Week 62: Day 504: Tracting and Finding! Lots of Pictures!

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!

In our elevator on one of our first days together...

Sister Schnoor's pictures from my fitting through the hole out to the roof. I had to go first. hahaha! 

So much chocolate!

She took a picture of me taking a picture? Haha! But this is the church that's super close to our house. 

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.

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.

The super sketchy opening to the roof...

 So. much. chocolate. I just keep collecting more and more somehow... Some of those I've had since Székes...haha

50 days! (Today I'll cut of 45... this was a few days ago)

we tried to get an action shot of my daily ritual of cutting off a chain link.. haha none of them really worked out...

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. (:

So. hot. This is one of the statue things... 

Sometimes Duna is actually kinda pretty... and then you see another factory...

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.

Week 61: Day: 496 A Really Weird Week! Highlight -- 6 Programs In One Day!

June 2, 2014

Hey, hey!

What's good over on that side of the world? It's weird, the closer I get to the day I'll be back there, the more confused I am about how I feel about it. I'm stoked for some things, obviously, like my privacy and seeing/being able to talk to everyone whenever I feel like, but I do not want to leave Hungary at all. It's like a roller coaster every day of not being able to make up my mind. The week went by pretty fast, but sometimes the days are brutally long, but they're really good at the same time... Hopefully, you're starting to understand my confusion by this really confusing explanation. hahaha. For example:

Tuesday we had an alright day, some funny programs and we were enjoying ourselves, thinking I can do 8 weeks, no big deal… After a pretty unexpected phone call that night, I was just super thrown off and ready to be done again. haha I woke up the next morning in the same mood and all through personal study, was just thinking of ridiculous things and ideas. During comp study, Sister Schnoor and I were just bouncing ridiculous ideas around, like what would happen if I fell down the stairs while tracting and got sent home 8 weeks early, or get hit by a (slow) car and broke my leg. hahaha (Don't worry, we were just kidding. It sounds really dramatic right now, but at the time it was super funny). Anyway, that kind of describes my morning of my mind just jumping to any possible solution... We left the house to begin our day of tracting and what do you know? The three doors that opened all let us in! No doors in between answered and said no. I don't know about anywhere else, but here that never happens. By that time, it was time for lunch and then we had a program with someone else. After our program, we decided to go back and try the rest of that building and almost right away, a fourth person let us in. We had to leave after that for another program. So 6 programs in a day! It was actually a super cool experience for us after a really hard morning of wondering how to make it through the next 8 weeks of tracting and our minds just wandering to the future or the past. That was probably the highlight of our week.

Oh! Weird story... I've been keeping this dream journal since like January, because I've had a lot of strange dreams on my mission, especially last transfer... and I was reading over it one morning and I found the weirdest thing! It was from February 28, so before I even went to Szeged, and it was super short, like two sentences. All it said was "got my transfer call to Duna with someone super young in the mission. Didn't find out that we were whitewashing until we got there and I was really not happy about it." I almost spit out what I was eating. hahaha So weird! I read it to Sister Schnoor and she pretty much freaked out and got the chills. haha. There ya go! She's decided my dreams are prophetical and that they're all going to come true. hahaha

