Landmarks
Well, a couple of weekends ago my 24th birthday came and went.
Simply put, thus closeth the Best Year of my life thus far.
And this week another huge day for me passes. In two days I will have been on my mission for nine months.
That is half of eighteen, which puts more days behind me than are in front of me...
Eek!
A Day in the Life...
Well, I have been posting and reporting on my mission for nearly nine months now...I realize that many, if not most of the people who keep up with me via The Work are not members of the church. I thought I would take a few minutes today to answer a question that many people wonder...
"So what do you
do all day?"
I roll out of bed about 5:15am every morning. I am a missionary, that means I pray a lot, and it is the first thing I do. After a trip to the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I am sitting in the kitchen reading from the Book of Mormon
at 5:30.
Afterward, I make my bed, get dressed and I am ready to exercise
at 6:15am. In Szeged that meant my companion and I running laps around the courtyard behind our building for half an hour, but here my poor companion is sick is under doctor's orders to rest. So, I leave my apartment door open and I do a circuit that involves sets of running stairs with a couple of other exercises inbetween right outside the door.
Then it is study time. I use the 15 minutes to russle up some breakfast-then my study hour starts on the hour. After that I get an extra 30 minutes just for the language (yeeeeeeeeeeeay!) and I always use 15 minutes out of the hour left over to get ready for extra studying. I might do more to get ready on my mission than I have in my life, but I don't need more than 45 minutes.
After companionship study (to prepare for our day of teaching) my companion and I are out the door. Generally if I am not a body in motion I am looking for someone to talk to, because that is what missionaries do. We talk to people and let them know who we are and what we are doing here and why we speak such terrible Hungarian. Sometimes, however, especially because we live and work in areas with lots of tourist actractions I am on a bus full of people speaking German, or am pinned into an area surrounded by men. I don't talk to men, because it is pointless-we don't teach men. That is why sisters exist. I generally go for the young girls, introduce myself and tell them who I am, invite them to the free English Class (which we teach) and answer any questions. Then I talk about how we spend our days meeting with people, explaining what we believe in-depending on the reaction I ask if we can exchange numbers so we can meet sometime and talk about it. Sometimes I just smile and give them my number on the back of a small pamphlet with some information about the church.
And then we are out and about, teaching people the basic doctrine of the church. If they like it, great we keep teaching them. If not...well, hey thanks for your time and we would love to see you in church sometime. Most of the time, we visit people we have scheduled with, but we are different. We are sisters. The Elders (boys) often spend large portions of their time tracting. Knocking doors and asking if they can come in and teach them about the church and what we believe. It is rough. I know Elders who have spent entire transfers (six weeks) tracting, day in, day out, all day, every day.
We have a curfew to be back in our aparment at 9pm, unless we are still out teaching then 9:30pm. Sometimes obedience to this rule requires sprinting throught the streets and up 100 meters of stairs from the metro station and arriving on our doorstep panting and dripping with sweat, but we get home
on time. We get out of pross (proselyting attire) and plan for our day, usually over a bite to eat because we have not had an opportunity to really do so since we left the apartment nearly 10 hours ago. We call the Disctrict leader and report that we are safe and accounted for and with whatever time is left over, I retreat into my study cove in the back room to record in my journal the day's adventures and if I remember and have time look up the words I wrote down that I didn't understand.
Then, I kneel on my bed for one last prayer before I crash at 10:30pm.
Wash, rinse, repeat...
I have rather gotten to the point that my schedule keeps me running like a machine. It is intense, but I love it. Although...I do see why we are only called to serve for 18 months.
There are other details, as well. Like the fact that the basis of my diet has turned into me cooking a kilo of brown rice at the beginning of the week and eating it throughout. I always need my "little som'n sweet" and I drink at least 3 liters of water a day, which equates to emptying my water bottle four times. I like to get half of it consumed during my study time, it makes it super easy to stay on top of it throughout the day.
Anywho...I hope that sheds a little extra light into the comings and goings of Sister Pollock. I am so glad I have this blog to bring you all along for the ride. I am loving you all
very much. :) I had a birthday last Saturday, following this routine. It isn't every day a girl can say she just ended the best year of her life...
Toto, I don't think we're in Szeged anymore...
Boy howdy are we not!
I might as well have transfered into a different
planet...hű-ha!
Transfers went very quietly, which is a very big blessing. We ran into an investigator that I met with a couple of times my first couple of weeks here. She decided to do us a favor and talk to the man behind the counter for us to buy our tickets. She actually complicated matters far beyond than what they would have been if she had simply let us do it ourselves. Walker didn't appreciate it much. I almost saw the smoke flaming out of her nostrils. I'm pretty sure I smelled it.
First things first...I live in the Belváros, the swankiest neighboorhood in the city. Just to give you an idea about it, the most major subway station in the city is the one closest to us. We live on a walking street (as in, no cars allowed) and when President Bush stayed in Budapest last week, he stayed in the hotel that is across from my building. With the right wind and enough velocity my companion could have spit on armed secret service agents from our balcolny.
Speaking of the balcolny, on one end of it we can see parliment, one of the most goregous buildings in the city and on the other side we can see the waters of the Duna river that splits the city between Buda and Pest. We live on the Pest side.
Everything is in our area, Parliment, The Opera House, the national musuem, it is
goregous and I have barely been able to take a look...
Second things second...I have barely been able to take a look because we don't work where we live. We work in the ghetto. I mean, literally, the ghetto. It is certainly an eye-opening experience, but I am grateful for it. If anybody needs the message we have it is the people without anything.
All in all...It is awesome. I
love being here. I have an amazing, sweet new companion who I love, and the work is booming up here in Kispest. I am excited to continue working in it.
I am loving you all...more from Pest next week....
