"I'm leavin' on a jet plane..."

Well, Josh got his flight information and tickets. He leaves the MTC on Monday, August 3rd for Hungary. He'll fly from Salt Lake to Paris, then go on to Budapest. He's so unbelievably excited to get on with his mission after spending so much time at the MTC. All these weeks of training and learning the language, he's about to go out and start to use it!! The adjustments have not been easy but he's so excited and willing to do whatever it takes to be a successful missionary and serve his full-time mission.

In his last letter home he didn't say much but give us his flight information. But while I was away he sent a letter home and has really learned to lean on prayer. He said that the language continues to get harder and harder; while he's learned a lot, the more he learns, the more he finds he needs to learn. Hopefully being among the natives in Hungary will help him with that. There's nothing better for learning a language than full immersion. He said on the days he prays he can learn; on the days he doesn't pray, he has a hard time learning or even feels like he doesn't learn at all. Wow...he also said that he can't believe it himself, but when he lays down to go to sleep at night, he just has to pray or he can't sleep. If he hops into bed without personal prayer, he just thinks "pray, pray, pray..." So he's learning to lean on personal prayer to get him through.

He continues to miss everyone a lot but is so excited for the day he can come home and share his experiences. He writes in his mission journal pretty much daily-hopefully that will continue. It would just be too hard to catch up if he got behind.

If you've been writing Josh using DearElder.com, I guess you can't do that for free anymore. Even if you wrote him over the weekend or on Monday, he will leave the MTC prior to the emails being put in his mailbox. His MTC mailbox days are over. You can still use DearElder and send things to Hungary...but that costs the same as mailing a letter, it's up to you how you write to say hello. You are still welcome to send emails to cyndihosch@cox.net and I'll email them to him. The church really wants missionaries to use their email for families only.

He can be written at:
Elder Joshua Hosch
Budapest
HAJNOCZY Jozsef Utca 14
1122
HUNGARY

If we get a more specific address, I'll post it all over the place for everyone to find~

Thank you so much to everyone who has written Josh and helped support him through his time at the MTC. It's amazing as his mother to see the changes he's already gone through and it's only been a short amount of time. I'm sure it will just continue~

A special song for birthdays

Here's a special Hungarian Happy Birthday song! Enjoy... I'll post a slideshow soon of some of the 300 pictures Josh sent. I don't know about you guys but I've never heard Hungarian, so it's a treat for me to hear it like this. What a language! It amazes me that it's only been about 6 weeks that Josh has been in the MTC and listen to him and the other missionaries already! That's the beauty of the MTC. Take that, Rosetta Stone!

What really cracks me up is that all three of them go turn off their cameras at the end...

A little Hungarian

I hope this works for everyone who wants to see it...

Stolen items and hospital visits

Did that get your attention? First things first...the "stolen" item. Josh emailed us on Wednesday and said he was so upset, he'd used his camera on the 4th of July and put it away in the closet in his room. He went for his memory card to send it to us and it simply wasn't in his camera. He asked the missionaries around him and they said they knew nothing about it, so he was pretty upset thinking somebody might have stolen it. That was pretty much the only thing he emailed about on Wednesday, which is why I didn't post anything new.

So today we got a letter he wrote on Friday, a few days after the email. Here it is:

Man, this week has been strange. Turns out one of the guys in my district had my memory card, but the reason I didn't know and wasn't able to ask him is a long story.

On Tuesday night his stomach started to hurt a little bit and thought it was gas or something, so he began to jump around and stuff to see if he could push it out somehow. (Sorry folks, I'm writing word for word, for better or worse!) What was really going on is that his appendix was inflamed. That night he asked Gardenhire Elder for a blessing at like 1 in the morning. He couldn't sleep cause it was bothering him. As soon as Gardenhire said "amen", he instantly stopped hurting. Then like a minute later it came back worse, so they called the front desk and went to the hospital. Mason Elder was put through a scanner of some kind and they found out the problem. So at 5 in the morning he got his appendix taken out and the doctors told him he was probably about 20-30 minutes from it bursting. If it burst he would have had to flush out all of his blood and get new blood and the process would take 2 weeks, then healing would take a long time. If this happened the doctor said he would have had to go home. Crazy, huh?

But a day later he came back and the doctor told him that the healing should have taken a few days but he's already up and running. His family was able to come in and his father gave him a Father's blessing, which I know helped.

But ya, July 4th was fun. We got to go to the back of the MTC and watch fireworks. (The MTC just located just north of the BYU football stadium where a huge concert and fireworks show takes place every year.) It was fun to watch them. I was among about 1,000 missionaries or so and Clark Elder and I took some of the chips I got (remember the HUGE package from Aunt Rachel!!) and threw them up in the air for people. It was awesome.

I've been working out quite a bit and I can dunk now. One of the gym guys lets us dunk in "speed" (a type of bball game) because we can't play games and they don't want us to even touch the rims except for dunking in games, which sucks but oh well. Also, I'm a little buffer. I'm about 198 lbs (he was 187 when he left). I don't know if I'm any taller but I hope so. What's crazy is that on Monday I will only have 3 weeks left and I think I can call you guys (mom and dad) as I leave the MTC.

Thanks for having people write me. What's weird is people I don't even know are writing. What's funny also is that Rachel's CTR class (in Draper, Utah) drew pics for me and so did Sister DeTemple's class. Thanks for your support and prayers that you say in my behalf. I'm so excited to be a missionary! Last night my comp (companion) and I taught the 2nd discussion in Hungarian and it's so cool to speak another language. Sorry if my handwriting isn't readable (it is pretty sloppy, to tell the truth). After writing a bunch of letters you stop caring about your handwriting! I got like 15 letters on Monday and still haven't finished writing people back.

Well it's just fun to be a missionary and I'm not even in the field yet. But weirdly enough I'm not the least bit nervous about going out and teaching. I don't know very much but I learn quickly.

Love,
Hosch Elder

Sziasztok,
Szeretlek csaladom. Hallas vagyok a segittekert. Nagyon faradt vagyok, de nagyon jo is. Sok sikert.

(By you all, I love you my family. I am grateful for all of your help. I am very tired, but I am also very good. Good luck.)

Josh sent us his memory card so once we figure out how to get the pictures and videos off the card I'll post them. He has a different camera than we have so we have to figure this out!

Latest letter as of July 3, 2009

Today we got a letter from Josh. I'll type it in for you all and share it with you.

You would not believe how awesome this week has been. As you know this week was a special one because it's "new mission President week". I heard that we were going to hear from President Monson in a special devotional but we didn't. We did, however, get to hear from Jeffrey R. Holland, and along with him on the stand was L. Tom perry, David A Bednar, Dallin H. Oaks, Quentin L. Cook, Neil L. Anderson, and D. Todd Christofferson.

Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about the power of the Holy Ghost and having it as a 3rd companion. Also that the Godhead will bear testimony of you as a missionary if you're doing everything to be a part of the drivine order. And he said "welcome to the work of Angels and divine companionship".

Today is now Sunday and I'm not very awake, but today was one of the best days here. We had a special Priesthood meeting with all the men and then the same with a sacrament meeting. What made today special was that as we walked out to go to our classroom, which is out front of the MTC, there were 2 very nicely kept cars and a group of people. As I walked over I was obviously wondering who was there. As I got closer I looked over and saw the Prophet and Henry B. Eyring standing out front talking. I could hear his voice but was far enough away from him to not make out the words, but it was still amazing to see Thomas S. Monson. I was standing on the curb near the exit of the MTC and was near the low part of the curb where the 2 cars drove off when they left. So I was just bawling my eyes out as I was literally arm's length from the cars as President Monson and Elder Eyring drove away with the windows down and they were waving back to me. It was just one of the most amazing feelings to be in the view of someone you have such a great respect for.

Throughout the week I saw Boyd K. Packer and Dieter F. Uchdorf walking around. Out of respect they asked that we not take pictures, but the memory still remains in my head. Never again in my life will I see the entire 1st Presidency and almost all the Quorum of the 12 in another place outside of the obvious General Conference. If President Monson had extended his hand to shake mine, I could have, that is how close I was. It was unbelievable. As I write this, it's only been about 10 minutes since he left. Crazy, huh?

Sorry I haven't written much. I've been so busy. Sundays I get a lot of time to write as well as Wednesdays. I also get some time after class for about an hour to write, but I spend it writing in my journal and getting ready for bed. As of the last week or two, I have really come to love the MTC. It would be nice to be in the field but it's safe to call this home for now. I think for me it will be weird to drive in a car again! I haven't done that in weeks, but I'm out of here in 5 weeks and a day. Whoooo! Thanks for your letters to give me motivation and to show your support.

Well, I love you guys and hope you share my experiences with those that want to hear them.

I will talk to you later,
Love,
Hosch Elder

On Wednesday Josh emailed that they can play basketball games again and he's VERY happy about that!! He said the last of the missionaries with the flu was due to leave quarrantine on Thursday (July 2) so they got the all-clear. He also said that some new missionaries came into the MTC who need to learn Hungarian so they got some "kici's" or young ones, as they call them. That is a sign they are getting closer and closer to leaving for Hungary.