June 10, 2014
Hellooo!
I actually have a list of things to write about today. Mostly, it's been a week of tracting and finding, so I've had a lot of time to think and reflect on life and my mission and all that cheesy stuff. I realized that I had given myself about a week or two too long to feel sorry for myself about being thrown out to the middle of nowhere in Duna, the beautiful center of factories and 10-stories... (: haha! It's just cool to think about the progression of my mission and such. I might as well be happy out here and love it out here for the next 6 weeks. I've realized that I'm actually really grateful to experience "opening" a city again, now that I've reached the end of my mission and actually know what I'm doing. It leaves a lot better taste in my mouth, then if I had left after only opening Veszprém and how hard those two transfers were for me... Not that our work is going super well here, in terms of progressing investigators and all that jazz, but within three weeks, we've gotten like 16 new investigators or something, which is definitely more than I ever got in.. probably all 3 months in Veszprém put together. I love having reached the level in my teaching experience and in my testimony, that I feel like I can actually teach, preach and testify with power (obviously thanks to the Holy Ghost) and answer almost any strange question I've had thrown at me. Plus, Duna really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. They kind of have a weird accent when they speak Hungarian, but they're really nice and so many people let us in! Plus, the few branch members that we've gotten to talk to are super funny and lot of them have been members for like 20+ years here, so that's cool. They used to have so many members here Duna, that there were actually two branches at one point. Also, I used to teach this girl who was living in Szeged to play handball and she was one of my favorites there, and now I get to meet with her family here in Duna! (Her parents and youngest brothers are new-ish members here and invite us and the elders over almost every week). So, when Saci's in town, I also get to see her, which is a nice piece of Szeged for me. hahah
Speaking of tracting... haha Last week, we had somehow managed to get "Standard of Excellence" and that means that also get a phone call from the mission president's wife to congratulate us and to talk for a few minutes and it's super cute. Anyway, she started asking my companion what she thought about Hungary so far and about me as her trainer. Our phone is pretty loud and we were in the elevator, so I could hear pretty much everything she was saying, something along the lines of "Isn't she just one of our best missionaries? She's just so great at tracting, and teaching and the language, and.... tracting!" Sister Schnoor just looked at me and burst out laughing. It's kinda our joke. Just call me the queen of tracting and send me the the tracting central of Hungary for my dying transfer... Can't even be mad though, I like tracting.
We had a pretty good week this week... Mostly we just... tracted. We have some investigators that we're meeting with pretty regularly. Hey, remember the story about the man who wrestled me? He's actually on bap date now! So, that's cool. He's super funny. We retaught him the Restoration this week and he just kept asking all these questions and wanting weird explanations and at the end he was just like, wow, you should be a tanitó néni! I had no idea that you had this much knowledge about these kinds of things, like religion and the Bible! uhh... sometimes I don't really understand what people think we do out here for 2 years or 18 months. That's all we do! hahaha
Actually, I do have a random Bible question for anyone who has the answer... So I finished the New Testament last week and am now making my way through the Old Testament. There's a part in Genesis 9:20-27 about Canaan being cursed, but wasn't it Ham that saw Noah? And why was it that big of a problem? What in the world is it talking about?! I literally read it like 10 times and my companion has no idea either. Someone care to shed some light on that for us? Haha.
It's super weird to think that in about 6 weeks, I'll be at home, just doing normal people things again. I can't decide if I'm happy about it or not. There are definitely some things and rules about missionary life that I won't miss, for selfish reasons... but... actually being a missionary? the people? the branches? the food? the language? Hungary? the culture? my companions and missionary friends? not having to plan my own future? Those things I will definitely miss... It's strange when I realize I'm using my last missionary planner and this is my last "full month," and when we plan bap dates for people, realizing that there's no way I'll be here next transfer with them. Life is weird. But conference talks help sometimes... (: My favorites were "The Strength to Endure" by Elder Maynes and "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" by Elder Richard G. Scott. Read them. (:
We're splitting our email time in half again, but we have English at 6, so we'll be on earlier... at like 4, if any of you happen to be on. Love you all! Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield
PS: I forgot to mention a few things this morning... First off, sorry I didn't email yesterday. It's happened enough times that I'm sure you already guessed... it was a holiday here, which means everything shuts down! We went sightseeing at this statue park thing down by the river with the elders instead. I'll send you some pictures... That was our goal this week: to take a lot more pictures, since I've been failing majorly at it. I think we did a pretty good job this week!
