Elder Bryce Oakes: Week 39 - 3rd Week in Sopron

Hey there

So this last week has been a bit rough. I think there has been multiple reasons but I have been feeling pretty stressed out. The week started pretty good! We went to a chocolate factory that is here in Sopron. They showed us a video presentation of how chocolate is made and all the steps in the process from the coco bean to the treat that we eat.

Pretty cool but I was more interested in the endless assorted chocolate that was included in the tour! Pretty cool place and there are some really good kinds of chocolate I never even thought about (paprika chocolate). Afterward we went to tour an old church, it had just snowed so we had some fun in the snow. I nailed Sister Jeppsen in the back of the head with a giant snow ball! The look on her face...priceless!!! :P We then made a snow man, (afterward we realized we were in the cemetery at the church. In hindsight it might not have been a good place for that but...)

The rest of the week wasn't bad but it wasn't necessarily good either. I was feeling pretty low this week. Our programs are going fine but I feel like most of our "progressing" investigators are slowing in their progression. I have also been frustrated from the lack of fruit of our finding efforts. We had a lot of people who were really rude when we were tracting. We got kicked out of buildings like 4 times and the police threatened on us twice. We tracted a lot this week and repeatedly have not only not found success but have been discouraged by the aggresive behaviors of many of the people we have come into contact with.

Ersike (right) and Aniko (left)

Thursday was a nice break, we got to go into Györ for zone training. It's always nice and serves as a spiritual boost to go to zone trainings. The training was good and it was great to see a lot of missionaries I knew. Afterward we went to a place called the Hajo which literaly means boat. Its a fitting name for the resturaunt because it is literally a boat on the Duna River...super good too! We ordered two Mississippi platters that were huge! I forgot to get pictures before we ate but some missionaries did so we gotta try to go blog hunting for those. It was really good. A nice break from the week, but we went right back to it when we got back.

The rest of the week for the most part was like the first part in regards to the work. We got to meet with a friend of Zsolts though from Buda. He came to visit and is a memeber as well. He is a super cool guy and we hung out quite a bit.

Its been for the most part a humbling experience this week. This trend however was pleasantly broken on Sunday. My companion and I headed out to tract the one ten floor building here in sopron. The first door that opened was a middle aged man in about his 40's. When we said we represented our church he asked us which one.

We responded "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints -or you may know our nickname- the Mormons" When we said mormons his face lit up and he welcomed us in. For the next hour or so we got to know him and found that almost 20 years ago he met with the missionaries in Pest as a young man and they had taught him baseball, which he remembered, as well as other things which he didn't. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and explained it as well as going through a lot of the restoration.

The experience was refreshing and it really helped me to get out of this "funk" that I felt I had fallen into. I am grateful for the experience. And now I am here today at our new emailing place. (I mention it as the new one because we are no longer going to the old one) Why is that even relevant? Because our old emailing place charged 2000ft for a 5 hour pass. My companion and I decided to do some research and we found a new place. College Library 1000ft for a 6 month unlimited pass. We signed up and are here in the new place now.

So things are looking up at the beginning of this week and my companion and I are still looking forward to what Sopron has in store. The snow here has melted as of now and it is getting warmer.