I'm not in Buda anymore!!!

I cant believe I am not in Buda anymore! I miss it a lot. But I am loving Duna. It is a lot different than Buda but I am already loving the people here! They are awesome! Duna is a lot smaller than Buda and it is very quite. Its a little more than an hour car ride away from Buda. It is gorgeous here and right by the Danube river which is good and bad. It is beautiful but it also means it has a LOT of misquitos. LOTS! I am becoming pro and killing misquitos. There are just 4 missionaries here...sister Chamberlain and I and Elder Christensen and Elder Pendleton. They are all awesome! I love my companion! We get along super well. She also went to BYU Idaho before she came here and she is going out in Education. She is also from one of my old roommates homeward in Chicago so she knows my old roommate and her little sister. She is super cool and a really hard worker! It is going to be a really good transfer!

The branch here is awesome. There are about 30 people who attend church regularly. On the ward list they have about 153 people/families that belong to the branch so we have a LOT of work to do. 10 years ago there used to be 2 wards and I am not positive on what happened, but now there is just one branch. It is the coolest branch though! The people are so close to each other and so friendly! They all just love the missionaries too.

We dont have a ton of investigators - we do a lot of tracting and streeting here but our investigators that we do have are amazing! We had a baptism on Saturday and that was super exciting for the branch here! Everyone came and was so excited for her!  She has a 5 year old little girl who is adorable - blonde hair, blue eyes. It was a great baptism and she looked so happy! They met her last transfer. It was a really good day and the ward has just really accepted her and been so good for her.

The highlight of my week was meeting with a couple of new investigators. They have 4 little kids who are adorable! The missionaries found them streeting about 2 weeks ago and had one lesson with them before I came and it went over really well. We went and taught them again this week and it was the greatest lesson. The mom and 3 of the kids were the only ones that ended up being there and we taught her about the BOM. It was awesome and she just kept saying how good she felt when she heard what we were talking about. It felt like everything we were saying to her has been things she was missing in her life and she loves us visiting because she feels so good. At the end of the lesson we taught her how to pray. It was the sweetest experience for me. She has twins that are 3 years old and a little boy that is 5 so it had been a little crazy trying to teach through the lesson. But when she prayed, all the boys were quiet, everything was so still and calm and we all felt the spirit so strongly. After she got done saying the prayer she couldn't believe how good she felt and she was asking all sorts of questions about what she felt as she said the prayer. She said it had been a long time since she has felt that good and felt so much peace. She has had a pretty hard life and been through some pretty hard things. And they also all came to church on Sunday. It was so good! I went and sat by them and was helping her with her kids so that she could listen to the speakers and her little 5 year old son and I were drawing together. He loved it! When sacrament was over, the mom said they had to go and the little boy did not want to leave my side. He almost started to cry because he wanted to stay and said he felt good there. He is the cutest boy ever! She loved church and was really excited for us to come and teach us more. And all the members welcomed her and were so nice to her. I love being a missionary!!! I just already love these people so much! There really is nothing like bringing so much happiness and peace to peoples lives....that is what I get to do all day. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Another cool experience we had yesterday was tracting. I have never really done tracting before and I was just a little nervous to do it. Sister Chamberlain kinda showed me how it went for the first few doors and then she made me do one. I think we may have woken the person up from a nap or something because they were not very happy with us and they werent very happy that I couldnt speak Hungarian either. It was really hard so I as a little scared to do another door. But I got up enough courage to do one more door and I was just praying that I could do my best speaking Hungarian and feel okay about what I said even if we got rejected. When the lady opened up the door I just thought to myself 'here we go again. this is going to be brutal.' She opened the door, saw our nametags and started shaking her head no as I was speaking. But I kept going and was able to say perfect Hungarian and communicate with her perfectly. She stopped closing the door, looked at me really funny while I continued to speak to her and then opened the door and told us to come in. I was shocked. I still am. Sister Chamberlain has gotten 3 let ins the whole time she has been here. She has been here for 3 transfers. I just could not believe that she let us in. Sister Chamberlain had to push me twice to go inside cause I was just so shocked. We went in and talked with her. She has had a really life and said she had been praying to God but she just felt like he existed but doesnt help. It was the coolest lesson and she said a prayer at the end and said she felt good. She told us how weird it was for her to let us into her house...she never lets anyone in and she didnt know why she did. It was a really awesome experience for me! And she is letting us come back again this week so hopefully things will keep going good!

I have just been so incredibly blessed as a missionary. I really miss Buda and our investigators and people there that I grew to love, but I already love the people here in Duna. Its amazing how fast you can come to love people when you serve them. Its so hard to describe what being a missionary is like...is it so hard but so rewarding at the same time. It been a hard week because I feel like I have kinda been a greenie all over again, even with the language too, but I have also been able to just love people more easily. I am so excited to serve in Duna. The people here are awesome! And I'm excited to work really hard. Really hard. We get to do a lot of tracting and streeting so I'm really excited to do that because it is going to really help me in all aspects of missionary work. I just have the greatest life ever! I love being a missionary!

Thanks for all the letters and support! I love you guys tons! Have fun camping next week! Happy Birthday on Friday Laurie Lou! Love ya tons! :)

Falslev Nővér

We went to troféa's last p day for my last day in Buda. It is a traditional Hungarian all you can eat buffet that is really nice. The first picture, the dark brown stuff is cow cheek (it was pretty interestesting). Then Sushi, then completely raw fish (ya i couldn't eat all of that). There is also cold fruit soup in the background. The fruit soup is DELICIOUS here! 

Paprika chicken (the piece of meat toward the back) it was delicious! Then the other is SHARK!!!! I ate shark! It tasted like rubber.

A member and me! She is the greatest! She really wanted to see me before I left! I just love her so much! She is the greatest! I am going to miss her tons! Ah...I just love her!

This is what Duna looks like from my apartment window. There are 10 story apartment buildings EVERYWHERE!!!! On the very left hand side, I dont know if you can really see it, is the steel factory. That is why pretty much everyone that does live here, lives here. Its really easy to get lost here for me because all the buildings look pretty much the same.

This is a huge pizza we got after district meeting for the 4 of us! Super good pizza!

This is in the elavator....i killed 10 misqutos on our 15 second ride up the elavator. And one of them and quite a lot of blood in it and got all over me so I wiped in on the elevator. I am going to love misquitos this transfer!!!!

This is also Duna. Really green and really pretty! While I was standing her for this picture, I was being eaten ALIVE!!!! Right after this picture we ran home literally swatting ourselves from all the misquitos because we forgot misquito repellant. I feel like i have chicken pox some times when I get so itchy. Also the bag I got is a tisza bag that is made specially in Hungary. You cant get them anywhere else in the world. 

Sister Chamberlain. This is where we eat dinner because we have no table or anything. Its cooler on the ground though so it works! We are both going to learn how to cook this transfer because neither one of us really know how. So this was our first attempt at burritos and it turned out good! 

Sister Chamberlain and I! She is the greatest!