Autumn MTC February 16 , 2011

JO NAP MINDENKI! (good day everyone!!)

Well this week FLEW BY!!! WOOHOO!!!!... that means I'm THAT MUCH closer to hungary. That makes me so excited. Well we got our kicsi (youngers) hungarian elders and they seem soooo little. and man it makes me feel really OLD.. i mean little as in they don't know any hungarian. which, obviously I didn't either at that point. It made me feel a tiny bit better knowing that.... "hey I kind of maybe, sort of know a LITTLE bit what i'm doing!"...and also it means that there is LESS THAN A MONTH LEFT UNTIL HUNGARY!!!! YESSSSSS!!!! So the cool thing is that one of the elder is THE FIRST missionary to come from Cuba...ever. He is the first cuban missionary. His english is perfect cause he lived in canada for a while. but he speaks spanish and english and is now going to Hungary. Also this week in the teaching resource center we taught a return sister missionary who got back LAST THURSDAY! so fresh off the plane from Hungary. Obvously she loved it, and just told us over and over again that we will love EVERY second. It made me so excited.

Well my valentines day was awesome here in the good 'ol MTC. I got a letter from my brother Austin and an AWESOME package from my brother Alden full of Martinelli and a heart box of chocolates. Everyone thought I had some boy waiting for me at home, but nope it was MY AWESOME BROTHER!!! it made my day. (THANKS ALDEN!!)

This week was just a lot of hungarian and...well more hungarian. Time is flying faster and faster, It made me so excited. I love reading everyone's emails and hearing how life is around the world from my siblings. We're taking the world by storm our missionary army!!

Well not much else to report. I'll make some excitement happen this week. Oh yeah...I had to go to the hospital with a sister missionary who got a "stomach scope" done for ulcers.. so when she was coming out of anesthesia she kept saying "i feel like I'm dumbledore...where's my wand?!" "I need to convert people, I need my wand...I'll just cast a spell"... she was soooo loopy and it was sooo entertaining and made me feel kind of like a nurse again, back in the good 'ol hospital.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-sister papritz

Austin - Madison Wisconsin - February 14, 2011

Hey,

For church yesterday there were a couple of the young women who gave us little heart suckers for Valentines day. And then when the other missionaries turned away they gave me one of those giant Hershey kisses haha. I didn't really know what to say, I was like, "Wait, did they others get one too?" And they said, "No, this one is just for you. I guess we just gave you a big kiss." Haha. I tried to eat it later but it was a giant fist-sized chocolate kiss so I only got through a third of it and then threw it away. This last week wasn't anything terribly miraculous but there were a couple cool moments.

First of all, on Thursday during morning workouts I was lifting a puny weight and somehow I pulled a back muscle. Incidentally, it was the same muscle I pulled in a bike crash. I went to the doctor for the crash and he prescribed some muscle relaxants. I still had a bunch left over so I've been taken them but it's been making me suuper drowsy and tired during the day. I feel worthless, I honeslty can barely hold a thought. I can't imagine what it would be like taking this crap for a long period of time or being addicted to alcohol or anything else. I'm thinkin' God might have a point with the Word of Wisdom or something like that.

Regardless, Elder Partis and I have been working on adding new investigators. It was pretty cool, we have spent this whole week talking to more people on the streets and stuff and not too much has come from it. But on Sunday I took like a three hour nap after church because I was sooo out of it because of the medicine. Then I woke up and I just said, "Enough. We're going outside." Pretty much the first guy we passed he was looking up to the sky and then I noticed he looked over at us as we passed. I turned back and asked him if he needed something and he replied, "I was just thinking about what a coincidence it was that he was just looking of to the stars and thinking about God and then we passed." So that was pretty cool. We're going to meet with him later this week. I thought that was quite a miracle.

