More of the MTC

Szervusz Falslev Csaladom!

Well this week has been great! It feels like every week is the exact same in the MTC. My MTC teachers are the absolute best teachers in all the MTC!!!!! They have helped me so much! Last week they decided that I was going to start teaching pretty much all my lesson's by myself so I couldn't rely on my companions to do the talking for me. It has been SO hard! I now really know why we are sent by companions! It is hard to teach a lesson by yourself especially when you don't really know how to speak the language. It has been the best thing for me though. It has helped me get some confidence in speaking the language and it forces me to just say words even though they may not be right. I have no idea what I say during any of the lessons but I feel good about them! It has been a really good experience for me! I'm not sure how much longer I'll be teaching by myself for.

I leave in less than 3 weeks! On March 25! So soon!!!!!! I am not sure what time I leave or when I will be able to call you....we get our flights plans 10 days before we leave so I will let you know hopefully they week before I leave. Next wednesday we start our consecration week (our concentration week as we keep calling it). I think Hungary might be the only one to do it, but from the time you leave the temple to the next week you go to the temple you can only speak Hungarian - no English. And you also think of some other things to sacrifice in order to prepare for leaving. I am really excited for it but it is going to be nagyon nehez....very hard!!!! We still have troubles doing just every other day all day long Hungarian. It will be a good opportunity though!

This week I have really gotten excited to go to Hungary! My teachers have told us the funniest stories! I guess they have different animals names over there so ruff ruff is a pig not a dog. One of my teachers, when she was a new missionary asked what the meat was and she didn't know the word for pig so the investigators said ruff ruff and she thought she was eating the family dog instead of a pig. Another one of my teachers was giving away hot chocolate to talk to people and he made a sign that said "free, fresh, hot kisses' instead of chocolate. He had a lot of funny stories with that one. One of the most powerful was about water polo though. Hungary has won more gold medals than any other country combined in water polo. My teacher told us after WWII, the Hungarians had really gone through a lot and the Soviets were taking over everything. He talked about the olympics for water polo and it came down to the Soviets and Hungary for the gold medal. It was a really intense game and the blood was red from the game. It was really brutal but Hungarian ended up winning. Hungary is a small country that has gone through a lot! My teacher made the comment that sometimes it seems like Hungary has been like a lost little country that no one cares about. But the Lord cares about them. And that is why He is sending them the Gospel. The growth in Hungary is amazing! We just got new Hungarian Hymn books that they have never had before. They just got a Hungarian Preach my Gospel. It's just so cool to be apart of missionary work right now and to go to Hungary! I can't wait! It's amazing how my love has grown for people I don't even know yet this week!

This past Sunday we watched a MTC devotional from Elder Bednar on the Characteristics of Christ and it was the most amazing talk I have ever heard! He went through the miracles that the Savior performed and some of the trials He faced. During every single one of His trials, He always looked outward towards others rather than on what He was facing. Even while He was dying on the cross, He made sure that His mother was taken care of and was giving words of comfort to the other two people being crucified. It was such an amazing talk! I just love the MTC and all that I am learning here! It's so great to see so many more missionaries come each and every week!

Being a missionary has been the best decision I have ever made. Ever. It has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do but I feel like during those hard times, that is what makes me grow the most. Every day I feel the Savior guiding me and leading me to what I need to learn and do. I was reading in 1 Nephi 17 this week about Nephi being commanded to build a boat. HIs brothers kept telling him that he would not be able to do it and they would not help him. It was probably discouraging for Nephi because his brothers had no faith. I imagined Nephi looking at all of his boards scattered everyone and his tools and wondering how in the world he was going to be able to put it all together so that it would withstand the storms on the sea. I felt like that has been me with Hungarian - I feel like I have all these boards and tools scattered everywhere - vocab, grammar, grammar books, teaching, etc. and I'm not sure how I am going to put them all together so that I can speak Hungarian. But Nephi started with one piece at a time. Although it may not have looked like a boat in the beginning, he just kept going and didn't give up. And in the end he succeeded, learning a lot about the Lord in the process.  I just love reading the scriptures everyday. They really have become so near and dear to my heart. I just can't wait to share something that is so close to my heart with the people in Hungary and help bring happiness into their live. To help them realize that they are not a forgotten people and that God really does love them. I am so excited to be able to literally see the church growing with all the new missionaries coming in!!!! What a great time it is to be a missionary! I love being a missionary!!!!!!

I hope you are all doing well! Hope to hear from you soon! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family! Thanks for all you do and for all your kindness! Szeretet titiket! (I love you all!)

Falslev Nover

Our cool new Hungarian shirts that we got!  

We all dressed up as the colors of the Hungarian flag and we didn't even realize it til the middle of the day!!! We didn't even plan it!