Another week in Budapest and things are still going great! I’ll just jump right into it because we don’t have a whole lot of time, but I’ll start with last P-day. My companion and I went over to Pest and saw the parliament building and went to this big cathedral that was super cool! The weirdest thing was that in the cathedral, they have a little display set up St. István's (Steven’s) hand. And by that, I mean they ACTUALLY HAVE HIS HAND IN A GLASS CASE!!! Apparently they think his hand is like, super sacred or something, and they have it in the church, and even on special holidays they take it out and parade it around the city. Yes, this is true, everybody in Hungary stands around the street and watches a 300 year old hand driven around sitting on a pillow. It’s honestly kind of hilarious, especially because the hand is completely nasty. It’s all green and gross and I don’t know why they practically worship this decrepet body part. I’m telling you, these people are pretty crazy sometimes...
Anyway, after that, for the rest of the week, we just worked teaching people and going out trying to find more people to teach. The work is still going really great over here and we have quite a lot of people that we are working with. Some of them are dang frustrating because they just have no motivation to do anything even though they are completely unhappy in their life. Something I’ve noticed is that quite a few Hungarians love to complain about their lives (especially how the government and economy is the reason for all their problems) but they make no effort to improve anything!!! Just in case you were unaware, sitting at home, complaining about not having a job gets you no closer to getting a job. Some of these people seem to have trouble understanding this concept. Still love them, just frustrating...I’m not complaining, and I can’t believe how much I”ve grown to love these people in this short time, and I want to help them so much. With that being said, some of them are pretty crazy (in a hilarious way). I also want to say that we are having a great time, and I love it out here, but all that good stuff is pretty boring, so here’s a little of the challenges and a bit more about the people we work with:
1. This was the first time I met with this one lady and it was definitely interesting. I think she’s been smoking for about 50 years (she’s probably 60) and has the biggest smokers voice I’ve ever heard. Despite that, she just loves to talk. We could barely get a word in because she would just keep on going, and ignore anything we said. I was trying not to laugh a few times, but I think the best would have to be when we told her that there was life after death and she looked right at us and said (in Hungarian so I had to have this translated for me later) "Oh, I know there’s life after death, because I’ve been there... In another dimension." So that was fun.
2. Another woman, now one of our most interesting (former) investigators. I think she really just wanted to meet with us to tell us all about how our religion is wrong, so it wasn't the most fun. In our last lesson she told us all about this Chinese religion and how she sat in front of a temple for 3 days without doing anything, and how they put food on an alter in the temple to sacrifice to God or something like that. Remember I can’t understand much that’s going on so this is all a pretty rough translation. She basically tried telling us what our religion was after reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon, and how we actually knew nothing. After getting insulted for 30 or 40 minutes, she just said, “I dont really want to meet with you, so just leave." And then the worst part of it is, that we ran into her, later that day probably 30 minutes out of town... Little awkward...
Well I don't have a lot more time, but these are just a couple of funny things, everyone else is really amazing and I love being here so much. I can see a real change in a lot of people as they find happiness in their lives. I am so happy to have this opportunity to help those who have only experienced sadness and help people find purpose and meaning. We have had so many great experiences but I don’t have too much time left to write. I love it out here and I love my district and all the people that we get to work with. Sorry we had some computer problems in this sketchy internet cafe and we have to run to a program pretty soon. Next week I will try to share a more uplifting story (but I just like the funny ones better). I have seen God in my life and I know that he is there for us if we turn to Him. I love this work and I love this gospel. Keep up all the good work. Love you all and have a good week.
Elder Dalton
Zone Conference October 1-3, 2014
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