Last week of the MTC

Szervusz Csaladom!!

What a wonderful week this has been! I found out that if you ever want someone to be quite - tell them they can only speak in Hungarian - they won't talk at all! It has been a crazy week only speaking Hungarian but I felt my language skills go up and my confidence in the language increase. This week has just seriously been a week of miracles! I absolutely love the MTC!!! All of our lessons this week were amazing...last week pretty much all our 'investigators' dropped us and it was so discouraging! They ended up having us come back though and we gave the most amazing lessons! I felt my love for the investigators grow even though they were our teachers we were teaching. I found that if I focus more on the investigator and forget my weakness with the language the spirit is so much stronger and does all the testifying the investigator needs- i just need to move out of the way and let the spirit work through me! We taught again - one of our investigators who found bad info on the internet - and it was probably the most powerful lesson I have ever taught. I was able to recite the 1st vision by memory and then our companionship all testified. The first vision really is such a huge miraculous event and it's amazing to feel the power of the first vision when you are teaching someone. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith not denying what he saw and what he was told despite all that he went through! It was truly just an amazing experience and got me so excited to go teach the Hungarian people!!!!

This week we went and saw elder Bednar's character of Christ talk again. Jesus Christ really is the best example of everything! I have been learning more about Christ and how He turned out towards everyone else when He faced hard times rather than looking in on Himself. I have found that that works. When I looked outside of myseft this week and tried to help either my companions or an investigator, it didn't matter what my weaknesses were - I was somehow able to do it with the Lord. I saw a lot of miracle take place within myself this week and it's amazing to look at how the Lord is lifting me up. Last night's devotional was awesome! The speaker taught about how the MTC is like an incubator - it's creates the perfect environment in which someone can thrive and progress preparing them to be strong enough to enter the 'real world'. I leave for the real world this week. I was debating whether or not I was really ready to go to Hungary and to talk to people in a language that I do not even know. The MTC has been the greatest place and I've been able to learn so much here! I love being able to learn about the Church and Christ all day long! Now it is time to share that knowledge with those around me. Although we will be leaving the incubator, we will not be on our own because Christ will go before us and prepare the way and we will also have the spirit. The Gospel really is the greatest and most comforting thing I could ever have in my life!

Another thing I learned this week was living with no regrets. I am going to have many opportunities to act on my mission and I need to take a hold of many of them as I possibly can. I can't let them pass me by. I realized how incredibly fast time flies by - especially the closer it gets to leaving the MTC. In the temple this morning I just wanted to do anything to get time to stop and slow down! But it doesn't. So just enjoy the moment right now because it will go by fast. The Lord will give you opportunities and if you don't take them, they will be gone. I want to try to live my mission so that I can live with no regrets - I can act and see the miracles that come from acting.

This week we also got to meet the previous mission president of hungary - president and sister gassar - they have a daughter going to Finland who was in our zone and just left of her mission to Finland. They are going to serve another mission in Germany over the Swizerland YSA! President Gassar served in that same mission when he was 19. It was so cool to talk to them and hear their stories of how amazing Hungary is and what it is going to be like. They are amazing people and are going to be awesome missionaries! I am so excited to go there!

Speaking of amazing people, yesterday at lunch, Brother Heaton (he is in charge of the missionary department for the Church) and 2 others from the special buildings development of the church came and sat by us and talked to us for the whole lunch period. It was awesome! They asked us what we liked about the MTC and what they could be doing better. They are really getting ready for missionaries - they aren't sure what they are going to do yet but there are going to be some big changes at the MTC!!! They expect that there will be over 100,000 missionaries out in the mission field by next year. They definitely need to expand this MTc- it's crowded but they are doing a good job with so many people! They just talked with us and gave us a ton of really good advice - my personal favorite was when I get to Hungary to just speak the Language and forget myself. One of the guys who was talking to us was the person in charge of getting land for temples so we told him that Hungary really, really needed a temple! He told us that if we would do our part, he'd work on his part! WE just gotta get more members in Hungary! It's growing! That would be so aweseome to get a temple in Hungary! Today was the last time I got to go to the temple for 16 months - it was really hard knowing that I wouldn't be able to go for so long. It really honestly broke my heart. I have been able to go EVERY single week (except like 3 or 4) since I recieved my endownments and the temple has become such a special place in my heart. I am going to miss it so much! Make sure you enjoy being so close by and having so many temples so close! I am sure going to miss the temple so much but it is a sacrifice worth making to help bring the Gospel into others lives.

