Every end is a new beginning.

Hello family!

So, this week has been absolutely CRAZY.  I am not even sure where to begin and we do not have a lot of time.

To quickly summarize:

Tuesday was full of programs, from 9 in the morning to almost 9 at night.  It kind of is not so fun saying goodbye to people you love.  But, I know that they will be in good hands :)  And I do know that this transfer will be good for everyone.  So, I am not worried.  I just knew it was saying goodbye to an era.  Anyways, Tuesday was also Sister Hardy's birthday.  I tried to make it special (in spite of the kabillion goodbye programs) and put little sticky notes every (22 of them!) as to why she was so great.  During our last program that night, the elders called (and we buttoned them, as we were in a program).  We left our program and found a package outside the branch house door with Sister Hardy's name on it.  The elders had left her a gift!  We found them hiding on the street and proceeded to have a princess party for Sister Hardy's birthday, complete with funfetti cupcakes on princess heart plates (courtesy of Sister Hardy's mom), a birthday banner, and presents.  I got her a sweater she had been dying for, the elders bought her children's clothing (Sister Hardy is only 5' tall, so we also joke that she is a child).  It was super fun and such a great way to say goodbye to the district I have grown so close to!  Then, I stayed up most of the night packing.  (Transfers don't really give you a lot of time to get stuff together... and turns out, after 6 months in Szeged, I had a LOT of stuff).  We had to catch a 6:30 train the next morning, but our elders really rock and gave us a ride to the train station (and carried my ginormous, super heavy suitcases).  We caught it in time, thankfully!  It was quite smooth.  Budapest was a bit trickier, seeing as Sister Hardy and I had to lug my luggage around on public transportation.  I am pretty sure we both dropped suitcases at various points in the trip.  Thankfully, for the most part, random men would see us struggling and help us carry our luggage.  The funniest time, though, was when I was carrying my small suitcase upstairs, leaving the larger one a flight down.  A man saw it and went to grab the suitcase in one smooth motion, but, apparently he didn't realize that we were struggling because the suitcase was HEAVY.  It kind of pulled him back down.  But he was a sport, handed me his backpack, and wrestled my suitcase up the stairs. Transfers = half the missionaries in the country at a train station.  It was fun seeing all the friends I have made over my mission!  And all of my sisters from the MTC were there, so we were able to catch up.  Finally, it was time to say goodbye, though, and I handed Sister Hardy off to Sister Hall and went off with my new companion Sister Watts.  We had a four hour train ride to Debrecen, which is in the east part of Hungary, (it was a looong day of travel), but finally got there safe and sound later Tuesday night.

Every since then, I have been trying to get a grasp on this area.  The situation is a little interesting, seeing as they whitewashed the elders, so Sister Watts is the area senior (aka the missionary who has been here in the longest) but she has been here for a total of one transfer- her greenie transfer.  So, we have all been trying to figure it out together :)  We are here with the elders (Elder Beaumont, whom I served around in Szeged and who is coming from the AP spot, and his greenie, D'Angina, who played volleyball for BYU (he is 6'6")), a brand new senior couple, the Cummings (the old senior couple literally just went home today), and we are getting a new senior sister companionship this week.  So, there are a whole bunch of new missionaries in this city!  I think and hope that we will really rejuvenate it :D  I've really like what I've seen of the city so far.  It is very pretty.  I love the members I met so far.  I had heard about a lot of them from my trainer, Sister De Leon, who started her mission here.  Our branch leader seems awesome.  We had a great meeting with him and he told us that he has heard a lot of great things about all of us and excited to use us and make great changes here!  I have had a lot of members tell us that the missionaries are like their family here.  So, while it is still a little strange being away from Szeged, I think I will fit in :)  (Funny story about getting used to the change-- tonight I needed to call our elders to tell them they had a program waiting for them here.  However, out of total habit, I accidentally called the Szeged elders and told them about the program before I realized who I was talking to.  Velasquez Elder was like, "What the heck are you talking about?".  And then I realized I was totally talking to the wrong person haha.  He told me Debrecen was a little far away for a program of theirs haha.)

I actually haven't met a whole lot of the ward, though.  We had the equivalent of stake conference in Miskolc on Sunday.  It was great, though.  I was actually able to see some familiar faces (missionaries, some YSA that I had met in Szeged and Budapest), and some others), which was nice.  I didn't really know who was in my ward versus the other ones, though, haha.  The conference was great, though, with the Smiths and their counselers speaking.  The general theme was temples, and it was great to hear the talks.  One of my favorites came from a counselor in the mission presidency, who is Hungarian.  He told us that everyone always asks him when we are going to get a temple here in Hungary.  He told us he didn't know.  He then went on to give an awesome talk about how our body is a temple, housing our spirit, and how we need to respect our body and our spirit.  He talked a lot about the changing power of the gospel, too, and how it is about becoming good, loving people.  He said at the end that we will get a temple when we better understand the things he talked about that day.  It was pretty awesome :)

The members I have met, though, seem nice.  I had heard about some of them from my trainer.  Like there is this one girl named Ananda, who is from Nigeria randomly enough.  She was baptized last year and is totally awesome.  She is active, a teacher in Sunday school, but doesn't speak any Hungarian.  She just knows this is the truth, so that is why she does it.  I met her for the first time last week and she is awesome.  She told me it felt like she had seen my face before, but I figure we were just meant to be friends :)  I also met a recent convert of a month, who is from Afghanistan (apparently this ward is multi-cultural.  (Oh, yeah, btw, there is a major university here in Debrecen, too!  I am in a university town again!)).  He got a copy of the Book of Mormon in Persian, read it, and wanted to be baptized.  The sisters call him their "saint" because he doesn't understand everything, but has such a desire to follow God.  And then, I met a lot of Hungarians, too!  The rest of the YSA is great, too!  (We just had Family Night with them.)  There is a girl named Dori, who I met last year in Kispest when she came to visit with her brother one time.  She is super sweet and loving.  There is a boy named Tamás, who totally turned his life around to be a member.  And tons more.  My testimony is constantly strengthened by the examples of the people I meet here.  It is really my privilege to serve here.

So, basically, I still don't know a whole lot about the area, still haven't met all of the investigators, but Sister Watts and I are making it through together.  I think it is going to be really great!  I am excited! (Also super excited for a nasty cold I have had ever since I came to be gone.  That would make everything a lot easier).  I will keep you all updated on life, don't worry!

Love you all!  Szeretlek!

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

P.S. Sorry that I haven't sent pictures in forever!  I need to buy a new camera connector cord thing!  Don't worry, I am still taking pictures though and will send them when I can :)

TIME IS FLYING!!!!

Hello all!

This is going to be SUPER fast!!!

Exciting news:  Number one, GABRIELLA IS ON BAP DATE!!!!!!  We had an awesome program with her about taking steps of faith (how often times, we need to take a step and then we get the confirmation of God... think of Indiana Jones and the invisible bridge.  He had heard it was there but he had to take action to find out for himself.  That is how God sometimes work.  We make decisions and then he lets us know if they are right.  He always catches us, always helps us, but I have found in my life that i have to take the first step.).  She decided to take this awesome first step of faith and will be getting baptized on December 1!  She is worried because she doesn't know everything and isn't sure how it all will work out with her job and everything, but she is trusting in God and the inspiration she has received so far that this is good and true!  She has been praying and reading from the scriptures regularly and has really felt the difference in her life.  She is such a special lady!!!!  She came to church this past weekend, after really feeling that she should, and felt so good there!  She has really found her place, I think :)  I am so happy for her!

