A week of miracles

Hey hey there mindenki!!

Mi az újság? What’s up?? Life is good good here in Szeged. Lots of amazing things happened this week. I wish I had more time to share everything with you! I’ll try to fit in as much as I can 🙂

Tuesday: We got to meet with Kálmán (kahl-man), a man we found from the area book. We had a really, really good lesson about the restoration and A Mormon Könyve. He was taught all the lessons before, but it was years ago so hes a little rusty. I felt comfortable enough with my language skills that I didn’t have a freak out after the lesson (that’s a first haha) and the spirit was there and I felt like a real missionary!! Kitti came and helped us with the lesson which was really great. She wants to serve a mission, and she loves to help us in lessons. She is really the best of the best in my book.

Wednesday: Probably one of the best days of my whole mission. It started out emotionally because it was my 11 month mark and I was pretty upset about that haha but then I got over it and decided to live in the NOW and it became the best day! First we got to meet with Csaba again. We were nervous because the first time we met he seemed more interested in speaking English than in the gospel… a real problem sometimes. BUT he had some amazing questions and we had the best lesson I think I have ever had with him. He was telling us about how he read 30 pages from the A Mormon Könyve since the week before ( MIRACLE! usually getting people to keep their reading commitments is like pulling teeth haha). And he said he read the witnesses testimonies in the front and it really touched him. He quietly said he thinks the book is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The spirit was really there! So strong. Then he looked up and gently asked, “Do you guys believe this is true?” and we just laughed and said, well, let us tell you about it. And we bore our testimonies and I was so, so touched. Then we went streeting… we have this problem where we are deathly afraid of streeting 15-25 year old boys, so we decided it was time to face our fears and talk to every boy we saw. I’m still kind of weary of it, hahaha but so many people stopped and listened! They were a lot kinder than the women we usually stop on the street, and I was really so surprised about that! So that was really cool. THEN! we got to go visit Mónika out in Hódmezővásárhely. Another amazing lesson. She was a referral found from church headquarters two transfers ago, but is really busy with her work so she couldn’t meet for a long time. Well, we finally got out there and taught her the visszaállítás (restoration) and the spirit was there SO strong. She told us she knew Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and that she knows every thing we say is true because of the look in our eyes and the feeling in her heart when we speak. Coolest moment! I had a glimpse of what it was like to be a missionary that actually gets to teach legit lessons…and it was the coolest thing ever. I felt how I thought being a missionary would really feel like, and there was just something really special about that to me. I have been having a little bit of a rough time feeling like I’m not a “real missionary” because I don’t get to teach a lot of rendes (no idea the exact translation for that. It kinda means like…real? classy? legit? haha idk) lessons and things… I don’t know, I don’t want to be a downer but it is really easy to get down sometimes! But this week was so special and it was exactly what I needed to get a little push and remember what I am out here to do. I am here to find those people that God has prepared to hear this message. And I am starting to realize that it doesn’t matter if that means I get to teach one person or 150 people. I am still doing God’s work, and I am still set apart and teaching through His authority and power. It’s just a little bit of a different experience in this part of the world, I guess. But I just loved this little eye opener this week 🙂

Thursday: District meeting day, always the best. And some tracting and angol óra. We got to meet with József too…that was another interesting lesson. Haha but life goes on!

Friday: We got to head out to Buda for splits! WOOT best splits. I love going with my trainer! It is the best. I went with Lebaron Nővér this time. We had a blast. We got to go tracting in the beautiful hills of Buda…honestly…this city is I think the most beautiful place on earth. I can’t get over how much I love this ország!! We tracted into the hugest most glamorous house I have ever seen…and the cutest little kids came running out speaking french!! I tried to talk to them a little, but only Hungarian comes to my brain nowadays! I could remember enough though, to tell them who we are and why we are here. So that was really cool! They weren’t interested, but it was fun for me to try and remember French.

Saturday: We traveled back from Budapest, and the funniest thing happened on the train. A little girl and her mom came and sat in the same cabin as us (the trains on the east of the country are super cool. we call them Harry Potter cars because you get to sit in your own little booth things, just like in Harry Potter!) and she was talking about us to her mom magyarul (in Hungarian), not knowing we speak Hungarian too hahaha she was like what in the world are they speaking??? Chinese!?!? and so we started to speak in Hungarian and she was all embarrassed and we had a good laugh together haha 🙂 Then we got to go to a közvetités (broadcast) fireside from Budapest with the area seventy. It was a really good meeting about recognizing our own worthiness! Super cool. I think we are all doing a lot better at this whole life thing than we realize we are 🙂

Sunday: A great fast Sunday! I spent the whole sacrament with Bella practically attacking me haha, we aren’t supposed to let kids sit on our laps and stuff but she freaks out when I don’t let her, so we were having a little battle. Haha my whole planner is covered in her cutest little drawings and I don’t know what I will do when I have to leave Szeged and I don’t have my little best friend in church any more.

Randoms:

I got a bday package from Gma Val this week!! Shout out to you grandma. Thank you so much for my slippers, I was just thinking last week how I wished I had something to keep my feet warmer in our freezing apartment haha 🙂 You’re the best and I love you lots!!

IT SNOWED THIS MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!! It didn’t stick… but its winter now and that is the most exciting ling probably ever. Also all of the Christmas things are up all over the city and the mall and stuff…it is making me feel really weird inside! It can’t already be Christmas AGAIN!! This will be my second Christmas as a missionary and to me that is the weirdest thing ever.

Everyone is obsessed with the election over here. People ALWAYS ask us what we think of Trump and if we are pleased and things. We aren’t supposed to discuss it with anyone because the church has neutral political views, and as the churches representatives we should stay neutral as well. It is hilarious all the things people come up with and tell us! This week has been full of crazy political things, I can only imagine what its been like at home.

When we decided to street boys, I was really scared still so my companion was pointing out boys that didn’t look too threatening to talk to. I am just so sensitive because of a few experiences I have had talking to men as a sister missionary…haha so she points to one and say (rather loudly…on accident) Do that one! He has a kind face! (forgetting that we are in Szeged and practically every young person speaks English) and the boy looks up, makes a concerned face, and walks away hahaha funniest moment.

Last funny thing from my companion… we were teaching József the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, and we asked him that when he gets and answer to his prayers if he would be baptized. Dyson Nővér messed up a little with some conjugations and accidentally said, When you receive an answer to your prayer, you will be baptized. Hahah!! and he just said, “um…okay sounds good.” Hahahah we still need to teach the commandments and things so we will see what happens with that.

This week teaching the restoration so many times I just really have a deepened testimony that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon in true. I feel like I have always believed that, but recently I have noticed that now I can say that I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true. I feel it so strongly deep in my heart when I get the opportunity to share it with people every day. Whether or not they accept our message, I know this church is true. I love my Heavenly Father and I love being His servant! I have never felt so close to Him in my life.

Tudom, hogy Jézus a Kristus. Tudom, hogy ő szenvedett a bűneinkért, es nagyon nagyon hálás vagyok azért. Szeretem őt, és tudom hogy ő szeret engem és titeket. Háláa vagyok, hogy ő mindig ott van, és ha csak imádkozzunk hozzá, kaphatunk békét és boldogságot. Jezus Krisztus a legjobb barátom, és annyira hálás vagyok hogy ő akarja egy személyes kapcsolat velem. Tudom, hogy ez az egyház igaz az egész szívemmel!

Sorry this is the longest email ever! I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much and I am so thankful for your amazing examples to me. xoxo

sok szeretettel,

Mason Nővér