~Egy Csomó Csiga

Happy Memorial Day! That awkward moment when I forgot it was Memorial days weekend until the senior couple, the Howells, reminded us on Saturday. Funny story actually... We were headed to district meeting with the Howells and our landlord was down in the parking lot. He asked us if we would like some coffee. Sister Howell responded with "I'll take a barbecue!" For a second there I wasn't sure if she had heard him or if I misunderstood the landlord. A look of deep confusion came over the landlord's face, and I realized that he was just as lost as I was. She said again, "I will take a barbecue!" The landlord looked at her and just shrugged his shoulders saying that he would get her a grill then! We climbed in the car and sister Howell was all "I cant believe that I just asked him for a barbecue when he offered me coffee!" Turns out she had heard him right! The beautiful part is that we now have a grill and get to celebrate Memorial Day just like we would in the states, minus tracting hours and the fact that Hungary isn't quite america!

This week was a great week overall! As you can  get from the beautiful story above, our new senior couple are quite the hoots! We absolutely love them! They are from California, are converts of about 40 years, have 3 children, and fostered 31 (or something like that). You could say they are amazing! It has been fun taking them to a few of our lessons this week! 

We were at a lack of pictures this week, hence there is only one theme to all the pictures, but hey, we found a snail colony! You sure don't see that everyday! The beauty of tracting adventures!

Good news... MARIKA IS BACK!!! She came back to Békés and we were able to meet with her at her mother's house! I just love her like crazy! We had a teaching appointment with her and she told us that she isn't quite ready to be baptized, that she needs a little bit more time to work on gaining a true testimony, so that was a little bit hard to hear, but she is still willing to meet with us and wants to learn more about the gospel! She has a lot of faith, and she really has a desire to know if this church is true, so I have no doubt that she will receive her answer as she keeps the commitments that we have extended to her, it just might take a little time! She is great though, and I absolutely love her! It still just amazes me how much I am able to love the people here in Hungary! From investigators, to less actives, to members, and even just the people on the street or those we tract into, it doesn't matter, I just love them all so much! When you are doing missionary work like you are supposed to, being obedient, and doing your best to see people the way our Savior sees them, you just cant help but love them! You no longer see the people as simply a number to fulfill your weekly goals, but rather one of God's children who needs to know these truths and needs these ordinances so they can return to live with their Father in Heaven! That is why we are missionaries, that is why we came here to Hungary, and most importantly, that is why we are here on this earth! I am seriously so thankful for this opportunity I have to be here in Hungary as a missionary, and to serve my Savior, and bring the truth and light to these people! They deserve the truth!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sok Szeretettel,

LeBaron Nővér

Hungary May 23rd~~ Howdy Folks!

"THE PARLIMENT"  It's the most popular building in Hungary, really pretty!

Mon, May 23, 2016

Howdy folks!

We had another great week here in Békés! We got to do a little bit of traveling this week, which consequently meant that our work was a little bit slow this week, but we will be getting it back up this week! 

On Wednesday we went down to Szeged for zone conference! The city is absolutely beautiful this time of year! They had markets set up all over town, it was just amazing! I had the chance to see Balint Kriszti, one of the members who was baptized while is was serving there in Szeged! She is such a great person! I just loved getting to see her and chat for a bit!

On Friday we got to go up to Pest for splits! Can I just say that Hungary is gorgeous? It literally doesn't matter where you go, every city is just so beautiful! However, nothing quite compares to Budapest, that place will forever have my heart! We had a lesson with a man named John. John was born in Turkey, moved to California when he was one and grew up there in America. When he was in High school he met with missionaries and was almost baptized, but he felt that he would be betraying his beliefs. He had grown up in the charismatic christian church, also known as Pentecostals, they do the whole speaking with tongues, and rolling on the ground when they feel the spirit thing. We had a really good discussion with him and he had such amazing questions about the Godhead and all sorts of other main doctrines! John knew the bible really well, and it was super neat to hear all of his concerns and be able to work through and find the answers using the Book of Mormon! I have a testimony that all of the answers to our questions and prayers can be found in the Book of Mormon, if only we will be willing to earnestly seek them! 

This Sunday was branch conference and the Gouldings last day in Békéscsaba, they will be returning to America on Tuesday. It was sad to see them leave, but they were able to give their final words in Sacrament Meeting! Both of their talks were great! I really enjoyed them! I really really like one quote from Elder Goulding though, he said: "Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can learn from our sins, without being condemned by them!" What a great knowledge that is! None of us are perfect! We all make mistakes and sometimes we let ourselves get down as a result, but we need not feel discouraged that we aren't perfect! God doesn't expect us to be! As Elder Holland said in this last general conference, we get points for trying! Don't give up! Repent of your sins, learn from them, and then let them stay in the past where they belong! That truly is the beauty of the Atonement! Although we may not be able to go back and change the past, we can leave it behind us and move on! It doesn't matter what kind of life we lived before, we can choose today to make a change, and such a change can bring joy and happiness in the days to come! I have seen this in my life, and I promise that you guys can see it too! 

