Some Recent Pictures

"Megan and her companion in Debrecen"

"The Mission President when he came to visit and his wife and all the Debrecen missionaries"

"That's pretty much the active Debrecen branch even though there are actually like 200 members... and a few of our investigators."

"Sister Behunin, when we were on splits and now were comps"

"Raspberries we found in our front yard thing"

Week 12: 5 Month Mark

June, 24, 2013

Hellooo

Well..... hm I don't really feel like writing a mass email today, because.. well... I don't really like complaining or being negative, but I feel like that's all I have for this week, so I apologize in advance... So, this week. man. its been a tough one, definitely the worst out here so far, unfortunately. meh. For starters, I got super sick and lost my voice, so one the first day when we had a bunch of programs, I could barely talk to introduce myself to people and my voice qould just squeak and crack and hurt. Also, I slept a lot, I never haven taken naps out here before, but I was kind of forced to. haha. Also, I'm not exagerrating when i say that i have literally never been so hot in my entire life. Luckily the temperatures are supposed to drop this week, or I dont think that I would survive. I might die this summer. Other than that, Its mostly just been a week of wanting to come home for a variety of reasons...Here's just a little piece of my mind that I sent to someone, please excuse the extreme drama in it. haha: 

"I just wanna come home and be a normal person and not have to be friends with people who hate me or try to break my way into all the mission cliques... bleh.. as for the new situation... well, my comps were both comps last transfer and are like bffs and im just the awkward third wheel trying to understand all the inside jokes and pluy they had a super cool district last transfer apparently and so they just talk alll the time about how they hate transfers and transfers suck and i just sit there like.. yeah.. cool. i feel super welcome. i mean, theyre both super cute and social and every elder loves them, no joke, and wants to talk to them all the time and i dont know anyone in this district or anything and i miss my missionary friends. im all for making more, if they even give me a chance, but at this point everyones caught up in losing their old friends and i just want to go home and be with real friends. bleeeeehh. help me.

its nice to be in the city though, we live literally right across from the mission home which is super weird, but it also means that i can get mail and packages every day... (: and the ward is like an american ward almost, like i dont know where the heck i am right now! and its super hot and i feel like im melting and cant sleep and then im tired all day and i just want to come homeee. merp. help."

but yes, speaking of the ward here, I have no idea where I am. I think I have landed on a foreign planet or something. This is not real life. okay, maybe just not Hungarian life. But its so weird, we just have to sit there and not do anything at all! I didn't even have to introduce myself in sacrament meeting and they had a pianist and a chorister and speakers that went over time and announcements and new callings sustained and what the what! so many normal people were there! I accidentally forgot to wear my name tag... oops. haha but people were super nice and it was great! Also, there are SO many missionaries serving in the city compared to the other cities Ive been in! We have 4 elders, us three sisters, the two APs, the two secretaries, and 3 senior couples, plus President and Sister Smith, but they dont ever really come to our ward. yes, its actually a ward. that supports itself. AND we STOOD for the rest hymn! Who does that?! i mean, okay, besides America... but still.

Also, we had an investigator last week who told us all that we were sinners and should probably all talk to the bishop to see if we're okay because we've all kissed a boy before and according to him its not okay for mormons to kiss or hold hands or date or anything before you get married... yeah, hes a little confused.. and its a long, funny story for another day.. haha that was my first day back in Buda for ya...

Sister Behunin leaves tonight for the first time for splits, so Sister Fresh and I are on our own! It should be interestnig! We have a few programs to teach, but I'm sure itll be fine. We have a party tonight with all the missionaries at a members house, because it was elder Magda, one of the secretaries, birthday yesterday! Apparently she makes good food and she speaks english perfectly, so we're all stoked. haha

Oh and Sister Fresh and I hit our 5 month mark on our mission yesterday! And on wednesday we hit our 3 months in Hungary day!

Also, I live right across the street from the mission home and the branch house where we have most of our programs. so weird! But literally, we jsut step out and walk across the street and there we are! That means that we're in the office all the time (because it has AC and our apartment definitely does not) and we can get our mail and packages every day! Here's my address, just in case anyone needs it... (:

Sister Megan Leigh Butterfield
Hungary Budapest Mission
Budapest
Hajnóczy József Utca 14
1122
Hungary

hm. thats all i can think of for now.. I had a bunch of things written down to remind me to talk about, but then I forgot it. So... maybe next week! Sorry again for all the complaining, that's just where I'm at in life right now... But I'm praying for you all. Love you all!

Sister Butterfield

Week 11: Good News

June 18, 2013

HELLO!

