Zone training, Bible bashing, and God is inside our heads.

[Dad's note: getting caught up on the blog after a very busy June.  Will post several letters in the next week!]

just hanging out at a castle, no big deal

18 May 2015

Well this week was in interesting one.

On tuesday we had interviews with President Smith so we went up to budapest. They went really great.We talked a lot about how to help Érd and it was super great. I then had an interview with sister smith and that was good too. We are going to be getting ipads hopefully in a few months and so she talked about what is going to be expected of us as missionaries when that happens. It will be really cool and will definitely help the work a ton.

After interviews we went and got palacsintas (literal translation is pancakes but they are more like crepes) at guru, a restaurant that is pretty popular with the budapest missionaries. 

On wednesday we tracted in budafok. It went well, we didn't have too many people that were interested but budafok is prettier than Érd so it was at least nice looking at the pretty gardens and houses while tracting. It is rose season here so all the rose bushes are gorgeous. We had angol óra that evening and one of our students, érnő (eh-r-new), brought us surprises. He is an older man maybe in his 60s and he loves to joke around a ton. He has a joke with sister sholly that he calls her llama girl because she has llamas back home. So he came into class and he gave us each a big envelope. Sister sholly's said S.S. L.G. (Sadee Sholly, Llama Girl) and mine said H.E.H. (Hannah Elizabeth Heath) and we opened them and in it was a smaller envelope. In mine was a picture of a cat and in sister sholl's was a picture of a llama. And the other thing in the envelope was wrapped in a colorful napkin and tin foil were cookies and these fruit bar things. It was super sweet and funny of him. It is always a surprise with Érnő. 

Hero's square and a nearby castle.

Hero's square

On thursday we had zone training so it was up to budapest again. It was super great, we talked a lot about how we can better recognize and help our investigators recognize the spirit. After the training a couple of the missionaries that are going home the end of this transfer gave their departing testimonies and the office senior couple, the bagozzis gave their departing testimonies too. It is going to be strange without the bagozzies here. It is definitely beginning to have a bittersweet sort of feeling around the mission home with the bagozzies and president and sister smith starting to finish their service here and preparing for the new mission president. After waiting forever at the train station to get back to Érd we finally made it back, a little late for our program with the A__ family. It was a good program because we met with them in the branch house. We finally got them to at least see the branch house if they haven't come to church yet. The beginning of the lesson they were super happy and they told us that they had had a miracle. András somehow got some extra money and they said they knew it was the Lord blessing them. We were super excited because we were thinking, perfect, they are that much closer to getting married. But they then said that they spent it on some other random things. And we were a little annoyed but we didn't try to show it. We asked then asked them about how the saving for the wedding was going and they both sort of avoided it and it was a little frustrating. I love them to death but it is starting to seem to me like the only reason they meet with us is to have someone tell them happy things. It just seems sometimes like they don't get the idea that they have to act even when we straight up tell them, you need to show God that you are willing to follow Him. You can't just expect blessings without working for them. But we'll see. We talked with them about fasting and are going to fast with them tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. That evening we met with Orsi, a branch member, so  I could practice the restoration and she helped us make sure we said all the things in the most understandable hungarian. It was super great. She is just a wonderful wonderful member.

cutest ice cream ever.

