Mon 11/14, 5:21 AM~He Will Make You Whole

Szervusztok!

This week was really good full of splits, splits and more splits!!! Just kidding, we actually only had 2 exchanges this week, but still! On Tuesday we went to Békéscsaba and let's be real, I just love that little place! I was with Sister Giullian (my companion from Kecskemét), and she was an absolute sweetheart and scheduled some teachings so that I could see some of my favortie people! When we got there Tuesday night, they were having a Branch Music night, and guess who was there? László and Judit!

Wednesday morning we woke up and headed over to Erzsike Nénis! Seriously she is my favorite old woman alive (besides my own grandma)! Looking her up off of the branch list back in may was still one of the best things I have ever done! Just look how cute she is!

 Giull said "Now a funny one!"... So this apparently is what Hungarians consider funny! She just melts my heart!

For lunch that day we stopped at the Csaba Park to see the one and only ENIKŐ!!!!

For some reason, despite the fact that she used to be a model, she thinks that she has an ugly smile! I always try to tell her shes crazy! This is her describing with her hands what her teeth day, as Sister Withers was snapping photos!

  

But, finally I got her to smile with her teeth just once! I swear she is crazy, cause she is beautiful and her teeth look great!

And then she accidently did it again! Haha! One of the other sisters asked to get a picture with her too, but she said that she only smiles with her teeth for me! I just love her!

During lunch I was able to talk to her a little bit, and she is doing so well! She said that she still hasnt touched coffee since Sister Dorny and I gave her the commitment to quit over 4 months ago! She is seriously amazing, such a great example to me! Her and her boyfriend József are planning on getting engaged at the end of the year, and then as soon as they get married she is planning on getting baptized! She also told me that her and József have been saying prayers together every night now and that she has been telling him about the Book of Mormon and just talking with him about Christ whenever she gets the chance! She is an amazing missionary already, and shes not even a member yet! I will seriously always be so grateful for her and our friendship!

After lunch we went over to Illon's house! She was so excited when they told her that I would be coming that she had baked me some Rakott Krumpli (stacked potatoes) because she knew it was my favorite! She is such a sweetheart! We had a really great lesson with her and read the book "Értékes Vagy" (You are Special) and related it to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. She still has a hard time believing in God, or honestly even wanting to, but maybe one day she will come around!

And of course another silly one, cause Giull said so!

We also had the pleasure of having the szeged sisters come up to Buda for exchanges on Friday! I was able to go with Sister Mason, and she is such a doll, I just love her! Unfortunately we were not able to plan any teachings to go to with them, but we were able to really work on some finding techniques, infact we spent the night tracting up in the Buda hills overlooking all of Budapest! It was breathtaking! We also had a drunk man encounter, that consisted of him stopping me in the middle of the road to tell me "Please dont be mad! Please dont be mad! There is no problem! dont worry! I dont speak english, what is your name?" I told him and it took him about 6 tries to finally be able to say it. He then asked for Sister Masons name. We told him, and he tried to tell us that it was really close to "Méz" which means honey in hungarian. He spent about 3 minutes trying to use his hands to describe what honey was, despite that fact that we both already knew exactly what he was talking about. We told him that we are missionaries and that we didnt have time to talk, because we had to get back to work. He then continued to follow us door to door as we tracted for about 15 minutes before he finally walked away and left us to do our work! You gotta love thus drunk ones!

Unfortunately our work here in Buda was kind of sad this week and we werent able to meet with a lot of people. We have officially been dogged 9 times in the last 2 weeks, and were only able to meet with 2 people this week, One of which was Erika (our bap date) and the other was Emilia, the less active that we had to give over to the elders. But we are really glad that we were able to meet with Erika, because she is our main focus right now! We talked to her about the Priesthood more and just wanted to make sure everything was clear as far as authority goes. We also talked to her about Priesthood blessings. She said that Károly, her husband, has given their 2 daughters blessings when they have been sick and that she knows that they definitely helped! We encouraged her to ask Károly for a blessing this week to help her find the courage to go talk to her grandmother about her baptism and that she would feel calm and comforted, being reassured that baptism truly is the next step that she needs to take in her life!

On Saturday we had Mission Leadership Council, and we had the pirvilige of having a member of the 70, Elder Leimer, come and teach us! His focus was on finding people and then extending commitments. For any of you that know anything about Europe, you know that the people are not necessarily religious, and most of the ones that are, are only culturally religious, but do not actually practice! Elder Leimer told us to stop trying to compare our work to the work anywhere else in the world, because there is no point. For those of you that dont know the missionary life very well, we wake up at 6:30 every day, have breakfast, scripture study, and language study, and then are out of the house by 11AM. We are allowed one hour for lunch and one hour for dinner, but other than that, we spend the rest of the time trying to share the gospel, right up until 9PM when we retire to our apartments for the night. The average amount of lessons in Hungary per week is about 3-4 which means that most companionships have either 7-8 hours a day that is comprised of just finding. So you could say that it isnt easy. And as the winter weather comes on, it gets even a little bit tougher! Elder Leimer's focus was aimed at how we can be more motivated in the work so that we are using those 8 hours wisely! The thing that stuck out the most to me was him emphasis on being bold in our finding! As missionaries, we sometimes have a tendency to feel ourselves awkward as we are trying to approach random strangers, whether it be at their door, on the tram, or even on the street. Sometimes people think we are weird, heck, sometimes we even think ourselves are wierd, but Elder Leimer reminded us that we are not supposed to be weird! We are supposed to be SPECIAL, but not weird! If we are approaching all of our finding boldy, with that Christlike love and desire to help people to come unto Him, then they will not think we are weird. If we make our love evident through our actions, they will be able to see the intent behind it, and they will want what we have to offer! Finding is not about increasing our numbers to make us look like better missionaries, it is about finding the elect people of God that are ready to accept His gospel and come into the fold!

Here is Sister Withers and I practicing being BOLD!!!

We also had the opportunity to hear from Elder Leimer in a fireside later that night for investigators and members, that was broadcasted to the whole country! A few minutes before it started, Elder Leimer came up to me and asked me to say the prayer, I was so nervous, I did not want to say the prayer in front of all the members of Hungary, but how do you say "NO" to a member of the 70? Luckily, I didnt say anything too stupid haha!

During the fireside, Elder Leimer talked about how sometimes as members we believe in the gospel, but we believe that it doesn't apply to us, because we aren't good enough. He talked a lot of The Atonement of Jesus Christ and how the Atonement is sufficient for every single one of us! One quote6 commitment that he added at the end really caught my mind and I wanted to share it with all of you too! " Trust in the Savior Jesus Christ that He will make you whole & will make you GOOD ENOUGH!" He loves us, He lived for us, He suffered for us, and He died for us, so that He could make us whole, so that He could make us good enough! Trust Him and believe Him, because He is not only capable of making us whole, but there is nothing He would rather do than make us whole, and make us good enough! Never forget how much you mean to him! You all are loved, by Him, and be me too! I hope that you have a great week!

Sok Szeretettel,
LeBaron Nővér

Mon 11/7, 5:12 AM~Vigyázz, Fel Fogsz Fázni!!!

HELLO all my American friends! This week was a really good week! First off, because I got to see my two favorite Janka's in the world! Aren't they just adorable?

To start off our weird little half week, on Thursday we had our very last district meeting with Elder and Sister Simkins! We are so sad to see them go, but they are leaving the office and headed to Eger where they will finish the rest of their mission! It is going to be kind of strange not having them here, because they have been in the office since I got to Hungary, but they are going to love Eger, and Im just so glad I got the chance to know them and serve with them for a few weeks! After district meeting we had a little goodbye party for them! And of course the APs had to take a picture with Elder Simkins!

