September
9, 2013
Sok szeretettel, köszöntelek benneteket
ezen a mai gyűléseken a blogomon,
(I welcome you today with
lots of love as we meet on my blog)
Wow, it's so weird to finally be out
of the office! It's hard to explain, but mainly the big change is the schedule
and amount of proselyting work significantly changed. I mean, of course I have
been a part of this same schedule for most of my mission, but after having a 3
month change while being a secretary, it's been interesting trying to get back
into the swing of things as a normal missionary again. I definitely loved my
time in the office, especially serving with Elder Loveday and Corbishley for
those two transfers, but I definitely feel relieved now being here in Eger from
the different responsibilities of being a secretary.
Some stuff about the city and where
I am. This place is SOO pretty. Probably one of the prettiest cities I've been
in my entire mission. Also most Hungarians say that it is the prettiest city in
Hungary, and so far I agree with them. Our apartment, though, definitely doesn't
represent the beauty of the city. Ha ha, probably the ugliest apartment I have
been in thus far. Basically it looks like it was built in the early 1900's,
late 1800's, and still has some of the technology from that era. The ceilings
are super high up and you can throw a ball or Frisbee between the rooms they
are so big. It's not a bad apartment I, just really really old.
But I will say, the beds are the
worst. Mostly because of the pillows, which, there aren't any. I don't know how
the elders in the past do it, but there are 2 choices for pillows. One is
having to sleep on a pillow that is the size of a small table, which I tried
sleeping on and I could not seem to get my head on the pillow at all, so I woke
up with my head underneath it. The other option, which is the one that I am
sadly using, is having to sleep on two small pillows that are barely bigger
than your hand. I've found that this is the better choice of the two, but it is
far from being comfortable. While we were shopping today, I was looking for a
new pillow that I could use because it has been dang hard for me to sleep these
past few nights, and the only things that I could find in the main store were
pillows that were waaaayyyy to big. I also didn't realize how expensive they
can be. Holy cow! So I just ended up throwing my hands up in the air and just
dealing with the pillows I have until I find a store that has a descent sized
pillow. But other than that, apartment's nice. :)
Elder Shoop is my new companion. My
goodness is this guy a ball of fire. He is just a missionary ready for
absolutely anything that is thrown at him. A little about him; he's from the
Washington, Seattle area (if I can remember correctly). Like I said before,
this is his second transfer here and is quite young in the mission. But,
despite his mission age, I have been impressed by his language skills. We have
had several programs where I've had him talk and he isn't afraid to throw out
what is on his mind even if it may be difficult to explain. And, at the same
time, he does it really well! I remember when I was in my 2nd transfer and I
was just a shy missionary, afraid to say anything because I didn't want to mess
up. But Elder Shoop, I think, has quite the confidence to combat those fears.
Probably something that has really stood out to me about him this week. He is
also super dedicated and determined with the goals that we make weekly and
daily. He makes sure that we do everything we can to achieve them. And, one
last thing, Elder Shoop is always ready to find. Luckily they have quite a bit
of work already here and we have some people that we are meeting, but when
there is time to find, he is on it like a fly on poop (yes, I said poop).
This week has been one of those weeks
where we have been out finding mostly actually. Elder Shoop and his previous
companion had programs set up for the week, which were quite a few, and we had
planned them for what we were going to teach each day. But, out of the 8 or so
programs that we had set up for the week, only 3 went through. For me it wasn't
much of a surprise, since I have dealt with dogging and cancels for most of my
whole mission. But for Elder Shoop, it was kind of new. He got so bummed when
he saw that our investigators couldn't meet this week. I felt super bad for
him. Of course I understand why, but it was different since I haven’t met any
of these investigators and he has already made a connection with them while he
has been here. But nevertheless, that didn't down his spirits from getting out
and finding. Ha ha, there have been times where I have felt that he has been
the one getting me out the door to go find.
Every night when we come home, we
finish planning and I lay on the bed and could almost fall asleep immediately,
if it wasn't for the pillows I would say. I haven’t felt this tired in quite some
time actually. It's been kind of hard re-adjusting to the normal schedule of a
missionary. But it's been nice having that feeling again of pure exhaustion, ha
ha. Probably will wear off after a few weeks, but, it's nice while it lasts.
Elder Shoop has definitely been getting us a working. We were able to find a
guy yesterday while tracting that seemed really interested how the Gospel
answers many of our questions. We were able to explain how the Book of Mormon
is one of our greatest sources of finding these answers and he told us that he
would like to hear more about this book and be able to read it (we didn't have
a copy on us, so we planned on coming back to give him one). It was a great
program, especially when afterwards your companion his so happy that he can do
double backflip with how excited he was. Ha ha, quite entertaining, but
refreshing at the same time.
So, I don't know if I told you guys
before, but this transfer is the start of 9 week transfers. Nine weeks!!! Crazy
long! Especially when this transfer is actually 10 weeks with the Mission
President having one of the General Authority's being here for a Zone
Conference, so he didn't want that to fall on transfer week, so he made it 10
weeks instead of 9. But the rest after this will be 9. It's going to be
interesting, that's for sure. But one thing I will know, that at the end of
each of these transfers, it's going to feel like home is just around the
corner. Time is just taking off and not slowing down.
Now in response to some of your
notes and questions. I actually got an
email from Elder Abram that he was going to be helping with Hungarian translation
at General Conference. He sounds so stoked! And I'm stoked for him. That kid.
He and I have been keeping in contact since he left and he sounds like he is
having a blast with school starting up. I'm looking forward to seeing him,
hopefully, when I get home. He is such an awesome guy. Love'im to death! Niners
beat the Packers!! What a start for the season! I hope that it was intense! It
looks like it must have been a good game with the scores. Maybe they'll get to
the Super Bowl again. Elder Shoop, who is a huge Seahawks fan, disagrees with
me of course and says that the Seahawks are going to be the best in our
division. We'll just see about that...Sounds like there is a lot of stuff going
on in the family. Dad is studying and Ash is getting ready to go for school. My
word, it still is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that she's going
to college! WHHHAAAAATTT!!!! She's going to have so much fun! I can't wait to hear
about it all. And, just for her, I am writing a letter, so don't be mad!
Hopefully I'll have it done by this week. Jerum's home?!?! That's crazy!!! I
remember when he left! Man, what in the world is this?? It would be way kewl if
he were still around when I came back. That would be way awesome! And for
Alisha, treasure up this time that you have having lessons with Sister Visher.
You have the best out of all 3 of us! How lucky is that!! I would have given
anything to have been in the position that you are. You are going to love
learning from her and she is going to make singing fun. I look forward to
coming home and having us sing :)
Well, that's my week. I'll have plenty
more for the next week. Stay tuned! Love you!!
Magda Elder
No comments:
Post a Comment