I honestly can't even remember what we did this week; it all just blurs into one thing that feels like it was ages ago. I just remember it was a really weird week... It's super hard to concentrate when you're this close to going home. That was my intent this week, to focus more on my mission and not the future. Either the Lord has a sense of humor or Satan is trying his hardest on me, because literally every morning I'd get up and study the scriptures with the intent of preparing for the day and literally EVERY day, the chapters I came across in the scriptures always had to do with marriage and families. I'm almost done with the New Testament and I swear every other chapter talks about husbands and wives respecting each other, etc. Even what I read in D&C always connected back. It was Fast Sunday yesterday, so I tried to use that for help. Started my fast and we went to a program with this guy from the Area Book. At the beginning we were all just getting to know each other and at the end of my little introduction, he just turns to me and is like: "Szerintem, férjhez kell menned itt Magyarországon!" (Pretty much telling me that he thinks I should get married). Thank you, random stranger, for that input on my life. hahaha Yesterday I'd had enough, so before breaking my fast, I pulled out a Conference Liahona from a couple years ago... bad idea. I opened it randomly to a talk-- All about marriage. Opened to another one? "The Eternal Blessings of Marriage..." Yeah...My companion thinks it's hilarious. haha at least someone's enjoying it. ;) It's just kind of our joke now; she likes telling me about all the people that sheknows that came home from missions and how long it took till they got married or how/where they met them. She wants me to start writing her cousin... haha. We've been trying to figure out, just for fun, what the rules are on getting engaged. Because we heard that if sisters get engaged to while they're on their missions, they get released honorably. Is that true? I mean, I've joked about it with a lot of companions, but no one actually knows if it's for real. haha. That was added to our list, next to fall down the stairs and break your leg. hahaha we sound like crazy people. But yeah, I figured you'd get a kick out of that week of personal study, coming from the girl who was not excited to get married anytime soon and not have kids for a long time after that... and then I served a mission. Huh. I think I've officially gone insane. 16 months is a long time.

I know we had a lot of weird, funny things happen this week, but I can't even remember anymore. My brain is all over the place right now. I love Sister Schnoor though! She's super cute. My first Canadian companion! Oddly, only 4 of my 12 companions have actually been from Utah. haha Speaking of missions, there are two YSA (a brother and sister) in the branch here waiting to get their mission calls! I'm super excited for them! Also excited, because they said some YSA from other cities, like Veszprém, are coming to watch them open their calls and I'm stoked to see some of them! I wish there was Stake Conference or something before I leave so that I can see everyone from around Hungary before I leave. Oh well.

My favorite conference talks I read this week (Don't worry - I chose ones that weren't about marriage to share with you), were "Followers of Christ" by Elder Gonzalez and "Your Four Minutes" by Bishop Stevenson. I thought that one was especially applicable to a mission, but I found it amusing because usually your mission feels like a whole lot longer than 4 minutes... Anyway, read them! Have a good week! I love you all and I'll be seeing you in 7 weeks. Crazy.

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

The chin link count down till I go home. I promise it wasn't my idea! Elder Seegmiller (our ZL who's dying with me here in Duna) and I both made one as a joke. Haha!

Sister Schnoor and I and her first (not very good) pékség!

Week 60: Day 489: Exhaustion, 6 New Investigators, Wrestling!

May 26, 2014

Hey!

Sorry, I totally spaced on sending a group email this morning... but don't worry, I'll send a quick one now. All I have to say, is it's been a looong week. Holy cow. I don't think I've ever been so exhausted in my whole life. On our first morning together while we were getting ready, we were unpacking and I literally fell asleep laying across my suitcase. That sounds about like every morning since. I've fallen asleep partway through getting ready... Just a heads up, don't be surprised if I come home and sleep for 3 days straight in July. It's probably also because the day of transfers we had to wake up at like 4:45am to catch a 6am bus and then a 6:45am train to Budapest for my training meeting thing. Somehow, I woke up the next morning at 5:45 in panic, because I thought I had overslept on my first morning with a greenie. Nope, just read the clock wrong and it's super bright in our apartment in the mornings here...

We've just been taking it a day at a time, cause I don't really know what I'm doing either. Haha. Awkward. But, we found 6 new investigators last weekend, so that's a start! Most of them might be a little off their rockers (since they’re all like 60 years old), but I'll take it for now. Haha! We have another week of tracting ahead of us and a few programs. Which reminds me: Strangest thing happened yesterday... We had a second program with this old man that used to meet with missionaries and he was telling us about how he used to play some sport for like 10 years, but I had never heard the word before. I repeated it and asked what it meant and he was just like, "What! They don't have that sport in America?!" and I was like "no, I'm sure they do, I'm just not familiar with that word! How do you play or what does it look like?" He stood up (I figured to go get a picture or something) and came right in front of me and was just like "You might want to finish eating your cookie first" so I ate it and asked if I should stand up. As soon as I stood up, I was immediately grabbed into his arms and lifted OFF the ground. Let me paint this picture for you: This is a 70 year old man, at least a head shorter than me and we were face-to-face. Yeah. Talk about awkward. So here I am, dangling in the air, and I can see my poor greenie sitting in the chair behind him looking at me with this face like "what am I supposed to do right now? is this allowed?" and laughing super hard. He put me down and I thought I was done. Nope. He literally jumped off the ground to get up high enough to grab me in a headlock... Then he grabbed my companion in a headlock and finally sat down. He also made a comment about how red my face turned. Seems like that’s been happening a lot lately. Probably because I was laughing so hard I was crying. Moral of the story? If anyone ever says birkózás, don't ask what it means; just assume that it means wrestling.

We went to church for the first time here yesterday. Another interesting time. We got there and I had a book placed in my hands from someone in the branch presidency who told me, oh yeah, you're teaching Young Women's today! So...I taught YWs yesterday with a book I have never seen before in my life, and it definitely wasn't in English. Turns out, I'm also teaching Sunday School next week. Holla. All I have to say, is any trace of Szeged is definitely looong gone at this rate and I already miss it more than I can say. Yikes.

Oh! I hit my 16 month mark last week and my 2 months left mark. So, the countdown has officially started. I didn't actually have one, but one of the two elders here is dying with me! So we're just bugging each other all the time with countdowns. Haha! I pointed out yesterday that we only have 8 churches left, so he pointed out that we only have 2 fast Sundays. It's kind of nice to serve around someone in the same position as me, because we just egg it on all the time. I think my greenie is more excited for me to go home than I even am; she just keeps asking about boys and my plans and thinks she'll get a wedding invite from some boy at BYU while she's still out here. Ha. We'll see. She's super cute though and super green. I had no idea what that meant until now. Sometimes I forget that things in Hungary are different than other places, probably just because it's like home to me now and I didn't really even grow up in the US, so that's not really normal life to me either. Meh. Things just aren't a big deal to me anymore here; it's all just normal life. Haha!

Sorry, I was planning on taking lots of pictures and sending them for the blog, but I definitely failed at that and I don't have any for you this week... next week though, I promise! I have to run to some családi est thing with the elders... but until next week! Oh, and read "What Shall a Man Give in Exchange for His Soul?" by Elder Robert C. Gay and "Where's the Pavilion?" by Elder Eyring. Both great talks! Got me through the week and kind of changed my perspective on the last few weeks of my mission and some changes I need to make. I just have to get the strength to make them and stick to them. That's all I have for now. Love you all! Have a good week!

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

Week 59: Day 483: Transferred Again! That's Right -- 7 cities in 9 transfers!

May 20, 2014

Hey...

Well... we got transfer calls! Definitely a long week of waiting, since we knew everyone would be thrown for one with so many people coming in and leaving and so many new leaders needed. Turns out, I will be leaving to my SEVENTH city (7 cities in 9 transfers, in case anyone has lost track of the high count) tomorrow. I will be re-opening Dunaújváros with a greenie, so I have no idea who my companion will be yet. Sister Dinehart is also leaving, going to Kecskemét with the other Hungarian sister in our mission (if you go back and look at my email from last week, that was indeed my guess for her!). She's pretty much packed; I, on the other hand, have to go home and pack. I figured I was leaving, but I left that small speck of hope in my mind that I could still die here in Szeged.

For other news, I'm currently in single digits for number of weeks left on my mission, and that's starting to feel about right. It rained here all week last week, but the sun is finally back out again! It'll be an adventure taking all 6 of our suitcases and bags up to Buda tomorrow and then taking mine and my greenie's back... hopefully we can get the ZL's cars... (: The advantage of serving with zone leaders.

We had a really good week! Artur got confirmed in church yesterday! Csilla had her bap interview and passed, so the baptism will be on Sunday and obviously neither of us will be at it...awkward. We also bap challenged a mom and her son a couple days ago and they accepted! At this point the baptism is scheduled for August 3rd, so if we end up coming back then, maybe we can see some baptisms! (: We'll see!

Well, that's about all I have for you all this week, sorry. I read a talk from conference that really hit me this week and I wanted to share it with you, it's "More than conquerors through Him that Loved Us" by Paul V. Johnson. Read it! Have a good week, and I'll talk to you next week... from Duna...

