Week one of the Co-Seniorship! (Mar 24)

So this week I got 2 new companions! One of them I already knew kinda well, the other not so much. But, my companions are awesome! Elders Waldvogel and Sterri. Waldvogel is from St George UT, and Sterri is from just outside Sacramento CA. They are both superrrr funny, and we enjoy the whole threesome thing. we have had a great time getting to know the members, even if there are like 10 of them at church.. and our investigators, some of which are Peruvian and still wear Peruvian clothes (like sandals without socks), even after living in Hungary for 20 years hahahaha.

We also had quite a few... funny times haha. So for English class, I had an amazing idea. We decided to play Apples to Apples! it was soooo much fun. :) hahaha. and it taught the students lots of random words hahaha, like nauseating. fun. So it was a success if i do say so myself.. ;) lol.So Tuesday was our P-day last week, cause of transfers, and we decided to go bowling! and i finished in last..  hahaha. And then lunch on Tuesday was SUPERR nice! we went to the branch house and an investigator gave us lunch! She made fruit soup (so delicious!) out of just 2 fruits hahaha. she asked us what our favorite fruit was, then made the soup ONLY out of that. so it was cherry and pear fruit soup hahaha. Then, I got again, which means we had to ride the train to Budapest and then go to our new areas. Well, on some trains you have to get a seat ticket, which means they assign you a seat and that is where you sit. So we got different seat tickets, me and my companion. So we were in totally different parts of the train. So the ticket inspector comes by and sees my name tag and was like "Hey, I saw another kid with Jesus Christ on his name badge." and I was just like "oh yeah that's my friend" and she was like "well, why arent you sitting together?! call him over here!" And i said, "well, we got different places on the train.." And the ticket inspector--the person in charge of making sure that the people on the train are supposed to be there and that they are in the right seats--said to just move seats. hahahaha, i just thought it was the funniest, most ironic thing! hahah. Another interesting part to that train story, is that--since we had different seat tickets--i was sitting alone. that was the firs time in a LOOOONG time that I had been alone.. so weird!! haha. and the train ride was about 3 hours long, so i had plenty of time to sit alone haha.

This new area has been a little harder so far, we don't have very many investigators. But! We will find people to teach! And it helps that the senior couple came out with us and did some tracting! haha, it was so funny. He is trying to learn Hungarian, and actually doing pretty well!, but he sounds so funny.. :) I love it. 

Well, I'm praying for you always! Love you! Have a great week! 

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

What a Week! (Mar 18)

So on Wednesday, we went to this place called Holnap Háza, which is the House of Tomorrow. And there, there are a bunch of autistic or other kinds of things, people that live there. And when we go there, we usually just talk to one of the guys in English, cause he speaks English and likes to just talk with us. So we go over there for some service weekly. But this week, they decided to go to a playground! So we went with them and had SOOOO much fun! hahaha. They are seriously so funny :) I absolutely loved it over there. They are seriously so amazing. :) Then Thursday, we went to Budapest for a conference, and we had a really good time! oh yeah except for the fact that we woke up at 4:45!!! geeeeez, that was not fun at all hahaha. and then a train ride for a good 3 and a half YEARS! haha no, just 3 and a half hours. but it felt like forevverrrrr! Except for on the train, we wrote this love letter as a district hahahahaha. So this kid, Robinson, was writing a letter, but all we saw was the name Nichole at the top. So we wrote the letter for him.. :) hahaha. and it was sooo funny! I will dropbox you the video of me reading it hahaha. He is such a nerd. ;) but i love him, he is a great missionary, and great example. So on Friday, we had what we call "Fiatal Est" (young persons night? weird translation sorry hahaha) where we have 18-30 year olds come and we have a good time. well, some of the people we teach are foreign exchange students, who come from Spain, Turkey, and China!!!! way cool, and the Chinese guys even came to Fiatal Est! way way awesome. :D they even wrote some chinese words and taught us our names in Chinese hahaha. Then on Saturday, we went to play soccer. With an investigator and his 3 year old boy. :) freakin adorable hahaha. he wasn't always so interested in the ball, but we had a good time. :)

So that was kinda our week. Not a ton of amazing things, just lots of little great things. :) Oh yeah and the best part! TRANSFERS!! :D hahaha. I am going to be transferred AGAIN! haha. kinda stinks, but I am glad cause we will be doing what we call co senior! Which is basically where two people from the same MTC group are serving together. It is way cool cause there isn't really a senior. The best part is that I will be going into another tri-panionship! Which is going to be way awesome. :) haha. Other than that, not much going on. :) hahaha.

 Keep up the good work! love you all! Praying for you. :)

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

  Just me and some good ole de Vries. :) being.. us hahha.

 some more of me and de Vries, the Canadian elder.. :) haha.

 me on the playground, on the spinny thing! man, did that get me nauseous hahha

 The Chinese writing at a Hungarian youth night hahaha

 Fiatal Est! And pingpong with the Asians hahaha

 Some of the Szombathely fő tér! gorgeous!

