June 29, 2015

Sziasztok!

I hope you all had a great week :)

This week for us was pretty slow in terms of work. Because it's summer everyone is travelling and somehow even some of our most reliable people didn't show up for our programs. But its okay we still had a good week despite all the dogs.

Krisztina
The bishop's daughter Krisztina came and spent a few hours with us one day this week! She's so cute. She's almost 15 years old and is literally counting down the days until she can go on a mission. She actually has a countdown on her phone. I really wanted to have some programs for her to help us with but sadly...they cancelled. So, we took her tracting for a little bit and then to do some streeting. I was afraid she was going to get bored. Especially because we didn't have any let-ins. But she loved it! We invited her to come to a program with us on Saturday that was sure to happen so she could help us. Sadly though, that one cancelled as well. So we took her out streeting again. She loved it! She was begging her mom to let her come with us again next week! She's so cute. She is going to be so prepared. She will make such an incredible missionary!

Hajni
I don't know if any of you remember Hajni but she was a girl in Békéscsaba that got baptized while I was there right before I got transferred out. She know goes to school in Budapest! I have seen her a few times when she comes to the Young Single Adult activities here on the Buda side. I got to have a program with her and catch up and see how she's doing. It was so good to be able to talk to her and see how she's still doing strong in the church! Love that girl!

Márta
So we had another program with Márta this week. It was amazing. She comes in and I don't know if she saw a hymn book or what but she just randomly asks if we sing. So we told her yeah we sing every week in church! We took her down to the chapel and Sister Feil played a few hymns and we sang . She LOVED it! She then just asked us a whole bunch of random questions about our missions. Then we went back up and had a little program with her. She said the closing prayer and it was amazing! It was so sweet. Right from the heart. I got a little teary eyed as she was praying. When she was done I think we all felt the same way. We asked her how she felt and she just said that she didn't know how to describe it. She said she had had a long week, a really tiring day and a headache all day. She said she had though about texting us and telling us she couldn't meet but decided not to. She said all her tiredness and headache was gone and she just felt so happy. The spirit was so strong in there. It was really amazing. So excited to meet with her again next week :)

Saturday
Saturday started off kind of as a bummer. We got to sport nap but no one was there so we didn't get to play soccer. I was pretty sad. But we just went back to the branch house and did some studies before English Class. Then we were supposed to have a program with Csaba. But...he didn't come. So we went out streeting instead. And Krisztina came with us :) Then there was a baptism. One of the Elders investigators, Klára got baptized, and this 8 year old boy. It was such a sweet baptism. She is the lady who fed us last week :). After the baptism, there were some refreshments. This one lady in the ward came up to us and told her she brought her friend so we should go and meet her. Her name is Ilona. We ended up going down with her, Andi (the friend who brought her) and another super cool member to play piano. The one member and Sister Feil, took turns playing the piano. We then ended up singing a bunch of hymns for a while. Ilona loved it! We are going over this week to meet with her! :) Then, two of my friends Viki and Ági from Pécs were in Buda for the weekend. So they came to say hi and I got to spend some time with them. That was so fun to see them! :)

Well, that's about it for the week. President Szabadkai comes this week so that will be a big change. I'm really excited though it should be good! And next week will be a mini transfer so you won't hear from me until Tuesday. This is my last week with Sister Feil, who is going home. So crazy I feel like she just got here!

Love you all and hope you are all doing well! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

 

kacsa szív...nem baj?‏

Hi Everyone! :)

I hope you had a good week. First of all, HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all of the dads out there! Especially to my dad! And my grandpas! :)

We had a super busy week this week but it was great.

Zone Conference
We had Zone Conference on Thursday this week. It was pretty good. Sister Feil and I had to do a training, which if course, I was super nervous for. We were asked to give a training on how we can help our investigators develop faith. Seemed kind of broad but also simple at the same time so we were trying to figure out what to do with that. We ended up using the talk "The Music of the Gospel" from the last Conference. This is how the talk starts out with a young doctor talking to a tribal medicine man who "sought to heal the sick through song and dance rather than through prescribing medication." The doctor asks the man if he can teach him to dance. his patient was a tribal medicine man who, according to ancient tribal customs, sought to heal the sick through song and dance rather than through prescribing medication. The medicine man responded, “I can teach you to dance,” he said, “but you have to hear the music.” That is what we based our training on. We talked about how as missionaries, we need to help our investigators learn how to dance but also to hear the music. We all need both in order to develop our faith. We talked about how the dance steps of the gospel are things like prayer, scripture study and going to church. These are actions that we do. But we have to do them with real intent (hearing the music) if we want to develop our faith. Probably a good reminder for all of us. I think sometimes we all (at least I do) get stuck in ruts sometimes. We go through the actions but we have to really remember why we are doing it!
The best part of the training though was the demonstration at the beginning. We had two of my good friends, Elders Bagley and Olsen come up. We told them to do some dance moves. They did it really boringly and awkwardly. Then we turned on some upbeat music (don't worry...it was EFY music ;)) and had them do the dance moves really fun and pumped up haha it was pretty funny an loosened up the crowd. We even had President Smith laughing his head off! It was pretty fun :)

