Week 15 - June 14, 2010, Tatabanya, Hungary

Dear Family,

So far this p-day has been really good. We went to Esztergom this morning which is one of the largest churches in the world. I took a bunch of pictures, and I'm sending another card home today. It doesn't have the Esztergom pictures but there are a lot on this one too.

That's really cool about the Barlows. That would be crazy to go on a mission the same time as Dani. Good thing she`s married.

I`m sorry the calls were so expensive. I just really wanted to talk to you all and the phones(and everything) in France were really stupid. France was really stupid. The good news is we get plenty of money every month and food and pretty much everything else is really cheap. And we get an hour and a half free to call on Christmas and Mothers Day. Our mission president is awesome.

That's really exciting that weŕe getting hard wood floors and new carpet and everything. I still think about that carpet sometimes because the carpet in our apartment is really nasty. Wait till you see some of the pictures.

Oh the accordion concert. One of the members, Edina, has a daughter named Zsofi who plays the accordion. She invited us to her accordion recital last week. It was really funny to watch all of these little kids making concentration faces while they were playing. They were actually really good too. I just never thought I would go to an accordion concert in Hungary.

My knees are doing okay. We walk a lot though. The good news is we have bikes. The bad news is the bikes are pretty crappy. I took pictures. You`ll see.

I am getting along really well with my companion. We have tons of fun but we still work way hard. Cheney Elder is really good about not wasting time but not going over the top either. He knows how to schedule little things that are fun for us, but still are worthwhile. Like whipping. Hungarian whips are so fun. I have to get one while I`m here. I`m getting so good at it. It`s amazing how loud you can get it. But even while we`re whipping we`re still finding. Old guys will come up while we`re whipping and talk to us and will want to try it, so we let them and they give us tips and then we can talk about the church. It`s really cool.

I`ve seen a ton of weird things. Kind of disturbing things. It`s really hot and humid so the ˝Cats are losing their fur˝ as Ferenc puts it. Everyone is losing their clothes. I´ve see old guys in speedos and thongs and other nasty things and it makes tracting an adventure. I`ve also eaten some weird things. I don`t think I want to talk about that though. We have a baptism this Saturday in the Duna (that`s the Danube). It`s pretty exciting.

The time is passing so fast now that I`m out of the MTC. I can`t believe I`ve been in the country 3 weeks already. I can already understand everyone better and I can speak a little. I just wish it wasn´t so hot and humid. It gets really miserable. Especially when we`re doing service. We do a ton of service. We can`t in the winter so we make up for it in the summer. I don`t mind service, but these things get pretty bad sometimes. I feel like people are abusing us. Oh well. I do it and I try to be happy about it. It just makes me appreciate the dry heat of Utah and the work we do in the yard.

That`s about all my news. Just lots of work and sweaty sweat. I hope you all are happy. Have fun living in the torn apart house for a week. Let me know how it turns out. You should try attaching pictures again. I know that myldsmail accounts can get pictures. I don`t know why it didn`t work last time you tried. Anyways. I love you all.

Kraucs Elder
Hungarian is awesome.