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We ran a mile to the lookout in skirts in place of our dinner break just to capture this picture of the sunset, so y'all better enjoy it hahah

First things first, I just love missionary work! And I just love these people here in Hungary! I dont know how, but every single day I manage to find myself loving Hungary and being a missionary more and more! It is kind of crazy to look back on my  mission and see how far I have come in the year I have been a missionary, but this experience is one I would never trade for anything in the world! Of course we know the scriptures are true, but it is even more amazing when we can see the principles playing out in our lives. As I have lost myself in the service of these people, forgetting my own worries and going to work, putting my whole heart in it, I have been able to find myself. I spent alot of my mission focused on being what I thought I needed to be in order to get people to be baptized, but it wasn't until I finally remembered why I came on a mission originally, and acted with that motivation in mind, to truly help these people not only come to the knowledge of Christ, but to personally come to know Christ as their savior and redeemer, that I was able to truly find who my Father in Heaven wants me to be! And ever since that day, the days just continue to get better every day!

Things in Veszprém are going great! We have done some weeding out with our investigators this week, to be able to dedicate more time to finding those people who are waiting and ready to hear and act on the message of the gospel that we have to share with them! We are hoping to be able to find a few new investigators this week, and pray that as we place our trust in the Lord, He will lead us to them, or them to us!

Welfare and Self reliance day = Lunch with our amazing members!

In the meantime, we still have two investigators, Piroska and Marcsi, who are both progressing really well! We met with Piroska this week and were able to take a member, Vasváry Judit, with us! Judit is amazing, she is actually the stake relief society president here in Hungary, and was a huge help! We got into the appointment, and judit and Piroska hit it off right at the very start! We followed up on her commitment to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she said that she did it! She is still just praying until she gets her answer, she said. This week we taught the Plan of Salvation, which is really big for her, because her husband passed away 7 years ago. Judit was able to really help personalize the lesson, and ended up sharing with us that our beliefs on the Fall of Adam and Eve is what finally helped things click for her 7 years after meeting with the missionaries for the first time! She also bore a very strong testimony at the end of eternal families and how the Plan of Salvation can bless our lives. The spirit was very strong in that lesson! We invited her to church, but she told us that she was out of town, so we are hoping that we will be able to get her to come watch conference this next weekend with us! As we got out of the lesson, we thanked Judit for all of her help, and she told us that she hoped she was normal, because as she was preparing to come to the lesson with us her RM son told her to "please just be natural"! We told her that she definitely was normal and we all got a good laugh out of it! She gave us a ride home and gave us some chocolate! 15 minutes later, we were changing into our PJs when we got a call from Judit. She said that she just forgot to tell us how amazing we are and that we taught so well, and that I speak really well, and she was impressed with the whole lesson! It was super cute of her to call! It made mine and Sister Evans week!

Our lesson with Marcsi was really good this week. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her, which she passed with flying colors, and we read the chapter 2 Nefi 31 with her, which lays out very clearly the importance of baptism. At the end, she admitted that she believes it all, and is ready to be baptized, she just doesn't know when. Sister Evans and I had already prayed alot about it, and extended the date October 8th to her. She was very nervous at first, but we offered to kneel down with her right then and pray about it. She said the pray, and Sister Evans and I made eye contact afterwards and we both knew that we had all felt the spirit very strongly during the prayer. Marcsi said that she wanted more time to pray about it though. We met with her once more, and she said that she doesn't know, she doesn't feel good or bad about it. We read a bunch of scriptures with her about recognizing answers to our prayers through the Holy Ghost, as well as talking about the role of Faith and placing our trust in God to step forward in the dark, even when we cant necessarily see the light at the end of the tunnel. After church yesterday, I asked marcsi how the praying has been going. She said that she feels really good, and knows that it is the correct decision! She said we will talk about it more when we meet this week, but I fasted for her on Friday, and I am just placing my own trust in God that he will help her to take this step and get baptized in order to make those covenants that will allow her to receive all the blessings God has in store for her! 

We also had a really good lesson with a man from English class, his only knowledge of our church is from South Park, but he wanted to know more! He asked if we could talk more about our church, so we taught him the Restoration! At the end he asked for a tour of the Branch house which was really neat! He said that he thinks we have a very peaceful religion, which is true! We are hoping to be able to meet with him again in this upcoming week!

As far as our companionship is going, Sister Evans and I are doing really well! I am loving being able to work with her, and have been able to learn alot from her, she is a very hard worker! It has been great being her companion and trainer!

