Week 50 - Veszprém

"Boldog Új Évet!!! [Happy New Year!!!]"

"The New Year was this week and so of course we got some time off ... We got from 2 pm on New Years Eve and all New Years Day off :)  It was really cool! This is what we did ... 

Fresh Nővér decorating for the Branch
New Years Eve Party.

"The Branch Party: It was great! I love this branch a lot, sometimes they are crazy, but mostly I just love them! Haha! The best part for me was the dancing of course :) I really loved dancing with Virág and Krisztina, two 9 year old girls in the branch. After the dancing we played a bunch of games and let me tell you I felt like I was not even in Hungary anymore. I mean at the beginning of the night I was speaking to people feeling good about my Hungarian. Then they started playing these games and it was like everyone yelled really weird words as fast as they could so the missionaries didn't understand anything. It was so crazy, I just sat there and was like, 'Is that even Hungarian?' ... All in all, the party was good! We talked to some members and they said they stayed until 4 am, but we left at 9 pm." 

"Piros, fehér, zöld‏" ...
the colors of the Hungarian flag.

"We got to stay out until 10:30 pm on New Years Eve so after the party we just walked around with the elders for a while and tried to find some place where I could eat. ... Yes, I was hungry, so nothing has changed :) We stopped by a little concert thing in the belváros [city center] and I got an American hot dog!"

Nővér Peterson, ? Elder, Nővér Fresh , and
Swink Elder eating their "Amerikai hot dog dinner"!

"After we said good-bye to the elders I finished my last few pages of the Book of Mormon, and then Peterson and I just waited for the New Year by watching church dvds. Guess who had the best view of fireworks ever this year? ... Yea, I did! They were literally right outside of our window and so we went out on our deck for a while, but it got too cold. I ended up sitting on our stairs and just looked out of the window and watched all the fireworks explode in front of me :) It was perfect! We rang in the New Year with some noise makers and then went to bed. It was the coolest New Years Eve ever ... I will never forget it!"

This photo does not do them justice, 
but the fireworks were beautiful!

"On New years day we went to the Füred Balaton [a town on the northern edge of Lake Balaton] and it was great! It was really cold but I got to feed ducks, and i learned how to skip rocks. Well, I actually never skipped them, but hey that's okay ...  ahaha!  I also learned how to whip ... I did not succeed at that either, but it was still fun.  Füred was beautiful!"

Fresh  Nővér feeding the ducks.

Trying her had at cracking a
Hungarian whip ... 

It's harder than it looks!

"When we got home we were all so tired that we went back and took naps. We met up later to go to Gizi Nénis house and made gulyásleves with her.... SO GOOD!!! [Gulyásleves is a Hungarian soup made with beef, vegetables, ground paprika and other spices.] I'm so excited to make Hungarian food for you all someday :) Like how Mom made this soup for us when we had that family missionary night and now I know how to make it like a true Hungarian! We spent a bunch of time with Gizi, who it the cutest lady ever. I love her so much! After that we went and played games at the branch house and then went home and went to sleep. It has been such a fun event-filled few days/weeks, but now the holidays are over.  It's crazy because I am actually grateful because it really does hinder the missionary work and now I just feel really rejuvenated and ready to work hard the next year."

Celebrating at Gizi's house!

Some other things that happened this week:

"I ate pig feet and TAIL!!!! ...The tail was way better than the feet though. As I was eating one of the feet, I bit into it and then I saw a toe nail thing! I had to keep eating, but I just about died. ... We get some interesting things from the members!

A pigs tail. 

"I got the best surprise yesterday at church! I was just sitting there waiting for it to start and I looked up and who do I see..... PANNI and Kriszti!!!!! I jumped up and ran over to them and gave Panni a giant hug. It was so great to see her and talk with her in Hungarian :) She looked so cute and she gave me little presents.  I just love her so much! We didn't get to sit by each other because I was sitting by a little girl that really wanted to sit by me, but she bore her testimony. It was so great!"

Panni and Fresh Nővér ... a great surprise!

Panni, Fresh Nővér, and Kriszti.

