Week 78 - Győr

Sister Fresh wrote one simple phrase in her email today ...

"Alig várom... :)" [I can not wait - in Hungarian]. She also attached this photo of herself with her luggage, packed and ready to go.

Fresh Nővér making the
ASL sign for "I love you"

We also got a second email with the following ...

"mehhhh I forgot to sign my email with Fresh nővér... and well I have to because its my last time... so here goes.

sok szeretettel,
Fresh nővér"

After spending Wednesday in Budapest at the mission home, she will board a plane for London, then Dallas, and finally Ontario. While we have loved having her as a missionary, we also "can not wait" to see her again!

Week 77 - Győr

Fresh Nővér's email began with:
 
"This week was really good :) We had a lot of new people to meet with and work is going so much better, just in time for me to leave right. ahaha"
 
She mentioned several things that happened this week, but said the details would come when she gets home next week. For example:
 
"We witnessed a possessed csengő... like ask me about this one when I get home. It’s too hard to write about. ahaha"
 
"Our apartment got broke into. They didn’t take anything. I’ll have to explain this one when I’m home too. :)"
 
"We were tracting and a bácsi tried to give us money... we aren’t supposed to accept it so for about 10 minutes he was persisting and  I was resisting.... but finally he got really smart and put it in my belt and ran inside."
 


"The money from the bácsi in my belt..." ‏

 
"I think that’s what I will miss the most about being a missionary is just the crazy things that happen to you and the really funny stories that come from them."
 
She will also miss the many people who she has interacted with and who have touched her life. Here are pictures of two of the from this week:

Fresh Nővér and Marika néni



Fresh Nővér and Edit 
(a wonderful member of the Győr Ward) 


Fresh Nővér has loved her mission experience, the missionaries she has worked with, and especially Hungary, the culture and the people. This picture expresses how she feels as her mission draws to a close and she anticipates returning home next week.


"Heart torn in 2"
(One sock has the colors of the American flag
and the other on has the colors of the Hungarian flag.) ‏



Week 76 - Győr

From Fresh Nővér's email this week:



"Happy America day!!! I had a surprisingly great celebration here as we had a little birthday party for America with the youth. I made brownies and they were hard and burnt, but everyone said they liked them ... I swore off making them ever again but with all the compliments I think I might have to make them someday ... mehhh The party was super fun! We played American games and did American things. I got my face painted and we threw water balloons. Oh  so great!! We love America, and the biggest surprise of all was that night in the bel város, where we live, there were fireworks :) So crazy I didn't even know they loved America that much here!"



"We love America!" ... Fresh Nővér, Watson Elder,
and Williamson Nővér celebrating on the 4th of July.





"Face Paint with Goldie ...
She wanted hers to match mine!"





Fresh Nővér and Nelson, a ward member from
Portugal, at the youth party.



Other odds and ends that happened this week:



"There was a super cute kids festival this weekend in the bel város and I want to like bring my kids back here for that... They like closed down the whole island and some roads so that kids could just  run around everywhere!!! It was a childs dream. Everything was decorated really cute and was very colorful too :) I love this city."

"I'm a bad person ... I made a bácsi [old man] cry. We streeted a man and were just talking with him. I asked him what makes him happy and  he just started crying and walked away... i felt so bad. :("

"We streeted another man and he told me he could tell I was from America because my skin was so brigh .... its funny because I feel like I'm pretty tan right now. :(  hahaha"

"Also we were streeting and this néni [old woman] on a bike (seriously my favorite thing to see is nénis and bácsis on bikes) rides by and says, 'Excuse me ... I just wanted to say you two are really cute in your skirts' and other stuff like that. I guess she appreciated our modesty :)"

"We got a new kind of calling this week, primary chorister :) ... our good friend Edit asked us to help and so we just go in during Sunday School and sing with the kids :) Probably the best part of my week! :) Kids singing in Hungarian... talk about cute :)"

 

Last Fast Sunday:
 

"Yesterday was my last Fast Sunday here and so of course I wanted to bear my testimony. I felt fine about it and was ready to just get up there and not be emotional or anything, but right when I stood up to go and bear my testimony it hit me that I was leaving soon. I forgot everything I wanted to say to my beautiful Hungarians and I just like couldn't talk because I was fighting the tears. Basically, I just said a few things about loving  Hungary and all that. Then I sat down and bawled the rest of the meeting... It was the worst. All these little kids were staring at me and asking why I was crying. I think it was good to cry though, I have been wanting too for a while now but have been trying to be strong. I think church is the perfect place where you can just cry and no one can be mad... just blame it on the spirit or something, right?"



