April 20, 2015

Happy Monday!

I've been saying "boldog hétfőt kivánok" ("I wish you a happy Monday!") a lot recently to people here. I use it for pretty much every day of the week, but people here get way confused because they're not used to hearing people wish them a happy anything. It's pretty fun to say that to people on the streets here... I get a variety of responses.

Sometimes, it's an old man who's just grumpy with age and abuse and the violence that he's seen from all the different Hungarian revolutions and everything, and he just kind of grumbles or huffs at the suggestion of a happy day. Sometimes, it's a young lady who scoffs that someone from America who speaks Hungarian with an English accent is trying to tell her something. Sometimes, it's a homeless man who's just woken up from a rough hangover and is having a hard time not stumbling as he's walking down the sidewalk. Other times, it's a rude teenager who burps at me and then laughs to his friends smoking home-made cigarettes on the way home from school. Sometimes, it's someone who is having a hard day and they're just able to crack a smile as they say "thanks". Once in a while, it's a cheerful person who chuckles with happy surprise and wishes the same back to me. Lots of variety in the way that these people respond, but I figure no matter how they respond, they all deserve to be wished a happy Monday, or Tuesday, or Friday, or whatever day it might be. I enjoy that. :)

This week, Elder Weaver turned 21! He made himself a little birthday cake, and I found him a cool tie at Tesco for US equivalent of about 2 or 3 dollars. I also gave him a couple of those tie pins that dad mailed me in the MTC since he didn't have any of those. He seemed to enjoy that, so that was good. :) Sister Whittaker is turning 20 on Sunday this week, so he wants to make another cake for her birthday as well. Earler this week, we helped move Ica and Imi, a mother and son in the branch to their new home. They were living in a small apartment in a big Soviet-era building, but now they're living with a friend in a small home on the outskirts of the city because the rent in the apartment was becoming too much for them to pay. Ica is without work right now, and Imi is 19 years old and in a school for special needs children. His birthday was Thursday, the day after we moved them to their new residence, so we thought it would be cool to bring him something special for his birthday. We brought him some little chocolate bars and sweets and helped make him feel comfortable and happy for his birthday, so that was cool too. Lots of birthdays these days!

The weather's getting pretty warm here, but it also has been bouncing back and forth from warm, sunny days to cold, windy, drizzly days. Hooray for bi-polar weather!

A lot of our friends are doing really well here. A couple of them are working towards getting baptised pretty soon, and we're really excited about that! We enjoy getting to meet with lots of people through English class, Sport Nap, Családi Est, and Játék Est. I've taken over teaching the beginner's English class, which is usually taught by the most fluent Hungarian speaker in the area because it involves the most explanation and use of Hungarian in discussions. I still don't think I speak as well as I would like to, but I've been able to converse with pretty much anyone on almost any topic for the past little bit, and that makes me excited to keep learning more and getting better. Definitely something to be grateful for. There really is help for when we need it! :)

Everything's going fairly well here! Hope you guys are all doing super good, too! Love you all! Szeretlek titeket nagyon! :)

So here's the surprise for the week.....
I learned how to play the ukulele! Elder Viernes,
 from the senior couple here in Nyiregyhaza,
 is from Hawaii and is super good at the ukulele,

 and he's taught me a thing or two. I really liked
 it, and can play a handful of songs from memory
now and figure my way around the rest of it, so I
bought a ukulele here in Nyiregyhaza! This week,
we're planning on going out to the town square
to use it to find new people on the street. Elder Weaver
 has a guitar that he found here in Hungary, so we're

 going to see if we can put together a few fun musical
numbers that we can use to bring people in to
talk to us on the streets. Pretty excited about that! :)
I think it'll be good for the people here because
they're just so darn depressed and quiet sometimes...
it should be a good source of healthy smiles for people:)

Giant mural in Miskolc, where our missionary zone
 training was held! Not really sure who made
 this mural on the side of a building or why in the world
he wanted to, but it was cool enough to take a picture! :)

Sister Whittaker's birthday is this coming week,
and her mom sent her some pretty big packages
for her birthday. When the sisters were in a program,
we took all the packages and wrapped them up for her! :)