The hard part about it is I will not be here to help her grow because.... I am getting transferred!  I got the call this morning.  I am going to Debrecen to serve with an almost-greenie named Sister Watts.  Sister Hardy knew her in the MTC and says she is awesome!  (I do know she is Australian!)  I am going to miss my little city SO MUCH though!  I know I have just gushed and gushed about it recently, but I have really enjoyed my time here!  I love this city, I love our investigators, I love the ward, I love my district, I LOVE MY COMPANION!!!!  I am going to miss Sister Hardy so much!  I know she needs this separation from her "momma"  (trainer), though, to spread her little missionary wings and fly.  I have total confidence in her to take care of our beloved city.  We had such a dream couple of transfers together, though.  I really do know that transfer calls are inspired.  We were so meant to be companions, mother-daughter, sisters, best friends!  I love her!  We cried a bit this morning after we got the call.  But, knowing that these calls are inspired, I know it will all be okay.

I have SO MUCH to do today, though.  I will send a much better, longer email next week with all sorts of interesting details about my new area (which is where De Leon started HER mission!!).  Until then, be good!  I love you all!  Thank you all for your support and love!

Love,

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

Home is where the heart is :)

Hello all!

This week will be quick!  I had a super dramatic moment in church yesterday when I realized that this week is probably my last full week in Szeged (transfers are in two Wednesdays (the 12th), and I am almost guaranteed to leave, seeing as I have been here for four transfers) and had a minor freak-out.  Turns out, I really really love it here.  (Surprise!)  And don't particularly want to leave.  But, I realized that I should probably come to terms with it and get everything done that I need to this week, so I will be more ready to go when the time comes.  So, I have been trying to come to terms with that depressing bit of my life, and packed our P-Day today FULL of stuff.  Which means I only have a little bit of time to email.  Sorry!  (Although I am sure some of you are grateful for the break from my small weekly novels :P)  I am learning that sometimes things end before we are ready to let them go.  But that really means we should make the time count- work as hard as you can and spend time with the people we love.

ANYWAYS, our week was good, really and truly, minor freak-outs aside!

Some updates:

We had a fun service project with the Relief Society!  We knitted hats on those little circle looms.  The nénis all loved it, commenting on how easy it was.  We all churned out hats, chatting and eating the necessary and much appreciated süti :)  The hats will go to some children's homes here in Szeged, along with some games that Sister Hardy and I have helped prepare.  I love service!

Had a super good program with Béla.  He had some questions about repentance, which led to an awesome lesson about repentance and then the whole point of religion and the gospel.  We were able to talk about how the Atonement is offered to help us change our natures.  We talked about how there is actual power in that.  It is not just nice words.  I have experienced God's help in my life to become a better person :)  Béla told us that we gave us him stuff that really made him think.  He marked the scriptures we used during the lesson (one of which was Mosiah 3:19, which was just so perfect because he was talking about how sometimes he felt like there was a part of him that didn't want to do what God wanted him to do) and told us that he is excited to go home and read them again and think about them some more.  I love that the truth we teach makes people THINK!!!  It is so cool to people gain testimonies one little bit at a time.

We were able to go visiting teaching this past week!  We went out to one of my favorite families, the Budaiék, to their house in a small city about 30 minutes away by car with Sister Adams and visit taught their mom.  The whole family was around, though, so, as we taught, we were able to color with the small 4 year-old, laugh with the teenages, eat delicious lemon cake that one of the daughters had made, hear the conversion story from the dad, and generally have an awesome time!  When it was time to go, the 4 year old girl asked her dad to pray that we wouldn't go, which was SO cute :)  I love the members here!  I love their love for and support for us :)  There were a couple of other cute stories this past week (I really feel like this ward is family!).  Géza (the much beloved member who always stuffs to bursting full of food!) came up to Sister Hardy and I after church and surprised us with big hugs!  He said, "Nobody saw that!"  Zoli, another member, was right behind him, and said, "I saw that!!"  And Géza was like, "No, you didn't either!" and skipped up the stairs calling us "tündérek"  ("fairies"... actual term of endearment here :P).  Another time, a member named Judit came up behind me and put her head on my shoulder and gave me a hug while she talked to me and the elders about when we could all come over for dinner this week.  Small things like this just make me feel so loved!  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve in this branch that loves the missionaries and really helps us in our work :)  I also love just working with the members and helping them!  I really believe that we are out here just as much to strenghten the ward and the members as it is to find new people to teach about the gospel :)  And I have been privileged my whole mission to be surrounded by amazing members.  I have met so many faithful and inspirational people that simply try and do what God has asked.  Which is pretty dang awesome, if you ask me!  So, really, in the end, my own testimony has been strengthened so much through their examples and service :)  And I am just trying to give back a little bit!

