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 21: Kispest and giving birth... err... I mean bread.

Hi everyone!

So this week has been pretty normal, until today.

We had cleaning checks this week. If you are familiar with missionary work and cleaning inspections you will know how much dread it brings. At least for Elders. Sisters are "perfect" and so they probably don't worry. Well, the cleaning inspection was scheduled for Saturday so we were going to use all of our free time to clean and use our companionship study time to also clean. About 12 in the afternoon on Friday the senior couple calls and says that it would work better for them to do it in an hour. They asked if that would be ok, and being the awesome missionaries that want to accommodate everyone, we said yes. That led to a furious running around the apartment cleaning furiously. When they got there everywhere was clean and we passed with flying colors! They even decided to take us out to lunch. The  senior male was very picky with his food and made us take him to the nicest restaurant in Pápa. We went there and had some super good food and a great time! I would be willing to do that again any day.

Today we got our transfer calls. I am leaving Pápa, after being here for about 6 months, and I will be going to Kispest. A large area of Budapest, the capitol.

Today we were walking down the street and we saw this gruff homeless looking man come out of a bakery with a bag of rolls. I recognized the man from when we talked to him on the street. He had told us that he loved Jesus and that we always prayed. He said that he respected us and loved what we were doing. He was a little tipsy so I thought that he was just being weird. Well.... back to current time. He walks out of the bakery, immediately turns to a small group of homeless people and gives them the rolls, without taking any for himself. When he started walking towards us he saw us and did a cute little victory dance. We had a really good talk about how he finds joy in serving others, even though he doesn't have any food or money for himself. His source of happiness is through Christ. 

I thought that this was really cool. We can get tons of money and tons of worldly possessions, but without Christ we can't be truly happy. Even though this man didn't believe in some of the same things we did, he was trying and he was a very happy man and would frequently praise God all through out the conversation. That was a really cool thing that happened this week to us, and a good send of for me! 

We had a fun discussion this week with an investigators who didn't understand why we didn't have girlfriends and why we don't date and "hire" girls. It turned out really cool when we talked about it being special and our member talking about eternal families. We left her (our investigator)  with some things to think about and we hope that it will do her some good!

Well... I think that was it this week. I only have one picture and it is of my dead shoe. My favorite pair finally died, but I have a couple other pairs so it is all good. These are just the first ones worn to this point of death.

That's all for today folks. Tune in next week for more!

Elder Biesinger

P.S. I found some other pictures. I found a street called cocaine here in Hungary (that is what is pretty much sounds like in Hungarian) and then I took a picture (kind of fuzzy) of my cute little city while we were in a small falú (village) tracting.

View from Apartment

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

December 5: First one down, 10 more to go!!

Hi everyone!

I apologize now for all of my spelling errors. The computer is being disfunctional and says that every English word I type is wrong. So I will not be able to notice unless, I look at every word, if I made an error. 

Reason for the subject line. Every transfer we have interviews with the Mission President. For first and second transfers he starts in Hungarian but when they stop understanding he just switches into English for the rest of the interview. Well....... I had my second interview COMPLETELY in Hungarian. I didn't catch what he said sometimes and when I asked him to repeat it he repeated it in Hungarian, not English, and I was able to do all of the interview in a foreign language! I felt so happy afterwards! But the only downside is that we have a lot of new missionaries coming in, and not very many leaving. We are now an extremely young mission with well over half of the missionaries being in Hungary for less than a year. Since the more experience missionaries are needed to fill the leadership roles, if you are able to survive with the Hungarian you know, you will be training in the next group! So all of you need to pray for me not to train next transfer!!! Just kidding. Don't do that!! It would probably turn out worse and things would get messy!

Thursday night we had pancakes with the American family for dinner. They were super unhealthy and incredibly good!! And the scariest things is, is that she was planning on making dessert to, but she ran out of eggs!! Phew, dodged that 50-days-worth-of-fat-burning-exercise bullet! But it was super yummy. They are a fun family, just really inactive and sometimes, sadly, kind of lazy about living the gospel. Oh well... We can only try!!

On Tuesday we had splits with Tatabanya in Pápa. I went with first transfer missionary. It was really good! We only got kicked out of one building... well... we weren't even in the building. We were ringing the bells and the man came down adn said that no one was interested in the building. I told him that our message was very important and we would like to continue ringing the bells trying to talk to people, just to make sure. Well... He didn't like that and told us to get out of there. So we left... for 5 minutes. And then we came back and finished the building! We had a great time! 

Well... That was our week in a short email!! I will be sending pictures next week that are now on my companions camera that he forgot to bring!!

Love you all!!

Elder Biesinger

1:So we didn't get a lot of pies... So I needed to make the most out of the pie I did eat

2:Went falu blasting. that is where you go into a village and just tract there all day cause you will never go back because it takes so much time, unless you find someone to teach. This was just a pretty sunset that we saw

3-4:This is a puzzle that I have been working on for a little over two weeks. I have only used the free time that I have, so no one freak out cause it seems like I am not doing missionary work! I promise it was all between 9:30 and 10:30 at night! Very exhausting and VERY annoying. There are 12 missing pieces. And when I was finished with this one and was looking at another one I was startled to find 4 of the missing pieces in a different puzzle! I was very upset with the missionary who did it!! But it was pretty funny and brilliant how he did it!

November 22: Crazy Week

Hi everyone!

This week has been kind of crazy. We had a training in Budapest on Tuesday so we had to tract at 8 in the morning so we could get everything done because of how late we would be getting home. Luckily no one was getting mad at us and we were able to talk to a couple people. 

Thursday we had splits in another city called "Tatabánya". I was companions with a new missionary (we don't call them greenies anymore). It went better than I thought it would. We were able to talk to people and I was able to understand most of what they were saying and I could speak back to them. But it was a stressful couple days because neither of us spoke Hungarian! 

We had 5 member presents this week. That means that we had 5 meetings with an investigator and that a member was there. In Pápa we usually get 1 or 2. This week has been insane with work!! 

On Sunday we had district conference (because we are not in a stake). We left at 7 and got back at 5. Long day! But I really enjoy those kinds of days!

My companion and I have been cooking a lot more. This week we made Egg strada/ breakfast strada. It turned out AMAZING!! It was super good. But this upcoming week we are going to be filling all of our free time up with cooking, cause it is thanksgiving and we are having a district meeting feast because it is scheduled on the same day!! Should be super good! There is also a NATO base in Pápa (weird, I know!) and there is a American family that are members , so we got invited to go to the celebration for a little while on Friday. They will be having real american things shipped in so we can have a taste of home... Kind of.

This morning my comp and I were throwing a Frisbee in the alley by our apartment. The Frisbee accidentally got stuck on top of a ledge. I offered to let my comp stand on my shoulders and just grab it, but he didn't want to "break my back" and so he taped some stuff together and tried to get it down. After a while it finally worked. But I got some good pictures and a fun video showing what he did!

Pictures: cool Hungarian embroidery, The picture of a family we are teaching (father is strong catholic, son wants to be baptized but wants to have his fathers blessing, mother is a member), one of the nénis we teach binds books and she is working on this bible that was printed in 1918... that is a little older than me!!

Well... Besides getting a haircut I think that that is all that I did this week!!

Good luck everyone with everything in your lives!!