Me and Zsolt! one of the coolest new members around. :) And he knows way too many languages for his own good, haha. so we speak in english with him. :) he likes it better, and hey I'm not complaining! hahaha

The Blessing in Disguise! (Mar 10)

Mot much to report on this week. We did have a really neat experience with someone who let us in and talked to us abouit the gospel! So every Thursday we go to this place callde the Holnap Ház, where basically we talk to this kid who speaks Englilsh and I think is autistic. Well, this Thursday, we went to the Holnap Ház, but no one was there. We rang the doorbell and everything, but no one came out. And this place is really far out, so we cant just walk back, and the next bus wasnt for quite a while. So we didnt really know what to do. So we looked down the street and said "well, might as weel start tracting." So we started tracting. Typical start, hardly anyone was home, and even fewer wanted to talk to us. Until we got to this one house, where this lady just invited us right in! We went in and started asking her the survey questions, really just getting a background on her and what her relationship is with God. She really liked meeting with us, and is very excited for us to go back to visit her again next week! Miracles do happen, even if it looks like you just got stood up by an autistic kid. On a sidenote, we actually went back to the Holnap Ház after, and talked to the kid! Really awesome kid, loves to talk. :) It just showed me how Heavenly Father is watching out for us, and giving us blessings for sticking it out through the hard times that look like failures.

 

I love being here, and I know this church is true, and God's church here on the earth. I love being a missionary and all the miracles we see daily. I challenge each of you to look for the miracles in your days, be it huge or tiny! Love you all!

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

 Here is a beautiful part of Szombathely and a little river(?) that runs through the city!

 Some more of that field. Maybe we will play kickball there someday? haha

 And some more of me. ;)

 Here are some Chinese kids I am teaching! That dont speak English very well lol but they are very funny!

#yomo :)

The People are Streeting US!! (Mar 3)

What a week! Nothing too exciting. Other than people coming up and talking to us! So on Wednesday we decided to go tracting. That morning, we decided to pick a few streets from the map personally and then compare notes to see if any of them lined up. And when we did, we actually found the same street! on our way there, we went to the bus stop, but ended up having to wait a little while. So as we were waiting, this girl comes up to us and says "are you guys from here?" And we were like no, sorry. Then suddenly, she glances at our name tags. Then she says, in perfect English, "hey do you still have those English lessons going on? Cause I am interested in going to those again." Then my companion says, "yeah we do, and we also have a little spiritual message at the end of the lesson" and then the girl was like "yeah thats cool I am interested in religion too!" It is amazing to see how the Lord prepares His children for them to hear His message, even if through the English classes we teach!

 

In other news, we have a couple who have been together for about 4 or 5 years, but never got married. They are an awesome couple with great testimonies, but they are still struggling with giving up smoking. But now they have a wedding date! Next month on April 12. And we are so excited for them! They still have to give up the cigarette, but they are definitely on the right path!

 

In other news, things are great here. :) Loving life, every little bit of it! The ups and the downs--and believe me, there are plenty of them! haha. Well, praying for you! Love you all, have a great week!

 

Elder Flake, signing off, in Szombathely, Magyarország. :)

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

 This was the day of our splits. This is Elder Robinson, one of the coolest kids ever. :) hahaha. And his finger is "stuck" in the door hahaha.

 This is a view from our roof. Thats right, our roof. Probably one of the coolest things ever. :)

 More of our roof. :)

This is the view of our apartment from the roof.

The new hely (place) in Szombathely! (Feb 24)

well, i made it to Szombathely! It is a smaller town, but still bigger than Eger (where I was last transfer)! It has been quite an adventure! :)

so my new area is pretty good! Things here in Szombathely are nice. This is one of the cities that I always wanted to go to, so I am really excited to be here! One of my MTC teachers, her family lives here in Szombathely, and they are SO COOL! haha. They are Swiss, but the dad is Hungarian, so they all speak Swiss German (which is apparently very different from German German haha) English (because they lived in England for 2 years and went to an English international school in Vietnam for 4 years or something) and Hungarian! (although their Hungarian is not the greatest, kinda like ours since they didnt really "grow up" here in Hungary) So it has been a ton of fun speaking English with them hahaha. :) Such a great family, love them so much. Another funny story with the Szvobodas (said family), we went over to their house on Sunday night and ended up staying for dinner! haha, very neat, and very yummy! :D So anyways, their son actually just came home from his mission! Sunday, at about 5 oclock hahahaha, which means we were apart of his first dinner at home hahahaha. vvvveeerrrrryyyy weird feeling to be there, but also very cool. :) haha. He is a way cool guy, and we cant wait to talk to him more about his mission and what not. :)

my new companion is actually really really cool. :) his name is Elder Becker, from Connecticut. we have been getting along really well. it was kinda hard at first, cause i heard some things about him, but it ended up being really good. :) we are kinda different, but it has worked out pretty well so far. :)  

Well keep being amazing, wherever you are! I know God is watching over, and wants to help us and bless us! so go about doing good, and never forget, there is a missionary in Hungary who loves you very very much. :) Have a great week!

