Gondolkodom, tehát vagyok / another great week in Székesfehérvár, Magyarország!

most adorable graffiti

18 January 2016

Hello!! so here was my first full week in Székesfehérvár!

monday:

We had a family home evening at this members home at this members house. It was really nice. We made little hungarian sandwiches (basically bread, kolbász and butter). The we shared our spiritual thought and played uno. It was fun. One of their little girls is obsessed with elder bradshaw, so that was funny. She was giving him all sorts of hugs and tons of stickers. 

Tuesday:

We went to the hivatal to get sister greenwood's residency card. The sisters from dunaújváros had to come up here to get theirs too, so that was nice to see them. It was kind of a miracle because sister greenwood's papers got stained by the blue folder they were in but they still accepted the papers so that was good.

Later we went tracting and I got kicked out of a building for the first time in my mission! It was funny though, because sister greenwood has already been kicked out twice. I've been much more used to tracting family houses, not ten stories so it has been a little getting used to that here since there are more ten stories. But the lady was just so rude. I think the people are nicer in pécs and I've gotten a little softened. I did hear that the closer you get to budapest the more closed the people are but I started my misson right near budapest so I didn't understand as much back then but now that I'm back closer to pest than I'm sort of realizing it. It'll be a good challenge though I think. 

#allday #everyday

 That evening we had a good lesson with the Viktoriaék. They are a couple that runs a daycare and have four kids. It was really good. We talked about the book of mormon and prayer and their daughter (I think she's 10) showed us all the books she was reading and at the end their little son (I think he's three) said the prayer! It was freaking heart-melting. 

That night, as we were headed home, there was the biggest spider I have ever seen just hanging down out of the tree outside of our building. It was disgusting. Sister greenwood had nightmares about it. 

Wednesday:

We had a program with a less active, Bogi. It was really good. She's super nice :) 

Later we visited Nüsi Néni. She is super old and stubborn but awesome. She talked about so so much stuff. I don't even know. There were too many topics we went through but she said that I was a good little prophetess so that was cool. She said that I was different than the other girls. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

kati néni. Shes this statue in the town square that if you rub her nose its supposed to give you good luck.

Thursday:

We had a good program with a less active Istvan. He talks. so. much. But he was really nice and he loves the temple so that's good. He said his dream in life is to go to salt lake to see the temple and shake hands with president monson. 

After that we had Angol óra. I was kind of nervous because it was my first time teaching something that wasn't profi but teaching kezdő was good. After the lesson the students said that it was really good because I made them all talk. so that was good I guess. There is this adorable couple from angol óra that we walked home with, Toni and andi. They are super cool. (more about them later)

Friday:

We had district meeting..it was different but good I guess. 

We had a lunch program with a darling néni named ági. But she doesn't like it if you call her néni. She is super cool. She offered to teach us how to cook so sometime we're probably going to go over there and cook with her! woot! She made delicious rakott krumpli. 

We then tracted some, but with not too much success. We did give out one book of mormon but she didn't want to meet, but it was good. But then we noticed the sun was setting and there was a little pond nearby so we took a break and watched the sunset and we have the song clair de lune on our phone somehow so we just played that and watched the sunset and had one of those "I'm in hungary" moments. It was really nice. 

After that we had a program with a sweet bácsi named emil. It was good, he gave us little cookies and soda but was weirded out that we both chose to drink water instead of coke. It was funny. He was just so confused. But it was good.

our sunset we saw while listening to clair de lune. We felt like we were in a movie or something.

sister greenwood and her spirit tree.

me and "greenie" wood!

Saturday:

We had weekly planning and some tracting. We finished like this really long building and only got hung up on twice over the intercom. so that was good. 

Sunday:

We had church! It was good.  I've become friends with this little girl in the ward named Napsi. She's the branch presidents daughter and so adorable. Probably one of the chillest kids I have ever met. 

Later we had dinner with Toni and Andi. They made us pizza and pumpkin for dessert! They are the cutest couple ever and they met at angol óra like four years ago. Really cute story. But they've been the type of people that missionaries have been meeting with for years but nobody has really done missionary work with them, just more like friendshipping. But when I asked them if I could share my favorite scripture with them it was really cool and they loved it. Andi was totally loving it and Toni just got this sort of contemplative look on his face. It was really interesting. I really think they have potential. 

Well, that was our week! I hope you all are doing good! Love you!

Sister Hit 

theres a lot of cool graffiti here

I really want to go to this dentist...

car.

25 January 2016

another great week in Székesfehérvár, Magyarország! 

monday:

After emailing we went ice skating with the elders and one of their investigators. It was pretty fun. The best part though was that elder mellor tried to scare me by scraping his ice skates really fast in front of me but instead just ended up falling. #karma

ice skating

Tuesday:

We went tracting and met this darling néni outside of her building as we were trying to csengő in. Her name is Piroska and she smelled like pálinka (hungarian alcohol made out of fruit). She at first was curious about why we were trying to ring in and I told her that we were missionaries and it was okay if she didn't want to let us in that we would keep ringing other's bells to see if they were interested. She didn't say anything and just started at my name tag so I asked her if she had heard about the church. Basically we got into this long discussion about why god gives us hard things and I gave her a book of mormon and she said that we could come back sometime. She was super sweet if only a little drunk but she has a hard life and we can't wait to see her again.

 

After we had a lesson with a less active named Rozsi néni. She is an interesting lady and definitely believes in reincarnation. But she had this super sassy cat with a short tail so that was fun. Then at the end of the program as we were saying goodbye, she pulled out this other cat from behind her bed or who knows where and was like, "this cat's cuter, the other one is ugly". 

Wednesday:

We had lunch with Toni at this cafeteria near his work place which was straight out of the seventies. It was cool.

We had planned a program with this lady but nobody was home/they didn't answer so we ended up going tracting over near her house in some family houses. It was greenwood's first time tracting családi houses so that was fun. She got the whole smell of wood smoke and dogs barking experience while freezing your butt off. It reminded me of érd :)

Later we had a missionary world wide training that we watched at the branch house. It was super cool to get training from the 12 about how to be a better missionary and what we really need to focus on. 

the lakes are all frozen over!

Thursday.

We had zone training in dunaújváros. It was great to see my little pécsi missionaries again :)

also, (photos to follow) elder martindale (the elder I sewed the fox for christmas) gave me an early birthday present which turned out to be a smaller version of the fox I sewed him that he sewed all by himself! Its pretty adorable. 

After that we had angol óra. Nothing too exciting.

#pécsifamilyforever

 a doodle elder martindale did during zone training

Friday:

We had a program with emil, the less active. It was super good. We talked a lot about repentance. The spirit was super strong. Hes a darling bácsi. 

Saturday:

We tracted this giant building. It started snowing during the middle of it so that was pretty. 

Sunday:

We went to primary for the third hour of church. It was fantastic, literally one hundred percent understandable. I wish we could go every week. 

We had a really good program with a guy named tamás whos been investigating for like three years now. It was super good. 

well, thats about all for this week! 

sok szeretettel,

Heath Nővér

my new little fox. (ignore the mess)

we found an angst wall in town.

cute little thingie outside a toy show in the belváros

 random thing hanging from a lamp shop.

 

surprise transfer!!!

16 January 2016

so yet again, I cannot get out of a city at a normal transfer! I am now in a city called Székesfehérvár. Good luck pronouncing that one family. Some things happened here in székes that made it so they needed to be switched around so I am now am with sister greenwood who just got to hungary in december so shes still all new and green and stuff. Things are good!

but lets see what happened this week!

monday:

We had a program with Dávid about the temple and the importance of his new family history help calling, so that was good :)

Later one of sister willets' friends from byu who is actually hungarian made a surprise visit since he was home for the holidays so we walked around the city a little with him and it was good.

willets and levente (her friend from byu)

Tuesday:

We had a program with P_ Kati and guess what? she said that she is going to get married in the summer!!! This is a huge deal because last time she asked her pár then he was drunk and threw a chair and it was really scary and she said she would never be able to ask him again but she said that on new years he surprised her by asking for her hand! 

Later we met with Merci and talked about new years resolutions and goals and just how much God loves her and wants to help her in her life. She is just the biggest sweetheart. 

After that we went tracting for a bit and we got this fantastic let in with the Szily family (pronounced silly). So szily béla and judit are basically the coolest ever. Béla appartently had been to temple square and to see the outside of the d.c. temple and had an old translation of the book of mormon and one in english too! He was super interested but his wife judit was a little more skeptical but we taught them the restoration and it was super cool and he asked us to come back some time! They also had two huge snakes and three tarantulas..so that was interesting but they are super legit and we can't wait to teach them more. 

