well...this is it I guess.

14 June 2016

Life is kind of unreal right now... but we had a good week.

Monday:

We had cleaning checks and interviews and then the győr sisters here on splits. 

Tuesday:

We had a great lesson with Jozsef!! He is doing so great and every lesson is just fantastic. 

After the lesson we went to Kriszti's and had pizza with her and Panni and talked all about repentance and she is just such an incredible member. I just love her so much.

Kriszti and me

Kriszti and me

panni and kriszti

Panni and willets

Wednesday:

We visited zsuzsanna in the pin shop again. Shes crazy but a sweet old lady. 

Later we had a cool lesson with this couple. The boyfriend is mexican and a member but his girlfriend is hungarian and they met online learning italian.. so thats cool. We talked about the restoration and it was really good. We taught in a mixture of english, spanish and hungarian so it was facinating.

Later we met with Csilla and Kriszti was with us. It was super cool because Kriszti was able to testify about repentance and things we talked about with her the night before so it was super cool.

Thursday:

We went on splits to békéscsaba. It was super cool. 

It was a really facinating day though. First we were tabling and this crazy guy debated with me for like an hour about how to get knowledge from god and how we cannot know what truth is as people so that was interesting. Later we went tracting and got hit on by this guy who told us that eminem was his role model and was super surprised when we said we could listen to music besides just classical as mormons. He also had this giant tattoo of eminem's name on his arm. #classy

Later we had a lesson with a néni but one of the sisters bikes tires blew so I rode side saddle on the back of sister Lebaron's bike all the way to this lesson. It was an experience for sure. On the way back I offered to try and it was a disaster. So first off i'd never riden a bike in a skirt before and I was wearing a pencil skirt so it was kind of restricting and then having someone on the back I just fell over. We fell over on the sidewalk in front of this person's fence with two little yappy dogs barking in our faces and we were just cracking up and then this guy road by and just looked down at us and shook his head. It was for sure unforgettable. 

Then, as if that's not enough, I got locked in the bathroom of their apartment. 

memorable day.

willets got a photo of me riding on the back of lebaron's bike

Friday:

We got back to kispest in the afternoon, had district meeting. So elder knight always makes this joke about asking if I want a medal for doing something and so he made me a medal out of no bake cookies. Pictures to come. 

knight and my medal!

Later we went tracting and got a let in with this italian guy and it was fantastic. Totally should have served my mission in italy. He was just drinking a glass of wine and was like "talk to me, I'm feeling religious" and it was so funny. Later he was like, Do you like chocolate? and then brought out all these little chocolates. It was so funny. We mostly just introduced the church and he didn't have much time then because he was working but said we could come back so that was awesome. 

After that we met with a less active who found the church because of this mormon family on youtube. It was cool. She has this little girl who is just a darling and they've met with the elders a lot in the past and so her daughter found a tie in her play things and wrapped it around her neck and was like "elder vagyok!" (I'm an elder!).

Saturday:

So they filmed us finally for the tv special and it went okay. It was kind of sad though because they made us cancel with one of our investigators because we "didn't have enough time" but more because they didn't want to film in the boring venue of the branch house. 

It was cool though. They interviewed us in this park and then filmed us cooking and me drawing and then we met with two member families. 

We had a picnic with the Medveczkyék and then had a family home evening with the gyenesék and sang and stuff. It was good. 

It was kind of cool because I was able to talk about how much my mission has helped me and I just hope that they put the good stuff in and that somehow this could help someone. 

