January 8, 2015

Hey hey!

Another week's gone by. Only 2 1/2 more and we're breaking out of here!! Hahaha the MTC isn't quite as bad as some people make it up to be, but it definitely does try your patience and make you crazier than you've ever been before. Although it's good to be here and learn how to better care for others and speak a language, I'm definitely very obviously excited to go to Europe and have the real adventures that we all know are going to happen. It's going to be GREAT.

So this week's been kind of quiet, mostly! Our new Finnish missionaries are here now, and they're pretty much settled in by now. One of them ran against us as a Mtn View Toro! (For Coach Selby, it's Elder Nissen, going to Finland.) In fact, he and I decided to try to co-set the mile record here at the MTC since they start all the records over at the beginning of the new year. I've been playing basketball mostly for the past couple of weeks because the track is just too tight and tiny for my taste, and the exercise field outside has been closed for a while now. Basketball's been a lot of fun and it's kept me from gaining any weight, but I've definitely lost some running ability from sitting in a chair 12 hours of the day. I'm very excited to come home after everything's been finished and to be able to run again. That'll be the legeslegjobb (the best). Anyways, we co-ran the mile together and he beat me by 12 seconds. I was a little bit bummed about losing to a Toro, but it was okay because I'm just pretty glad that after so long here in the MTC, I could keep up with him that well! So no mile record for Priest Elder this week, but I gained a new friend which is way better. 

Lots of interesting events this week! Our Hungarian's obviously getting better every day, but it's also a challenge because there's still different rates that everyone learns at and it makes it stressful for some of our district members when someone else speaks/writes/understands well and it's harder for them. I'm so stinking excited though, it's going to be great to finally fly to Europe and see what we've all been waiting for. We got the unique opportunity to skype-teach someone in Hungary yesterday morning, and we realized very quickly that, although our Hungarian's been improving, it's not nearly good enough yet to speak as well as we want to with others. It was okay though! We understood almost everything that he said, and I really believe that the Lord is going to help us when He knows that we need it. The man that we taught was named "Ruhast" (pronouced Rue-hawsht), and he told us that he wants us to come find him as soon as we're in Budapest because he wants to cook some real authentic Hungarian food for us! How cool is that!! Good food AND a new friend?! Deal!!

My companion and I also got asked to help teach a lesson in front of about 100 new incoming missionaries this week so that we can show them how to understand people. The presentation was called "People and Purpose," and it was really cool because we got to learn more ourselves while still helping to put the new missionaries at ease and helping them to know that everything's really not as stressful or crazy as some people might say. So that's really good.

The new Finnish missionaries had the lucky task of flying to LA for a day to visit the consulate and start the visa process for their country. We we all super jealous because Hungary lets you come into the country on just a passport, and it's not necessary to travel with a visa. They got to spend a day in LA seeing some different sights, talking to some real people on the streets, and other adventures. One of the Finnish elders brought back some of that MoonSand stuff that you find in the art section of a lot of stores--the kind of play sand that molds together and doesn't make a mess, ya know? Anyways, they brought it back with them, and, long story short, we now have a twelve-inch by one-inch beach in our dorms. Pretty great.

One of our Hungarian teachers is taking an internship opportunity in Washington, DC. this week, so we said goodbye to him on Friday and sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" in Hungarian to him. That was actually pretty sad. He looks like Andrew Garfield from the new Spiderman movies if you ask me.

Just another fun time in the MTC this week! Not much time left, but just wanted to let ya know how it's going here! Nagyon szeretlek titeket! Mignem talalkozunk oire, sziastok! :)