"I have no idea what will happen at transfers, but next Tuesday we get our calls. It's crazy because we have a transfer every month until May... so for someone who hates change like me this is great, right? ... Even if at first I don't think I will like my call, I know I will end up loving it because I always have! ... I guess what I'm saying is life happens and we can either go with it and make the best of it or be miserable. I'm going to choose opinion 1 :)" 

Szeretlek titeket,

Fresh Nővér

Week 49 - Veszprém

In her email Fresh Nővér told us how she celebrated Christmas this past week:

Christmas Eve:  "We went to Székes [nickname for Székesféhervár where she served before going to Veszprém] where we had a really chill district meeting and talked about Christlike attributes and our favorite Christmas memories ... After district meeting we ate some food and then went caroling :) So fun!!! We went in some 10 stories and just rang door bells, sang, and passed out candy. It was so cool :) After that we went back to Veszprém and we had a program, but the bus never came and so we had to cancel it.  Then the elders made us dinner :) ... We went to the branch house and they brought some rokott krumpli and a surprise!!!! It was DUCK!!!! I had duck for the first time and it was really good :) Then we played games for a while and went to midnight mass. I was so cool, different  and kind of weird, but cool. ... We went home that night and I slept in the loft ... Oh, and I got FOOTIE PJS!!!"

"We got to see Krisztian on Christmas Eve
in Székesfehérvár."

Fresh Nővér and Swink Elder 

Christmas Caroling in Székesféhervár with
her district.

Back in Veszprém ... Dinner made by the elders!
"They are so nice to us!"

The Veszprém missionaries on their way to
midnight mass.

Fresh Nővér's Christmas Eve gift from
home! Could it be pajamas?

Christmas Day:  "I woke up, opened my presents, and tried to be sneaky by sending Peterson on a scavenger hunt to find her gifts! It worked pretty well. It's just really hard to be sneaky when you are with a person all the time! Haha!  We were both mostly just excited to SKYPE, but we had a few things we had to do before that. We had feeding program number 1... with the Macsériék. They fed us Duck too!!! So good :)  ... We were at their house forever and it was so fun. I was so tired after we ate that I just laid on their couch and almost fell asleep. We then headed to our next feeding program with the Pappék and they fed us the famous halászle (fishermans soup).  I like fish and I like soup but there were too many bones. I am really happy I got to try it though.  Our last feeding program for the day was with Irma and this is where we got to SKYPE!!! She made us a 5 course meal and I only ate one course and then skyped ... It was so good skyping! After I hung up with you all I had to eat the 4 other courses ... We started eating at 12:30 pm that day and finished at about 8 pm. During that time I had approximately 12 courses of food!!!! I have never been so full in my life! After we finished our last meal we went to the branch house and played games with the elders! So that was Christmas ... I loved it and have so many good memories!"

Fresh Nővér in her new PJs
with all of her Christmas gifts!

All dressed up ... new sweater, new hat,
new camera!

Halászle  or Hungarian fishermans 
soup ... yummy but lots of bones!

The rest of the week:  "The work was pretty slow ... It's hard because everyone is with family, out of town, or has to bake, but we had 3 more feeding programs during the next few days. ... Pál is my favorite person. He made us this stuffed cabbage stuff that was so good :) and he is just cute. He is still coming to church each week and reading the scriptures. In church yesterday the speaker was talking about how it is important to read the scriptures for understanding and not just to read them and Pál leaded over to me and said, "He is talking about me." and I said, "No, because you are trying to understand. It' different." It was so cute! I just love him."

Fresh Nővér and Peterson Nővér with tickets to
somewhere or something?

Swink Elder and Fresh Nővér at McDonalds ...
Her first Hungarian Big Mac!

Boldog Karácsonyt from the Hungary Budapest Mission

These photos were taken at the Zone Conferences held the 

week before Christmas. Fresh Nővér is in the second row of 

the zone on the center/left of the card.

Week 48 - Veszprém

In her email this week Fresh Nővér gave us information on various subjects ...

