Another week (9?)

Hello all!

Time is FLYING! I cannot believe that I am in my NINTH week in the MTC! To put this in perspective, I have gone through three English transfers and one foreign language transfer. I leave in less than three weeks!! Crazy! I will start my Consecration Week (an MTC tradition where you speak only your mission language (mine being Hungarian obviously) for an entire week before you leave) one week from today! Bahhhh! I am excited though! I go to Hungary in less than three weeks!!!!!!!!

Fun news from my tiny world:

-We had ANOTHER apostle come and speak to us! We are on a roll!! I am totally okay with them making this tradition, though, haha. We had Elder Russell M. Nelson come and speak at our devotional last night. Like all devotionals, it was great! I learned so much! The Choir sang "Lilies of the Field" (which some of you will remember I have sung in church with Rachel and Kylee) before he spoke. Quite a beautiful song. And then he spoke exclusively about the Book of Mormon. The church had put out a special issue of the Ensign/Liahona this month entirely dedicated to the Book of Mormon. Elder Nelson told us that he wanted us all to have one, and, in fact, we were all given one last Thursday with the challenge of reading it by Sunday. It is great! It has testimony from each of the Twelve and personal experiences and history timelines and so much more about the Book of Mormon. I highly suggest you all read it! What really came across to me is how lucky we are to have the Book of Mormon. It is a gift from God. For those who don't know, Joseph Smith didn't write the Book of Mormon. Rather, he translated ancient writings from the prophets in America. It's a companion to the Bible and it is GREAT. It is the foundation for all we believe. Anyways, Elder Nelson spoke of the importance of the Book of Mormon as the foundation of our religion. You know the BOM is true and you know Joseph Smith was a prophet who saw God and the church is true. And the cool thing is? Everyone can know for themselves if it is true by reading the book, thinking about it, and asking God. So I challenge you all to read from the Book of Mormon every day! That book has POWER to change lives for good!

-Daybell Testver left this past Saturday :( Sad day. I know that he is doing the right thing for his family, though, so that is okay. After class on Saturday, during which we begged for story after story and thought after thought from Daybell Testver, we took pictures and drank sparkling cider. I don't know if Daybell Testver realized how much we all loved him. He was definitely one of the best teachers I have ever had and taught me so much. Half the class cried after we left the room for lunch (we tried not to cry in front of him). We were able to give him a fun gift, though. Johnson Nover is a really great artist, so she drew a cartoon version of our district and teachers (uncanny resemblances, I promise). Each of us wrote a personal note on the back and then laminated it for Daybell Testver. It was personal and neat. In my note, I included a note I had translated for him, "Mindig amikor egy csengo megkondul, egy angyal kapja szarnyait." It means "Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." Baha. One day in class, we went around in a ciricle telling a story (in Hungarian) about Peter a Sarkany. (Peter the dragon). It was to help with our "umms." I can't remember if I told you all about this, but basically the elders said Peter was sad because he couldn't fly and died. Then it was the sisters turns. Christensen Nover said he was resurrected. I said he was happy now because an angel gave him wings and he could fly now. And then the story ended happily. Daybell Testver couldn't remember the word for wings at the time, though. So, I wrote that sentence to always help him remember :P

-Another fun story! Daybell Testver was our investigator "Mate" and on Friday, during our last lesson with Mate, Christensen Nover and I challenged him yet again to be baptized. (Not because it was our last lesson, btw, but the timing just worked out really well.) We had asked him to be baptized a few times before and he responded with he had already been baptized and then he just wanted to learn more first (he didn't feel ready) on those occasions. This time, we bore our testimonies about the importance of baptism and then challenged him to pray about it right there. It was so special. He asked God if it was what he should do. After the prayer, he told us his heart was pounding and that he knew baptism was important. He told us he wanted to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christensen Nover and I were so excited, we could NOT stop grinning! After the lesson, we did a happy dance in the hallway! It is so NEAT to be an instrument in God's hands in helping people come to know their Savior personally and helping them take the right steps!

-The four of us Hungarian sisters want to try out to sing in a devotional or fireside. We were thinking maybe the Olive Tree? If anyone has any great suggestions for a song, send them my way this week! (With the music, too, if you have it!)

-We have been hanging out with Elder Jennei (the elder FROM Hungary) a lot and it is so cool to talk to him! He is totally willing to just talk and talk about Hungary! And he told us our Hungarian is really good! That is comforting to hear. While my Hungarian is nowhere near perfect, at least a real Hungarian can understand me when I talk! Yay!

Anyways, sorry to all those I wasn't able to write this week. I've been a little sick, so when I have free time (never really) I've been trying to sleep to feel better. I WILL write you all back though! I love hearing from all of you! Anyone, feel free to write with questions, stories, whatever

Love you all!

-McKenna aka Kramer Nover