded, the invading army would be destroyed by a couple of these Hungarian Nénis!! The are 89 years old and they will be riding their bikes around, raking HUGE piles of foliage with their rakes in their gardens. It is ridiculous how tough these ladies are. We were at the store today and I saw a lady with, like, a 24 pack of beer in her hand. She was like a million years old!! Crazy people here in Pápa!

There is a cool missionary here from Switzerland who speaks perfect English and has a lot of pride for hsi hari . He was in the army and drives tanks. He was bantering back and forth with Elder Szuch (who has a six-pack) and said "If a girl would walk through the door all she would see was a man in a white shirt starting to bald (Elder Szuch) and then she would see a similarly dressed man with gorgeous hair Elder Römer). She wouldn't even think twice about your hidden six-pack!" Flawless logic! Who needs a six-pack when you have hair!

This transfer I have been taking apart a mechanism in my suitcase because it broke on the way here. I bought some super glue to fix some of the plastic pieces. When I was trying to open the glue (it had glued the cap on) it burst open and I got super super glue all over my hands! It was great! I had to hurry and rip my fingers and hands apart and wait till the glue dried! Super fun.

After district meeting and during our lunch our in Tatabánya we went to a cultural competition that one of the Branch members from Tatabánya was in. It was like folk dancing and stuff like that and they would compete! I am kind of embarrassed to say that I would hands down rather learn, and watch, this rather than Ballroom and Cabaret. It was incredible to watch!! Just how coordinated they were and how they made craziness look orderly was amazing!

So... Sad moment from this week. We were looking up a less active and we got into their house and all they did was talk about how much they hated the church. So many of their reasons were dumb! You could tell that the members involved were trying to help them feel included, and the less active members chose to become bitter and hate because of it. They gave us a paper requesting that their names be removed and we left. I haven't felt worse after an event in my life than that one. I seriously felt sick to my stomach after feeling the hate in that house. But oh well... Sad stuff happen! I am truly glad that I was brought up in the church and I have been able to see the difference of happiness between those who keep God's commandments and those who choose to deliberately fight them. It is crazy the difference! 

So the first picture is a road we walked down to see if there were any houses. There weren't. But it was a super cool road. And it was raining a lot and wet!

Second is my companion and I with my second cone in Hungary. And guess what? It was absolutely FREEZING outside and raining and we couldn't find anyone to talk to. The girl at the ice cream place was sitting in the back and she didn't see us come, and when she saw us she started laughing because "Who the heck gets ice cream in freezing weather?". Well... Mormon Elders do! They aren't the most normal of people!

Third picture. Only stoplight in Pápa.

Fourth. I have been trying to learn more words, so if we are talking for a while to somebody and I see something that I want to know the word for, I ask. We were talking to a man with a great beard and mustache. I asked him how to say it. He drew a picture for me and everything! If you can't tell what it is, it is a man with a beard and a curly mustache! Super awesome

Fifth. It is the friend issue from the month I was born! April 1998! We found several boxes in the branch house full of English Ensigns! Super awesome, a true treasure trove for missionaries

Sixth and Seventh. We moved this much wood from the front to the back in 50 minutes! In the last picture my companion helps you see how big it is! I was pretty impressed with our massive moving skills!

Well... Sorry for the huge email! 

If ny of you have a favorite recipe, feel free to send it over! I am trying to broaden my horizons. I will not tell you my diet last week for fear that my mother will come over here and give me a spanking :D!

I hope you all are well and healthy! If not.... I pray that you will be! Love you all!!

Elder Biesigner

October 3: Spicy Bulls

​Sziasztok,

This week has been full of.... Hmmm. Nothing much. We had Zone training and I got a cool new coat. At the Zone training we had a cop come and talk about bike safety and Hungarian bike laws! Guess who was the reason they had him come? It was because of my companion and I! We left the Zone conference at about 4 and got home at 9:45! I love traveling to my cute little city! 

