My Very Last Email as a Missionary (dum dum duuuuum)

Hey all!

Totally weird to be writing my very last email!  I honestly kept forgetting that I was going home this past week.  I would keep telling all of our investigators, "Next time we meet...." and my companions would just look at me haha :P  But it has been an awesome week full of miracles!

I will keep it short, but basically we had a lot of awesome programs with new people!  (Totally got to go whipping during one of them :P)  We had an awesome program with Éva, the girl from the train, who we had met once before and had felt something in our last program.  This time, she explained that we had answered a lot of questions she had had for years.  She started crying as she talked to us about it.  She also told us how she had remembered during a hard time this week what we had said about finding answers through reading the scriptures.  She read a little bit from the Bible and took time to think about her program and totally recieved an answer!  This is awesome, seeing as when we first met, she wasn't even sure she believes in God!  Anyways, it was an awesome program.  We talked to her about baptism, too, and she knows it is the goal!  She told me that I kept making her cry, though (I kept bearing my testimony about the gospel and about how God loves her)!  She told me how much she will miss me because she really feels like we are connected because I am the one that found her on the train (she is sure it was not just coincidence... I agree!).  Anyways, total bummer that I won't be around for her growth, but I know she is in good hands.  I am so glad that Sisters Behunin and Roney are taking care of my much-loved Debrecen!

I was able to go to a baptism this past week, too.  Some investigators from the city over came and used our building.  But it was really nice.  I actually felt like it was a small gift from God on one of the last days I had as a missionary.  Just to even partake in it was so great and I reflected a lot on how special we all are to God.  There are no ordinary people.  We all have the opportunity to make covenants and come closer to God.  We all can do extraordinary things!

We also had the ward Christmas party, where we three performed a LOT of barely practiced (but successful!) musical numbers.  Sister Behunin and I also performed in church: follow this link for a later recording of the song!

Anyways, I think normally people's last emails are usually shorter and mostly about going home?  I don't know, I am just kind of still obsessed with my mission life :P  I love the people here so much!  It was so surreal on Sunday to say goodbye to my branch and my companions.  All the members patted and kissed me and told me how much they would miss me.  They even recited a poem in church for me haha.  I also had to say goodbye to my awesome awesome companions!  (President had me go up with four elders to Budapest last night.)  That was totally lame because we got along so well!  We seriously must have been the most functional and drama-free threesome ever!  I love those girls to death!

Anyways, not much else to share.  I have been in Budapest today at a Christmas zone conference.  I shared my departing testimony... again haha.  But I really just felt so much appreciation for my mission.  I have loved my mission.  I love the people here.  I love this country.  I love the gospel.  I know that my time here is done, though.  I am excited to use this as a springboard for the rest of my life!  I really think I will be able to trace all good things after this to my mission.  This has been the best decision I ever made!

I was told to send kisses and greetings to my family!  Puszillak!

See you family TOMORROW!  "Come what may and LOVE IT!"

Love,

Kramer Nővér (soon to be McKenna)

Merry Christmas!

Hello all!

I was going to send you all Christmas postcards with a little message... but I totally ran out of time.... sooo instead I am going to send my Christmas card this year by email (see attached pictures for lots of Christmas cheer).

I was watching the Christmas devotional and loved this line:

ˇWhether we have experienced 9 Christmases or 90, still we are all children- we are all children of our Heavenly Father." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Let's all take the time this year to remember the gifts that God has given us!

I am so grateful for all of you and your love and support!

Happy Holidays!

Love,

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

Living in a Winter Wonderland :)

Well, it has been quite the week!  (Definitely feels like it has been longer just one week, so much has happened!)  This week has been great!

Sister Behunin and I welcomed a new member to our companionship (haha sounds like we gave birth or something).  Anyways, last Wednesday, Sister Roney joined us.  (And, sidenote: Elder D'Angina left and Elder Greaves got a greenie!  Fun!)  It has been so great, though!  Well, honestly, it was a little weird at first, since we are all super capable, functioning missionaries (we think it might be what it feels like to serve in America?  Minus the third companion maybe :P)  Anyways, we have all served for awhile, can express ourselves well in Hungarian, and know how to be missionaries.  It has been so fun teaching in lessons, since we all are able to contribute a lot!  We had to work a little bit more in the beginning to figure out the balance (and the sleeping situtation-- we weren't actually set up in our apartment to have three people haha), but I think it is coming together quite nicely :)  And we all get along so well, that it has just been a blast!  We tend to laugh a LOT together :)  I am so okay with this!  

We went up to Budapest to pick up Sister Roney.  Before we met up with her, I was able to meet with some members from Kispest (my very first area) for just a little bit.  Do you all remember Orsi?  She was my very first investigator to get baptized and I love her and her family very much (Sister De Leon and I actually spent Christmas Eve at their house last year).  Anyways, her mom and I planned to meet up in Budapest while I was there.  Sister Behunin and I took an incredibly early train to get to Budapest (it was quite beautiful, though, to watch the Hungarian countryside in the early morning... especially as it was snowing the whole time!).  We got off at the train station, where the little family was waiting for us.  The fun catch?  The little girls didn't know we were coming!  We walked towards them and they saw us and kind of did the, "Do I know you?" glance, then started and ran towards me and gave me giant hugs.  I was able to hug all of them and talk with them for quite a bit.  It was such a special experience for me to see and talk to these people I loved so much!

Then I was able to go the train station and see a lot of my mission "family".  That was also really special!  I saw lots of people from my old districts (like Sister Hardy and our elders!).  We grabbed lunch one last time at Trofea's (the Hungarian buffet) and visited while we ate.  It was so weird that I was saying goodbye for who knows how long, but I am so glad I was able to see them!  I am so glad that I have had the privilege of making such amazing friends on my mission :)

Anyways, we brought Sister Roney back to Debrecen and it has been golden since.

We have had a lot of awesome (and slightly untraditional) programs this week-- from playing the game "Ninja" with our branch president's family to singing Christmas carols with the senior couple and ward members to eating dinner with some of our favorite investigators to cutting snowflakes with a neighbor girl, we've had quite the week!  (But do not worry, we've taught the gospel a lot, too!)

We actually have had the opportunity to meet quite a few new people this week, which has been awesome.  We were able to set up with this girl I talked to on the train ride back from Budapest a month ago when I picked up Sister Behunin.  This girl was very friendly, nice, and receptive, but busy, as currently she is getting her PhD in Psychology.  However, we were finally able to meet with her this past week and it went really well!  She had a somewhat religious upbringing, but due to hard things in her life, finds it hard to believe in God.  We talked about how much God loves us and how hard things are part of His plan for us to grow.  She seemed really interested in what we were saying and at the end told us that she had a lot of feelings that she couldn't express just then because she would probably start crying.  We talked to her about how one way God communicates with us is through our feelings.  She told us that she would write down how she felt and share it with us next time!  I will keep you updated :)

Tomi (who we have been meeting with for awhile) told us that if he wasn't Catholic, he would be a Mormon.  Success... of a sort?

We've had this awesome opportunity to meet with our neighbors a couple of times.  There is a cute little family (mom, dad, young teenage boy, and 6 year old girl) that lives right above us.  Last week, they were putting Christmas lights up on the house and we got to talking and they invited us over to breakfast.  We went over there on Saturday and got to know them better (beforehand, we had just said "hi" in passing) and shared a spiritual message about the importance of remembering Christ at Christmastime.  It went great!  The family told us that they hadn't really talked to any of the missionaries since the first sisters moved into that apartment about 3 or 4 years ago.  They told us that they had really appreciated how friendly we were!  (Small lesson on the power of just smiling at someone and saying hi!)  We had a good discussion about religion... but we had to cut it short because we were already late for our sport ward activity (ended up playing soccer... in the snow... quite European :P).  However, it worked out perfectly because we set up to come back the next day (yesterday) and talk more about their questions (and teach their little girl how to cut snowflakes like she had seen in our windows).  The next day was great--- they are a very sweet, friendly family and we had a lot of fun playing with the little girl (who made us necklaces out of paper.... quite fashionable!) and talking to the family about the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  I hope that they continue to meet with the sisters!

