Probably the funniest week of my life!

Na, szervusztok!

Hogy vagytok? I am doing sooo well. We had 7 lessons not show up on us this week, but I really am just feeling SO happy about so many little things this week 🙂 So, sorry that this email isn’t one of the most spiritually uplifting you will receive from me, but quite a few hilarious things happened this week that kept us sane and I thought I would share 🙂

Well first off, I want to give a BOLDOG SZÜLETÉSNAPOT (Happy Birthday) shout out to two of my favorite people in the world!! Yes, Dad and best big sister Ashley, this is to you guys!! I hope you both have the best birthdays! I hope you get your packages from me. Wish I was there but just know I love you both more than life. Eat some chocolate cake and party!

Monday: After emailing we went to the branch house to try out Rodgers Elder’s new whip. Whipping is a pretty big deal here, and a lot of missionaries come home with some really cool hand made ones! Its really hard, but the elders taught us how and I can make a decent noise with it now! So fun 🙂 Then we went tracting and a man came out screaming at us, saying “You woke my kids up!”, “NORMÁLIS VAGYTOK!?” (ARE YOU GUYS NORMAL!?) and I just smiled and said a very confident “Yes!” and walked away before that situation got worse…haha!

Tuesday: A bunch of lessons cancelled so we had a day of finding. Funniest part… I am going to try and capture this in a short email paragraph but just know it is impossible to fully relay the hilariousness of this incident in this kind of letter!! So. We were sitting at a bus stop waiting to go back into downtown Szeged, and the sun was in our eyes on this bench so we were kind of covering our faces. THEN this bácsi (old man) literally jumps in front of us and pulls out these crazy jazz hands and starts singing a song to us. I. Was. Dying. He was like “Oh is this better? Am I blocking the sun from you now?” and we just said “Yes, thank you very much!” And he starts dancing again and singing a song “I wanna give you my looovveeeeee” and we were laughing so hard and he was like “Led Zepplin, ugy-e?” (am i right right?). And then he said that since he performed for us we needed to give him some money, and we let him know we can’t help with money, only spiritual things. And then he said “JAJ! teljesen egyben vagyok. nincs semmi bajom.” (What? I am completely in one. I have no problems.) So we just laughed again and he starts banging his leg on the pole I was sitting in front of to block my eyes from the sun and keeps singing this hilarious song. Then he stops and stares at my companion and starts going off about the oak trees behind her. Then he stares right into my eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time and then compliments the Hungary pins I have on my bag. I told him thank you, and he just stopped abruptly and asked me (in english) where I am from. I said America, and he was like “OHHH! Mississippi!? Ohio!? Where?????” and I said California, but we need to go because our bus is here! (I had no idea where that bus was actually going but we were scared and wanted to leave so we just got on it anyways haha) Then he was like wait wait wait wait wait wait. One more thing. And very very slowly says “…welcome…to…the JUNGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” AND SALUTES US ONTO THE BUS. Okay I am sorry I know that there is no good reason for me to write about things like this but that was honestly probably the funniest moment of my mission so I had to share.

Wednesday: We tracted out in the middle of nowhere because we usually don’t have time to tract far away because we are so busy in the middle of the city! But we had lessons cancel so we decided to give it a shot. Nothing to crazy happened, all the normal things. But then another hilarious thing happened. We tracted this one guy, and shared some information about our clothing drive our branch was putting on last weekend. We told him we were collecting clothes to give to the homeless, and he looks at us and says “Én is hajléktalan vagyok.” (I too am homeless) and we were just like wait a second, we just knocked on your door how are you homeless? And he said, “Well I don’t even live here! One day I just become like a bug and flew in here and decided it was nice so I stayed. Then Jesus flew in with me. I don’t need your church, goodbye.” And that was another amazingly Hungary moment hahaha! Then we got to go to Hódmezővásárhely to visit with Irén again. We read my favorite scripture story, the Brother of Jared, and we had a really nice talk about faith. I love her so dearly! One amazingly strong woman. She told us she loves us because we are always happy and she doesn’t know how that’s possible. We were like well, the secret is the gospel! And she just laughed and said that is what makes her the happiest too 🙂

Thursday: Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!! I was feeling so thankful all day. We had district meeting about gratitude, and during our usual district pizza lunch I made everyone go around the table and say why they were thankful for each member of our district. I love these people!!!!!! The people I have met here, missionaries and Hungarians will be some of my best friends forever I think. Actually I don’t just think, I know 🙂 Then I taught the Angol óra class all about Thanksgiving traditions and food and things!