Well I leave the MTC on Monday!!! So crazy! Most of the people in our zone left this week - really sad! Our zone will be really spread thin after this - we had estonian, albanian, finland, and hungarian missionaries. After next week, they will only have 12 finnish elders, 2 sisters, and 2 hungarian sisters. Plus our branch president's last week is sunday so everything will change once we leave. The finnish missionaries who left this week missed their plane in Chicago to London so hopefully that doesn't happen to us! That would be so sad! Plus we have such a huge group!

I have really come to love my companions - they are my best friends and I can't believe I only have 5 more days with them! I really don't think I could have gotten better missionary companions that the ones I have!!!! It is going to be so hard to leave them but I know that we will be friends forever!!! I am really sad to be leaving the MTC but I know that it will be good for me - I've gotten comfortable with the MTC and it's time to move on and progress. Thanks for all you do and all the love and support you have given me over the years. I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and great friends! I love the Gospel and all that is gives me. God really does bless us with miracles every day. It's amazing to see what the Lord can help you accomplish if you allow Him. I love the Lord so much and I know that He lives. I cannot wait to share my testimony with the Hungarian people (we have to speak our first sunday in Hungarian - SCARY!!!) I can't wait to get to Hungary and finally be with the people I have really grown to love so much. I love being a missionary and feeling the Lord's love for His children. I love being a small part of the Lord's work.

I forget - Elder Holland came to the MTC last week to a random district and he said some really amazing things! He said that his favorite scipture right now is D&C 33. He said that the 11h hour is RIGHT NOW. That right now is the time that the Lord is really hastening His work and we are a part of it. Do the best you can and pass the test. There will never be missionary work like there is right now - so he said: make it count - make yourselfs tired, work work work. Work so hard that you don't have time to think of yourself or your inadequecy's. That is what I will try my hardest to do! I love being a missionary!

Hope all is well! Hope to hear from you soon! Love you all!

Falslev Nover

Opening your package!  It was like Christmas day!  Packages are the best!

All the Hungarian Sisters! So many! We are almost doubling how many sisters they have now! We'll see how that turns out with the language!

2 weeks of the MTC left

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

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! 

Elder Ballard!

Csaladom!!!!

How is everyone doing? I can't believe I am already halfway through the MTC already! Only 3 more wednesdays left! Crazy! Last Friday was our halfway point through the MTC so we decided to celebrate....we had chips and salsa. We finished all the chips but had a lot more salsa so we decided to play rock, paper, scissors to see who had to chug all the salsa that was left. Sister Broadhead was the lucky one who lost - she always loses in that game! and so she the lucky one to chug it! Then sister Fresh decided that she wanted to do something crazy so we found some snickerdoodle cookies and she played chubby bunny with them. She had like 4 cookies in her mouth and looked like she was ready to explode and then sister Broadhead decided to pour some chocolate in with the cookies. Bad, bad idea! haha! Food went everywhere! It was so funny! It was nice to have a good laugh! My companions are awesome!

The highlight of my week was last night's devotional! ELDER BALLARD came! And we got awesome seats! They don't tell us who is coming beforehand and so we were just going to go to the overflow but at the very last minute seats opened up on the 3rd row back right by the door the speakers come in and leave at. It was such an amazing talk and one that I really needed. A couple of things he said was that the greatest missionaries are those that really come to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and His Atonement. He said the more we focus on the Atonement as missionaries, our power to do the work will increase. He said as we come to know the Savior that we will not shirk one minute from our work even thought it may be very difficult at times - which is exactly what I needed to hear! It just made me realize how important the Atonement really is in every aspect of our lives, not just as missionaries. He also said that he believed there were 2 reasons for the missionary age change 1 - the world desperately needs the message that we have to share 2- that the Lord is preparing this generation to lead the church for generations ahead. He said that we would face trials an temptations that they never had and we were really going to need a solid foundation. It was such a great talk! Then he left us with an apostolic blessing that was really cool. When he was leaving, we were watching him go out the doors and we couldn't see him very well, so I and my companions moved out to the little isle and peeked our heads out to get a better look. He had already finished waving to everyone but I think he saw us out of the corner of his eye move so he turned back around and laughed and waved to us. It was awesome! We knew it was to us because no one else was in the little aisle way. It was awesome! I love the apostles!

