Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Finnish Elder's Have Left


Sziastok!

This week has been crazy! All the Finnish missionaries in our zone left for Finland on Monday, and we got new Fins and Albs (Albanians) on Wednesday! We got 12 sisters and six elders, which pretty much balances out our whole zone, something pretty unusual in the MTC! Finnish speaking there are five new elders and seven new sisters, and in Albanian speaking we have five new sisters and one elder. The elder is from Hungary, believe it or not, so we have a native speaker in our midst! But all of us get the impression that he prefers 'practicing his English.' 

We hosted new missionaries two weeks ago, it was pretty fun! My companion and I are going to try and sign up to host the same day his older brother comes in, in about two weeks.

Ever since a year or two ago, native speaking missionaries have gone from spending three weeks in the MTC down to eleven days in the MTC, 9-week foreign speakers now spend 6-weeks, and 12-week foreign speakers now spend 9 weeks here. Hungary used to be a 12 week stay, and with three-and-a-half weeks left, we are really starting to miss the extra 3 weeks. It seems as if we learn at least one new slightly obscure but necessary-to-know conjugation chart every day! 

We gave our first lesson to an investigator/teacher less than 48 hours of being in the MTC in Hungarian. With all that we learn about the language every day, we are amazed that he was even able to understand us that first lesson. 

Sziastok!
Bunker Elder


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Companion and District


My District
Both Hungarian Districts
My companion - he's pretty cool!
Check out our smolders! lolol




Sunday, October 26, 2014

Laundry Room and Chalkboards

Sziasztok!

So since lots of people have been leaving, my the people from my district were like the only people that help put away the gym, along with the staff that does it every week. So that took awhile, but it was kinda fun. But when we got to the last part, folding and putting away the 600 pound mat, we had to go recruit more people, because you need at least 30 people to put it away. So off we went, out to do our first "street contacts" ;). Before we could really get anywhere, though, we got word that we had enough people..... 

Christmas lights are starting to pop up everywhere. We don't think we'll see them on, though, because we haven't seen them on yet and we are leaving, at the latest, the day before Thanksgiving. *sigh* 

We got to Thursday, and I realized I hadn't taken many pictures, so my companion and I put on sweaters over out T-shirts and went outside for a photoshoot lol. I hope you like them!


The only normal picture
 



















​lol 


















hehehe i don't know what I was trying to do there



















So we didn't make this up, this is literally what one of our teachers turns the chalkboard into every day.
















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Just realized the date on my photos if off by literally like hundreds and hundreds of days
And laundry room bc idk, k? 

Sziasztok,
Bunker Elder

P.S.
I will try to have more legitimate photos next week.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

My favorite things about the food, and other fun stuff

Sooooooo my companion is from Idaho, my favorite thing about the food is that it is always there, and they always have lots of juice, and sometimes they have this crab salad that's really good. They also have these corn dog things for breakfast, except they are sausages and pancakes, and you dip them in syrup.

Every Sunday and Tuesday our zone turns the auditorium for devotionals back into a gym. It takes awhile, since it seats two thousand. It actually is super fun, because we all dress up in p-day clothes and get to push around giant carts of chairs.

My favorite part of the day is gym time, during which I usually just play four square, except on Tuesdays and Saturdays, when I play sand volleyball with the rest of the zone. I usually can get to the king spot six or seven times now every day, lol.

I play piano usually for priesthood meetings on Sundays, and sometimes on p-days.

Hungarian is coming along fine, but its really weird. For example, "I read from the Book of Mormon" translates to "Olvasom a Mormon Könyéről," or "Read(I) the Mormon Book-from." Most pronouns are usually just dropped. So sorry I don't have pictures yet, but I promise I will have some next week!

Szia,
Bunker Elder

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Another Picture of Paul at General Conference

Just in case you were wondering where in the Conference Center he was sitting at....

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Paul singing in General Conference

Here are some pictures of Paul singing in General Conference.  I know he enjoyed it, but I think that I enjoyed it more!

Singing in the Choir and doing Laundry

October 9, 2014

Singing in the choir was cool. there were a couple of tvs at the front, but they were mainly for the choir director and the other official people that were sitting up there. so we mainly saw the back of their heads. it was funny because i could kind of see the prompt screen, so i knew what the speakers were going to say before they said it. 

the laundry room is like a laundromat. yes, you do have to buy soap and stuff, but its super cheap, and we didn't have to buy any anyway because a group left our zone right after we came and gave us the rest of their soap. 

in our zone, we have all the missionaries going to hungary, estonia, finland, and albania. there are only three missionaries right now who are learning estonian (two sisters and one elder) and apparently there are less than twenty missionaries in estonia right now!!

we go to the temple on p-days in the  morning, so its a great way to start the day!

szia,
Bunker Elder

Friday, October 3, 2014

Paul is singing in the Priesthood Session

I will be in the Priesthood Session choir of general conference. Pretty sure I'll be on your left, my right, and somewhere in the middle up-and-down-wise. spread the word!!! it's actually pretty lucky that I got in since the final applications were due on my first day, and the first practice was just two days later!!

Szia,
Bunker Elder

p.s. feel free to forward my e-mails to whoever wants them!


andddd we taught our first lesson in Hungarian to an "investigator" less than 48 hours of being in the MTC. we've taught three lessons to the same guy since then. Each one has been exponentially better, lololol.

Szia,
Bunker Elder

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Thursday is P-Day!

Sooooooo my pday is on Thursday, but all the new missionaries' first Wednesday and Thursday are use for orientation and special classes and stuff, so it was bad luck that Thursday is when my p-day is, since that means I have the longest possible wait time before I can do my first e-mail home, lolol. BTW, the world "elder" is still "elder" in Hungarian, but since this language is so backwards, I'm called "Bunker Elder." It says so on my name tag. This language is crazy because, so far, we have learned 24 possible ways to conjugate each verb, and that's just for present tense. and a bunch of other stuff like that. 

Put my e-mail on facebook, so if anyone wants to access it they can. Do something like "If anyone wants to contact Bunker Elder use paul.bunker@myldsmail.net"

Szia,
Bunker Elder