I'm sorry my emails are shorter, I just literally don't know what to say anymore.

September 23, 2013

Welp. It turns out that my companion and I only take pictures on P--Day. It would be a probably good idea if I started to take picture at other times in the week, so we could get ourselves some more variety, but here we are in front of the big church in Debrecen. Today I learned there used to be an older one there, but it was burned down a little while ago. Crazy stuff!!

I dont remember when this happened, but I will tell the story now. The other day I saw this super cute girl on the street. Short red hair, she is like in her 20s, and has this cool braid in the front of her hair. So, I saw her, but then I got to scared to talk to her, and I was like, if I see her again--she's mine!! And, I saw her again! We were streeting in the rain, trying to be all sorts of diligent, and then I saw her. I was so excited. And, I talked to her. And she accepted to meet. She is really cool. Ha. What do I know, we haven't even met with her yet!! But, she was really excited and totally willing to plan a time to meet. So, we are meeting on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed! It should be good. 

Speaking of things that should be good, I am going to Kecskemét this next week on splits. Actually tomorrow I go there. Oooh. Scary! I am interested to see how the work is going. Who knows, I will probably end up somewhere super random where I have never been. I will be honest, it seems unlikely to me, because I was there for half of an eternity, but who knows! I love that little place, and it will be good to go back. I worked with Sister Peterson this week, and that was really crazy. Last time I served with her, it was March, and snowy, and she didn't speak Hungarian! But, we were just streeting and tracting and talking to tons of people and she was just super involved and talking and it was so weird. She still sings just as much as we did when we served together :) I was super glad to spend the day with her.


Last week we met with an adorable girl who found the church from the Book of Mormon Musical. She is super cute, really fun, and she likes sushi, so she is a win in my book. She had met with Elders in a different city, but she moved here for school, and so we picked her up, but it was such a cool meeting with her. She knows that the Book of Mormon is true! So, we just need to find time to meet, she is just so busy with school... understandable, but a real bummer. I have been amazed with how many people I get to talk to because I have done theatre. It like, has this underlying connection or something. Really interesting, really cool!

We've got ourselves a baptism this week, so that is really exciting! I will make sure to send you all pictures next week.

Sok szeretettel,
Kennedy novér

Are you a jedi or a sith?

September 16, 2013

Where to start? We will start at the very beginning, that is a very good place to start. I love being a missionary. I love missionary work, and I feel like the Lord is just blessing us in ways I could have never imagined. We went on splits this week, so that was fun. A couple of people have asked me what I do as a sister training leader, and I still don't know. Ha, but we just go with it, and it is all working out. We went to the Leadership council meeting the Friday after transfers, that used to be just the zone leader meeting, but now it is like, all the leaders. So, I went. And we got a good training about the direction President Smith wants to take with the mission and everything, and that was pretty nice. So, we got some good direction and then they told us that they want us to go and work with the sisters in our area as quick as we can.

So, Sister Oberhansley and I went out! We are over Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Szolnok, and Kecskemét. I went to Miskolc and she stayed here. Want to know what is weird? Working in another person's area. Seriuosly. We met so many incredible people and we kept getting their phone numbers and everything. We got let in and had some good programs while tracting, and that was awesome, and then I left. That was kinda weird. Spend a whole day working really hard and then just leave it and go home. I will admit, it felt really good to get off of the train in Debrecen, but it was fun to work with Sister Montenegro. We worked on different ways you can talk to people, different things with Hungarian, and we also taught english class together. I love english class. My absolute favorite thing to do is draw someone on the board and then just dress them. The best part is, I don't have to know the Hungarian word if I draw it. I just draw it and say what it is in english and then they are like, oh! Skirt, that is szoknya. And then I agree and keep drawing. One member after the class just kept coming back to me and telling me how great it was... It was funny. And then we actually went back to Miskolc for a district conference on Sunday, and the same member found me again and told me how great my lesson was and asked me if I was going to be serving in Miskolc anytime soon. I told him probably not... and he didn't like that. Not at all. Pretty funny though.

These are all the missionaries in the cute little city I am serving in. I will go through the entire picture, from left to right. We start with Elder Nyman. He is like, the youngest missionary ever. Just graduated high school. He is like, my best friend. From American Fork. Elder Cutler. I served with him once in Buda and two transfers here. He is cool. His dream this week is to be on The Bachelorette. Then Elder Andersen. He is from Arizona... and is in the same ward as the Law family. Turns out they played volleyball together. Fun stuff! Then there is me. And then Kati, and her daughter Katika, and they aren't missionaries, but they had us all over to sing. And then Sister Oberhansley. She is my companion and we are getting along swimmingly. She speaks Hungarian like a champion so I am learning a lot from her and that is good, because I like to sound smart. And then we have Elder Brown. I have also served with him three transfers. Once in Buda and twice here. He always makes me smile. He tends to hiss at people, and thought Sister O was walking behind him, and turned around and hissed at her, only to find out that he hissed at a Hungarian. Awkward... We have district meetings every Friday and we travel a lot by train, and we have activities at the church often, so right now you are looking at my little family. I love it. Who knew these people would be some of my best friends? I had no idea.

I just, don't even know what to tell you anymore. We have two investigators working towards baptism, I mean, I guess all of our investigators are working towards baptism, one on September 28 and the other in November. So, we keep working with them and moving them towards that. We had a district conference in Miskolc on Sunday and they were both able to come and they both really liked it. One of our investigators is from Taiwan, so I spent my whole time translating, and so I can't really remember what was talked about. It was good though, and I felt really good while I was there.

I am so blessed to be serving in this mission. I mean, every mission is unique, but I feel the Hungary Budapest mission is truly unique. God loves all of His children. We testify to them everyone. On the street, in their homes, in creepy elevators, in forests, on trains. We gotta just spread the good word, you know? I learned something in Hungarian this week. ige means verb. Or, it means the Word. That is pretty cool. I mean, I liked it.

But, I think I would like to end this email with a really good inspirational picture.

"Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh;...they are free to choose" So, whether you choose jedi, or sith, it is up to you. But, may the force always be with you.

Sok szeretettel,
Kennedy novér

And this time last year...

September 9, 2013

Well. We have it. I finally did it. A made it a year in the country. And, I am still alive. I know, what can I say, I am really impressive.

Sister Magda and I went to an all you can eat sushi style buffet thing. The selection wasn't the best, and we definitely regretted our decision, but this is a picture of me eating nuclear toxin. You can tell because it is so neon green...

Let's start with exciting news. Our awesome investigator, the one that had the Book of Mormon for like 15 years, and just barely started meeting with us and everything... he is getting baptized!! On the way to transfers he called and asked for the branch president's phone number, and so I naturally gave it to him. The next day we met with him. I like, walk in, shake his hand and he says, "Caroline (because some people here really are very anti last names, because they want to feel like we are friends), I am going to be baptized this month. I already asked the branch president to baptize me." WHAT?! I was like freaking out. We are walking up the stairs and I am trying to tell Sister Oberhansley about it, because we were maybe thinking about November, but I guess she didn't hear me because she asked him if he would want to be baptized in November, and he said no. September. So! He is getting baptized on September 28 and we are super excited about it. When we got to church he was helping put up the numbers for the hymns we would be singing, and he is just really cool. He is going to help the branch out SO much. What a dream. But, you know. We will just keep working with him and see what happens. He is pretty stoked about it all, so, yeah!

As far as being a sister training leader. Who knows what that is?! Ha. We are really excited to just kind of see what happens and to... do it! We are going on splits this week in Miskolc, so I will be working up there and getting to see a little bit more of Hungary. I am most excited for when i get to go to Kecskemét. Oh. Szívem. It will be super great. We were travelling a lot last week, we had a meeting in Budapest on Friday with all of the leaders, and I really liked it. It gave me a brand new insight to the workings of the mission. So that was cool. I hope that I can help the sisters in my area to really feel the spirit of missionary work and to feel happy with the work they are doing. So great.

This is me and Sister Oberhansley. IT IS UNREAL serving with her!! We like... both speak Hungarian... and we dont really worry about anything. Like, I say something and then she says something, and then I say something. I bet this is how people feel in English speaking missions. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to serve together and we will just keep on kicking it and doing missionary work. I really do like missionary work. Did a survey for the mission and I checked the box that said I have served for 15 months, I have had 4 areas, and had 10 companions (That includes the MTC. Except I didnt count it as an area, because the MTC is a world of its own). Pretty crazy.

I love my God. I love my Savior. Gotta go spread the good news.

Sok szeretettel,
Kennedy novér

Transfers

August 26, 2013

Well, another transfer come and gone. Transfers are next week. This one was a real quicky, totalling at a grand total of five weeks. Next transfer is going to be ten weeks, and then after that we will be having nine week transfers. So crazy!! But, I go home halfway through the first legit nine week transfer, so that means I come home in a transfer and a half. Or, as it turns out, in one semester. Thinking of it as a transfer and a half makes it seem like I am coming home really soon. Thinking of it as coming home in a semester makes it feel reeeeaaallly long. Even though I am graduated, school still makes things feel like eternity :)

This week was August 20. That is the big celebration here in Hungary! We celebrate the first Christian King, the creation of the Hungary state, and lucky for me, I celebrated it in Debrecen with the flower festival!! It was pretty cool. There were all sorts of people here. We had a little table out with information about our church and with some little drinks, we gave those out in hopes that people would stop (it worked :)). We ended up having a huge group of Ukranians come up and talk to us. We were right outside the branch house, and they asked if they could use the bathroom. I couldn't believe that the parade was so long that people had a big enough break to go to the bathroom, but hey. It was cool. They had really pretty costumes, but they are from Ukraine, so only a few of them could speak Hungarian or English.

