Week 38: 11 months! Day 335...Happy Birthday, Joseph Smith!

December 23, 2013

Hey! 

I can't believe it's been 11 months today! By the time I Skype with you on Wednesday, I'll have LESS than 7 months left on my mission. It's crazy. In case you didn't know, today is also Joseph Smith's birthday. I didn't do the math though, so I don't know how old he would be. Don't feel bad if you weren't aware; I didn't know either until this guy here made a big deal about how we should be celebrating his birthday instead of Christ's. Yeah...he's not completely sane, and no longer a member... Anyway. hahaha. I have that written in my planner today, so I thought I'd share: Happy birthday, Joseph Smith!

We've had a pretty good week, and it's been super busy. We had stacks on stacks (of programs, not money) planned, and then on Thursday night, we found out that the annual Christmas party had been cancelled, because the people who were supposed to be planning it, hadn't. Needless to say, we offered to step in and put together a pretty good event with only a day and a half's notice! I mean, only 5 members total showed up (YAY, branch support!), but we had a ton of investigators, friends and people from English Class show up. It just would have been nice to have more members come and enjoy it, because they all complain about the branch, lack of coordination and events and stuff, but everyone there had fun. I'd say it was a success because so many people did come and I'm positive that it was the best place they could be on a Saturday night, rather than out at other parties or on the street with all the people drinking and on holiday. We taught them how to make paper snowflakes and played signs, made them all hot chocolate and had bought tons of candy and süti (treats? dessert? IDK). We had decorated the chapel for it and the hallway and made a playlist of music to play on the big speakers. 

The day before the party (so the one day we had to plan and prep), we were actually in Buda for our Christmas Zone Conference and party. It was super good and uplifting and then we played games, had a giant lunch and did a white elephant. Pretty much, I just love missionary gatherings and it was all good. (: The train ride back wasn't as great; Sister Fresh and I had both gotten headaches during Conference and by that time they had turned into migraines, so we both just went and laid across some seats and tried to sleep while everyone else talked. Haha and then something was wrong with the tracks, so we stopped in the middle of nowhere for a good 45 min or so. But we got home and i felt better by then! (: 

It's crazy, because the longer I'm out here, the less trunky I get and the less I want to go back to the real world and face real people problems like dating and working and planning a life. haha I just love Hungary and the people here and all my friends I've made on my mission. We always talk about how it's kind of sad, because we all get to be such good friends out here and we become each other's family and think that we'll stay in touch forever and write each other every week. But then we'll all go home and we go back to our real lives at home and family and pre-mission friends and we get really busy in our new lives and we know that we won't stay as close or talk as much and our mission will just become a dream in the past. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it has completely changed my life and my perspective on life. A few months ago, I didn't think I'd ever say this, but everyone (who has the chance) should go on a mission!

I probably have more that I could tell you all, but I'm Skyping with you in 2 days and I talk to the rest of you every week anyway... well, most of you. So, if you wrote me, then you just got another email back from me. Shoot me any questions or concerns. Hope life is great! OH! And...MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Love,

Sister Megan Butterfield

Week 37: Day 328 -- Almost Christmas!

Day 328! Almost Christmas!

December 16, 2013

Hey!

I hope you got the pictures I sent! If not, feel free to check 'em out on my blog, I'm sure they'll be up there pretty soon. (: I don't really have too much to tell you all this week. Mostly, I'm just stoked for the rest of this transfer's events. We have Zone Conference in Buda on Friday, Tuesday-Thursday off next week, New Year's and New Year's eve off the next week, a baptism in the branch the next week (the elders super cute investigator, Adri, a super solid, 20-year old girl), and then I think transfer calls are the week after that. :\

We had another funny food experience this week. haha. We were over at this house eating some freshly butchered pig and the guy just kept making us eat more and more until we were literally stuffed. He took away our plates and so we thought we were done eating, until he realized he forgot to have us try his homemade sausage... He was super excited about it, so we told him we'd try a LITTLE bit of it. Yeah...no. He got off a huge chunk for each of us and a giant slice of bread. Anyway, luckily he left to use the bathroom and there was no one else in the room, so I just looked at Broadhead and we both grabbed our napkins and stuffed the majority in them and then stuck it all in my purse. Don't worry; we left some on our plates to be eating when he came back in. My purse smelled like kolbász for a while...

We also bought a Christmas tree this week! We were out tracting one morning and then started heading home for our lunch break, when we saw this guy by a 10-story, selling Christmas trees. We were already planning on buying one from a store, but these were cheaper, so we bought one and carried it home. Actually, mostly Broadhead carried it home, because she really wanted to and she kept saying how happy she was. It was super cute. Then, we put it up during lunch bought some lights and tinsels and it's pretty much always turned on now. Also, we simmer some oranges, cinnamon and vanilla on our stove to make it smell like Christmas (and get rid of the stupid Raid smell haha).

We STILL have cockroaches. Not as many, but they still exist... I actually found three running on Sister Broadhead's toothbrush the other day... Luckily I had an extra one in my suitcase, because we definitely threw that one out. hahah

Sorry this is a short one! Hope you're all having a good Christmas season. Shoot me an email sometime, if you get a chance. If not... maybe I'll see you in 7 months or maybe not. ;) haha

Love you all!

Sister Butterfield

PS - If anyone talks to DeAnn or Hunter, tell them happy birthday this weekend for me! (:

Carrying our tree home!

Our Christmas Tree! (Ignore the messy apartment. Haha!)

A Sign we found on the door while tracting! We thought it was funny! But it's probably not very funny if you speak German?

The cutest little girl in the Branch here! She always runs up and gives us hugs and will just stand next to us and hold onto our waist. So cute!  

Some pillows that the little girl's older brother made for us! (:

Elder Bennett likes to call them "Bum" bars.

Dead man. Corbishley is officially back in England. ):

 On our way back from the baptism in Kispest on my birthday! 3 of my comps! (:

 Pre- District Thanksgiving Lunch!

 Tracting: All Day Every Day!

