Cracking the whip on p-day.

 This is the Restoration Lesson, taught with Cups. It's sweet.

 When it rains the slugs come out they are big and nasty yuk!!!

Pictures while streeting>

Michaela Janae Whitaker

Happy Tuesday!

This week in Pápa has been pretty good. There's a mini-transfer this week, I was fortunate enough to stay in Pápa in my cozy tri-companionship. Unfortantely, we are losing one of the Elders, but he has been placed in a city where the people are waiting for him to bring them a message of everlasting happiness. We will be receiving a new Elder, of couse, to replace the departing Elder. It will be good.

One of the highlights of the week was that we had a really good program yesterday with one of our investigators and a member. We were really concerned about this investigator because he doesn't seem to be progressing and it seems like he wants to just chat with us rather than listen to our message. As it is, he does most of the talking when we go over there, so we wrote a few questions for him to answer, (What do you hope to get out of our visits? Do you feel that our teachings are helpful? What can we do to help you understand better? etc.) at first he just looked at the piece of paper and said "Yes, Yes, Yes" and gave the paper back. We decided to go through the questions with him and have him give more detailed answers, and with the members help, he actually seemed to open up to us, listen and understand what we were telling him. The member was a HUGE help to us. He told our investigator that it is important that we are always striving to come closer to Jesus Christ and that we do that by taking little steps at a time, but sometimes we have to make bigger steps and just have faith that God knows what we need in our life and that everything will work out. Then he invited him to our District Conference that will be in Szombathely next month, and the investigator said he will come! "W.H.A.T? Megegyszer (one more time)... Komolyan (are you serious?)" That was just amazing because we have tried to invite him to church, but he hasn't came yet, but then this member goes in and not only invites him to church, but invites him to District Conference in a different city and then he says he will come.
This was just a testimony to me about how significant members are in missionary work. Now, I don't want to sound like I'm bashing on the Elders here, but I found it very interesting, because earlier, yesterday when of the senior sisters and I were streeting together, we ran into the Elders and I told them that we would be going to teach our investigator with a member and then told them which member we were going to bring, and both of the Elders said, "Good Luck with that one..." and then one of the Elders said, "there are some members I wouldn't bring and that's one of them..." I didn't think anything about it but had total confidence in this member and it turned out to be one of the best lessons I've had in Pápa as well as in my mission, thusfar.
I know that members are SO important in missionary work and Heavenly Father knows who needs to come and inspires us, as missionaries, who to call. We are truly just instruments in Heavenly Father's hands, he does all the work, through us.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Hungary, serving and teaching these wonderful people.

Szeretlek,

Whitaker Nővér

            Random pictures from Papa Hungary

Michaela Janae Whitaker

Happy Monday!

I don't have much time to write because today is not really our "official" P-Day. Yes, it's Monday and No, I'm not breaking any rules, but our P-Day this week is actually on Thursday because it's St. Stephen's Day, which is a public holiday here in Hungary celebrating the foundation of the Hungarian state 1000 years ago. It's pretty much a big deal and the WHOLE country of Hungary will be partying...besides the missionaries. No, it will be a party for us too.

We did receive permission to email today for an hour, and get groceries for an hour, but then we are to go to work.

This week was good, although half of the week I was not even in Pápa. In the beginning of the week, we had a few programs. One of which was with Sándor, an investigator of the church, he invited us over and said that he was going to feed us...well it turned out that we got there and he said "Okay, are you girls ready to cook? " It was really funny because we literally started from scratch so about two hours later we finally finished. We sat down to eat and Sándor says " I'll be right back." He goes into another room and then all of a sudden we hear a door close, then silence. We soon realized that he had left, and there were just three girls chilling in his house...alone. It was five minutes later that he came back with a bag full of bread that he had bought from a kis bolt down the street.We just cracked up laughing though because he just left us in his house, not like we would do anything, but it showed that he trusts the missionaries, which is always good! That was funny!

 We went to Győr for Zone training, which is always a blast to reconnect with all of the other missionares. I got to talk to the missionaries who are still serving in Sopron and hear how the work is going there. It's booming, if anybody was curious! It was nice to see the Browns again, they are so sweet. It was just a good opportunity to see everyone again. The training was really good too. We learned about the importance of asking good questions and I found out that more often than not, I have been asking ineffective questions to the people who I teach, which is totally contrary to our purpose as missionaries. We want to be effective and in order to be effective we need to ask effective questions at the appropriate time.

After Zone training we ran down to Budapest, because our dear greenie, VanDenBerghe Nővér had new missionary training. While she did that, Kovács Nővér and I went on splits with the Buda Sisters. It went really well. We had a few programs, which actually took a while to get to. That was a different experience for me, having to travel an hour to get to a program, because up until then I always just walked to the programs. It was good though. I had a really good time.

Saturday, we had interviews with President Smith, they went well. I got a lot of good advice as to how I can improve and become a better missionary. I really am so grateful for President Smith and his wife. They are such blessings to this mission. Really. They bring a sweet spirit wherever they go, and it's just always a pleasure to be around them.