Yesterday, Sunday, I also gave a twenty minute talk in church.  I talked about how special each of us are to God.  I had a couple of members come up to me afterwards and thank me specially for what I said.  They told me it was exactly what they needed to hear!  It was so neat for a few reasons!  One, it is so plain cool that it is not even a big deal to speak in Hungarian in front of a bunch of people anymore.  I really have grown so much in just the language.  Two, it was so awesome that I was able to use that language to be a tool in God's hand and say exactly what someone needed to hear!  Yay for missions :)  We missionaries also sang a special musical number in church.  If I say so myself, it was soo good!  Greaves Elder's greenie has a good bass voice, so we were able to make a four-part harmony with Sister Roney on the piano (advantage to being in a threesome!).  We sang "Angels We Have Heard On High".  Totally made some people tear up :P  But, seriously, it was a great sacrament meeting and a great Sunday!

Bah, so much else happened this week!  The work is really starting to take off (of COURSE this is when I leave haha).  Oh well.  I am excited to do all I can in the upcoming week to prepare Debrecen to switch hands.  You will all hear from me one more time on my mission!  Know for now that I love life! I'm still working hard!

Have a great week!

Love,

Kramer Nővér (aka McKenna)

"There are no ordinary people." -C.S. Lewis

Hello All!

Well, it seems far too soon, but transfer calls were today (crazy how an emergency transfer can throw off your timeline!).  Anyways, don't worry, I will be "dying" (finishing my mission) here in Debrecen with Sister Behunin.  However (wait for surprise twist)..... we will be getting a third companion!  Sister Roney, who is one of my kicsi from the MTC, will be joining us!  We figure we will be just about the oldest sister companionship ever (between the three of us, we will have 27 transfers), but I think it will be a lot of fun!  Anyways, so Sister Behunin and Roney will be running the area after I leave.

Anyways, enough of that craziness.  Let's see what happened this past week!

We had a busy week!  We travelled a lot, visited a lot of members.  We had a very sweet program with the Cummings and the mother of the Hungarian elder serving in Hungary.  She fed us dinner and we talked about life.  It was so neat to see, throughout all of our lives, how much God has helped and comforted us.  I especially appreciated it because this woman has had some difficult trials, but has remained so true to her faith.  It is cool to learn from their experiences.  Don't get me wrong, I have a strong testimony of God's love and help and have lots of experiences from my own life.  However, lots of people we talk to ask how we can know anything for sure since we are so young.  However, here at the dinner were people who have raised families and have had hard times, but still cite the gospel as the number one reason for their happiness and success.  How cool is that!  (It reminds me of this little elder who once stood in our zone conference to bear his testimony about the work and excitedly said, "It really works guys!"  I feel that way about the gospel :D)

Saturday, we were able to see the change and growth in someone's life, as there was a baptism of one of the elders' investigators- Tibór.  It was quite nice :)

There was a kind of sad moment this week, too, though-- in Young Women's yesterday, we watched a video about the new YW theme ("Stand in Holy Places").  One of the girls afterwards mentioned how they just showed "pretty" girls in the video.  We told her that she was beautiful, too, but she didn't believe us!  It was so sad.  Really, she is gorgeous.  However, here in Europe especially, people are just bombarded with false ideas of what makes a person worth something.  Sister Cummings bore her testimony about how beauty comes from the inside- it is the light shining within.  She also talked about our divine worth and how we are all special children of our Father in Heaven.  That worth doesn't changed based on how you look, how much money you make, or anything like that.  This is a topic that I feel so strongly about.  We are ALL precious.  It reminds me of a quote from The Little Princess: "I am a princess.  All girls are.  Even if they live in tiny, old attics; even if they dress in rags; even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young.  They're still princesses.  All of us.  Didn't your father ever tell you that?  Didn't he?"  I want you all reading to know that YOU are precious and special and loved.  You matter to a lot of people.  You matter to God.  I love this talk by President Uchtdorf, (which I am sure I have shared before), but it talks about how even though there are billions of us on the planet, we are each special and important to our Father in Heaven.  And it is so true!  When we understand that, it changes all of our interactions with others.  That reminds me of another quote by C.S. Lewis:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

I love that!  Seriously, we are all so special in God's eyes and we all have so much influence on each other.  Let's use that influence for GOOD!