Friday was one heck of a day. So as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we got a let in with a man named Sándor. We taught him the restoration and it went well. So we set up with him again. We messed up train times that morning. So we thought that the 10:35 train stopped on the kástélypark stop but instead it goes straight into déli and it was the 10:22 train we were supposed to take so we had to wait an hour til the next one came. We called him to make sure it would be okay that we were a little late and he said, "umm, yeah I think that will still be okay." So we finally got to the program and when we got there we were surprised to see that he had a friend there too, a beautiful, super rendes (translates to orderly, used like legit in america) lady named Aniko. Sándor asked us if we wanted a cappuccino, and we said we were okay, but he said are you sure? And we reassured him we were and then he asked why and we were like, well, we don't drink coffee. Then they started out asking us how our week was and so we told them about our zone training in budapest and how we talked a lot about the holy ghost, which translates to szentlélek. But they corrected us saying it is called the szent szelem. Basically the difference I guess between the two of them is that the szentlélek translates to holy soul or something and the szent szellem translates to holy ghost szellem literally meaning spirit. But in the church we usually use the szentlélek to mean holy ghost and so they were just a little annoyed by that. But we didn't take it as a big deal until sándor pulled out the restoration pamphlet we gave him and said he said he had read it but he wanted to clear up a few things. He opened it up and it was all underlined and there were scripture references from the bible written all in it. We then started to realize what they wanted to do. And so began the Bible Bash! Aniko spoke perfect english so she did a lot of the talking because sándor thought we couldn't understand. He started whipping out all these scriptures arguing about how there is only one scripture and how nobody has seen God and how you cannot add to or take away from the bible. Aniko had printed out two copies of the scriptures he was talking about in english too. We did our best to defend ourselves but not argue. But it was super intense. Sister Sholly said it was the most intense she has ever seen on her mission. It was kind of nice that Aniko was there because she would speak in english a lot so I could understand it better but it was really tough. Basically they were just telling us that everything we believe is blasphemy and that we are possessed by evil spirits telling us to believe these things. I was pretty fed up with it and I looked Aniko straight in the eyes and I told her that I have read both the bible and the book of mormon and when I read them I get the same feeling and that I have prayed about both, many times and I have gotten an answer that they are both the word of God. And I told her that I know that it was an answer from God because everything good comes from God and the feeling I got was a warm, peaceful, good feeling so I know it was from God and that I don't only believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw God but I have a testimony that has grown into a knowledge of these things. And that no matter what anyone may tell me, that it is wrong or I am being fooled that I know what I know and I cannot deny it because I cannot deny the Holy Ghost. And gosh, the spirit was strong in that moment and I could see tears in Anikos eyes, so I know that she recognized that I wasn't lying. But even after that they still had arguments. So I invited Aniko, because Sándor was past listening at this point, to read the book of mormon and pray about it, but only if she did so with an open heart because if she read it just looking for the mistakes she would be closing herself off from the Spirit. And she sort of said, okay I'll try. And sister sholly told her again, don't read it unless you really want to know. So she said a bit firmer yes, and then we asked if we could say a prayer. We prayed and aniko really liked it and then Sándor "blessed" us with the gift of discernment and sister sholly, with just the perfect amount of sass, said the same to you. And we headed out back to the train station. It was probably the most intense program I have ever been in. It was clear to see that they had been planning this since he first met with us.

Later that evening we went tracting and met this other interesting guy named István. He was interesting but turned out to be pretty cool. At first he said he only had a few minutes because his soccer match was starting in a few minutes but we ended up talking with him outside his house for a good half hour. We talked about everything from his children to the fact that he things God is just someone inside of our heads. He had some interesting ideas about God but he did believe in him and he said that years ago some swedish man gave him a book of mormon so that was interesting. About three fourths of the way through his wife opened the door and asked "why haven't you invited the girls in yet?". So we talked with her a bit too and she was super nice, she spoke a bit of english too because on of their daughters lived in san francisco. They seem cool, at least interesting so we're going to come back another time. 

huge bazilika on the pest side

 bazilika on the pest side

Saturday we had a program with a man from angol óra, named imre. He is 31 and is going to be leaving in a couple of weeks to work on a cruise ship in florida so he wanted to practice his english. We had planned on just doing half english and half talking about the book of mormon but when we got into the lesson we sort of just started all about the gospel and we both got the feeling to teach him the restoration. So we did and he seemed to really like it. We couldn't always tell but when we told him about the book of mormon and how we have to ask if it is true he told us that he already thinks it is true and that what we told him about prophets and joseph smith makes sense. We were super happy but we wanted to make sure he wasn't just saying that or anything but to make sure he really felt it. And so we told him about the holy ghost and how he needs to pray about it and he said he would. And I got the feeling that I should ask him about baptism, so I asked him if he got an answer about the book of mormon, that it was true, if he would prays about being baptized. He was hesitant. He said that he hadn't been baptized into the catholic church but that he was catholic and was waiting to be baptized until he was about 50. So I told him that if he got an answer that the book of mormon was true and that joseph smith was a prophet that I knew he would get an answer about baptism and when would be right to be baptized. It was really good and I have never experienced extending a commitment like that so it was cool. After that program we streeted around town a bit and found that there was a random fair in the middle of town and so we went through it and talked to some people and met this super sweet néni who made these beautiful beaded things. And we talked to a kind of crazy lady that we streeted a couple of weeks ago and gave her our number again, and talked to a couple of people about angol óra and it was good. 