I did splits with our new district leader and it was pretty cool. He did yoga before he came out on his mission and I was telling him how I was having problems sleeping and stuff and he asked me if I had ever tried yoga. He said that yoga really helped him to relax before sleeping at night. That night he showed me some stuff and I was surprised at how good and relaxed I felt. So, now I did some basic stretching and breathing every night. It's way cool. I never thought I'd ever think about doing yoga. But since I hurt my back I haven't been able to do it but I got drugs to help me sleep for that ha.

This week we have a three day leadership training. My boy is going to be all by himself for 21 hours this week in our area. Pray for him haha but I know he'll do good....or maybe I'll come back and half the city of Milwaukee will be on fire. We'll see.

Much love,

Elder Papritz

Amy - Jilong, Taiwan February 13, 2011

Qin ai de jiating,

Welp not much happened this week. The weather for the first part of the week was gorgeous! We saw sunshine for the first time since I have been here in Jilong. It was great! The work picked up a little since guo nian is over. But later this week it started raining again and won't stop for a week. Blast! Good thing this Oregonian loves the rain! Anyways, Sister Howell lost her voice on Thursday so for the last part of the week I have been doing most of the talking. Its kind of scary but it has been great to see how much I understand and can share. The gift of tongues is an amazing thing!

We experienced some heartache this week. Huang li qin one of our investigators last week missed her baptismal date. This is the third baptismal date she has missed. We finally got a hold of her at her friend's clothing booth. We have been trying to call her for the whole week with no results. When we asked her what happened she said that she went to Taipei with her family. When we asked if she still had a desire to get baptized she said she wasn't sure. She has all the sudden become very flaky. We invited Sister Chen to peike for us but Li qin didn't show up. Long story short, we are going to have to let her go. Sister Howell and I when we got home just sat on our floor and cried. It is so hard to see an investigator who we have worked so hard with. We walked to her house for pete's sake which is 30 minutes away one way. We had so much hope that this baptismal date would be the one for her. It is really hard but I know that Heavenly Father still loves her and is mindful of her. I hope that she will one day get baptized and reiceve the blessings that come from it.On a happier note, our Elders had a baptism last Saturday. He is 80 years old!! He is a sweet old man with such a big heart. It was so great to see him get baptized. This is the first baptism in Jilong for a long time.

The new transfer starts today. We recieved the move call on Friday and Sister Howell and I are staying in Jilong together for another transfer!!! I am so excited to stay here in this wonderful place. Huang zhanglao is moving to the southern part of Taiwan and Chen zhanglao, our district leader, is training again.

I hope that you all have a great week. Sorry this e-mail is so short. Nothing really happened this week. I love you all so much!!

All my love,

Yang jiemei

Autumn MTC February 09 , 2011

o napot mindenki! hogy vagytok? (good day everyone, how are you all doing?)

Well another week in the MTC... and this week WE'RE THE VETERANS! WHAT?!?!?.... that means that today we get our "kicsi" our "youngers" ....and we are the "osi" (OLDERS!). I really don't feel prepared for this. I mean, like... youre supposed to know a bit of hungarian before you start setting the example as the "expert" right?! haha... it's going to be a hoot. I'll sure have them fooled. I've memorized a couple of fancy phrases... i'll just use that on them until they're smart enough to realize, hey she keeps saying the same fancy thing over and over again. But it's exciting because that means we're so close to getting to HUNGARY!!!! heaven is soooo close!!!!! I can just taste the chicken paprikas and feel the hungarian wind in my hair.

This week I made some AWESOME hungarian mistakes. In teaching someone I thought they said "I pray while cleaning the toilet"..so instead of assuming I hear wrong i indeed decided to clarify "so, you pray while cleaning the toilet"....haha.... uh yeah... they definitely didn't say that, and I defintiely just made a fool of myself. Luckily we were just teaching my teacher and she laughed a lot.