Later that day, we were able to meet with Emilia, a less active member, and we had a really good lesson with her talking about faith. Imreh Attila, our ward mission leader, came with us, and was a big help and the spirit was very strong there! She is progressing really well, and really has a desire to become active in the church again, we just need to help her give up smoking. Unfortunately we found out that she is living in the secretaries area, so we will be having a passover lesson this week, but I think it will be really good for Emilia, cause Elder González is hungarian and all so he will be able to really help her in her pursuit to quit smoking! And then of course we took a few pictures that night while waiting for our tram.

Funny story of that night:

    Hungarians have this weird superstition (actually they have a million of them, but this one inparticular) in which sitting on cold bences in the winter or not wearing tights makes you somehow go sterile. Dont ask me why, it scientifically makes no sense, but its a thing here. Our ride home from the branch house consists of taking the Metro to Bátthany Tér and then we have to typically wait there for 5-8 minutes for our tram to come. So we typically go sit on the wall and gaze out at Parliament and talk about how lucky we are to be living in the most beautiful place in the world and that we get to see this amazing piece of architecture every night when we go home!...

...So as usual, we were just chilling on the wall, swinging our legs and marveling at the Budapest beauty, and an older man approaches me. He asked me if he could say something, so I told him sure. He then informed me that "This is very dangerous!" and told us we should get off the wall. I figured he was referring to us sitting on the wall and just didnt want one of us to accidentally fall off (dont worry mom, its only like a 6 foot drop down to the side walk). However, he continued to tell me that he is a medical physician and that if I continue to sit on that cold wall for 30 more seconds that all my eggs will freeze and I will never have children! The man was very kind but as he spoke he was starting to get very anxious, so even though there wasn't much logic, we hurried a climbed down just to avoid giving him a heart attack! Hungarian Stereotypes never fail to make me laugh though! So heres a picture of the shoes before we got kicked off the wall!

Friday morning we met with Dörömbözy Erika, or investigator who has a baptismal date right now. After everything that was discussed in MLC and Zone Trainings last week, we decided to do an in-depth discussion of the baptismal interview questions and see exactly where she is with things. We went through all the questions and she has a very strong testimony about everything! We also were able to take Vadas Erika, a recent convert, to that lesson with us, and she bore a very strong testimony to Erika and they became really good friends! It was literally perfect having the other Erika there, because they both have little babies, so the kids just played together while we had the lesson, and Erika was just so flattered that we would invite her! So it was a double win! The only thing that is presently a dilemma with Erika's baptismal date is her family. All of her family is very catholic, but she finally decided to tell her parents and they told her that they supported her, but told her not to tell her grandmother. Erika knows that she needs to, but she is just trying to find the right time and build up the courage to do it. Any prayers on her behalf would be very much appreciated!

We were supposed to meet with Kovács Tibor later that day, but he didnt show up. He also didnt come to Stake Conference, and he isnt answering any of his phones, so we are a little concerned about that, but hopefully we will be able to get in contact with him this week!

We also had the Veszprém sisters come here for exchanges on Friday. Sister Swenson and Sister evans both seem to be doing really well! I had the opportuntiy to go with Sister Swenson and she truly is an amazing missionary! On Saturday we had a lesson with an inactive member, Berényi Zsuzsa, and it went REALLY well! In the past it seems like missionaries have just gone over there to fill up their schedule  and get one more number, and so they had planned for us to teach Gospel of Jesus Christ next, but when we got there and introduced ourselves and got to know her and her background with the church, we knew that was not what needed to be taught. We were very bold with her, and asked her why she isnt coming to church. We continued to ask questions until it finally came down to her admitting that she believes our church is true, but doesnt believe in the Book of Mormon and never has. We had a really good discussion about the Book of Mormon, why it is important, how we should study it, what it means to ask in faith and how we can receive and recognize our personal answer from God that it is true, and then Sister Swenson and I were both able to bear powerful testimonies of how the Book of Mormon has changed our lives! The spirit was very strong in her home, and her countance seemed to change throughout the lesson. At the end we asked her if she wanted to know for herself if the Book of Mormon is true, and she said yes. And then we had her set a reading goal to read at least one chapter every single day! She was really excited and we committed her to pray before and after she reads to be able to invite the spirit when she reads! I really do think that she has a lot of potential, and that if we continue to teach her and her needs, rather than just lessons, then she will be able to feel the spirit and know that the Book of Mormon is true, and will have that desire to put her life in harmony with the Gospel and come back to church! i am really excited to see where things will go with that!

Saturday and Sunday we had Stake conference. On our way to stake conference Saturday night, we caught the metro over to pest and there was a huge group of missionaries there, and they all decided to walk to the stake center. Sister Swenson and I decided we wanted to beat everybody there, so we were going to take the bus, only problem is that the bus driver said he wasnt going that way. So we hurried and started running to catch up with the crowd! All of sudden, a taxi pulls over next to us and 3 people pile it out leaving it empty! So Sister Swenson and I thought "We are in Budapest right now, why not take a taxi just for fun?" So we hopped in and told the taxi driver where we were going. We were speaking hungarian, but unfortunately the good Óle American accent is still somewhat there, so the driver told us that we speak very well, but asked us whether we were hungarian or not. We told him not, and explained what we are doing here half way across the world! We shared a little message with him as he drove about eternal families, and then he told us that the 3 people we saw get out of the car were actually his wife and 2 kids. We talked alot about religion and unfortunately he wasnt really interested, but as we pulled up to the church and asked him how much we owed, he said that we didnt owe him anything, that he purposefully didnt start the clock. We told him that we insisted on at least giving him some change, but he told us "Isn't this just what you call a good deed? I know that I'm not a big believer, but I believe this is what Christ would do!" Most of the people we meet as missionaries may never accept the gospel, but it truly is the small little influences we make in peoples lives that make it all worth it! It was so neat that even though he didnt want to hear more, that just a simple taxi ride made him want to do go a good deed for 2 foreigners when he could have very much used that money for his own family!

Stake Conference was amazing as always! I really loved all of the talks and was able to learn so much from them! We had a member of the 70, Elder Adler come and speak to us. I loved the emphasis that he put on temples! The temple truly is the house of the Lord and there is no place on earth that we can be closer to him than in the temple, so we should be making the sacrifices and efforts necessary to be able to go to the house of the Lord whenever possible! I also love that he said, even if we are unable to attend because of financial or other circumstances, we should always have our recommends on us everyday as a reminder of the covenants we have made in the temple, and also so when we are tempted or even just put in a situation where we must choose between good or better, that we can think of our temple recommend and ask ourselves if we will still be worthy and comfortable to enter the house of the Lord if we do it. I also loved his talk during the Sudnay general session when he talked about true love being forgiveness! It is sometimes so easy to find the faults in others and so much harder to see our own. But the key is to try and see everyone as Christ sees them and then we will be able to see the good and forgive them more easily! At the end of his talk he said that if we refuse to forgive someone who has properly repented, we are denying the power of the Savior's Atonement. What a great perspective that is, to remind us to look for the good, forgive, and judge no more!

Another perk to Stake Conference is seeing all the people from all my different cities that I just love!

This is Ellinor and she is seriously the greatest thing ever! She is from germany speaks no hungarian (just english and german), but she got married in August to Bence from Kecskemét! And the best part is that I just found out they are living here in Buda now, so hopefully I will be able to see her more often!

OLIVÉRRRRRR!

AND OF COURSE THE MECSERIÉK!!!!!!

Bocs, that this one turned out kind of orange, but its whatevs, had to still send it because its got them all in it!

Other than all that, while tracting we got a few numbers from people this week, so we are really looking forward to being able to meet with them! And we are increasing our faith in finding, that we may not limit god's ability to use us as his instruments in this work! I hope you all have a great week, and never forget how much I love you!

Sok Szeretettel,
LeBaron Nővér

---

Nov 2, 2016~Are We Limiting God?

For Halloween we were able to go to Pest and do exchanges with Sister Cribbs and Sister Hughes! 

We went streeting by Hereo"s Square and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

 Also we found this beauty... 

Gotta love license plate finding!

