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