Week 25: 8 month mark!!!

September 23, 2013

It’s been a good week!! I don’t really have time to write an email to everyone today, so maybe you'll just have to take parts from the ones I send you and the rest of the family and put those up, if you want to. We spent awhile this morning cleaning and rearranging our apartment and we still have to go shopping right now, and then we have a couple programs that we have to rush to. But things have been good! We had to teach Sunday School (Gospel Principles) again yesterday, so I was pretty worried about that off and on all last week, but it went pretty well, I think. We taught about fasting! Something else fun for the blog, I tried horse last transfer! I’ll have to tell you more about it later though! Hah or maybe I already did and forgot about it. Oh well. 

The weather is pretty cold and then randomly we'll have a pretty warm day. I got out all my winter stuff! I don’t really have a great jacket for it, so I usually just layer two sweaters, but I do have a black sweater that’s thicker.

I’ll think about good stories and things for next week. I was going to send a bunch of pictures this week too, but I ran out of time and they take a long time. I wish I had more time to email! I’ll make sure to make more time for it next week! 

I thought of a few things that might be nice to have (for my birthday), but they aren’t all necessary, especially if they don’t all fit or won’t send well: salsa, Oreos, maybe a ring or something, Christmas CDs/music on a pen drive (and it doesn’t have to be church Christmas music), chocolate chips!! .. I’ll keep thinking. 

Also! Today is my 8 month mark!! Say happy birthday to Scott and Rory for me! Love you!

Week 24: Life is GREAT!

Hey everyone!!

It's been a GREAT week over here in Veszprém! Sister Maxfield and I get along great and our work is picking up so fast! We have a few investigators that we meet with regularly now, some once a week, some a few times a week. We still aren't sure how solid they all are but we have high hopes for this transfer! I'm SO glad that this transfer is 10 weeks! Crazy, because we've all been dreading it for months since we first heard about it, but it's turned out to be the best thing ever! This week we managed to get Super Standard. That's a miracle in itself, if I ever saw one! Haha! We realized how close we were on Saturday without even trying to be and we just pushed ourselves a little harder on Saturday and Sunday for it and it all worked out! First time on my mission! Yeah!

I don't have too many stories; well I have some, just now a ton of time. One funny thing that happened was that we were teaching this lady a lesson in her apartment and we were just about to finish it, by asking her to offer the closing prayer for the first time, when we heard a knock on the door. Her daughter went and opened it and called her mom to the door, opening the door just wide enough for me to recognize our elders standing in the hallway. Hahaha! We all laughed. Hard. It was a good time. That's never happened before; they just happened to be tracting the one building, in an area of like 54234345 apartment buildings, that we were in. So good!

That's all I can think of for now! But I gotta run! Thanks for all your emails! I hope you're all doing well! I'll send you some pictures next week! We got a bunch of good ones with our elders here! Life is good out here in Hungary. How's America? Everyone as stoked for General Conference as I am? I hope so! If you feel like you're struggling, one thing I've learned is that it's in those times that the Lord blesses us the most and we see the most miracles in our life! I mean, hey, look at this crazy situation that I've been put in. I'm not capable of doing it on my own, but I have the Lord on my side and things are going great! Love you all!

Much Love,

Sister Butterfield

Week 23: Adjusting to Being Senior Companion

September 10, 2013

HI!

So, I don't have a ton of time right now to email you all right now. Merr. Where to start... This weekend has been awful and then great! My first few days were really rocky; I kind of lost it one day by myself haha. Let's just say, I have definitely cried more in this city than the rest of my mission put together. Yikes. I don't like being senior and having that responsibility at all, haha. Interestingly, the day that I became senior I felt a physical difference in the burden on my shoulders. Literally, I felt like a weight was dropping onto my head. My first day I got a migraine by the time we got home that night and then I lost it the next morning. It only went up from there. I realized that Sister Maxfield is a gift sent from heaven. That's kinda weird to say. I mean, I have loved every single one of my companions SO much, I've never fought or argued with any of them or anything, but I haven't necessarily been able to see, especially not this early in a transfer, why I needed that specific companion at that time. I feel kind of selfish saying that, because I feel like she's really just here for me and I don't know how to help her out, usually it's been the opposite. It's an interesting position to be in, but she's the one kind of putting me back together, which I feel bad about, especially as the senior companion. I think that's why the first few days were so rough, because I felt like she was pretty much better and more put together at everything than I am and logically, shouldn't I be teaching her stuff about missionary work instead of her teaching me? Nope. That's where I was wrong. But hey, it's great! She is a superstar at finding and teaching people. The work started picking up in Sister Fower's and my last week together and now it's just running. We don't have any investigators that are considered "progressing" yet, but we have soo much set up for this week and we have been getting so many more promising let ins and phone numbers, not just flaky ones. It makes me sick of stress, literally, to think about everything on my plate and lots of little things coming up, so I've been trying to focus on just one day at a time, one event/program at a time and it's been working pretty well so far. Sister Maxfield is a lifesaver in terms of helping me to find missionary work creative and fun and in helping me put my testimony back together. I just wish it weren't so much pressure to be a senior companion. Oh well, we're doing great together!