We had a hard time meeting with our regular investigators this week, but we met with that guy I told you about last week. He is really cool, but for some reason feels like he can only speak to us in English, and that is kind of hard, but it is going good. We had a big branch party in honor of the holiday, and he came out, along with a bunch of people from our english class, so we are really hoping to get them involved with us. Sister Magda and I left the party early to go get in some streeting, and when we left people were surprised and we told them how we had to go teach people and they for some reason hadn't understood, every week, when I said we came here to teach people about our church, but they understood then, and we are looking forward to meeting with some of them this week :)

This is the super gorgeous city in which i live. This is the main square. I climbed up the tallest tower in the church and got to take a little peak out. It is one of the prettiest cities I have served in :) I love Hungary. The people have gone through a lot. But, they certainly know how to build things up again and make them look good. This is the proof right? I know it is the same with us. God gives us trials, and maybe we get emotional destroyed or something, but we can only go up from there. Satan is tricky, and he really does like to make us think we can't progress, we can't move on. But, we can. It just takes some introspection. Does that word choice make sense?

Répa retek mogyoró korán reggel ritkán rétkant a rigó.
Kennedy novér

Tomorrow is like, Hungarian's 4th of July. Make sure you wear red, white, and green!

August 19, 2013

What a happy, crazy, long week.

The weather hasn't been too bad. It is definitely hot... and told I took of my backpack after tracting and I definitely had the sweat marks on my back. I can still feel it... so gross... but other than my back just being wet a disgusting looking all else is going well. We are meeting lots of interesting people, no one seems too interested in meeting us right now, so maybe I am doing something wrong, but we just keep going out everyday and trying to find those people that are ready.

So... I had the weirdest thing happen to me while we were tracting last week. Here they have 10 stories. I don't know if I have written about them before. But they are buildings... that have 10 stories. There are anywhere between three and six rooms well, typcally. At the bottom they have all the bells and the door is locked, so once you get in, it is golden, you can just knock every door as your heart delights. Sometimes when I ring in and tell the people who I am they say how they are super not interested, and then I ask them if they would still let us in, and they say, yeah, just don't come to my door. Ha. Anyway. The 10 story we were at didn't have a speaker system set up, and when I rang this doorbell the lady let me right in. We were so excited. We like smiled at each other with like open mouths and like, ran in. So exciting. I didn't exactly remember who I had rang, and then I talked to someone else before this lady, and then we went up this stairs where the lady was. But this lady, upon seeing me, grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me around, said she would never in a thousand years let me in the building again, and walked me out the building. That was super awkward. I mean, she literally grabbed my shoulders and literally turned me around the building and she literally watched us until the door locked behind us. I was still like trying to talk to her and be conversational, but it didn't turn out. Oh the life of a missionary.

We had a miracle this week. We ran to an investigator on the street. And we talked. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

But let's get down to the juicy stuff. We met with a super awesome guy from English class! I gave my spiritual thought from the Book of Mormon and he was telling me how he has one of those books. I thought that was cool, I asked him if he would be interested in meeting and he thought it would be cool. Sometimes we end up meeting with people from English class that have been meeting with missionaries off and on for years, but you never know, so I went with it. He showed up to the church, gave us a bunch of fresh veggies (I taught our class how veggies is short for vegetables and they loved that one) and he was explaining how hard missionary life is, and he wanted to help out. So, this guy understands missionaries. And then I asked him if he had met with the missionaries before, planning on asking him maybe, who he met with, how everything went. And he said he had never met with the missionaries. I have no idea how he go it, but he got the Book of Mormon when he was 20, he is now 35, and he has been looking for missionaries ever since! Maybe not, actively looking, but looking still. And, we met. He has read the whole Book of Mormon, he knows that it is true. He was asking me a question, and there was one word I didn't understand and it was the crucial word in the sentence so I couldn't understand what he was asking, and then he said, it's okay. I'll just read the Book of Mormon and find the answer. WHAT?! So cool. I invited him to be baptized and he said he was already baptized, Greek Catholic, so we are going to start right at square one and go from there. I am really excited to work with him. It has actually been a really hard week, and I feel like the Lord seriously just blessed us so much when we met with him. It is really nice.

This is a really interesting monument. It says, We believe in Hungary's resurrection. It is just built into the country side. I think Hungary is gorgeous, and I loved being able to look at the country side. It is way different up here than in the Southeast, where I have been before. Anyway. I know that God loves each of His children, and that as we loving serve each other and give of our whole hearts we will be able to feel of His love more abundantly in our lives.

Sok szeretettel, Kennedy novér

Finally. I can whip it good.

August 12, 2013

What a crazy morning!!