Boy, do I have news for you all! My instincts were right once again and.... I am being transfered...again!!!!!! I guess I'm just a one-and-doner. But that's okay with me for the time being. However, somehow every transfer call seems to be a hit in the stomach and things always happen that I would NEVER guess. For example... I would have guessed that I could go anywhere in the country except the one place that I'm going and the one place that Ive been raving to everyone about. .... IM GOING BACK TO THE CITY!!! I really really really really cant even tell you exactly how stoked I am and how at peace I was when President Smith called to tell me. It's crazy to realize again and again how much God really does know each of us and what would be the perfect place for us and who the perfect companions on. AND!!!! I am in a trio again!! WOOHOOO! haha. except that its kind of really different. So, Sister Fresh (from the MTC, the other district) is the cutest person ever and we had actually talked about living together back at BYU when we get home or something in forever when all of our friends are married haha. Anyway, she and I are kind of co-senior, but not officially. Officially, we have a senior companion, Sister Behunin, who I also have a funny story with. So, she is one of the three Sister Training Leaders and so she'll be going on splits multiple days in the week and so President was saying that she'll be gone like 4 out of 7 days every week at least plus with other meetings and so most of the time it'll just be Sister Fresh and I most of the time. But its such a good combination for me of being on our own and in charge, but still having someone there to help us sometimes and someone that i can come home to and ask language questions to and stuff. PLUS, Sister Fresh is super cute and motivating AND there are so many missionaries in the Buda ward. Its going to be crazy! All of the office elders, APs, like three senior couples, President, the Buda elders and the three Buda sisters. Buda is just my home and I love being in the city cirlce. This time I won't be Kispest and the ghetto though, Ill actually be in city center!

Anyway, Sister Behunin goes home after next transfer and I actually went on splits with her this week and we were talking about how badly we wish we could be companions and how much it sucks that she's going home so soon because then we wouldnt have the chance to. and...yeah, we're companions now. haha I feel like that keeps happening. So now I'll have been in three cities and have had 6 companions.. in just three transfers! Isnt that crazy!

Hm, I had a bunch of stuff to write to you all about, but I'm honestly still kind of in shock about transfer calls and don't feel like writing it all. Mostly, its SUPER hot here and we just sit in our own sweat.. and maybe everyone elses around us.. all day every day and I feel like I'm melting and dying right now. Also, hungarian food reallyyy does not sit well with me and it tends to make me sick. But, it tastes good at least (:

Over all, this week was really good! Except Sunday, that was a low point for reasons that really shouldn't be important. But, just things that I found out about going on back at home with some people and yeah, I have refound my motivation to want to be out here and stay out here. It is really sad though, because The last couple transfers I have become really good friends with some missionaries and they're all really old in the mission and have died, are dying tomorrow or dying really soon. That's one reallyyy hard part, but it's okay. There are so many good missionaries in this mission and I really love it!

I hope you all have a GREAT week! And I'll be writing to you all next week from Buda! Love you all!

Sister Butterfield

Week 10: Quarterly Interview in Buda

10 June 2013

Sziasztok!

I have something for you all to look up! President Smith's wife frequently updates a website for the mission: hungaryldsmission.org Check it out! If you go back to April, I'm in a couple pictures on there and there are other missionaries in them that I've talked about! (:

Hmm…for this week...it has gone overall a bit better than last week. Mostly I'm just really ready from things to change up a bit and for next transfer, which starts next week! In other words, I'll be online next Tuesday instead of Monday to email! I won't be surprised if I get transferred again, but at the same time, I won't be surprised if I stay just one more (but, that'll probably be the most from what was implied this weekend in my quarterly interview with President). Who knows though! We have 3 new sisters coming in and a bunch of elders…6, I think, and two senior couples! President says that he wants sister missionaries in every city where there are elders a.s.a.p.! So that's really exciting!

We're going on splits starting tonight with two of the three Sister Training Leaders. I'll be with Sister Behunin and Sister Perkins will be with Sister Fox. I'm actually really excited now! I was pretty worried and not looking forward to it last month when they told me about it, but maybe it'll be a fun change for a day and I'll get to know another sister! I am a little bit nervous because I feel like it might play a role in what happens next transfer with me, but hey, what can you do! And either way, it's all done with according to God's will in the end anyway!

Today we spent most of our P-day in Nyíreghaza to get some suits made! Our comp item is going to be these really sick women suits! The elders who serve in Ny. almost all get suits made by this lady and they are super cool and European and the lining on the inside is the Hungarian flag! So we're the first sisters to try it out too, but with pencil skirts! I'm excited to see them!

Also, we have a new bap date this week! It'll be in July and we are soo excited for her! She is beyond ready and well, it’s a long story, but we are stoked! She's (not my favorite, because we're still not supposed to have favorites), but she would be one of mine in Debrecen!

