Week 9 in Pécs

Bonjour tout le monde!

We got our transfer calls today and I am staying here in Pécs. Elder Paul will be my new companion. This is his last transfer before he finishes his mission. He was an AP before coming here. Elder Fitzgerald is going to be a zone leader along with Elder Priest in Szombathely. It has been a great 9 weeks and the time is for real flying by so fast. Elder Fitzgerald and I basically started out with nothing and now we have around 6 teaching programs a week. I've had so many great spiritual experiences and funny stories, and I know there will be way many more to come. Sister Peterson is going to train and Sister Hawker is going home. Elders Martineau and Krueger are staying together.

Last week, during P-Day, we visited the university in Pécs. It was really cool but it felt weird being at a university campus again. I have to admit, I miss York. A senior couple, the Petersons, visited our apartment to do a checkup and we passed it with flying colours! It helps that our landlady has an arrangement with a cleaning lady to come once every 4 weeks but we still clean too.

The sisters had a baptism scheduled for Saturday, but since their investigator didn't feel ready, it got cancelled at the last minute. We went to a funeral in a small village called Tengeri. The brother of a member was being buried. It wasn't a grand religious funeral, just a simple one. At the end, we sang "Nearer My God to Thee" with the member.
On Saturday we played basketball with some of the members and we went to a lookout, Kálvária hill, which has a strange looking statue of Jesus on the cross. The view was still great though. The Olympics are in full swing now and the members are keeping me updated on how many gold medals Hungary has.

On Sunday we had many less active members come to church and it felt really good seeing them there. There is an inactive member in the branch whom we are working with to quit smoking and it is nice giving service like this to people. The sisters' investigator told us that we always seem so happy, positive, calm, and composed, which was really neat to hear.

On black Monday (Monday before transfers), the branch mission leader made us fish soup. There were lots of fish bones and many missionaries were freaking out, but it was very delicious and hot (spicy). One of the investigators is a devout Calvinist and she said the Lord's prayer at the end and then said a silent prayer. My eyes were closed too and a minute later when I looked up, I realized that everyone was waiting for me, which was really funny.

We did a lot of tracting and teaching this week and we ate a lot of good Hungarian food. I even cooked "picadillo" (Cuban dish) and mákos guba (a Hungarian bread pudding with poppy seeds.) They turned out to be very good.

Elder Gonzalez

With my companion, Elder Fitzgerald. I'll miss him!

With a good friend of ours.

The elder on my left is Elder Paul who will be my new companion. This photo was taken shortly after I arrived in Hungary.

At the University of Pécs

Our meeting house

With Patrik, a great young man from our branch

With Kettler Marcell who served a mission in France with Jamari and Ben

Standing by the statue of Christ on Kálvária hill

Hungarian McFlurry

I cooked "picadillo".

I also made mákos guba (Hungarian bread pudding with poppy seeds)

Stairs from a 5-storey building we tracted

Hungarian fish soup