Budapest Train Station

                                         Budapest

                                         Castle Hill Budapest

                                          Beautiful building

                                       Budapest and Sister Sellers

                                          Train station Budapest

                                         View from hotel room first night in Budapest

Szia from Sopron!

Guess what everybody?

I GOT MY FIRST BAPTISMAL DATE, THIS MORNING!! Can you tell how excited I am about this!? This happened this morning at around ten and I'm still on cloud nine about it.

Sexton Nővér and I went into the lesson today with the hopes to help this indvidual understand the importance of being baptized. She had been baptized when she was a baby, and thought that, that would suffice. As I studied in personal study,  I thought about many things that I learned in the MTC and I thought that it would be good to talk to her about the importance of exercising her own faith.

The problem that I faced was not to come across as acting superior to her. I prayed really hard and studied the scriptues all morning so that I could hopefully find the right scripture to help me teach this complex but very important concept.

So we put on our brave faces and went in and taught the lesson. Sexton Nővér actually decided to sit back and listen as I attempted to lead the lesson. I read some scriptures that are very dear to my heart about exercising "even a particle of faith..." We had a great talk and after I was finished Sexton Nővér said that we have a baptism in two weeks, and extended an invitation to her and asked her if she would like to come and see it. Not only did she say yes, but she said that she wanted to be baptized. If I hadn't had been holding on to my chair I might of gone through the roof (which is saying a lot, because we were on the fifth floor of a ten-story building). I was so happy and am still so happy!

Afterwards, Sexton Nővér and I talked about the lesson and she told me that I said all these great things, the crazy part about that is that I don't remember saying everything. That is just a huge testament to me that we, as missionaries, are truly the Lord's mouthpiece here on this earth. We are not the teachers, but the spirit is and it can bear witness to people through a power that is mightier (is that a word? probably not.) than anything or anyone on this earth.

Just witnessing that change of heart in someone that I just met a few weeks ago, was the greatest experience of my life.

While I haven't been with the people of Sopron for an extended amount of time, I already feel the love for them, and I get the great opportunity, as a missionary, to feel just a tiny bit of the love that God has for all of his children and let me tell you, it's a lot, because I felt like I could just hug and squeeze my investigator this morning forever! I felt so much love in my heart for her and was so proud of her decision to be baptized.

Just one other quick little story, last week I got to witness my first baptism in Hungary. The Elders in Sopron, baptized a woman that they had been teaching for a while. She is the sweetest lady ever.

Just being able to be at her baptism Saturday night was such a spiritual experience. The baptism that I witnessed on Saturday was way different from any other baptism I've been to. Not because it was in a hotel hot tub (but I've got to admit, I've never witnessed a baptism outside of a church building). But as a missionary, you understand two additional sides of a baptism. You understand the many hours of finding and planning that goes in as a missionary and they're sincere desire for their investigators to accept their message, and you also understand the many many sacrafices and commitments that the investigator makes in order to enter the waters of baptism. It really makes you look at their baptism in a different way. I felt the spirit so strongly during this particular baptism and the beaming smile that this women had on her face after she came up from out of the water was so heart-warming.

I know that this woman will receive so many blessings, in this life and many eternities to come, because of her decison to be baptized.

This past week has been awesome. We've had quite a few programs and everybody has been just so nice and welcoming. I have yet to go tracting, but I hope that it happens sometime this week. We will probably experience different reactions, but I don't care. I am willing to have a million doors slammed in my face, just so they can see who the missionaries are and what they look like, and while they won't necessarily accept the gospel now, I have faith that they will some other time.

In an email my dad wrote me a couple weeks ago he said something that really stuck out to me. He said that I need to remember that I stand on the shoulders of missionaries that have been before me, and that some missionaries might have gone home without a single baptism, but through they're hard work and efforts I may baptize someone who they found and taught, who decided not to get baptized at that time. That humbled me a lot and I thought that this isn't my work, but the work that I'm doing now and the work that I will do, is because of dedicated missionaries who served before me and that when I leave, there will be missionaries who stand on my shoulders who will baptize the people that I find and teach. That was just super relevent to me and I thought I'd share.

The field is white and all ready to harvest, and I am so thankful that I get to be a part of it. I encourage all members to be missionaries. You don't have to have the nametag to be missionaries, but you can do so by just being a good example and taking advantages to teach people the gospel, which brings you so much happiness. I know that if you do so, that the Lord will bless you.