Also, next week I'm not sure when we'll be emailing exactly. We have to go up to Budapest this Sunday night, because Sister Schnoor has New Missionary Training stuff starting at like 7:30 the next morning... In other words, Sister Fresh and I are going on splits all day, with free range in Budapest! (:
Other than that... don't mind the pictures if they're kinda gross. It's nasty hot over here. Hungarian summers are pretty much the worst thing ever, and it hasn't even hit July yet... I'm not really sure anymore if it's the heat or coming home that make it impossible to fall asleep for a few hours every night... haha. Speaking of home, I switched around some of my classes for next semester, because I'm working on getting my Associates by the end of winter... So I'll be taking American Heritage at the SLC center on Tuesday nights. Yuck. But, that means I can visit Katie and the new baby (and Rory and Carter haha) every Tuesday at least. (:
okay... cool. Have a good week!
Hellooo!
I actually have a list of things to write about today. Mostly, it's been a week of tracting and finding, so I've had a lot of time to think and reflect on life and my mission and all that cheesy stuff. I realized that I had given myself about a week or two too long to feel sorry for myself about being thrown out to the middle of nowhere in Duna, the beautiful center of factories and 10-stories... (: haha! It's just cool to think about the progression of my mission and such. I might as well be happy out here and love it out here for the next 6 weeks. I've realized that I'm actually really grateful to experience "opening" a city again, now that I've reached the end of my mission and actually know what I'm doing. It leaves a lot better taste in my mouth, then if I had left after only opening Veszprém and how hard those two transfers were for me... Not that our work is going super well here, in terms of progressing investigators and all that jazz, but within three weeks, we've gotten like 16 new investigators or something, which is definitely more than I ever got in.. probably all 3 months in Veszprém put together. I love having reached the level in my teaching experience and in my testimony, that I feel like I can actually teach, preach and testify with power (obviously thanks to the Holy Ghost) and answer almost any strange question I've had thrown at me. Plus, Duna really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. They kind of have a weird accent when they speak Hungarian, but they're really nice and so many people let us in! Plus, the few branch members that we've gotten to talk to are super funny and lot of them have been members for like 20+ years here, so that's cool. They used to have so many members here Duna, that there were actually two branches at one point. Also, I used to teach this girl who was living in Szeged to play handball and she was one of my favorites there, and now I get to meet with her family here in Duna! (Her parents and youngest brothers are new-ish members here and invite us and the elders over almost every week). So, when Saci's in town, I also get to see her, which is a nice piece of Szeged for me. hahah
Speaking of tracting... haha Last week, we had somehow managed to get "Standard of Excellence" and that means that also get a phone call from the mission president's wife to congratulate us and to talk for a few minutes and it's super cute. Anyway, she started asking my companion what she thought about Hungary so far and about me as her trainer. Our phone is pretty loud and we were in the elevator, so I could hear pretty much everything she was saying, something along the lines of "Isn't she just one of our best missionaries? She's just so great at tracting, and teaching and the language, and.... tracting!" Sister Schnoor just looked at me and burst out laughing. It's kinda our joke. Just call me the queen of tracting and send me the the tracting central of Hungary for my dying transfer... Can't even be mad though, I like tracting.
