Well this week has been a little crazy. But it has been good. The ward is awesome here in Miskolc! they are SO involved in missionary work and it really does help the missionaries out a ton. missionaries cant do this work on their own. We have a lot of strong youth in the ward here (most of them just recently within the last year have been baptized) and they are so excited about missionary work. In fact, they know a lot of the investigators so well and personally, that they call the investigators for us and then tell us when we are meeting with them. So nice and helpful! We also had one of the members come and pray with us before we went finding. it was just nice to know that the members really do care about the work here and are so eager to help! it is an awesome branch!

In hungary, they are trying to find more young single adults here so all the young single adults are doing a '40' day fast. they have a sheet and people have signed up on each day to fast for a total of 40 days so that we can find more young single adults. so now that is our new transfer goal, to find a young single adult while we have people fasting for it everyday. Fasting is so powerful!

This week we had interviews with President and they went really well. President asked me how I have changed now that I have been out a full year on my mission. I contimplated over that a lot this week. I feel like i have grown and learned so much. Being on a mission is definitely like a roller coaster sometimes, but it has been quite the ride. I have learned so much this past year, especially about the Savior, Jesus Christ. It is amazing when you let go of the distractions of the world and let the Savior teach you, you learn a lot. I cant believe that I have been out for over a year!

This week we did A LOT of tracting. Miskolc is the city of tracting. there are buildings and 10 stories  everywhere. Winter also decided to come and it has been really cold. it has been a really weird winter here. They usually have already had snow but not this year.

Also this week, we went to meet with one of our most solid investigators, K. We had the best lesson planned for her and as we were walking to her house, she came and met us on the street. Come to find out, her family will no longer allow her to meet with us anymore. She was so sad!!! It was really hard on her. Hopefully something will work out though! she has read a ton out of the BOM and so we just encouraged her to keep reading.

well, I hope you all had a great week! I love you all!

falslev nővér

Crazy how fast life can change....

Wow! It feels like it has been a month since I last emailed you guys haha! But then it also seems like just yesterday. Time is weird as a missionary.

I miss Nyíregyháza. A lot. It may sound weird, but I actually feel really home sick. Anyways, last week was awesome! My last day in Nyíregyháza was just perfect. We had a farewell party that night and I was just able to spend time with all the people that I have just come to love so much!!!!! I am just so glad that I will get to see everyone again in a month for a conference here in Miskolc!

After the farewell party, we met with K again - the lady that we met on the street and had a super awesome lesson with!!!! We had another amazing lesson! She told us a lot about her life and she read a ton from the BOM. We had a great lesson with her. At the end of the lesson, when I told her that I would be leaving to Miskolc, she just looked at me and told me 'I know this is going to sound really weird and I know that it is not possible, but I know that I have met you from somewhere. I know we have never actually met, but I know that I know you from somewhere.' I was so sad to leave! I just hope everything goes well with her this next transfer. God lead us to her, and I know He still has a plan for her now. I just love Nyíregyháza. It will always have a special place in my heart.

Miskolc is a lot different than anywhere I have been so far. It is a really big city. It has the longest walking street in all of Europe and man is it long!!!! Thank goodness we can just take the villamos wherever we go! The branch house is super nice here. It is really big! The branch is pretty big and they LOVE doing missionary work. They are all so friendly. I could hardly walk through the doors because everyone was saying hi to me. It is going to get some getting used to being here but it will be good.

This week, my very first day in Miskolc, we were going to a lesson and we weren't really going to street anyone because we were in a hurry. Then I saw this lady and she was in a really big hurry, so I was just going to give her a card as she walked by but she actually stopped and talked to us. Found out she had met with the missionaries before and wanted to learn a little more. We invited her to church (we do that a lot but they usually never come) and she actually came! It is amazing what just an invitation can do! And she loved it! That was really cool.

We are also teaching a lot of families here. A lot of families! It has been a while since I have been around kids. It has been good being around kids again!

We taught one family who live in very humbling circumstances. There are a lot of people here who are very well off and also some people are in the most humbling circumstances I have ever seen. WE taught one family, who live in the tiniest house, on this long dirt road. Dont have any running water or a bathroom in their house, hardly have any food, and just all these worldly things they dont have, but they were so happy! They had their family! And they also came to church yesterday. Being a missionary is a very humbling experience.

