Milyen volt a hetetek?
After my final goodbye's to Sopron, I hopped on the train and met my new companion, Loveday Elder, in Budapest. After meeting up, we took about an hour and a half train ride to Kecskemét! Immediately after getting off the train, we went to the meeting house to catch the last of the WARD Christmas party. Yes, the WARD party. Not the BRANCH party! Kecskemét is a ward! Wow it was a big change to go from a church meeting with 15-20 people to now have about 50 people in church. The ward is so cool here! The people are all so nice. They are finishing building a really big, nice, and new meeting house in the city! They hope to have it done in early February and I might still be here for that!
Random tidbit: The good thing about Sopron and Szombathely was that there weren't any strange characters in their names... So I didn't have to switch over the Hungarian keyboard. Now I have to in order to spell "Kecskemét"... Turns out that the word "kecske" means "goat" in Hungarian! Who knew!?
This city is massive. BUT we all have bus passes. And by "we" I mean us Elders and the Sisters that serve here as well. I have never served around Sisters before... There haven't ever been Sisters in my zone before! Now I'm serving with some great ones in my area!
Anywho, turns out that I moved to the nicest apartment in the mission! I thought my last one was the best, but apparently it's like number 4 on the list. Good earth this apartment is rad. Everything in the kitchen is electric. We have a working dishwasher, an ACTUAL shower (I don't have to HOLD the head!), both of our beds are queen sized, we have a big dining table and lots of couches, even shaggy carpet! Not to mention that our towel rack heats the towels while you're in the shower! It's quite the sanctuary.
On the 6th, all of Hungary celebrates when "Mikolas" comes and leaves presents in the children's shoes! He leaves candy and toys for the good children and twigs for the bad ones. Strangely familiar to me... BUT Mikolas even came and visited us, TWICE! (The Sisters delivered treats the first time and our neighbors across the hall did it the second time!) Such a fun holiday. The Christmas they celebrate here lasts 3 days long starting on the 24th and Christ is the one who actually brings the gifts! I thought that was really neat.
The "Christmas Town" they have set up here is absolutely incredible! The lights are amazing and they have little shops and booths set up everywhere. There's even a stage with performers each evening!
The Sisters had a baptism this last Saturday that took place at the public pool. That was really amazing to attend and experience!
I left Sopron having around 21 lessons taught per week. We had a total of 6 this week. There is a lot of work to do! But I'm excited to get to work and help build this place up.
Next week, I'll be in Budapest on Monday for the Zone Christmas Conference! I'm super stoked for it! My emailing will be moved to Tuesday.
This week, the Hungarian Language and I became friends. It was a strange and almost sudden thing. Yet, much appreciated.
I hope all is well with everyone else. Don't expect the Lord to be too aware of you if you're never aware of The Book of Mormon. Read it :)
Sok Szeretettel,
Alldredge Elder
With Elder Hansen and our old district leader Elder Masters
Mikolas!!!
View out of my window. (There is a MALL here! Craziness!)
Christmas Town!!
Thanks for sending ornaments for my tree!!