Sister Hannah Schoendorfer in Hungary: Christmas in January

Hello! It has been another great week here in Hungary! You are probably wondering why the title says 'Christmas in January', well I finally got my Christmas packages this week!! We had the New Missionary Training in Budapest last Wednesday and it was SO fun to receive packages and mail. Thank you so much to everyone who sent letters; mail is like gold here. I'd love to hear from you (and my birthday may or may not be the middle of February - wink wink). Anyways, it was so so fun to see everyone I went through the MTC with once again and to be taught by our sweet Mission President and his wife.

After the conference was over I got to see Levente! He came to the mission home and then Greenwood Nővér, the Sister Training Leaders and the Nyír (new) missionaries went to Gringos Amigos (Cafe Rio!) with Levente. It was so enjoyable to catch up with Levente. After dinner we walked around a little bit until we had to catch a train back to Nyíregyháza. Before we left we were in an H&M Store, waiting for Elder Murdock to buy some new pants after he had torn his (that's a whole other story) and Levente was like "why don't you just open your Christmas presents here!" So this year I had Christmas in an H&M - haha, it was great.

When we got on our train to go back to Nyíregyháza a funny thing happened. A rather intoxicated man, and sadly we think possibly homeless gentleman came up and starting talking to Ure Elder about how he knew Michael Jackson and John Lennon and how they taught him English, even though he had forgotten all of it. It was interesting and then he was booted off - sajnos.

In other news, I have been here for more than a month now! To celebrate my first month in Hungary I ordered a pizza all by myself and it was HUGE! 57 cm. to be exact. The funny part was when they arrived to deliver the pizza my companion was in the shower and I had no idea what the delivery man was saying over the phone when he rang our doorbell. I survived though and the pizza was really yummy and we had lots of leftovers, haha.

So we are continuing teaching Izabella, the miracle néni. She is the sweetest person ever, I just love her! When she first met us she was a little hesitant and now she is always hugging us and yesterday she called me drágám (my dear) and I think my heart melted a little bit, it was so sweet. We asked her if she would like to be baptized and her reaction was precious. She asked us if she was allowed to be baptized because she had been baptized in a different religion and was so excited as we explained priesthood authority to her and taught her more about the restoration.

Tonight we are meeting with her and also her granddaughter, Iza, and granddaughter's boyfriend, Viktor. Iza is really kind to her grandma and is always buttoning up her coat and holding her hand on the stairs, it is so so sweet. Iza and Viktor have been to all the lessons we've taught and Viktor always stays even though he doesn't understand Hungarian very well at all, he is just learning - like me! They are all Ukrainian, although Izabella and Iza are fluent in Hungarian. Iza and Viktor haven't been able to come to church yet because of work but Iza told us she is looking for a different job. They came to a few of the activities as well. This is my favorite story from this week - after we were finished teaching the English class, I gave Viktor a Ukrainian Book of Mormon and as soon as he saw it, his eyes lit up and he was so excited! It made me so happy to see how interested he really was because during lessons he doesn't always seem that completely engaged, but I am thinking that's because we don't speak Ukrainian. But, tonight we are taking Jelenna (a member from the branch) with us to our lesson and she's Ukrainian! I'm so excited! There will be lots of different languages being spoken tonight.

This week at one of the activities, we all went around and shared our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. This was a neat experience for me as I spoke in Hungarian about why I love the Book of Mormon. I also shared 2 Nephi 1:15 because I just love how it says "I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love," I have really felt our Savior's love, especially here where it is sometimes easy to feel alone and like no one understands you as you are trying to communicate in a language you've been studying for only 3 months. But, I know that His love is real and that the Book of Mormon is true. At church on Sunday I felt like I am truly starting to get to know the members here and I am just so grateful for their love and patience. I also feel like Sundays are the days where I can somewhat see the progress I am making and I feel like I was able to understand a whole lot more at church this week than I have been able to in weeks past, it's still a struggle but it only gets better!

A few more funny things that happened this week were singing with Sharika, singing and Ime, and conversations with nénis and bácsis (older men). Sharika is a member who we visit and I think I've talked about singing with her before but she loves to sing kareoke and always asks us for recommendations for American music. She is so cute and this week she wanted to sing 'Twist and Shout' with us, by the Beatles, and it was too funny! I love visiting her! At chorus practice I played the piano again and Ime (there was a picture of him last week, he is a boy in the ward with some special needs) snuck over to the piano and asked me to play his favorite hymn, Titkos Ima (Secret Prayer). I played it and he sang it with the Elders and he just belts out the chorus of the hymn and it is so cute! I always catch him singing that song to himself, he loves it!

On our way to church on Sunday we were approached by one bácsi who ran up to us and enthusiastically said "Jó reggelt Elderek!" (Good Morning Elders). We were both a little thrown off about being called Elders which was kind of funny and then he was asking us if we were on our way to go to church with him. We told him we were actually on our way to go to our church and he quickly walked away. The other bácsi who talked to us was on the bus was asking us basically why we were so happy. Another member who happened to be on the bus chimed in and said we were happy because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and because we are missionaries. He pretty much didn't say anything else and then got off at the next stop. These little things like that definitely make the days interesting. Also the other néni we teach, Ilona, who I've talked about before was really funny this week and she went on and on about how we weren't wearing enough clothes for the really cold weather. I showed her that I was wearing thermals and also leggings with my skirt and then she just went on about how I was smarter than my companion - it was hilarious. She always makes me laugh!

I think that pretty much sums up this past week. A few scriptures that have helped me this week are found in John 16:33 and Alma 34:15-16. I am so grateful for the Savior's atonement and I love how in John, Christ says "...be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." It is so true though, we have so much to be grateful for and cheerful about! I also love the part in verse 16 in Alma 34, where is says "arms of safety." Those words are just so comforting to me!

I hope you all have a great week. Also I wanted to include this poem that I read this week by Edward Everett Hall -

I am only one,

But still I am one

I cannot do everything

But still I can do something,

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something

That I can do.

I love this poem because sometimes I feel like I could be doing more but I realize that the little things we do really make differences in other's lives. I also read a poem in Hungarian this last week that was similar to this one and I'll try to find it again and include it at some point.

Love you all so much!

Sok szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér