The Work

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Winter finally blew into Pécs for real last week...

We have been enjoying fine Spring days up until now, but a cold front blew in and even a snow shower or two. We had just begun to get used to it when we came out of our apartment today and found the sun shining and birds singing merrily.

Another transfer has begun this past week, and boy were the calls that came in a surprise!

I am staying in Pécs, as expected. My companion is Sister Koler for a second transfer together! It was too good to be true! After the fun we had together last transfer, we were positive that we would be seperated. She says that she hasn't given thanks for her companion in her prayers nearly as much for anyone else as she had for me.

I very much appreicated that.

Elder Stevens from my group was shipped out to be a Zone Leader and two others are training new missionaries...we are getting so old in this place! This transfer is my sencond to last. In interviews President asked me when I go home-there are 100 of us around here and I can reckon it is difficult for him to keep track of us. I told him in April and he winced and paid me one of the highest compliments of my mission.

"That soon? Wow, I hate to have to loose you."

It is a great honor to be seen as an assest to someone I Love and respect as much as President Gasser.

And beyond that, I can't believe how much Fun I am having! It doesn't seem fair that I could be so blessed...

posted by Ashley @ 4:52 AM

The holidays are over...

Music to a missionary's ears.

The holidays were wonderful down here in Pécs. This city really is beautiful. In Europe Christmas as well as the day after are national holidays, so we were told if we had programs scheduled with people great, but to not go out proselyting the 24th, 25th or 26th.

Three days inside is a lot for missionaries.

Christmas Eve
Services on Sunday-five people we are teaching came! We were so happy! Normally services consist of three meetings in one-hour blocks but because it was a holiday there was only Sacrament meeting. We did many holiday greetings and were close to the last people out the door, and then we headed home. The Elders all gathered in the apartment that is on the same street where we live so, with no programs and no permission to go look up or try to find people we took a walk about the city on the route that Sister Koler and I run every morning. It is so interesting to live somewhere that has been inhabited for more than a couple of hundred years...

There is a cathedral-every larger city in Hungary has one! And it sits almost on the crest of a hill. It has four towers and its grounds are surrounded by a big stone wall, and in some spots ivy creeps over it. I think it looks best when we run past it nowadays, with the sun beginning to make the sky lighten into a deep misty blue, but it was neat to see it in the light.

Originally we were only allowed to call home on the 25th, so I had made my plans accordingly but at the last minute we were told we could do it anytime. When we arrived home, though I decided to try my Dad earlier than I was planning. For Mother's Day I got up at 4 in the morning and called while it was still evening the day before in Kansas City, and it worked well. I don't mind the missionary rule of getting up at 6:30, and my companion and I actually get up early to go running at 6:15...but I do still like my sleep.

Talking to my Dad was so wonderful. I love telling him about my life here-the people, the places, the companions, the work. He has lots of questions about everything. Any parent would, I'm sure. We also discussed the inevitable of when April rolls around and I am no longer a missionary. He gave me some really great council and it helped me not worry about everything so much...

I love my Dad.


Christmas Day
Well, we had so much FUN on this side of the rainbow!

After our study hours, we gathered up some groceries and things and the Elders who live on our street escorted us to the branch house. We met the other Elders there and a fabulous Christmas Breakfast was arranged. There is a rule about always wearing clothes for proselyting (otherwise known as "Pross") even on Preperation Day when we are out and about doing things like shopping and emailing...but we went in pajamas. It is awfully hard to have a Christmas Morning Pajama Jam without pajamas, isn't it?

It was a ball! I am sure it is like this for everyone, but the people with whom I serve on my mission have really become my family. I am so far away from everyone I Love, but have come to Love so many people here that I don't spend much time boohooing about who isn't around because I am so Happy about who is around. We taught my Elder from the MTC, Stevens how to grate potatoes (for hashbrowns). Elder Coy from Alaska was very proud of the tower (he really did make a tower) of Frech Toast he made. In lui of not have access to syrup we used the next best thing: Nutella. Elder Purkiss, whose picture you will find if you look up "optimism" in the dictionary and whom Elder Stevens is training, was very proud of contributing real bacon and eggs with kolbász to our feast. Elder Flint, the Elder who has been in the country for four transfers and has been in a different area every transfer, helped me make the hash browns. We had to do it in phases because we were making to much and we had to do it in giant soup pots because our pans were at the time being used for the French Toast.

We had to take pictures of the feast all laid out on the table, it was quite a sight to behold. We had so much fun doing it, too that was the best part.

I kinda dig the past two Christmases I've had without presents.

After we cleaned up the branch house well and scurried home. I called Mom first thing and had such a nice talk with her too. Unlike with Dad the first question she had was what I would be up to when I get Home. It is becoming a recurring theme. With everyone. But outside of that, we just had a really great talk about a little bit of everything...I spent the rest of the day catching up on a fat stack of letters I need to reply to, while my companion talked to her family, who had chosen to call her.

Our phone cuts off after an hour-don't ask me why. But she really thought that she wasn't going to call them back. For less than ten dollars you can buy a phone card here that literally lets you talk for almost 5 hours back to the states. I insisted she used a card I had barely started on with my Mom to call her family back and talk to them longer. "Are you sure? Are you sure?" She finally believed me when I called up the card and cued it for her to dial the number. Her little brother had just been roused from bed when the one hour clicked over but she didn't have the chance to talk to him. We were all so happy!


But finally...it's over!
New Year's went with very little to-do for us. We were told to be in our apartments at 6pm. We had things scheduled to keep us busy until then...but I goofed up and we missed our bus. At 4:30pm we made plans to look someone up...but decided that wasn't a good idea when we saw that the celebrations had more than already begun.

When we went running the next morning we were greeted by plenty of people still bringing in the New Year. Did I mention the part where we go running at a quarter after six every morning? It was a surprise but something tells me it shouldn't have been...

Things are going SO well here! We are teaching a woman named Magdi...she is one of the most pure in heart people I have ever met in my life. She has three daughters 6, 5 and 3 and the way that we keep them calm enough to be able to actually speak to Mom while we are there is they gather around me and brush my hair. It has gotten very long through the course of my mission, and its past the middle of my back now. Even the tiny three-year-old-they just gather around me everyone with a brush with such Love and gentleness-I really need to get a picture of it next time!

She called us this week while we were out running with a question she had out of the Book of Mormon about fasting. It is so awesome to see her progression-she really wants to raise those little girls in the Gospel. I am sure there will be more around here later.

When I arrived in Pécs one of the top investigators dropped us the first time I met them. Then things slowed so much for the holdiays...but we plugged through it obediently going through our days and doing everything we could. Funny how when you do your part He always does His... Things are starting to take off here and I am so excited to be a part of it.

I have been in this country for almost a year and I am only beginning to understand what exactly I have been sent here to do...

Most learning happens like that, I reckon.

But, I hope the Holidays were Happy for everyone tuning into the Work! I Love you all and look forward to telling you more about Magdi and her girls and the great other people we have just begun to teach!

I am Loving you all...

posted by Ashley @ 4:44 AM