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

Week 58: Day 475: Baptism Yesterday

May 12, 2014

Hello!

I'm not really sure what to write you all about today, since we just Skyped yesterday... Mostly the highlight of our week (besides Skyping, of course) was the baptism yesterday! I'll have to send you all pictures of it. It all went smoothly. It's not so much the ceremony that I love about the whole thing, but more the investigators journey and what extreme changes I was able to watch and experience with him. I am so proud of him and amazed at how he has completely flipped his life around and literally become a new person. It's crazy what the Gospel does for people and the happiness that it brings to people who were otherwise extremely sad and alone. I'm excited for his future and the continued blessings the gospel will bring to him. The service itself was interesting. It was at a Seven Day Adventist church here in Szeged, because they have a font... It's a nice, quiet place, just strange to have a baptism in someone else's church... I'm excited for the branch house to be finished here, hopefully August!

Other than that, we're just moving forward with our work. We met this super cute 20-year old girl while tracting (finally did some tracting here!) last week. We went back to visit her today and she's so adorable! Unfortunately, she's going home for the summer to a little village and can't meet until September, but holy cow! I have high hopes for this one! She was sooo excited to get the Book of Mormon and just kept saying how she can't wait to start reading it and read the whole thing! She was like, "I'm just so glad you two were here last time and that you're so normal! I was so excited that I told all my friends about you two and convinced them all that Mormons really aren't weird! I told my whole family about it too and my mom was really happy!" Ah! She's a missionary already! She said a couple of her friends already asked her if they could borrow her copy of the Book of Mormon when she finishes it. I told her that instead, we'd love to give them all copies! She said she'll talk to them all again and see if she can get us their addresses! So cool!

Now we're just prepping for the transfer and for another baptism. We have a super solid investigator (she's pretty much already a member, minus the covenants. Haha) getting baptized on the Sunday after transfers, so that should be interesting to see who is here with her..... We both feel like we're leaving Szeged, but I'll let you know next week what happens. Speaking of, we'll be emailing on Tuesday next week because of transfer calls! Strange... it'll be my last transfer. You can check me on my guesses for transfers at this point: I go to Pécs or something and Sister Dinehart to... Kecskemét or she'll (re)open somewhere new with someone fairly young. We'll see, but now you can check me on my guesses. ;)

This week I've been studying the Atonement every day in my personal study and I just wanted to share a quote that I found:

"By this miraculous physical healing, the Savior confirmed to all of us this infinitely more powerful spiritual truth: the Son of Man forgives sins! He does not excuse us in our sins. He does not condone our return to past sins. But when we repent and obey His gospel, He forgives us.

In this forgiveness we see the enabling and the redeeming power of the Atonement harmoniously and graciously applied. If we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the enabling power of His Atonement strengthens us in our moment of need, and His redeeming power sanctifies us as we “[put] off the natural man.” This brings hope to all, especially to those who feel that recurring human weakness is beyond the Savior’s willingness to help and to save."

That's from Elder Craig A. Cardon's talk from last April. I liked it so I wrote the last part of it on a sticky note in my planner so that I can read it all the time. I think everyone has things that they struggle with and want to put off, but obviously that's easier said than done and sometimes it's a very long, painful process. But, we can know that He still wants to forgive us, no matter how many times we fall back into our weaknesses. Just know that you all have the strength to overcome whatever you are going through and this source of strength, help and forgiveness is available to all of you, all of the time, no matter what. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

 Us with Viki in front of the font in the Adventist church before the baptism.

Artur, in the middle, is the one who got baptized and next to him is the branch president, President Szűcs, who baptized him. The little kid in the front is one of our other investigators, whom we teach with his mom and grandma. 

Week 57: Day 468: Eight Branch Missionaries Called!

May 5, 2014

Hali!

6 days and we get to Skype!!! It just hit me today! Hopefully our week will fly until then. I can't believe that I only have 11 weeks left on my mission. What? It sounds crazy short, seeing as I had like 78 or something to begin with, yet it also sounds so far away still. Time is the weirdest concept; I will never understand it. Speaking of, I was reading D&C 58 yesterday and came across this scripture that was perfect after the week I had:

2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that ^akeepeth my commandments, whether in life or in ^bdeath; and he that is^cfaithful in ^dtribulation, the ^ereward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural ^aeyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the ^bglory which shall follow after much tribulation.

