Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Week 4: Warm Weather = Awkward Missionary Moments!

22 April 2013

Heeeyaa!

Everything’s good this week! To answer some questions; we don’t usually do 7 hours straight...it’s more normal to do 5 or 6, depending on how long we spend on transportation to get to the area we’re tracting, but luckily we’ve been getting more programs so we have breaks between tracting…we got standard this week!! Which is actually so hard--only three companionships in the whole mission got it this week and one companionship got super standard--so we we’re working our butts (is tails more mission appropriate? haha) off.

Hm…so…I have like an hour left on my computer…so I guess I can write a lot. Meh, I just don’t even know where to start. haha I’m so exhausted, but it’s so great, I don’t really know how to describe it…Well... never told you about my first Sunday here.. haha church here starts at 10 am, so we left at like 9:30 (our church is about a 10-15 min walk from the apartment) and we wanted to be there early. As we were walking out of the apartment, we got a call from our zone leaders, "uuh…so...are you in church right now?" Apparently, it was daylight savings and no one had thought to tell any of the missionaries...hahaha so....we missed my first Sacrament meeting. Great first impression to make, everyone in the ward had a good laugh about it. That meant that Woffinden n. and I didn’t have to stand up and introduce ourselves in front of everyone that week. They said something about us doing it in two weeks, since conference was the next, but then luckily no one remembered…so I never did it.... (:

Also, haha random fact: I haven't ever cried in Hungary. Pretty good accomplishment, if I do say so myself! haha. Also, the other day, my companions were both just like "ugh! You haven’t had your greenie moment yet! Mit csoda! Why haven’t you done anything yet!?" haha…apparently I haven’t done anything really dumb or idiotic yet hahaha, I’d say that’s a good thing too.

Hmm… I’m trying to think of good things to tell you all about, there have been so many crazy things happen. The whole mission life is just one big, crazy, awkward moment…haha in all honesty. I'll send some more pictures in a second, if I can borrow someone’s card reader…hm...oh, it’s gotten really hot lately. It went from huge coat weather to no jacket at all in like 2 days, which also means that the hilarious tracting moments have begun! Haha! They make life so much better and sooo much more awkward. No one here really believes in wearing clothes when they’re home. The only thing I don’t get is when they open their doors naked or in tighty whiteys and are SURPRISED to find three girls standing there, when obviously they knew someone rang their doorbell AND they have a peephole to look through. That’s the only thing I don’t get. Haha! We get little surprised noises and then they’ll just hide halfway behind the door. haha. It’s always fun to try to get through the rest of what you’re trying to say once you realize what they are, or aren’t, wearing, especially if they’re around our age…yeah. It’s an interesting, frequent occurrence. Oh, and the old men in speedos has also commenced. Haha! They’ll take they’re garbage out of their entire apartment building in their speedos. haha It’s great and very entertaining to try to keep a straight face around them. haha Also, we make it like a game to see who can get the best reactions from people from saying “good day” to people, because it’s such a foreign concept here.

So, since I have more time, I can tell you a little about my companions! We'll start with my trainer. Sister Watts is from Southern Australia, Adelaide. She's actually the mission nurse and has been out here for like 9 months, plus three in the MTC, she hits her year mark next month! She is 24 and has finished all of her schooling back home, so she’s set! She also cooks super well and is attempting to learn Spanish with us, kind of; Haha…when we actually teach it. She’s been here in Kispest since November. It’s her second area. We've already been told that she'll be leaving us at transfers in two weeks. We're interested to see what happens. There has been some talk around the office of leaving Sister Woffinden and I here alone…HA. That’s not going to happen. Haha! But if we do get a third person, which we most likely will, it’ll be someone younger than sister Watts, like maybe we’ll have me in my second transfer, Woffinden n. in her third and someone in their fourth. That is what it sounds like…so three greenies, pretty much! Yay! Hahaha! Yikes.

Sister Woffinden is from (Pasco?) Washington and was at BYU Idaho before her mission. She was my osi in the MTC and speaks some Spanish! She taught English in Mexico for three months and lived with a Mexican family there. She has like 8 siblings or some crazy number like that, haha! She is funny and we all get along really well! People think we're all crazy. But I guess we are!

A lot of people have been asking about the Elders I refer to as the Zone leaders... we have Elder Peterson, who is from St. George, UT and is dying (finishing his mission) in two weeks, sadly. He's hilarious and we all have a fun time making fun of him and his American-ness. Then his companion is Elder Kreiberg, who is from Denmark and speaks English fluently and is super good at Hungarian. He is not used to serving around sisters, so it took him a little while to get used to it and some pretty funny/awkward moments and things that were said, haha it’s all great though. We all get along well, so we have spent most of our P-days sightseeing and goofing off and we see them all the time throughout the week, since we both have a lot of programs at the Branch house and we have meetings and whatnot. The Zone leaders always serve in this city, so it’ll be interesting to see who replaces Elder Peterson when he goes home.

Alrighty…well, I don’t have much else that I can think to say, but thanks for writing me so much every week! You’re all great and I hope that you all have a good week! Read the Book of Mormon! It’s crazy how much I have learned from it since I left on my mission; if I had just taken enough time every day to get as deep and spend as much time as I do now… It’s also cool to see how much better my life and my mission go when I turn to the Lord and say, you know what, I can’t do any of this alone, please help me out. Everything works out how it’s supposed to. Sometimes we don’t realize how hard times are for the best when they’re happening and other times its really obvious like if one thing hadn’t fallen through, we wouldn’t have been in the right place for something else even better to happen. Learning to rely on the Lord makes life so much better! Sometimes when I'm in charge of teaching specific programs and leading them, I freak out and stress and stress, even when I don’t know what exactly I’m stressed out about, because logically I know that I have two comps to back me up and give me words or help when I need them, and I haven’t even ever needed that yet, so I don’t know what I stress out about. But it isn’t until I step back and tell myself that it’s not about me, I’m not here for me and the program isn’t for me and I should stop being so selfish and thinking about myself, then it all becomes do-able. It’s hard, soo hard, to remember sometimes. But if anyone’s looking for ways to be more happy, those are my two biggest pieces of advice: learn to rely on God and on Christ's Atonement and find ways to serve others and put them first!

I love you all! Szeretlek titeket!
Butterfield nővér

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