Sziasztok Mindenki!
Yesterday was Hungary's big holiday and it was a pretty cool celebration. Everything everywhere completely shuts down for holidays like this. It was cool to see how many families were just walking around the city together. Elder Shipp and I started off the Holiday with a bike trip to a few Hungarian castles. It was a dang long bike ride through fields and cities but we were able to see some cool things! The castles were awesome and there were quite a few special things going on around them for the holiday. On our bike ride home from the last castle we hit some super terrible head wind that turned our ride back into about a 4 hour long trip. The road was pretty flat but with that wind, it felt like I was biking up a mountain side. I wanted to die by the end BUT it was fun to go see some stuff with my Trainer.
Last P-day our district traveled to a city near Szombathely called Kőszeg. It was really really pretty and we were able to see a cool castle and some beautiful cathedrals. We had a fun afternoon there!
We were also able to help a half member family with some yard work for service this past week. It was a lot of fun and their yard looks really pretty now! After, they fed us a huge lunch. In Hungary, if someone feeds you a meal, they feed you a TON of food. It actually offends them if you don't eat a lot. (So we have had to completely discard what the MTC has taught us about not eating a lot when eating at member's houses) Everything that this family fed us was really really good and I liked it a lot. After I finished my plate (barely--because there was so much food) the mother offered me some more. I said, "No thanks I'm as full as the noon-day bus" (which may sound funny but it's what they say here) and the mother just sorta dropped her head and said, ".... you didn't like it..." and I said, "no no! I loved it! It was so good!" she still looked sad so I said, "actually, I would LOVE some more" and they she was happy again and put another huge scoop on my plate. The other Elders experienced the same thing. After we left, the trainers told us that something like that is a very common thing here and they've both heard about or experienced places where they are fed so much that they can't keep it all down by the time they return home. Sounds like a good time!
Along with the Holiday, tomorrow starts the REAL holidays for Szombathely. Although they celebrated yesterday's holiday, the next 3 days are what are really celebrated. The cool thing is that only Szombathely does it! It's called Szavaria Karnival. It's going to be absolutely gigantic. Which means some more fireworks shows from the roof and a lot more craziness in the city! I'm excited to see all that is going to happen here.
Another thing that happened this week is my district and I went to a zone conference in "Győr". The city was absolutely beautiful! It was about an hour and a half train ride from here. We arrived early and explored the city for a little while. It was a lot of fun!
Another really awesome thing that happened this week is my district received permission from the president to attend a real live soccer game with some members! It was such a cool experience! European soccer games are crazy! The crowd that surrounded us were mostly drunk and they yelled and screamed the whole game. It was super funny. Nonetheless the game was awesome and I had a blast!
One of my favorite things that happened this week is the following: So Elder Shipp and I received a call from some other Elders who were in Szombathely a while back and they remembered a house where they placed a Book of Mormon. We tried to find the house to try to meet them but we got a little lost and we weren't sure exactly which house it was. So we went to the one we thought it was (it was an absolutely massive house), rang the cséngő (doorbell callbox thing) and all we got were some dogs barking at us. We waited a minute... no one came so we decided to write a note to leave for them in their mailbox. As we were writing it, an older lady answers the door and invites us right in! She said she hasn't seen the missionaries and has been waiting to visit with us! The only reason she knows about missionaries is because her daughter randomly works and lives in Provo and tells her parents all about how nice these "Mormons" are that surround her. The lady and her husband have visited Utah before and she was telling us that it's her favorite place in the world besides Szombathely. She was really really nice and she gave us some juice and had us eat a whole package of cookies and kept apologizing for not having more food prepared for us. She asked us a lot of questions about ourselves. Then she had us talk to her daughter (who lives in Provo) on the phone and she was really nice and said for us to expect a big meal from her family if we go back. We were just sitting there really confused because we shortly realized that this was NOT the house the other Elders were talking about because they hadn't seen the missionaries yet and they haven't ever received a Book of Mormon. We were there for a little over an hour. The husband came home during that time and he was very nice as well and we just talked to the two of them for a while. Then they had a show they had tickets for that they needed to get to so we had to leave. BUT they said wanted us to come back really bad! The mother has been curious about the church ever since her daughter has told them about the mormons. It was incredible! Oh and she also gave both of us some big "Milka" chocolate bars as we left.
This week, while playing basketball, I biffed it pretty hard and got my arm a little scratched up. BUT I was well taken care of from my "nurse" Kati Néni. Kati is an older lady that Elder Shipp and I visit each week. The day I got my cut, we saw her on the street and she saw my big bloody bandage on my arm and she got super super worried. She said she would take care of me when we met next. She came to our weekly english class that night with all this first aid stuff and she cleaned it out for me, bandaged it a ton, then she wrapped it up and gave me all of these instructions on how to take care of it. She was really really worried and she has since checked up on me many times to make sure it is getting better. She has done something different to it all 3 times that I've seen her this week. I get a kick of out it because she's really cute and worried about it. but it's really just a little scrape on my arm. I must say though, it has really healed fast!
I will have to email on Tuesday next week once again because on Monday we are all traveling to Budapest for our "New Missionary Training Meeting". I'm excited for that because I'll be able to see all my friends from my MTC group and share stories with them about what has happened so far!
Remember this: One day, everyone in the world is going to know what YOU know about this true gospel. And they are going to know that you knew it.
Think about that for a while... and adjust your life/behavior/actions/words accordingly. Maybe start by reading the Book of Mormon. Yea--that's a good idea.
Szeretettel,
Alldredge Elder
