And Transfer 2 Begins...‏

Jó napot kivánok!

This week had a lot of changes in it!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

We had a little going away party for Sister Broadhead on Tuesday. It was so fun. Us four missionaries shared our favorite scriptures, then we had some sutti and games. We ended the night with Sister Broadhead's last program with Ádám. That was so sad. We all got kind of emotional!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

We got up super early on Wednesday to catch the train to Buda! We got there and met up with all of the missionaries at the train station! It was SO much fun to see a lot of my friends from the MTC! Some of them I hadn't even seen since we've been in the country. Then a couple of us hopped on the metro to go get some lunch and then headed to the mission home. There, we attended the meeting where the new missionaries get put with their trainers. I am now with Sister Geröly from Hungary and Sister Whittaker who just got to Hungary last week. I think it will be a great transfer!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Today we did some tracting. No real success but we were able to talk to a few people. We also had Angulóra (English class) that night and that was fun!

Friday, July 25, 2014

We had a cool tracting story on Friday! We knocked on the door and a little old néni named Edit opened it. We told her who we were and about our message. At first she did not seem to be very interested and I thought she was going to close the door. But, instead she opened her door and let us come in. We talked with her for a little while. She told us how her husband had died, her parents had died and her daughter died. She has been alone for 12 years. We asked her if there was anything we could do for her (she struggles walking a little). She got a little emotional as she told us that us just being there and talking to her was a big help because she felt so alone. Sister Whittaker and I both ended up a little emotional after that! She was the sweetest lady and graciously accepted the Book of Mormon that we gave her. I am excited to go back and see her again this week! It was a really special experience. I could feel part of the love that the Savior has for her!

Saturday, July 27, 2014

We did some more tracting on Saturday in the same building where Edit Néni lives. We met a really cool lady named Marcsi. She was busy cooking for her daughters bday party. She let us in and we chatted for a bit! She had two really cute kids who were very polite and sweet! You could see how much they all loved each other - it was so sweet! We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and she said yes! She was so nice. I am excited to go back and see her again this week as well!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Sunday was good. We went to church, as usual. We also went out and tracted for about 3 hours. By the end of the night our feet were killing us! We didn't have much luck...but we can't have great success everyday, right? ;) We then were able to go over to our investigator Edit's house and talk with her a little bit. Afterwards, we had dinner at the Smith's house. They were so kind to cook us a delicious meal! It was nice to spend a little bit of time as a district together and get to know each other a little better.

Things with the language are going pretty well! I still don't understand everything and I can speak even less. But it seems almost like a switch was just flipped and all of a sudden I can understand a lot more than before. I was able to talk to a lot of people on Sunday by myself, understand a lot of what is going on in lessons, and talk a little more to people when we are on the street. I still have a LONG way to go but it is exciting when you start to feel like you are improving. I just want to be able to really communicate with the people here. I know that it is not on my own either that I am able to speak this language at all. It is hard. But I know that the Lord is blessing me so much to be able to start improving! Two scriptures come to mind when I think about this. The first is Mark 9:23 which says "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The other is Ether 12. That chapter talks a lot about faith. It goes through lots of the amazing things that people did in the Book of Mormon and how they were able to do all of those things because of their faith in Christ. I know that if I continue to develop my faith and do my part, the Lord will help me with the rest. Not just with the language but just with being a missionary in general!

Well that's about it for this week! I hope you all have a great week! :)

Simons Nővér xx

Last week of first transfer!‏

Well this was the last week of my first transfer. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. I still feel like I just got to the country. I learned so much this past transfer. I am really sad to see Sister Broadhead go but I am excited for the new experiences I will have. This next transfer I will be staying in Békéscaba (yay!!) and will be getting two companions! I will be getting Sister Geröly from Hungary and she will be training a new missionary. It will be a very interesting companionship for sure. I am excited though!

Here is a little bit about what happened this past week...

Monday
On Monday we were sitting in our apartment and sister Broadhead walked in and said, "Lets go to Gyula!" I said "right now?!" and she said "Yeah!" So...we grabbed our bags, asked Elder Hulbert for a ride to the bus station and took a 20 minute bus ride to Gyula. Its a SUPER cute little town right by the Romanian border. We practically went to Romania haha it was really fun. They have a small castle there that we went and saw and just spent a few hours walking around the cute town. It was great! Then that night, we had Családi Est which was a goodbye party for the Hulberts. It was fun! There were tons of people there.

