And another transfer ends...

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! We had a good week here. We wanted to make Sister Kovács's last week as a missionary great so we worked hard and had so much fun!

Well, I will start off this week with transfer news. We got our calls this morning. I will be staying in Pécs and training! I was so stressed all morning (as I usually am for transfer calls) but as soon as I started talking to President Smith and he told me I would be training I felt so much calmer and really excited. I am a little nervous but I think it will be really fun! I am sad that Sister Jeppson is leaving. Well, I am sad they are both leaving, but we knew Sister Kovács was leaving ;). But luckily we can all still keep in touch. I learned a lot from both of them and I am glad I got to serve with them for a month.

Well, the highlight of this week would be the baptism we had on Saturday! I haven't said much about the people here yet because there were so many new people I have been getting to know and I didn't even know where to start. But I will tell you about András :) The sisters found him about 4 months ago tracting. He speaks English pretty well so I always talk to him in English. Well...one time I tried to talk to him in Hungarian and he asked me to speak in English :P I only got to teach him for a month before he got baptized but we have already become great friends and I was so excited for him!!! I even got to say the closing prayer at his baptism! :) It was such a special day. He just looked so happy! He was baptized by President Szabadkai, the future Mission President. Then the next day in church, he was confirmed a member of the church. He was confirmed by Elder Jensen, a greenie!! As they waked up to the front I felt like a proud mom of both of them! I was proud of András for the decisions he was making! I was so excited for him and the blessings he would receive. I was also proud of Elder Jensen for confirming him in Hungarian! He did such a good job. Perfect Hungarian. Ah it was such a good day.

I will tell you a little about Ági too. She is someone who was streeted before I got here and we just had her phone number. We called her a few weeks ago to set up with her. The first time we went over, she forgot and wasn't home, so we rescheduled. The second time we went and tried to teach her a little English. Apparently she had met some missionaries about 10 years ago but only talked to them twice or so, so she didn't know anything. But she really liked them! She asked us, "if I wanted to become a Mormon...what would I do?" I was just thinking to myself..."did I really understand that correctly!" So we gave her a Book of Mormon and explained a little about her church. The second time we went over, we did more English practice with her and then taught her the Restoration. It was pretty light hearted and we were just chatting while we taught but then we got to the part about Joseph Smith. As I was saying the first vision, she just interrupted me with a serious look on her face and said, "woah...this is serious now." We have met with her a few times now and its been good. It has been a little hard because she has kids its distracting sometimes, but I think she really feels the Spirit. One really amazing thing is she has a husband and a couple kids. Only two of the kids live at home though. And both of the kids have mental handicaps. The older son, who is about 12, has some form of Autism. Whats incredible though, is that Ági said that usually when there are people there he doesn't know, he doesn't behave very well and kind of freaks out. But with us, he is always so calm. He loves us too. One way he shows his love for people (because he doesn't really talk) is by eating their hair... He has tried to eat all of our hair quite a few times :P We didn't know though until last time that usually he only does that with his mom! He also sometimes just comes and sits by us quietly and watches us. Ági couldn't believe it. She said she didn't know what it was but he never acts that way around strangers. I think he just feels the Spirit when we are there and that is why he is so calm and loving to us. He is so sweet and cute! It really is a cool experience when we go over there. I think Ági feels the Spirit too but doesn't quite recognize it yet.

Well those were some of the high lights of the week. I love being a missionary. Zach gave me some good advice this week to stop counting down. I keep thinking, "I only have 8 months left!" But instead, I am going to try and think "Sweet I still have 8 more months to be a missionary!"

I hope you all have a great week!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

10 Months!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! Today I hit my 10 month mark. Which is crazy. I can't believe I only have 8 months left. It's going by too fast.

