Dear the land of the free and the home of the brave,

This has probably been one of the better weeks here in Pápa. Elder Johnson and I learned how awesome it is to have members come with you to lessons. Like half of our lessons were with a member present and work got done. We have a man named Ferenc on bap date and I might have talked about him before but I'm gonna do it again because hes so awesome. We met with him like 3 times this week which is a ton. Usually we only meet with people once a week or sometimes even once every two weeks but he doesnt have a job and isnt doing anything better with his life, so we meet with him all the time. We have to call him whenever we get to his house because he doesnt have a csengő (kinda like a doorbell) and so he sorta struts out to the fence with all the swag a guy could ever ask for and wearing his sweats and an awesome sweater that I know Meghan would think was bomb. All three of our lessons with him were with a member and we're gonna baptize him on the 15th of March which is just in two and a half weeks. I'm so excited for it. I'll send some pictures for sure.

We've been trying to talk to a couple of less active members these last couple weeks (which really isnt our job as missionaries but whatever. We do what we gotta do in Magyarország) and we've been having some pretty good success with it. between the last two Sundays we had 3 less active members come to church which doesnt really sound like a lot, but trust me. Thats good progress. Its like more than a tithe for our branch. However, something really dumb happened yesterday at church. This less active member, Bálint, came and we were super excited. He sat next to Ferenc who also came and we were excited about that too. Well, in the middle of the sacrament, Bálint gets this sneezing fit and he was trying not to sneeze then trying not to laugh and be reverent and it was awkward and kinda funny. Well, Ferenc starts laughing, so Bálint starts laughing, but they're both trying to hold it back and be reverent but its hard. It persists into the first talk and this girl, who isnt even as old as I am, in the middle of her talk, gives them an awful death glare and says (in Hungarian) "Really? Now is serious." Thats so messed up. Afterwards, the branch president told us that if we dont teach Ferenc (and also Bálint) the importance of the sacrament, we're gonna have to put off his bap date. I recognize that thats kind of a good point, but I think he understands that its important, he just couldnt help himself. He doesnt even have the authority to tell us when we can or cant baptize people. Whatever. I'll get over it, but that was something that really bothered me this last week. We'll still baptize Ferenc in a couple weeks.

We have another investigator that I like a lot named Zoltán. In our last meeting with him, he taught us how to play this game taht he invented called Gléx. Its super fun and he made it while he was drunk one night. Dont get the wrong idea, its kinda like chess. Kinda. I'll have to teach it to everyone when I get home.

I had some more super awesome food this week. We found a place in Győr that sells Milka bars for 200 ft each, which is like almost a dollar so we stalked up on those. Theres a ton of really good flavors and I wish they would just have them in the United States because I just cant explain them very well. This one family that we teach gave us a bunch of Hungarian donuts which were super good. We went to a members house last night and had my new number one favorite meal in all of Hungary. Its called paprikás csirke which means paprika chicken I guess. It was so good and I'm gonna learn how to make it so I can have it whenever I want. I wish I could take pictures of everything, but its kinda awkward when we're at a members house or in a restraunt or something. I'll try though so you can all see what wonderful things I get to eat.

We've been doing lots of biking this last couple of weeks. Thats probably a pretty obvious thing to say, on accounta I a missionary, but we do it a lot. Every time we go out to Ferenc's we have to go a couple kilometers out of Pápa (sometimes in the rain and wind. The weather gets pretty crazy in this little country (but its been super nice lately. Some people are talking like winters already over and Spring is coming. I dont know if we should count our csirkas before they hatch though)) and then sometimes we schedule appointments right after each other with people who live across town from each other. We have to cruise all over the place as fast as we can and its pretty tough. Particularly for an unexperienced biker like myself. However, I'm not gonna misrepresent the truth, I'm probably gonna come home with a pair of pretty attractive legs. Look out world, here I come.

The church is true. Dont ever forget it. The work is going pretty well here in Pápa and I'm grateful for all your prayers and thoughts and monetary contributions and what not. You're all great and I hope things are going great for you. Let me know when something cool happens so I can be jealous and stuff. 

Love you all,

Anderson Elder.