Something that also really stuck out to me was that I know enough. Too be honest, this week I was really ready to come home. I have never been so mentally exhausted. Hungarian is a beast! But I am not going on a mission to learn Hungarian. I am going on a mission to testify of my Savior, Jesus Christ and for the sacrifice that He made for each and every one of us here on this earth. Only through Him can we return to live with our Heavenly Father and enjoy the blessings that He has. I know that my Savior lives and that the Atonement is real. It provides us with the chance to start over each and every day. Sister Fowers - she's in my district came up with a really cool analogy. We have started doing csak magyarul - only Hungarian language all day. The other class has the Hungarian flag underneath their name tags and every time they use English, they have to hole punch their flag -the hole of shame - showing that they messed up. Sister Fowers likened that to the Atonement - you start the day off with a clean paper and then you make mistakes and get hole's punched in it. At the end of the day you have all these holes of shame covering your flag and there is no way possible that you can make it whole again. You cannot take those holes away. But the Savior can. He can provide us with a clean piece of paper and a chance to start over again. He gives us that opportunity and we have to be willing to take it and do the best that we can with it.

Another one of my favorite moments this week was watching the new Mormon message by President Eyring called Mountains to Climb. It is awesome! I would definitely recommend watching it! At the end of the video, he said: each day our challenge is to access the power of the atonement so that we can truly change. That is the power of the atonement, helping us progress and become better that we were yesterday. To try a little harder to be a little better and try to become more like the Savior. He also said: if the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts the power to endure will crumble. this is fontos - important!!!! I have found that faith really does have a short shelf life - you have to constantly be refilling and strengthening your faith each and every day.

I know that the Savior lives. I know that He loves us more than we can even comprehend. I know that He is always there with His arms opened and extended towards us - He just wants us to come towards Him and feel of His love towards us. I truly believe that it is through the hardest of times that you really come to know more about the Savior and how vital He is to each and every person on the earth. I can't believe I will be in Hungary in less than a month! It will be a great opportunity! I am so excited for it! I love you all and I hope everything is going well back home! Remember who you are and who you stand for!

