Who Wrote This..?

Dear Megan's friends,

One of you wrote this to Megan on Facebook. I copied it and sent it to her. Somehow, I failed to get the name of who sent it and she would really love to know. If you are the author, I would love it if you would let me know so that I can tell her. I think you could just comment here, or send her a personal note on FB. I am checking it for her. Thank you so much.


Megan, you are going to be an amazing missionary! You have taught me so much and you have an inner power that will keep you moving forward throughout your mission and life. Have fun and enjoy every moment of your mission! I’ll miss you! I thank God that I had you all along and I’ll always remember college with you! God be with you till we meet again sister, see you in 2!
Alma 29:8 “For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.”— with Megan Butterfield.

Letter Week 1... Continued

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Dear Everyone,

My computer ran out of minutes, so I’m going to finish my letter by hand and you’ll probably just get it this week sometime. Sorry if my email was jumbled, there’s just so much I wanted to talk about. I brought a list of like three pages with bullet points!

We went to the temple this morning, so it’s been a good day. And yeah, I have been on time to almost everything with my companion, but we just always seem to lag behind everyone, which anyone who knows how much I love to be included and in the middle of everything would know how much that frustrates me, but it’s okay. I’m praying for patience every day. I’m trying to build a friendship! It’s tough though, I love her and she’s super sweet; but we’re such opposites! I mean that’s just how life is, I’m not saying anything’s wrong with her, but it’s just life that not everyone clicks immediately. One of my teachers, Grossen Testver made a comment about there being two different kinds of companions that he had on his mission, once that he absolutely loved and was best friends with and ones that he learned a lot from. I feel like that is so true! I love all 11 kicsi noverek though and the 3 osi noverek. Between the three districts there are 14 sisters. There are 18 sisters in the country, but a few of them are leaving in the next two transfers, so I just found out that we’re completely doubling the number of sister missionaries in Hungary. So cool! It’s going to be so sad when our osi leave though, because then we’ll have a few weeks with just our two districts before our kisci come. However, so far only 1 person has been called to leave in the March group, one sister. But the April group that Stephen Godderidge is coming in with is supposedly huge! Exciting stuff!

We’re expected to leave for Hungary on the 25^th ish of March and my expected release date is July 1, 2014, so expect sometime around then!

I’m so glad to hear that Morgan’s okay! That’s scary! Send her a message or text telling her I’m thinking about her!

Yes, a copy of my farewell talk would be nice! Every Sunday we have a Sacrament meeting with our whole branch, but no talks are assigned. We’re all told at the beginning of the week what the topic is for Sunday and all missionaries are expected to prepare a 5 min talk on that and then they announce 2 or 3 missionaries on Sunday who will be speaking. After breakfast, we watch Music and the Spoken Word as sisters. That was so spiritual this Sunday! Then have a Relief Society with all the sisters in the MTC. Sister Burton came and spoke to us this Sunday. At night we have a fireside. Apparently 2 weeks before we came, Elder Holland spoke at a Tuesday devotional. So bummed I missed that! Anyway, we have study times and some other District meetings and stuff throughout the day on Sunday.

Yes, I do write in my journal every night, even if it is just a couple sentences I’ve never had such a long streak in my life before where I haven’t missed a day for a whole week. Sad!

Thanks Dad, but nem, I’m not the most beautiful and definitely not the most confident sister here. But, thanks, haha. Also, thanks Mom for the update on Nathan’s underwear shopping… Hahaha! I hope you know I read that letter during gym time and laughed out loud. Then read it to the other girls on the bikes with me. Everyone thought it was funny that you told me that. Haha. Also, thanks for Pres. Uchtdorf’s book excerpts. They’re so helpful and I've shared the quotes with other sisters having struggles too. We go to the temple on Wednesdays. And yes we can do our own names, but we just do one endowment session a week.

You sent me a message or post or something that someone had written to me on FB about like my inner power and loving college with me, but you didn't say who it was from?!

Nem, the elders didn’t have skirt hangers for us, so mine are draped on normal ones. At the moment, we’re all using MTC sheets because we can take them off and they’ll wash them for us whenever and we just grab new ones; so that’s nice.

Gym time is super nice on Mon. and Fri. when we have it right before bed and have extra time to shower and get ready while the residence is empty. It is a nice break though on every day, just being able to get out of the classroom and clear your mind. It helps us focus better when we get back into the class. I’ve never learned so much in such a short time. I’m sure I have over a hundred words memorized and phrases and things. It’s amazing what you can do with God’s help and the Gift of Tongues.

Hungarian is so hard though! Apparently the joke is Hungary is that our missionaries could learn Spanish on our P-days. Hahaha, that made us laugh. Obviously it’s not true; it’s hard to learn any language but Hungarian is just so rough and doesn’t sound like any other language at all. The grammar is slightly similar to Finnish, but that’s it. Hungarian doesn’t have any defined sentence structure, it’s just however they feel like saying things pretty much, but you have to add on the correct word endings to specify subject, verb and what kind of object (definite, indefinite, direct, indirect) and to make things plural or add a preposition, you just add things to the end of the words, so words get sooo long.

Also, the suitcase strap doesn’t work to strap them together, it was broken, so that’ll be interesting on transfers…

This week I had such a cool moment in class. We were practicing grammar and sentences and questions and our teacher, Moody Nővér asked Hancey Elder in Hungarian: “A missionary are you?” And before he answered it just like hit me so hard and in my head I was just like WOAH! Where am I? What am I doing?! I’m a missionary?! What! And I had to look down and check my name tag. It was a crazy A-HA moment!

I  feel like I have so much to say, but I’ve already written so much and I need to go grab lunch, put in laundry and plan a lesson for tomorrow morning with Zsofi.

You asked lots of questions about my companion. I’ll get back to you on that later this week or next week when I have more positive things to say! Not that it’s a negative experience; it’s just rough for anyone to constantly be with someone, no matter who 24/7 and always get along/want to do the same things and adjust to someone else’s schedule. It just takes some getting used to. We haven’t argued or not gotten along though, so it’s all good. I have become GREAT friends with a few sisters in my district and the ZL’s.  Hahah. I don’t know how many times I can say that, but I just love them and meal times are my favorite; when I can just eat and joke around with all the elders. Poor Elders are way outnumbered in our district. Two of the ZL’s go to BYU and the third to the U, so we’ve all talked about hanging out when we get back! It’ll be AWESOME! It’s just weird to not be able to hug any of them, cause that’s my first instinct when I see someone I love and feel super comfortable with. Oh, well.

Talon Hicken comes into the MTC today! I’m sooo stoked to see him! I hope he loves it!

Haha funny thing, our room is kinda messy. BUT surprisingly, it’s not my mess! Shocking right? Haha.

Anyway, keep the letters coming and if anyone has any very useful tactics on getting rid of a crush on someone, let me know, because I’ve been praying hard for it and I feel like it’s such a sin to be interested in someone in the MTC/on your mission. Haha, I guess that shouldn’t surprise any of my friends/roommates that that’s what I’m struggling with. So dumb, I wish I could just flip a switch, haha. But seriously, give me advice here.

I’ll write you all as soon as I can! Stay positive and have charity! (That’s our district goal this week!) I’ll pray for you all (in Hungarian, of course, because all of our prayers in class have to be in as much Hungarian as possible.)

Love you!

Sok Szeretettel,

Butterfield Nővér

More Pictures from the MTC

The Noverek in my district!! From left to right it's Fowers Nover, Messinger Nover, Clawson Nover, Rupard Nover,  Butterfield Nover, and Sexton Nover.

Megan's Roommates/Sisters in her district

Some of the Hungarian Sister Missionaries and the 3 Zone Leaders: 

Ekstrom Elder, Thomas Elder, Rae Elder 

Megan and her cousin Elder Kaysen Butterfield

Ekstrom Elder and Thomas Elder--ZL's

All three of the Hungarian Districts in the MTC

MTC Pictures!

Megan's Letter- Week 1

Megan's Letter - Week 1

HI!!!!! I was going to start this in Hungarian, but I'm too lazy to change it to the Hungarian keyboard right now and figure out which keys do which letter... Oh well.