Anyways, I am going to run!  Have a great week!  Make the most of it!  Serve those around you :)  SMILE!

Love you all!

McKenna aka Kramer Nővér

Mi is történt múlt héten? Hmm....

Hello all!

We have had a pretty standard missionary week, insofar that we met with a lot of people, and, when we weren't meeting with people, we were looking for people to meet with :P  I had a request to tell a little bit about some of our programs, though, so here you go:

There was one program with Béla (the man we met with on the train who lived in America for a long time).  We taught him about the Plan of Salvation (if you don't know what I am talking about, check out this link

http://mormon.org/plan-of-happiness ).

 He liked it, but also told us that it sounded too good to be true and that he had some doubts about it.  We told him that that is totally understandable... and pretty common haha.  We've all had doubts.  That's kind of where learning and believing comes in.  Whenever I have had questions, I look for answers in the scriptures and from the prophets, think about it, and pray to God about it.  I was able to share with him how I have gained my testimony of the Plan of Salvation.  In a large part, I have never really questioned it.  It has always made a lot of sense to both my heart and mind.  I've studied it my whole life and felt it to be true.  In practical application, though, I guess we could say, when people I have known and loved have died, I have recieved confirmation and comfort that God DOES have a plan for us.  There is existence after death.  We will see those we love again!  I am so grateful for the peace this plan has brought into my life.  Béla really respected what we were saying and told us, that while his doubts still aren't gone, he is willing to learn about it and ask God about it himself. Which is all any of us can do, really.  We never do ask people to believe us as missionaries.  We present the information, answer their questions, and then encourage them to study the heck out of it themselves and go with the big questions of whether this is true or not to the one who knows it all (God).  It is so cool that God is willing to let each and every one know personally that we are loved by Him and that there is a purpose to our life!  We just need to take the time to learn about Him and His will for us :)

Anyways, I will try and include more details about programs in my future emails!  I don't have a lot of time tonight, though, so I will keep it at that one program :)

We did get to do a few more unusual things this past week, now that I think about it.  As missionaries in a country where the church isn't super strong or big, we often have a much more active involvement in the ward.  For instance, this past week we were kind of temporary subsitute members of the Primary Presidency, while they waited for some new callings to be made.  Sister Adams is one of the counselors to the Hungarian president, so we translated in their meeting this week.  On a different day, we went with them to visit a less-active family and their kids.  It was fun!  We also had dinner with President Smith and his wife, as they came down to Szeged for the first time and spoke in church (during which meeting, I was suprised asked to sight-read and play the piano... worked out well enough :P).  I really like the Smiths, though-- they are very nice!

Final note before I run-- in district meeting, Sister Adams shared this quote from Joseph Smith and I really liked it! "The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it."  It always makes me scratch my head when people try and tell us that we aren't Christian.  Really, Jesus Christ is the base of all we believe :)

Anyways, I love you all!  God loves you, too!  Have a great week!

Love,

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

Life is so much better with when we LAUGH!

Hello all!