Falslev Nover

Week 4 in the MTC

Szervusz Csaladom!
How is everyone doing? Thanks for the pictures jason. Nice job picking out the ring. I am still waiting to here the story.....haha! Your house looks really really nice! I bet it is nice to be all moved in.
 Well this week at the MTC has been quite a rough one for me but it has been awesome! Last thursday we had to teach 3 20 min lessons all in Hungarian in the same day and that was really stressful. One of them we were teaching our 'investigator' who is one of our teachers taking on a role on one of the investigators they had during their mission. We don't have any actual investigator because hardly anyone speaks hungarian that 'a not mormon in Utah. Then our other 2 lessons were the TRC where BYU students (RM's) come in and we just teach them as members and give a 20 min lesson. So we had been preparing for these 3 lessons for over 2 days and we felt really good about them. I could pretty much remember the whole lesson and felt really good about going in. Then when we got into the first lesson, I forgot a lot of the lines and could only remember a few of them. The second lesson was even worse - I couldn't even remember the simple things that I had learned on day 1. It was so frustrating! The only thing that came to my mind was "Tudom, hogy Jezus Krisztus a megvaltonk es szabaditonk" I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer. It is amazing how much power simple words can have. That is the only thing that I could say but I meant it. I don't think I have ever borne such a powerful testimony before and it was just a few simple words. That was a really neat experience. It's amazing that the spirit works so strongly. I love being a missionary because every day 24/7, I get to feel the spirit and feel the love of the Savior. I get to testify and constantly focus on the Savior every day that I am here. What a wonderful opportunity!!!
 The language is still coming slowly....unfortunately after the TRC I still could not remember ANYTHING that I had learned in the MTC about Hungarian. It was really frustrating but I was able to recieve a blessing and get some extra help which has really helped my Hungarian start to come along. My companions are the absolute best! We just have so much fun but are able to really focus and get a lot done. I don't think I could have hand picked better companions than the ones I have. They are amazing!!!! We work really well together. It is going to be really hard when we won't be able to be companions anymore.
We also had quite a few funny moments in our lessons this week...a lot of words are very similar to each other in Hungarian. So Sister Fresh told one of our investigator's that she could only find her life in the BOM rather than she could find blessings and happiness in the BOM. Sister Broadhead also told our teacher that she was sterile instead of excited. There are just a lot of funny mistakes you can make if you don't conjugate the word right.
 This week has probably been the hardest week I've ever had so far in the MTC but it's also the week that I feel like I have grown so much closer to the Savior. I know that my Savior lives and that He gives us trials in our life for our own benefit. A lot of the times we may create a lot of unnecessary trials in our life but Christ is willing to help us out with those too. Being on a mission is a lot harder than I ever imagined, but it is also more rewarding that I ever thought possible. I cannot describe how wonderful it is to be apart of a work that will not fail. It's amazing to see all the missionaries here working and striving harder to become more like the Savior. I know that my Redeemer lives and that the Atonement really does work. Through the atonement, we can become stronger and do more than we ever thought possible. The Atonement helps us to work harder than we ever have and accomplish so much. It helps us lift and raise up others. I love being able to recieve revelation everyday and being able to recognize how the Lord is blessing me and guiding me in my life. I know without a doubt that this is where I need to be and this is the work that I need to be doing right now - it is the most important work that any of us could be doing right now. Bringing others unto Christ lasts for generations and eternity - nothing is more important. I love my Savior and I know He lives.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! Have a great week!!!
Falslev Nover