"Elf: I am a Christmas elf ... idk if you all know this but I love wrapping presents, so this week I bought a bunch of wrapping paper and I have been wrapping all of the missionaries gifts from their parents for them!!! It is so cool :) I love it because I get to open their packages and see what they are getting, and then i get to wrap everything and make it really pretty! Life is good!!! "

It is definitely winter and "it was really cold"!

"Onion: We now have a game night here in Veszprém every Saturday. We were planing this game where you yell off names of vegetables but you only use the following 4 names: tomato, pepper, lettuce, and cauliflower. Well, for some reason I just started yelling onion and I couldn't help it! Every card I put down I yelled onion and none of them were onions. Haha! It was so funny and I think I will never think of an onion in the same way now :)"

Fresh Nővér and Peterson Nővér playing the
"vegetable" game.

"P.: One of the coolest investigator in Veszprém... still comes to church each week. We asked him about The Book of Mormon and if he knew it was true, and he said he believed it was and if not he wouldn't read it. So we told him he should pray and get a concrete answer, and so we challenged him to read from it and then pray to know if it was true, and told him that after sometime he will  receive an answer :) ... We asked him at church and he had done what we asked and so now we are all just excited because we know that eventually he will receive the answer that what he is reading is true! :) So cool!"

Fresh Nővér and I., another of the wonderful
investigators in Veszprém,

"Zone Conference: It was so good! I feel inspired to be a better version of me. That's the coolest thing to me, that I wasn't sent here to become someone else, I was just sent here to become better. During President Smith's talk he told us that our missions were preparing us for the rest of our lives and that we will be able to look back on our missions when we are going through trails and say, 'I've had worse than this ... I served in Hungary!' It was really great! we also played games, and I got to stand next to Santa. We did a white elephant exchange, and I got my packages and letters!!!! I love mail :)  The only down fall was I had what we think might have been my first migraine ever!!! it was awful and the train got delayed for an hour... but thank the medicine I took because I feel great now! "

Fresh Nővér, Santa, Butterfield Nővér, 
and Broadhead Nővér

"Clumsy: I am! I fell off the couch at our RCLAs house during the program and I trip all the time... its cool though!" 

"My tights fell down while we were
walking home! Haha!"

"My City": Fresh Nővér has had camera problems the past several weeks and the new camera we sent her just arrived this week. She used it to take some photos of  her beautiful city, Veszprém.

The beautiful red and orange roofs of Veszprém
with St. Stephens Church in the background. 

This door is probably in the Castle
District of Veszprém.

Veszprém's Town Square with the Fire Tower
(used as a watch tower in past centuries) in the
background.

View of a portion of Veszprém on a cold and
cloudy winters day.

"SKYPE: Peterson and I calculated the hours until we skype the other day and I know it's so much less than that now, which blows my mind!!!!! Last time we skyped I was a greenie!!! I hope I have progressed :)) I seriously can't wait to skype!!!"

Week 47 - Veszprém

Fresh Nővér's email began with a greeting in Hungarian:

"Boldog Karacsonyt ... majd nem :)" 

[Merry Christmas ... but not yet]  

Transfers: 
"I don’t even know where to begin ... So you all know that I got a new companion, Sister Peterson, but before that I went to transfers on Wednesday. I love transfers because I get to see all my friends, and we only get to go if we get transferred [or our companion does] but luckily I have gotten to go every time. I love it because it’s just so good to see people, go to lunch and just catch up on how the past few weeks have been. It’s funny because in my past life I don’t feel like I am super social or anything, but here I am this totally social person. It’s fun :)  Anyways it was cool because a bunch of my elder friends went zone leader and they are such good missionaries that I know it will be very good for the mission :)"

"My new companion, Sister Peterson, is probably one of the sweetest, most innocent people in the world. I can’t help but just love her. She really, really likes to sing and does all the time, but she is good at it and so I don’t mind! She is from Magna, Utah, is 22 and really nice, and just like really corky ... like kind of a nerd, but I love it! We talk about Lord of the Rings sometimes and Harry Potter. She knows so much about it all. ... I think everything is going well and I am really happy to be with her!"

Peterson Nővér and Fresh Nővér having fun! 