Week 75 - Győr

"This week was good, but it went really fast! Let me try and remember what happened ..."

"We went and visited Ibolya who is one of our investigators today. Her one daughter is on a mission in Germany and her other daughter [Daniella] that is 10 years old is a member.  Anyways, it was so cute ...  They set up a table for us outside and had yummy food and other stuff. We brought little missionary name tags for the kids :) They are also having us over the next two Saturdays for a szolna sütés and a barbeque :)))))"

Two happy missionaries ... :) 

Fresh Nővér , Ibolya, and Williamson Nővér  

Basel, one of the solid investigators they had been working with moved to Pest this week.  "I'm super sad he is gone but I think it will actually be better for him because he will be there with his family and they can go to the international ward. ... In our last program it was so sweet when he was telling us how he is glad he has been able to meet with us. He also said that the night we first met on the street he took a different way home than usual. ..." 

"Goodbye Basel"

"We had a funny experience with tracting this week.... So we are at a door and Sister Williamson is doing the approach and we hear this little voice that says,"Are you a boy or girl?" Haha! We were confused but then this néni opens the door and she is just in her bra and underwear! Sister Williamson says her door approach and the néni lets us in! ahaha it was great!!! After that Sister Williamson basically does everything and asks  her some questions. I just said a little something at the end... it was great:) and super funny!"

"Teaching Sister Williamson how to
side saddle :)"

"Church was cool and we had a special guest.... President Smith [the mission president] and his crew. It was cool and I had to translate for the women who came into Relief Society. It was only like 5 minutes though because then we were combined with the Priesthood since it was the 5th Sunday. It was nice to see them all . They kept making going home comments like "Why is everyone so trunky?" Hahaha!" 

"Look what I found in my soup .... "

 

Week 74 - Győr

From Fresh Nővér 's email this week:

"So I have started to freak out this week... let me explain. Once I stepped into my last transfer everyone started to talk about how I go home so soon, but I didn't feel it. On Friday at Zone conference I gave my departing testimony and idk it feels a lot more real now.  My thoughts are like up and down all day... home will be great, I don't want to go, I'm so tired, I love Hungary, free time, boys scare me, AC, Hungarian ice cream.... and so on. I'm really a crazy person!"

"Everyone has been asking me weird questions like, 'What are you going to do when you get home?' and 'Are you excited?' and 'What will you miss about Hungary?'... It's crazy! Also, like all my elder friends at Zone Conference were trying to say it was the last time they would see me, and they can't believe I'm going home already, ..."

Fresh Nővér with her "elder friends" at Zone Conference.

Some sisters in her Zone who were in the MTC
with Fresh Nővér. 

A tender mercy this week was that Kriszti and Panni, two of her wonderful friends from Buda, came to visit the missionaries at Zone Conference!!!

Fresh Nővér, Kriszti, and Butterfield Nővér

"I got to see Panni on Friday :) So great ... I love her so much and will miss her!!!

Funny faces ... 

and more funny faces with Panni!

Williamson Nővér, Fresh Nővér, and Panni

"So we had a lot of feeding programs this week and omg we went to one with the elders and they literally made food for an army. There were like 4 different types of meat and we were all expected to eat at least one of each and then on top of that vegetables and potatoes. It was so good and so fun, just like so much food! ahha  I love spending time with the members and getting to know them better. They are all really cool and have super interesting stories :)"

With "Tamas and his family‏"!

"So this week was weird and crazy and we witnessed a miracle ...."

"On Saturday there was a baptism in Pápa and so we decided to go since Sister Williamson hadn't seen a baptism here yet. We show up like right before it was about to start and the Pápa elders say, 'The font doors are locked, will you try your key?'  So we tried it, of course, and it doesn't work. (Our key is the lame one that only opens the front door). Anyways Williamson has this idea that we should check the office and see if we can find a key that will work... Honestly I have no faith at this point because no one leaves the all access key just laying around ,right? So I start to open cabinets and look in them and we find nothing but then we come across a locked cabinet. I'm thinking "It stinks that our key won't open that"... but i try anyways and what do you know, it opens the door and inside is the magic key that opens the font. We open the font and then put the key back and close the cabinet, and try to lock it with my key that just opened it, but now my key won't work ... I know right crazy!!! We tried everything but just came to the decision that God is real and he wanted the baptism to go on smoothly and so he made our lame key work one time to open the locked cabinet :)  Mircles are real!"

