No One Wants to Talk to Us

Hey Everybody!

Sorry I have no time today! Everything is going great and hopefully I will get my pictures mailed off soon! The work is really hard here in Sopron—almost no one wants to talk to us about religion and that makes the work especially difficult. The people in Komló, my previous city, were much more open to talking about religion than the people here in Sopron. Hopefully the people here will come to see that we are nice people and will want to talk to us.

Here are some pictures... Okay, well I was going to put some pictures on here, but the CD drive thingy is broken on this computer. I promise that I will include some pictures next week. I’m really sorry, but így van (this is the way it is)! Thank you for all of your support and love!

~Anderson elder

In Need of Investigators

Sziasztok!

I’m in Sopron now. It is a really pretty city. My luggage survived the transfer so that was nice! When we transfer everyone who is moving goes to the Keleti train station in Budapest and we all hangout there in a giant lobby until our trains leave. I got to see a lot of people from my group, the group above me, and the group just younger than me, which was really cool. (Click here for more information on Sopron.)

My new companion is Elder Golze. He’s cool, really quiet, which I’m not used to, but we get along well. Sopron is very nice, except like half of the people on the street are Austrian tourists. That’s kind of annoying. I really hope that Frau Holum (my high school German teacher) doesn’t read this, but I have completely forgotten everything I learned in German class! I recognize words and can understand a few phrases, but I can’t speak at all. Hungarian has totally taken over my German. I remember the first week I was in the MTC I kept thinking, “I can’t wait until I can speak more Hungarian than German!” because Hungarian was so frustrating. And now I can’t even remember more than five or so German words! Crazy.

Well the missionary work is going VERY SLOW right now. We pretty much have no investigators and that is really hard. Believe it or not, but after my first day here in beautiful Sopron, I was homesick for Komló, which is one of the poorest and ugliest areas that missionaries can serve in! The people who live there and who we taught and the members there are so awesome. I’ll never forget them. But I’m sure that I will come to love Sopron too. I didn’t like Komló the first week that I was there. So needless to say, we are doing a lot of finding. I haven’t gotten kicked out of any buildings yet. Haha. Maybe Elder Christensen was exaggerating a little.

Sunday was pretty nice. About 20-25 people came to church this week. They are all awesome too. I look forward to getting to know them.

I have been moved around quite a lot. This is my 4th transfer and 3rd area. My companion, Elder Golze is in his 8th transfer and Sopron is also his 3rd area. He is a lot younger than my other companions, but he speaks Hungarian pretty well so it isn’t a big deal.

OH! Our apartment is SO AWESOME! It has air conditioning! What!? And a deck! WHOA! It is one of the nicest apartments in the mission I think. But it does have one big problem. The roof is messed up and leaks a lot! We finally got some guys to come by and repair (we hope) most of the roof, so it should be better now. But I’m pretty excited about the deck and AC. The weather is a little cooler and less humid here than in Komló, but it’s not a huge difference. The AC is wonderful.

Hopefully we can find some people who are interested soon, or else I’ll go crazy. Haha. A whole day of finding and no teaching is not fun at all.

Oh this is kind of funny. I forgot a lot of my bathroom stuff in Komló will have to wait a few weeks to get it all back. I needed a new razor, but I’m way too cheap to buy another nice one like I have right now. So I went to the store on my first day in Sopron and the only kind I found was the pink kind for girls to shave their legs. So ya, I’m shaving with cheap, pink, girly razors and I laugh at myself every morning. Hahaha. They really are cheap, though—maybe I’ll keep on using them for a while...NOT! They’re no fun at all, they actually kind of hurt! Haha.

Well thanks for all of the support and love and emails. I’m trying to get around to writing people, but it is really hard. I know that this church is true and I am so grateful that I can be in Hungary sharing this awesome message with people! Thanks a ton!

~Anderson elder

I'm Off to Sopron

Hey Everybody!

I heard that Ryan Miller and Kyle Murray are both coming to Magyarország!?! WHAT!? That’s crazy! I just might be able to serve with one of them! Whoa! Gyertek ide! (For those of you who don’t know them, Ryan and Kyle are friends from high school.)

