Slightly more exciting week :)

our district (me, greenwood, anderson and stringham)

 8 March 2016

Hello all!

So this week we got to go out of our apartment again! it was good, sister Greenwood's foot is still hurting her but not as bad as before so we got some stuff in but have still been taking it slow.

Monday:

We had a program with a less active guy named Zoli. It was interesting. He was very nice but if felt like he was trying to teach us and he kept giving us suggestions of how we could teach different things to our investigators. He kept saying "el tudod képszelni?" tons too (it means can you imagine?)

Oh and also, we were tracting and somebody dumped water on us out of their window. Luckily there was a ledge so we dodged it haha

#tractingeveryday

Tuesday:

We mostly just tracted and did some look ups. Nothing exciting. 

Wednesday:

We had a program with Balázs and it was super good. We talked about not being slothful and that's how I learned the word for sloth in hungarian, lajhár.

Later we tried doing another look up and we couldn't find the building so I took out my map to make sure we were on the right street and these two guys came up and asked us what we were looking for. We started talking with them of course about why we were here and it was really good. I was mostly trying to talk with one of them so sister greenwood was left on her own to talk to the other and I was super proud of her because she gave him a book of mormon! He also invited her to pizza which was funny but they were super nice and helped us find where we needed to go. 

Thursday:

We had a lesson with Rozsi Néni, a less active. She definitely believes in reincarnation and I think she might have become a Jehovah's Witness.. But that was fun. She has this crazy cat with a short tail that she always messes with. Also, she thinks plants are better than humans. So it was fun. 

After Rozsi Néni's we tired to stop in and visit Nüsi Néni but she wasn't home so as we were walking away we saw a flower shop and decided we needed to look at flowers for a bit and then as we left sister greenwood's foot started to hurt again so we decided to head home but we of course needed to stop and get popcorn before going home so we backtracked to the side walk and while walking there we ran into Péter! It was awesome because we set up with him again. He said that he was confused because we called two times and texted him but never called again after that and we were like, well you could have called back! but anyways we set up with him again and it was awesome. Thank goodness sister greenwood was craving popcorn and we like flowers! 

Friday:

We had district meeting and ate cheesecake I made for sister greenwood's birthday! 

After that we went to lunch at this cute little café in the middle of town.

Then we went tracting and had a guy threaten to call the police on us. It only took me over a year to get that response out of tracting. 

Then we had weekly planning.

Saturday:

We went to this little town called Siófok. Its right next to the biggest lake in hungary, the balaton. We visited a couple of members out there and it was super great. One of them, Viktória, made us lunch and we visited with her and her son. Then after that we went and got cake with these members Richie and Szilvi. Richie is from england and him and his wife both speak perfect english and are super nice and so we got cake for sister greenwood's birthday. We also went up the water tower in town to get a view of it and then looked at the balaton for a few minutes before catching our train back. It was a good day! 

the balaton!

Sunday:

We had church! Good as usual. There were only two kids in primary so it was quiet.

Later we met with Regina and it was great as usual. She's seriously so great :)

Monday:

We went to a castle with Attila! Várpalota. It was super cool, photos to come. 

It was built in the 1400's but has changed over the years and apparently played a big part in hungary's war with the turkish empire. So that was fun. 

We later had a lesson with an rcla named Jozsi. It was super good but we found out that he's now living in a homeless shelter and is literally working from sun rise to sun set every day except monday every once in a while. It was the most uplifting depressing program we've had. But it was super cool because he said he knew that God was still blessing him because he had a roof over his head at night and food to eat and a job and soon he will be able to afford a place to live. He's an incredible person. 

Oh we also got kicked out of like our third building this week. People in székes really don't like you tracting. haha 

Várpalota

Atilla

(good luck)

Well, today is Nőnap here in hungary (women's day) so that is exciting. People give tons of flowers and chocolates and everything. Basically another valentine's day haha I hope its a good day for all of you! 

Love,

Sister Heath 

jó hetet kivánok!

​a better photo from us dressing up as elders last week. (our new district)

29 Feb 2016

Hello all!!

So not a super exciting week for me here. Sister Greenwood and I went to the doctors on tuesday because she hurt her foot somehow so after our interviews in Dunaújváros we went up to Buda and got it checked out. Turns out she had an "inflamed tendon" and was put on bed rest for a week so this whole week we were stuck in our apartment. I kind of felt like a nurse bringing her food in bed and making sure she took her meds. But when we were in buda we got to see parliament again at night with the STLs. Probably the most exciting part of our week. Although this meant we got a lot of Liahona reading, Legacy, and cake making (on my part) in these past few days. 

the parliament

We got asked by a guy from the stake last week to teach primary though this week so that was super fun. We related prayer to a hamburger. The kids loved it. 

 

The december 2015 liahona has a super cool talk about covenants. 

Well, I hope you all had a good week and we are excited to have freedom again this week! 

Love,

Sister Heath 

selfies with mini-me

 

Zone conference, Buda, and Farsang Buli!

22 February 2016

Happy p-day from székes!

tuesday:

We met with our branch president and he gave us like eleven referrals of less actives to visit so that was sick!

Later we met with Balázs! It was a super good program. We talked more about our relationship with God and how to find out if he is real. As we were teaching I thought of comparing God to the wind. We can't see him but we can see how he works and we can feel his presence. It was really cool to think of God in that way and reminded me to notice him in all the little things like the leaves blowing in the trees. 

That evening we had a program with the viktoriaék. We think we may drop them. They mostly just want to meet with us so they can practice english. Which is fun and all but they don't really respond to the gospel part of our lessons, so that was kind of sad to say goodbye but we'll probably stop in on them later and see if anything has changed. 

That evening we said goodbye to elder mellor who just finished his mission. We now are down to just two elders again.

 

Wednesday:

We tracted in the morning and then later had a program with Nagy tamás. It was super good! We are trying to be tougher with him and so this week we've been texting him every day to not forget to read and pray! We talked a lot about eternal life and what that really means. Sister greenwood was super inspired during the lesson and shared a scripture that really got him thinking.

me and levanen at zone training!

Thursday:

We had zone conference in duna. It was good.

me and simmons on the train after zone training

After that we went up to buda for splits with the stls (hafen and hawker!) It was wonderful. I went tracting with hafen that evening while hawker and greenwood taught angol óra. It was so great to just talk with hafen after being away from each other for so long. It was also super cool to see how we've both improved since the mtc. Its crazy that we've already been here for over a year! 

with hafen streeting!

with hafen

with hawker

Budapest

Friday:

Finished splits. Went tracting with hawker. It was awesome. She's gotten so good at hungarian since we were comps! 

That evening we had our last program with emil before we handed him over to the elders. It was sad saying goodbye to him :( 

After that we went to our branch president's house for dinner! It was super fun.

Saturday:

We had lunch with Ági. It was a really cool program because she said she actually learned something. I think mostly the missionaries used to meet with her and just share spiritual thoughts that weren't too controversial but we decided to talk about after this life and stuff and the resurrection and it was just super cool. She super liked that we don't believe in hell.

That evening we had a Farsang Buli! Basically its like hungarian halloween in february. Its supposed to scare winter away. It was the best branch party I've been to here in hungary. It was awesome. So me and greenwood dressed up as elders and we lip synced to elder anderson singing "ye elders of israel" behind us. It was super funny. Later the member in charge of the party asked me of I knew abba's "I have a dream" which of course I do. So he asked me if I could sing it for the branch and then everyone would join in at the end. And so that's how I ended up singing abba in elders clothes in hungary. It was magical. Later we even karaoked to the "magyarország" song as a branch. It was super fun. A big group of members also dressed up as star wars characters. Pretty much one of the coolest branches ever. 

Also! tamás came to the party and brought a friend!! It was wonderful!

helping set up for the party

regina

star wars

our branch president and his wife

"facebook"

 us as elders

Sunday:

We had church and then later we went to toni and andi's and they made me some birthday süti since they were sick last week and said they couldn't. It was great! 

After that we had a program with Regina. Shes one of the elders recent converts that we started meeting with. She is super cool and down to earth. Shes 18 and loves the book of mormon. We're super excited to start meeting with her!

I hope you all had a great week too!! Love you all!

Sister Heath 

"heath nővér and elder"

andi and napsi dressed up as sisters greenwood and heath

this cool snake statue we found

 

Still in the székes lands!

we made valentines!

15 February 2016

hello all! yet another week on the island with my lovely companion sister greenwood.

 

Tuesday:

We had transfer calls in the morning then emailed and that evening had a program with the viktoriaék! It was pretty good. We talked about faith with them and read Alma 32 from the children's book of mormon. 

 

Wednesday:

We went tracting for a while and got sister greenwood's first let in!! woo! It was this crazy family of gs and so this is what happened. So we were csengőing [ringing] into the building and this kid comes up and asks if we want to get in, so he lets us in and we go up to the door that we stopped on but he got off the elevator on the fourth floor. We asked a ton of people with no real success until we got to the fourth floor again. We didn't know which door was his so we just went for the first door and as I went to ring the bell the door flung open and these two guys were standing in the doorway. We told them we were missionaries and they said wait a minute and brought their even bigger and buffer dad to the door and as soon as we told him we were missionaries he said "gyertek" or come in. We go in and start trying to teach them but the whole time the dad is trying to get the family to listen but nobody wants to, until he finally forced them to. It was interesting. Basically I taught the restoration like three times. It was super funny though because as I was trying to explain the book of mormon to the dad and I was telling him about how lehi got commanded to leave jerusalem then he was like "oh I've seen a movie about this" and then brought in prince of persia and was telling us that the main guy in it was a prophet and he had like this prophetess wife and it was...interesting. But as we invited them to church they were very honored and told us because we invited them to church they're going to invite us to make food sometime. So, that was fun. We'll see what it is with them next.

lovely family we tracted into.

Later, we met our new elders. Elder anderson and a greenie because elder mellor is dying in a few days so there's a trio. They seem good. 

Thursday:

We had scheduled a program with Andrea so we took the bus out to her. On the bus then this guy came up to us and was staring, which isn't too unusual but then he plopped his bag down on sister greenwood's lap and started unzipping it and so we were freaked out a bit. Then after he pointed at her name tag and was like (in very hard to make out hungarian) "whats that". I told him we were missionaries but he didn't seem to understand. Before he got off the bus though he stroked sister greenwood's hand and was like "nem baj, nem baj." (no problem, no problem). It was interesting to say the least. When we got to andrea's her door was locked (usually we just walk right in because she is in a  wheelchair and can't open the door for us). We called to reschedule with her and she got really sad that the door was locked. It was pretty heart breaking. 

We decided to do some tracting out near andrea's so we went a few streets up and started tracting. Nothing too exciting, except a dog peeing on us through a fence and a bácsi asking us which sect we are from. 

Later we had a program with Péter, the guy we tracted into last week. We brought a member Atilla with us. When we got there he had a friend over, Zoli. We started talking with them and I basically went over with Zoli what we talked about with Péter last time and it was good until they started to argue a bit. We think that Péter invited his friend Zoli over because Zoli has a vast knowledge of the bible and religions. It was actually super cool though because Zoli and Péter kept making these arguments but I had an answer for every one of them. It was kind of rough on greenwood though, because she couldn't understand as much and so it just sounded like arguing for her. But I was amazed that I was able to answer them and in the end the complimented my hungarian which was kind of a cool moment. It was also kind of cool because Atilla visited sister sholly in Érd when we served together and so he saw how well I could speak there (aka, couldn't) and he said it was just so cool to see how I have improved. I felt kind of cool. But even though they were argumentative and didn't want to listen they said we could come back next week and teach them about God's plan for us. Should be good. 

 

Friday:

We had district meeting. 

Later we had a program with Emil. He called greenwood a wild flower. 

greenwood and andi

Saturday:

tracted. 

sport nap. aka, játék est. [game night]

 

Sunday:

21 baby!! woot! 

We had church which was good. Napsi and Andi are going to be me and greenwood for farsang (a holiday here. sort of like halloween in spring to scare away the winter). So that will be adorable. 

Before játék est we had cake and rakott krumpli with the elders! I think this is going to be a birthday tradition for me to have rakott krumpli on my birthday because last year elder meek and lindow made it for me in érd. Sister greenwood was adorable and got me a cute magnite for my birthday. It was good! 

Well I hope that you all had as good as a week as we had here! Sometimes life can be weird and you get peed on by dogs but still God loves you and has a plan.

Happy monday and have a good week!

Love,

Sister Heath 

after a year of searching. I found the license plate with my initials

just walkin down the streets of hungary in the rain with a cake.

me and napsi

 

Boldog születésnapot!

so on sunday then napsi and andi stole our name tags and bags and started running around after church acting like they were us and it was just super funny.

 9 February 2016

hello all! So transfer calls came and surprise! I'm staying with Greenwood in Székes! anyways, here was our week!

Monday:

We made pogácsa (sort of like these hungarian roll things) and bean soup with Ági Néni. Super basic hungarian stuff. It was good. We now qualify as typical hungarian house wives. 

Tuesday:

We had cleaning checks and the Lunds came. They're a pretty cool senior couple. Super down to earth. 

Later we had a program with the Viktoriaék. It was super great. We helped Linda with her english homework a bit and after we taught them the plan of salvation. It was super cool because Linda had tons of questions and by the end her dad was even answering them with stuff that we had taught them. It was super cool. I hope they progress. 

Later that night then we had this private number g ring us (when they call, let it ring once then hang up so you have to call them back) twice but we couldn't call them back so we were super confused but then one of the greenies from sister greenwood's group called us and was like "how's your pizza?" and we were like what? but then we went downstairs and the pizza guy was annoyed because he had to wait and apparently woke up one of our neighbors who got angry. SO that's the story of how the nyiregyháza sisters ordered us a pizza.