Wednesday:

We had district meeting because the zone leaders were up for splits and we had a training from elder martindale about families and how they relate to the gospel. It was super good. We then had lunch and after that a lesson with Erzsi. It was really good. We read the family proclamation with her and basically a lot of what our district meeting was about. She really wants to be married and I really think her pár will actually go through with it soon. It has been really cool to see as I have been meeting with her the change that has come across her family. At first her pár was super creepy and just smoked a ton but recently he has been super nice to us and doesn't give us the creeps anymore! and if he smokes he does it in the other room not around us. I just love erzsi tons. 

After that program we had probably on of the most interesting programs I have ever had. So one of the members here, Tibor, referred us to his friend Szilvia. Her mom had just passed away and so Tibor said that we were meeting with her basically to comfort the family. So we got there and there were tons of people over but basically szilvia just wanted us to talk to her dad. But her dad was not having it and wouldn't come out of his room but then she brought us in there and he got up and moved to the living room and then after lots of persuasion from szilvi he listened. We talked a lot about what happens to people after they die and basically just reassured him that he would see her again and then share a few scriptures from the book of mormon with him and he was very curious about the book of mormon. We ended up talking for a really long time but at the end he was smiling again and it was really nice. (story continued on thursday)

We ended our evening making american pancakes with andrás as a little wednesday night FHE. It was nice. 

Also, I got watercolors, my life is happy :)

Thursday:

We had a program in the morning with Safrány Erzsi and it was super good! She was feeling kind of sick so we basically just talked about Christ's atonement and how we can actually use it in our lives and it was just nice and simple and the spirit was there.

We then went to the funeral for Szilvi's mom. It was cool because Tibor came up to us and said that szilvi told him that her dad said that last night was one of the best nights of his life. Tibor said that the change he saw in him was unbelievable. It was really cool to see that, even though we didn't say anything extraordinary to us, that it completely changed his outlook on his wife's passing. While still sad, the fact that he knew that she was no longer in pain and that she was in a happier place made it a little easier to cope with. I am so grateful for this gospel and that I know that after this life, I will have the chance to be with my family forever, if I follow the path that God has given us and make and keep the sacred covenants I tie with God in this life. 

That evening we had angol óra and because there were so few of us, we combined classes with the beginner class. Hanna came to angol óra and her english is so good!! She never speaks it with us and we knew she could speak but we didn't know she was that good! 

patrik and hannah

with lamar da prim (aka patrik)

Hannahs

andrás' first american pancakes!

 Friday:

So that morning we got the call that I was going to Székes so we had a few programs but we spent most of our free time packing as much as we could. 

We had a program in the morning with Gizi néni and it was really good. We talked about different ways that the spirit teaches us and how to recognize it and it was really good. She also told us all about this book she read, I think the english title is kite runners, but basically she told us the whole story line. It was really funny. But then we gave her a conference liahona to read and it was great. She is so wonderful. It was funny though, because I didn't want to surprise her and distract her from the lessons by telling her that I was leaving but at the end she asked when the next transfer was and we were like "sometime in february" and she was like, okay, then I'll have to call Jozsi (president szabadkai) before that and tell him that he can't take either of you girls away from here. 

Later we had a lesson with Luiza and Gizi (the member) came too. It was about the law of chastity and it was actually really good. Instead of the usual way we teach it we focused more on how its a commandment given to us to strengthen our families. It was super good and Gizi was a huge help. 

After we had branch council and then I went home and finished packing. 

Saturday:

We waited for the sisters from székes to come to pécs and then we took some last photos and headed back. We got to székes at like seven thirty that night and then there was a branch sport nap going on still so we headed to that and I met a few members there. 

last district photo

​saying goodbye to dávid at the train station

last photo with baby!

 Sunday:

We had church and then headed home for lunch and I started unpacking. We had a játék est that night and it was good too. Nothing too exciting. We got to know each other a bit more :) sister greenwood is super great. She's from new mexico and I really think we're going to get along well! We decided that I am kind of like her mary poppins because I'm not her trainer but more like her nanny coming to stay. Its pretty fantastic. 

Monday:

Today we just had kind of a relaxed morning walking around the city getting to know it a bit and this evening we're going to a members for Family home Evening. it should be good :)

I hope you all have a good week and that life is good! 

love,

Sister heath 

székesfehérvár

this is a cute little clock that plays music and all that jazz when it goes off.

best statue ever.

the new district! elder mellor, bradshaw and sis greenwood!

first district selfie

New Year in Pécs

 saint hanny!

