jó reggelt!

there is an old retired street car near our apartment and sometimes it has fun magnets on it

 21 September 2015

 

Say hello to another wonderful week in Pécs!

Tuesday:

We had a program with Attila. This time we had planned to teach the restoration but as we got into the program we started talking a bit more about the importance of taking action and reading and praying. We also helpped him download the gospel library app and we watched a mormon message with him. (http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-hope-of-gods-light) He us such a stubborn guy but he always has the best questions and I really think he is interested, because if you weren't interested you wouldn't worry about taking the time to think about such deep questions. He is a really great guy and I can't wait to see where his search for answers takes him.

We then had a program with Dávid. We went over the restoration. He is such a super star and already knew it all. It all just makes sense with him. It was super cool too because we were talking about mormon messages with him and he said that he watches at least one every night before he goes to bed because they just make you feel so good. Seriously this kid is amazing.

Dávid's quote for the day!! (back story. So there is a statue of Jesus on one of the hills here and you can climb up to it. I sent a photo of it last week. So Dávid was chilling up by the jesus statue and this is what he said) Us: "you were thinking about Jesus?" Dávid: "he told me to make a selfie with him."
 

Wednesday:

We had a program with Gizi néni. She is a super sweet older lady who was neighbor to our mission president. They actually taught her all the lessons as they were preparing to become mission president so she has had all the discussions. She is a super religious catholic lady but she LOVES the book of mormon. She loves how it is about a family and how they are close to God. I'm not sure if she gets that it isn't just another book but she is super nice so we'll see where it goes. She gave us a tour of her house and it was beautiful. So the Zsolnay ceramic company is huge here in Pécs and everyone has some Zsolnay. He collection was beautiful. She also had tons and tons of books because her husband was a teacher. She is super sweet.

We then had a program with Merci. She is a young girl in her 20s going to university to become a tour guide. She is the one that gave us a tour of the Zsolnay factory. Her dad is a member but is usually away for business in germany so she lives with her mom, who is not very fond of the church. Merci has a really strong testimony and really wants to be baptized but her mom said that if she is baptized she will be kicked out of the house. We watched the restoration film with her and the spirit was super strong. She has such a desire to be baptized but its so difficult with her mom. We promised her that Heavenly Father will provide a way for her because her deisres are righteous and Heavenly Father will help her find a way.

After that we had a progarm with another college student, Daniel. He is studying law and is super nice. Dávid was our little member present in the program! We talked a lot about how we can receive help from God and why reading the book of mormon is so important. It was super cool because he has had some experences in the past where he had a hard test and when he prayed for help, he was able to pass it. So he knows that God is real. It was a super super great lesson. We really emphasized that if you read the Book of Mormon, you will get an answer that it is God's word and that your day will really be better if you read it, but that we have to make it a habit or else it doesn't work. He promised that he would read it but that he he couldn't this weekend because he was going up to budapest. Ha, good excuse. We helped him download the app on his phone and boom, you can read on the train daniel! He is such a cool guy and I think Dávid really helped him see that these things we promise him aren't just words but that if we really try them, we can do them. He is pretty addicted to his coffee he says, but dávid shared his testimony that after he got baptized, it was so easy to resist drinking and everything else. I think that really intrigued daniel because we talked about baptism a bit after that.
That evening we had a little családi est at András's. We watched the mormon message about the marshmallows and being patient. It was super great.

Thursday:
We went over to a member Éva's and made this chocolate cake with her. It was phenom.
Then we had a progarm at the branch house with Erzsi and Niki and András came and helped. It was a really good program. We talked about making goals and how she can reach her goal of baptism. She decided that she wants to get back married to her ex husband and that he wants it too. Its kind of an interesting situation but we'll see. In the past her pár would make us ask permission for Erzsi to be able to go to church but he was kind of a punk about it, so Niki volunteered to go over sunday morning and ask if Erzsi could come. Apparently, Niki walked right in there and straight to her pár's face basically said "I'm here to take erzsi to church. Is that going to be a problem?" and he was totally freaked out and gave her permission to come every week with Niki. Boom member power! This sunday Erzsi was there!!
That evening we had angol óra. It was good. Nothing too exciting.

