Szia from Szolnok!!

I am HERE!!!! I am ALIVE!!!! I am a MISSZIONARIUS!!

So leaving the MTC was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I love that place with all of my heart. We got to take the train to the Salt Lake airport, which was so fun and it reminded me of going to school at the Salt Lake Center. Then we were on our way to Hungary!! Weirdest feeling in the whole wide world by the way. I’ll skip all the boring airplane parts because I don’t have much time and this Hungarian keyboard is really hard for me to type on. But talking to my family in the airport was the hardest and best thing!! FAMILY I miss you. So badly.

On our layover in Amsterdam, we got stopped because the guy at customs said he wouldn’t let us through without visas, but we don’t need them for Hungary. So we were nervous for a bit but then we sorted everything out and we were able to make it onto our next flight on time.

As the plane descended over Budapest, I had the weirdest feeling inside. Seeing the place I would be serving in for the next little bit of my life for the first time made my heart flutter!! I had major butterflies and I was freaking out a little bit. We met our Mission President, who is SO nice. I have SO much love for him and his wife. She made me a special dinner (since I can’t have dairy) which was no nice!! And it was delicious. Honestly the food here is very weird. I will have to learn to like it for sure! But its all part of the experience right??

Walking around Budapest on the first day was so magical!! We got to go up to Buda Castle and read the dedicatory prayer for the mission. It was amazing and SO beautiful!! Sadly my camera died though so I don’t have any pics!! But we stayed in a super nice hotel that night, and then in the morning we woke up and went to the sorting hat meeting and met our trainers!!! I got Sister Withers, the nicest most positive person there ever was. I am so so so blessed to have her. She has only been out for 2 transfers so we laugh a lot about our language abilities but it is so great. Then we hopped on the train and headed to Szolnok! Well, actually, we missed our train. Adventure!! We looked so crazy trying to wheel so much luggage around everywhere and it was pouring rain!! And then I had my first experience with rude people that don’t like missionaries. The bus driver drove right past our stop and he wouldn’t let us off, so we got off really far away from our apartment. Dragging so much luggage over a huge bridge in the pouring rain and craaazzzyyyy winds was fun. And then people would drive in the gutters so the huge puddles were coming up and soaking me… missionary life, you know?

Szolnok isn’t one of the cities here known for being very pretty. But the work is pretty good and we have 17 investigators right now!! Which is so great!! But I don’t ever know what is going on in lessons…or at church, or on the street, or at the store, or anywhere else. And it is really hard and EXTREMELY frustrating. Sometimes I just feel so dumb. People always try to talk to me, and I don’t know what they say so I just nod and smile and try not to freak out and hope they didn’t ask me a question or tell me to do something haha! So I try to just smile and hug and let people feel the spirit 🙂

There are these things called 10 stories which are apartment buildings from the communist times and they are so scary. But we have to tract in them for at least one hour every day. Old ladies yell at us and chase us out of them screaming YOU CANT SPEAK HUNGARIAN!!! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE ? NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO YOU!!!!!!! It is sooooo haard but all we can do is laugh it off and go to the next floor and try ringing some more doorbells. Tracting is always an adventure. Love love love it. Another guy walked out with no pants on COVERED in tattoos. We did the typical door approach, “Hi! We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ! Can we share a short message with you? He motions to his tattooed up neck and makes a face at us like we are the dumbest people in the world and asks, “Does it look like I’m close to God?” We said, “Well yeah everyone can be!” And he goes, “I think NO!” and slams the door in our face!! A few tears started coming up and then I was like… well actually that was pretty hilarious so I stopped myself from crying and laughed it off instead. That’s really all we can do here. Also an old lady actually shoved me and my companion almost to the floor! Horrifying and slightly awesome…

Church was awesome and horrifying at the same time. I had to introduce myself in front of the little branch which was actually so scary. Everyone kept saying ugyes vagy!! (you are clever) so I hope that’s true and they weren’t just being nice to me. The members here and so kind and STRONG!!! I love them a lot.

Our two elders in the district made us a special valentines dinner!!! Sweet and sour chicken and then we made desert, no bake cookies!! It was so fun. We love them and I want to be as kind as they are someday!! Learning so much from all of these amazing people!!

We didn’t really do much this week other than a lot tracting and getting all settled in! This is a very strange and beautiful place. I think it will take a little while to get used to it, but I know that someday I will love it with my whole heart. Man, this is a special place. A place that had been very oppressed and that needs a lot of love. You can see in in everyone’s faces and you can just feel it in the air. Honestly that is the hardest part for me so far. To see so many sad and cranky people and dark and gray places. Everyone told me I was lucky to go to a nice place like this in Europe on my mission. Yeah, the place is nice, but nothing could have prepared me for the kinds of people that I would meet here.

Anyways, I don’t have a lot of time so that is it for this week! Remember that Christ is always there to lift you up. If you are having a hard day, pray and tell your Heavenly Father all about it. Or even if you are having a great day, He wants to hear from you. And he loves you A LOT.

sok szeretettel,
mason nover