Wednesday:

We had a program with Nagy Tamás. It was good! He brought a friend and we taught them the restoration. It was super cool! She also had this diamond in her tooth so that was interesting... is that like a new look or something?

Later we met with Andrea and read from the Liahona with her. It was nice. 

That evening we had a really good program with this guy we tracted into named Péter. He had a ton of questions and it was super cool because when we gave him the Book of Mormon he was like, I was thinking I needed a new book to read..well, God gave you the best book ever to read! We're going back this week and are super excited! 

Thursday:

We had a long day of tracting. 

Later we had angol óra and basically just spent the whole class drawing animals on the white board and talking about what sounds they make. Apparently hungarian pigs say ruff ruff and ducks say páp páp and bears say broom broom. 

Friday:

We had district meeting.

Later tracted some more. 

In the evening we had a program with emil. It is always and interesting program. He is a super smart guy and we always have an interesting discussion with him and he gets it all but at the end he just won't come to church. I think he's just nervous but I haven't figured out what of yet. He said that maybe he'd come to angol óra first...interesting

Saturday:

We had a program with nüsi néni. It was good. It was cool because we talked a lot about resurrection and she was really confused with how that will work but as I explained how Christ was resurrected and how he was the same person (we know because of the nail prints in his hands), just in perfect form, she seemed to understand. She in the past has just been really closed and claimed that resurrection is not going to happen but as I talked about Christ's resurrection she seemed to understand how that can happen for all of us! It was super awesome to see her understand.

Later we went ice skating for sport nap. It was fun.

Sunday:

We had church and later játék est. 

Monday:

In the morning we got sister greenwood's residency card. Then we tracted. Then we had lunch.

Later we had a program with a former investigator named Balázs. It was super good. He had trouble recognizing answers so we talked a lot about how the Spirit works and about prayer and it was just really good. He's a super sweetheart and he really just wants to know if its true. 

That evening we had dinner at a members house way out in this little falú a million miles away (well an hour, but it felt like forever). It was super great. It was little napsi's family and it was just super fun. We have a pretty great branch here. 

Well, I hope you all have a good week! I love you all tons and Happy Birthday David and Julia!! I hope it was a good one for both of you!!

love,

Sister Heath 

we were waiting by this door tracting the other day and the only thing we heard was meowing and then this little guy stuck his head out and followed us for a few houses before turning back.

Life is good and God is still real

székes belváros at night

2 February 2016

happy tuesday to you all! so fun fact, our emailing place is closed here every first monday of the month so thats fun. Thus emailing tuesday.

Monday:

Nothing super exciting. We tried peanut butter flavored oreos. Not worth it. They just taste weird. 

Tuesday:

We got all of sister greenwood's stuff figured out at the hivatal and now she will soon be legal! Later that day we helped this member's boss. She works at this english school so they recorded us saying some simple sentences in english so they can play them to their students later. It was cool. They were super nice. 

Wednesday:

We visited this lady named andrea. She has MS and is in a wheelchair and basically confined to her home which is sad but she was super sweet. We read Elder Uctdorf's talk, a summer with aunt rose to her and chatted for a bit. It was nice. 

Later we went tracting and on the way to our area we got streeted by Jehovah's Witnesses. That was fun, she told us that our work was beautiful but our church was wrong, but it's all good. She was impressed that we could speak a little hungarian. haha

After tracting for a while we were trying to csengő into this building and this néni told us that it wasn't any use because half the people weren't home and the other half wouldn't let us in but I told her that's okay, we'll keep trying and then right after she left we got buzzed into the building and the guy said he was busy now but we set up a time to meet next week!

It was my year mark in hungary so we got some take out and just spent a relaxing night watching our search for happiness. It was nice and cheesy. 

Thursday:

We had a program with Bogi in the morning and found out that her calling is to help with primary music and so she asked us to help her, so I think we're basically going to be in primary every week. #score.

Later we had angol óra. It was good. I gave them a pancake recipe so that will be fun to see if they can make it. 

Friday:

We had district meeting. 

Later we tracted. 

Yup.

Saturday:

We had weekly planning.

Later we went tracting and met this guy who said he was interested and we could come back! 

Also, Luiza got baptized in Pécs!! Wooo!! 

Sunday:

We had church, and during sacrament meeting napsi drew little flowers in my planner. 

Later we went to primary and it was fun, we helped with the music and colored. All that life needs to be :)

Heath Nővér (aka napsi)

sister greenwood and andi

Monday:

We made hungarian food with Ági néni int he morning. It was fun. We can now cook pogácsa like a real magyar. 

Well, I hope you all had a good week!! Life is good and God is still real so that's what keeps us going. 

love,

heath nővér