Later we met with this couple that called us on the train home from békéscsaba. They are less actives from the pest ward that took their names of the records. So basically we are teaching them all the lessons again. They are the coolest couple ever. She served a couple of mini missions here in hungary. They were just so loving right off the bat and such a miracle to see in my last week. On sunday they came up to me at church and were so sad I was leaving and just asked me to keep in touch and tell me all about when I find my fehér lovag. (white knight). 

barbi and peti, the people we met with on saturday

lebaron and the canal in békéscsaba

Sunday:

We had church then a lesson with Jozsef! It was super great. He is just really doing so good and he has a testimony of Christ!! It was so cool. So he always calls me hermione because he thinks i look like her and so as we were leaving the branch house he stopped and asked willets to hold his water bottle and then he opened his other hand and a magic wand appeared. It was super funny. He gave me a wand as a little going away gift. Gonna miss that crazy guy.

After that we met melinda at her office and figured out how to get the book of mormon in audio on her phone so she can listen to it when its slow at work. I just love her. 

After that we tracted a bit and then sat by the side of the duna and just took it in. 

Then we had our weekly evening meeting with sister szabadkai. It was wonderful. I jsut love her so much. 

cribbsie at hero's square

Monday:

We had a lesson with a less active named éva. It was super good. Much better than the last time we visited her. 

Then we went and visited gyönygi :) Shes so wondeful. She started reading the book of mormon again!!!!! She read the intro and then randomly flipped to a chapter and read that which happened to be my favorite chapter, Moroni seven. She is just such an incredible lady. I know it wasn't an accident meeting her. 

After that we went tracting and met this cool swiss guy. 

Then we had ice cream cake with a couple of members at this little sweet shop for his birthday. They are incredible examples to me. 

Well, I guess this is it. Last email as a missionary. I just have gratitude to express. I love my mission more than almost anything I have ever experienced. I love this country with my whole heart and I know a piece of it will be left here. I can't even imagine what the future brings but I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I'm sure I will miss it here dearly but I know that it will forever live in my heart. And in that way, I'm never really going to be finished. I can always be a missionary and I never have to stop loving these people, these crazy, special people. The ending feeling of it all is just gratitude. Just gratitude and love. And I feel peaceful knowing that its all worked out the way it needs to. I've seen myself grow as I've tried to help others and I have come to know my saviour in a way I never would have if I hadn't been here. My last thing I guess I want to write as a missionary is just turn to Christ. Let him make you into a new person. Let him mold you into the masterpiece you were created to be. Let his love change you. Everything he can do is possible becasue of this love. I know he is real and I know he does love you. 

Sok szeretettel és békével,

Heath Nővér

 

Last full week

6 June 2016

soo, this is the start of my last full week and I'm just freaking out a little bit but it'll all be good.

Last week:

sister szabadkai with the palacsintas (basically crepes)

Monday:

We got to cook with sister szabadkai and it was incredible.

Later we were on splits with the szolnok sisters and I was with sister mason.

We had a lesson with an adorable less active lady who actually is the mother of another of our less actives. She was super nice and basically opened up her whole life to us and we talked about the miracle of repentance and it was just such a good feeling.

flipping the palacsintas

Tuesday:

Sister Mason had a doctor's appointment so we figured out where the hospital was she had to go have tests done at so that was kind of an adventure through buda. I'm so used to living on the pest side that the buda side was fun to explore.

Later we tracted and met this polish guy and talked with him for a while and told him all about the book of mormon. Then some lady kicked us out of the building.

Later we took a train to Sopron for splits there.

Wednesday:

Sopron was super pretty, there were some old roman wall ruins and stuff so the downtown was super cool. I was with sister Smith on splits and it was great. She's awesome. We ran into a couple of cool people tracting that hopefully will turn out to be something for them. 

Later we took the train back and it was hard to not be emotional looking at the hungarian countryside and thinking about how I won't have much longer to see it. It started raining a bit too so there was this wonderful wet earth smell coming in the windows and, yeah, I just love this place so much.

splits in sopron

splits with sister mason

 in the elevator to get to the sopron branch house. (mormon house)

splits in sopron!