4 January 2016

Boldog Új Évet!!!

Monday:

We went and visited this old turkish temple in the center of town. Super old and pretty! 

Turkish temple

Tuesday:

We had a lesson with Luiza about tithing! It was super great! She is just so ready for baptism!

We then had a dinner appointment at the Primék! It was super fun. They are really such a great family. After that we had családi est and sister Widtfeldt and her family were here to visit so they came! It was strange seeing sister widtfeldt not as a missionary but it was so fun! The branch all got super excited to see her and Mária even came to családi est to see her :) It was really sweet!

the widtfeldts and the branch at családi est!

Wednesday:

We had a really good lesson with Safrány Erzsi about the plan of salvation. It was super good and she really felt it. She teared up a few times during the lesson. She is still kind of stubborn but I think she wants to believe it and she is starting to understand!

After that we had a lunch appointment with the Kieferék! She is the cutest little néni. Shes super hard to understand when she speaks because she kind of blurrs all of her words together but its so adorable. She is really nice and we met her daughter too who is inactive.

After that we had another feeding program with Mária. She is seriously just the most wonderful woman ever. We talked about the steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Aand after that we got dinner and cocoa with the Widtfeldts and dávid. It was super good. It felt like the old days.

Thursday:

NEW YEARS NIGHT!!

We had a program in the morning with Kati. She stuffed us full of soooo much süti. I swear, I've eaten more this Christmas season than my whole mission combined. It was good though. We talked about the ten commandments and just started going over the whole "no other gods before me" thing.

After that we had a program with Erzsi :) It was supah good. We also started talking about the ten commandments with her but instead assigned it to her as a sort of check list to see what she can do better and just work at one at a time. (heres where things get sketchy) so she brought out this plate of lentils in this sort of gravy soup with pieces of fat in it (hungarians eat straight fat...its gross.) But she was like "this is what we eat for good luck on new years" I guess its a traditional lentil soup sort of thing that gives them good luck. But we had just eaten lunch before that and my comp was super full so she didn't have much room to eat much of it so I had to eat my whole big bowl to make it not look like we both hated it. It wasn't too bad. I think I've sort of lost my taste buds on my mission. But the sketch part comes later that night.

All the sudden I just feel super sick. We made pizza for dinner so I thought that maybe it just smelled weird to me or something and made me nauseous but nope, not the pizza. I had food poisoning from erzsi's lucky soup. I guess though that I can say I was throwing up all new years! The branch this sunday was super funny because they heard I was sick and they all were like, "drank too much?"

So basically all night throwing up was fun, but I got to hear the fireworks and drunk people singing on the street! haha

Friday:
Basically slept all day but was able to keep water down!

Saturday:
Was able to eat some crackers!!
I was feeling well enough that evening that we were able to go to this little missionary training meeting given by one of the high councilmen here, Ted Kelly. It was real good! He basically let everyone know what their roles were as ward missionary and such.

Sunday:
We had church! It was great! All the testimonies were really good.
After church one of the elder's investigators invited us over and then to look at this almost life size nativity scene in one of the churches nearby. So that was fun. Shes a really cool néni who's super into yoga and all sorts of natural oils and things so that was super funny. Shes totally what I want to be when I'm her age. She had this giant atlas and this really cool map too telling the different nationalities in hungary. It was cool.

cool nativity scene in the church at the end of our street. Apparently one of the prettiest in hungary according to a néni sitting looking at it.

a beautiful painting in the same church.

 Well, I am back to healthy and normal so this should be a good week! I hope that you all are doing great and that you have a happy new year and for those of you starting new semester, good luck!!

love,
Sister Heath

It snowed!

Pécs in the fog

happy happy christmas!

waiting at the bus stop christmas morning

 28 Dec 2015

Merry late Christmas everyone!! I hope that your Christmas was as good as mine and that you were all able to rest and have some good food! I sure got my fill of töltött káposzta [stuffed cabbage] and halászlé [fish soup] so I am good til next year! Anyways, here was our week!

Monday:
Nothing too crazy. Got the last of our gifts for our elders and walked around the Christmas markets with Dávid!

Tuesday:

 We had a program with these two girls from Kaposvár. They're members there and one of the girls wants to go on a mission so that was cool. It was kind of embarrasing though because when they called she asked if they could go tracting with us but she never mentioned that they were from kaposvár or that they were members so I got kind of confused and was like, well we can have a program but then when they got there they explained it all and it was a little funny but it turned out good. We just talked with them about what its like to be a sister missionary and what some of the simple thigns we do are and such and it was good. They are adorable and would both be super good missionaries if they both decide to go.

After that, we had a lunch appointment with the Varadiék! It was super fun. They have a ton of little kids running around the house and so basically it was just spent playing with their little boys and learning tongue twisters from their teenage son.

After that we went to the funeral for president Szabadkai's mother. It was a really beautiful service. It was super catholic with the priest singing and they sprinkled holy water on the casket. It was really interesting but nice. After the priest left the grave site, we sang a couple of hymns and the branch president said a prayer. My heart goes out to the Szabadkais. They are such a wonderful family and it must be so hard to have your mother die when you are so busy being a mission president. They are so strong all of them.

Okay, so big miracle for the day. Its silly but it totally made my day. For weeks now they haven't had plain hummus at the store, only wasabi flavor which is gross. But they had plain hummus and we got it and had the most delicious hummus and cucumber sandwiches. Life was really happy.

Wednesday:

We met Pui Kati at the mall and took pictures with her in front of the big Christmas displays. We love her.

sister willets and pui kati and the christmas display in the mall.

We then had lunch with a member named Laci. He is a super cool guy and has traveled all over the world and is brilliant but now he is in a wheelchair because he was in a pretty serious car crash that left him paralyzed from the hips down. He brought us to this cute little restaurant though and basically the whole lunch he told us about the history of hungary and his life and adventures he went on. It was super interesting.

We then went caroling with some of the youth here. It was super great. Literally every member we stopped by wouldn't let us leave without giving us something to drink and süti. It was fantastic and I love the youth here.

Thursday:

We stopped by erzsi to say merry christmas but of course she wouldn't let us leave without feeding us something so she brought us out two big bowls of fish soup. It was...good. At least I liked it more than sister willets. It was really funny watching her try to choke it down. She's a champ. We love erzsi a ton though and it was good to see that her family is doing well for Christmas.

We then went out with the elders to this part of town with a million houses and went from house to house putting the last of our "szabaditó született" ["A Savior is Born"] cards in people's mail boxes because we couldn't tract on Christmas. It was fun.

kocsonya...pig jello...

Friday:

Christmas!!!!! Me and willets opened our packages in the morning. Super fun. Star wars socks definitely took the win. Thanks kell bell and ryan!

We exchanged gifts with the elders later and that was super fun and had american pancakes!

Later we went to the Koczkaék! It was so so fun. They basically are the best family ever. When one of us was skyping then the others were just eating and just talking about everything under the moon. There were a couple of other members there and it was just a blast. The best part though was at the end of the night, brother Koczka pulled out his poker set and his new hat he got for Christmas and we all played poker. We bet with the left over desserts. Whoever lost had to take home the rest. It was really funny. Never did I think I would spend Christmas in hungary playing poker and listening to bing crosby, with them trying to sing along in their broken english. Life was good.

hanna totally won the game. Her dad was so proud.

Christmas at the Koczkaék!

 

Saturday:

We had weekly planning and then dinner with Niki, András and the Primék. Patrik wrote the nicest letter to all of us missionaries and it was probably the sweetest anyone has ever written. It was super funny too. He just thanked us for letting him help so much with our work and being his friends. He's such a good kid and going to do incredible things when he becomes a missionary. Lily was also adorable and she made me the queen and let me wear her tiara. It was awesome. She kept putting stickers on my forehead and saying I looked much more beautiful with them. She may become my future fashion consultant.

Sunday:

We had church and it was super good. Us missionaries sang and it was good.

After church we had lunch with this awesome family the Kerényiék. They have two daughters and their dad isn't a member but they are all super nice and were wonderful to talk with. The mother works at a school for special needs children and because sister willets wants to go into speech therapy when she gets back she invited us to go to her school sometime. It was super nice of her.

It was a pretty great week. We got to know the branch a lot better and it was so great skyping home and seeing everyone. I hope that you all have a great new years and that life is just dandy! Szeretlek titeket!

Heath Nővér

so I sewed elder martindale a fox for christmas because he was obsessed with the one from the little prince movie and he took it with him everywhere on christmas.

12-28 simmons and president szabadkai at the white elephant exchange with the rubber chicken.

our little christmas tree!

we made a friend with this adorable little dog walking back from our lunch appointment sunday afternoon.