Fereignheightenheighten-howerver-you-spell-it.

Well we heard about the weather a bit and some other questions we asked him. Sounds like things are going pretty well and that the kid is surviving quite well. Until next week....

2/11/08
hey everyone!
haha so the weather here is insane. it has been like 9 degrees celsius or like 5o ish degrees Fereignheightenheighten-howerver-you-spell-it. so it has been very abnormal weather here. it has been this way for like a week straight. i haven't seen snow since the week or two after i got here, kinda strange.
so, for the questions:
1. my companion is a bigtime hunter and is pretty much your stereotypical southerner :) it's awesome, he's a great guy. he is on the same timeline as me, as for when he went to the mtc and when he got to the country, but a year before me, so he goes home about my 1 year mark. he played baseball in high school and such... i don't know what all you want to know about him...
2-3. the branch we are in is fairly big, about 50-60ish people... i don't have a calling., they have enough people to sustain themselves for the most part. there are some interesting people in the branch, just like in every ward or branch at home. it's cool when a baptism happens, because like the whole branch comes to it as well as the baptizee's family. church is from 9-12 in Debrecen and we have a branch house there. when i figure out how to do pictures i'll send you pictures of some of this stuff. 4. umm... i'm not sure what all holidays hungary has, but on august 20th, it's the biggest holiday of the year and i can't remember if it is an independence day or what... but sometimes the missionaries have to stay indoors... they have a halloween similar to the halloween in mexico, where it's not so much candy and costumes, but honoring the dead. around christmas, thaey have kind of 2 christmases. one is on like the 6th and that is with santa and the little elves (hungarian elves are called devils and they are mean looking... i don't know where that translation got lost, but it is a bit different :) ) and then they have a more formal christ christmas later on on like the 26th or something. i'm not sure what other holidays there are, but i'll be sure to write about them when they happen or if i find out about them.
5. when we get done tracting, we either go to someone's house to eat and have a program or we go home and study. since we are in winter and the daylight is weird, we don't get all of our study time in the morning, so we do some at night... and then we write in journals and such,. usually elder johnson is on the phone because he is district leader and everyone calls in to him at night. and then he has to report to the zone leaders and such.
not too much has happened this week, we did get our new missionaries here in debrecen, we got two of my kicsi huns here, sister r... and elder g.... one of elder g....s bags didn't quite make it to hungary on time... :) so he had to wait from wednesday till sunday to get his clothes :) he wore the same shirt and switched between two pairs of garments and socks those 4 days :) kinda funny :)
we did get to see the world wide training on the family that the quorum of the 12 did. it was kind of different, but good. not my favorite shurch broadcast, but it said some good things, i don't know if you saw it or not. and yes, we did see it in english :)
so dad, there is a cool thing in the states you can use for colds. it's called "Airborn(e)" and my mtc companion used it and Aunt C... sent me a big tube of it to bring to hungary. but it sounds similar to your stuff in england, you put a tablet in water and it bubbles and fizzes and then you try to drink it (it doesn't taste the best, they try to make it lime flavored, but it is loaded with like 1600 vitamin C thingies and other vitamins and minerals) but i took one and it helped, i was feeling the beginnings of a cold, but it just turned into a leaky nose. so all is good. but you might try that stuff. I'm not sure the hugarians have anything, because they are freaks about colds. every time we go to anyone's house without our big coats, we just have our suit coats and a long sleeve shirt, they say "Fázol?" wihich means "are you cold?" and then if they see your ears are red or your nose is red, they say "Menjetek be" whcih is the command form for "go inside" and thex make you. you can't sit on the ground either, the fear you'll get cold... so they give you cardboard to sit on... it's kind of funny. so Sister G... is giving me a haircut today... (dad, you never said if you knew her or not...) and i hope it goes well, but like dad says, there is no bad haircut 2 weeks can't fix :) and with the haircuts i see in hungary, i will probably have gained a testimony of that rule before i come home :)
well, not much else to report... i'll talk to ya next week!!
love ya all,gaufin elder
ps:
also, we have a bapstism lined up for this weekend. it's en... and it should go well, we will then have 3 memebrs in böszörmény :) but only 2 active, the third has a complicated story, but the short of it is that she let her husband move back in... and... ya. but anyways, love ya and sorry for 4 emails this week!
love ya, gaufin elder