Budapest- Week 4

First off, my mom asked some questions that maybe you would all like to know as well: 

So for my typical day: First we wake up (at 6:30... The struggle...) and do some exercise. It is sometimes a little different because some days we meet with one of our investigators at 9:00 because she has work, and other days we get up at 5:30 (dont even know how) to play soccer with all the other missionaries in our district. Sometimes we forgo the morning work out, but we try and do it. I will admit, there are times I fall asleep on the floor doing sit-ups... Not the best exercise somedays. After that, we shower, have breakfast and get ready. And I will have you know that things have not changed... I still eat cereal every day. They have this one called Pillows and it is about the most delicious thing I’ve ever had. Seriously, I’m obsessed. I would try and explain them to you, but they are indescribable, so just know they’re great. Then we do our studies, personal, companion, and usually not time for language study so we try and fit that inbetween programs. After that we have about a 20 to 30 minute ride on the vilamos (kind of like an above ground subway thing) to the church where we teach all of our lessons. We usually have a ton of lessons each day, but when we’re not teaching, we’re either talking to people on the street, or going tracting (knocking on doors). By the way, our tracting area is BEAUTIFUL so I will try and send some pictures next week (sorry, forgot my camera... :P). We just work all day, with breaks for lunch and dinner, head back to the apartment, plan our next day and go to bed. The days have actually been flying by and we’re already half way through the transfer. Can you believe it??

My trainer is great. We get along well and have a lot of fun together. We are most definitely not the only missionaries in our ward. It’s actually super interesting serving in Buda, because the ward is also the mission home, so there are a ton of missionaries in the area. We have myself and my comp, we have another set of elders and sisters, then there are the secretaries who are the office missionaries, and the AP’s, so there are actually ten of us, not counting senior couples, which there are 3 of. So it’s actually super fun because we have sport nap on Saturdays and we do morning sports twice a week, so we get to hang out all together quite a bit!!! The ward is kind of interesting though. It’s actually a really big ward for Hungary, and super strong, but because there are so many missionaries, they don’t really care about us very much, because we are always switching around. It’s really hard to get them to come to lessons but it is a super strong ward! Just kind of tough to work with sometimes... 
Well this was definitely an interesting week! So I promised that this week I would try and have some more success stories for all of you, but let’s just say that this week will be about battling through adversity...

Before that, something fun! Today, for our P day, we're going to this place called Locked, It’s kind of hard to describe, and maybe you have heard of a place like this before, but basically they trap you in this place and you have to solve all these puzzles and stuff to try and find your way out. It sounds super fun (and maybe a little sketchy) and I am super excited about it. I’ll let you know how it goes next week!

So, it was actually a really great week. Just not exactly how we thought things would work out. So first off, the woman that got baptized the first week I was here, her name is Emília and she has kind of disappeared.... We were supposed to have a program with her on Tuesday but she just never showed up (happens a lot with Hungarians...). We tried to call her, but she wouldn’t answer her phone, and basically this entire week we haven’t heard from her once. We think that her husband (in the middle of getting divorced) found out she got baptized and kind of freaked out and won’t let her come anymore. But we are not sure. We tried to find her apartment, but we think we might have talked to her husband, so we’re not totally sure where to find her. She didn’t come to church and we are a little worried about her, but hopefully we can find her and everything will work out! This has kind of been the big problem for this week, but we also lost a few investigators this week too. 

One of our favorites, Nauszika, just told us this week that she got a job and won’t have time to meet with us anymore. She was super cool and we really liked her, and we were super bummed about it. There is also some other issues with this guy named Tamás. He’s not an investigator, but he’s probably just about the craziest person I’ve ever met. He got kicked out of the Pest ward for punching someone in the face at sport nap. He is not allowed to meet with missionaries because he basically just wants attention and is also SUPER creepy with sisters. It’s hard to even describe him, but he is realy really dramatic... He keeps threatening to take himself off the church list, just so that people will pay attention to him. Needless to say, he moved into our ward from Pest, and came to our sport nap, so that was interesting! He hasn’t punched anyone (yet...) but was just crazy the entire time... Not quite sure how this will all play out with him, but will keep you updated!!! But we didn’t let all this stuff affect us! There are a lot of hard times in our lives, and there are definitely hard and discouraging times on the mission, but it is when we push forward and endure our trials, that we can learn the most about who we are, and we can be blessed by the Lord. We tried not to get discouraged with some of our disappointments this week, and we had some really great success as well!  We lost some people we really cared about and wanted to help, but we found some really great people this week as well! We don’t always know why things happen the way they do, and life seems completely unfair sometimes, but all that we can do is just keep moving forward. And if you are having an especially hard time, I suggest to you now to just throw yourself into the service of others. I have found that when I am beaten down and discouraged, the best way to lift my spirits, is to look for opportunities to help others. It can’t take away our problems, but I promise that it can ease the pain. We worked harder to help those around us, and I could feel my joy and love for them grow. I absolutely love this amazing opportunity I have to change the lives of those in this small country here. Everyone has been through a lot, but I know that God knows all of our problems individually and that he loves us. I have seen the blessings that come from following God in my own life, and in the lives of others. If we seek out for him, we will find Him. And this is something I have personally experienced and is part of who I am. I love you all very much and hope you have a great week. Stay strong and carry on!!!

Love,

Elder Dalton