Hello all!
We have had a BUSY week. (What's new? :P)
Some highlights:
Met with a totally golden investigator-- she is actually the friend of the one Hungarian elder serving in Hungary (he is originally from Debrecen). He had asked us for her number last week and was able to meet with her in his city and give her a Book of Mormon and tell her to meet with us. We called her up after that and she seemed super excited to meet. We met with her with Dori (our awesome member) and the program went great! Rózsa is a super smiling, friendly 20 year old studying to be a nurse. We were able to talk about God's help with her and how the gospel makes us happy. She loved it! And she is so awesome! She already has a strong belief in God. She prays. But she is looking for something more. (We told her we could help her with that!) She has been reading the Book of Mormon and has already read up to 2 Nephi. She said she reads it every night because it makes her feel so good. And then at the end of the lesson, she asked about baptism! We will see where it goes (I mean, we've only met her once) but she seems very prepared!
We had a cool experience with the senior sisters. We often go with them to look up the inactive young sigle adults. This past time, we went to a couple of the addresses we had and the people there had moved or went home. Undiscouraged, we talked to those living there now and left newsletters at the others'. Sister Watts and I had a scheduled program with an investigator that we needed to get to, but I felt impressed to look up one last person with the sisters. I had a list of all of the names we were focusing on and I had already pulled out a few names to look up. However, I felt like we should go look up this last person that wasn't on my list of people to look up that day. His name just kept coming into my mind. So, we drove out to the outskirts of the city and pulled up to his house.... which was dark and empty. Totally anti-climatic haha. But I pulled out the newsletter and begin to write a note on it, expressing that we would like to meet with this young man sometime, planning on coming back in the vague future to check on him again. As I was sitting there writing, a car pulled up near ours. I finished my note, hopped out of the car, and went to put it in the mailbox. However, as I was stuffing it in, the woman from the car called out, "Can I help you?" I went over to talk to her and turns out she was the young man's mother, just arriving home from work. She was able to tell us that he doesn't live there anymore and gave us his current address and phone number. It was just one of those cool little moments where the timing worked out just right! In this situtation, we would've been totally justified in going back to the branch house, since we had the program. However, I followed the feeling I had and we showed up at the exact time that his mother did. I guess some people would call that coincidence, but I have seen way too many "coincidences" in my life. We were talking with the senior missionaries about how many small miracles we see in our lives. They were saying that the longer you are around, the more you see God's hand in your life. I really believe that God cares about this work and these people! It is awesome :)
Saturday was super busy. We last-minute went to a baptism over in Nyírigeháza. We had invited an investigator who is thinking about baptism to go, but his schedule conflicted with the time. However, he called us before the baptism and told us that his schedule had cleared up and he would love to go and check it out. We were able to rearrange our own afternoon and we headed on over to Nyíregyháza Saturday afternoon with our investigator, Tamás, and Dori. We had a nice train ride (complete with Oreo Milka chocolate... yum :D) and arrived about half an hour before the service started. When we arrived at the branch house, though, the elders came up to me and told me that they needed me to play the piano. They said they had been praying for someone all week that could play the piano (since their normal pianist couldn't come) and then I unexpectedly showed up! And I can "play" the piano (at least better than anyone else there!). The thing is--- I am still not THAT great of a pianist haha. And they had already picked the songs-- both of which were ones I didn't know. However, I had a few minutes, so I went and practiced up until the baptism. And the great thing is-- it went fine! I really felt God's help with that, too-- I learned two new songs from the hymnbook in a record amount of time for me. And played tons of prelude music and stuff. And it all worked out :) Again, maybe a small thing to some, but I am sure it mattered to the girl getting baptized. And I sure appreciated the extra help :D (And, btw, our investigator totally loved the baptism-- told us that he felt that same feeling he gets when he reads the Book of Mormon-- that calm peaceful feeling where everything else fades away. We told him that was the Spirit!)
Ironically enough, that experience at the baptism prepared me for Sunday, when I showed up to church and was told I would be playing the piano in sacrament meeting that day haha. Thankfully, I had the option of using the easy hymnbook, so that wasn't stressful at all (if you all haven't noticed, I have been emergency asked to play the piano a LOT on my mission! I am kind of getting used to it.) I had a busy sacrament meeting, as I was also translating for the seniors (so I would scurry back and forth from the piano bench to the congregation) and Greaves Elder and I sang a special musical number (which went very well! Greaves Elder and I are so used to singing together after all of our time in the MTC together... we were able to whip something up really quick (which was good, seeing as they asked us on Friday to do it!)). We also had a cool moment during Primary. Actually, no kids showed up, but we were able to have an awesome conversation with the Primary teacher, who used to be branch president once upon a time. He told us about how some things have happened to make his testimony struggle and how he still is here, but it is harder than it was. It was actually really cool that we were able to talk to him (I had never really had the opportunity to talk about more than the niceties with him before) because both Sister Watts and I had life experiences that really fit some of his problems. Also, found out that he has been to Connecticut! I guess his job takes him there sometimes? (Mom and Dad, I gave him your phone number, and told him to look you all up sometime while he is there.) Just more testimony about how God puts us in the right place at the right time to help someone. That was strengthened even more in sacrament meeting, when Sister Cummings, one of the speakers, spoke directly about some of this man's concerns, without even knowing their existence or about our conversation. She talked about how as people, we don't know everything and about how faith is a choice. But when we choose to believe in God and follow him, we are so so blessed.
Last highlight from Sunday-- totally fed three times. It was awesome! Had lunch at the senior sisters with an investigator and Dori, went to a members' house and were able to give an awesome object lesson (the kids really liked it-- it was messy and fun :D One of them said, "This is way better than the elders!" haha. We told them if we came again, we would try to bring a comparably fun lesson, but no guarantees that they would be able to get their hands dirty again :P), and then we met with a new lady that we had just met that day after church. This cute little néni walked into church right after sacrament meeting ended, wondering when our church started. We told her that she had just missed it, but offered to meet with her before next Sunday. She asked if we were free that day and so we scheduled her in after our other programs. We went to her house, where we had a sweet little program about families and the Book of Mormon. And then she unexpectedly fed us, too! She was a cute lady, who totally loves her family. She also apparently is from a really old family in Debrecen. She had lots of old pictures about her ancestors, who had been mayors of Debrecen when there was still a king. So that was neat :)
I know that this email is already super long, but there is one last important thing I need to write about. This one is kind of sad actually. Sister Watts got a phone call from President Smith a couple of days ago informing her that she will be Emergency Transferred. There is a sister in Kispest who is having some more serious medical problems, and, as Sister Watts is the misison nurse, President wanted her to go and take care of this sister. So, on Thursday after Zone Conference in Budapest (we have a general authority coming), Sister Watts is going to leave and I am going to get a new companion-- Sister Behunin. Total craziness. I didn't actually think I would have another companion on my mission. And it is totally sad, since Sister Watts and I have been doing awesome work and get along really well. But, I know she will be able to help the other sister out and I have been telling her how awesome Kispest is (for those of you who don't remember, that was my very first area in Hungary). So it will be okay :) I don't know much about Sister Behunin yet, except that she is really short, a rock climber, and sings really well. I will give you more details next week!
Anyways, I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Kramer Nővér aka McKenna
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