I have had such a crazy fun week last week!
On Wednesday, my good friend, Becca Adamson, came to visit!!!! (She was on of my roommates my sophomore year at BYU.) She has been doing a study-abroad in Vienna and was coming down to Hungary for a few days. President gave me permission to see her, and so we met up on Wednesday. It actually started off a little shaky. We were supposed to meet by a metro stop, but Sister Johnson and I waited and waited and waited and she didn't show. And we didn't have a telephone number or anything for them so we didn't really have any other option. After about half an hour, we got a call from a strange number. It was Becca! They were at a nearby McDonald's, using Skype or something to call us. We ran over there (relieved that they were okay). As we walked towards the McDonald's, I saw Becca outside and we ran and hugged. She was with two friends from her study abroad and the five of us went to lunch together. It was super fun to catch up! Then, Sister Johnson and I showed them our favorite little store (handmade books) and then we walked across the bridge to Buda. We showed them a great view of the city, then Sister Johnson and I walked to the mission home and back to missionary work. It was definitely fun to see Becca! It was kind of weird at the same time because my two lives (mission and normal) were sort of colliding. The interesting thing was that I am still McKenna, but I am Sister Kramer, too. And, I realized, that I am very happy with my life here. I am very grateful for this opportunity to take a break from normal life and to be a missionary.
Another super fun thing that happened this week was... SUPER PDAY!!! March 15th is a MAJOR holiday here in Hungary (one of the three national holidays). It celebrates the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Basically, everybody gets the day off work, there are some political talks, and everyone celebrates being Hungarian. We all wore these little ribbons on our chests to show Hungarian pride. Sister Johnson and I spent the day with the APs. In their car, we drove all the way to the Balaton (this giant lake in Hungary and another point of Hungarian pride and love) and visited this cute little town (called Tihany) overlooking it. The APs brought their whips (a Hungarian mission tradition) and taught me how to crack the whip. I didn't do it at first, but with a little practice and determination, I learned two different ways to crack the whip! It was pretty exciting :P It was pretty funny, too, because we had a crowd of people watching us (weeeell, mostly watching the APs, since they could do really cool things with the whips). It was lots of fun. Then, we headed over to a castle. Super cool. And then we had dinner in Veszprem (a BEAUTIFUL city near all of this). I was so glad we were able to do all of that because we went to areas that I will never have the opportunity to serve in (as a sister). So, it was super fun :) (See the approximately 100 pictures I took from that day haha)
So, there were all of those crazy events, but we were still able to do great missionary work! Our other days were kind of crazy busy actually because we had to pack all of our programs into just a few working days.
We had a super great program with a man named Csaba. We have been meeting with him for awhile, teaching him about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation in English. We have good conversations but he has been having a hard time connecting the discussion to action, or even seeing why it matters. We knew that he was missing that connection and had planned to talk to him about the steps Jesus Christ showed us to take in this lifetime (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end), hoping that it would help. As we started the lesson, though, we felt prompted to talk about prayer instead. We talked about prayer and it came out that Csaba still wasn't sure if God existed!!! (Kind of a roadblock to accepting that He has a plan for us or reveals that plan through scriptures and prophets!!!) In such a great lesson, we challenged him to pray and ask God if He is there this week. He said he would and said that he is excited. We talked about how such knowledge is life-changing. When we realize God exists, we want to know more about Him and what He wants. I was able to share some experiences in my life that have helped me feel God's love for me personally and to know that He truly is our loving Heavenly Father.
This week has just been full of exciting moments-- Sister Johnson and I sang in church yesterday. (Hopefully, a video of the song (that we recorded later at home) will get uploaded to my blog. This past week had a special goal of getting people to church. Sister Johnson and I thought of singing a song to help our investigators come. We didn't have anyone to accompany us, though, and weren't sure what to do. We tried singing alone, but it was kind of boring. Then, Sister Johnson had the genius idea of trying to figure out something on her guitar. She had tried earlier in the week without much success, but we were desperate (it was Saturday at this point). She said a prayer and then miraculously figured out a beautiful guitar thing in the next half hour. And it went GREAT! We actually had a lot of people (including all of the senior missionaries) come to church! So yay!
Anyways, this transfer is almost done. I cannot believe how fast time is flying! We will get calls next Monday telling us what our future is. It is almost guaranteed that I will leave Kispest. I have very mixed feelings about this. I love the city. I love love love the people here. But I know whatever happens will be for the best (for me and the people here).
I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Love,
Kramer Nővér aka McKenna
No comments:
Post a Comment