This week we had splits with the Zone leaders and I got one who is the most fluent person I have met who didn't have experience before with Hungarian. He sounded like a native and people thought he was. While we were on the street talking to people we got some super hot peppers from an old man (My real companion is eating one of them in the video below). Oh. At the end of the video he was like "it wasn't that bad". Five minutes later the real heat kicked in and he was frantically making chocolate milk to cool down his mouth and throat! Guess you shouldn't eat peppers that old men call "The Bull!"

This week we went to go billiards finding and we talked to a man and he said that he would come to General Conference this week. He came to a session and said that we could meet with him this week and that he would come to church with us next week! Super cool!

Well... I think that is all for this week! Hope all of you have a great week!

Elder Biesinger

P.S. BYU WON THIS WEEK!!!!

P.P.S. The ginger ale tastes like soap and I found some Mountain Dew! Although, I don't drink soda anymore :S

Sept. 19: Chanting and special Néni powers...

Hi everyone!

So this week had some fun things happen! My companion has not been struck with the wrath of God yet so I can't complain. 

So this week we had to go to a government office in Győr (about an hour away) to get a residency permit for me so I wouldn't get kicked out of country... Well... We went there and we waited for about an hour in line, and we got in and the lady was starting to stamp papers and she stopped and was like "which county is Pápa in" and her partner was like "I think it is in Veszrém"... Well, it is! and since, evidently, not all government offices in Hungary are the same, now we have to go to Veszprém which is about two hours away and we have to go into Győr to get onto a train going to Vesyprém! So HUGE waste of a day :S

We found a lady who let us come back this week and is now a new investigator! The first time we talked to her through her gate she told us that she prayed a lot to the heavens and she said a prayer for us. It went something like this "tettetettetettetetetteamatetetememmamtetet" I swear she only used t's, m's, a's and e's. As far as I am aware there aren't those kinds of words in Hungarian, but I could be wrong! We went to her house several days later and a little into our conversation she informed us that she is a spiritual healer and she has powers to heal people physically. She told us how there was a man that was injured and he didn't believe that she could heal him, but she did her chant and "healed" him. Interesting.... And the she made us, like, hold out our hands, kind of like holding a big invisible bowl in front of you, and then she started chanting/praying and asked if we could feel her power that she was sending us... We weren't sure what we were supposed to feel, she told us  that it was a warm feeling. I guess our next lesson is on the Holy Ghost and how it manifests itself!

On Saturday we served a member of our branch. We picked up firewood for a couple hours and then had lunch, which I guess is a big meal here. We had soup, stuffed cabbage, and then some chicken and mashed potatoes. I almost died on the spot from overdose in food! After we left her house we went to teach a youngman some english then went to another members house to do service (about an hour after our lunch hour). When we got to his house he informed us that we were switching up the schedule and eating before we worked. We had lunch again and I was praying very, very, fervently that I would have room in my stomach to eat so that I didn't offend anyone. I was able to eat a decent amount and not die!! God works miracles! And luckily we were just picking up potatoes. The week before this we had helped him and he had given us like 20 pounds of potatoes. At first we weren't sure what to do iwth them. But all that changed yesterday when I made a trial batch of french fries. We are now going to experiment wit those potatoes and make them all into different kinds of fries to see what is the best! This will be a very unhealthy week!

So one video is an object lesson that I kind of came up with. I am sure someone has done it before but I have never seen it and so I will stake my claim! Both of the elders have their eyes closed and one of them is feeding the other one. The graphics weren't that great so I din't get very much of it. But it represents missionary work without the Holy Ghost!

The other video is of the rain storm that happened while we were picking potatoes. It was super crazy and the power went out several times during the storm. It was insane!

Picture are of places we have tracted and of our long walk from last week, since I didn't have my camera when I was emailing. 

Well... I think that that is all for this week!! I hope everyone's week goes well!

Elder Biesinger

Not for the faint at heart

Classic Hungarian shot

(Sigh...I miss this place)

There is a song that goes with this..."soka golum, soka sar" (lots of pigeons, lots of poo)

This reminds of the street our family lived on in Hungary

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