Sunday was really good. We helped teach sunday school and young womens to the palmerék. I really feel like a big reason why we, as sisters are in this branch is to help Ali. She is just the coolest young women and so strong. She was having a really hard time this week and we talked with her a lot about why the book of mormon is so important. She goes to an evangelical school and so basically our bible bash program is what she goes through every day at school. We just talked with her a ton and it was so good to help her. I am really going to miss her when I get transferred out of Érd. 

Our neighbors that live behind us got a puppy. So we get to play with it whenever we take the back way out of our apartment. It is probably the cutest thing in the existence of ever. 

anyways that is about it for this week. I have my 6 months as a missionary mark on tuesday so we'll see how we figure out how to celebrate it. I love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Heath Nővér

Ronald Reagan!

after finding out we couldn't tour parliament.

Parliament

George Washington monument in the middle of Budapest

#shouldhavebeenaprincess

#shouldhavebeenaprincess

jewish shoes memorial by the duna

4-11 May 2015

11 May 2015

hello all,

Goodness I don't even know where to start. Sorry I didn't have time to send a big email last week because we spent the day in Budapest. I guess I can go over what happened the week before this and then this week. 

 

So, april 28th tuesday: we met with a less active Nád_ Már_, in szazhalombatta. It went well, she showed us some old hymn books and old translations of the book of mormon so that was cool. Later we met with Kat_ and her boyfriend. And after kat_ we had dinner with the Kövesyék, Attila (our ward mission leader) and his wife Zita and their kids Nimrod, Gréta, and Bogi. It was super great. We talked a lot with Zita and Attila about how we can improve the relationship between the branch members and the missionaries and basically how best to help Érd strengthen and grow. At the end we shared a spiritual thought with the family about missionary work and gave them a book of mormon to write their testimonies in and pray about who to give it to. We also made mini missionary name tags for the kids because we all are missionaries. It was super cute. 

 

april 29th, wednesday: We met with the And_ and talked about faith. We made a jar for them to start saving up their spare change in to start saving money so they can get married. We decorated it with a picture of the temple and a paper that said families can be together forever. They super loved it and hopefully the will remember every time they look at it what their end goal is and what they are working towards. After angol óra that night we stayed after to help a young woman in the ward, Al_, correct her text book. She goes to an evangelical school and next year the bible study teacher really doesn't like "mormons" and so she talked with him and he gave her the text book for next year to go through and correct all the misrepresentations of mormons so ali asked us to help her correct it. As we were helping her Elder wilcox looked in the window and waved so I looked up and standing behind him was Ani_! Ani_ is a less active that works at the museum in town. She is super great but is not into the church at all anymore. She served a mission in hungary in the 2000s and soon after getting back from her mission she got into some anti-mormon literature and it broke her testimony. She is super incredible though and we used to visit her at the museum to just talk and be her friend. But she hasn't been into the church for years. She showed up to angol óra to ask us if we could help her with a project for her school. I guess he had a project where she was studying different accents so she asked us to come over to dinner so she could record us all speaking in hungarian. We were so excited and immediately said yes. She had to wait for her bus too so she even stayed after angol óra and helped us correct the text book too. This story will continue into friday.

 

april 30th, thursday: We had a program with two members orsi and gyönygi and talked about recognizing our divine nature and value. It went super well. They are just the best. I love our branch members here. Later before budatétény angol óra we went tracting a bit. We decided to go to the end of the street first and work our way back so we got to the end of the street and the first house we knocked on was this sweet néni, Ica. We started talking with her and she told us about how her mother had recently died. She started crying and we told her we knew that she would see her mother again. She then told us about an experience she had where she was going through her mothers belongings and she heard a noise and saw a picture move and her son came in asking her what the noise was and she had gotten this overwhelming feeling that her mother was watching out for her. She then went back inside and came out with two poems or prayers that she gave us. She told us she knew that we would appreciate them. They are beautiful and the spirit was super strong. We testified to her that Heavenly Father loved her and her mother was watching over her and we asked her if we could come back sometime and she said yes. 

