Time is flying!

Sziasztok!!!

         I can't believe the time is going by so fast and I have just a couple more weeks before I leave for Hungary!!! It's super hard to believe and I know it is going to be a struggle (especially with the language...) but I am more than excited to go out there and definitely counting down the days!!! We've had some good progress with Hungarian this week, but also a pretty humbling experience.  We have three days out of the week that are SYL days, where throughout the entire day, we try and speak Hungarian. We can still use some English for words we don't know, but we really try to think of different ways to say things instead of just giving up and speaking English. It was super great this week and we were making a lot of progress, thinking we were starting to get pretty good, but then yesterday we had a Skype TRC lesson. If you remember me talking about TRC before, this is when volunteers come and we teach them and talk to them all in Hungarian. It's mostly return missionaries and a couple locals, but it's really useful. But then yesterday, we did the same thing, except over Skype, with someone who is in Hungary right now. We were all a little nervous about it, but thought we'd be alright. We went into the lesson, and we did not understand a single thing that he said. I think I got maybe three words in the entirety of a 20 minute lesson. It was kind of embarrassing, because he would say something and then we would just kind of look at him with a blank stare, then nod our heads and say, igen! (which means yes) even though we had absolutely no idea what he said. I know when I get to Hungary it's going to be like the first day here all over again, but I am still super excited, even if the first month is me just nodding my head and blindly agreeing with what people say.

This was also a bit of a rough week because our friends the Finns left on Monday, and it was pretty sad saying goodbye to them. You get really close spending 6 weeks together!!! I'm just excited I get to fly out with all my Hungarian friends and see them out there all the time!!! It definitely feels a little empty in our zone now, but we still have a lot of really great people, and the new Finns are pretty cool too. Along with that, we had our second virus circulate through, as one of the new Finns brought in something new. So I did get sick again, but it was really only for a day, so it wasn't too bad. Both of our teachers are super sick still, and one of them is getting married in a week, so we are all hoping she can get a little bit better for that! I guess that's just what you get for hanging out with a bunch of 18 and 19 year old kids in a stuffy room for 12 hours a day.

Other than that, there really isn't that much else going on over here. I love it in the MTC, but I am definitely ready to leave. We will be getting our flight plans in a week, so I really just have to look forward to that. We start consecration week next week, which means that we will spend the whole week only speaking Hungarian (with some translating for all the normal people who don't know this language). I love my mission so much and I am so very excited to go and make a difference in people's lives. I love this gospel and I love being able to teach it. I have come to know with such a surety that God really does love all of us and that as I turn to Him in my life, I can feel His love for me more and more. I love you all and I apologize that there really isn't that much exciting stuff going on here, but hopefully it will get more interesting in a couple weeks!!! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about how things are going, about what I am going to be doing or teaching, or if you just want to show some support, it really helps me get through the tough days. Love you all and have a great week!!!

Elder Dalton