I will say szervusz (bye) for now.

Whitaker Nővér

5/26/14

Szia from Hungary!

The city that I'm in is Sopron! My companion is Sister Sexton and she is absolutely amazing! I'll talk about this more later!

Wow, this is a little strange. My first email sent from Europe. First of all, you''ll have to excuse all my typos because the keyboards here are strange!

Well, we left the MTC one week from today. We broke out of the gates of the MTC and started on our journey to Hungary. It was a little surprising that we actually went to the Utah Tracs ( I think that's what it is) station first. We rode that all the way to Salt Lake City, then got on another trac and went to the Salt Lake City Airport. Okay, can I just say that wheeling three suitcases that all weigh about fourty-fifty pounds each, varying in size, is HARD. It was pretty much the most stressful part of my day, plus I had my "personal item" so all in all I was transporting four bags everywhere. Luckily, my mom is super smart and helped me pick out my bags that had four spinny wheels. That made the transportation of luggage a little more easier., Thanks again for that brillant idea, mom!
So when we got to the Salt Lake City Airport we got to eat lunch, which Sister Hawks and I had Cafe Rio, probably one of the most brilliant ideas of the day. After we finished lunch we called and talked to our families. That was awesome. Even though we had just called a week earlier, for Mother's Day, I will always take the opportunity to talk to my parents again. It was great to hear their voices and to hear what is going on back at home. While I was talking to my mom, I was told that we were about to board the plane, so I said my goodbye and on the plane we went.
I had never seen an international plane before. Those suckers are huge! It doesn't look too big from the outside, but you go inside and you're told to go find your seat and it feels like you're walking down a never-ending aisle to find your seat. I finally found my seat, and it felt like the aisle was never-ending because I was pretty much at the very back. Anyway, I sat next to a lady who lives in Orange County, California but was heading to Paris because that is where she is from and where her family lives. I tried making small talk with her, we talked for a bit, but I could kind of tell that she didn't want to chat so I just slowly backed myself out of the conversation. All was good. One of the Elders in my district, Watson Elder was sitting right across from me. I swear he was going to hand out a Book of Mormon right then and there before the plane even began to leave. I admired the way he was friendly to everyone and just had nice conversations with them. Someday, I'll be able to do that. Ha! Hopefully soon!

So yeah, that plane ride was really really really long! Ten hours or so. I didn't sleep at all. It was really hard to, even though it was dark and everyone was quiet. I guess I just don't sleep on planes very well. You know how when you don't sleep during long trips that the trips seem twice as long, and that's exactly how it was. It felt like it was a twenty hour plane ride, instead of just a ten hour plane ride. Oh well. We made it safely to Paris. Luckily it was bright out as we landed in Paris and I tried to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower, but we were really far away (although you could still see it pretty well) so my picture is really really sad! (Sorry, Dad).
When we arrived in Paris, the humidity almost killed me. Not going to lie, it was SO INCREDIBLY hot! After we had to go up some escalators and down some esclators and up some escalotrs and down some escalators, about five times, I felt absolutely disgusting! We finally got to our gate and boarded another bus to take us to the airport terminal. I made it past security fine and then went through the border patrol place where they check your passports. I got my very first stamp on my passport, so that's pretty sweet! We then boarded our next plane to complete the last leg of our journey.

Okay, so on the plane to Hungary from Paris, I sat between Watson Elder and another guy that we talked to on the bus on the way to the airport terminal. It was mostly Watson Elder...actually it was all Watson Elder because he is just so darn friendly. Anyways, we started talking to this guy about the gospel and such. We talked for such a long time and he had good questions that we answered for him. Then Watson Elder gave him a Book of Mormon. How cool is that? I thought it was awesome.  Eventually, I got really really tired and so I decided to take a nap. Watson Elder and this guy were talking when I fell asleep and still were talking when I woke up so go Watson Elder! I only got an hour of sleep, but it still felt good nonetheless.

We arrived in Hungary. It's so beautiful here! We got off the airplane and went up and down more esclators and finally walked around the corner and there was President Smith and Sister Smith ready to greet us! After we all arrived safely we went and put our suitcases into the cars. We took a quick picture at the airport with our whole group and then we left for the mission home. I rode on a shuttle with most of the missionaries.