Márta
We had another program with Márta. She is so cool! We did a little English practice with her and then talked about the gospel. She had read part of the Book of Mormon. We shared the Restoration with her and the Spirit was so strong. We asked her how she felt as she was listening to the First Vision. She said she felt touched. I think she is feeling the Spirit but its an unfamiliar feeling to her. We asked her if she would pray about the Book of Mormon. She said she didn't really want to because she didn't like how churches had specific, rote prayers. We explained that when we pray, we just use our own words and it's like we are having a conversation with God. She really liked that! She said if that's what it meant to pray, she would do it! She even prayed at the end of the program. In her prayer, she said that she knew Sister Feil and I were on the right path and that she was just at the beginning of the path and learning. It was such a good program. Such a sweet lady!

Ward Picnic
On Saturday we got to go to a picnic thing with the ward. It was so fun. We just went right after English class and a lot of people came with us from class! There was a pretty good turn out of ward members too. It was in this beautiful park. AND they had soccer! :) So we went up to this field and were playing. But it was basically just everyone all bunched together and kids running around so it was really spazzy. So they made a little game for the little kids and then a normal game for the adults. It was SO much fun! I think everyone was surprised that I played soccer haha it was fun. Scored a few goals. I was happy! :)

András from Pécs
My friend András from Pécs came to visit Budapest this week! It was super fun to be able to see him! We had a program with him and his friend. It was super cool. We explained the Book of Mormon to his friend and András was able to bear his testimony about. It's super cool seeing how much András' testimony has grown even since he was baptized in January! He is trying to share the gospel with his friends and its super cool. Hopefully we will be able to continue meeting with his friend!

Sunday...kacsa szív
Sunday was great. We had church and Csaba came which is always entertaining. Then we had lunch at Klára's house (she is a really sweet lady who is getting baptized next week!). We went over with the AP's an the Petersons. It was a delicious typical 3 course meal. Except that there was some chicken liver involved which wasn't my favorite...but I just ate it really fast and got it over with haha. We were there for a while so we didn't have time t go home before our next program which (unfortunately) was a dinner program. So we had a little time and went over to the Peterson's house. We helped them with Hungarian a little and just chatted. We were all SO full from the huge lunch we had. We headed over to our dinner program still full. I was just praying that I would be able to eat it all and that it would be something quick. We get there and of course it's another three course meal. We eat the soup...a good vegetable soup. And then comes the main course. I see the look on her face and I get a little nervous. She says, "So...I know you guys don't like liver. So instead I made...duck heart. Is that okay?" My heart dropped haha but of course we were like "oh yeah sounds great!" So she put it on our plate (its mixed with a yellow, curry looking like sauce). She went out of the room to get something and Sister Feil and I just looked at each other and were like "WHY?!" hahaha so I just tried to eat it quickly and get it over with haha not my favorite food but hey now i can say that I've eaten duck heart!

I can't believe my little brother Zach gets home from his mission this week! So proud of him! I can't believe how fast the time went. I still remember dropping him off at the MTC two years ago.

Well, I hope you all have an amazing week. Talk to you all next week! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

       

Ima‏

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a great week! :) We had a good week here!

Tuesday
Tuesday was crazy. It was super hot in the morning. We went out and streeted and were dying of heat. Then we went to the Branch House to have a program. By the time we were done with it, it was pouring outside with thunder and lightening. Funny story. When its raining like that, Hungarians freak out. We had some programs cancel. So we decided to head home and do some studies and then hopefully when the weather got better, to go back outside and street or tract. We were soaked as we got to the metro and it was hilarious because there was a huge crowd huddle inside all calling people and freaking out. Funny thing was some of them had umbrellas...we got to the bus station and it looked like the buses were shutting down. Haha but luckily our bus showed up and we made it home. The weather never got better but we tried to go tracting and luckily got let into a building. Sadly with no luck so we were back out in the rain pretty quickly haha. But it was a pretty funny day.