view of pécs on the way to éva's house

Friday: We had a program with Pui Kati. Her son is a member but her pár doesn't want to get married so she can't be baptized. Its another interesting situation. She is a super sweet lady though. She is romanian but has been living in hungary for a long time now. She has a hard time reading but it was an incredible experience when we visited her. She said that she had been feeling like she needed to read from the book of mormon even though it is hard and so she flipped the book open and it was to second nephi chapter 22. (which happens to be one of my favorites). She could only read one verse but she read verse 2 which reads "2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." She felt the spirit so strong when she read it and she knew that Heavenly Father helped her.

the main square

So this weekend there has been a big festival in pécs. The whole main square was taken over by this big stage and there have been little concerts and stuff going on but on friday this band from pécs that has gotten pretty big performed. It was super cool. We didn't stay to watch the whole thing obviously but the few minutes they were there they played the Pécs aktual song! It was super cool. Punnany Massif is the name of the band.

Saturday:
We had district meeting and then after that we went with Dávid to visit the TV tower. So on the hillside of pécs there is a huge tower that you can go up to and see the view of the city. One of Dávid's friends works there so he gave us a ride up in the elevator for free. It was super beautiful and you can see croatia from the top of the tower. Super cool.

view from the tv tower

Dávid

we got cute little ice cream sundays on the top the tv tower

 That evening we had a program with Dávid and András where we watched the whole Joseph Smith: the prophet of the restoration film. It was super cool and dávid said he learned some new things about Joseph. It was also cool because I think Dávid is thinking more about serving a mission. He made a couple of comments that make me thing he is thinking more seriously about it.

Sunday:
We had a really good sunday. Erzsi came and she felt the spirit super strong during sacrament meeting and she stayed for gospel doctrine too!! Dávid also got his triple combination and new member certificate from the makkai elnök!

dávid is offically a member!!

Well, its been a good week here in pécs. This week we have zone conference up in budapest so that will be good. We get to hear from one of the area 70s so it should be great. I hope you all have a good week! Love you tons!

Sister Heath 

 

 

 

The street we live on

 

our street at night

a cool old building from the turkish times

BEST WEEK EVER.

 15 September 2015

This past week has probably been one of the most amazing weeks of my mission. Honestly, every single day has been incredible.

Monday:

We went to the Zsolnay ceramics factory with one of our investigators Merci. She is studying to be a tour guide so she gave us a little tour of the factory. It was super beautiful seeing all the ceramics and stuff. It made me miss sculpting a ton. And it was super cool. So we were walking through the gallery and the man who donated the entire collection was there! It was funny, me and sister widtfeldt were crouching down to take a picture of one of the pieces and we were pretty close to the glass, but then we saw him come by so we quickly stood up, in shock that he was there and he just smiled at us and said "sémi baj" (no problem) while chuckling.  

That evening we had a program with Dávid with Makai elnök. We had our last lesson we needed to teach him before baptism, endure to the end. It was a really great program. Makai elnök felt like he needed to talk to Dávid about someday going to the temple. The spirit was super strong. He has such a strong testimony.

After our program with Dávid we were standing on the street outside the branch house and I had gotten a phone call so I was on the phone while Levanene and Widtfeldt were talking to david so I was standing a little away from them to hear the phone when this couple walks by and in perfect american english, complimented my shoes. So confused I looked up and then they started talking to my comps so I got off the phone and started talking to this couple. Their names are the Hicks and they are from Montana and they are just traveling all over europe "getting to know the saints" so basically all they are doing is traveling europe trying to find other church members and missionaries in the area or city they are in and just talking with them. It was super funny because they said they had been keeping an eye out for missionaries but when they saw us they were thrown off because there were  three of us. But they were super nice and insisted on taking Dávid out for dinner. They also said they wanted to have lunch with us on tuesday so we set that up.

That evening we went to a member Andás's for a little családi est. It was super great. We made fruit soup with him and it was nagyon finom. András also showed us a music video of Pécs. If anyone is interested in seeing how gorgeous the city I am living in now is check out "Pécs Aktuál X Punnany Massif" on youtube.

Tuesday:

So we had lunch with the Hicks and it was super great. They are the nicest couple ever. It was cool being able to tell them about hungary and stuff and hear about their adventures around europe. We also introduced them to their first túró rúdis. It was really great. After that then they had scheduled to have an early dinner with dávid again. It is so cool that they became friends with him. We were so proud of dávid for being so outgoing. They loved him and I think it was a really good experience for him to see how members are all over the world.

After lunch we had a program with a guy named Attila. He was from english class but we now have a rule we can't individually teach english that our lessons have to be full gospel so we talked with him about the nature of God. It was really incredible program. He said that he is kind of a hard headed guy and skeptical but he has been getting more open with things. We basically emphasised the importance of our relationship with God. The spirit was super strong.

After that we had branch családi est. It was a little going away party for a couple that is moving. There was a slide show and some süti. We invited the Hicks and it was super funny but nice to see them trying to speak with everyone, even those that didn't speak english. It was a really good day.

Wednesday:
We had planned on having a program with this lady but she wasn't home so we streeted around a bit.
Later we had a program with Dávid because tuesday night he asked if we could meet tomorrow. So we got to the program and he started by telling us that he had looked up about temples on the internet and had found some videos. At first we were afraid that he would be freaked out but he is seriously an incredible kid. He said that he watched these videos about why people weren't mormons anymore but that as he watched them he had the thought that "this isn't helping me. I don't feel good while watching these" and so he stopped and basically he said that he knew that what the people said in the videos was wrong because it didn't match up with how he felt. He recognizes the spirit so strongly, its incredible.

Thursday:
We had a program with erzsi. We basically talked about modern revelation and prophets and invited her to read some conference talks. She is great just its hard for her to talk about her living situation because her pár is always there. So we planned on meeting with her next week in the branch house so hopefully we can talk more openly and help her more. She is just so great and loves the gospel.
We had angol óra that evening. It was only two people that showed up because it was rainy out so we ended up talking about cool places to visit around pécs so we got some good ideas for p-day.
After angol óra we had another program with dávid because we felt like we should talk about temples a bit more. So we talked a lot about how the temple isn't a secret because its anything weird or anything but because it is sacred. That the covenants we make in the temple are very special and should be given proper respect. We showed him some picture from the temple edition of the liahona and boy is this kid solid. We all shared our testimonies with  him about why the temple is important to us. It was an incredible program with him. I feel like every time we meet with him the spirit is so so strong. Its truly something indescribable.

Friday:
We had district meeting then got lunch at this american themed restaurant for elder kruger's birthday. The restaurant was playing michael jackson music videos the whole time and our burgers came with little american flag toothpicks in them. It was super cheesy haha
We had a program with a lady named kati. She was a referral from a less active. It was a good program.
That evening we had fiatal est, which just ended up being the missionaries (the zone leaders were here for splits too so they were there), dávid and hannah (one of the young women) going and getting ice cream. It was great though. We made all of our last minute stuff for dávids baptism!!

the most amazing saturday ever:
So that morning we had another little district meeting that the zone leaders held. It was super good the spirit was super strong.
Then we headed over to the bus station to get on the bus to go to Dobaj tó. We met dávid at the bus station and he was in a little suit and bow tie. It was adorable. Then his mom and sister showed up with some other members from the branch and we all got on the bus and headed out.

Dávid with his sister and mom

Dávid and cathcart

It was really incredible because the whole week had been cold and rainy and we were worried because we were holding the baptism at a lake and we didn't want dávid to freeze, even in summer time he gets cold. So all week we were praying for good weather and saturday was perfectly warm and sunny. God for sure answered our prayers.

So we got off the bus and walked to the lake. We must have looked like a funny group, a bunch of nicely dressed people walking down the side of this road. But we got the lake, Dávid and Zsombi changed into white and we stared with the program. Elder Cannon (one of the zone leaders) gave the talk about baptism and then they headed into the water. It was super slippery and both zsombi and dávid slipped and almost fell in all the way but they got out far enough and then zsombi baptised him. It was so so beautiful. The sun was shining on the lake and there were birds singing and just a light breeze. It was something I will never forget. As they came back out of the water, after everyone finished hugging dávid and stuff I asked him how he felt and he simple smiled and said "perfect".
Then Zita gave the talk about the holy ghost and sister levanene and zsombi sang "how great thou art". It was so beautiful and peaceful. His mom and sister I think really liked it too.

dávid's baptism!!

