Szervusz Csaladom!
This week has probably been my absolute favorite week so far of the MTC! I really have the best companions and teachers in the whole MTC!!!! Our district has really gotten close and we are working so well together. It's amazing to see all the progress we are making together as a group. I love the MTC and am actually going to be sad to leave it. But on to bigger and better things! I am so excited to get to Hungary!!! We started our consecration week today by going to the temple and doing a session and initiatories It was amazing! All the initiatory names I did were Hungarian and while doing them I realized how much I had already come to love them and I haven't even realized it yet. Every day I go to class and work my hardest so that I can serve the Hungarian people and speak to them of Jesus Christ. I've been a little worried because I felt I haven't had as much love for them as i should so it was just a nice confirmations to realize how excited I really am to go and speak to people I love and want to serve. I love the temple and the blessings it brings!!! I am going to miss it for 18 months! Only 1 more time to go before I leave! It was a great way to start off our consecration week - we found out no one else really does that here but I am so glad we do. We are really dedicating ourselves this week to become better missionaries and come closer to Christ. It is going to be a really hard week -I can barely speak Hungarian for a day let alone a whole week - But I know that it will push me so I will be able to speak better when I get to Hungary.
Yesterday we went to teach one of our 'progressing investigators' and we found a note on the door saying that she had found some things on the internet and no longer wanted to meet us anymore. Although she wasn't a 'real' investigator it really broke my heart. I wasn't expecting it and she was getting ready to be baptized. It made me realize how important it is to testify every lesson and every opportunity you have because you never know if that will be the last time you will have with that person. I am so glad that I had that experience in the MTC because it made me realize that I have to give it my all each and every lesson and really know what the investigator needs.
Something else really cool is my branch president and his wife were just called to serve as mission presidents in Kenya. I am so excited for them! My branch president has had a great impact on me and I just know he is going to be a great mission president.
On Sunday during relief society they have all the new sister who have arrived the same week stand and this week was amazing! My first week here we started to fill up the back part of the gym a little bit - they were quite a few sister missionaries. Now it is almost full of sister missionaries! Before long we won't all be able to have relief society in the same room together anymore. It gave me the chills seeing before my eyes the rapid progression of missionary work. They are trying to get the MTC ready in Mexico too and have been doing some technological tests here for the preparation of the Mexico MTC. It is going to be a big one there! A lot of missionaries here speak spanish - they all call us hermana's and we tell them "no we are noverek" haha! It is great!
This week I feel like I've grown a lot spiritually. We were talking about Elder Bednars' fireside of having faith and not shrinking. That is also what Elder Ballard spoke on a little when he came to the MTC. Elder Bednar spoke on having the faith enough NOT to be healed of the trials and afflictions we face but to go through them with faith knowing that we are doing the Lord's will. It reminds me of the quote "faith is not know what the future holds, but knowing who holds the future'. We were talking about this in class and my teacher made a point I had never thought of before. In the scripture it talks about faith moving mountains. I had thought that that was a huge miracle to have enough faith to pick up a mountain and move it. But my teacher talked about how faith doesn't always work like that - in fact rarely. Faith is the little things each and every day - it's moving the mountain one shovel full of dirt at a time. It takes work to have faith and to maintain it. I just loved that analogy. We can move the mountain - it just may take a lot more effort and work than we originally thought. That is how I feel Hungarian has become for me. LOTS of hard work!!!!
To kind of go along with that, last night we had Paul Johnson of the 70 come and it was an awesome devotional! He had us think of where we wanted to be at the end of our mission. As I was thinking about that, I thought about when I first got to the MTC and how long it seemed that I would be here. It seemed like going to Hungary was forever away. But I am getting my flight plans tomorrow. Life goes by SO fast! Missions go by so fast! Some days seems like they will never end and other days seem like minutes - that is why it is so important to make every day count. They go by fast! So much happens! He talked about how the greatest test of life is learning how to completely submit our will to the will of the Lord and that will be the greatest test of my mission - learning how to do whatever the lord needs me to do when He needs me to do it - not later. The world makes it seem like that is weakness - submitting to another's will but that is truly what gives us strength as missionaries. He also said that the greatest battles we fight are not on the battlefield itself but within ourselves - dealing with the natural man. We are not perfect. We will make mistakes. That is why we have the Atonement. We just have to keep trying and keep going. I realized that my hardships with Hungarian have been because of my selfishness. I have been struggling, I can't speak it, I have a lot of weaknesses rather than focusing on those outward of me. Bro Johnson said the greatest growth is found when we turn OUTWARDS. Sometimes we are so focused on ourselves and our own growth that we don't allow the Lord to work through us. It was just an amazing talk! I loved it!
Something else I learned came from my companion - I was very nervous about consecration week and last night she just simply said "well good thing you can laugh in every language" How true that is! And I added Love and kindness also. No matter what language you speak or where you are in the world, you can always laugh, you can always be happy, you can always love and you can always be kind to others even when they are not kind to you. I just love being a missionary and learning so much about the Savior and serving others!
I get my flight plans tomorrow. I'll let you know next week when I plan on calling. Hope all is going well and hope to hear from you soon! Szeretlek titiket! I love you all!
Szeretettel (with love)
Falslev Nover
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