Happy Farsang!

​So this week we celebrated Farsang! If you don't know what that is, it's okay, I didn't know either until I saw the stores start to come out with Halloween stuff. It's basically just the 'End of February Party' and people dress up and celebrate the fact that spring is coming! We had a Farsang Buli (party) at the branch house this week which was super fun. They even have special little games just for Farsang!

 The beginning of the week actually started off kind of slow but man oh man did it pick up! We have had the coolest week! Last transfer (6 weeks) I only had one "let in" during tracting and just in the past week, we have had two!!!

In the beginning of the week we visited Sárika which is always enjoyable and then afterwards we started walking to try to find an old church member that lives close to Sárika. It was raining and we were super cold and we almost decided to just leave because usually we couldn't find the old church member because they have moved away, but we finally found the street ​

​and the house! We rang the csengő and out came a néni! She recognized us right away and welcomed us in. She fed us sűti and said we were welcome to come back anytime, but said that she was too old to come to our church in town (about a half hour bus ride away) when there was a really pretty catholic church on the corner of her street. Well, she pulled out her Book of Mormon that was from 1990, and I'm not sure that it's been opened since. She talked about the Elders that found her and we aren't sure that she is actually a member but she was really sweet; but sadly just not really interested. She walked us all the way to the bus stop afterwards and even stopped at a fence along the way to pet the sweetest dog and let him give her kisses. So adorable! Later we went back into town and celebrated Kristőf's birthday singing and eating more sűti. Kristőf really is the best example of charity and selflessness, we can always count on him to put a smile on our faces!

One day this week we were tracting at a huge apartment building and got kicked out by another néni! So crazy! I never thought that a person could be that crabby. All we want to do is help people, that's why we're here! Anyways, we just left and the next building we went to, the first door we knocked on, was a family that was interested!! So cool. They didn't have time then to meet with us, but we were able to get their phone number and we are going back this week!

This week when we went to Izabella's, it was the first time that I actually understood everything that was going on and that she was saying! I don't know why it's been so hard before, but I guess that's a definite sign of progress! YAY! But even more exciting than that is what happened during the lesson! Izabella was so so happy and told us about how she finished reading the Book of Mormon!!! We also brought baptism clothes for her to try on and it was the cutest. As soon as she saw them she got so excited and she started to put them on. I offered to help her but with the biggest smile on her face she said "I want to do this by myself, I can do it!" So so adorable, I love her so much. The clothes fit perfectly except for the legs being a little too long since she's so short but she just happily rolled them up and went on about how perfect it was. We talked about who she wanted to speak and details for the service and what hymns she wanted and at first she didn't have much of a preference but then she giggled and looked right at me and said "I want you to give a talk!" Oh man, I feel like I just got here and I'm already on my second talk! Hahah, I am so so excited though.

We went to Miskolc for the second week in a row for interviews with the Mission President. They went really well and I am so grateful to have such an inspired Mission President who is so kind, caring and understanding. Afterwards, we got pizza and came back to Nyíregyháza to go to Korus and teach Angolóra. Teaching Angolóra was so fun because we hadn't totally planned the entire lesson, so we had to make some of it up ​as we went. I've realized that half of being a missionary is being flexible and not being afraid at times to embarrass yourself!

This week it was my companion, Sister Jarrett's birthday and it was really fun! We had a district meeting in the morning and then went out to lunch at a Hungarian restaurant which was super yummy. Then we went to Sóstóhegy, where we had a lesson set up but they had forgotten and weren't home! So we decided to just go tracting instead, which we weren't super thrilled about. These houses were seriously out in the middle of no where and it didn't look like hardly anyone was home. The 5th house we rang the csengő for was golden though! It was a dad, named Péter and he quickly invited us in and he even had his kids come listen as we taught about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. It felt like a dream come true! ​

​It was an amazing experience and although the Hungarian was a little bit of a struggle, the spirit really helped and we are going back this week. We are so excited to teach this family and it is such a miracle the way it happened! Our second let in was just yesterday in an apartment building. It was a pretty interesting guy and he has 6 cats, who he told us the names of after he introduced himself haha. I'm not sure that he is quite as promising as Péter but hey, you never know, we shall see!