Everyone keeps asking for cool stories, so here are a couple: We've been doing a lot of RCLA work, so I've been studying the ward list here and putting it into lists of the areas where inactive members live and trying to get information about them. So, Sister Fowers and I started looking up a lot of them and then we'd just tract the rest of the street or building that they lived in. Most of them were pretty rude to us and not interested in being part of the church anymore, but we decided to keep looking them up. On our last Saturday together, we went to look one lady up and got let into her building, but she wasn't home. We decided to tract the rest of the building and in the apartment right below hers; a 15 year old boy answered the door. He just looked at us and said, "Are you Mormons?! So am I! I've never seen girls (sisters) before!" As we talked in the doorway, his mom rushed home from work and then back out the door, but told us to come back sometime and meet with her kids sometime because her kids were Mormon. So, we set up for the next week and Sister Maxfield and I went over to help him figure out why he doesn't come anymore. It was kind of awkward, because well, he was a 15 year old boy and pretty quiet. Right then, his mom came home again, so we went into the living room and started talking to them. Apparently, she used to meet with the missionaries when her kids were, but she wasn't ready to make certain changes and commitments in her life at that point. But, since then, she has broken up with her partner and feels like she is ready for this in her life now. So, long story short, even though we were there to meet with him, we met his mom and we're super excited to see where this goes! There's another cool story with another member (recent convert) and his mom, but I don’t have a ton of time right now to tell you all about it.

This week has been good! Interestingly, my mission has made me more excited to get married but much less excited (if that was even possible) to have kids and that responsibility. Haha yikes. Maybe I'll grow out of it. Anyway, I need to run! I forwarded you some pictures from Sister Maxfield that we took this morning. Thanks for the shoes, Mom! (: I miss you all!

Love,
Sister Butterfield

Let's See Some Pictures!

Some of the beautiful scenery in Hungary...

 Really hot one day! We were just waiting for the bus in superr hot weather. I'm surprised we're not all sweaty and gross in this one! haha

Our district (Veszprém and Székesfehervár). The senior couple left our first week of the transfer though. 

It started raining on us while tracting one day. it keeps going from being pretty cold and rainy to really warm, even this week. 

we were pretty bored...

These are the Judds. I served with the one on the left in Buda last transfer! He goes home in a few weeks, but luckily home is Bountiful, so we have lots of crazy shenanigans planned. The one on the right is also Elder Judd. He was my district leader my greenie transfer, but serving in a different city. He's here in Veszprém this transfer and he's staying here with me next transfer! Hallelujah! Probably two of the craziest kids ever, you can definitely tell that they're cousins when you meet them (yes, one is part Asian and the other one is part Mexican haha). Everyone loves the Judds! 

Week 22: Finally Staying

September 3, 2013

Hellooo.

I'm doing pretty well. I don't know how I'll be doing next week, during next transfer, but this past week was really good. We've had a really hard transfer together, Sister Fowers and I, but I learned so much and in retrospect, I loved it, even if it was sometimes almost unbearable at the time. We were both hoping that we'd stay together, so that we didn't have to readjust to a new change all over again, but that didn't happen... It's always exciting to get a new situation and be at transfer day and stuff; as much as we both love that, we just felt it was ready for us to maybe have a little calmer, settled-down transfer for 10 weeks together. But. Transfer calls came. 