 4 For after much ^atribulation come the ^bblessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be ^ccrowned with much ^dglory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

 5 Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may ^alay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow.

I just wanted to share that with ya'll. I actually shared it yesterday at a feeding program all of us missionaries had with our branch president and his mom for (Hungarian) Mother's Day. I really like the part in verse 3 about our "natural eyes" and how we really can’t see the plan of God or what is to come later, but we just need to last through our hard times and be obedient and then we can trust that it will all work out and we will be blessed more than we can imagine. Easier said than done. I'll be the first to admit that.

Other than that, our week was interesting. It was a holiday on Thursday and we were in Budapest on Friday for interviews, so that whole day was wiped out. We had a decent number of dogs and had a pretty stressful week. Luckily, we made it through our very interesting interviews and came back and were able to throw ourselves back into our work fully and have a great weekend. On Sunday, eight branch missionaries were called, so now we are starting to work with them and help them learn the ropes! I'm stoked for this branch and its crazy progress. I've never seen anything like it and it's so cool! I just hope that I'm here next transfer to see it all through and to start using the new branch house that's almost finished, but I'm not so sure that I will be :/ We have 8 new sisters coming in two weeks and we've been told that this transfer will affect every single sister companionship and they'll have to open 4 cities (probably just re-open 3 that were closed temporarily 3 weeks ago) and have something like 13 sisters in leadership positions. So... it's going to be crazy and no one really knows what's happening yet.

We had an interesting night... At about 1 am I woke up to my companion freaking out again about some cockroaches, but I was too exhausted to even get up and check, so I told her to either kill them or just close the door so that they can't come out of the kitchen. All I heard was her shriek, "Oh no! They're coming towards us!" and then she slammed all the lights off and jumped back in bed... I fell back asleep pretty quickly, but started dreaming that I had cockroaches crawling all over me and then that my comp told me I had 5 in my bed with me. So at about 2:30, I couldn't take it anymore... I got a flashlight and put on some shoes and went for 'em. Ugh. They had come out of the kitchen and were in the hallway around (on) all of our shoes and a few had crawled into the bathroom and into our living room (lost those ones). It probably would have been really funny to see. I had the phone (for its flashlight) in one hand (because the lights scare them away) and a shoe in the other and I was just going crazy on them. I only freaked out when I lifted a shoe up and three went scurrying in opposite directions and I didn't know which one to go for... hahaha. One got stuck on its back and was hiding behind something that the show wouldn't fit through, so I frantically looked around for anything before it could flip back over and run away.... The only thing I could find was hairspray. Yep, I sprayed a cockroach with hairspray. Then I ran into the kitchen to find some kind of chemical that would actually kill it. I'll send a picture of some of them that I killed last night. Some of them were in too many pieces to salvage and other ones got squished on the carpet, so they aren't in the picture...Long story short, I killed them all single-handedly and then got back in bed just before 3 and of course, I couldn't sleep. So I just lay in bed until at least 5, just tossing and turning and thinking about life until I finally drifted off. Let's just say, the morning was pretty rough and I'm exhausted. I think it's about time I come home, this whole coming home thing is starting to take its toll on my eating and sleeping patterns the last couple of weeks. But...I love it out here, so I'm not complaining! Life just needs to pause for 11 weeks and I can deal with it later. (:

I have to run, but we're finishing emailing tonight again, before out program. Let me know if you're online. Love you all! Have a good week!

Love,
Sister Megan Butterfield

At dinner a few p-days ago.

Dinner last night at the branch president and his mom's apartment. I may or may not be sitting on her lap. Don't question it. Probably one of the best meals I've had on my mission though. 

Viki just got her mission call to the Washington Spokane Mission, leaving September 9th! She'll be in the MTC with Nate! 

Welcome to District Meetings in Szeged. S/O to Elder Giacalone (the District Leader) - See, I promised you'd make it on my blog. Happy? (:

 Some of the cockroaches I attacked last night...

