Dogs, Big Dogs! and Screaming Like a Little Girl

Well this week I asked Doug about tracting, eating, p-days, and so forth. He was really very good to respond and once again made me laugh out loud. I am not a particular brave person when it comes to dogs, especially big ones that surprise me. Hence I can pretty well identify with his reactions. He makes reference to playing Nintendo above the garage with his friends, and they all participated!

4 Feb 2008
hi dad,
we did get to see the funeral for pres hinckley, and guess what? we got to see it in english! the first channel we tried it was dubbed over in hungarian, but the next channel we found was in just english, we were very thankful, or at least i was :)
well, our typical day is when we wake up at 6 and exercisxe, which is usually pushups and situps, becasue it's cold and we don't want to run yet. then we have breakfast (usually cereal and milk or a jó reggelt bar (like a granola bar...)) and then we have personal study, companion study, and then part of language study. we then go tracting or to programs until lunch, and the more tracting and programs... around 7ish we go back to the apartment, because it is pitch black by 5 o clock and people don'zt like you tracting out that late. i guess one time the missionaries were cracking the whip in the Giauques backyard (the senior couple in debrecen) and an old hungarian lady came out and yelled "do you know what time it is?? it's quarter to 4!!!" haha she was getting ready for bed!!! so that's now a joke among the missionaries and the giauques now :)
we usually ony eat breakfast at the apartment, then it's up to our investigators for lunch and dinner... we eat stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, a lot of hús leves (meat soup) which is a lot like a simple chicken noodle soup... and then it aways ends with some su"ti! (su"ti looks a lot like cake squares, but really good) or some other kind of finomság (deliciousness)
we live in our area, but we live about 20 kilometers from debrecen. we live kind of in the middle of hajdúböszörmény, which is nice.
what is it like to tract? well, the streets in hungary are basically one long fence with a small door every now and then. i'll have to send you a picture of it,. it's hard to describe... but they are very... enclosed, or private. very not-inviting looking. and every house has a dang dog! i really like dogs, but this is outrageous, some streets you get one dog going and pretty soon there's 7 or 8 dogs barking at you... it causes quite the ruccous, and of course all the old people have to come out and see who is making all that racket... it's like a twisted domino effect...
for the most part, tracting hasn't been very successful, angol ora [??English class??] is the big finding tool we have in the mission, but only 4 girls come to our class, and one is 9, and the other three are teenagers and aren't interested. so it's kind of slow out here right now...
i have seen some of the biggest dogs ever out here! one german shepherd's back came up to my belly button and when he barked, everyone knew it! he started to do that growl and you knew the bark was coming, and when it finally did,. it still scared me!! the big beethoven dogs always have their heads hanging over the 6 foot tall fences... those can scare you sometime when you don't see them and it's dark and pretty soon it barks right next to your ear and if you thought i screamed like a little girl playing nintendo... you haven't heard nothin!
on p-days, we come into debrecen and eithe go to the giauques, or we went to the zoo today, or we try and find something to do. we are usually out in debrecen from 9 in the mroning ish till 5 pmish and then we come back and hopefully have a program lined up to teach... that's why we don't have a lot of time to write and such. and we also email on p-days...
that's kind of what it's like, i have lots of tracting stories allready and there are more to come :) it's awesome
the people here just seem sad and have nothing... the gospel has really helped a lot of people and continues to do so, people just need to be more open to it out here.
well, that's all for now, love ya!
-elder gaufin