Also My hungarian CTR ring... well it says VAJ..which is already funny in english. Well in hungarian... even though the letters V A J stand for choose the good in hungarian. the word VAJ means BUTTER! BAHAHA.....so I am wearing a ring that says butter on it..awesome. good conversation starter.

Well I'm running out of time. Not tons of exciting updates. but I know this gospel is true. the scriptures are so awesome and help me more than ever in life. The work I'm doing is EXACTLY what the Lord wants me to do and I am priviliged and excited to be his servant and messenger.

I love you all!!!!! szeretlek!

-Papritz Nover

Austin - Madison Wisconsin - February 08, 2011

Queridos irmãos e irmãs,

Oh man, last night was pretty cool. I had a member updating me on the score of the Super Bowl throughout the game since our Mission President told us that all missionaries had to be in their apartment by 4:00 PM. I had figured out they had won when I saw fireworks lighting up the inside of our apartment. They were probably lit-off about 20 miles away on the lakeshore in downtown Milwaukee. I kind of wish I could have been down there, it would have been crazy. Also, our apartment is right next to a major road on the Southside of Milwaukee and we heard people honking and going crazy all the up to two or three in the morning. It was great. Elder Partis and I took to opening our windows and yelling at people on the street, "HEY! THE PACKERS WON!!" and they'd most often respond, "Yeaah...I know," in which we'd reply, "Oh...okay." And then pull our heads back in the window. But it's way cool over here and I hear the parade is going to be tomorrow in Green Bay. I'll have to ask some of the Green Bay Elders how that goes.

Last Tuesday night we had a crazy blizzard storm which was incredibly convenient because it swept through Wisconsin on the day of transfers. The Spanish Elders in the city south of us got hit hard. There was so much snow (a wall of snow measuring 4 feet) outside their door that they literally couldn't even open it. In fact, the whole city was shut down. It was illegal to drive on the streets and the highways were closed off. I heard that 900 cars were stuck on the highway and actually had to stay there over night?? I can't possibly believe they did that but I heard it from two different people and also since they were completely stopped over night, snow continued to fall and filled in the gaps in between the cars. I'm not even sure how everyone got out....I don't know, heck, maybe they're still there! So on Wednesday we didn't go outside at all. I've never seen so much snow in my life, none of the buses were running on all the city. I looked all over our apartment for shovels and I couldn't even find any. So we just stayed in all day and studied.

Next week we have a four day training for all leadership and trainers. So four out of the seven days next week (not this week) I will be at a meeting from 9 to 4. We'll see how that goes. I guess my boy will have plenty of opportunities to get to know the area.

I wish I had a solid update on our investigators but as you can tell we weren't even able to get out much between the Super Bowl and the terrible death-defying weather. We got to do work this week especially since my boy will probably be in a threesome with the other Spanish Elders and they will have to split time between the two areas next week when I'm in the leadership training.

With much love,

Elder Papritz.

Amy - Jilong, Taiwan February 08, 2011

Qinai de jiating,

I survived Guo nian! This week was very interesting. It was a great week in the sense that we got to meet a lot of the members and get to know them better but not a good week for sharing the Gospel. The whole week we taught a total of 6 lessons. A lot of people were at home with their families so they didn't want to meet with us or they weren't at home. But we did find 3 new investigators so the week was still very sucessful. So basically for Chinese new year we went from eating appointment to eating appointment. The feasts started on Wednesday. I thought I was going to die! We had one appointment in the morning with Li jiating. Sister Li is in the Relief Society presidency. The family is a great example to the ward. We ate very traditional food. The whole week we ate a lot of seafood. I am so grateful that growing up we ate a lot of seafood because thats a lot of what they eat here in Taiwan. After stuffing our faces at that house we went to eat with Song yuan ting. She is an investigator who is my Taiwanese mother. Everytime we meet with her she gives us food. She is always so worried about us. haha I love her. We ate chicken, squid, tons of veggies, and a doughy rice noodle that was really good. We also bike everywhere which was a blessing because it helped my stomach digest faster. Than we had a dinner in the evening. By the end of the day Sister Howell and I were about to explode. Luckily the rest of the week we only had 2 dinner appointments a day. We ate a lot of hot pot which is basically a pot full of broth and then on the side you have vegtables and meat and you can choose what you want to eat. Then you put it in the broth to cook. It is so delicious!! I also ate raw fish and lots of squid. Yumm!! It was so wonderful to get to know the members. We have so many great members here in Jilong. Many of their families are the first generation members. Talking with them has made me so grateful to be a member of the church. I am so grateful to have the blessings of the Gospel especially of eternal families.

As far as our investigators go we gave the Elders Green. We realized that his wife is not making as much progress and doesn't have much interest. He will quickly progress now that the Elders are teaching him. We also had one of our investigators Huang li qin fang us. She was suppose to have her baptismal interview this Sunday but she didn't show up. She also didn't answer when we called her. It was really hard on Sister Howell. This is the third baptismal date that she has set with Sister Howell that she a week away from being baptized stopped contacting us or told her she didn't want to get baptized. We hope that everything will work out with her and that we can resolve her problem.

Well I hope that you all have a great week. Thank you for your prayers and your letters. They have been so wonderful and have given me the much needed support. Thank you also for the Valentines day package. I love it!! I love the sweater and all the yummy candy.

All my love,

Yang Jiemei

Autumn MTC February 2 , 2011

HALF WAY!! HALLELUJAH!!!!

Jo reggelt en csodalatos csaladonkat es baratainkat! (good morning my wonderful family and friends!!!)

The mtc is same old same old except I'M HALF WAY DONE!!! BOOOYAH!!! also... it is groundhogs day, and this place eerily feels like the movie groundhogs day. wake up and do the same thing everyday.... hmm... so i'm kind of living in a time warp right now, living groundhogs day on groundhogs day!

So this week my big news!! I HAD A DREAM IN HUNGARIAN!!!!! YESSS... for those of you who know how important dreams are to me this is a big deal!!! haha... now don't get too excited i didn't speak anything that exciting. but the dream went like this: I was in my first area in budapest with a Sister Abundi Abundi (don't ask me where me brain got that name! haha)... so it was my first day in the area and we were walking down a street and we saw these two girls in this garden one of them looked up and said "i recognize you! i have been wanting to talk to you, i am looking for happiness"... my companion looked at me and said "go for it"... so i said "Isten szerett minket. Az o gyermekei vagyunk! Az evangeliuma igaz!"..... (translation: God loves us. we are his children. the gospel is true)... the girl looked up from the garden and said "that's is exactly what i was hoping to hear, please teach me more!"....SCOOOOORE!!!!!!!

...so then we taught her and her friend. and I woke up so pumped and excited that ALL I NEEDED was just those simple phrases and I knew that my hungarian would be enough. i don't need to be eloquent or perfect, as long as i can testify that God loves us, we are his children....it will all be ok! So needless to say it was a major blessing to be so reassured that I know the Lord is perfectly happy with my performance and my little tiny bit of hungarian. luckily I have six more weeks to get it down, but even if I don't know anymore than I do today... I will be ok.

So this week we had the opportunity to hang out with two missionaries who are FROM HUNGARY! so we met real hungarians. they were so awesome and I just fell in love with them both. It was so inspriring. one was a convert and was found by my teachers husband in budapest. it was so good to have some perspective of real hungarians and their story and the story of the people in hungary and how much they need the gospel. The field is white!!! It was a good week.

Also for funny story: this week the firealrm went off blazzing loud at 1020 at night..we all had to evacuate and go into the gym in our pajamas. come to find out some girl had microwaved a poptart in the wrapper. it exploded and started a fire! haha.... that's about as exciting as this place gets.

I love being here. I love serving the Lord and I love all of you!!!!!!!!

szeretlek!

-Papritz Nover