Anyways, sorry that this email is so soapbox-y, but one last pitch-- I got to watch the Christmas Devotional today.  SO GOOD.  Check it out!  It is so important to remember the Christ in CHRISTmas!!!  Sister Behunin and I are starting a tradition of writing miracles and services that happen daily and putting them in a Christmas box under our Christmas tree.  (We also want to start reading nightly Christmas stories with hot chocolate.  What can we say?  We love the Christmas season!)  But, anyways, it is to remind us of all of the blessings in our lives and the small gifts we give to Christ by serving others.

I love all of you!  Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

"How did it get so late so soon?" -Dr. Suess ... (aka time is flying!)

We had lots of big events this week!  Since I spent most of my emailing time today sending in pictures for the mission slideshow  (it will comprise of pictures of the entire last year.  Seeing as I have been here all of that time, have had awesome adventures, taken great pictures, and most of the people I've served around have since gone home, let's just say I sent quite a few pictures in haha).  So, yeah, sorry for the shorter-than-usual email (although I am sure some of you are grateful haha)).  Anyways, I will just quickly summarize my week:

We had Zone Training in Miskolc.  After President Richards was here, the zone leaders were told to call these meetings to discuss changes in the mission.  However, after the training, it turns out there weren't really any big changes, like we thought there would be.  Instead, there was more of an increased emphasis on exactly following the white handbook.  I am grateful that I have always tried to do that on my mission!  I was also able to give my departing testimony.  I am not going to type up the whole thing here (maybe later I will type it up in a seperate email), but I can say looking back at my mission, I have learned a lot, grown and matured a lot, loved a lot.  I am so lucky to have had this experience!

The Thanksgiving Dinner was a success!  Our seniors are awesome and pulled through with an absolutely delicious traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 60 people.  We contributed two pies (apple and banana cream).

Our ward had a service project-- we cleaned up the streets and lawns around our branch house.  Sister Behunin picked up a LOT of cigarette butts and gum.  Gross.  We had two investigators come and help, which was awesome.  Service is so great!  I always feel so good after it :)

Sister Behunin and I are still doing great :)  (We have been talking and laughing lots!)  She has been sick this past week, unfortunately, but she is feeling better!  I have been bringing her up to speed on the ward and our investigators, as she will most likely be taking over the area after me.  I really feel like she is going to be perfect for that, though!  Love that girl already!!  Neither of us can believe we have only been together for only a week!

And just as an interesting note, it is apparently becoming tradition for me to last-minute play the piano and perform musical numbers here :P As I was practicing for church (after being told 20 minutes before sacrament meeting I would play), the Cummings and the branch president invited me to join their musical number.  So I ended up playing, translating, and singing in church.  I have to say, I really do feel needed here!  I love it, though!

Anyways, gotta run!

Love you all!!

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

P.S. Totally decorated our apartment.... and started listening to Christmas music this past week!  LOVE IT :D  Yay for the holidays!!  Part 1 of two Hungarian Christmas days is coming up this week.  Kellemes Mikulást kivánok mindenkinek!!

"Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality." -Alfred Painter

Well all, it has been quite a unique week.

We had an awesome zone conference in Budapest with a member of the 70, Elder Kent F. Richards (check out this talk he gave in General Conference last year).  It was so great!  I took pages and pages of notes.  He encouraged all of us to be better, basically.  I was so impressed with his knowledge of the scriptures.  He would teach us a principle and then emphasize it with scriptures, just turning to one after the other from his head.  It was great!  And it was very inspirational :)  I really love that everything we believe is based in the scriptures.  And that they can give us guidance for each of our different situations!  Anyways, I think there are going to be some big changes in our mission because of this conference.  I will let you know more about that next week!

After Zone Conference, the emergency transfer happened.  Sister Watts and I gave each other big hugs and then she took the metro to her new home (my old one) and I brought Sister Behunin (and her luggage) on the long train ride back to Debrecen.  So, Sister Watts and I are no longer companions, which is weird.  But I love Sister Behunin already, so I know it will be okay.  (See attached picture for Sister Behunin and I today eating at a little cafe.)  Some fun facts about Sister Behunin: she is super short (4'10") and totally looks Asian in photos.  (But she is not actually Asian.  So don't be confused when I send pictures of her!)  She's super funny and we have been enjoying talking. She is my first non-greenie companion in 4 transfers.  I realized that I have served more than half of my mission with sisters in their 3rd transfer and under.  So, it is fun to have someone in their 5th!  We will hopefully be able to use both of our experiences to see a lot of good and progression here in Debrecen.  And I am trying to help her get ready for senior after I leave :)  Good all around!  (Also, for those of you wondering, Sister Watts has said she is doing good in Kispest.)

I had a lot of Szeged people in Debrecen this weekend (there was a YSA Institute conference at our branch house, which was awesome, with participants from all over Hungary and parts of Romania).  It was so great because I was able to talk to them a little bit and say my goodbyes.  Evelin was there (she is still so golden-- such an active member with such a strong testimony and such a light) and told me all about her new calling in the Young Women's Presidency back in Szeged.  She was way excited about it!  It is so so so neat to see her making awesome choices and continuing to progress.  I was also able to say goodbye to the Adamses, who were a big support in Szeged and who I love.  So, it was great because it was like having a little piece of home with me this weekend.  But it is totally weird that I am starting to say final goodbyes.

For those of you wondering why I am saying goodbyes, I actually hit my month-left-in-the-mission mark yesterday. That is right, I will now be home officially in less than a month!  (Craziness.)  In case I don't say it enough, I just want you all to know that this mission was the best decision I have ever made.  I love my mission!  I have learned and grown so much personally.  I have seen so many miracles.  I have met so many amazing people.  I have had awesome experiences.  I have worked hard and I will continue to do so.  Missions are basically the best!!!  I encourage anyone thinking about it to seriously pray abou it.  God knows what is best for you.  And, honestly, you will never regret serving!

Also, I wanted to wish all of you a great Thanksgiving!  I love this holiday!  Food and thanks :)  Honestly, we have all had so much given to us!!  The other day, I read this awesome article in an old Liahona from President Monson in which he encourages us all to focus less on the materialistic things and more on the simple, God-given gifts that endure.  (I encourage you all to read the article.)  But, honestly, we all have been given so much by God.  And it so important that we give back.  Love this poem he quotes from The Sound of Music:

A bell is no bell ’til you ring it,

A song is no song ’til you sing it,

And love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay—

Love isn’t love ’til you give it away.

I think this well describes my feelings when I decided to go on a mission and my feelings still.  I remember thinking, "I always say that I believe these things are true.  I really DO believe that this gospel is true!  Well, then, why don't I go and share it?  I need to DO something with my testimony!"  And on my mission, I have just learned this lesson so much more.  We gain so much love and blessings the more we serve others.  So funny that it works that way.  But it is great that love and service are gifts that just keep giving and benefit all who partake!

Well, anyways, I am going to run!  I hope you all take the time to remember (and even write down!) all of the things you are blessed with and grateful for!

Life is beautiful.  Seriously.

Love you all!

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

P.S. Before Sister Watts left, she and I bought the most epic companion item last week.  (See attached picture)  Yup, that's right.  I am now the proud owner of onesie pajamas.  Pretty awesome :)

Life's Little Miracles :)

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