In fairy tales the princess kisses a frog who turns into
a prince ... Maybe they are trying that on fish!

Hungarian:
"Okay, so hmm, I did a bad thing this week and I asked Sister Peterson what she had heard about me. I remember my trainer telling me that our mission was somewhat gossipy because it’s so small and she said that everyone gets a reputation. I told her I would never get one and I didn't want one. Well it happens anyway, and I know my reputation with all my friends and they just think I’m great and funny and cool and like a good mix of missionary and fun, and work and play, but I was interested what she had heard because I don’t really know her and the people she knows are different than the people I know. Anyways ... bad idea! She had heard that I was bad at the language :/ It seriously stinks, because I mean I know I’m not the best and I know that I’m probably behind for my age in the mission, but it stinks to know that other people think that too. Ahahah! But I just had to push it off and just not care because dwelling on it won’t help. I think what I learned most from this is to not care what other people think of you and just rely on God and care what he thinks ... because I might be bad at Hungarian but because of it I pray so much and I feel like my relationship with God and Jesus Christ are so much better ... so yea idk why I wanted to tell you all this but it was just a interesting experience for me."

The Hungarian Keyboard ... it is said to be one of
the hardest languages for English speakers to learn.

"On a brighter note with the language ... Panni called yesterday to just see when we could meet up again and how I was doing. My whole time in Buda and ever since she has only talked to me in English because she thought I didn't know how to speak ... but yesterday she talked to me in only Hungarian :))) and she told me how pretty I sounded and how much I had progressed. It was seriously the most rewarding thing ever and I just love her for it! She is the cutest thing ever and I really want to serve in Kispest someday so I can be in her ward again That was the highlight of my week!"


The Investigators:
Fresh Nővér talked about their "cute" investigators and said that "they are good!" A few of her comments:

"P is the cutest thing ever and came to church again :)  I seriously love him so much and just really want him to be baptized and love the branch and just feel the love from them."

"Z is doing well, she seems a lot happier and healthier. It’s just hard because they are in such a financial bind, but she is cute ... so when we pray with her and have her pray we help her, like in primary :) I helped her this week ... it was so special because I was like helping someone pray in Hungarian and she honestly said most of it on her own. It’s so cool to see progression."


Growing Old:
"Sister Peterson and I were talking and I told her that I am scared to leave the mission because then I have to grow up and face real life, and she told me something I really liked ... 'Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is a matter of choice.' I love that because I really just want to be fun and a kid forever and I can!"

Aimee at 6 months ... all smiles!

Aimee's mission application photos ...
still all smiles!

Week 46 - Veszprém

From Fresh Nővér's email:

"This week is 'Mini Transfers' and so Sister Maxfield is leaving Vesprém and I am getting Sister Peterson. Honestly I am really sad that Maxfield is leaving ... I really love her and have learned a lot from her and wanted to stay together. She is cute and nice and we had a lot of plans for Christmas already. If I have learned anything from my mission it is that life is full of change and sometimes that change isn't what we want at first, but it seems to always be what we need. ... So I am pretty sure it will turn out good and we will have fun together and I will learn and grow from it all :)"

"[Sister] Maxfield and I made a nativity this week out of paper and cardboard ... I made the donkey and a sheep and then a star for our tree. It's really cute! We already started to decorate and all of our presents are under the tree. It's so cute and every night I just stare at my presents and tell her that I want to open them but she won't let me! ahahaha!"

A karácsonyfa!!! ... Our Christmas Tree!!!

"We had a District Meeting this week and our District Leader announced to us that we get 48 hours off for Christmas!!!! I was so excited I might have cried! It's seriously the best gift ever because I can't imagine anything worse than having to tract and like bother everyone while they are having Christmas. So I'm really excited we will get to have a realish Christmas morning and then just spend time with members and have fun!!!! I think we will get to go to Midnight Mass too :)"

"My week was good ... We had 3 investigators in church, which is the craziest thing, especially here in Hungary. Getting people to church is the hardest thing. So our investigators are progressing nicely which is good :)"

"I almost forgot to tell you that we taught Sunday School this past Sunday!!! I was so scared but it went really well! All I can say is I think that teaching in English will be so much easier someday when I have to do that. So, yea, I was kind of proud of us, and I also sing!. Okay, not well, but ... we sang in our lesson. It was crazy and I think I am going to sing in church soon :)" 

A yummy Sunday Dinner!

