Christmas in Békéscsaba

Sziasztok!

I hope that everybody had a great Christmas! I did! Unfortunately, all the snow melted, but that was OK. Elder Smith’s parents sent gifts for the members here and we had a lot of fun wrapping them and delivering them. His parents made scripture bags and bought copies of the new Gospel Art Book for everyone. We gave the members those gifts along with copies of the Hungarian General Conference Liahona, which finally arrived last week.

On Christmas day an English class couple invited us over to their house for dinner! Hungarians are so nice! They are standoffish at first, but become friends quickly. They made us mutton! It was really tasty! I’ve never eaten sheep before, but it was very delicious.

The day after Christmas, which is still Christmas here, we visited some more members and had a ton of fun. We biked our way to a member’s house who lives about 30 minutes away from our apartment. The trip there was fun because we had to go through a forest that was way muddy and wet from the rain. We got really muddy from riding all over the place! It was great! And then when we got there we just played outside with Laci, who is 10, and his mom using a soccer ball and a frisbee. They live in a farming area where the soil is super good. It’s like pitch black and apparently really fertile, which is probably why the food and juices are so good here! Anyway, we spent a few hours with them just playing around and having fun. Laci really looks up to us and he is such a cute kid. I hope he pays more attention to us and our examples than the kids at school.

Church went really well yesterday. Oh I completely forgot to write about it, but since my companion was so sick last week and since he is the Branch President we had to cancel church! That is unheard of in the mission. And so yesterday we had our Christmas program and it went well. I decided it would be a good idea to read the story of Christ’s birth from the scriptures as a Sacrament Meeting talk; I have now decided that that probably wasn’t a good idea. I’m pretty sure I put a few people to sleep, which is really bad since we only have a few active members here! Haha! But the rest of the program went well. Elder Smith and I sang some Christmas songs and that turned out good since he knows how to sing. I have figured out that I can sing decently only if I am following someone who has a similar voice as mine. I never would have sung with just one other person in Sacrament Meeting at home, but I guess singing in front of 12 people is a little easier than 140 people!

Sister Richards (one of the sister missionaries here in Békéscsaba) and I taught Primary yesterday! And it went well! Yes! Well, it went well for the first 20 to 30 minutes. We talked about Christ’s birth and the shepherds and then we talked about how we celebrate Christmas. We tried to teach them the song “Stars were Gleaming.” The girl, Brigi, was really well behaved, but her younger brother was a little more of a handful! Haha. After a while I just helped him draw dinosaurs from his new dinosaur book! But is was a ton of fun. I hope they will remember what we were able to teach them.

Well I have to go now, I love you all! I hope Christmas was great over there. Happy New Year in a few days! Let’s set some sweet New Year goals and work to be a little kinder, happier and more loving to everyone!

~Anderson elder

Boldog Karácsonyt

Sziasztok!

Boldog Karácsonyt!! (Merry Christmas!!) This past week was really interesting. It snowed a lot, which was really awesome. My companion and I had a ton of fun riding our bikes in the snow. Unfortunately, on Thursday he got sick with a really high fever. We had to stay in the apartment for like two to three straight days! I don’t even remember how long exactly—it was just long. The crazy thing was that I was stuck in this teeny apartment with a sick companion but I didn’t get sick! I did a lot of studying though, which was nice. But then last night almost all of the snow melted away, which is a bummer! We were so close to having a white Christmas!

Seeing all the snow has made me miss snowboarding, so I figured out how I can snowboard here! Well, kind of. Whenever we ride the bus, I stay standing and don’t hold onto anything and it almost feels like I’m snowboarding on the bus! So that’s pretty fun.

Zone Conference was really neat this transfer. For a Christmas present we got to watch the movie “Up” which was pretty good. And we sang lots of Christmas songs and of course had trainings about how to take advantage of the holiday season to preach the Gospel.

Well my mind is going blank so this week’s blog entry will be a short one, sorry! The Gospel is amazing and I am super glad that I am able to teach others about it and see them become happier people! And speaking of happy people, Marika from Sopron got baptized on December 20th! She is awesome, I’m grateful that I was able to teach her! Remember that Christmas is about Jesus Christ! He is our Savior and I know that if we try to follow His example we will be so blessed!

Boldog Karácsonyt!

~Anderson elder

Paprikás Csirke

Sziasztok!

Last week went by pretty fast. Getting transferred to Békéscsaba was a long move—and I miss Sopron already—but the people here are incredible too!

I have some great news! I successfully made Paprikás Csirke from scratch on Wednesday and it was delicious!! Whoa! That’s the first time I have made something from scratch and made it taste good! It lasted for about four or five meals! So tasty.

And one of the coolest things about Békéscsaba is that we have bikes! Sweet! I love riding bikes! It is so much better than walking everywhere! Mine looks pretty lame and it doesn’t have any suspension, but it moves! So many people in this city ride bikes, bikes pretty much dominate the roads. OK, its not that intense, but I haven’t seen this many people on bikes in any other part of the country. And it snowed on Sunday! The snow didn’t stick, but it was ridiculously fun trying to lick snowflakes from the air while riding a bike!

I have a kind of embarrassing story to share. On Sunday as my companion and I were about to go to church, the handle on our apartment door broke from the outside locking us inside! The door was unlocked, but the inside handle didn’t have the part that turns the lock, so it just spun in circles and did nothing! We called the sisters—our district consists of my companion and me and two sisters, who are wonderful—and they came and rescued us. Haha. We all thought it was pretty funny.

On Sunday I gave a talk in church and it went well. The branch here is way small. Because there is only one active Priesthood holder in the branch—he just got baptized a few months ago and is awesome—my companion is the Branch President and I am the clerk. I’ll likely be assigned as First Counselor as well.

Well, we are in a hurry, so I have to leave now. Thanks for the support and love! Christmas is near! Whoohoo! Remember what Christmas is really about! Christ and how he is our Savior and Redeemer! Have a great week everybody!

~Anderson elder

Going to Békéscsaba

Sziasztok!

Last week was pretty good! I don’t have much time to write about it though; my companion and I have a program to go to soon.

So first of all, Marika is doing even better! She is awesome and will be baptized on the 18th! I’m way excited. One of the best things about her situation is that she has two really good friends in the branch who will be taking good care of her and helping her to stay strong in the church. She loves the gospel and I am so grateful that I have been able to teach her. It is way cool to see someone’s life become better and happier because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Awesome.

Some other big news is that on Wednesday I am being transferred to Békéscsaba, which is in the southeastern side of the country. It’s not too far from Romania. I am excited to go, but I am going to miss the people here in Sopron.

My companion and I got to go to Austria last week! Well, we got to go through it. A member moved to a town about 30 minutes south of Sopron and the fastest way to get there from here is through Austria. I never got to step on Austrian soil, but it was still cool to drive through two small towns and see all the signs in German.

This morning we made Paprikás Csirke—pepper chicken. Made with sweet pepper, not the regular spicy kind, it’s way better than it sounds and is one of the tastiest Hungarian meals! Last Monday we visited a member who is a chef and he showed us how to make it. We haven’t actually eaten it yet, but it sure smells good!

Well, I have to go now. Thank you all for all of your awesomeness! See you next week!

~Anderson elder