Tuesday
Tuesday was hard. We had to say goodbye to the Hulberts and that was not fun. We went over and sat with them for about an hour and chatted. Then we went outside to say bye and the tears started flowing. Sister Broadhead and I ended up going into our apartment afterwards for lunch and just cried while we ate sandwiches. It was a pretty pathetic site haha. We were able to pull ourselves together though and go back out and work. The Hulberts did such great things here in Hungary. They also really took care of us like our parents. It was a pretty emotional day for all of us but I am glad that they are able to be with their family at home now! :) Also on Tuesday, we met a really cool lady named Bori. She was a referral from one of our investigators and she's super cool!

Wednesday
We had a few good programs on Wednesday. Then We had to bike in skirts again out to Jamina. Biking in a skirt is so hard. I have tried so many different styles. All are hard. But it makes for funny stories and we just laugh the whole time.

Thursday
We got one of our cute investigators, Hajni, on bap date! :) She is super excited and is so ready! Hopefully if everything goes well and according to plan, she'll get baptized in August! Then we had some great programs with Éva and Ádám which are always fun. Then we went over to this investigator family's house for dinner, Anna and Jozsi. We met their son, Gérgö and their neighbor Anni. It was so nice. They are a really special family. Then before we left, Sister Broadhead and I sang a few hymns for them (they had come to church last week when we did the musical number and loved it).

Friday
Friday we had Zone Training in Szeged. So we met the Elders at 7 and walked to the train station to catch the train at 7:45. However, when we got there, they told us there was a problem with the tracks so we would need to take a bus to Öröshaza and then get on the train there. So we got on the bus...and waited for at least 30-40 minutes for it to move. Finally we started going and realized we were probably going to be a little late to Zone Training because of the delay. We finally made it to the train station (after many stops on the bus which made us even later). We got on the train and made the journey to Szeged. However, we stopped many times as the train driver had to get off. One time, we think he went in and bought something? There were a few stops we sat around for a while. We finally made it to Szeged. We got out of the train station but had no idea where to go. We called the Zone leaders who said to just walk straight. So we did. After about 25-30 minutes walking and not feeling like we were getting anywhere, we asked some people. They told us we needed to turn there and walk straight. So we did. After another while, we called again to find out where it was. Eventually, we made it. The meeting went from 10-12. We arrived at 11:45. It was such a pain! But we all just laughed about it. Our Zone Leaders laughed about it too. So we had a good little 15 minute spiritual thought and then went to lunch with everyone before we made the journey back to Békéscsaba (which of course went a lot quicker going home).

Saturday
We had a few good programs. We also had Sport Nap so we played basketball with a few members and investigators. It was HOT. But it was fun!

Sunday
Sunday was really good. We had three investigators at church. Sister Broadhead gave a great talk about how her testimony has changed while being on her mission. Then we did a musical number with Enikő and Bübe. We sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" (who knew I would be singing so much on my mission?! I am so bad but whatever!). Then we had a program with Hajni after church and had Bübe help us with it. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went well. She is getting really excited for her baptism!

Monday
Since its transfer week, we have our PDay on Tuesday so yesterday we worked. We had about 8 programs! We left our apartment at 9:45 and got home at 7:30. We were there for about an hour before we went back out to another program with Anna and Jozsi! We were absolutely exhausted from walking around in the sun all day and having programs back to back but it was great to be busy! We had some really good programs!

Well that's about it for this week. I read some really great stuff in a Liahona this week during personal study (I think it was from March 2012? It had President Monson on the front). It talked all about how President Monson is such an amazing example of being Christlike and completely service oriented. I feel like that is something I definitely need to work on - serving others more. That is something that I really want to try and focus on, especially this next transfer. Sister Broadhead and I sometimes jokingly sing "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?!" That is something I will have to start thinking about every day!

I hope you all have a great week. Thank you so much for all the emails and prayers. They are really greatly appreciated!

Sok szeretettel!

Simons Nővér xx

De jó :)‏

Jó reggelt mindenki!

Well, another week has come and gone! I only have one week left of my first transfer. I can't believe how fast the time has gone already. There are some days that feel like a lifetime, but when I look back and when I first got to the country, or when I first entered the MTC...I can't believe how much time has passed! But I am so grateful to be serving a mission and know that it wasn't by chance that I was called to serve in Hungary.

Monday - July 7, 2014
We had some great programs on Monday. One was with Anszie and Latszi (the people we met at the random garage sale last week). We talked to them about prayer and the Book of Mormon. We gave Latszi a Book of Mormon and he gladly accepted it! We also met with Enikő that day. We talked to her about her baptism and then we also talked to her about missionary work...which was kind of funny because she brought it up! We had planned to talk to her about it anyways so it was perfect.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014
On Tuesday we met with Robert. He is the guy we met last week on the crazy Thursday that drove by us on the bike. He is so funny! I called him to see if he still wanted to meet and his response was "absolutely, absolutely, absolutely!" When we met him, he said, "well...the weather is...not so fine." Okay that sounds kind of dumb on here but when you hear it in real life, it was so funny. We gave him a little tour of the branch house. While we were talking he said "de jó!" He then went on to explain what it meant..."'de' means but...'jó' means good. so like...but good. but its not like csodalatos, thats wonderful. its like szuper!!" haha it was so funny. I don't think at that time he realized that Sister Broadhead spoke Hungarian and that was some of the little Hungarian I did know! Anyways now we say "de jó!" all the time. We taught him about the Restoration and he was very interested. He asked, "is there any kind of...mormon literature that i could read?!" we were like seriously?! "well we happen to have this book you can read..." so we gave him a Book of Mormon along with a Liahona which he was very excited about.
We also went over to a family's house that we tracted into. When we came in, they had a table full of palacsinta's (basically like crépes). They were good! Mária, the mom, had read from the Book of Mormon. We talked to her about it and explained the Plan of Salvation to her. We invited them to church and she seemed very interested! Her daughter Lila and husband Mihály were there too.

Wednesday, July 9, 2013
We had some good programs on Wednesday. We met with Tamás again and Anszi and Latszi. We also met with Enikő again in preparation for her baptism. That night we went over to meet with the RCLA, Zsuzsa and her daughter who is home for a few weeks (she goes to school in Las Vegas). It was fun to be able to talk to them!

Thursday, July 10, 2014
On Thursday we had District Meeting which was good. Sister Broadhead and the Hulberts shared advice that they had learned over the course of their missions. We also met with Ágnes, one of our investigators. It was a good program. Her daughter Lilli was asleep so we had a chance to talk to her without distractions. With her, we read the chapter in 3 Nephi where Christ heals the sick and blesses the children. It was great to be able to just share with her and talk to her about Christ. We also got to meet with Ádám on Thursday!! We were so excited...it has been a few weeks since we've been able to meet with him! But he texted us the night before and asked if we could have a program right before English class. So we and Sister Hulbert met with him and he told us he had read from the Book of Mormon. We basically just talked about it and were able to bear our testimonies to him about it. It was a really powerful program. He is a really special kid and I hope he has a chance to continue reading. We also met with Éva, a cute girl who is home for the summer. We watched the Restoration Film with her and she liked it. She also had read a little from the Book of Mormon. Hopefully things will continue to progress with her.

Friday, July 11, 2014
We met with Enikő again! Last time before her baptism. We went over last minute details and then practiced the musical number for her baptismal program. We also made invitations for a bunch of our investigators to invite them to the baptism and to church on Sunday! We had a fun little craft night.

Saturday, July 12, 2014
On Saturday, Elder Hulbert drove us all around to go and deliver the invitations we had made to our investigators. Our last stop was at Anna and Jozsi's house (the family we tracted into one of our first weeks here). They invited us in so we went in and chatted for a little bit and invited them to church. They said they would try to come! Then that brings us to Saturday night...ENIKŐ'S BAPTISM!! It was so great. In the program, Enikő, Sister Hulbert, Sister Broadhead and I sang "I Stand All Amazed." Then we all walked a few minutes down to the pool. It had been a challenged to find a place for her to get baptized because the pool we normally use is closed for the summer. But after a long week of stress and planning, it worked out. We walked in and there was a little kiddy pool right there. There were people walking around everywhere going swimming and kids playing. But we were able to use this little kiddy pool and Enikő was baptized. We even had a few onlookers talking about the "mormon baptism"! It was so great to see Enikő go into the water and then come out new and clean. I will admit I got a little emotional ;). Then we walked back to the branch house for some suti (dessert). It was a really great night!

Sunday, July 13, 2014
Sunday was a great day. I was waiting at the entrance to greet people as they came in. I was so excited when I saw Anna walk in!! I ran over and welcomed her and she told me she was alone because Jozsi had to go to his moms house. I walked her in to take a seat and then put my stuff next to her. I went back to the entrance and then saw her husband riding his bike outside...and then he walked in! It was such a nice surprise for us and for Anna. We had so many people, members and non members, at church and it was so great!! We even had to use two sacrament trays! During Sacrament, Enikő was confirmed a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. President Smith had the opportunity to confirm her. It was such a great moment for Enikő. Then, Elder and Sister Smith (the new senior couple that will be moving here) bore testimonies. Sister Smith did hers in Hungarian!! It was very impressive. Then, the Elders and Sister Broadhead and I surprised the Hulberts with a special musical number. We sang "A Childs Prayer" (sister Broadhead and I sang the first verse, Elders sang the second verse, then we sang it all together, then sang it all together again in English, a capella). Then Sister Hulbert (emotionally ;)) gave a talk and then Elder Hulbert. The meeting closed with President Smith giving a few remarks. It was a really spiritual meeting! I talked with Enikő afterwards and asked how she felt. She said, "just...amazing. i feel so great!" I am so happy for her and the decision she made to be baptized! Then after church, we had a luncheon at our apartment with the Hulberts, Elder and Sister Smith, the Elders and President and Sister Smith. Sister Hulbert made so much great food!
Then afterwards, we went out tracting. We met this one néni and her son. He said they were Catholic and not interested. So we gave him our card and moved on. We were about 2 or 3 houses down and we saw him walking down the sidewalk towards us. For a second I thought he was coming to tell us that we need to leave. But then he invited us in for some soup. Though we were still completely full from lunch, we graciously accepted. He fed us a lot of soup...and then when I finally finished...he fed us a big plate of pasta with cabbage on top. I don't think I have ever been so full in my life. We didn't eat for the rest of the day haha but it was great to be able to talk to him and he invited us to come back whenever we wanted!

Well that's about it for the week. I am really grateful for the transfer that I have had so far. This is Sister Broadhead and my last week together, and her last week n the country. We are trying to finish this week out even stronger than we have. I am really grateful that we have worked so hard this first transfer so I know how to work for the rest of my mission. I am grateful for Enikő especially this week. She is such an example to me. She is just a young girl, and is so brave to have made this big decision and to be the only member in her family. She has such a strong testimony and a light that just shines from her. I just hope I can be as strong and brave as her!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Szeretlek titeket :)

Simons Nővér xx

July 7, 2014

Sziasztok mindenki!

This was a crazy week and I had lots to write about but we just found out that the place where we email is closing early for the summer so we have to be speedy gonzales and type this out quickly.

First I'll start with a few funny things that happened this week. First of all, the Hulberts went out of town for a few days for their 40th wedding anniversary. That meant we didn't have a car to get to the far away places. So one day, we borrowed the Elders bikes to get to a program. Let me tell you...riding a bike in a skirt with a shoulder bag...NOT EASY!!! There were some issues and awkward moments...I'll just leave it at that :) But we made it!

Thursday was one of the weirdest days. We had a program with the lady that we met last Sunday (when we went out with Elder Hulbert to try and find some less active members). But again, the Hulberts were gone so we had to walk out there. Which was fine, but we planned about an hour to get there. So we walked an hour, in the cold (it was cold...even though it was July. and now its super hot. the weather here is super random). So we get to her house and ring the cséngő. Nothing. So we knock on a few of their windows. No one was home. Sister Broadhead and I just looked at each other and laughed. We started singing "aaaaand I would walk 500 miles...". SO we started walking back and it started to sprinkle a little with rain. Nothing too bad which was good since we had forgotten an umbrella. We walked past a garage sale and thought "what the heck" so we went in for a little bit. There was this cute néni selling some of her clothes and she kept giving us different things to try on. So we pretty much had a fashion show in this néni's garage. But we sat down with her afterwards and started talking to her a little bit. She told us about her husband who had passed away and we ended up talking about the Resurrection. We actually set up with her to go back and talk to her today!

