Full Time Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Hungary, Budapest Mission

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Week 66 - 7th Week in Szeged

Hey mom, Brycie here

I don't even have enough time to do a full email let alone pictures. I miss you and I miss the family.

I don't have enough time to read your full email either so I will get to it next week. I am really sorry but I tried to catch up on all the other emails I have missed for the last two months but next week I will just send an email to you guys. I love you I miss you.

The work is good and that's why we are here. We will be going to a ropes park today. The branch here is bigger than a lot of them, but a lot smaller than a ward back home. But I love it here in Szeged.

sok szeretettel (lots of love)
until next week because again, I am out of time!

Elder Oakes
daniel.oakes@myldsmail.net

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Week 65 - 6th Week in Szeged

Well things are going...

This was a long week for sure! We had 22 hours of finding and most of it was tracting with little success. The irony is that we will be giving a training on finding this week so we will see what we can do...

But honestly, I am glad to be here. Things are going good. Szeged is a beautiful city and lots of great people here. I love working with the members! They have been such a huge help. We have had so much support here it is amazing. We have sisters serving in the area. They are Sisters Crooper, Hawker and Heath. There are three. Then Elder Hoferl and I and the other set of elders, Paul and Winkle. It is a good group to work with!
Crooper
Hawker
Heath














The weather has been pretty hot but even that flipped around yesterday. A huge storm hit and dropped tons of rain on us. It has cooled off a ton which is super nice! Not a whole lot else to say with time restaints.

Love you all back at home! Sorry no pictures, no time! I love you mom and I miss you!!! I am sending you a huge hug!

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

Monday, August 10, 2015

Week 64 - 5th Week in Szeged

This week,

SO things are going good! Elder Höferl and I stayed together so things just kept on rolling as usual. The two new elders and sisters are here and getting settled in. Paul and Winkle are excellent missionaries and have a motivation to work hard and bring about the Lord's work. The sisters are getting along like peas in a pod (really well). They have mentioned several times that they are in love with each other! I am sure its entirely appropriate though.

The branch is great here in Szeged. I love the people and have been feeling the most support from members since I have ever been on my mission. It is great to see the amount of help they give and how much it really helps to move the work forward.

I was able to buy new luggage this week which was great! My old ones went bad on the way into Szeged and I was able to find a great deal on some pretty high grade stuff.

Programs are great! We have lots of good investigators who are taking what we teach seriously. I love it. I only have 8 months left, I was just reminded. It's weird though, because I still feel so young. But life moves on.

I have got to go! love you all!!!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Week 63 - 4th Week in Szeged

Well with 15 minutes and counting this will be short,

I don't have a lot of time to write. But I'll just sum up the week. We have had a lot of programs and we have a lot of investigators making progress. I love the people here!

This week has been little rough for more reasons than one, but I am doing good. I have been sending a lot of prayers to my family and I know God has been paying attention. My sister Naomi, after her first round of chemo treatment, is in remission! God is hearing prayers for sure.

As for interesting things in this week, we got to clean the apartment! Yeah! But not our apartment. There was a second elder companionship that got shut down here and they left their place destroyed. When the Jensens came for apartment checks they weren't happy.

So we planned a day and the Jensens came back and cleaned it with us. We got it nice and pretty for the new elders coming in tomorrow.

With eight minutes left, I got to go write some more emails love ya all!

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

Week 62 - 3rd Week in Szeged

This week...

It's been a long one and a good one. We had a ton of programs this week. LIKE A TON!!! It was awesome. We hit 25/10 (the time requirements for a week) by Thursday! I was amazed at how much we have been doing.

We have a lot of really good investigators right now. One of them, Péter, is on baptism date and progressing really well. Meeting with him has been great! He wants to be baptized really bad and I think he is going all the way. We meet him with his cousin who is a member. Member missionary work is awesome!

Aside from that we also had Zone Training. This was my first zone training as a zone leader, it was definitely interesting being on the other side of things but I felt like it went really well. We focused our training on building our relationships with God, our companion, the members and then the investigators. We stressed the importance of the connections between these relationships and had some great role plays and activities. The whole thing went great.

Saturday we had sport nap. Three investigators came, it was great! We always play soccer here. But I am getting a lot better I think. Church was good as well. Honestly just lots of good hard work.

Sorry no pictures this week. No time to take them and no time to upload them. Mom and Grandma, I am sorry to hear about Grampy passing. I loved him and will miss seeing him when I get back in April.
Love you all!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission
daniel.oakes@myldsmail.net
This picture was from Sis. Wittaker's blog...Elder Oakes is intently watching