March 12: Thanksgiving in March

Hey everyone! 

So this week has been really good. Tuesday, after we emailed, we were able to make all of our appointments. The first one was with our part member family. They asked us to give a priesthood blessing to their little daughter who they think suffers from trauma and really struggles with sleeping. It was a really cool. 

After that we ran over to our next appointment where the man fed us 5 different courses. 2 soups, 2 main courses, and dessert. That isn't including the 3 different salads on the side. It seriously was the thanksgiving of March. It was all really good food as well. One thing I love about Hungary is that the people, once you get to know them, are so welcoming and love to stuff people.

Besides these things the week has been pretty normal. We went up to Budapest for transfers and it was really good! Last week there was still snow on the ground but luckily it warmed up a lot and so now we have beautiful weather and are walking around in suit coats! It has been really nice! 

On Saturday we went and played soccer for a while. It was really fun! Both my companion and I are really sore since then. It has been a party! 

I think that is pretty much all the crazy things from this week! 

I hope you all have an amazing week. Sorry for the short email :)

Biesinger elder 

February 26: Flour is not my medium of choice

Hello everyone! 

So this week was pretty grand! On Tuesday we met with a part-member family. I think that I have talked about them before. The father was a less active member that we decided to start working with and try to help him out. We started teaching his future wife and she has really enjoyed the lesson. Last Tuesday we asked her to be baptized and she accepted! Super awesome! She is going to be baptized March 31 and we are working on helping her husband get ready to baptize her! 

On Wednesday we went to Kecskemét and had some fun splits. In their district they do a weekly photo competition where they have a topic and then they have to take a picture that week and at the end they compare the pictures. This week it was on flowers and so we made a flower in some flour. He roughly outlined a flower but then I had to make it a little more detailed. After the picture was taken we couldn't waste all of the flour.... so we played the flour game. What you do is you compact the flour into a cup and then flip it upside-down and so it is kind of like a sandcaste tower. Then you stick a coin in the top and you take turns cutting the sides of the tower off with a knife. The person who makes the cut when the tower falls over has to get the coin, that fell into the pile of flour, with just their mouth. It is a silly, simple game. 

I think that that is pretty much everything from this week.... Talked to interesting people who believed in demons and stuff. That was an interesting conversation. But yep. All part of missionary life! 

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the pictures! All from splits and stuff! 

Sok szeretettel:

Biesinger elder 

February 19: Threw up again

Hey everyone,

So I recently reflected back on my mission and realized something that is unusual. I have thrown up 3 times on my mission but never once because I was sick... Interesting record huh? The first two times were when I was in Veszprém the land of dreams, and I did the milk challenge twice. The 3 time was this last week when I went on splits and I was with an elder who really likes to exercise and is really good at it. So I told him to prepare something hard and I would do it. So we got up a little early and started to exercise. An hour later I had just finished doing a pretty difficult task when my stomach started hurting really bad... I tried to do the next exercise but my insides started doing some weird things. Ran over to the sink and yeah..... threw up. Well... after someone throws up they always, usually, feel a lot better, so I went back and did the remaining 30 minutes of the workout! It was pretty great! I was only sore for the next 5 days!!! Party. 

This week we met with some really cool people. One of the families that we meet with is a part-member family. The father is a less active member who we looked up. He has had 3 other marriages and is now living with his girlfriend and her children. We looked them up a couple weeks ago and since then they have been coming back to church, bringing their children, and last week they told us that they are getting married next month!! The girlfriend was really excited and told us that one of the main reason they are getting married is so he can worthily use his priesthood again! Really cool! 

Last Monday after we emailed we went to a family night that we organized for our investigator and she cancelled last minute and so we just went and hung out with members! It was pretty fun. 

On Friday we went to a falú called kiskunderozsma. A little information before I continue on with the story. In hungary they right their 1's exactly like that 1. So it isn't just a straight down line but it has a little hook thing on the top. So in Hungary you  have to cross all of your 7's  so that it won't get confused with the 1s. Well... my companion is determined not to pick up that habit on his mission so when he wrote down the address he wrote down 37 when it really was a hungarian written 31. So we travel forever to get to the place, the street doesn't even have a 37, and we do a little tracting and then go home. We get back and then my companion realizes that he is in Hungary and he needs to do numbers differently! Well.... silly companion. 

On Saturday we went and played soccer with a group. One of them is a member and a couple have been investigators! It was really fun. They all have really really dirty mouths, besides the member, but it was still super fun! 

My companion bought some trout from the store last week and decided to cook it up. We didn't have plates that were big enough for the trout so we used some palacsinta pans! It was really good! 

It was also valentines day this week. One of the sisters in our district described it as a slap-in-the-face day for missionaries. We got some heart stationary from a sister and wrote a love letter to one of the members. He loved it! 

I think that is all that happened this week! I hope you all had an amazing week!! 

Sok szeretettel:

Biesinger elder 

P.S. there is also another interesting Hungarian thing. When they start their letters they don't use a comma like we do "dear so and so," but they use and exclamation mark "dear so and so!". and then at the end they don't do a comma again, but rather a ":" mark "sok szeretettel:". I am not sure if that is 100% all the time but a lot of them do it! Interesting little quirks!​

February 12: Farsang party!!

Hi everyone! 

So this week wasn't super eventful. Wednesday we had a quick split with some elders in Szolnok. That went really well. One of the elders is sick and so my companion and he stayed in the apartment the whole time while the other one and I worked. It was a lot of fun. We joined the for district meeting the next day. For lunch we ordered two pizzas, one was 28 centimeters and the other one was 50. This was for 6 missionaries. Well.... an Austrailian ordered the pizza and I guess the people didn't understand him because of his accent (poor guy) and so the pizza was delivered and it was two 28 centimeter pizzas! Cute little tiny ones. It was a party.

On Saturday the branch here had a farsang buli. It is similar to the American halloween. They dress up and have donuts and stuff, but I think the point to it is, is that they are scaring winter away or something like that. It was a lot of fun! Had some fun games and contests! We did some dance lessons (a group came and taught us). It was a line dance but most of the steps were a western variation of cha-cha steps which brought back really interesting memories of dancing! Just 6-ish more months and I can dance again! 

Yesterday we went over to a members house named Magda György and Magda Agnes. My dad confirmed György which György proudly tells everyone (much to my chagrin). But it was really fun. They are an amazing family and super strong in their faith! It was a lot of fun to be there, and the food they gave us was really yummy!

Today before we emailed we went to an escape room here in Szeged. It was a little bit easier than the one that we did  in Kispest but it was still really fun! There were a bunch of good puzzles but none of them were crazy hard. We had 60 minutes to do it and we ended with 20 left. The man said that we were probably the fastest group to have ever have done it without asking for help! After we did that we went and had some Thai icecream that was really good....

I think that that is about all that happened this week. Oh, one other thing. Yesterday was the first Sunday this transfer that we didn't have pancake sunday.... Oh well. But yep! That was the week. My companion took some good pictures and so I am stealing them and adding them to this email! 

Have an amazing week!!! 

Biesinger elder   

So these are just some pictures of the party! As are the ones from the other email!

one of these is the delicious Hortobágyi Palacsinta dish that a member made! Suuuuper good.  

January 22: Why I Hate Dogs

Hello everyone! 

So last week was pretty good. I have expanded my list on why I dislike dogs. I loved dogs before my mission but during it my feelings have flipped. Up till now it has been because we would have to stand at a gate for a while waiting for the person to answer the door and while we are waiting there is a dog that wants to kill us on the other side of the gate that wants to kills us. I swear that dogs have a missionary sensor built in. Because when other people walk by some of these dogs, the dog just sits there and doesn't do anything, but as we walk by they start going insane trying to break down the fence and eat us. Another reason why, that I discovered more this last week, is because people always dog us. We had soooo many lessons planned for this week, but we would walk up to the doors and 1) no one would answer or 2) someone would answer and say that the person we were looking for isn't home and that they don't want to listen to us. Then we would just go out and start tracting!!! Yipeee! But it is good. I am enjoying my time here in Szeged immensely. The members are nice, the people are mostly rendes! 

We met with one of our investigators that is living with her boyfriend and not keeping the Law of Chastity and stuff and the missionaries have been trying to get her to get married for a long time. She has been with her partner for 11 years!!! The lesson went well. We talked a lot about it with her and she agreed that by the end of February she would talk with her partner and pick out a marriage date! Little by little she is getting closer. She really wants to be baptized and she is keeping all of the other commandments and stuff, just this one.... 