We went to buy our White Elephant gifts for our Zone Conference this week and...let's just say, IDK if she'll give this away anymore. It slept between us that night and has gone a lot of places with us since then...hahaha! I think she's gone crazy! ;)

Viki surprised me and came fromVeszprém to church in Székes yesterday! Love her! She's currently working on her mission papers...I'm hoping she comes to Utah; that's her first choice!

Week 36: Day 322! 15 days till Christmas!

December 10, 2013

Hey!

Transfer calls came and....we guessed it! At the beginning of the transfer we thought that we were only staying for the first half together, but then we started getting really good numbers and standard\super standard and he told us he was super happy with our work. So, we guessed that just because of that, he would keep us together... BINGO. hahaha So, we're having Christmas together and New Year’s! Actually, we found out that we get like 2 days off for Christmas (from 2 pm Christmas Eve until 2 pm on December 26) and then New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! Hallelujah! Just to emphasis how happy we all were-- Fresh started crying in District Meeting when they announced that last week. hahaha. I'm excited to take a nap and catch up in my journal and SKYPE! Speaking of, I think we'll be able to Skype any time between 4 pm and like 8 pm on Christmas Day here, which is like 8 am to noon there. Oh! And I got your Christmas package! Thanks!!! (: I'm really excited to open the presents in it! Also, even better news, one of my favorite elders ever is coming here to serve with Bennett. HANCEY! I thought Judd would be the elder that I serve around the longest in my mission, 21 weeks, but I'm pretty sure Hancey will beat him! I already served with him in the MTC and Debrecen, and I'm pretty sure we'll both be here for the next 5 week transfer and the 9 week transfer too (at least), because both of our comps have been here forever. So... that makes it like… 29? Whoa. Can't even be mad though. That means that everyone in this city is from my MTC group and we're all the same mission age! There are two, (Bennett and Broadhead) from one MTC District, and Hancey and I from the other. We're stoked. It's gonna be a GREAT Christmas. (:

Also, Sister Smith (the mission president's wife) called and told me to have you (mostly she said Mom) check http://hungaryldsmission.org/  because she put up a picture of Kriszti's baptism. Anyway, I thought some other people might like it, because you can track most of the baptisms in the mission, and people keep asking about numbers and stuff. so...tessék!

Hm... I had lots of exciting stuff to tell you, but we had a really rough weekend...All of the really solid people that popped up have started falling through, so... here we go again! haha. Probably had the worst program of my mission on Sunday, it might be tied with the ones in Buda when that investigator called us all sinners and insulted us all, just because he's the only investigator that has made me legitimately angry. Anyway, this one was with the cute family that we were super excited for. We were walking over to the program and just picturing taking a picture with them all in white, getting baptized and we just invested so much excitement and hope in them. Anyway, we got there and tried to start the program with a prayer, but he hesitated when we asked, and we knew it was all going downhill from there... He pretty much just told us that it's all just foreign and strange to him and everything is just stories to him, he doesn't have any faith in it, and it was all more serious than he originally thought it would be. He told us that he didn't want us to waste any more time on them and as much as we tried to convince him that we would never consider it a waste, even if we got to the end of all the lessons and he still wasn't interested, he still didn't want to hear the rest of the lessons. While all of this was happening, his little daughters were busy playing with something, so they didn't realize what was happening and when we got up to leave they followed us to the door and were jumping around all excited saying "bye, see you next time, bye, bye," like cute, little excited girls. Yeah, needless to say, we almost lost it in the elevator on our way down and that was a tough night. All we want is to help that family. 

We had another cool, older guy that we just gave a pass along card to as he walked by a couple weeks ago and the weirdest thing happened: HE called US! (That NEVER happens in Hungary, even when you call an investigator or member and they miss or call, they will rarely call you back). We were super excited about him the first couple times we met, but then we realized he's not as legit as we thought. He won't really accept and kind of scoffs at the idea of receiving answers to our prayers through the Holy Ghost, feelings, and scripture reading, unless it comes from an actual voice. He prays, he just doesn't think we can ask questions. Sometimes when we're bearing testimony or talking about something, he'll just kinda laugh and it's really uncomfortable. 

The other cute girl from English class hasn't really been able to meet for a couple weeks. So… it's all just been interesting. We tracted into a lady\girl? I don't know what to call people anymore... sorry. But yeah, we did the tracting survey and asked if she was interested in talking more with us and she said she wants to meet with us consistently, like once a week at the same time. So…that was pretty cool! She also meets with a JW missionary once a week, so… this should be interesting. haha I'm hoping that she'll be able to feel a difference from when she meets with us and with the JW. 

We went to visit this super cute part member family in a little falu yesterday, because we were worried about the chance of Broadhead getting transferred out. Anyway, they fed us some soup and then they gave us a ton of mashed potatoes and two fish fillet things each, but Broadhead hates fish. She tried to eat one and made it about halfway through it until she turned to me and just whispered "Butterfield. I can't do it. Do you think you can you pound my fish?" haha I was already going to offer to eat it, the problem was just how to get it from her plate to mine. Also, I was pretty full, so she offered to take some of my potatoes instead. Anyway, it was the funniest thing, because the family is so hectic, they had like 5 kids there, running in and out of the room and everyone was running around doing stuff, so we just had to watch and make sure no one was looking and as soon as we got the chance we were like frantically trying to shovel and fling our food onto each other’s plates. hahahaha. I managed to get her fish, but she only got like a spoonful of my potatoes before we had to stop. And then we just were sitting there, laughing so hard silently, because no one had noticed. hahaha They are super cute though and they always give us little candies and things when we come over. We'll for sure visit them when we come back to Hungary! 

I was going to tell you about some funny Hungarian, winter superstitions, but I'm running out of time. Pretty much, you can't sit on benches outside, because they think you'll go sterile if you do. haha So people look at us like crazy people when we sit on them at the bus stop and stuff. I'll tell you some other ones later, if I remember! 

