Week 5

Hey!

It's so weird that I'm using the last week in my daily planner! That means that there are less than 4 weeks left in the MTC for me! Crazy! 25 days to be exact! Yikes! haha

I don't really know where to start... It's harder every week for me to think of things to say... I just got out of the temple and I thought it might amuse all to know that my stomach starting growling in the middle of the Celestial Room when everyone was sitting there in dead silence... yeah. Embarrassing. Also, (this just goes to show how long the days are in the MTC and how weird timing is), last week as I was leaving the temple and all of the workers were saying bye, I turned around and said "Goodnight!" .......then I looked down at my watch and realized it was only 10 am. haha that's pretty much how every day is.

Oh! Guess what?! Last night, our devotional speaker was M. Russell Ballard and I was sitting in the 9th row!!! It was pretty cool! I really wish Elder Holland would come again before I leave, but I doubt it, because we missed him by a week. I know he was here last November and then this January... so hopefully March too? Anyway, his talk was pretty good and then we had another district review meeting, which interestingly I got more out of. I don't know what it is with Tuesday nights, but the few times I've broken down seem to be Tuesdays.. This time it wasn't during the district meeting, thank goodness. I kept it together until I got back to my residence and was reading the letter Mom sent me. For some reason, everything I read about just made me cry more and more. Hahaha sad day. I really don't know what it was. But it was just one of those days where it hits you so hard that you don't feel like you deserve the things you have or the Atonement and where you just question your ability and strength and whether or not you can make it through something like this. It's just hard to stop and think about what a huge responsibility lies on my shoulders and how I don't feel good enough to do it or like I have enough knowledge or testimony to teach others effectively. I mean, when I'm thinking rationally, then I do realize that it's the Holy Ghost doing the teaching and converting anyway, not me. But sometimes I just can't think rationally. meh.

Oh, speaking of your letter Mom, your last two have cut off partway through, I'm not really sure why... but I think I'm missing half of both letters?

Also, Zach! I looked up the list of new missions created after I sent your letter last week and saw that there's a new Curitiba mission!!! Do you know if you'll be in the same one you're in now, or switch to the South mission? and did you figure out about your visa yet? More and more Brazilian missionaries keep coming into the MTC, I'm pretty sure no one has gotten visas in awhile :/

I think that there's something wrong with the AC in our room... hahah it's always SO cold and we always adjust it. It's too hot if we turn it off completely though and the next option is freezing. I've slept in my Under Armour pants, socks and a sweatshirt for the past couple days... haha I don't really know what to do about it or who we would even talk to about it. For anyone who knows me, you'd probably find it amusing that I, interestingly, am the one that wakes up first (in my companionship) and wakes my comp up and I also am the first to suggest that it's cleaning time in our room. haha I figured anyone who's ever lived with me and knows anything about me would find that to be an interesting turn of events.

I feel like I had a ton of things to say and I have a list of bullet points, but the list is scattered between my language notebook, my spiritual journal and my planner, because I just write it in whatever book I have with me when something happens that I want to tell you about. I have two of them with me right now, but there are more things in the third one that are more interesting, so I'll have to send you another letter or something. I did just remember one though: Last night in the devotional, an elder was giving the opening prayer and asked for help enduring to the end. He then proceeded to name a few things that we need help enduring to the end with. Then he threw in "and PLEASE help us endure to the end of this MTC." hahaha the Fin elder next to me and the Albanian elder on his other side and I were dying. haha At least we kept our laughter silent, but it really was funny, I'm surprised more people didn't laugh.

Yesterday and Monday we did full-day SYL. It's so hard! SYL stands for Speak Your Language, so in other words, we had to speak only Hungarian and no English. It really helps though and forces us to figure out how to form all of our sentences and I feel like it's also helped my grammar. Even if I constantly have to carry my grammar card or vocab words around and look at them, it helps me to practice and start remembering them. We have another full SYL day on Friday too... I dread them, but I love them at the same time. We're prepping for a consecration week, when we can't speak English for a whole week. yikes.

