I know I come home in a week, but I'm sending some of these home. We were up in Budapest this past week for zone conference and since it was my birthday, my lovely district leader, Elder Haroldsen, took us on a sight-seeing trip around Budapest. I took some shots. I hope you like them.

This past week has been awesome. So many great opportunities.

First of all, Tuesday was my birthday. I turned twenty-one. Watch out, I'm legal. That could be dangerous for any parties involved in the future. Tuesday happen to be the day that we went to Budapest for my last Zone Conference. Turned legal in Budapest. Party of my life.

No we didn't party too hard, we were sitting in our conference for six hours so we couldn't do much. However, after zone conference my district took me out on the city and we walked around Budapest for awhile. It was loads of fun!

Zone Conference was good. We talked about how to invite the spirit into our lessons. It was really good training from our mission president and his wife, our zone leaders and sister training leaders.

Thursday, we got the opportunity to go to Kecskemét for splits with the sister training leaders. That was fun. Both of our sister training leaders happen to be former companions of mine. Plus, I got to see my girl Kíra. Sister Kovács, Hungarian girl who I served with in Pápa. Her family lives in Kecskemét so I go to visit and talk with her and her family.

Got to teach some really sweet people while there. Super nice people.

Being a dying missionary is real. I probably won't send anymore emails. I'm sorry, but it's been real and I'll see you guys on the other side!

Michaela Janae Whitaker	8:43 AM (23 hours ago)
Michaela

Wow, this week has been awesome. I'm dying soon as everybody knows and I've kind of been waiting for an amazing week to finish out this transfer. This one, so far, has been that week that I've been looking for, but I still have three more weeks so we will see if any of the future weeks beat this one.

We extended a baptismal date to one of our investigators. A really cute 23 year old girl (AH). AH is really special to me, she is studying to be a personal trainer. Her and I get along really well and often talk about exercising and stuff like that. She speaks and understands English fluently so that makes talking easier. Super solid. AH first started meeting the missionaries a few years ago, just for the sake of learning English, but over time she's developed an interest for the gospel. She's been taught all the lessons and she has accepted everything, it's been pretty awesome to be part of teaching her. Honestly, I don't feel like I've done that much, because I came to Szolnok after she had been taught everything but the big three commandments (Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Law of the tithe), but we got those knocked out. Easily accepted them and now she's on bap. date. Her baptismal date is scheduled for the seventeeth of October. Unfortunantly, I won't get to attend but I will be there in sprit for sure! AH is also going to talk to her family about meeting with us because everyone in her family are really open to the gospel. Her dad loves her reading the Book of Mormon to him outloud and her brother has recently said that he wants to be baptized into a church but wants to know which one. Lots of good potentials, right? It will be good.

For the rest of our investigators, they are doing well. We had one investigator at church this Sunday, which is really good.

Thursday there was a special broadcast from the Budapest Stake Center that we watched. For all of you Rapid City people who know Heather Shirley and her family...yeah, they live here in Hungary. Anyways her husband, Cameron has a stake calling and they arranged for a concert pianist from America (Dan...oh crap I forgot his name.) Wow, I stink. I forgot his name. Dan Culverall, Something like that. Anyways it was really good. He spoke and played beautiful music and even though we watched it through broadcast it was still really beautiful. His messages were inspiring and I learned a lot about having faith and trusting in the Lord, from him. The spirit was felt that night.

Time is running out.

Love you all,

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker	Sep 14 (1 day ago)
to Connie, me

Well it's been another hot week here in Szolnok. What can I say. Summers last forever here, but I've heard from a few little birdies that the weather is supposed to be cooler this next week so I am highly anticipating the "cold-front." 

This week we tripled the amount of programs we had last week. That was an accomplishment in itself. 

Progressing slowly, but still progressing. 

Lesson learned this week:

Yesterday, during church, we received a call from a family who said that they were interested in meeting with us because their five year old son had questions about God and the devil. I was kind of surprised that a five year old boy would have questions such as those running through his mind. The father requested that we meet that day, in a few hours. We set up a time to meet with them at the branch house. The missionaries had a few other meetings that required their attendance but we after we finished those we met them. 

The family was really nice in the beginning. Turns out the mother's mom (the child's grandma) is really sick and her time here on the earth is coming soon. The boy was curious what would happen to his grandma and where she would go. I was very impressed that a little boy would be curious onto this subject. 

We started teaching about the plan of salvation, but we were teaching a five year old boy. YOU HAVE TO TEACH TO YOUR INVESTIGATORS NEEDS AND AT A LEVEL THAT THEY WILL UNDERSTAND. No matter how old or young, uneducated or educated, unattentive or attentive they are. I made the horrible mistake of teaching everything I knew about the plan of salvation and to a little boy who is five years old, he's not going to understand nor pay attention. 

I still feel really bad and the lesson ended up with the parents saying that what we have said was good, but it's been a lot of information for the boy and he's starting to lose interest. They left and I felt like the worst! Why would I not sit back and think about him and his needs. 

I don't know what will happen out of it. They didn't schedule with us again. We didn't even get through the whole lesson. 

I definitely learned my lesson. We shouldn't teach everything we know, and teaching according to the investigators needs is the most important. 

Oh well, no regrets, just lessons learned. We move on. 

Other than that. It was a good week. My companion and I lost our keys on Monday so we were hajléktalan for the begining of the week. Not really, we stayed at a friends house. it was all good. We ended up calling our landlord and getting another set of keys from her. She was super nice and understanding. We really have no clue where they could have gone. Everything is good now though. Then we lost our phone, that was kind of a freaky story. We were at our friends looking for our keys, Sister Rankin took the phone out because we had gotten a call. She claims that she put it back in her bag, but then we looked in her bag and it was gone. We looked around, called it. Nothing. A few hours later we get a call that somebody found our phone in a window flower pot at the hivatal (city-center). The flower box was on a window, high above our heads. The guy who found it said he was watering the plants and he saw a phone standing up in this flower pot and decided to call the first number he saw. It happened to be our friends number because we were calling it all morning. Anyways, phone was returned to us. We were just kind of freaked out for the rest of the day how in the world did it get there. Weird, right?

Be responsible, kids. 

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker	8:48 AM (1 hour ago)
to Connie, me

Szolnok! Well, here I am. This place is completely different than Debrecen. Little. Quiet. Not the prettiest. Filled with cool people though. That's the point.