Elder Cannon and Dávid

Zsombi and Dávid

After getting back into pécs we went out to lunch with dávid and as promised ate fish soup, dávid's favorite. It wasn't that bad, just really filling.

Sister levanene and Zsombi

fish soup

That evening we had sport nap up at this basketball court in this part of town called Tettye.  It was great and we mostly just ended up talking with dávid the whole time. After that Zsombi asked if we could go watch some mormon messages at the branch house before we had to head home so we watched a few and boy has this week just been a spiritual high.

Sunday:
So it was branch conference so all the stake people were there, so it was a very full chapel, which made dávid a little nervous at first but he was great. He was confirmed by cathcart elder (who is not a missionary anymore but was back for school here in hungary). It was a really great blessing that cathcart gave him after. He said that dávid is a wonderful example to his family and friends and that he will share the gospel. We were all so so proud of him. It was great because after he said that before cathcart gave him the blessing that he was a little nervous but after he said he just felt peace. Not happiness but peace. And that it was a great feeling.

That night we called dávid to see when we could meet with him this week and stuff. We asked him about how he felt and he said he just felt great. We are just so proud of our newest member!! It was super funny though because he was joking with sister levanene and was like "I'm cleaner than you are". Seriously, I feel like how Alma felt when he was talking about how your joy is full when you bring others unto Christ. It is seriously incredible.

Monday:
So sister levanene has been having some pain and sensitivity in her teeth so we went up to the dentist in budapest yesterday. Luckily nothing was wrong with her teeth. We went to the mission home and did some reimbursements and picked up our mail and stuff and then we had a little time before our train left so we went to the nagy piac. It was super cool. Tons of kezimunka. Then we had lunch with the buda missionaries so I got to see my friend dietrich from the mtc. It was great. Our train ride back though kept having problems so they had to keep stopping the train and it ended up being more like a four hour train ride instead of three.  But we made it home safe and now we're back in pécs. Pécs édes pécs.

the nagy piac or big market

kelleti train station and all the supplies for the refugees.

I love you all and hope that you have had a great week. I know that God is real and that he is looking out for all of us. He loves us more than we could ever imagine. Think about the person you love most in all our life, then multiply that by a thousand. That doesn't even begin to compare to home much God loves us. I hope you will never forget that he loves you. Have a good week!!

tele szivvel,
Heath Nővér

the little dot to the right of the statue is dávid.

me and dávid

some sick graffitti we found

The szabadság híd (or freedom bridge) in budapest

sister levanene, me, and sister widtfeldt

Zsombi being goofy

Hello Pécs!!

my new comps, sister levänene (in black sweater) and sister widtfeldt (in grey dress)

 7 September 2015

well, big news before anything else. I got transfered to a city called pécs, so no longer am I in szeged. So I'm in another trio with sisters widtfeldt and levänene. Sister widtfeldt is going to be going home soon and sister levänene has already been here for two transfers so president didn't want it so at the transfer that they would be white washing pécs so he sent me in here for the last month of the transfer to get to know the city before I get a new comp. So thats fun!!

Pécs is literally the most beautiful city in the existance of beautiful. Basically when you picture a european city, pécs is what you would get. Photos to come.

Well I guess I'll say how my week went.

Monday: (still in szeged)

So we got a new elder in szeged so we had dinner as a district and got to know each other a bit. It was nice. Troja's is a classic.

Tuesday:

We had a program with Zsolt. It was great. We talked a lot about the new testament. Hes doing great.

Then we had lunch with a member, Géza. It was the most food I have ever eaten in my life. Like thanksgiving on steroids. So we went with all the elders so it was eight of us over all, luckily. First we had a bean soup, a big ole bowl of it. Then we had fruit soup, another big bowl. Then we had pork with cucumber salad and potatoes, then we had pörkölt over nokedli, which is basically stewed meats over noodles,. Then we had cake and watermelon. The thing with hungarians is that if you don't eat it all they think that you don't like it so you have to eat ALL of it. I was so proud of myself for getting it all down. Sister Hawker kept having to pass things to elder oakes to eat. It was super funny. The best moment though was when elder höferl was eating the pörkölt he couldn't finish it so when geza left the room he swapped his plate with oakes and so when geza came in the room he was super surprised because he finished it all but then he realized that they swapped and he just started laughing and called höferl a "kis német lány" or little german girl. We all just burst out laughing and almost threw up from laughing so much. Basically we didn't have to eat for days after that. Hes like a super néni.

Wednesday:

We had a surprise call from president wednesday morning telling me that I was going to be transfered to pécs so basically we spent most of the day packing and saying goodbye to people.

We had a program with Alexa and Ibolya that evening. We talked about how to find happiness in this life and focusing on the good. It was really good. They are wonderful people.

Thursday:
So that morning then president wanted to go streeting with the elders so while he did that sister szabadkai went streeting with us. It was super fun. It was her first time streeting so it was cool to show her the ropes. Then I said goodbye to sister cropper and hawker and we drove to kecskemét to pick up my new comps because they were on splits with the stls in kecskemét. Then after a stop at mcdonalds we were on our way to pécs. 

Basically my new comps are the coolest ever. I have wanted to be comps with sister widtfeldt since being comps with sholly and sister levänene is super great too. Its her second transfer and she already speaks so well. Basically I am in the prettiest city in hungary with the best comps ever. Seriously feeling so blessed.

So thursday evening we had angol óra. It was pretty great, small but fun.

Also after angol óra we went streeting around the city sort of show me around. It is seriously heaven. There are little street performers everywhere and all the buildings are beautiful. There is this really cool street band that we are sort of friends with called INTU. I don't know how to describe the music but its beautiful. Its kind of like post folk. So cool. Also, Kelly, there is a man with a beard that always plays the banjo, it made me think of you.

Friday:
We had a program that morning with a lady named Jutka. She is this older lady that LOVES the scriptures. She knows that the book of mormon is a great book but we basically talked about how we can find out if it is Gods word, and what that means if it is God's word. So it was a great program. She is so loving and kind.
We then had a program with a lady named Erzsi. She was on bap date until they found out she wasn't actually married to her husband. They had been married, then divorced, then had a kid, then started living together again. but they never got married again. So its a strange situation, especially since he isn't the best to her, she doesn't really want to get married again but its hard because he supports them. Its crazy. But she is super nice. We talked about service and she gets it all. Her son is adorable also. He just started school.
That evening we had fiatal est (basically like a ysa night). It was super fun. We made waffles and I got to know the branch. They are all super cool. Everything is just perfect here.

Saturday:
We have a bap date named Dávid. He is the COOLEST kid ever. He is 18 and has been investigating for a couple of months. He is super nice and is just all around wonderful. So he had his baptismal interview on saturday and passed!! so we went out to lunch with him. It was super great. I am so stoked for his baptism this saturday. Its strange because I don't even know him that well yet but I already love him so much. That just says the type of kid he is. He is just genuine, maybe a little quiet but he is so sincere and you can just see the light of Christ in him. He has had to give up so much already for the gospel but you can see that he knows that it is worth it. He really loves the gospel and we are excited for his baptism.
That evening we had sport nap but because it was raining we just played ping pong and jenga with them. It was good. Then we got fagyi afterwards.

Sunday:
Got to know the branch. They are wonderful. Super legit people. Sister levänene got up to bear her testimony and I am so proud, she said it all perfectly. Seriously she doesn't even know how good she is. She is like the living, walking gift of tongues.

Well, not too much more. Life is fantastic here. I am excited to be in pécs. This city has already stolen my heart. I am excited to see what is to come! I hope you all have a good week!!

Love,
Heath Nővér

my personal touch at district meeting.

Hálosztok!

SZEGED!!

 31 August 2015

Hálosztok!

WELL, lets see what happened this week.

Monday:

We went to the Kalandpark (or adventure park), aka this cool ropes course on the side of the Tisza river. It was pretty awesome, although the next day I was totally feeling the side effects of climbing up giant rope nets in trees. worth it.