Anywho, I'm going to go write my weekly letter to my Branch President right now and if I have anything else to say for my blog, I'll get back on and tell you, because I think I still have some time left. I'll also write my handwritten letters later during laundry. That reminds me, last week I wrote a record of 13 handwritten letters on p-day! I gave up my nap and wrote letters to catch up, while everyone else slept! And those of you who I write know that my letters are usually pretty long, so my hand was dead!

Okay, I'm really going now! Have a good day! Write me! Smile! and read the Book of Mormon! and take notes at church/meetings! It helps! Szeretlek titeket!

Sok Szeretettel,
Butterfield nover

Some Pictures

The osi noverek and my comp and I. I already miss them so much! On the last Sunday here we were all just crying together during RS and music and the Spoken word. It made me so overwhelmed already for when I leave, because I know that I won't feel completely ready either. oh well, it makes me want to get out there even more, just so i can see them all again. (: (and preach the gospel, of course) 

The osi elderek! The MTC is just so much less exciting without them. :( they're really like my best friends here. or were. oh well, 4 weeks and I'll be out there with them!

 the elderek in my district in our classroom, where we spend almost every waking hour....

the view of my classroom from my seat

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Week 4

Hey!

Time flies! I can't believe I'm in the middle of week 5 in my daily planner (which is the best thing ever, in case anyone was wondering) already! We only have 32 days left! This friday marks our halfway point! We'll have been here for 31 days and have 31 days left! Also, this Saturday is the 23rd of February, which means it'll have been a month since I came in here. Weird to think that I have less than 17 months left on my mission!! (My proselyting card for Hungary expires on July 1st, 2014, which means that I'll have to come home sometime in June, unless they renew it or something).

How is everything going there?? I hope everyone is doing well! Thanks for all the letters!

Mom, to answer some of your questions: Yes, I do send individual letters to people, as long as they write me. haha but I also include things in here for other people. No, no one has sent me any of those cin. rolls yet. haha. Thanks for the conference talks! You sent me two of the same one, so I gave one of them to another sister in my room. I always let her read mine too during gym time and at night and stuff. We were both so excited when you sent more haha. OH! Thanks for the new shoes!!! They haven't gotten here yet, but that made my day after an awful weekend! and the fact that you're sending a blanket, because the ones that they have here are all static-y and gross. hm. I really need Jenny and Scott's new address! asap! I have aletter that's just been sitting in my bag for like a week because I don't know where to send it. I don't even remember what I wrote in it, that's how long I've had it hahah. Also, Mom, don't ever feel bad about writing me so much or think that you can't write me because you already wrote me.

 Letters are the best things ever, that's why this weekend was so awful. We don't usually get mail on Saturday's and we obviously don't on Sunday, and then Monday was a holiday, so we didn't get mail for a long time. Also, our osi left on Monday morning. :( On the plus side, we found out that our kicsi gets here next wednesday!!! So we're all stoked. We've decided that we're going to call her The Chosen One in Hungarian, instead of the Kicsi, since there's one girl coming all by herself. We're excited to see what district they put her in and who her comps will be.

Mom, this might not be possible, but... is there any way that you could send me the blog posts that people have been writing since I left? On google chrome on my computer taht you're using, I favorited a few Hungarian blogs and I would usually check them on Mondays/tuesdays for their weekly letters. I really want to know what's going on over there and which new areas are being opened and if any of the sisters are training my osi. Anyway, i haven't read any of them since the week of jan. 23rd, obviously. So if there's any way that you have any extra time and could do that, I'd love it!