This is going to be an interesting transfer. Plus, it's 10 weeks instead of 6, so thats an ETERNITY. It was a rough morning for us today, to say the least. haha. I felt oddly calm all night and this morning before the call came, so I told Fowers that I thought it was because something was coming for me that I wasn't expecting and that I wasn't going to be too happy about, sothe Lord had to calm me before i got it so that I didn't completely lose it. haha. I was right. Anywhooo, I'm trying to be super positive about it, and I think it's slowly working. So, I'm (finally) staying in a city. Sis Fowers is leaving to Kecskemét and we're both going senior. I was hoping I'd slide through my whole mission co-senior, except for one transfer as a trainer. haha. There are just so many sisters in my group and  almost everyone else in our group is co-senior for this next transfer, so we figure we should be too! haha, I guess it doesn't work that. I wish. I'm not completely ready to go senior, but, hey. I'm doing it anyway. Luckily I'm not super stressed out about that part though. That's the weird thing about missions, we're not ready for most things and there are a lot of things that we don't want to do, but we end up having to do them anyway. Ugh. haha. Maybe I can go back to being co-senior next transfer! ;) Anywayyy, Sister Maxfield is coming here! She's been in Szeged for her whole mission life so far, so Veszprém should be interesting for her, finding 24/7! haha yikes! We have the two "-field"s in the mission serving together. That's weird! I don't know her super well, she was in the MTC during my last three weeks in the MTC, but she mostly hung out with the Fins and her roommates, so I can't really tell you too much about her yet! Next week! I pick her up from Pest tomorrow, so I'm super excited about that! I get to go see everyone at transfer day tomorrow! (: Also, Elder Judd is staying in Veszprém too and he's getting a greenie!!! I'm so stoked to spoil that kid! We have to welcome people into the country and mission life the right way! (: 

Hm.. other than that. Our mission is growing! We're only losing three missionaries this transfer, but 13 are coming in! Three sisters and ten elders! one of the sisters is Hungarian! yay? yikes? haha jk, we're really happy about it, it would just be a hard transfer communication-wise. I've heard she's really cute! She's from Kecskemét, where Sister Fowers is going. There are three people in our mission that graduated from Davis, which is kinda cool! We all have to stick together! ;) There's me, then Elder Godderidge (Stephen) who graduated with me and Elder Haws (Taylor) who graduated the year before us. They're both really cool kids and we were all in the same Zone last transfer and now again this coming transfer, so it's always a fun time. Nate could come here too! ;) by then Haws and I will be gone though, so it'd just be him and Stephen, but it'd still be fun! 

I can't think of too much else. We had a good week! I told everyone that my family decided to go to California without me... haha (: Next year! Yikes! It's flying by. This coming transfer I hit my halfway mark and my birthday! Crazy! I'm almost not a teenager anymore AND half my mission is almost over. I miss things at home, but it hit me this week that I don't really even want to be back there right now. I mean, don't ask me if I feel the same way in a few weeks hahah, but at the moment that's where I'm at! (:

Love you all!
Sister Butterfield

  

Week 21: P-Day

August 26, 2013

Hey!

I don't have too much to tell you all about today, but I'll try to send some pictures for the blog!  Life has been pretty good. The weather was pretty warm a couple days and then pretty cold and rainy the rest, so that's been really nice. We still aren't really teaching anyone, but we got some pretty promising referrals on Sunday, so hopefully that works out! We've been looking up a lot of inactive people, as we tract out buildings. Most of them are pretty rude to us, but hey, that's missionary work for ya, you get crap even from the members sometimes. The rest of the ward is great though! We taught the Sunday School Gospel Principles lesson on Sunday and that went pretty well. It stressed me out every morning last week when I woke up and thought about it, but it's over. I'm safe for a month... or more, if I get transferred. Haha

Speaking of transfers, we get transfer calls on Tuesday. So, you all know the drill, my P-day and emailing will be on Tuesday next week instead of Monday! I have NO idea what's happening, so I can't really tell you any predictions. If it weren't for the fact that I just did 3 one-and-done’s and President feels really bad about it, I'd guess that I'm leaving again. We'll see. There might not even be a change for us; it's very possible that the two of us stay here together for an eternity and a half. haha

Hm... What else. Today is p-day... obviously. We don't have too much planned. We're going to a place where I can print out pictures to put in people's memory books. It's much harder to do when you're not in Buda, so my pile is starting to build. Then, we are meeting with Gizi (the new member that I told you all about a while ago) and we'll do a few hours of tracting 10 stories and then mostly we'll just be in our apartment doing whatever we need to do. Our elders are in Buda for the day, so we don't really have anything planned. We'll probably write letters or maybe I'll catch up on my journal (oops...) and do memory books…and we're cleaning! That's been driving me nuts lately, so every time I'm sitting around the apartment, I have been de-junking. Elders leave really interesting things in apartments... Anyway, it's kind of my little project that I've undertaken that has helped me relax a little bit. Okay, random rant.

