Hello from Békéscsaba

April 2, 2013

Hello from Békéscsaba!!

Wow, it's already been a almost a week since I've been in Békéscsaba. Craaaaazzyyy! It's been really weird being in a different area for sure, especially when my last area I was there for 5 months. Plus I loved that city SOOOO much. It was probably the closest place that I could call home throughout my mission. I felt like I knew that city like it was on the back of my hand. But, the Lord calls and we follow, and now I am in Békéscsaba!! So far it has been a really interesting week. Firstly, being in a threesome is quite a change. And it's quite an interesting age situation too. Elder J, who is the oldest in the companionship, is leaving at the end of this transfer, meaning that he is slowly coming to an end to his mission. Then there's me, where I will soon be hitting my half-way marker on Thursday (Weeeeiiiirrrrddddd by the way). And the third in the group is Elder R, who has just started his mission basically. He is now in his 2nd transfer and still considered a 'greeny' since he hasn't left his greeny area yet. So we have, in our companionship, someone at the end of their mission, one in the middle, and the other at the beginning. It's been quite fun I must say. Plus, it has been really cool being with Elder J, who is tremendous at the language, because I have been able to learn a bunch of new words and ways of saying things in under a week! I'm excited to see how the rest of the transfer goes with me already learning as much as I have in less than one week.

Oh, and I guess I should tell you a little bit about my two new companions.

 Elder J is from San Antonio, Texas and, as I have said already, in his last transfer. He is such an awesome guy! We both have a bunch in common and get along really well. Funny thing too, he was actually one of the secretaries when I came into the country. He was also in Budapest while I was there and we both left Budapest at the same time, so I have already gotten to know him pretty well and I was really excited to get the call that I was going to serve with him in his last transfer. He is also, currently, the Branch Leader here in Békéscsaba (I'll go over that a little bit more later) and is teaching me the ways around how the position works so that I can fill it when he leaves. He has called me to be his 1st Counselor for the time being. My other companion, which is weird saying 'other', is Elder R. He is actually from Kansas City, Missouri, well, actually a little place near there called Sedalia. Isn't that cool mom!! I'm serving with someone from your home place! And, funny thing, he actually has a sister who is serving in Reno, which is where Grandpa is! Another cool thing! He is such a cool guy also. We have already had a bunch of fun getting to know each other. This threesome has been really fun and we are already having a great time finding people and teaching programs. It's been waaaaayy fun!

Another cool thing, I am currently living in a house!! That's right; I'm no longer living in an apartment, but rather in a legitimate house! It's been really cool because there is so much room to move around and stuff. I'll have to take pictures of the place and send them to you so you can see what it's like. And the other cool thing about the house is that the kitchen is actually a kitchen! Ha ha, my last place the kitchen was more like a whole in the wall, but this kitchen is much better.

Alright, now about the whole branch leader stuff. So, basically, there are no active priesthood holders here in the branch and everything is run by the missionaries. It is also pretty small, with about 20 people that come to church, that number includes investigators and active members. So we take care of mostly everything in the branch. Pretty interesting. Oh, and there also isn't a secretary or clerk here, so we take care of that too. That means we take care of all the finances, paper work, building management, callings, basically everything that goes on in the bishopric, just in a smaller scale. It's really hard! There are a lot of things that are needed to be done during the week for the church. I can now understand, a little bit, what Bishop Stevenson has to go through. But it has been way awesome so far! I am loving the branch and getting to know everyone in it and working hard with the branch stuff. Oh yeah, and because we are in charge of the branch, we don't do as much finding as the other missionaries around the country. Kind of a bummer, but it is also a new experience doing this. This is definitely a growing experience. I never thought I'd be doing this during my mission. And I will probably be here for another 4-5 months since I will be the branch leader, which president likes to keep as for a few months.

I have to end this pretty soon because we have to go and do something, but I'll reply to some of the things you sent. Easter sounded like it was really yummy!! Everything you put down sounded SOOOOoooo goood. We didn't really do much for Easter. We just had church, which, by the way, is held from 3-5, then did some branch work and watched some Easter videos from LDS.org. I think I just had leftovers for dinner. Not as tasty as the food you had, but still delicious. More people going on missions. My wooooorrrrrddd, that is absolutely out of this world amazing!!! Congratulations to Tiffany and Claire! And for Nick......I want to say somewhere in the southern hemisphere of the world......maybe in the islands or something? Let me know what the call is! And Ashleigh's school plans sounds like they are getting in order. Wooo hooo!! That's so awesome!

Alrighty then, I will probably be signing off now. I'll let you know how everything goes this week next time! Catch the scoop next week here on 'Gettin Hungary with Elder Magda'.

Sincerely,
Magda Elder