Sometimes when I wake up I think, woah. I live in the middle of Hungary.

Hello family!

Thanks for the great pictures.  I loved the pictures Grandma sent of the actors from the Nativity scene.  Who knew Katie's hair is super dark now?!  I honestly had no idea.  So fun to see everyone.  Also.  I had no idea Rachel got into her program!!  Congratulations!!  What does that mean now?  So exciting.  I am also glad you all got to go to a USU game.  That is my Alma Mater you know :)  I am super bummed about the tea set, but I will go check with them today and see what is up.  Hopefully it gets through.  Makenzie!  I am so stoked you wrote me.  Give Sheridan a big ol' shout out.  I know some sisters serving in Milan, because we were on the same floor in the MTC, but I don't remember any of their names... I just remember they were absolutely adorable and so nice.  She will love it there.  And she will be so fashionable!!  Sisters get to wear the cutest clothes :)

Dad.  For clarification on the Book of Mormon challenge.  I have been studying Atonement.  I have a red pencil and I mark everytime I feel Atonement is talked about.  I am learning so much.  Sometimes when I feel I haven't marked anything in awhile I start searching harder and I then have to apply things to the Atonement.  Maybe if someone has a question about how to be a better missionary or how to really repent or how we can be better friends.  I don't know!  Maybe even just something as simple as baptism or patience.  Write it up, study it up.  So many options!

So... last time I plugged in my camera all of the pictures were erased... cool... I hadn't backed anything up, so that was a super bummer, but we were able to find a computer place right next to our church and they restored everything.  Ahh... Sweet success.  I am going to buy a card reader because I am a little nervous about having any more problems, and so hopefully that won't happen anymore.

OH!  How could I forget?!  I totally got my Christmas package from you mom!  Thank you so much.  The scarf is absolutely beautiful, and it does something real nice for my eyes :)  I love it, and Sister Kimball loves the calendar.  I opened everything before I read the note and I was trying to think of what I could use the second calendar for, and then when I found out I could give it to her we were both excited!  Sister Kimball sends you her best and she is really grateful for the calendar.  Between me and her I think we have done work at every temple in it but three or four.  Not bad for 22 year olds!

We have had a ton of success here, and I realized I haven't told you about it at all.  Our mission is needing to build up and get more baptisms and more work going--so our mission goal is 200 baptisms.  Really exciting, and that means that every companionship needs to get 5 baptisms this year.  Some people have had negative attitudes about it, but I am pretty excited.  Baptism is just a step on the ladder to eternal life, and so we need to find those people that are ready to go up it!  It has really focused our work.  Last week we had made the goal of having two bap dates.  The week before we had three, but we really wanted to talk to one of our investigators about how serious he is about baptism, or if he just likes meeting with us and so he agreed to be baptized, and so that is why our number went down.  Anywho.  We totalled all of our numbers for last week and guess how many bap dates we have planned?  Five!!  So exciting.  One in February, three in April, and one in May.  So now, we just help them continue to progress and help them reach their goal.  We just keep inviting people to be baptized and they keep accepting.  I am so grateful that the Lord is letting me work with these people!!  We found six people that used to be investigating the church that we will be meeting with this week and we will see what they think about baptism and joining the church.  I wrote down the most people in my planner for this week than I ever have.  I know the Lord blesses us when we are obedient!  Alma told his sons all of the time that as long as we keep the commandments we will prosper in the land--obedience brings physical blessings, and I am seeing it here in Hungary.  I love it.  I am a missionary!!  

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, my Reedemer, and my friend.  Me and Him go way back, and He is so happy when I rely on Him and when we work together.  I am so grateful for His Atonement, and I know that without Him I am nothing.  Every blessing we receive in this life from our obedience and faith in the Atonement.  I know this is true, and if we are ever missing peace and happiness in our lives that we can totally find it as we ponder, pray, and study the scriptures.  God wants us to be so happy!!  Everything on this earth is for us.  God created mountains and snow because He knew I would love skiing.  Also.  I miss that...  ilyen az élet.