So, question. Everyone keeps sending me letters telling me that they can already tell how much I've changed since i've been here.... What does that mean?!? I don't feel like my personality or anything has changed. And I'm sure everyone meant that I've changed in a good way (hopefully), but please explain! haha

hm.. I can't think of what else to say. most things stay the same here. I guess I can tell you some interesting things I'velearned in the past couple days... In Hungarian you never say I'm cold, because that means I'm sterile. and you can't say I'm hot, because that means I'm gay. You always have to say It's cold or It's hot... actually the direct translation would be to either say: The cold/hot exists, or you possess it, you can say My cold/hot exists. Also, the word for frog and peace is almost the exact same... so you have to be really careful when you're talking about the Spirit in a lesson, to say that you feel peace inside, NOT frogs. not that I did that or anything..... ;) haha there's more to that story, but it's too long. either way, it was funny. I got my teacher (my invesitgator) to crack his facade for a second and smile. hahah Speaking of breaking out of character... We have this investigator that we've been teaching (one of our teachers), and he refused to pray in front of us for a long time. Anyway, we kept coming with more tactics each lesson. Like we would teach our lesson and ask him to say a prayer for us to close and when he refused, we'd talk to him again about praying and questions he had. Anyway, one day as I was sitting in class the scripture D&C 19:28 popped into my head, so I showed it to my comp and we both decided it was perfect for the concerns he was having and we had run out of all other alternatives that we could think of to get him to pray. Anyway, the next day at the end of our lesson, I nonchalantly pulled out my scriptures when he refuesd to pray and I was like, in hungarian: "you know, the other day I was readying my scriptures and I found a verse that I thought was really interesting. Would you read this aloud for us?" So he took my scripture, read it to himself before reading it to us. I looked up and he just had this huge smile. He couldn't even make it through the scripture without laughing a couple times. This of course made my companion and I, who hadn't even thought that it would be humourous, laugh. When he finished reading, none of us could talk. I was literally just sitting there shaking from laughing so hard silently with tears streaming down my face. My companion was trying to regain composure so that she could talk about the scri[ture and he was just sitting there laughing. Anyway, I just started down at my scriptures praying that I would stop laughing and get refocused. He still didn't pray!! But he said he would the next lesson, and he did yesterday. so, that was a funny lesson. We've never done that before, but it was much needed.

This might be crazy, but for some reason I feel like the fourth of July is right around the corner. For everyone in the real world, that probably seems so far away, but time is so weird in the MTC. Every day feels liek an eternity and you usually can't even remember what you did in the morning, but each week seems SO short when you look back and realize that somehow you're at another P-day.

Yesterday, Craig C. Christensen came and spoke to us for the devotional. My comp met him before when he toured her dad's mission, so she wanted to go talk to him after the talk, which would mean that we would need seats near the front. We thought he was speaking next week though, so we just sat in the bleachers. Then when we heard it was him, she freaked out, so we tried to go down and see if somehow there were two seats available, which we knew wouldn't be likely. Finally we found two along the edge of the room. Right as we were sitting down, we heard this usher/branch president tell someone that he probably needed our whole row of seats. Then he came over and pointed to my comp and I and told us to follow him. We were super confused and had no idea where he was going. He walked us right over to the stand, picked up a sign that said reserved seating and told us to sit down. We were literally in the two seats directly in front of the pulpit on the very front row! Soo cool, in a room filled with thousands of missionaries, all I could see was the pulpit and no distractions of missionaries doing dumb things or tlaking to being distracting, all I had to focus on was the stand. Both of the talks were AWESOME. I felt like Heavenly Father was like, "you need to hear this, sit right here and listen," like he had figuratively(?) picked me up and set me down right in front so that I would pay attention. It was so great.

I think my time is about up, but I just wanted to share a quote that I heard this Sunday in Music and the Spoken Word before RS, this is paraphrased: "Change and growth only come when we lengthen our stride, stretch ourselves and leave our comfort zone. Take that step into the unknown, even if it'sjust a small step. When we do, we find that our comfort zone was actually holding us back. Life begins where your comfort zone ends." I love that because I can relate to it so much. We do so many things here that are totally out of our comfort zones, sometimes they turn out well and sometimes they don't the first time, but either way, we always learn something or understand something or someone that we didn't before. I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing and that God has a plan for each of us. It's up to us to have enough faith to take a step into the unknown and trust that He knows what's best for us. Pray for help with whatever you need and I know that he will help you in some way or other, even if it's not in the way that you expect, His way will always be better. Life is hard, no one can deny that. But if we just put our trust in Him, we'll end up somewhere even better than we could have planned for ourselves. I love you all and I'm praying for everyone back home! Send me letters and I promise I'll answer them asap!

