Maradni-- to remain

Dear Everyone,

Transfers are upon us! Sister Orme and I will be staying together another transfer :) I really look foward to this! She has taught me so much, and I really look forward to working more with her. We have had a lot of sad, funny, spiritual, and you-name-it experiences together, so it is nice to know that we will be together another transfer :) So as put in the title of my email: the Hungarian word "maradni" means to remain :) Maradni fogok Miskolcon--- I will remain on Miskolc (yes, "on" Miskolc :)

This last week, we were out tracting near one of the famous castles here in Miskolc, and we found a young little family. The parents have 3 children all under the age of 3! While their living circumstances are very humble, they were very warm and welcoming to us when we came. It was a miracle that 2 of the children were asleep when we arrived and the little newborn (1 1/2 months old) was very calm. It was a great environment to invite the Spirit and really get to know the family. The 2 year old woke up part way through the lesson, but it was amazing to see that as we all prayed together, the little boy (2 year old) knew exactly what was going on--- he folded his arms, bowed his head, and meaningfully said "amen" at the end of the prayer! It was so obvious that this family really is involved with their relationship with God. We really look forward to going back to teach them next week. We believe that we were led to this family for a reason, and we feel it an honor that we have the opportunity to teach this family about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last week was really great. We started teaching our English classes again, and had some really neat people in attendance that we will be meeting with personally. Edina is still working hard to obtain a testimony of Jesus Christ, and it is such a special experience to assist her with this. It is teaching me so much! It causes me to reflect on my own testimony of Jesus Christ and how I have felt His hand in my life--- the strength of my relationship with Him. We also went back to teach that old woman that I mentioned a couple weeks ago that we met on the bus, but then miraculous found her when we were tracting in a 10-story. She was actually quite sick when we got there, but we were able to talk a bit about the Restoration. Although she is very Catholic, I think this will actually go somewhere :) She is a very sweet woman. We are working hard to find people to teach and to teach with the Spirit those we have already found. We had a good experience streeting yesterday after church. We met a lot of really sweet people, and we were able to give away one Book of Mormon to a man that we will be setting up with to meet with this week. So all in all, it was a really good week :)

Yesterday for church, we had District Conference here in Miskolc. So it included all of the members from Miskolc, Eger, Debrecen, and Nyiregyháza. An area 70 (Elder Matti T. Jouttenus) joined us, as well as our mission president and his wife. It was a wonderful conference. I participated in a musical number with some other missionaries, and it turned out really nice even though I only had maybe a 1/2 hour of good practice time together. Since my mission president and his wife will be wrapping up their work here this summer, it was really special to hear them bear their testimonies to the Hungarians in our area. They were very heartfelt and full of love. Following the actual conference meeting, food was provided for everyone in attendance, and there was an additional little meeting for new converts and investigators. Our sweet Edina was there, so our branch president got to talk about her and introduce her to everyone else. She loved it. It was so neat to see all of the new converts and investigators that made it out to the conference.

Well, here's saying good-bye to this transfer, and hello to a new one! The work is going great, and we are working hard to fulfill our calling as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is true!

Love,
Kimball nővér

Surprises :)

Our washer kind of broke, so we had to scoop water out of it with jars and bowls!















Dinner with the Elders on Elder Jackson's birthday :)















Making dinner for the elders with a giant wooden spoon!
















The pinata we made for Elder Jackson's surprise birthday party :)














On the main street of Miskolc


















Me and two darling little girls :)










Dear Everyone,

This last week was consecration week, so the mission had the goal to get as many referrals as possible, and to get as many investigators and RCLA's (Recent Converts/Less Actives) in church as possible. It was a great week :) Here is a portion of my email to my mission president this week:

"Things are going well here in Miskolc :) It's quite ironic that during consecration week, we got 0 referrals and 0 investigators at church. BUT our efforts weren't wasted since we got 7 RCLA's to church and we made a great breakthrough with one of our investigators that has been investigating for almost a year now! It's great to know that at the end of a week, we have the opportunity to report to the Lord on our efforts. And even when we see where our flaws and mistakes were in the last week, we get to repent and do better the next week. So all in all, things are going well in Miskolc and we are seeing progress :)