Yesterday on our way back from tracting there was a man that was waiting for the same busz as us. We quickly learned that he wasn't completely there mentally. He started talking to us and learned that we were from America. He also saw my companions scarf and that had his city's name on it. I guess he wanted a souvenir or something so we told my companion that we had to go with him so that he could grab a scarf from his apartment and trade it. My companion wasn't very willing and didn't really want to give it. We got on the busz with the man and he sat next to use and told us that he had a really good scarf. As we were riding another man got on that new man #1 and man #1 asked man #2 where he was going. Man #2 said that he was going to go get a beer. Man #1 got really excited and jumped out of his seat and, much to the chagrin of Man #2, went with man #2 and sat by him. I guess we can learn from this is that we should appreciate the small miracles in life. We were able to keep my companions scarf and not offend anyone! 

I think that is everything for this week! I didn't take many pictures but there might be some next week!! 

Sok Szeretettel:

Biesinger elder   

This was just us last week at a big church here. They didn't turn out very well. 

And the pizza is a 60 centimeter pizza that my companion and I were crazy and bought. It was pretty good. I could barely eat 2 slices.... 

February 5: Goldfish challenge ismét!

Hello everyone! 

So as many of you probably remember, about a year ago I was peer pressured into swallowing a live goldfish in celebration of my fathers 145th birthday. Well... on of the missionaries that I have been going on splits with, heard about that and also wanted to give it a try. So on Wednesday I was on splits with him here in Szeged. While we were walking around we stumbled upon a littel pet store. We went in and bought two goldfish. I am sure that if the woman, selling us the fish, knew what we were going to do with the fish she wouldn't have sold them to us. Well.... we got back to our apartment and I realized that we were going to also get my companion a fish and make him do the challenge. Well we forgot to do that so I sacrificed my fish and let him do it. It took quiet a while for him to end up doing it. I will be sending another email with the video in it. 

Well.... besides that on Friday we went up to Zone Training where my companion and I instructed our zone and listened to some trainings from our mission president. It was really good. After the training we went on splits with the assistants. It was a lot of fun. The missionary that I was with is really intense and I was able to learn a lot from him! 

It started snowing a little bit in Hungary, but Szeged is known as the "Sunshine city" so the snow never sticks! But that makes it a lot easier to play sports and stuff so that is an upside! 

We didn't do much else this last week. On Monday we had a pancake party at a members house and that was a lot of fun. My companion and I usually have "Palacsinta Sunday". It is a party. We make a bunch of american pancakes and see who can eat the most before we need to start calling the district leaders in our zone. Pretty fun tradition! 

I hope you all have an amazing week! Thank you all so much for the various updates!! 

Biesinger elder 

Enjoy the pictures!! You probably won't be getting very many more :) 

January 29: Fun week with the uke

Hello everyone! 

This week was pretty awesome. On Monday we were able to go to a members house and have a pancake party and stuff. He made us some madár tej which directly translated means bird milk. It is pretty similar to egg nog in America but more of a vanilla pudding taste. The member said that it is called "floating islands" in America. I have never heard of that before but I guess that is what it is called in english. But it was really fun. We played "Sorry". Which after much backstabbing and fighting I emerged victorious! 

On Tuesday we went over to a members house for lunch and then later in the evening we had another appointment with a less active member. It was a party. The weather recently has been really weird. It usually snows in the really early mornings so when we wake up there is snow, but in the afternoon it rains and melts all of the snow and then the wind blows really hard and dries everythings and it all repeats the next morning. It happened, like, 3 days in a row this week. 

Wednesday we went up to Budapest to have a leadership meeting. It was originally planned to be held from 10-1 and then we would go home. Well... because of people always bringing up very unlikely hypothetical situations and asking for how to solve them we ended up going 2 1/2 hours over! It was such a long meeting! 

Thursday we didn't do much. The sisters were in charge of district meeting because my companion thought it would be fun to see what happened. We ended up doing about 10 minutes of spiritual things and then they had us do a personality test.... I guess I am a "Defender" according to the 16 personalities test. It was an interesting meeting. 

Friday we went up to Szolnok and had a split over there. My split companion was sick so I stayed inside the whole time and became a pro with the uke. I can jam out to "Lava". It was quiet interesting. 

I think that is pretty much everything interesting that happened this week. I hope all of you had an equally amazing week!! 

Biesinger elder