Thursday:

We had a lesson with John and it was AWESOME. Hes the guy that used to be a bible teacher, so he always had sort of looked at the book of mormon as something that contradicts the bible but we encouraged him to re-look at it and pray to find out if its true or not. So he's originally turkish so he said the other day he was looking at the church website in turkish and found this video about nephi and when he was watching it he got this super peaceful feeling and he knew that it was true and ever since that he was reading in the book of moroni and he knew that it was from God because what moroni taught was like the bible. It was super cool. Except he's going to be out of the country until september now so we won't be able to meet with him for a while but it was great.

Later we met with a wonderful less active named gyönygi. She is all I aspire to be. haha She is a super health nut and does joga even though shes not too young anymore. But we basically talked about how we get help from god through all sorts of different things and one of those is the scriptures. She is just so wonderful and has such a good heart. She gave us these biscuits with jam and one of mine had the jam in the shape of a heart and I pointed it out and she was just like "there are no accidents". It was adorable.

Later we had angol óra and we did an obstacle course with tables and chairs and stuff set up for them to get around blindfolded with just their classmates to give directions. It was fun. 

our obstacle course angol óra

Friday:

We had district meeting and then later we met with this néni in her little shop that she owns. So the other day she showed up to the mission home and gave the secretaries her info and then told us about her and so we called her and she invited us to her store. She sells pins. Like her whole store is full of every imaginable pin with anything to do with hungary on it. It was impressive. I guess her grandfather started it in the late 1800s and its been run by her family since then. She told us her whole life story basically and it was awesome. She is kind of crazy but it was cool. So she has family in america that are mormons and years ago they came to hungary and found her mother and her and ever since then she has had interactions with the mormons but just felt like the other week, she needed to find us. So that was cool. We'll see what happens. She talked a lot.

Later we had a lesson with Csilla at her house and Panni came. It was super good. We watched the restoration.

After that we went with Panni to another member, Kriszti's apartment. It was super great. So kriszti has a non member boyfriend from canada and shes been trying to talk with him about the gospel so we talked with her about missionary work and how to do stuff and it was just so great to visit her. We just love them both.

kriszti gave us kiwis before we left and so we were just holding kiwis on the metro.

Saturday:

We helped a family move. 

All our programs canceled or dogged.

We sat by the duna a while and contemplated things and it was great.

kispest graffiti we found on the way to help the move

Sunday:

We had a special stake conference broadcast from salt lake. It was good. So we met in the pest ward building. 

Later we had a really good lesson with Jozsef and enikő was there. She was super great help. We talked a ton about agency and about basically if people actually can choose or if its all based on our circumstances. It was kind of ridiculous but good. 

Later we visited a less active, melinda, where she works. She is just the most wonderful person ever. It was incredible because she actually admitted she was less active this time! The last few times she totally denied it and so recognition is the first step.

Later we met with sister szabadkai and she talked a bit with me about how great my mission has been and how the next step in life is going to be great too and it was super embarrassing but I couldn't help but cry in front of her and it was just, oh gosh. and then the president saw me crying it and its just like now they all just think I'm this emotional mess. But its all good. I think I've just been trying not to think about it and her talking about it made me realize its more real. 

It was a good week though. Later today we have interviews and cleaning checks because the transfer is coming up. Life is good. I love budapest. I love hungary. I love my mission. 

Sister Heath

a statue we found the other day. my future dating life

győr with cribbs

győr

szolnok

szolnok with greenwood

so recently we've seen this graffiti all around the city in chalk and its jsut been weird stick figures with the name peti next to it. Its our favorite.

pigeons. everywhere.

my favorite street in pest.

we made strawberry cobbler. and ate it for breakfast.

győr

 

Back to Szeged and other wonderful things

magdi, döme, márk, and klaudia

23 May 2016

wednesday:

We went to SZEGED!!!! so we did a little training at the zone training in szeged since we're over the sisters in that zone. We drove down with the szabadkais so we got a little nice car ride and it was just so strange being in a car. I've gotten so used to public transportation I'm going to feel so spoiled getting back to a car. It was so great to go back to szeged though. So much is the same yet its changed, it was kind of trippy to be there haha. We gave a training on helping members know what to do when they come to lessons and it got me pumped to help the missionaries when I get home. 