Week 56: Day 461: Hair Fiasco, Testimony Building Experiences

April 28, 2014

HI!

Uh... Don't be mad, but... I may or may not have dyed my hair this week. Oops. Haha. Don't worry, only part of it, and part of that we bleached back to its normal color because it came out a little too extreme than we expected. It's kind of a long story... There's this YSA here who opened a little hair salon here and offered to cut our hair, cause I haven't gotten it cut since Perkins cut it on splits in like September. Anywho, we gave her free range to do what she wanted as long as it wasn't too extreme. Sister D's hair was about the length of mine and wanted to try it short, so she got a super short A-line. I told her I had always wanted to try brown hair but never had, so she wanted to try this style of like part of my bangs˛/front hairs dark brown and the rest blonde. Yeah... we figured out that my hair is super weird and it kind of went like blackish greyish blue or something? But the bangs came out really well. So, the next day, we went back and she bleached the one side back to its normal color, but even that took like three or four coats of bleach, so she said my hair is super stubborn and thick. Hahaha! Anyway, it looks good now, so no worries. Plus, my bangs will have grown out by the time I come home, so it'll be fine.


Also, just a warning, the stupid shift key is broken and doesn't really work, hence the terrible typing today. Other than that little fiasco, our week was really good. Our work is still going strong and we're working on adding more people to our pool. Next Sunday we have a baptism! Speaking of, we get to Skype next Sunday! We have Stake Conference that morning and then that afternoon we'll have the baptism and then we'll head over to the branch president's house to Skype. I'm guessing it'll be sometime between 6-8pm here which is like 10am-12 pm there. He said that there will probably be two computers that we can use and just Skype at the same time, but he's working it out. We'll have an hour to Skype. So…if anyone gets on by the time I email tonight, let me know what time you have church and if 10 or 11 would be better for you?

Hm…this week we had a good time. Yesterday one of the members invited us over for a palacsinta (pancakes... aka crepes) party with some of the girls in the YSA and our investigator who's getting baptized and it was a blast. We couldn't stay for long, cause we had to run to another program. But literally, I'm just in love with this branch and the city. It's so crazy. I've loved the other cities I served in, mostly when I was younger in the mission, like Buda, but this is just like home here. So weird. We also had a branch FHE on Friday and brought like 8 of our investigators. It was a lot of fun to be there with everyone and play games and stuff. I've noticed the craziest things lately. Before my mission I never would have been able to just like pull scriptures and references out of a hat, but twice since I've been here I've had super cool experiences. Both women have been members for quite a while and one had to plan a talk and couldn't remember where in the scriptures a specific scripture was. The other one was planning the spiritual thought for the FHE and was struggling to find a scripture that would go along with it. Both came to me (at different times) in panic mode at the last minute, and asked me to help them. It was just a testimony-strengthener to me, to realize that not only am I closer to the Holy Ghost than before my mission, but probably than almost any other point on my mission. Both times, a scripture popped immediately into my mind. I wasn't sure if it was the right scripture for either of them, but according to both, it was just what they were looking for. I love being able to literally see the Lord working through us as missionaries and feeling like a tool in his hands. I just feel like I've been blessed with so many cool experiences lately, in my missionary work and in my personal life and prayers. Life is just so crazy and it's literally flying by. I don't know if any of you noticed, but less than three months until I get home. Still don't know how I feel about it. I already can't wait to come back to Hungary!

On a side note - Happy Birthday this week, Dad! - and Zach last week!

We have to run again, because we have a pretty busy day, but we'll finish emailing again tonight, i think. So let me know if any of you are online then or just reply before then and I'll try to send pictures of the new hair, but it’s not really that different! (: love you all! Read conference! (:

Love,

Sister Megan Butterfield

Someone drew out all of our last names (missionaries in Szeged) Haha!

Having language study with Viki.

She's so cute! She's like my best friend here!

At the hair place! That's how much hair Sister Dinehart cut off in some places. They used it and gave a girl in the branch thicker hair. Hahahah what?

Don't worry, that's not what my hair looks like right now on either side.