Autumn- Budapest Hungary May 16, 2011

Hello everyone!!!

Well another week in Pest! I cant believe time is flying soooo fast. I was thinking the other day about the day I received my mission call and how crazy it was that it said " Budapest Hungary"...and I had NO CLUE where that was. Now I live here! weird!

So this week was fun, President gave the missionaries in the area special permission to go see Phantom of the Opera on "broadway" here. Or the equivilant of Hungarian broadway. The production was all in Hungarian with really poorly translated english subtitles. It would say things like " my Angel of Music is a happiness unto me"...haha. I realized I actually understand Hungarian cause I leaned over to sister Roderick and said " that is DEFINITELY not what they just sang" cause apparently the translation was WAY off the entire show. and also the Phantom was like 90 years old! haha... or it seemed like it. He started singing and I thought it was going to be like some young phantom, but he started warbling like an Old man...totally killed the mood of the Whole show. a 90 year old phantom is not that scary or intimidating.

It was definitely a cultural experience. One crazy weird culture thing about Hungarians is that they clap in unison. So when the show was done, instead of clapping everyone at their own clapping pace they all clap together. As if there is a beat, but theres not a beat. and Somehow EVERYONE knows when it starts. and also they did like 6 "encore" bows. They seriously applauded for 20 minutes...all in unison. It was so weird.

Another fun event this week Sister Roderick got asked to perform at this Memorial concert for the death of one of our investigators friends (the investigator is like some PR lady that knows famous people...or so we thought). So we thought it was going to be this somber event. We were prepared with all of these death pass along cards. We show up to the place, everyone was like atleast 80 years old..and come to find out. It was a variety show! It wasnt a memorial concert at all, they didnt even MENTION the girl they were memorializing. They had a big picture of her up on a screen, but never mentioned her. It was like a Nursing Home Birthday party. and all of these old Famous Hungarian Crooners got up and performed a bunch of "Golden Oldies". I was so confused the whole night cause I kept waiting for everyone to be crying in memory of this lady, but everyone was having a party. There was a drunk man yelling bravo the whole night behind me. People were singing along to everysong. Old people were dancing in the aisles. I was sooo confused. We thought people would be in mouring, but they were just having the time of their lives! So we felt awkward passing out "death is not the end" pass along cards to all of these people that basically had one foot in the grave already at this "party". But I sure as heck passed out every single one of those cards!

We streeted a blind man this week. It was really awesome. He was so grateful we talked to him. We saw Him from far away, and I said we have GOT to talk to him. Cause how often can you just walk up and talk to a blind man! So we talked to him for a while on the street and It was so great. He was so greatful to have someone to talk to. After the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe the cloud of nuclear chemical settled right over Hungary. So there are sooo many people that have developmental problems, and lots of eye problems. So many people walk with limps or have other health issues because of Chernobyl or other communist things. Its crazy to be in the middle of a place like this. There is so much history, so much these people have gone through.

It also hit me this week, during communisom people were forbidden to join ANY religion. So alot of these people have never been religious in their lives because it was forbidden. So I am really apart of a pioneering work here in Hungary. These members are pioneers. They are the first members to join the church. There is no temple here, the church is so new. It just really struck me how new the church is here, and how much work there is to do. It makes me excited to be apart of the History of the Church in Hungary.

One of the pictures this week is me holding a giant Iron Nail. I wrestled that nail out of our Investigators 5 year old sons hand. (the one I play vickings and robbers with) He was swinging that thing around and it was looking REALLY dangerous. So I took matters into my own hands and solved that little dangerous problem. Then he burst into tears, called me a SLEW of bad names. and kept saying "youre stupid!" and then pummeled me with his fists. His mom was TICKED at him. but then later he apolozied and it was the cutest thing ever. But he was SOOOOO ticked at me and I had no clue what he was yelling at me..but I could tell it wasnt nice.

Well.... Thats it for this week. Lots of other funny and amazing things happened this week. Sister Roderick and I have so much fun here in Pest.