I love you!  Best of luck starting school and everything!  If you ever feel like you can't do it and that things are hard, just remember I am taking to strangers about angels, gold plates, and miracles in some random foreign language.  Lucky for all of us we can use the Holy Sprit everyday!!

Love,

Sister Kennedy

P.S.  It snowed really for the first time here.  It is really pretty, and comparitively speaking it hasn't gotten too cold... I think the coldest I have seen it is -6 celsius.  It is going to get colder... but at least now it is super pretty :)

P.P.S.  Transfers next week.  Just a heads up.  I think I will probably leave Kecskemét.  But, who knows?!  Not me!  Pray for President Smith to be lead by the Spirit.

His name was Szilveszter.

Happy New Year!         December 31, 2012

Everything is still going great in the middle of Hungary.  Ha... I honestly don't know what to say... Didn't I just talk to you?  Anywho.  Everyday of the year there is a "name day", so, on calendars they have a variety of names written down, and it is another reason to party and celebrate.  Today is Szilveszter's name day, and that is just what everyone calls New Years Eve, Szilveszter.  People wear wigs and masks and such, and people have already started drinking and yelling happy new year at us, so it is a good day.  We are doing our work hours in the morning so tonight we can just hide in our apartment and not get into sticky situations.  There will be a big concert out on the main square and fireworks tonight... and I only live about two or three blocks from there... so I hope that we can sleep!

Once upon a time, I was in the MTC, and I watched a really cool fireside from Elder Bednar.  He recommended to get a cheap copy of the Book of Mormon, the ones with the flimsy covers, and to pick a topic, and then use that copy of the Book of Mormon study it.  I have been doing it with the Atonement.  I am learning tons.  He said if we have a specific question that we can study it and use that copy just to mark up, write notes in, and really study it out.  He said we could make up a whole library of copies of the Book of Mormon that have specific topics studied in them.  I combine this challenge with the challenge from President Hinckley to read the Book of Mormon in a year, and I encourage everyone to prayerfully ponder and think about a theme or question that is important to them.  Maybe Rachel can study missionaries, and maybe Andrew can finally figure out charity.  These are all options.  I thought it would be cool if everyone in the family did it, and then when I get home in a year (being the end of the challenge) we could all talk about what we learned.  Plus the flimsy copies of the Book of Mormon are super light, so we can take them wherever we want!

Merry Christmas!!  In this picture you can see the awkward moment where I didn't know I was supposed to open this on Christmas Eve... and you can totally see my cool indie style ironing board book shelf!  It is super ghetto and has big brown spots on it so I decided I didn't every want to transfer those onto my shirts on accident, so now it is a book shelf.  Christmas was really great.  Grandma, I am so sorry your package got lost :(  I hope one day it will turn up and then I can count down the days until something else that is cool too!  It just want be Christmas.  

This is the main square with all of the lights.  This was on Christmas Eve, or as they call it here, the Holy Night.  

It was so pretty to walk around.  We walk this way almost everytime to go to the church house, and so I now know what hot wine smells like.  Also I found out they put rum in a lot of things, so I know what rum tastes like.  I am learning so much here!  Oh.  And we survived the 9 meal appointments.  I didn't gain any weight from it... so that is good.

I saw someone wearing a Nordic Valley shirt the other day, it said it was established in 1932.  Is that when our Nordic Valley was established?  

The work here is going really great.  We are working with a family, a real FAMILY!  The dad is interested in English and we met with him at the couple times and taught him English and the gospel, and he told us, my wife would be soooo interested in this.  We just got back from teaching her and it was really incredible.  She asked us how she can change her feelings of enviousness.  Who asks that after the first lesson?  She also asked us while we were talking about dispensations and apostacies and she asked if we were in an apostacy right now.  Good question!!  We had the answer.  We hope to keep meeting with them for a while.  Cutest family.  We feel so blessed to be able to work with them.

