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

Pécs‏

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! :) This past week a lot happened. As you all know it was transfers. On Wednesday, we traveled into Buda. It was so fun because when I got there, a lot of the members from Békéscsaba were there so I got to see and talk to them all! It was a nice little Békéscsaba reunion! I also got to see a couple of missionary friends which is always fun!

I am now serving with Sister Kovács and Sister Jeppson. Sister Kovács is from Hungary and goes home at the end of January. Sister Jeppson is from Eagle, Idaho and this is her first transfer! They are so fun. To be honest, I was a little worried because I was coming into a companionship where they had already been together for a few weeks and were good friends. But we all hit it right off and have been having so much fun the past few days!! I am really excited for the next few weeks.

I am now in the city Pécs (pronounced pay-ch), which is beautiful!!! (I forgot to take pictures this week of the city but I will send some next week ;)). Its a big city! Definitely a lot bigger than Békéscsaba or Érd! But its so pretty. I think I will really like serving here. It was sad to leave Érd and the people there. But I also felt like it was my time to leave. I felt ready to go to a new area and have the chance to meet with and work with new people. I will always love and miss Érd but I am excited now to be in Pécs. I don't really know many of our investigators yet since I just got here. But we have one who is getting baptized at the end of January which is really exciting!

So transfer day was on New Years Eve so most of the day was spent traveling. When we got to Pécs we went out to meet the Elders at the main square. But there was a concert going on which was terrible so we didn't stay. We actually were so tired and cold we just went home and went to bed. We had New Years day off so we just relaxed a little. We went to lunch with the Elders. Which was really fun because we sat down and there was a TV right in front of me. And a Manchester United game was just starting!!!!! I was so excited. I just sat there and ate pizza and watched the first half of the game! :) I did try and talk to the other missionaries and get to know them a little bit too ;) but I was really enjoying being able to watch the game even though I didn't get to finish it!

We have had a few programs since I have been here. One is with this lady who was baptized a few years ago but I don't think she really understood anything when she was baptized. We tried to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ but we ended up just talking to her about prayer and faith. Which was good but it was a little hard because her husband, who is a little deaf, had the TV on really loudly watching movies. We walked in and the movie Ever After was on in Hungarian. And then Dr. Doolittle started. It was kind of hard to focus but it was funny. Wow...I sound like I am just watching movies/TV all the time. I promise we are doing missionary work ;)

It has been really fun thinking of new years resolutions this year. It is cool that I reached my half way point at this time. I was able to look at the first half of my mission and evaluate how I want the second half of my mission to be. I have loved the first half. There were some of the hardest times, but there were also some of the funnest times. I am really excited to have a great second half of my mission. I have learned so much already about the gospel, about myself and about the kind of person I want to be. I have met some wonderful people: investigators, companions and members. My testimony has grown so much. I am really grateful for this Church. I know that it is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that anyone who reads it, and asks Heavenly Father for themselves if it is true, will receive an answer. The answer may be just a small thought or feeling, but we will always receive an answer. I love Hungary! I love that I get to be here and serve the people here.

I hope you are all doing well. Have a great week! :)



Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx