Week 52 - 16th Week in Sopron

Well this last week was an adventure!

We stormed the castle, slayed the Dragon, and saved the Pricess! The Kin... "Elder! quit day dreaming, its your turn to knock the next door." sigh... Well I knocked that door, and a couple more. This week we have been out quite a bit more and despite the monotony of it we had a pretty good time. Sometimes a nice day dream helps things go along a little faster though :P

Most of the week we were finding, though on Wednesday we had interviews with the mission president in Budapest. That was good, the only bad part is the fact that it's a 3 hour ride by train there and another 3 hour train ride back. So by the time we get home it kills our day, but it's worth it. I really like visiting with President Smith. He is such a great guy, I always feel like he has got my back and I really appreciate it. It's sad we will be saying goodbye to him though in this next transfer, he is coming to the end of his mission. It's been great having him with us.

The rest of the week we stayed pretty busy. Friday we also had zone training. Even though we had a lot of travel time we were still able to get in a pretty good working week. We were able to find some old investigators and reset up, as well as meet with, our new investigator family. I really love this family! When we visit with them I just feel like I am home! They are so cool.

I arm wrestled a member named Istvan. Brings back good memories of arm wrestling and wrestling my young men leaders...haha! There was a picture of the ants in the building...and I also sent a pic of a bunny of a lady we tracted into. She wasn't interested. There are also some pictures of a huge train set up. It is in the neighbors of the Jensen's. It was pretty cool! We had a program with Linda and she fed us spaghetti dinner. Zsolt came with us. And the pic of me with a younger guy is Krisztian, the branch president's son. The lady in the back is Eigner Zsusa.

Sunday was a little bit of a stresser. One of the less actives we meet with went back and forth on giving a talk or not. When the branch President asked her she said no. Then she told us she was asked to give a talk all proud! So we told her we would help her and set up and taught her and helped her prepare. On Thursday though she came in to English class and decided she had changed her mind. I talked her back into by telling her it could just be 5 minutes and I would give a talk as well, so she agreed. Sunday morning I texted her to remind her and she called and told me she was in Györ!

I was pretty disappointed, so I had to give a talk in her place and I had hardly anytime to prepare. The kicker was I also had to teach the combined priesthood and relief society lesson as well and I only had time the Saturday before to prep for everything (plus this is all in Hungarian). But despite all the factors working against me, I SLAYED THAT FREAKIN DRAGON!!! (whistling, cheers and applause!!!) So not too bad!

Today we took a much needed rest, strolled around the city took pictures of the ancient building and ruins and had some ice cream. One of the sisters' investigators took us on the tour. It was pretty good stuff. Love ya all back home and those who read this from other places around the world. Until next week!

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

Week 51 -15th Week in Sopron

I think I'll refrain from a big group email this week. Not a whole lot to report other than the fact that we got Anikó back on baptism date! That was a lot to do with my companion actually. He just put out a date and she said, "Look I told you I would get baptized tomorrow if it wasn't for the fact I had to stop smoking!" So I said "Then stop smoking! We keep telling you we want to help so let's do the program and get it done with." So that's what we decided to do!

She has actually started the stop smoking program and will be going through it til next Friday. So far she hasn't smoked for 3 days!!! WOOHOO!!! Keep her in your prayers, if she finishes the program I think she will be in the all clear!

Sunday as you all should know was Mother's Day. I got to skype home and talk with my family it was super great! It was great to see them, I miss them very much. My older sister is pregnant! I will have a neice by the time I get home. I also got to chat with my grandparents who were there. The experince was great, though kind of surreal. Life back home kinda just seems to be that thing before I became a missionary. I keep thinking I will just go home and it's gonna be what it was when I left, but I can already see that after just a year things have changed. But, it will be good. Life keeps changing but I guess that's just how its supposed to work.

After skyping with the family we left Sandor's place and went to the Jensen's (the senior couple serving in Sopron) to have dinner. It was really good! Sister Jensen is a great cook! And yes, mom, I cleaned up the dishes :)

Love ya all back at home, it was so great to skype with you all!
ttyl

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

Week 50 - 14th Week in Sopron

Anther good week!

How about all of you? After I got done emailing last week guess what I went to go do? PAINTBALLING!!! It was super great! We had a team of ten! Elder Jensen, Our Sisters (Jeppson and Cox), us (Oakes and Evans) The Branch president and his son (Révész Blas and Krisztian) and three others Tibor (investigator), Kimo (an American) and Kimo's son.

We played like 5 rounds! Super cool, though I wasn't all that good. The sisters however, destroyed! I was way impressed. Turns out the manly tactics (charging the enemy) doesn't work as well in paintball warfare, who knew?

But it was still awesome. I had one match were I took out three people! I even used my GoPro cam on the whole thing!!! So I got all the stuff on film. plus they take pictures and video as well! So I will upload all of that!

The rest of the week was less thrilling, but it was refreshing to get back to the grind after a nice break. We had another hard working week though we didn't get any new investigators.

We did meet with the family we found last week and had a great lesson, we even got to do some service for them (helped them build a playground tower for their boys in the yard! super cool!) The lesson went great and the father was asking great questions.

The dad's name is Atilla, he has a wife and two boys. One is 9 the other is like 1. We have invited them over for dinner at the branch president's place two weeks from now so that should be great!

We had District Conference (Stake conference for branches), and it was also great. A seventy, President Rena (not sure if I spelled that right) came. He was super great. He gave two awesome talks. He called me up to the stand to share an experience and help in his talk (yikes!) But I had been forwarned, I wonder if it might have been better if I hadn't for all the worrying I went through. But it went okay.

We had a visit from a family that had a missionary that was AP when I got here. He may have been out like 6 months while I was. It was kinda crazy we ran into them, we were leaving right as they got out of their car so we let them into the branch house and chatted a bit. It is the Swenson's, they are touring Budapest. We got a pic with them.

I really enjoyed this week! Elder Evans and I are doing really well. He is a hard worker. Hope you all are doing well! Sounds like you guys are working with Grandpa to help him improve, I am glad, I have been praying a lot for you all. And tell Naomi, "Naomi! You are super awesome! that drawing is so cool!!! You are going to be an artist! Keep practicing, love you!!!"

Love ya all!

Elder Oakes, Hungary Budapest Mission