The gospel is true and I love being here! Everyone be happy!!

Love,

Sister Papritz

Amy - Tianmu, Taiwan May 15, 2011

Qin ai de jiating,

So this week has been really good. Really fast. I feel like the weeks now are just going by really fast. Being the senior companion has been taking some adjusting. I am so used to having my companion plan everything but now I am the one having to plan everything. We visited a lot of less actives and investigators and wrote cards. We also met with one investigator who will have her baptismal interview this week. Her name is Zhong hui ping. Her younger sister is a member and really sweet. Pray for her.

We have two wards here in Shuanghe so church was really interesting yesterday. We had to split work so I was with a member. Even though we split work in Xinzhu I am still not used to it. I would see Sister Liu and she would rattle something off to me in Chinese about needing a peike or some one I was supposed to wait for and then leave. Crap! I have no idea what she said or what she wants me to do.. oh well. Luckily she is so paitent with me. It was great to meet the ward members. They are all so wonderful and so willing to help. These two wards are willing to peike which is a nice change. Our ward mission leader is a really easy going man that looks like Barney Fiff from the andy griffiths show. He has a 5 year old daughter who is in my English class. She is adorable! She reminds me so much of Abby. Here we have 3 American Elders and one Taiwanese. There are no sisters in our area. I'm not even sure if our zone has sisters. Weird. They are great missionaries.

So funny story. On Thursday we were coming home from an appointment around 8:15 or so and we have to be home at 9pm. Since I dont know this area very well sister Liu was leading. I got stuck behind a garbage truck and a large van so I couldn't see sister Liu. By the time I got ahead of the trucks Sister Liu was gone! I couldn't find her. She had turned onto the main road and hadn't looked back to see if I was behind her. So remembering my years of camping with the family I knew I needed to stay in the same spot and she would come back to get me. I waited for 10 minutes and she didn't come back. Luckily I also from many camping experiences learned how to read a map so I knew somewhat how to get home. I tried to get home but I kept getting turned around. Finally Sister Liu called me from the pay phone. She has gone all the way home. I finally found my way back after about 45 minutes of waiting for her and trying to find my way back. And of course it started down pouring! Luckily the little rain didn't stop this Oregonian and I got home. Sister Liu was a good sport. It helped me get to know the area better. I am grateful for moments like this that humble me and give me unexpected learning opportunites.

I hope that you all have a great week. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. I know that this Gospel is true. There is nothing that I would rather be doing than getting lost in the streets of Shuanghe and sharing the Gospel. I love you all!!

All my love,

Yang Jiemei

P.S Mom, I got a package from the Burrows for Easter. Can you tell them I got it and I said thank you and that I loved it. I am mailing a thank you card to them today. It was so sweet of them to do that.

Autumn- Budapest Hungary May 9, 2011

Jo Napot mindenkinek!!!!

So this week was another wonderful week in the land of milk and honey...Pest!!! Sister Roderick and I have so much stinking fun.... oh and we happen to do a lot of missionary work on the side. actually not on the side, thats the main thing we do.. the fun is on the side. haha. my priorities are straight I promise.

It was WONDERFUL to talk to my family. -sigh- so wonderful. My favorite part was the wonderful rendition of "doe a dear a female dear" duet that my little sisters did from the sound of music. made my heart melt. Love my family so much. but I also LOVE the work I am doing here. Its is so worth it. Im sacrificing my family and my job which I love for a year and a half so that I can bring other people ETERNAL families and ETERNAL happiness. a year and a half is nothing compared to that.

So I liked the numbered list of events so here we go, top events of Paprikas Nővér's week:

1. Had my most AWKWARD streeting experience of my life. I approached this lady on the street walking her dog and had the book of mormon in my hand. I was confident. i was ready. i had a little something something i was going to say. I approached her and said "papritz nővér vagyok. Hálotál erról a könvyeről?".....simply "Im sister papritz have you heard about this book?"... she started RATTLING off Hungarian..I knew it wasnt going good, I started sweating, my eyes got all shifty, I had an awkward smile on my face...I still had no clue what she was saying. So all I said was " hát jo" or "well ...good"...and then stood there Awkwardly staring at her...and then just walked away. bahah... Sister Roderick bust up laughing and translated for me what the lady had said " I have heard of that book and frankly Im not interested, Im not interested at all!!!!!!" and all I said back to her enthusiastically was " well GOOD!"...and walked away. bahah. not good. not good at all. The awkwardness was OOOOOOZING... oh man. just POURING out of me. haha. Good thing all of this awkwardness makes for AWESOME stories.

2. Our miracle LAW OF CHASTITY investigator, Imre, is still on fire. Its so great. He basically teches us every lesson. and this week after we taught him about the restoration. He just looked at us and said "well This all just makes sense"....WELL PERFECT! We hoped youd say that. and he again reemphasized how much he loves chastity. haha.. well awkward for letting us know, but awesome that you love it.

3. We did yoga this week with an investigator. We are trying to do some creative activities with our investigators. So sister Roderick was the yoga instructor, i was the entertainment, and our investigator got to watch the hilariousness of my inflexibility and Sister Rodericks profiness... oh and our investigator participated too. She kept saying "i dont like this sport!"...haha...we were little nazi instructors "TOO BAD YOU WILL DO DOWNWARD DOG!"... haha. it was fun though. good investigator bonding time.

4. We had stake conference this weekend. and well the entire country is the stake so members from ALL OVER the country were there and the stake center was PACKED. It was great sitting in the chapel and looking all the way back and just seeing it full of Hungarians. We'll get a temple here before we know it!

Well those are the highlights... not a super over the top week. Just normal and full of FUN and SPIRIT and awesomeness. The gospel is true. Im so grateful to be here and preaching the word and trying to speak this crazy language..and sometimes succeeding. It is so worth it though.

ok LOVE YOU ALL!

-Your little Hungarian

Cultural Tip of the week: Hungarians are always betég! They are always sick! and their kids are always sick. Like we will call an investigator and they say " well Marcell caughed today, Im pretty sure he is sick now" "oh really? like really sick?" " oh.. no.. just one cough...but I know hes sick now".. so all it takes is one cough and theyre kid has CROUP! ...haha. or it just has to have like ONE RAINDROP fall and the moms are all staying inside. Theyre kids WILL NOT catch the cold that will kill them .cause FOR SURE they will die. apparently. and in the middle of one lesson an investigators kid had a runny nose, so she Ran to the vacuum and stuck on this attachment and SHOVED it up her kids nose! and started just SUCKING the snot out of it. im talking TRAUMATIZING getting a VACUUM hose shoved up your nose. Its called an Orszivo Porszivo. or a nose vacuum apparently. it was traumatizing for me...and I wasnt even the ones getting my brains sucked out.

Austin - Kenosha Wisconsin - May 9, 2011

Hey Family,

It was nice to see and talk to the family on Sunday. We got to go to a member's home la familia Cruz and use their computer to Skype. Brother Cruz is this hilariousbig-gut Mexican. We were playing soccer on Saturday and he was telling that he didn't use to always be this big. He use to be a "flacito" or little skinny guy until he married his wife. And then he was describing that whole thing and how he didn't like the ditzy giggly girls in Mexican and then he met his wife and thought, "Wow, shes is so serious, that kind of interestin." Notice that he told the whole story in Spanish and then he expressed his "mind thoughts" in broken English and so it was funny. I help a lot of the members here with their English and they appreciate it so much. It's nice to start being really comfortable with Spanish where I can feel like I can sacrifice some of my time to help them learn English where otherwise I would have rather spoken in Spanish so that I could learn. They truly get excited that I correct them, I've heard it three times now where the Hermano will tell their wife, "I'm going to learn a lot of English with this Elder." And they'll throw up there arms in excitement. It's pretty cool.

