Christmas Music

Helló family and friends!

This past week was... érdekes (ayr-de-kesh - interesting)!  It started out with last P-Day when we went to play board games at the branch house with full time missionary Sisters, recent convert Enikő, former ward mission leader Viktor, and less active Attila.  Quite the diverse group!  I think my alma mater John Burroughs might even be proud of that line-up!  After we played a really fun game called 7 Wonders, Allred elder and I went to the Horváth family (Erzsi, Peti, and Annabella) and taught them about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  I can't remember if I've already talked about them, but pretty much Erzsi has been investigating the church for 2 years, and she says that the only thing that has gotten in the way of her getting baptized is her husband, Peti.  It's been a struggle for the missionaries in the past to meet with him too as they meet with Erzsi, but finnaly we succeeded!  It was so cool to teach an entire family about the Book of Mormon and commit them to read 2 Nephi 31 together.  The Gospel really was created for families, of that I have no doubt in my mind!

All the way until Saturday we essentially whiteboarded ALL DAY EVERY DAY.  It can get kind of exhausting nonstop approaching people for 4 hours at a time, but hey, that's why we're out here, isn't it?  We usually do take a 15 minute break every 2 hours and go and buy some cake.  But the weather is really cooling down and I don't think that we'll have too much success anymore with whiteboarding as the winter sets in.  So it's back to... TRACTING! WHOO-HOO!!  People only get slightly more mad when you knock on their door, and it seems like old people only lose about 93% of their hearing when they're home and when two americans show up speaking Hungarian. This is usually the typical dialogue:

"Jó napot kívánok!" (Hello!)
"Micsoda?" (What the heck?)
"Jó Napot Kívánok! Martin eldernek hívnak, és ez Allred elder, és misszionáriusok vagyunk-" (Hello! My name is Elder Martin and this is Elder Allred and we're missionaries-)
"MI??" (WHAT??)
"MISSZIONÁRIUSOK VAGYUNK-" (WE'RE MISSIONARIES-)
"MI???" (WHAT???)

(this continues for about 30 or more seconds, until they end up either giving up and saying "I don't understand" and close the door, or until they say "I'm a Roman Catholic" and then close the door just the same haha)

When we met with less-active Attila this week, we celebrated Allred elder's year mark in country with a lego cake that we also used in our object lesson with Attila.  We made a V on the the floor with an extention coard, and it led to two chairs on either side of the room, both of which had a wrapped box on top.  We told him that he has to choose the gospel path or the world's path, and you can't stay on both at the same time forever (just like how as you start moving down the V with one leg on both sides, you end up getting stretched too much to have a foot on both and you end up having to choose).  We told him that the right side led to a special reward and the left side didn't, and he has to have faith in our words that the right side actually did lead to something good.  Well, classic Attila, he went down the left side and opened the box and there was nothing in it.  Then he went over to the right side, and opened the box and there was a little cake waiting for him.  I guess seeing is believing.  Then we ate the cake and told him that thus it is with the gospel; it really does lead to something better!  We saved an extra piece for our investigator who was coming right after that, János Attila, who is literally addicted to sugar.  He physically spasmed out when he saw the cake we left for him and then ate it after the prayer with his hands in two bites. We talked about the importance of focusing.

We found two new investigators this week.  One was from English Class, and we looked him up from the area book, but only when he answered the door did we realize that both of these Gyula's are the same person!  The other we found while white boarding.  His name is Ferenc and is 57.  He is excited to read the Book of Mormon and come to a baptism this Saturday!

Allred elder and I have been trying to get some good pictures this week because we always have a district photo challenge.  BTW we also started listening to Christmas music already so BOOYAH! Also next Tuesday we find out tranfer calls for next transfer, which begins next Wednesday!!

Love you all,

Martin elder

An epic image of fog and bikes at the branch house.

The lego cake we got for Elder Allred and me to celebrate our respective year marks (his in country, mine on the mish)

Our whiteboard approach, "What is the Book of Mormon?" though later we found out that what we wrote isn't grammatically correct...

Regina brought her miniature chiwawa to our appointment.  That thing has so much aggression stuffed in it's little tiny body.  

we lit the cake on fire with Attila