July 13, 2015

So this week, we had transfers! Usually, transfers for our mission only happen once every 9 weeks. Some of the older missionaries in the mission, though, came into the country when we still had a 6-week system instead, and they finish their missions at awkward times between transfers as a result. Because of this, we sometimes have "mini transfers" that shift around the missionaries to accomodate those who are leaving the country while no new ones come in yet. Anyways, we ended up being one of the groups that was split up and shifted around in order to help with that. Sad, because Elder Wilcox was so cool and we had such good times. We were hoping for at least a full transfer together, but he's gone to Pest to help train a new missionary who got here about a month ago.

It's exciting though, because Elder Roberts is here with us in Érd now! He's from the group right before mine in the MTC, so we're both relatively young in the mission here. He's a brilliant soccer player and likes to have a fun time, so we've been having lots of fun so far using that as an activity to find new friends here.

On our way back from transfers at the Keleti trainstation in Pest, we were going to leave the city via the Déli trainstation on the south end of the Buda side. A huge, random storm blew into the city from up the Duna river, and we got soaked as we waited for our train to come. The wind and rain got more intense, and before we new it we couldn't see anything more than 10m away from us. All trains from the area close to the station were brought in, but anything farther away was stopped until the storm could pass. I guess the winds were pretty strong in places, because some big old, heavy trees were blown over and knocked down the power lines over the railroad tracks, making travel to and from Budapest impossible. After four hours, the storm died down enough to increase visibility, but the lines were still down. We ended up catching a bus back to Érd, along with about 100 other stressed out travelers heading to Lake Balaton for vacation. By the time we finally got back to Érd, we were tired, wet, slightly claustrophobic, and ready for bed. It was fun. :)

President Szabadkai invited all of the missionaries from around Budapest to come into the city on Saturday to watch a dance concert put on by the BYU contemporary dance team. We invited some of our friends to come up with us, and we ended up having a group of 6--us two, the sister missionaries, and two of our friends friends from Érd. The performance was cool, and it was interesting to hear English for a change. The investigator that we brought with us to see the show, Papp Laci, really liked the show. We took some selfies with him on his phone before we left. :)

We've been super lucky to have so many people invite us over to their homes this week to visit them! We've also done a lot of service recently, including cutting firewood for old ladies, helping in the gardens of families who live on the outskirts of town, picking cherries for a nice néni in the branch here, and lots of other fun stuff. No complaints there--we're having a blast!

Anyways, we've got to get heading out pretty soon for a program, but I hope everyone has a magical Monday and a great week! Love y'all! :)

President Szabadkai let us take a trip to Budapest with a

family to see the Budapest Red Bull Air Race for the 4th of July! Pretty cool! 

They set up huge pilons on the river between Parliament 

and the castles and had the planes fly through

to see who could have the fastest times

American planes for the win!!

Happy 4th of July!

Betya didn't know Scooby Doo and the
Mystery Machine live in Érd!

Helped Aniko pick her cherries from her trees, then
played with her dog, Jackie! Super nice lady who
fed us a super good lunch at her house.

Member's cat was shaved because of knotted fur...
Picked her up to take a picture, couldn't
help but laugh as we saw the cat's response.

Saying goodbye to Wilcox...

And got soaked on the way back with Elder Roberts!

At the BYU dance concert in Budapest

Meeting up with some of the MTC group at transfers!