We had a pretty good week this week... Mostly we just... tracted. We have some investigators that we're meeting with pretty regularly. Hey, remember the story about the man who wrestled me? He's actually on bap date now! So, that's cool. He's super funny. We retaught him the Restoration this week and he just kept asking all these questions and wanting weird explanations and at the end he was just like, wow, you should be a tanitó néni! I had no idea that you had this much knowledge about these kinds of things, like religion and the Bible! uhh... sometimes I don't really understand what people think we do out here for 2 years or 18 months. That's all we do! hahaha
Actually, I do have a random Bible question for anyone who has the answer... So I finished the New Testament last week and am now making my way through the Old Testament. There's a part in Genesis 9:20-27 about Canaan being cursed, but wasn't it Ham that saw Noah? And why was it that big of a problem? What in the world is it talking about?! I literally read it like 10 times and my companion has no idea either. Someone care to shed some light on that for us? Haha.
It's super weird to think that in about 6 weeks, I'll be at home, just doing normal people things again. I can't decide if I'm happy about it or not. There are definitely some things and rules about missionary life that I won't miss, for selfish reasons... but... actually being a missionary? the people? the branches? the food? the language? Hungary? the culture? my companions and missionary friends? not having to plan my own future? Those things I will definitely miss... It's strange when I realize I'm using my last missionary planner and this is my last "full month," and when we plan bap dates for people, realizing that there's no way I'll be here next transfer with them. Life is weird. But conference talks help sometimes... (: My favorites were "The Strength to Endure" by Elder Maynes and "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" by Elder Richard G. Scott. Read them. (:
We're splitting our email time in half again, but we have English at 6, so we'll be on earlier... at like 4, if any of you happen to be on. Love you all! Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield
PS: I forgot to mention a few things this morning... First off, sorry I didn't email yesterday. It's happened enough times that I'm sure you already guessed... it was a holiday here, which means everything shuts down! We went sightseeing at this statue park thing down by the river with the elders instead. I'll send you some pictures... That was our goal this week: to take a lot more pictures, since I've been failing majorly at it. I think we did a pretty good job this week!
Also, next week I'm not sure when we'll be emailing exactly. We have to go up to Budapest this Sunday night, because Sister Schnoor has New Missionary Training stuff starting at like 7:30 the next morning... In other words, Sister Fresh and I are going on splits all day, with free range in Budapest! (:
Other than that... don't mind the pictures if they're kinda gross. It's nasty hot over here. Hungarian summers are pretty much the worst thing ever, and it hasn't even hit July yet... I'm not really sure anymore if it's the heat or coming home that make it impossible to fall asleep for a few hours every night... haha. Speaking of home, I switched around some of my classes for next semester, because I'm working on getting my Associates by the end of winter... So I'll be taking American Heritage at the SLC center on Tuesday nights. Yuck. But, that means I can visit Katie and the new baby (and Rory and Carter haha) every Tuesday at least. (:
okay... cool. Have a good week!
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| In our elevator on one of our first days together... |
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| Sister Schnoor's pictures from my fitting through the hole out to the roof. I had to go first. hahaha! |
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| So much chocolate! |
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| She took a picture of me taking a picture? Haha! But this is the church that's super close to our house. |
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| Dunaújváros... it's split in the middle by this valley thing and we were walking on the other side towards the branch house... We live in the half of the city seen in the picture. |
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| One day we got bored of tracting, so we went exploring for a few minutes and found an opening to get on a roof... This is the picture we took from the roof: 10-stories galore. |
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| The super sketchy opening to the roof... |
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| So. much. chocolate. I just keep collecting more and more somehow... Some of those I've had since Székes...haha |
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| 50 days! (Today I'll cut of 45... this was a few days ago) |
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| we tried to get an action shot of my daily ritual of cutting off a chain link.. haha none of them really worked out... |
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| Meet the elders. Sometimes you get a little tired of "traditional finding"and you have to mix it up...We drove out to some family houses with the elders and we each took one side of the road. haha They're pretty cool kids, we get alone real well. (: |
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| So. hot. This is one of the statue things... |
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| Sometimes Duna is actually kinda pretty... and then you see another factory... |
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| The District. (smallest one I've ever been in. and I thought our Szeged district of 6 was tiny...) and a photo-bomber. That was a funny story actually. Interesting man. |
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