Elder Israelsen and Sister Falslev

Sister Fresh, Sister Falslev, and Sister Broadhead

Sister Fresh, Sister Falslev, and Sister Broadhead with Hungarian Flag

Largest group of missionaries to go to Hungary

The sisters that are going to Hungary

Week 3 in MTC

Szervusz Csalad!
 Jason and shelece:
CONGRATULATIONS JASON AND SHELECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is so awesome! I am so happy for you both! You guys need to tell me the details of how you proposed jason and send me pics and everything! I kept waiting for the letter telling me how you proposed and I just got a "hey I got engaged" - at least I know it really was from Jason. Anyways, I am soooooo happy for you both! I am excited to have shelece officially in the family! And in the temple....prayers are answered! I sure do love you both!
 Well this week has flown by! It has been a great week! I found out my companion...sister Broadhead knows of the Israelsens. Her cousins are in Young Ward and I guess they have told her how awesome the Isralesens are and what hard workers they are - yep that would be them! Her cousins last name is Wildens. Small world!
So this week has been a week of miracles! It's amazing how much the Lord has blessed me! Yesterday we were going to teach our investigator Lilla and I was so beyond frustrated. We had our whole lesson and I could not memorize ANY of the lines and I still can't even begin to translate words because I don't have any of the conjugation charts memorized (we have 17 charts to memorize) and you can't directly translate Hungarian. Anyways, I was so stressed and just overwhelmed. So we went and taught our lesson and I just prayed the hardest I have ever prayed before. It turned out that our lesson didn't even go the way we had it planned because she wanted to know how God could hear and answers every person's prayer. She didn't know that God loved her specifically. It was the most amazing experience because all of the sudden I could remember just enough vocabulary and enough verbs to tell her that God did know her and that He would answer her prayers if she just prayed to Him. It was a huge miracle and just reassured me that the Lord does hear and answer prayers and that He is helping me with the language. I am slowly getting it and I do struggle quite a bit but I am learning so much and gaining a stronger testimony of the Savior because it is so hard.
 I also decided to finally start reading the BOM in Hungarian this week. I didn't want to do it because I had no idea what any of the words were or how any of the congugations worked so I thought I would just get really frustrated and discouraged when I read it. Well I decided to try it and it worked! I have learned more about grammar reading the BOM than I have ever been able to understand sitting in class 6-8 hours a day. That is now part of my favorite part of language study because I understand it! The BOM really is so powerful no matter what language it is in.
I just love being a missionary! Everyone here is so happy and so radiant with the light of Christ. Our zone has gotten really close....we are with the Finnish, Estonian, Adriatic missions and they are all just awesome! So far the sisters have outnumbered the elders by 2 but today we are getting 12 new elders and only 2 sisters so we won't outnumber them anymore. It is INSANE how many missionaries are here! The lines for food are SO long! The majority of our meal time is spent waiting in line...usually we just have about 5-10 minutes to eat. (so needless to say all the snacks you have sent me have been VERY helpful! We've already pretty much eaten everything! haha!) It is awesome that so many young people are so willing to go out and serve the Lord. I love being a missionary and being part of the Lord's work. I watched a devotional by Elder Holland on Sunday and he talked about how we are to Preach HIS gospel. And not only should it be HIS gospel but it needs to be MY gospel as well. Everything I eat breathe and sleep. When we work together as a team with the Lord we become much more powerful missionaries.
 I hope everything is going well! That is exciting that Jason got engaged and same with Connie! I am so happy for them both! When is Connie getting married? How is everything else going back at home?
 Love you all! Happy Valentines day tomorrow everyone! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!
 Falslev Nover

"Our theme off of Mulan, "let's get down to business to convert the HUNS!!!" (Hungarians!)

Elder Israelsen (cousin) and Sister Falslev

Sister Falslev, Sister Broadhead, and Sister Fresh

Sister Fresh, Sister Falslev, and Sister Broadhead with the Hungarian Flag

MTC WEEK 2

Szervus Csalad! (Hello Family)

Time is flying by so fast in the MTC! I can't believe it is p-day already. This week has been a great week. I love the MTC!!!! It is amazing to feel the spirit here and to see so many young people learning about Christ and learning how to teach others about Christ. My favorite part about the MTC: every Sunday and Tuesday night we get to have devotional and before the devotional starts we get to sing songs. It is amazing how powerful all the missionaries singing together is! We really are going to make a difference in the world.

The language is still harder than ever. My companions have been AMAZING and have been still tutoring me so I get the language. This week we learned the longest word that our teacher knew of in Hungarian....I forgot to bring it with me and I have no idea how to say it let alone spell it. It is 42 letters long though! It's quite the word! We learned that Hungarian has 25 cases on top of all the conjugations too and they have been really hard to memorize! I am slowly getting it though :) We teach pretty much every day in Hungarian...this week we will teach 8 times. It is really frustrating not being able to understand a word the investigator says and then they ask you a question and you have the answer but you can't communicate that to them. It is really hard but it makes me appreciate the little language I do learn much more. I can only say a few things in my testimony, but its the most important things and that is all I need right now. It will keep coming.

Yesterday my teacher told us a story about Satan. She said that he was having a garage sell and had a whole bunch of things on sale for a really good price: adultry, gambling, drinking, drugs, etc. Everyone was shopping and buying them because they were such a good deal. In the back of the garage though, there was a tiny little clear box with a sign that said not for sale. In the box was a tiny little wedge labeled: discouragement. She explained that that is all Satan needs to get to us. If he can get in that little wedge of discouragement, then everything else comes and it draws us farther away from the Lord. It really hit me hard that I can't get discouraged and have to just keep trying my absolute best. It will come with time.

Camrie left the MTC yesterday! I am super sad she is already gone but I am so excited for her! She is going to be the greastest missionary! I just love her to death! I've also got to see Jordan Galbraith and talk to him a bit. I also got to see Benson twice this week! I can't believe we actually saw each other with so many missionaries here. It was really cool to see him! I also got to sit by President Erying's granddaughter at a devotional and that was pretty neat. She is going to Ukraine and will be here for just about as long as we are. It was really cool hearing stories from her!