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

 Here is our last district, in Eger.

 here are the elders leaving eger along with the Herds.

 me and de Vries on the train! we had quite a ride :) hahaha.

So last week, Elder de Vries had surgery on his hernia. That was all good and dandy! But then president had the idea of transferring him... Across the country.. And me, right along with him. So I got to carry all his luggage for him to the trains and off the trains and allll that good stuff. and this is the luggage.

by the way, de Vries has a LOT of stuff, and VERY heavy stuff at that. haha.

The End of the Eger Reign (Feb 18)

Well, I never thought it would happen so soon. But it did -- I am moving out of Eger. I am going to the lovely city of Szombathely, where I will be serving with one Elder Becker. I have heard a lot about him, so I am very excited for this transfer! Sad to leave a place I just came to, but excited to touch more lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ. :)

This week was a little too short for me. and kinda rough, we had quite a few people god us last minute. On Friday, we went to Miskolc for a zone training, thats right, on Valentines day. :) My companion and I had quite the matching look hahah. and then we had lots of fun on that night at Játék Est! :) Always fun there haha. 

Today, we went whipping in the park, got quite a few stares and lots and lots of eager bystanders haha. It was very fun and very loud. :)

Other than that, nothing much new to report on my end. I am still loving the good ole missionary life. :) and the weather around here has been absolutely beautiful! Sunny and very little clouds! Sometimes a little rain, but we haven't seen snow in weeks!

Well, have a great week! My thoughts and prayers are with all of you! :) 

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

 Családi Est at the Puttonék! (Family Night at the Putton family)

 more Családi Est! we played skipbo, and i am pretty sure i dominated. ;) 

 our little Játék Est group. :) Gabi Dávid, me, Krisztina, Magda, János and Kata. :) love them all!

 here we are again. in all our awkwardness hahaha. 

Elder Magda and I :)

The week of the 3 (Feb 10)

So this week was a lot of fun. :) it started off with one of the elders here in Eger go to Budapest to get a surgery on his 10 cm hernia. so his companion, Elder Dellenbach, stayed with us for the week. So I was in a 3 person companionship again! That was a lot of fun. And it was also one of the busier weeks of my mission. we not only had our investigators and less-active members to meet with, but also the other companionship's also. So it was kind of a crazy week. :) 

So, some fun things about Eger: we are now teaching a 24 year old pregnant girl. Whose due date was Feb 7. haha, so we are just waiting for the time that the girl goes into labors as we are teaching her hahaha. It is really neat, though, to see how much having a baby can change the way you think about life. For example, where we came from. It was so neat to see Krisztina's, the girl, face light up when she learned that her little baby was coming straight from Heavenly Father to her. :)

And then on Thursday, we went to a less active member's house because he wanted some help in English and talking on the phone. (Sounds good to me, I thought, finally a language I know!! haha). So we went over, and he was online, showing us some radio things, kinda like walkie talkies, that are apparently powerful enough to reach across the country. So he has one of these radios, and he wants to order 12 more. but the place he is getting them from is... China. So he has been trying to email this lady, but it hasnt been working very well. so he wants to call her, and ask her in english about it. so he asks us to call someone. In China. so my companion starts, and he calls this number, and the phone gets answered, but it is this lady just going off in Chinese, and he has no idea what is going on. So he waits for a second, mostly out of shock, because he has no idea what to do hahaha) and realizes that it is a recording. So the RCLA gives us a new number, and now it is my turn to call. so i call and this lady answers, saying something in Chinese!! hahaha. I was just like "uhhhh.. do you speak english..?" hahaha, and then we talked a little bit about the radios, but then she says to email and she will email back about it. So, on my mission in Hungary, I talked to someone in English, who actually speaks Chinese! Pretty cool. :) hahaha.

Well, I hope you are have a great week. I know that we all go through hard times. But God is always there, and He is always willing to stretch out His hand and lift us up. So watch for those times in your life when God is reaching out His hand, and take it. 

Sok szeretettel,

Flake Elder

 some of the snow we got! :D along with my awesome companion haha.

 The best companionship. Of all the world. 

 Out to eat pizza! Me and Kata and then Magda and Krisztina. Such great people!

 Me and Dellenbach along with Magda and De Vries, the guy who just had the surgery!

 we found the hobbit! or at least his house. hahaha

 what happens when Magda takes pictures with my camera hahahaha.

 Dellenbach, our third for the week. And the massive Hungarian burgers. Definitely different, de definitely delicious. (PS "de" means but in Hungarian. It just worked sooo well with that little phrase. ;) )

 some homemade tortillas! well, just one. but he had a funny face, so i thought you would want to see. ;) 

 beautiful Eger. It has been quiiite a while since I saw any kind of mountain. or hill. or bump in general haha. so it was nice to see that in Eger!

 just me, a railroad, and the open, blue, beautiful skies. oh and a really cool house!! hahaha.