Monday, August 12, 2013

Week 19: Things Are Looking Up

12 August 2013
HI!
Well... I don't have too much to tell you all about this week! Mostly it's consisted of trying to find new people to teach in a city of tourists and really strong Catholics. I haven't run into this before, because in the big cities you get a combination of all the religions, but EVERYONE here in Catholic, with the exception of the atheists. Also, it was in the 40s all of last week with the worst humidity ever, I think that’s about 105-110 Fahrenheit, so it's been a party over here! A sweat party, that is. There have been several times where we've both just had to stop and find some shade to lean against a wall, because we always feel like we're going to pass out. We have gotten yelled at several times to go inside somewhere because it's unsafe to be out in this heat. Haha, that's always a nice way of seeing the Hungarians show their concern for you. We have gotten a couple let-ins, but we haven't found anyone solid yet. We have a few programs set up for this week; we'll see how they go.

We tried to meet with a couple people from the area book that the last elders used to meet with, that was the worst idea ever... haha but it makes for some pretty good stories. The elders actually set up programs with two of them for our first weekend here. One was a lady and the other was a man, they're next door neighbors and the programs were set for two different days. The first was with the lady and we accidentally rang the man's doorbell, but he let us in and showed us her door. He knocked on it and called through her door that the missionaries were here. She proceeded to yell at us through the door and tell us that she said she didn't want to meet with missionaries and she wasn't interested, so get out! We weren't scheduled to meet with the man who let us in until the next day, but after she kicked us out, he tried to invite us into his apartment. But, we could tell that he had been drinking and he was being really pushy and wouldn't take our polite no for an answer when we tried to explain that we couldn't come in alone, etc. He turned around to get something, and we turned and looked at each other and then booked it down the stairs and out of the building while he drunkenly turned around. Haha It's funny now to look back to, but that was our first weekend's programs...Thanks elders! ;)
Last week, we called someone else that they had found and put in the area book, without too much information about him. That was interesting too... It was this old man that insisted that he couldn't hear us because our voices were higher pitched than the elders and told us that instead of teaching him, we should just sit and listen to him talk to us. Also, he kept offering us alcohol and we politely tried to explain to him that we don't drink, etc., but he proceeded to get really upset that we wouldn't accept his generous gift. He told us that he knows that God loves HIM and HE drinks, so he wouldn't punish us for drinking! When we still declined the offer, he tried the tactic of telling us that there actually wasn't even any alcohol anyway, it was just wine, not alcohol. Hahaha. Oh man, we definitely won't be going back there again...
Last week was really bad, until Friday. Since Friday everything has been looking up and my attitude has gotten much better. Sister Fowers and I get along really well and we've had some really good talks and I can see why I need to be here with her right now. It's harder to see why I need to be here exactly, when we aren't having success or finding anything really hopeful, but we have had a really good time the last couple days and I finally let go of the hope of their being some miracle and me getting sent back to Buda any time soon. Also, the weather was so cold and so good on Saturday, and it just rained for a long time. That probably helped too, because finding is much more manageable in that weather. 
Hm... other than that. The elders here have been having a lot of success and let ins, so it's good to see their work progressing! They have a couple people on bap date and they had a baptism on Saturday that we went to. She's like the coolest Hungarian that I've met. She's pretty old and she's SO funny, I don't even know how to explain. She LOVES the missionaries and the fact that there are sisters here now. Our first day here, she made the elders bring us over to her house and gave us ice cream and played music and it’s just so funny to get from an old lady. She also always comes and sits by me in Relief Society and insists that we sit nearby in Sunday School and Sacrament meeting and she's one of those people that has to give an ongoing commentary of every meeting and whisper to you what she thinks about everything. She's so crazy and you can't even keep her tamed, and the blunt things she says are hilarious, so Gizi néni has gotten me through some boring meetings and bad moods. She had us all (the elders, us and the RS Pres/her new BFF) over after her baptism on Saturday too and just soaked in all the attention and fed us so much good food. You just have to love her. Gizi's great! 
Today for P-day, we're not doing tooo much, but we do have something funny planned. Haha There's this tradition for missionaries serving in Veszprém to all go to this place called Ceragem and get memberships. Apparently, the tradition is that you go in and do a weird, funny Asian dance to loosen up and then they have all of these massaging machines that you sit in and lay on for like an hour. Then, you get a free membership, because some people from our branch work there and a young guy in the Branch Presidency who served his mission here in Hungary recently (he's from Veszprém) works there and gets them for us. So, since we're the first Sisters, we still want to keep the tradition up. Elder Judd (the Asian one, I served in Buda with his cousin, also elder Judd, last transfer) and I think it will be hilarious and are super excited. Sister Fowers is a little apprehensive about it, because she hates massages. Hahaha Then we'll just go out and eat somewhere, we're experimenting to find good cheap places, and then get back to work finding people. I definitely am already more familiar with this city and where everything is on a map than any other place I've served in. We've spent a long time studying a map and each night we highlight each street that we tracted out that day. Plus, the city is somewhat small and the buses aren't super frequent, so we end up walking for a really long time to get places and I feel like we've walked everywhere already. Haha I just hope we start finding people to teach sometime soon! I feel like I might be cursing myself, but I think I’ll most likely be here next transfer, since…well... I've moved every other transfer and this is a short transfer anyway. It'll be interesting to see what happens. But I'll just try to enjoy this one while it lasts. 
I read a quote that I really liked this morning in President Spencer W. Kimball's teachings book thing, I thought I'd share it with you: "I started out very miserable and found myself wondering if I could get through the day, but...I seemed to become intoxicated with my work and forgot myself and it was a good day." I feel like this is a good description of the mission life, and probably real life. Just a little advice that helped me this week, maybe it'll help you! 

I love you all! And not that I've been keeping track, but someone asked me the other day, so I had to figure it out: I'll see you all in 346 days! yikes! I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But, I'm sure it'll come quickly!
Love,
Megan

PS - I'll leave more time next week to send pictures, but I don't have tooo many yet.

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