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