I hope you are all doing well! It's sooo overwhelming how many letters I have gotten this week! Thank you all so much! I'm planning on answering them all individually, but this week has been so hectic that I haven't had any time to yet. I wish I could thank all of your individually in this email, but I don't have that much time! But, I really want to say thanks to Spencer Stojic (I hope I spelled that right) and Amy Whitesides for your letters! We didn't get any dearelders the day we came in, but they gave them to us the next day. I also didn't let myself read Mom and Katie ellett's letters on the first couple nights, because I knew I couldn't handle it. But, I did read Spencer's and it was exactly what I needed! Everything you said in it is so true! Dad, you said you included a poem in one of your letters, but there was no poem... haha. mm.. CAMBRI! I am soooo happy for you!!!! Expect a letter from me! Katie Ellett, thanks for the pictures!! That's exactly what I wanted and I miss you so much! Mom, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with everything. Just be glad you still have the Lord and Nathan and Dad! I hope everything's going well with Jenny and Scott and getting ready to move! Katie Housley, I'm going to answer to your letter too, but a good Scripture I've read at least 3 or 4 times this week is Moroni 7. I also shared it in one of my lessons.

That reminds me... The MTC... This is SOO tough! like i knew it would be hard, but holy cow. It's great too though, it slowly gets better. On the first Friday after we got here, we taught our first lesson to an investigator, Zsofi, in complete Hungarian.... AWFUL. That lesson was absolutely awful. I have never felt so awkward or incompetent in my life. But, luckily, the lesson on the next day was much better and then the lesson we taught her yesterday was great! We got her to pray for us in the second lesson, and yesterday we got her to commit to pray about the Book of Mormon, read Moroni 7 and even be baptized!!!

It's awesome to see so many people I know here, but its super weird, kind of like a BYU/Davis High reunion. I'll just list some pople that I've seen, Elders: Purdy (who left this week and said Tahitian is MUCH harder to learn than French was, he had to learn both in the MTC), Sisk, Billings, Clements, Stafford, Guilisane, etc. Also, I have seen Kaysen twice, once on the first day and then on our Sunday temple walk! so we got a picture together at the temple. OH!!! Gary and Sylvia, thank you SO much for the package!!!! That was so great! There were enough cookies to share with a lot of people and there's a letter in the mail on its way to you!

Nathan, you're right, Kath Pendleton is really cool! I ran into her and told her who i was and she immediately embraced me and just cared so much! I've seen her since then and she's awesome, just making sure everything is going well. We keep trying to get a picture together to send you, but we always forget our cameras.

I saw Ryan Smith in the cafeteria last week! That was super weird since I havent seen him since like elementary, but it was cool to catch up and talk about people we know and Russia and everything! I love the MTC and cafeteria in the sense that it's like the opposite of HS. Everyone is soo friendly and talks in lines and asks all these questions about you. It's really necessary to reach out to others because everyone is struggling.

That reminds me... I haven't allowed myself to break down or cry yet and be negative. I've said "I can do this" more times than ever before in my life and had to literally talk myself out of bed a couple times... but finally I broke down yesterday. SUPER embarrassing. We had just gone to devotional and heard Elder and Sister Clayton speak (AWESOME, especially sis. Clayton's) and then we went back with our two little districts and talked about them and I couldnt help it but i started tearing up and the next thing i knew i just had tears streaming down my face and they wouldn't stop. I was just sitting there thinking, i really want a hug. i just want someone to hug me really tight. (it's super hard not to hug elders btw and people that I know, i just love hugs. also there's a no handshake rule for the flu stuff goign around) but anyway, the meeting ended and i stood up to get a tissue. The next thing I knew, Broadhead nover (kelsee) was beside me just talking to me and just hugged me. It was literally an answer to my prayer. We hadn't talked much before that, but now we've talked a bunch.