We had Sport Nap on Saturday as usual and it is seriously one of my favorites days, it's so fun! Our team crushed again in soccer and it was great. I headed the ball for one of the last shots and then it went right to Robi who made one of our last goals. Too fun!

All day yesterday, my companion and I, along with the elders spoke only Hungarian to each other! It was so hard at times but also so fun. We all have our own punishments so if we were caught speaking English we could get minus one point. My punishment was for every point I lost I couldn't eat Müzli for a day which they all know is my favorite cereal haha. I only slipped up once when the elders called us first thing in the morning before I was even out of bed and I was like "Why are you calling so early," and then I just heard Robi laughing on the other end saying "beszélsz angolul?" Oh man. Well I think that's about it for the week. 

Lots of love!!!

Sok ​szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér

Extra large Bible we bought for Ica

Interviews with the East Zone - Elders Roberts and Ure, Sisters Jarrett and Schoendorfer 

Full Moon - so beautiful

Tracting in Sostohegy

Old abandoned building that still has wallpaper on the walls in Sosto

Tracting Selfie

Farsang Games at the Branch House

Kristof always makes you smile!

Jarrett Nover, myself and Isabella

On P-day the Elders made breakfast - French Toast, my glass was an old hot salsa jar because the said they knew I liked spicy things, we also played frisbee, it was really fun!

Dinner out - it was so good!

Wherever you go.....go happy

Hey! Another great week has gone by here in Hungary. So I got a card from my dad for my birthday and it said "wherever you go...go happy." And I have been thinking about that a lot this week. Sometimes it is hard to see the good you are doing, or challenging to see progress, but I know as we are positive and go happy everywhere we go, that we will be able to help people, we will be able to improve their lives as we share what makes us happy! Everyone has hard things, but everyone also has strengths that can be used to lift others up and we can use them to work together each day and be happy! 

Anyways in the beginning of this week we were able to visit a few members. We visited Klári Néni first who is so sweet. I love hearing her strong testimony. She was baptized about 15 years ago after moving here from Ukraine and learning about the gospel. She is so thoughtful and selfless and just makes you feel good about yourself when you're around her. And when I say she's selfless, I really mean it. She sent us home with a bunch of food that we were later able to eat with the elders for dinner. 

We also visited Sárika who I have talked about before. We went and sang a few hymns with her and the spirit really was strong. Sárika is really lonely and started crying at one point and my heart just ached as I wished there was more I could do to help her. We invited her to come out to some branch activities which she did and yesterday at church she told me how much she appreciated us visiting her. She called me an angel and was just so grateful for that little visit and personal invitation to come to some branch activities. She had such a happier look to her and I am so glad we were able to visit with her. That is what I mean when I said sometimes it is hard to see the good you are doing, or the progress. It didn't seem like too big of a deal to us to visit her but to her it really meant the world! We really just don't know what is going on in everyone's life around us which is why it is so important to "go happy" and be positive each and every day so that we can lift each other up. 

A cool story from this week is about a guy named Tómi who we met while trying to find the apartment of an old church member we had never met before (who we later found out doesn't live in Nyíregyháza anymore). We were looking around and I guess we looked confused because Tómi came up and asked if we needed help. We explained what we were doing and where we were from and then Tómi was just as confused! Hahah he was so confused about why two American girls were trying to find someone they didn't even really know but just had an address and phone number for. It took a few times to explain everything but Tómi was so patient and helped us look around and ask others for a good 15 minutes. At the end when we found out the girl we were looking for had long since moved away, we offered a copy of the Book of Mormon to Tómi and invited him to játék est (game night) and Sport nap! He was really nice and still a little confused but we left thinking we probably wouldn't see him around anytime soon. But then came Friday afternoon and there was a call from Tómi! He asked about játék est and came with his friend, Laci. We had lots of fun and then they both came to Sport nap too! 

Sport nap was so so fun. We had a good turn out and played the best game of soccer. The weather was also really nice and it felt good to run around. Our team name was pulykák (turkeys) and we won after a close game! We were able to share with both of them why the Book of Mormon is important to us and they were really interested! I am excited to see what happens with the two of them. 

I taught Dani piano lessons again this week which is always interesting. I never even tried teaching an active 7 year old piano in English before my mission, let alone in Hungarian. It is a good experince for sure and he is making progress, slowly but surely. 

We had a zone training in Miskolc this week which was really great. It got me thinking a lot about why I'm here and how I can make my time here more meaningful. The work here is hard and the lanuage is really challenging but as I push myself and also exercise more faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, I continue to see blessings. At the training they asked the question, "If you could write to people 100 or more years in the future, what would you write?" It really got me thinking about what is truly important to me. So much changes in the world but the things that stay the same are of so much value. The Book of Mormon was written for us in this day by people who lived a long time ago, but I know that the values and truths it teaches are of such great worth and I have learned so much from it. In Moroni chapter 10, verse 32 it says

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your

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might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for

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you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by

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the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise

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deny the power of

​ God​.

I love the Book of Mormon and am so grateful for it. I know that there really is so much we can learn from the scriptures that we really can apply in our lives. 

Another really neat experience we had with the Book of Mormon this week was on the street as we talked to a dad and his little girl who was probably around 4 or 5 years old. When we started talking to him, his daughter wasn't right next to him but over playing in a puddle. As we talked with him and had a really interesting conversation, he called his daughter, Zsofi, over and asked what she thought. She didn't say anything at first but then her dad asked her is she new who Christ was. She quiety, in the cutest little voice said "igen." (Which is yes in Hungarian). We showed her a picture of Christ that is in the very beginning of the Book of Mormon and she quietly said again that she knew who Christ was. They happily accepted the Book of Mormon and then had to go, but I will never forget the quiet voice of that cute little girl Zsofi who answered "igen." 

We met with Izabella and her family again and it was great as always. She is so cute and as soon as we get there she excitedly asks "What are we going to learn about today?!" She still feels good about her March 12th baptism date and we are so excited!

That's a good recap of this past week. I hope all is well wherever you may be, and remember "wherever you go...go happy!" Sending lots of love from Nyíregyháza! 

 

​Sok ​

szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér

20 years old!

Hey hey hey! I'm 20 years old today!!! And I am doing just great! My new companion is Jarrett Nővér and she is one of the sweetest and most caring people I have ever met! She is from Utah and has been in the country for 8 months. I can tell that this transfer is going to really push me as we are both still figuring out this language, but I feel so good about it as I really know the gift of tongues is real. 

We have already had the coolest week together. It was so fun to see everyone at transfers. I was able to see everyone I was in the MTC with which was great; except for Greenwook Nővér, which was a little sad. We had our 3 and a half hour train ride back to Nyíregyháza and Jarrett got all moved in on Wednesday night. Our first day together was great and they only get better. We went to the branch house for our lesson with Ica, but we called and found out she was sick. So we took a little trip over to where she lives. She lives in some of the humblest circumstances. It was so good to spend some time with her and read with her. She always makes me so happy! 

After we left, we went to the bus stop. As soon as we walked up this guy approached me and said something like "I've seen you walking around! You are missionaries right?!" I told him yes and we started talking a little bit. We were able to introduce him to the Book of Mormon and even exchanged phone numbers! It was such a cool experience. We also went tracting in the strangest building. Every floor of the building was set up differently, I don't even know how to describe it. Some floors had just the csengős for the doors all together and then other floors we were able to go up to each individual door. 

We had korus which is always a little crazy with Kata, the super enthusiastic choir director. She is always so fun and just always so excited! 

I can't remember if I talked about this last week or not but I think it was last week when it happened. We went tracting, this was still with Wilson Nővér and we found one of the ladies that has been coming to English Class every Thursday! She was telling us about how her little son was sick and she had just put him down for a nap but she asked us to come back sometime! So this week when she came to English Class again, she brought her little son who wasn't sick anymore! He is the cutest little guy. He came in and I started talking to him in Hungarian and then he just started saying words in English! Too adorable! We had fun teaching English class and it went well. Afterwards we were about to walk home when one of the member's good friends who always comes to English class told us to come check out his car. We all piled in and found out he had kareoke set up. In his car. Hahahh funniest thing ever!

