The Work

Looking Good in White!

Magdi got baptized this week.

It was the eighth time someone I have taught has been baptized, and I feel incredibly grateful to have been part of it!

I just wanted to share. :)

posted by Ashley @ 5:37 AM

Feel Good Times

What a wonderful week!

Although it ended with me needed to come home from church and not see the light of day for several hours...this has been an awesome week on the other side of the rainbow. And never fear! I am feeling much better and will be right as rain in a day or so.


Mighty Mountain Men
So the Elders came with us out to Magdi, the woman who will be baptized this Saturday (yeay!). She had a very large pile of wood that needed to be chopped. Both Duncan and Purkiss Elder were soooo excited to get to work on it!

Both Elders dressed up for the occassion. Elder Duncan, one of the biggest kids in the mission (6'3" and 250lbs or so) came with a bright red flannel shirt on. Elder Purkiss donned bright red suspenders. It was soooo much fun! They chopped all the wood, but we helped by carrying them wood to chop and then piling the wood they had already split down. It was nice to be out in the falúi air...


Reunion
Zone Conference was on Friday in my beloved first city of Szeged. I called up somone I taught from the first lesson right up to her baptism-I know she works in the city and we had 40 minutes from the time of the arrival of our bus and the start of Zone Conference. She "happened" to have scheduled a little get-together with a friend of hers in the branch anyway at 9:00 and my bus arrived at 9:20.

When it stopped and we were able to depart it, I just took off leaving the whole district behind. Although that wasn't the smartest idea because I was the only one who knew where I was going! We all made it at the branch house, though and I flew up the stairs, looking for Zsuzsi.

When I found her, what joy! We hugged eachother over and over again. We didn't have more than a few minutes to talk, but it did my heart sooo much good to see her again. She is so awesome!


Saying Goodbye
At the end of every Zone Conference, the missionaries who will be departing at the end of the transfer are given the opportunity to bear their testimonies. It is often a very emotional moment, but a treasured one. Some really great Elders bore their testimonies on Friday. Elders I look up to and admire and in many ways have tried to emulate my whole mission. I didn't know which was more bittersweet...observing them say their Goodbyes or knowing that the next time this happened, I would be the one doing it.

No matter what, it is time to face the reality that I will in fact, be leaving soon. I need to prepare myself that it is going to be over.

But it isn't that terrible of a fate...I go home to lots of people who love me and lots of people and things whom I love very dearly as well. It'll be fun.

And besides, I still have nine whole weeks of enjoying this yet!

I am just trying to forget how short nine weeks is as I remember that...

posted by Ashley @ 4:22 AM

Stuck at Home...

Through no fault of anyone.

My companion started looking a bit peaked last Sunday evening, so when we missed the bus out to the falú of our last program of the day, I made the executive decision to take us home and I made phone calls and otherwise busied myself around the tiny apartment.

She was sick the whole rest of the week...we only were able to make it out to work for a few hours on two days, the poor thing. I have mentioned before that being home is a missionary's worst nightmare...I truly was not kidding in this matter. Although I was able to jump several days' worth of reading ahead in my goal to finish the Book of Mormon once a transfer on my mission and also finishing it in Hungarian by the end of this transfer (one month from Wednesday)...I am most grateful that she is feeling better.

As she rose to eat and be upright for periods of time she kept commenting how nice I was being to her. I wasn't going for "nice" I was going for simple human decency by cooking and cleaning for her and making sure she stayed hydrated throughout the week. It always bothers me that the standard of the world make such simple acts of kindness as something worth noting over and over again. What sort of world do we live in?

The whole experience made me curious of what I will be doing two and a half months from now. I fly in on Thursday. I want to go see my Dad on Friday. I am judging a Forensics tournament for my Mom on Saturday. Church on Sunday, and most likely a trip to see my extended family. After that I am...a bit of a wanderer. It will be quite odd.

AND-we have four people on date to be baptized!

One of them, Magdi, is simply one of the neatest people I have ever met. She is so kind and pure. Just to give you an example about Magdi, she mentioned about an experience she had about prayer with us. My hair has grown out quite a bit on my mission (that might have something to do with the fact that I haven't had it cut in well over a year) and she said that there was a day where we had come over and she was jealous of my long hair. "And it's beautiful, it really is, but I know that it is a sin to be jealous about things, so I prayed that I wouldn't be jealous anymore. I still think you have beautiful hair, Sister P0ll0ck, but I'm not jealous of it!"

She hears about a commandment and she wants to do everything she can to follow it-she is awesome. The only problem has been her husband has not allowed her to be baptized. Through Magdi living the Gospel as she knows it, us pitching in with some service and a whole lot of assistance from the Devine, he heart softened and when we arrived at her house on Sunday evening she announced she had good news. We didn't dare hope for the news we have been praying and fasting for since I arrived in Pécs...

So who cares that we were cooped inside for six days and we had the lowest numbers of our missions last week-Magdi's husband finally gave her permission to be baptized!

This work is so sweet!


Happy Baptiversary!
A term coined by my dear companion to signify the anniversary of a Baptism.

And my fourth one rolls around this Friday.

As if that isn't cool enough, this Friday is also Zone Conference.

As if that weren't the cherry on the sprinkles on the icing of the cake-Zone Conference is in Szeged, my first area!

A Very Merry Baptiversary to me!

I look forward to reporting more on the next edition of The Work, but in the meantime I hope you all are happy, healthy, safe and well out there where ever you are.

I'm loving you all!

posted by Ashley @ 5:37 AM