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Hello from Székesfehérvár!
Wow, this week has been a crazy week, and I haven't even been here a full week. Don't worry though, it's been a good crazy!
Transfers
were good. I love transfer day, but it is also the most stressful day!
There were two of us from my companionship in Pápa who were leaving, so
we had eight bags we had to get to the train station before six-thirty
in the morning, between the three of us. It is easier said than done,
let's just say that, but we made it on time and put our bags on the
train and headed to Budapest. We got to Budapest and found all the other
missionaries. It's always fun to see those who you have served around. I
saw the people I served with the MTC, and from my first area, it was
good to catch up with them and see how their work is going in other
parts of the country. It's safe to say that the work is going forward
everywhere in Hungary! (:
I met my new companions. I
am in a trio again, but the other two people who I am serving with are
sisters who I served with in the MTC. We are all four months old in the
country, six months old in the mission. Seeing how we're all serving
together we are "co-seniors," which basically means that we all share
the "authority" in our companionship. Usually there is a "junior" and a
"senior" companion in a companionshp--senior having"authority" over the
junior-- but since we all came into the country at the same time, we are
"co-seniors." President Smith has told us that becoming co senior in
the mission this early is unusually rare, but with the number of sisters
going home and the sisters coming into the country not balancing,
people have to step up to leadership positions quicker. Another special
thing about this companionship is that my companions and I "opened"
Székesfehérvár. Opening a city means that last transfer (nine weeks)
there were not sisters serving here, in other words, when we got here we
had no investigators, because usually when you are transfered you just
take the investigators who had been taught by the missionaries there
before, but seeing how there was only one companionship of elders here,
there wasn't any additional work to pick up here. Let's just say that we
had a lot of finding time this week. Luckily we did some Area Book work
(records of people who missionaries have taught in the past), and
picked up some new investigators from that (four, to be exact). That was
a huge blessing, really.
Okay, so funny story. We
were doing some Area Book work the full day here and I looked at a
lady's paper who usually comes to our Angol Óra (English Class). We
happen to have English Class the next day so I sat down with her and
asked her if she would be interested in meeting with us, she pulls out
her work schedule for the whole month of October, and basically the days
that she will be off, she scheduled to meet with us. That was a huge
blessing! My companions thought it was funny because after English Class
we were siting at home eating dinner and all of a sudden I said, "Oh,
hey by the way, I planned eight programs with that lady... we have
programs with her all the way through October." They just busted out
laughing. I'll say, it was pretty funny!
We went
tracking a lot this week, and it was super fun. There are a lot of
ten-story buildings here, and I had never tracked a ten-story building
before. In Pápa we tracked all family houses, so it was an experience
for me. We didn't get any let-ins but we did talk to some really sweet
people. We were on this one floor tracting and we had just knocked on
this one door on the floor so we were standing there waiting to see if
anyone was going to come to the door, well meanwhile, the guy across
from the door we were waiting in front of started blasting this
Hungarian Opera and started singing Opera. It was soo funny. I thought
it would have been cool to talk to him so we rang his doorbell and
knocked on his door, but he didn't answer. I think he was singing too
loud to hear. It made our day though.
We have set up
with a few other people this week, so I have some big hopes for them
too. The Elders gave us a couple of their RCLA's so we need to try to
contact them, hopefully they will be successful!
Well,
let's see, our apartment is interesting. During this transfer the
Elders and Sisters had to switch apartments because now that we are in a
trio, the other apartment where we would have lived is not meant for
three, instead just three, so we switched apartments and I don't want to
complain because I am super grateful to have a roof over my head, but
it's been kind of a stuggle for the last couple of days. I'll just say
that I've never lived in a ten story communist building before. It's
super old, but hey it will work. We just have a really bad smelling
bathroom, plus the door handles don't stay in the door, plus their are
random wires hanging out of our walls. Plus there are clocks hanging on
the wall made from the U.S.S.R. Zeah, it's pretty old, but it's part of
living the Hungarian culture, no? Yeah, other than that, it's a blast.
Let's see. On Sunday
we got to meet our branch, it's a pretty strong branch. Our bishop
served his mission in London, so he speaks English and is really cool.
Of course, we try to speak Hungarian, but it's just nice because he does
speak English too. Our branch is really really nice though. We have a
lot of kids in our ward, which is awesome. Oh, I forgot to mention that
we had two baptisms on Saturday.
They were two kids. It was awesome to go to that, we had to take a bus
over there, and it was in this little swimming pool, hooked to this
motel. It was super awesome to watch and the light in those kids' eyes
was just heart-warming. They knew that they were making the right
decision. I actually asked one of the little girls how she felt after
her baptism and she said, "really good and happy." It was super cute!
Anyways so we met a lot of the members during that. After the baptism we
all went outside and ate süti (dessert) that was on the trunk of a
communist car. Only in Hungary... I love Hungary! We met the cutest
little girl, her name is Andi. She's nine years old and she is the
cutest little girl ever! I can't stand it. On Sunday
she gave me and my companions each something special. We had only known
her for barely twenty-four hours but she gave us each something that
she made. It was too precious!
Sacrament meeting on Sunday
was really great. Of course, being the newbies we are, we had to
introduce ourselves to all the members in sacrament meeting and bear our
testimonies. It went well, there are so many kids in the branch so
whenever I would look out into the congregation all the little kids were
looking up and smiling at me. It was a sight. Sunday
school was good, I sat by a recent convert. I'm glad I was too, because
I brought my Hungarian scriptures with me, and when we started looking
up scriptures up in the Bibia, I had no idea which book, or in what
chapter and in what verse we were reading so finally he just told me to
hand over the book and he looked them all up for me. What a nice man...
(: Relief Society was good as well, We had a good chat with the Sisters
and talked about a conference talk from last General Conference. The one
given by Elder Anderson where he talked about strengthening our roots
like how trees do when mother nature does her thing.
Speaking
of General Conference. Next week is general conference and my
companions and I are praying that they will let us watch it in English,
because well it's easier to pay attention when you understand what is
going on. That's something that I have struggled with on my mission, if I
don't understand someone, I just seem to tune them out, but now being
in my third transfer where I actually feel like I am understand more and
more everyday, now it's easier to keep my focus on the conversation,
but hopefully they will let us watch conference in English! I love
conference time! It's the greatest. Listening to our prophet Thomas S.
Monson and his apostles is a great opportunity to get questions answered
and have our faith strenghtened. I challenge all who read this to go to
conference with a question in mind because those men pray for
inspiration, weeks before the actual conference to know what to say. If
you have a question write it down and I'm sure that something that
someone will say will be an answer to your question.
I guess the last cool thing that happened this week was on Sunday
afternoon, we went on a kirandulás (adventure). One of the girls from
our Profi (advanced) English class invited the missionaries to go on
this adventure. It ended up being this "forest" which was actually
really cool. We brought a few of our investigators and just hiked in
this forest. It was suuper fun. Tons of bugs and spider webs, but it was
fun, nonetheless. I took a few pictures. We hiked for a little while
and stopped at this watch tour thing, then hiked a little bit more to
this pavillion place, we stopped and had a little lunch. It was a blasty
blast. My companions and I were talking to some people we know, because
some of the people we had never even met before, but anywho we were
talking to acouple of the people we were familiar with and it was just
fun because they would help us with our questions about Hungarian and
then in return we would help them with their English Questions. To be
honest, they were teaching us English. They were telling us about all
the different tenses we have in English. I honestly didn't know that
there were so many! I just talk and don't think about what tense I'm
using. We had a really great time chatting., the whole area was about a
four mile hike, but we didn't do all of it as we had to head home
because of another obligation we had. It was pretty much the best Sunday I've had on my mission. We talked about the church to some of the people who wasn't familar with it, and it was really great!
Well
this is definitely not a short email, but a lot happend this week. I'm
really really excited to be here in Székesfehérvár. The first couple of
days are always the hardest, because you have no clue where you are, you
don't know anyone, and you just feel a little bit out of your comfort
zone. Luckily, I already knew my companions and had a good relationship
with them in the MTC, so that wasn't so much of a struggle. It took us a
few days to get all settled in, but now we are all good and have been
having a great time.
I'm so thankful to be serving
here in Szekéesfehérvár. Heavenly Father loves these people of Hungary, I
can see it in our work, every day. I hope you know that I love you all,
and Heavenly Father knows and loves each of you as well. I wish you
alll a good week, and until next Monday...Viszonlátásra.
Whitaker Nővér
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