Sister Mason in Hungary

Hey there! Happy 2017!!!

Can’t even believe my full calendar year of being a missionary is OVER. That honestly makes me tear up a bit typing that out. BUT I am so grateful to still have just a few more months to work my booty off and continue to learn and grow in Christ. This week…

Wednesday: We went to meet with Kristián and his wife was there too! What the what!?!?!? It was a great lesson and we really hope she will come and listen to the rest of our lessons. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and what we need to do to stay on God’s path. Szabadkai Nővér came and taught with us and it was super fun 🙂 Then we went to visit a recent convert, Viola. She is the sweetest and I just love her a lot. We talked about the plan of salvation and what it means to us and the spirit was there so strong.

Thursday: I went back to the doctor and they gave me another new medicine to try… honestly I am a little more than terrified to try it after everything that happened last time… but I started it this morning and so far so good. Then we had district meeting about language study and we got to meet with Hajni our less active. She has been reading the Book of Mormon daily and she agreed to come to church with us. WOOHOO!!!!! I just love seeing the gospel work in these people’s lives. I love it.

Friday: Tracting and mcm… very exciting day…

Saturday: We had weekly planning and we went to clean the branch house with the elders. That was super fun haha 🙂 Then at like 8 at night a member of the bishopric called and asked if I would give a 15 minute talk in the morning in Sacrament meeting!!! I was kinda annoyed but of course I said yes. I stayed up all night writing and translating my talk into Hungarian woohoo!! I talked about the first vision and why it’s important to me 🙂

Sunday: Flooded apartment round 2… not nearly as bad this time, but our water heater broke and was shooting water everywhere and now all we have is ice cold water to shower in and our heaters don’t work so the apartment is FREEZING!!! Love this missionary life of mine. 🙂 Also I survived the talk! It was the weirdest experience of my life talking in the Pest ward. I gave a talk in Hungarian, and a Hungarian translated it into English on a microphone next to me for all the English speaking families. I was super excited because she translated everything back into English exactly the way I wanted it to sound and I was so happy because I realized that people understand me when I speak Hungarian!! WOOHOO!!!!

Randoms:

So we needed to take showers, but we had no hot water. We decided to boil some water and take a sponge bath… but we really needed to wash our hair too. My comp decided to cup shower, but since the bathroom was so stinking cold and the water was so hot she like burned herself!! And she was screaming so I decided to just not wash my hair. Feeling pretty disgusting…. another day in the life hahaha!

The trees here turn into ice when its really cold! It is the coolest thing ever probably. My comp just laughs because she is from Colorado so she’s like well its nice to see that the disgusting cold is exciting to someone 🙂 hahaha.

So we were literally running home through the super crowded metro stops and stuff to make it home by curfew on NYE. We were close to the house so we stopped running because we were out of breath… and then I saw some drunk people throw a homemade firecracker off the balcony right where we were walking. I looked at it and screamed RUN!! And after like two steps the thing EXPLODED and left our ears ringing for hours. So basically I almost died, but all is well in Zion.

So this week was great being able to reflect on my year being a missionary in 2016. It is a year that will FOREVER be in my memory and I wouldn’t change on second of it. I love my last year and I am going to love this year too! I love the fresh feeling of a second chance each time a new year rolls around. Every year I pick a “one little word” to represent my year instead of making a new years resolution. This year I decided on the word THRIVE. I have a hard time living in the moment sometimes, and this year is coming with so many changes and new things with going home and moving back up to school…. and I want to remember that there is joy in every moment. I want to take every day and just do the best that I can with this year.

Make this year a great one!! And I will see you all again THIS YEAR!!

sok szeretettel,
Mason Nővér

Boldog Karácsonyt! Merry Christmas!

Can I just say that Christmas as a missionary in Budapest is the most magical thing that I have ever experienced. Happiness everywhere this week!!

Tuesday: We had sportnap (sports day) at the church. We get to switch off weekly with the elders. Lots of investigators come and it is super fun. My comp, Hughes Nővér, has been teaching me all she knows about basketball (which is a lot) and I had so much fun playing with everyone! I even shot a few baskets! woohooooo 🙂

Wednesday: I had a doctor appointment to check up on the situation with my muscles. Long story short, the test results all came back completely normal with no trace that the medicine had ever hurt me. SAY WHAT!? It was a fasting miracle! Hughes Nővér and I cried and danced out of that doctor’s office. I have the strongest testimony of fasting.