This week has been SO BUSY!!!  There are NOT enough hours in the day to do everything!  A quick recap of everything that went down:

We had a few days so full of programs and stuff that we started at 8 in the morning and didn't finish till 8 at night!  So tiring!  And it is super hard to keep going without getting studies in!  My testimony of taking the time to study the gospel and the language has been reinforced this week!  It is so much harder to teach others if I haven't taken the time to get my own Spiritual fill in that day.  And so we are making sure that we protect our studies this week!  But I guess having so many people to meet with is a good problem to have :)  (Obviously it is!)  We had some really great programs, too!  Our investigators are asking really great questions and really starting to take steps.  One of my favorite programs was with our investigator Gabriella.  We had planned to talk about Jesus Christ's gospel, but we started talking and it went in a totally different direction.  She had questions about prayer and her worth in God's eyes.  It was so cool because that was the on e day we were able to have studies normally in the morning this week and everything we had studied worked perfectly for her program.  We were able to reference all sorts of scriptures, and she commented, "Really, all of the answers ARE in the Book of Mormon!  Everytime I have a question, you always pull out another verse!  I love this book!"  It was awesome :)  I was also able to bear my testimony on divine worth (one of my favorite topics) to her.  I told her that God loves her unconditionally.  God does not only love perfect people.  NONE of us are perfect.  God loves us, imperfections/mistakes and ALL.  He loves us and just wants to help us be better and happier!  I told Gabriella if she still couldn't believe God loves her, she could believe me.  I KNOW that God loves her.  I know that God loves you, whoever is reading this!  I have felt his love for me.  And I know he feels that big-ly and perfectly about you, too!  It was a very special program :)

We had a zone training this past Saturday.  The new president has decided to do zone conferences and stuff a little differently.  Instead of having one every transfer, we will have a zone training done by our zone leader every month and then every other transfer we will have a zone conference or interview with the President.  So this was a zone training.  Velasquez Elder gave an AWESOME training!  It was full of interaction and we all just talked about how we could be better in a few areas!  I really enjoyed it :)  A new focus of the president is to make our zones more interactive and supportive.  We were actually able to spend this last PDay together as a zone, which was way fun and worked perfectly with that goal!  We went to a local ropes course (super fun!  We were strapped in and basically played on a playground hung in the trees.  Got to zip line, too!), hung out at the Adams' apartment, had a sajt night (fried cheese night), and saw the fireworks for August 20th celebrations (St. Stephen's Day- celebrating the king that brought Christianity to Hungary).  We have a good zone!  It is weird, though!  I am the second oldest sister in the zone!  (and actually tied with my MTC sisters for third oldest in the mission)  I don't feel like I have been on a mission that long still!  I guess time really does fly when you are having fun and doing something so worthwhile!

The rest of our week has been pretty crazy-- we've had funny finding stories, struggles, random German stalkers of Sister Hardy, etc.  NBD.  Basically, missions are the time for some of the most random things ever to happen haha.  But also some of the best!  I am so glad to be here :)  I hope you all are able to laugh lots this upcoming week-- through the good and bad :D

Love you all!

Love,

McKenna aka Kramer Nővér

1

Life is joyous :)

Hello all!

This week has been so awesome!

We were so busy this past week!  Basically, every single day was crazy.  We were packed full of programs or other activities, like English class, teaching Institute to the Young Adults, district meetings, etc.  Seriously, a few days this week, we left at 8am or before and were gone for the next 12 hours.  At least.  Craziness.  But GOOD craziness :D

Updates:

Our district meetings are now in Békéscsaba, which is pretty crazy!  (That is an hour and a half away by car.  And we have been encouraged to make sure we hold our district meetings weekly.  Which translates into a lot of driving for us!  But that is okay.)  Our district now consists of the four Békéscsaba elders (sisters were not put back into Békéscsaba) who are Rosen Elder (my ősi from the MTC!!!), his greenie Elder Vanderpool, Elder Olsen (I served around him in Budapest for two transfers) and his companion Elder Hansen.  And still us Szegedi's (us, the elders (Velasquez and Hatfield) and the Adamses).  We had our first district meeting last Saturday, where we talked about goals and ate palacsinta's :)

Sister Hardy and I got a new washing machine.... unfortunately, it, too, is broken.  We are pretty sure we are doomed to never have clean clothes haha.  We have had quite the adventures with our washing machine over the last month and a half or so-- we have already done our laundry at other places 4 times (one time we lugged it all the way to Szolnok to do it in the sisters' apartment there).  (Oh yeah, Hungary doesn't have laundromats, btw.)  So, we are really hoping this most recent washing machine gets fixed!  Just another adventure in the life of sister missionaries haha (following the Broken Cellphone Calamity (it kept turning off... even during calls with investigators!  Don't worry!  We got a new one!))

