Week 31 - 4th Week in Tatabanya..Calling Home on Wednesday!!!

I got the Christmas box,and the birthday present which I haven't opened yet, though, I know exactly what it is. It was a nightmare trying to get it back home. It wasn't your fault, it was the trains. We had to wait for a half hour late train, got on, got sat down, then they told us it was the wrong train and we had 5 min to get to the right one.... I opened the box and got the food pulled out and the presents are under the tree. I did open the cards though.

I have to go now, I will call in a few days!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission

Week 30 - 3rd Week in Tatabanya

Hey Everyone!

So Lala sent you some of the pictures from when he invited us over for dinner? That night was super fun the first two pics were me eating some spaghetti noodles until Lala started to do a demon exorcism on me in Hungarian which was so funny I ended up in a laughing fit on the floor choking on spaghetti and crying because I was laughing so hard. But it was a good night.

Eating Spaghetti at Lala's home

Laughing too hard!

Tears from the laugh!

The week has been good but we had like 7 programs cancel and it's hard to make up that lost time. The mission president sent me an email asking why we were behind on hours for the week. That was difficult to explain without sounding like I was making excuses. But other than that the week went really well. We met with a lot of great people. We have one of the biggest investigator pools here I have ever had on my mission, it's pretty awesome! The picture of us wearing the hats was at a single elderly member's house who invited us out for lunch. She is super nice!

Service project we did at a disabled home

Jyuszika and Elder Luke

Elder Oakes and the Branch President

Investigator while tabling

At a member's home for lunch

New puppy

One of our investigators Zsolt is a super cool guy from English class. We meet with him like 3 times a week. We teach him English but also the gospel. Last week we went out to his work and brought him lunch. In turn he invited us to his home this week to visit with his family and have lunch! I am super excited about that and can't wait to hang out with him.

Through out the week though we have had a lot of great experiences. I am really loving it here with these guys (the other Elders). In the branch I have gotten to know a couple members quite well, Lala and Niké. It is super cold here but no snow yet...

Tree in Tatabanya city square

At the ceremony

Lala and Elder Oakes

Nike

But forget all that, it's almost Christmas! It's sounding like this is going to be a big one too! I have my Halloween package and my Christmas package and now possibly a birthday package all waiting for me at the mission home. I don't know how we are going to make it back here with all that! It's gonna be a problem, but a good one I think!

Things sound like they are going good back home! The pool looks freaking awesome! Wish I could be there for that! Thanks for the pictures though! I mentioned I bought a small hand drill last time, and I have been putting it to good use too, but I don't think it would help in building the pool.

Eveyone is coming down huh? Tell them all I say HELLO! Vagy Sziastok mi mondunk Magyarol. I am really happy to hear that Grandpa will be getting out of the hospital soon, that should be good. How is he doing right now?

Guess what? I got pictures to work! I have been uploading them for the last several hours! There are about 187 videos included so when it finishes I am going to throw you the link. I love you all at home; can't wait to skype you all!

Apparently while waiting for an investigator who was late for his appointment with them, Elder Oakes fall sleep sitting on the stairs. The other elders were also there and took the picture.

Elder Chambers, Elder Oakes, Elder Luke, Elder Gonzalez

Elders Luke and Chambers

Elder Oakes and Elder Chambers

Elder Gonzalez

Saving the shoes!

Gonzi

Bowling with the elders, Elder Luke won...

Elder Chambers and Jyuszika

Castle the Elders toured

Elder Oakes and Chambers

Elder Chambers

Elder Oakes...looks yummy!

Members home for dinner

Elder Oakes and Luke

Napping

Festivities at the square

Lala

Gonzi

Love

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission

Week 29 - 2nd Week in Tatabanya

Okay,

So, last week I wrote an email that was getting pretty good, but the computers here are very slow and don't like me doing more than one thing at a time. I was wrapping up the email as I started to try to log onto my "one drive" account to upload pics (which I couldn't do anyway because I forgot the cord), and as I was doing that the entire thing crashed. When I went back to see if my email had been saved I couldn't find it. I didn't want to retype the whole thing so I shot off a quick email to say sorry but no real email that week.