As we were driving through the city of Pest and then into Buda, I was marveling at the beauty of this place. It is so green here. I absolutely love it. The vegatation is awesome. I was looking at all the different signs, that I didn't understand at all, and the people. I was also looking at the marvelous buildings here. There are some super pretty buildings and statues here. On the other hand though, there are some pretty old-looking buildings, that aren't in the greatest condition. I noticed that a lot of windows have bars across them. It made me really sad as I thought about what communism did to this country. Our teacher would tell us a lot about the conditions of Hungary during the Iron Curtain. It was really sad to hear, but once you get here and you can physically see the results of it, it even hits you harder. I felt  tremendous sadness as we drove through Pest and Buda, and now that I'm in an even smaller city, it's nearly everywhere. Although, I was told by Sister Sexton that Sopron is one of the more richer cities of Hungary, because it's so close to Austria, that many people who live here go to Austria to work, and I guess they make more money there. Living situations here are still not grand. I have felt very selfish for some things that I have taken for granted all my life in Amerika,since I've been here, that's for sure.

So we go to the mission home and we put all of our bags into one room. The Sisters had interviews with President Smith and the Elders went out streeting. We were warned that we would probably go streeting on the first day, so we were prepared. The interviews for the sisters took until dinner time, so the sisters didn't go streeting that night. We had a home-cooked meal by one of the members in Buda. We had a salad and some pasta with some kind of marinara sauce with pork. It was really good!

Because there were so many new missionaries, we actually got to stay in a Hotel our first night. That was very very interesting. The lights and the shower were a little perplexing. You had to put your room key into the card reader thing, and keep it there for the lights to work and the shower was a little different. I took pictures so, you can see kind of what I'm talking about. It was a good night. I slept really well, not because I was over jet lag, but I was just so tired. I ended up waking up at four and it was light out. Not like, the sun was rising bright, but that the sun was already up and shining through our windown bright... at four in the morning! It is so funky! Anyway, we had a nice breakfast at the Hotel. The food was good, and we then headed back to the mission home.

After we got to the mission home we went streeting. Sister Hawks and I ended up getting two numbers during our first streeting session. I was very proud of ourselves. We also ended up getting left in the middle of the this busy courtyard area. We were talking to this guy and got his number and then we looked around and turned to each other and said "Uhhh...do you see any missionaries?"' There were none in our sight. I felt like Sister Hawks was freaking out, but I, personally, didn't worry. I knew that they'd eventually realized that we weren't with them and that they would come back to find us. Plus, I didn't think it would be a good idea to try to find our way back to the mission home because then we would get even more lost. Maybe I should have been a little bit more concerned than I was, but I just saw it as an opportunity to street even longer. I really enjoyed it, even though I understood, ziltch.

Eventually we saw a whole herd of white shirts and ties come over the hills. It ended up being a group of elders that were on their were going home (end of their mission) from the mission home but they just happen to walk by. We asked them where the mission home was and they directed us pretty well. We found our way back and made it back in time for the meeting that we were supposed to be at, with three minutes to spare.

We had a small meeting regarding finances and then we had our "sorting hat'" meeting. I don't know if that's supposed to be a Harry Potter reference but that'ls what it makes me think of. Ha! Anyways, that's where we got our new companions. It was quite a bittersweet meeting. It was super exciting to meet our new companions and go out to do our work, but it was a little sad saying goodbye to my sixteen other, nine week siblings. Come to think about it, I didn''t have much time to say goodbye, but I know that they're doing great, wherever they are!

Sister Sexton and I were put in our companionship and assigned to Sopron. It's on the very west side of Hungary, in the little part that jets out towards Austria. We had to go to the train station to catch our train. That was another stressful trip, because again I had to transfer my huge pieces of luggage. Luckily, Sister Sexton had pity on me and helped me with my luggage. Just on a side note, when you're riding a metro and it stops and starts very abruptly, it's hard to keep your balance, meanwhile trying to look and sound like a normal human being with all your luggage. Anyways, we made it to the train station where we met Heilan Elder and Flake Elder, who are assigned in Sopron with us. We boarded the train and began our three hour train ride to Sopron!

We arrived in Sopron in one piece, and met the senior couple who took us to our apartment. First of all the senior couple here, Elder and Sister Brown are just way too cute and precious! I love them so much! They're so friendly and nice and willing to help us with whatever we need. I love them!