Sunday was Kovács Nővér birthday! We had a blast. We went to church, which is always a spiritual feast! Then afterwards we went to Kovács relatives house. Since Kovács Nővér is a native to Hungary she has a lot of family all over the country and there just happens to be a lot of her family, here in Pápa and they fed us...twice yesterday! Can you say finom? Which means yummy in Hungarian! It was soooo good! By the end of the day, I could barely walk back to our apartment, but it was totally worth it! Oh, and yesterday. I saw the biggest cake of my life! This thing was huge. They measured it and it was 38 cm in diameter! It was pretty dang good too! Anyways, I think its safe to say that Kovács Nővér had a good birthday.

This week has been full of blessings and I am always humbled to be here in Hungary. Theres no where else Id rather be, honestly. I love Hungary and the people who I come in contact with every day.

I hope all is well with all of you and I wish you all the greatest week ever!

Sok szeretettel,

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker	9:09 AM (5 hours ago)

Hello!

Okay, so I email at this email kávé and the computers are really slow and old and well my camera and the computer's relationship is not good so therefore I can't send any pictures. I'm really sorry. I hope that I can maybe figure out the problem later, but for right now you're just going to get emails from me for a while.

This week has been good. It was long, but it was good. We spent a lot of the time finding and igazából we haven't seen the results that we would like to see, but I got to thinking that Heavenly Father knows where we need to be. He knows the right place, the right timing and the right people we need. So even though we spend hours on hours tracting or streeting and we don't see many new investigators from it (which are the results we want to see). Heavenly Father is seeing the results he wants to see. Whether it be in the people we associate with, or if its within ourselves. God is seeing his plan unfold amongst his children. I have a testimony of that.

On Sunday the district presidency came to Pápa and well, I am in the same district as I was, when I was in Sopron so when they saw me they said, "Well, we meet again." The District president said to me, "Which city will we meet in next." They are so nice! I absolutely love them! They spoke in Sacrament and it was really good. I really felt the spirit strongly.

Days seem long, but I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world. To feel a pici (tiny) bit of the love God feels for us is an absolute amazing experience, for you truly love the people you teach. I remember the love I felt for our investigators here in Pápa the very first day I met them. I knew nothing about them, but I didn't need to know anything about their personal life to love them. For the knowledge that they are a child of God, just like I am, was enough to feel a love and a desire for them to be happy through this gospel.

Things are great in Pápa, and I see great things in the future for his city.

Sok Szeretettel,

Whitaker Nővér

 The elders taught us how to use a whip fun fun fun.

 HI from the three companions in Papa Hungary

 A small church in Hungary

                 P-day fun

 Three soaking wet sisters caught in a rainstorm on the way home.

Downtown Papa.

Michaela Janae Whitaker

A Családom és A Baráteim! Hogy vagytok ezen a héten!? En, jól vagyok!

My family and friends, how are you this week? I'm am doing well! I just have to tell you something totally irrelevent to missionary work, but last Monday, I learned how to whip! There is an elder here that has five (yes, five) whips and he let me use the "baby" one to practice with and then when I got good with the baby one, I was give the "professional" whip. I seriously could have done it all day. It was so fun!! So ya'll better watch out when I get home, because I can gurantee that I will have a few whips and I will know how to use them.

Anywayyy...back to missionary work (:

Pápa is awesome. I knew that it would take me a few weeks to get adjusted to the new city with the new people, but I love it here now! The people are so great and the members, well they pretty much are the best. Something different about the members here are that there are a lot more younger members so it's cool because we can talk to them and I feel like it's easier to relate to them so that's awesome. The members here are incredible though and are so sweet.

Yesterday was fast Sunday so that means that during sacrament meeting the members have an opportunity to bear their testimonies, and except for at the very end of sacrament meeting there was never a time where we were waiting for someone to go up and bear their testimony. The members testimonies are so strong and great! Everyone is super happy and they love to fellowship and talk with each other. It's so nice to feel the love that radiates from everyone here. I bore a simple testimony, and afterwards several people came up to me and said that they appreciated my testimony. I've promised myself that, if I feel prompted to do so, I will always bear my testimony in fast and testimony meeting. No matter where I am and no matter how long I stay in an area. I say this because if the Hungarians I serve around remember anything about Whitaker Nővér I want it to be that she has a testimony of the gospel and a testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. If that's all they learn from me, I will be very pleased. Of course I hope to be able to teach and help bring people closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through my teachings, but like Preach My Gospel says, "bearing testimony is the most powerful way to invite the spirit..." and after that, the spirit takes it from there. For we are truly the mouthpieces for the Lord. We do the talking and the spirit confirms in the hearts of the people we teach, that what we are saying is true. Without the spirit, the teaching is just words. I have a testimony of that, for I have seen the spirit work on me and the people I have taught.

We have done a lot of tracting these past two weeks. Sister Vandenberghe and I experienced tracting for the very first time, the second day in Pápa. It's safe to say that we are definitely not tracting experts, but we are learning along the way, and can I tell you how GRATEFUL I am for Sister Kovács. She is incredibly patient with us and willing to help us develop in not only the language but also the gospel. We have had such a great time together and I'm learning so much from both of my companions.

We will continue to be dilligent in our work and we know our purpose for being here, and thats to "invite others to come unto Christ.."

Hiánzyolni Fogtok nekem (I miss you all)

Sok Szeretettel,
Whitaker Nővér