There has been an awesome fair right outside of our house this week, so I was able to introduce Sister Hardy to her very first Hungarian fair and fair food (see pictures)!  It was quite fun and we were able to hear some Hungarian folk music from the live band.

We had some funny experiences tracting.  I think my favorite was one bácsi who talked to us for about 15 minutes about all sorts of things.  He told us that he had seven lives (except they call it having seven birthdays in Hungarian, which I thought was kind of neat) and told us all sorts of crazy stories about times he almost died (like one time he dived into a river after a couple who couldn't swim).  He told us he was 88 years old and attributed that to never smoking.  He was quite pleased when he found out we didn't smoke either and encouraged us to help the youth quit smoking.  He didn't want a Book of Mormon, though (he told us to give it to someone else that was younger and more able to benefit from it), so we eventually moved on.  After we finished that 10 story shortly thereafter, we were walking away outside when we heard an old man call, "Lányok!"  (Or "girls!")  Our old bácsi friend had followed us out of the building.  When he caught up to us, he gave us a newspaper article he had found just for us-- on the dangers of smoking.  And encouraged us to give copies of it to those we meet with haha.  We thanked him kindly, and he hobbled away after wishing us well and wishing us much success.

We had awesome programs with a lot of our investigators this past week!  Livia has been on fire, coming to literally every activity!  We came out of Ward Council yesterday and she was still in the branch house, talking to some members!  It is so great to see her open up to members :)  Our other investigators are doing pretty well.  We have investigators praying about God's existence, the Book of Mormon, baptism, and lots of other stuff.  It is so cool that we teach them all of this stuff, but then, they can each go to God and ask Him if the things they are learning are true or not.  I am so glad that they don't just have to take our word for it!  Prayer is real :)

I gave a talk yesterday (which due to all the craziness, I did NOT have a lot of time to prepare for, but still went great!) on God's love for us.  I used some quotes from President Uchtdorf's talk on the subject and I recommend you check it all out (follow this link).  I was able to share in Family Home Evening tonight one of the greatest life lessons I've learned and I shared that our worth does not change in God's eyes, no matter what we've done.  (Of course, my second lesson was "Come what may and love it!"  I think that might be my personal slogan for life :P)

I saved the BEST news for last!!!  Our much much beloved investigator Evelin decided this past week... that she wants to be baptized!!!!  (Which, btw, please don't post this email on my Facebook or blog for one week, as Evelin has some individuals she wants to be the first to tell the news to.  And I wouldn't want to wreck that!  But forwarding this as an email is fine and updating Facebook/my blog next week would be better.  Thanks!)  Anyways, this is how it went down.  Evelin went to the YSA Conference this past week and she, in her own words, met all the right people at the right time who were able to answer her questions and address her concerns.  We met with her a few days after the conference, during which program, she just GLOWED about all of the amazing activities they had had (they had religious classes every day interspersed with meals, service activities, games, firesides, dances, testimony meetings, etc.).  After sharing details from every single day of the conference and telling us about all of the amazing people she had met from all over Europe (the conference was for Eastern European Young Adults, with additional attendees from countries like the United States, Mexico, England, etc.), she paused and said, "Okay girls.  I have news.  I have decided to get baptized."  To which announcement, we initially just stared at her, and then, grinning, hugged the heck out of her.  She is getting baptized on October 13th!!!  I couldn't be happier for her :)  It was SUCH a special experience to hear her testimony about this gospel and our Heavenly Father this past week in our programs.  I remember finding her four months ago and it has been an absolute privilege to meet with her and see her devour the gospel in the time since then.  She has been such an amazing example to me of truly taking the time to learn and think about the gospel.  (She always says, "There is a hurricane in my head!  I need to think for a moment!")  And I love that she makes sure she understands each principle.  And studies it.  And I have just seen her grow and gain confidence and happiness as she has learned about God's love and plan for her.  I love this girl!  And it is just really special that I have been here for every step she has taken up to this point!  I have been really privileged to meet so many stellar people on my mission.  I have been really humbled by their examples and I am just grateful I have been able to serve in small part the people of this country, members and investigators alike.