This week we found 3 new people that are excited to learn about the Gospel. All three of them were found kind of on accident too. We were trying to contact another person but they weren't at home so we knocked the door for the first floor and we found Rafael and his wife Rut who are a darling young family. It was cool that when I introduced the Book of Mormon to him he asked me to pick a part for him so that he could start reading. Then we got a referal from a member and we knocked on the door and we met this way interested guy who knew the church a bit back in Mexico. He really wants to be a missionary and admires what we do a lot. But then we found out that doesn't even live in that house and that he was just visiting his sister who lived there. Pretty cool.

Last Sunday the young men's leader had us join them for the third hour of church for an activity he was going to do with the boys. It was way cool. He had the blindfolded and then had them stand on a wood board. He told them that the missionaries (us) were going to lift the board above our heads (at which point their like, WHHAT?) And he puts their hand on his shoulder for balance but really what he does is when he says 3-2-1 we just lift the board like 5 inches and the young mens' leader just lowers his body until he is kneeling on the floor and it somehow gives the person on the board the feeling of being lifted up really far but really they are just like 5 inches from the ground. They then have to excersize "faith" to take a step down (Which they think is like 6 feet down) some of them had interesting reactions and it was all kind of funny to watch. Some of them tried to jump of the board thinking they were jumping 6 feet. The young mens' leader brought the men in one at a time too so that it wouldn't give away the trick. It was a pretty cool lesson to be apart of.

We went to the birthday of an investigator's daughter on Cinco de Mayo, she was born on 5/5/05 which I thought was pretty cool. We had Guatemalen style tamales and we met a lot of her friends. There was a pinata afterwoods too and they gave me the honor of breaking it (after everyone went and had a go at it). Then after that we went to a Cinco de Mayo party that was put on by the city Spanish Center here in Kenosha. It was done in the lobby of a lake front hotel and it was way cool. There was tons of food (which normally costs 30 bucks to get in but because we volunteer for the Spanish Center teaching English we got in for free). There was live Spanish music and dance groups. It was a cool experience. But I didn't get any pictures because my camera's lense is broken. It broke 2 days after I had FORMATTED ALL OF THE TWO HUNDRED PHOTOS AND 30 MINUTES WORTH OF VIDEO I HAD ON MY CAMERA. 9 months of my mission. Gone. Disappeared. I almost wanted to cry. I accidentally pressed okay instead of cancel and it just deleted everything. So I haven't had much technology luck this week.

Oooother than that. I'm doing decently well. Crohn's is being a punk but it's not getting me down. Nuttin is.

Much love,

Elder Papritz

AMy - Tianmu, Taiwan May 9, 2011

Qin ai de jiating,

Well another week has passsed in Tianmu. Our numbers lately have been going down. We try to set up with people but the appointments fall through. We spend a lot of our time contacting. This whole transfer I have gone door to door contacting more than any other time in my mission!! It has been interesting to be on the other side of the work. Before I have been on the harvesting side but this last transfer I have been the one seeding. At times it was hard to get the motivation to knock one more door but we kept going because I know that there are souls that need the Gospel. Sister Tanner and I saw many miracles. Vicky Lin for one. She has been progressing a lot but hasn't come to church in two weeks. She loves the Book of Mormon and has made the goal everyday to be happy and it has really helped her change her attitude. I'm sad that I will not see her get baptized. Hong Jiemei also has progressed a lot. At first we had to constantly remind her to read the Book of Mormon and now at the end of the transfer she is reading 30 minutes everyday. She even bought a triple combination. She really wants to change and to join the church. With Sister Dowdle going home and me moving they combined Shilin and Tianmu again. So the apartment will be quite again. Sister Tanner and Pederson will be great. I will miss Tianmu though. I was only there for one transfer but I loved it. I didnt' get to know the ward very well. I will definately miss Kumiko and Ya ting. They are two recent converts who are amazing. I think I talked about Kumiko before. She joined the church in December and is amazing!! She absolutely LOVES Disney and especially Mickey. Every time she sees something Mickey she gets really excited. I hope Alden will serve there so he can meet her. Ya ting also is amazing! She is the only member in her family and has been a member for a year. She wants so serve a mission.
Well since I talked to you on Mother's Day not much has changed. I am writing this e-mail from my new area Shuanghe. It is still in Taipei city. My new companion is a Taiwanese Sister named Liu. This is her third transfer so she is still really new. She is soo cute! I think we will get along great. Since she has only been out for 3 transfers I am offically Da tongban (senior companion). Scary! It will be fun.

