MTC WK#3

This week has by far been the best thing ever!

First story goes to Kim Elder, the dinosaur! Last P-day we met this kid from Korea and he was playing with a toy dinosaur! We stopped to talk to him and he told us he would draw us a picture of a dinosaur, which I'm still basically 3 years old, so that was like the greatest news ever! The next day at lunch my companions ran into him and he ended up just giving the little dinosaur to them! We were ecstatic! We ran into him again and he told us the story behind the dinosaur... apparently he is a convert, and when he was looking into the church he struggled with some addictions such as smoking, so the missionaries teaching him gave him a toy dinosaur and told him every time he felt tempted to give in to his addictions that he should just play with the dinosaur instead! Anyways, he now buys dinosaurs and occasionally gives them out to people, so we thought that was super cool! The dinosaur is now our class pet and we named him Kim Elder after the missionary!

Then there are the Malays... The first day we got here one of the malays told our teacher that we hated her so we have never been super big fans of them! Then two weeks ago, we met two of the Malay elders cause they kept stealing our study room,and after that literally everywhere we went, these two elders were there, and they were always looking at us too. It was somewhat creepy! But somehow we ended up becoming good friends with them and they are super nice guys! Last Thursday we went into the doctors office with one of my companions and lo and behold there were these two Malay elders. So Elder Ngatikaura came and sat down by me and taught me how to pray in Malay. The next morning when we walked into the classroom there was a card on my desk that said "Praying For You" with a picture of Jesus and inside the card was printed "Just as Jesus prayed for you, so do we. May he walk with you at this time in your life" and there was no writing and no signature! So of course we assumed it was just the Malays, but they swear it wasn't them! It was just a little creepy! The Malays flew out on Monday headed for Singapore though, so now we have to make some new friends to hang out with!

Gym time has been interesting this week! Friday when we were playing volleyball me and this elder swung at the same time and he ended up jamming his finger into my arm, so now everytime his companions see me they just ask me if I have seen Elder Hassel's finger haha. Then on Tuesday when we were playing volleyball I decided that I wanted to jump up and spike the ball and some guy on the other team just jumped right into me, so we both got quite a few bruises, but it was super funny and made for a fun game! 

Hahaha gym time is probably the only thing keeping me sane right now! Our typical day consists of 10 hours in the classroom learning Hungarian, so gym time is literally like living in the desert and drinking water for the first time in a year (or like 3 days, but you get the point)!

Sorry this weeks email isn't super spiritual, but we had to get out some of the stories first! Next week I will be better! Last thing for today is introductions of the district members! I definitely got blessed to have these goofballs!

~Welcome to the MTC- Week 2~

{Welcome to the MTC - Week 2}

First off, sorry that you get two emails today, the computers here are weird and just randomly send my emails before I can even type anything! This week has been crazy busy! All but two of the sister in my district have come down with colds so that's been not fun, but we are all pushing through it anyways!

 Last Saturday we had an elder from our zone run away during the night. I didn't really know him, but that was super crazy and everyone was talking about it! But honestly the MTC is kind of hard at times hahah so i can't say that running away isn't tempting every now and then, but if you turn to the Lord it makes it sooo much easier! He literally knows everything you are going through and knows exactly how you feel! 

I talked a little bit about the MTC food in my last email, but our district leader came upon a scripture that pretty accurately describes it, so if you still need to read a scripture for the day, check out Jeremiah 4:19. If you don't laugh the first time, then you probably need to read it again, cause it's a good one! 

We have had some pretty great devotions this week! That is what we look forward to every Tuesday and Sunday! On Sunday we had a band called Nashville Tribute come and play and they were super awesome! Me and my companions came in right when it was starting and because we have a trio it messes up the seating arrangement so they let us go sit on the row behind the MTC Presidency and we got to talk to them, so that was super neat! Anyways, the band played a song about Joseph Smith's wife, Emma, and it is one of the best songs I've ever heard! You guys should all look it up some time, I promise you will love it! It is super sad but it just shows what she was willing to go through to support her husband in restoring the gospel! On Tuesday we had a general authority come and speak to us and they put us on the second row this time! We must be doing something right, cause we just keep lucking out! 

One thing that I wanted to share with you guys this week is about our spiritual progression. The world we live in is crazy! And we are all far from perfect! Heavenly Father and Christ know that though, and that is why Christ suffered and died for us! I think we sometimes don't take advantage of the Atonement as much as we should! We shouldn't waste our time getting overwhelmed with our imperfections though! What really matters isn't where we are at on the path of coming unto Christ, but rather which way we are facing! If we are looking towards God and striving to do our best to gain eternal life, than that is all that matters! Life is hard, don't get discouraged though! Heavenly Father is always there to help us and there is nothing He would rather do! I know this gospel is true, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord! You are all in my prayers! SZERETLEK!!!

LeBaron Nővér

Szeretlek!

Here Comes The Huns!

.. <sung to the tune of Here Comes The Sun>

First things first, the MTC is crazy! On one hand it literally feels like I have been here for 20 million years and on the other hand it feels like just yesterday that my parents dropped me off here! The food here at the MTC makes the BYU Cannon Center seem like a 5 star gourmet restaurant, which is really saying something...if you've ever eaten there you know exactly what I mean! Honestly my days consist of waking up, eating, going to class, eating, going to class, eating, going to class, and then going to bed just to do it all over again the next day! Sundays truly are amazing, we get to go walk around the temple and just mix the schedule up a bit!

Right now I am in a trio so that has been super fun to have two companions! Sister Gordon is actually from St. George, so that was super crazy! There are 9 people in my district, 4 elderek and 5 noverek (sisters)! We are in the same zone as the Finnish, Estonians, and Albanians! Callin Gubler from Hurricane is actually in my zone, what small world, right? There is only one other sister in our zone so we kind of adopted her in with us Huns. She is going to Finland, but she has been here for six weeks already, so she just teaches us the best way to do everything, so it has been super nice! 

From the second we stepped foot in the classroom, our teacher has spoken only Hungarian to us. So our days consist mostly of trying to decipher what in the world she is saying! My second day here they taught us how to pray and bear our testimonies in Hungarian, so that was super cool, but like hi, that's alot to shove down our throats our second day here haha! Within the first week I have been here, we have already taught 5 lessons to an investigator! And let me just remind you that it was in 100% Hungarian, with no notes... so basically it was just a joke! Our first lesson, we showed up and knocked on the door, when our investigator opened the door, instead of saying "szia" which is Hi in Hungarian, i accidentally said "Hola", so we were off to a really good start! The second lesson, we knocked on the door and my companion accidentally greeted our investigator by saying "szeret" which means love! Hahah so basically we decided that we just shouldn't talk to people at their doors anymore! 

Last Sunday I was asked to give the opening prayer for sacrament meeting! It was super scary cause I'd only been here for 4 days and my Hungarian vocabulary was very small, but it ended up turning out really well, so that was super cool! A lot of the Fins and Albanians came up and said how impressed they are with how fluent my prayer was! One things for sure is that the Gift of Tongues is definitely real! 

As crazy as it is here, I absolutely love it! The people are all so friendly and there is just a spirit here at the MTC that is incomparable to anywhere else! I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and to personally grow closer to him while doing it! There isn't any place I would rather be right now {especially since today is P-day}! I love all of you!

Pictures, Pictures, & More Pictures

 Picture credit goes to the lovely Melanie Garner!