FROM SEPT 29:

Sziasztok!

Highlights of the last two weeks include going on splits with Sister J, who went to East High, so that was pretty fun, meeting some New Yorkers (it was so great being loud, laughing a ton, just being Americans!), and going to a program with a less active with Sister S., since my companions were sick.  So, I taught the whole thing by myself, which was a tad bit scary, but was good!  I just feel like I’m getting so much more confident in talking to people and just speaking a lot, even if I don’t speak correctly all the time. Also, B.,

 my favorite person, gave all us sisters these cute little angels she had made from a plastic egg, foam head, fake hair, and sparkly wings. I LOVE HER. 

-TRANSFERS: Super fun. We went to Budapest, and it was just SOO much fun to see everyone and talk to them about their first transfers! I think everyone had good first transfers.  SO…I’m staying in Pápa, and I’ve got my new companion. Sister S.! I LOVE HER. Seriously, we are the same person—or at least really similar--sarcastic, talk a lot, and have already had a great time together! Like the other day, we were doing nightly planning and making fun of "The District" and we were like "Okay, so what's our back up plan for our 5 hours of tracting? How about... hmm... 5 hours of tracting?" Haha! We have a lot of similar thoughts on the Gospel, missionary work, and people, and I love her taste in classic literature (also LIKES CLASSICAL MUSIC, THANK HEAVENS. I may KILL my next companion that only likes listening to EFY music hahaha), art, and  culture!  She's super smart, speaks well, is from Bear Lake and worked at Ideal Beach Resort, and her siblings all read a ton and are just interesting and well rounded. She goes to BYU Idaho and is doing web design and development, and her parents met when they were both serving their missions in Hungary! How cool is that?! She said they speak Hungarian to each other all the time, but it’s not like she knew any of it before.

Anyway, ya, so we've already been working really well!  So our first day we did a ten story (Hungary is FULL of these huge, ugly, crappy apartment buildings that they built in the communist era, and they’re just super dumb and old). So I had never tracted an apartment building on my mission, and the first one we did we got 2 let ins and met some super cool people, including this lady that lived in Canada and speaks perfect English, so that was cool! We’ve also been doing more tabling with the Elders, who are now a trio.

Thanks for sending the excerpt on faith by C.S. Lewis--I am OBSESSED with it! He is amazing--I love how he explains that having faith, in the truest sense, would lead to action, because if you truly have faith in Jesus Christ, you follow what he says…but you also realize that you can never do enough. Every means that God has given you to follow him, are, essentially, his to begin with, so even if we perfectly followed him, again it just wouldn't be enough. Ya, love me some C.S. Lewis

But ya, this transfer is gonna be loooots of finding because we need investigators, and I will probably run into 5000 more Jehovah's witnesses who tell us we're of the devil, but I think it’s funny though! A lot of people think that I’m from England, and I guess that’s a good thing, because if they assumed American, that would mean they think my language is poor.  Sorry this email was so weird and all over the place but this has been such a crazy week.  Just know I’m lovin my life!!!! I can’t imagine not being here and not being a missionary, no matter how hard it is sometimes. I’m really excited for this transfer! It’s gonna be hard, really hard. But good!  I’m praying for all of you, and I know you’re all praying for me, and for that, I am grateful! 

SZERETLEK TITEKET!!

FROM OCT 6

Sziasztok! 

okay, oh man I have SO much to write! First of all, I don't know why, but this week General Conference  made me miss all you guys a lot. I love you all so much! I want you to know that, every one of you!

This week we taught S. about prophets and General Conference, and HE SAID HE WOULD COME ON SATURDAY! That’s a big step for us.   We also taught B.and our lesson plan wasn't super concrete. T. and J. were both there, we just kind of had a lesson about Prophets and General Conference, and it went pretty well. T was interested in looking at all the pictures of the Prophets of the Church, so that was cool. And J. is a really good cook, so that's always a plus :)

Thursday was Zone Conference! It was really good, with President talked about how we are somewhat "close" to a 2nd stake. I would die of happiness if we could get a temple here of course, but ya, we do NOT have enough leadership.  I do like all the zone conferences and meetings though--they always really make me want to be a better missionary! I'll be honest… sometimes I really don't feel like I’m a good enough missionary. Like I don't work hard enough, study the language enough, stop enough people, talk to enough people, whatever. It's hard for me, especially with my language being so small, to feel confident in streeting people, and even tracting, and I know it's something that takes time to improve. Sometimes I am pretty jealous of American missionaries though, just being able to say whatever they want, but I know I’m here for a reason. I have had some good experiences tracting and streeting, too, for sure! I wouldn't say that I necessarily have any "miraculous" occurrences, but I guess just with me really trying to think of the people I’m talking to as children of God, and really just feeling so much love for them. I think that's the coolest thing. Like, the other day, we were getting fagyi, and behind us in line was this man and his son and they both had hearing aids in. The little boy was signing to his dad, and they were both speaking in broken Hungarian, laughing and joking with each other. It was really such a beautiful thing to see, this father and son relationship that was just like emanating joy. I felt this overwhelming sense of love, and just thought of how much God must absolutely love them -- love all his children really. 

