Kaposvar Week One

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week! I had a great, somewhat confusing, exciting, and odd week!

So, here I am! E-mailing from the city of Kaposvár! This city is so old and rustic, much different style and taste than Sopron had, but it's really interesting! The city is in the Southern part of Hungary, about a three hour train ride from Budapest. To the north is Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary and in Central Europe! There are actually some members that live out there, and we hope to go out sometime and see how they are doing. The branch is pretty tight, little bit bigger than Sopron, and just as sassy! Lol.

Here in the city we have the Colledges, the Senior couple for this area. They also go to the city of Pécs on Fridays, but Elder Colledge is the branch president here in Kapos so they remain here for most of the time. They are super, super cool people. Sister Colledge says she is here for the "TLC" aspect of missionary service, and they welcome the missionaries over whenever we need help. In fact, the first night Neely and I got off the train ride (quite the adventure, since we didn't really know where we were going) and wandered around the train station for a bit until the Colledges showed up to help us. Then, they realized we hadn't had dinner or anything, so they took us out to McDonald's! Yay! Love them.

Kaposvár is also now a new part of the Budapest Stake, so now it comes under the "stake umbrella". In my opinion, I think they will soon split the stake into two seperate ones, since it is pretty big now. The Stake President and his family showed up on Sunday to visit the branch. They are super legit and they all speak fluent English, even the kids! They live in the Budapest area, though, so we won't really see them unless we serve around there. It was really awesome having them there because they have young kids with them, and I haven't heard kids crying or giggling in a sacrament meeting since I was back in Utah! SUPER cool!

Fun story time! So, originally I was assigned to serve with Elder Quinton. He is from the Seattle area and is a super cool guy! Then, on our first full day together we get a call from President saying that we will be getting a THIRD companion: Elder Gould! Yep, I'm in a tripanionship! It's super weird, but it's very effective. Our programs are spectacular, since both of my senior comps are fantastic Hungarian speakers! I am learning so much from them!

We had an awesome program with a lady out in the boondocks, and she told us that she had been through a lot of hard times recently. Her mother had passed away and she didn't have a whole of children nearby. As we all started bearing testimony of God's love for us and for the rest of His children, the best Spirit filled the room, and you couldn't help but smile! During that one moment I truly felt that this is why I came on my mission: to help people know of this goodness! The Gospel truly is the "good news", and it is my honor to share it with others. I love it!

I am so excited to be in this new area. There is plenty of challenges facing the branch, but they are so excited to be a part of the Stake now. It strengthens the branches and helps them grow. The church is really growing here in Hungary, and sometimes I just step back and watch it surge! I'm so happy to be here!

I hope you all have a splendid week! Remember who y'all are! ;)

Sok Szeretettel,
Elder Giacalone