As far as our work here in Buda, we unfortunately were not able to meet with our investigator Erika this past week, but we are scheduled for Friday, and she was at church so we did get to see her there! We got dogged a few times last week, but we also found a new investigator, Attila, and have a lot of potentials that we have found in the past 2 weeks, as well as some from last transfer that we are trying to set up with! So we are really looking forward to being able to meet with them! This week in District meeting we talked more about finding, and Sister withers and I have made it a goal to really testify in the first 30 seconds of talking to someone, rather than simply telling them we have a message to share, because most of the time 30 seconds is all the time we get. We have implemented it into our tracting and streeting approaches this last week, and while at first it was a little scary trying to figure out what to say, we are really excited! It  has been really neat thus far, and I feel like it is so much more effective than the alternative! I am really excited to start seeing the benefits of it!

On Saturday I ran into Gábor from Szeged! Turns out he is 

getting the 

Melkisédeki Priesthood!

 I couldn't be more proud of him!

On Sunday, my favorite Human Being ever surprised me at church! So glad that Kriszti got to come and visit!

 

Photos with this one are always a struggle!

And then of course, your typical after Church photo shoot @ Parliament

Sorry, if these scare you, they kind of scare me haha

And the weekly phone call with my baby Dorny included a Korean face mask 

party over the phone using masks her mother sent us from the Korean store! 

More Pictures @ Batthany because its my favorite place in the world!

 

And then a little bit of adventuring from the day we got lost 20 million times! But thats a story for another time!

Because sometimes you just "have nothing else to do"..

Yesterday we got an interesting assignment from President Szabadkai. There is a girl named Bécsi Heni who left on her mission this morning to the Alpine German mission, and so yesterday President set her apart, and then asked us to go do some missionary work with her! She is adorable and we had a lot of fun!

It was "Day of the Dead" so we got to go to the cemetery and look at all the cool
candles and flowers! 

And we will close with my favorite picture of all... we had someone do drawings all up our street, and this one was just too priceless! it reads "THIS IS A SLOTH"!

Overall, things are just great here! I don't think I could be happier, and It is just so neat being able to serve the people of Hungary, I love it being a missionary here more than anything! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sok Szeretettel,

LeBaron Nővér

Oct. 24, 2016 Post~My House in BUDApest

Well folks, it is official, I am getting old! This week marked the beginning of my 7th transfer in this Csoda Ország of Hungary! Which means that there is only one more! Thank heavens I get to spend it with the coolest companion ever! Also yes, we are both red heads, so there is alot of fire here in Buda these days! Speaking of which, MEET SISTER WITHERS!!!

 Isn't she a beauty! Don't worry, she gave consent to me sending these! We love each other already! We made a transfer goal to film a video every single week, this weeks is titled "Banana Breaking 101". I will try to attach it at the end and hope you all enjoy! (It is in two parts, sorry about that)

  This week was just wonderful! It was sad to leave Veszprém as it always is when transfers happen, but i feel that i can leave saying that I did my best and gave it all I had while I was there! Our last night in Veszprém consisted of...

1) Saying goodbye to Gizi Néni ft. Tomika and the Pelican poncho.

2) Játék Est with the usual's! Oh how I just love these two! Definitely what I will miss most about Veszprém!  Olivér is just the cutest little thing ever, such a sweet kid, and has literally become like a little brother to me these past 9 weeks! Our relationship was just golden!
here is a picture that depicts it really well!

3) McDONALDS!!!! Because that is the classiest restaurant here in Hungary! Also they have a play-place, and you cant pass those up!

(Our little Crew)

"The Cliff"

It was hard to leave another great companion, but Sister Evans is amazing, and I know that her and Sister Swenson are going to be able to work really well together and be able to really help the people there in Veszprém

Transfer day came and went! Got to say hello to a few people I haven't seen in a long while

 (specifically my baby Dorny),

I got to say goodbye to a few that headed home (Elder Bunker),

And everybody else in between

Transfers are always a little bittersweet, but overall just mostly sweet!

Our first night together as STL's!                                                                                                                                           
And I am just so excited to be here in Buda! Just the past 5 days here have been so amazing already! I love being able to serve with Sister Withers, she is such a great example to me and makes me want to be a better person and missionary! I am so optimistic about this transfer and the things we are going to be able to accomplish together!

White Chocolate Rasberry Turo Rudis! These suckers are life-changers guys! 

Sister Withers officially likes Turo Rudi now!

When your comp has been in Hungary for a year, and still never knew about the magic light up bottom! After all, it is the little things in missionary work that bring true joy! Glad that I can still teach her some new things!

And other weird things you find in Buda....

Since being here in Buda, we have been able to meet with one less active member, Emilia, who ended up coming to church and staying for the whole thing! We had a good teaching on the Law of Chastity, and were able to watch one of the churches inspirational videos about it and have a good discussion about it afterwards! It went really well!

 We also met with Tibor, a recent convert, and talked about Tithing! He seems to understand it really well, and informed us that he has already been paying it since he was baptized, so we are super proud of him!

We met with a new potential investigator this week, her name is Lilla! She is a younger girl, in here 20s and she used to frequently attend angol óra and csaladi est, and some of the other activities that were hosted at the church a few years ago, so she already had a basis of our beleifs. We talked alot about the Book of Mormon and the importance of prayer and how it can help us! She said that she already has a strong belief of prayer! Unfortunately she is really busy next week and we were not able to reschedule with her yet, but she said that she will come to the Meet the Mormons showing on Saturday and that we can plan a teaching appointment for the next week there! 

Right now we have a baptism scheduled for this upcoming transfer for our investigator Erika, and we have a lot of potential investigators that we are working with! We are in the process of scheduling with them this week, as well as looking for more! While tracting we have had a few people give us contact info with a desire for us to come back, so hopefully in the coming weeks we will be able to meet with them as well! 

Tomorrow we will be starting our splits, with the Szolnok sisters, so I am excited for that! 

I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!

Sok Szeretettel,

LeBaron Nővér

Original Post Oct.18, 2016~Did Someone Say "Keresztelő"?

Last P-day was chill! We went bowling and they had Virgin Piña colada's at the bowling alley!!

I sure have missed those things!

Well folks this last week was definitely a long one. It was hard at times, but it also provided a lot of personal growth, physically and spiritually!

   

The day was alot of fun and provided for a bunch of good memories! We watched the Lego Movie, ate pizza (HUGE pizza), and played some games as a zone!

  It was a great day, and I also got a funny little story out of it... So when we left Veszprém that morning it had been raining pretty hard and by the time we made it to the bus station my shoes were soaking wet and I had not brought an extra pair with me. When we arrived in Dunaújváros it was also raining there and once again my shoes became drenched. We walked to the branch house and I took my shoes off, putting them over the heater t to help them dry quicker. The mission President later saw that I was walking around without shoes  and asked why. I explained, and then he asked if i would like a pair of socks. I said sure, figuring he had an extra pair in the car or something... NOPE! He bent down and started untying his shoes, took his socks off his feet, turned them inside out and handed them to me, and then put his shoes back on without socks! Hahah I was a little shocked at first, and we all got a pretty good laugh out of it, but seriously, how sweet was that of him?! They say that a true friend will give you the shirt of his back, so I guess this just tells you just how awesome our mission President is that he would give me the socks off his feet! I sure love that guy! (Here's a picture of Elder Martineau and I ft. "THE Socks")

And I guess that giving me his socks just made him love me more, because tranfer calls are in, and I'M GOING TO BUDA!!!!!!  I seriously have never been more excited in my life! From the day that I got my mission call I knew that I wanted to serve in the big city, and then when I got to the country my trainer had just got done serving in Buda and after hearing all of her stories I really REALLY wanted to serve there! And now I get to!!!! I am going to be serving with Sister Withers, who was from my MTC group, so that will be so much fun! I am sad to have to leave all my Veszprém people, but this is going to be a great transfer!

Serving in Buda also means that I will be a Sister Training Leader! I am super excited to be able to work with the sisters in our mission and get to know them all better, they are all so great!

The work in Veszprém has been a little bit rough this past week. Our main investigator Piroska has not been answering our calls. I'm not sure why, because she seems so interested and is keeping all of her commitments and I think she is really progressing, but unfortunately we were not able to meet with her because of that. Our other investigator Katalin has been sick all week. We checked up a few times with her, and she ended up going to the doctors on Friday and got some medicine, so hopefully she will be feeling well enough that we can set up with her for later this week!

 Other than that we just had a lot of finding. It was long and hard and exhausting, and honestly as door after door got shut in our face, or csengő after csengő got hung up as soon as we introduced our self as missionaries, it was hard at times to not just want to give up. But that's when the real motivation as missionaries kicks in, and those are the moments when we must remember our ultimate goal, our ultimate purpose, and why it is that we are here in Hungary as missionaries of the Lord. I have been studying the Atonement alot this transfer, and it has been so great! In-fact, this week I just finished , and every time I find myself in hard situations, I have been able to turn my mind back to the Atonement and Christ's sacrifice for us. If we think that that was an easy thing for Jesus Christ to do, we are surely mistaken. So whenever we find ourselves in hard times, doubting ourselves and our abilities, and wanting to give up, we can always remember that we are in the best of company, because the prophets, and apostles, and even Jesus Christ have walked that same route of despair before us, yet ours is still just a tiny sliver of the what their struggles and sufferings consisted of. And of course the greatest news is that because Jesus Christ did walk that road before us, because he loves each and every one of us so much that he was willing to both live and die for us, because of the merciful plan of happiness that the Father has prepared for us, we are never alone on that road of hard times. Christ knows each and every one of us perfectly, of that I have such a strong testimony, and I know that because of his suffering he is truly able to succor His people. I know this, because He has been there for me in my times of need, and he has lifted me to my feet and helped me walk, when i thought that i could no longer even crawl. I am so thankful for his infinite and overflowing love for us, and our ability to turn to Him in both the hard times as well as the good!

Luckily, we were able to attend Erzsi's baptism on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

That was honestly exactly what I needed to make it through this week! Elder Lawrence gave a talk, and afterwards they had a few people they asked to bear their testimonies before they performed the baptismal ordinance. As the first man started bearing his testimony, the spirit just hit me so strongly as if someone had chucked a brick at me. At that moment my spirits were lifted, and it really helped me to gain some perspective on this weeks work. Yes, it was hard, and yes it seemed like all of our hard work was for nothing, but it wasn't. Because there are people just like Erzsi who are just waiting for the message that we have to share.

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever??? 

 As I spoke with Erzsébet before the baptism started, she was so excited and kept bearing her testimony to me, and it was honestly just such a neat experience. She had asked me to please help her in the bathroom as she went into the font, and then came out.

 The baptism was very beautiful and the spirit was so strong there! As she came out of the font back into the bathroom she was just glowing with joy, and gave me a big huge hug and kept kissing my forehead. I honestly don't think that i have every experienced in my life seeing someone as happy as Erzsi was in that moment, as she told me how great it felt to know that all of her sins had been washed away and she had finally found the road that her father in heaven has prepared for her in order to return back to him.    

 

 

 

 What a beautiful testimony she has, and what a beautiful testimony it was to me, of the ability we have as missionaries to truly help others find happiness, the real everlasting happiness that only the gospel can bring. That is why we keep tracting when the doors keep on shutting. That is why we spend hours out in the cold trying to talk to people in-spite of the humanly desire inside of us to go seek warmth inside our apartment. That is why we came here, and that is the one way to find success on our missions, working hard every single moment clear until the end so that we can say that we did our absolute best to be able to bring this everlasting joy to all of God's children!

Also she invited us over yesterday and we made Rakott Krumpli (as pictured above) together! It was beautiful! I sure am going to miss that lady, I love her to death!

Well I love all of you, and hope that you had a great week too! Talk to you next week from BUDA!!

Sok Szeretettel, 

LeBaron Nővér