 

may 1st, friday: It was amunka ünnepe or hungarian labor day here so we went with one of the elder's investigators to this neighborhood party in the morning. It was nice, they spoke english so we told them about angol óra and they said they would probably come. They were super nice. There was a carnival in the town center that afternoon so we streeted through it and passed out flyers. We then went to Ani_'s that evening. It was super great. She made us paprikás csirke and it was super finom. We also ended up talking about gospel stuff and missionary life the whole time. It was super great. I feel like now we are friends with her enough that we can ask a little more of her. She is just so great and needs to come back to church! 

 

may 2nd, saturday: this day was pretty uneventful. We had játék est that evening with the palmerék. Its always good spending time with them. 

 

may 3rd, sunday: we had church and it was a super great sunday. It started off pretty sad because we went to pick up the andrásék for church but they didn't come again. But we had gotten a couple of chocolate bars and written notes for a couple of members in the branch and we gave them to them and it was super great. I just love our branch so much. It was mothers day in hungary so relief society was all about mothers. It was great, there was an old missionary visiting with his parents so we helped translate for his mom in relief society. Later that afternoon when we were home we got a call from Attila and he asked us to come outside so we go out and him and his son were standing there with a big bouquet of lilacs and told us happy mothers day. It was just super sweet and so we had a beautiful bunch of flowers in our kitchen this week. 

okay, on to this past week. 

On monday we got permission from president to go into budapest!! It was incredible, I can't even begin to describe it. The photos can't even describe it. Its just a gorgeous city. I really hope I serve there someday. The only downer was that we had bought tickets online to tour parliament but when we got there our tickets had been for sunday instead of monday so sister sholly was super bummed out. But it meant that we had time to see a couple of other things that we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't of missed it so it was okay in the end.

Buda castle!

Buda Castle



fisherman's bastion overlooking parliment

fishermans bastion



view from the sziklatemplom (church in the rock) and from gellért hegy 1

Parliament

Since we were in budapest all day and had családi est that evening we hadn't been home til right at the end of the day so when we got home we had a pleasant surprise for us in the bathroom. So in our bathroom there is a drain in the middle of the floor that occasionally  overflows when we use the washer. When we got home on monday night we went into the bathroom and there was water on the floor and so I wasn't super surprised, I cleaned it up and used the bathroom and as I flushed the toilet, water, and other things...started shooting their way out of the drain. I quickly jumped out of the way and shouted for sholly to come help and so we grabbed a couple of towels and created barriers so the pee water wouldn't come out into our bedroom. We called our land lord and he inspected it, walking into the pee water, and just sort of looking around, and then walking out of the apartment leaving a trail of water behind him saying he would call someone. We were annoyed and had no idea what to do until he came back. When he came back he said that someone would be by in the morning and that he would bring by some drain-o or something to help it. We waited for like 45 minutes for him to come back but he didn't and our apartment was growing to smell increasingly like pee but we were so exausted from our day in budapest that we crashed on our extra bed in the living room because our room smelled so bad. In the morning we checked on the bathroom and the water had drained out a little bit but it was all smelly and covered in nastyness. We waited for the plumber to come and he came, messed with a few things and then left saying it was all good. But that was only the beginning. We then went to the store got a bunch of cleaning supplies, a new mop and towels and spent two hours sanitizing everything. By the end though you couldn't smell anything but bleach so it ended up being okay.

 

Later on tuesday we went out to nagytétény to look up a referral from a branch member. She wasn't interested in meeting with us so we decided to tract a bit. We ended up getting a let in with a nice man named Sán_. He used to be a minister I guess and calls himself a believer but he isn't religious. He was a little familiar with the church but was interested in learning more. It went really well and he said he wants his friends to meet us too. We will probably be going back sometime. After nagytétény we had a program with kata and her boyfriend Lás_. Lás_ however didn't show up until we only had about ten minutes left in the program so it was mostly talking with kata.