I’m being transferred again! Already! I’m going to Sopron! It borders Austria! So if anyone wants any Austrian goods you know who to contact. Haha. Elder Christensen is going to be training a new missionary so I’m getting kicked out of Komló. I’m going to miss it and really miss the Pécs branch. Apparently, the people in Sopron are pretty sick of the missionaries. Lol. Elder Christensen was there before he came to Komló and he said that it is pretty hard to talk to people. He said that he was escorted out of apartment buildings many times! So this is going to be a challenge.

Tuesday was really cool! Elder Feuz, who is fresh from the MTC in America, came over to Komló with me for the day and Elder Christensen went to Pécs. It was really interesting because he can barely speak at all and I can speak only a little more. We had one program, and it was really good—well, we taught well at least. I understood almost everything that they said and I could speak a lot better than usual! I know that the Lord was helping me out because that was the best I’ve done language-wise and it was just that day that I did really well. Teaching with Elder Feuz helped me see how much I have improved since my first transfer (a transfer is six weeks), because I could speak and understand a lot better than he could and I just haven’t realized that I’ve improved. So that was a confidence booster.

Oh, the sister missionary from Pécs who served in the USA brought salt water taffy home with her!!!! I had forgotten how good it is!!! If anyone will send me salt water taffy I promise to send them delicious German chocolate! Deal? Deal!

Sunday was awesome. It was fast and testimony meeting and almost all of the youth bore their testimonies and I felt the Spirit so strong! The members here are awesome. And Balázs, who was baptized just a few months ago, bore his testimony and said that his kids told him last week that he has changed a lot since he got baptized. They said that he is way nicer, more loving and patient, kinder and happier. And the whole time he was up there bearing his testimony he had this gigantic smile across his face and you could see and feel how much the gospel has blessed his life. I hope that I’m able to f ind and teach someone like Balázs who really takes hold of the Gospel and lives it as best as he can.

So I have to go soon. I need to find some new luggage since I’m going to be moving to Sopron. It is a beautiful city so I’ll send some pictures when I get there.

Thank you for all of the letters and emails and love and support! I really appreciate it! I love this gospel with all my heart and know that it is true and really blesses people’s lives!

~Anderson elder

Fake Numbers

Sziasztok!

This week was pretty uneventful. So far almost everyone who has given me their number to meet again has given me a fake number. That is so disappointing. On the other hand, Zone Conference was pretty cool. President and Sister Baughman, our new mission president and his wife, are great! Sister Baughman gave a talk at Zone Conference about how we are so blessed to understand why there is adversity in life and why we have trials. So many people just curse God because they are having a hard time in life, but we know from the scriptures that we have trials to help our faith in God grow and to help us become better people. That was really simply put, but the point is there.

Zsuzsa and Gabriella are doing well. They came to church again and loved it. OH! And the Hungarian sister missionary came home to Pécs! She remembered me from when I met her during a visit to Temple Square in Salt Lake City with the Floyds last year. She has an American accent when she speaks Hungarian! Haha. Just not as bad as mine of course. It was really cool to see her again.

So the language is coming still slowly, but surely. Yesterday when I was on the bus, someone asked about angolóra (English class) and I could talk to her about it. It’s funny the way I understand people though. I was pretty sure she said something about whether the class was still being offered and so I told her that it was and where and when. And then she asked something about money so I assumed she wanted to know if she had to bring any and I told her the class it was free. I can understand the subject of what people are talking about so I can reply to what I think that they are asking. Haha. It’s interesting how you learn a new language.

I know that this church is true and that it contains the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that awesome?! I think so.

Sok szeretettel,
~Anderson elder

A Button of Ice Cream

Sziasztok!

I don’t have a ton of time again today—our bus from Pécs to Komló leaves kind of soon—but I’ll try to write a good amount.

My Mom asked me about what we do for service. Right now we aren’t able to do a lot in Komló. Whenever we ask the people we are teaching if we can help them with yard work or fixing up their house or something like that, they always say there’s nothing to help with—just like everyone in the States says. We teach free English classes two hours every week so that is some service. Komló is a pretty poor city ever since the big coal mine closed down and there are a lot of poor people here, but there isn’t a food bank or anything like that here. We recently found out that a lady in the local Catholic Church is running a little program where she thinks of ways to help people and then does it. We don’t know much about it, but we told her that we would like to serve with her so that might turn out pretty good. So far we’ve barely found any opportunities to physically serve the people here. Hopefully we’ll find some soon. Our main goal is to serve people by teaching them about Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, but of course we try to serve the people in any way that we can.