I love you all so much.  Andrew and Chelsea, enjoy your cool game.  Matthew said it was fun.  I can play it with you one day, maybe, if you are into us all having fun together.  István said you emailed him back.  Ha... so he doesn't speak English at all!  We had helped him write the little note to send to you all, and at church he told me you wrote, but then he told me that he used google translate and figured it all out.  I thought it was funny and sweet.

We are all here!!

Sok szeretettel,

Kennedy nővér

Dear Everyone,

This is a little film of your children caroling to one of our neighbors on Christmas Day :)  We hope you enjoy it!
Merry Christmas!

Üdvözlettel:
Kovács István

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_67TOVs-ZQ&feature=youtu.be

2012.december 23. Kecskemét

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-LiYkSQLg&feature=youtu.be

Merry Christmas!

Hey!!

I will be keeping this super short because we have so much to do today!!  Who knew holidays were so crazy?  Probably every mom ever.  Anywho.

This week was super great.  I am super happy and everything is going really well.  We were fed like four times last week and Sister Kimball and I actually didn't love it that much... We always end up overeating and feeling kind of gross... We really just love eating soup and open faced sandwiches.  We were really excited for this week because we only had three meal appointments planned and everything seemed like we could just eat what we want.  But, by the time we got home from church we had nine meal appointments scheduled.  WOAH!!  I hope I can make it.

President Smith was in Szeged and on his way back to Budapest he stopped by and played Santa, so I have something to open up for Christmas now!  Yay!  Everything is good here.  The internet place has tons of American Christmas pop music stuff.  It is weird, but nice.  Who knew Britney Spears had a Christmas song?  I didn't.

I look forward to tomorrow tons!  I don't know who all will be home, but President Smith did give me permission to skype anyone in the family for a total time of one hour, so if Daniel and Leah aren't home I can Skype them, and I know Andrew and Chelsea aren't going to be home until Saturday, so yeah.  Maybe you can just let them know I might be calling them later, and you can totally call or text them while we are all together.

Boldog karácsonyt!!

Sok szeretettel,

Kennedy nővér

Mom!  Happy Birthday!  I spent the whole day saying, Happy Birthday mom, to Sister Kimball.  We took a train to a small village just outside of Kecskemét and I thought we might make a sign and take a picture, but then we ended up talking to someone about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ... so... sorry I didn't get that one.  Hopefully you did get my birthday gift to you though!  The big envelope that had the top ripped was because I forgot to put letters in it... so... I tried again.  

I was so happy to get a letter from Mrs. Caitlin Robbins!  What a sweetheart.  It was really nice.  I will be writing you a real letter soon... and I just love you so much!  Best of luck with school... I did that once... but now I am graduated.  Ha.

Grandma asked about Christmas traditions in Hungary.  Santa comes on December 6, and he gives sticks to bad kids, and candy to good kids, but since there are no completely bad kids in Hungary, kids tend to get both. On Christmas, baby Jézus gives the children the gifts.  On Christmas eve families get together and set up their Christmas tree and then they leave it up as long as they want, or so I have heard.  They have Christmas villages in the town squares, but it is different than you would imagine.  You probably are thinking, oh, some little displays of elf shops or something.  They have booths where people work and they have vendors.  There is even a Rotary Club and a Lions Club International.  That is kinda of random.  They sell warm alcohol.  But I love walking up and down it and seeing all of the people shopping.  I conveniently was freezing one night and there was a hat stand, so I bought a hat and things improved.

We had a really great conference.  The Mission President talked about the end of the world on Friday.  Instead of offering comfort and being like, no big, that won't happen, he was saying that the planets were probably going to allign and there could be something interesting things that happen--and he said some other things that just kind of caught me off guard--but then he said, who knows and that probably nothing will happen!  We will see how Friday goes.   It just surprised me.  