Anyways, I am STILL loving my mission.  Imagine that?

Love you all!

McKenna aka Kramer Nővér

P.S. Shout out to my amazing mother!  It was her birthday this past week :) :)  Don't worry, I sent her her own birthday present, but someone give her a hug for me, 'kay?  Thanks :)

P.P.S. Included some other pictures of our P-Day today spent with our district at the ruins of a mansion outside of Békéscsaba.

1

I can't even think of a clever title. I am TOO HOT!!!!

Hello All!!

This week has been soooo long!  And HOT!!  We are currently in the middle of ANOTHER extreme heat wave here.  I think the temperature today is around 38 or 39 degrees Celsius (which translates to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit).  Sister Hardy claims that we basically are serving in South America at this point.  We sure do sweat a lot!  (Gross, I know!)  We have been doing a lot of tracting in 10-stories to avoid the sun.  And drinking a TON of water.

Other than that, our week has been pretty eventful.  Our washing machine broke.  And we got a new elder in our district!

Nealy Elder went home this past Wednesday.  We spent our last PDay with him taking pictures around our much beloved city of Szeged (see attached), and then getting filled to bursting at one last meal at Géza's.  He truly outdid himself this time, with the dinner consisting of NINE courses (two soups, three main courses, salad, two desserts, and watermelon) and taking over three hours to eat!  I kind of wanted to die at the end, but as usual, it was all absolutely delicious!  (I just request that you all take it a little easier on your own missionaries!)  It was a lot of fun serving around Elder Nealy!  He is one of the nicest and most giving people I have ever been around :)  I am so lucky to have made so many friends on my mission!

Elder Velasquez, despite being a zone leader, was selected to train, so he went up to Budapest on Wednesday to collect his new little "child".  The greenie is named Elder Hatfield.  He is from Provo, Utah, is way taller than the rest of us, is a stellar soccer player (we played soccer for PDay today!!!  It was SO hot!  But SO fun!), and a great missionary :)  Sister Hardy and I have decided we are his cousin and aunt, respectively, and have been trying to make him feel welcome in our little district in the beautiful city of Szeged in the foreign country of Hungary.

We had a lot of awesome programs with investigators this past week!  Too many to write about, so I will just focus on one: We have meeting for a few weeks with a fifteen year old girl named Livia.  Her parents are from China, but she has grown up in Hungary and speaks Hungarian perfectly.  She was a referral from a member, as she was interested in practicing English with us and learning a little more about our church.  Her English turned out to be awesome, so it has been fun to talk to her, and she has just been swallowing up the gospel!  She has been reading tons from the Book of Mormon!  She prayed for the first time in her life in one of her programs!  She has been feeling really good meeting with us :)  We invited her to church this past week, as she has been doing so good, but she wasn't really sure, as she has never been to church before.  We showed up yesterday at church, though, and she was already there!  She stayed for ALL three hours and really liked it! She even stayed afterwards and talked with her new friends she had made that day!  It has been so cool to see her testimony and confidence grow!  I can't say I know how it will all end (we've talked a bit about baptism-- SHE brought it up after reading 2 Nephi 31), but I love the growth we've been a part of!  We see miracles all the time, big and small!

Anyways, I am SO hot in this email place (no air-conditioning), so I am going to end with that this week.  I hope you all have much cooler weeks than I do!  Appreciate what you have!  (Air conditioning!  And other blessings!)

Love you all!

Kramer Nővér aka McKenna

P.S. A lot of people have been emailing me about the Olympics.  I heard Hungary creamed USA in water polo!  I have to admit, I cheered a bit about that :)  What can I say?  I love this country :)