Friday: So, yet another hilarious story. We spent the whole day in Budapest because I had to get a flu shot and I had another doctor appointment. It was just a really, really long day of traveling and things and when we finally got back home at like 21:30 we were so happy to sit down and relax. I decided I wanted a glass of water, so I got one… but when I turned off the faucet I heard a weird water noise still. I turned around to see if the dishwasher was running (those don’t exist anywhere else here, only our palace of an apartment we are spoiled with!!). But it wasn’t… so I opened the cabinet under the sink and got sprayed in the face with water! I screamed so loud for my companion to come and help! I immediately went into my “what would dad do” mode and realized I needed to turn of the water. But when I turned the valve under the sink, it fell out of the wall and the kitchen was legit flooding from the crazy amount of water that was flowing out of the sink!!! I wanted to cry because we could not find the main water source in the apartment and the water was going everywhere. I’m not even being dramatic!!! We called the senior couple, our landlord, President Szabadkai, and the elders and no one knew how to help and I thought I would cry! I finally found the main water source in the bathroom and shut it off and went back into the kitchen and front room to assess the damage. The front half of our apartment was filled with 2 centimeters of water. President gave the elders permission to come over with towels and mops and buckets because we only had one towel! We had to move all the furniture out of the kitchen and front room into the bedroom because we didn’t want it to get water damaged. It was the craziest most funny and hilarious night of my life. We didn’t get to bed until 2 am because there was so much water. I don’t even know how we managed to soak it all up!!!! It was literally a miracle. But we were all going a little crazy because we haven’t stayed up past 22 in a really long time! Rodgers and Durney elder were being such a riot, putting on ugly sweaters and pulling each other around by the legs making human mops. Quite the party haha. Another time when I decided to laugh instead of cry and everything turned out more than fine 🙂 Missionary life!!

Saturday: The elders were so kind to help us move all the furniture back into place once the floor was all dry! We had a successful clothing drive and Meet the Mormons movie showing at the branch house which was very very exciting! Also the Christmas lights turned on in the city and I may or may not have had a minor freak out. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!! I can’t believe its going to be my second Christmas as a missionary. Feeling really blessed to be in Hungary at this time of year! 🙂

Sunday: A normal day at church and more finding.

Sorry I feel like it sounds like I do no work in emails like this… I promise I am working really, really hard, outside in the cold for like most hours of the day 🙂 Just some weeks not a lot happens to write about so I have to share the funny things! We have a bunch more lessons set up for next week so hopefully we don’t get dogged a million times again.

This week we got our new Christmas initiative cards. Everyone, go to mormon.org now and watch the new Christmas video! I love it. love it love it love it. I love to think that even though we are small, we can bring light into peoples lives, just like Christ did. By following His perfect example and praying to be filled with His love, we can change lives! It is the coolest opportunity to have a Christmas that is 100% completely NOT about me. It is hard to not be at home with all the holiday cheer but I am beyond grateful for my Hungarian Christmas. It brings a whole new meaning to the Christmas season to me, and I know that that is something that will change my life forever. Thankful!!! I also really think it would be great if you all followed the service advent calendar that will be released each day on mormon.org, starting on December 1st. There are so many great ideas for service we can do, and I know that as we make this season about helping others around us feel Christ’s love, we will be able to help and #LightTheWorld (fun fact, in Hungarian it’s #LégyAVilágVilágossága or Be the World’s Light which I really love too 🙂 )

sok szeretettel,

Mason Nővér

P.S. So as I finished typing up my group email, guess who walks into the library and sits down a the computer next to me? THE DANCING BÁCSI from the bus stop. Just thought I would let you all know.. love this crazy little life of mine 🙂