July 30,
2012
Sziastok!
Funny thing you should ask about
thunder and lightning storms, because yesterday, according to Elder Abram, we
had the biggest storm in Hungary! Lately we have been getting a lot of thunder
storms with some awesome lightning, but yesterday was the coolest one yet! The
day started out with us waking up to some thunder. One of the strikes was so
close that it sounded like cannon had gone off right by our apartment. Elder
Abram said he had never heard one so close his entire time in Hungary. But that
wasn't the storm though. Later, during church, the clouds passed away and it
was blazing hot, especially with our suit coats on (We are required to wear our
suits on Sundays to church). After church we went down south to Kispest to meet
with Elder Abrams older brother’s adopted "Hungarian mom". Long story
short, Elder Abrams older brother served in Hungary in 1994 on his mission and
the lady we met was his "Hungarian mother". Church ended at 12, we arrived
in Kispest at 1, went to her place, ate, looked at pictures of Elder Abrams
brother and came back home around 5pm. I was so pooped and immediately took a
nap for an hour. When I fell asleep it was still super-hot outside, but when I
woke up around 6pm it was super dark and cloudy and there was some thunder
crackin' away. I thought nothing of it because it happens quite a bit in the
summer here. Little under 10 minutes later, the wind picks up and it's pouring
rain outside, basically dumping buckets of water a second. To make it even
better, thunder was going off every few seconds and the sky was lit up. It was
like the 4th of July we never had! Ha ha, it was absolutely amazing! We even
recorded it on our cameras for a few minutes. We didn't want to turn down this
opportunity to experience an amazing storm and to not catch it.
So today was the last day of my
first transfer! Can you believe it?! Already 6 weeks have come and gone. It's
hard to believe sometimes in my opinion. We have been super excited for
transfers this week because we knew something was going to happen to Elder
Abram and me. It's interesting, because usually trainers are with their
greenies for 2 transfers (most of the time), but my MTC group and I are only
getting our trainers for 1 because of how big the next batch of elders are
coming and going. We are losing 13 and gaining 13, and because there are only
80 or so missionaries here, it's quite a big thing, especially for our new
mission president who had to deal with this big group on his first transfer
day. Yikes! I'm glad I'm just the missionary when I think of that. This morning
at 7 in the morning (11 pm your time), we got a call from our mission president
and Elder Abram is moving to Miskolc and is going to be a Zone Leader there and
I am staying and getting Elder Headrick (I hope I spelled it right) from
Szombathely. Ahh!! It's like opening up your mission call again! Wednesday is
when all of us make the switch, so we still have a couple days left together
and we are going to definitely make the best out of them. It's kind of a sad
moment to have Elder Abram leave because I've had such a fine time serving with
him as his greenie, but I'm definitely excited for this next companionship.
It's going to be way fun!
You sent in your last letter a bunch
of comic strips that you gathered together. One of them was a Zits comic strip
and was about him having a canker sore. Interestingly enough, the next day
after I read that I got a canker sore. Funny how things work right? It's been a
week since I've had it and I thought today would be the day that it would start
to go away. Exactly the opposite happened, I woke up and another one popped up
right next to the existing one. Ahh!! It's so annoying! There both on my bottom
lip on the left side and I can barely talk to anyone because it hurts. Another
funny thing that happened this week was I cut my own hair. Yup, you read right,
I cut my own hair. We are on our last week and we don't have very much money
left and I didn't want to spend the last bit on a haircut, so I used my
companion’s hair trimmers that he has instead. He did it a few days before and
I was like "You know, if he can do it, so can I, right?" Definitely
wrong.....actually it wasn't too bad. My hair was pretty long but I just wanted
to trim it. But, I realized soon enough that I'm no hair stylist and a few
minutes in I just decided to cut it short. It's actually not that bad, except a
ward member came up to me and said that I looked like I had a military haircut.
Military haircuts aren't bad, but that's just a sign that I definitely cut it
way short. Ha ha, it was definitely a funny experience.
Another thing that happened this
week was that I sang in a concert that Sister McKay and Sister Szkiba put
together this weekend. I've been meaning to tell you this, but I have forgotten
every time I email. But at least I'm not completely forgetting to tell you. The
sisters have been planning it for the past month. They had 9 numbers put
together and I got to be in two of them. One of them was 6 elders and sisters
singing "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Hungarian. The other song was a
duet with Sister Suranyi and we sang "Be Still My Soul" in Hungarian.