Oliver
So one night Sister Feil and I were out streeting. We handed a flyer to this guy who was like "Oh sorry I don't speak Hungarian." So we asked him where he was from and he said "Ireland!" We both got super excited and started talking to him. One of the NICEST people I have ever met in my life! He told us how his wife was Hungarian and they were here with their baby visiting her family. I asked his baby's name and he said, "Emily." I freaked out again and was like "Oh my gosh that's MY name!" He was pretty excited too! Then we asked what his wife's name was and he said, "Katalin in Hungary but I call her Katelyn." Sister Feil goes, "That's MY name!!!" He was so excited haha he couldn't believe it! We told him how we were missionaries and he thought that was super cool. We told him we would love to come meet his family sometime and he was excited! We gave him our card. He didn't know the phone number of his parents or the exact address haha he told us basically what he knew and said he'd give us a call when they got back in town! Hopefully we will be able to go over and meet them! :)

Márta
So Márta we met on the street a few weeks ago and she was interested in learning English. So we called her a few days ago and set up with her. Honestly, I didn't really even expect her to show up. But we called her a few hours before just to confirm and she said she was still planning on coming. But again, I didn't really have high hopes. I figured she would just be interested in learning English. But we had the coolest program with her. We helped her with some English an then switched over to the gospel. We gave her a Book of Mormon and explained it a little bit. We ended up teaching her little bits of everything! She was really curious and open and accepting to everything! We set up with her again for next week. Sister Feil and I have high hopes for her! She is such a sweet lady! :)

Saturday
We got to start our morning out with Sport Nap! Nothing crazy happened this week but I just have to throw it in here again because it was so fun! I love getting to play soccer every week! :) It was stinking HOT though! But totally worth it! Scored a few goals again :) So much fun! TH en we had Angolóra (English class). And then we got to go to lunch with one of my former companions, Sister Kovács (who i guess now is Kira ;)). It was so fun being able to see her and catch up. She even came in and helped us with one of our programs! Then we went to dinner with the bishops family. They are the sweetest family!!!! I stinking love them. Ilona, the mom, always gives me the biggest hugs when I see her. Its so nice getting a "mom hug" every once in a while! And their daughter, Krisztina, is the sweetest girl. She's 14 years old and already counting down the days until she can go on a mission! She wants to come out with us sometime next week and be a missionary with us for the day. Should be so fun! :)


Sunday
Sunday was good! Csaba came to sacrament meeting. He's so funny. He like chats to me through the whole meeting just asking me different questions about the church. He told us he could only stay one hour because he had to go home and study! (Csaba is a very...exact person. He always keeps his promises but he does not like deviating from plans haha). At the end of the meeting, they wanted to take a picture of the whole branch! So, Csaba jumps up and marches right to the front of the room. Everyone gathers for the picture and where is Csaba? Right, smack dab in the center in front of the podium. It was so funny. I tried to get him to come over to the side with us but he wanted to be up at the front :P Hopefully he will be a member of the ward some day! :) Then that night we went over to the Petersons for dinner. So delicious and so nice of them to have us over!


PDay
Today is Sister Feils birthday!! So we went over to Pest with the Elders to see a few sites there and to go to the Big Market there and get some souvenirs. It was pretty fun! On our way back, we got caught in this freak hail storm! One minute it was super hot and the next ice chunks flying out of the sky setting off car alarms! It was pretty funny!


Prayer
So prayer has been brought up a lot this week in lots of different places. Elder Beaumont talked about it in District Meeting. He talked about the different components that should be in a prayer. It really helped me assess how my personal prayers have been lately. Then during dinner at the Petersons, the Elders gave their spiritual thought about prayer. I felt like this week I was able to really think about prayer and kind of strengthen my testimony of it. I always talk about how grateful I am for it but I think sometimes I really take it for granted. We talked a lot about praying with all our hearts. So that's what I really tried to do this week. I'm grateful that if I ever need to, I can always go to my Heavenly Father. He will always be there to listen and He will always answer. He doesn't always answer when we want it, or how we want it. But He will always answer. As we pray with all our hearts, we can really strengthen our relationship with God. Its pretty amazing that we can literally talk to God whenever we need to! He wants us to pray to Him. He wants to help us and bless us. All we need to do is pray to Him!