We spent a lot of time with President this weekend! We were in Buda on Friday for interviews and it was soo good to be back! It really felt like I was "home" in Buda as soon as I stepped off the train! It has such a different feeling to it and even though it’s more harsh and busy, I love it now! Also, the river is flooding because of all the rain in Hungary and the surrounding countries! It’s crazy; the water is almost up to parliament! Then, the next day, President and Sister Smith came up and took us missionaries out to dinner at a really good restaurant and then they slept in a hotel and came to our branch and spoke on Sunday! They are so cute!

To answer some frequent questions:

I will try to tell you all more about investigators, it’s just hard because we’re not supposed to release too much confidential information or anything, plus work is kinda slow here. We have a lot of programs, but we haven’t really been getting any new, solid investigators and we're actually in the process of weeding out a lot of people that aren’t really serious about the church just practicing English or being friends with us. It’s pretty hard to do to people, but we just running into a lack of commitment or real interest to make any changes or anything.

We do see the elders a ton. We live right by the branch house, and the elders live quite a few blocks away, but only a couple minutes if they catch the streetcar thing. We table at the branch house a lot with them though and we always end up running into each other in between programs at the branch house and things.

Hope you have a good week! Tell me about the real world! I wish I could be there for Father's day with everyone! Love you all!

Sister Butterfield

Week 9: It's Been a Really Tough Week.

3 June 2013

Hellooo,

I hope you've all been having a good week in good ol' America; it's definitely very missed right now. I can't think of too much to tell you all about this week. Hmm. We were working towards super standard, and we had everything going according to plan! Then guess what happened?! On Sunday, it was pouring and church was empty. if only one more investigator had showed up to sacrament meeting, we would have gotten super standard... at least we got standard, but it’s hard to push yourself so hard and not reach a goal because of someone else’s actions, but oh well, there’s always this week...

Speaking of rain, it’s been raining SO much lately. The weather is awful and cold, but I actually prefer it to a ton of heat.

I think you'll all get a kick out of something I had to eat today (well, if you know that I don't like pudding or jello or pie or anything of the sort...). This member had us over and…actually, first of all, we met her on the bus to her house since she was out doing errands and she sat down and started talking to my companion... about me…and was like "oh, your companion, she’s a greenie, right? Or actually, she’s probably not really a greenie right, just blonde! Ha!" and I just sat there deciding to not do anything about it. Then.... we went to her super nice house and we read a book with her and gave her a little lesson thing and then she fed us this nastyyyy cake thing that she had made. Mostly it was like she threw a bunch of stuff into the tin, like some crackers and then some broken up chocolate crackers and then some strawberry jello and some pineapple chunks and some chestnut cream on top of that and some old strawberries on top of that. She gave us huge pieces and I was literally PRAYING that I could keep it down and not throw it up. Then, to top it all off, as we left, she turned to me and was like "Hey, you speak Hungarian really well! And you read beautifully." Ha, the irony. I wonder if she realized later all the things she had been saying to my companion about me and that I understood everything. Joyyy.

Hmm, I can’t even remember anything else that happened last week, honestly. It was a really rough week for me. I finally had a bad week on my mission, but I guess I saw it coming. Meh. Still haven’t broken down and cried though. Today actually made it better though... and then it got worse again. But for a while it was really fun…we had district meeting moved to our p-day and then had a district p-day. We had a sajt night, or a cheese night. We breaded and fried cheese sticks and then put pancake batter on some candy bars and fried those. Then we went outside of the branch house here in Debrecen and I whipped for the first time! One of my elders here got a memory card for me, so I can upload pictures of it now!

I've gotten really close to the YSA (Young Single Adults) here and some of our investigators, so in some ways I am really in love with this city! I have no idea what’s happening next transfer, but Sister Perkins will probably leave. We shall see! I have interviews with president on Friday and then we have a Zone conference with the west zone next week, so the rest of the transfer will probably fly by.

I wish I could think of some funny stories to tell you all, but i can’t at the moment. I have been learning so much though! Its amazing how much I DIDNT understand the scriptures before my mission or how many basic things I didn’t fully understand until I started thinking about how in the world I’d teach them to someone else. I have learned SO much about the church, it's crazy. Even if lately, I've mostly just been wanting to come home and not deal with dumb things that have been happening, I'm really just amazed at how I possibly could have gone to church for 19 years and seminary for 5 and done everything and STILL not completely understand things that I’ve been learning and teaching other people. Everything just fits together so perfectly.

Our district meeting was super good today too, about the Atonement and how to correctly use it in our lives. I don't know how to explain it all, but it helped a lot. I loved when Elder Moses explained how instead of asking for God to get us out of certain situations or help us not have to deal with things, to realize that God has put us in certain situations and given us certain things because he needs and wants us to experience certain things and we should be praying for strength to get us through instead of just asking to get out of them.

I hope you all have a better week than I did! Love you all!

Sister Butterfield