Okay General Conference time!! Woohoo! I’ve been so excited to write about this! I LOOOOOOVED IT!! So we picked up S. at his house, and then took him to the branch house. When we were all singing the opening hymn, the Spirit was so strong! It felt so right to be sitting in a little branch house in Hungary with like 8 other people, watching General Conference, even if it was in Hungarian. When President Monson got up and started talking about the missionaries, S. just pointed at both of us with this smile on his face, it was so cute. I actually understood Cheryl Esplin’s talk about the sacrament pretty well! I thought that was good! And then Chi Hong Wong spoke, and Sister Sellers and I realized he was speaking in CHINESE!! That was SOO cool! I LOVE that they did that!!! S. had to leave, but that meant that we got to watch Uchtdorf's talk in English!! IT WAS AMAZING.   As usual. I love how he talked about receiving personal revelation and gaining our own testimonies (I wish S. could have stayed for that) and how a testimony is the most important thing we can gain on this earth. I loved how he said the church is a place for ALL testimonies. "We nourish and encourage ALL LIGHT", and "This spiritual light is within reach of EVERY child of God" were some quotes I loved. I even LOVED the prayer of the Sat. morning session! I thought it was just so unplanned, and so sincere, just asking to bless the families of the missionaries, and asking us to really apply the specific things that we had just learned about. 

Also, yesterday, L. was just being WAY friendly to S., like putting his arm around him, and he invited him to all the sessions on Sunday! So S. called us and told us he would be coming at 6 (which would be the Sunday morning session for us)! Good work L.!! So we get to the branch house and S. was there and HE BROUGHT HIS DAUGHTER IN LAW!!!!!!! Don't you love it when your investigator does missionary work??!! And the Sunday afternoon session was PERFECT. First of all, the choir started singing "Praise to the Man" and then, my cute little Hungarians pulled out their hymnbooks and started singing along. It wasn't the perfect mix of Hungarian singers and the special arrangement the MoTab had done, but I felt the Spirit so strongly. 

I could understand the talks fairly well in Hungarian, or at least I could understand that they were all so great!  So, overall, that was just such a GREAT session!! And the fact that S. could be there for all those talks with his daughter in law was such a blessing. I think they both really liked it, and we will be meeting with them both this week :) 

So ya, this week was super great and just full of little miracles from God. I've started writing down a "miracle" that happened every day in my planner. I know that's super cheesy, but it has helped me see that miracles truly do happen every day, that God looks out for us and cares about us, and that he knows exactly what we individually need. I love this Gospel! I am so grateful for the Prophet and the Apostles that guide our Church, and I KNOW they receive revelation about what we truly need to hear. I really hope that S. was able to feel the Spirit, and was able to understand that this church is the TRUTH, it is the Gospel Restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that to be true. 

I love you all so much and I thank you for your examples to me. Keep on being the great people you are!

Sok Szeretettel...

FROM OCT 13

Sziasztok!

Fall is actually occurring here and I'm loving it! It's still pretty warm and the leaves are just falling lightly in the sun and crunching under our feet. This is my favorite time of year I have decided! But Pápa also decided to have an epidemic of spider webs. Seriously, there was this one day that there were just huge, long spider webs EVERYWHERE just connecting from telephone pole to telephone pole and we kept walking into them. Kinda creepy. My companion just came from Buda, and she feels like Pápa is just this fake little town, like they just built this movie set and then it was abandoned (there are like a total of 5 people walking around any street that's not the walking street), haha. 

So basically this week was all finding (actually, that's how my whole mission has been, so it hasn't made any much of a difference to me). There's this place called Öreghegy (pronounced ur-egg-hedge) and it’s a slab of old commie apartments about 45 minutes away in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, one of our first days in the transfer we tracted there, and got two let ins: one from this lady who lived in Canada (her name is Zsene) and has these two adorable little kids. So we set up with her, and we literally went down to Öreghegy like 3 different times to try and meet with her, but every time she had some excuse for why she couldn't meet, and then the 3rd time she just wasn't home. That was sad because we really thought she was legit, but we left her a Mormon Könyve so hopefully something good could come out of that?

We also got let in by K., who is friends with one of our members, and had said she promised our member that she'd come to church one time. Anyway, we set up with her for what we thought was on Thursday, and then we get a call on Wednesday and she was like "Hey, can we meet tomorrow? Today’s not good for me". So it was a miracle because we wouldn't have gone on Wednesday and confusion would have ensued. Anyway, so we went over there on Thursday and had the BEST lesson of my mission. So first of all, she has two sons, but I thought they wouldn't be coming because she said they weren't really religious! Anyway, she had actually rescheduled for Thursday just so her sons could be there for our lesson! We taught about the restoration, and when we were teaching about Joseph Smith I felt the Spirit really strongly, especially when we were telling the first vision. Not only in my mind was I thinking "Of course! This is so true, don't they realize that this is TRUE???"  I was also thinking "What the heck, I'm actually teaching a first lesson, the Restoration, to interested people, to a FAMILY no less! This has never happened to me before!" So it was good-- I really hope they felt the Spirit. K. wants to keep meeting with us, and her sons like to read, so hopefully they read the Mormon Könyve!! So that was a success in Öreghegy. Also we found the best pékség in all of Hungary over there, better than the pékség in Buda, I am not kidding you.  THE best nutella croissant in the world probably. This would be the only reason I would bring you all to Pápa haha.

Anyway, ya that was basically our week, although Sunday was also a good day, Fast and Testimony meeting baby!! Gosh I am obsessed with this branch--you all know that.  Á. and L. got up and bore their rock testimonies after being members for exactly a year, the best teenagers this Church has ever seen. One of our bácsis got up and bore this short, simple testimony about how he knows the Church is true. But my favorite was P. My tiny little P., just a little néni who lives by herself in Pápa, Hungary, has been a member for less than a year, and has the strongest testimony I have ever heard. She just gets up there and testifying of what she knows to be true - The Church, The Book of Mormon. And she's just crying saying how incredibly happy she is and how grateful she is to God for this Gospel. And I'm just sitting there crying too. Honestly, I don't know if there are going to be people in my life that I love more than these branch members in Pápa, Hungary. 

Also S.... who knows. He still thinks Church doesn't matter, or at least having one true Church isn't important, just as long as someone has faith and does good things. Obviously I think having faith and doing good works is ESSENTIAL to being a follower of Christ, or even to being a good person. But, like Christ, we are baptized (into his true Church) to follow his example, to make a covenant with God that we are willing to follow him and obey his commandments, and that God will in turn bless us with the greatest blessing we can have - the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and obviously, the qualifications of Eternal Life. But I can't make someone believe that, accept it, or act on it. Only they themselves can do so. 

Love you all a ton--you guys are almost up there with my Pápa branch :) (kidding, I love you guys more, but still)

Sok szeretettel,

FROM OCT 20

Sziasztok!

I don't even know where to begin with this email.... Honestly this was a pretty miraculous week, but also kind of the worst week ever.

So, last week after emailing, we decided to go tracting to get our p-day working hours in. So we go to this building and we are ringing outside of it, and this girl just comes out crying a little bit, and we start talking to her, but she just starts crying more. She said (obviously) that right then wasn't a good time to talk, so we basically just bore testimony to her that we know God loves her, and got her number with heavy intentions to find her again and talk to her.

As we were doing the same building, this néni came up to us and was like "What are you doing?" blah blah blah, and she took us in the building and was like "no one's here, see?" And she took us around the first floor, ringing the doorbells with us. One lady answered, and the néni was just like "These girls are doing some sort of survey, but I don't know what they want, they don't speak Hungarian very well." (very big annoyed face). So finally, the néni went in her apartment, and we just went up to the next floor.

One lady answered the door and looked really tired and had all these crazy kids running around. But she let us in, and we started talking to her. Her kids were super cute and crazy and funny, and the little girl was holding this tiny, 2 week old puppy, and she just gave it to me, so that was fun, haha. Anyway, we start talking to the lady, and the following happened: She said she had been feeling really down lately. She wasn't sure if God really loved her, and she had a TON of questions. She wanted answers to the questions, and she said she had pulled out the Bible to find answers. She said that RIGHT as she opened the Bible, we came to her door. She asked us if we were messengers from God, using the very words "Called to preach the word unto the nations". When we said yes, she basically just started asking us all the questions she has ever had, like whether or not her husband is right for her, and just all this stuff! It was INSANE. We were there for about 2 hours just trying to answer all her questions. I couldn't really believe it was real!

This was NOT the kind of thing that happens to missionaries in Hungary! This couldn't be happening to us! I mean, this kind of thing is only for American missionaries, right?! Basically, we gave her a Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet I happened to have in my bag, and had planned to meet with her on Wednesday when her kids were in school and she wasn't working. I have never had someone that eager to meet with us again! As we left the building, those were the 2 happiest Sister missionaries the world has ever seen. Seriously, we were just like jumping around, freaking out. We could NOT believe that had just happened!

The rest of the week ended up being really hard though. We only had ONE program planned, so the rest of the week we literally just went tracting and streeting like ALL day. We tried several times to call M. (the miracle lady) and we even went over to her house twice, but we couldn't get a hold of her. That was SUPER disappointing. I'm praying so hard that we don't lose her, or that she didn't look us up on the internet and now thinks we're a cult or something. We tried calling R. (the crying girl) and she wouldn't answer, and we think we saw her on the street too, but was trying to avoid us. We also tried calling all of our other potential investigators, all of which either didn't answer, or don't want to meet with us. So that was pretty hard, feeling like we are finding some pretty legit people, and then we never see them or get a hold of them again.

So looks like this week is gonna be even more finding, haha. I know we can really find and get a hold of the right people, the people who are prepared for this Gospel. Sometimes I just wish we didn't have to go through a million obstacles to get to them though! I'm still crazily grateful for that miracle experience though; that's the kind of thing I heard about in missions, but was just so sure would never happen to me! I guess that means all the door slams and mean nénis really are worth it haha!

On Friday, we went on splits with the senior sisters, so I went tracting with Sister S. for a few hours. I was a little nervous to have to do everything myself, but I actually really liked it a lot and it ended up being good! We weren't really getting anywhere and not a lot of people were home (or not slamming doors on us). But this one old couple let us in and they were super arányos. Haha, basically all we had to say was that we were from America and the husband just like went off rambling about Hungarian politics and economics. He was basically just complaining about how, when Hungary was communist, everyone had jobs and work, and now, no one has work, and there's a huge class difference and how the political system is super corrupt and only the rich people are in office-- blah blah blah. Haha, so I finally got two words in about our Church and stuff, and then he was like "Oh, ya, you're the religion where the man has like 3 wives, right?" (I'm pretty sure he had been watching "Sister Wives" on TV), so I had to explain that, we do not, in fact, practice polygamy. It was a good opportunity to talk about Joseph Smith though!

The wife was actually super sweet and totally backing me up and agreeing with me! I also explained that we also do not participate in infant baptism, but that people are baptized at 8 years of age or older. So it was a little bit of deep doctrine for my first let-in by myself, but I feel good about the way I handled it (with the only language skills I have), so THANK YOU for the Spirit!! They weren't really interested in hearing what we had to say at all though. But we left a Book of Mormon with them. 

Also, we streeted two different people this week who were both like "you guys look really happy! Why are you so happy?" So we told them EXACTLY why :) And they were both sounding really excited about coming to church, and said they would come. I guess I shouldn't have been expecting them to come, but it was still disappointing when they weren't there, especially because one of them didn't have a phone :(

Oh well, megyunk tovabb!! (we press forward)

So ya, this week was the best and the worst. I'm really hoping that we can meet with the family we did 2 weeks ago (the Restoration lesson family-- they couldn't meet last week) and especially M.!!! We'll see what happens, but I trust God, and if we can't ever find her again, maybe now's just not her time. 

Anyway, I love you guys all so much! Have a csodálatos (miraculous or wonderful) week!!

Szeretettel,

FROM SEPT 8:

So this week was a good week! We taught S the Plan of Salvation, and and I think it went well. Oh, I love him. We also went to B’s and T and J were both there, and so we were able to teach them them, too, so that was great! Teaching P.O.S. so much has made me just think of my family and how incredibly grateful I am! Seriously, I’m not just saying that, you are all so wonderful and I love you all so much! Thanks for being the best family ever--and now to have the kind, sweet, smart, lovely K join our family soon when she and J get married! How did we get so lucky??

We also went to P's in our ward and she made us this egg-onion-pepper soup thing that was suuuuper yummy! I know some of the food sounds really weird, but don’t doubt me when I say it's actually HEAVEN. On Wednesday we tracted this old guy who had lived in Australia for like 40 years and so he had this cool Hungarian-Australian accent and he was suuuper proud of having lived in Australia. He was like "come look at my lawn and my house, this is how the Australians do it!" --both of which were super neat and clean. Then we saw a different P from our ward and talked to her for a bit.  She is seriously the CUTEST, tiniest little thing with the tiniest little voice you’ve ever heard. AHHHH –she’s sooooo adorable. And she does the most BEAUTIFUL Hungarian embroidery! I’ll send a pic of her work.

Sunday, yesterday, was SOOO GOOD! So, I think I told you about G from last week, S's friend that we taught tithing to on the first lesson. I called her on Sat. and invited her to church and she CAME!! Ah she was sooo cute, just holding her Book of Mormon the whole time! She could only stay for sacrament meeting, but that was fine! And T was there! So that was awesome, too. Sacrament meeting was so good! It was testimony meeting, and everyone was just bearing these awesome testimonies about how they know the Gospel is true, the Book of Mormon is true, and the Prophet is called of God and stuff like that. The Spirit was really there. And I was SO glad G could have her first meeting be testimony meeting!!! So that was awesome. Also, C came for Sunday School, and so did one of our less active members, so we had 4 of our teaching people at church!!! WOOHOO!!! Now if we could only get that darn S to come!! 

After church we went to L's and Elder E was just like "We're going to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ... and Sister VanDenBerghe is going to teach about faith!"--out of nowhere, so i just whipped out this thing on faith! But it went well! We practice teaching SOOO much! I am sooooo grateful to K, my trainer, for that, because now I feel like, if I really had to, I could pretty much handle the basics of the first 3 lessons by myself, which is a good feeling. 

I love Hungary, I love missionary work, and I love you ALL! It’s almost transfers!!!  I CANNOT believe that. I honestly am kind of hoping to stay in Pápa, but we will see what happens! Also, zone training in Győr this week! woohoo! 

Remélem hogy ezen a héten a legjobb hét lesz nektek! Szeretlek beneteket! 

sok szeretettel,

FROM SEPT 15: 

Sziasztok! I cannot BELIEVE I am almost done with my first transfer! This has been going be so scary fast!  This coming Sunday, the 21st, i will have been on my mission for 4 months! That is not even real. AND MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED TO K. Oh my goodness, I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU BOTH-- you're more of a power couple than Jay Z and Beyonce, I'll say that for sure! 

So this week!  We taught S about prayer, obedience, scripture reading and Church attendence. We again asked him to come to Church, and W. Nővér even offered that we walk together! But again he just said he had to take the néni to church. I really do love S, but I feel like more and more I’m realizing that he kind of just likes to talk to us. He likes to learn about the Bible and The Book of Mormon, but he doesn't really have a desire to know it is true. He likes learning, but he doesn’t think he needs to make commitments, baptismal covenants, or necessarily do the things necessary to change and really come to Christ. 

Zone training in Győr was good! President and Sister S came and President just talked about how we need to be doing missionary work the LORD'S way, not our own. If we do it our way, we'll get our results, but if we do it the Lords way, we will get the Lord's results. I totally agree. The zone training was good, too-- we talked about giving and following up on commitments. Commitments are SO important! Probably the most important part of missionary work even. If you aren't committing people to pray, read the Book of Mormon, and keep the commandments, then you aren't giving them the opportunity to gain their own testimony, to really feel the Spirit on their own outside of our lessons, and really know the truth for themselves! I know that is still something I need to work on, and our goal is to pray for our investigators and what commitments to give them. If they don't keep commitments, we try to do it with them, like read the chapter of the Book of Mormon that they didn't read. This is probably old news to you missionaries and RMs, but something that future ones could pay attention to. 

On Thursday, we had pizza night, and enjoyed our tap water from giant Heinekin mugs! So there ya go. Friday was Institute, which was really good! I know I always say this, but I LOOOOVE this branch! There were about 10 of us, and we talked about Joseph Smith, the first vision, and the appearance of angel Moroni. They know so much!! Even the 16 year old who has barely been a member for a year! I know these people love the Gospel so much, and they just have this beautiful desire to learn as much as they can whenever they can. It amazes and inspires me. Sunday was good too, even though none of our teaching people came; A gave a really good talk on courage and I understood quite a bit of it! But honestly, just when I think my speaking and understanding is skyrocketing, I’ll just hit these days where I’m like, "Okay, I can’t speak or understand anything!" But I take it day by day.  

SZERETLEK TITEKET! Good luck with the wedding-- it will be fabulous, I know it! Make sure to take a lot of pictures with my cardboard cutout-- haha!

FROM SEP 23:

So the WEDDING!!! AHHHHHH I am literally dying, all the pictures are SO great, seriously. Thank you for taking so many with "me" haha! Sorry, I really don’t have a ton of time this week to email, because TRANSFERS are taking place-- okay, so the big news..... I’m staying in Pápa! I’m getting Sister S, who I have heard really good things about! She is only one transfer ahead of me, so this should be an adventure for sure!! But I’m really excited, and of course I’m gonna miss my lil trio! I love this branch more than anything though, so I am glad to stay. The work in Pápa isn't great, I'll be totally honest. But hopefully we can continue on and see a bit more success.  I will write more next week….Love you all SO MUCH and I am so happy the wedding turned out so perfectly. I FREAKING LOVE  being a VanDenBerghe!!!!

Update: September 3, 2014

From Monday, Aug. 4, 2014: Last p-day we just emailed, went to the big grocery store they had here, and had family night, during which we played soccer, so that was fun! Also, the Elders looooooooooooove whips. I hate them. Whips are apparently a huge thing here--these huge whips, and they sound like gunshots, so loud. So ya, I’m not a fan, but I'll try to send you pics.

-On Tuesday we taught S. about the importance of the Book of Mormon. We also went to the S. family’s house (our branch president and his wife and son). So their son is sooo cute, and he just kept giving us all his toys. Little kids speaking Hungarian is about the cutest thing in the world actually. After that, we went to B’s house, a member, really sweet, but her husband and son are not members, so we are teaching them. This time we went over to help her unpack stuff because she had just painted her house and there was hoards of stuff, not messy or anything, but just a lot of things: cardboard flowers, little tea cups, stuffed animals, doilies, decorations. Her husband J. made us this cherry desert so that was good.

On Wednesday, you are going to be SOOOOO jealous. Why? Because we made lunch with the Bs! They are a family in our ward and the mom is a really good cook. We made Pörkölt, which is basically pork gulas, Nokedli, which is like German spetzle pasta. You eat the pörkölt and nokedli together and it is HEAVEN-- sooooo oooooooo amazingly good. We also made Turós gombóc, which is kind of hard to explain, these cheese balls that you eat with sour cream and powdered sugar. Sounds weird, but they’re actually wayyyyyyyy good. And we made Almás pita, which is this suuuuper yummy apple cobbler-cake type thing. So basically we stuffed ourselves. It was SOOOO DELICIOUS. 

