Sopron Week 8

Well, I cannot believe how fast the weeks go. They seem to be cruising by, and somedays are just a blur. It is absolutely great to be in the service of the Lord. I truly have been feeling blessed as I have been out here. 

This week, I got sick. Again. Ugh. Yeah, I'm done with all of it. It got to the point where we had to call Sister Smith and she got a doctor from Germany to call me. He had me give myself a physical, which was awkward but also pretty interesting. He decided that it wasn't anything totally serious, and that I was to just get some rest and watch what I eat. I've been feeling a ton better, and I feel like I'm back to my old self! It's been amazing to see how fast I was able to rebound, and I know that Heavenly Father was there in that whole ordeal. For that, I am grateful. 

We also were able to go with the Browns out to the Pan-European Picnic place out by the border of Austria. It has such a cool history there, and for those of you who know me, I love me some good Cold War drama :) In the late 1980's, a bunch of people from East Germany gathered there to like silently protest and petition to get let into Austria. The whole point of the "picnic" was to go and take a piece of the wall with you. Thanks to the calm down in the Cold War, the border actually did open up and people were able to get to the west! A few months later, the rest of the wall came down. A lot of people attribute that to the picnic by Sopron. So cool. Now, it's like an international monument park, and it's absolutely beautiful. They have a big "freedom bell" out there that you can ring, and I rang it :)

We also were able to go on a hike with one of the other Elder's investigators. We went up into the hills above Sopron and went up to this old tower that over looks the city. It was so quiet up at the top of the tower and the air was so clean. I had never experienced something like that ever before. It was incredible! We were able to meet with a few people this week as well, and I spoke in church! Yes, my first full length sacrament meeting talk. It went pretty well! I talked on the Holy Ghost and how we can recognize it in our lives. All in Hungarian, peeps. Fun part? I had only four (4) Hungarian words actually on my paper. The rest was in English and I just translated it as I went. I don't want to brag, but fetch, I'm speaking Hungarian! :)

I hope you all have a splendid week! Hey, Halloween is next week! Here, they have "Day of the Dead", in which they just light up their loved one's graves. It looks pretty cool at night. But they don't have Halloween :( 

Make sure you all say prayers, because there is real power behind it. 

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Giacalone

Pics Week 7

We found a zombie apocalypse ad on a college campus. Heck. Yes.

Eight hours of train rides. Done

Sopron's soccer, or football, field

waiting outside President's office in Budapest...

Me and my new jacket outside Sopron Stadium :)

Sopron Week 7

Hello everyone! Nagyon szeretetem azt az általanos konferenciát. Nagyon jó volt! I hope you are all doing well.

We have had a somewhat weird week. To start off, we had interviews in Budapest, which is a four hour train ride both ways. Sopron is out in the boondocks on Hungary out by Austria, so it takes a while to get to Budapest. So most of our day was spent on a train. Interviews was great, I'm so grateful for a mission president that is concerned about us and our welfare. He's a great man. By the time we got home, it was almost 9:00, and we pretty much just went home. Then, the next day, we had zone training in Gyor, so another day of trains! So pretty much, our work got slaughtered for the week. 

Then, the unthinkable happened: I got SICK. SO sick. Like, I haven't been this sick in a year or two. I was down for the count all day on Saturday and a good chunk of yesterday, Sunday. It was rough, to say the least. I just sat in my bed all day, and the other elders rotated shifts so someone could be babysitting me while the other two went to programs. I felt pretty useless. I did have a lot of time to kind of sit and ponder a bit, and I did think of how precious my time here in Hungary is and how quickly my time flies by. Heck, my 1/4 mark is this week! Really quite terrifying. I resolved to make good use of my time wherever I am. I'll make it work!

So between being on trains and being sick, that is where most of my time fell this past week. Not a whole lot to talk about. An old missionary is here in Sopron visiting, so that's been cool to talk with him and get advice. It's cool to talk to someone "from the other side". Haha. 

I'm so grateful for the prayers and support from people back at home for my dad and my family! Thank you all so much! I truly appreciate it. It was a little frustrating being several thousand miles away and not being able to do anything really, but I knew that I could pray. And Heavenly Father answered. I'm aware of tons of people who helped my family during that stressful time. Also, I never felt overwhelmed or incredibly stressed about dad. I know that was a blessing from God. You have no idea how much of a relief it was to hear that my dad was taken care of, and so was my mom and brothers, by His angels here on earth.

So once again, thank you. :)

I hope you all have a spankin' good week! :) 

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Giacalone

Pics, Week 6

Elder Brown forgot his tag, so I loaned him one of mine!

Our district, plus Laura, watching conference!

Tis the season of WINE

Neely...cooking. Kid never smiles...just kidding!

Me and a tv we found while streeting!

We went to McDonald's and they gave me a "Kis Fanta"

We have a tv in our apartment...awkward

Sopron Week 6

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing great. I'm doing fine and absolutley loving the work out here in the grand city of Sopron! We have had an interesting week with conference and what not, but it was good nonetheless and the work went well. 