Wednesday's are pretty much the best days ever....we get to go to the temple in the morning and then we have breakfast afterwards. It is sure nice to have a break from the MTC food.

My district is so awesome! We have really been starting to get closer and work together to understand the language. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing because we like to talk a lot and sometimes we lose focus. We are going to make a new goal starting this friday that we can only speak Hungarian for the whole day. That will be hard but it will force us to really start using the language so we will remember it! It's crazy how fast everything comes at us! But it's so good to be totally focused and busy.

On Sunday, the first counselor in our branch presidency came and spoke to the girls. He told us about his life and some of the challenges he has been through. He talked about how getting married in the temple was the best day of his life and then about 7 years ago, his wife was going in for a small surgery and they found cancer all over inside of her. She fought through it for 3 years before she passed away. It was probably the highlight of my week because the spirit was so strong and it put into perspective the trials I was going through. I really have been so blessed with such a wonderful, supportive family.

I have grown so much over the past two weeks! I know that the Lord is very aware of where I am and what I am trying to accomplish through Him. I also know that Satan is very aware of that also. I know that Jesus Christ knows each of us individually and is watching over us, pleading with us to come unto Him and receive Him into our lives. It amazes me time and time again how patient and loving the Lord is to us. I know that the atonement is real. It gives us power beyond our own to accomplish miracles. It is through small and simple everyday tasks that we are able to bring about great and marvelous things. The MTC is the best place I have ever been. You get to see the light of Christ shining so brightly in so many young people. There is no other place in the world that you can find so many young people who are so kind, so happy, so full of life and love, and testifying of the Savior. The spirit it so incredibly strong here and I love being able to see and feel that every day. It is hard but at the end of the day I have seen so many miracles and tender mercies that the Lord has given to me. I've really come to realize more and more each day that although trials are hard and not a whole lot of fun, they are what really bring me closer to the Savior and humbles me enough to rely on Him and the Atonement. I am growing to love my trials that I go through because it is making me stronger. During our devotional last night there was a quote I really liked: Love and Faith are like a muscle in my arm - the more I exercise it, the stronger it gets. If I put it in a sling, it will deteriorate and become useless. I realized that I do need to exercise my faith and charity towards others. It may be a little sore as I start to exercise it, but it will become strong and I will be able to use it to let the Lord work through me. I am so happy for the opportunity to be a missionary. There really is nothing I would rather be doing than serving a mission and coming closer to the Savior right now. I am so grateful to the Savior for letting me have the experience I am having and for being patient with me as I grow. I LOVE this gospel. I know it brings joy and happiness and peace into our lives and to our hearts. Everything will work out as long as we keep our eyes on the Savior and listen for His voice.

I hope everything is going well back home! I love you guys a lot! I am sure incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful family! Thanks for all you do and thanks again for the package and letters!

Szerettetel

Falslev Nover

Szervusz Csaladok! (Hello my family!)

Szervusz (S- air-voos) Family!

 Wowza! What a week it has been! I have finally/already been at the MTC for a week! Sometimes it seems like I've already been gone for 6 months and other times it feels like I have only been gone for a short time. The first half of the week was really rough. Really, really rough for me! I don't know if you got my first letter but I was so overwhelmed. The first day I got here I was dropped off in a classroom and the teacher just started speaking jibberish to me and expected me to respond. I had no idea what he was saying! Then we had a lot of orientations telling us all what we needed to be doing and all the rules. It was a lot to take in. But everyone was so friendly and helped the new missionaries out a lot! The first day we learned the Hungarian alphabet. Hungarian is hard. Really HARD!!!!!! It has 44 letters in it and 17 conjugations. We have learned the alphabet and only 2 of the conjugation rules and I don't even get those. Last Thursday was a really hard day for me because we learned how to pray in Hungarian. I could not remember the rules and how to even say the words and everyone else in my district could pretty much say a simple prayer with flying colors. On top of being frustrated and overwhelmed with the language and being new at the MTC, I got sick. I had a fever and my throat was really swollen. I was in a trio and I was having a hard time with companions. They have gotten along really well with each other and were speaking Hungarian to each other and I couldn't understand any of it. That night, I wanted to just quit. Bad. I was so frustrated. I quickly realized that serving a mission is going to be a lot harder than I ever could have even imagined it to be. Learning Hungarian is going to be quite the challenge for me. But later that night Camrie came down and visited me (she lives in the same building) and it was such a tender mercy and helped me so much! She is just the greatest! I have actually been able to see her lots which has been so great! We have seen each other almost every day.

Friday we taught our first lesson in Hungarian. Ya that's right....two days after being in the MTC we had to teach in Hungarian. It was so hard! But I tried it. I could not remember any words and was so frustrated with myself that I couldn't get it. When we went in to meet with the investigator I slaughtered my memorized line and then it was my turn to say the prayer. The night before I had not been able to speak anything. The prayer I offered was the most simple prayer I have ever said but I felt the spirit so strongly. I knew that the Lord was watching over me. I knew that although I was struggling so much and having so many trials, the Lord was not going to leave me alone. It also made me realize what it was like to be an investigator praying for the first time. They have never prayed before, just like I had never prayed before in Hungarian. It was so simple but as I prayed, I felt the Saviors love and I know the investigator also felt the Savior's love. It made me realize that even if I can only say a few words in Hungarian, as long as I have my testimony and know what I am saying is true, Heavenly Father will provide power to my words and the people I am teaching will be able to feel His love for them also.

 We have since taught 3 times in Hungarian, we can pray, and we can bear testimony. It is all super simple, but we are doing it. It is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is also making me so strong. I have come to learn much faster about the Savior in this week than I ever have before. There is no way that I could be here right now if He was not helping me and giving me the courage to keep trying Hungarian.

 Yesterday we taught our third lesson to an investigator and we also learned 2 new grammar principles - how to conjugate plural nouns. I need to have a lesson on English before Hungarian. I have no idea what all the accusatives pronouns, verbs, adjectives, indirect and direct objects work in English let alone Hungarian. Too bad I didn't pay better attention in school. Everyone else in my district pretty much gets what we have learned pretty well. I just haven't got the grasp quite well yet. Yesterday I got really frustrated that no matter how anyone explained it to me, I could not get it. So I am getting extra help one-on-one from the teacher and it has been helping a lot. My companion made the comment to me yesterday that if she would be struggling with the language as much as I was, that she would have quit and she wouldn't be able to do it. I sometimes feel like quitting....actually i feel like that a lot when we are learning Hungarian but then the Savior gently reminds me that it isn't about me. He has promised me that I will get the language down and I will. I am just being humbled very quickly to know that I can't do it without him. This week I have also just been spiritually feasting on everything they have at the MTC. I don't think there is any other place in the world where you can have so many young people shouting and rejoicing in Christ. It is amazing to just see so many missionaries being trained to be representatives of Christ. I love it every time we sing!

 We have 8 people in my district - 5 sisters and 3 elders. There are going to be 16 of us all leaving to Hungary March 25 which is the most missionaries Hungary has received. 11 of us are sisters. We are the first group to be here only 9 weeks so we will see how that goes :)

We had Linda K. Burton come and speak to us on Sunday and it was amazing! She talked about how many of us are going to have to teach the people about what Relief Society really is and how strong the women of the church need to be. We can't be like the women of the world. In Hungary, the wards are not big at all. In Budapest there is 2 wards and they have about 120 people in each ward. In all other areas there are only branches. The elders were telling us that sometimes it would only be the missionaries and sometimes 1 other investigator at church. The missionaries pretty much run the whole church block, give the talks in sacrament, relief society, primary, Sunday school, etc. That is why I need to know what relief society works. So don't complain next time you have to speak or teach in church.....at least you don't have to do everything! I am so excited to get to Hungary! They are starting to open up a lot of new areas there and the gospel is spreading. We are going to be the biggest group Hungary has ever got. The group after us only has 1 elder and the group after them only has 10 missionaries.

They are getting a lot of missionaries at the MTC. Last week 600 arrived. This week 800 will be coming. Then in weeks to come they are getting about 1400 missionaries per week. I have no idea where they are going to put them all. We have 5 girls living in one dorm room. They are remodeling all the observation rooms into classrooms to make more room but they are really small. We don't know where we will teach our investigators but we'll make things work.

 My day is pretty much wake up, eat breakfast, study, class, lunch, study, class, eat, study, study, study, learn, learn, learn and then go to bed. It is exhausting but so great at the same time to put everything I have and give to the Lord.  

My District is awesome! We have a lot of fun....sometimes too much fun. But we are working on that. My companions are also AMAZING!!! They have also been helping me one on one with the language and they have been so patient with me! Sister Fresh is from Cali and Sister Broadhead is from St. George. I just love them! We have the greatest companionship of the district!

 I also met Sister Gasser (the bountiful temple sealers daughter - her parents were mission presidents in Hungary) and she is AWESOME!!!! She is helping us get used to the MTC and learn the language and I have never seen someone more thoughtful and kind and HAPPY than her. I don't think I have ever seen her without a smile on her face. She has taught me a lot and made me so excited for missionary work.

I love you guys! I will send some pics later! Tell me everything that's happening at home. Hope to hear from you soon. The MTC is the greatest ever and I am so excited to be serving a mission! It's the hardest thing I'll ever do but I am growing so much!

Falslev Nover :)

January 23, 2012

Dear Family,

What a crazy day it has been! As soon as you dropped me off, I got to see Camrie for about 2 seconds which was great and such a tender mercy! And then right after that they took me to a classroom that only spoke Hungarian. They kept talking to me in Hungarian and I was supposed to look at the board and reply back to them. Ya. I was just a little over whelmed. We have to learn a whole new alphabet and pretty much everyone but me can pronounce the whole alphabet. Then we went to a mission training fireside. They got 600 new missionaries today and we are the first ones of the new program.  Next week they'll get 800 and in the coming weeks they get 1400 in ONE day! I have no idea where they will put them all... they had to put us in overflow already and cram all of us into rooms. There are 11 girls going to Hungary. We leave on March 25. 4 of us are 21, 1 is 20, and 6 are 19. Sister Gasser (the Bountiful Sealer's daughter - he was mission President of Hungary) came and spoke to us and told us how happy she was that we were going to Hungry. Hungary needs more missionaries. They were only getting 1 - 2 new sister missionaries and now they are getting 11! (We out number the boys 11 to 4 by the way in my district.) The spirit was just way strong - As overwhelming and exhausting as today has been, I know it's jut the beginning and I am just getting used to change. Everyone is so helpful and friendly here and I think I'll really come to love it. I am in a trio companionship with Broadhead Nover(Sister) from St. George, and Fresh Nover from Riverside, California. They are AWESOME!!!  Super friendly and way easy to talk to. Our first names come first so my name tag say Falslev Nover. We are in the new dorms just remodeled (they were classrooms) So we have new everything and it's so nice! I guess they've had 2 pipes break this week so far, so the sisters have had to move to the gym at 2 and 3 in the morning and sleep on the gym floor. Hope all the pipes are done breaking!!!  Well I hope everything is going good at home still. Please keep me in your prayers..... I will definitely need them! Hope to hear from you soon!

Love ya lots!

Falslev Nover

P.S. My p-day is Wednesday!

Tudom, hogy Mennyei Atyank igaz. (I know Heavenly Father is true (real).)

szeretet tel from (with Love)Falslev Nover

Going through the Logan Temple

CALLED TO SERVE

Dear Sister Shantel Jenna Falslev,

It's here!

Sister Falslev and Trey

Sister Falslev and Megan

You are hereby called to serve for 18 months in the Budapest Hungary Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  You will be speaking the Hungarian Language.  Please report to the MTC in Provo, Utah on January 23, 2013.

Laurie, Sister Falslev, and Jannalea

Budapest, Hungary