This week I have been studying about giving our will up to God. I will be honest, I have not really wanted to be 'sent' to this city. It has been hard, but it is not what I want. It is what the Lord wants. I have also learned, that we need to unconditionally surrender our will to the Lord. We will be judged according to our works and our desires. If we dont desire to surrender our complete will to the Lord, we will never be able to become who we need to become. If any of you would like something really good to read, read the talk entitiled the 4th missionary .... it could also be entitled the 4th disciple of Christ. It is one of the best talks I have read.

Anyways, I love you all! I hope you all are doing great! I know this church is true and that God really is the one who leads this Church!

Falslev Nővér

this was right in the middle of the city. I just love hungary!

so we are on a hill here (the hill is where the richer people live) and this is down looking where the poor people live, in the valley and then the other side of the hill in where the poor people live. When we tract, the rich people tell us to go visit the poor cause they need us, and the poor tell us that they are not smart enough and to go visit the rich people. haha! Miskolc!

this is the 'richer' part of miskolc

TRANSFER DAY!!!!!

Well the day came. I am leaving Nyíregyháza. I am really bummed to leave but change will be good. This has been the longest area I have been in and I have loved it! It will be hard to say goodbye. it also is.

But on the brightside...I am going to MISKOLC!!!!!! It is fairly close to Nyíregyháza and there will be a district conference there next month so I will still get to see the members from Nyíregyháza again! My new companion is Sister Petersen. I know nothing about her. I am really excited to go to Miskolc. It is a pretty big city and it is very old. They have a lot of castles there and a beautiful downtown area! The buildings are beautiful and they have lots of ten stories. I have been there a few times. I am excited to go there!

Our investigators are doing so well! I am really sad to be leaving them all!

P: So we have taught pretty much everything to P and we were talking to him about baptism. And teaching him this week, just made me so grateful that we can recieve answers from the BOM and from the spirit and not from other people. We had a program and I was trying to explain to him some things in Hungarian, and I just for some reason could not speak at all. It was so frustrating! So we just told him to go home and pray about a date. On Sunday, he came to church and felt like he should be baptized in April. Then we met with him right after church and he decided he wants to be baptized on Feb. 22nd! It was awesome! The spirit really has been guiding him. It is amazing to teach these people and have these experiences!

Also we taught Z and A the word of Wisdom. They have been reading a ton out of the BOM and they had a lot of good questions. But I will admit that I was very hesitant to teach them the Word of Wisdom. I didnt think it was going to go very well. Right before I was going to tell them we would be talking about the Word of Wisdom, Z said that she had already tried quiting a few things and it was the worst feeling. She was adament that she would never try quiting again. So I looked at Sister Messinger and we decided to teach it anyways. It was such a good lesson! We talked about the blessings of the Word of Wisdom and we let her just think about what it really meant for her. She then just looked at us and said she couldnt believe she was going to do it, but she was going to try quiting! Such a great lesson! I am so sad to be leaving them!

I am also really sad to be leaving A and M. And of course, H. They have been like my own little family here. We went over and said goodbye on Sunday night and it was really hard. Missions are really the greatest blessing but they are also some kind of torture. You come to love these people in such a short amount of time and then you are sent away.

Our biggest miracle this week was K though. So this week, we had been doing LOTS of streeting. And we had been recieving LOTS of rejection. We were both super tired and I remember trying to talk to this one person and they got so mad at me because I couldnt speak Hungarian. Anyways, I was super frustrated and just did not want to be streeting. I was really tired of being rejected. But we kept going. Then I specifically remember seeing this lady walking towards us (there were quite a few people walking towards us, but for some reason she just stood out). I decided then, that I was not going to street her. I was tired of being rejected and I just thought it was my companions turn and I would just wait for her. Then just as we were about to pass her, then next thing I know I just stopped to talk to her without even planning on it. I had no idea what to say. And it ended up being awesome. We talked to her for almost and hour. She didnt tell us a lot, but we could tell that she was going through a really hard time. She didnt really want to meet or talk with us at first, but then I just kept talking to her and by the end of our conversation, we walked away like we were best friends.

We called her up and asked to meet with her on Sunday. We planned for 3 and she didnt show up. We thought we were gonna get dogged! I called her up and she said she could be there in a half hour We waited til 4 and she still didnt come. So we were going to leave, but we waited a little longer and she came. When we were planning, we were going to do a restoration, but right before, I felt like we needed to watch a certain mormon Message. We decided to watch it with her. When we finished watching it, I looked over and she was sobbing!!! And then she just started to spill out everything that had been going on in her life. To two 20 year old girls who dont really even speak Hungarian. She felt so hopeless. After she was done, telling us everything, she looked at me and asked 'why me? Why of all the peopole on the street did you stop and talk to me? Why was I so special to you?' I have never felt God's love so powerfully for someone. I knew that God knew exactly who this woman was and exactly what she needed. I told her that and I know that she felt it. It was probably the most powerful lesson that I have ever been in. I am so sad that I wont be able to continue to teach her! We are meeting with her again tonight though. God really does know each and every one of us personally.

Something that I have been thinking of a lot about this week is how incredibly blessed I am. I see the challenges that so many other people have to face in their lives and sometimes it makes me wonder 'where are mine?' I feel like I have not had to go through near the hardships as a lot of the people we teach. I realized that God loves to be merciful and loves to gives blessings. He really does bless those who keep the commandments in everything. And He tests us to see if we will still be faithful and obedient even when we dont face big trials in our lives. Sometimes, when things start to go so good, we forget the Lord and have to be humbled again to be brough back to rememberance. I have been so blessed in my life....our whole family has. I just got to remember to still remain faithful and obedient even when life is going great!

I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support! Love you all!!

Sok Szeretettel!

Falslev Nővér

These are the people who made my suit. They are awesome! They pretty much made our whole suit right in front of us. it was so quick! super cool people!

This is my boot. I have been walking on the outside of my shoe and now walk with a limp. My companion got sick of walking with a gimp so she decided to try and cut my shoes to fix them. It didnt really work haha. I just gotta get some new shoes. 

this is us in our suits

Our new suits with the hungarian flag on the inside. with one of the members. he is super cool!

I love all of these girls so much! I am going to miss them a lot!!!

Happy New YEAR!!!!

Wow! I cannot believe how fast 2013 went by! I feel like I am in a time warp zone as a missionary. It is so weird!

This week has been good. We got a full day and a half for p-day to celebrate the new year. We went over on New Year's Eve to M and A's house with H. It was so much fun! They are an awesome family! They made us stuffed cabbage and we ate SO MUCH FOOD! I was so sick! But it was delicious! We had a really good discussion with them and we found out that M and A want to get MARRIED! We are so excited! They are planning in April or May when they can save up enough money. We were really excited!

Walking back home on New Year Eve was the craziest night. In Hungary, for New Years, pretty much EVERYONE gets drunk and then they light off fireworks. It was a little scary walking home. It was really foggy that night also. We almost got hit by fireworks haha! It was quite the adventure getting home. We have heard it gets a little crazier on new years day so we decided to just stay inside on new years day and catch up on stuff. It was really fun! It was a good day to relax and we experimented with Hungarian food. So yummy!

Then on Thursday I went to Debrecen on splits. I was pretty nervous to go on this split. The sister that I was going with, her mother just passed away unexpectedly in her sleep the Friday right before Christmas. Needless to say, I was a little nervous to go. But it turned out to be the best split  ever! She is just an amazing sister and I learned so much from her! We had probably the best discussion about the plan of Salvation that I have ever had. The plan of Salvation has really been real to her the past few weeks. It just made me realize how short life really is and sometimes, even as missionaries, we get caught up in the things that really dont even matter. (We have been asked to pray for her and her family at this time and if you all would like to too, I am sure it would be appreciated.) When everything else around you fails, the hope of the Gospel is really all we need. The gospel is so simple. The Gospel gives us everything that we really need in life. It was a good reminder for me. I am so blessed!

Our investigators are doing good! C and E and also P are all praying about being baptized. And the good thing is that they are reading out of the BOM and praying and keeping their commitments! Things go so smoothly when people act!

Friday night, we were about to go back to A and M house when we found out that A fell and broke his leg and was in the hospital again :( It was so sad! We ended up meeting with them on Saturday and bringing him 'medicine' (aka American chocolate chip cookies - his favorite) because right now he cant have any pain medicine. They were really positive about things and we had a really good program with them. It is just really hard to see how hard satan works on our investigators. This family has been through a lot, especially over the past couple of months. I love being a missionary, but man, it sure is really hard sometimes to have to see all the hardships our investigators go through. These people are so strong! I just love them so much!

This week I have just realized how really grateful I am for the hope of the gospel in my life. As we walk the streets and talk to people, you can see in peoples eyes just something missing. We talk to them and they seem just hopeless. The Gospel is what brings that hope and happiness! Being a missionary is the greatest and hardest opportunity because you get to share the hope of the gospel with people, but then you also have a lot of people reject that hope.

I am so excited for all the new things that I will be able to learn this year! It has been a great start to the year! I  hope you all had a great start of the year! Love you all!

Falslev Nővér

Here are some pictures with members at Christmastime.