 

Wednesday we had a long day. We went all the way out to biatorbágy to look up a less active named ti_ érz_, which consisted of going into kelenföld train station in buda and then taking a train from there to biatorbágy and then walking to where they lived. It ended up being a good program, but the Ti_ love to talk a ton so a lot of it was just listening to them talk about their families so we didn't get to do too much of a spiritual though. But it was good and they are super nice. We then barely made the train in time to get back for angol óra. Angol óra was really good though. our angol óra érzsébet brought us the pottery we made and she had glazed it. She was super sweet.

 

On thursday we went to budatétény and talked with ica again. She was glad to talk with us again and I think slowly we are going to build a trust with her and eventually be able to have a legit program with her. We also had a new lady come to angol óra that evening and she said she would be interested in meeting outside of angol óra so that is good.

 

Friday was fagyi day in hungary so all ice cream stores had half priced fagyi. So we got fagyi with the elders after district meeting. We then had a program with the Gyönygiék that evening. They are super nice but the kids have SO much energy. Little peti was attacking us the whole time with balloons. It was fun though, they are such a sweet family. Their dad just needs to get over his stubborness and be baptized!

 

Saturday was pretty eventful. So in the morning we were going to do a játék reggel with the palmerék but sister sholly was not feeling well at all. We called and canceled and I let her rest most of the morning. At first we thought it was just that time of the month problems but by the afternoon she couldn't even eat and was super sick. We had stake conference that evening though and we had been looking forward to going to budapest and seeing people all week that she was super disappointed and decided that she would just suck it up and we would go. I told her it was really okay if we stayed and that I didn't want her to get worse but she said that we were going so we get on the train and she still isn't feeling well. And then we make it to the subway and about half way there she is curled over in her seat and she starts to cry. I wasn't even sure what to do and then we got off the subway and I knew that we needed to go home. We sat down on a bench waiting for the subway back and I reassured the elders that I could get her back. Soon a return subway came and we rushed to get on. Sister sholly made it through the door but right as I was about to step on the doors closed and so I ran to the window so sister sholly could see me and she mouthed "kelleti" (which is a subway stop) at me and I just watched my sick companion go on the subway and had to wait a few minutes til another one came. I was freaking out but was glad that she had the phone so at least she could call someone if anything happened to her. Eventually I got to kelleti and we were reunited and we made it back to déli. We got on the train but we knew she wouldn't be able to do the 20 minute walk back home from the train station so we called sister palmer and asked if she could give us a ride home, which she was more than happy to do. Once we got home then she went straight to bed and slept til 7 the next morning.

 

Sunday we decided that sholly was still not doing well enough to go to stake conference so we stayed and let her sleep some more. Luckily the sharp stomach pains from the day before were much milder and she was able to get some food down. We then headed over to the branch house to skype home. The elder wilcox made tiltott paprika, or stuffed peppers, which was super good. We then all talked to our families and it was super great. 

 

Sholly is feeling a lot better today luckily and we have interviews with president tomorrow so we are grateful that she is doing better for those. 

 

Well thats about it for my exciting two weeks. I love you all and it was great talking to the family yesterday. I hope you can all find someone to help this week and that life is great. 

 

sok szeretettel,

sister heath  



a cool fountain



fishermans bastion

Week in Érd

27 April 2015

sziasztok! so this week was kind of a difficult one for us here in Érd. It was I guess what I am used to from serving here but Sister Sholly just came from a super pretty city with a lot of good work so it was kind of difficult for her to adjust to. Well, I guess I can tell you about it. So starting with

monday: 

Monday after emailing we met with Ka_ and had another member Orsi along with us. It was a really good lesson about our priorities and about how we are daughters of a king and read president uctdorf's talk about happily ever afters and basically we talked about doing the little things. It went well but at the end ka_ got off topic and started talking about how she thought she saw a ghost at her job and about her problems with her boyfriends. yup, she has multiple. So it was kind of tricky at the end to get the spirit back and she has been avoiding our calls all week and didn't come to church on sunday so we are kind of worried about her. 