Sister Smith shared with us the story of, I hear the bells on Christmas day.  Such a wonderful story.  We all sang the song and it was fun.  We played some games and then had a white elephant gift exchange.  I thought my gift was pure gold--wipe board markers!  We use them so much when we teach--and the ones at the church aren't the best quality.  But, somehow I ended up with the markers at the end of the game.  And then Sister Kimball gave me the sweater she got as a white elephant, and an elder gave me the nailpolish he had gotten.  People are so nice.  And.  A senior couple gave us gloves.  So nive!  I think they are the prettiest gloves I have ever had, so I will make sure to be super nice to every senior couple :) 

I am happy, everything is great!

Sok szeretettel,

Look how cool that fog is?!  Yesterday we had zone conference in the
big city, so we walked around and ended up at the Buda Castle.
Pretty!!!  This is me and my new hat.  I am also wearing my new boots.
And new gloves.  Turns out when you don't bring winter clothes,
you get a lot of new things!

Kennedy nővér

I am so happy!

Dear Family,

I am so happy.  I really, am just on cloud nine.  Want to know why?  Because the gospel brings us happiness!  I read a little bit in Jesus the Christ today, and at the end of the chapter on the sermon on the mount it talked about pleasure vs. happiness.  Happiness is real.  Pleasure is fake--a gift wrapped up in really pretty packaging, but when you open it up you find it is full of nauseating guilt.  Gross!  Let's all really be happy shall we and find real happiness and joy this holiday season!  Yeah!!  Moving on.

This is in Szolnok.  We snapped this picture on the way home from the baptism there last week.  They really go all out here.  Beautiful, am I right?!  This is me, and Sister Kimball, and Tamás.  It was a great experience from Tamás to see a baptism and understand it better.  It mostly just got me pumped for this....

My first baptism in the country!  It was such an amazing experience!!  I was so happpy to be invovled with his progress.  Misi is so solid.  He bore his testimony on Sunday, which was so tender and sincere.  When he bore his testimony he shared about how he prayed to know the truth, and he said it took time, but he found it.  Some people say that finding answers takes time, and then they don't really do anything but wait.  What I love about Misi is that he worked for it.  He wanted to know it was true, for himself, so he prayed and read the scritpure and came to church, and when he was doing the right things, of course with time it all came!  Some people sit and wait because they know things take time, but that is wrong.  We need to understand the work that goes behind waiting and taking time.

Oh.  Important things, I guess.  I am still in Kecskemét!  I will be here for Christmas and the New Year.  Very exciting.  I have talked with my mission president and I have permission to Skype if that is interesting to you! I have around an hour to talk if I want, and I am allowed to split up the call and talk to siblings since people won't be at home.  I can call anytime on Dec 24 or Dec 25.  Yeah!  Christmas!  But, my companion's schedule is crazy, so I will let you know what her family thinks abou it all so we don't have to keep interrupting the members with coming and going.  I got Grandma's package of decorations, and I got my ipod!  Because it was Mikulás on Dec 6 I opened up all of my gifts from him!  Thanks for the super cute things.  I love the little dangly earrings the most :)  We have a Christmas zone conference next week, so I will be emailing on Tuesday.  

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!  Gotta go teach a 13 year old girl that is getting baptized in April :)

Sister Kennedy

Boldog Mikulás!

Singing for Mikulás in order to receive a treat from the jolly old man.  Good thing he understands english.

It is December???!?

Wow.  I feel like not all that much has happened since I wrote you last... but obviously things are happening everyday!

We had interviews with the mission president on Wednesday and we were able to talk to his wife while our companion was in their interview with the president.  It was really nice, and they brought down mail.  Mom.  Your card was so funny...  I laughed so hard.  Sister Kimball also enjoyed it.  Who knew they made cards written from cats?!  I got two things from Grandma, one was a decoration, and the other was also a really nice card.  So, thanks!  My interview with President Smith was really great.  We get along really well, and so that is a blessing.  There are a lot of changes coming up in the next couple of months (9 new sisters in March!!) and so we talked about some of the changes and things that will come with that.  He encouraged me to keep being obedient and working my hardest at learning the language.  Exciting!  And... I asked him a question I have had for months... and he said yes!  So, I am going to buy a ukulele today.  I am pretty excited for that!  Still haven't found a tea set that isn't a brazillion dollars, so hopefully I can find somewhere to look today really quickly.

We went to the City Hall on Monday.
Here are some pretty pictures.  Cool.

Where is Jordan Tolman going on a mission?  I had no idea.  Turns out I don't know much about the human world...  Oh!!  And Camille!!  Thanks for your email.  Give me your human address!!  I love you soooo much.  Save me a ski run... and we will go next year :)  But you can't make fun of me... I will have missed a whole season... and I am not a pro ski instructor.  I love you.  Yeah!

Sorry I haven't talked about Misi at all... my bad!  He is so great.  He is 22 and dating a member in the ward here.  He came to church a couple of times, and we met with him the week after I got here and have been meeting with him ever since.  He loves the gospel and seriously has a testimony that it is true.  His girlfriend had already covered the word of wisdom and law of chastity with him, so it was a really special situation.  I want to learn Hungarian just so I can be friends with him and so we can chat all of the time.  He is really awesome.  He had his baptismal interview on Thursday and everything is going forward for next Saturday!!

We have visited the hospital a couple of times this transfer, and it is really interesting.  The hospitals here are a lot different than in America.  For instance, they have a lot of people in the same room, and they are really dark, and I don't like them.  I just don't like hospitals in general turns out... We've been in three different ones this transfer, and some are definitely better than others... but for some reason I just don't like them.  Anyway, it is awesome to see the faith of the members in dealing with health challenges when they are in the hospital.  I love this ward.  

I am so grateful for December!  It is so exciting to have everyone hustling and bustling getting ready for mikulás and karácsony.  Mikulás is the holiday where Santa puts candy in boots for good kids, and sticks in the boots of bad kids, and Jesus brings gifts on karácsony, aka Christmas.  Mikulás is December 6, so I am excited to put some sticks in my compaions shoes.  We have started to decorate our apartment for the holiday, and have drawn a big Christmas tree and hung it up on the wall.  We get to put an ornament on it everyday if we are good.  Ha.  I love it.  There is no snow, and yesterday was the first real time I felt like I needed to bundle up and wear some leggings.  Everything is so pretty here and they are decorating the town something real nice.  Their Christmas village is more like vendors and lights and there is also a bumper car stand set up.  Hope that I can get in on that action sometime!  I love it.

Working with the ward members here has been really cool.  I am glad to hear about the reactivating efforts going on at home.  It is so important for us to focus on the less actives in our wards.  Be there friends.  Reach out to them.  As missionaries, we are trying to contact the less actives and inactives in this ward, but it is so hard.  There are so many people that are inactive.  It is crazy.  There are a couple of die hard members in the ward that already have people they are trying to fellowship and help, but how great if there were even more die hard members that were trying to help bring everyone back into Christ's fold?!  It would be so great.

I finally got my hands on a english copy of Elder Holland's talk from conference.  Wow.  That was a good one!  No wonder people keep bringing it up.  I think we all need to realize our own conversion to Christ and we need to strive on our own to develop that relationship.  And then, we need share what we have learned with everyone!!  Yeah.  Missionary work.  That is where it is at.  "Every member... a missionary!"  That was said by David O. McKay.  Hopefully every member is doing their part.  Invite an inactive, less active, or nonmember friend to the big Christmas pageant your ward is putting on.  Invite their kids to get involved with the Primary.  Do it.

I love missionary work and I am so happy to be on a mission.  It is the best thing I have done thus far in my life and I encourage anyone with the desire to serve to organize their life and go.  No matter how old you are.  Do it.  Yeah.  Missions.

  

Sok szeretettel,

Kennedy nővér

Ó!  És csak szeretnék mondani pici magyarul mert, lehet beszelhetem a nyelv most.  Hát... ez az.  Tényleg, szeretem a magyar nyelv.  Tudom, hogy a misszionáriusi munka a legfontosabb dolog csináljam most ebben életemben.  Tudom, hogy Jézus Krisztus szenvedett a bűniemert és az engesztelés által kaphatunk sok vigaszt.