One thing I have been meaing to tell you is super funny. So last transfer I went to go eat dinner with a Shilin member. I had never met the family. But just in the first 3 minutes of meeting them the wife turned to me and told me, "You look like Snoopy." She then asked her daughter if I did and she said yes!! So apparently I look like a cartoon dog! haha The whole family thinks I do. That was the joke all of last transfer that I was snoopy. I dont' know how I do but oh well.

Well I dont' have much left to tell you. I hope that you all have a great week. I love you all!!

All my love,

Yang Jiemei

Autumn- Budapest Hungary May 2, 2011

FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!! SCIASTOK MINDINKINEK!

ok well this week was CRAZY...as usually and I didnt have a lot of time to email. so im going to make this short and sweet and include the highlights!

1. Had Barby's baptism this week. Our little ball of fire. she had perfect form into the water. no drowning. In the middle of her baptismal service she called all the sisters up to give us presents. She gave me a hand drawing she did of the Chain Bridge over the Danube.... it was definitely no Monet or Rembrandt... but it was cute.

2. While streeting this week we approached someone and said "we have a message about Jesus Christ to Share" she replied with a pleasant grin "Sataniszta vagyok" or in other words..... "Well... I'm a Satanizer!"... and then walked off. haha....well hadnt heard that one before.

3. Our AMAZING investigator Barbye went tracting and streeting with us. Thats how amazing the people are in Hungary we are teaching that our INVESTIGATORS go streeting with us!! So streeting is when we stop people on the streets and share a message with them and tracting is when we go door to door (well apartment to apartment here) and she totally approached people and knocked doors with us. she is awesome! hungary is amazing.

4. One of our investigators came to church and she is really a little bit "unaware" and when the sacrament tray came to her she just stood up and started passing the sacrament to other rows... haha.. so our female investigator started passing the sacrament. we forgot to tell her that only the 12 year old Deacons do that. whoops.

5. During one of our lessons with an investigator Sister Roderick decided that it would be more productive for me to play with our investigators 5 year old (CRAZY) child instead of struggle/suffer/attempt to teach in Hungarian. So I got to wear a viking hat and play Vikings and Robbers with a 5 year old the whole lesson...way more fun. BUT it was a little embarassing when I realized the 5 year old spoke better than me.

6. Sister Roderick and I have always joked that we are going to street with the Law of Chastity. That that will be our very first contact to someone and we will just preach abstinence to everyone and they will say " YES THATS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR MY WHOLE LIFE....etc etc" haha... so we've always said were just going to tell everyone about chastity. Golden idea right?

Well so on Saturday IT WORKED!! A 25 year old male...attractive hungarian male (which that is already hard to come by) met with us and the first thing out of his mouth was " Im sick of the immorality in this Country I cant stand the way women act around here and yesterday, before I saw you in the metro, i prayed that I would find people that live a higher moral law. I am looking for a group of people that have high morals and women that live high standards..." ...UH BINGO....We've got just the thing THE LAW OF CHASTITY!!! TADA!!!! So we literally for the first lesson taught the law of chastity... it was our dream come true. and HE WAS HOOKED!!! he was seriously hooked with the law of chastity and then he was asking when he can serve a mission...basically GOLDEN.. and it all started with the law of chastity.

