ÁLDOTT KARÁCSONYT

Posted by Jacquelyn Lois December 18, 2017

ÁLDOTT KARÁCSONYT

BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL KITH AND KIN!!!

If you have judged me by thinking that this email is too early for final Christmas wishes, go and repent of your SIN, because this will in reality be my final email before christmas. Because our P-Days fall on Monday, this year P-Day falls on Christmas, and we have just learned from our mission leaders that we get the ENTIRE day off (meaning, WE DON'T HAVE TO TRACT AFTER 6 PM- LITERALLY THE BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BLESSED BE THE NAME OF SZABADKAI JÓZSEF (current Hungary mission president) WOO-HOO!!!!!!) so because I will be skyping my family next week, there will not be any emailing on my part. what's also weird is that if I were serving as long as Madeline, my beloved older sister did, this would be my last skype.

anyway, this past week was a blast. To all you homies out there praying for us to find young investigators, I owe you all big time. This week we found two 19 year old investigators, Mark and Bianka (if you are wondering how they are pronounced in Hungarian, say them in Engish and you will hear how they are pronounced). Mark is one of a recent convert's, Benedek's, friends and we actually ended up streeting him. Bianka we streeted a while ago, and finally were able to set up with her. Benedek came to both meetings (he is also 19) and both of us are 19, so it was super cool to teach two restorations with a member present and everyone was under the age of 20.

We also are now teaching Enikő's little brother, Tamás, who is 11 and actually reminds me a lot of Seth. :) He has come to church with Enikő about 5 weeks now, and we decided to try and see if he wants to meet with us like Enikő does to learn more about the gospel. "Sure!" well, that was easy. We had to make the teaching interesting because we are catering to an 11 year old (we showed him the picture of Jezus ordaining the apostles by the laying on of hands and he asked us "so, jezus puts his hands on people's heads to give them the priesthood and then he controls their brains when they beconme the profet?" "...yes" I mean that's pretty much what happens, right?) We showed him big pictures of prophets and christ and joseph smith from the gospel art book, then we took Enikő and him into the kitchen and smashed a sparkling grape juice bottle (it actually was a bit more violent than i anticipated) to demonstrate the apostasy, and then we watched the restoration film all while gorging on Viennese chocolate that Enikő had bought in Vienna the day before. He also said that he wants to be baptised like Enikő was when they "threw her into the water", to which I said to Enikő "yeah, sorry about that."

Oh yeah! another highlight, János Attila passed his baptismal interview and everything is all set for december 30th! It will be a glorious day. János is such a precious man who has been through a lot, though his eyes are being opened more and more to seeing his Heavenly Father's hand in his life.

another christmas miracle. While we were carolling/tracting there was this super nice cat (very weel groomed too) that was just following us forever, and by the time we had to head to an appointment, i might have scooped it up in one hand and biked two kilometers with it... i just coulnd't say goodbye! it was probably the most vulnerable point ive ever experienced my entire mission, Morgan elder broke our only Hungarian speaking pact to try to convince me to let it go (though looking back, he was right.. dont worry, we hased it all out during comp inventory).

Kecskemét is literally infused with the spirit of christmas.

which brings me to our comp goal of only speaking hungarian until the christmas zone conference in Budapest next Friday! It's SUPER fun, and though it can be frustrating at times, it is so rewarding and funny. I dont know why, but everything just becomes more funny when you tell it in hungarian. also it makes switching into english hard, but not because im some prententious missionary who's developping a weird accent or anything, but just because it is legitamentally hard to switch between languages (for me, at least).

Another weird thing, next time I email (January 2nd) we will know our transfer calls! the trasfer is drawing to a close! There's about a 60% chance that I'll be leaving Kecskemét and heading to my 4th area. It seems like just yesterday I got of the train onto a dark and snowy platform (it was 4 pm) in Nyíregyháza, my first area, up by Ukraine! also weird to think that last year i was in hungary. Definitely this transfer has gone by the fastest out of all of the transfers i've had. Training has been an adventure, fulls of ups and downs. One of Morgan elder's and mine favorite quotes of the transfer has been, "haragszol rám" (are you mad at me?) which is actually a very healthy and direct way of rooting out contention from the start, and without doubt leaves us laughing at whatever was between us.

also since it is my last christmas in Hungary i am really trying to relish every moment of this sacred season in this special... (bizarr?) country. i attacted a really cool video of this hungarian folk dance and folk music that I hope a lot of you will be able to view!

Well, in closing, i think one of the greatest (or most noticable) blessings of missionary work is that you are always HAPPY. it doesn't matter where you are, who youre with (unless youre not with your companion... that does matter), what's going on, you are just on a constant happiness high. to quote an elder from the district "it freaks me out". it actually is really weird how must joy you can sqeeze out of this work. I feel myself coming closer to my savior than i ever have been before. I love Him, I know His gospel is restored on the earth, and I am eternally grateful for all that he has made possible for me and my family! HE LIVES! If you want to know for yourself, read the book of mormon and pray about it.

Kellemes ünnepeket, boldog karácsonyt, sok szeretettel,

Martin elder