Arriving in Hungary

Wow!

The past couple of days have been so insane for me! Unfortunately I wasn't able to write last week because of the plane but I had a great last week at the MTC and I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow and feel the spirit that was there!

On Monday at 11:50 we left the MTC and had a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam! It was so insane for my first flight! Then right after, we flew from Amsterdam to Budapest! We met up with the mission president, his wife, and the assistants. They took us to the mission home and we had our interviews there and had dinner there as well. During the wait I had my first street contacting experience! People speak the language here so fast so that's something I am going to have to get used to. Then we took a tour of the Buda castle that looked across all of Buda and Pest! It was so beautiful! Being completely exhausted, all of us got to go and stay in a hotel for the night and got to sleep in to get used to the time areas.

The next morning was a bit of a culture shock because we got to have breakfast at the hotel and it turns out people here drink carbonated water so that was interesting haha. Then we got assigned to our trainers! I have an awesome trainer! His name is Elder Haroldsen and he is from Idaho and this is his last transfer so he is super solid in the language! We were assigned to Debrecen which is on the southeast part of Hungary near the border of Romania! Public transportation at Debrecen is so awesome because all we do to get places around the city is either take the villámós (TRAM) or a bus.

Most of the days consist of tracting or street contacting but it's so interesting because everyone lives in apartments. Everything is like several hundred years old so some apartments look kind of sketch like downtown Detroit kind of sketch lol but we still do our job! We have had some good success in tracting the past couple of days and we are following up on the people we have met this week! 

August 20th was the anniversary of modern Hungary's independence so we got to go to a parade in the morning and see some fireworks that night which was super cool! Yesterday was Sunday and everything was in complete Hungarian but everyone seemed so nice! It was Branch conference so my mission president came down and we got to say hi!

I'll send some pictures of my apartment next week but I can honestly say that America is so blessed! Most of the living situations here consist of maybe one or two rooms. Yet despite their living situations people here are still happy. That's so humbling for me to see and experience. I will not take for granted what I have and I'm so grateful for all the things the Lord has blessed in my life! May the Lord bless you all this week!

Szeretek titeket,

Elder Ballard