Boldog Új Évet!‏

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!! Oh and before I forget, I will tell you all of the transfer news! I am leaving Érd tomorrow and will be going to serve in Pécs! I will be in another trio (one of them is Hungarian again!) That should be fun! I am excited. Although I am sad to be leaving Érd, I am excited to go and see new parts of Hungary and get to know new people.

So we had a busy Christmas season! First of all, two weeks ago we went to Buda for a Christmas Zone Conference. It was so much fun. We had really great trainings in the morning. And that day I reached my half way point. All of the training got me super pumped up and ready to work hard and have just as great if not an even better second half to my mission! After the training, we had a delicious lunch where we watched a slide show of the mission over the past year :) Then we split off into groups and played some fun games and did a white elephant gift exchange. It was so much fun!! :)

On the 24th, we went and had lunch with a family from the Branch. It was fun! We also sang some Christmas songs and played a bunch of games. Right after lunch, we got on the train and headed to another family's house for dinner! That was also really fun.

On Christmas Day, Sister Cox and I tried to wake up at 4 am to open presents to continue our family traditions :) BUT when the alarm went off we both decided it was too early and went back to sleep haha I hoped to sleep in a little on Christmas but we were both awake before 6:30 so we just went out and opened presents then :) We then just relaxed and hung out the whole day. In the evening, we went over to the Branch house and the Elders made is dinner!! It was so nice of them. They made us Rokot Krumpli which is my favorite! :) Then we each took turns skpying while the rest of us played games. It was so fun. Skyping was definitely the best part of the day! :) It was so nice to be able to talk to my parents and the rest of my family. The second best part was all of the Christmas cards I got from my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents! Thank you all!! It was so great to hear from everyone!

On the 26th, we went to lunch again at a families house. We were there for quite a while when we realized that they had planned on us being there for even a few more hours until we went to dinner at the next members house. After we ate though and the Elders gave a spiritual thought, we went out and worked for a few hours. It was COLD! But it was good. And then for dinner we went to the American family's house. That was nice. We had steak and mashed potatoes and cupcakes! It was great! :) So Christmas was awesome. And we actually get two more days off for New Years as well. One of those will be spent travelling but that's okay! I didn't quite know what to do with myself on Christmas day when we didn't have to work! But it will be nice to have a little rest and then work hard this next year!

So I actually forgot my study notebook at home to tell you all something I learned this week. But I do remember one thing that I learned that I loved. My grandma sent me a book for Christmas all about the Atonement. In the book, every page is a different day of the year, so there is one little thought about the Atonement for every day. However...I couldn't wait and read one day at a time....soooo I sort of have just been reading through it all :) Anyways, there was one that stuck out to me so much that I loved and wanted to share with you. I don't even remember right now who said it but she said she likes to think about the Atonement as the waves of ocean. We can always count on the waves to come up and cover the sand. They always smooth it out and fill in all of the holes. We can always count on there being enough water too. I loved that image (partially because I love the beach and the ocean :)). We, like the sand, have imperfections and mistakes, but the Atonement, like the waves of the ocean, can completely cover us and take away those imperfections. I am so grateful for Christ and His Atonement. The more I study it, the more I realize that I really can't even come close to understanding what He did for us. But what I do know is that Christ loved us so much, he was willing to suffer for all of our sins, trials, sickness, everything.

I hope you all have a wonderful new year! Next time I email you I will be emailing from my new area so I will be able to tell you all about that! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Boldog Karácsonyt. És boldog új évet kívánok!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Humility

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all had a great week! :) We had a good week here in Érd. We had some really great programs with some of our investigators. Wednesday was cool. We were just sitting in English class when this young guy walks in. He is a guy that Sister Erlandsson and I had streeted a few weeks ago. Well, actually...he streeted US. He figured we weren't Hungarian so he came up and started talking to us and was really excited to hear we had a free English class. So we invited him, he didn't show up. Then a few weeks later we hear "Hey! Mormon girls!" And there was this guy again! He said he was bummed he couldn't come to the English class. We told him it was okay, we held it every week! He didn't realize it was every week and was excited he could still come. Anyways, hadn't seen or talked to him in a few weeks until he showed up on Wednesday. I told him he could introduce himself to the class and he basically just took over :) he introduced himself and then asked everyone else about themselves. Then he asked about "Mormons." Orsi (a member in the branch who always comes to English class) basically taught the whole Restoration. Then we talked about praying and how it is a way we can literally communicate with our Heavenly Father and how we have a living Prophet on the Earth today. It was pretty cool! Then after English class we had another little...I actually don't know what to call it in English but basically people are invited to stay and there is a little spiritual thought by a member in the branch. We only had tree people stay (this guy, Laci, and two other people). After the short spiritual message by the Branch President, we did some caroling. The two other people left but Laci stayed, listened and even sang a few with us! Then, he started asking questions about the Church. The Ward Mission Leader basically taught him all of Preach My Gospel! All of us missionaries just sat and watched in amazement as the branch just sat with him and answered all of his questions. We thought, "alright, Attila has this covered, we can just go now! ;)" Just kidding. But really it was so cool to just listen to them talk about the gospel. Laci said he would come back next week and we gave him our card! Hopefully we can start meeting with him and he can learn more about the gospel.

On Thursday, we had a really great program with a new investigator, Szofia. She originally wanted to meet for English (and still does) but was willing to talk about the gospel as well and even asked what seemed to be perfect questions. We taught her the Restoration and she was very open minded. She is so fun! I really loved talking with her! We had a program later that day with Ilona that also went well. We talked to her about the importance of obedience and prophets. Then she asked questions about baptism. She asked how it works, what to wear, etc. She isn't on bap date yet but she is so close. For both of those programs, I was nervous to be honest. But, I know that Heavenly Father had prepared them so well that they were successful programs. I know that the Spirit touched both of their hearts and did all of the teaching.

On Friday, we went carolling with the branch. That was fun! We had a bunch of the branch members standing and singing, with two missionaries going on and pass out cards with the kids handing out candy. Everyone thought the kids were so cute so were more willing to take our cards as well :) it was really fun to just go out and sing some Christmas songs! We even had a few people stop and just watch and listen for a little while. It was a great way to bring some Christmas spirit!

I really enjoyed my study about the Christ-like attribute humility this week. One idea that I read in both Preach My Gospel and True to the Faith is how "Humility is not a sign of weakness. it is a sign of spiritual strength" and "You can be both humble and fearless. You can be both humble and courageous." I loved those so much when I read those. This week, as things went a little better for us, I had to make sure to remember to thank Heavenly Father. The good programs we had, the great conversations we had with people on the street, etc...those are all thanks go Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. As missionaries, we are just hear to provide the information. The Spirit is the whole who does all the teaching. Heavenly Father puts us in the places we need to be and helps us know the things we need to say to people. The more I have been on my mission, the more I realize that I need to work on humility. I really enjoyed being able to focus on it this week and think of ways that I can be more humble.

I reach half-way on my mission this week and it blows my mind. Missionaries always talked about how fast their mission goes and how they couldn't believe how fast it went. But really...I literally cannot believe that I am reaching half-way!! Just makes me want to work as hard as I can and have fun because before I know it I will be heading home...

I hope you all have a wonderful week! And if you haven't had a chance, you should check out this video. I just saw it this morning and it is incredible! http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

I love you all and miss you all! Sorry for those of you I didn't have a chance to respond to this week. Just know how much I appreciate hearing from you. I hope you all continue to have a wonderful Christmas season! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Some pics from last Sunday with Santa Claus :)

Patience (Türelem)‏

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! :)

There is not a ton to report this week to be perfectly honest. As a mission, we were studying the Christlike Attribute patience. And I think here in Érd we definitely experience a week of studying patience! Sister Cox and I did 30 hours of finding and only had 3 lessons with investigators the whole week. But, it was still a good week! I felt as though I could apply my study of patience every day. We had a few streaks where no one would answer the door, and some other times where we could hardly finish our introduction before we were turned away. However, in Preach My Gospel I read that patience is "having the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated or anxious" and to be "accepting of God"s will and timing." I tried to keep this in mind throughout the week. Sister Cox and I were able to stay positive throughout the week and have faith that we would get some let-in's or at least be able to talk to a few more people each day. Every day we were able to still laugh, have fun and find the good moments! I am really grateful to be serving with Sister Cox and that we were able to both remain positive throughout the week. We were pretty exhausted by Sunday though and went to bed pretty early ;).

