Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week, as always!
So, I live in Szeged now! I. Love. Szeged. I have been here a total of five days now,
and I am absolutely in love with the city. It's cleaner than all my
other cities, it's bigger, we ride all sorts of fun city trams (called
"villamos..es"..?), buses, and trolleys! The spring flowers are
blossoming and every night there is a pretty sunset. There are six of us
here: two sets of elders and a set of sisters, with the other pair of
elders (not us) being the Zone Leaders. They have a car, I guess that
makes them cool. Whatever. Haha. There is more restaurants here than my
other cities, and they have a Burger King and a Subway! I haven't had a
Subway since like Utah! Crazy. Szeged also has three colleges and a
university, The University of Szeged, so there is like a billion and a
half cool young Hungarians running all over the place.
And, weirdly enough, a lot of them are interested in
religion! The branch itself has a thriving YSA group, and it's always
growing! Actually, there's a lot of single adults in the branch,
including the branch president! Oh, guess what! He's in a Liahona! It's
the April 2013 edition, and he's the guy that they talk about with
kayaking! He's super cool. I still haven't met most of the branch, but
our branch mission leader is very devoted to his work and he is a great
helper!
Here is the link to the article about Joe's Branch Pres.
https://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/04/choosing-the-better-part?lang=eng
It was super beautiful weather until last night when
it started to downpour! It's been raining for like 48 hours straight!
Unbelievable. Also, my first morning in my new apartment we woke up to
no power! That was cool. So, I got to call our land lady, who is
actually pretty nice. It was tons of fun, because I didn't know the
vocabulary for "switch", "voltage", or let alone "power". Super awkward,
I pretty much read out of a dictionary to her and conjugated as I went.
It was pretty interesting, but now we have power and life is dandy!
Ok, cool story of the week: as many of
you know, I really enjoyed studying history before my mission. I learned
a lot about Hungary before I left, too. It's been fun chatting with
people, mostly members, about what Hungary has gone through, but I never
thought I would actually use this knowledge until, well, yesterday! We
were tabling in the city square (huge place) and a guy came up to me and
asked me what the difference was between the Mormons and the Amish.
When I finished explaining, he asked if we meet with people. I said yes.
He said he was interested, but he would only meet with us when we
"showed interest in his country." I didn't really say anything after
that, then he said "Did you study Hungarian history in school?" I said a
little. He said, "Tell me one thing about Hungarian history with a
specific date, location, and the groups involved." Oh boy, this was
right up my alley! I talked about the creation of the Hungarian state in
1000 and King Stephen. I didn't really know what I was saying until I
finished, and then he looked right in the eye and said "I can tell you
really love this country, can I give you my phone number?" He's a funny
guy, I'm excited to see what he says about everything.
Well, my time is almost up. I say it a lot, but I
really am grateful for everything I experience on my mission. One of my
old companions called me last night and told me that my year mark is in a
few weeks. What! That's insane. Also, I turn 20(!) this week! What the
heck? All of a sudden I'm super old!
But, I'm super loving where I am. I love Hungary! We
are also meeting with one of my old investigators I had back in
Szolnok, "B"! I was walking down the street the other day and suddenly
the thought popped in my head "Hey, 'B' is here somewhere!" So, I called
the Szolnok elders and got her phone number and called her: she was so
excited when I got a hold of her! She kept saying "I don't believe
it...I've been hoping you would come here, but I never thought you
would!" Sometimes, cool things happen, and most of the time it's meant
to happen. I believe in miracles! I love you all, have a great week!
And that's all from my side of the world!
Sok Szeretettel,
Elder Giacalone
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