Cool thing about that one was we got to be the last number of the nights (the
concert was on Friday and Saturday)! The whole night was beautiful and several
of our investigators showed up also. Do you remember the last email I sent you
about my relationship with "Be Still My Soul"? Well I definitely had
the same feeling when I sang it here, even if it was in Hungarian. All of my
memories flooded back with my injury and the feelings I had when I thought of
this song and the promise Heavenly Father made with me that whenever I was down
or afraid that I can think of this song and I would feel the Spirit. All of
these things rushed back and I when I sang, I wasn't just singing with my
talent alone, but I was singing with the power of the Holy Ghost. It was such a
wonderful feeling! And I could also feel it from Sister Suranyi. She has a
beautiful voice and I am so grateful that I was able to sing with her. She
definitely completed the piece and had the Holy Ghost with her also. This is my
first transfer area and I already have been sharing my love of singing. I can't
wait for more opportunities! I definitely hope there are more. Oh! We also sang
and played the guitar with a bongo drum that we had in our apartment (Me, Elder
Abram and the Pest sisters) down by the Duna for an hour. We set up some Book
of Mormons and a sign that said "Free Books" while we played to see
if anyone would be interested, but we only gave out one book. It was so fun
though! We just had a blast singing songs and playing with the bongo and
guitars. Ha ha, another opportunity to share my musical talents, right?
Unfortunately we haven’t been doing
much this week. Elder Abram was sick for most of the week and we've just stayed
back and studied and only went to appointments that we had made for the week
because we didn't want him to get any sicker. He only had a cold but while you’re
on your mission any sickness can hold you back. Wednesday was the longest day
for us. We had one program in the morning and another in the afternoon but the
afternoon program canceled so we had to stay inside ALL DAY until we had a
rehearsal for the concert at 5 in the evening. The seconds felt like minutes,
sometimes hours, going by. We were going crazy. Our minds were about to explode
because of how much studying we were doing and we finally just decided "Alright
let’s just go out and street for an hour or something. Being inside all day is
destroying us." So we did, but no one was on the streets!! So basically we
just walked around for an hour to get a good exercise. Woo hoo! When we came to
rehearsal, we felt so out of it that we were laughing at the smallest things
that people would say. We have no idea why besides that we were just in a state
of craziness. We came back to the apartment laughing about who knows what and
got ready for bed and basically just conked out. It was so funny; I just had to
share that with you guys.
Why does everyone decide to get
married, or engaged, when I'm on my mission?? Can't they wait for another 1 ½ years
till I come home so that I can be there?! Everyone just has perfect timing,
don't they? Ha ha! Suti is just a kind
of dessert or pastry here. There are so many different kinds, I don't even know
if I can explain them all. We'll just say that they are mostly always good, so
we didn't want the lady who was about to burn her suti in the oven to lose such
a precious dessert. Dad went to the fair?!?! Whaaaaat?? That's crazy!! What
made him decide to go?? And that is so cool that he helped out with Pioneer
Day. That ride thingy sounded way awesome the way you described it. I remember
going last year and helping with the ticket stand, but that's all I can
remember. Oh, and I remember the missionaries having their own area too. That
was cool. We remembered Pioneer Day while we were walking. Elder Abram just
looked at me and said "Hey, it’s Pioneer Day today." I replied, “Cool
Elder" and we continued our day. Sam's farewell was this week?!? I
remember when I was home and he told me "I have to wait 5 months?!?! This
is crazy!!" 5 months have flown by. Tell him that I wish I could have been
there but that I will definitely be there for his homecoming wearing his tie.
With tabling we are just going to go
to another city or area to table in. It's too much of a hassle to deal with
permits so we are just going to find another place to do it in. With the flash
drive thing, 8 GB would be perfect. I'll see if I can send you the flash drive
with pictures on it. I'm doing terribly with the whole "taking
pictures" thing. I always forget to bring it with me and when I do
remember I forget that I have it and that I should use it. Ha ha, but I'll
definitely make it one of my goals for the next transfer to take pictures every
week. I promise! They do have peanut butter here, but it is nasty! Not even
close to the peanut butter back at home. They have Skippy at the American store
here but it is way expensive. Peanut Butter would be an awesome treat! I don't know
of any other foods that they don't have here, but peanut butter would
definitely be an awesome gift.
Thank you so much for all of your
prayers and support! I absolutely love it here and I will continue to wave the
Banner of Liberty here in Hungary. D&C 98:8
-Magda Elder
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