We had a good week this week! I had a cold for a couple of days but I'm doing better now which is nice. We had some good programs this week. We have set up with a lot of people from English class which has been cool. We help them with English for half an hour and then the second half an hour we teach them about the gospel. One girl, Ági, asked us a grammar question and we talked about that for like 10 minutes and then she was like, "Well I have kind of an awkward question. But could you tell me about your church?" We were like, "umm...yeah!!" So then she just asked a bunch of questions about what we believe. It was pretty cool!

I had to teach the beginner English Class this week! That was the first time I've done that. It was pretty hard. I had planned to go over some easy vocabulary and things but every time I suggested something, they had already learned it. It was fun though. And good practice for my Hungarian.

On Friday, we went to Dunaújváros (a city about 3 hours away) for Zone Training. It was good. I got to see some missionary friends and we got great training from our Zone Leaders. They taught us a lot on being diligent. One of my favorite things they said was a quote which says, "Be a missionary. Don't just be on a mission." That is a good self-check!

Last night we had dinner at the Szabadkai's house. Brother Szabadkai is going to be the new mission president in July! They are such a nice family. I am so excited that I will be able to have him as my mission president for at least one transfer. Right now, he is the mission leader in the branch here in Pécs so we meet with him every week. It is also really cool to be able to serve around him now and get to know him before he becomes the mission president. I think they will do so great.

On Tuesday we had Family Night for the branch. I had to do the little lesson. I did it based on Elder Richard G. Scott's talk from General Conference, "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority." He lists 4 ways to help strengthen your faith. I just focused on prayer and scripture study. I have gained such a testimony of the importance of doing the little things such as prayer and scripture study. One of my favorite parts in the talk is about prayer. He says, "Choose to converse with your Father in Heaven often. Make time every day to share your thoughts and feelings with Him. Tell Him everything that concerns you. He is interested in the most important as well as the most mundane facets of our life. Share with Him the full range of feelings and experiences." I love that. I am so grateful for prayer and that it really is a way to talk with Heavenly Father. I am grateful that I can pray anywhere and anytime. There are lots of times where I am stressed or just don't know what to do and I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. But, I can always pray. I love how he says that Heavenly Father wants to know the most important things and the most mundane things. I know that Heavenly Father is always there and will always listen to our prayers. We are never alone!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. We have transfers next week so I won't be on until Tuesday.

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Pecs Week 2

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! We had a good week here in Pécs. I was feeling pretty exhausted for a few days and wondering if it was just starting to catch up with me since I reached half way or what. But I woke up yesterday with a cold and am battling it today as well so I think that is why I have been so tired! But I am feeling better than yesterday so hopefully it will be a quick recovery. :)

Well I don't have a ton to report this week. We had quite a few programs which was nice. We met with our investigator, András, who is on bap date. Those went well! It is really exciting helping him get ready for his baptism. He speaks English pretty well so that is nice to be able to explain some things to him in English.

Some exciting news: So President Smith goes home in July and we will be getting a new mission president. We found out a few days ago who it will be. His name is President Szabadkai. He actually lives here in Pécs and was the Mission Leader in the branch until last week. It is fun to be able to know the new Mission President already! I will be able to get to know him a little bit better too before he becomes the President. And then I will only have him for one transfer but that's still fun :).

Hungarian is coming along. It is really helpful living with a Hungarian 24/7 ;) I still have a long ways to go obviously but it is really exciting to be able to understand a lot more and be able to express myself and not have to memorize sentences or anything like I did at first. I really love this language! It is so hard but so beautiful.

We have met some people that help me to really appreciate the life I have been given. Some of the people we have met with have such hard lives. It helps remind me to count of the blessings I have! I am grateful for the family I have been blessed with. I am grateful for this church. I know it is true. It has brought me so much happiness and so many blessings I can't even count. I know we have a Heavenly Father who loves us all more than we can even understand. I am really grateful for prayer. I love that we can use our own words and have a discussion with Heavenly Father. He is always listening and He will always answer. It may not be when or how we want an answer, but it will always come.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Sziasztok barátaim! :)

Simons Nővér xx