week 5?!‏

Sziasztok!!

Holy crap I cannot believe I have been here 5 weeks already. I mean I feel like I have been here forever but at the same time it went by so fast!! This week was pretty great. There were a few blah moments but that's like every day normal life.

So we'll start with Sunday...remember how last week there were rumors going around about having really good devotionals coming up? So Easter Sunday we go to devotional and it was PRESIDENT UCHTDORF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! Apart from having Easter in Jerusalem this was the best Easter I've ever had. It was so great because it was really focused on the real meaning of Easter...Christ's resurrection. It was so great to focus on that so much. So we got to devotional and we sang prelude music that was all about Christ of course and normally I don't really pay attention to the words of songs that much and just go with it but this time I was really paying attention to the words and i was getting so teary just thinking about it. Then President Uchtdorf came in and the spirit was so strong. He gave the best talk I have ever heard in my life. He talked about the Atonement of course but then he tied it into missionary work. He talked a lot about Peter and how before Christ died, he was afraid and he denied him. But after Christ died, Peter feared no one and went forth and taught the gospel. Our new district motto is "I fear no man." He told us that as we serve the Lord, us and our families will be protected. We just need to give our worries and fears to Him and He will help us. He wants to Help us! Ah it was just so good! And then I teared up during the closing song of the devotional too. And then afterwards, Uchtdorf went around and shook so many people hands in the audience. It was so special to watch. He said that he couldn't go around and shake everyone's hand but just to know that he wanted to and to think that he did. There is a blind senior missionary here and I saw President Uchtdorf give him a hug. Ah it was so great! Oh and another cool thing about the meeting was that we all took the sacrament together. All of us in that big room! It was really cool!!

So after that I was pretty drained of course. We were sitting in our classroom and the Branch President called me and my companion out. He asked if we would be the Online Coordinators which basically means we help the new missionaries with the computers and know how to check emails, email the branch president, etc. So we are supposed to go in this week and do a little training with the new missionaries! So that's pretty cool! All the new Albanians and Finn's are arriving today and we are super excited! 

So then we had Sacrament meeting. And our branch president changed it to be just a testimony meeting all about Christ. It was really powerful. I even bore my testimony!! (which for those of you who really know me is a big deal because i don't really like to voluntarily get up and talk in front of people haha) but it was so special. So that drained me again. Then we went on a temple walk with our zone like we do every Sunday and was such a beautiful warm day!

Then we had a district meeting that night and talked all about the devotional. Once again, the spirit was so strong!! We all talked about the things that we learned from the talk. It was awesome.

So overall...Easter Sunday was amazing!! I loved being able to just completely focus on Christ and His Atonement. It was so special. I hope everyone else had a good Easter too! :)

Then on Tuesday we had another devotional. And it was ELDER OAKS!!!!! We keep being told how an apostle hasn't come to the MTC in YEARS and within ONE WEEK we get TWO APOSTLES AND A MEMBER OF THE FIRST PRESIDENCY! I feel super spoiled that we have had all of these amazing devotionals!! Anyways Elder Oaks was great as well! He gave us some really great advice about being missionaries. We were on the second row too so we got to be really close to him and that was so fun! :)

So I've talked about TRC a bit in my previous emails...it's where we go and teach volunteers that come into the MTC. Usually they served a mission in Hungary. Last week we did it and I thought it went fine. Nothing special. But then as we were leaving one of the guys we had taught came out and said to me and my companion " Your Hungarian is so good!! I didn't know that much when I was at this point in the MTC! You guys are going to kill it!" UMMMMMMMMM needless to say that put me on cloud 9! Hahaha it was so nice to hear that and kind of gave me a huge boost!

OH funny story! The other day one set of our elders were teaching our teacher (who is a fake investigator) in the other room. And all of a sudden as we are sitting in class and we hear this noise....and all of a sudden we all realize it's Taylor Swift. We've only been gone a month but we were like...what is that?!?!?!?!? It was our teacher's phone in her bag hahaha we were debating touching her phone and turning off the music or sitting there and listening to it hahaha it was so funny how weird we all got and how hearing Taylor Swift threw us all of guard!

So we have started playing volleyball more and more often with the Elders! It's super fun! I'm still not very good but I'm getting better! It's really fun!

Well that's about it for this week! Not too much happens week to week! Things are good though. Hungarian is coming along. I think we are all feeling like we are sort of getting over the wall that we all hit and learning more again. It's such a fun language to learn. Thank you for all of your support! Thank you for the Dear Elders and the packages!! It is the best feeling ever to get mail haha I love you and miss you all!

Sziasztok!

Love,

Simons Nővér xx

All the hungarians!!