 Transfer day was rough! All three of us got transferred out of Debrecen (white-washed). Among the three of us we had eight bags. Only one of our elders got transferred out. The day before we went up to Budapest we all got train tickets together because if we don't get them together we can't sit next to each other.
Our two and half travel to Budapest ended up turning into a seven and a half travel. #publictransportationproblems. To make a long story short... well there's really no way to make this story short. Basically, Wednesday morning comes earlier than I would have liked. We get up at seven to catch the eight o'clock train, but then we missed our villamos to take us to the train station so we had to call a cab. A cab rolls up and puts our bags in the back, well there's still three girls that have to make it to the train station so we ended up having to call another cab for us. We all arrive at the train station, looking for our elders. No where to be found. Time got close for the train to leave, we jump on the train, elders still no where to be found. Train leaves. We try and call the elders a million times, no answer. Ends up our train goes to a city, we have to get off, catch a bus that goes to another train, which eventually goes to budapest. well.... uhhh. Because we are three girls and had eight large bags with us, when it was time to get off the train and get on the bus in Nyíregyháza we spent most of the time trying to drag all of our bags that we ended up missing the bus. Ended up staying in the Nyíregyháza train station for two and half hours while waiting for the next bus. I literally ended up sleeping on a bench like a hobo. Don't worry though! We actually ended up doing some finding in the train station. Sister Sellers and I went to the little ladies room, but here's the cool thing in Hungary in order to use the bathroom you have to pay and you pay for exactly two square of toilet paper. Well the lady who took our money saw our name tags and asked about the church, so we had a little finding moment. Got some phone numbers átadtunk them to the missionaries in Nyíregyháza. That was cool. Finally the next bus came so we jumped on that one super fast. I passed out. I was just super tired the whole time. Sellers fell asleep too. What's the advantages of being in a trio? I don't know! Our third companion, Dohm, came to the rescue and ended up talking to this lady on the bus and gave her, as a referrel, over to the Miskolc elders. Wow, bam! Even through all this bad luck we are still finding people. No big deal. So we ride the hot bus for like an hour, get off, make it the second train on time (thank goodness) and "We're off to Budapest!"  That train ride was the longest train ride of my life. I don't know why everything was so slow. The train ended up stopping twice in some random field for like thirty minutes. We didn't think we'd ever get to Budapest. When we rolled in it was three thirty in the afternoon. Everyone had already met at Keleti, grabbed something to eat and headed to their new cities before we even got there! Story of my life. It's okay. I got to say hi to a few friends that had been waiting on us.

Poor Sister Rankin had been waiting on me for a long time. I had just gotten off a train that I had been on for a good three hours, plus all the other switching over prior to that. Well I ended up turning right back around and getting a ticket for the next train to Szolnok. We jump on the train to Szolnok. All of a sudden this huge rain storm comes out of no where as were about to board the train. Rankin and I get soaked. My bags get soaked. Life can't get any better. Oh wait, but there's more. We're sitting on the train waiting for it to depart and all of a sudden train workers get on the train and say that we have to get off and go to another train, but the vágány for this train is on the other side of the train station. We get off the train, run (literally) over get on the other train. We have to stand because the train is packed and we take off for Szolnok. Luckily the train ride to Szolnok is only an hour and a half so not too long. After traveling for seven and a half hours, what's another hour and a half.

I got here to Szolnok, lookin pretty rough, but I got here.

First couple days here were good. It's only a million degrees but other than that. It's a pretty chill city. The people I've met so far are super chill and nice! They are like solid too. No games with them. They meet with us because they want to and are just super solid. Super nice though!

Church on Sunday was amazing! I don't think I've felt more welcomed in any branch before than Szolnok's. Everyone here was super nice and greeted me like they knew me! Everyone came up to me and stroked my face (my favorite.... hahahahaha). But really, there are a lot of coool members here. Guess who followed me to Szolnok. Kovács Kira, my hungarian companion I had in Pápa. She even gave me a S/O (shout out) in chruch. First S/O in Hungary. I can scratch that off my bucket list.

Oh I forgot Saturday night we went over to our MCL's (Mission correlation leader) house and had a little game night with his family and some other members. It was so fun. Played lots of games, laughed at our language barrier at times. It was a good time.

I can't really talk about our friends, down here in Szolnok, yet. I just introduced myself to the majority of them this week, but next week will be good and full of teaching and success. I can't wait.

Eight weeks and I'll be on a plane back to America. I'm excited but it will definitely be hard. Gotta finish this strong. Thanks for all your support while I've been out here. Love you all

Whitaker Nővér

Facts, Miracles, Blessings.

Fun fact: I had a great week this week, and found out that my companions and I were an answer to multiple different prayers this week. Details coming soon...

Fun fact, that's not so fun: I only have one hour to email every detail of my life/feelings so I'm sorry if my emails start to become super lame or short, but I'll try to do my best to encompass all my thoughts and feelings in this little email.

Another fun fact: I come home in two months sooooo.... all the details I miss in these emails, I'll be able to talk about them to you, in person, super soon!

This week was splendid!

What can I say? I love being a missionary. There's hard times, but I can now tell anybody that the hard times outweigh the happy/joyous times. You might have a hard day, a hard couple days, a hard week, or a hard couple of weeks, but let me just tell you, something sweet is waiting for you at the end.

Let me tell you how this was manifested to me....

Missionary work is hard. You get letters from missionaries and as you read them you think that their life is perfect. They have no hard times, they only talk to nice people, everyone accepts everything they say, the investigators they are teaching are golden, the members work with them perfectly. You rarely hear of any complaints in missionaries' letters home, let's be honest.

Well, I'm here to tell you that a missionaries life is not sunshine and butterflys all the time. In fact, you experience a lot more gloomy days, rain storms, and roses with sharp thorns (both literally and figuratively) than people would think. Missionaries are told to write all the happy stuff home, and not be negative in their emails to family and friends back at home. Which is understandable, but I also believe that you need to be real with people. Take me for an example, I try to write positive things in my emails and about how my investigators' progression is going, but I won't lie and I'll say that this life is hard.

This was especially true a few weeks ago, I was having a hard time. I didn't know what I was doing out here and at times I questioned whether or not I should be out here. You get these feelings quite often as missionaries. You might be doing all you can to preach the gospel, but people aren't accepting anything you say, or they seem interested until you go back, ring their doorbell and they end up hiding behind their window curtain so that they're "not home." Things like this happen and sometimes it's hard to stay happy and cheerful about being a missionary.Well, this indeed happened a few weeks ago, and I didn't know why.

I can say that I am grateful for my mission because one of the many things that I've learned from it is "behind every storm comes a rainbow." Weeks can be hard, but I know that if you endure and do what's right, God will give you that beautiful rainbow that you deserve.

After my "storm" a few weeks ago, I saw my rainbow this week. I was waiting for it and wasn't sure if it would come but it came.

Basically what happened is that we met with two of our investigators. I talked about them, well at least one of them in my last email. Husam. The guy from Iraq. Do you remember him. Okay, well listen to this. Wednesday was his birthday and he was supposed to go to Australia to go vacation with his family. Well something came up and his family wasn't able to travel to Australia when they had planned to, so they had to post-pone his celebration, which meant that Husam had stay in Hungary for the time being, meaning that he would be away from his family during his birthday.  We couldn't let this happen so we decided to throw a little Bowling Birthday Bash for him. Before we gathered all of our friends to go bowling we met with him and watched 'The Restoration' film with him. We watched it in his native language (Arabic). Didn't understand any of it, but it sounded pretty....weird. Anyways, after the movie--before we could even say anything, Husam pipes up and says, "I love that story. Everything that was in that movie was true. If you want to know the truth, you need to ask God and he will give it to you. I love Jospeh Smith." Who says that? We didn't even ask him anything but he just said that by himself. Oh, how we love Husam. Then! This is the best part. Here is one half of my rainbow. There was a silence after we were talking about Joseph Smith and Husam all of a sudden says, "Can I tell you guys something really quickly." "Of course Husam, anything." Then he said this: "I have a lot of friends at the university and I really like them, but they're always asking me to go to the bars, clubs, or discos with them and I'm not into that stuff. I don't drink. I really like my friends but I was praying to God to send me friends who wouldn't ask me to do those things but to bring me closer to him (God), because I believe that there are two types of friends. Those who bring me closer to God and those who take me away from God. After I prayed I met you guys on the street and I knew that God sent me you guys to be my friends who would bring me closer to God. That's all I want to say." AHHHHHH'!! I just get goosebumps writing about that. I can't even tell you how happy we were when we heard that. We were practically on cloud nine (Is cloud ten a thing?) I can't even tell you how great the feeling is when you find out you have been an ANSWER to someone's REAL SINCERE prayer to God. God exists and he looks after all of his children.

The other investigator who I don't think I've talked about yet. His name is Ugo, also from Nigeria. Long story short, for Young Single Adults a few weeks ago we went to the big stadium park to play capture the flag with our investigators and the YSA people. It was sooo fun!! We were divided into our teams and sent to opposite sides of the park just to come back and run a lot trying to protect our flag. Anyways, Sister Dohm and I were running towards our opponents side of the field and you have to keep in mind we were playing with like six of our friends from Nigeria. Okay so we saw a black guy walking on the fountain blocks (maybe you remember a picture of me on those?) Basically we thought that it was one of our friends guarding the flag, so we were trying to walk on both sides of him to ambush him, but as I got closer I realized that we did not know this guy, but we just assumed that he was one of our friends because of well... yeah. Anyways so we ended up running past him, yelling to each other in English. We ended up getting our flag in the end and as we were walking back to our side, we saw Sister Sellers talking to this guy that we originally thought was one of our Nigerian friends. Okay, this long story isn't very short, but that guy turns out to be Ugo! AND! That night Ugo had some responsibilities at his church that he attends, faithfully every sunday, but he felt prompted to go to the park that night. In his words, "I had no clue why I was there or what I was doing because I was literally alone with no one, but I just decided to park my bike and walk on the fountain blocks until I knew why I was there. Then the Asian (Hey, that's me!!) and her friend ran past me speaking English, and I just had to know what you guys were doing and what kind of organization you were with." God exists. He had no reason to be in the park at that time, but he was! He met Sister Sellers and set up with us the next day. Our first program with him was right before the bowling party for Husam (which he ended up coming to and meeting Samuel, which is one of our other Nigerian friends--they actually go to the same church, but have never talked until they both met each other at one of our events. Mormons--bringing friends together, but really though!), so we actually had to rush, but we set up with him for the next day. That program was amazing. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him through the pictures in the beginning and he loved it. We invited him to the baptism on Saturday and he was like "Yeah, I'll come. I've always wanted to be baptized, how do I become baptized?" Oh, boy we have a lot to tell you bout baptism. But oh my goodness. We <3 Ugo and all of our other friends!

God sends you miracles.

Speakin of miracles. Hamid got baptized on Saturday. Ahhh! Pictures are up on Facebook if any of you want to see them! That was awesome. Hamid is pretty much the sweetest guy alive. It was such a special day for him and for us. He was already glowing before he entered the water, but after he got out of the water he was shining. It was so great! Baptisms are special events.

This week we also had the opportunity to go up to Miskolc for zone training. Such a hot, long train ride up there, but it was worth it. President Szabadkai was up there with his wife and it was nice to talk with them.

That was the highlights of my week that I can write in an hour. I'm sure there were more, but hey, that's what a journal is for so I can just read them to you in a few months. What the flip? I have to be a regular human being in two months. Not about that!

It will be nice to be with family and friends again, but either way, family will be across the ocean no matter where I am. I love these Hungarian people and will always keep them close to my heart.

God loves you.

Whitaker Nővér

Days and Days.

Hey everyone!
I'm sorry that I haven't been the best on writing. Things got a little turnt and I haven't had a lot of time the last couple emailing sessions, but I'm here now and ready to tell you all about how exciting my last couple weeks have been.
First of all, since last email, Sister Sellers and I picked up another companion, Sister Dohm. Which makes Sister Sellers and Sister Dohm sister training leaders and I'm just kind of this awkward third person in their companion of leadership, but we've found a way to make everything work out and have been goin good ever since. Unfortnantly I have not taken near as many pictures as I should. You can say that I'm failing as a photographer of the great lands of Hungary, and I will not have any pictures next week, because I gave my camera to one of the members here in Debrecen who is going to a European Area Youth Conference in Romania and I thought he'd want to take a few pictures, as he doesn't have a camera. Sooo, next week I might be able to swipe a few of my companions pictures, if they take some. In general, we don't take a lot of pictures, but we'll try harder this week.
Okay, so I am in Debrecen, which is another college city (just like Szeged- I miss that place so much!) which means there are TONS of young people here and not just young but there is such a diversity of people in this city. People literally from all over the world come here to go to college.
So that being said, most of our investigators (99.4% of them) are foreign young kids who have come over for school, but let me tell you, they are the most legit people ever. Let me tell you about our little diverse group of friends.
Yael.. Yael is pretty much the sweetest girl ever. Yael is from Israel and has been studying in Debrecen for a few years now. By the way, she has been the BYU's deal in Jerusalem, how cool. She is studying to be a doctor (i forgot what branch) and loves it. Her first language is Hebrew so unfortantly we can't get any materials in her mother language, but of course, she speaks English so we can still teach her and give her english materials and she understands them pretty well. All of the foreign people that come to the University of Debrecen have three language choices that they can learn by, Hungarian, English, or German. The majority of the foreign students learn through english, obviously. Anyways, she is the sweetest. We didn't even street into her or tract into her. She actually went on to mormon.org and requested a Book of Mormon and asked to meet with the missionaries in Debrecen. This was all on her own. That was the first sign that she was legit. The second was when we actually met her. We taught her the first half of The Plan of Salvation, after we had talked about everything we asked her if she had any questions and she had a few questions, which we answered accordingly, then we asked if she had liked everything that we had taught up until now and she said "Yeah, I really like this and I can't wait to learn more about what happens after our life here in on earth." I was pretty much fel van dobva (on cloud nine). I had never had someone tell me that they couldn't wait to learn more about what I'm called to teach. Usually it's more of a "Yeah, I like this, it sounds nice," or something along those lines, but she was more than excited for our next program with her.
Before we met with her for the second time she had gone home to have her brother help her study for one of her big exams. I guess Israel is just a three hour flight so she just hopped on the plane and went back to Israel. Some days go by and we get a call from Yael and she says that she had just thought about us and wanted to call us to see how we were doing. Can I say adorable. That moment when your investigators daily contact you (RR, and now Yael). Then she asked us if we wanted her to bring us back anything from Israel. How sweet is this girl? Too sweet! We told her that we weren't picky and that we'd accept anything she brought back for us, only if we could pay her and she said "I only accept hugs as a method of payment." Oh my gosh, what a sweetie.
Yael eventually came back and got to meet with her again, she ended up bringing us back some crazy Israelian food and some good chocolate too.
Her next meeting we planned to teach her the second half of the Plan of Salvation and thought that would be good, based on her excitement about the first half, but then we got in there and started to review the first half again and she had some really good questions that we answered and before we knew it, time was up so we only got to earth life again, but we can move on next time, with a sure knowledge that she really understands the first part. Oh Yael is so great.
Husam- Oh my goodness there is not a more precious man on this earth than Husam. Husam is from Iraq and is studying at the Debrecen University to be a doctor. We met Husam on the street while talking about Hungarian class. Oh, I guess I haven't talked about that. In addition to English class, we also teach Hungarian class because so many foreign people are here to study, but they don't know how to speak Hungarian so we try to help them to at least get the conversation starters/basic questions down so they can get around Hungary. Husam accepted our Hungarian class flyer and we started talking to him, on the street, about why we are here and our purpose as missionaries. From the very beginning he was interested and asked us to explain more about our work, but we were on our way to a program so we got his number and told him that we would love to explain our calling as missionaries if he would like to meet sometime. A few day later we called him and set up a program with him at the branch house. It was neat to see his reaction when we told him what we are doing here in Hungary. He was very impressed by our desire to be here and our discipline of not wimping out and going home because our families and homes are missed to us. We gave Husam an arabic Book of Mormon and had him read Moroni 10 3-5 to us. That was so cool, even though it was in this super strange language that he was reading right to left, upside down, sideways I still felt the spirit and it was a good experience. Husam is very interested and loves to meet with us. This Wednesday is his twenty-fifth birthday and we are going to watch the restoration film with him in Arabic, that will be good. Then we are going to take him out for dinner. It will be good. Husam is just the cutest middle eastern guy ever, that's all you need to know.
Kevin, Usman, David, Samuel- Okay, these are obviously four different people, but they all came from Africa. I think all four of them came from Nigeria. No, I think that's wrong. I don't know. The point is that they all are from Africa and they are probably the sickest dudes I know. No doubt. They all come to our Hungarian class but they also come to all of our branch programs like Family Home Evening, Game night, Young Single Adults. It's so fun. When I first got to Debrecen, Sister Sellers told me about all of these people and at first I thought they weren't too interested in the gospel, more to hang out with the missionaries, but I met them a few weeks ago and we talked and they all are super religious and are open to talk about God. That's cool. Kevin actually came to church on Sunday, so that was really cool! I think they all are really legit, we just haven't been able to set up with them yet. Actually, this week we've set up with Kevin and Samuel. Usman is the elders, which they have met with him already but it's a working process. Works moving in Africa, I hear so it's not surprising that they are open to hearing the gospel message.
Lol, so did I mention that we have a new mission president and he's Hungarian? Probably the coolest guy ever. He's doing great things with this mission. A few weeks ago I got the "opportunity" to go to MLC, which is mission leadership council. It's like when all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders and have a meeting with our mission president. At first I was not very excited to go to this meeting. Three hours of training, in Hungarian, but it turned out to be a SUPER good meeting! I actually ended up taking some notes and I felt spiritually renewed after the meeting. Wow, that was super cliche, but it was true. I don't know how else to describe it. The point is that we had a really good meeting and I love our new president. He get's mad respect from me.
Oh did I mention we have a baptism this Saturday. Well, it's not "our" baptism, it's the elders, but we are so excited. Oh my goodness. I didn't write about our man boy, Hamid. Hamid is from Iran. He was actually a soilder in the army. It's a long story how he ended up in Debrecen Hungary. I won't explain all of it, but the important information about him is that he was in Sweedan, met with the missionaries there, got taught all of the lessons, had a bap date, then had to come to Hungary. Eventually he got hooked up with the elders here in Debrecen, they reviewed everything with him and extended a bap date, he accepted, and he will be meg lesz keresztelkedve (he will be baptized) on Saturday. We're so excited for him, he's such a great guy and so ready!
Some more great news, you all remember RR, our baptism down in Szeged. I was informed this week that 1. he invited one of his friends to church, he came, and loved it so much so he asked to meet with the missionaries. After their second program with him, he asked how he could be baptized so now he is on bap date down in Szeged (way to go RR being a missionary). 2. The elders down in Szeged acutally met RR's cousin on the street and invited him to church, the same day that RR brought his friend to church so RR got to church and was way surprised to see his cousin sitting in the chapel. haha. Now his cousin is meeting with the elders as well as his friend being on bap. date with them. 3. RR got the priesthood yesterday! Wooo! Everything is going great. Szeged is a land of miracles, I'm convinced.
This is pretty much my life these days. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but unfortnantly in two short months I will have to trade back reality for this life of happiness. I dread that day, but it is going to come whether I want it to or not. Just know that things are going super well here in Debrecen. I love it. Transfers are in two weeks so we will see what happens with that, but I'm sure everything will be fine.
Much Love,
Whitaker Nővér

Blog Email- Debrecen Dayzzzz

The weather is hot and I'm melting as I'm typing this email.
Yep, the hot weather has returned and you can say that I'm anything but happy about it. We're just looking for streets with enough trees, but also people, so that we can still do missionary work without just melting into a puddle.

Okay, i'll be fo' real with you all right now. Today is a mini transfer call day, but this "mini transfer call" is actually a big transfer call day and almost everyone will be affected. Annndddd.... I just received my transfer call. Sellers and I will be staying together but we are getting another sister. Sister Dohm. Sister Dohm is a group below us. Sellers and Dohm will be Sister Training Leaders and I'm just kind of on the side, but it's whatever. It wil be good. We can do good work here in Debrecen.
Let's see, what happened this week. A lot happened. We all went to Miskolc Friday to meet our new mission President. President Szabadkai is really cool. He spoke only hungarian to us, and introduced himself and his family to us and kind of layed down a plan of what he wants to do in the mission It was good.
I think it's important to mention we met with this girl named Yael, she is from Israel. We just met with her, she accepted everything we taught her , and she said that she was so excited to learn more.
My emailing time is getting cut short today. I have to go, I actually have so much more to say, but I can't write it. I will write it next week when I have more time.
Love you all
Sister Whitaker

Sunday was probably one of the coolest blocks of finding that I've done during the course of my mission. There is this HUGE indoor/outdoor soccer stadium in this HUGE park not too far from our house. It's literally like a family friendly park with sections of nice soft grass to picnic on or play soccer. Then there's a huge fountain that have concrete blocks in the middle of it so that you can walk out in the fountain. The water is far enough way so you don't get soaked but you do get some misty water hitting you at times. Anyways, there were TONS of people in this park on Sunday night and most of them were families. Oh, not to mention there is a track around this park, like with actual track turf, that young fit/old and not so fit are running on. It's a big one two that goes up and down hills and has beautiful scenary. I can not wait to run on the track. It will be a nightly workout. I got to get that good bod before I go home in exactly THREE months today, whhaaaat?! Just kidding, my bod is already a loss cause. Anyways, I took our sign that said 'We are happy because we are Mormon, ask us why we are happy.' and walked around the park with it. We also took Michael with us who is a really solid Asian member here in Debrecen. Michael is just a story in himself, he's so great. Anyways Sellers, Michael and I walked around the park and literally had people come up to us asking us what our sign was about, or why we are truly happy. Then I took the sign and walked in the fountain and I literally had people waiting for me at the end to ask me what this was about. My favorite was this really cute couple, who asked to take a picture with me, they were sooo nice. Let's just say the best finding method ever was just discovered and we will do it again. 

Success is found when being a missionary, but having a good time while doing it as well.

Michaela Janae Whitaker
This is Demi. Demi is from a providence in China (freak, I forgot the name) but he came to Hungary about two years ago to study
Economics. When he got to Hungary, he spoke very little English rather broken english. Which he still only speaks very broken English. He met the missionaries here in Debrecen about a year and a half ago and started taking lessons from them. A year ago he was baptized, but honestly I'm not sure how much he understood, originally, from the missionaries who first taught him. We are still teaching him but the language barrier makes it hard.
Okay, jump back eight months ago.... Sister Whitaker was serving in Szekesfehervar with Sister Sholly who also served in Debrecen and Sister Sholly would always talk about this little Asian dude in Debrecen. It was my dream from Szekes that I would sometime meet this Demi kid and then eight months later I get transferred to Debrecen. God is real.
Anyways, Demi had not been going to church for a good few months, and I was really concerned about it because the sister missionaries who served here before my companion and I did everything they could to get Demi to come to church, but nothing worked.
The week before I received my transfer call, that I would be coming to Debrecen to serve. My companions and I came to Debrecen for splits with the Sister Training leaders and the STL's set it up that I would be able to finally meet this infamous Demi guy. When I walked in and saw him for the first time I just felt God's love for him and how much God wants him to come to church so the lesson was all focused around how important church attendance is. I made him promise me that he would go to church the next Sunday. It was actually really cute because I will go to church wherever you go to church and I told him that I would be in Szeged, which is kind of far away and then he said he'd come to Szeged for his last Sunday, because in a week he would be going back to China for the summer. Anyways, I had faith in him that he would follow through and go to church, so we went back home to Szeged and then the following Sunday, I got a call from the Debrecen sisters that Demi went to church for all three hours. Now if you know anything about Demi is pretty much has the attention span of a four year old and can not sit still to save his life so the fact that he went to all three hours was a milestone!
I was excited for him to come down to Szeged for his last Sunday, but guess who came up to him... yep, me! He came to church this last Sunday and I translated for him and it was just wayy good. I was so happy that he came because he hadn't gone for a few months up until that point. That was like my miracle that I experienced this week.
Unfortunantly, Demi left us today. Right now he's on his way back to China and will be there until September 9th, but then will come back to Debrecen. That's one of the reasons why I'm hoping and praying that I will die in Debrecen. Die, meaning that I will finish my mission here. Before he left we made him this little picture collage and the goal behind it was that he would always see these pictures and remember to do the things that we want him to do... and not just us but Heavenly Father. It's a really cute collage and we were way satisfied with it. Here is a picture of it and with him holding it.
We love Demi!!

Michaela Janae Whitaker

Debrecen. What can I say about Debrecen. It's pretty much the coolest, most youngest city that I've served it. It has a nice, active night life. I've only been here since Friday but I have met a lot of cool young people here.

What/Who do I even start with? First of all when I got here I met the two cutest girls. One being our investigator, the other being the Elders. The funny thing is that they had just met, while waiting for us, and they already acted like best friends. They could have fooled me. It does my heart good when two people, who at one time were total strangers, make so good of friends and just act so tight from the first time they meet.  I don't have the ability to open myself up so quickly and make friends but these two girls were just way open and then were best friends the next minute.

Okay, well that was Thursday night when I rolled in. Oh speaking of rolling in. I literally rolled in, as I was pushing my bags at the train station (two bags but rolling them on their four weels, upright.) I tripped over them and made this horrid screeching sound that sounded wayyy ugly and everybody and their dogs (literally) looked at me. There was a nice man behind me, however, who helped me pick up my bags (not me...thanks) but then later we happen to go to the same villamos bench, I looked over at this guy and he was biting his lip trying not to burst out laughing, remembering just a few minutes ago this chinese girl was laying fast flat on the cement... haha.  I would have laughed my butt off too. We ended up talking to him, while waiting for the villamos. It was a good conversation. He definintely knew the missionaries and wasn't really interested in meeting but we still had a good conversation.
We got home, I put all of my bags into the house and we headed straight to the branch house because we had a program with Demi. Demi is from a providence in China (freak, I forgot the name) but he came to Hungary about two years ago to study Economics. When he got to Hungary, he spoke very little English rather broken english. Which he still only speaks very broken English. He met the missionaries here in Debrecen about a year and a half ago and started taking lessons from them. A year ago he was baptized, but honestly I'm not sure how much he understood, originally, from the missionaries who first taught him. We are still teaching him but the language barrier makes it hard.
Okay, jump back eight months ago.... Sister Whitaker was serving in Szekesfehervar with Sister Sholly who also served in Debrecen and Sister Sholly would always talk about this little Asian dude in Debrecen. It was my dream from Szekes that I would sometime meet this Demi kid and then eight months later I get transferred to Debrecen. God is real. Anyways, Demi had not been going to church for a good few months, and I was really concerned about it because the sister missionaries who served here before my companion and I did everything they could to get Demi to come to church, but nothing worked. The week before I received my transfer call, that I would be coming to Debrecen to serve. My companions and I came to Debrecen for splits with the Sister Training leaders and the STL's set it up that I would be able to finally meet this infamous Demi guy. When I walked in and saw him for the first time I just felt God's love for him and how much God wants him to come to church so the lesson was all focused around how important church attendance is. I made him promise me that he would go to church the next Sunday. It was actually really cute because I will go to church wherever you go to church and I told him that I would be in Szeged, which is kind of far away and then he said he'd come to Szeged for his last Sunday, because in a week he would be going back to China for the summer. Anyways, I had faith in him that he would follow through and go to church, so we went back home to Szeged and then the following Sunday, I got a call from the Debrecen sisters that Demi went to church for all three hours. Now if you know anything about Demi is pretty much has the attention span of a four year old and can not sit still to save his life so the fact that he went to all three hours was a milestone! I was excited for him to come down to Szeged for his last Sunday, but guess who came up to him... yep, me! He came to church this last Sunday and I translated for him and it was just wayy good. I was so happy that he came because he hadn't gone for a few months up until that point. That was like my miracle that I experienced this week.  Unfortunantly, Demi left us today. Right now he's on his way back to China and will be there until September 9th, but then will come back to Debrecen. That's one of the reasons why I'm hoping and praying that I will die in Debrecen. Die, meaning that I will finish my mission here. Before he left we made him this little picture collage and the goal behind it was that he would always see these pictures and remember to do the things that we want him to do... and not just us but Heavenly Father. It's a really cute collage and we were way satisfied with it. Here is a picture of it and with him holding it.
We love Demi!!

There are a lot of activities that go on here in Debrecen. We have Angol Ora (english class) we have this thing called Magyar Ora (Hungarian class). Because a lot of people come to Debrecen to study, a lot of them don't speak Hungarian which makes living in Hungary a little bit harder. We teach Hungarian class, and even though we don't know Hungarian perfectly, at least we can teach them the basics. Hopefully that will help them out a little. We had this guy named usma, that is from Nigeria come. He was soooo legit. After Magyar Ora we hold Sport nap where I FINALLY get to play basketball again. Oh man, basketball was soo missed to me, and usma came and brought his little brother Najgib (African names are so freakin awesome) plus we had some members and another investigator, Matthew, who lived in the USA and played ball in America so we had a dang good game going on. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to play competitive ball, plus Usman and his brother Najgib were really really fun to play with and they were intense and good. I was the only girl playing, but I felt like I was standing my ground pretty good with all the boys. We had a good time. After Sport nap I talked to Usman about his life in Nigeria and stuff and his family. It was way interesting to talk to him about his life and family in Nigeria. He seemed pretty intrested in our church. Unfortunantly he will only be here for one more semester and then he'll go back to Nigera. We had a good conversation with him and we are hoping he will come back to Magyar Ora and Sport nap this week. All we can do is wait.

I got to meet the whole branch on Sunday and that was great. The branch is super nice here and everyone was too kind to me. I felt very welcomed. Fun fact, the guy who was the branch president's counselor in Papa when I served there has since been married and now lives in Debrecen so I got to meet up with him and catch up with him on Sunday, and now he's a conselor in the Debrecen branch presidency, so that's way cool! The branch is just way cool. That's all you need to know.

Sunday was probably one of the coolest blocks of finding that I've done during the course of my mission. There is this HUGE indoor/outdoor soccer stadium in this HUGE park not too far from our house. It's literally like a family friendly park with sections of nice soft grass to picnic on or play soccer. Then there's a huge fountain that have concrete blocks in the middle of it so that you can walk out in the fountain. The water is far enough way so you don't get soaked but you do get some misty water hitting you at times. Anyways, there were TONS of people in this park on Sunday night and most of them were families. Oh, not to mention there is a track around this park, like with actual track turf, that young fit/old and not so fit are running on. It's a big one two that goes up and down hills and has beautiful scenary. I can not wait to run on the track. It will be a nightly workout. I got to get that good bod before I go home in exactly THREE months today, whhaaaat?! Just kidding, my bod is already a loss cause. Anyways, I took our sign that said 'We are happy because we are Mormon, ask us why we are happy.' and walked around the park with it. We also took Michael with us who is a really solid Asian member here in Debrecen. Michael is just a story in himself, he's so great. Anyways Sellers, Michael and I walked around the park and literally had people come up to us asking us what our sign was about, or why we are truly happy. Then I took the sign and walked in the fountain and I literally had people waiting for me at the end to ask me what this was about. My favorite was this really cute couple, who asked to take a picture with me, they were sooo nice. Let's just say the best finding method ever was just discovered and we will do it again.
Success is found when being a missionary, but having a good time while doing it as well.

Wow, I feel like I have a billion other things to write about this week and I've only been here for a few days.
I'm not going to lie I would be lying if I said that I don't miss Szeged and I may or may not cry a little every night because I miss it so much (well...that last part may be a little lie) but I do. There is a little part of my heart that is definitely there and will stay there until I go back to pick it up, after my mission.
But now I am in Debrecen and these people deserve my 100% best and I'm determined to give them just that.

I hope you had a good week and Happy Fourth of July!!

Sister Whitaker.

I got to see my girl, Kovacs, before I left Szeged. It's hard to believe that a year ago we were companions in Papa... Time passes by so quickly.

The New Debrecen District...featuring the only Newbie...me.

This week we had zone conference in Budapest and I got to see my girl, Sister Layton and our friend Sister Jeppson. 

What a crazy week!

First of all, I'm being transferred to Debrecen this week. I have to leave Szeged, but I kind of expected it. We are the only trio of sisters in the mission and one of the native Hungarian sisters is going home this week so President decided to take me out of the trio and put me in her place, in Debrecen.

I'm excited, but leaving Szeged will not be easy. Being in an area for nine weeks and leaving is hard enough, but Szeged has been my home for the past fifteen weeks and I feel like I will leave part of my heart here when I leave. I had my first baptism here in Szeged. The members here in Szeged have adopted the missionaries into their own families. It's just heart-breaking to leave them.

I've just got to accept the fact that it's my time to leave and that there are people in Debrecen who need me to find them and teach them.

This week though was pretty jammed pack.

Monday we went out fishing with Gabor and his dad. There is a special bug called the mayfly that comes out of the Tisza river after hatching from underwater. It only happens one week a during the whole year. and the ugly mayflies just fly all over. The fish literally jump out of the water catching these ugly things. It's the best week to fish on the Tisza. Well we went out fishing and I caught two huge fish! We were doing spinning and fly-fishing. That was the first time that I did either and I caught one with both styles. It was way fun! The bugs and fish were both jumpin like crazy!! We had a really good time with Gabor and his dad too.

Tuesday we set off early in the morning for Budapest because we had zone conference. President's last zone conference before he goes home. It was a good time though. The main topic and thing I got out of it was the importance of becoming better everyday.

After zone conference my companions and I went to Debrecen, which is on the way east side of the country, for splits. We actually sat on the train by this younger dude and had a good missionary moment. By the end we ended up taking a selfie with this guy and he put it on Facebook. hahaha!  Anways, we got to stay for a day and teach some people in Debrecen. That was way fun, we got to see how the STL's (sister training leaders) taught and learned a lot from them. Now look at me, I'm going back to Debrecen to finish where I left off with those people earlier this week. It will be interesting, but I am excited.

Wednesday and Thursday morning we were in Debrecen.

As we were heading home we had another missionary moment where we talked to a lady who was heading back to Germany from visiting her family here in Hungary but it all started when she hiccuped and I thought there was a small animal sitting behind me. I look behind me and she says in her cute hungarian accent, "I'm sorry... excuse me."  Anyways she started asking about our church and that was cool.  We shared our testiomonies and hopefully she gets hooked up with some missionaries in Germany. One could only hope.

Yeah so Thursday evening we came home had a few programs . They were all good. We met with LZ again, who we had on bap date last transfer but she didn't want to meet anymore. It was a good meeting with her, we brought a member who she is pretty familiar with. The program went good, but she still hasn't come to church, so that's what we're working on.

RR is way solid if any of you are wondering. Now with me and Layton gone is way sad but we know that he will stay strong. No doubt.

Friday and Saturday were just kind of chill days. We did some finding, but didn't see a lot of success out of it, to be honest. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you dont.

Sunday, Kovács came down to Szeged. Sister Kovács was my companion  my second transfer in Pápa. She spoke in our branch about her mission and how members can get involved in missionary work. It was way good. Gee, I love her so much.

Wow, my email is like way all over the place. I'm just not really thinkin' straight. Having to leave is on my mind, and it sucks, but this is the missionary life for ya. No, it doesn't suck. We just have to move when it's time.

I'll take lots of pictures of Debrecen, my new city, next week and it will be good (:

Love ya'll

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker

March 1879, The Tisza river flooded and ended up flooding the whole city of Szeged. It was pretty devastating. Now there's this statue thing by the Tisza, here in Szeged to remind the people of the flood, but not so much of the flood but of the rebuilding up of Szeged. This is just a cool picture of it. It's way big... and fun to climb on (:

Chalking in Széchenyi Tér. My companion is a real artist.

Last week I said in my email that we met some of the acrobats from the African Circus, here are a few pictures that we took. They are so cool!

Kata came to transfers. Coolest person I've met in Hungary, so far. Hands down

This is the new threesome companionship

RR's baptism was last Saturday but I couldn't send a picture of it until this week, but here we are!! It was such a special day for all of us!!

From Michaela Whitaker
Recently we started setting up programs with the members here in Szeged so that we could get to know them better, more on a personal level.
Here's one of them that we met with this week, her current calling is the (adult) seminary teacher. It was really neat to talk to her about her membership in the church. It turns out that she does a lot more service than just within the church but she goes to a rehabilitation every Wednesday to read the bible to people who are sick, and recovering. Those who show a lot of interest in her class she eventually offers them a copy of the Book of Mormon and then invites the missionaries to teach them. Just goes to show that you don't have to have a black nametag to be missionary. She's such a good example to us!

Michaela Whitaker
Fun fact: Szeged is the hottest city in Hungary. We sweat a lot. The number of showers we take in one day is ridiculous!
Funny story of the week: The last fifteen weeks I've noticed that I've been really itchy. I really didn't know what it was from. I thought maybe seeing how I shower everyday that it's been drying out my skin or something like that. I have been using lotion and it really hasn't helped. Secretly inside, I thought I had some terminal skin disease and that some day I was going to drop over dead anytime. Anyways, Sister Heath, this week, comes out of the bathroom and says, "Do you usually wash your clothes with this stuff?" Holding my laundry soap. I said yes and she said, "You know this is fabric softner?" What the fuuudge!?!? I seriously looked at her and said, "No freakin wayyy!!" I think I may have just solved my itchy problem. Sure enough, Sister Heath bought actual laundry detergent and I washed my clothes with it and what do you know... I'm not itchy anymore. My life is a joke.
This whole week was just way fun, plus we got a lot done. We ended the week off with eight new investigators. Most in the mission. Woohoo. We had a lot of people this week come up to us and want to know what we're about. That was way cool.
The week before transfers we got a call from this guy who works in a watch shop. He said that one of his friends got a flyer that said that we teach English Class. We went to his watch shop and set up a time to meet with him later in the week. We were way excited to meet with him and his family. Wednesday came around and we met him back at his watch shop. We met his wife this time and they took us to their house. Pretty much the coolest house I've been in, since being in Hungary. We walk into his house and there are real sharks just hanging all over his wall, but it's not like they are just hanging like vertical on the wall, but they are like popping out of the wall, like some crazy 3D ocean house. There were all kinds of ocean creatures all over his house. All real...obviously dead, but still way freaking cool. This guy is a scuba diver and he lived in Hawaii for awhile. They also had a sauna in their bathroom. Who has a sauna in their bathroom. That's so sick! The watch maker's wife made us homemade palacsintas with homemade lekvár (jam). It was wayyyy finom! We pretty much told them why we're here as missionaries and then talked about our purpose here. They invited us back, so we will go back next week and it will be good! Such a cool family.
Hey! We met with LZ again. That was one of our investigators that was on bap. date. right before Easter. Sister Layton and I saw her on the street a bunch, but she would just ignore us. Well, we saw her on the street the other day, and I took my new companions up to her so they could introduce themselves. I asked if maybe we could start meeting again, and she invited us to come over later this week, so hopefully it will be successful and we can start teaching her again.
The majority of our lessons went really well this last week. We met with a few people that we met on the street. Oh, we went tabling a lot this week with the elders. Sister Heath is way good at drawing and when I say way good. I mean.... way freaking good. We do this cool thing called chalking. We pretty much put a table up in the middle of this town square and draw things on the sidewalk. Anyway, my companion, Sister Heath, pretty much colored the whole square up. She drew a portrait of Joseph Smith, out of the Book of Mormon, a temple, The Plan of Salvation, A Book of Mormon, an American Flag that said Ingyenes Angol Óra in it. It was way cool. Anyways we got a few new investigators out of tabling. Talked to a lot of cool people. I met this little old lady who was sitting on a park bench. The conversation started out by her saying that she didn't want to talk because she had just finished something really hard in her life. As she looked through me I could see the tears in her eyes. I didn't really know what to say, because it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it, plus she said she would prefer to just be left alone. All I told her was that God loved her and that we're here as missionaries to share this message with everyone. She was so sweet and we met with her again and talked about the Book of Mormon. On the same bench. In the same park. Too cute. Then this drunk guy popped out of nowhere and started stroking my leg and this Néni got on him like ugly on an ape and said "NEM SZABAD!!!!" (that's not allowed!) It was was cute!! She would have gotten up and tore him apart if he wouldn't have left. Anways, she is way cool and completely loves God with all of her heart. We will meet with her again this week, I'm excited.
Sunday we were invited out to a members house to eat. After sitting in church for three hours in a church building with air conditioning just in the chapel. We went out to his house and sat for four hours. He hadn't prepared the food before we got there so we ended up sitting another four hours at his house, but hey.. we got to pick cherries off his cherry tree. That was fun. Although, I didn't know there were magots in the cherries until I had eaten like 50 of them, and then somebody said something about it. Gross! Anyways we had a really good lunch when it was done. Plus it was Elder Nichols birthday so we had a little birthday party for him. After we were done we walked to the bus stop. The member said that the bus comes every hour on the forty so we walked to the bus stop so we'd be there just on time. We wait and wait and wait and wait and wait.... and wait and wait and wait.... an hour and a half later the bus comes. We were just dying because of the heat. We debated going hitch hiking, but then decided to wait. It was so miserably hot. We saw some old bácsi watering his garden out from a distance and we were talking about going over and asking him to spray us with water. So hot, but we survived.
This week we have Zone Conference in Budapest. President's last Zone conference. Pres goes home in a few weeks and we will be getting our New Hungarian mission president. We are way excited!
We also have splits this week, so we will be going to Debrecen after Zone Conference with the Sister Training leaders. I can't wait to see Debrecen. I've heard many good things about it.
There will be a lot to write about next week.
Love you all,
Whitaker Nővér

From Michaela Whitaker

Hello from Szeged! We are just having a real good time down here!

Transfers was this past week, gotta love when you get that nice trap workout by lifting 50lb bags all day. The burn feels so good, and the sore feeling you have after the day(s) after is even better! haha!

Well, I lost Sister Layton this week, but I got two new companions. Sister Whittaker (we call her Dubs) and Sister Heath. They are way sick! I love them! We've already had a bunch of fun times together. Too many, I can't even count. I'll just save all those stories 'till after the mish. (;

This week not much has happened in Szeged besides just visiting people and introducing my companions to everyone down here in the Sunshine City. Fun fact: Szeged is the hottest city in Hungary during the summer. That isn't a big surprise as it's the city furthest south, but sometimes I feel like I'm melting . It's way worse than last summer when I was up in windy Sopron. It's alright though, I'm just sucking it up and dealing with it. It's great.

Nothing too special this week.

Wow, this is way short... haha. I'm sorry. I'm super lame!

Next week will be better, promise.

Love ya'll

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker

Transfer call. This is the second to last "big" transfer call that I will get before I go home. I can't believe I only have four more months here in Hungary. Time goes by way fast out here.

Sister Layton will be leaving me, she will be going to Eger, where I served before I came to Szeged. Sister Layton knows the people and the area pretty well already, from what I told her in the beginning of the transfer. I will be staying in Szeged and will get two new companions. I'll be in another tri-companionship. It's the third I've been in. I'm excited. Right now there are four of us but after we go up to transfers tomorrow, we will be bringing five new people back down. Yes, we have gone from being four to seven! It will definitely be a different transfer.

Last week was a good week. Biggest news: RR got baptized!!!!! Ahhhh!! This is what we had been waiting for since we met with RR! His baptism was a big success and it was really really great! RR asked Sister Layton and I if we would speak at his baptism. I spoke about baptism and Sister Layton talked about The Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really good. The Baptism was great and a lot of people ended up coming, then on Sunday he got the gift of the Holy Ghost and you could feel the spirit so strongly. After his baptism we talked to RR and he said that even from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon he felt and saw a big change in his life, in just that twenty-four hour period.

Sister Layton and I were worried for a little while because with transfers coming up, it would be hard enough on RR for one of us to leave, but we knew that there was a slight possibility that both of us would leave, but when we got transfer calls today, we were a little bit relieved that at least I will be staying.

RR is way solid though and the branch members welecomed him in the branch quite nicely on Sunday so we think everything will be okay with him. 

Funny story of the week: Sister Layton and I were walking on opposite sides of the street, and I see Sister Layton stop and read something, but I kept on walking. Eventually, when we met back up again, she said that she read a sign for a African Circus that is in Szeged. Something you should know about Sister Layton is that she is obsessed with Africa. It's her dream to go to Africa, and her family has already made plans to go to Africa next summer when she gets back from her mission. Anyways, she read that sign and we decided to go find this circus in Szeged. We knew the general direction where it was, so we went. We eventually saw a big circus tent and behind it all the circus animals were outside in their cages/pens where the general public could walk around and see them and pet them. Sister Layton and I walked around and looked at the animals, then we were way thirsty so we went across the road to look for something to drink, afterwards we walked out and I told Sister Layton that we should walk by the circus one more time. As we were walking through it, Sister Layton taps me on the shoulders and in her most quiet, excited voice she says, "LOOK!! THERE ARE AFRICANS!!!" I look and there are total Africans walking out of the circus tent, we were kind of just staring at them at first and they looked over at us and were like "Heyyy" and so we went over and talked to them. They were part of a team of five that did acrobats in the circus. They are from Kenya, they also have like three girls who came with them who dance and sing in the circus. Anways we talked to them for a while, meanwhile, Sister Layton was like freaking out, but they happen to be on the way to the grocery store (where we had come out of) to get food so they were like, "Hey, come to the grocery store with us." So we walked over there with them while they got their food. On the way over there, we ran into one of the singers. After that we went back to their teams little trailer and talked to their whole Kenya group and got some sick pictures with all of them. The whole deal was way cool. They were so nice and they will be here in Szeged for another few weeks but then will go to a city, somewhere around the Balaton, and then who knows from there. Anways so now we have African friends and we even got to talk to them about our church a little bit, so that was cool too!

I don't have that much to say this week, besides that. The Baptism was the big event. During the next couple of weeks we have a lot of cool branch activities coming up so that should be good! Hopefully soon I will be able to write more!!

Lots of love for all ya'll,

Whitaker Nővér

Monday was a big festival in Hungary nobody works

We lost two of our "brothers" this week. A családi képünk így lett.

Sometimes when we're walking to a program we take pictures of our shadows. We didn't look great, but at least our shadows looked alright (; #Hülyeségwedoasmissionaries

Last Tuesday marked a big step for mankind and an even bigger step for the Sisters down in Szeged. I hit my 14 month mark in the country and Sister Layton hit her 6 month mark on her mission (since she left the MTC). We decided to buy balloons and do some special pictures with them. Enjoy (:

Wow.

Sorry about last week's béna email. My companion and I were just like way sick and I didn't feel like writing anything about our week because we literally just stayed in bed and just about died. I almost took a picture of us laying in our beds, just to send that.

This week, we were finally starting to feel normal again and it was a great feeling! Sometimes you have hard days on your mission and other times you just have seven hard days on your mission, but we come out on top, nonetheless!

Sister Layton and I agreed that since we have a baptism coming up (this Saturday--RR is getting baptized!) Satan just decided to throw a bunch of curve balls at us, just to try to ruin and damper our spirits about our efforts we've put forth in Szeged so far. At least that's how I've seen it. The last couple of weeks have been hard for us, BUT RR is getting baptized this Saturday!! We are soooo excited for this! RR asked Sister Layton and I to speak... oh gosh!! I will be talking about Baptism and Sister Layton will be talking about the Holy Ghost. Hűha! Jaj nekünk! It will be interesting. I better start preparing now!

I can't even tell you all how great it's been to see the change that's happened within RR from the beginning of the transfer all the way to the end, leading to his baptism. Sister Layton and I often reminise about what RR was like when we first met with him. He wouldn't even look at us when we would talk to him, he'd always look down at the ground and seemed a little nervous, but now we are LITERALLY best friends with him. Everytime we meet with him, he just walks in with this huge smile on his face, we joke, we laugh, we talk. It's just a great time! When we go over to his house, his family all greets us, just as if we were one of their own. They are just all so friendly with us, and well yeah. This is our friendship now.

RR had his interview with Elder Whiting this last week and we talked to Elder Whiting about how it went, as we were a little nervous for it. Honestly, I don't know why we worry about RR so much, every time we do, we just get all worked up but then in the end we're like "Wow, that went so smoothly, why were we worrying?" The same thing happened after his interview. We talked to Elder Whiting and he said that they sat down, Elder Whiting saidt he opening prayer and after he was done he just looked up at RR and tears were just streaming down his face. Then after Elder Whiting asked him the last question in the interview he answered it with a shaky voice. Sister Layton and I just looked at each other because we have never seen him cry, but that was just so neat to hear that he felt the spirit and that he knows that this is the right decision. He told us mulitiple times that this isn't a joke and that he wanted to know "for sure" that this is the path God wants him to go down. He told us that he doesn't want a "maybe" or a "possibly, it would be good" kind of answer but he wanted a "straight-forward yes" and he got it! We had no doubt about it! It's just so neat to see this in him. We are so proud of him! Next week we will have pictures at his baptism and it will be so great!

Totally different subject but sad story. I think I told ya'll a few weeks ago how Sister Layton and I literally saw a car get hit by another car, causing it to flip over, right in front of our eyes. That was tramatic. Then we were in Új Szeged last week, tracting, and we saw a car get hit, while backing out of the driveway, onto a main road. It wasn't as bad as the first accident. We were saying to each other, "geez, how many accidents are we going to see while serving in Szeged together?" We definitely didn't want to see anymore! But then Monday morning we go on a run with the Elders, and we're running one of our usual routes and we see a car accident, although it already happened before we got there. We're just running past it and all of a sudden I look over and I see this black bag on the ground, I had to do a double take because at first I thought I was just seeing stuff. I said to myself, "hmm, why is that bag in a shape of a body," but then I ended up saying something to the rest of the crew and we all came to the conclusion that it was definitely a body bag, with a real body in it. Oh my tragic! Why do we see all of this? I feel like, well... I don't even know... I don't want to see things like that anymore! I don't even know why I included that in this email. Sorry 'bout that!

On a more positive note, okay.... not so positve. We lost the other companionship of elders this week. They both ended up going to Pest, so now there are just four of us down here in Szeged, but I became the "official, unofficial district lord" That's fun, so now I lead district meetings, with zero authority... haha. We had a really fun district meeting the other day though, as we just sat around a table. Each of us giving a twenty minute training about any subject we wanted, while somehow relating it to recognizing the spirit. I talked about obedience and how important it is to be obedient so the spirit can be with you. It's way important. Haha, I promise, my training was better than that, but well yeah... we all had a really good time!

Friday, Sister Layton needed to buy fries from McDonalds because she has this weird thing that they celebrate FryDay on Friday, by going and eating fries. Well, we had eaten a lot that day. We went out to eat after our District meeting, lead by yours truly, district Úr (lord). We ate palacsintas, then had fries, then we had icecream. I bought thirty deca's of little gumi, fruit snack things, then Sister Layton bought Kalács (that chimney looking bread stuff). We decided that it wasn't just #FryDay but #FatFriday.

Then the next morning we woke up super sick #SickSaturday #SugarhangoverSaturday, and it was just sucky! We definitely learned our lesson!

The missionaries this week decided that it would be a good idea to get together with the members and meet with them personally, because it's always nice to get to know them on a personal basis. We, as missionaries, always say how great it is to have the members support us in our work and stuff, but we too also need to do our part and make the members feel loved and needed. It's been a way neat experience to meet with all the members and get to know them on a personal level. Hear their conversion stories, because most of the members in Szeged.... okay, every member in Szeged are first generation members. They are the ones who made that first contact with the missionaries, so it's way cool to hear their conversion stories and how they have grown and developed over the years, being members.

Sunday and Monday was an official Hungarian holiday. Pünkösdi uhh.... haha. something to do with that. Anways, everything was close so we couldn't do much. We couldn't shop for our groceries or email or anything so the elders and us just hung out all day. The Szegedi days and wine festival is going on right now, so we walked around the city, hittin up all the stands. It was way fun. The branch had a little közös program too. One of the members made a crap load of spaghetti. Actually the program was mainly directed towards the young men and women/ YSA but they talked about missionary work and how they can particpate in it and all that stuff, then they had a dinner for us. We ate really well. It was so good!

Thursday, after Angol Óra we scheduled a találkozás with TG and his dad. TG is the teenager who we meet with, who has read the Book of Mormon, faster than I ever have. He would really like to be baptized, but his dad wants him to experience things more "worldy" things before TG makes such a big decision in his life. We thought it would be good, at least, for TG and his dad to meet with the Branch President. We scheduled that meeting and it was a little.... awkward.... and we hope that we didn't upset TG's dad but we really meant for it to just be a "get to know you" type deal, but it kind of backfired, but hopefully everything will turn out well with that.

Okay, I'm super sorry this email was ALL OVER! But this was my week, and next week is TRANFERS. it will be a waaaay sad week, but all is well!

I love you all so much!! xoxox

Whitaker Nővér

Michaela Janae Whitaker