Sister Hannah Schoendorfer in Hungary: Miracles!

Hey Family and Friends!

I hope you are all happy and doing well.

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry." I say this to myself every morning. This is one of my favorite quotes, from one of my favorite prophets, Gordon B. Hinckley. My dad sent this to me in a package recently and I just love it! Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the things that aren't possibly the way you would like them to be, or to forget about all the things that we are blessed with in this life. I know that things do work out and that we will face challenges each and every day, but as we faithfully endure them, we will see blessings.

We had another great week here in Nyíregyháza. It is crazy how fast the time is going, I have been on my mission for 5 months today! It feels like I really just got here a few weeks ago. The week started out a little slow, but it quickly picked up. We were able to visit a branch member this week that we've never visited before and I'm so glad we went. Her name is Juliánna, but everyone calls her Jutka Néni. She is so so sweet! Her apartment walls are covered in the most beautiful paintings!! We spent a bit of time getting to know her and she also fed us some of the yummiest food I have ever had! My companion and I didn't really understand exactly what she was saying when she was explaining the soup and she brought out these round little circular crackers with it so while she was in the other room, Jarrett Nővér and I were tossing them in each other's bowl of soup haha. Okay maybe that's not what she was saying to do with the crackers, but it might as well been! She also came out with a bunch more food for us, you don't go hungry in Hungary with the nénis here, that's for sure!

One of my favorite things that happened this week was after we went to Ica's apartment. We had a nice visit with her and were able to read to her. We haven't gone over to her apartment too many times before so I wasn't super familiar with the bus schedule there. We were waiting at the bus stop and almost got on the wrong bus when a very kind lady helped us. She explained when the right bus came and we talked to her at the stop and on the bus. She immiediately opened up to us and talked to us about how there had recently been a death in her family. We did our best to comfort her and talked about how this life is only just a small moment. We gave her a Book of Mormon which she was so grateful for. She said she herself was a religion teacher but wanted to read the Book of Mormon.

We went back to Sóstóhegy this week to meet with Péter and his family who we found last week tracting. We went in and at first we were only talking with Péter, we were unsure if the rest of his family was even home. But then, we asked if we could watch the restoration video with him and he had to go find his kids to ask for help with the DVD player, ha! Before we knew it we were watching the story of the Restoration with Péter, his wife, and his two kids. It was a really spiritual experience and I am so grateful to be able to teach this cute family. We talked about the restoration more and about the Book of Mormon and Péter told us he believed it to be true. I am excited to go visit them again this week and see how they are doing.

On Thursday of this week we had another day where we were only allowed to speak Hungarian! The district came up with new punishments for everyone this week and mine was 40 push ups for everytime I spoke English. I slipped up twice and had to do 80 push ups on Friday morning. It was good though, Jarrett Nővér and I woke up feeling really good on Friday and knew it would be a good day! In the morning I promised Jarrett Nővér that we were going to get a let in that day! We had a district meeting, and went out to lunch and then went tracting. We had already tracted for an hour and could've gone home and done the weekly planning we needed to do but we decided to do one more apartment building. We talked to people in the building through the csengő and someone told us they weren't interested, but would let us in to talk to others. We talked to a few more people inside and then we went to door number 7 where we got the most amazing 'let in'! Let ins just by themselves are a miracle for us because they don't happen very often, but when we get a 'let in' and have an amazing lesson it's a huge miracle!

Juliánna was the woman's name who let us in and she was so sweet and so ready! We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and talked a lot about prayer. She told us how she prays each day and thanks Heavenly Father for all that He has given her. She is so grateful for everything and understands that life isn't easy, but that Heavenly Father really does love each of His children. We were able to set up a second appointment with her again this week and I'm so excited to see how she is doing. At the end of the lesson when Jarrett Nővér and I bore our testimonies she started to cry and gave up the biggest hugs! It was incredible. I love that as a missionary, I am able to get to know people on such a personal level who were complete strangers to me just an hour or even less before and create such great relationships. It is such a great blessing, to help other come unto Christ. I know that wherever we are and whatever we are doing we can make positive differences in other's lives.

On Saturday evening we called Iza (Izabella Néni's granddaughter) and found out that Izabella still wasn't home from Ukraine. Iza invited us to come over anyway and talk with her and her boyfriend Viktor, who have been there for all the lessons with Izabella. We had been there for about 10 minutes when we heard a key in their apartment door and in walked Izabella! We were all so excited to see her and she was also thrilled that we were there. She is so excited for her baptism which is this coming Sunday! It has been amazing for me to really watch her grow and get to know her these past few months. She has such a strong testimony, is so selfless, and is always willing to learn. She is such an example to me!

That's about it for the week. The weather is finally starting to get warmer, and it has also been raining a bunch, but we are just so happy to be warmer! I hope all is well at home for you all!

Sok

szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér