boldog hétfő!

20 April 2015

boldog hétfő! this week wasn't super exciting but it ended up being pretty good.

 

On kedd (tuesday) we streeted around a lot after we got dogged by the An_ family. Later that evening we had a program with Ibo_ and Már_, who are a baptist couple we found in the area book. They were super nice and we had a good discussion about the importance of the scriptures and we tried to talk about the similarities of our religions but Már_ pulled out the "in the bible it says you can't add to the bible" bit and so we tried to explain that the bible was written in a different order than it is in now but he wasn't up for it so we simply tried to avoid bible bashing and testify of truth and I think it went well over all. I'm not sure if we will meet with them again. Ibo_ was super nice and she could be open but we have to talk to them more to find out. 

 

On szerda (wednesday) morning we had planned a lesson with a little family but they dogged us so we decided to go out to Százhalombatta to look up a less active a little early and street around that area. So we went out there and elder Loveland told us the wrong bus stop so we ended up being on the opposite side of town right next to the duna [Danube] so we looked at it a bit and then walked like an hour in the blazing sun to try and find where Nádi Mária lived and when we finally got to the street the numbers were all funky but we finally found where she lived and rang the cséngő. We waited around a bit until this man came out and we asked for Mária and he said that no Mária lived here. So we said sorry and walked away a bit and called Mária twice but she didn't answer. So we ended up streeting around trying to find a bus stop that went back to Érd. We got pretty sun burnt but we eventually got back to Érd in time for our program with And_, Év_ and Tib_. We taught them about the law of chastity, which we knew was going to be an interesting lesson because they aren't married but it ended up going really well and they totally believe everything but they can't get married because they are too in debt with the bank and everything they make goes to the bank so they don't have enough money to pay for the marriage license which is about 30,000 forint or about 150 dollars. We were pretty heartbroken to hear that because they really do love each other. Éva said that they have loved each other for 10 years and they haven't been able to get married. We are a little stumped with what to do now because they said that they just don't have any money. I just wish that we could pay for them to get married!! It is all going to be okay though, it is in the Lord's timing and we are praying constantly for them. We are thinking in our next lesson to talk about fasting and fast with them that they will be able to figure out how to get married and how to solve their problems so they will finally be able to come to church. 

 

the Duna

After them we had Angol Óra and it was really fun. One of our students, who is this adorable little old man brought us photos of the house he built. It is gorgeous and across the duna from an old castle, Visegrad. Look up pictures of Visegrad and you will understand how pretty it is. I totally want to visit it someday. We then talked about all the cool places to visit in the Budapest area. We also talked with our angol orian who owns a pottery business and so we are going to go make pottery with her tomorrow! I can't wait for that!!

 

Csütörtök (thursday). We tried doing some look ups of past investigators but nobody answered so we went into Budatétény early and did some tracting. Nobody was really interested but we talked to this 94 year old bácsi, who called himself Laci Bácsi, for a while and he had the most beautiful tulip garden and so he gave us each a perfect red tulip and told us to tell everyone that Laci Bácsi gave it to us.

laci bácsi's garden

a pretty church in budatétény

We then decided to look up some people in budatétény and actually were able to talk to Szi_ again. She is pretty cool and we chatted for a bit before transitioning into a gospel discussion. I guess her husband was from England but doesn't speak english and they have been married for a while now. She likes to sew and makes super adorable little stuffed animals and dolls and stuff and I think she sells them. She is cool though and we eventually transitioned into a conversation about the first discussion. It was super great and she said it was okay if we wanted to come back some time. I don't think she thought we were teaching her but she super loved talking about gospel stuff. After that we had angol óra which went well, nothing super exciting. We talked about tomatoes and gardens.

 

On Péntek (friday), we had zone training. It was super great. We have new zone leaders now. They are Elder Olsen and Tuttle.They are both really cool and our training was about how to get members involved in the missionary work. It is so much better when member are involved because that gives the investigator a friend to go through it with right from the start and someone they can always turn to if they have any questions and that speaks the language perfectly. We talked about how at first it can be scary to invite people to church or even just talk about our beliefs, but like anything in life it takes practice. It was really good and the sister training leaders were awesome. After we went to lunch and got some palacsintas, or pancakes/crepes. They were super good and we talked to the people in our zone and it was super fun. That evening we met with Zsu_ again, the catholic lady who wanted to meet for english. She only had half an hour so we didn't talk for too long but we gave her a restoration pamphlet and it was good.