The girls

The boys (some from the other district too)

Photobomb by Elder Wilson

Prank on me by Elder King

 Prank on Elder King by me (those are raisins and at the time he was pretending he hated raisins...another story for another time) lol

The note we left our teacher when her phone went off :P

Girls in our Zone

Me and Sisar bates (one of the Finn sisters who already left. and she is next door neighbors with Marti!!)

Our district!!! (the tall girl is in the Estonian district but she's a solo sister)

One month!

Sziastok!!!

I cannot believe I have been here a month. The time has just flown by. Although at the same time I feel like we've been here forever!! It was a good week. Some ups and downs like usual but overall pretty good.

Hungarian is going well! It is hard. And I think we all feel like we've hit a wall because our progress in the language isn't as drastic as it was the first week. But of course we are still improving. I'm just learning to have patience and try my best and know that I can do this with the Lord's help. 

Some fun things about this week...we have this little prank war going on with the elders. We've hidden a few of their things, and they've rearranged our desks when we were out of the room. The other day we went in and turned all of their desks around so that they couldn't get to any of their stuff on the inside. Later that night we walked into our classroom to find all of our desks gone! (The sisters’ desks). They had moved all of our desks into the classroom next door (actually Jake's old classroom!) It was hilarious! (Pictures below!) It's been so fun. We are like a little family away from our real families. We have a companionship of three right now and they are nicknamed by our teacher the "szent haromsag" which means "the holy threesome" haha and so they made this little hand shake where they put their hands in and then take them out and say "unite!" Although they had the word for "to unite" wrong for a few weeks and just found out that this whole time they've been saying "to murder or to kill!" haha sooooo they'll be readjusting their handshake. We played volleyball with them last pday during gym. Kristin would have been so ashamed of me haha I was terrible. Well...I hit the ball...but like I don't think it was good. But no one was really that good so I didn't feel bad. I did walk away with some pretty sweet bruises all over my arms though so I felt kind of cool. Or kind of dumb because I clearly didn't know how to hit the ball correctly haha

Our new favorite word in Hungarian...bizoynam (spelling is bad but you can pronounce it). That basically means "fo shizzle" hahaha our one teacher taught it to us one night when we were all seriously exhausted and giddy and loopy. She told us we have to say it in front of our one teacher who is a little bit more serious (still fun but now as loud goofy). 

We had some good devotionals this week! I feel like it's not really fair that since I've been here we have had so many incredible devotionals. I mean hello David freaking Archuleta, BYU Vocal Point. On Sunday we had BYU Men's Chorus come and that was super fun! I actually saw a kid in there I knew form EFY! But yeah it was so fun - I love having musical devotionals. And then last night there were all these rumors about how someone really big was coming for our devotional. So we got there early and got bomb diggity seats and guess who walks in. ELDER NEIL L. ANDERSON!!!!!!!!! It was so cool! He gave a whole devotional on the Book of Mormon and it was awesome. It was very informative but I think what I got most out of it was just how he acts. He was so so so so cute with his wife. And he just had a smile on his face the entire time. I don't think I've ever seen that man not smiling and I love it! We supposedly have incredible devotionals for the next two as well :) There are rumors going around about who it's going to be on Sunday for Easter but I'll tell you all next week who it is :) 

Soooo I woke up this morning and my head hurt a little bit...like my forehead. So I go to the mirror and I have this like random gash on the side of it. When I went to bed last night I was fine!!! So I think somehow I may or may not have hit my face on the brick wall that I sleep by. It kind of stings haha luckily it's to the side enough that I can cover it with my hair mostly. And it kind of makes me super cool because I'm basically Harry Potter now!!! 

Well that's pretty much all for this week. Not much exciting happens...the days are all mostly the same. I can't believe how fast time is going. On the one hand I think of 17 months from and that seems kind of far from now. But the last month has gone by so fast I really want to try and focus on the now and just enjoy my time here! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's so great. Life is great! I love my district and my teachers. Being a missionary is hard. I am exhausted 24/7.

I'm so excited to be serving at the same time as my brothers! And the Hoffman's and Kimball's.

Love you all! Thank you for the dear elders and emails! :)

Talk to you next week! Sziastok!

Simons Nover (Emily) xx

My harry potter scar...

So since we aren't allowed to eat in class...we have a slight obsession with Tic-Tacs. 

Although most of these were sent to people...not us buying them hahaha

Classy Elders

Noverek (sisters)

Some girls in the other Hungarian district!

Elders being Elders - with the zone leader in the background

Just being weird

Love all of these Hungary bookmarks from the cousins in England. 

Use them all the time!!