Thursday: We got to go on splits in Kispest. I got to go with Sister Cribbs which was super duper fun. We had some awesome heart to heart learning about how to fill ourselves with charity. I love these people!!

Friday: We got a call from the office that we needed to be at the train station at noon for a guy to come pick us up. It was honestly pretty sketchy because no one knew who this guy was and he just randomly called the office and told them that he wanted to take the sisters to lunch. We said a prayer and hopped in this guys car… and he explained that he is Hungarian, but he has been living in Germany. His girlfriend was there too, she is Philipino living in Germany and they are both members. His parents live in Budapest, and have never met the missionaries, so he invited us over to a big holiday lunch to introduce the church to his mother and grandmother. It was the coolest lunch appointment ever!!!!! We had a delicious lunch, and they gave us gifts and a ton of food to take home. We got to share our basic beliefs with them and the spirit was so strong. We shared the Christmas video with them and bore our testimony of the Savior and our families. We explained to them that the reason we are so far away from our families at Christmas is because we love them. We want other families to feel the same and to experience the joy that the knowledge of forever families bring! Dávid and his girlfriend went back to Germany, but his mom and grandma invited us to come back over and we are SO excited about it!!

Saturday: We got to go over the a members house for Christmas eve 🙂 So in Hungary they do Christmas a little bit differently. On December 6th Santa comes and leaves treats in the kids boots. They don’t put up and decorate the tree until Christmas eve, and in the evening the kids wait upstairs after dinner until baby Jesus and the angels come and leave all the presents under the tree. It is super cute!! And then Christmas day and the 26th are just family days with tons of food and other family gatherings. I think its really cute the way they do it here. So we went over to the Kövágoék and had a great lunch with them and helped them decorate their tree. Then we went upstairs with little Eszter and waited for baby Jesus to come bring the presents. When we got the okay we came downstairs and opened them! It was super cute! He even left us some gifts under the tree and we had a really fun time with them. On the way home the wife asked if we had a Christmas tree at home, and we said no. She told us she had an extra one with some extra ornaments and lights if we wanted to take one home to decorate! We freaked out and of course took it home and decorated it right away. It was super thoughtful and really brightened our day 🙂

Sunday: CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We woke up super early and opened all our presents. I FEEL SO SPOILED! I love you guys and thank you so much for all the love! I was super happy. Then we had church…which I actually missed because I was too sick. So that was really sad but its ok. Then we went to the Palmer’s house for lunch and skyping. They are the coolest family ever. The mom is Hungarian and the dad is American but served his mission here. They have 4 teenage kids who are hilarious and we had SO MUCH FUN together. It felt like we were at home!! Really I felt like I was with my family and it was the best. We got to have delicious food that tasted like my mom makes it and there was ranch dressing and BROWNIES and other fabulous American things I had totally forgotten about. Wow. And the we got to skype!!!!!!! WOOHOO I had the best time talking with you guys. Really I just love you a lot and miss you like crazy but am SO happy with where I am. It was so good to hear your voices and to see your faces!! Chase is huge and Austin sounds like a man and I am scared to go home to that hahah 🙂 But I had the best Christmas ever and I am honestly really sad I won’t be in Hungary next year for Christmas 🙁 I might have to make a trip back haha!

Monday: A really slow day because they are still celebrating on the 26th. But we just did a ton of tracting and had not a ton of success but its okay because Christmas 🙂 happy happy 🙂

Randoms: We almost burned down our apartment…. well so glad we avoided that. Scariest moment of my life hahahaha!

So this week was really slow with work, but really really good anyways. I am still LOVING my companion. We have gotten so close so fast. She will for sure be one of my best friends for the rest of my life and I am feeling so blessed to be serving with her. I am just feeling a really full heart right now and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary in Hungary. It has been the hardest year of my life… with lots of blood sweat and tears put in. But I have truly never felt so close to my Savior and so sure of who I am. I know that I am a literal daughter of my Heavenly Father and that He loves me. It is easy to feel like an inadequate servant, especially when I have sickness weighing me down. But I have felt an assurance this week that I have done God’s will for me and that He is filling in the gaps that I am not able to fill myself. And I know He loves you and does the same for you.

I hope you all had the best Christmas!! Talk to you in 2017!!!!!!!

xoxo

Mason Nővér

Hello!!!