I'm not going to lie, it is pretty hard with elders and sisters so close in age. I've had to say a couple prayers to keep me in line. it's also a little hard to decide what's appropriate and what's crossing the line. The two elders in my district are awesome! And i absolutely looooove our 3 zone leaders. They're all so different but I get along with all of them so well! But yeah, kepin in line is tough. One of the ZL's that I get along best with the other day was so sweet. we were walking outside and we noticed it was snowing and he turned aorund and was like Butterfield nover! You're not wearing a jacket?! And i was just like nem, nem baj (no, its no problem). and he was just like do you want my jacket!? i dont want you to be cold! and it was just soo sweet taht he was that thoughtful. but i was just like, no its really okay, and then it got awkward because one of his companions turned around and was like mm, i don't think that's allowed... so ha. that was funny. but i keep wanting to thank him for that.

OH! shout out to EMILY for getting her call to France (with JB too, right?!), Shay to Texas and Sarah to Indiana! Thats sooo awesome! I'm excited for all of you! There's sooo much growth on your mission@ even in just one week. It's interesting because they don't like you to say that you're "overwhelming" but it's okay to be "stretched" hahaha.

Yes, dad, Rindlisbacher nover is in the other district. So there are actually 3 hungarian districts, the two that came in the same week (the Kicsi's or smalls) and the osi (ancients). Yes, mom I've met sister Caldwell out here, she's roommates with the three osi noverek (sisters). She's actually 21 though. One of our osi has been having me help her practice her Spanish. So that's cool, I speak Spanish to her and as much hungarian as possible with the other osi. Fresh Nover in the other kicsi district's mom send us all cool socks, it was cool! and I got my skirt in the mail the other day, its super dark navy though. Oh well.

I asked all the noverek in my room/district if they had package requests and this was the general consensus: hard mints to suck on, hard candies, Reese's. haha. I only have 4 min left before the comp kicks me off, so i'll have to hand write the rest of my letter and you can type it when you get it on Friday... But no, church is not three hours, i'll explain that later and nem, we don't have FHE. In our branch we have Hungarians, Fins, Albanians and estonians.

oh and nem, my comp actually doesn't have FB, so no stalking I guess haha.

Mom, i'm glad your migraines aren't happening as much and I also know its because I'm out here. Elder Clayton talked about blessings and how no blessings are being withhelf from us while we're out here or from our families. I know that's so true and that's the first thing i thought of when he said that!

Igen, I'm always so tired but it still takes me time to fall asleep. Things are getting better though.

Dad, thanks for your letters! I did get them all, and it sounds like yuor MTC experience with your comp is kinda like mine, but no worries, I'm working on it and i pray every night for it! I'm trying so hard to stay strong for mom and all of you at home and my comp and district and i feel liek that's why i just broke down under all the pressure last night.

Anyway, keep your heads up! and remember to read and pray!

I love you all!

Butterfield Nover

Editors Note

Editor's Note:  Megan is really not posting these entries, her parents are just using her username! =)

First Letter from Megan

Letter from Megan (January 23, 2013)

Dear Mom and Dad,

I miss you both already!  Feel free to type this letter up and put it on the blog, if you'd like, because my P-day isn't for a whole week, on next Wednesday.  Well, it's the first night in the MTC and it's been a long day.  I can't believe less than 12 hours ago I was on campus and at IHOP with everyone.  The MTC is going to be a tough adventure, that's for sure . . .  There were multiple times where I sat there thinking to myself:  "What have I gotten myself into!?"  But, luckily the night ended on a high note with some teaching practice in big groups.

Just for some MTC info.- my P-days, like I said, are onWednesdays.  My gym time on Tues, Thurs. and Saturdays is right after lunch. Yuck. But Mon. and Fridays it's right before bed, so we have extra time those nights to get ready.  My district consists of 8 missionaries:  6 sisters and 2 elders.  It's the first time they've ever had 2 Hungarian districts in the MTC, the other one has 5 sistes and 3 elders.  So there are 16 of us overall, 11 sisters and 5 elders!  For those who know these people, Ben Swenson and Amy Clawson are both in my district, but Kelsee Broadhead isn't. : (  all six sisters in my district sleep in the same room, so they've really got us all packed in here.  My companion is Rachel Sexton Nover, feel free to stalk her on Facebook or something. ha ha.  I'll let you know on P-day more about her, but I hope we get along well.  She's somewhat timid so far and surprisingly, I have been quite loud, so it's an interesting combo.  I really hit it off with Sisters Clawson and Sister ______, so far!  I hope we all have a really fun time together.