Sister Sexton says that our apartment is the smallest apartment she has ever lived in during her mission ( and she goes home in fifty nine days). So she's been many places. In a nutshell, our apartment is puny. I love it, but it's puny and the stairs to get up to our room are killer, not to mention the ledge you have to duck under, while going up the stairs to our apartment. The first blessing that I witnessed while being here was that luckily, one of the residents from across our apartment entrance door was outside when we came with my bags. He helped take all three bags up the stairs of death. I was so thankful for that because honestly I don't know if Sister Sexton and I could have done it. 

We got all of my bags up to the room and then went out to eat with the Elders. I had a chicken Quesadilla, not a Hungarian choice at all, but It was stil really really good.

Okay, so we arrived in Sopron on Tuesday. Unfortnately, my health, sleeping schedule and eating schedule are still on their way. Wednesday morning I felt as if I was put in a bag, and hit by a train. Okay, sorry that's a little violent, especially for a missionary, but I felt sooo incredibly sick. Not stomach flu, luckily, but my nose was running, I had a headache, my stomach wasn't feeling too great, I had a sore throat. I kind of wanted to lay in bed all day and just drown myself in my own self-pity. I felt really bad because I didn't want to keep Sister Sexton inside all day, plus I was so gung-ho to start streeting and doing the work that I was called to do. We went out a little bit, but I was just so ridiciously drowsey and sick that I didn't feel like I was productive at all. Oh, and I believe we had a few programs. We did. We had one, or two, I believe. I didn't really talk, but more or less just listened to Sister Sexton and the investigator talk.

I didn't feel any better on Thursday. I felt about the same, even though I had been taking medicine and such. We made an effort to go out more that time. I felt like we were a little more productive. Oh! So we had a program with Marika Neni. She was so cute. The old ladies here are just so adorable. She had some dessert ready for us and we just chated. She is an ""inactive member"" just because she is too old to travel really. She mainly stays in her house. Spritually she is very active. In fact, towards the end of our program with her, I just started crying. It was the crying that I couldn't stop. That's only happened to me twice, that I can remember. She asked me if I was sad and I said no, and then Sister Sexton told her that it was my allergies, but that wasn't right either. I just said that I felt the spirit and that she is a very spiritual person. Then she told me how I am a choice soul and that I came to Hungary because the Lord needs me here. That just made me cry even more. We visit her weekly and I can't wait to see her again!

Since I've been here, we've met with a lot of people. We have quite a few investigator and a lot of inactives. I was surprised to find out that most of the inactives here, are inactive because they were offended by something someone at church said to them. That just told me of the importance of being nice to everyone. Greeting them as they come in, if you don't know someone, go and talk to them and think before you speak. I know that I need to do that more, but now that I'm in Hungary where I can't speak as much, and where I do literally have to think before I speak, it's helped me a little bit that I can't just blurt things out. But really, it's super important that we are nice to everyone and to not make quick judgements. Not just at church, but with everyone we meet.

An experience that happened on Friday night really made me realize that I'm here for other people and not myself. In the talk "The Character of Christ"by Elder Bednar, he says to "Get over yourself, it's not about you." Well that was engrained into my mind again on Friday when the Elders called us and asked us if we wanted to check our some temples, because there is one day out of the whole entire year that all the huge temples are open to the public to see. Well Sister Sexton answered the phone when they called and she poliety declined their offer saying that we had planned to do nightly planning and that she felt like that sounded like a P-day activity. Honestly, at first, I thought to myself, are you serious? First of all, you didn't even ask me what I wanted to do and second, why can't we have some fun and go out and explore a little. Well turns our that our weekly planning session, where we prayed for our investigators and planned for their lessons was the most productive and a very spiritual experience. I was amazed at the work that we got done. It's crazy to me that I don't know barely any of the people that we talked about but I had impressions and thoughts that came into my mind that I felt like they needed. With the work of Sister Sexton and I's dilligent planning, we managed to set specific lesson plans and activities that would best for our investigators. Plus, I believe that we grew closer as a companionship, because we talked about many things that we had in common, like our teachers at the MTC (I wonder if they'll read this) and such. It was seriously what we needed to do as a companion ship and I'm so glad that Sister Sexton was obedient and said that we needed to do other things, instead of go out that night. Always be strictly obedient!