Where our desks used to be (prank by the elders)

Where our desks ended up (this is jake's classroom right next door)

Week 3 in the MTC

Hi Everyone!!

So week three is over at the MTC! Things are good! And they are really starting to go by fast. All the new missionaries are coming in today and I feel like I just got here! 

So a few updates from the past week. We did TRC which I can't remember what it stands for exactly but basically we go and teach other people (other than our teachers) that are volunteers. The first lesson that Martineau Nover and I taught we actually did with the other two sisters because we didn't have enough volunteers. IT was pretty fun actually to do it with them! It was the sweetest old lady whose parents were form Hungary I think but she grew up in Canada. Maybe? I don’t know. And then the second girl that we taught (just me and my companion) was actually from Hungary! She was so nice! We gave her a quick little lesson about prophets since conference was coming up. And then when we were done we seriously just sat and chatted with her for like 10-15 minutes and got to know her. Oh yeah and we did it all in HUNGARIAN!! It was so much fun! I was surprised at how much I understood her - she only had to say a few words in English. 

Next...General Conference. It was so good. My favorite session was for sure Sunday Morning!  I seriously think I got something out of every single talk. Plus Elder Uchtdorf spoke (I know we aren't supposed to have favorites but he's totally my fave). And of course President Monson spoke. I loved how it was all about having gratitude and being optimistic and serving others. That's what I got out of it at least. I went into conference with a couple of questions and they were all answered during that session. And it was also a great weekend because with conference we didn't have any classes so we sort of got to take a little breather and "relax" for a few days. And then Monday we jumped right back into things but it was great.

Also in between sessions of General Conference they showed a video about David Archuleta's mission. Sadly I only got to see the last few minutes of it. So basically if anyone happens to run into David Archuleta any time soon...just have him email me and tell him he should wait for me to get home from my mission ;) haha jk. But really.

Devotional on Tuesday night was awesome!! BYU vocal point came and performed for us. Oh my gosh they are amazing. They did a bunch of "hymn shares" where they sang with us. I kind of wished they would have just done more of their songs but it was still good. They sang "Nearer My God To Thee," "Noyana"- Come, come ye saints" and another one I don't remember. They gave me goosebumps. It was seriously so so good!!!!

The other day we were talking to our teacher a little bit about Hungary and that was super fun. She was just telling us about some of her experiences in the country and it got my excited and nervous haha it's crazy to think we are starting our 4th week here which means we are almost half way through. Um what?! I'm so not ready to leave here and have to go and talk to the people of Hungary hahaha but I’m also SUPER EXCITED to go back and live in Europe for a bit!

So as many of you know I’m a little bit clutsy...and for some reason being in the MTC has made me even more so. I think I hit my head on something on a daily basis. It's not super fun haha the girls in my district think at some point I’m going to just collapse because I’ve hit my head so many times. A lot of it is because I sleep on the bottom bunk so yeah...hahaha

We started this cool thing in class where we all go around and read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. And we each take a verse and just explain what we got out of that verse. The second time we did it we each read a verse and after a few, we would pause and anyone who had any insights or thoughts on the scriptures would share it. It was super cool! It was really interesting to see how much insight you can get out of just a few verses. And how you can get something out of every single scripture. We were reading in 1 Nephi so safe to say I’ve read those chapters the most out of all of the Book of Mormon haha but there were certain verses I've always just read through quickly and not really thought about. But hearing everyone else's insights on them was super interesting. I loved it!

Well things are going well overall! It is hard. It is exhausting. It is a roller coaster of emotions. But it's great. I'm getting less nervous when we teach our "investigators" (our teachers). Hungarian is coming along slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll feel a lot more comfortable with it when we leave the MTC. One of our teachers said that when she was on the plane to Hungary a few years ago she was sitting next to two guys who were just talking to each other. She said 4 hours later she recognized a word they said and that they had actually been speaking Hungarian the whole time and didn't even realize hahaha soooooo that makes me a little nervous but it'll be okay.

Thank you all for sending me emails and letters! It is so much fun to get Dear Elder's every day - even though I don't really have time to send letters back always (sorry). Thanks for all of your prayers, love, and support!

Love you all!

Simons Nover (Em) xx

Look who I found in the pictures! Missionary from Greece!

Our district has a love of tic tacs...

Our district at the temple

Me and Cropper Nover (Sister Nover)

Thanks for the cookies!!! :)

WEEK 2

Hey Everyone!!!!

So this week was kind of weird. Everyone said to just make it to the first Sunday in the MTC and you'd be good. But honestly the first few days were a piece of cake. It was after last PDay things got a little rough. Not too bad but some stuff happened in our district. I don't know all of the details but sadly one of the Elders went home (health related stuff) and that kind of threw us all for a loop. Two days in a row, two of our teachers just stopped class and just asked (in english so it was a big deal) if we were okay. They kind of helped us work through stuff, which was great. We all talked about the great things about each other and I think it brought us all closer together. 

Hungarian is progressing! it is so hard but it's coming along. And I just have to remember it's only been 2 weeks. The fact that we can all kind of teach a lesson in Hungarian is pretty good, if I do say so myself :) We have two new investigators (again our teachers) and it's better than the first one. Well...kind of. I still get frustrated because I know what I want to say but I cannot figure out how to say it in Hungarian. There are a lot of charades going on in the lessons :) But it's great I am loving Hungarian. Although it's funny we have all noticed that as we learn more Hungarian, our spelling in English is getting worse and worse haha so sorry if I have really bad spelling errors. 

Okay so the best part of my whole week. On Sundays we have devotionals. This Sunday it was Richard Elliot - an organist. So that was cool. BUT then all of a sudden they announced and showed on the big screen...wait for it....DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh I freaked out. Those who knew me my senior year in high school know how much I love him ;) Anyway it was a very musical devotional so that was incredible. David Archuleta sang and I cried. Yes I cried. And I'm not ashamed. It was seriously so amazing. That boy has the voice of an angel. He had been home from his mission for just a week so he was still super missionary like and oh man it was just so good to hear him speak and to hear him sing. Ah-mazing. And then after devotionals we can go watch a movie (usually either a talk by a general authority or something) but this week we went and saw the movie Legacy (it's this super old movie about the times of Joseph Smith and the pilgrims). Oh my gosh it was so bad Hahaha but it was like so bad that it was awesome. Needless to say our whole district was on a super duper spiritual high that night after the devotional and movie haha.

The hardest part of the week was Jake leaving. On Sunday, all of the Albanian missionaries sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." I hate that song. I mean no...I love it. But I hate it. Before they music even started I was bawling. Literally. Like almost hyperventalating. Which didn't help Jake since I was sitting right at the front so as he was up there singing he was bawling too haha it was really sad and tons of other missionaries were crying too and came up afterwards and were like "you guys!! you made us all cry! we feel so bad for you right now!!!" haha and then Tuesday was pretty hard. I woke up at 4am and went with the Finnish Sisters so say goodbye to the Albanians. That was hard to see Jake walk away. So I've been a little down the last few days. But I've decided that I just need to be positive and optimistic. I miss Jake especially since he was my sanity here in the MTC. But I'm so excited for him to be in Albania. And I’m not far from him. Plus I'll see him in 22 months :) It was seriously the best blessing EVER having Jake here in my zone with me for the first two weeks at the MTC. And of course I still miss him (like I miss the rest of my family) but I am just going to completely focus on me trying to become the best missionary I can be. 

Soooooo many people who know me know that I'm a tad bit clumsy. And it's like been enhanced since I’ve been here. I think I whack my head on something everyday. It really hurts and I need to be more careful lol the other sisters think one day I’m just going to black out and collapse because I’ve hit my head so often haha Our district is so fun. We started assigning each other Disney characters. it started when we decided one of the elder's looks like nahla (yes the girl lion from the lion king haha). I think in the end I was given Meg from Hercules (which I’m not complaining about). It was so fun haha

So we've all be talking...we are terrified to go to Hungary haha but in a talk we watched by Elder Bednar a few weeks ago, he talked about how he used to interview new converts and almost always they said that the missionaries that taught them were total dorks and could barely speak the language but what made them decide to join the church was the feeling that they had when they were with the missionaries. I would love to become completely fluent in Hungarian. But I know that there is no way I can do it all on my own. I have to have the help of the Lord or there is no way I can do it. Especially to know enough Hungarian to leave here in 7 weeks. We are told to learn the language of the country we are going too but more importantly to learn the language of the spirit. It has been a rough few days mostly with just Jake leaving but I am putting the sad moments behind me and just focusing on learning Hungarian and the language of the spirit. 

Overall, things are great! there have been ups and downs but that’s normal in life. I'm just trying to focus on the blessings and the positives in my life! :)

Thanks to everyone who sends me emails and dear elders! I'm sorry if I don't have time to respond but just know I love it so much and getting mail is one of the best parts of the day! I love you all and miss you and can't wait to see you in 18 months! :) 

Simons Nover 

p.s. Fun fact for you all...The Hungarian MIssion was opened on June 1, 1990 so LITERALLY two days after I was born!! I don't know why I thought that was so cool but yeah :)