Week 60 - 1st Week in Szeged

Wow this has been a crazy week!

Where to even begin! Lets just start with transfers. We got calls last week that I was going to Szeged. Wednesday we left to Budapest and I switched companions. I will miss Elders Rodgers and Mellor, but I am excited to serve with Elder Höferl. He is Austrian but speaks really good English, though we are tending to speak more Hungarian together. As we were coming into Szeged my luggage broke. Not just one but both of my large suitcases are finished. I literally had to carry one on my back. Poor Elder Höferl had to practically drag the other one.

But Szeged is a nice city and I am glad to be here. Being Zone Leader is going to be hard though. We have to work harder and better with more demands on our time! It's crazy but good and I am excited. The next morning Sisters Whittaker And Heath even took us out to go do Yoga! It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. Who knew that stretching was such a good work out. We had a hash of good programs the first day as well. This city is big and we were having to run all over the place but its helping me to figure out the city better so that's good.

Saturday we had an awesome Sport Nap! The branch here is super into it and I loved playing with them even though I am not very good at soccer. The Branch president here is probably one of the best players I have ever seen! Luckily I was on his team so I wasn't too much of a handicap. That night though we got a call from a member of the branch asking us to cover the Sunday school lesson for the youth! With meeting starting at 8 we only ended up having like an hour or two to frantically prepare!

But things went well. Church itself was great! Though I had to introduce myself and totally botched it! I just get so nervous in front of people sometimes, but the members knew what I meant to say. We taught the Sunday school class. That went really well. Only two kids in the class, so not that intimidating, and we actually were able to prepare a pretty good lesson. Elder Höferl is super good at teaching too, so that's a big help.

Sunday night I got initiated as Zone Leader. We take "call in reports" from our zone and then pass the information along to our APs. Its kinda a long process but it was good and I got to start getting to know the missionaries in our zone. It's interesting being on the other end of those phone calls.

But anyway, biggest news this week came from back home! My little sister has been fighting leukemia since she was diagnosed a few weeks ago. Apparently my family launched a social media campaign that caught Taylor Swifts attention (let it be known that my little sister is a huge T-Swifty fan) and when she saw my sister's story she decided she was going to help out, by donating $50,000 to my sister's recover fund. Since then the news has continued to spread and people are sending their love, donations, care packages and letters to my sister.

It's amazing to see the blessings that are pouring in. I am so grateful to everyone helping and supporting my sister. Taylor you have a huge fan here for sure!

I hope everyone has a great week!!! ttyl

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission
daniel.oakes@myldsmail.com

#TeamNaomi Naomi Oakes, my little sister who was diagnosed with Leukemia. She is 11 years old and one of the happiest people I know. She is battling it out with this cancer right now. Thanks to everyone for your love support and prayers! Thanks so much to Taylor Swift for helping my sister.