Sunday was my first sarament meeting. I had to bear my testimony, which wasn't hard at all, and Sister Sexton said I only made small mistakes, like accusative "t". It get's me everytime, but everyone was so sweet.

Every time I talk to someone, they say "You speak really good Hungarian." I'm not sure if I believe them. Actually I believe them. Nothing makes me more annoyed when people question the compliments they're given, so I'll take every compliment I can get. I even had someone say I speak better than Sister Sexton, after I said just one word. That is definitely hamis (false)!

I've had such a great time here so far, and I could talk about many many many other experiences that I've had thusfar, but I feel like what I have said will suffice.

Hungary is beautiful and I absolutely love it here! The people are so great!

I hope everything is going well back home! I miss you all!

God be with you 'till we speak again

Whitaker Nover

Michaela Janae Whitaker	3:45 PM (7 minutes ago)

This morning ended our consecration week. Wow, was that hard! Okay, at times it was hard and at times I found it to be quite easy. I believe that it was hard at times, solely because besides our districts nobody else speaks Hungarian so we were very limited to who we could speak to. It was really nice and it gave me confidence that if I can make it through consecration week, I can do anything.

This is the last email that I will send from the United States. The time has gone by so quickly, but I am ready to go. 

I've been ready to go since the first day, but I am truly so grateful for the experiences that I've had here at the MTC. I've grown so much, especially spiritually, while being here. My favorite thing about the MTC was the spirit that was always felt here. During class, devotionals, meetings, etc, the spirit was so powerful. The peace I feel here is a peace that I want to feel for the rest of my life. 

I am so thankful for everybody who makes the MTC possible. There are several hard working employees that make the MTC, the MTC. They are great

I've been so lucky to be at the MTC right now. There are so many things that has happened since we've been here, that has never happened ever before. For example, L. Tom Perry came and spoke to us for last Tuesday's devotional, so that makes six Apostles that we have seen, in person, during our stay here at the MTC. That is half of them... HALF OF THEM! How cool is that. I've felt the spirit so strongly while listening to the prophets of the Lord. Last Sunday I got to call my mom on Mother's Day, which has never happened at the MTC either, due to the numerous amount of people, but we all got to call our mom's and talk to them for thirty minutes. It was a quick thirty minutes, but I wasn't sad because I will get to talk to my parents again on Monday. Another thing that they let us do during our preparation day last week was go down to BYU (I LOVE BYU) and check out an art exhibit at the Museum of Art (M.O.A). It was so great to walk down to BYU again. Where I used to live, a year ago, is now replaced by all new Heritage Buildings. They look really nice. Anyways, the art exhibit was called "Sacred Gifts," and basically what it was, was really really old paintings of times during the Savior's life. They weren't just paintings from random painters, but well-known artists. They came from old churches in Denmark. There were signs everywhere that they have never been removed from their places until now because the people felt like the people in Utah would really respect them and that they would really appreciate them so they loaned them out for a period of time so that they could be shown off at BYU. I think that was really awesome. That's the first time that missionaries were aloud to go off campus for Preparation Day, beside to the temple. We had a fun time and after we checked out the art exhibit we ran to the creamery. Oh, I have so many fond memories from my freshman year at BYU in that creamery. As I was in there I was reminded of the spontaneous trips my roommates and I would take to the creamery. Awh, that was the life (: Anyways it's safe to say that we've been the luckiest group in MTC history. We've seen so many great people and have got to do so many things that other people haven't been able to do. I'm so thankful that I came when I did. 

I want to brag about my teachers just for a bit. I had the BEST teachers ever at the MTC. Hands down. They've been so great, and I couldn't have asked for better ones...and even if I had, they don't exist. I can't say thank you, to them, enough for the hard work they've put in to helping us become effective missionaries. 

Our head teacher, Brother Grossen, I've mentioned him before. This is his third/fourth year teaching at the MTC, so he knows what he's doing. He is so smart when it comes to Hungarian and the Doctrine. This guy is a spiritual GIANT. Every single spiritual thought that he gave was perfect. It was exactly what I needed, and exactly when I needed it. I look up to him so much, and if I come back with just half of the spiritual capacity that, that man possesses I will be a happy-camper.

Sister Hardy was this cute little return missionary. I absolutely loved her. She was so nice and helpful. I really felt like she cared about us and wanted the best for us. She was a great teacher and made sure that we understood everything before moving on. I really appreciated that. All in all, there was nothing about Sister Hardy that I didn't like. 

Brother Beaumont was another one of our teachers. This guy was great. I learned so much from him and he helped me a lot when it came to learning the language. It's interesting that some people just have a way of teaching that makes it easier for you to understand. Brother Beaumont had that talent to getting principles through my thick head. Not to mention he made class fun, as did Grossen and Hardy. They took their jobs seriously, but we all had our share of laughs a long the way. 

In conclusion, I'm going to cry like a baby on Saturday when we have to say goodbye to them. They took my great MTC experience and made it exceptional. I couldn't have done it without their help, patience, and care that they showed me. I will miss them so much and will always remember them as my wonderful MTC teachers.

So, my flight plans... We leave the MTC Monday at 11:30 AM and head to Salt Lake City. I've been told that it is about a half an hour. We will get to the airport where then we will have to go through security. Once we are through security we can lounge around by our gate. Our flight doesn't leave until 5:01 PM so I'll have a good two to three hours to call people! Once our flight leaves Salt Lake City we will arrive in Paris, ten hours later. Then we have about an hour wait until the next flight goes to Budapest. I'm so excited to go to Paris, and I'm super excited to go to Budapest. Like I said, I've been waiting for this day since I was dropped off on March 19th and now it's finally here! Yay!

I don't have much else to say, besides that the next email you'll read will be from Hungary. I'll take lots of pictures so hopefully you can see a little of Paris and of Budapest. 

I love you all and God bless you and your families! God be with you 'til we speak again.

Whitaker Növér

Michaela Janae Whitaker	1:31 PM (19 hours ago)
to me, Connie

I swear (Not really, I'm a missionary) that the weeks here at the MTC just get better and better. I really don't know how next week could be better than the prior weeks I've had at the MTC. 

This week, Elder Holland came to the MTC and spoke to us! I absolutely love Elder Holland. Prior to my mission I always thought of Elder Holland as my "favorite," but with all the apostles that have came within the last month, I no longer have a "favorite." I love all of them, with all my heart. 

-----> Elder Holland spoke about our purpose as a missionary. "Invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End." He emphasized the importance of acting in no hypocrisy. Something that he said that really stuck out to me was in the beginning of his talk. He said, " We invite others to come unto Christ. What does invite mean...It means that we will not take anybody where we are not." I loved this because we as missionaries tell people to "turn to Christ, read the scriptures, pray, go to church, repent, etc." but what good does that do if we have not done all of these things for ourselves. We teach all of these things, but what good is a hypocrite? These people need good examples, not hypocrites. I made the choice to live what I teach so that others can look at me as an example, and a friend.

Another thing Elder Holland spoke of was the importance of life after the mission. Elder Holland does not dislike anything more than an RM falling away from the church. He said "you will not fall back into your old life, because your old life doesn't exist. You have been preaching the gospel every day for the last year and a half/ two years... THIS IS LIFE NOW!" I love how Elder Holland expresses himself. We definitely got to see a different side to him, than what we see at General Conference. He is a lot more open and expressive in his words. Another funny thing he said was, "If you are not the best missionaries you can be, I'll come find you and knee you in the throat... I'm not above anything." The whole congregation got a real good laugh out of that. 

I could go on and on and and on about what I liked about his talk. I only took five pages of notes, which is about how many pages I write on during one session of General conference. That's saying something! Anyways, we are so lucky to be at the MTC right now. 

After the devotional, my companion and roommates were walking outside along the sidewalk and here comes Elder Holland in his fancy car, he stops, rolls down his window and talks directly to all of us who were standing there. He just said, "You missionaries be good and waved to us." But still, that is still really cool and much more than a lot of other people get to experience in their life. Afterward, a Branch President came up to us and said "You know you've been here for the record number of apostles that have came to the MTC in a given time." That was really cool to hear too! I don't know if it's because we need it or that they just love us so much, that they come. I'm thinking its the latter. 

My Branch President's mission President was Elder Ballard and so he has connections with him. Yesterday our Branch President said that we will have another "wild and ferocious" devotional this coming Tuesday too, so my companion and I think it might be Elder Ballard. How cool would that be. Six apostles within a month, pretty much. That's like half! Plus, all the ones I've seen at BYU. I love my life (:

That was the highlight of the week and mostly what I wanted to talk about! 

One last thing, this week is consecration week and our teachers encouraged us to give up something to consecrate our week to the Lord. I chose to give up writing/reading letters. Instead I will be writing letters to my Heavenly Father for everything I'm grateful for in my life. 

You all may still write me letters, but just know that I won't read them or be able to respond to them until next Thursday.

Wow, by the time consecration week is over I'll only have four days until I go to Hungary. Ah! I am so excited! I've been ready since the first week (don't get me wrong, I love the MTC) but I just want to meet and teach the Magyar people!

Mother's Day is coming up and I want to say Happy Mother's Day to all the hard-working mothers out there. I am so thankful for my mom and don't know what I would do without her. I am SO glad and excited I get to talk to her on Sunday.

Anyways, I hope all of you have a wonderful week! God be with you 'til we speak again!

Sok Szerettét (Lots of Love)

Whitaker Növér

                                          Check out these curlers.

                                         New Shoes finally!!!

                                          Hi

Two weeks and five days until I'm on a plane to Hungary!!!

Hello all! I am starting to get really excited! It's May 1, which means we leave this month! Woohoo!! 

This week has been super awesome!! 

First, at our devotional on Sunday we had a speaker, that we heard our very first week at the MTC. His name is Stephen Allen and he is a really good speaker. The Elders in our district got front row seating and us sisters were a couple rows back. They encouraged us to come sit by them so we did. Well Brother Allen likes interactive devotionals. At the beginning he would say things like "Stand up if..." and if it applied to you, you would stand up. Well half-way through his devotional, he looks at us, in the front row. Oh, and his talk was about speaking to investigators who have never heard of the gospel and how to approach them. So he was talking about the sacrifices that missionaries make to come on a mission and how, through our faith, we serve because we know that the Lord will help us as we make sacrifices to serve him. So anyways, he looks at us and tells us to come up to the stage and say one thing that we gave up to come on a mission. We were given strict instructions that we could not repeat something someone else before us had already said, well I was fourth in line and of course all the obvious ones (friends, family, school) had already been said, but the Elder in front of me who said School went to UVU (Utah Valley University) so when I got up there, I said school, BYU. He liked my answer better because he graduated from BYU, so I got off the hook (: Anyways, it was in front of the whole MTC (main and east campus) so that was a surprise. 

Second,  we got to listen to ANOTHER, yes another, apostle speak. No, it wasn't Elder Holland, but it was D. Todd Chistofferson, who is just as good! He came Tuesday and spoke to us about trust. There were a lot of things he said that I liked, but one thing he said was "It's greater to be trusted than to be loved." I thought about that and at first I thought to myself, "wouldn't you rather be loved than trusted?" But as he continued to speak, my opinion quickly changed and I learned a lot of important things about trust. Elder Christofferson shared his favorite story of trust in the Book Of Mormon. It is found in Helaman 10, when the Lord talks to Nephi, the son of Helaman, and gives him power to seal.
I studied this story in my personal study and I thought to myself, "Wow, I can't even imagine being so faithful and obedient to the Lord's will that I would get the chance to not just see God, but he that he would give me the same power that he gave Nephi." The Lord gave Nephi power to move mountains. That is so cool to me! 

Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Elder Christofferson! I wonder who the next apostle will be (;

Last of all, We got to Skype with a real Hungarian on Tuesday! It was sooooo cool! Although the lady that my companion and I skyped with didn't have a really good camera and the sound quality was really really really bad so couldn't hear her. Our camera and sound quality, for her, was fine but unfortunately there wasn't a great two way connection. My companion and I kept on saying "meg egysér" which means, "one more time" and then when she would repeat herself she would say whatever it was really slow, so I felt like she thought we didn't understand her, but that wasn't the case, we just couldn't hear her! It was kind of sad, but its all right. We get to do it every week until we leave, which is only two more weeks! AH! Anyway, she lives in Budapest and most likely we will get to meet her, in person, while on our mission so I'm excited. 

Anyways, those are the big highlights of the week. It sounds like if you live in South Dakota you're still experiencing the cold. Sorry, but I'm not surprised. I hope all is well for everyone and thank you for all the letters and emails! They are much appreicated!

God be with you 'til we speak again.

Növér Whitaker