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!

August 29, 2016: "Warning!! Spiritual email about families!! No funny stories!"

SO I have been reading a whole bunch of Liahonas and the standard works lately. I just finished "our heritage" last week and this thought comes from page 123 paragraph two (I think).

"It talks about families. He (one of the prophets) says that they are 'the surest defense against evil'. Those are some pretty powerful words. SO often in our days we are shown that friends are everything. We confide in friends, we rant with friends, when we fight with our parents then we turn to our friends and rant again trying to gain sympathy and support. Friends are amazing, I wouldn't be where I am at without friends, but we need families more! The truth is, friends can come and go. I have had friends with whom I thought that we would be friends forever! But it didn't happen, we chose different paths and went different ways. That doesn't make them bad people, it is that diversity in the human race that can make life so wonderful. So, friends may come and go, but where can we turn to for the most sure place to find love. Families. Families are always there for us, ALWAYS!  we may want to move on and forget our life, but we will come to find that, unlike friends, families are so hard to forget and leave. There is always some tie to them for the rest of our lives. 

Like I said before, I love friends. People should seek for friends to have fun with and do appropriate things with. But for people I have met it has turned into a craz and they have slowly put family on the back burner and given them their bad side after talking and being with friends. In a world that is under appreciating families and over appreciating friends it is so important to heed to the prophets voice. I am willing to bet that God spent a lot more time trying to figure out who he would put in your family, then he did deciding all of the people he could surround you with as peers.

My challenge to all of you is this. Next time you have a friends outing (hanging out, movie, texting them, calling them) stay home and put the phone away. Spend that time truly being with your family and trying to build your relationship with them. You are with them forever make them your friends. It may be super hard. It definitely was when I was trying to get along better with my family. But it is completely worth it. I love all of my siblings so much and they have become my best friends! "One of the greatest blessings that God has given us is the family" (Preach my Gospel). I have read all of Preach my Gospel (with the exception of a couple pages) and not once have I seen "One of the greatest blessings God has given us is friends". Please look at yourself, then look at your family. Are you at a place where you are willing to live that way forever with them? If not, I encourage you to get to that point ASAP!!

Love you all! I hope you all have a fabulous week! 

Elder Biesinger