Boldog Új Évet!

Boldog Új Évet!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! I did! It was really difficult to do missionary work though. Everyone was busy and so no one could meet with us. But on Monday we were able to find a really cool family while tracting and we had a really good program with them. So hopefully we'll be able to meet with them more!

Standing at the edge of frozen Lake Balaton.

On Christmas day, my companion and I drove down to the Balaton! (Lake Balaton is the largest lake in central Europe and a major tourist destination in Hungary.) It was freezing! Literally. The wind was soooo strong and the lake was almost completely frozen over. It was a fun experience.

Happy New Year!

~Anderson elder

Boldog Karácsonyt!

Helló!

I don’t have much time to write today. My new companion is Elder Austin and he is from Mississippi. He’s way cool and we get along really well. Everything is going great here in Hungary! I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Boldog Karácsonyt!

~Anderson elder

Another Transfer

Sziasztok!

Well, transfer calls came this week! This transfer was a week shorter than usual so that the missionaries who are leaving Hungary wouldn’t have to travel during the crazy Christmas week. It is going to be really weird to see four of the missionaries from my Missionary Training Center (MTC) group go home on Wednesday. The way MTC assignments and transfers in the field work is that missionaries can choose to stay in the country for 15 transfers for a mission total of 101 weeks (three weeks short of a full two years) or 16 transfers in the field for a total of 107 weeks (two years plus three weeks). Four of the missionaries in my MTC group chose to serve for 15 transfers and one other Elder and I chose to serve for 16 transfers. More than half of my group is going to die (missionary slang for completing their service) in two days! That will really be weird.

I’m going to be training again! That’ll be exciting. On Wednesday I'll find out who I will be serving with.

Things are going well, but the work is still difficult. After handing out almost 3.000 – in Hungary, commas and periods are switched – fliers only about six new people came to our English class! We really need to figure out a better way to advertise. And as soon as we do we’ll be able to have a lot more success!

~Anderson elder

Mikulás

Helló!

Last week was awesome! It snowed a few inches and that was great! The snow made driving a little interesting and REALLY slow, but even that was okay.

My companion and I are trying to get more people into our English class program because it is really weak right now. We put an announcement in the newspaper and passed out almost 3,000 fliers, so hopefully more people will start attending soon.

On Saturday we had a “Mikulás” party in the branch house! Mikulás is Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas in Hungarian. Here in Hungary Mikulás comes on the night of December 5th and the kids get candy and stuff on the morning of the 6th. So you can all be jealous because I already got to see Santa!

Sitting on the lap of Mikulás during a party at the branch house.

Our investigators are doing well. Unfortunately, one of them lives in a small village about 25 kilometers away from Pápa. It is extremely difficult for him to get to church because the bus schedules are so incredibly terrible. But we’re just going to give him time while we try to figure out some possible solutions. It is kind of a frustrating situation.

Well, this week is sure to be fun! Pray for us and our investigators! I love you all!

~Anderson elder