So then we leave her garage and start our hour treck home. And then the real rain comes. We were freezing. And by the time we got home, we were soaking wet. So we sat down to eat lunch and just kind of laughed because we both looked like crazy people. Then our Sister Training leaders called us and said that we had a program that night at 8 so if we could catch an earlier bus that would be great (we were going to Debrecen that day to go on exchanges). So, we quickly finished lunch, packed our suitcase really quickly and started our half an hour treck back in the same direction to another program. We start walking, carrying our suitcase with us, and this guy on a bike slowly rides by us and just gives us a thumbs up. I was like...what?! And he was like "mormons??" and we said, "yeah we are mormons!" and he started talking to us (in English) about how he had met with some missionaries about 4 years earlier. we exchanged information and asked if he would like to meet with us which he said "of course!" 

After we walked away, sister Broadhead and I looked at each other again and laughed at the day we were having. So about 20 minutes into our walk, we get a call. The lady we were going to the program with cancelled. At this point we were right outside the mall. We decided to just go in and sit down and a table and do our personal study rather than walking back to our apartment for a little bit and then all the way back to the bus station. So we did personal study in the food court at the mall...we were laughing about that one too. so then after about an hour and a half, we made our way to the bus station. we were exhausted by this point. then we got on the bus and rode 3 hours to Debrecen. We got off the bus and met the Sister Training Leaders there. They took us back to their apartment, we ate a quick dinner, and then Sister Jenson and I went to a program. sister Jenson is the sister that I went on splits with for the exchanges. So that was our Thursday. We both felt so loopy and exhausted and even though it had been rough, we just laughed the whole day!

Our splits in Debrecen were great. I loved spending the day with Sister Jenson. She helped me with streeting, tracting and programs. It was a really cool experience. Our first program, we taught this guy named Jack. Although after the whole lesson it turned out that he was actually a member who had been baptized about 6 months ago...so that was funny! But then we went out tracting and streeting for a few hours. And then we had another program with a guy from the States actually going to school here. It was fun...both of our programs were actually in English. Its always interesting to teach in English. But it was a great day. I learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday, we went over to the family that we met last week when we were out tracting. At first ,just the husband, Mihály, was home. We taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation. We had drawn out a diagram for him but made it all about soccer :) that was fun. And then his wife, Mária, and super cute daughter, Lila, came home. We started talking to Mária and she was asking lots of questions. We talked about how our church is different and what we believe. We gave them a Book of Mormon and asked if they would be interested in learning more and meeting with us which they said yes!! There was such a strong spirit in that home. We are so excited to be able to go back and meet with them again. When we left, I literally couldn't stop smiling...and neither could Sister Broadhead. It was just such a cool program.

Another cool experience is with Irén. Actually its two experiences. We streeted her a few weeks ago and exchanged phone numbers. She called us a few days later and invited us over for dinner! She even picked us up. So we went over and it was great. We got to know her and her daughter Éva a little bit who is super cool (about our age). Irén is such a nice, kind lady!! Then a few days ago, she invited us back because we had been so rushed the first time and hadn't had a lot of time to share our message. So we went back and we met her son and his girlfriend as well. While Irén was preparing dinner, we got to sit and chat with her son and his girlfriend for a little while. It was so cool! They spoke a little English and wanted to practice so we talked with them in English a little. They asked all about our missions and were asking about our church and how it was different. So we told them about that, we talked about Joseph Smith and the restoration. They just kept asking question, after question. It was so cool! The whole time we were there too, I understood quite a lot of the Hungarian that was being said! I was able to talk and laugh and really get to know everyone. It was so cool! Sadly they both study in Budapest so we wont get to meet up with them again. But we gave them our information so we can talk to them still. It was really fun.

Okay well this email did end up being kind of long. Sorry it was mostly just random stories that happened this week. I felt like I learned so much this week. Sister Broadhead and I were talking about how nerdy we were because we both LOVE personal study. I love that time every morning I get to just personally read and study from the scriptures. One thing I read this week was Alma 26. Its all about missionary work but we can apply it to any time in our lives, not just on a mission. I encourage everyone to take a little time this week and read it...especially verse 16...that's kind of how i feel! (Here is a link to it... https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/26?lang=eng).

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you again for all the emails. I love this work but it is really great once a week to get to hear from all my friends and family! :)

Szeretlek titeket!

Simons Nővér xx