We then made a 40 minute trek to the end of the world to visit a less active member whose house made us bake, it was so hot.  Hungarians don’t seem to believe in air conditioning.  After, we returned to help B unpack and, on the way home we got SOAKED!  But It was actually so much fun just walking home in the dark and the rain! Sister K would just try and scare us-- haha it was so funny. She is awesome! I really love both my companions. Sister W is from South Dakota and went to BYU last year too. She's great at sports and just schools everyone. Sister  K is just adorable and funny. She always says these English phrases that the elders teach her in her little Hungarian accent, like "that's sooo sick!”  Hahaha-- it's so great. 

From Monday, Aug 11, 2014:  Mom said something in her email that I thought was really cool: we all need to fail!! It’s so true. I have already failed so much! Said so many things wrong and just made so many mistakes! But that’s okay, that’s GOOD. I’m so grateful for all the times that I’ve failed in my life because now, I am able to just kind of shrug these little failures off more easily. For example, this week, we were streeting, and I went up to a lady and introduced us as missionaries. She was like "you speak English--can I speak in English?" And when I said yes, she just went off. Her English wasn’t that good, but she just said something along the lines of "Who are you to tell me about God, and how do you know I haven’t already God in my heart? So you don’t need to say a WORD to me!" Or something like that. So I just gave her a big smile, and told her she could practice her English at our free class. Obviously I was a little shaken up by that, but I know she’s a lot milder than what I will probably experience in the future! Also, we were teaching S on Tuesday about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a ward member present, and he was helping out, so basically it was a perfect lesson! I taught about faith, and bore my testimony, and REALLY felt the Spirit. But after what I thought was this awesome testimony that I had just really felt the Spirit in, S corrected this word I said wrong,  haha. I’m not mad about that or anything, and I’m really glad that I could really feel the Spirit in a lesson, but it just goes to show that things aren’t always going to be perfect! Your lessons aren’t going to be like "The District" and just go perfectly! haha, but that’s what makes them meaningful.I think. The Spirit is so personal, and that’s something I really love. Just because someone else is feeling the Spirit, doesn’t mean you have to, too. I love the way God just works with us so INDIVIDUALLY; he does not compare our experiences or progression to ANYONE else. 

Later in the day, we went to the branch president’s house again, and they made us this fried vegetable that was delicious. So another hooray for amazing Hungarian food!   But earlier that morning, I woke up with this huge red bump on my leg and kind of ignored it. But by this point in the day, I realized that I needed to do something about my leg. To make a long story short, we went to the nurse who is the Senior Sister, and then to the doctor. So low and behold, they think I  had a tick bite and needed to take medicine to prevent Lyme Disease (DONT freak out). Thankfully, I caught it super early on, so hopefully everything will be fine.  I’m taking all the appropriate anti-biotics; it doesn’t hurt, and I’m not in pain, and I will be going to the doctor again in a few days. 

Saturday was sport nap and we played soccer. M. (elder’s investigator) brought his friend N., who has been really struggling lately. N. came to sport nap and had a really good time, especially because we were all just way nice to him and stuff. But we invited these little boys that were there to play with us-- they were sooo good! But after, as we were leaving, I saw them pull out cigarettes and start smoking with their friends. I don’t know why it shocked me so much-- knew that everyone in Europe smoked, including little kids, but it just made me SO sad. I almost wanted to cry thinking of how little these kids were. It just made me so grateful that in the US, our schools really stress drug awareness, and especially it made me grateful for the Word of Wisdom. God knows exactly what we need.  

I’m actually writing this email later than usual because we went to a castle for Pday today!! Don’t get too excited-- it was just ruins of a castle, but still really cool, built around a hill with the castle atop the mountain (It was actually quite a hike up to it) and grape vineyards everywhere! I don’t think I’m ever going to get sick of looking around this beautiful country. 

From Monday, Aug 18, 2014:  FIRST OF ALL I AM DOING GREAT! I’m not feeling sick at all from the tick bite or the antibiotic treatment! In fact, i guess a bunch of missionaries in Buda went to some Mexican restaurant and they all got food poisoning! So I AM FINE! I’ve been taking my medicine, and I go to the doctor again tomorrow.

Last Tuesday, we went to S.’s, and he made us this amazzzzzing soup. Sorry, you all are just going to have to deal with me talking about food. I’m obsessed. It had white string beans, potatoes, sausage, and peppers and was so incredible. But he didn’t have any bread, so he just gets on his socks and sandals (a HUGE fashion statement in Hungary) and LEFT US IN HIS HOUSE to go get bread.  That was pretty funny.

On Wednesday, we went tracting.  I think I’m getting a pretty dang good tan from tracting ... you should see my watch tan, pretty impressive! And guess what, C. CAME to the program!! So proud. He has a hard time understanding, but that’s a good thing. I need to learn how to teach simply, so if Hungarian doesn’t force me to do that, C. will!   On Thursday,  we had zone training in Győr!! We were all pretty excited for that! Győr is such a cute city! I think I’d like to serve there at some point, not too big or too small.  But anyway,they just have a lot more fountains and colorful buildings in the main square.  Zone conference was good, though! My zone consists of the Northwest of Hungary (so like, Sopron, Győr, Tatabánya, and areas that are more near Austria kind of). I like everyone, even though I don’t know them super well. We just talked about like asking good questions and Spirit inspired questions, so that was good don’t know if you know who Elder D. is? I guess he played basketball for San Diego State or something? Or like the Suns or something?  Anyway, he just told this story of how this boy was totally selfish, a partier and a drinker, and how the elders who taught him never gave up on him. The boy turned out to be himself, and he just talked about the person he's become-- it was really cool. After, half of the zone went to this restaurant on a ship, but it’s pretty expensive, so the rest of us got döner. Haha, it’s a good thing I like döner! 

We then made our way to Budapest for Greenie training. We got off and I was just like "what the... there are SOOO many people here!”  We stayed in the mission home while my companions went on splits with the Buda sisters. It was way fun to be able to talk to them about the work in their areas, Buda, Pest, and Pécs, and everyone sounds like they’re doing great! The next day we went to the Hivatal to get our living visas or whatever, and then we went to lunch at KFC. The fast food here, including Mcdonalds, is actually pretty expensive! I’d rather get a huge, authentic döner for 800 forint than a tiny KFC sandwich for 900 forint! It was nice to have fast food, though, haha. Greenie training was very good, and we made our way home. I was actually SOOO glad to be back in Pápa! Even just being in Buda for a day, it was really nice to be in my little town again. And ya, still haven’t seen like even a fourth of Buda. I  kind of saw parliament building from the car--that was cool! 

On Saturday, President and Sis. S. actually came to Pápa to do interviews! They took us to this really nice restaurant and fagyi so that was super nice of them! And my interview with president was GREAT!! Ahh I love him!! He is SO loving! He just made me feel really good about being here! Most people tell you not to even think about your family, but he was just like " I loved thinking about my family on my mission (in Finland) because it really made me want to be a better missionary" and I agree! I love you guys! Thanks for praying for me, because I really HAVE felt your love and comfort! So thank you for that! He just made me really want to be obedient, not like a scare-you-into obedience type of way. There was just a lot more love behind it, a lot more "you will be able to have the Spirit with you" kind of way. So I really am SO grateful he is my mission president!

Yesterday was also K. Nővér's Szuletésnapot! Her Birthday! We went over to her relative’s house and had creamy zucchini soup, spinach stuffed chicken, potatoes, fried zucchini, and cucumbers in vinegar. And chocolate cake. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I’m sure you all feel so bad for me-- thanks for your sympathy! 

From Monday, Aug 26:  Health update: I am doing GREAT! I feel awesome, and I’m following doctor’s orders.  First off, I want to say that I LOVE personal study! I always get so many insights from it. Quick tip for future missionaries: I color code my scriptures according to the 5 lessons outlined in Preach My Gospel: blue for the restoration, orange for plan of salvation, green for Jesus Christ's Gospel, purple for commandments, yellow for ordinances and covenants, and then red for other things that I like but aren’t specific. its soooo helpful!  I have been reading in Alma, and love Alma the Younger so much and always have. There’s a scripture, I think in Helaman, that talks about, no matter how often we need to repent, the Lord will always forgive us. Alma Jr. went about DESTROYING the Church, and then repented, and later became responsible for thousands of people coming unto the Church. 

Earlier in the week, we taught one of our church members the Plan of Salvation, which we have been practicing a tooon. Anyway, it went great, and W.  Nővér and I taught pretty much the whole thing! I feel like my language and teaching skills are really going so uphill! Then we had family night, and our investigator C. was like "my whole week was a catastrophe. I prayed and read the Bible and didn’t get the job I wanted.” And then L. just said basically "just keep reading and praying!" and bore his testimony! It was awesome! L. got a new job, so he’s been able to come to Church and more activities like family night, so it’s awesome to have him there! 

On Tuesday, the doctor said I’m doing great-- taking my antibiotics, probiotics, and lovin’ life. So we taught S. about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I taught receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He was agreeing with everything and seemed to be understanding. W. Nővér, at the end of the lesson, asked him to be baptized, and I felt the spirit SO STRONG. But then he just kind of went on about how he’s already been baptized and doesn’t really think it’s that important and stuff. So that was really sad. I love S. so much, but we don’t really know what to do.

Friday we had district meeting, and went to some Chinese place. I'll just say that Hungarian Chinese food is nothing you need to try....ever....and then we went tabling with the Elders. I actually really like tabling a lot—it’s probably my favorite finding method. You just set up a table with Book of Mormons and pamphlets, and fliers, and posters that say "Mormon Vagyok" (Im Mormon) and "Ingyenes Angolora" (free English class) and go up and talk to people. I feel like I’m sooo much more confident in going up and talking to people! And I feel like I can somewhat carry a conversation. AND I GOT MY FIRST PHONE NUMBER!!!!!!! BY MYSELF! Ah-- I was SO excited!! You are all probably like "wow...it took you a whole month?" But hey, I am just over here in little old Pápa, Hungary, jumping for joy over my first phone number. 

My thoughts on Sunday are that I still love this Branch--so much faith, so many incredibly strong testimonies. I’ve been here for a month (which is craziness in and of itself) but I already just love this branch with all my heart, more than I can say through an email. 

So my favorite event of the week was yesterday, in another program with S. We brought L. with us, prepared to kind of ask Sándor questions like, "do you want to keep meeting with us, what do you want from our meetings, do you feel like we have helped" and stuff like that. He said he does want to keep meeting with us, and that we help him understand the Bible and the Book of Mormon, that he wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon, and just all these good things. So ya, we will see what happens this week, because we asked him to read the Book of Mormon. I have to say, L. ROCKED! Ah I love him! He is so incredibly humble. He’s willing to admit to us that he has a hard time keeping the Word of Wisdom, but I have just seen that he is trying so hard to come to Church and everything. And he just kept bearing these awesome testimonies, saying that S. can always ask for help from the missionaries. He invited him to Church on Sunday, and to the Stake meeting in a couple of weeks! At one point, S. got up and left the room, and came back with a copy of this huge Karl Marx book and L. commented,  “I remember that from school--I don’t need it" or something.  At the end, he bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon, and was like "The Book of Mormon is not like Marx; it's not philosophy, It's scripture."  BOOM. That was probably one of my favorite things ever. Oh I love that guy. I love S., too, and I hope we can help him, or at least know if we need to drop him or not. Pray for us! And him! I know you all do and I thank you for that.

From Monday, September 1, 2014:  Early in the week, we had a program with these people we found from our area book, an old couple, and they were SUUUUPER sweet and nice and just orányos (adorable). We taught them 1st part of Plan of Salvation and that went well! And you'll never guess what they gave us......tomatoes! Haha! I love Hungarians. On Tuesday, Sz.invited us over to have lunch and teach his friend. So he made us this really good roko krumpli, which is like potatoes with eggs and sausage cooked in the typical Hungarian mixture of sour cream and paprikas. It was SO. GOOD. but ya'll shouldnt be surprised about that. haha. So after lunch, Sz’s friend G. had heard you had to "pay to be part of your church" --- so our first lesson with her was tithing! Haha! K. just basically taught her about tithing, and it was really good! Then she asked us if we had a book about our church ;) so hopefully she reads the Book of Mormon we gave her! But it was really just cool to see Sz. get so excited about missionary work, and to see him be so open and confident about sharing the Gospel and sharing his testimony with his friend! This branch makes me want to be a better missionary. For example, B. asked us for a BoM to give to her friend, and has given a BoM to someone else too! And she wants to put a scripture from the BoM on a rock to put on her mom’s grave so people will see it and be curious! AHHH, I love her. Also, there are slugs everywhere, so for about 15 minutes while we were tracting, we just got on the ground and examined them—haha—OH, missionary life. 

On Saturday, P. from our branch invited us to this festival thing and told us we were going to have our own booth. So, I was expecting it to be this festival where we would just talk to people about our church. But no-- it was a cooking competition!! There was traditional Hungarian music playing and about 12 different tables of groups all making pörkölt over a fire to compete over whose was the best! There was one little néni at our table who wouldn’t let us do anything and just did everything herself haha! It was actually really fun though, and eating pörkölt? Ya, i don’t have a problem with that ;) Even though they all put a WHOLE PACKAGE OF LARD in in-- oh dear. 

**One more fun thing: We got our weekly fagyi in the town square with the elders, and two people were playing soccer the elders knew, so we joined them in our missionary clothes!  Then, a bunch of teenagers came and wanted to join in. So we played soccer, the elders in their dress clothes, W. Nover and I in our skirts (K. Nover sat out, haha) with the locals in the town square of Papa.  If that’s not one of the funnest things I’ve ever done, I don’t know what is.

Email from Grace’s Hungarian companion: I, I’m Sister K!  I’m Sister VanDenBerghe’s companion.  J  I thought I would write to you, but don’t speak English very well.  I only learned it on my mission, so please excuse anything I say wrong.  I would like to say I’m sooo grateful for your daughter, because she is a very good missionary!!!!!!!  She has a lot of diligence and is always willing to try everything.  I was surprised when she spoke Hungarian because I thought she would not have learned a lot in the MTC, haha, but she did!  She speakd in Hungarian very well!!  And she always is doing the missionary work and doing everything.  That’s a big help for me.  And I love her!!  I’m so grateful I can serve with her, and can be her trainer.  I hope I do it well.  And I think she has improved a lot in five weeks!  J  Have a good day.  Sister K.