First of all, conference was FANTASTIC. I absolutlely loved every single talk. It was great to hear from prophets of God bear testimony to us about precious truths. I really felt the Spirit as they talked and I even received some personal revelation to some questions I have been thinking about.

Conference is just cool like that, you know? Also, this week had a theme of the power of the Book of Mormon. 

We met with some pretty cool people this week! So two weeks ago in English Class I gave the spiritual thought out of the Book of Mormon about charity. As I finished, one of the ladies in the back, who had been coming for several times by now, had her eyes right on me as I spoke and kept rubbing her arms. After the prayer, I felt like I should ask her one more time (we had tried before to get her to meet with us, but she always said no) to meet with us. Right as the sentence exited my mouth, she said "I want to meet with you. I want to know what this book is about that you read out of. I want to know who God is to me."

Well, hot dang! I can do that! 

We scheduled and set up for the week after, which was this past week. As we met, I asked her if she had read out the Book of Mormon at all. She said that she hadn't been able to put it down in the past few days, at all! She had even cooked palacsintas while reading it. She was so confused with how she was feeling, and when we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Heavenly Father's love for us, she bowed her head and rubbed her arms, again. I asked, jokingly, why she kept doing that. She replied that she was getting goosebumps and that she was feeling something. It was fantastic explaining what that was! The Spirit was so strong in the meeting, and it made up for the lack of other programs we had that week, in my opinion. 

Also, I went on splits with Elder Neely! We streeted, met with an RCLA (and we were totally fine with the language, too!), and then got dinner at McDonald's. Also, he has introduced me to fruit tea, and I fear that I am becoming addicted to it! It's so yummy, and we would sip it during our personal study like we were fancy diplomats or something ;) 

We also met with a kid a year or two younger than us. We had given him a Book of Mormon while tabling, and we set up with him at the Brown's house. He told us that he was a Quaker, which was super cool! I totally thought they were only on the East Coast of the US, but apparently they are here in Hungary too! He had some good questions about the Book of Mormon, but the Spirit was there, and by the end he was intent on receiving an answer to it! 

The book itself is doing the work out here, and we just are here! Amazing! 

I KNOW the Book of Mormon is from God! I love it! Sometimes I feel that I have learned everything I need from it, but then it proves me wrong and shows me something I have missed. I have been trying to make it more central in my life and especially in my studies. I'll say it again:

I love this book. 

I know it is true!

I love all of you, have a great week! :)

Sok Szeretettel,

Elder Giacalone

Pics week 5 in Sopron

This is a story from English Class...it's about Bread!!!

Classy Neely!!!

Elder De Vries and I on a bus

It was Elder Becker's birthday last week so we went to McDonald's

Sopron Week 5

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week!

Well, Sopron has been picking up! We have had a fantastic week and we have been really blessed with some great results! Also, it's getting really cold out here! BRR. It's been overcast and cloudy out here pretty much all week. 

Well, we continued to "find" our butts off this past week and we continued to use our method of tabling, which has been providing some success to us. During this one day, a girl walked by with her dog. We had seen her before, she seems to take the same route every day and always walks by us. We had stopped her several times before, and she said that she would come to English class, but she never showed up. So this time, I decided to stop her and try something else: I went up to her and said "Do you like One Direction?" She looked right at me, and said "I WORSHIP THEM". I asked her if she liked the new song, and she said "I WORSHIP IT". So I said we can talk about them at English class if she came. She enthusiastically said yes! 

Still didn't show up to English class. Ha ha but it was so AWESOME!

We also tracted out a street up in the hills of Sopron, what I like to refer to as the "Beverly Hills"of Sopron. Literally every house is a mansion, and I think that most of them are Austrians that live in Hungary because it is cheaper here. But hey, we're all God's children, right? Everyone needs to hear the Gospel! So yeah, nobody was interested, but it was interesting to see all the wealthy people's responses. One lady said: "I don't even want to hear it, thank you!" I was so sad for them, they don't know what they are missing! It was sad to say the least.

We also headed over to an RCLA's house about ten minutes outside of Sopron. Her family speaks German, so sometimes she had to translate for us. She's only like 19, and the only member in her family, I have big respect for her. We had a yummy dinner there, and then we watched a TV show that was pretty much Germany's "America's Got Talent". So yeah, pretty fun! We got to see some funny things!

My hands are freezing as I type this! It is so cold in this stinking internet cafe! Also, we hit standard this week in the mission! Elder Becker and I worked our butts off and we have been seeing success! It's very humbling and I am so grateful for all the Lord has done for me and my companion. We are meeting with some new people this week that I am so excited for.

Well, I think that this week will be a little bit shorter than usual, not a whole ton going on. I will be in Budapest next week for interviews (cannot believe it's been a month already) and then again at the end of October for zone conference, so lots of traveling coming up soon! 

Neely and I continue to have fun! We have fun bashing the typical American teenage white girl as we talk ;), he's a funny kid! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Lots of love,

Elder Giacalone