I must go now, but I love you all and hope you have a great week! You are all in my prayers! 

Saying goodbye to the Goulding's was hard~ We sure love them

Sok Szeretettel,

LeBaron Nővér

US with the Howell's who are serving in Szeged

We found this cool, beautiful ALBINO PEACOCK one day... enjoy!

 

HUMP DAYYYY

  May 4th Hump DAYYYY
       "Burning the Skirt"

  Well what do you know, we have officially hit half way! It feels like just weeks ago that we were in the MTC on our "Halfway to Hungary" mark, but now we are halfway to home! The time sure does fly by! To celebrate we had some fun and burnt a skirt!

This week we won the mission challenge and so our mission president, his wife, and daughter all came down to Békéscsaba and took us out to lunch! It was so great to see them, and the food was so delicious! (See the pictures to follow)

Sis Grogan & I shared this plate!!

 A Typical Hungarian Meal

Dinner with the Szabadkai's!

Erzsike, the sweet little néni we met this week!

Sister goulding accidently took the tag off my jacket instead of hers, so we were both "LeBaron Nővér" for the whole dinner with President! At first i couldnt tell if she did it as a joke, or if it was an accident, turns out she had no clue she had done it! It was pretty funny, we all got a good laugh! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/8/16 Skype

The work here in Békés is going great! Unfortunately Marika, our investigator with a baptismal date, moved unexpectedly this week, to a town an hour away that has no missionaries, and we can no longer meet with her, so she wont be getting baptized on the 4th. I did call her and talk to her for quite awhile and she reassured me that she does still want to get baptized, it will just have to be later, if she ever moves back. So that was a bummer. 

 This week i found an old record of a less active member in the branch and called her up, and she invited us over! We went to visit and she is seriously the cutest little lady ever! She has had a pretty rough life, her husband died within a few years of marriage, and she never had kids, she lived through both world wars and the whole communist reign, and then 6 years ago she found the church and was baptized! Because of health issues she is no longer able to make it to church on sundays, but she continues to read the Book of Mormon daily! We had a really great talk with her, and shared the visiting teaching message for the month! I cant wait to go back to see her again, she is now my new favorite person, she is just so adorable!

Szabadkígyos Kastely!

This Sunday, I got to give my first talk in Hungarian. It was nerve-wracking, it had to be 15 minutes, but it was a good experience and alot of fun! I based it off a talk given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the 2012 October general conference, called "Of Regrets and Resolutions." I would attach my talk, but its in Hungarian and I don't know how many of you guys would understand it, and I'm sure President Uchtdorf gave it better, but it is an amazing talk! I would definitely recommend that you all look it up! He suggests three resolutions that we can all work on, so that we wont have regrets down the road! Beautiful talk, definitely give it a look! 

Other than that our week was pretty busy with crazy stuff as usual, so I  don't have time to write it all, but it was fun and full of hard work! I hope that you guys are doing great at home, I love you!

Sok Szeretettel, 

LeBaron Nővér

István (member) brought us flowers, he is such a sweetheart, We love him!

Dinner at Kati's (member)

Practicing our proselyting!

Boldog Anyák Napja!

 Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! Special shout-out goes out to my mother and grandmothers who are all so fabulous and have been such great examples to me! They have nourished me in the gospel and have loved me more than I could ever comprehend! They have helped me so much in my life and showed me the kind of mother that I would like to be one day! 

 

 

This week marked 9 months for me as a missionary! It is beyond crazy how fast the time has flown! What better way to celebrate than with Cinco De Majo horchattas, sájt(cheese) night, and oh yeah, SKYPING HOME! It was so great to be able to talk to my family, and to see my little Parkie! It was my grandmother's 90th Birthday, so I was able to talk to her too! She is still going strong, in fact she got a new bicycle for her birthday! She is definitely my idol! 

This week was another great week for Sister Grogan and I! We have been working really hard on getting more member presents and helping our investigators to build relationships with the members in the branch here in Békéscsaba, and so far it has been working really well, and we were able to get a huge improvement! I have also been trying to do more focusing on the area book this transfer, making sure it is updated, and also using the previous records to find those people who were once taught and for various reasons lost connection with the missionaries, and we have been able to pick up 3 investigators this transfer that missionaries just stopped talking to for no apparent reason, and now 2 of them are progressing, so it has been quite a success thus far in my eyes!

Yesterday for Mother's day we had exactly an hour after lunch to go tracting before it was time to Skype, and to be honest, my companion and I were both feeling pretty lazy. We asked each other if we would be fine just not going, and technically we had already gotten our 6 days tracting this week so we thought that we could just go streeting and settle for 6 days instead of the 7 days we had planned for. We told ourselves that would be fine, but deep down i just knew that we were settling, and had a feeling that we should just go tracting like we had planned. So we decided to hurry and run out to our tracting area and do our hour. Initially I wasn't feeling too enthusiastic to be tracting, I was just doing it more for a number. We knocked on a few doors and they slammed it shut in our face. As we  finished our hour, i mentioned to Sister Grogan that we should just do one more door before we leave! 

 

 

 

We rang the bell and no one answered for quite awhile. We waited about 3 minutes and a lady finally came! We told her that we were talking to people about the Book of Mormon today and we bore her our testimonies of how it can help us to grow closer to our father in heaven. She has her own religion and she said she practices every week, but for some reason she said she would like to know more about the book! We were able to give her a book and set up a time to come back and explain the whole restoration and where the book came from! There truly are blessings that come when we are diligent in doing the things we know we are supposed to! I am so thankful that we went tracting like we knew we were supposed to and were able to meet her!

 

 

Hájra Békéscsaba...& Marika!‏

Sarah's game!

First things first, shout out to our Békés volleyball star, Sarah! Her team won the Hungarian National Championship Series this week! We were able to go with the ward as a Young Single Adults activity and it was exciting to be able to watch her play and be there as her support given that her family couldn't be! Unfortunately that means she will be leaving to America for the summer and will no longer be in our branch, but I'm glad that we got to know her while she was here, she is such a sweet girl!

Splits in Kispest

 

 On Wednesday we had Zone Training down in Szeged! There is nothing that quite compares to Szeged in my eyes, it will forever be my first home in Hungary! Our training was focused on using the Book of Mormon more in our work. The Book of Mormon is truly the keystone to our religion, so as we emphasize the importance of it to those we meet and bear testimony of it, we are better able to help others come unto Christ, as The Book of Mormon is purely about Christ, His teachings, and how they apply to us! So once a testimony is founded on the Book of Mormon, the other things fall into place. At the end of Zone Conference we were extended a commitment to start at the beginning of the Book of Mormon and as we read we are supposed to highlight in different colors 1) every reference to Christ, 2) Attributes of Christ, 3) Every time that Christ speaks or his prophets speak on behalf of him, and 4) The doctrines and principles contained in the Book of Mormon. I was able to start this challenge last Wednesday, and in the few days I have been doing it, I have already been able to better see the focus of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and it has helped me to be able to better understand Christ and His role as my savior! For anyone that is interested, I would totally recommend trying this sometime, because I know without a doubt that it will be able to help you strengthen your testimony of Jesus Christ!

The "matching" socks

My Gwheely!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After zone conference we were able to go on splits with the Sister Training Leaders up in Kispest! Both of them ended up getting sick, but we were able to get quite a bit of work done still and we made it to a few teaching appointments as well. Both of the lessons went really well, but one ended in the lady telling one of the sisters that she needs to pop all the zits on her chin, and the other ended in the lady forcing me to take a pair of nylon socks so I wouldn't freeze. They truly weren't necessary, but she insisted, and as a added bonus she said that they "matched my shoes perfectly"... not quite, but it made for a beautiful outfit! 

On Friday we met with one of our investigators named Marika! She is super cute and last week we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true and then extended a soft baptismal challenge to her. After much thought and prayer, this week we decided to just dive straight in and give her a date... and she said YES!!! So Marika will be getting baptized June 4th if all goes according to plan! She does struggle with drinking coffee, but she noticed that Sister Grogan and I never drink and asked me about it last time. I explained the Word of Wisdom to her and how we have been asked not to drink coffee, and I explained that although I am sure it will be hard to stop, the Lord will help her if she truly wants to be baptized! She replied that "If that's what the Lord wants, I will do it!" She is so cute, and truly has a desire to grow closer to Heavenly Father and do as he asks of us! She is a great example to me!

For P-day today we were able to go to Póstelek, some castle ruins that were bombed in World War II and look around, it was really neat, I will send some pictures!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week and a great Mothers Day!

 

Sok Szeretette, LeBaron Nővér

 

More fruit soup!!!

In the World War II bomb crater

  

Bus Rides!!