So it was cool though after the training I had a text from edit, the lady I met on the metro, asking me to call her. So I did and she simply asked, when can we meet? it was super cool.

I was on splits with sister gertcsh and it was great. We go to go back to teach the Márkék!! So I got to see márk, klaudia, magdi, zsuzsa and döme! it was so cool seeing how big they've all gotten but the best part was that they all remembered me and when klaudia said the opening prayer she said that she was thankful that I could come back and see them. It was such a little miracle. 

Later we taught a less active lady and went tracting and it was great. 

dóm templom in szeged

Thursday:

We did studies in szeged and then headed home to make it back in time for angol óra. 

Friday:

We met with mária (the random néni that showed up at church a couple weeks ago and we didn't know if she was a member or not). Well it turns out she isn't a member and is very confused about the whole "one true church" thing. But she always says that if she wasn't hungarian she would be a mormon but because she is hungarian she has to be catholic...so that's interesting to discuss.. But she is the sweetest ever and I swear, she told me like a million times during the lesson that I look like her granddaughter. 

Later we went on splits with the békéscsaba sisters so I was with sister Grogan. Sister grogan is a convert from texas and super adorable. She told me that one of her friends simply invited her to seminary and she went to early morning seminary for a year before she actually went to church. She's super great and loves being a missionary. So we tracted a bit and then we met with Edit! Edit is literally so cool but the only problem is that she plays violin in a protestant church on sundays at the exact same time as church so she can't come but we'll see. She met with the sisters like five years ago and so she knows a bit about everything and says she already knows it's all true, so that was super cool. But we'll see. She's literally the sweetest ever though. When I recited the first vision she cried and was like, that is so true. So it was awesome.

 parliament with sister grogan. It's cool having your tracting area so close to pretty things

Saturday:

We had a lesson with Csilla, this thirty-something lady who is super cool. She's met with the missionaries for a long time but this was my first time getting to meet with her because of splits. It was a really good lesson. We talked about he plan of salvation and gospel of jesus christ. She had so many good questions. 

Later we met with this older couple that willets tracted on splits. His name is baranyai lajos. His wife is pretty sick and has some mental problems. We think she had a stroke or something but she isn't all there but is a sweetheart. They are super old though but he had read from the book of mormon that willets gave him and he loves it. He says he keeps it next to his chair always so he can read it. They didn't really understand too much of what we taught but they were super nice so we'll see.

Then we had MCM and játék est. 

Then we tracted this beautiful building with nice blue doors. It was pleasant. 

Sunday:

We had church and we got to go to primary for the third hour to do an object lesson so that was super fun. Then after church we played catch with one of the little girl's teddy bears but for some reason every time I caught it I was sent to börtön or prison. It required much pleading and many fake tears to get out. 

Also an awesome thing. So one of our recent converts in szeged, roli, recently moved into the kispest ward boundaries and we've been trying to call him to meet because he lives like an hour away and its hard for him to get here for church on sundays but we wanted to meet with him but he was at church!! It was so cool talking with him and catching up. It was cool too because I can talk to him better now than I could then so it was awesome. He's so great. Hopefully we can meet with him soon.

That evening we went to the szabadkais and had our weekly meeting with sister szabadkai. She is literally the most wonderful human being ever. We laugh so much with her. Next p-day we're going to go cook with her and learn to make some hungarian food. 

Also, fun thing. We're going to be on TV. President called us the other day and was like, a film crew is going to follow you around for a day. So we're going to be on some channel here in hungary. So that should be cool. I guess they just want to do a special on who the mormons are and what mormon missionaries do. And we're the lucky sisters that are going to be filmed. yay.

Well, hope you all have a great week! 

love,

Sister Heath 

 sister giullian and gertcsh with us in front of dóm templom