On tuesday we had a good day. In the morning we met with Szo_ and helped her practice english. She is the tour guide. She is a super cool lady and we talked most of the time about her trip to italy and she told us all about rome and she must be a good tour guide because it felt like we were there seeing it for ourselves when she told us about it. We also talked a bit about the restoration but she likes to talk a lot so we kept getting off topic. We are thinking with her lessons we are going to mostly going to try and say what we can about the gospel at the beginning until she gets off topic. But she is super nice and its always great to meet with her. After that we had lunch and we went to meet with a lady from Angol Óra, Erz_. She is a super legit lady that owns a pottery studio and so she invited us to come make pottery with her. It was super fun. I didn't realize how much I missed working with clay. It was different though because I am more used to sculpting and she works with the wheel and it was super fun to try that out. My first few attempts were really bad but then I made a decent bowl. It made me super excited to go back to school and study more pottery. 

On Wednesday we went on splits with the sister training leaders to Buda! it wass so so wonderful. The metro stop you get off at to get to their apartment is right across the duna (danube river) from parliament so you come up from the metro and boom, right there is parliment and then you turn around and there is a gorgeous church and down the street there are two more. Basically wherever you turn in buda is just gorgeous buildings everywhere. The sister training leaders are super great too. We had a ton of fun streeting by the duna and through this really pretty park and then we had a great program with a member from the buda ward. It was just so nice to be in a city where you can street so many different people and you don't just pass the same people day after day and people actually stop you instead of you having to stop them.

While streeting in the morning with sister simons, this old néni stopped us asking us where the closest bus stop was so we offered to walk her to it because she was sort of limping with a cane and she said no and we tried to explain to the best of our abilities where it was and she called us sweet young girls and started to walk off. We waited a few minutes before following behind her to make sure she got there and after a while she stopped at the end of the street and looked confused so we came up and walked with her all the way to the bus stop, she almost fell in the street when we were walking around a sprinkler but we finally made it to the bus stop. Sister simons got her name and she started to tell her her phone number but then the bus came and she was gone. She was so sweet and confused and it felt great to help her. I felt like a boy scout helping the old lady cross the road haha

On thursday we came back from buda. About the only exciting thing that happened was that a new guy came to angol óra. His name is Zol_ and he used to go to angol óra in Dunaújváros but that is a lot farther away so I guess he looked up online to see if there was an angol óra closer to him and the one in budatétény was perfect becasue that is where he lived. We talked to him after class and he said that he would be interested in meeting outside of english class so we will see! His kids were sick this week so he couldn't say when he could meet but we are definitely going to meet with him. 

on friday we were going to meet with Szo_ again but she was busy so basically we tracted and streeted all day until we met with And_, Év_ and Ti_ that evening. While tracting we met a little family that told us to come back the next day but when we went back the dad wasn't home so the little girl Dor_, told us to come back on sunday but then when we came back yesterday nobody answered but we are going to look them up again. We'll see what happens with them. That evening we met with the Andrásék. We talked with them a lot about faith and used examples from the scriptures about faith from 1 kings 17:10-16 and luke 21:1-4. It was super sad taking them off of bap date but until they get married we can't really do too much more. We are going to fast for them and hopefully we can know what to do. 

Saturday, we did weekly planning so we didn't really do too much exciting stuff but that evening we had a játék est, or game night. It was super great. The palmer kids, the american family in the branch came and it was super great. I think it is really good for them to have some american people to talk to of their own faith since the school they go to is all super into bible bashing and stuff. It was super great and we are having it again next saturday. 

On sunday, we taught the youth sunday school again and helped the palmers a bit after with looking through their daughter Ali's school text book to help her correct all the misrepresentation of the church. We are going to help her more on wednesday with it too.

Sometimes it is easy in Érd to get discouraged because we don't have too much visible success but I think that our success here comes from the little things like helping the branch. They are all super great and I am so lucky to know them. That's about it for this week. Pictures to come! 

sok szeretettel,

heath nővér

photo from last week, of laci bácsi's flowers

cereal for after district meeting lunch

a super cool tunnel that we walked through

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?