I'll send some pictures to you all (and more in another email to Mom for the blog)! I hope you all have a good week!

Love you all,

Sister Butterfield.

Week 20: Reflections on Mission Life

19 August 2013

Hey!

So, I don't have too much to write you this week... It's been a long one. haha Still no success in finding people to teach or any investigators. We're still getting along though and just helping each other through some things and life questions. haha. It's kind of sad, because it's hard to feel like we're here, not helping anyone because we haven't had the chance to really teach anyone since we've gotten here. I mean, we get some let in’s, but those are always interesting, trying to get your word in over theirs and listening to their life story, only to tell you that they're not actually interested in hearing anything. At least the few let in’s that we've had have been really nice people who wanted to give us a break from the heat and give us water or something. But, it's hard to feel like we're not actually out here helping anyone but each other in small ways and...yeah. We've had like 21 or so finding hours last week, which doesn't sound like a lot maybe, but it really is. Trust me. haha we come home exhausted every day. Our days pretty much consist of:

6:30 - wake up and exercise (unless you’re my comp who wakes up at 6 to work out extra.... HA, anyone who knows me, knows that that is definitely never happening)
7 - prep and breakfast
8 - personal study
9 - companionship study
10 - language study
11 - lunch
12-8 - Finding/traveling out to areas to find
8 - dinner
9- daily planning
10 - SLEEP (even though bed time isn't till 10:30) okay fine, maybe that’s just talking with lights out time...
and repeat. every. single. day.

Haha. Occasionally we have some RCLA programs that break up our day… for like an hour... hahaha

Anyone who knows me really well, would also find it amusing that sometimes I look at my clock at night and think "Yikes! 9:30! It's super late already!" ha. I hope you all know that when I get back, the schedule will probably, most likely, definitely, be the first thing to go. Sorry. Haha. It’s nice when you’re this exhausted physically and mentally, but I don't see any harm in going to bed a few hours later and waking up a few hours later when you’re in the real world. I can tell you already, that's one thought that I kind of hoped would change on my mission but I have already realized that I won't change that dramatically by the time I get home. Haha oh well!

Hm. other than that…Last P-day we didn't actually end up going to do that massage thing, so I think we're going next week. This morning we hiked out to a little village thing in our area and checked it out with our elders and a member here in our branch presidency (he also served his mission here, just with the last mission president, he's Hungarian) and another YSA member girl visiting from Pest. That was fun, I hadn't been out of the main city that we live in yet, but we have a lot of those smaller cities in our area that we should probably get out to at some point. Also, tomorrow is the biggest holiday in Hungary, August 20th, so the city pretty much shuts down and it'll be hard to get much work done. We have an RCLA program to go to and a bunch of inactive members that we're going to go look up and maybe tract some of their buildings, but other than that, it's pretty much like a p-day. That same member wants to take all of us missionaries up to some cool place in Veszprem in the evening, and also show us sisters a good area to tract out with a bunch of younger people and families, so that'll be cool! I really like a lot of the members here! They're so loving and nice! I have no idea what will happen in 2 weeks with transfers though. It's crazy that they're so soon again! I just wish the work would pick up! Also, as much as I love the ward, my companionship has to teach Gospel Principles every 4 weeks in Sunday School and that's definitely one thing that could be gotten rid of. Our first time teaching it will be Sunday and it makes me feel like throwing up every time I think about it, so that should give you a good insight as to how I feel about that one. Hahaha. Funny how as a missionary, we have to teach and find pretty much the whole time and I'm still not a fan of either things. However, Sister Fowers and I were just talking about this realization I had this week: As much as teaching makes me nervous and I always used to worry about it in past transfers, serving in Veszprem has made me REALLY just wish that I were somewhere that I could actually be teaching lessons right now. Crazy how life does that to you, but I'd give anything. I'm getting tired of tracting, which is unfortunate, because I'm pretty sure I have like 12 more weeks straight of mostly just tracting here in Veszprem. Hopefully we start finding people!

This week I also hit my 7th month mark! Speaking of, Happy 28th Anniversary, Mom and Dad! It's the same day as my 7th month anniversary, so I'll be thinking of you! Super weird that it's flying by, but it still feels like there's so much left. It's weird to think that this is the last and only month of August that I'll have in Hungary!

Hm… I can't think of much else to tell you about. I wrote this to Nate, but I feel like it explains this mission as best as I can: "I can’t even explain it! Haha. The mission life is good, but I still am super excited to come back and see all of you and just be able to drive around and go see movies and hang out with the fam and my friends from the mission and BYU and stuff. I've probably made some of the best, closest friends I’ve ever had and in the shortest amount of time ever here on my mission; there’s just something that bonds you all, especially when you’re in such a hard, indescribable mission like this! (not that every other mission isn’t hard, but there’s just something killer that I can’t even describe about this mission and how we all struggle in it together)." Gotta love it! I can definitely tell that I'm making friends with members, investigators and other missionaries that will last for a really long time and you can never be mad about that! All I can do is love people and I can't complain about the people I'm meeting, the friends I'm making and the lessons I'm learning (even if they’re in super weird or hard situations) out here in Hungary. My testimony usually feels like it's the weakest it's ever been in my life and like every aspect of it is being pushed to the edge and questions, which I never anticipated to happen out to this extreme. There have been several times where I've just thought, well I could be back at home right now, just enjoying life and having fun and not having to deal with this being questioned and pushed around like this all day every day, questioning my own strength and testimony. I'd almost rather be back there in that comfort of home. But, I came to the scary realization that there's no way I can go back now, I need to build that testimony back up and get back into it. I can't be one of those missionaries that come back from their missions somewhat changed, but then go inactive or less active or just fall back into their same lives. I'm starting to have insights of how easy that is and understanding why it is maybe that they went inactive, but I can't give in to that right now. I feel like my testimony is being built/worked on more than I'm helping to build anyone else’s recently. I've noticed areas where I have a really strong testimony, such as Christ and the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. At the other end, I've also spent a long time thinking and reflecting and realizing where the holes in my own testimony are, such as prayer and receiving answers. That's been one of the hardest things, because it's hard enough to be out here. But, there's no one people can be out here in this mission and make it through without having that trust in God and building our own testimonies. I had a couple bad days without any hope in that aspect this week, but I'm just having hope that my testimony will be built up and I will see good times in my mission, I just have to wait on God's timing on things, like receiving answers to prayers and finding people. Missions are the weirdest things ever. I don't think anyone who is/has ever been on one can fully describe what they are. I wouldn't even know how to start. It's just something you have to experience and something that will forever be a part of you. It's a roller coaster of emotions, where one week or one day, everything seems perfect, great, and manageable; another week or day you're struggling in terms of the work, the next is a struggle in terms of a companion, and the next is a struggle in terms of your own happiness or testimony. It's just a cycle that goes over and over and over again. It's rough. There's no way I could even begin to tell you. I wish it were something that you could all experience with me, but at the same time, I don't, because it's so hard out here. I can see how RMs come home and sort of feel like no one understands where they're coming from, because we can write home every week and tell you little bits and pieces and we can bring presents and funny stories home, but there's no way to explain how your life completely flips out of your control (if it ever was in our control is the question) and how many things you go to. You leave a part of yourself in each city, with each companion, each serious investigator. It's something that I think you never get back. When you think back on a day and a mission and a transfer, you just get a jumble of thoughts and emotions and... Missions are just so weird and really impossible to fully explain. I don't know where I'm going with this rant, but that's just an insight to all the reflecting that's been going on this transfer.

I love you all! Hold on to the testimonies and things that you have! Enjoy all of your days and the things that you're doing and the people that you're meeting and all the blessings God is giving you every day. It makes me sad to hear about the hard things that you're all going through and I wish I could be there to help you all through them. There must be a reason that it's all happening. It might take forever to find out what that reason is, or maybe you'll never find out. I don't know. I guess that's something we'll always have to deal with. Read the talk "Lord, I Believe" from this last general conference. It's a good one, no matter who you are or where you are in life, it'll be perfect for you, I promise! Just hold on! Get on your knees and pray! Just remember that I love you and I'd do anything to be able to be there helping you all, but I'll be back in a jiffy! Sorry for the rant and the sappiness; if all else fails, just imagine me running out of that drunk man's apartment building frantically with my companion and laugh at my ridiculous experiences! (:

Tell me about your lives! Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Butterfield