We've never had problems with our elders here, but this last week, we were able to develop deeper friendships with the elders that we have been wanting since we got to Miskolc. It was one of the elders birthdays, so Sister Orme and I planned a surprise birthday party for the branch game night on Friday, and then last night, we made dinner for the elders at the church and brought cake. So we had a couple good birthday celebrations. It was neat to see how a little extra effort and showing love towards the elders made a world of difference. Again, we never had problems with them, but we are now on a level of friendship that makes both myself and Sister Orme happy and grateful :) This concept of just putting in a little more effort I think applies to everything in missionary work as we always want to be pushing ourselves and our investigators. We get out of things what we put into them, and as I try to apply this concept better this week, I have faith that the Lord will continue to work miracles here in Miskolc and we'll see more progress :) "

Again, it was a great week :) We really tried to get better numbers for the referrals and number of investigators at church, however, things went a different way :) We just saw success in different areas of the work. It was also fun celebrating Elder Jacksons birthday :) Sister Orme and I made a pinata for the Friday night party, and we ate some good food on Sunday that we prepared... it was good :) There was also a holiday this last week, so we had a Super P-Day. On that day, Orme nővér and I got to walk around the city and see some cultural booths with handiwork, and we ate some yummy Hungarian bakery items. It was a really nice day :) However, the holiday was actually three day thing, so when we got back to work the next day, all of the public transportation was on a different schedule--- and we didn't know! So we ended up needing to cancel programs because we couldn't get to the homes of these people :( That was very sad. But this next week, we will get to see those people, so all should be well :)

We watched Finding Faith in Christ with another investigator this last week. So that was my second time seeing it here on the mission. It is so good! I remember watching it as a family once. It's really something special, and it's neat to see the way the film touches the lives of our investigators. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that this is His true church restored to the earth once again. I know that it is through the Atonement of Him that we can repent and progress and make it back to the presence of our Father in Heaven after this life. We are so blessed to have this knowledge and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives!

Well, the weather is getting better and better here :) We shouldn't be seeing anymore snow. However the rain is on its way! I am told that we should be receiving a lot of rain in April. I am so excited! I love all of the different seasons that we are blessed with at home and here in Hungary (even though I haven't experienced them all yet). I can't imagine living in a place where it is always hot or always cold. It is the opposition in the seasons that causes me to love all of the seasons. So now that we are wrapping up a beautiful winter, I look foward to getting into this springtime season. It's going to be great :)

I wish you all a wonderful week :) Go make someone smile!

Sok szeretettel,
Kimball nővér

My Side of the Ocean

Me, Edina, and Sister Orme at Mives (Tibor's cafe)
















My hot chocolate (73% chocolate with raspberries! yum!)














Me and Marika néni with her kézi munka (handiwork)


















Us, trying to find people in the little village of storage units!



















Tibor, Me, Edina, and Sister Orme in Mives (Tibor's place)











Dearest Everyone,

How is everyone?!?! I hope you are all just doing wonderfully :)

Yes, our church is now officially recognized in Hungary!!! I actually didn't know before that it wasn't.... how did I miss that? But yeah, this is really an incredible thing :) There used to be only 14 different churches recognized in Hungary, but they recently added 18 more churches to the list, us being one of them. So now there are 32 authorized churches here :) What a blessing that we are recognized now! And it is really neat that Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming this week to meet with the embassy people and so on. I look forward to seeing how this helps the church grow here :)

Things are going great here in Miskolc :) The work is still having a rough start, but it is moving. My companion and I actually picked up our very first 2 investigators together, that we, ourselves, found :) That is exciting. We have been teaching investigators that other missionaries found, but now we have some we found! The mission standard is to get 2 new investigators every week, so we hope to continue doing that and maybe even get Super Standard one of these weeks! So yeah, the work is coming slowly but surely :) We typically go out streeting and knocking on doors for at least 2 hours every day. This week, we have plans to go "tabling" and targeting families. So we will set up a table on the main walking street somewhere for a few hours and have Books of Mormon, The Family proclamation, pass-along cards that talk about families, and so on, and we will just talk to as many families as possible! Then since we are taking a little break from teaching English, we are going to go out and "flier" like crazy to advertise our English class. We will hopefully get a lot of young adults to come. The youth and young adults here really want to learn English because it helps them with getting jobs. So yeah, we have some nice plans for this week and the week to come :)

Here is just a little something that I sent to my mission president that you might like to read too (it is just part of my weekly email to him):

"It has been a rough few weeks in Miskolc as we have been trying to get things rolling (find people to teach and getting the ward involved in the missionary work). But I have been grateful for my companion and her desire to just keep pushing forward and not losing hope. We have been a great team as we have been striving to find people and be good examples to the branch members. In the last few weeks, we have been blessed to develope some great relationships with branch members, including the branch president. Yesterday we saw the most people in church than we have seen since being here! Almost all of the seats in Relief Society were filled, and we went into over time in Fast and Testimony meeting because so many people wanted to share their testimonies. It was incredible. While we are still working hard to find people to teach, I am grateful for the time I have right now to really focus on the relationships we have with the branch members. I believe that what it states in our mission purpose is true. It is two fold. We are not here just for the investigators or just for the wards and branches. The are both connect so strongly! I know that the Lord has something great in store for Miskolc. We may not know what it is now, but as we continue to work hard and not lose hope, the work will indeed start rolling. It is like the story of the the man and the rock. (I don't really know this story, but I will give it a try.)
God came to a man and gave him instruction to go push on a big rock/boulder with all of his might. The man faithfully went out to the boulder that had been shown to him, and he began pushing. He pushed with all of his might, from sun-up to sun-down, and then returned to his home to rest for the night. He did this again and again for a few days. When he felt that all of his strength was spent and he noticed that the boulder hadn't budged even the slightest, he cried unto the Lord, wondering why he couldn't fulfill this task. The Lord then told him, "I never told you to move the rock, I just told you to push it. And now you are stronger. The muscles in your arms, back, and legs have been made more firm and strong for pushing on the rock. You have done what I asked you to do."
Okay, so that probably isn't really how the story goes, but I like it. I feel that my companion and I are being made stronger as we continue to work hard here in Miskolc. And I like to think that one day, the Lord will help us move the rock (he's already helping us, little by little), and the work will start rolling here. I am grateful to be here, and again, I am grateful to have a companion that is full of hope and faith and is there right along side me as we do this work together."

There are definately funny that happen to us as missionaries, haha. For example, the other day, we were out knocking on doors trying to find someone to share our message with. We eventually ended up on hill, and we were surrounded by all of these cute little homes. It was very quiet, and we didn't really see anyone. But we still knocked on a few doors. Eventually we did see someone at their home, way up on the hill! We tried to share our message with him, but he didn't have time. But then we found out that all of the little homes were actually storage units! It was so funny, haha. No wonder no one was answering the door, haha :)

There was a neat experience this week as we were meeting with one of our investigators. She has been meeting with missionaries for a long time, and we have been praying to figure out what her needs are to help her get on track for baptism. She has already had all of the lessons! Well, this last week, we felt prompted to give her the "First Lesson" about the restoration of the church. Just as we were getting into the lesson, talking about dispensations and Christ's ministry, she confided in us that she doesn't have a testimony of Jesus Christ! What a major break through! Before meeting with the missionaries, she had never read the Bible. Now she soaks the Bible up and prays fervently and has developed a good relationship with Heavenly Father. Yet, she has missed the importance of having Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. We are still pushing to get her to read the Book of Mormon as much as she does the Bible (if not more). So anyway, the Lord really blessed us as we came to learn of her need. She is on the first step in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End). Now we are praying that we can do all we can to help her develop this testimony and faith in Jesus Christ.

Last little spiritual note: I was reading this week in Alma about the counsel that he is gives to his sons. Multiple times, he refers back to his experience with the angel and then being born again through Christ. I love that story! I remember reading it a week ago in Mosiah, but there is just something about reading it from his own point of view as he is speaking with his sons that just hit me with the Spirit. We all need to have this personal experience of being born again---- spiritually being born again. We won't all see angels and go through the exact same thing Alma experienced, and for some it takes a lot longer to have this change of heart. I am so grateful to be on this mission in Hungary. As I am focusing on others and try to do what I can to help them, I know that the Lord is chipping away at those parts of me that need to be done away with it.


I wish all of you a fabulous week! Go make someone smile :)

Love,
Kimball nővér