Also, our sister who helps us, idk what she's called, is going to Finland, but lived in Hungary for awhile and went to the school I played softball at.  She also knows the McCotters, Reyna McGee, Trent Stapley, etc.

Anyway, it's lights out.  I'll let you know ASAP how things are going.  t
The language is going to be super tough, but I'll get it!

Love you all!
                      Butterfield Nover

P.S. I've seen sooo many people!  Kaysen (Elder Butterfield), Phillip Stafford, Blake Billings, Alex Sisk, Sam Watkins (a bajillion times), Steve Forsyth.  I'm probably forgetting people . . . Danny Granados, Randy Low, Lincoln Holt.

P.P.S. I guess at this point you could just say I'm pretty overwhelmed and super exhausted, but everyone at the MTC is SO nice!


So, it's Thursday morning and I'm ready early, so I decided to finish my letter from last night just so that Mom knows I'm ok.  It took me a while to fall asleep, no surprise there, and I woke up several times, but other than that, I slept ok.  It sounds like some of the other sisters did the same or didn't fall asleep at all.  Oh well, it gets better, I'm sure.

Also, there are no hangers in our closets, but I asked the ZL's at our meeting last night when I'd get time to get some and they were surprised our room didn't have any.  They said they have an extra closet full in their room, so they'll bring them over sometime today.  I really like them, they're pretty funny!  Can't remember their names though.  There are three of them.

Hm . . . what else? . . . so, my comp, Sexton Nover is from Rexburg, Idaho and she is almost 20.  She brought me a huge Symphony chocolate bar, so that was super sweet of her!  Two other sisters left at like 6:30, even though we don't have to be to our class until 7 to start personal study.  The other two are almost ready, but Sexton Nover's no where in our room, I should probably go find her.  Don't worry, we're not breaking the rules, we can go to the bathroom/anywhere on our floor in the residence alone.

Thanks for the book, Mom!  I love it!  I haven't brought myself to read your letter or Katie Ellet's yet, because I didn't want to make last night any harder.  Hopefully I'll have time tonight.  Thank you both!

Oh , and Nate, we aren't allowed to get food out of the vending machines after quiet time starts at 10:15!

Love you all!
                      Butterfield Nover

Farewell Sunday

Farewell Sunday . . .

What a wonderful sacrament meeting!  Both Nathan (youth speaker) and Megan gave excellent talks and Elder Nash provided the perfect finish to a very spiritual experience.

Afterwards, family and friends met at our house to celebrate and wish Megan a fond farewell.  Unfortunately with all the commotion going on, we were late getting the camera out, so we missed a bunch of Megan's friends who had to leave early.  Even so, we had a house full and we really appreciated everyone coming and helping.

The Big Day

Finally - The Big Day . . .

Final Good-byes to friends

Farewell breakfast at IHOP . . . Who knew that breakfast was free for missionaries entering the MTC?  The place was packed with nervous Elders and Sisters! 

The Drop-off at the MTC . . .

The last glance for 18 months.

 

Set Apart!

Almost There!

Megan was set apart as a full-time missionary on January 22, 2013 by her stake president, David Frischknecht.  Her bishop, Kyle Morgan ,and her dad participated as well.

The Long Awaited Call...

Megan's call was scheduled to come the week of Thanksgiving, and she was going to be in Arizona or Nevada, one of them.. so instead she had me (her roommate Katie) go and pick it up. I left it on her bed on Wednesday, she picked it up on Thursday and opened it up at her house Friday night. It wasn't an easy process there was a room full of people, 3 laptops on Skype, an Ipad and Ipod on Skype as well, and Three phones. But when she read her call, the reaction was the same from everyone, Jaw dropping....

Dear Sister Butterfield:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Hungary Budapest Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.
You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, January 23, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Hungarian language. Your assignment may be modified according to the needs of he mission president.

All of the laptops, phones, and other gadgets

          The reaction to Megan reading her call

        All of Megan's Family after she opened her call