I got on this week to find out that the original email actually went through! HO-RAH!!! It's a nice bonus! Mint mindig nincs képek lesz, which is to say like last time there will be no pictures. The computers here just will not accept them from me. Bocsi (sorry!). De nincs semmi gond, nekem van egy tervem a szamunkra! HO-RAH! Which is to say that I have a plan! Though fruition of that plan may not come soon. Maybe closer to Christmas.

We had an okay week this week. Lots of craziness going on here. The weather really stinks right now. No snow yet, it is very dark, rainy, and windy. The worst part is that it is all cold. And we had 7 programs cancel on us so, we were hurting this last week. And, I got a call from the mission home that my Christmas package is tied up in customs. They commented that since it was so big, it may be more of a problem getting out than normal. I just hope that things will all work out. We also had good stuff in the last week. I was super excited to find out we have bikes! We got them out and fixed them up and now we are motoring around on those! In fact, that's how we got to our emailing place today!

I am sorry to hear that back at home things with Grandpa aren't doing so well! I have been keeping him in my prayers and will continue to as well. Wish I could be home for Christmas, but I will be sending something home for everyone today so, watch out for that in the mail. (Just a warning, you may need to put them in the fridge until Christmas morning.)

The branch here is the smallest one that I have ever been in yet. But they are good people. Elder Gonzalez has been in Tatabanya for 10-11 weeks and he loves it. They have had a lot of success in the past with the English classes. We haven't had any dinner appointments yet. One member, Lala by name (like the Teletubbies) hangs out with us all that time and makes us fruit tea. An area 70 came one time and met him and when he said "my name is Lala" the 70 said "oh like the Teletubbie!" And the name has stuck to him ever since! We don't have a ward mission leader, we just meet with the Branch President when we have free time. The other set of missionaries are Elder Luke and Elder Chambers. I taught them to play Magic and Bang. We work on our language when we play Bang.

We table a bit here, weather permitting. One program we had this week was with Zsolt. We initially just started English with him. This week he told us he was going to do a Gettysburg address presentation for us but when we were getting started he stopped us to apologize for the fact he forgot to prepare for the English topic he wanted to review with us. Instead, he asked us to tell about the history of our church. We looked at each other... and then proceeded to teach a full lesson on the restoration that went really well. It was a blessing. "Tovab menjuk tovab...." (onward ever onward....)

Love you all back home. We have a program in like 10 min so I have to go. I'll email next week. Don't forget to get me the skype info! Keep me updated on the pool it looks super cool!

I love you so much mom!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission

Week 28 - 1st Week in Tatabanya

Hey All,

So this last week has been a crazy week! We got calls for transfers and I got transferred out of Szolnok, as most of you know. I didn't end up packing until late that night because we spent most of the day running around saying goodbye. Wednesday morning came pretty early too! We were out by 7:00 am with all of our bags and onto a bus. Most of the people on the bus weren't too happy, and honestly we weren't either. But we got to the train station in time to buy the tickets for the train we had planned, and for one of our investigators to show up, by surprise, though a little drunk, to say goodbye.

The train ride was pretty quick and we got to Kelleti station for transfers pretty early. I said goodbye to Elder Weaver and hello to Elder Gonzalez. The last week has been great here in Tatabanya. We actually have good work going on and a ton of great people that we are meeting with! We had four investigators in church! I was a bit worried about fitting in with the new group here but things are going great and we are all already pretty great friends. Jordan Flake is my Zone leader for this area!

The weather is getting super cold here. It's "misting" (raining), there is just so much moisture! No pictures this week because I forgot my cord. Next week though I should have a bunch. But last week the pics I sent were of Szolnok and the branch president's wedding.

Tell Grandpa I hope everything turns out okay and that I love him and I'll be praying for him.

I need your skype account so I can start getting that set up. Glad you guys enjoyed Thanksgiving. We treated ourselves to a really fancy dinner here with pumpkin pie! The pumpkin pie was salty... The area here is pretty sweet though. This apartment is the cleanest one I have ever been in yet so no need to clean!

Unfortunately I have not yet gotten my Halloween box, and probably won't till I go in for Christmas :P And also I haven't seen the pool with cement in it yet. I must have missed that pic so send it again.

I love you all!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission