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
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