Monday, November 26, 2012

A Hungarian Thanksgiving!



November 26, 2012
A Thanksgiving Email! 

It's so weird to think that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. Even weirder is that I have already heard Christmas music played while I was shopping today. 'Have Yourself, a Merry Little Christmas...' is going to be played over and over again for quite some time, ha ha. Oh well, it'll be interesting having that played while being in a different country AND as a missionary. Oh, and just for a heads up, the day after Thanksgiving marks my year mark of getting my mission call!! Elhiszetek?! (Can you believe it?) I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I am pretty sure that was one of the most exciting nights of my life, especially finding out that I was going to Hungary to serve for 2 years and speak Hungarian. Now look where I'm at! I'm in Hungary, serving as a full-time missionary, speaking Hungarian.....well, trying to speak Hungarian at least, ha ha.

Speaking of missionary calls, Heather turned in her mission papers last week?!?! How ironic it is that she turns in her papers almost around the exact same time as I did!!! I am so excited to hear where she will be sent, you have no idea!! I guess most of the excitement comes from maybe a possibility that she could be sent here. I'm basically crossing all my fingers, toes and eyes that she will be sent here. How cool would that be if she came and served here AND we got to serve in the same city for a time?! For me that would probably one of the greatest gifts in the world. If either of us served in Budapest or Kecskemét, we could visit the graves of our grandparents in Budapest and possibly granddad’s farm that he was born in south of Kecskemét! Or, just in general, just serving in Hungary together!! (As you can tell I will be quite thrilled if she comes to serve here. :)) 

Oh, and another by the way thing, I visited granddad’s house that he has here in Pécs. He sent me directions to get to a house that he has here in Pécs and, I'm pretty sure, according to the directions that he gave me, I found the house and I got some great pictures of me in front of it and around it. It was so awesome to just be there, knowing that I could actually visit and know that someone in my family actually has it. Today we are actually hoping to go to another computer place that is here in Pécs and send some pictures to our families (this other place is really expensive, so we are doing our emails at our main email place first then going there afterwards to send the pictures for a short time). If it all works out, you will be able to see some of the stuff that we have done so far while I have been here in Pécs. I bet mom is thrilled to hear that. :)

So for some missionary news, this week Elder Christensen and I planned to have a baptism date this Saturday for the two little girls that we have been teaching, but unfortunately they have school on Saturday (uhhh, what?) and so we have to move it for next week Saturday. The sad news about that is that next Monday we get transfer calls (can you believe it's already been six weeks since I've been here?!) and it is most likely that Elder Christensen will be transferred somewhere else because he has been here for 4 (which is almost a half year) and will miss the baptisms. When we heard the news, of course we said 'Why yes of course that's fine'. But inside, I knew Elder Christensen was thinking, because he told me after the program, 'WWWWHHHHHYYY MEEE?!?!' I feel so bad for him. This same thing happened to him before he came to Pécs and he was hoping that it wouldn't happen again. The only possibility that he has is he stays for another, which is unlikely, or is transferred to somewhere that is not to far and can still be able to come. We are crossing our fingers for both possibilities, because we would also like to stay another transfer together. 

Another bit of news about transfers, I might be going senior companion this next transfer! Some of you may be thinking 'Well that's great, right?' Ha! Let me explain. In this mission, normally people go senior in their 7th or 8th or, in rare occasions, their 6th transfer. I'm going in my 5th right now, but our mission president has let us know that because of how many missionaries that are young in the mission and how many are coming in at the same time, younger missionaries are going to be going senior much younger than they think. And, from the looks of things, I might be going senior. In a condensed sentence about my feelings right now, I'm kind of nervous. Of course I know that I can do it, especially when I am dependent on the Lord, but at the same time, it's going to be hard. I'm still working on my language skills and am not that great at the language and to be companioned with someone that is younger than me is just a scary thought. But, this is still a theory of mine and it doesn't mean that I for sure will be next transfer, but it has been hinted and noted to me that this may be so for me next transfer. We'll see what happens next week with transfers, right? :D 

Now, I’ll tell you about our Thanksgiving dinner. First off, I am really glad that all of you had a good Thanksgiving and that the food was plentiful and delicious. Oh, and just a little side note, with my new taste in food and vegetables, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed all of the food that was there than in the past thanksgivings. :) Anyways, back to my Thanksgiving. Both companionships were invited to this family’s house of parents and 1 boy. We told them that they didn't need to do this for us, because we know that some of the families here are kind of struggling, but they insisted to have us over. We came to their apartment, which was very small, and they sat us down at their table. We had a 5 course meal. The first course was a turkey soup, which wasn't bad, except that the bones from the turkey were still in there and other innards of the turkey. Fortunately, I didn't have to eat any of the innards. The second course was this casserole which they called Mexicoi. In it was basically rice, carrots, corn, peas with sour cream and cheese on the top. It was actually really good! I loved it so much that they gave me the other helping, ha ha! Our third course was straight up pumpkin. Since they didn't know how to make pumpkin pie, they just cooked a pumpkin and served it to us. Probably one of the weirdest things I have tasted on my mission, but I ate all of my serving. :) Then we had a sort of chocolate pie, which was absolutely delicious! And our last serving was the brownies that Elder Christensen and I had made. That's right, we made brownies! Ha ha, we used the recipe that is on the October stake newsletter for Citrus Heights that I got from President Telford and they turned out really good, except it took a knife to get them out of the pan. We put oil on the bottom of the pan thinking that it would help with getting them out later, but I guess it didn't work. But they still tasted delicious. That was my first Thanksgiving here in Hungary. I wonder what next years will hold :) 

This past Saturday we had a Zone Training with our Zone Leaders and they basically told us what they talked about with Elder Richards from the 70 in their Zone Council. We talked about things that Elder Richards saw that needed to be re adjusted in the mission and that we need to always be looking to the White Handbook with all the things that we do. We pointed out some changes that we needed to make and have made it our goal that we are going to make this mission an 'Exactly Obedient' mission. After the meeting I just felt this wave of excitement run all through me. Of course being exactly obedient is hard, but I just thought to myself 'Well if we have the Savior on our side and are doing everything with all our heart, might, mind and strength, then of course this is achievable! We are his missionaries! We can do this!' I really hope that all of the missionaries in the mission feel the same way as I do. Of course it will be hard, but if we do it with an open heart than it won't be. 

Alrighty then all you boys and girls out there that is all I have for ya'll this week. But stay tuned for next week and you'll find out what's happen to this guy *makes pointing gesture to self* next week. 

Remélem, hogy mindkinek lesz egy csodálatos hete. :)  (I hope that everyone will have an Awesome Week)

Sok szeretettel, (Lots of love)
Magda Elder

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