So here in Hungary, Santa comes on the 6th (kids leave their shoes out by the window and Santa comes and puts candy and things in the shoes of the kids who were good). In church on Sunday, we heard that Santa would be coming to primary. We were sitting in Sunday School and someone came in and pulled out all of the missionaries. We were led to the primary room where Télapó (Santa) was with all the kids. He pulled out individual goodie bags for each of us missionaries as well as the kids in primary! It was such a sweet surprise!

Also, Sister Cox and I decided we wanted to make our house a little more Christmas-y. We cut out a small Christmas tree from wrapping paper and taped it up to our wall! We also used some other wrapping paper and made little ornaments that we stuck to it. It was so fun. And its just an itty bitty thing but its so nice to have a little Christmas in our house! :) I love this time of year. I love the Christmas lights, the Christmas music, the Christmas traditions. Everything. And it is so special to be a missionary around the Christmas season. I am really grateful to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior. I am grateful for Him. I know He lives. I know that He died for each and every one of our sins, trials, pains and everything. He loves us more than we can even imagine! As it is the Christmas season and a tradition is to give gifts, we should remember John 3:16 that our Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift of all: His son, Jesus Christ!

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season. Thank you for all of your emails and prayers. They are so greatly appreciated!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Tudás (Knowledge)‏

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a lot go on this week. Transfers were on Wednesday so we got up and went to Buda. It's always an adventure trying to haul suitcases from one train to the metro to the other train station but we made it! :) It was fun to see some of my MTC friends and friends from other places that I have served with. I even got to see two members from Békéscsaba that came to see all the missionaries.

My new companion is Sister Cox. She is great! She is from Utah, she is one of 11 kids and we get along really well. We have been working hard the past few days since we got together and I think we will have a great transfer together. We have been doing a lot of tracting the past few days and we have come across some really cool people. A few days ago, we were going for a few hours on this one street with no luck. Then we got to the very last house and we got let in by a really cute young couple! We started asking them some of the survey questions and got to talking to them a little. They said they would be interested in learning more so we gave them a Book of Mormon and got their phone number! Yesterday we went tracting as well. We got a few houses in and this lady let us in because "it was too cold!" So we went in and started talking to her a little bit and then her cute, old mom came in too. We told them a little about what we believe and gave them a Book of Mormon. They were happy to welcome us back next week! Those are just a few cool experiences that happened to us this past week! :)

I cannot believe that it is already December! Time is just going by so fast! I still feel like October just started!! I am excited though since it is the Christmas season and now I can listen to my Christmas music without feeling weird that it's too early (not that that would have stopped me! ;)). There is a really cool Christmas Initiative that the Church is doing right now. Everyone should go check out christmas.mormon.org and tell me what it looks like! :) Also, everyone should check out Youtube on December 7!! :)

This week we studied the Christ-like attribute knowledge. There were a few things that stuck out to me. The first thing was from "True to the Faith." It says, "ask your Heavenly Father to help you know what He would have you learn and do." That is one thing that I tried to do this week was ask Heavenly Father what I needed to learn. Sometimes, there was a specific scripture that stuck out to me that helped me for the day. This is something that I want to continue to really try and do. I want to just think about what I am reading and figure out why exactly I need to be reading it and allow the Spirit to guide me to learn what Heavenly Father needs me to learn. One thing that I have gained a huge testimony of, that was strengthened even more this week, was how every time we read the scriptures, we learn something new. Again in "True to the Faith" it says, "You will rediscover the treasures of the scriptures again and again, finding new meaning and application in them as you study them at different stages of life." I have read 1 Nephi many times in my life ;) but I have noticed each time I read them, a different verse sticks out to me, or I read a verse and think of it in a different way. I love in the quote how it says you will rediscover "treasures." It just puts an image in my mind of how wonderful and important the scriptures really are!

hóember- snowman
jég - ice
kukorékolni - to crow (looked that one up because we have a rooster in our neighborhood that crows. all. the. time. :))

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you again to those who email me! It means so much. Thank you for all of your prayers as well! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx