Elder Bryce Oakes: Week 37 - 1st Week in Sopron!

Hey there!

Okay so this week has been a bit crazy! We had transfers last week and that's pretty much guaranteed insanity. Just imagine 100 foreigners randomly deciding all at the same time trying to stuff all of their belongings into suitcases, dragging them onto public transportation, and then all meeting at the same spot, at relatively the same time, running around speaking a language you don't understand. Its got to be an odd spectacle for the Hungarians.

But it's the tradition here in the Hungary Budapest mission, and until they break down and get everyone here a vehicle like the missionaries in America I can't see it changing anytime soon. But hey, you kinda start to enjoy it after a while. It is like a big reunion!

Members in Tatabanya: Edina, Nike and Lala with Elder Oakes

Oakes and Cannon

Elder Gonzalez, Oakes, Paragoy and Anderson

I had to say goodbye to Tatabanya, it was sad but its never a real goodbye because we always see people. Elder Cannon is staying and getting Elder Antablian, super cool guy. I like him a lot.

Anyway, when we got to Budpest I said goodbye to my comp, Elder Cannon. I love the guy but we will see each other around. I met up with my new companion, Elder Mortensen. I LOVE THIS GUY!!!! He is so awesome. He is much better at the language than I was at his point in the mission. Super smart and helps me out a ton! I can't think of a better companion to go full senior with!

Elder Mortensen

Mortensen and Oakes

Oh, I'm not sure I mentioned that I am the full senior companion now. Last time I was talking to the mission president I was telling him all the super cool missionaries I would like to serve with because I wanted companions that would work me hard. He said "Well that's great you would like to work hard Elder but at this point you're done being with missionaries who are your age or older in the mission." So I saw this one coming.

But what I didn't see coming was when we got here and we were talking about the other missionaries in our district I realized something! I turned to my companion and said with a tone of shock in my voice "Wait a minute, this means I am District Leader doesn't it?!?" my companion kinda just nodded his head at me taking it all in pace while my mind is racing at about a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out all the implications of the statement I had just uttered.

So yeah now I am here in Sopron, a random city in Hungary, as the senior companion and District leader and I am supposed to lead 5 other missionaries in the work efforts here. Honestly I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for the challenge but afraid to mess it up. But I think it will be good. I luckily have a good team here. I already said my companion is awesome, so that's great, and I ended up with a senior couple again! Super awesome! We got the Jensens here with us and I am loving it!

I am loving the Jensens. But aside from them we have a sister companionship here as well. We have Sister Martineau and Sister Jeppson. They are both super cool as well. Sister Jeppson just got into the country but she already speaks well even though she wouldn't admit it and Sister Martineau was from my group and is doing a good job here. At the end of the week everyone reports their progress in the missionary work to me. Then I turn in a report to the zone leaders. Every week I will hold a district training meeting.

Jensens

Sister Jeppson

Sister Martineau

The branch is great here. Last Sunday was pretty small but that's only because this last week we had snow flakes falling the size of my fist and things get crazy with Hungarians and the weather, they are super superstitious. We have three hour church again, still trying to decide if I like that or not.

Sopron isn't a big city but it's bigger than Tatabanya, I think. The work is good here. They had two baptisms in the last year which is super good. But when we got here, to my horror, the previous Elders did not have an area book work, in fact I don't think any serious area book work has been done since last July. So we have a few names and descriptions of investigators on a small paper but that was it. My companion and I have spent several hours on the phone and in the book trying to reverse engineer everything and get it all in order. We had a program this morning and Elder Jensen came and sat in on it.

We also have been doing a lot of cleaning in the apartment. Which, by the way, is super nice and sits right above the branch house so that is SUPER convenient. It's really big but has had a lot of crud build up over the years. We are almost done cleaning now (my companion has been a big help with that) and it's looking pretty good.