Seriously, though. I don't know if I've ever told you all this--but this language is literally backwards. Which is both highly amusing and thoroughly frustrating. Prime example: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Literally translated from Hungarian is: The Last Day Saints Jesus Christ Church. Also, to say "I am Sister Carle," I have to say "Carle Sister am I." JUST LIKE YODA.
In other news, if you say "I am hot" in Hungarian (melleg vagyok) you are actually saying "I am gay." You must instead say my heat exists (mellegem van) to clear up any possible confusion. An Elder in my district found that out the hard way.
Oh! Also, this week is Consecration Week. What does that mean? That means this week is consecrated to just speaking Hungarian. Yeeepp, that's right--from this morning until Wednesday night csak magyarul (just Hungarian)! Woohhooo! It makes the Albanians and Estonians reeeeally happy haha. But no, since Sisar finally left this week the three of us Hungarian sisters are all in a trio together so it's a nagy magyarul buli (big Hungarian party). In honor of this week of struggling to communicate with the people around (something I might as well get used to now), I've been looking up Hungarian phrases to tell people since they already won't understand what I'm saying. I'd have to say my favorite is, "EJNYE-BEJNYE!" which is the Hungarian equivalent of "tsk-tsk!" but seriously more satisfying to say. Also--my companion can translate for me, so don't be too worried that I'm hanging out in Provo, Utah speaking Hungarian all by my lonesome (though even when we translate people seem to be thrown off by the fact that we're speaking another language they refuse to listen to what we're translating in English, it's really weird. I swear one of the temple workers still thinks I am FROM HUNGARY even though I kept saying, "Amerikai vagyok, amerikai vagyok--I am American, I AM AMERICAN." Nem tudom. Nagyon furcsa).
Also--The Carle (slash Wilford) Curse is alive and WELL. I swear. Seriously, my mom attended BYU for the majority of the 80's. Do you know what year she missed when she went on her mission? 1984. Aside from being an extremely depressing dystopian novel, what's so special about 1984? You may ask. Well, my dear friends, that is THE YEAR. The year of BYU football infamy. The year of THE National Championship. And if there is one thing I learned from my sophomore year of AP World History--it is that history is doomed to repeat itself. That's right. I believe that since all three of the BYU eligible Wilford grandchildren are instead out of the country--exactly thirty years later--that our chances for a national championship are TRIPLED this year. The Texas game is evidence. Are you a believer? I'm a believer.
Okay, now for the important stuff.
What I learned this week:
So much. Seriously, so much.
Every day I learn more about who I was before I came to this earth, who I am now, and who I want to be.
If I had to summarize what this week (and the weeks leading up to it) have taught me, I would say: always be happy.
That sounds dumb and obvious, but I haven't really learned it up until this point in my life, so hear me out. There is literally always--for your ENTIRE life--going to be a reason to be upset, worried, sad, stressed, anger, etc, etc, etc--but who cares? No, no really. Who cares? Life is 5% what happens to you and 95% how you react to it.
You're in control of you. You can put yourself in the power of the adversary and decide to be irritated or aggravated or or worry about what other people think or what he or she thinks and stress, stress, stress--
or you can just not. Because who cares. And I think this is something I always knew--but it wasn't until I was here in the MTC that I put it into practice every single day.
I have the most beautiful gift, I have my free agency. And I choose to be happy. Because that's the message I want to take to the Hungarian people.
Not a message of rules or restrictions or sadness--but just that YOU CAN ALWAYS BE HAPPY.
I feel like I've fallen victim to this message that our world is this big, sad, grey rain cloud that we all live on--and it's just not true. This world is filled with wonderful, joyous, BEAUTIFUL things and all you have to do is decide that no matter what, you're going to see them.
"Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." -2 Nephi 2:25
I believe it's part of the mortal condition to do things that bring us immediate satisfaction. Eat one more cookie, watch one more episode, just be angry at everything--but does it really make you happy? I can't answer that for you--but I'm not afraid to tell you and in a little over a week the entire country of Hungary that The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ--that makes me happy.
Always.
I love you all so much! When you write me it is seriously the best feeling ever. One more P-Day until Hungary! Woohoo!
Tudom hogy a Mormon könyve igaz!
Szeretet mindig,
Carle Nővér