"I am happy to be a missionary even though it is hard sometimes. I really love Hungary and my life here. July seems too soon right now; I don't really like it Hahaha!"

Sok szeretettel

Fresh nővér

Week 45 - Veszprém

In her email this week Fresh Nővér commented that "it was Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, so I couldn't help but just find things to be grateful for." She then proceeded to list some of her blessings. Here are a few of them...

"Food:  I ate liver ... I don't know if I told you already, but it was really gross. I ended up just swallowing it whole because it was better than biting it." On a better note ... "We had district meeting and a turkey lunch with the Székes missionaries on Thursday and it was perfect! We had chicken, salad, bread and mashed potatoes with gravy :) I also had McDonalds for dinner so Thanksgiving was a good day!" 

Thanksgiving Day dinner in Hungary!

The missionaries serving in Székesféhervár
 and Veszprém are ready to eat!

"Investigators: First of all because without them we would have to do long hours of finding in the cold... and well we just have some cool ones:) Pál came to church and I think he really will be a member someday soonish ... I really haven't felt like anyone needs the gospel more than him so it's cool teaching him because we can give him what he needs. Tibor is going to be baptized, I feel it! He is super legit and just accepts everything.  We found Viktioria this week and she is super cool and we are really excited about her. ... and all the others too. I'm grateful for them :)"

"Laughing: This is me Hahaha! no matter how much I try and be a serious person I just can't help but laugh through life! This week we were meeting with one of our RCLAs and we were trying to tell them that they spoil us too much but neither of us knew the word for spoil. So we were trying to explain it by saying that people usually call the youngest child this when the parents give them more than the other kids ... Haha! It ended up with all of us just laughing because we had no idea what the other one was saying! Laughing is good :)"

"Languages: We have an investigator from Peru and we are teaching him Hungarian which is interesting. But is the coolest, funniest thing because his English isn't that good and so we just have like 3 languages going on and i just die. Haha! I think its cool though because he sat in on one of our lessons in Hungarian and he had no idea what we talked about and then when he said a prayer in Spanish I had no idea what he said. Languages are just so cool :)  ... and I started learning Spanish..."

"Hola, me llamo hermano Fresh. Soy de California. Tengo vente y dos anos.

Szia, a nevem Fresh nővér. Kaliforniaból jöttem. Huszonkettö éves vagyok.

Hi, my name is sister Fresh. I am from California. I am 22 years old." 

"Ima (Prayer): This week we went on splits with the sister training leaders and as much as I hate splits it was actually really good. I stayed in Vesprém which was the less desirable of the two, and Maxfield got to go to BUDA!!! But anyways I was with Sister Westover ... She talked to me for a long time about prayer and I really liked it because I feel like my prayers are always changing and sometimes they aren't changing in the good way and so it was just a nice reminder to re-evaluate my prayers, and it has been really good :)" 

"Elders: I think they save my life and really help me all the time! For example, there was a giant wasp in our house but it was hiding up in one of our light fixtures and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly until it was dead. So we called a smart elder friend and he knew just how we could lure the little guy out and well it was pretty dramatic but i am alive and grateful for elders/mission friends that really do become like a family :)"

"and most importantly..."

"YOU: I love you all so much and am so grateful for the love and support and kindness and everything you do for me. I have talked to a lot of people in my mission and it is crazy to me how many people don't have supportive families. I just feel so grateful that I have you all, and that you really are just there cheering me on and think I am cool even though I'm not! So thanks for all you do and I hope all of you know how much I love you and how we are  going to party next thanksgiving when we are together :)"

"Now let the Christmas festivities start :) We set up our tree last night and have a few packages under it too... I think Christmas is the best time to be a missionary because you can just talk about Christ all the time :) It's the best!!!"