Program with a Seventy

Hi Everyone,

This past week was pretty long to be honest! Well, as the week was going it didn't feel super long but looking back it seems like it took forever. We just had a lot going on.

Zone Training

We had another zone training this week. It was good. Sister Naegle and I did a training on the importance of the Spirit in Conversion. I was pretty nervous. Most of you who know me probably know I hate public speaking :P but it turned out okay. We talked about what missionaries, investigators and members need to feel in programs in terms of the spirit. We used the example of Ammon and King Lamoni :) I think it went pretty well. We had fun giving the training and the other missionaries were really participative.

Saturday

Saturday was amazing! We started our day with a program with one of our favorite investigators András. I don't know how much I Have told you all about András...he's in his 30's, a professor, speaks English really well and is just this super classy nice guy! We have been meeting with him for about 2 months now and we just haven't been able to figure out his concern. So on Saturday morning we had a program with him. But it wasn't just a regular program. We had Axel Leimer from the 70 and President Smith in our program with us! I was a little nervous at first haha but we hoped that it would help András. It went incredible! Sister Naegle and I pretty much just sat there most of the time and watched in awe. We asked if he had read and he said he read the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity pamphlets we gave him. Elder Leimer pretty much taught him the Word of Wisdom, then we moved on to the Book of Mormon. They basically told András that he can gain a testimony of all of these things if he will just read and sincerely pray about it. Elder Leimer asked us to explain a little bit about how we can recognize and feel the spirit. I shared my story of deciding to come on a mission and my testimony. One of the best parts of the program was when President Smith said, "András. I know what your concern is. You don't want to be misled and make the wrong decision." András was like "yeah exactly!" Sister Naegle and I just stared in amazement!! We saw first hand how inspired our mission president is haha it was amazing. András realized he hadn't really been doing his part to find out if it was true and agreed to read the Book of Mormon this week and really pray to know if it was true. It was such an honor to be able to teach someone about the gospel with a member of the 70! I know the András will get baptized some day. I don't know how soon it will be, but I know he will. So after that, we had English class which was fun. Then we went out to lunch with some members from Békéscsaba that came to visit! SO I got to see Enikő and Mariann from Békéscsaba and that was sooo nice! :) Then we had a little bit of time so Sister Naegle and I went out and streeted in the park. We met this super cool couple! We got their phone number and they said they would love to meet with us sometime. We also met this old guy just sitting on a bench. We gave him a flyer and he asked, "what about some sisters from last year...?" Apparently he had met some sister missionaries last summer. We asked if he knew their names. He was like "I don't know...but one of them was going to Békéscsaba..." He was talking about Sister Broadhead! She apparently met him the day before we got put together and went to Békéscsaba. What a small world!! We couldn't believe it. Then we realized the time and that a baptism was starting in like 10 minutes so we had to run back to the branch house haha then this guy named Bertold got baptized. It was so exciting! Basically it was a really great day! :)

Pday

Today for Pday, we went up to the highest point in Budapest with the Petersons and Elder Depallens and Elder Beaumont. It was so beautiful! Really fun day!

Well, I hope you are all doing well! Shout out to my best friend Kristin and my cousin Chloe who are both getting married this week! SO bummed I am missing all of these weddings going on at home but I love being a missionary and am so happy to be here. I only have 4 and a half months left so I am trying to enjoy it and make the most of it before I have to go home. I love you all. I miss you all. Thank you for all of your support, love and prayers. This church is true!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx 

May 11, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful week. Let me first start of with, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! I want to thank all of the wonderful women in my left. First, of course, my own mom. Thank you for everything. You are my biggest role model. Thank you also to my Grandmas, my aunts, my cousins and my friends. You are all amazing examples to me and I hope that I can be like you all some day!

We had a good week here in Buda. We had Stake Conference so we had the chance to go to Pest on Saturday and Sunday. We had two investigators come with us to the Saturday night session! On Sunday, we got to see Sister Kovács (my companion from Pécs). It was so fun to be able to see her again!

I don't really have a ton to report this week. We have some really great people we are working with. One of our investigators, András, said a prayer for the first time in our program this week. He was so nervous but he did great! I love hearing people pray for the first time. I have become much more grateful for prayer on my mission because I have met so many people where it is a completely foreign concept to them! When I don't know what to do or who to talk to in life, prayer is usually the first thing I turn to. I love being able to share the knowledge of prayer with people.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Thanks to everyone for your love and prayers! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Hi Everyone!

Sziasztok!

Well this week was a lot more eventful than last week. We didn't have so many people cancel programs which was nice!

On Saturday morning Sister Naegle and I woke up at 3:30 and rode into Buda to go up to Buda castle and watch the sunrise with the Petersons and the APs. I was so tired haha but it was so worth it! It was absolutely beautiful watching the sun rise behind the Parliament building!!

We had a really good week with one of our investigators, Csaba. He started meeting with the sisters for English and kind of would get really impatient with the gospel stuff and wanted to get through it quickly. But somehow lately, we have been able to get through to him a little bit more. We basically teach only the gospel the whole time we meet with him but we just do part of it in English and translate as we go. He even accepted a baptismal date that we are going to be working towards now! He came to church yesterday because he promised he would come to at least one hour and he always keeps his promises. I was sitting next to him and he leaned over to me and asked if he could go up to the pulpit. I told him I could and explained what people usually say when they bear their testimonies. Honestly, I was a little nervous :) but he jumped right up and ran up to the front and said he really liked being here and felt like he was around a lot of great people. He really loved church yesterday!! It was so fun to see him so happy and loving it! :) He even upped the amount of chapters he was going to read in between programs.
I loving watching people go through the process of conversion. It just reminds me the whole point of missionary work...bringing others until Christ. I feel so grateful I get to be here doing this work! Its going so fast so I am trying to just enjoy the rest of the time I have left to the fullest.

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

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

April 27, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a good week. We had a crazy week that was eventful but at the same time not a lot happened haha We had a lot of programs cancel on us but we still had some really cool experiences.

Kirándulás
So on Saturday we went on a hike with the ward. It was actually pretty fun. The only downside is it took up most of our day and we were home later than we planned because of some construction on the road we ended up stuck on a bus for a while. It was fun though! We spent most of our time talking with Barnabás, a recent convert. He has been going through a hard time in his life so it was really good for him to just be able to talk to us and hopefully we were able to help him a little. Before the hike, we knew it was going to take a lot of our day but we felt like it would be good to go. Honestly, we both kind of felt like we needed to go for Barnabás, to help him a bit. Plus we got to get to know some of the ward members which was really good!

Józsi
So Józsi is a member who has been inactive for like 10 years or so. The Sisters found him streeting right before I got here and he happened to be a member. We met with him for the first time when I got here. He told us how he was baptized like 10 years ago or something but he had a hard time to quit smoking. He was embarrassed because of it and went inactive. But about year ago, he quit smoking and he thought that God would tell him when would be the right time to go back to church. Then the sisters streeted into him! :) We have been trying to get him to come to church for a few weeks now but things have come up and he hasn't been able to. Yesterday morning we called him to invite him and he was so scared. He didn't want to come and said maybe in 2 weeks. But we finally encouraged him to come and he loved it!!! After 10 years he finally came back to church! He seemed so happy! He even found the guy that baptized him all those years ago and talked to him. I was SO happy that he was able to come to church and just to see how happy he was! :)It just shows how sometimes, we need to take a leap of faith. There may be things the Lord wants us to do and we will be scared or nervous to do it. But we will always be blessed when we follow the Lord. And He will never leave us alone! :)


Ági from Pécs
So I don't know if you all remember Ági in Pécs who has the kids. Well Sister Hafen called me yesterday and she finally went to church! and she LOVED it!! Apparently everyone was so nice to her and in Relief Society all the women were befriending her and telling her they would be happy to help her with her kids. And then they stayed about an hour after church with her just talking to people. A part of me so wishes I could have been there to see it but I am just so glad that she had such a good experience :)


Splits
We had our first splits this week. The sisters from Érd came. Sister Naegle and I both served in Érd so we know what its like. Honestly its a pretty hard area to serve in so the sisters were really excited to get out and come to Buda for the day. It was fun though!


Edit
The other night when we got back from the hike, we were absolutely exhausted but we knew that we needed to go out and work a little more. So we went streeting for an hour before we had to go home. There weren't many people out on the streets. But we walked past this lady who was squatting down by the building smoking. We handed her an English Class flyer and started talking to her. She is a single mom of six kids! I don't even remember how it happened but we all of a sudden were kneeling down on the side walk with her teaching her about the Book of Mormon. It was so cool. She wanted to meet with us so we got her phone number and set up a time to meet with her next week. It just shows how the Lord blesses us. We were exhausted and all I wanted to do was go to bed, but we went out and worked like we were supposed to and we were lead to Edit! I will keep you all updated on what happens with her! :)

The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is true. Anyone can read it, and pray for themselves to know it is true.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

April 20, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful week.

Things are so good here. I seriously love life right now. I love being in Buda. I wanted to be here my whole mission and I love that I am here now. I love my companion. We get along so well and have so much fun. It will be sad to see her go home in June.

I don't have a ton to report on this week to be honest. We did have a Zone Training on Friday and Sister Naegle and I had to do a part of the training. I was pretty nervous but I think it turned out okay. We did our training on working with members. That was my first training so I'm glad it is over with! We are going on our first splits this week and I am a little nervous for that too but I'm sure it will turn out okay.

Some of the investigators we are working with right now:

András - he is so great!! He like mid 30s or so and super nice. He is progressing really well. The thing is, he knows its all true but I think he is just scared. So we are trying to help him gain his own testimony and feel comfortable with it all without pushing him.

Csaba - super funny guy. We help him with English as well. He calls his "amerikai barátaim" which is "my american friends!" Not sure he quite gets it all but he comes to church and loves it! Things will be slowly with this one haha

We have some more investigators too that I will tell you more about next time as we meet with them. We are really blessed right now with how our work is going.

Sorry we are kind of in a rush today to go see some sites in Buda. Thank you to everyone who emailed me this week and I'm so sorry if I didn't have a chance to respond. But it really does mean a lot to hear from you all. I love hearing about what is going on at home.

Hope you all have a great week! :)

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx

Seven Goals‏

Hi Everyone!!

Wow so a lot has changed since last week. I am now serving in Buda with Sister Naegle and I love it! Leaving Pécs was super hard though. Definitely the hardest area for me to leave. I loved that city, the people and Sister Hafen so much. On Tuesday night we had a little going away party for the missionaries who were leaving so that was nice. Even President and Sister Szabadkai ran over to say bye to us and give us hugs. :) Even though it was so hard to say goodbye to the people and the city of Pécs, I am really excited to be serving in Buda now. Its so cool.

My new companion is Sister Neagle. I think I talked about her a little bit in my last email. I love her! We get along super well. Maybe its because we have had so many of the same companions and have heard so much about each other that we kind of felt like we knew each other already and just jumped right into it! We became instant friends and it has been so much fun. We had to switch apartments with the AP's though. Our apartment was on the same street as the mission home and since the AP's have more meetings than we do...they got it. So now we have to travel 40 minutes to get to our apartment. Which isn't that big of a deal but it's kind of a pain. It also smells like boy....hahaha we are int he process of cleaning it up and making it a little nicer :) There are 6 Elders here. Two regular Elders, the APs and the Secretaries so its pretty fun! I have wanted to serve in Buda my whole mission so I am really excited to be here! I will send more pictures of the city next week :)

On Saturday, we had Sport Day. This is like the first place there has officially been a good Sport Day. Békéscsaba had a small one but it kind of died after a few weeks, Érd there wasn't one and in Pécs we just played Ping Pong and hardly anyone came. But here...we played SOCCER!!! It was SO much fun. And I scored SEVEN goals! Gosh it was so much fun. They do that every Saturday so I will finally get to play soccer again. :)

General Conference was so great. I got to hear about one and a half sessions in English. The other sessions that I got to hear were in Hungarian so I got the general gist of them. I am excited to be able to hear them in English later :) It was pretty exciting that I could get the gist of what they were saying. I was pretty tired though so it was hard to concentrate a little haha but I still learned a lot and felt the spirit. I hope you all had wonderful Easter and a great conference weekend.

Sok szeretettel,

Simons Nővér xx