Dear all,
Csákány! As you can probably guess, that is slang for "hello" in Hungarian. Cool, right? It gets cooler when you find out that IT LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO "PICK AXE". Is that not the coolest thing you've heard all day??
Hungarian is the bomb! Instead of saying "what the heck" we say "what the miracle" instead of saying "go to (a word I would never say as a missionary unless I was reading the Bible *ahem*ahem*)" we say "go to France." Instead of saying hello, we say PICK AXE. WHAT NOW.
Best. Language. Ever.
So, this week has actually been really sad and strangely ironic because on week three we said goodbye to being in a group of three. Because of some shifting in our zone, Sisar is now companions with Rada Nővér. It was hard to see her go, even if it was just next door (but it's okay because we still keep all the food in our room so it's still a nagy buli every night haha).
Alright. This past week:
1.) We got to teach a real Hungarian in TRC (which is kind of like visit teaching). You know that feeling when you play rec basketball and you think you're all good and stuff and you've sunk a couple threes and have some pretty good dribbling skills and then you go and try for the school team and they're running around dunking and spinning basketballs on their heads and all of their appendages and you're like: OH, BOY. MAYBE I'M NOT SO GOOD AT THIS haha yeaaaahh....I think you get where I'm going with this. BUT, we had a blast. Really truly. She was super nice and we talked about her family, and hair, and shared our favorite scriptures...and we talked to A REAL HUNGARIAN. For the FIRST TIME. How can I not be excited? That's what I'm here to do. We go again tonight and I'm super excited, I love these people so much already. So much.
2.) We have a new(ish) "investigator" named Szabi. We planned EXTENSIVELY for a lesson with him. We memorized vocab, grilled each other on questions, prayed our hearts out...aaand tanked it. Our Hungarian wasn't the problem--we just weren't getting through AT ALL. I was near to tears, it was so bad (okay, maybe a few real tears were shed haha.) Afterwards, my teacher took my comp and I aside and basically said, "Leckes--fontos. Szabi--több fontos. (Lesson--important. Szabi--more important.)" We teach emberek (people) not leckes (lessons). And so we came together as a companionship and decided to fast for our next lesson. And we did, and it was a Monday, and it was super hard to sit in the classroom and study instead of go to lunch--but let me tell you here and now I have a testimony of fasting. We went into that lesson, and it was nowhere near perfect, but it was DANG GOOD. And our Hungarian wasn't all there, but the Spirit sure was. There was a point at the end where he had drawn out what he did for a living--a security guard to let people in a gate to a group of office buildings. AND I WAS LIKE: AHA! And I whipped out 2 Nephi 31:17-18 as fast as humanly possible and told him that just as he was necessary in his job to let people through the gate to the buildings, baptism was a necessary step to let people through the gate to eternal blessings and I used his picture to explain it. I KNOW that it was because of our fast that I was inspired to do that. And that was some good squash, right there.
3.) In other news, my basketball buddies flew out to Malaysia and Indonesia on Monday so it's just me, the ball, and the hoop. Which is sad. But probably good because I desperately need to work on my shot. Since I can't play with the Elders, though, I'm really hoping some of the new Latvian or Armenian Sisters like basketball.
4.) The new Mormon Message, "The Hope of God's Light," is the BOMB DOT COM. If you haven't seen it yet, ten out of ten would recommend. One-thousand-million-percent yes. The message is so powerful. SERIOUSLY GO WATCH IT.
5.) In Hungarian the word for church is "egyhaz" which literally translates to "one house." And the word for church meeting literally translates to "God respect." Food for thought. I spent a good five minutes just thinking about that one.
6.) Fun factoid: apparently there are rumors circulating that the might change the Hungarian mission boundaries to include parts of Romania that are dense with Hungarian speakers, so that'll be interesting if they turn out to be more than rumors.
Last of all:
I want to let you all know I love you. Each one of you. I miss you lots, but I'm learning so much more than I could ever imagine. Sorry I'm short on funny stories, this week has been a much more serious one, which means there are only many more fun stories to come in the following week, right? The language is hard, the work is hard (and I'm not even in the field yet...oh, sheesh.) But it so, so, SO good at the same time.
-We are not mortal beings having a spiritual experience, but instead spiritual beings having a mortal experience.
-God loves us.
-Fasting brings about miracles (big and small).
Tudom hogy a Mormon könyve igaz!
Szeretet mindig,
Carle Nővér
Csákány! As you can probably guess, that is slang for "hello" in Hungarian. Cool, right? It gets cooler when you find out that IT LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO "PICK AXE". Is that not the coolest thing you've heard all day??
Hungarian is the bomb! Instead of saying "what the heck" we say "what the miracle" instead of saying "go to (a word I would never say as a missionary unless I was reading the Bible *ahem*ahem*)" we say "go to France." Instead of saying hello, we say PICK AXE. WHAT NOW.
Best. Language. Ever.
So, this week has actually been really sad and strangely ironic because on week three we said goodbye to being in a group of three. Because of some shifting in our zone, Sisar is now companions with Rada Nővér. It was hard to see her go, even if it was just next door (but it's okay because we still keep all the food in our room so it's still a nagy buli every night haha).
Alright. This past week:
1.) We got to teach a real Hungarian in TRC (which is kind of like visit teaching). You know that feeling when you play rec basketball and you think you're all good and stuff and you've sunk a couple threes and have some pretty good dribbling skills and then you go and try for the school team and they're running around dunking and spinning basketballs on their heads and all of their appendages and you're like: OH, BOY. MAYBE I'M NOT SO GOOD AT THIS haha yeaaaahh....I think you get where I'm going with this. BUT, we had a blast. Really truly. She was super nice and we talked about her family, and hair, and shared our favorite scriptures...and we talked to A REAL HUNGARIAN. For the FIRST TIME. How can I not be excited? That's what I'm here to do. We go again tonight and I'm super excited, I love these people so much already. So much.
2.) We have a new(ish) "investigator" named Szabi. We planned EXTENSIVELY for a lesson with him. We memorized vocab, grilled each other on questions, prayed our hearts out...aaand tanked it. Our Hungarian wasn't the problem--we just weren't getting through AT ALL. I was near to tears, it was so bad (okay, maybe a few real tears were shed haha.) Afterwards, my teacher took my comp and I aside and basically said, "Leckes--fontos. Szabi--több fontos. (Lesson--important. Szabi--more important.)" We teach emberek (people) not leckes (lessons). And so we came together as a companionship and decided to fast for our next lesson. And we did, and it was a Monday, and it was super hard to sit in the classroom and study instead of go to lunch--but let me tell you here and now I have a testimony of fasting. We went into that lesson, and it was nowhere near perfect, but it was DANG GOOD. And our Hungarian wasn't all there, but the Spirit sure was. There was a point at the end where he had drawn out what he did for a living--a security guard to let people in a gate to a group of office buildings. AND I WAS LIKE: AHA! And I whipped out 2 Nephi 31:17-18 as fast as humanly possible and told him that just as he was necessary in his job to let people through the gate to the buildings, baptism was a necessary step to let people through the gate to eternal blessings and I used his picture to explain it. I KNOW that it was because of our fast that I was inspired to do that. And that was some good squash, right there.
3.) In other news, my basketball buddies flew out to Malaysia and Indonesia on Monday so it's just me, the ball, and the hoop. Which is sad. But probably good because I desperately need to work on my shot. Since I can't play with the Elders, though, I'm really hoping some of the new Latvian or Armenian Sisters like basketball.
4.) The new Mormon Message, "The Hope of God's Light," is the BOMB DOT COM. If you haven't seen it yet, ten out of ten would recommend. One-thousand-million-percent yes. The message is so powerful. SERIOUSLY GO WATCH IT.
5.) In Hungarian the word for church is "egyhaz" which literally translates to "one house." And the word for church meeting literally translates to "God respect." Food for thought. I spent a good five minutes just thinking about that one.
6.) Fun factoid: apparently there are rumors circulating that the might change the Hungarian mission boundaries to include parts of Romania that are dense with Hungarian speakers, so that'll be interesting if they turn out to be more than rumors.
Last of all:
I want to let you all know I love you. Each one of you. I miss you lots, but I'm learning so much more than I could ever imagine. Sorry I'm short on funny stories, this week has been a much more serious one, which means there are only many more fun stories to come in the following week, right? The language is hard, the work is hard (and I'm not even in the field yet...oh, sheesh.) But it so, so, SO good at the same time.
-We are not mortal beings having a spiritual experience, but instead spiritual beings having a mortal experience.
-God loves us.
-Fasting brings about miracles (big and small).
Tudom hogy a Mormon könyve igaz!
Szeretet mindig,
Carle Nővér