Tuesday:

We had a program with Zsolt, with Emilia the member. He is freaking awesome. We taught about fasting and it was great. He totally got it. Its just super cool with his programs becasue we always plan to talk about something with him but he always wants to go over his scripture reading with us so its kind of hard to bring up the lesson but somehow the topic of the lesson gets brought up in his reading or in the conversation. This week he was like, "I actually don't know what fasting is. can you tell me more about it?" hát, azert vagyunk it Zsolt! :)

Later we had a program with Renáta. It was good. We read a chapter in the book of mormon with her. Shes great. Just needs to stay active the little bugger.

We then had a program with this guy named Márk at a little cafe. He is a student here and we started talking to him by the tisza the other day when he was totally hung over. He was cool though. It was an interesting program with him. He is from Lebanon. I can't remember which but he spoke perfect english and was pretty catholic. He is cool though and had a lot of interesting questions for us. He wasn't interested but was nice about it. He refused to take a book of mormon becasue he said it would just be another book to him and he didn't want to distrespect it. Thats nice I guess.

a pretty sunset we saw while tracting

 That evening we had a lesson with Alexa and Ibolya. It was good. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ but they didn't really understand that when we asked them about baptism, that we were talking about in our church. So that was a little awkward but they promised to come to church.

Also, on tuesday we had a cool experience where this guy just called us and wanted to meet because we gave him a pass along card on the street. They actually do work sometimes!! woohoo!!

best part of this photo, definitely the man in the background

kids always offer to help me with my drawings. Its the best.

Wednesday:

We went out to a member's house for lunch, Magdi's. She lives out in this little falu on this cute farm. She made us túró gombóc, which is basically breaded fried kind of like cottage cheese stuff. They were good but she freaking gave us a ton of them. So she served up my comps plates with two or three and then she got to mine and freaking put five on it and just smiled and walked back into the kitchen. I struggled to get them down and then she comes out with another big plate of more and dishes us up more of them and yet again, gives me a couple extra. This time I snuck some back onto the serving dish when she went back into the kitchen. Then she came back and was like "You need to finish all of these!" and served us up yet more but luckily she kept going back into the kitchen so sister hawker shoved them into her purse and we pretended like we had eaten them all. So now sister hawkers bag will forever smell like túró gombóc.

my comps waiting for the túró gombóc.

a drawing crazy csilla did of herself as a lioness...

my favorite doors in szeged. Just because of this little creature thing.

 Thursday:
We had a program with  Zsolt and Emilia. This time we talked about tithing. He accepted it. Freaking super star Zsolt.
Later we had a program with the Sueék. They are great. They went on vacation to Pécs for the week so they showed us tons of photos. We then talked about faith and repentance. Sue said that they didn't want to come to church until they felt like they were ready to commit to being a member of our church because they didn't want people asking them if they were going to join. It should be interesting to figure that out. Love them to death.

Friday:
Not too much exciting happened. We got dogged. Its all good.

Saturday:
We visited Piroska néni. So she kicked her granddaughter out so now she is all alone in her house and so we went and bought her some groceries and are making sure this is always a member to check up on her. She is good though besides that. Her knees are doing a bit better than usual.
We went tableing for a while. It was good.

Sunday:
So church was freaking awesome!! ZSOLT CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! woooo!!!!! So I guess their selling in the piac on saturday didn't go too well so they came again on sunday to sell stuff so he snuck away for an hour and was able to come to sacrament meeting. He LOVED it. Freaking miracles. Also Alexa and Ibolya came!! God loves us a ton.
That afternoon we had a program with the Márkék. It was good. We emphasized to Magdi that she NEEDS to read and pray every day if she wants to be baptised. Hopefully she will. Life is good though.
Also, we got a call from our elders last night that there is going to be an emergency transfer so Elder Paul and Winkel will be getting a new companion Elder Tillman-Dick. So we will have two trios here in Szeged. So there will now be eight of us. It should be interesting.

Well, its been a good week. Hopefully next week will be even better! Have a good one, love you all and don't forget how much God loves you and that he will provide a way for whatever problem you may be facing. I've seen it in my life and I know its true.

Well, thats about it. Have a good week!!

Love,
Sister Heath

szeged from a 17 story building we were tracting

the moon is intense. fact.