Week 73 - Győr

Sister Fresh started her email with this observation:

"Time is going really fast ... how is it already JUNE 17th??  MEHHHHH Okay, well another week has passed ... and it was good, busy but good."

These are some of the highlights from the week:

On Tuesday Sister Fresh and Sister Williamson met with Tamás, a new member. Not only did they have "a good program" but she shared "the best news ever ... Just to settle my last few Hungarian food cravings he invited us to his house on Sunday for lunch and this is so good because his mother makes the best food ever!! I died the last time we were there because it was so so good :) So excited!!!

"Wednesday was kind of a hard day for me. We had a stacked day with like programs and stuff to do all day long and I was really excited to teach people and just be busy doing things and not just finding. So, our first program gave us a wrong address, and the next two didn't show up to theirs. I was having a rough time ... but, luckily Basel, on of our investigators came through and we had a really good lesson with him :) Also we got fagyi and that made things better of course ahaha!"

"fagyi" = ice cream

Thursday morning "we had district meeting... yeah!! I love our elders! Our whole district meeting we were talking about how we can have more unity in the ward and stuff so that the missionaries and members can work together :) ... After that, we got on a train and headed up to Budapest for splits. It was really good, and I got to teach an old investigator that i taught back when I was in Buda :) So fun because I could understand him now and talk with him and have social skills! I went with Sister Fowers who is from [MTC] group and we had a lot of fun. It was really weird being away from Sister Williamson though. I felt like a mom and got really worried about her. I'm weird, I know."     

Fresh Nővér with her "old investigator" in Buda. 

Splits in Buda on Friday with Fowers Nővér
... The river in the background is the Duna.

Sister Fresh and Sister Williamson returned home Friday night and enjoyed both sports nap and a ward party on Saturday. "We had a water balloon fight and lets just say if there was a loser I think it was me... my hair and back were soaked! Haha! The ward party was super fun :)" 

Sunday morning ... "Church was great!" In the afternoon, "we headed to the train station and went back to Budapest for greenie training... we stayed the night at the Smith's and had dinner with them. Sister Butterfield was also there [they are going to be roommates at BYU next fall] We talked a lot it was great :)"

On Monday Sister Williamson was involved in "Greenie" Training meetings so "Sister Butterfield and I just talked forever in the morning and then met up with our elder friends serving in the city and went to lunch :) It was great to see them all."

Next "Friday we go one more time to Buda. I love Buda but I'm kind of excited for like a normal week of mission life too!" 

Week 72 - Győr

Fresh Nővér's email came on Tuesday this week because of a Hungarian national holiday called Whit Monday which follows Whit Sunday or the Day of Pentacost. She said, "So our week was good, but it went sooo fast! Like I'm kind of mad how fast it went and it's the worst because this week and next week are both really busy and so I feel like they are practically already gone. Anyways ... here are some highlights:"

Sister Williamson - Sister Fresh has loved having Sister Williamson as a companion and says she is doing great! "She taught the restoration by herself on Thursday" and had some success streeting. "It's been super fun to see and get to know her better :)" 

Bowling - "Last p-day we went bowling in like an old school bowling rink, if you can even call it that. The balls didn't have holes and idk it was just so cute :) I am really bad, even though I talked myself up and said how I was on a bowling league... It didn't show in my score ahaha but it was so fun :) We made all sorts of weird competitions for ourselves like throwing the ball backwards or with our eyes closed. So great!"

The elders and sisters at the bowling alley in Győr.

A Castle - "This p-day, yesterday, we went to a castle. It was super pretty and we had a lot of fun looking at it and climbing in the trees around it. We also we played games with the elders in the branch house!!!"

Eszterháza Palace, in Fertőd, Hungary, is near
the Austrian border.  

The next few weeks - "So these next few weeks will be crazy because we go up to Budapest 3 times ... Friday we have splits, Monday is greenie training, and next Friday is Zone Conference ... that's why time will just fly!!! mehhh I'm freaking out. I feel like June just started and it's already the 9th ... It's like I'm on a weird roller coaster of emotions and I am really anticipating the end like a bomb is going to go off and I am looking at the time go down really fast ... "

Sister Fresh and Sister
Williamson had
"Burgers that taste like America!"

"I tried on Sister Williamson's
quited skirt...
 I feel like I live in Thailand!

"Well ...  life is good and happy. I love it here and am working hard until the end :)"