Well I hope you all have a great week! :)

Simons Nővér xx

Hi! June 8, 2015

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! Things here are...HOT!! Sooooooooo hot!! But I've already gotten a little color so hopefully I will come home tan ;) (haha wishful thinking). This was a crazy week!

Transfers
Transfers are always crazy! Sister Naegle of course was going home so we had to haul the luggage over to the mission home and get her all situated. Then we were able to head over to the mall where all of the missionaries gathered together for lunch. It was crazy haha so many mission friends to catch up with and talk to. But it's always so fun. I love being able to get together with all the other missionaries. I ended up saying goodbye to Sister Naegle like 3 times...haha that was kind of sad. But I got my new companion, Sister Feil, and we made our way back to Óbuda with all of her stuff. I love Sister Feil! For sure one of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever met! We get along super well. Sadly, she is going home in 5 weeks (well almost 4 weeks now!) I'm excited I get to serve with her before she goes home. I think we will have a great few weeks together.

Thursday
Thursday was super cool! First we had a program with Csaba, one of my favorites! He is someone who we have to take things really slowly with, but he's starting to get it! He is so funny. It's always fun to meet with him. I don't even know fully how to explain Csaba to you all...except that its a hoot haha We also decided to give this girl Kerrie a call. She this young girl from Ukraine that we meet with when she has time! Luckily, she had time that day to meet! So we headed back to the branch house and met with her. She was struggling a little and had been having a bad day so we just talked to her and let her vent to us. We then shared a message about prayer. We told her that we can always pray to Heavenly Father and He will help us. Even in times where we just feel so alone and have no one else, we can and should always turn to Him. It was really cool to see how much calmer and happier she was after a little bit of time. She told us she was super grateful that she could meet with us and felt so much better. :) That's the best feeling ever. When you just do something little for someone and brighten their day.
That night we had been invited to go to Gringo's (a restaurant basically like Café Rio). It is owned by a member in the Ward. He invited us to come and try some of the food and tell him what we think and if it tastes like Café Rio. It was super good! All of the missionaries here love going to Gringo's...but I haven't really been there that much in my mission. But I was pretty impressed! It was cool too because this American family saw us and came over and talked to us for a little bit. That was a surprise! Then we heard some other people in the restaurant speaking English (British English). I had to talk to them so we went over and asked where they were from. We invited them to our Sport Day. It was really cool to talk to so many people while we were there. And we got free food. Pretty good dinner hour ;)

Sport Nap
SO FUN!!!! I get to play soccer every week now and I LOVE it. It was super hot but it was still fun. When we got there, there were a few kids playing on the court. But they just decided to join us. At one point, this little kid (probably around 7 years old or something) comes back with a water gun and starts shooting us all. I think we all really appreciated it since it was so hot haha

Sunday
Church was really good this week. It was Fast and Testimony meeting. All of the testimonies were so good and the Spirit was really strong. I love this ward so much! I would stay here for the rest of my mission if I had the choice! The people are so incredible. The Bishop's wife is one of the sweetest people ever. Every time I see her she gives me a huge mom hug! I love it! So many kind, wonderful people here. Kerrie was even able to show up for Relief Society and I think she really liked it. We then were able to meet with her again after church. She told us she was so grateful that she had us and knew that someone cared for her..

"On Being Genuine"
So this week I was reading the new Conference talks and I read the talk by President Uchtdorf in the Priesthood session, "On Being Genuine." It is SO good!! I felt like he was speaking right to me. Lately, I've been really trying to think how I have changed on my mission and if I am the person that I want to be and that Heavenly Father expects me to be. I feel like the more I try to be better, the more I realize my weaknesses and get discouraged. The whole talk is about just trying to be a genuine, humble disciple of Christ. One part that really stuck out to me was, "My beloved brothers in Christ, the God of Creation, who breathed life into the universe, surely has the power to breathe life into you. Surely He can make of you the genuine, spiritual being of light and truth you desire to be." As we strive to be better, we just need to remember we aren't alone in the process. Heavenly Father knows our full potential. Christ suffered everything for us so that He could help us. I know it's still hard sometimes to be the best that we can be, at least for me. But my goal now is to just try and love everyone, serve all those I can, be genuine and humble and hope that Christ can help me become the person He needs me to be!

I hope you all have a super great week! Love you all!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx