Szeged Week Three (Week 52)

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week. I did!

First off, transfers! Elder Shoop and I will be staying together for another six weeks. I'm very happy with my call, because I feel like I still don't really know this massive city yet, and I'm glad that Elder Shoop is staying to help me get around! I'm also happy because I love this city. The people are super classy and chill, and it's a beautiful city. 

What else, so as many of you know, I am not gifted in the area of sports. Like, there is not a single sporty bone in my body. However, here everyone is super fun and they play soccer a ton. So, the Branch has a "sport nap", or a "sport day" every week, and sometimes on the morning of our P-Days. So, I've actually been enjoying it! Crazy, right? Anyway, so I was goalie(..spelling?) and I totally blocked a really, really fast shot from on of the ZL's, and my hand snapped back and now it really hurts! Lame! Elder Shoop and I think it's just sprained, but it hurts! I guess that means I'm an athlete now, right? I even have battle wounds! :) 

Conference! Ah! So good. I watched the Saturday morning and evening, and the Sunday morning in English, and then the Priesthood session was in Hungarian. I haven't seen the Sunday afternoon, but everyone says it was good! I really enjoyed all the talks, and I got a lot of questions answered...hooray for prophets! I'm so grateful for them! 

We continue to find a weird plethora of international people. Elder Shoop and I made a small list of the "interesting" ones that we talked to last week:

• Two hipster guys from Sweden trying to find a massage place. That was awkward.
• An old woman from Denmark who was pretty much blind and spoke no Hungarian.
• So many Serbians
• So many Americans
• A cool kid from Saipan (that's by Hawaii...kind of. Give or take 1,000 miles...)
• ...and a man from Taiwan!

We have also been working hard to get members out to our programs. We weren't quite sure who to bring or who to pick, but somehow it just all worked out. I was amazed time and time again when the investigator and the members just had so many of those "Wait, you have this problem? I did too!" moments. It's been great and truly a small miracle! 

Speaking of cool members, I've already talked about the branch president from the article in the Liahona. Anyway, we brought him to a program that just didn't go quite right. Afterward, he asked how our work was going. In all honesty we said that it could be going better (when I get here, we had only one progressing investigator). He himself having been a missionary here in Hungary quickly just threw out advice for us. It was so cool. He even said "Right now, I want you guys to street me. Go." It was awkward, but we did it. He gave good feedback and what we could've improved on. I marveled at his willingness to help us, weird Americans with broken Hungarian, out just a bit. 

At the end of it all, he said this: "Szeged is ready for the gospel. There are so many people waiting for their own happiness. Go find them and bring them home."

I'm so grateful for all my experiences that I've had so far on my mission. With my year mark creeping up, I feel like I have so much to be grateful for...but, that will be for next week's e-mail. :)

I love you all! Don't be afraid of sharing your religion and shine! 

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Giacalone