Today has been like a total mix of emotions. We got permission to go out to a little farm town, Hortobágy, to get whips and just kind of check it out. I was so excited I couldn't even sleep!! I woke up at like 6:00 and couldnt fall back asleep. Turns out my life is great. We planned to get the 8:45 train and everything was great. And then, I went to the ATM, and it ATE my card!!! I was freaking out. The bank we were at didn't open until 8:30, the train left at 8:45, and so, I was kind of really flustered. I mean, the ATM ate my card! Ha, I kept calling all of these different numbers and stuff to get it all figured out, and I just kept saying, the ATM ate my card!! The first lady asked if I spoke english, and then after I explained the whole situation, she was like, this is a real estate agency... Awkward... But, in the end, I made it to Hortobágy, and I got a whip! I explained the situation to the whip master, and he gave me an awesome deal. It is kind of an older edition... but it is sweet.

Here it is, in my little hands.
It cracks really pretty, so that is nice :)

The trip was really fun, and I would even say successful. Don't worry that I have no money to my name, the apostles of old didn't even worry what clothes they needed to wear! And at least I have got clothes, so that is a nice start.

Sister Magda and I in Hortobágy.

Every area is so completely different. I have like, given up on having expectations. Ha. Obviously I work and do my best, but you just never know what is going to be around the other corner, you know? So, I just keep moving forward with faith.

I have done a lot of soul searching this transfer, and it has been really cool. Last night I was reading to Sister Magda from my journal, and that was fun. I wrote in my 4th transfer something really cool: I finally realized why I am on a mission--to teach the gospel! Ha. Turns out it was a really simple answer, but I read it last night and was like--yeah! That is why I am here. Anything else I gain through my experiences and stuff is literally from the good grace of God, and I will be eternally grateful for those things I receive, because it is hard to see the fruits (baptisms) or our labors in these here parts sometimes. And so I keep just growing and changing, and become better. So, I am not the perfect missionary, and I don't have the Book of Mormon memorized... yet... but, that is okay, because I really know who I am, and I understand more of who God is. Love that.

We went tracting this week, and we talked to a lady. She doesn't believe in God, and we just kind of asked how she finds happiness, in her family, and we asked her about the best Hungarian food, and then we asked her if she were to ask God anything what would she ask. And she had an answer almost right away. Really interesting. She wanted to know why God would let people, especially little children, suffer. And she was like, I am not talking about wicked people, i am talking about kids that are hungry and can't eat. And then she thanked us and left. So interesting. For not believing in God, she had a very good and a very real question for him, but didn't necessarily want to hear anything else from it. It was just an interesting little story.

I know that God loves us. I know that He is aware of our trials, He is aware of our fears, He knows what makes us happy, and He wants us to always be happy. Eternal happiness. Sounds incredible.

WOW!! Some lady we talked to last week just walked into the Internet place. Wow. Seriously, God loves us.

Kennedy novér

Crazy old men keep complimenting me on my eyes...

August 5, 2013

Dear family,

I now live in Debrecen. It is actually really weird... I have never been here before. The last time i had never been to a city that I was serving in was... when I started my mission in Kecskemét, so I feel kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Not a problem, just have to figure out where everything is.

Moving was really hard. We went on a different train than the Elders, so I had to like, be really nice to people to ask them to help with my luggage. They were always really quick to point out that it wasnt light, and that it was really heavy. I smiled and said, I know, that is why I asked for help!

This is me and Sister Maxfield on our way to transfers... Yikes...

Way cool that we got to ride in a car though :)

Debrecen is a beautiful city, and yeah. We have some really cool people we are meeting with, and that is great! We are teaching a Nigerian, and he is solid. And, we are also teaching him Hungarian. Turns out, I didnt realize how far I have come. I asked him to read something outloud, but he had now idea how the alphabet here even works. Oops. But, yeah. I can kind of teach people how to speak Hungarian. Not well--do not solicite this to your friends.

Sister Magda is super sweet. She is really real, and I love it. We are just working and loving life, and that is perfect for me. This transfer is short, so next transfer day is in, literally a month.

Oh! So, some missionaries do this, so I decided to do it too. It is called the D&C challenge, or count down, or something. Ha. I don't know. But basically, you read a section of D&C everyday before you go home. It is really disconcerting. I dont know if I like it... but I feel like everything I read is just for me, and that is conventient. So, if anyone wants to read with me, today we are on D&C 10. I think.

This is me and my companion.

Yep! I dont really have much to say about the work here yet, because we have just been finding. We did have a program with a really rude guy. They found him through English class, and I asked if he would be interested in meeting, and he said yeah, but he is literally only interested in English. He like, rolled his eyes all of the time at us, and it was so frustrating. So, I mean, it can only go up from here, right? Well! I love you. 

Ilyen a csíp?s élet,
Kennedy n?vér