The Work

Santa came early!

Pécs is everything I hoped it would be!!

After an emotionally tramautizing week of Goodbyes in the city...ugh. I hate that part. We have to be cheerful and excited for the people so they will be excited but part of me just wants to cry the whole time...

Eta, the sweet woman who was baptized in August and with whom we have been meeting every week before and since was one of the harder ones. Sister Waldie also was transfered out, so two out of three of us were leaving. She calls us her "Master Teachers". It is a humbling compliment, to be sure. It has been so wonderful to see her grow in her knowledge and progression... This stuff really is the stuff of Miracles...

Miracles like Mária-with more energy than a locomotive steam engine who was baptized with Eta, with a heart of gold and a blossoming, beautiful testimony.

Miracles like Levente about whom I spoke last week...

Like Icú down in Szeged, whom I found and will be baptized this week.

If I were to write a book about my Mission, it would be titled something along the lines of "A List of Miracles".

Perhaps I should change the name of this blog to that instead...


We wish you a Merry Christmas!
A VERY Merry Christmas, and may this New Year begin the happiest of all in each of our Lives.

I'm loving you all...

posted by Ashley @ 5:08 AM

Miracles Happen

Once we were walking from the branch house in Szeged, and I turned to Sister Walker in a discussion about what we do as missionaries and said, "We change the world, one miracle at a time."

I know that God is a God of miracles.

One of them is named Levente.

Levente's father was tracked into by two junior companions on exchanges last summer. He was dropped pretty quickly, but was given a flyer about the English Class we teach every week. For a couple of weeks, he urged his soon to go and finally he went, into our class. He attended every week and through the course of sharing a short spiritual message at the end of every class, we taught him much about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

One day after class, he asked to meet with us, which we readily arranged. He just had "some questions". The first thing he said when we met outside of class was that he was Atheist. He didn't believe that God exist or even could exist based upon what he knew about religion. And he knew a lot.

Levente was baptized and confirmed a member of the church this weekend.

He is very much a miracle.


You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go...
But that is one of the best parts about coming on a mission!

My best friend in the country is going Home next week.

I am SO bummed out about it!

And as I reckon he will probably be clicking his own way around here some time soon, I just wanted him to have a warm introduction.

Csak Garret részére: Nem hiszem igazán, hogy furcsa madár vagy, csak tetszik nekem a mese "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" (ebből jött) és ilyen kis mondást szoktam használni itt.

I probably shouldn't be so bold with typing out some Hungarian for him because he speaks this crazy, wonderful language about a million light years better than I do.

If I do end up packing up the Bronco to head 1500 miles in the other direction to go to BYU next year, all y'all have his influence largely to blame.


Another Transfer
And that last one went by like lightning!

I was pretty sure I was hosed, and I was right.

I am heading out of the city back to the south of the country to serve what will probably be the rest of my mission in a place called Pécs. If I couldn't stay to help with Outreach for the rest of mission, I wanted to go to Pécs, and I got exactly what I wanted.

As if serving in the city that I am told looks like something out of a Fairytale isn't enough, I also get to have Christmas with Elder Stevens, whose picture can be found somewhere in the archieves of this blog. He's one of my Elders, and I am SO happy to get to go serve with him!

The only part leaving me with any trepidation is whose shoes I am filling down there. The Sister who is heading out of Pécs to go home has a reputation of being awesome. At everything. I'm not! I'm just a little nervous because I am going to serve with her Greenie and I know I am replacing a stud. I hope I can become more like one while I am there...


But in the meanwhile...
Be safe and well, every one. And don't hestitate to share a Christmas note with me on the other side of the rainbow!

Te IS neked valo ez, Nay!

I am very much loving you all...

posted by Ashley @ 4:21 AM

Christmas is coming...

...and I have yet to mention something that took place a full transfer ago!

But first I feel nessecary for all the nonmembers reading my Blog...

Church Organization 101
Okay, in the Bible (yes, we believe in the Bible) God called prophets. Always. Very important to God's Plan, the prophets.

Christ, kinda a prophet, but muuuuuuuuuch much more. Christ established his church by calling 12 apostles to lead it through his authority, which he gave him.

So, we can recognize Christ's church because it will be lead by prophets and apostles.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (emaphsis added) presided over by a living prophet and 12 apostles. (I know! This is huge! And almost crazy! But it's true!) Thirteen million members worldwide, out of 6 billion people on the planet, right? Twelve out of thirteen million stand as apostles, special witnesses of Christ.

Okay, not trying to convert my friends, trying to make a point-point is-apostles. Not common.


Special Witness, Special Guest
At the end of October, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Hungary. He held many meetings with many groups of people to give training and counsel. If Peter, James or John from the Bible told you something, you'd listen right?

So, Elder Bednar held our Zone Conference as missionaries last transfer. And what he did for 3 hours was open the field for questions. To an apostle. It is pretty huge to be in the same room as an apostle, let alone be able to ask a question.

So, in the process of three hours, I have been able to say quite a bit to an apostle. My companion and I sat in the second row, right in front of him and he called on me through out the confernce a couple of times to share things, etc, etc. Because of this, I hesitated to raise my hand to ask a question. I had already particpated pretty significantly in it. So I chose not to raise my hand most of the time to ask questions. As usual, I kept my hand down when he announced "Next Question" but when he followed it with "This will be the last one, too." I shrugged and thought, "Well, he probably won't call on me anyway, but what the heck-how many opportunities will I have in my life to even raise my hand to ask a question?" I was stunned when he actually called on me, because literally every missionary in the room had their hand up.

There is an Elder in my group who likes to point out how often I speak in meetings and such. He said when this happened he about died-a room of 100 missionaries and I get called on the most. All it really means is that in a room of 100 missionaries, I have the biggest mouth. I hope I'm using it well.


The big question...
...went something like this...

"Elder Bednar, there seem to be countless times we say something enormous such as 'There is a living prophet' or 'There is another volume of scripture about our Savior' and they just stare at us blankly which dumbfounds me. We study the doctrine and we strive to have the Spirit with us and be sensitive to what it might be telling us to say. What more can we do personally to prepare for those moments?"

An apostle, one out of 12 such men on the earth looks Sister Pollock in the eye and says one word.

"Relax."

Of course, he expounded a bit on his one word, but I about died too. I had to laugh though... I told my mother that Monday, "Well Mom, an Apostle of the Lord told your daughter to chill out-how do you feel about that?"

So, I've been trying to relax. Still working hard, but in that "I'm gonna do my best and that's all I can do." Or, as I was told by someone in the Book of Knowledge, "Ya gotta keep a'goin."

When an apostle says something in general, you listen. There is a general conference of the church twice a year so that the prophets and apostles can tell us stuff so we can listen. And you use what they say, it's just a given.

Now, when an apostle tells YOU something personally...well, then you REALLY listen.

I need to relax.

So let me know if I'm not doing what the apostle (who is of Hungarian ancestery, by the way) told me to do and if I sound too stressed around here, remind me to relax.

I thought it was funny-I thought y'all might think so too.

I'm loving you all!

posted by Ashley @ 3:57 AM