Let me know if you have any questions for me! Sometimes I run out of things to tell you. Hope you all have a fantastic week. I'm sure we will! Listen to lots of Christmas music. Eat junk food. Maybe read the scriptures or go to church or something. ;) Life's great, don't forget that! (: LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Megan

  

On November 1, Kriszti was baptized in Kispest by Károly.  He also confirmed her a member of the Church on Sunday, November 3.  Kriszti was introduced to the Church through a friend. She was taught the gospel by Sister Behunin, Sister Perkins, Sister Fresh, Sister Falslev, Sister Butterfield and Sister Westover. (Copied from http://hungaryldsmission.org/.)

Panni, Kriszti, Sister Fresh, Sister Butterfield

Week 35: Day 314! Wait, why am I even counting! I still have 234 left! Thanksgiving!

December 2, 2013

HEY! (:

What's good! I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! (: Mine was pretty good. We had a district Thanksgiving lunch after district meeting on Thursday! Everyone brought something different, so we had: lemon-honey chicken, rolls, regular mashed potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, salad, etc. It was just Sisters Broadhead, Maxfield and Fresh, and Elders Bennett, Thomas, Swink and Corbishley! That night during our dinner hour we also went out for Nutella Palacsintas (like crepes) with the Elders and Krisztian, because Corbishley was here on splits with Elder Thomas. It was a good day over all! We also had English class, but our day was crazy before that! We went out tracting and as we got let into a building, this car pulled up and we heard all these shouts and yelling and so we went into the building, but kept the door cracked open so that we could see what was going on (it was like 4:30, so it was super dark outside). This guy was like beating up this girl in his car, who was probably like 20ish. And everyone was just walking by, not doing anything. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen to be honest. I'm surprised she wasn't knocked out by how hard her head hit the window when he punched her face. Anyway, no more details, but you can imagine how we felt as we went into the building and thought…well... now we have to go knock on all these doors and be happy while we talk to all these people. Yeah, tracting was the last thing either of us wanted to do, but we did it anyway. We went through like half the building before we had to leave for a program before English Class. We only had like 5 minutes left and we both started walking towards the stairs, but we both started walking up the stairs for some reason and then one of us was just like, Hey, let's try one more door and then we'll go. We just kept walking and went up two floors and approached a door in the corner. Long story short, it was a young dad, who actually preferred to talk to us in English to practice, with a sweet wife and 3 cute little daughters, and we did the survey and it was PERFECT. Sister Broadhead turned to him at the end and was like, "What would you say if I told you that you could live with your family forever?" and he sat and thought for a second and he was like "Well, I'd say that would be a miracle!" So then I told him about the Book of Mormon, but we were in a hurry, because our next program called to tell us that they were at the branch house, so we set up to meet this week again and bring them a copy and he said that it's a miracle we caught them at their house, because he's usually out with his kids every night at their activities, except exactly that time on Thursdays! We're super excited for them!

In contrast with that, we had a long day on Friday. We literally got chased out of a building in the morning and in the afternoon we spent several hours out in the cold, trying to find a referral out in the middle of nowhere, who actually ended up sic’ing her dog on us. While we were in the area we looked up an RCLA who lived relatively close... AKA, we still had to walk like 30 min to their house. But they weren't home. So we walked another 30+ min to another RCLAs home and got kinda lost in the process. We were in the middle of no where and it was super dark and we were literally afraid that we were going to get jumped. Hahaha we had the phone out just in case. But then we found her, and she was busy... so we went home frozen for dinner. But it was a good day, nonetheless. We were just exhausted!

Haha, everyone keeps asking about the Cafe Rio-like restaurant. Guess what it's called! "Gringos Amigos" hahahaha! Anyway, it was actually really good! Obviously not as good as Cafe Rio, but pretty close! Or maybe I've just been out for too long. Oh well, I'm not complaining! I'll take what I can get!

The good news is that it's December and we all know what that means.... No Shave November is over! Hallelujah! Worst idea ever, hahaha Sister Broadhead and I have been dying for the past couple weeks, wanting to shave. But, I couldn't, because Maxfield and I decided to do it. Let's just say, yesterday was a good day. (: The only thing I can complain about from yesterday is what happened when we got home. Haha we sat down on our couches to do nightly planning and we were talking and then all the sudden I saw something out of the corner of my eye. There was a cockroach running away from my direction on the coach. I about lost it, haha not because I was grossed out and screaming, but only because we are so fed up with them being everywhere. Broadhead ran over and we both took turns trying to smush it. Yeah, try smushing a bud on a squishy couch. The couch will just squish in and the bug will keep running. Plus, it probably didn't help that I was using an empty water bottle and she was using the end of a pen. hahahaha. It wasn't a problem when they were in the kitchen until they started showing up in our living quarters too, like running across our dining room table, or on my couch or across the carpet or in our bathroom. We aren't really sure what to do, because it already got fumigated 2 weeks ago and they left poison. but... oh well? haha We can't really do anything about it. hahaha

Before I forget, transfers are next week, so we'll be emailing on Tuesday, not Monday!

Random things about Székes - everyone here likes to call us by our first names and it's the weirdest thing ever. I mean, I'm not mad about it, it's just strange to hear and sometimes I don't even recognize it when they're talking to me. haha. Also, the kids here (in all of Hungary) are the CUTEST things ever. I still don't want one (any time soon). Hahaha--sorry. Also, they opened a KFC in this city on Saturday! Much better here than in America, that's for sure. Okay, weird fact, everyone here loves the British X-Factor. I think that's the only TV show that I've ever heard talked about here in Hungary. They just watch it all the time and LOVE it. ?

Sister Fresh and Sister Maxfield told me that they started teaching a really cool, Peruvian investigator in Veszprém.... call me crazy, but I almost cried... RIGHT when I got transferred out, they find him... Sounds like everyone's doing well there though, which makes me happy. I put so much effort into that city; I just sometimes wish that I could have seen more of the results. Oh well. I miss that branch though, that's definitely one that we'll go to church with when we come visit!

Other than that... It's crazy how much I have learned on my mission, especially about the Book of Mormon. Okay, so Broadhead and I found this out last week: The Mulekites came from Jerusalem ten years after Lehi and his family because the Lord commanded them too, but they didn't keep any records, so we don't know anything about it, but there were three groups that came to the Americas: the Jaredites (way earlier), Lehi's family AND the Mulekites. Okay, so maybe I'm just an idiot...haha! I'm sure I learned about that at some point... some time... but we thought it was super cool. If you already knew, then... there's a nice refresher for you, if not... you're welcome! (: Haha!

Hope you all have a great week! Life's great! Remember that! I'll let you know what's happening on Tuesday!

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

Week 34: Reading Jesus the Christ

November 25, 2013

Hey!

It's been a great week! Sister Broadhead is the best! Honestly, we have realized that we're pretty much the same person in a lot of ways and that our life is the same. haha. It's kind of funny. We have SO much in common, it's weird. Plus, we work superrr hard together, so it's the best of both worlds. ha. We're actually planning on going to Boston next year; a few weeks after we get home...it's a good plan. haha Another good plan? We've started taking the stairs while tracting, instead of taking the elevator to the top (in buildings that have one) and working our way down. We're making sure that we don't get fat; since I'm trying to eat through all the stuff you all have sent hahaha. We'll see how long the stairs thing works...

I still can't say that I know my way around Székes, but it's not as big as I thought it was. I definitely lied when I said it's the 4th biggest in Hungary. We can't remember who told us that, but then we found out that it's only like the 9th or something. The good news is that according to some reports, it's actually the most dangerous. hahaha. Okay no, the real good news is that I have seen more police cars driving around here than the rest of my 5 cities put together, so at least we're protected?

I can't really think of too much else about this week. I realized, that I seriously think I have ADD or something. haha I cannot sit still or concentrate in meetings, like church, to save my life. It's bad. But, it's nice because that's usually when lots of random inspiration comes about investigators... or what I'm going to email you all the next day or....what groceries I need to buy.... haha yikes. I think my mission has fried my brain. 

Oh! We got permission to go up to Buda tonight for P-day and try this new restaurant that opened! It's owned by some members who are trying to recreate Cafe Rio (there's one in Buda and one in Kecskemét), and I've heard its super good! A member is driving us up! Saying that I'm stoked would be an understatement. That's still the first restaurant we're going to when I get home... (:

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. I hope that you're all doing well. On a more spiritual side, as Christmas is coming, we, as a mission, are studying one Christlike attribute a week until New Years. The first week was Faith, last week was hope and this week is Charity & Love, if any of you would like to join in. Also, Jesus the Christ is a really good book. I know it's long, but read it! (Just push through the first 3 or 4 chapters, those are the hardest). If there's anything I know in this world it is that Jesus Christ is my big Brother, watching over me and rooting for me. I owe Him more than I can ever give Him and I am SO grateful for Him. I can't imagine making it through this life without the knowledge of Him and of a loving Heavenly Father. Really, I don't know how people do it. If you don't KNOW yet, try it out. Study about Christ and His life, try praying. I know that you will feel of it for yourself. I hope you all know that I love you all too and I miss you like crazy every, single day. Smile. (:

Love,

Sister Butterfield

Week 33: So Many Cockroaches! Yikes!!! Plus Tons of Pictures!

November 18, 2013
Hey, hey!

What's up! I hope life is great, I didn't hear from some of you this week, which is funny because I finally have time to email longer! haha But I hope life is fantastic.

I don't really know how to describe my week. Haha. Sister Broadhead is the bomb, so we've been having fun over here in Fehérvár. But uh... let's just say we killed 43 cockroaches in our kitchen my first day here and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. We stopped counting after 43 and then we came back and killed more that night. We went ham with the Raid and went through a whole bottle. No worries, the fumigators are coming tomorrow, we've just been avoiding our kitchen like the plague. Unfortunately that means we haven't really eaten too well this week, mostly just...bread, oreos, apples and plums. hahaha. Help. 

This week has flown by though! It's CRAZY how different each transfer is with each different companion and city and stuff. I have to say, this isn't my favorite city, there's something weird about it and I just haven't really felt that confirmation yet like "oh yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be" or "this is home." I went back to Veszprém for district meeting a couple days ago and that doesn't feel like home anymore either, so it's just been kind of a weird week of not feeling like I belong here. It's hard to explain. Actually, there going to have to close a city down to sisters in three weeks when Perkins and Kennedy go home and I have this weird feeling that it’s this city, but I'm almost positive that it's not, so I just need to start loving this city! (: We don't really have any really serious investigators that I know of, I haven't met with everyone yet, but from what it sounds like, we don't. Sister Broadhead actually opened this city with Sister Montenegro, from our MTC group, the same transfer that I was with Fowers in Veszprém, so they've both been open the same amount of time. This city is bigger than Veszprém; it's the 4th biggest in Hungary (so the only big city I'm missing is #3 Szeged), but it's really not big at all. Haha. The branch is definitely smaller than Veszprém's. We had 6 people in Relief Society, counting me and Sister Broadhead. 

Also, the wheel on my biggest suitcase got DESTROYED this transfer. Funny, because we were actually just talking about how sturdy they are and how they've lasted me 5 moving transfers without any problems. What should I do about it? I'm going to ask the members here if there's anywhere that replaces wheels, but would it be better to just buy a new one? Like will a new wheel stay sturdy? merr. This is a pain. 

We also found out that there are 3 new sisters (one Hungarian) coming in the transfer in January and then 8 in the next one in March, so pretty much everyone around my age will probably be training. Yikes. :\ Haha I do have to admit though, it's weird to go back co-senior after being senior. Super weird. I don't know how I feel about it yet…haha and I didn't think I'd ever say that. Maybe that's one of the reasons I needed this transfer. Who knows? But I still want to serve with pretty much everyone in my MTC group, because they're all like my favorite sisters in the mission and they're all awesome. I feel like we're all pretty much sisters, its weird haha. 

Anywho... I had the weirdest flashbacks of us all Christmas shopping in Chile, at those far away malls, when we'd all split up with different family members and buy presents for the ones we weren't with and then we'd split again. And yeah, it made me super trunky for a couple minutes. I miss those times! They seem SO long ago. I mean, I guess they were like 10 years ago. Ah. What happened to life?! Haha 

I love you all! Have fun this week! Watch a movie for me and then... don't tell me about it. (: Haha. But do update me on life, I have no idea what's happening in the real world, except for the typhoon. Scary stuff. 

Love,

Sister Butterfield

 Sister Maxfield and I in Duna last transfer for Zone Training.

 Stuff Sister Fresh gave me for my birthday! Haha!

 Just had to zoom in on our districts favorite part of the gift... hahaha!

Some halloween decorations that we made for our door.... don't worry, it wasn't my idea, I'm still the same old, not-creative, not-crafty me. Haha I'm sure some of you may have almost had a heart attack thinking that it was my idea to be creative. Haha take a deep breath. It's just something that makes Maxfield happy. Hahaha, plus then we ended up giving them to a little family who was having a Halloween party and they loved it (:

Writing notes for people's mail boxes on our way up to buda for interviews.. (:

 Train rides. Meet the Veszprém missionaries. ha

 some toe socks the elders bought me for my birthday (:

Wearin' the socks. Drinkin' "birds milk." It's the best.

The tag was probably one of the best parts of their gift. I figured you'd all enjoy it too.

We all look ridiculous, but...we always did this on our way to sport nap. The other kid comes to our English class and sport nap. He meets with the elders--kinda.

 On our way to Stake Conference in Pest a few weeks ago.

 Love these kids.

 Surprise birthday party at an RCLA's house that we visit every week. (:

 My two favorite members in Veszprém in one picture. Balázs and Gizi!

Zone conference in Buda; they planned theirs, I just happened to be wearing it too. Hahaha this is what you get when you all shop at H&M.

 Kriszti's (from Buda) baptism in Kispest! Panni's the other one in here, she's getting baptized in a couple weeks! (:

 Two of my favorite companions! Actually,I've loved pretty much all of them. (:

Panni! Miss her. 

 Yeahh, Sister Perkins! Can't believe she goes home in 3 weeks too. 

 Our district last transfer.It's mostly the same, just 2 people less and one new person.

Cockroaches! Don't worry, they aren't the huge, black, South American ones. 

Week 32: Transfer Call! 5th City in 6th Transfers

November 12, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Weeeeeeee. You'll never guess my transfer call! Hahaha well, I guess Katie will, because I already wrote to her about it. But... my new companion is Kelsee Broadhead!!! AKA - Polly and Mike's neighbor! Before our missions, we wanted to serve together in the MTC, but obviously that didn't happen. Then we got out here and our chances didn't look very high, plus, we've been in the same district in neighboring cities for the past 4 months. We thought we were both getting transferred this time. Nope! Her current companion is Sister Fresh (who I served with in Buda). Turns out, Fresh and I are just swapping spots. Soooo, tomorrow I will be going to Székesfehérvár, my 5th city in 6 transfers! Crazy, huh! This will also be companion #9. I'm just wringin' in the numbers over here. Haha I actually started to think the last couple weeks that I would stay here and I was really excited about it. We have so many promising investigators now and I LOVE the members here SO much, it's crazy. I actually haven't called anyone to tell them that I'm leaving yet, because a lot of them were in tears just when I brought it up in their programs lately and they thought I would probably be the one leaving. I can't break it to them. :( I will eventually, but... yikes. This is the worst part about it all. The work here still isn't ideal, and these definitely haven't been my favorite transfers, but I really love all the people here soo much.
But, I really can't be mad! I'm getting Broadhead!  I'm really hoping that we'll stay together for Christmas, but I think the chances of that are slim. There's actually a mini transfer in 4 weeks, but it won't be so mini: 2 sisters are going home and about 8 elders or something, and no one knew is coming in, so they're going to have to close some cities and call a new AP, 2 new sister training leaders and like 4 new ZL's, so it's actually supposed to be a really big transfer... :/ oh well, I'll take 4 weeks with her if that's all I can get! We've been talking about how much we wish we could just serve together somehow; not thinking it would happen, but... alas. We lucked out.
Other than that... It's been a really good week for us, work wise. We actually went on splits on Tuesday; it was really nice to see Sister Perkins again. She dies in 4 weeks, so it was good to talk to her a lot and stuff. (: I can't believe it's been so long since we served together, 6 months!  We did some interesting things this week: bandaging up a member here (we were there because we teach his mom) hand/arm, and taping cardboard to a window that he punched... etc. Getting fed a lot again, having some REALLY, really good programs and a good FHE last night with like my favorite family in the branch here, they're so adorable. They have a 19 year old son who we teach mission prep to and play soccer with every week, a 14 year old daughter and 6 year old daughter who might be the cutest little girl I have ever met in my whole life. She would NOT let me leave their house last night. Haha we just made cat noises to each other all night and she kept coming and wrapping herself around my back... well, once she tired herself out, that is. For the first half, she literally ran up and down the hallway, bouncing around and trying to get all her energy out. Haha she's crazy.

So people have asked me about statistics or what the different organizations and stuff are like in the branches here, so I decided to count it all out as I zoned out in Sacrament meeting yesterday..... haha :) and give you some rough estimates. It's really interesting here in this branch because there are so many little girls, but not many boys at all and i feel like it’s been the opposite in most other places. But…on  a good week at church there are probably about...6 girls and 1 boy in primary, 4 girls in YW and 2 in YM, 2 YSA girls and 4 YSA guys. But, like I said, that’s on a good week…
Anyway, I can't really think of much else to tell you all about. It was a super busy week, but now I can't really remember too much. I love you all!!

Love,
Sister Butterfield

Week 31: Best Birthday Ever!

November 4, 2013

Hey!

So... hm. where so start. Well, I forgot to tell you when I emailed last week, but that morning we actually went and did some interesting service: We went over to our investigator’s house and helped her clean up her apartment and balcony and stuff. We brought our mini vacuum and stuff, since they don't have one and then we spent awhile helping them, well mostly just doing it all. haha It was fun, until we discovered... termites! Everywhere. Especially on the little couch that we sit on 4 times a week when we come over and teach them... yikes! Let’s just say, we cleaned the whole vacuum out and went home and took everything off and put it straight into the washing machine. My comp is still paranoid about it, haha she said they've been in her dreams like every night since. hahaha.

I have to say, this birthday might win the contest for my best birthday ever in some ways. The baptism was PERFECT. I'm so glad that I got to go down for it and see Kriszti and how happy she is! Someone actually read a book as part of his talk at it; In English it's called "You are Special", by Max Lucado. I don't ever remember reading it or hearing about it, but I bought a copy out here and we read it soo much with people. They love it! It's my favorite. Look it up if you haven't ever read it. Anyway, it was just super cute that he read it and... yeah, the whole thing was just really good. Then, I went out to lunch with a bunch of my friends in the mission that are serving in Buda and then we caught our train back to Veszprém and went out to dinner with our elders and an investigator here. It was a good p-day/birthday! People spoiled me! Some elders brought me flowers hahaha and some other people gave me chocolate. Our elders here got me toe socks and fuzzy socks, some other sisters got me a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish, with a Hungarian cover... I can't even remember what else. Some inactive members that we meet with every week had us over and surprised me with cake and sparkling cider and flowers and a kézi munka pillowcase thing, I really have no idea how to say that in English. But yeah, super sweet. They call themselves my Veszprém parents and they always spoil us with food and stuff to take home! They made a specialty for us on Wednesday. I almost died... It was like pig blood sausages and a couple other kinds of stuffed sausages and... bleh. Hahaha! I literally prayed the whole time I ate it.

I don't have too much time, but I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting to tell you. Next week! Speaking of, next week is transfer week, so we're emailing on Tuesday again, not Monday! Wish me luck, I'm kinda really worried about my fate. haha.

Love you all!

Sister Butterfield

Week 30: 20th Birthday This Week!

October 28, 2013

HI!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and cards and stuff, you guys are my favorite! (: People always get mad out here, because apparently I say everyone and everything is my favorite, but, really, you are. Haha. You can never have too many favorites. The good news is, I'm sure I will have a really good birthday, because I got permission to go to one of my favorite investigator ever's baptism from Buda!!! It'll actually be in Kispest though, so I get to go back to my greenie area for the first time, which will be super weird! Probably no one there remembers me, since I was only there for 6 weeks and didn't really interact too much with the branch there. Oh well, we'll see how it goes! I'm excited! (: That also means that our P-Day is actually on Friday too, but we have to email today, because everything will be closed on Friday. It's the Day of the Dead here, so it's like one of the saddest days of the year here, everything closes down (like every other holiday here) and everyone goes to the cemeteries where their relatives are. They prepare for it for weeks, buying wreaths and flower arrangements and stuff to leave on the graves for the next year. I always get weird reactions when people here that it's my birthday. Haha

I don't have a ton of time left to email, but... hm. interesting stories for the week. Yesterday we had Stake Conference up in Pest and they made a pretty cool announcement. The mission is over 5 branches in Hungary and 4 of them were made part of the stake yesterday, in preparation for a new stake sometime soon. Hopefully next year! We'll see! (: Elder Herbertson (or something) from the 70s came up and gave some really good talks! We also have a Zone Conference on Thursday (with two other zones) and Elder Texeira from the 70s is coming to that too. It'll be interesting to hear what we're trained on and stuff. (Side note - on our way to the train station Sunday morning, some guy stepped in front of our bus and so the driver stepped on the breaks and everyone flew. Luckily the old neni's on the bus with us (no one else was there, since it was like 6:30 am) caught themselves on the seat in front of themselves. There wasn't really anything in front of me, so I ate floor and my hip slammed against something, I'm not really sure what. But I have a nice bruise to prove it. (: Haha I'm just glad the old ladies didn't get something worse).

Mm… October 23rd (last Wednesday) was a holiday here, I can't really remember what for, to be honest. They have so many holidays here. Haha. Good excuses to shut the city down and cancel work. We still work. Haha Don't worry. Anyway, that was a funny day. It started out pretty rough, for a few different reasons, but then we were super busy running around and doing things. We did some service up at the new Branch house that's being built here and then we had to run home to change and go over to a member's house for lunch with the elders. We ate so much. Then, we were supposed to meet with someone else, but they got sick and cancelled, so we doorbell ditched some stuff at their house and then surprise visited another member to bring her something too. Then, we rushed over to another member's house/a new member that we teach. And she fed us too. I had to eat a whole, huge bowl of pudding. Let's just say, I've gotten really good at keeping a straight face. Still don't like pudding though. Haha! We thought we were going to die, so we just went home and laid in bed while we did language study and planned. We still don't really want to eat ever. We have gotten soo much food this week, it's crazy. Other than being fed, we also had a fridge full of food that members sent home with us. We're almost through it all. It's nice to not have to make food though. (: I don't think I've had this much food in one week in my whole mission. or even in a few weeks put together. Haha

I can't really think of too much else, sorry this is a boring one, but... hopefully I'll have more for you next week! By then, I'll be 20. Weird!

Love you all,

Sister Butterfield

Week 29: It's Hump Week! Splits in Buda!

October 22, 2013

Hey!

Sorry I didn't write last week, it was kind of a combination of not having a ton of time and mostly just a lack of good, happy things to write you all about. The past 2 or so weeks have been super rough for a lot of reasons, but...yeah, I'm working through it--or trying at least. Haha Also, sorry I didn't write yesterday either. We have a mini, mid-transfer, transfer this week, since some elders have finished their missions and are going home. We didn't think any sisters would really be affected, but some of them were actually swapped around, I think just in anticipation/preparation for the real transfer in 3 weeks. We'll need some more Sister Training Leaders and stuff, because my trainer goes home at the end of this transfer! :( Two of my best friends in the mission are going home tomorrow, and all of my senior companions will be dead in less than 2 months, along with most of my friends in the mission. Yikes. Mission life. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of my mission plays out. I only have 4 more official transfers, but there will be transfers in the middle of transfers in December too, like the week before Christmas, when Sister Perkins and 2 groups of missionaries leave together. There might be a smaller transfer within the next transfer as well, but we aren't really sure yet. That's kind of far away, like…in March or something? Anyway, there's a lot going on. But at the same time, we don't really have any new sisters coming in any time soon; there were a couple that were supposed to be coming soon (in November and then December) from the MTC, but...now all we've heard is that they aren't, so...we'll see.

Hm...other than that...I was up in Buda last, last week for splits and I was supposed to go with one sister, but I ended up going about half with her and then the other half with Sister Perkins! So that was nice! We got to stay up there later that night for a baptism, but then our train didn't end up coming, so we had to sleep over another night and go home Saturday morning. So that was a long thing! While I was up there, I was able to teach one of my old (but she’s actually young, not literally old, haha) investigators and best friends from Buda a lesson, during which she told me that just by looking at me she could tell that my "battery" is empty...yikes. I guess I have to learn how to fake it better? When I left to catch the train, she kept wishing me happiness and energy. Haha meep. Anyway, she set a bap date that day though and decided to get baptized next week on my birthday!!! (: I'm still waiting for permission to go to that next week, so we'll see. Turns out, she actually has to get handed over to the Kispest missionaries, since she lives in those boundaries, so the baptism will be in my greenie city, which I have never been back to. So, hopefully! It would be cool and a nice birthday present! (: It was hard to go back to the Buda ward and sit with them all during the baptism. It was so nice to see them all, but so hard to remember how great it all is up there. I miss it so much still! It's crazy! plus, I had my two favorite investigators sitting next to me and holding my hand through the whole thing and just talking and everyone was crying and yikes. Haha! It was an emotional weekend. It was nice to finally get back to Veszprem the next day though and kind of back to normal life. But then, two days later, we all had to take a train back up to Buda for interviews! Normally those last 30 mins. max, but yeah... we'll just say mine went over an hour. It was a lot better than last transfer's interview though. It was interesting to hear all the things he said to me, especially about all the timing of me being out here right now and why I'm out here; Just an interesting assortment of things, since I didn't actually say anything to him initially about just wanting to be at home right now. It seems most of the sisters in the mission are having a pretty hard time at the moment. He has a lot on his plate, but he's such a good man! We talked about a lot of things, not necessarily to the extent of finding solutions, but it was a good talk. After that I went to lunch with a bunch of other missionaries who were up there for interviews, before we had to catch our train back. I got to say bye to one of the elders leaving next week, who I served with in Buda! It’s weird that I won't see any of them for 9 more months.

What else... oh! This week we put one of our investigators on bap date! We've been working with her a lot recently. We meet with her 3-4 times a week and focus on one lesson/concept a week, because she had a stroke last year and has a little bit of a harder time remembering, But, she's set to get baptized at the beginning of January, which sounds pretty far away, but its actually like 2 and a half months and it works for her needs. Also, it's her son's (he got baptized earlier this year) birthday the day after, so she wants him to baptize and confirm her for his birthday! (: so cute! If I stay here next transfer, then I'll still be here for her baptism. I probably won't, but that's okay with me, I'm just glad she's progressing towards that! (: I realized this week that all of our investigators that we meet with regularly are women and most of them are moms!
So, sometimes we teach their kids too! (: We have some great less actives that we visit weekly and they're like my Hungarian grandparents and feed us every week and it’s so good with them! (: There's honestly not too much that I'll miss if I get transferred out in a few weeks, but I will miss them and a lot of the members here.

Fun fact: we made BLTs for Sunday dinner! (: It reminded me of home. We'll have to do that on... July 27th... Haha…or in August. They're better in America.

I hope you're all doing well! I miss you all more than you probably know! Until next week! (When I'll officially have less time in front of me than behind me)

Love,
Sister Butterfield

Week 28: No letter

Week 27: Conference, Cold, and Traveling

October 7, 2013

You know you're a missionary when you're out streeting home in the dark and its freezing cold, because it's not 9pm yet, and you get slightly excited because there's finally someone walking your way that you can talk to. And then they look up and see you and immediately turn and cross the street to the other side. Then repeat. haha

Another story for you... I tried pig tail today. The taste wasn't too bad actually, but the texture was interesting and you could tell that it was a tail, especially when you got down to the wiggly cartilidge (idk how to spell that! sorry!). yum! haha

Things are still going out here. It's pretty cold! It's crazy how within two months the weather went from above 40 degrees to below 0 on a couple days. Luckily the past couple days haven't been that cold. This month has/should be an interesting one, we're traveling around a ton, it seems. We have district meeting every other in Veszprem, but when it's not here, it's in Székesfehérvár, so we travel there. Plus, we were in Duna a couple weeks ago and again this week for Zone trainings. We'll also beup to Buda three or four times for interviews, stake conference, Zone Conference and we'll be up there on splits on Friday! Weird! Never done that before, splits in another city!

Also, we're teaching two families now! We started teachign both of them last week! Also weird for me, I haven't ever taught little kids out here yet, usually just YSA or adults. We're pretty excited about it! (:

You might be interested to know that we are teaching an NBA players wife's halfbrother...tonight again actually. It's a super crazy story and that's a really random fact, but I figured someone might appreciate it. haha (:

I Hope you all watched conference! It was so good, I thought! I was able to watch the first three sessions and the Priesthood session, all in English! (: My favorite talks, I think, were President Uchtdork's in the Priesthood session, Elder Scott's and Elder Holland's. I can't wait to read them. It's interesting how we get answers or strength in the weirdest ways through the Holy Ghost. Gotta love it!

Random, but if anyone has any cool English idioms or jokes or tongue twisters, please send them over here. I've been teachign the same class forever and I seem to ahve gone through most of my materials. Anything interesting would really be appreciated! (:

I don't have too much time to write a ton, but I love you all and I'll try to send a few pictures before i get off.

Love,
Sister Butterfield

Week 26: Horse Kolbász

September 30, 2013

Hey!

Sorry, I didn't send a mass email last week! We kind of ran out of time, but I sent most of you individual emails anyway, so hopeful that was good enough! I can't really even think of that much to tell you all. I know I said I'd tell more about trying the horse. That seems like so long ago, since it was last transfer and I've already been in this transfer for like a month. Anyway, they have this stuff here called kolbász, which is pretty much just like…sausage, I guess. But they have ló (horse) kolbász and different kinds of meat in it. So the elders bought a stick of the horse kolbász and cut it up and we all tried it and took some pictures. It really didn't taste that much different than the other normal kind.

As for the work, we're trying to get it going more here. It's hard sometimes when I feel like I'm not really sure what to do or what the right thing to do is. I feel like I'm still so young in the mission, I can't believe that it's already been over 8 months! It's weird to have so much time behind me, yet there's still so much time in front of me. I'm trying to figure out how to really love each moment of my mission, rather than just feel like I'm enduring through it, just pushing to the end. I don't want to look back and think about all the time I spent just wishing that I was doing other things or at home where so many things seem to be happening and changing there. That's just what I've been working on lately, because I want to be able to enjoy this time while I have it, instead of wasting it all, selfishly thinking about all the other easier things I could be doing. I know that all of the struggles we experience here will be to our benefit in the long run; it's just hard to keep that perspective when we're going through them.

I just wanted to thanks to you all for writing me so consistently and being supportive! (: I'm trying to figure how I'm going to get things to you all for Christmas, because mail and packages usually tend to get lost if you send them too close to the season. I'm thinking I might just send some smaller things in little envelopes and bring things home with me when I come in... 9 months. Weird. It'll be a little late for Christmas, but... maybe it'll be a combination of birthdays and Christmas? haha I'm working on it. Also, people used to ask how long it takes for things to get here, the packages have gotten here within like 2 or three weeks and I got a letter last week from exactly a week before. So, mail takes about a week, packages about 2 or 3!

Hm… other than that--We haven't done too much RCLA stuff this week and most of our investigators have been flaking out on us. So, ya know, the normal missionary cycle here. But, we are trying to do a lot with the ward and things and build those relationships. They've struggled a lot in the past with missionaries and things that happened that shouldn't have. So, that's always rough, but luckily I don't think they have been any time recent, it just has a long-lasting effects that we all have to pay for later, unfortunately. We're starting up a class though to help teach and train members, like 5 at a time, how to be member missionaries, help us out in our program, and a couple kids as like a mission prep since they're at mission age. It sounds like a great idea, but stressful at the same time, because I don't know how to train other people to do things that I haven't quite even figured out. Oh well. It'll be good!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week and listen to conference! I'm so excited for it!!! That's kind of what we're focusing on this week with everyone we're teaching: prophets and Conference. Watch it!

Love,
Sister Butterfield

Week 25: 8 month mark!!!

September 23, 2013

It’s been a good week!! I don’t really have time to write an email to everyone today, so maybe you'll just have to take parts from the ones I send you and the rest of the family and put those up, if you want to. We spent awhile this morning cleaning and rearranging our apartment and we still have to go shopping right now, and then we have a couple programs that we have to rush to. But things have been good! We had to teach Sunday School (Gospel Principles) again yesterday, so I was pretty worried about that off and on all last week, but it went pretty well, I think. We taught about fasting! Something else fun for the blog, I tried horse last transfer! I’ll have to tell you more about it later though! Hah or maybe I already did and forgot about it. Oh well. 

The weather is pretty cold and then randomly we'll have a pretty warm day. I got out all my winter stuff! I don’t really have a great jacket for it, so I usually just layer two sweaters, but I do have a black sweater that’s thicker.

I’ll think about good stories and things for next week. I was going to send a bunch of pictures this week too, but I ran out of time and they take a long time. I wish I had more time to email! I’ll make sure to make more time for it next week! 

I thought of a few things that might be nice to have (for my birthday), but they aren’t all necessary, especially if they don’t all fit or won’t send well: salsa, Oreos, maybe a ring or something, Christmas CDs/music on a pen drive (and it doesn’t have to be church Christmas music), chocolate chips!! .. I’ll keep thinking. 

Also! Today is my 8 month mark!! Say happy birthday to Scott and Rory for me! Love you!

Week 24: Life is GREAT!

Hey everyone!!

It's been a GREAT week over here in Veszprém! Sister Maxfield and I get along great and our work is picking up so fast! We have a few investigators that we meet with regularly now, some once a week, some a few times a week. We still aren't sure how solid they all are but we have high hopes for this transfer! I'm SO glad that this transfer is 10 weeks! Crazy, because we've all been dreading it for months since we first heard about it, but it's turned out to be the best thing ever! This week we managed to get Super Standard. That's a miracle in itself, if I ever saw one! Haha! We realized how close we were on Saturday without even trying to be and we just pushed ourselves a little harder on Saturday and Sunday for it and it all worked out! First time on my mission! Yeah!

I don't have too many stories; well I have some, just now a ton of time. One funny thing that happened was that we were teaching this lady a lesson in her apartment and we were just about to finish it, by asking her to offer the closing prayer for the first time, when we heard a knock on the door. Her daughter went and opened it and called her mom to the door, opening the door just wide enough for me to recognize our elders standing in the hallway. Hahaha! We all laughed. Hard. It was a good time. That's never happened before; they just happened to be tracting the one building, in an area of like 54234345 apartment buildings, that we were in. So good!

That's all I can think of for now! But I gotta run! Thanks for all your emails! I hope you're all doing well! I'll send you some pictures next week! We got a bunch of good ones with our elders here! Life is good out here in Hungary. How's America? Everyone as stoked for General Conference as I am? I hope so! If you feel like you're struggling, one thing I've learned is that it's in those times that the Lord blesses us the most and we see the most miracles in our life! I mean, hey, look at this crazy situation that I've been put in. I'm not capable of doing it on my own, but I have the Lord on my side and things are going great! Love you all!

Much Love,

Sister Butterfield