So that's Hungary for y'all this week! How are all of you doing though? I would love to here from you all about your adventures in America! Have a great week!

Sok Szeretettel, 

LeBaron Nővér

Swinging= the only way to survive a long tracing hour!

Sometimes you find a tiger in a toy store and have to ride it!

Selfie with Eszter

Planner covers 4 dayzzzz Mine and Dorny's

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9/19/2016 ~ Chasing Sunsets #béna

Another good week in Veszprém! The work here feels like it is finally starting to pick up a little bit, thank heavens! Sister Evans and I have sure been working hard, so I know that it is just God blessing us because of our efforts!

Last Pday, we were tracting in a village of 10 story apartment buildings, and I we had just gotten let into the building (which is rare) and gone up to the top floor. As we get out of the elevator there are glass windows and we can see the sunset just peaking around the corner of one of the buildings across the street. I couldn't see much, but I was convinced that it was going to be one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen, but the building was blocking it. So I decided real quick that we needed to run over to the other building and get up to the top floor so we can see the sunset and appreciate some of God's beauty that he created for us! So we hop in the elevator, run outside and the few blocks to the last building, and there is a pizza man at the csengő. It seemed that everything was turning out perfect, we would just slip inside the door right behind the pizza deliverer. WRONG. The person the pizza man was calling didn't pick up (who doesn't answer the door for the pizza they ordered? Doesn't make sense to me, but its whatever). So that left us with one option: Ring all the csengős until we find someone who will let us in! I rang the first one, asked him if he would let us in the building. His response: "sure, why not!" I cannot emphasis this enough, this literally NEVER happens! So clearly it was a sign that I was supposed to see this sunset! We got in the elevator and went all the way up to the 10th floor only to discover that THERE WEREN'T EVEN WINDOWS!!!! Sister Evans and I just looked at each other and busted up laughing, we couldn't even believe that it was real! So we didn't get to see the sunset, and I was bummed, and no one else in the building even wanted to talk to us, but that's alright, its the usual!

Haha so with that depressing story out of the way, we were able to meet with our investigator Piroska this week for the second time, and we had a really good teaching with her! We had planned on bringing a member, but they canceled unfortunately. Luckily we still had the Spirit to help us out! We taught the Restoration to her, but I wanted to branch out in the way we taught it this time and do it from an aspect that would relate more to her personally. In my head it sounded like a great idea, but as I started to teach it, we talked about prayer and the importance of it, shared the Joseph Smith story, and then  I soon realized that I wasn't exactly sure where to go from that. So we decided to stop and bear our testimonies about prayer before we moved on any further. As we bore testimony to her, the spirit was really strong, and before I knew it, words were just flowing from my mouth, and I know that I wasn't the one who put them there. When we had first arrived to her home, Piroska was having somewhat of a rough day, but by the time we finished teaching, it had completely changed she was happy as can be and was really focusing on the things that we had to say and we could tell that she was feeling the spirit. Honestly, the lesson was a miracle in and of itself. I have never tried teaching the restoration before from the perspective we did, and honestly I am not sure if I will ever do it that way again, but that was how it needed to be taught, that was what Piroska personally needed, and we could all tell! At the end of the lesson, I asked Piroska if she would be willing to say the closing prayer, and she gladly accepted! As she prayed, the spirit was very strong there. I wasn't paying so much attention to the words she was saying, but rather the feelings that I felt as she said that first prayer for us. However, amidst those feelings, I heard her distinctly say "Thank you for sending the sisters to me so that they can teach me. I am so grateful that today they were able to help me understand the things that have never made sense to me before!" Her humble prayer just touched my heart, because how true is that? When we share the message of the Restoration with people, that is exactly what we are doing! We are helping them understand the part that remains a mystery to everyone else, we are giving them those answers that the world cant, cause we are teaching them the truth! I just have such a strong testimony of the restoration and of Joseph Smith as a prophet, but more importantly a testimony of prayer. Because without prayer, nothing would have happened. It all started with a 14 year old boy who was willing to humble himself and ask God, and because of that prayer, we now have Christ's church restored to the earth, as well as the Book of Mormon that we can read from everyday to grow closer to Christ! If that isn't a strong enough witness of the power of prayer, I don't know what is! I am so thankful that we too, can turn to Him in prayer, whatever circumstances we may be in, and just as he did with Joseph Smith, He will ALWAYS answer our prayers! 

We had a teaching with our investigator Marcsi as well, and it went really well! We had the ward mission leader there and his wife (because he only speaks German) and they were exactly what Marcsi needed! She is ready for baptism, but just hesitant to make that step forward in faith. Klaus, not understanding the whole lesson as it was in Hungarian, interrupted us in the middle, and mentioned that maybe the solution to all of Marcsi's problems would be to go ahead and get baptized, and then go on a mission, so that she can forget about herself, and yet find herself as she does the Lord's work. We were all a little nervous at first as to what her reaction would be, but she LOVED the idea! We are meeting with her on Tuesday and are planning to extend a baptismal date to her, and offer to fast and pray with her about that date! I am really excited about it, and hope that she will be willing to do what she needs to to finally take that step! 

Other than that, we had a few lessons with some people that the sisters had met with last transfer, but they are no longer keeping commitments and they seem to just take our teachings as if it is a joke. At first they looked like they had real potential, and they promised that they would come to church and read the Book of Mormon, but unfortunately they did not do either, in addition to also not praying anymore, so I think we are going to not be meeting with them as frequently, unless they are willing to take it seriously and actually do their part and be willing to learn and keep commitments. We will see what they decide in this up coming week. Its always hard to stop meeting with them as frequently, but agency is a big thing, and as missionaries we have to accept it, and just place our trust in God knowing that if we use our time better to find those people who are still waiting, and who ARE willing to listen and act, that he will give them to us! So that is what we are going to do, we are going to put ourselves in the situation to let God help us find them! And I am excited to see what the outcome will be!        

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

Sok Szeretettel, 

LeBaron Nővér

                                   

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Well this week was another good week! It seems like we have been having alot of those lately, and I am definitely not complaining! 

Tracting this week has been a blast! I cannot even count the number of doors that have opened to reveal men above the age of 65 wearing nothing but man thongs or speedos. I mean, I guess you have to keep life exciting one way or the other! We also met this really neat lady from russia who has been living in Hungary for the past 20 years! We also happened to speak Hungarian on the same level and she has been learning it 20x as long as me, so it was somewhat of a proud moment! Fun fact, she is actually a Jew! She wasn't interested in the gospel, but she was so sweet though, her name was Lilla Néni, and she told us to come back sometime so we can eat some fruit with her, I thought it was adorable!

Last Tuesday we went back to visit our investigator Monika, the one that we looked up last week, and we had a lesson with her. Her boyfriend was actually home from work too, and he was really interested in learning about what we had to teach! He doesn't believe in God, so we started talking about what he does believe and ended talking about his family being able to live together forever according to God's plan, and ended up teaching the whole plan of Salvation! It went really well, and he asked us that when we schedule to come back to see Monika if we can make sure he will be home also! So we went ahead and scheduled for this next week, and are hoping to be able to get a member there with us! 

After that lesson, we met with our investigator Zsuzsa and her son Attila, who is an inactive member. They kept their commitment! We were so proud of them! They both said that they prayed everyday before going to bed and when they woke up, and they both admitted that they could see the difference, so that was really neat! Attila didn't remember much about the restoration, so we talked about that and committed them both to read from the Book of Mormon daily! We are hoping that next week we can possibly get them both to come to church! 

Picture that Mecseri Janka sent me, she is a doll :)

Later that evening we met with another new investigator named Piroska! She is a really sweet lady, maybe in her late 50s, and we just happened to come across her record in the area book. The elders had found her husband 10 years ago and started teaching him, and she started to listen in on the lessons every once in a while. Her husband died a few years after that and the missionaries never really went back much after that. So we called her up two weeks ago and scheduled to meet with her, but then I was sick and so we ended up rescheduling for this past week. She also has an 18 year old daughter, Edina, who lives with her and is kind of shy. Edina had gone into her room and closed the door, because she didn't want to learn about our church, but we asked if we could just introduce ourselves and didn't have to teach her or anything. So Edina came out of her room, and we found out that she is an artist and attends a school up in Zirc just for art! We asked if we could see some of her work, and she brought it out and showed it to us! As we showed interest in some of her interests she began to warm up to us, and actually ended up staying for the lesson. She didn't actively participate, but just the fact that she was willing to stay and listen says a lot i think! I am excited to meet with them again and there is a young girl in the branch that we are hoping we can take to help befriend Edina! 

Wednesday was a little bit of a tough day. We planned on meeting with Mária and János, our two new investigators from last week, and even got a member to come who seemed like she would be just perfect for them, only to get dogged. It was a bummer. We csengőd them, and János answered, he said that Mária wasn't home and that he needed to go somewhere. He gave us his phone number though, so we aren't giving up hope on them quite yet! Hopefully we will be able to successfully meet with them in the week to come! 

Thursday after English class we had a lesson with our investigator Ricsi. He explained to us a little bit about his religion, and told us that he doesn't really want to change, but that he is really curious about our church and wants us to teach him all about it. So at least that is a step in the right direction! I asked him if he would at least be willing to act upon the assignments we give him, and he said yes, so I think with time it might be able to evolve into something more!

Sometimes you order pizza through the window, dont worry, its normal!

We got a phone call Friday morning from our investigator Marcsi. She is kind of struggling right now. She is supposed to be praying about her baptismal date, but Satan has just been working really hard on her, and she is having a difficult time with it. She told us on the phone that she doesnt believe that we, our church, baptism, or even God can help her in this part of her life. Honestly, it is just really sad, I feel so bad for the poor girl! I think she must just be going through some hard times right now, but we are praying that we will be able to meet with her and try to just help her feel God's love for her, and help her realize that God can ALWAYS help her! If y'all would keep her in your prayers that would really mean alot to us!

We also got a hold of an investigator the sisters had met with back in January and they met three times and she seemed to be progressing and then the record just stops there, but she is the most enthusiastic person I have ever met and just talking to her on the phone made me so happy to be able to meet with her this next week! I think that that is going to be a fantastic lesson! Also according to the last time they met, she had a lot of questions about baptism in our church that they didn't get the chance to answer, so I hope that we will be guided by the spirit to be able to help her find the answers to those question, because she seems like such a sweet lady! I am really looking forward to meeting her, I think she has a lot of potential!

 

Things with Sister Evans seem to be going really well! She is such a great missionary! She came into the field with a strong determination and will to work hard, and I sure am lucky to have her! I have no doubt that by the end of our time here in Veszprém the work is going to be blooming, because I know that there are just so many people here waiting for the gospel, and as we continue forward in obedience and diligence the Lord is going to direct us to them! 

13 Months Down~Sept. 5, 2016

Well, well, well, this week was a pretty long one, filled with both ups and downs.

Last week for Pday we were able to go to this place called Csesznek, it is a castle ruins and it is seriously just amazingly beautiful! Also, like I loved my first 3 cities to death, but did I ever mention how much I  love mountains? Unfortunately the Kecskemét domb doesn't quite do the job! Anyways, I will send some pictures, because the place was amazing! Also we got bácsied for a good long 30 minutes, so of course we had to get a selfie with him too!

Last Tuesday was an amazing day! We started out the morning with a lookup of an old investigator that the previous sisters had met with. I don't know how much potential she has, she is willing to meet with us, but doesn't really seem that interested in the message of the gospel that we have to share, and her children are really rowdy, but we were able to talk about the importance of prayer and the knowledge that we have a heavenly father who loves us and wants to help us in this life so that we can return to him after this life!

 She said that she never really prays, but agreed to pray at least twice daily this whole week. We are planning on meeting with her later this week too, so hopefully she will have kept that commitment we gave her and that we may be able to find the part of the gospel that will be able to help her see that the gospel can offer more to her and her family and will truly peak her interest and get her wanting more! 

After our lesson with her, we went to contact an older lady that the sisters had tracted into last transfer and given a Book of Mormon but were not able to set up with again. When we rang the csengő her husband came out and we started talking to him. He said that they had received a book of Mormon, that he had read from it and that he thought it was a great book, but that he was catholic and would like to stay catholic. I told him that we understand, but we would just like to meet with people and talk more about the Book of Mormon and what we can learn about Christ from that book, and then proceeded to ask him if he would be interested in meeting to talk more. Unfortunately he said no. I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason I was just impressed by the spirit that there had to be something that we could say though to get him to want to meet with us, but after asking some questions, and him politely saying that it didn't really interest him, I didn't know what else to say. But then comes his walking down the road with a bag of groceries. I wasn't sure what to expect, but she was very kind! She told us the same exact thing that her husband had: got a Book of Mormon, read from it, really great book, catholic, want to stay that way, and is not really interested in learning more. I was kind of at a loss of where to go with things, so I just started talking about the weather and their beautiful garden, thinking that if I got them talking possibly they will say something that I could use to pull in an aspect of the gospel, because I just felt deep down that this couple had a lot of potential and wanted them to be able to know fully about the gospel before they decide that its not for them. Well, before long, "M", the wife, was going off about the world these days, and then "J", the husband, butted in out of nowhere and asked me if I was thirsty. Seeing it as the opportunity to get inside their house, I told him yes, and with that they invited us in. Inside their home we were able to see from their wall displays some of the things that they treasure most in their lives. "M" started telling us about her life looking back on it, some of the trials that she has endured and the lessons she has learned. I felt inspired to ask her, that if she could only give us one piece of advice that she has learned from her life, what would it be? That got her talking more about how sacred our time is in this life! I asked her about her beliefs about after this life, and then shared with her our beliefs, and the knowledge we have that we can return to live with God and our families for eternity. We were running short on time because we had another lesson to get to, so we quickly explained that there is actually a whole plan that God has prepared for us so that we can make it back to Him, and asked if we could come back and share it with them another time. So we will be meeting with them this Wednesday! I am really excited for this lesson, and to see where things will go with "M and J", they are such kind, amazing people, and they deserve the true joy that only the gospel can give!                                                

Later that same night we were able to meet with an old investigator we found in the area book this week. It turns out that her son is actually a less active member and he was willing to participate in the teaching also! We talked about prayer and shared some scriptures in 3rd Nephi when Christ taught the people why prayer is important and how we should pray. It was a really good lesson, and they both committed to say their individual prayers daily as well as praying as a family! The less active member also said that he would like to meet with the Branch President and start to come back to the church, it was really neat!

Wednesday and Thursday I was sick, so we didn't get to go out and work, unfortunately. But luckily by Friday I was feeling better and we were able to do our weekly planning, go through some more things in the area book and then go out to work. We were able to visit "G" Néni again, she is just such a sweet lady. We shared with her some of our favorite scriptures about hope and faith and how if we are willing to humble ourselves, God will help us to be strong! She in turn shared some of her favorite scriptures with us, as well as a letter she had written to the mission president when she was baptized in which she had written her testimony. It was such a sweet testimony, and you could just feel her conviction as you read it. I pray that she will be able to have the opportunity to attend sacrament meetings, and in the meantime I hope that the spirit we bring into her home when we meet with her will continue to keep her heart upbeat! 

Saturday I had a nice surprise! My investigator "E" from Békéscsaba and her boyfriend "J"came to Veszprém to see me! It was so good to be able to see her, we just spent our lunch hour showing her around the beautiful, breath- taking belváros of Veszprém and then unfortunately had to say goodbye and get back to work, but it was literally amazing to see her again, I have really missed her these last 3 weeks! That night we were able to watch the Cultural Celebration for the temple re-dedication with the branch, and it was so neat to see so many familiar faces from Hungary being able to participate in it. It just really struck me, how many opportunities the gospel provides for people, besides of course the obviously abundant spiritual blessings. There were a few kids that I saw from Szeged and Békéscsaba, and if they would have never found the gospel, they would never have any of these amazing opportunities that they have received as members. One boy in specific, I watched as President Uchtdorf patted his head and then gave him a hug, and I just couldn't help but thing what an amazing experience for that little boy, that he will be able to hang onto as he pushes through the struggles of growing up in a split family home, surrounded by nonmembers, trying to do his best to stay strong in the gospel. Heavenly Father and the gospel truly just have so many things to offer each of us, if only we are willing to accept them!

Sunday was the Freiberg Germany temple re-dedication, so we got to go up to Győr for that! It was such an amazing experience, definitely a once in a lifetime thing! I was able to understand just about all of it, which I even surprised myself at, but unfortunately I was really tired and I honestly do not remember a huge amount of what they said, but that's alright, because what matters more is the spirit that I was able to feel! The temple is truly the most amazing gift heavenly father has given us, I hope that as we continue to work hard here in Veszprém that we will be able to help our investigators, less actives, and recent converts to be able to see the temples for what they truly are and that they may have the desire to live worthily to be able to go there and partake of those sacred blessings found only in the Lord's house!

  

  

 

 

Besides the amazing temple dedication, yesterday was also like the best day ever because I got to see the Mecseriék's again! And get this, "K" even remembered my name! That is a pretty big deal, I was touched haha!  As usual, "J" and I colored, "Á" and her did my hair, and "K" played a song for me on his drum set!What an amazing family, I am so glad that I can call them my little Hungarian family, cause they are seriously some of the greatest people I have ever met! So enjoy all the pictures to come! I love you all and will talk to you next week! Have a great week!

Sok Szeretettel,

LeBaron Nővér