Elder Cameron Alldredge's LDS Mission in Budapest, Hungary: Week 66 (August 22-26, 2013)

Lassan jön ide a cserének a vége...

Housekeeping: Next week we will be receiving our transfer calls. Therefore, I will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday.

August 20th: So the celebrations for the 20th were slammin'! We went with the other Elders to the castle here in Miskolc. We were basically the only ones in the whole place so we took a plethora of pictures and had a fun time running around in an old, broken castle! We then went into the city center and watched the opening ceremony of the celebration. The Hungarian anthem was sung and it was really neat to be a part of it all. Then we watched some traditional Hungarian dancing that a group of youth put on. They were all incredible dancers! They had some really cool things going on. I was extremely impressed. After the dancing they had some live music playing. I'm not sure if there were fireworks or not, I was deep asleep. I'm assuming there weren't any if I never woke up. Who knows.

Adverbs and Adjectives: I'm just now realizing that if you have never met me in real life, my writing probably seems pretty strange. I promise I have more sophisticated vocabulary than always using: very, so, really, pretty, super, absolutely, and extremely as my adverbs. As well as: incredible, neat, cool, amazing, sweet, rad, slammin', swell, and grand for my adjectives. It's just the way I talk. I also think it would take longer and more energy to "evince myself on a higher plane of eloquence by properly applying my self-thesaurus into my literature."

A Lesson On Speech: Speaking of speech, here's something I learned this week that I really value now. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, while learning a new language, has wanted to learn funny words, slang, and such things of that sort. I was asking one of our investigators about different slangs (not bad ones) that I've heard or read and this is what she had to say about the matter: "Elder Alldredge, you dress elegantly every single day... Don't you think you should speak elegantly every single day as well? If you saw a woman dressed up on a stage in a fancy, expensive dress, what would you think if she walked up to the microphone and started speaking like everyone else on the street?" It was definitely eye-opening. I haven't had a problem with saying bad words... I could just do a lot better job using great words. I'm hoping I can apply this principle into my native language speech as well.

Awkward Meal: So yes, Hungarians love to stare at us while they feed us but I've never quite had an experience like this. We were meeting with a small family who often invites extended family over for our visits. After about 20 minutes into our program, they cut us off and said, "we made you guys a surprise meal! Come with us into the other room..." We followed them into the living room to find a little table that had been placed right in the center of the room. It had a little pink table cloth and the whole table was set for Elder Nabrotzky and I to sit across from each other. So there we were, in the middle of the living room eating while all 9 of the other people, parents and children, sat around us on the couches and just watched us eat. It takes a lot for me to feel awkward, but this was one of those things that did the trick.

Where's My Technicolor Dreamcoat!?: Elder Nabrotzky and I had the unique opportunity of interpreting a dream for someone. The strangest part is that our words and thoughts were not our own as our as we tried to help the dreamer make sense of it all. It was all very interestingly symbolic--as most dreams are. My favorite symbolism in the dream was that the person was on the ground and they wanted to go upward. Where the elevator should've been, there was an empty shaft. Where the stairs should've been, there was nothing. The only thing available was a long, steep ladder. I think a lot of us feel this way sometimes--going up and improving isn't always the easiest thing. But hey, we know it's worth it.

Splits with the Assistants: I was able to spend a day in Budapest with one of the Assistants this week. He is also a Spongebob fanatic so we had a good time quoting Spongebob. I'm still blown away by how nice their apartment is every time I stay there. We had a really successful time while tracting there and I've been informed that a few of the people we met that day have wanted to continue to meet with the missionaries and are really interested in the Gospel!

The Return: We've been meeting with an inactive member that we miraculously found while tracting. She was able to come back to church for the first time in eight years. We arranged for one of the recent converts to take her. She was excited beyond belief to come back. She thought that her records had been terminated because she hadn't been to church in so long and she obviously didn't feel missed since no one tried to contact her for eight years. It was really neat to see the overwhelming joy she felt of having the blessings church attendance again in her life.

I could go on for hours about the past couple weeks. The point is, things are wonderful here. I love this amazing country, all of these amazing people, my amazing companion, and this amazing mission experience.

1. And it came to pass, Elder Alldredge ended his weekly email by exhorting his nation to the reading of the ancient record; that is, The Book of Mormon, which was passed down for generations until translated by God's power.

2. He gave no heed to the laziness of his people; nor to the exceeding busy-ness of their lives; for he knew it would be for their good.

3. And behold, he ends his email hoping that what was just typed into the plates of cyberspace was not too sacrilegious.

Szeretettel,

Alldredge Elder