7. got hit on by toothless old man in the metro. he winked at me and said "szervusz!" in an awkward seductive tone. then he interpreted my jaw dropped look of horror for a "come hither look" and so he then came even closer, winked again and yelled "HELLO LADY!!".. what a crooner.



allright thats all for this week. Would send pictures but this computer is SUPER SUPER SLOW.

Love you all!!

-Your little Hungarian.

Austin - Kenosha Wisconsin - May 2, 2011

Dear Family,

a pre-note: it says to only email friends in the white hand book. In an effort to be more obedient I'd be cool if you could forward this to Katelyn and Melissa. They are pretty much the only other ones I add anyways. Practically family but just a technicality.

Well, Elder Kelly took off on Wednesday. I had a very nice trainers' training before getting my new companion and then we along with the other trainees and trainers had another training with the President and Sister Jones and the Assistants. They mostly focus on expectations and then we practiced inviting people to be baptized. Then I drove with my new companion, Elder White, Kenosha. It's also been tough because my Crohn's has really been acting up and I hurt my back pretty bad too. So I was hunched over and limping around the whole day and I got a couple good teasing from the missionaries going home and even President. My backs pretty much fine but I'm getting preeetty bad and frequent Crohn's pains. It's the good ol' joke around the apartment too. Any pain is Crohn's pain now. If someone hurts their ankle or stubbed their toe or cut their finger, "Ahh, my CROHN'S!" haha

I'm way excited to be training again and I love my new companion. Such a nice, soft spoken missionary from a tiny town in N. Carolina. He is the only active member in his family (his going on a mission has reactived his parents and is reactivating his older brother that didn't serve a mission) he is the only one in his family to go on a mission. He wasn't even planning on it but one of his friends really got him thinking about it. I'm glad he made the decision and that I get to train him. He also has an autistic brother (pretty severe) and he even told me that he has undiagnosed slight autism (he tells me from his own prognoses haha). At times he can fumble with his words and often not like looking at peoples eyes when talking to them but I've learned a lot from him and I love him as if he were my own son.

He is also just about one of the worst bike riders ever haha. We had some pretty funny moments getting him on a bike the first time "in 9 years." We ride bikes every day and he's on a big ol' mountain bike and I'm on a sleek rode bike and he has to peddle his little legs 5 times to keep up with one of my peddles (he's not that short, just like 5'7"). But we are having a riot being on the streets talking to random people and knocking doors. We went to go contact this former investigator but we knocked on this door and this 25ish year old lady answers it with one eye worth of makeup on, she says to us (Oh I thought you were the pizza man) then we looked behind us and the pizza guy drove up. We waited for the transaction and then she invited us in to eat some. She was a brash-spoken lady who just got out of jail and was on parole, she let a few cuss words slip but would quickly apologize. She loved telling us all of her offenses and problems in life. It was pretty fun to talk to her despite the interesting circumstance. She told us her parole officer would be proud to hear that she had talked to mormon missionaries. But she actually is a really nice lady with a soft nougat center. She has two twin boys from a Mexican husband that used to beat her. We gave her name to the English Elders and hopefully they'll get in contact with her and she will actually do something to change her life and not just be amused by it.

We had a pretty sweet encounter with this old investigator. Her name was Sylvia and she told us that she never wanted to meet with missionaries again because she was offended by one of them. After quite a while of talking to her we softened her up. Then she went in to the other room and her little girl was in the room just staring at me. She reminded me of Alaina (about the same age) so I decided to show her my family photos. Sylvia walked back in and saw the pictures. I showed them to her and she told us how her daughter loved EVERYTHING about China and wants to learn Chinese and got here and learn kung fu. I told her about my family and she just fell in love. I bore strong testimony about how I have such a happy family only because of this gospel. She was really touched and by the end of it even invited us back. It was an intense interaction, we thought we were just going to lose her even though we had prayed and prayed over the area book for who we should visit and we felt really good about her. Especially Elder White was excited to meet her and when she said she didn't want anything to do with us I felt devastated. But I'm glad it worked out.

I got to go, we haven't an appointment soon.

Much love,

Elder Papritz