Sok szeretettel,

Butterfield nover

Photo of Megan taken from Amy Clawson's Blog

Letter to Mom and Dad Week 3

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Part 2

Hey!

So throughout the week, I always just keep a bullet point list of things that I need to remember to write you about. I just didn’t feel like writing about most of them in my e-mail this morning.

Last week within less than 2 days I broke two different necklaces and lost an earring. It was just an off day and everything was all weird. Haha, luckily I fixed one necklace, but still haven’t found the earring and I’m pretty sure the long pearl necklace just can’t be fixed. L It was one of my favorites I’ve had it forever.

Hm, before I forget: I totally forgot to pay tithing on my last paycheck before I left and it’s been bugging me ever since. I think it’s only like 3 bucks or something, but is there any way you can get that from my account and pay that for me or something?

I’m trying to think of what you’d like to hear about. I don’t think I’ve told you much about my companion. Here’s a little background: She was born in Virginia and lived there until she was like 12. Then she moved to Idaho (Rexburg). Her dad got called to be the mission president in Long Beach California. Then they moved back to Rexburg where she graduated in 2011. She went to BYU-I for like three semesters. She has an identical twin sister who got her call on the same day, entered the MYC on the same day and they’re flying out on the same day, except that she’s going to Korea. I can tell them apart though! J Anyway, my companion really likes to read books and play video games and watch Lord of the Rings. Sound a lot like me . . .? Yeah, didn’t think soJ haha.

So many people are getting sick here, it is scary. That’s the worst thing ever to happen at the MTC because you have to miss out on valuable class time and your comp has to sit out with you too and there’s just no where comfortable to get better. One of the sisters in the other district, Rindlisbacker Nover got food poisoning one night and was just out in the hallway on the couch with a trash can. Most f other girls couldn’t/can’t handle other people throwing up, so they all just went to bed. Luckily it doesn’t bother me, so I sat up with her and her comp for a long time while she got it all out of her system. The next day, my grammar and all my language skills just went right out the window since I was functioning on such little sleep. That was a rough lesson. Then that day one of our new ZLs got food poisoning and has to miss out on the devotional. Rindlisbaker Nover and Elder Austin have both been sick twice since they’ve been here, so maybe they just have weak stomachs. Either way, I will now always be wary of the chicken.

Speaking of the devotional, President Schwitzer came and spoke at the MTC! I made a beeline to the stand after the meeting ended and hugged Sister Schwitzer, I don’t think Pres. Schwitzer recognized me. Oh well, he was a good speaker though!

You should ask Kortnie (Petersen) is she remembers Natalie Fronk from H.S. IDK if Kortnie reads my blog, but Sister Fronk is our new coordinating sister and we figure d out the connection and she just kept talking about how nice Kortnie is and how she’s known her for so long and misses seeing her.

One thing I love about the Hungarian hymnbook is that it has the song "Come Thou Fount" in it, so naturally our district sings it all the time. We also sang it before a fireside once and everyone cheered when they announced it. It was so powerful to hear sung by so many enthusiastic missionaries.

That’s all I can think of to tell you for now. I’m excited to meet the new baby Fins, they should be here by now! I’m probably going to take a nap for a little while before dinner and class. Thanks for the letters and packages; hopefully I answered all of your questions.

Love,

Butterfield Nover

Week 3

Szia sztok! Hogy vagytok?!

Happy (Early) Missionary Awareness Day! Sometimes also referred to in the real world as Singles' Awareness Day or Valentine's Day!

So crazy that I've been here for 3 weeks already! It's a little confusing: even though I've been here for three weeks exactly, we're technically halfway through our fourth week in our planner, because the week I came in counts as a week even though I missed Monday and Tuesday. That means tht we have 5 and a half weeks left in the MTC, or 39 days, not that we're counting or anything. ;)

I really hope that you're doing well and that everything's working out for everyone back home! I feel super out of the loop most of the time, so I don't really know a ton that's going on in the real world with people or current events or anything. However, one of our branch presidency mentioned something last night about some guy in California or something that planned this whole thing and has been killing people to get back at them for firing him or something and it's like a movie unfolding. He said he got caught or something? Idk, someone feel free to send me some more information on that, because I really want to know what happened/has been happening! So sad!

Anyway, I've been up for so long today! It really doesn't even feel early when I wake up in the morning and it's still dark outside. I mean, usually I'm still tired, it just doesn't feel early, if that makes sense haha. But anyway, normally we don't go to the temple so early, but our ősi (ancients) leave on Monday and so they had hair cutting appointments in the morning. The rest of our branch still went at the normal time, but the Zone leaders asked if I'd come with them at 6 today. Anyway, it was just the six of them in their district, and my companion and I. They helped me do the boys' names that Mom sent me. (That reminds me, Mom, I never really have time to go have those names printed out. I've done all the girls' ones that were printed, but is there anyway you could send me some more printed out? I still have 7 boys left though.)

So, the session I went to today was sooo full, mostly with other missionaries in other branches. They had to bring in extra chairs!!! So weird, I've never done a session with so many people, but there was this elder who was doing the work for his own dad!!!!! So cool! He was crying throughout the whole thing and the Spirit was just so strong every time I was near him or looked up at him. He's just the most adorable British elder who has gym time at the same time as us and he's just like a big teddy bear. It was just so cool to watch him do all of that, so tender!

hmm.. I'm trying to think of what else to tell you all! The MTC is still up and down, mostly up, the more I get into it and the more I realize that I don't have to be perfect. The best lessons I've had so far are the ones that we've planned topic and scripture-wise, but haven't gone in with a "Okay, first you say this line, then I'll say this, then we do this and this...". Those ones just never go super well, I've realized, which is tough when you can't think fast enough of things to say and don't know the words for certain things, or you don't know how to put it together in a sentence. Oh well, it's definitely getting better language-wise too. It's still hard though! There's a sister here, she was our coordinating sister until this week. Her name is Sisar Gassar, and her dad was the mission pres in Hungary when she was in HS, so she was able to go on a mini mission in Hungary and learn the language. She's now in the MTC to learn Finnish and she was saying that even though the rumor has always been that Finnish is harder than Hungarian, she's figured out from experience that Hungarian grammar is much harder than Finnish. joy. hahaha oh well.

That reminds me, I LOVE my branch! We're just like a little family of Eastern Europeans. The first few weeks, we only really talked to the other Hungarians and church was just very... idk how to describe it, but we just felt very out of the loop and like we were the babies and we didn't see all of the other missions interacting with each other. Something changed this week though and I've just been trying to go out of my way to talk to the other 3 missions and memorize all their names. There really aren't very many of us, but it just makes it so much more comfortable and exciting to walk through our class building floor and be able to say hi and talk to everyone. I'm still sad that the osi are leaving onMonday, but now I'm not dreading the last 5 weeks here as much. The albanians and the fins both leave just a week before us, so it's perfect! Also, as of today we are no longer the babies of the Branch! We're getting a huge district of baby fins! The papa fins are so excited! We are too though! Our branch is pretty small, especially since the previous papa fins left over a week ago. I'm not sure what day exactly our Kicsi gets here, but it's one of the first weeks of March. So far there's only one coming. :/ :/ :/ That makes me feel so bad! Especially because it's a girl! I just can't imagine going through this alone. I mean, she'll have us, but only for a few weeks, until we fly out on the 25th, and then she'll bethe only Hungarian in the MTC for like 3 weeks! yikes! I literally have been praying for her every day and asking that if possible another missionary be called to come in with her. I seriously think I probably would have gone home already if I had been going through this alone. It's hard enough to have to teach a lesson with only two people, but at least we can rely on each other to help us out. She'll be the only person in her classroom and teaching lessons alone. Poor girl. All I have to say, is she must be a VERY strong person and there must be a lot of blessings in store for her.

Clawson nover in my district said that she has a blog too! We get along super well, we probably would've been friends if we had met before our missions. Anyway, Mom, I'm friends with her on facebook and I think she said her blog was posted on there? (Amy Clawson). If not, you can probably google her name and something like Hungary mission blog or something until you find it. You can hear from her other things that we've done and just stuff that maybe I forget to write about? Also, can you send me those pictures that you took in the bookstore the day I left?

Idk what happened to the suitcase, it didn't work the day I came in to strap things together, but it seems to be working now? But thatnks for the little description on how to work the straps....... hahahaha it made me and my companion laugh, because I definitely know how to use a strap thing hahaha but your description was so detailed.

Apparently I still sleep talk. Clawson nover said that one night she was having a hard time sleeping and she kept rolling over and she heard me say "teknosbeka" at least 14 times in one night... hahaha in case anyone forgot, that means Turtle in Hungarian. Don't even ask. hahaha it made me and Ekstrom elder laugh that I even say it in my sleep though. haha

Well, my half hour is about up. I can write you a handwritten letter and send it to you later today while I'm doing laundry. Hope everything's going well with the move! I miss you all! Oh, read 1 Nephi 13' It has so much interesting stuff in it, like foretelling America vs. England and Cristopher Columbus and the Bible and stuff!

Sok Szerettetel,

Butterfield nővér

PS - sorry, I keep forgetting Jenny's email address, so I can't send this to her too. Also, I need their new home address ASAP so that I can send them a letter back!

These pictures are just some activity Moody Nover did on the board to help us remember preposition endings. the roommates will enjoy the turtle in the tree in the last picture, she drew it there in my honor... (:

love you all! (:



Letter to Mom and Dad Week 2

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

How are you both doing? I hope everything is going well! Also, I thought of a couple more things; it would be nice to have some more dryer sheets, I already bought laundry detergent, hopefully it lasts my whole time here. There’s this place in Provo that I guess delivers cinnamon rolls and cupcakes through Dear Elder. I've tried both and their regular cinnamon rolls are really good! J

So far I haven’t gained any weight! That’s good, I guess! I have a feeling that I will soon, but just from muscle weight.

The MTC is a roller coaster. Sometimes it’s really good; sometimes it’s awful and I find myself wondering if I can really last 18 months. I have so much more respect for missionaries and RM'S now and I've only been here for 2 weeks. I’m getting along better with my companion, I It’s just really difficult because we’re so different and there’s not much I can think of to talk about. I’m still praying for help. It was kinda cool the other night when I was in a really good mood. I prayed again for help loving her and seeing her how God sees her. A few minutes later she was climbing down from her bunk and . . . I just saw this timid, meek little girl. It was a cool moment. . . .

I don’t know, this is a confusing place. I get really stressed out when I think about the future and every time I think about teaching lessons, which is unfortunate because teaching lessons is the main thing missionaries do and it just makes me sick. I feel like I’m not a good teacher at all and I always feel so awkward. I pray for the Spirit and I try to feel it and listen to it, but I don’t feel anything during my lessons/ no guidance. I’m trying to figure out what I’m missing or doing wrong.

All I have to say is thank goodness for my district and especially my zone leaders. We laugh way too much in my district. But really, the zone leaders are my best friends and I’m always so happy to see them in the hallway and at meals. I’m never at loss for what to talk about with them and they just always make me laugh and feel better. I’ll be really sad when they leave in 12 days, hopefully the MTC isn't too depressing without them.

Anyway, keep updating me on life back home. I have no idea what goes on in the real world. Love you both! Also, do whatever you want with this letter. Post it on the blog if you think it’ll help someone.

Love,

Megan

P.S. from the next morning: Good luck with Jenny and Scott moving this weekend. Take pictures for me! I love you!

P.P.S: I had an amazing lesson this morning for an investigator; it was awesome! J

Week 2... Check!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

HEY!

How's it going? So crazy that I'm already on to week three! We have less than 7 left! Hmm.. Idk where to start. So, Mom, so many sisters here brought maxi skirts that go down to their ankles so it makes me sad that we shortened mine. Haha oh well. Also, a ton of people have super skinny jeans. But whatever, obedience is key. You asked for things you can send me? It would be nice to have maybe a bathrobe for the showers here with SO many sisters sharing bathrooms here, it's an overload. I'm interested to see how things go after today, every Wednesday the MTC fills up sooo much and the cafeteria is a nightmare. Mondays and Tuesdays are the best days because it seems like the MTC clears out and everything is faster, even though there are still so many missionaries left. We're getting like 800+ missionaries today! SO cool! You can feel the power as you watch everyone flood into the cafeteria and rooms. It'd also be nice to maybe get some small cash cause the vending machines only take like 1's and 5's, i think! A few safety pins would be nice too... and a pair of headphones cause we can use them in the fitness room to watch Mormon messages. Also a card reader!!! And some post-its. Haha sorry, I have a long list. I think that might be all. Oh, some smaller hair ties for braids! Totally forgot to get any! It would be cool too if you could send me some magazines with some general conference talks in them so that I can read them at night/in personal study/Sundays/the airplane. Haha

Don't worry Nate, you aren't the joke, we just thought it was funny that Mom thought it was necessary to include that in her letter. Haha. It’s little things like that that I like though, they make me laugh. Haha. Also, Nate, I have your sweatshirt that you got for Christmas that didn't fit. I brought it with me and every time I wear it, I think of you! (I wear it as I walk to gym time). Speaking of gym time, I'm actually starting to really like it. I read all of the letters that I get during that time and when I'm concentrating on that, I lose track of time and bike literally miles without noticing and then I feel so re-energized spiritually and physically after that. Nate, you should write me sometime... Katie, Scott and Jenny, thanks for your letters! I'm working on writing back! Mom and Dad, your letters are always so motivational. I just wish I could hug you guys sometimes, but it's okay. I'm not sure about the suitcase Mom... could you try calling the MTC front desk or something and explain it to them? I'll try to get over there sometime today, but if you call them, they can probably just call me down while you're on the phone with them or something. It's the medium suitcase! Thanks for your package btw! I loved it! And we did all of the temple names this week, so feel free to send more! We have a ton of sisters that can help me! Also, one of my Zone leaders asked if there were any guys' names that I wanted him to do. Haha so if you have any guys, feel free to send them, but it'd have to be this week if you have a ton, because the ZL's leave in a week and a half. You could send a couple later on, we just don't have as many guys.

ROOMMATES! I love you guys sooo much. You're packages made me weak, Joy and Katie! Thanks for the letters from all of you, except Sarah! Still haven't heard from her! :( I'm sure she's just super busy with school and RS though, so no worries. Cambri, I think of you a lot when I used the journal you gave me! It makes me miss you! Katie, I haven't started using yours yet, I will when I fill Cambri's and then I'll always think of you! Haha I'll send you all individual letters later today. But seriously thank you soooo much for your packages and thinking of me!

Mom, to answer your many questions about sleep: no, I'm not really sleeping that much better. Definitely better than the first night, but I still wake up sometimes and have some trouble falling asleep some nights, because I don't want to take medicine. Luckily, it's been easy to wake up almost every morning. I just have to talk myself out of bed once I do. Haha

Funny little fact, my district calls me Elder van Pelt... I hope you all catch that reference, I'm sure Nathan does. Haha mostly because every time we go to get the mail, Swenson Elder comes back to hand it out and he's just like "Sister Butterfield, Sister Butterfield...Sister Butterfield... oh, Sister Butterfield..." Hahahaha I feel a little guilty sometimes, but I love the support! If anyone feels like writing someone random, feel free to write my companion or even anyone in my district, but specifically my comp. Her name is Sister Rachael Sexton and all of her info is the same as mine like mailbox and stuff... but really, do it if you want! She'd love it! And I think she needs it!

Anyway, this week has been so much better! Sometimes I feel like I've hit a plateau and I'm not learning as much or as focused or I feel like something is wrong when I'm not stressed... but really I am stressed quite a bit, so I don't know. Haha I have a 30 minute lesson in Hungarian tonight with an investigator, Adam, (our teacher really).And tomorrow we're doing TRC in Hungarian to some RM's :/ eek!

Haha people laugh at my sounds here! Hahaha oh well. I don't mind. That's just who I am. But I only do it with my district really. also! roommates!!! this will hopefully make your day! I have spread turtle!!! Hahahahaha one of my Zone leaders, Ekstrom Elder, knows a little bit about it now and we'll just randomly pull the face to each other and die laughing. We're going to take a picture of us doing it soon so that you can all enjoy it! Also, you should all memorize the word for it in Hungarian, we say it all the time and it just confuses everyone else! It's pronounced like: "teknoshbaika" =teknosbeka. learn it! Hahaha

Dad, this is super random, but do you think you could tell me a little bit of the history behind the book of Proverbs. I don't know much about it, but I really like it! Also, everyone should read Proverbs 3:5-7, 26-27 and Moroni 7! Both are awesome! I can't even tell you how many times I've used or other people have referenced Moroni 7. I seriously think it may be the most used chapter in the whole Book of Mormon, I just never noticed before.

Haha This week I saw my friend Aubrey Hatch working in the cafeteria and we talked for ever and I thought you'd all laugh to know that she had me take a picture of her and another missionary with her iPhone and I seriously just held it super awkwardly in my hand like ahhh! What is this?! And it felt sooo awkward to be holding a phone or technology. Hahah We can't use our iPods in the MTC, just in the field so I haven't even held that recently. Hahaha-Ohhh awkward missionary moments.

Someone remind me when I get home that I need to watch LOTR (Lord of the Rings) and a ton of movies. I seriously don't get what the big deal is about it, I guess I just didn't grow up watching it but everyone quotes it all the time. Also, one night I started quoting "She's the Man" and then all the sudden a million people in the bathroom on our floor were and it was soo fun.

It's still a roller coaster of emotions, but just getting to the High points makes the low points worth it. Sometimes I think I won't make it though, it's tough stuff. But it really does help to hear from you all and to see people from home here. AH! Chelsea (Hermana Zortman) lives like 3 doors down from me and I always run into her in the caf, so its soooo nice that I just have a little piece of BYU from her and we talk all the time!

Hungarian is rough! It's definitely not getting any easier. Funny though, because I now understand English grammar much more; they teach it to us to understand Hungarian grammar which doesn't makes sense! Hahah oh well.

Weird to think that 4 months from yesterday was when my life changed! (The general conference announcement on Oct. 25) and its less than two months until the next one and less until I reach Hungary! So weird! Time flies and it does in the MTC too, even though the days drag on so long.

Mom I thought you'd be pleased to know that we did well with picking out clothes! There hasn't been one day that I haven't gotten a compliment for what I'm wearing! Mostly I just wear the Eccos, because they're cuter and now I think they're comfier than the Danskos. You should see if they have those Eccos in like tan or navy or something!

Well, my time is up! I doubt I'll send any pictures today, I don't have that many. But I will for sure soon, cause I'll take a bunch with the osi and ZL's before they leave!

Remember, just keep swimming! and read those scriptures I gave you! They're so true!

Love,
Butterfield Nover

PS - Dad do you know Elder Don R. Clarke? I recognize his name! He came and spoke to us last night for the devotional! He's a funny guy! Okay. I'm really going to go now. Love you all!