Okay, let me say something about the language. It’s ridiculous. It’s probably almost as hard as Japanese. The grammar and word order are SO different from English. And you can’t translate Hungarian literally or directly because it makes absolutely no sense at all. Simple sentences are okay, but anything more than like six words is totally different. And apparently, the everyday, frequently used vocabulary in Hungarian is much larger than English. Basically I have to think completely differently in order to speak Hungarian. It’s way hard. It isn’t called one of the hardest languages in the world for English speakers to learn for nothing.

I know that this is going to sound boring, but people in Hungary are pretty much the same as everyone in America. They are a little standoffish when we meet at first, but when we get to know them they make great friends!

Zsuzsa and her daughter Gabriella are still interested in the church and we are still teaching them. They weren’t able to come to church this week, but they loved it last week. Other than them no one that we are teaching is progressing. It is very difficult to change bad habits and behaviors and try to follow Christ’s example. Many people have faith that God and Christ exist, but that is about it. The truth is that if we take that leap of faith and actually change a little bit and actually do what Christ taught us to do we will be blessed and will see the Lord helping us in our everyday lives. It is difficult to take that leap of faith and do something that is hard, but if we do we will experience the blessings that Jesus Christ promises in the scriptures.

Oh, I just remembered a funny language mistake I made. I never really learned the word for “scoop” like a scoop of ice cream, I just knew what it kind of sounded like and so when I bought some ice cream at a little street-side shop I said, “egy gombot kérek,” which actually means “one button please.” Haha. “Gombócot” is what I wanted to say. I’ve made that mistake like three times so far. Haha. This language is awesome. Hopefully, I’ll be able to speak somewhat correctly by next year. That would be sweet!

Being here is awesome. I love it! Thanks for the support! I love you all too! Sok szeretettel.

~Anderson elder

Disappearing Investigators

Sziasztok!

This week was pretty good. We had interviews with our new mission president. He is a pretty cool guy. I’m excited to see what he is going to change and stuff.

So Trevor got his mission call! To Ukraine! And his mission is right next to mine! How crazy is that!? We’re halfway across the world and yet we’ll be pretty close! So that was really cool to hear. (For those of you who don’t know him, Trevor Floyd is one of my best friends.)

Well the tons of investigators that we found a few weeks ago have been slowly dropping themselves. We either can’t get a hold of them, they aren’t interested anymore, or they just don’t want to do anything. It is really weird because with a lot of these people we had really powerful spiritual experiences finding them or teaching them the first lesson. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know that God has a plan for them and I’m glad that we were able to be a part of that plan at least for a little while. So this week was pretty hard, but at the same time it was good because Zsuzsa came to church again and her daughter Gabriella came too! And they loved it! So we are super excited for them.

I know that I’m not writing as much lately, sorry! De így van. (This is the way it is). I know that this gospel is true and I love seeing the blessings come into peoples lives who follow it! I love you all! Thanks!

~Anderson elder

An Investigator at Church!

Hey Everybody!

I’m sorry this entry is going to be short again, but my companion and I have lots to do today.

This week was pretty good. We had an investigator finally come to church with us and it was great! She really enjoyed the meetings and hopefully will come back next week.

The rainy month is over and now the nasty, hot and humid weather has begun. I feel like I’m in a never-ending wrestling practice in our heated wrestling room back at Stanwood High School. It’s pretty sick! Haha. Even when the air doesn’t feel that hot your body feels really hot and you still sweat like crazy!

Something unexpected and really cool happened on the 4th of July. We met three Americans from Los Angeles! Crazy—we never see any other Americans in the little city of Komló. One of the guys was originally from Hungary and was visiting his sister who still lives in Komló. Getting to meet them was pretty cool. They waved us over when we were walking along the street because they thought that we would like talking to some Americans on the 4th. Haha. They were really cool. Also that day, we had a little celebration dinner at our apartment and I ate so much that all I could do was rest on the couch for a few minutes. What a way to celebrate the 4th!

Okay, I have lots more stuff to do so this’ll be it for now. Thanks for everything!

~Anderson elder