On Friday we had kind of an interesting day. It started with a district meeting and we walked into the branch house and found our Elders waiting for us with their ties tied around their heads playing ping pong. They are such fun guys, it was hilarious. We had district meeting and lunch which was good. 

We then went to our program with Erzsébet which I talked about last week but the saddest thing happened, and it broke my heart a little! We went to her building, rang her csengő and she let us right in. But then when we got to the door, she saw us and said she had called and told us not to come and then slammed the door. Probably one of the saddest experiences I've had here! The thing is she never did call and she seemed almost like a different person than the Erzsébet I met a few weeks ago. We will give her a few weeks and see if she is doing better. 

When we were walking back though the funniest thing happened; we were approached by a newspaper reporter who came up and asked us what we think about Valentines Day! I didn't even realize she was a news reporter and I just started talking to her about Valentines Day in the US and she got so excited. She took our picture and then the next day we were in the local newspaper! Hahah so crazy! It definitely helped to cheer us up a little bit.

Saturday was a big day for us. It started with us walking to sport nap and seeing ourselves in the newspaper hanging up in the belváros (town square)! Too funny! Then we played a nice game of basketball in the rain! We went to Valika's (our relief society pres) house and were able to meet with her granddaughter, Néomi again. I love teaching Néomi. She is only eleven years old but so mature and just adorable! I was able to really talk to her about how reading from the Book of Mormon and praying has helped me in my life and how I saw a difference when I started to really do that. I felt the spirit really strongly during the lesson. Afterwards, Valika gave me the biggest hug and went off about how she thinks I should just stay in Nyíregyháza for my whole mission. It was so so cute! She also said something like "Now, I don't usually Skype but if you are a good girl, I will Skype with you after you get home." She is probably also the sassiest néni here, I love it! I think she will be my adopted néni here! 

After we left from Valika's we went to Izabella's. Another one of my favorite nénis here in Nyír. We had a powerful lesson with them as we talked about baptism and I really felt like the lesson was guided by the spirit. I was able to ask her to be baptized on March 12th and she said yes! Such a neat experience. She had the biggest smile on her face and I just felt pure joy! I love this gospel and I love being a missionary here. 

This week I think I realized just how hard the work is her. Of course I knew it before, but as Jarrett Nővér got here and I realized that I was the only one that knew this city and the people here I felt a lot of responsibility. I have really been striving to more fully put my trust in the Lord and rely on Him and I have already seen blessings. I know that we are doing His work so if we really are sincere and prayerful in our actions, He will provide a way. 

This morning was so much fun. The Elders had such a fun day planned! They told me last night that we were just going to go to the mall and help Roberts Elder pick out some new clothes but they showed up to our apartment and told us to come out and we went on a bus I had never been on before. They kept laughing and told me we were going to a different mall, we went to a place out in the middle of nowhere! We had to switch buses at one point and at this bus stop we had the most precious experience. There was a woman standing at the bus stop who helped them figure out where they wanted to go and it was also pouring rain. She said she was headed home and gave us her umbrella. We tried to have her keep it but she insisted! She said she really loves young adults our age and has kids our age. Then we were able to give her a Book of Mormon in return and told her a little bit about it and she started to cry! She was talking about how she is actually having a really hard time in her life right now and it was just so tender. She took a picture with us and I will never forget that little birthday miracle at a rainy bus stop in the middle of no where.

Sending lots of love!!!

​Sok​

 szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér

Happy 20th Birthday!

New Companion - Jarrett Nover

Transfer Calls!

     I'm staying in Nyíregyháza, I'm staying in Nyíregyháza (happy dance)!!! I am so excited!!! We got transfer calls this morning and tomorrow will go to Budapest for the transfer. My current companion if finished her mission and will be going home. 

     It has been another week that has flown by! We spent a lot of time with members this week as Wilson Nővér has been saying goodbye to everyone. We went to Sharika's this week with the Elders and it is always so enjoyable to go there! She is just the cutest and loves singing and dancing with us! Afterwards we waited for the bus for such a long time because it didn't come when we thought it would. We almost just wanted to hitch hike after we had been waiting for 40 minutes in the presence of a crazy dog with rabies on the other side of the fence from us, but luckily the bus came right then! 

     Each week we have gyüli est (branch night) and it's always so great. This week Judít taught the lesson and I just love her. I hadn't really gotten to know her too well until recently when she really took time to talk to me, something that for sure requires patience on their part as I figure out this crazy language. She has such a strong testimony that she has worked really hard to build. Her brother has also been coming back to church a little bit so it has been fun to get to know him as well. 

     We went with the Elders and Dóra to visit Kata this week which was so wonderful. Kata is the choir director who is just absolutely in love with music. When we got there she didn't hear her doorbell so we started singing outside her fence and she came running out and she was so so happy! She even talked about it at church on Sunday and told everyone "The missionaries came over and I knew they were there because they sang to let me know they were there!!!" Oh she just loved it. When we went inside we of course sang with her a little bit and had a great talk about what makes us happy. We asked everyone at choir practice what makes them happy and they said many things but one thing we all had in common was in someway connected to the gospel. I know that the gospel brings true happiness and I think that is such an important question to ponder, "what makes you truly happy?!" I know that the gospel has brought me happiness and it is that happiness that motivates me to do what we do each day, which is share the gospel with everyone! 

     On the way home from Katas we were on a bus and there were only four seats and since we were with Dóra there wasn't enough room for all of us so I went on just the other side of the bus and I'm so happy I did. I found myself surrounded by a néni, her daughter, and her daughter's daughter who was probably around 6 or 7 years old. She pulled out a sticker with Frozen characters on it out of her pocket and I started talking about it with her. It was perfect because I was actually able to talk to her a little bit and it just made me so happy! She reminded me so much of my niece, Leonna, because of how much she loves Frozen and she just got SO excited talking to me about it. It was a simple little conversation but I loved it!

     We went to a few other members this week for lunch which was fun. It is always fun to see people in their homes and get to know them a little better. Valika (our relief society president) invited us over on Friday and taught us how to cook! She was really excited to have us over and she is so fun! I hope I will be at least half as cute as her when I'm a néni someday. She taught us how to make töltöt káposzta which is kind of like little lettuce wraps. She asked me to mix up all the stuff we put inside with my hands and I thought it was so funny because I would always do that for my mom at home when we made meatloaf. I also learned that huncut means perky, because she always calls me that when we go over and its so funny.  Valika also taught us how to make the best Palacsintas (the secret is bubbly water) and we were able to take them to our Palacsinta est we had that night! It was so great. We went home quick after Valika's to finish cleaning for our cleaning checks that we had an hour later and then afterwards went to our Palacsinta est. In the beginning we had a small spiritual message which was really great. They asked me to play a piano solo in the middle of it so I played the Joseph Smith Medley, which never fails to really invite the spirit. It was great and everyone had such a fun time playing games and eating csintas! 

     Sport nap was great again this week and I was on the team with the Hungarians!!! And guess which team won?! That's right, my team won! Haha, it's probably because we had some nice help from Néomi (Valika's granddaughter who we teach) who came for the first time. It was so fun to play with them as I randomly said whatever came to mind in Hungarian as we passed the ball. 

     Church was great as always and every week I just love the members more and more, I didn't even think it was possible to love them even more than I already do! Yesterday was my last working day with Wilson Nővér before she goes home tomorrow, but it was the best one to end on because we had the funniest night! In the afternoon we traveled a bit to visit a lady Wilson knew before and whose mom's funeral we went to last month and its really good that we did. Her name is Enikő and she is so so sweet. We were able to teach her more about the plan of salvation which was perfect for her at this time in her life. 

     In the evening we went to visit Margít with the Elders! Margít grew up here and is probably in her 80's, just to give you some background to what I'm about to tell you about. The other funeral we went to last month was actually for Margít's sister which I know was really hard for her but she is doing a lot better. When we got there Margít was just so excited and went into the other room and when she came back she was holding the largest stack of CD's ever, we couldn't even see her face haha! She then gave us some süti (which was two slices for each of us of some super dry cake) and then promptly left the room again. We were all so confused but then this time when she came back she had 3 huge bags of dress up stuff! It was unreal, we couldn't stop laughing! Then she came around with more süti (we were all so sick of süti already because we had been fed süti at two other houses during the day). Margít happily sang that everyone was going to get 3 more slices! Oh man. Margít was running all around the room and when she wasn't looking I threw two of my süti slices onto Elder Robert's plate right before she turned around again and we all just tried so hard not to laugh! Roberts is the best and I will never forget that. Margít said she just wanted to celebrate Farsang with us, which is a holiday they have towards the end of February celebrating the end of Winter. Before I knew it we were all just sitting around the dinner table, looking at each other with these crazy animal masks on hahah. This country continues to surprise me every day! Margít had so much fun with us and then brought out a bunch of meat later and had us make sandwiches. When we finally left she had gift bags for all of us filled with all kinds of things and insisted that we take the leftover süti, meat, and of course our animal masks!

     I think that sums up this past week. I am excited for another start here in Nyíregyháza with a new companion and can't believe that in less than a week I won't be a teenager!(Hannah turns 20 years old on February 15th). Time sure does fly when your having fun and serving the Lord! 

Hope you all have a happy week and know that I love you! 

Sok ​

szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér

Cooking with Valika! 

More cooking and fun at Palacsinta est

Add caption

Ure Elder wanting to just hitchhike!

This is the poem I was talking about a few weeks ago

Judit - who taught our Gyuli Est

Kata! The member who loves music, and next to her is Ica's son

This is Kristof! The member who wrote in my planner a few weeks ago. He is just the sweetest!

Farsang buli (party) with Margit!

Margit herself, in the bear mask! The night was probably the funniest night of the mission

Splits in Budapest!

     Okay, I know I said last week went by fast but this week went by even faster! It was strange to not have Murdock Elder around this week but last Monday we were able to have one last cereal dinner because that was his favorite haha. We even surprised him with his favorite cereal that you can only get from a store that's about a 15 minutes walk, so he was super excited about that.

   First a funny story that happened tracting this week was with a super nice guy but unfortunately his cats were more interested in our message than he was. He had four cats that came out into the hallway and would not go back into his apartment hahah. I helped him pick up his cats and take them back into his apartment and I just thought it was hilarious! The strangest things can happen when we're tracting. 

      This week we went through some of the numbers on our phone and we actually got invited over to two places and they both happened to be people named Erzsébet! The first Erzsébet was a little unusual, but the second one was so sweet. We spent the first half hour with the unusual one trying to tell her why the elders couldn't come because they were busy and she kept saying "okay I'm going to stop talking now and go get you girls some herbal tea" but then she would sit down again and it would be another 10 minutes of her going on about who knows what. By the time she finally got us the herbal tea we had probably been there for 45 minutes already! After we taught her about the restoration she started to go off about how she thinks everyone in the world is evil. We were finally able to get going and she sent us on our way with the funniest little bag full of random candies, apples, and clementines. I'm not sure if we will be going back there anytime soon haha. 

      We went to visit the other Erzsébet the next day though and it was amazing. She had met with the missionaries last summer but stopped for some reason, I think it was because of some hard things going on in her family. She told us that her mom had recently passed away which was really sad. She told us how she had read almost the whole Book of Mormon and she believed it was true! We ended up giving her another Book of Mormon though because she had given her copy to a friend to borrow because she loved it so much and she hadn't gotten it back yet. I was able to teach her the restoration and we encouraged her to start reading the Book of Mormon. I am excited to go back again this week and see how she is doing.    

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      One morning this week we went to the Hivatal, which is where we needed to go to take care of my residency papers. It took forever and then afterwards we still needed to run around and get a few more papers from our landlord, but that is finally sent in and hopefully I will get the card at some point. 

     Izabella was actually in Ukraine for most of this past week visiting with her son but it gave us a chance to really get to know Iza (her granddaughter) and Viktor (Iza's boyfriend). We taught them about the word of wisdom and at first they talked about how hard it would be to live withoout coffee. We were able to talk about the blessings of the word of wisdom with them and afterwards Viktor (who is usually pretty quiet) said something like "well, it should be easy then!" It was so neat to see them both so excited and motivated. I am excited to see how they are doing and I hope they will really see how the gospel has the power to bless every aspect of our lives. 

     On Thursday and Friday we went to Budapest for splits with the sister training leaders. It was so so fun! On Thursday I actually got to go out to lunch with Vasica (my MTC companion) and Adams Nővér, who is her companion now. They had come to Budapest to do paperwork for Vasica's residency papers. It was so so fun to see her again. For splits, I went out with Levanen Nővér who is one of the wisest people I have ever met! It was so great to get to know her and I am so grateful for the time I was able to spend with her because I learned so much from just being with her for one day. 

     We went tracting in the most run down building I have ever seen. It was being help up with pieces of wood and there was mold everywhere, it was sad to see the living conditions. We were actually let in (from the intercom outside) but we couldn't even find the apartment we were looking for because all of the numbers were wrong or out of order. There was even a radioactive sign on one of the doors and we still aren't sure if that was a joke or not hahah, so we just moved on to the next apartment building. 

     I taught an English class later that night with Levanen Nővér and afterwards we went to dinner with one of the members there. It was actually a really neat experience because at dinner we found out that this member was actually having a really rough time. Levanen Nővér and I were able to share a scripture with him and we bore our personal testimonies about the beauty of repentance. The scripture we shared was Ether 12:37 which says, "And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father." I know that everyone has their own weaknesses in life but that if we work through these, we will be blessed and they will become strong through faith in Jesus Christ. We were able to give him some ideas and by the end of dinner he told us how much he appreciated us talking to him. 

     When we were finished with dinner and walking back, we ran into our mission president and his wife on the street! They were so cute and President was joking around with me and said "transfers are coming soon but I want you to know that it won't be easy, I am going to have you train." And then he just smiled really big and I said I think I'm the one who still needs to be trained. His sweet wife made lunch the next day for the sister training leaders and my companion and I which was really nice. I am so grateful to have such a sweet mission president and wife, I know they really care about all of us! 

     On Saturday morning we went over to Erika's, who hasn't been progressing really all that much, but we wanted to go over one more time before Wilson Nővér goes home. When we got there, she had actually forgot we were coming but gladly had us go inside. Before we even started teaching, the doorbell rang and her friend came in who was there visiting from Ukraine. Her friend came and sat down with us and we were able to introduce her to the Book of Mormon and teach her a little. She was so so happy and kept saying how glad she was that she met us. Unfortunately for us she lives in Ukraine but hopefully she will get in contact with the missionaries there. We gave her a Book of Mormon and the experience really strengthened my testimony about how our Heavenly Father really has a hand in our lives, even down to the timing of situations. 

     Afterwards we had sport nap and then cleaned the branch house which was really way more fun than it sounds like, haha. The Elders figured out that if you take your shoes and socks off while mopping and get the floor wet, you can slide from one side of the room to the other. Leave it up to the Elders! Haha it was too funny. When we finished cleaning we went over to Valika's. She is the R.S. President and we teach her granddaughter Néomi. Valika is probably the funniest néni, she is always joking around with us and is so sarcastic. We were able to teach the plan of salvation to Néomi which went really well. Néomi has been keeping track of when she reads her scriptures and prays and she has been doing great. She gets so excited talking to us about what she's read, and it has been fun to see her get more involved. 

     Yesterday in church I gave a talk! I wrote it last week and I was so nervous to give it but it went really well and people told me afterwards that they enjoyed it; I'm just glad they were able to understand it! 

     I think that is about it for the week. This is my last week with Wilson Nővér because she is going home on the 10th and we get transfer calls a week from tomorrow. I think I will stay here in Nyíregyháza and  get someone new, but we will see what happens. 

I hope you all have a great week. Happy Groundhog's Day tomorrow!

Sok​

 szeretettel, Schoendorfer Nővér

Me and Szabakai Nover!

We took Dora (a YSA in our branch who is working on her mission papers) out with us and she thought my coat hood would be a good spot to keep her water bottle

Dora is tired after tracting with us

Pictures from splits. Sister Lavanen (brown hair) and Sister Hafen (red hair) They are both great!

And a selfie with Szabadkai Nover!

This is my talk that I gave in church last Sunday

It snowed a little bit this week and it was really pretty. 

This is Ica, one fo the sweetest members of our branch!

This is where we went tracting in Budapest

Our crazy Elders ran home to their apartment with bare feet after cleaning the branch house. They said they got so many crazy looks and also some bascis asking them if they were cold