Email of March 22nd

That's good to hear that dad's foot is doing good. I really hate to hear when he is in pain because he has so much to do and it's just hard for him as well and so I just hate to hear that he can't work to the best of his ability. But then I also feel bad because he keeps going anyway.

Things here are going awesome. Like I've told others, I am anxious yet dread the end of my mission, because along with the ability to understand a little better, I get a lot more attached and I'm going to be really, really sad to leave. Transfers from one place to the next gets hard when you really love the people that you have been around. The ward (congregation) here is so awesome and I'm glad that I get to have a really freakin awesome companion, and a really cool district. There are 4 of us here in Győr and 2 are sisters and on pdays we take care of the things that we need to and then we just relax or have a fried Snickers night. They're not as good as you would think. I got a little sick after like 3 of the halves.

As for things here, nothing much new is going on. We were recognized for having a great achievement of 31 total finding and teaching hours. It's a big thing here to teach 20 lessons a week but we taught 27 and so we are working hard then playing hard and I'm so much happier because of it. Time is going by way fast too. It's hard to believe that we are already almost halfway done the transfer and we might only get to serve one together casue hes already been here for 3 and this one being his 4th so we can only hope that cause we work well together and are working hard that he will let us stay one more together.

Other than that I'm just trying to get ready for the confirmation on Sunday and it's going to be great.

Love you and miss all of you so much. I'm really anxious to be able spend time with you all again, but as you know I left my family for 2 years so that I can help other families have eternity.

Love Joshy

This Week in Hungary

Monday was a Hungarian holiday so the missionaries had a "super pday" and Josh didn't get to write much of an email that day-just a short, quick hello to say he'd write later in the week. This morning we heard from him:

Ya I see the picture right now (of Ken's broken foot). I feel so bad that every time he plays church sports he gets hurt, and the typical prayer before any sporting event includes ˝please bless us with safety so that no one will get hurt˝.

Why do you get to go to Boston? You should go to a Celtics game for me, lol.

Well Győr is freakin awesome, they have some awesome members here and this is where they do all the church translating for the stuff for the Hungarians. And serving with Elder Egan is awesome we are having so much fun and I am really learning a lot. I'm so glad that I have had really great comps. I really miss Elder Pickered and I just talked with him this morning cause our baptism date in Duna wants me to confer on her the holy ghost in church on the 28 and I'm kind of nervous about it because I never even did it in English. A lot of my firsts have been in Hungarian, like when it comes to priesthood blessings, now the holy ghost, holy crap. It's so cool. Originally she wanted me to baptize her but plans changed. So I get to go back to Dunaújváros.

But the new apartment is really nice, it's not as big as the one we had for about a week when I first got here but it still has a lot of room. Just the only problem is that our land lady redid a lot of things and so things are nice but we still don't have a shower curtain so we have to sit there in the tub and spray water on little by little and it evaporates. We get cold and it's just not fun yet but whatever, we are getting by and having a good time getting some work done.

Yes, the mail that has been sent to me was sent to the mission home by Pickerd and then was brought to me at zone conference.

Well, love you guys and hope that this Boston thing may get you a job, but not in boston because I want to come home at the end of my mission. wink wink.

3 generations serve European missions

Ken Hosch Germany Munich '85-'87 (red)
Heinz Hosch Germany/Austria '61-'63 (green)
Josh Hosch Hungary Budapest '09-'11 (blue)

Just a quick email

On Wednesday morning this week we are moving into another place so we've been looking for an apartment and taking care of all that fun stuff. I've never looked for an apt and the first time is in a different country. I didn't do much because we have a member here who like helps us with everything and speaks English like she was born speaking it so she helped us with almost all of it, if not all of it.

We played soccer on sport day and I'm not very good, I can kick it hard but that's about it!

But Győr is awesome and Elder Egan is also awesome. We are already getting some work done. While trying to take care of all the stuff going on this week we still made the "20 lessons club" and stuff, so the work here is going great. I'm hoping I'm here for a while.

Well, got to go. I hope everything is going good at home!

A little bit about Győr

information and map from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C5%91r

Coordinates: 47°41′03″N 17°38′06″E / 47.68403°N 17.63507°E / 47.68403; 17.63507
Country: Hungary
County: Győr-Moson-Sopron
Area
- Total 174.61 km2 (67.4 sq mi)
Population (2008)
- Total 128,808
- Density 730.71/km2 (1,892.5/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 9000
Area code(s) 96

Győr is the sixth largest city in Hungary and lies halfway between Budapest and Vienna, Austria. It has been inhabited since the fifth century and along with the rest of the country, has endured a lot of trials. It has been occupied by Celts, Romans, Slavs, Italians, Turks, Mongols, Czechs, Austrians, and many more. During the 17th century, rather than try to defend the city yet again against the Turkish army, Gyor's leader burnt down the town; the Turkish army found blackened ruins. The Turks still call it Yanık kale ("burnt city"). The town was then rebuilt by Italian builders. Gyor continued to experience hundreds of years of unrest.

Three rivers, the Danube, Rába, and Rábca, all merge here.

Today, the city is of great importance in Hungary, it is a cultural center and also a university town and very popular tourist attraction. Győr has no sister cities in the United States.

There's more rich history and gorgeous photographs at the Wikipedia link listed above.

New city, new companion

Well, Josh is moving to the north western part of Hungary to a city called Győr. He will be serving with Elder Jared Egan from Gilette, WY. He has been out for 2 transfers longer than Josh and left the MTC the day before Josh entered. It's well worth looking up Győr on Wikipedia and searching the city on Google Images. What a gorgeous place. The work is apparently very strong there and the people are good.
As I'm trying to do with the cities Elder Josh serves in, I will post some history, statistical information, and probably make a slideshow in the next day or two of the city. So far, I'm completely in awe of the photographs I've seen.

Some tidbits from today's email:

Wow, I'm moving already. I heard that this city is amazing and I'm really excited. I will be serving with an Elder who is 2 transfers ahead of me, Elder Egan.

The language is still kind of hard but I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to speak a little more here and there and we both have some of the same interests and so I think that we will get along well. He was the one that told me after seeing my drawings that now he has started drawing. So I guess that we can help each other because he was a fitness trainer before he came on his mission and so I hope that we will work out a lot.

We have an investigator who is about 40ish and she really liked me and Wilcox Elder and now both of us will be gone. So I told her that there will be other missionaries, but she said that we were like her children and so it's hard for her to say goodbye. She's pretty cool and I hope that she continues to progress.

Other than going to a new city, we just went to a party. It's called a farsang- that's a Hungarian holiday around this time where they dress up like we do at Halloween but it's basically to scare winter away. It was pretty fun, I did some limbo and I never thought that I could go that low. It hurt after but oh well it was funny. I'll miss Pickerd Elder and the people here.
Well, love you and hope that you guys have a great week. I'm sure I'm going to after I get all unpacked and have things taken care of. I'm excited to progress to new places again.
Love you
Love Joshy