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

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.

November 28: I Am Going Vegetarian

Hi everyone!

Ignore the subject line, I would die if I did that. But... the reason for the title is that on the only meal that you really have to have some kind of meat... I didn't. We had a district meeting on Thanksgiving (just coincidence) and so everyone brought some food. One person brought mashed potatoes, another orange loaf, another apple crumb bread, another cheap Spar (a small cheap store here) rolls (don't ever do that). My companion brought Banana bread and I brought a couple pies and some stuffing. In all.... Besides that apples in the pie and the potatoes we only had flavored bread for THANKSGIVING. Good thing that holiday isn't just about the food! We had a good discussion on what we were thankful for. A lot of it was things about America and sports... Actually, it was family and friends...

Luckily we got invited to go to the NATO base here in Pápa by an inactive American family. So we got all the papers signed and we were permitted to go onto the base. If you were to picture a communistic base, this would be it!! But he zoomed us around the base and was able to take us up to the HUGE plane that he flies on. It was super cool. 

We had a great time that night! I don't think there was a single person speaking Hungarian there except for the Hungarian ambassador. We had super good food and MEAT!! Being vegetarian is definitely not a bad thing, I just like meat and I like it on Thanksgiving day. I inhaled one huge plate and finished of one of the American families kids plate (It was in a cafeteria type of thing and so we would have to wait in lines to get our food). We left  the party with two extra pies in our possession that the Mother of the family got for us! When we got back we received three heaping bags of goodies from the American family who had gone to an American base in Italy and had shopped at an American goods store there. It din't have everything but it had some amazing treats in it!!!

Last Tuesday we had splits with the Elders from Győr. It was super fun. The Elder that I was with this time was one of the best Hungarian speakers to have been in the mission for a while. He was almost a native (that is what the natives said). He didn't have an accent and he had amazing word order! I have found my goal!

So some people have been asking me about my schedule.

6:30- wake up and exercise 

7-8 - B-fast and getting ready

8.- personal study,

9- companionship study

10- go out and tract or street (find)

12-lunch

1- Find

5-6 -dinner

6- finding 

8- language study

9- nightly planning and relax until lights out at 10:30   

That is my schedule with fluctuation in the finding hours. That is when we travel and teach lessons. It is a blast! Sometimes we have to tract at 8 instead and people are not happy. Cause guess what?' Hungarians all go to sleep at 7... Isn't that interesting. Not really!! It is super weird and annoying!! Silly Hungarians. It doesn't help missionaries very much that it gets dark at like 5:30 here now.

Well... I don't think we did much else this week! We are missing American Football and Christmas music. We don't have anything to play it on so we celebrate this new season in silence!

Well... I wish you all well in your various endeavors!!

Elder Biesinger