Sooooo, good news. If you could picture the most perfect companionship ever… it would be Hughes Nővér and I. NOT KIDDING. Happy happy happy happy happy. I wish you could hear me saying this and not just see it on the computer screen because if I were telling you this in person I would be jumping up and down and squealing and probably being really annoying. We are literally the DREAM. TEAM. just thought you would all want to know. She is from Colorado and is obsessed with teeth. She likes things very clean and organized and I am so so grateful to that. We laugh all the time and she is the hardest worker I know, but she is so patient with me when I am sick and need to take it slow. So this week:

Wednesday: Transfers!! Dream comp. Dream city. Dream district. DREAM TRANSFER!! Our Elders are super fun, its Elder Veres (I served with him in Szeged last transfer), and Elder Lawrence (an Elder that is going home the same day I am! and we have so much fun and really everything is so good. I had a dr appointment after transfers, and good news is that there is less muscle being damaged. Bad news is that muscle is still being damaged. So I have more testing tomorrow and we will see how that goes. Feeling really faithful and happy though 🙂

Thursday: I got to meet one of our investigators, Krisztián. Wow he is cool guy. He’s probably in his late 20s and he is on a really good path right now. We love seeing progress and he is great!! We talked about staying clean through the atonement by taking the sacrament weekly and it was a great lesson. Honestly extremely nerve wracking, because Szabadkai Nővér came and taught with us… but she was so nice afterwards and told me I speak well and teach well too! So that was a huge relief. Then we met with Hajni (hi-knee), a less active. That was an amazing lesson too!!!! She agreed to read and pray every day and to start coming to church again! Woohoo!! Then Angol óra (I teach a class by myself, scary but it went so well).

Friday: We got all my hívatal stuff done in record time, had more dr appointments, and planned for the week. Nothing too exciting, but still a great day 🙂

Saturday: Best day because there was a huge ward lunch (that’s right, Pest has a WARD! Craziness. Weird to be in such a big area.) and a Christmas concert. It was so great to meet all the members and Krisztián came to the concert with his wife and we were SO happy about that.

Sunday: Sunday was an amazing day. We did a family fast and I felt SO much peace and strength from that. It was super cute, I told my companion about it and she told my old companions and then President heard about it and then all my friends and even Pres fasted with us. I feel SO blessed and so much support from my family, even when they feel so far away. I am so grateful for the spirit and for the blessings we can receive from fasting. I felt how real that is this week. I had my first church in Pest also… weirdest thing ever. There are a bunch of American families in our ward (it’s where all the foreign people come for church) so the whole church is translated into English!!!!!! Like someone stands on the front with the speaker and translates out loud while they are speaking. It is amazing language study!! And all the children running around screaming MOMMY!!!! made me feel so at home. Haha it was really the best. We got invited over to one of the American’s houses for Christmas (blessingssss am I right?) and I feel so well taken care of here 🙂

Monday: It wasn’t pday because we had Christmas zone conference. It was a blast!!!!! We got to carol, watch The Little Prince, white elephant gift exchange, delicious Hungarian Christmas food, presents from Santa, and there was a talent show. And a lot more things I can’t remember right now. We were super embarrassing and decided to do a dance to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for a district talent show and it was probably the best thing ever. Our zone is a really good one…I seriously love everyone!! Got my Christmas packages from my family!! I opened them and can’t wait to unwrap everything! Also mom THANK YOU!!! for the decorations. Our apartment is quite dreary and empty so they really spice up the place and we love love love them. I AM VERY HAPPY IF YOU CAN’T TELL 🙂

Sooooooo I am just feeling so grateful this week for the support I feel from all of my loved ones. The power of prayer and fasting is SO REAL and I know that I have been so strengthened by all of your prayers!! Thank you for that!! I just want you all to know that even though I am really sick and having a super hard time with that, I am SO happy. There is literally no where else that I would rather be and I know that God has put me here for a reason and I am so thankful for that knowledge! This transfer is for sure going to be one of the best.

I am so thankful to be a missionary this Christmas season. I have never felt so much of the Christmas spirit, and this Christmas is one that I will never, ever forget. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. I am thankful that He was born, and I am thankful for this amazing time of year that we have been blessed with to remember Him. Turn your thoughts a little closer to Him this Christmas season and you will feel His love for you. I promise you that. Focus your prayers a little more on gratitude this week. Thank God for His sacrifice to show us His love for us. Ask to recognize His hand and feel His love. It is there for every single one of you 🙂

LOVE YOU ALL!! And family, I can’t wait to skype with you on SUNDAY!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Boldog karácsonyt 🙂

xoxo
Mason Nővér

Hello hello!