 

Szombaton (on saturday), we went to budafok and explored that area. It is kind of cool that our area has a lot of other cities in the outskirts of budapest to visit. We figured out where would be good to tract or street but we weren't feeling like we were having much success being there that day so we decided to go back to Érd. 

budafok

budafok

It was a cloudy and kind of cold day and we ended up not being able to talk to many people at all because everyone was hiding from the cold. We were walking around the main street of Érd and we were both feeling kind of depressed because nobody had wanted to listen to us all day except this atheist man who just wanted to argue and so I said a little prayer in my heart that we would be able to talk to just one person. We were walking down the street and a couple of people avoided us but I saw this man with a bike coming towards us and I stopped him and we started to talk. I tried to ask him "ha fel tudnánk tenni egy kerdést Istennek mi lenne?" or (if you could ask God one question what would it be?) but I just tripped over myself in hungarian and it was super bad but he ended up getting it and he said he had no clue so we asked him if he was religious and he said he wasn't really. But we ended up talking about the book of mormon and gave him one and we are going to call him later today and try to set up with him. He was really nice and pretty interested and thought it was super nice that we gave away the book of mormon for free and he said he would be interesting in meeting to talk about it. It was amazing to see how God really answers prayers. If there is anything I have found out so far on my mission it is that God really really answers prayers. I think that usually we just think it is a coincidence or fate but it is really God's hand in our lives.

 

On vasárnap (sunday) we taught youth sunday school to the american kids in the ward and it was super great. We talked about how to identify truth in the voices of the world and it was super great. The girl, Ali, goes to a protestant international high school and is one of the only non protestants in the school. She said that it is super hard sometimes and was super cute and asked us how we can know what is true, and how to tell if someone is really trying to help or hurt you, and I told her that the holy ghost is one of the most amazing gifts that we have because it discerns truth. If we can feel the holy ghost in our conversations or actions it usually means that it is good and anything good come from God. It was super nice to be able to help someone and be able to say exactly what I wanted. I have really missed being able to help people without having to think about every little word or way to say something and it was a tender mercy that I was able to help someone else. I sometimes get jealous of english speaking missionaries like the missionaries in the district videos because they can say anything they want to and they can completely understand the needs of their investigators but I am learning to rely on the spirit so much out here it is crazy. I feel so grateful that the spirit is a language that everyone can feel and understand.

 

Thats about it for my week. Today we went to Mártonvasár where there is a beautiful estate where Beethoven apparently lived for a time. It was pretty cool, pictures to come. 

Love you all and have a great week! 

 

heath nővér

mártonvasár

strange tree at mártonvasár

Our district

Downton Abbey?

Pretty great week

13 April 2015

sziasztok mindenki,

well this week was a pretty great one. Most weeks in the past I have had about 3 to 6 programs a week but this week we had 11!!  Its already a great start to this transfer.

Some of the exciting highlights of this week: 

-Elder Meek called last week and gave us a referral to a couple of young girls who are granddaughters of an older lady they had been teaching so on wednesday we contacted them and I think they are going to be legit. When we rung the doorbell their mom answered and before we could say anything she called her daughter to the door so they definitely already know who the missionaries are. But we got her phone number and I think it will be great. There are two daughters and Elder Meek said that one of them has a serious sickness, like cancer or something but that they are cool and pretty interested so I am excited. 

-We found a pretty church while streeting. Photos to come.

-We met with an awesome lady named Szo__. She is a tour guide, and speaks almost perfect english. She is super funny and really nice. She mostly wants to meet with us for help with english but she also said that she is open to talking about different beliefs so we will see where it goes with her. She is really cool though so hopefully she will be interested in the gospel too. 

-We met with Kla__ again, the 22 year old girl from angol óra. We taught her the plan of salvation and she just got it. The only worry she had was that she was going to be a bad person after she got her new resurrected body but we told her that if she was a good person in this life that she would be a good person in the next life because our spirits are still the same and we are still the same person, just perfected. She is super legit and she told us how sometimes she hears things and it feels like deja vu (is that how you spell it?) or like she has heard it before. She is just super cool and we set up to meet with her again this week.

-This little ice cream shop opened up right down the street from where we live so we stopped by and as we walked up the man behind the counter started speaking to us in english and so we asked him where he learned english and he told us he was born that way. We were confused so we asked him again, how he learned hungarian and he told us he was hungarian and learned it in school so we asked him again how he learned english and he told us the same thing that he was born that way so we were confused but after a bit of joking back and fourth we figured out that he was a linguistics major and that he he also was fluent in russian too. He is super weird and funny. He told us that him and his sister decided a month ago to open an ice cream shop so they did and that that was their first day of being open and that we were customers number 12 and 13. After we talked a bit he gave us some chocolate filled wafer things to dip in our ice cream. We told him we would definitely be back. The next day we went back and as we came walking up he stood up from his chair and shouted "the lányok!" which means "the girls" and we chatted a little bit about what we were doing here in hungary and he said that I pronounce my r's well, that I roll them haha He is super funny and I am stoked to become friends with him and maybe after we become friends with him he will want to meet with us. Oh his name is Fer__ by the way and his sisters name is Kri__.

-We met with the Popvicsék on friday. Gyöngyi is a member, and two of her kids are baptized but their dad isn't a member yet. He comes to church pretty frequently and is very nice but just isn't a member yet. We have had lessons with them in the past but last time Istvan didn't listen the whole time and wandered out of the room but this lesson we talked about prayer and how important family and individual prayer are so we brought some rocks and markers for the kids to color and make prayer rocks. This lesson he listened to the whole thing and helped the kids make them. Eszter (their 8 year old daughter who just got baptized) drew the first vision on it and was super cute. It was a really good lesson.

we found rapunzel's tower while looking for a soccer field

-On saturday we met with And__, Év__ and Tib__. The beginning of the lesson Év__ sort of broke down talking about how hard life was and how they were having money problems. We couldn't really understand everything she was talking about because she was talking really fast in hungarian and crying and we didn't want to be rude and ask her to repeat herself after she poured out all of her feelings so we just sort of sat there for a few seconds and all the sudden I thought to have her read 3 Nephi 22 and she loved it. Before she read the scripture there was just this sort of depressing feeling in the room and it just didn't feel good but after the all started smiling and we were able to teach a really good lesson about church attendance and the sacrament. We were super positive that they were coming to church because of how good the lesson was but unfortunately they canceled again but this time they promised they would come next week so if they don't come again we are going to hold them to that promise. They could be so much better if they just came to church!!! They said they understood the blessings they could get from it they just need to make the sacrifice to get the blessings. 

-Saturday evening we had dinner with the palmers, the american family in the branch. We had sweet pork tacos and it was just strange feeling like we were in america in their house. We also had brownies for dessert!! oh gosh I have missed american desserts. They don't really do cake and such the same here. They have fantastic pastries and sweet breads but not like cake and muffins or cookies the same. They also gave us a package of pop tarts which was super nice of them. 

Well thats about all I had for this week. It was pretty great and next week we  have a ton of programs already set up and we are going to explore a new city in our area called budafok which is, according to the elders, super pretty and european so I am excited. I love you all and I hope that you have a great week.

sok szeretettel,

heath nővér

Branch Easter party

 

Érd sweet Érd

7 April 2015

Hello all!! Sorry I didn't email yesterday. In hungary Easter is a three day holiday so everything was closed on monday. We had transfers on wednesday and I now am serving with sister sholly! She is simply fantastic and I already know it is going to be a great transfer. She is from a small town outside of ogden utah and loves soccer, fishing and hunting. She is super sweet and calm and down to earth. I think it is going to be a great time for Érd.

On wednesday, we had transfers like I said and that was really great to see all of my friends in different cities and catch up with how they are all doing. It was a long day of lugging suitcases on the metro and train however, to get to and from Érd. 

Thursday we met with a néni from the area book. She was super sweet and nice but I'm not sure how far it is going to go with her. We are meeting with her again next week and we'll see if it goes anywhere. That night we had angolóra in budatétény and one of the ladies at the end of it wanted to meet outside for more help. We are meeting with her next week so we will see how it goes.

a super pretty jewish temple we saw while walking around budapest before transfers. It is apparently one of the biggest in the world, in relation for how many people it can seat.

On Friday we had district meeting and got to know our new district. Me and Elder Loveland are still here but our new companions are sister sholly of course and elder wilcox. The both seem really cool and hardworking. I think it is going to be a good transfer and that things are going to turn around. Later that afternoon we met with An_, Év_ and Tib_. It was sister sholly's first time meeting with them so we decided to watch the restoration film with them and re touch on the importance of the restoration. The first time they met with the missionaries was about five months ago so we thought it would be good to review. It was super great and they loved the film and after we asked them if they had prayed and asked Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and if this really was His restored church. They answered back with a firm yes and it was super great. It was really sweet before the lesson sister sholly was getting to know them a bit and she asked them all what they liked to do. When she asked tibor what he liked to do he said "I like reading the book of mormon." They are just such great people. The are super flaky but super great and really love the gospel. 

After meeting with them we went to the branch house for the Húsvét Buli! (or easter party). It was super fun. They set up several tables and we had a little easter dinner as a branch. We had chicken and all types of pasta and egg salads. After the kids dyed eggs and made little easter bunny masks. Aniko came around at the end with a big basket and passed out chocolate easter bunnies for everyone and the branch gave each of us missionaries a big loaf of easter bread, which is a big braided loaf that you can pull off pieces like rolls. 

On saturday we went and tracted a bit in budatétény in the morning and I showed sister sholly the area. Not too many people wanted to answer however because it was easter weekend so we ended up streeting around a bit and we got a nice man's number off the street. We are going to call him later so that should be good. 

That night we went to the branch house to watch conference. It was really good, at least what I could understand was great. It was a bit of a struggle watching it in hungarian. A few of the speakers had simpler concepts that they were speaking about and I could understand those but a few of them like elder packer's talk were more difficult. On sunday however we figured out that we could watch conference in english in another room if we set it up so we actually got to watch the sunday morning session in english and it was so so great listening to those amazing talks in english. It was super cool to hear that there are going to be new temples on the ivory coast, hati and in thiland!! Man is the gospel spreading!! How long is it going to be now til we get one in hungary?! haha

On monday, we did a lot of area book work and called a million people to see if they wanted to meet and we actually had a ton of people who said yes. Most of the people said to call back because in hungary easter is celebrated on monday as well as sunday so a lot of people were busy with their families. So in a couple of days we are going to call a ton of people back. Its going to be great. Fun hungarian tradition. So the monday after easter a tradition they have here in hungary is to perfume or "water" the girls. So it used to be that the boys would go to the house of the girls and take them and throw them in the well to "water" them like a spring flower, then that transitioned into dumping buckets of water on the girls and then that transitioned into spraying them with perfume or dropping perfume on their hair. Our elders made a huge joke that they were going to spray us with water but luckily because all the stores were closed yesterday they couldn't get any soda water to spray us with. We did have a member of the branch however spray the tops of our heads with a super strong smelling perfume that still stuck after washing my hair so that was interesting. I think other than that hungary celebrates easter pretty much the same with the bunnies and eggs and everything. 

well things are great here in Érd. I love my new companion and It is getting warmer and we are figuring out some fun places to go next p-day so it is going to be a great transfer. #Érddoesn'tsuck

love 

heath nővér

hallo sziasztok!

31 March 2015
hallo sziasztok! 

well, its been a week of tracting and tracting and tracting. We got permission to tract in a new city in our area, its called budatétény and is a nice central area. It has a big mall in it so there are a ton of people on the streets but we went out to a cute little neighborhood of five stories, which are apartment buildings that are only five stories. Apparently in hungary if a building is bigger than five stories it has to have an elevator in it so there are tons of buildings that are only five stories so that was fun walking up tons of stairs this week. 

 

We found one lady who is apparently friends with some members but she is a seventh day adventist (is that what it is called? in hungarian it is adventizsta). But she was super nice and has the cutest little boy with a big fro so we gave her a book of mormon and our number and hopefully she will call later. We also talked to a lady who used to meet with the missionaries but pretty firmly told us that there is no such thing as a living prophet so we didn't get too far with her. 

 

But the most exciting thing was yesterday. We have transfers tomorrow so we have pday today on tuesday instead of on monday so we went out working. We went to budatétény with the elders and split up which buildings we were going to tract. We got an amazing let in from a lady yesterday who was super open and it was just incredible. We decided to try building number nine first but nobody was interested so then we went across the way and tried building 12 which didn't have anyone interested either so then we tried ten. We cséngőed [rang the bell] but nobody answered but then a nice lady let us in the building. We went up to the top floor and knocked on a couple of doors until we got to her and she answered. She said that she saw us go into the building across from her and was sad that we weren't in hers and then she saw us go into the one next to her, and thought that we were never going to talk to her and then we finally knocked on her door. The first thing she said was that she had been waiting for us. She said she was super catholic and basically told us all about how she goes to church every sunday and her whole family is baptized catholic but that she always follows what she feels in her heart so we taught her about the book of mormon and at the end we asked if we could pray with her. We did and during the prayer we asked to bless Ir__ that she can know the truth. She started crying and after we ended she said that she has never heard a prayer like that before and that now that is the way she is going to pray!! it is so incredible that this super catholic lady can feel the truth so strongly and have the faith to follow it. dang the gospel must be true!!

 

pretty p-day pretending to live pride and predjudice

Thats about it for this week. Not too much exciting news. We got transfer calls this morning. I am staying in érd and my new companion will be sister sholly who apparently is pretty cool so it should be good. sister sellers is going to become sister training leader in debrecen so she is super excited. Debrecen is a really pretty city and it was where her mom greenied. 

 

I hope you all have a good week and that the snow isn't too crazy still! Remember how much God loves us all and don't forget to look for the tiny miracles. They are there if you look. And maybe you can be the tiny miracle for someone else. 

sok szeretettel 

 

some great hungarian and not so hungarian foods