So this week is transfers again…already! Seriously can’t believe it. Really really sad that this one has come to an end. The district this time around was a dream and I am really sad to be leaving behind some best friends. So… the big news. This transfer, I will be heading to PEST! My dream!!!!! This girl loves big cities and this means that I get to finish up my mission in the hands down coolest city in the world, Budapest. The Pest side is more city like and it is where I have wanted to serve my whole mission. And I will be serving with Hughes Nővér, a second transfer. So I get to finish up her training and she is seriously so stinking cute. I am BEYOND excited for this new adventure in Pest!! And Veres Elder, my district leader will be coming to Pest with me to be a zone leader! SO that is super fun. EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! Can you tell I’m excited?? haha 🙂

Tuesday: It was Mikulás naja! So on Dec 6 here Santa comes and puts treats in the little kids shoes. Robi, a member from the branch was so kind to give me some treats to hide in our shoes on Monday night when my companion went to sleep. We woke up with cute things in our shoes and it made us so happy 🙂

Wednesday: We had a caroling activity in the Belváros! So fun. We sang with the elders and had a blast and gave away some Christmas inititiative cards. We got to meet with a new guy, Lászlo. He had a ton of questions about the Plan of Salvation so we are planning on going in depth with that this week.

Thursday: Last district meeting of the transfer… so stinking sad. then angol óra and we talked to them about Christmas words and phrases.

Friday: We won President’s challenge and we got to have a zone day!!! best day. We played lots of games and watched Zootropolis (i think in English its Zootopia) and made gingerbread cookies with Sister Szabadkai and listened to Christmas music and had SO MUCH FUN. Then I wrecked a bunch of elders arm wrestling and there were a bunch of elders who refused to go against me (I think they were embarrassed to lose in front of everyone else… hehe). then we got to go to Budapest and spend the night in the mission home because I had doctors appointments on Saturday. That place…so nice. We got to use a real nice shower and sleep on beds that had mattresses and I felt like I was at home.

Saturday: Sis Szabadkai packed us the cutest little lunches ever for the train ride home so I was super happy. She mad me a special smoothie and sandwiches and pomegranate and oranges and pumpkin… I felt really loved. Then the doctor appt went not super well so I was pretty cranky honestly. And then the train ticket machine ate my money and there was some scary stuff going down on the train ride back home. But were alive and all is well haha! When we got back it was time for a BAPTISM!!!!!! Izabella finally turned 8 on Friday and was baptized on Saturday. It was the happiest day ever. I love this tiny growing community and the spirit was so strong and we felt so close to these people. happy happy happy.

Sunday: A last Sunday in Szeged and a few tears were shed. I love this branch so much and I am so upset to be leaving them. They have become my little family! It was the Primary Sacrament meeting and I was just crying watching the three little girls that make up this primary talking about how they want to serve missions and singing about going to the temple someday and about how they want to become more like their Savior. This is what its all about people! Then we sang a musical number as missionaries and everyone told us it was so good and we had an encore performance after church because everyone wanted to record it haha 🙂

Monday: Black Monday. Not pday. Longest day. haha so we had to go up to Budapest again for more doctor appointments and testing. They found that I had an extremely rare bad reaction to a new medicine, and basically my muscles started falling apart. But I am okay!! I have to go back tomorrow for ultrasounds and more testing to make sure nothing is damaged. I’m supposed to rest a lot for a couple weeks so I can heal. Glad I am moving to Pest becaase I wont have to travel to doctor appointments so much. Its scary to be so sick, but I am really grateful we caught the problem because that could have been really bad. I’m okay and just trying to push through and stay strong physically spiritually and emotionally! I got to talk to my family on the phone last night. #BLESSINGS!!!! It was so good to hear your voices. Oh how I miss you and love you so much!! I am so grateful for such a strong support group and for the love I feel from everyone around me.

Today: We threw a surprise funeral for Rodgers Elder since he is headed home this week. We’re gonna miss him bad!!

So all in all, this week was a really good one. I surprisingly have been happy and relatively positive even though I have been having a really hard time with my health problems and stomach pain. I was really upset because the new medicine I was on was really helping my stomach pain and sickness, and I was told I can’t take medicines like that any more now because of the crazy rare side effect I had. That was really hard for me, and I am for sure sad about it. But for some reason I just have this weird feeling in me that I can’t stop! Like a determined feeling. I am not giving up. I literally feel strength from the atonement and I know the Lord is on my side on this one. I’m just gonna keep pushing and looking for a solution to this problem. I know there is one somewhere out there and I’m not planning on quitting until I find it!

Thank you all for the love and support you send me. And for the prayers! I honestly feel the power of them and I am so grateful for you and for your amazing examples to me. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

xoxo
Mason Nővér

HI HI HI HI HI!!!!

I am so excited for it to be EMAIL day again! They keep coming quicker and quicker and I feel like I just have more and more to say in every single one! So thank you to anyone who still actually reads these crazy long stream of consciousness emails I spit out week after week 🙂 you guys rock.

So this week we and seven lessons cancel AGAIN so it was a long week of finding again without a ton of success… but we still made it really really fun 🙂 of course!

Tuesday: We had interviews! I wasn’t as stressed out as usual, and my interview went well! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. We also went to Gézas for lunch and he is the best cook ever and you never leave his house feeling hungry… mmm… the best.

Wednesday: We had a let in while tracting and he was the most racist man I have ever met. It was absolutely ridiculous!! So that was entertaining and then we had a lesson with someone from our area book… which was interesting… he was a creepy guy. We sat down and started some small get to know you talk before we started with a prayer and he asked me if I was the one he had been talking with on the phone. I said yes, and he was like oh, I recognized your pleasing voice. And then I was horrified to speak for the rest of the lesson hahaha!

Thursday: District meeting and angol óra, the usual.

Friday: A member, Viki, moved to Poland this weekend so we spent the morning at her house helping her finish up her packing and she fed us some yummy snacks. And then we got to go on splits again with my mom!! I love going with my trainer, Sister Withers. We had a lot of fun catching up and reminiscing on when I was a baby missionary when we served together almost a year ago! We had a Relief Society baking activity which was a ton of fun too! We prepared gingerbread cookies for the Christmas party.

Saturday: The most adventurous day. Also probably the weirdest day of my life. We ended splits a little early because I actually had to go to the emergency room… which was unpleasant to say the least. Hospitals are not my most favorite place…and when its a Hungarian hospital its even better 🙂 I’m okay though, no one worry about me please! I had a lot of tests done and blood taken and I didn’t even freak out. Pre-mission Kate would have been crying her eyes out but when I walked out my companion was like worried because I had the hugest smile on my face haha! I have really changed and gotten a lot more brave I think! After like 5 hours in the ER we were finally able to leave… and they left the stinking IV valve thing in my arm!! So we got home and had to pull it out ourselves. Miracle!! I did it with minimal anxiety hahaha I really can do hard things I think. When we were leaving the hospital there was a drunk homeless man crab walking towards us asking for help, but we didn’t do anything because we didn’t know what to do. He ended up climbing into our bus and then he got kicked off by the bus driver… and we were feeling horrible because we didn’t help this man! So we repented. Then at the end of our bus ride, my companion got a huge fine because she didn’t realize her bus pass expired almost a month ago… haha! But the delay from the fine was just enough time for us to run into another drunk man on the floor and this time we decided to stop and help. A lady came to help us and she called an ambulance for him and we were trying to lift him up. He was HEAVY!! And I didn’t have a coat on because I still had the IV in my arm and I was freezing and my arm hurt so bad from the valve in it and I kind of felt like a hero. We pulled his legs out of the middle of the street and helped him stand but he was too drunk to stand so we just held him up until the ambulance came. Basically we saved the day. Also feeling so grateful for second chances.

Sunday: Normal day. Just church and some finding.

Sorry I really don’t have a lot of spiritually uplifting content again for this email… I promise I’m a missionary hehe 🙂

I know that there are always miracles in every single day. If there’s one thing I have learned it is that God places things in our paths for a reason. Even on days when you are in a nasty emergency room with weird things stuck to you having to pull out your own IV there are things to laugh about and people to be helped around you. I have been really trying to get over myself lately. That sounds a little harsh, but I know that as we learn to focus on others instead of ourselves we will be immeasurably happier. I have felt the blessings of developing these relationships with people standing as a representative of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have made a fun game out of finding the miracle in every single day. Some days you have to look a little harder, but I promise they really are there! 🙂

Have the best week!!

xoxo
Mason Nővér